So some of you know the story of FoE and we all hate the Caribou because of treating both females and non-Caribou like shite, a race of mary sues (not really), cringy shit like the Crystal phallus (I shit you not), and some other stupid shit here and there that make this universe look like a stolen plot idea for a hentai video.

But you think that's bad wait until you hear some this that'll make you hate the Caribou more than TCB Ponies. Plus, I want to thank the Caribou Hunters Club for the information.

For starters, Historical inaccuracy of Nordic races and Viking culture in FoE.
The ones that are highlighted are not in Caribou society.

Women had a relatively free status in the Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, illustrated in the Icelandic Grágás and the Norwegian Frostating laws and Gulating laws. The paternal aunt, paternal niece and paternal granddaughter, referred to as odalkvinna, all had the right to inherit property from a deceased man. In the absence of male relatives, an unmarried woman with no son could inherit not only property but also the position as head of the family from a deceased father or brother. Such a woman was referred to as Baugrygr, and she exercised all the rights afforded to the head of a family clan, such as the right to demand and receive fines for the slaughter of a family member, until she married, by which her rights were transferred to her husband. After the age of 20, an unmarried woman, referred to as maer and mey, reached legal majority and had the right to decide of her place of residence and was regarded as her own person before the law. An exception to her independence was the right to choose a marriage partner, as marriages were normally arranged by the clan. Widows enjoyed the same independent status as unmarried women. A married woman could divorce her husband and remarry. It was also socially acceptable for a free woman to cohabit with a man and have children with him without marrying him, even if that man was married; a woman in such a position was called frilla. There was no distinction made between children born inside or outside of marriage: both had the right to inherit property after their parents, and there was no "legitimate" or "illegitimate" children. Women had religious authority and were active as priestesses (gydja) and oracles (sejdkvinna). They were active within art as poets (skalder) and rune masters, and as merchants and medicine women.

This makes EA and Dice look like actual WWI historians compare to this problem in FoE.

And some high-tiered bull shit.
Quote from HiddenMaster

Prepare for one of the loveliest pieces of BS you will ever have the mispleasure of reading. Context wise, this is brought up when I mentioned Twilight's extensive abilities with telekinesis alone that far exceeded anything the Caribou are ever depicted doing, and I commented that, resistant to magic or not, they are not depicted as being resisted to kinetic impact (Twilight manages to incapacitate a few with their own stun rods-the only intelligent thing she ever does in any of the Fall stories, ever). I pointed out she could pieces of concrete or marble out of buildings and just hurl them at Caribou. His response?
Much of this comes to a fundamental problem with your thinking: magic is not compatible with a physicalist worldview. Ideas of telekinesis and teleportation are fundamentally unworkable as shown if you interpret them merely as additional physical laws that can be defined by concrete equations and rigorous interactions. You can write broad rules, but they cannot be consistently interpreted in a way that is remotely compatible with modern physical models. In stories that feature magic, one has to engage a bit of suspension of disbelief, and understand that it's a world that doesn't work in the same ways as our own, on a fairly fundamental basis. They're close enough for some high-level similarities, but you can't look beneath the surface without revealing inconsistency.
Interpret this however the hell you can, but from the gist of it it's that he says you can't write any consistent rules about magic and he wants to use magic as an excuse for every thing-basically, when given a problem with the setting, his answer is usually "magic". I say BS, of course, while magic does not necessarily lie in with the real world logic, it had better have consistent god damned rules unto itself. Which he says it can't have, and he just wants an instant Deus ex machinima.
Hell, at one point I had an extensive discussion with him on agriculture and how Equestria is utterly screwed to feed itself nevertheless the Caribou population (seen here-just scroll down a bit and you'll find it eventually), and his continued and constant response is that I needed real world numbers to be certain about anything and, when I gave approximate examples based solely on the fact that Equestria has sky scrapers which implies a sizeable steel industry, he just answered that Equestria feeds itself because magic solves that even though half the god damned population is fucking crippled and can't do their magic anymore.
Anyway, my point is that NCN does not know what goes into a good story, and likely just went with vikings rather than anyone else due to preconceptions on vikings as conquerors and little to nothing else. Not that it particularly matters, as with several years to develop them, almost nothing has been done to develop the Caribou as...anything other than rapists that enable the stories to have at all. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, but the Caribou could be replaced with floating dicks that telekinetically wield various tools, mostly stun rods, and occasionally scream "cunt" or "bitch" in the presence of a female. The stories would change very fucking little.
Honestly, I'm not even going into everything else that doesn't make sense-there's also the fact that Caribou are an endangered species in their backstory due to having only 15,000 individuals left including females, yet they've also gone to war with and somehow conquered every single god damned race around them, not even to mention somehow holding Equestria and...

.......

After learning this stuff, the Caribou should deserve Humanity's wrath.

5678797 They're xenos. They were already deserving of our wrath.

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Castration would be a worse punishment for them

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If you think what I showed is ridiculous, that was the tip of the iceberg. Here's the Canon history of FoE and believe me this universe is more fucked up than TCB. But thank God and the Emperor there isn't a crossover fic of TCB and FoE.

