Part 6 of the Palaververse: Capra · 11:20pm Oct 19th, 2015
The Palaververse continues apace, with everyone's favourite bunch of imperialists led by a grumpy piece of metal. Look below the page break for details on Capra and the Capricious Crown! Csquared might stop rioting now. Might.
The usual applies here, as always. If you want to see something fleetingly mentioned here elaborated on, ask away and I might have a semi-sensible answer. Leave a nomination in the comments if there's any other nation, entity, or other general unspecified thing in the Palaververse you want to see delved into next week. I'll likely go for the most popular topic. Thanks go towards themaskedferret for making this something that could be generously described as sharing the same universe with notions of 'legibility' and 'coherence'.
Onwards!
The nation of Capra lies at the heart of Ungula, where the great Greycairn mountain range that runs across the continent snarls into a mess of smaller ranges, great valleys, and fast-flowing rivers. Here dwell the caprids, making their homes on the mountains and farming the living daylights out of the arable land in the valleys below. Millennia of civilisation here have raised ornate cities, carved terraces and plateaus into mountainsides, and spun a network of roads connecting the capital of Bellbylon with the entirety of Ungula.
It was once the home of many divided tribes. It became the heart of an empire. It fell into many divided petty kingdoms. And if its current ruler has any say in the matter, Capra shall have its Empire once again.
The origins of Capra lie deep in history, with evidence of settled civilization emerging (as for most other Ungulans) under three thousand years ago. Although the central nature of Capra on the continent meant that it was protected from the great magic-infused storms that came rolling in from the Black Ocean, its proximity to the harsh North and the monsters spawned there instilled a certain grimness, hardiness, and martiality across the different caprid tribes.
The caprid tribes are numerous and varied. Ibexes with the ability to channel magic through their horns; strong and agile goats; takins with the gifts of rune-carving and enchantment; muskox granted extreme hardiness and an affinity for winter and ice; weathercrafting and storm-calling markhor; serows in close communion with the earth, and gorals and tahrs and many others exist with their own magical talents; a tribal variety unmatched by any other sapient species. Division between tribal lines was rife in the early period of Capric history, with feuds and alliances constantly shifting. This lack of unity matches the early experience of most other Ungulan species.
The roots of Capra’s unity were sown early, when the tribes grew large and able enough to fight their common foes. The terrors spawned in the Fall of Antlertis were still common in those days, as well as all the comparatively-routine horrors inhabiting the wilderness and migrating down from the North. In the early period, dragons were also a common sight in Ungula, widespread past the southerly Burning Mountains and the few pockets within the Greycairns they inhabit today. Smoke clouds produced by sleeping dragons were a blight on agriculture, blotting out the sun for miles, and the primitive weaponry, organisation, and small numbers of the early tribes were rarely sufficient to oust the dragons from their homes. However, as the Capric tribes slowly grew, so did their ability to contend with the dragons. Discipline and structure emerged in the warrior societies in order to effectively drive back the dragons with arrow and spellfire, and the tribal elites grew adept at communicating and coordinating efforts to kill dragons that proved a mutual threat to their tribes, and over time, the tribes came to naturally band together.
Powerful as individual dragons may be, the increasingly disciplined and diverse caprid forces were more than a match for them, and the loose social structure between dragons meant that even the few larger flocks struggled to overcome caprid forces - especially when, at some unknown point, the caprids learned the secret of smelting iron from the Diamond Dogs. As the dragons were winnowed down over the centuries and their population migrated to less dangerous pastures, the tribal settlements grew into the first caprid cities. Farms spilled out across the valleys, and inter-tribal co-operation became increasingly routine.
Finally, after an alleged climactic battle between a united caprid army led by a dozen chieftains, and the dragons assembled under one short-lived Fire King, the caprids were victorious in securing Capra for good. Reports on the scale and importance of the battle vary, as caprid storytellers and historians have traditionally considered the best stories to deserve a bit (or a lot) of embellishment. Regardless, a tipping point came over two thousand years ago where the caprid tribes considered themselves to have triumphed over dragonkind. Rather than patting themselves on the backs and falling back into disunity, however, the caprid rulers had other plans.
