First, I'd like to apologist for SMT5015; I'm fairly certain that I did not take the title of my project from theirs, but I'm not sure what else to call it at the moment :/

Some time ago I posted some preliminary notes on my own ED-inspired setting; now that I had or so of brainstorming, I have a loose summary of the setting up to the beginning of the story I'd like to write in this universe; hopefully I've done a better job at making it an interesting setting in its own right that isn't too Equestria Divided.

Thee Tribes, Part 1: History
(This is just the background; scroll below for a rough summary of the three factions)
The Realm of Eponica (name change pending) was formerly ruled by the eponymous Epona, an alicorn who unified the three Pony tribes (Earth Pony, Unicorn, Pegasi as in MLP) after a period of extended warfare between them known as the Warring Tribes Era (annals record some utopian civilisations before this period, but their historicity is up to debate), and turned them into three separate caste systems (which should be familiar to MLP lore): Earth Ponies are labourers and farmers, Pegasi are warriors and meteurges (weather manipulators), and Unicorns are clerics/wizards/bureaucrats/nobles. Mind you, this transition of the tribes from their own separate society to castes of one big society was extremely unpleasant; I would probably compare it to a nation-wide, high-fantasy version of Fillydelphia in Fallout Equestria, with Epona herself being Red Eyes (or Ponified Qin Shi Huangdi).

This actually did result in a somewhat functional civilisation (no thanks in part due to Epona being an immortal alicorn), and it actually did achieve prosperity for some 2100 years, but as to be expected cracks started showing. The creation of a caste system where each member of society (theoretically) was supposed to avoid non-essential contact (especially breeding) with other castes was supposed to optimise the abilities of each caste without "contamination" from the others. This unsurprisingly ended up being an extremely discriminatory system, but in practice it was untenable.

The caste system-induced segregation also meant that each tribe remained separate and had its own culture, with Epona herself effectively being the glue that held the country together and the fairly imperfect understanding of heredity meant that you had hereditary jobs staffed by individuals who may not have been the most competent at performing them. The "homelands" of each tribe of course retained a majority, and in the end factionalised elites formed: trade guilds and in particular the alchemists' guilds for Earth Ponies, the hereditary warriors and their officers for Pegasi, and the scholar-bureaucrats and geldings (yes, there are geldings in this setting) for the Unicorns; each of whom developed distinct identities with Epona herself being the figurehead that kept the country from collapsing.

Around 2132 AE (Anno Eponae; Year 1 being the year after her coronation as ruler of Eponica), Epona herself disappeared, and this is when the country fell apart. An alchemist known as Sister Golden Star revolted, claiming that Epona had ascended to godhood and that as supreme goddess, the physical government was no longer necessary, and most of the Earth Ponies went into revolt. The existing government (still run by Unicorns) obviously objected to this take, and armed conflict broke out between the two; the Pegasi, meanwhile, pretty much tried to get both sides to cut their shit, only to become a third faction in the Second Warring Tribes Era.

Thee Tribes, Part 2: Factions
Eponican Loyalists (Unicorn; on paper rather Moon and Star, but they have more of a feudal/medieval look to them): The old government of Eponica, dedicated to keeping the status quo (whatever that may be). It is a rather theocratic, bureaucratic aristocracy that centres on the worship of the stars and planets in addition to Epona herself. Divided into two main subfactions: one of clerics and aristocratic scholar-bureaucrats who ran the old government’s civil service, and another of geldings (yes, you read that right) who made up Epona’s personal household staff and retainers. Likewise, there are two ideologies: one, held by the Chief Gelding, which holds that everything in Eponican society must be preserved as it was upon Epona’s disappearance, and a more radical group led by a formerly minor cleric which holds that Epona’s disappearance was a test of some sort, and that society must be “purified” of its “corrupt” elements and must be returned to an idealised state that Epona supposedly founded it as (and I admit I don’t know which one of these ideologies is dominant). The military centres on crusading orders of Unicorn knights, supported by large numbers of conscripted Earth Pony peasants.

The Earth Pony Commonwealth (based mainly on House Earthborn, but mixed up with House Whitegold in ED): A republic of alchemists, merchants, and artisans united by the former’s spirituality. Founded by the idealistic Sister Golden Star, the Commonwealth teaches that alchemy is more than mixing potions together, but a spiritual pursuit that results in salvation, and that all souls can achieve perfection or enlightenment through these methods. Its military relies primarily on mercenaries attracted by the wealth the alchemists create and fantastical alchemical war machines. The army’s head, General Ironside, however, believes in the subordination of everything in the state to the military venture until the war is ended, and subscribes to a radical form of spiritual alchemy which supports the destruction of unicorns as a caste and rule by enlightened alchemist-sages in their place (in theory), and has turned Sister Golden Star into little more than a puppet for the military (in practice).

Pegasus Timocracy (very, very House Stormwing): Pegasi, who lived primarily in the clouds (though a large minority lived on the ground; see below), formed a distinct sub-culture in Eponica even before the Second Warring Tribes Era. Officially, they wish to end the war between the Earth Ponies and Unicorns and subjugate Eponica to military rule before her return. The most powerful sub-caste are the hereditary warriors, who must submit their eldest foal to the harsh training of the Agoge before becoming warriors for life; other sub-castes include the meteurges [weather manipulators] and general artisans. All are subject to laws like the abandonment of newborn foals who are deemed insufficiently strong. The Pegasi derive their power from phalanxes of Hoplites recruited from the military families and the Tempestarii who raise storms to devastate enemy countryside; however, they rely on extended ground contact that they lack for food and resort to being a kingmaker faction for the other two on a good day, or a wholly independent warlord state dependent on plunder on bad days (and there are many, many bad days). This state of affairs has divided leadership: the official policy, held by the Polemarch of the Timocracy, is to stabilise the control, but one Strategos Alexios believes they can plunder the surface indefinitely by launching a series of world conquests.

Meanwhile, deep in the Earth Pony Commonwealth far from General Ironside’s purges, a monastic retreat is torched by a strangely isolated company of Timocracy Pegasi. Out of the ruins emerge a young alicorn and her elderly Unicorn mentor, and bereft of educators who can teach her to control her abilities, they set out into the wider world...

(Unfortunately I don't have art right now: just use your imaginations in the meantime! )

So far, I find myself intrigued on just how this might play out. I wonder how this young Alicorn might resist being conscripted or coerced into the other tribes.