They're native to a continent to the far north/north east of Equestria, and only discovered Equestria in recent memory. Supposedly they're refugees from their kingdom after it underwent some sort of cataclysm, and they came to Equestria to settle in a new and fertile homeland. They are led by King Dainn, a former disciple of the old Caribou king, and he managed to rescue 15000 of his people, about half males and half females.

On arrival in Equestria they violently took over the small isolated village of Lindisbarne and enslaved its population/ and convinced/brainwashed its male population to their ideology. Here, they learned of the rest of Equestria from a captured and incredibly delusional unicorn named Sunrise Splendor (who based on her own isolation and not having been in Equestria proper for months should not even know about Princess Luna nevertheless Princess Twilight). At some point they tricked Cadance and Prince Shining Armor and brainwashed both to their side, and then things get murky hell but culminate in the Caribou usurping Equestria by taking control of Canterlot, publicly dehorning and defeathering Celestia and then having her raped in a victory parade. During this period, the Crystal Heart, corrupted with Caribou runic magic (more on that later) and cut into the shape of a penis (not making this up) is used to corrupt 98-99% if the male population to their side.

Twilight witnessed Celestia's defeat, did little to actually fight the Caribou, and eventually went insane and turned on Ponyville and turned it over to the Caribou and embraced life as a slave, and as far as cannon is concerned the fight for Equestria ends here and everything is absolutely perfect with no rebellion. The Caribou stabilize their rule, and as befitting a species who is endangered and likely not anywhere near established into their new rule, declare war or threaten surrounding nations such as the Griffon Kingdom or Zebrica and demand slaves and riches from the country or threaten war.

There, I've more or less summed up the cannon portrayal of the Caribou invasion. Source taken from the following stories:

Fall of Equestria: Sun's Setting

Twilight Falls: A Fall of Equestria Tale

Fall of Equestria: Fall of Cadance

I'm likely missing things and I know I'm not covering everything, but Schorl has posted several threads in the Fall group that could help reveal more. Her timeline is of special interest, and I recommend checking it out here

Long story short? The cannon stories don't usually make a lot of sense and in fact are often contradictory. In fact, they reveal laughably little about the Caribou and what they do have just doesn't make sense. Case in point, a population of 15000 is tiny for any civilization as seemingly advanced as they are (that is with well developed metallurgy and an entire kingdom), and would be so god damned tiny that it's unlikely in the extreme they could ever take over Equestria. So it's tempting to just throw these out, but there's another way to look at most of the cannon stories.

Assume they're propaganda. Every single last cannon story is an in universe article of propoganda written by Caribou to encourage settlers to Equestria and reinforce their image of power and dominance over Equestria.

Suddenly, these stories begin to make more sense, and have a whole lot of implications. For example, the stories Fall of Equestria: A Mare's Hearth's Warming Tale, Fall of Equestria: Hearts and Hooves, and Fall of Equestria: What a Fright all have perverted depictions of Equestrian holidays that, besides involving a lot of rape and perversion, also show a complete lack of respect for Equestrian history, but also depict insane amounts of sex in locales that don't even make sense. For instance, in What a Fright Luna is brought to Ponyville for...no god damned reason to be the center of a nightmare night celebration. Why would the Caribou care about Ponyville. They wouldn't but that's not the point for the writers in universe

These stories are written as both erotica and to entice colonists with tales of exotic and perverted holidays that are fun for everyone.

But, didn't I say the Caribou only have a population of 15000, and their homeland was destroyed? Yes I did mention that, and it's a complete fabrication on the part of the Caribou.

I find it incredibly unlikely for the Caribou to have even attempted an invasion of a country capable of building skyscrapers. They would risk annihilating bloodlines and extinction if things went wrong. However, an entire empire? Entirely possible. Dainn and his lieutenants, likely in charge of an expedition force, came up with the lie to lower Shining Armor and Cadance's guard, and proceeded to incapacitation and mind control them, with a particular emphasis on Shining Armor. Through him they started brainwashing the Crystal Empire's military, and through him they got access to the crystal heart, modified it to broadcast their mind control spell nation wide, and smuggled soldiers from the Crystal Empire into Canterlot for a sneak attack to coincide with the corrupted crystal Heart's activation. Caribou forces outside Equestria and soldiers from the Crystal Empire alongside Caribou veterans attacked Canterlot, and Shining would prove himself instrumental in defeating Celestia and Luna-he could get Celestia to lower her guard, and with every male more or less turning with the Crystal Heart's activation and the ensuing chaos as the males of Equestria suddenly saw themselves as masters and females meant to be subjugated, the combined armies of the Caribou and the Crystal Empire, alongside male reinforcements in the Royal Guard, moved in during the chaos to take over.

That's how I see the invasion actually going off and working.

So, we have how it works, but why? Why would the Caribou do this? Same reason as the Conquistadors: Greed, and religious justification.

