Back when this was asked, lands outside Equestria were known but not seen - places non-ponies came from. From Season 5 inwards the show revealed several of them - and none were portrayed as any more than a city state. Still, there are species which escaped this treatment, like the zebras and minotaurs, and ways to reinterpret some of what we saw. So what's your take?

36. Do other speaking species form their own nations, or are all nations largely integrated, with some having larger populations of a species than others?
Most nations are predominantly one species, though not every species has its own nation.

Huh, I never posted mine here did I? Well, easily fixed.

The former is more common in the North, the latter in the South. (This is probably the best place to mention that my headcanon world map has two supercontinents and the show has never shown the bottom one.) There may be exceptions though - for instance, I'm not sure where the minotaurs live. And it should be noted that the ethnostates aren't necessarily homogeneous (Equestria has sizable populations of all higher livestock and plenty of donkeys, albeit mostly in the east) while mixed states aren't necessarily equal or harmonious.

We've seen some other nations -- Griffonstone, the Dragon Lands, Mount Aris -- so I'm inclined to say yes? But Equestria is obviously the best one. :)

7038974
Some of those are rather generous applications of the term, don't you think?

7038981
Just because Griffonstone sucks doesn't mean it's not a nation. :V

7039006
No, it's barely a nation because it's just a city on a mountain. Compare, like, pretty much every prior fan depiction of griffin lands.

No, and I don't think Equestria is really a nation, because Celestia doesn't really decree anything that is expected to be carried out through a line of enforcers. Publicly decreeing that Twilight was going to live in a library doesn't mean that she didn't do the work of asking for the library herself. Luna did decree that Nightmare Night was canceled, but~ you'll notice that she didn't actually un-cancel it, and the way Pip asked if she was coming back next year, didn't show any doubt in his mind that it was still going to happen... Even her crying after the decree seemed to show that she knew she couldn't really force ponies to stop celebrating it.

The other species may believe that they hold sovereignty over an area, but Celestia doesn't really do anything to deter this belief because her goals are for everyone to learn to get along on their own.

7039500
Then what do you think the governmental leave is - independent city- states that just share a culture to a degree? Even so, ponies have so many more than anyone else...

7039533
I don't understand the question.

7039644
"Equestria" is clearly something - something more than just "the geographical region where many pony towns and cities are found". If not a nation, then what?

7039013
Well, the Griffon Lands are a thing on the official map, so there's that. Just because we've only seen Griffonstone doesn't mean there aren't other cities or villages. And city-states are a thing that exists. :B

7039648
Yeah, the other places just seem tiny compared to Equestria's quite well-realised size. It's why I'm glad we never saw, say, the zebra or minotaur lands.

7039645
Planet.

7039765
So there is no governmental or societal connection between Ponyville, Manehattan, Canterlot, and Cloudsdale?

7039777
I didn't say there would be a societal connection. In fact, there has to be. Without each type of pony to do the jobs they need to cycle the seasons, an area of the world would become unlivable. They are one society of ponies, but all forms of the word government imply forcing someone to do something at some point. Equestrian society would not do this. If there was a mentally ill pony, that pony would be cared for, not punished. If a pony did not want to help, that pony would be pitied, not punished.

7039884
So... you're saying the world has no government, because government is inherently based on coercion?

I really think you're using Equestria as a projection board for your own utopian views - but its' getting us some interesting headcanon, so go ahead!

The 'official' map of Equestria exists, and the expanded version even shows other landmasses/nations, but honestly... I don't trust that cartographer. There's no scale given, as far as I'm aware, and I think there's a good reason for that. The map isn't supposed to be studied closely, in full detail. It's more meant as a 'general overview'. Where's Ponyville? 'In the center!' Where are the Badlands in relation to that? 'Southeast.' I don't think it shows all settlements. I don't think it gives a proper impression of the size of certain landmark features, like the Everfree Forest. I don't even think it gives a proper impression of distances between depicted features.

Don't get me wrong - it's a nice map. It's great to have. Because for what I think it aims to do, it's very successful. It gives a general overview. But little more than that.

Which brings us to other nations. Tribalism might be a thing of the past. In most regions, and for most ponies, anyway. But I think this specific cartographer didn't care all that much about foreign nations. Once again, a general sense of 'where is what' was sufficient. Dragonlands? Yeah, well, somewhere over there.

Given these... uh... let's call them 'broader strokes', I think there's quite enough wiggle room to argue that the Griffonlands have more than just Griffonstone. Heck, there might be dragon cities. While older dragons seem to participate less and less in dragon society and seem to prefer isolation and peace, especially the younger ones seem to socialize quite a lot. Even if it is in a rough way. For all the muddied distances, the Griffonlands might actually be a lot bigger than depicted as well. Ponies might not even know all that well just how large these nations are. Or what is beyond their borders. The map uses such imaginative descriptions as 'into the unknown' (north), 'undiscovered west' (west, duh), 'mysterious south' (south, duh) and 'yonder to griffons' (east). Makes me question if maybe, equestrian cartographers don't get out of their houses all that much. Maybe ponies are complacent. Maybe they don't care all that much. Maybe it's considered too dangerous. Or they fear diplomatic incidents. There is a vast array of possible explanations.