A concord was reached between the chieftains, warrior elite, and other great landowners amongst the caprids, shortly after their victory against the Fire King. They would pool their leadership and hash out their differences in one great senate in the new capital of Bellbylon, and appoint one leader for a duration in times of emergency or war. Their warrior societies would remain organised and vigilant, in order to defend Capra from its enemies and to advance its interests abroad. Under one banner, the tribes would never again be threatened.
The nation of Capra was forged that day. The warrior societies became the first Capric legions. And Capra would become the Capric Empire a scant few decades later when its first Imperator - a goat called Boreal - was appointed to lead the legions to subdue the disunited griffon tribes to the north. The subjugation of the griffons netted the new Empire a new swathe of territory and resources, slaves aplenty, and kindled a fire in the hearts of Capra’s sovereigns that has never been quenched.
The conquest sparked the beginning of the expansionist era of the Capric Empire, which lasted for over three centuries. Emboldened and greedy in the wake of Boreal’s success, his successors sought fame and wealth for themselves as they fell upon the territory held by other species to their south. The donkeys and the sheep were the next targets of this drive, as their divisions were exploited by eager Imperators and their tribes conquered piecemeal. A steady influx of slaves and access to raw materials across a vast expanse of continent fuelled the Capric economy, guaranteeing wealth to the Imperators and to those nobles who led the legions into battle.
These conquests weren’t always smooth, of course - Bovaland took the better part of fifty years to be properly subdued, and the hell that was the war against Corva’s Third Cormaer bled a lot of enthusiasm for further expansion out of the Empire. But for the most part, they were aggressively and competently pursued, with political jockeying between the Capric patricians to determine who would lead a legion or be appointed Imperator commonplace. Conquered peoples were forced to accept Capric governors, host and feed Capric legions, and pay tribute to Capra in the form of raw materials, food, and slaves. These slaves were exploited mercilessly, toiling in Capra’s mines and primitive industrial facilities for the benefit of their new masters. Their treatment was savage, in an effort to deter and quell any potential uprisings, and their loss was treated as no great concern - that was the lot of a slave species, after all, and there was always more where they came from.
The expansionistic era came to a close with the last appointed Imperator, at the conclusion of the corvid war. The office of Imperator had originally been intended to be endowed infrequently out of military necessity, for purely temporary periods of up to a few years, but had become a constant through the centuries thanks to the desire of nobles to see themselves and their allies rise to the rank. Only the appointed and temporary aspects of the post had remained, and those too fell away. One nobledoe, Alpine, had sat back in the relatively peaceful west of the continent and watched her political rivals bleed themselves and their legions dry in the war against Corva. Alpine moved to exploit their weakness when the war was over, securing the office of Imperator for herself and using her coffers, stockpiles, and full legions to deter any effort to wrest it from her hooves. The Capric senate grudgingly acknowledged her as Imperator-for-life, and were then helpless to prevent her from passing the office to her offspring. Although her dynasty didn’t last long, the precedent of imperial inheritance had been set, and the Imperatorship thereafter moved out of the hooves of the senate and into the hooves of whatever family held it - or whatever family was willing to fight for it.
For the next five hundred years, the Empire ceased its expansion and entered a period of relative stability and focusing inwards rather than at what remained of the outside world. Liberalisation of a sort took place - although slavery was still the norm for all of the Empire’s history, free members of slave species were gradually allowed to mingle in the heart of the Empire and even aspire to high offices. The cities of the Empire grew and grew, covering whole mountains and even spilling down into the valleys in the cases of Bellbylon, Enkidoe, Hiruk, and Buckad. Even the formation of the new nation of Equestria on the Empire’s western border by the migrating pony tribes drew little especial attention. The wild territory of Equestria and the bloody-mindedness of the ponies brought back bad memories of the Third Cormaer’s war, and the Empire was happy to shake down the fledgling nation for tribute money and little else.
