Oh Fortis, where are you?
Before there was the Gryphon Kingdom, there were the Griffin Tribes.
Before there was unity, there was strife.
Before peace, there was war.
Blessed Arnau is the Last Lady of the North, facing an enormous task. The griffins face a seemingly unstoppable enemy tide—The Cloven of the Sun. Marching endlessly northwards, they hunt for the remnants of the griffin Tribes making their last stand in the stronghold of Falhstein, a stronghold that has not tasted war in decades.
With promise of support from Fortis, a mere commoner of surprisingly sharp mind and will, she is tasked to lead a defense that will mean the survival or end of her race.
This is her story.
This is my first official World Building Alliance prompt entry for May 2013. Word Count: 5,480
Scored 4.42/5. Second Place for May 2013 Prompt.
The story takes place in the The Gentlemanverse, predating the a time before Equestria opens a portal to Earth. It is an exploration of Gryphon Kingdom history before the events of Feathered Heart.
Cute.
2633843
Which? XD
2633848
It's a cute and funny story.
2633862
Ah, thanks. ^_^ The whole eating ponies thing was really a reference to the myths of griffins.
A very epic story, though I did find myself wishing for a little more clarity on the creatures the griffons were fighting. But as a 300-esque style tale, very well done
2633926
Well, I may give them more description in Feathered Heart. Thanks dude.
another very good story, bravo
2633972
Not perfect. I'm going to work on the kinks a bit. The word limitation really took a lot out of me.
I saw the sad tag, and read it anyway. It was not as sad as I had feared, as I had not had enough time to get attached to Lady Arnau. Reading about the different lineage-type tribes was at first a slight shock, as I had forgotten that the previous stories I had read featuring details on gryphons, are still just speculation. (I was still thinking of gryphons the way they are in The Conversion Bureau: Option Gamma. Which is, gryphons with only passive forms of magic, and not having different genetic tribes.)
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/50381/10/the-last-brony-gets-his-wish/all-in-the-past#comment/2604160
Lol
The inner eye is a fickle thing.
2634143
Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I haven't abandoned it, but right now, I'm slow in writing it. I'm getting the rhythm back, and First Person narrative here gave me some good practice to get that rust out of my fingers.
Funnily enough, if the Feathered Heart draft chapter was finished proofread, Gilda would explain the different griffin species herself. It was going to be my first official explanation of the griffin bloodlines. But... yeah.
I'm going to take a short break, then continue writing G4M. I've actually planned the next chapters for it.
'Tis an interesting piece of cover art you chose DEL.
Wow! Nice!
2634557
Its pretty hard to find bloodied feathers, you know.
Okay, it took 5 minutes in google.
What?
2634674
A little different from what you've seen. Last minute editing is hell.
I hope to see how this ties in feathered hearts!
2636602
Its actually tied in already. Fahlstein, the two level stronghold carved from the mountain is now called Arnau, the ten-level Capital City of the Kingdom.
The Gale Valley that was burned down was rebuilt and is now called Tierra, where Gilda spent her time in Rotation a year before the humans arrived.
More connections... well... that'll be a spoiler.
I should have known this....
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2636548
I think you knocked it out of the park.
2636747
I'm glad you think so. I'm still doubtful, but I'm always like that.
2636757
21 likes to 0 dislikes I'd call that a home run.
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2636895
Silly goose you're an excellent author. On par with that Xenophilia author. 
2637064
Thanks for the vote of confidence.
Hm. This story looks familiar for some reason...
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2637364 Dunno, just getting a really big déjà vu feeling.
2637521
... Something must have changed within the Matrix.
.... ah, crap. If that is the best response I can do, I may as well retire.
So how do fortifications work with flying units? If someone can easily fly over your walls then they might as well not be there. I guess they might be helpful in stopping ground based infantry, but why would anyone field that when they could have flying infantry instead?
3109786
Mages. Remember the last part? Where the Tribune was ordering all flyers out because they were dropping like flies? That's one of the mage's job. To stop flyers.
3109797
Got it, but why not use the mages to stop the ground assault? Are there not enough mages to cover both the air and the ground, necessitating conventional fortifications?
Additionally, what sort of defenses are we talking about here, like Medieval European?
3109961
Uh, they did. Okay, gonna have to take the situation in here.
The griffin forces have been on rapid retreat, hoping to splinter the very large and overwhelming Cloven forces. The plan was to fool them into thinking they were facing off against a retreating force that was now cornered in Fahlstein.
