THE ORRERY

What is this page?
I wanted to make some pony ocs awhile back since I became an artist, but what I believe I'm good at writing is custom magic systems, fantasy races and powersets. I'm used to being able to simply assert the importance or rarity of something as a balancing metric. So, in order to make cute pony, I needed to design an entire original world in which Pony could exist in. Hopefully this reads like a rich and interesting fantasy setting with some decent sources of conflict. I'm of the opinion it's not enough to make cute pony to get people to care you gotta write substance to it to give people reason to care. These characters won't make perfect sense unless you read the giant, evil ass rape wall of text describing my setting, "The Orrery", as described down below.

The intention in theory is eventually I want to make like, one of those /tg/ style CYOA's where its a big chart and you pick which options you want and all, and THAT'S how you would ideally be introduced to the setting? I've started working on that too, but I took a break from it for a bit because it was taking too long working on one big project where I didn't have anything finished to show for it and it was stressing me out tbh. For now, this will have to suffice as a description of what the settings like. It definitely could use further editting to be more concise, but hopefully it will work for now.

If you like what you see here in The Orrery, maybe you'd be interested in my other work. Here's a series of redirects for more of my stuff:
My Twitter account, I post art there sometimes.
My Derpibooru tag, if you'd like to see my pony art.
My Kofi, if you'd like to give me money.

Also, obviously, the copyright to the settings, characters and other ideas in The Trinity and The Orrery, my art, and Queenfisher are mine of course.

Also, also. If you're one of the three players from Troopie's tails game where he borrowed some of muh ocs for that. Stop looking up spoilers its rude and evil and fucked up! He's gotta adapt their lore anyways so it won't even be the same lmfao. He's using a modified version of Equestria so he can't even use the same magic rules and races I have lmfao.

=CHANGELOG=

Fleshed out the nature of Cloudy's magical talent.
Updated Sphinx section to make weaknesses of law magic clearer.

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WORLDBUILDING

(working title) The Orrery: A fantasy-adventure pony setting

MISSION STATEMENT
Welcome to the Orrery! An original light-hearted fantasy adventure pony setting. Now, this setting isn't going to be too radical of tone from what you might expect. Compared to MLP:FiM G4, I only intend for this setting to be marginally darker purely by virtue of the fact that ponies will be using weapons and spellcasting instead of pastries, and the ponies are peripherally aware of the idea that fighting with weapons can kill people. Along with being structured in such a way slightly more conducive to adventure stories then slice-of-life.

This setting exists because what I consider myself good at writing is fantasy races, worldbuilding, powersets and magic systems, and it's simply a lot easier to do that when I can control the worldbuilding freely without worrying about contradicting anything. I need to be able to make sweeping foundational decisions about how rare or important everything is without worrying about contradicting the source material. This is not intended as "fixing" Equestria, obviously certain decisions will align more with my preferences and my specific intentions.

Saying that, a bit about my design philosophy before I go into this. My priorities with this setting were to make the magic system slightly 'harder', in that the rules are more specific and intricate then they were in MLP. Though I don't want to demystify it or analogize it to a science or anything. While there will be non-pony races, I don't want to recreate Creaturequestria. All races added need to have a particular niche and purpose, and must either be 'only not a pony by technicality', 'basically a pony' or 'a mythological creature'. This setting is also more strictly medieval, while the odd anachronism will inevitably pop up, this setting is intended to be a self-contained fantasy world. I also dislike the practice of writing a fictitious, magical world to just be an analogy for the real world. If and when societal progress occurs it should take a different road then we did, they do have magic after all.

Also, I do not and will not write with the expectation kids are reading my work. While I intend for my work to be lighthearted, that's an artistic decision about tone. Not a restriction, I reserve the right to depict any and all of my characters pinned down and fucked or violently murdered lmfao. Not that I intend to, The Orrery's intended as a cute, comfy and lighthearted fantasy faire for the most part. There's some bite and menace to maintain the stakes, especially outside Ponykind's borders. But I don't specifically intend to add any scenes as dark as someone getting raped and quadrupal amputated lmfao.
This setting will also contain depictions of racism and slavery, these do not merely exist, they will frequently come up as sources of internal conflict for Pony society and as a very common failure-state for pony adventurers, especially outside the bounds of Pony civilization. It's a medieval fantasy setting, if that's a problem for you then this was your warning.
However, I would also say that an out of universe description of the broad concepts of the setting generally tends to make it read a lot more serious and darker then the actual execution would be. It tends to accentuate the negatives at the expense of the cute, comfy and comedic elements that would be intended in execution. It's like reading a list of the things Discord in theory can do without knowing anything about the character. Some things will read as significantly more menacing on paper then they're intended to be in practice.
But don't start characterizing me as one of those 'safe' artists if I don't have a Google Doc exposing me as an unsafe creator by the time I become horsefamous I've failed as an artist.

With that out of the way, lets begin with the settings core conceits.

CREATION OF CORRUPTION
Long ago, the world was filled with natural abundance and many races. With magic being an obscure thing, only able to be wielded through an obscure art of druidcraft using the obscure flora found in Faerie Forests, or trapped in the rare and valuable gemstones known as Fallen Stars. The dominant species of the world was Dragonkind, who had the favor of the Sphinxes. Ancient rivals to the many Faerie Courts that littered the wilds, having invented a countermeasure to their Fae chaos magic, having invented a script of runic characters to restrain and codify their chaos, defining them into specifics instead of potentials with their law magics. The Sphinxes favored Dragonkind for hording Fallen Stars, using their ability to capture wild mana to power magitech constructs to assert their will over the world and creating an ordered, hierarchical civilization amidst a seemingly endless expanse of wilderness from which anything could emerge.

But that was before the birth of the Corruption. A particularly bloodthirsty and sadistic court of Faeries known as the Unseelie, ruled over by a cruel demon known as Nuckelavee, created a dark magical plague that would spread using Nature itself as a vector. Those afflicted would feel themselves siphoned of whatever magic lie inside, and their mind twisted darker as their vessel served their corruptor and continued its spread. With lands fully corrupted not even allowing death to release its puppets from their grasp, continuing to serve to sate Unseelie's bloodthirst as playthings even after death.

This threat was so abhorrent that the various powers of the world coalesced together for once to stop it. A more benevolent, but still capricious court of Faeries known as the Seelie worked with the mares that would become Ponykinds two Alicorn Empresses. Their plan was to seek the assistance of the Sphinxes, with the law magics of the rare and powerful Sphinxes and a Faerie Court and its Queen, they would attempt to redefine the very concept of Nature, such that it would no longer be something that occurred on its own, and would require manual imposition on a world by a magically endowed race. In effect, they sought to sterilize the World to fight off the infection.

However, the Sphinxes had their own conditions for such assistance. The first of which being that they would not simply allow the proliferation of Faerie Chaos Magic to run wild across the world, and required that such magically enhanced races have Elemental restrictions. Exempting the Alicorns that would become Ponykind's Empresses, since they were already given authentic Faerie Chaos magic. Secondly, they did not want to cede the whole of the World to Faeries and their chosen race, and required that their preferred race, Dragonkind, also be bestowed near identical gifts. Especially as their civilization was ravaged as the bulwark buying them time before the Corruption overtook the world.

