Part 5 of the Palaververse: The Griffons · 10:16pm Oct 13th, 2015
More Palaververse, for what I can only ambitiously hope to be the delight of all! The griffons pulled ahead by a country mile last week, so today's entry concerns them in all their chaotic glory.
It's not quite so meaty as posts as previous posts in the series, alas. By way of apology, puppy pictures!
Meet Molly, a nine week-old Border Collie puppy, on a quest to nibble anything and everything in my parents' home down to their fundamental particles. This includes the footwear (and feet, for that matter) of visiting offspring. And pig ears. And stuffed animals. And (almost) electrical cables. And assorted rubber things that squeak when bitten and whacked around the floor.
Peaceful cuddliness is a state she exists in as well, from time to time. It's a state to be savoured. She's well-socialised and confident. Other useful skills, like refraining from peeing on floors and not gnawing down through to bones, can come later.
In any case, find griffons below the break! The usual preamble about leaving nominations for whatever you want to see explored next still applies. And go thank themaskedferret for proofreading this into something approaching comprehensible
Go to any corner of Ungula, and the odds are favourable that you’ll find a griffon or several there. Whether in a nomadic tribe amidst the Greycairn mountains, moving and migrating as needed and pledging nominal vassalhood to the most powerful of the chiefs; or integrated into the large and bustling cosmopolitan cities such as Asincittà, Manehattan, and Bellbylon; or forming peaceful communes amidst the ponies of Equestria, none of Ungula has remained untouched by a griffon’s claws or acts as host to any single griffon nation.
This lack of unity suits the griffons just fine. Diversity of experience, movement, and existing as a diaspora across a continent can be ironclad traditions as much as anything else.
The historical roots of the griffon species are muddied by the depths of history and the variety of accounts and creation myths peddled by different griffon storytellers. Some accounts paint them as children of an ancient and long-perished storm god who sent his children fleeing across the world in the wake of his passing. Others paint them as the offspring of similarly long-deceased species of sapient lions and eagles, who used eldritch magic to procreate in what can only be assumed to be the mother of all drunken escapades. Others yet give them a root in the fallen civilisation of Antlertis, where mage lords drunk on their own power fashioned new life and discarded it in the wastes of the world. No single clear origin exists, and none is especially sought by the griffons. That would ruin the fun of watching the storytellers fight, after all.
The earliest reliable accounts come from the caprid tribes, who first refer to the griffons living in the inhospitable North of the Ungulan continent. In those days, the griffons organised themselves along nomadic tribal lines, with whole extended families moving and sustaining themselves off fish and small game amidst their homeland in the northerly rivers and mountains. That predominant carnivorousness sat uneasily with their herbivore neighbours, though - unlike other carnivores, such as the corvids - it was rarely if ever directed at fellow sapients.
Co-operation and/or clashes between the caprids and these early griffon tribes were infrequent until the unification of the caprids into the Capric Empire over two thousand years ago. The griffons were an easy first target for the expansionist drive of the Empire, which was able to isolate and subdue the tribes one after the other. Chieftains were dragged before the Capric Imperator and forced to kneel and pledge vassalhood and tribute; defeated warriors were enslaved to toil on the Empire’s behalf. Those tribes who witnessed the fate of the others either pre-emptively kneeled before the Empire, or fled far from it in any direction available - whether into the west, towards the lands that would become Equestria; into the east and amongst the corvid clans; ever further towards Utmost North (and those tribes were rarely heard from again); or even circumventing the Empire to find regrettably temporary refuge in the lands south of it.
Whether as a chattel force or as a free (albeit fleeing) tribe, the griffons distributed themselves everywhere in short order. Their natural hardiness and strength, as well as their capability for flight and weathercrafting, allowed them to thrive most everywhere they found themselves, whether existing in harmony or in conflict with their new neighbours. Existing local rulers amongst the sheep, ponies, donkeys, and corvids would either try to oust them or treat with them. In some cases, rulers received fealty from a tribe in exchange for protection from the ever-expanding Capric Empire. In other cases, rulers would subdue and chain a tribe’s members, and sell them back to the Empire. Attitudes and actions varied wildly, and those few tribes who wished to remain entirely free were pushed ever further towards the margins of the continent as the Empire expanded. Their lack of unity and relatively small numbers meant that they were never more than a minor irritant to the caprids.