Falhstein is a good place to defend themselves. Its in the mountains (basically, the undeveloped city Arnau in Feathered Heart) and has some walls built in naturally and done over the years, being a neutral meeting point for all Blessed (tribal leaders).
While they did have conventional weapons already used to stop the ground forces, military doctrine at this stage (and even present in Feathered Heart) dictates: why waste energy and griffin power for something the mages could concentrate on somewhere else?
But the situation here was different. The Cloven forces had supposedly no air support. That's when Arnau decided to use the mages, and with the help of the defending ground forces, in making a large wall of fire. If the Cloven had air forces, the mages may not have been called in. I wouldn't know, because there's a lot of 'what-ifs' involved there.
They also had to take to consideration to see if the Cloven had Corrupted Griffin mages as well. They spotted none, so they attacked in full force. It was obvious afterwards that the Cloven were hiding them, and countered with mages to destroy griffin ones, which gave an opening for an air assault.
And yeah, medieval european, though you can guess they use a lot of things common to Romans.
3110015
Sorry, I'm just curious about the purpose of a conventional medieval trace in a world with air force and magic. It just seems like if you have soldiers capable of flying over the walls and other soldiers capable of frying those first soldiers then the walls don't server much of a purpose. I guess I just don't understand what purpose a ground assault would serve to a species whose every member has wings. I understand that the Cloven seemed to only be carrying out a ground assault but I don't think that this fortress was built with them in mind.
So the walls are tall and thin with large square or round tower? Do they have manchicolations?
3110111
No problem.
For griffins, its about ratio of who can use magic, and those who can fly.
Like the story said, there are earth-griffins, sky-griffins, and mage griffins. earth griffins can fly, but are slow, and can't fly as long as sky-griffins. If there's any assault coming, it'll be from the sky-griffins. To stop them, they have the conventional weapons, like ballast (both good for ground and air forces) which can be armed with various of weapons, like pikes and nets (wasn't shown here).
Mages are most effective, that can call down lightning, which can hit a lot of griffins in the sky with just one bolt. The problem is, mages focus is limited. While they take care of the air assault and also try to counter enemy mages, that leaves the ground forces open. That's why walls are still built.
For Arnau's case (the city) the walls were built really, really high. Plus I'm hoping to introduce more Griffin tech/magic on how they improved their air defenses.
3110136
So what purpose do the earth-griffons serve in a siege besides, as depicted in the story, operating throwing engines and carrying supplies? Do griffons carry out conventional siege operations like mining or sapping? If they don't that could radically change the way fortifications are constructed. There would be less need for flanking fire from towers and no need whatsoever for batters.
3110189
Most of how griffins fought before were on open fields. They rarely got into a siege situations. Except now. Most of the time, they just charge and flank. That's why Fortis was such a threat towards the Blessed. His griffins fought so differently. He brought the shield-wall tactics and complimented it with how griffins fought before, which is why even overwhelming numbers of Cloven didn't penetrate Fahlstein until the end.
Didn't help them that he was smart as hell.
Most of the time, earth-griffins were routers. They used hammers to wreck the front line while the rest flanked the formation. They were also the builders, blacksmiths, and the like. They are the most heavily armored, strongest, and most numerous at times.
I'd like to think they'd use batters, but that doesn't seem to make much sense, right?
3110531
A batter in this case is the angled section at the bottom of a castle wall. Krak des Chevaliers has a rather extreme example.
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Krak_des_Chevaliers_14.jpg
These serve multiple purposes. They help to angle projectiles dropped from the battlements towards the enemies. They also prevent the enemies from approaching directly under the walls, preventing them from hiding there and keeping them in the full view of the defenders. Furthermore, they reinforce the base of the wall, usually the most vulnerable part, and help prevent siege engines from getting a direct hit at the wall and reinforce the wall against undermining.
Finally, once artillery was introduced, batters could be used to help protect the wall against being blown down by gunfire. An excellent example of this style of fortress can be found at Sarzana.
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Fortezza_di_Sarzana.jpg
Fortifications are somewhat of an interest of mine.
3110586
Very nice.
If I consult you in regards to any future fortifications, would you mind?
3110590
I would love to help, although the medieval period is less my area of expertise than early modern artillery fortifications. But I would love to help.
3110593
Thanks.
3110704
Cool, shoot me a PM when you have questions and I'll see what I can do.
Well that was fairly awesome.
3113968
XD If I had my way, it would have been 8 thousand words.
This was absolutely fantastic, fantastic job.