This period of stability came to an abrupt close, however, when an unspeakably powerful demon of chaos emerged in Equestria and established something that could be tentatively described as his rule there. Reckoned to be a long-dormant by-blow of Antlertis’s Fall, the demon of chaos delighted in extending his misrule past Equestria’s borders and into the Empire. Roads unravelled and their constituent stones flew away. Rude limericks exposing the embarrassing secrets of nobles and Imperators floated across the sky. The demon took a perverse delight in gatecrashing any and all coronations, turning slave shackles into brittle marzipan, and anything else that generally served as an utter embuggerance to the Empire’s order. All the Empire’s magic was helpless to stop it, and the legions sent into Equestria to try and slay it only occasionally returned intact.
The overthrow of the demon after a couple of decades should have come as a relief to the discombobulated and unsteady Empire. Instead, the Empire found itself confronted with the demon’s overthrowers - a pair of pony sisters, given alicornhood by strange and unknown magic. They both ruled Equestria, controlled the sun and moon, and had no intention of letting the demon, the Empire, or anything else intimidate them or the ponies under their rule.
Imperator Polaris, intending a show of force to try and reunify and reassure the Empire, marched into Equestria with legions at his back. The two alicorn princesses attempted to politely deter him. Undeterred, Polaris marched on. The princesses responded with considerably less politeness. Polaris’s shattered legions left their Imperator’s charred bones behind in Equestrian soil, and the Empire shook once more.
Faced with an unassailable foe to its west, the resurgent corvids to their east, a rising desire for liberty amongst their old conquests, and confidence in the Imperator at an absolute low, the Empire entered a period of decline. The liberalisation that had taken hold sharply contracted again as desperate Imperator after desperate Imperator tried to re-assert their authority, oft-faced with internal rebellions as ambitious generals tried to usurp control with their own legions. Internal strife became the new norm, and internal development and growth stagnated. Legions fought one another rather than Capra’s foes at the behest of power-hungry nobles, and even the old tribal provinces in the heart of Capra itself jostled for more autonomy and a degree of separation from the ailing imperial court.
A possible point to reverse the decline came a thousand years ago, when Princess Luna of Equestria fell into madness and Nightmaredom, and had to be banished by her own sister, Princess Celestia. Strife briefly consumed Equestria afterwards, and the Empire could have yet marched on Equestria at that time to bring it to heel. However, the rise of the Fourth Cormaer and his relentless drive into the Empire from the east forced the terrified imperial court to direct the weary legions eastwards. Equestria endured, and the Fourth Cormaer’s invasion was only defeated at great cost and suffering to the Empire.
Faced with weakened overlords, demands for freedom by the conquered species of the Empire increased, which the imperial court found impossible to either grant or quell. Savage repressions by the legions only gave air to the fires of rebellion, and soon the whole continent blazed with wars of independence. Nation after nation hacked itself free with the support of Equestria, and nine hundred years ago, the Empire finally relinquished its claims on its old conquests and accepted defeat in its wars.
Reduced to the core of Capra alone, the vestigial Empire and the imperial trappings teetered on for a short while longer. Warlords, would-be Imperators, and tribal lords seeking autonomy all worried at the imperial court from every direction, and new divisions between emerging city-states and along old tribal lines threatened to tear Capra itself apart. And eight hundred years ago, the last Imperator, Glacier, finally yielded to the inevitable in the face of a dozen rebellions at once. Capra split apart into multiple warring states and the imperial trappings lost all their legitimacy. After over a millennium of life, the Empire had fallen.
What was left was a patchwork of little Capric states, divided by urban or tribal lines or by the whims of ambitious warlords and generals in the tumultuous decades that followed.The institution of slavery that persisted in some of them was forcibly dismantled in a war of liberation led by Celestia, who let it be generally known that she’d do the same anywhere else shackles were pressed on free beings. Shorn of their empire and their old economic driver, the caprid states fell into a period of internecine warfare that lasted for over six hundred years. Petty kingdoms and breakaway republics and boisterous city-states jostled for space, their borders and alliances fluctuating as necessity dictated. Many caprids coalesced around their old tribes, and powerful nations of ibexes, goats, and muskoxen flourished into existence. The Muskoxen Duchy even broke politically away from the rest of Capra altogether, instead swearing fealty to the neighbouring Bovish Bullwalda.