That minor status didn’t prevent them from having some impact on the accounts of the Imperial age, however. When bovine knights-errant waged their guerilla warfare from the wildernesses of Bovaland, griffon tribes often sheltered them in exchange for mutual support and friendship. Donkey slaves in the Empire’s workshops conspired alongside griffon labourers. And when the pony tribes made their great migration across the continent, it was said to be free griffons that helped them skirt the Empire’s territory and showed them safe routes through the North towards the territory of Equestria.
Those acts of assistance were repaid in the Empire’s eventual fall, nine centuries before the present day. Harried by the corvids to the east, and by a legendary demon of chaos and the rising nation of Equestria to the west, the geriatric Empire buckled under the weight of wars for independence across its territories. The core territory of Capra itself remained intact for only a short while after before it fell apart, competing warlords and tribal rulers trampling what was left of the imperial trappings underhoof.
The modern nations of Ungula were released, as were the thousands of slaves the Empire had held, many of which were griffons. Expeditionary forces from Equestria led by Celestia herself ensured that the last slave shackles were broken even in the core of Capra itself, effectively outlawing the practice across Ungula at risk of invoking the sun-princess’s wrath. Although they were freed, many enslaved tribes immediately swore fealty to Celestia as a result, and were welcomed and settled in Equestria as full-fledged citizens. To this day, griffons are a common sight in the more mountainous regions of Equestria and occupy positions at many levels of Equestria’s government, having largely abandoned their tribal traditions.
Other freed griffons, however, chose to return to traditional wandering ways in the breathing space afforded by the Empire’s fall, mixing and mingling with those tribes who’d existed on the peripheries of the continent all the while. A hardscrabble existence under the Empire had bred customs of thrift, avarice, and loyalty to a select few amongst both free tribes and ex-slaves, and many settled into a trading lifestyle as they moved across the continent. Wandering tribes transported goods far and wide and across all the exciting new borders, and in spite of the reputation for greed and meanness this garnered griffons in some quarters, many grew wealthy off the practice.
One of those who grew wealthiest was a chieftain called Grover, whose ambitions ran beyond the purely mercantile and who aspired to secure his own prestige and legacy. The formation of a unified griffon kingdom appealed, and he reinvested his wealth into a series of expeditions into the North, into the Dactylian Interior, and other unsounded lands in search of some artifact to give something like legitimacy to his rule.
The Idol of Boreas was duly discovered in the ruins of a submerged Antlertian outpost off the west coast of Equestria, presumably fashioned by one of the long-perished mage lords themselves. It radiated the great and irreplaceable magical power associated with such rare artifacts, and seemed to induce pride and loyalty towards whoever bore it. Grover was all too happy to exploit this when he summoned chieftains from far and wide to his new court in the westerly Hyperborean Mountains. There, he declared himself King of Griffonkind, raised a capital of Griffonstone, and urged all griffons to flock to their new homeland. Grover and the Idol of Boreas had unified a new kingdom, five hundred years before the present day, and Grover and his descendants would rule it for two hundred and fifty years to come.
Griffonstone remained unified and prosperous under the beguiling influence of the Idol of Boreas, cultivating friendships with nearby Equestria and Asinia and whichever of the small caprid kingdoms were open to trade. Wealth flowed into Griffonstone as its merchants flew far and wide, and the kings raised statues and libraries and palaces as marks of prestige. Although many griffons who’d already settled in other lands remained where they were, most of the wandering tribes came to Griffonstone, and for the first time in their history, the griffon species approached something resembling unity.
It couldn’t last. Three hundred years ago, the Capricious Crown emerged and unified Capra by force, and extended the fighting all the way into Bovaland and Asinia. Although Griffonstone remained neutral in the wars under the aloof King Gavril, his son and successor, King Guto, eyed the reunified and imperialistic Capra with great concern. Guto approached Equestria and Asinia, plotting out a military coalition to contain Capra and the Crown the next time war threatened.
The prospect of Griffonstone’s military strength being lent to Equestria and Asinia was a concern to the Capricious Crown. And although it maintained plausible deniability after the fact, all that followed is believed to have been secretly engineered in the arcane laboratories of Bellbylon at the Crown’s command.
Several decades into Guto’s reign, a goat-like and cyclopean horror called Arimaspi marauded across the Hyperborean Mountains, seemingly stitched together and mutated by dark magic. It stormed the court in Griffonstone, stole the Idol of Boreas from Guto, and fled out into the mountains before falling to its death in a treacherous ravine. Although Arimaspi was dead, the absence of the Idol was a far greater threat, and expedition after expedition to retrieve it ended in failure. The Idol had cemented the loyalty of the griffons to their monarchs, and without its magical influence, many simply abandoned Griffonstone to resume their wandering ways. The line of Grover ended, and the unity enjoyed briefly by the griffons fell in tatters.