The Seelie, begrudgingly, agreed to the Sphinxes terms, giving up much of their own magical power to bestow it upon the two races, then codified into elemental categories such that they could restore different parts of the world. With Ponykind having their Pony Tribes, and Dragonkind having Dragon Colors. However, Dragonkind civilization was too thoroughly ravaged by the Corruption, and as the World receded into the Wastelands. Only Ponykind were capable of unifying into a great power, with Dragonkind devolving into a power struggle, each one lording over their own lair, their own pocket of Nature in the waste as Warlords.

Most Faeries look at the Seelie not too dissimilarly to the Unseelie. Given the Seelie have successfully managed to fundamentally alter the world so their Pure Nature was dominant. Though they particularly hate them for working with Sphinxes to sterilize the world to do it, rather then the typical Court intrigue Faeries are usually prone to. It is not that the Purity of their nature is itself a sterilizing force. It is that Ponykinds artificial nature of their magically imposed Nature lacks the spark of Feywild required to perpetuate itself on its own.

Most Faerie Courts however, given their strange and capricious Natures, hate the Seelie more for working with the Sphinxes and for their betrayal of True Nature. With many of the other Faerie Courts, most notably the Sylvan, seeking to restore True Nature to the world by spreading their Faerie Forests across the world. The original and true form of the Wilderness and the crucible from which new things emerge. To some extent, many Faeries dismiss the severity of the Unseelies bloodthirsty sadism as just another form of a Faeries playful capriciousness, traditional even, and something to be dealt with more as Court intrigue amongst the Fae then anything.

Seelie spend most of their time amongst Ponykind instead of the Faerie Forests they hail from. Where the waters always fresh, the animals always friendly, corruption finding its purchase difficult to spread, and in some places rare and benevolent flora blooming, such as the Silverwood Unicorn's grow for their runes, or glistening golden fruits with potent healing properties emerging.

MAGIC, MANA, MATERIALS & RUNES
In this world, Ponykind's magic is divided amongst their various tribes, codified into elements based on the "Landforms" they were made to tend to/excel in most. However, not every pony is intrinsically able to cast magical spells all the time. While everypony has a wellspring of elemental mana inside of them, only the horned tribes (Kirin, Unicorns, Nightmares), can freely cast spells of their elemental affinity at will, the nature tribes of Ponykind (Destriers, Hippocampi, Pegasi, Thestrals, Hippoborean) must instead use spell foci such as wands, staffs or ritual circles to cast their spells.

• Destrier mana is Lands elemental.
• Hippocampi mana is Seas elemental.
• Pegasi mana is Skies elemental.
• Thestral mana is Depths elemental.
• Hippoborean mana is Frosts elemental.
• Unicorn mana is Stars elemental.
• Kirin mana is Heavens elemental.
• Nightmare mana is Hells elemental.

It's worth making absolutely clear these are more broad then a classical elemental system. For example, the Seas element does not have the monopoly on all water spells. Obviously the Skies element must have some ability to manipulate water, otherwise it could not even be used to make it RAIN. The elements are to be interpreted as anything that can be derived from or related to that particular landform. For example, the Lands element not only includes physical rocks and dirt, but also the flora and fauna that can be found on land. Within reason. Obviously just because Skies would have SOME water manipulating capabilities, doesn't mean it'd ever be as good at it as proper Seas spells would be. But you get the idea.

• Wands are very consistent, and very rarely ever misfire their spells. However what they offer in precision they lack in potency.
• Staffs, conversely, are very potent, and offer the advantage of much stronger spells with more sweeping effects. But sacrifice their precision and consistency.
• Ritual Circles are also an option, both potent and precise, even some Unicorns will prefer to use them given the choice. However due to the obvious logistical problem of having to prepare a Ritual Circle in the middle of a fight. Ritual Circles are almost never employed in a fight, and when they are, only defensively.
• The severed horn or horns of a pony may still be used as a spell foci, and would be just as effective as they normally would be for anypony to use. However, for obvious reasons, this is illegal unless its obviously your own, or you can provide evidence of it being an heirloom or some kind or some other, more benign justification for possession beyond amputation. You'll still get dirty looks for it though.

Now, that sounds all well and good, but you may be wondering what a pony is to do when they desperately need or want to cast a spell that isn't of their own element. Well, there are five answers to that, but we'll cover the first 3 here and ignore the other two until we get to the Unicorn and Nightmare sections.

The first would be Runes. There is a kind of magical tree called Silverwood, which the Unicorns grown in the magical forests they tend to live in. The wood of these trees can be hewn into blank runes, which a pony can imbue with their own mana as a form of storage. These runes can be used as consumables to allow a pony to cast a spell they otherwise would not be able too, however this destroys the rune in the process. These runes are also used as the settings currency, with the mana stored inside being where they derive their value, however ponies generally dislike being paid in a rune of their own element.

The second alternative is a very rare and expensive kind of gemstone known as a Fallen Star. These gemstones naturally trap mana inside, and if they're more then halfway filled with only one kind of mana, they form a sort of 'feedback loop' where they continue to slowly refill themselves all the way back up. For this reason they are obviously quite expensive, along with the fact of them being rather difficult to acquire. Fallen Stars are one of two extremely precious materials that can only be recovered from rare meteors falling from the sky. Fallen Stars can also be used for golemancy, due to their magical 'feedback loops' tending to become somewhat of an animating force. This even occasionally ends up creating rare, wild crystalline golems of sorts, but we'll cover those much later in the Zaubernach section.

As a quick aside before we move onto the Alicorns section. Here's some additional, important material properties:

• Silver does possess intrinsic holy properties in this setting, and any entity which must be harmed with an enchanted or blessed weapon, or warded off by some Holy power, may be harmed by a Silvered weapon as if it were a magical or blessed weapon. Silver also, as a Holy material, cannot traverse through Nightmare teleportation, and Silvered restraints can be used to prevent Nightmare teleportation.
• Gold as a material is particularly receptive to magical enchantment, even though it's rather soft. It's common for Enchanted weapons to have Gold adornments and such specifically for this purpose.
• Cold Iron, iron which has never been processed through metalworking, is anathema to Faeries and burning them at the touch. However, because Ponykind magic is ultimately derived FROM Faerie Magic. While Cold Iron doesn't hurt Ponykind directly in this setting, it does function as an anti-magical material for most purposes.
• Thunderbolt Iron is a metal strong as steel but as receptive to enchantment as gold, and can only be obtained from rare meteors falling from the sky in a similar method to Fallen Stars.

Also, as a byproduct of the fact that the runic magic that defines Ponykinds magic into distinct elements, (and the fact that Cutie Marks are technically a copyrighted term lmfao). Ponies each develop a Rune Insignia on their flank as they grow up. This personal Rune unique to them essentially grants aptitude in a particular skill, and can even grant a Pony 1 spell outside the bounds of their Element as long as it aligns with THEIR purpose. However, if this Insignia is magically removed by any means, not only do they lose the aptitude and spell (if any) granted by their mark. But it also loosens the elemental restrictions inherent to their Tribe. This is not a good thing, as it not only makes their magic dramatically more unstable and prone to misfiring. But Ponies this happens too quickly start behaving more capricious, wild and unstable.