The loss of the empire and the resulting loss of status in the eyes of the world was a fact not lost on many of the caprids, and countless rulers rose who aspired to restore the Empire. Those ambitions inevitably clashed and fell each time as would-be revanchists met each other in battle, played against each other by those nations who preferred to keep their own sovereignty. The shadow of Equestria loomed large, and few sane rulers relished the inevitable conflict with it that a reborn Empire would bring.
Until one day, three centuries ago, when Capra’s eventual ruler was forged.
The forging took place in the depths of the Great Ibex Commonwealth, its elected king flush off wars of conquest against neighbouring city-states and the goat Kingdom of Hiruk. The forger, Grogar, a savant amongst savants with enchantment and crafting, was a student of history and longed for unity and glory to return to the caprid tribes. What they lacked, he felt, was a properly capable and driven ruler. And he would give them one.
A pair of Grogar’s friends in the military aristocracy, Taiga and Crag, received his summons by letter. They came to his home in Bellbylon one dark and stormy night. They found Grogar’s magic-depleted corpse, all his power spent in one last forging. They found a letter from him, asking them to take his last masterpiece to the ibex king. And they found the Capricious Crown in the depths of a still-warm forge, newborn and terrified by both this sudden existence business and the order of ‘Restore the Capric Empire’ echoing endlessly through its thoughts.
Although Taiga and Crag were as distressed and startled by this course of events as one might expect, they still gave what enlightenment they could to the Crown about current events, and decided to honour Grogar’s last request even as the Crown absorbed and reflected upon what it had been told. They brought the Crown to their king as a gift the very next day. The ibex king was delighted to receive the marvellously wrought and fabulously jewelled Crown (which played mute in that first while), and donned it before his whole court.
At that point, so the accounts of that day go, the king’s limbs stiffened and moved as if he’d become an ungainly puppet. His eyes spilled over with arcane light, and his rasping whispers for help died in his mouth as another’s cold voice came from between his lips. The Crown, wearing the king, informed the court that the ibexes had a new ruler and enquired as to whether any wished to dispute that.
Several of the king’s guards and allies disputed it somewhat forcefully. They were all ripped apart by the Crown there and then, wielding the full force of the king’s magic without care for the longevity of the king’s body and swinging his limbs with more force than a physical body could typically tolerate. Only when both the king’s horns were burnt-out and three of his legs were broken did the Crown use the last of his magic to teleport itself onto the head of a fresh guard.
Once half the court had been reduced to pulp and flaming rubble, the Crown enquired once again whether anyone wished to dispute the change in rulership. None were forthcoming.
The Crown acted quickly to secure its hold on the Commonwealth, crushing with surpassing ruthlessness where appropriate and offering generous rewards elsewhere, in order to sweep aside its opposition and establish a few supportive allies. It wore prisoners as it went, pitching in with its own unfettered force where it could, until all of the Commonwealth had yielded or sworn fealty to it. And then it repeated the process for the next caprid nation along.
News of the Crown’s unrelenting advance spread quickly, and for every nation that fell to it and its reformed legions, another faced enough internal pressure from nostalgic imperialists to bow peacefully to it. The news spread past Capra’s borders, and soon enough, the Crown’s armies from a freshly unified Capra did too. The Kingdoms of Asinia and Bovaland both found themselves reliving the caprid invasions from over a millennium and a half ago as legions stormed their way across their countrysides.
The Crown’s momentum was only arrested by Princess Celestia herself, who threatened to march against it with Equestria’s own overpowering military might and annihilate it personally if it didn’t back out of Asinia and Bovaland. Reluctant to only gain Capra from its initial warring, the Crown threatened Celestia with horrors visited upon the civilians of every land it had subdued if she didn’t back down herself.
In that hour, Celestia backed down, and a peace was finally reached where Capra was reunified under the Crown, tearing chunks out of northern Asinia and reincorporating the muskoxen realm into itself as it did so. The political map of Ungula had changed once again, and had become distinctly darker for it.