The Caribou are from a frigid land to the north, and while this is conjecture, I've long imagined Equestria is a land rich in resources, and the land itself courtesy of earth pony and pegusus management of the weather, is fertile as hell, not even to mention Equestria's material wealth and, of course, the Caribou always desire slaves. The second reason is that the Cairbou fundamentally cannot coexist with any female that is considered equal, even ones from other countries and thousands of miles away. To them, a female is meant to obey their master's every desire, and no more. They cannot and are not allowed to have further aspirations. In fact, Caribou teachings claim that females are inherently inferior in all ways to a male, and are meant only to serve. So, females that aren't subjugated are bewildering and infuriating to the Caribou. They exist outside the "natural" order, and this must be corrected as soon as possible, no matter the cost.

So, we have a bit of what the Caribou are like, at least their justifications, but what about everything else? Well, here's some of my own world building mixed with what I've read and heard from people in both the Fall and Post Fall group, as well as implications from the cannon stories if they are looked at as propoganda.

Caribou are as a whole bisexual. This sounds odd, but begins to make sense. There is no such thing as romance between a male and female among the Caribou. At best, a male can be fond of a particular female, but they don't even consider females as being intelligent enough for such a thing; to them all females are sluts in desperate need to serve their master, and if they're resisting they're in denial. So, the only possible romance is between males. Personal world building of mine, but I like to believe they have a lot of stuff built on this and many Cairbou hope to find the perfect male lover. To this end, homoerotic literature is incredibly popular among the Caribou.

Runic magic is made clear as separate from unicorn magic in the stories, but is completely undeveloped otherwise. To this end, I've imagined that Caribou, unlike unicorns, cannot see the ebb and flow of magic and cannot construct spells directly. To this end, they have rune masters, who have memorized and learn runes that in a manner are similar to computer coding, code for a particular aspect of a spell, with more complex sets of runes making up more complex spells.

One of their strongest areas is the use of mind control. While it isn't as effective on females (likely intentional-they are arrogant and have a hard time accepting females as a genuine threat and thus focus on developing mind control on males), when it works dear god it works. They will make you think that they were always your friend, that they're here to help. Why, wouldn't the girl look better at your knees with a nice collar around her neck and painfully large dildo shoved up her ass, and hey, let's just rape her here right now, and afterward lets get her pierced all over no matter how much she screams. What? Screams? Clearly its ecstasy of what you're doing, not agony from abusing her, ripping her holes open, or just agony from the soreness of being raped daily.

-I think you see my point. Their mind control lets them quickly learn about new enemies, and they can easily get saboteurs on their side with everyone they mind control. It is possible to resist, but resistance is afforded by will and more importantly innate magic level, so most stallions are vulnerable, and given time they can convert almost anyone to their side, even females (Celestia, Twilight, and Cadance have all willingly submitted/broke under the Caribou's treatment-only Luna continues to resist)

Females have lifespans matched to their continued use in Caribou society, as matched by their current beauty, capability of bearing children, and possibly skills in rare instances. Females that have no use are cut off from society. By cut off I mean they are likely killed. Caribou don't want a female they have no use for, and someone like Granny Smith would just be a waste of resources as far as they're concerned. To this end, I think that the Caribou employ ritual sacrifice to empower some of their magic, because lifeforce is still useful, so some Caribou thought they might as well put those "worthless" females to a final use. Dark, I know, and this means that pretty much every elderly mare that gets caught by the Caribou is doomed to die.

As severe punishment for the worst of the "defiant" females, Caribou reserve the punishment of blanking: a process that essentially destroys a female's mind and leaves little behind but a base lust, if that. They prefer this process to outright killing, not because they dislike killing (see above), but because they consider it wasteful to kill off a perfectly good "female" if she's still attractive, even if she is a murderer. To this end, they also may use an altered version of this process on males to both blank their minds but also transform them into a female.

Caribou have little respect for cultures and history outside their own. They have repeatedly shown a tendency to rewrite Equestria's history to their own perverted and misogynistic world view. They do this to take away from and discredit the previous matriarchal and highly successful rule of the Equestria, which often had significant mares in its history.

From seeing that I felt my Black Rage just kicked in. But in the words of Magnus The Red...
"FUCKING FURRIES!!!!!!!"

And yes, every race in FoE universe are anthros. But to be fair the Caribou started this epidemic, so let's exterminate them and save the other innocent races.
(I have nothing anything against furries, just the zealous ones and cringy ones. Normal ones are okay in my book)

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the Caribou started this epidemic, so let's exterminate them and save the other innocent races.

Agreed.

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Wow... well FoE is shit, like TCB or even worse TCB were humans are defeated witchout a fight and viceversa.

5679927 Kill them all. Burn their cities and salt the fields.

Of course from geosynchronous orbit. Via lance strikes. Then again I already had a few orbital bombardments like that penciled in for the TCB ponies as they are charged with the abhorrent crime of defiling the perfect human form.

In the end, it doesn't matter to me, they both get an immediate exterminatus. Of course in the case of TCB an Imperial Crusade must be undertaken to reclaim Terra in the name of humanity.