GRYPHON KINGDOM: [Under Construction]

A proud race of warriors, the Gryphon Kingdom is found East of the Sovereign Kingdom of Equestria, separated by a large body of water. Only way to travel there is via boat.

Culturally, they rely on meritocracy. A Gryphon should be useful to the Kingdom. The more useful they are, or the harder working they are, the higher in ranking they are. They don't have much gender roles... all of them are pretty equal. If a female griffin has a much larger significant role over her male mate, or is stronger or more skilled than he is, she wears the pants, and vice versa. Most relationships though are still fairly balanced. They know the philosophy that no griffin is perfect, and treat their respective partners with measure of respect.

As Feathered Heart Chapter 1 indicates, the griffins kingdom is split into four territories: The Southern Farmlands, the Western Ports, the Eastern Fields, and the Northern Mountains. Each regions have their own specialized product.

The griffins themselves are separated into two main groups: Sky Griffins, and the Earth Griffins. Sky Griffins like Gilda specializes in flight. Nimble and strong, they are found in numbers in the Western and Northern regions. They can fly for hours, faster than any earth griffin on air, and are mostly hired to carry air coaches (boxy wheel-less vehicles that carry passengers over a long distance). They also have the sharpest eye sights.

Earth Griffins are mostly found on the Southern and Eastern regions. They are best working on the ground, able to run faster and strong to carry a lot of armor. If there are no Kingdom hired Earth Ponies, they are the ones called to pull the ground coaches for passengers traveling to any territory. They are the hardiest of griffins.

A special distinction goes to the rare Magus type griffins. They can either be earth or sky griffins, but are gifted with the ability to manipulate magic. During the war with Equestria (date unspecified, maybe before Luna got imprisoned), there's been some nasty rumors that some magus staff are augmented using a unicorn horn inside it (production of such staves became illegal with the alliance), and since staves are passed down on apprenticeship, no one truly knows if the Magus' staff is augmented and illegal. Nor is the Kingdom willing to really look.

There are three types of armed division for Griffin Military:

Talons: Regular soldiers. Mostly armed with spears and swords. When alone, they rely on speed attacks and flanking. In conjunction with Fortus Knights, they support them on the defensive line.

Guards: Last line of defense. Armed with daggers and swords. Sometimes, they get spears too.

Knights: Specialized units broken down to three types:

Fortus Knights - trained earth griffins with heavy armor, wielding kite shields and war hammers. Their job is to form a defensive line and funnel the enemies to the talon's attack range. They also clear out the enemies with their warhammers.

Wind Knights - highly agile sky griffins. Armed with crossbows and metallic gloves, they are the sharpshooters of the Kingdom. They stay mostly behind the front lines, but are usually called to do the hit and run tactics on stragglers.

Magus Knights: Considered the hammer bringer of the armed forces. They have spells dedicated in ripping out enemies a new one, using large area spells of the nastiest concoction. They are also the most well protected, serving as medics for the injured as well.

I'm open for questions. ^_^

How powerful are they?

There be sex right?

I gave this a thought as well in my recent blog about Griffins. I got the idea that they live in a very mountain rich enviroment which gives plenty of ore and stone, making furniture consisting mostly out of metal and stone.

Being in a ore-rich enviroment and having claws that can wield tools with greater ease than hooves or pony mouths, they mastered blacksmithing far better than ponies, giving them a boost in crafting and resulting in bigger airships than Equestrians.

Like double the size to three times the size. Why? The same reason ponies have flying carriages. It is more pleasant. Why letting the Griffin soldiers fly when you can transport them and then let them fly on the battlefield well rested?

Would you agree on this train of thought? I mean it's my headcanon, it doesn't have to be yours as well. But maybe you share the same opinion.

Do your Griffins have farming of any kind? Like meat-farms, where they breed and release bunnies or something so the Griffins can hunt.

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Griffins are pretty strong. Sky-griffins can carry a fit human and a bit more load, while earth-griffins can carry way more (but are already burdened by heavy weapons). I can't really place a number yet, because I'm still working on the kinks. Still deciding whether they are stronger than earth ponies, but considering the claws, they may not need to be.