Independent griffon tribes still inhabit the Hyperborean mountains, some of them maintaining permanent settlements there and others even still inhabiting the run-down remains of Griffonstone itself. None have presumed to resume the royal trappings and unity of the Kingdom of Griffonstone, however, and the closest approximation of unity they near is one chieftain imposing their tribe’s dominance on the others.
The current such chief is Gellert of the large and settled Fivecrags tribe, who enjoys the vassalage and fealty of many other minor tribes. Gellert travelled far in his youth before he inherited the chiefdom, and even lived as a privateer down in the Ceratos Main alongside the future Arch-Minister of the Asinial Republic, Burro Delver. Their exploits there netted the pair fame and wealth, and forged a deep and abiding friendship between them. An laid-back isolationist at heart, Gellert involves himself in continental politics mostly for Burro’s sake, and infinitely prefers carousing, relaxing, and amiably bossing griffons around from the comfort of home.
However, Gellert isn’t blind to the storms gathering over Ungula. Factions and grand alliances are being woven, and the designs of the Capricious Crown will undoubtedly see even neutral parties facing war and subjugation in due time. The array of griffon merchants passing through his lands from across the continent means that Gellert’s own knowledge on the world’s state of play may be unsurpassed - but his power is limited, and his resources few.
What approach Gellert takes to the coming storm remains to be seen, and how he’ll endeavour to protect those of his people under his rule. Whether to try and restore Griffonstone, or bind the tribes more closely to Equestria or Asinia - or whether to disperse once more, and simply evade and weather whatever storms they cannot fight head-on.
Never let it be said a griffon lacked for options.
Ah, the difficulties of imposing rule upon a flying race which can live just about anywhere.
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Winged entities can be awkward sods like that, flying away from all that nice imperialism.
Much as I love the Crown in it's comically unapologetic malignance, someone, somewhere, really should melt the thing down. On the topic of the Crown, my vote is for Capra.
iiiiiiiiinteresting. I do like and appreciate the weaving of the show canon with what you've presented here.
I vote for Capra!
Awesome story, as usual. I'm once again throwing my vote in for the changelings, though. Loved how you incorporated that wholly disappointing episode into something much more epic. Looking forward to more!
Is Gilda still Gellert's niece post-Griffonstone or did you drop that?
Excellent work fitting Griffonstone into your canon. :D
So you have to give us Capra now, right? There's nothing else to cover! Right? D:
"More Palaververse, for what I can only ambitiously hope to be the delight of all!"
Well, I enjoyed it. :)
3467915
Nominations for Capra and the Crown's undignified melting noted! One may be more deliverable in the next post than the other.
3467941
Nomination for Capra noted! Glad I can interweave things well.
3467947
Nomination for the changelings noted! I liked the episode personally, but each to their own. Glad I could get something epic out of it for you.
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She's still totally his niece ... one inclined to wandering far from the tribe, that is. Her involvement with the events around Griffonstone could have interesting effects for the course of future events.
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Oh man, there's still Equestria and the Diamond Dogs and the changelings and every nation on the other continents introduced in The Tempest and Antlertis and other general things people might want to know and oh god I'm still going to writing these things when I'm long and grey in the beard, aren't I?
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Delighted to hear it!
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I'm asking because it affects Gilda's characterization. It changes things if she was scraping together a baking stand in Griffonstone because she had nowhere else to go, versus having an influential and wealthy uncle she could have sheltered under but made a deliberate choice not to.
Edit: Also what side of Gilda's family is Grandpa Gruff on? Is he Gellert's father?
3468053 Especially if you let me help and then I bugger off for the weekend ^^;
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Definitely the latter. She's an independent-minded type, Gilda, and that and pride made her try to live independently of her uncle and his resources.
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You had fests and possible masked vigilantism to attend to. My accumulating grey hairs can wait.
Wow! Excellent work.
Probably in the Griffon's best interest to ally with Equestria, if for no other reason than being liberated by them from bondage.
I too would like to hear about the Jerkface Crown's rise to power.
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Nomination for the Crown (and Capra by extension) noted! Closer ties to Equestria really would seem to serve the best interests of the griffons under Gellert.