The Crown has retained its absolute rule over Capra since that day, and it has spent its three centuries in preparation for the next great war. Despite some setbacks, such as the tribute of gold and supplies handed over to the Seventh Cormaer during the Corvid Incursion across the continent, Capra has remained unified and acquired a sense of its own imperial grandeur once again. Part of this is due to the Crown’s own state propaganda eagerly extolling the virtues of the old Empire and reminding caprids of their inevitable destiny to reclaim it from the hooves of the lesser species. Equestria and the Tyrant Queen Celestia are commonly held to blame, or the Corvids, or the Asinians, or whoever it’s politically convenient for the Crown to blame at that particular moment. All books, theatre, and other forms of media in Capra are encouraged to share the Crown’s government’s message, and their creators risk draconian reprisal and show trials (or straight-forward disappearance) if signs of dissent emerge. The legions and the importance of military supremacy are extolled, and able young caprids drafted into training and service.
The Crown has also taken pains to keep Capra on a technologically and economically modern footing as well, and the wealthy elite of the country have been encouraged to invest into new industries to keep Capra wealthy and powerful, with those who aid the Crown’s government receiving favours in turn. Towering factories and smokestacks loom amidst the old and ornate mountain-cities, mixing smoke with the stormclouds and churning out all the tools of destruction an aspiring conqueror could wish for. Beneath Bellbylon itself, arcane laboratories and secret colleges delve into dark magic and the patchwork lore of Antlertis, hunting for any edge to give the legions.
All this proceeds according to the Crown’s design … a design which it knows it has to enact sooner rather than later, for all that it may be unready to face Equestria even now. ‘Restore the Capric Empire’ repeats endlessly in its thoughts, driving it to vicious distraction, and it assumes only restoring all the old imperial territories to Capric control will silence the refrain. The refrain has gotten ever-more louder and harsher as the centuries have gone by.
On top of this, the Crown knows its functioning days are numbered. Its faculties have gradually diminished down the centuries, as the enchantments holding its mind together fade and grow erratic. The Crown is all too aware of this decline, guesses it only has a few centuries of life left before going mad with mindlessness, and curses its creator even as it hopes for the Empire’s restoration to stop the decline as well. Perhaps it shall. Perhaps it shan’t.
Whatever the case, imperial banners wait to be unfurled and war-drums thunder in the depths of the Crown’s mind and in the depths of Capra’s fortresses. And if the Crown has any say in the matter, soon they shall thunder across all Ungula. What has fallen can rise again, and heaven help the world that stands in its way.
Elephant vote here!
Those last two paragraphs gave me the chills. Can I vote for the fall of Antlertis?
Whoa. This... this explains a lot. I was able to infer that Capra was effectively goat-Rome, and I knew about the Crown's motivation, but this information about its creator and limited lifespan... Most fascinating.
As before, my vote is for Antlertis.
Bah, Celestia should've just went forward with her threat. That crown needs to be melted down for scrap. Changelings once again have my vote.
It was everything I ever dreamed of.
Antlertis next, yes.
Sadly, the Capric Crown's best bet for restoring the Capric Empire is to establish a self-governing system of government ruled fairly and through a meritocrious (sic) means, although it has zero chance of actually doing that.
ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ
ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ
ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ
ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ
ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ
ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ
ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ
ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ
ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ
ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ
ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ
ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ
ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ
ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ RIOT ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ
Do Antlertis last. Antlertis appears to have an even bigger influence over modern civilization than Capra. I vote for the Zebras.
I vote for the Diamond Dogs.
Wow. The Capricious Crown has a bit more depth and history to it than I thought. Now I kind of pity the thing, driven by a manic and merciless drum-beat inside its own metaphorical head, while simultaneously aware of its slow slide into senility. Its actions and words in your Palaververse stories suddenly make a lot more sense.
Bravo, good writer!
The Breezies next.
"six hundred yearss"
Extra s?
"and the wealthy elite of the country have been encouraged to invest into new industries to keep Capra’s wealthy and powerful"
Capra's what?
Very interesting. :)
YESSS CAPRA FINALLY
WHOA HEY WAIT I DON'T REMEMBER HEARING ABOUT THIS BEFORE
I suspect the answers will lie in Antlertis. :B
ALSO I AM VERY HAPPY YOU USED GROGAR :D
Blood-thirsty ponies?
...Honestly, I want to hear more about that. But I think the pacing would be best if Equestria and/Or Antlertis were saved for the end.
So my vote goes to my personal favorite - DRAGONS. TELL ME ABOUT THE FIRE QUEEN.
