Don't read this blog · 6:50pm Nov 21st, 2023
If you're reading this, then I guess rules don't mean much to you. You go, rebel.
Anyway, the reason for the name is because someone asked me for the world setting of Agate's Vigil. No details, no flavor, just the dry setting by itself, and how I built it. Spoilers ahead if you haven't read it yet, I guess, but again, there's nothing whatsoever about the story, just the world. Also, I'm not going to repeat the stuff from the first lore dump blogpost, read that first. Here goes.
Firstly, the lands. Thing is, I based a very large amount of my worldbuilding from real life, which even includes the maps, though they're also compatible with Equestrian canon maps as well. The rest was built off of Equestrian lore and snowpony pictures from various artists. To begin with: map of Equestria.
Look to the right of Mt. Everhoof (above the Crystal Empire). It's a flat map, and doesn't show what's behind the mountain range, and there is "into the unknown" written on the top right side of the map, with a bunch of ice floes/frozen islands in the distance. Let's say that is what I called the "Thousand Islands" region in my story, the domain of the northern tribe. What's that like? Well...
This is the territory map of the actual Inuits, though In my world, the snowponies haven't spread out that far, and the geography is a little bit different. My idea of the world is the map above mixed with this one.
So, basically, they can't spread out as far west and east as the inuits did due to the mountain range, but they can go north - instead of the glacier shown in the hand-drawn map (marked as "ice"), that is where the islands begin. Greenland and Iceland exist in the setting, though they're slightly shifted, and Iceland is the first one to be discovered and settled, something which the Inuits didn't actually do in real life. And the region between Iceland, Greenland, and the southern shore is the Thousand Islands, which is not entirely unlike what's it like in real life. The ponies in my setting are split into three tribes. First one is the southern plains tribe, a partially nomadic bunch that have Snowpitt, a central settlement they return to winter in.
The western tribe, the tribe of forests and mountains, that live in the western side of the map. Given that their forests are more resource-rich than the tundra, they're more settled, living in log and stone cabin villages like this one.
And lastly, the northern tribe, who have a settlement or two on the shore of the sea, but live mostly on the scattered islands. 
The tribes each have a chieftain, along with a bunch of respected elders. Though the chieftain's word is law, with the scattered nature of their populations, each village, group, etc. Will have their own elder or leader of some kind.
Now, to deviate from the Inuits. The snowponies came to be from an earth pony clan that fled north instead of south during the Windigo Winter, which gives them a slightly different technological level. For example, Inuits never had any kind of agriculture whatsoever, despite stuff like this:
Basically, vegetables in Alaska grow obscenely huge, because of the extremely long days and lots of sunshine during the summer (much like it gets completely dark in winter for long periods, the summers are incredibly sunny.) Of course, you need to actually have the vegetables, which need to be cultivated into their modern forms first, and are not native to the area. As such, while Inuits didn't have any, the earth ponies did, and therefore, snowponies have agriculture.
It's not very widespread. The tundra soil is incredibly poor. However, there is a breed of snowpony that haven't completely lost their connection with their ancestral powers, a kind of half-earth, half-snow pony. Those are the descendants of the original farmers. Unfortunately, while they were doing their best to figure out how to grow their plants in a completely new environment, it took many years for them to start producing enough food not just for themselves, but for others, as well. Meanwhile, everyone else was forced to forage and fish, completely forgetting even the idea of farming. As such, farmers are viewed as some kind of strange magicians, and few snowponies feel that they'd be able to do something like that, which leads to agriculture being a little limited in scope. The few farmer families that ply the trade are able to grow huge quantities of food, though, with a little help from their fish-loving neighbors.
Yes, that is a fertilizer made of fish. Fish make absurdly good fertilizer, apparently. Also used in Alaska, so yet another real life parallel.
Among other things, their earth pony ancestors brought the knowledge of metalworking and masonry, including cement. Yes, cement. The ingredients are easier to acquire than you'd think.
https://www.wikihow.com/Make-Cement-in-the-Wild
Again, it's not very widespread since it's not that easy to make, but it's a big status symbol to have a sturdy, well-reinforced home. The northern tribe, with their many islands, and therefore, access to seashells, especially love a good cement reinforced house, given that the sea storms on their islands get incredibly powerful.
One tiny bit of lore is that the northern tribe eat lots of seaweed. Seaweed is a bit different than grass, but interestingly enough, there's been a case of a bunch of sheep getting kicked out onto the shore of the sea and going feral, with fences preventing them from going higher, and they successfully managed to fully adapt and survive purely on seaweed. I'd think the snowponies would be able to adapt as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Ronaldsay_sheep
Another thing is that the northern tribe have tamed seals and use them to help in their fishing expeditions - the seals chase the fish into the nets of the ponies, which haul great catches onto their boats, sharing the loot with the seals. There is no real life case of this, as seals were a massive source of food for the Inuits, but there is such a case with dolphins, something which has been going on for 150-200 years or so already.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dolphins-and-humans-work-together-to-catch-fish-in-brazil-180981553/
The dolphins chase the fish into the nets of the fishermen, and with how animals appear smarter in the MLP universe, and seals being fairly smart already, it's not too much of a stretch to think that ponies might work out a similar system. As such, the huge food source in real life (the seals) gets replaced with more fish that the seals help to catch, as well as seaweed.
And, lastly, the magic. Being descendants of earth ponies, most of snowpony magic is internal, but with how soaked in magic the snowpony territories are, some individuals grow up to have special abilities. To paraphrase a book from Morrowind, "It's not about personal power, it's about making friends". That was an explanation for conjuration magic, with which you could summon creatures. Shamanic, or, rather, shamaric magic is similar - though you obviously do need personal power as well, it's not quite like casting spells. Though the shamares can perform some magic on their own, they largely depend on calling spirits, which does not always go the way you want to. I covered magic in the first lore post, so I'll just add that the different tribes have shamares that specialize in different abilities. All tribes have shamares skilled in talking to the air spirits, being able to heal and use herbs and cast a pony's fortune from bones and suchlike, but some talents are specific to their locations.
For example, the northern tribe also have ones that can talk to the water spirits, which can tell them about great shoals of fish, warn about a predator coming from the deep, or help manipulate currents to carry them to where they need to be very swiftly. Given how much water they're surrounded by, it can be very useful, though it's obviously useless on land.
The southern tribe of the plains have many earthsingers, shamares that can talk to the earth, and hear the hoofsteps of creatures for leagues and leagues around them, which not only allows them to never get surprised by any predators, but also to never lose their way in the endless, monotonous plains of the tundra, which is a more useful skill than one might think.
The western tribe are quite good at making friends with many animals that coexist with them in the woods, both spirit and living. It varies from shamare to shamare, and it can be anything, from using birds as scouts, having otters to help you fish in the rivers, to having a pack of wolves at your beck and call.
Cool
great work this is awesome
I read it just cause I was told not to
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Cheeky bugger.
Fantastic.