Fascinating. This lends an interesting and distressing tone to the golden age of Griffonstone. After all, if the kingdom came at the cost of free will, was it truly worth it?
In any case, my vote is still for ancient Antlertis.
So, does Gellert control Griffinstone itself, or is his demesne even in the same geographic area?
For the next, I think Capra's been built up enough in the background and its time to really dig into it.
3468332
Nomination for ancient Antlertis noted! And yep, Griffonstone came with pretty morally-dubious free will abrogating costs attached. You'd have a hell of a time trying to establish anything like unity across the disparate griffon clans otherwise, though.
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Nomination for Capra noted! Gellert projects very, very notional authority over the ruined city and its environs. Unless some particular matter comes up there, he rarely pays the place any thought and mostly leaves it be as a shantytown for a handful of residents and travellers.
Ok, this post is just begging to be the lead-in to Capra. I suppose I can put the other topics on hold....
Nomination: Capra (part 6) and Equestria (part 7), then follow up with Saddle Arabia.
World building done right is a great thing. World building done right that also weaves neatly into canon is excellent. Nicely done here.
I do have a question though. How would a griffin feel about eating another sapient that's already dead due to other causes? Not as an everyday thing obviously, but in dire circumstances how would they feel about it?
Also, my vote is for Capra and the Conceited Crown.
Gonna make us vote every time you make a new blog post, eh? That's a way to maintain reader participation!
I vote changelings, obviously. They seem to have had no impact on Ungula's history, so I'm guessing you'll go with the Invaders From a Far Away Land route, but Secret Civilization Forced Into the Light by Desperation is very possible too. Or maybe the Capric Crown decided that since one lab-forged monstrosity was such a success, an entire race of them could only be better? That would be an interesting take on the usual tale of them as Nightmare Moon or Discord-spawn.
The idea of the Capric Crown as something of a Mad Scientist-Emperor is a fun one. I love those. ~ Sable
P.S. Was so excited to see the mini-villain Gilda again canonically! Fingers crossed she'll show up again sometime. Maybe once the writers run out of ideas in another five season or so.
I have two separate votes: Maybe a larger look into the myths of Antlertis? Or how about the zebras?
I'm voteing for the changelings next.
Voting for Capra and the schemes to melt down the horrible hunk of tarnished brass
3468569
Nomination for Capra next time noted!
3468672
Nomination for Capra and the Conceited/Curmudgeonly/Constipated Crown noted!
I imagine they'd approach it much like we humans would tend to do - with a fair amount of revulsion stemming from cultural taboos, but with the ability to overcome that revulsion if times were truly desperate. Some early tribes may have been less discriminating or had hardscrabble existences like the corvids that made it more common, but for the most part, they'll eat fellow sapients only if they absolutely have to.
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I'm the cunningest participator-or! Plus, it's a handy way of seeing if anyone's still remotely interested in these.
Nomination for the changelings noted! Rest assured, they've got a wee bit of a history with the rest of the world. They aren't creations of the Crown, though, I'll say that much. I'll echo those sentiments about Gilda as well. It'd be good to see more use wrung from her.
3468743
Nominations for Antlertis and the zebras noted!
3468858
Nomination for the changelings noted!
3468944
Nomination for for Capra and the schemes to melt down the horrible hunk of tarnished brass noted! It could be hurt by such cruel descriptions, you know.
If sir would be so kind as to finally get to Capra, my clan shall be indebted to yours until your children's children draw their last breaths.
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I have little sympathy for murderous tyrants so I am okay with offending and/or hurting its feelings.
3469121
Clan debt in the name of Capra noted!
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Well, moral high ground and all that. Someone has to be the sweet and pure children's cartoon protagonist around here.
Any chance of linking all these posts up somewhere when you're finished, or maybe putting them on your front page?
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That's probably entirely sensible. I'll sling them up on my front page later today - there's enough now to merit their own wee box.
It's surprising anyone would want to make a slave of a griffon, when you think about it. A flying slave is really difficult to hold on to, unless you remove the wings, in which case their utility shoots down. And the costs of feeding an obligate carnivore when their are plenty of obligate herbivores around to enslave.... no wonder the Caprics considered them only a minor irritant.
I'm going to go against the grain and not vote for the Caprics. Why? I was inspired by the pictures at the top of this post. Instead, I would like to vote for the Diamond Dogs, with their ancient god Crunch the Rockdog and Queen Molly!
3470440
Nomination for the Diamond Dogs and their ancient sovereigns in Crunch and Molly noted!