I just don't trust that map.

(And yes. I think there's probably even more continents than this one.)

7689484
Map discussion is for my other group... which I never actually posted, cause this and others all flopped.

But it's not just the size of these places on the map... it's the size of them based on what we see. If there were real griffon states out there, why on earth would they let an old coot from Griffonstone serve as their representative? Certainly the hippogriffs seem to live in one (later two adjacent) cities. The kirin just have one tiny village. And so on.

7689563
Honestly, the griffons I think I can explain in a way that at least feels plausible for myself. Why did they let him represent all of them? Because no-griffon cares. They had a noble and proud empire once, but greed is so deeply ingrained in their very being that they almost rival dragons. There is no solidarity otherwise. They just don't give a damn. And with the idol lost, the empire quickly slipped into a massive decline. They reverted back to the way they were before - hostile to others, even each other. Focused on their own gains and advantages only. I mean... that one fellow left Rainbow in a potentially life-threatening situation, because she didn't have more bits. Speaks volumes about how they tick, I think. There is no other 'representative', because there's basically nothing to represent. I would bet that, if you were to ask any other griffon in Griffonstone if that old coot speaks for them, they would laugh in your face.

The hippogriffs I agree. Once city and one city only. Though to put an uncomfortably dark spin on it: I don't think that it always had been only that one city. I don't think they just vanished at the first opportunity. They tried to resist. And failed. What's left might be their capital, being the most heavily defended place and the most heavily populated as well. Or it's just a random city that was the left one standing, where every hippogriff fleeing the war fled to. Storm King's gotta storm-king.

The kirin, I think, are just a bit, eh... secluded. I like to think there's several kirin villages. They just don't interact all that much with each other. Similar to the middle ages, where you sent the young man on a nice, dangerous journey to the next village so they could make their apprenticeship there and live there and it works as a blood transfusion as well.

I mentioned Buffalo in another answer. I think there are several nomadic tribes, but their problem is that there's not that many of them to begin with.

Diamond dogs are funny. I actually think there's an entire empire of those guys. Very crafty engineers and smiths. They have a vast underground tunnel network, massive cities. But in a tragic fate not dissimilar to that of the griffons, their empire's light has dimmed for a long time now. Something happened, and they lost access and understanding of much of their advanced technology. They are basically my equivalent to the dwarves depicted in many fantasy worlds. They are so obsessed with gemstones because their ancient technology is powered by those. Problem is: They don't know how. They just hunt for gemstones, thrust a couple of different ones into the eye sockets of steel golems and hope for the best. And sometimes, a golem gets powered and walks around for a bit and does stuff it is told and all diamond dogs hail that one that made it walk again. Until it stops and powers down. Then they hunt for gems similar to the one that made it walk, and this second time, it doesn't. They don't get why it worked, and why it doesn't. But they try. Because they still have so many stories of the good old glory days. And I think Rover, Spot and Fido are just kind of exiles. They are the idiots the others didn't want to have around anymore. That's why they are so close to the surface, and a pony settlement at that. They hope to gather enough gemstones to make the others reconsider letting them back in.

7689724
Yeah, it makes sense for Griffonstone. But not so much if we imagine any larger, less ruined griffin polities.

And Diamond Dogs actually get off easy, cause a) we never actually see their home in the show and b) they can easily live in the same space as ponies or other races, just underneath.

7689809

Yeah, it makes sense for Griffonstone. But not so much if we imagine any larger, less ruined griffin polities.

If it were less ruined, yes. I think Griffonstone is representative of the status of the entire empire, in that regard. There are certainly other settlements. And they've all gone to sh*t. I admit, it's not a nice prospect. But declining, deteriorating empires are rarely a sight to behold. And it would at least allow for more space to be filled.

Actually, come to think of it. Maybe other places don't even need to be this f*cked up. Maybe they are outraged about this, and we just don't know about it. Just imagine the capitol being all worn down, while cities around it are just fine and dandy, and just because ponies went to the capitol first, griffons are now represented by this one guy and all the other griffons are like 'wait, what?'

7689829
Could be. I had a loose headcanon where none of the griffon tribes want to look weakned to outsiders, or let each other take the lead in relations with other nations, so they sort of officially pretend the Griffon Kingdom is still a thing and Griffonstone matters, at least on paper.

7689840
While I like the idea - wanting to appear strong when in reality, you really aren't anymore is quite realistic after all -, there's a prominent problem with this. The railway. I mean, and the fact that they didn't stop the intruders, but mostly the railway itself. They should've destroyed it. That way, reaching Griffonstone to see that disaster would have been a lot more bothersome.

7689844
True. It could be that the occasional dribble of tourist bits is too much to pass up.

7690083
Greed defeating the intention of appearing strong. Hm. With the intensity of greed shown in the episode, I could get behind that, sure.