Woooooah that was cool! I did not expect the crown to have been forged by a lone genius, or that it might have a limited lifespan. This is some stellar worldbuilding!
Vote for Antlertis!
3482898
Pachydermia nomination noted!
3482929
Nomination for Antlertis and its Fall noted! Glad to inspire chilliness.
3482945
Nomination for Antlertis noted! I was hoping this would clear some of the details around why the Crown is the way it is. Hopefully, that's enough of a dramatic backstory to suit most anybeing.
3482949
Nomination for the changelings noted! Celestia may yet follow through on Crown-melting. The future's full of possibilities like that.
3482953
Nomination for Antlertis noted! Glad to encompass the grand sweep of your dreams. Including those ones. I don't judge. Much.
3482971
3482997
Wha ... what do you want from me? What more do you want? Blood?
3483026
Nomination for the zebras of Zebrica noted! At this point, I think it's a toss-up between Equestria and Antlertis for whoever's the most (or has been) ridiculously influential.
3483055
Nomination for the Diamond Dogs noted!
3483058
I was hoping this would shed a lot more light on the Crown and help its actions make more sense. It's got reasons for acting the way it does - reasons which can make it worthy of pity, depending on your point of view.
Glad you approve!
3483104
Nomination for the Breezies noted!
3483105
Derp, I can the grammar. Fixed, and thank you!
3483109
The Black Ocean and the storms born thereof were referenced fleetingly in Corva's entry. maybe. Past that, yep, the answers lie sunken with Antlertis. Is that a nomination for them?
That is indeed a use of Grogar as well! I've got the headcanon that it's a common caprid name on standby, in case the show brings him back.
3483185
Nomination for the dragons and the Fire Queen noted! I'll see how the nominations pile up - people seem keen on Antlertis now, while Equestria might be worth saving as a milestone.
3483280
Nomination for Antlertis noted! Glad you like the worldbuilding on offer.
Melt it down, voting for the Dragons
3483105 I knew I should've woken up more before editing it.
Damn Grogar, you scary. I'd always thought he was a sheep because he was referred to as a ram, but a quick check on the internet shows that male goats are called rams also.
Would it be correct to assume that Tirek's nation is a yet undisclosed place? One across the Black Ocean perhaps?
Also, do sapient deer exist here, and if so where do they live?
Anyway, my vote is for the Dragons. Any chance Spike's origin would be mentioned in passing in that section?
3483304
You're welcome. :)
3483353
Eh, it's fine. :)
So the Crown is mad and is, and has, been growing steadily more insane. Further, said madness was basically hardwired into it from the start. That does explain a lot. My vote is for changelings.
The people have spoken! I'm voting Chicago style for Antlertis (early and often)
Oooh, Elephants are an option? Gimme gimme. Or maybe rhinocerouseses.
3483330
Nomination for the dragons noted! I'll see what I can do about melting it down.
3483397
Nomination for the dragons noted! Spike's origin would indeed get some elaboration in that section.
Re. Tirek, I'd peg him as a one-off, rather than a creature with a wider species and nation around him. Antlertis's entry would give out a few more clues there ... and it would spill a few details about the sentient deer of the setting.
3483653
Nomination for changelings noted! And yep, the Crown was pretty scuppered from the start with regards to building up any sort of good mental wellbeing. Constant voice-hearing and the gradual and constant onset of magical dementia isn't the most fun combination.
3483669
Many nominations for Antlertis noted! Man, I'm sure there's more ballots in this box than actual user on FimFiction. Am I that popular?
3483847
Nominations for Pachydermia (wherein be elephants) or Ceratos (wherein be rhinoceroses) noted!
A vote for Dragons and/or the Diamond Dogs. I'm curious how you'll handle their apparent willingness to enslave ponies.
3483304
Really, I should have seen Grogar coming, since you used the rather odd pun of "Bellbylon" for the capital. I mean, bells aside, it not only evokes Babylon, but Tambelon too!
And yes, that quite the nomination. :V
3483976
Nominations for dragons and/or Diamond Dogs noted! Their apparent penchant for enslavement will be discussed.