ALICORNS & KNIGHTING
Third and finally, there is being Knighted. Now, Ponykind has organized itself into somewhat of an Empire structure. With the two Alicorn Empresses on the top, with each having various Alicorn Princesses underneath them overseeing the various Pony Tribes. These Princesses all answer to the Empresses, but more chiefly answer to the one that specifically created their Tribe. The Empresses are the Ponies who personally, directly received actual Faerie Chaos Magic directly from the Faerie Queen of the Seelie Court. These Princesses were all Coronated by the Empresses, and they too have Faerie Chaos magic, albeit not in as potent of a form. This means that the Alicorns magic is NOT inhibited by Elemental restrictions, and they possess Shapeshifting abilities, allowing them any of the PHYSICAL advantages of any Tribe as well.

However, these Princesses cannot Coronate someone to Alicornhood, they can only Knight them. Lets say a Hippocampus earns the favor of the Pegasi's Princess. The Princess would then have the ability to offer them the ability to pledge themselves to her service as one of her Knights. If accepted, this Princess could Knight this Hippocampus, turning them into a sort of hybrid. They would possess all of the physical and magical advantages of being both a Hippocampus and a Pegasus at the same time.

Unfortunately, the Nightmares in the past have previously successfully Corrupted the previous Alicorns ruling over Pegasi, Hippocampi and Thestrals. These Princes have unfortunately been spirited away to the Nightmares native dimension. With the Nightmares control over these fallen Alicorns allowing them to abuse the ability far in excess of what would normally be allowed. However, due to the Alicorns overuse and abuse of the ability, along with compelling them to do so against their will while Corrupted and having their mana siphoned by the Nightmare's Princess. These Dark Knights lack the strength of a true Knighting. Having only about half the strength of the second tribe, and cutting into about a third of the Nightmares existing dark powers. Unable to recover the corrupted Alicorns from the Nightmares native plane, the Empresses were forced to Coronate replacements. The tragedy remains a significant and divisive controversy to this day.

The Alicorns role in maintaining nature is far more cosmic then the average ponies, and are each associated with various celestial bodies. There are, as follows:

• The Sun Empress, creator of Destriers, Pegasi, and Kirin. Though the Seelie, having similar influence to a Pony Tribe, despite being a Faerie Court, possess similar influence to one due to their role in Ponykinds magical ascendance, align themselves with the Sun Empress. She was also responsible for the creation of Hippoboreans, but because this was not done consensually, they do not consider themselves Solar aligned.
• The Princess of Mercury rules over Pegasi, and is Solar aligned.
• The Princess of Earth rules over Destriers, and is Solar aligned.
• The Princess of Jupiter rules over Kirin, and is Solar aligned.
• The Queen of Eris rules over the Seelie Court, and is Solar Aligned.

• The intended Princess of Ceres leads the Hippoboreans as a Matriarch instead. Though Hippoboreans relationship to the rest of Ponykind is rather strained. This is because the Hippoboreans didn't actually agree to accept their Seelie magic and the Seelie and the Sun Empress simply forced the issue. While they aren't quite adversarial with the rest of Ponykind, they're very isolationist by comparison.

• The Moon Empress, creator of Hippocampi, Thestrals, Unicorns and, accidentally, Nightmares.
• The Princess of Venus rules over Hippocampi, and is Lunar aligned.
• The Princess of Mars rules over Thestrals, and is Lunar aligned.
• The Princess of Saturn rules over Unicorns, and is Lunar aligned.

• The self proclaimed Empress of Sedna doesn't answer to the Moon Empress, ruling over the Nightmares and their attempts to overtake Ponykind.
• The Fallen Prince of Uranus formerly ruled over the Pegasi.
• The Fallen Prince of Neptune formerly ruled over the Hippocampi.
• The Fallen Prince of Pluto formerly ruled over the Thestrals.

The Princesses seldom Knight just anypony, and it is even rarer for the Empresses to Coronate somepony into an Alicorn. Often many Knights are bestowed with their Knighting as a boon for a great feat, especially but not exclusively in relation to combat. Though the Princesses will also seek to retain a small force of Knights regardless for various reasons. Accepting the Knighting of a Princess comes with it some expectation of being sworn into their service, particularly for matters of great importance, though this is downplayed when a Knighting was granted as a reward. Implicitly this expectation applies to the Princesses themselves towards the Empresses that Coronated them. When a Pony's loyalties are caught between their mother tribes Alicorn and the Alicorn that Knighted them, it is expected they would normatively choose the one that Knighted them.

Knights do possess a limited degree of enhanced longevity then the average pony, but not to the extent of the Alicorn's immortality, which can play a role in their decision to Knight someone. Some of the current Alicorns in fact were Knights beforehand. It is also considered normal for a Knight to take on Squires if they choose to, who are often first in line as prospective candidates to become Knights themselves if the situation demands it. Though becoming a Knight this way usually comes with significantly higher expectations of fealty. It is possible for an Alicorn to revoke the Knighting of a Pony they've previously Knighted, though this cannot be done instantly and requires a ritualized process.

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PONY TRIBE DESCRIPTIONS

PONY TRIBES (AND RACISM)
Well technically I guess its 'tribalism', since the race is "Pony" and these are different subcategories of the same species? Actually, is that how it works? I mean just because two things can interbreed does that make them necessarily the same species? I don't know, as far as I'm aware there aren't real animals that have various different forms or variations that are literally still considered the same species? Maybe some insects would work this way? If dedicated terminology for this exists I don't know it. The correct word is probably tribalism, but I'm going to say racism interchangably with tribalism because its funnier.

These are the pony tribes that fulfill all of the requirements to be considered a 'legitimate' tribe.
The requirements to be considered are as follows, a tribe must have:

1. A unique (amongst Ponykind) movement advantage.
2. A unique (amongst Ponykind) magical element.
3. A role in maintaining Nature among Ponykind.
4. A distinct homeland / environment in which they in particular excel most.
5. Their own unique faction which is either majority or entirely composed of members of their tribe.
6. Their own Alicorn Princess which rules over that Tribe.
7. The Tribe must actually be composed of Ponies.
   7a. Seelie are excluded for being Faeries, Zaubernachs are excluded for being wild Golems, Zebras and Donkeys are very closely related but aren't specifically ponies, etc, etc.
   7b. Being a hybrid race doesn't immediately disqualify a Pony Tribe from legitimacy, Kirin have some draconic ancestry, and Hippogriffs are partially Griffon. But Kirin are treated as legitimate as they have a role in maintaining Nature and their own Alicorn. Where Hippogriffs have no role in maintaining Nature nor any Alicorn of their own. This could change, even in-universe, since the Empresses can coronate Alicorns and all. But that's the current state of affairs.

