Historical Figures: Starswirl the Bearded - The Known World

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Prince_Staghorn #1 · Jan 28th, 2017 · 2 · ·

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Starswirl the Bearded. Creator more than 200 spells, mentor of Clover the Clever, expert in transfiguration, dimensional calibration, and teleportation, creator of over half the modern genres of music (including Metal, Rap, and Country), author of the Bombinomicon, and inventor of the crayon.

No unicorn is more famous in equine history as a whole, but most are more familiar with Starswirl's accomplishments than his life.

Born to a simple family of frontierponies in what would become modern-day Trottingham, Starswirl was somewhat of a free-spirited young colt.

Eccentric and carefree, Starswirl nonetheless had a deep passion for magic and learning, a thirst for knowledge, and was very adventurous...

And so it was that while exploring the woods near his family's homestead, he ran into someone who would change his life forever.

Olórin and Starswirl the Slightly Fuzzy-Chinned

Why Olórin, greatest of those Elk wizards known as the Istari, was passing through, none could say, but he took the young unicorn as his apprentice, over which the colt became ecstatic.

Under Olórin's guidance, Starswirl learned much of the secret ways of the world, and quickly grew into a powerful wizard. Following these humble beginnings, Starswirl traveled over much of Stirrope and Khaan in his adolescence, and learned more information under the tutelage of other magic-users.

It was during this time that he made friends with the earth pony wizard, Binkie the White.

Binkie's village was under attack by an evil sorcerer, an Aboleth named Piscathces. A harrowing battle ensued, during which the fish was mortally wounded, though not without cost, as the two young wizards were severely weakened.

During their recovery, they chose to find out more about Aboleths, studying the history of the strange, sapient fishes, and they made a shocking discovery- For most of their history, the Aboleths had been animals, essentially cave-dwelling sharks, with no magic, tools, or manipulating tentacles, but then, 3,000 years ago (at the time of their study), they suddenly had advanced tool use, structured religion, larger size, tentacles, and a civilization. Starswirl knew that even magic-induced evolution was incapable of such an overnight transformation. It was as if someone had looked at the cave-dwelling, jawless fish, and then modified them so they would be fully sapient.

In short, the Aboleths had a good reason for worshipping the Draconequi.

Starswirl, fascinated by the idea of creating a new race, began an experiment, and a population of small, hermaphroditic, tentacle-faced amphibians seemed like a good test group. Using powerful magic, he created a massive monolith, and placed it among them.

Within a week, there was primitive tool use. Within a month, they were using advanced tools to hunt prey. 3 months, and they had language, and they continued evolving, growing larger and smarter.

6 months in, however, and the unexpected happened. The amphibians became parasites, their young boring into the skulls of other lifeforms to complete their lifecycle (though the ones who didn't still grew into a radically different adult form). The creatures were fully sapient after 1 year... and now highly dangerous.

Starswirl shared his findings, but allowed no one to repeat the project, moving the Monolith to an unknown location and creating a new magical edict, which became known as Starswirl's Law:

Let it be stated here: under no circumstances should it be considered lawful or right to Uplift animals into sapient races. Such things are unnatural, and not meant for the meddling of mortal beings.

It was too late to do anything about the experiment, of course. The creatures- ancestors to the modern illithids- fled into the bowels of the earth, and began breeding and creating their own civilization.

4 years after this, Starswirl took an apprentice for himself, a unicorn mare named Clover. He taught her as carefully as Olórin had taught him, and she became the Archmage of the court of the unicorn ruler Princess Platinum.

Following the founding of Equestria, Starswirl set about exploring the new world.

During the reign of Queen Iris, he helped to construct the spell which banished Grogar's kingdom of Tambelon. After the Chaos Rebellion, he helped to construct Tartarus. Afterwards, he formed a team with five other ponies in order to protect the realm, becoming the precursors to the Element Bearers, the Pillars of Light and Hope, planting the initial seeds from which the Tree of Harmony grow. Later, he was integral to the Faustian Rebellion which displaced Tirek and returned Equestria's throne to the Fausts. He worked with Pallenen Lifekeeper in order to fully create the Tree of Harmony, which would hold the Elements until needed.

During the time when Faust ruled, Starswirl began visiting the Argatis kingdom within the Celestial Sea, and he took a particular shine to the Queen's three young granddaughters, adorable little foals who took more after their siren father than their mother.

It was also during this time that Starswirl invented the crayon. Magicians and experts on the field to this day try to solve the mystery, that surrounds this invention. Why would the Sorcerer Supreme create an artifact that is now used by fillies and colts to express their creativity?

We may never know...

Unfortunately, the three fillies he loved so much would grow to become a massive threat to Equestria. Besting them in a musical contest which resulted in most modern forms of music being invented, Starswirl would not see them again until he and the Pillars .banished them to another dimension.

Afterwards, Starswirl became somewhat detached from society, and eventually simply disappeared... or so it was thought.

Starswirl and the Pillars were accompanied by a unicorn scholar named Stygian, who at first was a loyal friend, if unrecognized. Stygian sought to make copies of the Pillars' six artifacts in order to give him the power to help his companions. However, the Pillars simply thought he was envious and power-hungry, and banished him.

Stygian would later return as the Pony of Shadows, and the Pillars used their power to trap both him and themselves in the place between worlds...

...Until recently, when the current Bearers brought all seven of them back and reconciled the differences between Stygian and his companions.

HB_DS2013