3484010
Truly, I am the best punnerer. I make puns based on ancient Mesopotamian cities, that's how dedicated I am. Stand in awe. oh god please pity me
And nomination for Antlertis noted!
I continue to nominate Equestria next on account of its shared history: doing the compare/contrast with Capra (and previously-covered ex-dominees) back-to-back seems like the best option. Also going to second the suggestion I saw of holding off on Antlertis for a bit longer - I like the idea of building it up like Capra on a grander scale. It'd be neat to see the impacts Antlertis had on the other continents' nations via their histories before delving into it directly.
3484132
Nomination for Equestria noted! I hear the Antlertis argument - it might be worthwhile building it up, like for Capra. Either it or Equestria would make for reasonable milestones in this series. I'm currently inclined towards writing about Antlertis next week and making Equestria the milestone, but I'll think about it. I'm certainly open to being swayed. Even if more of this - 3482997 - happens.
3482971
Yeah... that's not going to happen.
Of course, Grogar. Totally forgot about that guy.
I wonder if you can weave in the Centaur kingdom. Tirek and Scorpan had to to come from somewhere, and Tirek's comic did say the kingdom had some contact with Equestria.
As for an in story race, I would like to hear about the Republic(the one where Discord took the entire Senate and made them one multi-headed creature)
3484353
Nomination for Gazellen and their briefly-chimeric congress noted! Tirek and Scorpan did indeed come from somewhere in the Palaververse, but not necessarily an nation of similar entities. I haven't read the comics, so best to assume any similarities there would be purely accidental.
3484353 Note that just because Discord stuck them all together, and later they popped back apart, does *not* mean that their shared experiences go away. I predict several awkward romantic encounters (I didn't realize you felt this way too), a few political careers ending (So you're the one who has been feeding the opposition party inside information), and a number of lifelong rivalries coming unglued as new friendships erupt in the unlikeliest of creatures.
3484397
I don't remember them sharing a consciousnesses, just a katarmari of a body.
3484438
They weren't really all the one body, but their parts had been mixed and swapped around.
3484151
Personally, I think Antlertis would make the more logical long-term milestone - it's shaped the whole world for thousands of years, versus Equestria primarily shaping just Ungula for a much lesser period. I suppose you could go with Equestria by playing up the global role it's been acquiring in recent times, but at first glance that just doesn't seem as spectacular as building up a civilization that's had a fundamental influence on what looks like pretty much every nation in existence.
Plus, y'know, CDO and all that - the idea of covering most of Ungula and then skipping away for ages just bugs me.
3484591 Antlertis would make a good Writeoff story too, in Cities style.
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Well it's grave magical threat.
So it'll basically be Twilight's problem now.
I was expecting a lot of the awesomeness, but not the idea that
necessitydragons are the mother of invention, nor ol' Groggy forging the crown. It explains a lot about him, who his father is. Makes you wonder if the crown has either a weakness towards or affinity for bells.I vote for Diamond Dogs again (including Molly & Crunch) or the Elephants. Also, I vote that the nation of centaurs be a thing.
3484591
Hmm. I suppose there's something to be said for polishing off a continent before venturing further afield. My inner fan of cultivating pretty borders in strategy games approves, at least. I'll think about it.
3484881
3485067
Nomination for the Diamond Dogs and/or Pachydermia noted! Alas, I already have an origin for the centaurs in mind. Hopefully it should still entertain.
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Twilight should think of it as an escort mission... she and her friends are there to escort the Capric Crown to the Undiscovered Country!
I probably should've expected Grogar's involvement, but then I'm bad at predicting things. The Palaververse's main villain being connected to a historical franchise Big Bad is appropriate, in any case. Also, it's good to finally get some info on the Crown's origins and reasons for being so aggressively imperialistic. I'm not going to call it a sympathetic villain, though; there's no real reason it has to be as... well, evil about its mission as it is. Said evil is understandable, given that it's in more or less a state of constant torture and has a ticking clock to worry about, but still.
I'm in favor of saving Equestria and Antlertis for later. We just got one of the series' big, world-shaping nations covered, so I vote we should space the other two out, with a few 'minor' entries in between. And I see you've just done that with the post about the dragons, so good. I'll probably read that tomorrow.