There are also various forms of intra-pony discrimination amongst Ponykind. Which will be detailed after the descriptions of each Tribe.

DESTRIERS (Earth ponies)

Of the various Pony Tribes amongst Ponykind, Destriers are the simplest and the first. These Great Horses may seem to have the simplest, they are also the most fundamental. Being the ones responsible for making sure that Ponykind has their large swathes of Nature they inhabit in the first place, along with tending to its flora and fauna, and the changing of the seasons throughout the years.

They're renowned for their Physical Supremacy. Destriers, by a significant margin, are the strongest, toughest, and often largest of Ponies, and possess the fastest land-speed and the most stamina. While this doesn't mean they have the fastest movement period, as Pegasi can fly faster then a Destrier can run. The Physical Supremacy of a Destrier is stark, and not something that can be replicated through mere hard work. Their Lands Elemental Magic is also quite broad in its applications. Encompassing the manipulation of raw earth, like rocks and soil, terrestrial flora and even influencing the animals of the mainlands.

Destriers are also simply the most populous tribe of Ponykind, with the majority of them taking residence in the vast plains and meadows of Ponykind's heartland. With the second most common Tribe being Hippocampi. With Destriers fulfilling most of Ponykind's agricultural, logistical, construction and even military positions. They produce the most food, transport the most goods, have the largest towns and even what they don't built they often supplied the bulk of the material for, and while most Destriers don't stray far from their homelands, many choose to make a living protecting their home rather then maintaining it. They're the backbone of Pony civilization, and while other tribes might have more exotic specializations, Destriers are absolutely essential to Ponykind.

A large faction of rangers, druids and adventurers has its roots in Destrier's heartlands. As you move away from Ponykinds more civilized areas, the purification recedes into a much rougher form of Wilderness, before disappating entirely into the Wastelands. With the members of this faction patrolling the edges of Ponykind's wilderness to attempt to watch for or ward off Griffon Raiders, Sylvan attempts to spread their Feywild into Ponykind space, or any other potential threats. Though this faction is the most tribally diverse, as many members of the Outlander Tribes end up having to live amongst Destriers in the event they choose a romantic partner unable to survive in their homeland.

KELPIES / HIPPOCAMPI (Sea ponies)

Hippocampi are the second most populous Tribe of Ponykind, however most Ponies don't actually even realize this fact because of how much of their civilization is under the sea. These Hippocampi fulfill a very similar role to Destriers, but are aquatic instead of terrestrial. Tending to the oceanic flora and fauna instead, a deceptively important role, given that its the oceans that are the lungs of the world, not the forests. Along with being responsible for the ebb and flow of the tides. Their Seas elemental magic reflects that, being a bit more broad then just 'water magic' and actually encompassing oceanic life in general.

These Hippocampi are essentially a Lunar counterpart to Destriers. They're the second most self sufficient Tribe, producing large amounts of seafood, and their adaptation to the deep sea water pressures has made them the second toughest tribe as well (although some of them look a little chubbier when they surface as a result). Hippocampi are also mildly bioluminescent, and do have a limited form of echolocation, however this echolocation isn't the correct frequency to be used on land, only underwater.

Hippocampi are not purely aquatic however, they are still quadrupedal, and possess amphibious gills instead of being purely waterbreathing. Most valuably, instead of an equine or leonine tail like the other tribes have, Hippocampi have a powerful tailfin, which not only allows them to swim exceptionally fast, but is a muscular limb they don't need to use to WALK. They can also subtly and intuitively use their magic through their tailfin to guarantee themselves a helpful ocean current.

Most Hippocampi live in large, beautiful underwater cities. However this has its drawbacks. There are many tools and materials that are quite difficult for a Hippocampi to acquire underwater. For example, glassblowing and metalworking are quite difficult. For this reason Hippocampi often trade things like seafood, salt, pearls and inks extensively for large amounts of building materials and tools. Especially Thestrals, who they have a particularly close cultural relationship to, and to whom food is always in demand and produce most of Ponykind's metal, the two tribes frequently trading in undersea cavern entrances.

Additionally, due to their homeland being the LEAST hospitable for members of any other tribe. There's no small amount of coastal "lovers" towns with a significant Hippocampi population. It's not uncommon for a Hippocampus to end up romantically involved with another Tribe, however, if a Hippocampus mother has a partner that isn't one, they can't return to their oceanic homeland until after the child is born, because of the possibility the child isn't a Hippocampus and would immediately drown underwater.

Predictably, Hippocampi have a significant naval faction, with their Seas Magic and Aquatic Supremacy making them best suited for the role.

Hippocampi have an exceptionally large amount of names for their Tribe, and can also be referred to as a kelpie, pelagus, and many other terms as a result of them simply encountering many different cultures due to their aquatic/oceanic nature, since any society would want to border a coast if it can. Sometimes Hippoboreans use the term Kelpie in a slightly negative context due to them associating it more with the Seelie. While it is a legitimate term, some Hippocampi, particularly those with a negative experience with the Hippoboreans have soured on the term somewhat.

PEGASI

Pegasi function largely as one might expect them too. As Ponykind's premier Aerial Supremacists, they've got the strongest aerial mobility among all of Ponykind. Their wings are not just better suited for prolonged flight at higher altitudes, they can also subtly and intuitively use their magic through their wings to guarantee themselves a good tailwind (and to deny their enemies of the same). Along with being able to walk on the surface of clouds up in the sky. Due to them often engaging in prolonged periods of flight, Pegasi trend towards athletic builds.

Culturally, Pegasi are actually some of the most frustrated, as the only Solar Outlander Tribe, and a victim of having one of their Alicorns spirited away by the Nightmares. Though Pegasi are not able to be as self-reliant as they would prefer, given that they require large amounts of imports of food and building supplies for their cities in the skies. Although they do have a fair amount of floating islands up there alongside their more humble cloud villages, but that is not a substitute for the amount of agriculture and seafood produced by the Destriers and Hippocampi.

Their Skies Elemental Magic is one of the most versatile of elements. While its manipulation of Winds and Weather is obvious and expected. It's worth remembering for full control of the Weather one would require the ability to manipulate wind, water, heat and cold, electricity, etc. Pegasi's role in nature is to control the weather, an ability that as they've become more disgruntled they've gained a bit more of a proper appreciation for how effectively it could be weaponized if necessary, with saber rattling relating to this potential not being entirely uncommon.

Additionally, due to Pegasi's frustration with Nightmares being particularly acute, along with Kirin living the closest to their sky islands and cloud villages, being mostly in mountainous regions. Plus the fact that Kirin can also walk on the surface of clouds as well as thin air. Pegasi and Kirin are culturally rather close generally speaking.

For obvious reasons, Pegasi have a significant aerial faction, with their Skies Magic and Aerial Supremacy making them best suited for the role of defending Ponykind's airspace, along with striking targets from above.