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Feathered Heart: Preening has the sex.

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Right now, its ruled by a Queen, who leads High Lords and Ladies, leaders of their own... well, let's call it Fiefs. Each fief has its own city, each with at least a legion of soldiers, each led by a Captain and their Tribunes.

Equestria has two Courts led by two Princesses, but unless Princess Celestia deems necessary for her and her sister to intervene, Equestria is led by the council of nobles who do most of the decision making, especially on how local government is run.

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Would you agree on this train of thought?

It's certainly logical, but a lot of the sky-griffins on the Kingdom prefer to fly on their own power. They like to fly. But earth-ponies tend to ride air coaches, especially when speed is essential. Or if the distance is too great (like a vast sea, but they use boats there). I guess it helps they don't tire easily when flying distances (there's a certain height where they can easily travel kilometers with just a few flaps)

The Northern Mountains are the ones richest in ores and metals. Mining is a well-paying job there, though most of the time, they just hire off earth-griffins for it.

Do your Griffins have farming of any kind?

Western Ports have the abundance and monopoly of sea meats. They have fish farms there. Though its not surprising to find farms for land animals. However, the Eastern Plains have the most collection of meats, from domestically grown pigs, to the more coveted games. They even make their own private hunting grounds that allow game animals to breed and once a year, griffins hunt them. Southern Farmlands are mostly for grains and other plants that they need to keep a balanced diet.

Question, if the griffons are philosophically meritocratic... Why do they have royalty? Or is King and Queen just the highest possible rank, rather than an inherited noble position? Or is it a holdover of an earlier government?

Why are they militaristic? Is it simply a cultural thing? Do they have some great enemy they need to be prepared against? Is it the consequence of their meritocratic system?

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The Queen is considered the strongest griffin who's experience of managing people was strong enough to win her the crown. Technically, she really isn't a queen in the most traditional sense. Her offsprings will not inherit her position, unless they have shown to be as competent, or even better than she is.

High Lords and Ladies are actually more considered to be next in line.

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The griffins have fought each other for hundreds of years, until the arrival of the Cloven united them. The problem was, the Cloven had destroyed a lot of the resources they had, like food and water, even denting their population to the point that the other species Beyond the Western Plains, Northern Mountains, and Southern Farmlands tried to sieze the new and young kingdom. Then, it didn't help that they had to fight Equestria because Celestia, young and naive, tried to keep the sun for the Ponies, and they fought a bloody war for that.

The Gryphons have almost basically been fighting for their lives the next hundred years after the Cloven.

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So how long ago did the last war end? Or are they still at war?

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I'm taking a few references on WWI on this, and I know that one lasted longer. For now, I'd put the Equestria and Gryphon war lasting almost three years.

It was a bloody battle mostly in the skies and seas. It was only after two years did Gryphons have any progress by landing in Fillydelphia, but by then, the two sides were losing enormous numbers. In the end, Armstice was announced when Celestia found out the cause of conflict.

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How long ago did that war end? And was it the last war the Griffons have been involved in?

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The Equetrian Gryphon war ended a little more than a thousand years ago, before Luna's Nightmare Moon came to play.

The last war the Gryphons had were around 50-60 years ago, against the Elder Rams.

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Who won? I mean in the war against the Elder Rams.

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Gryphons. Elder Rams retreated towards their homeland, beyond the borders of the Eastern Plains.

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Cool, got it.

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No problem. Hey, what's up? XD Off topic.

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What do you mean?

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I mean, how do you do?

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I'm fine, as slow as ever at writing. How have you been?

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Nervous. I'm about to post a new story soon, and I'm hoping it'll hit the right notes with the readers.

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Ah, the changeling one right? Everything else you have put up here seems to be well received so I don't think you have much to worry about. When can we expect that story by?

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Between October 1-3. I'm doing some more last minute changes. They never seem to end.

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I know what you mean. I realized that a lot of the work I had done for the next chapter of my story was all wrong and now I need to rewrite the whole thing.