Also, if possible, I'd like to see a post covering the military capabilities of each nation in more detail. We've gotten bits and pieces of info on that (the Corvids are starting to make extensive use of gunpowder, Asinia's ships are loaded down with ballistae, Capra apparently uses spears as a main weapon, etc.), but I'd like some more detail on how they fight, in terms of weaponry, magic, strategy, tactics, etc. For example, do Corvids try to carry melee weapons in their claws, or do they just use their claws and beaks for close-in fighting? Do ungulates mount spears on their shoulders, or carry them in their hooves or mouths? Do ponies let weather control do most of the fighting for them? Stuff like that.
And since it keeps being brought up that, for example, Capra is trying to stay technologically advanced, or Bovaland is militarily primitive, it might be good to have a clear picture of what an advanced, modern Palaververse military is expected to look like.
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I was hoping to have its actions make sense according to its own internal pressure and logic, and leave its sympatheticness up to individual readers.
Glad the background info on the Crown suffices!
Regarding the shape of Palaververse militaries, that would be a fun topic to cover, and I imagine it'd come in handy once most of the major suspects have been addressed. Be sure to remind me then. For a brief overview, though, most Palaververse militaries remain pretty squarely medieval (barring Corva, who are edging into the gunpowder era, and Asinia, who plunge erratically everywhere with a mix of repeating ballistae, dreadnought ships, clockwork tanks, ornithopters, and battle-trains) in terms of technology and personal arms and armour, augmented with a great deal of whatever magic each species can bring to bear as well as a few airships. Formation warfare is still very much the norm, and most sophistication comes from the structure of the militaries, the capacity of their logistics and supply chains, and how they select their command hierarchy. Modern armies, like Equestria, have officers promoted on merit and armies staffed for the most part by volunteers, while primitive armies like Bovaland's draw from the aristocracy for their officers and draw the bulk of their troops from the levies mustered by the individual lords.
Weather manipulation is a major tactical and strategic consideration by those species capable of it, as are any corps of spellcasters proficient enough to manage repeated teleportation and blasts of spellfire. Less proficient spellcasters are typically put to work with bows and other ranged weaponry. Corvids usually augment their claws and beaks with sharp steel sheathes, similarly to ponies donning sharpened horseshoes and spurs. Most ungulates use polearms of some description, either manipulating them with telekinesis, wielding shorter spears with their hooves, or mounting heavier pikes and shields on their shoulders.
Let me know if you have any other queries.
A vote for Equestria here.
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Dragons have already been covered the week after this one, but I'll note a nomination for Equestria.
3500340
Thanks. This overview is fine as a starting point, and about what I figured was the case. I will indeed be sure to remind you about the more fleshed-out post(s) once all the notable nations have been covered. I'm particularly interested in Asinia's army, now; tanks seem like they'd be a particularly huge advantage in an otherwise medieval world, though I guess enemy magic could provide an effective counter.
Military airships in the ponyverse are also something I've been interested in. They're a very cool idea, but in a world where many armies' regular infantry are capable of fast, agile flight, I have a hard time imagining practical combat airships that aren't flying coffins for their crews. Even with some magical enhancements, they seem like they'd be really easy to bring down or capture.
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For Asinia's tanks, picture something closer to Leonardo's effort than anything in a modern military. The battle-trains which lay and pull up their own rails as they go would be closer to the mark.
The airships are indeed vulnerable to any concentrated attack from flying sapients, and hence tend to act as platforms for mass firepower directed at ground forces whilst being guarded by other fliers or manned ornithicopters. Corvids, who tend to dispense with that 'ground forces' silliness and possess plenty of long-ranged cannons, either reduce airships to kindling or re-purpose them for their own cannon batteries.
Dammit, I missed this in my feed until the Dragon one came out. I love the aesthetic of both Capra as a whole and the Crown in particular. You've managed the creation of a truly horrifying yet believable antagonist.
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Antagonists need plenty of authorial love.
Glad to provide one!
You actually did it!
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And mercifully, he failed to be resurrected for the season finale. Even odds they'll find somewhere to stick him next season, though.
I did the thing!