THESTRALS (Bat ponies)

Despite what you might expect, Thestrals are NOT nocturnal. Thestrals are charged primarily with tending to the deep, dark underground beneath Pony society. As Ponykind's dedicated undergrounder Tribe, Thestrals Magical element is the Depths, with many of the more fiery spells due to their role tending to the World's Molten Core and Shifting Crust, along with various other applications relating to rocks and metals.

They instead however often develop something of a 'cave adaptation'. Acclimating to their deep underground environment to such a degree they actually get sick for a prolonged period of time after they surface, their bodies needing time to readapt. At worst, a particularly sensitive Thestral might complain of the Sun causing them an acute pain in the eyes under normal conditions.

While Thestral's ability to fly is not quite as refined as their Solar Counterparts in the Pegasi. They CAN fly and walk on clouds, although its noticeably more exhausting for them. Their wings are better suited for gliding, being more meant to allow them to survive sudden pitfalls, cross gaps in ravines and pull themselves out of tight spaces. With Thestrals trending towards shorter, stouter builds on average as well. In exchange however, Thestrals are significantly more perceptive then most other tribes. unlike Hippocampi, Thestrals have Echolocation that works on land (but not underwater) and Darkvision that allows them to navigate tight and pitch black tunnels that would normally be a death sentence, along with having the highest tolerance for extreme heat among Ponykind.

However, Thestrals do have a lot in common with their Solar counterparts. Firstly being their extreme dependence on trading for food, exchanging large amounts of metals and tools for food from Destriers and Hippocampi. While the deep underground has strange and exotic environments of its own, ranging from undersea cavern connections, extreme hots and colds, underground forests, crystalline caverns filled with old Fallen Stars, etc. The one thing they absolutely do NOT have in abundance is FOOD. A Thestrals sharp fangs aren't for show, they absolutely will eat the meat of whatever they find down there if they have too.

The Thestrals were the first Tribe to lose their Alicorn. The caverns are dark after all and most Kirin are rather far away up at the mountaintops. The Alicorns of Neptune and Pluto were corrupted in quick succession, exploiting the nigh omnipresent dark of the depths to teleport down en mass. Then exploiting the well-established trade relationship of Thestrals and Hippocampi, trading tools and materials for large quantities of seafood to corrupt them both. Thestrals ability to fly at all giving them just enough of an edge to orchestrate a scheme to corrupt the isolated Pegasi's Alicorn as well.

For this reason, despite Destriers making up most of Ponykind's military, Thestrals are likely Ponykind's most warlike Tribe. Forged for the acute perception and ruthless aggression required to fend off the constant raids of their Nightmare adversaries. Taking great pride in their skills with stonecarving and metalworking. Thestrals fully realize the destructive applications of their collective ability to manipulate the Shifting Crust.

Thestrals have their own faction of ambushers and sappers, the same abilities that allow them to thrive in the deep dark also make them exceptional at stealth and breaching defenses. Additionally, their subterranian homes in the massive carved-out caverns of their inhospitable, underground environments, lit by crystalline lights and lava flows, offer an ideal environments for tasks requiring a particularly acute need for discretion and security. With it being so difficult to return to the surface without assistance, and the ability to collapse cave systems as needed should things go wrong. The true extent of such activities is entirely unknown, with some secrets kept so well as to have been entirely forgotten. Some entire cave systems remain sealed specifically for this reason. In addition to their roles as stealthy ambushers and sappers, they make exceptional wardens. Ideal for ambush tactics and dragging their targets deep beneath the surface for potentially a very long time.

KIRIN

Kirin have a comparatively downplayed role in maintaining Ponykind's nature, because their Heavens mana is instead intended to act as a font of purification to ward off Corruption. As one of Ponykind's horned Tribes, they have intrinsic Spellcasting abilities. With their Heavens magics allowing them to consistently cover the important things. Purification, protection, some buffs, a little scrying, a little healing, Blessing equipment, along with the standard small lights, telekinesis, holy wards and smiting blasts, that sort of thing.

This task is exceptionally important, not even just to ward off corruption born from Nightmare or even Unseelie influence, but because small traces of corruption are also simply a potential result of any and every spell misfire. Though normally negligible, it is a potential problem with spells of a large enough nature, especially particularly complex and unstable spells. Though there are methods of dealing with corruption outside of their Heavens magics, such as silver, holy water, salts, etc, but none quite as effective as their Heavens magic.

Most importantly, Corruption is subtle, in that it is not immediately possible to tell if a Pony is under the influence of dark Magic by sight alone. Kirin, uniquely, have the passive ability to PHYSICALLY SEE if a Pony has been afflicted with Corruption. Which causes them to appear as if they have a noticeably darker or washed-out color palette then they otherwise should. However, since this is a mostly visual process, this takes a bit longer for a Kirin to discern when they don't know what a Pony's original color scheme was.

Additionally, its worth noting Kirin are not necessarily immune to corruption, however being Corrupted does not change what a Kirin's spells do or the element of their mana. So corrupted Kirin eventually end up naturally, unintentionally purifying themselves inevitably, and vice versa for Nightmares.

Additionally, while Kirin do not have the ability to levitate, only Unicorns have that ability. Kirin can walk on clouds, the surface of still water and even thin air. The difference between this ability and levitation being that it eats into a Kirin's stamina as if they were walking, it does not require them to cast a spell. Though, this is still WALKING, making it time consuming and exhausting, and for this reason, Kirin trend towards muscular builds.

Kirin are unique amongst Ponykind in several ways, but the way most relevant to their behavior is that Kirin are something of a legitimized hybrid species, having some Draconic and even a little Cervine ancestry. For this reason, Kirin behave subtly different to the rest of their Ponykind kin. While Ponykind have an acute friendliness to them as one of their most striking characteristics, this behavior, while still present, is relatively subdued in Kirin. While Kirin aren't unfriendly per say, they can be noticeably more skittish when faced with uncertainty, along with violence simply being closer to the front of their mind as a reaction.

However this has given Kirin a bit of a... reputation... among Ponykind. Despite them serving as Ponykind's dedicated purifiers, with all the associated positive connotation. Kirin also have a reputation for neuroticism when faced with uncertainty, which can quickly turn to violence when the stakes are down. Kirin are often potentially more physically violent then the Nightmares they're fighting against. Kirin do have a fairly positive relationship with Pegasi for reasons previously discussed. But Kirin also have a PARTICULARLY negative relationship with Zebras, who are outright immune to both Purification and Corruption. What usually happens is that the lack of certainty stresses the Kirin out and the situation can quickly destabilize from there if not handled carefully. Unicorns and Kirin are both close and distant, while they physically live near each other, they often have very diametrically opposed priorities. Kirin are generally a little more trusting of Seelie then most... but even the Kirin often think the Seelie can go a bit too far at times.

Kirin mostly live in extremely mountainous regions, where their Skywalking ability comes in exceptionally useful. Maintaining large temples and sanctuaries that they keep Blessed to ward off Nightmares. They have their own faction of Clerics and Paladins, which serve as sanctuary guardians for various sacred sites among Ponykind. Such as the Unicorn's Silverwood Groves, However such Paladins are NOT a substitute for Ponykind's military, with Destriers having much greater strength and population, with Kirin's numbers being comparatively small. Though Kirin are often fairly wealthy, since their Heavens runes are CONSTANTLY needed among Ponykind to ward off Nightmares, and Kirin don't have the numbers to be everywhere.