Well, you've got to do something with all the disobedient obligate herbivores.
3470489 ah, recycling! (Also, I really loved the Arimas.)
That moment when you read a blog and remember that you've signed on to Pre-read one of the author's stories and completely forgotten about it.
Blame Uni.
P.S. Ice cubes are good for keeping teething puppies away from power cords.
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No worries, man. I've made squat-all progress on the story myself. Blame uni and my own brand of procrastination. Might get some more done this week. Might.
Ice cubes could work on her, assuming they're tossed down as a distraction away from the cords. Nobody's truly lived until they've seen a puppy chase an ice cube across laminate flooring.
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Don't enable my bad habits you lazy Scott! I've got 7 Legend of Zelda games, 4 seasons of Archer, and H.P. Lovecraft's complete bibliography calling me into the warm and luscious depths of their bosom, and the last thing I need is you saying to me that it's fine..
P. S. Also, been listening to this for three days straight. It's like auditory cocaine.
P.S.S. Puppies scrambling madly over laminates in pursuit of moving objects is a rapturous thing to behold.
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Yes. Yeessssss. Let the laziness flow through you. With every passing moment, you makes yourself more its servant.
That is some pretty sweet music, I shan't lie.
A good combination of established Palaververse and new canon. Works very well for the griffons.
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Glad you like it!
Day 5: Griffons
- That's funny. My dog is also named Molly. However, you know what they say, there can only be one.
- Do any Griffons still live in Corva and Bovaland.
- Apparently Griffons can also be use weathercrafting. Need to update my mental then.
- Would the Idol of Boreas be able to to fore the bearer of Loyalty to be loyal to it's wearer? Also, would the Idol work on an Alicorn or the Crown?
- Did anyone outside of Griffonstone know about the Idol? If they did, how would they have react?
- Does Gellert only have the loyalty of his vassals because his tribe is the most powerful and wealthy? And how did Gellert gain the title of Chiefain?
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- An excellent name! I may be biased in that assessment, though. What breed is she? Any pictures?
- Yep. At a definite minority, though, and largely sticking around whatever parts of the Greycairns their territories host.
- Update or discard, whatever your preference. None of this ought to be taken as gospel if it scuppers any other good ideas you'd had.
- Potentially, yep. The Loyalty Bearer could be as susceptible as any other, though they'd likely have a pre-exisiting high level of willpower in that regard that might make it easier for them to shrug it off or stave off the effect. Alicorns are likely too big a target for its subtlety, as would be the sheer bloody-mindedness of the Crown.
- It was kept a secret for most of Griffonstone's existence, though the Crown came to learn about it. And once they learned ... well, Arimaspi paid a visit.
- The Fivecrags tribe is powerful, wealthy, and the weight those two factor let it throw arounds assures it a place of dominance, yep. Gellert himself was the son of the previous chieftain, and secured his succession to the chieftainship with his adventures with Burro down in the Asinial Main during his youth. He came back wealthy, prestigious, battle-hardened, and with a similarly hardened and prestigious friend to call upon. Chieftainhood shortly followed.
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I don't know how to send a picture from my phone to this website unfortunately. She is a Shetland Sheep Dog.
As for the whole updating list thing, I don't personally use the Palaververse as a base for my own verse, however, it does grant some ideas for me. The griffons in my verse will have weathercraftingas as well, they need something to make them the equal of the pegasi. At least during the time of their many wars before the founding of Equestria. A reason I don't use your verse as a base is because of the difference in settings. Mine will take place over a thousand years before yours and besides I wish to take my verse in a different direction. Still don't know how to shorten the name to make it fit with verse. I think I will just ignore the whole verse thing and just call it by its full name. Though that will become a mouth full after a few stories and I will probably just start referring to it as TRW or RW for short.
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Shelties are lovely. If some eldritch photo-sendery reveals itself, that'd be lovely, but I'll take it as a given that she's affa bonny.
A nice example of folding together the grand woldbuilding that arose when the show just hinted with the more limited sort that arose from them actually trying later.
Interesting that you avert the common portrayal of griffons as a great nemesis to Equestria, as per the mythological emnity of griffons and horses. But then, your setting already has two major antagonists already - another might be overkill given that Equestria seems complacent in a long peace.
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Antagonistic griffon empires were a bit of a common trope around the time I was coming up with all this. I wanted to go off the beaten track a wee bit with regards to nation-level foes, and give the griffons their own wee niche in the setting.