UNICORNS

Unicorns may have either cloven or solid hooves and leonine or equine tails.

As established, everypony can cast elemental magics regardless of Tribe, with which Tribe merely determining which element of mana you possess innately. Those used to Unicorns holding the blanket advantage of 'Magic' in general might be wondering what their niche will be instead if everypony has some capacity for magic? Well, Unicorns in fact still hold the position of Magical Supremacy over the rest of Ponykind, just in a very different way.

Unicorn's have the magical element of the Stars. Which seemingly isn't as immediately useful as Kirin's Heavens magic on its own. Offering much of the same utilities on its own. Such as telekinesis, small lights, protective barriers and sparks similar to a Kirins wards and smites, and having levitation spells instead of a Kirin's ability to skywalk. Though due to this ability being magical instead of physical, and their frequent use of telekinesis, Unicorn's often end up with slender, even waifish builds. However Stars magic doesn't offer that much really... On its own.

However, Stars mana is unique in that its significantly more 'pure' then the other elements, not in a holy sense, its simply much closer to the Faerie Chaos magic it really is underneath the Runic Law magic that constrains all the Elements. The Stars element has unique ability of Manamorphosis, meaning, if a Unicorn were to stand NEAR a Pegasus, that Unicorn's Stars mana, functionally is ALSO Skies mana at the same time. While Kirin are significantly more consistent and reliable, always able to cast the very important spells, a Unicorn can theoretically cast ANY SPELL... Provided they know how, and provided somepony else is there who theoretically could ALSO cast that spell for them to copy from. For this reason, if a Unicorn wants to effectively use each of the magical Elements, then it pays off very well to have friends.

Unicorn's have a fairly limited SPECIFIC role in tending to nature, with their Primary role being to tend to a grove of Silverwood trees in their Magical Forests. Which are the material from which Ponykind makes its Runes. However, Unicorn Wizards sheer versatility makes them very useful for almost any situation in a crisis. While Ponies technically often have the ABILITY to cast spells of other Tribes using Runes, this is literally burning money, and they still have to actually LEARN how to cast the desired spell. Making the act normally prohibitively expensive for members of the Nature Tribes. Unicorns, able to copy the elements of others without even using the Runes they themselves produce. Much more often end up with poised to learn proper Wizardry, learning from multiple schools of magic, and how to work them together in much more complex ways. Rather then mere Druidcraft, learning to use ones own magical element for its role in Nature.

For this reason, if Kirin were the Tribe you go to to get something Blessed, Unicorns are who you get to Enchant it. Although such Wizardry has its downsides, as the sheer complexity of these mixed spells often makes them much more unstable... Unicorn experimentation is itself a frequent vector for corruption to take root, it's even rumored that those who strike down a Unicorn find themselves Cursed as if by a Nightmares Hells magic for the act.

If there's one thing Unicorns do have in common with their Solar counterparts, its the formation of a bit of a... 'reputation', among Ponykind. Unicorn culture is VERY distinct among Ponykind, a fact which perpetually seems to allude the Unicorns themselves. Unicorns tend to assume, because of their higher education, their horns being more quick, precise and consistent then a spell foci and it simply being cheaper to do so. That it is always better to have a Unicorn solve any magical problem, a statement the Druids and Wizards of any other Tribe don't exactly appreciate.

Additionally, the Mainlander/Outlander distinction isn't even a question in the mind of the average Unicorn. It is simply fact that they are all parts of a greater whole. To the point of many Unicorns, consciously or not, actively seeking to ERASE any cultural differences between the Tribes whenever they get the chance. This, itself, is one of the most consistently divisive behaviors Unicorns regularly engage in. Despite Unicorns strong cultural desire for harmony, they can't escape the stigma that such an effort is simply a reflection of the cynical desire to have disparate mana pools to reflect off of.

Unicorns have their own faction of Wizardry Colleges, where Unicorns learn to properly use the multiple elements of magic, since extensive study is required to fully take advantage of their gifts. Along with progressing Ponykind's magical knowledge ever forwards, one of their more important duties is studying the stars to anticipate where meteors filled with Thunderbolt Iron or Fallen Stars might land given their extreme strategic importance. Technically anypony can join, its just prohibitively hard to afford the amount of Runes you would need to compensate for not being a Unicorn. Though there is a conscious effort to promote the attendance of non-Unicorns in academia!.. Though the more cynical ponies might suggest that's just so they have them around to copy their elements.

SEELIE (Moth ponies)

Seelie are not really a legitimate tribe of Ponykind, however the Seelie Court and Queen wield influence equal or greater to the average Pony Tribe / Alicorn Princess. The Seelie are not the creators of the Pony race, but its their magic that Ponykind wields and separates them into different Tribes. The Seelie have a fairly odd relationship with Ponykind, while they act, and seemingly most of the time ARE benevolent. They are prone to some fairly odd behaviors.

Seelie, as Faeries, are Shapeshifters and Enchanters. Freely using their magics to disguise themselves as members of other Pony Tribes. Though if they aren't disguising their nature they often appear as a Pony with fluffy antenna, the wings of an insect, usually but not always moths, a particularly fluffy area around the chest and neck and inverted color moth eyes. This is not actually their true form, but its what they default too around Ponykind when they aren't trying to hide their nature.

While Seelie are generally harmless, benevolent and beneficial. They are still capricious and powerful, while most wild Faeries seem to behave completely capriciously, as if adhering to an everchanging rulebook of etiquette, easily ranging from being the most dangerous to the most helpful thing you could encounter in the wild. Seelie are at least marginally easier to work with since they seem to view the entirety of Ponykind civilization as an extension of the interests of their Court. While often happy and harmless to encounter, they still definitely avenge insults and are prone to mischief.

For one thing, Seelie did not simply imbue Ponykind with Magic as a free action. They imbued a significant amount of their own magical power to create Ponykind's Alicorns. However they gave Ponykind that power, meaning Seelie DON'T HAVE those powers anymore. Seelie magic is much more limited then most Faeries, in that instead of being "potentially anything (except Runic Law magic)", its "potentially anything (except Runic Law or Pony Elemental magic)". Though they do retain their ability to Planeswalk. The full breadth of such power will be covered more extensively in the Sylvan section since some of those abilities Seelie are simply very unlikely to actually find reason to use. One notable weakness of theirs however is their insectoid wings are worse at flying then both Pegasi and Thestrals, and they're outright unusable when wet.

As the specific Court of Faeries that imbued Ponykind with their Magic in the first place. Seelie did not create Ponykind itself, but it's their magic that is imbued into Ponykind and separates them into the various Tribes. However Seelie have a PARTICULARLY negative reaction to Nightmares. The Seelie are the most zealously interested in upholding Pony society as its ascension specifically to suppress the corruption and the influence of their rival court, the Unseelie. For this reason, they find the existence of intrinsically corrupt Ponykind incredibly vexing.

Nightmares behave noticeably fiercer and more desperate the precise moment they realize a Seelie is involved and for good reason. Seelie do not purify Nightmares, they ENCHANT them. Which is more strictly actual mental manipulation, altering memories, beliefs, behaviors, etc. Seelies ease of use of these abilities is regarded as overly casual, even being such Enchantments to avenge insults and for petty mischief. The Seelie are regarded as an unsettling if usually benign Court prone to lapsing into zealotry at times. Their favoritism towards the Solar tribes is fairly clear, and they have a reputation as being "Sun Worshippers". They have their own faction of "Dreamcatchers" that uses their Shapeshifting and Enchantments "in the interests of both Ponykind and the Seelie Court", particularly to try to capture the often extremely slippery Nightmares. Which is regarded... unfavorably, with even the Kirin thinking they often treat Nightmares a bit overly harshly. Though given the way they operate, such an opinion is rarely voiced out loud...

A Seelie technically could be Knighted, but wouldn't want to be Knighted. Since, for a Pony, it allows them to be defined as two different Tribes at once, but for a Seelie, it would define them as anything in particular, which would actually reduce their potential.

NIGHTMARES

Nightmares may have either cloven or solid hooves and leonine or equine tails.

The original attempt to create Unicorns, but unfortunately spell misfired, creating the tribe of evil Nightmares that plague Ponykind today. Due to their intrinsic reservoir of the dark Magic known as Hells mana. Nightmares ARE intrinsically, openly and ontologically evil!.. However, they are still a completely legitimate Tribe of Ponykind, with everything that entails, and Ponykind acute friendliness is one of their most striking racial characteristics. This inherent sociability massive tempers the severity of their antagonism compared to similarly corrupt entities. With their goals and methods being more about dominance then destruction, ranging from imprisoning Ponies in dungeons, siphoning their mana for themselves or controlling Ponykind with dark Magic.

By default, a Nightmare is actually weaker then a Unicorn, but while a Unicorn has the ability to copy the Elements of those around them. A Nightmare that's corrupted a Pegasus acts as a mana parasite on the Pegasus themselves, simply leeching their mana directly to use for themselves. Along with twisting that same Pegasus into committing evil acts under their command. This means Nightmares start off as petty threats but grow in power exponentially if ignored.

The details on exactly how this ability to control other Ponies is somewhat hazy, though not unprecedented. The Seelie are quite adept with using Enchantments and Dream Weaving to manipulate the minds of others. Though they didn't seem to have intended for any of the Pony Tribes to acquire it. But Nightmares have some ability to manipulate the dreams of a sleeping Pony, and even to inflict sleep paralysis on one too. While it's infeasible for Ponykind to simply bless the entire world to keep Nightmares at bay, it's normal, even expected, for Ponies to go out of their way to keep at least some protective charms, holy symbols or similar measures in at least the bedrooms of their homes.

What being corrupted does to a targets mind specifically is as follows. Firstly, the afflicted Pony is affected by a similar instinctual urge towards corruption and domination that compels the Nightmares towards evil. Secondly, their mind is lulled into something of a mild 'haze', their personality and awareness isn't completely muted, they're still 'themselves', but their thinking gets a little fuzzier and sluggish, almost akin to a dream. Though not to an extent that would cause them to behave irrationally. Thirdly, while the victims sense of sympathy and capacity for empathy aren't completely muted. Their behavior becomes noticeably more self-centered, and noticeably weaken a victims impulse control, leading to noticeably more abrasive, vindictive, petty or simply rude behavior. Though this is not severe enough on its own to make a Pony into a sociopath that would heartlessly kill their own lover, family or best friend at the slightest inconvenience.

A Nightmare also has to in some way actually communicate what it wants Ponies it's corrupted to do. They don't simply magically know, and left to their own devices will simply come up with goals of their own. A Nightmare may attempt to siphon mana from or command a target it didn't personally corrupt. But it has to specifically attempt to and can fail to do so. It is harder to do this to a target another Nightmare is already draining and controlling themselves. If a Nightmare successfully does so, they wrest control away from whichever Nightmare had it before.

The collective forces of Nightmares as a whole are dangerous enough to have corrupted and abducted three ALICORNS in the past, and have been abusing their magic for greater power ever since. With their corrupted legions of Dark Knights making up their own faction, occasionally exploiting their stolen power to cause natural disasters as a diversionary tactic. Nightmares also have the inconvenient quality of making bad situations much worse when you can't devote your undivided attention to them in particular.

Despite this, their innate friendliness is sincere enough that isn't not outright unheard of for Ponies to make friends with them on occasion, especially if they're particularly petty threats. It's not uncommon for Kirin to actually be MORE prone to violence then the Nightmares they're opposing. Though this doesn't change the fact of Nightmares nature, and this innate friendliness dampening their menace ONLY applies to Nightmares. Similarly corrupt creatures such as Black Dragons, Wendigos or Unseelie will NOT behave this way and must be treated deadly seriously.

If Kirin are good at Blessing equipment and Unicorns are good at Enchanting it, Nightmares are good at Cursing it. An ability that they do not entirely just do to mess with their Ponykind kin. It's because curses work like blessings for Nightmares and vice-versa. A Nightmare will actively prefer to Curse their own gear out of a genuine desire to improve it. A single object can be enchanted, blessed and cursed at the same time.

One ability that's unique among Ponykind is that Nightmares are the ONLY Tribe capable of teleportation. Having the ability to use their Hells mana to slink into their shadows, and emerge from any other shadow. However, this requires them to physically enter their shadow, which can be interrupted if you grab them. This also means they can't teleport mid air or to any random point in space. Additionally, certain "Blessed" or "holy" objects cannot traverse through Nightmare teleportation, and Nightmares cannot teleport through shadows in particularly holy sites or sanctuaries. A Nightmare could still hold a silver object or walk into a Holy sanctuary, it's just that they can't teleport with such items or to such places. For obvious reasons, Nightmares also have Darkvision.

This ability is not merely teleportation however, it is actually outright Planeswalking. Nightmares mostly inhabit an entirely different plane as dark and inhospitable alternate dimension. Teleporting into the main overworld to steal things like "food" or because they want to siphon more power from their Ponykind kin. There are quite a few other Planes, but Planeswalking is an ability the Faeries have otherwise kept for themselves, only accessible through either Faerie or Hells magic.

They often have a somewhat lanky or skinny build due to the inhospitable nature of their native Plane, however they also tend to vary in builds wildly. The closest thing to a Solar counterpart Nightmares have is the Seelie themselves, although Seelie are a benign court of Faeries rather then hostile tribe of Ponies. A Nightmares twin horns contrasting a Seelie's feathery antenna, along with both having Magical influence over the minds of other Ponies, the ability to Planeswalk and simply occupying unusual positions amongst Ponykind.

NIXIES / HIPPOBOREANS (Snow ponies)

The myriad advantages found from Ponykind receiving the Seelie's boon of Elemental Magic is so obvious as to go without saying. But fundamentally, its difficult to measure the severity of its full effects on the natures and even the minds of those Enchanted with it. But some feel it, and the extremity of the decision to redefine Nature itself was more disruptive and destructive to both the Nature of the World and the Nature of Ponykind itself.

The consequences of such a boon has been the source of several significant rifts across Ponykind. Ponykind's growing dependency on the convenience of Elemental Magic has caused their knowledge of the old Magics, in the form of Alchemy, to atrophy completely. While it has many advantages, fundamentally there are simply things that can only be done with the purer Magic that came before, barring being an outright Alicorn of course.

Ponykind has increasingly become divided by the distinctions their Magic has bestowed upon them. The Physical and Elemental marks of distinction fracturing their identity into various tribes, rather then all simply being connected by being Ponykind at their core. There is reason to distrust the supposed "Purity" the Seelie promise, as well as their Magical boons. Were it not for the Sphinxes constraining their gift with Runic Law Magic, the Wild Magic at their core has historically proven to cause Ponykind to succumb to a wild, proto-faerie like state.

Purification itself too is as much an artificial imposition on Nature as Corruption, causing more benign, even beneficial, but equally unnatural alterations and behaviors to appear amongst the local flora and fauna. Raising the question of if it can or does do the same to Ponykind itself. But beyond that, it's role as a way of fending off Corruption using the Heavens Elemental Magic of the Kirin has drawn some concerns from those that still adhere to Ponykind's older faith. In particular, they believe that by even referring to it as "Holy" is merely Ponykind deifying their own power, as it has nothing to do with their actual spiritual tradition.

In days past, Ponykind worshipped a benevolent Goddess known as "Epona", said to be the creator and protector deity of all Equines, including Ponies, Zebras, Donkeys, Horses, Mules, etc. With her supposed domains including the coming of Spring, the sea, fertility, renewal and foresight. The legend goes that Epona would do battle with Nuckelavee for control of the mainlands before Nature was redefined. In order to defeat her in combat. Nuckelavee is said to have invented Corruption as a poison to weaken her with. Leading to her invariably perishing in combat from exhaustion and the Corruption as a year went on. Though she was also supposedly able to escape the afterlife to return. Anticipating her own demise, she would coat the world in protective snow to stall the spread of Corruption, though this apparently only delayed the problem.

With the rate at which Corruption spread having grown slowly but exponentially until it became a Cataclysm at some point in the past. With the redefinition of Nature, Epona's direct influence seems to have weakened significantly. Though her worship and the rituals of her faith still hold some power to ward off Corruption and Unseelie, and is even required in a few extreme or niche circumstances where Heavens Magic is insufficient. Similar to how Alchemy can be necessary where Elemental Magic is itself unable to provide a necessary Spell. There is no clear answer as to why her influence has diminished, or even if her weakened influence began before the Cataclysm or after the redefinition of Nature.

However, Seelie are still Faeries at the end of the day, and when some Ponies attempted to decline their gifts, they ended up greatly offending the Faeries as a result, and the Seelie Court simply forced their Magic upon them regardless, imposing the Element of Frosts upon them regardless. Despite technically being a Solar tribe, they feel no particular compulsion to favor the Solar Empresses decrees regardless as the arrangement was far from voluntary.

The Hippoboreans have become rather withdrawn, even isolationist compared to the rest of Ponykind. With no strong preference for Solar or Lunar Tribes. They are technically a Mainlander Tribe, but in practice operate far more akin to an Outlander Tribe. They're generally neutral on most of the issues Ponykind concerns themselves with out of a desire to simply be left alone in peace. Their Tribe can also be called "Nixies", however, many Hippoboreans can get mildly annoyed by it, as they feel it asserts cultural distinctions that didn't and shouldn't exist. They generally prefer to just be called a Pony, but tolerate the term "Hippoborean" where specificity is required, the logic being that its perceived of as more equivalent to just describing the physical differences then anything.

Compared to the other Pony Tribes, Hippoboreans distinctions are fairly subtle by comparison. Unlike their more colorful kin, they retain much more muted, natural color schemes such as natural whites, greys, browns and blacks. They possess a distinctive coat pattern where their fur darkens around their lower legs, the bridge of their muzzle, and their back. They're arguably the Tribe with the strongest resemblance to the original Pony race, other then Destriers, before they attained Elemental Magic. In the uncommon instances their coats and manes do possess an unnatural color, it is usually much more muted and/or limited in how much it presents. They also have significantly heavier fur coats, and are often extremely fluffy. But the most noticeable deviation they have from the base Pony form is their hooves and fetlocks are backwards. A fact these Nixie themselves are often quite frustrated, even insecure about. To the point an optional (but extremely common) religious practice is to wear clothing which would make it harder to tell if your hooves are forwards or backwards, which is even advocated for to Ponies that are not Hippoboreans, so that it can be made more ambiguous who has them.

The Element of Frosts abilities does not simply grant them 'Ice Magic', though obviously it does grant quite a bit of that. But instead, similarly to the other Elements, but especially the Elements of Lands and Seas, also extends to manipulation of the flora and fauna of the ecosystem it describes. Where Destriers Lands element can be used to create more temperate environments, and the renewal one would associate Spring. The Hippoboreans were ironically bestowed with the harsh cold of Winters breath. Allowing the formation of boreal forests, tundra or otherwise arctic environments.

The ability, and the role that implicitly comes with it, to create and maintain such a harsh environment does not seem that useful on the face of it. With some even going as far as to assert the Seelie gave it to them out of spite. But it does in fact have an extremely useful and unique property. The extreme cold of these Frosts is actually incredibly difficult to effect with both Corruption AND Purification. To such an extreme extent that Hippoboreans actually form something of a border wall of Frosts separating Ponykind from particularly dangerous environments, particularly areas afflicted with Unseelie Corruption.

Physically, the Nixie are rather strong and sturdy types. Only behind Destriers in physical strength, around comparable to a Hippocampus, though Hippocampi are on average tougher. Uniquely however is that their hooves do not sink into snow. They do not leave hoofprints nor do they sink into deep snow, and are usually quite proficient at skating across ice. They are also Ponykind's second strongest swimmers, behind only Hippocampi obviously.

While they are not particularly militaristic, Hippoboreans do tend to reserve large amounts of weapons and construct significant fortifications simply due to their proximity to dangerous threats. It's not uncommon for them to prepare large bunkers or fortresses and to use them as temples to Epona when they aren't being used for an emergency, so as to ensure they're both physically difficult to penetrate, but also warded off against Unholy forces such as Nightmares or Unseelie.

For this reason, Hippoboreans do maintain more notable connections with Destriers and Thestrals for construction materials and forged weapons respectively. Though they're a bit frostier with Kirin then most Tribes due to a longstanding religious contention that to classify the Heavens Magic Kirin use as "Holy" is either deification of either Seelie influence or Ponykind's own power, both of which they'd strongly object to.

They also have a bit of a strained relationship with the Hippocampi, but that has more to do with the Hippoboreans strong culture of fishing leading to not infrequent instances of Hippocampi getting caught in their nets. Which is often a fairly humiliating situation for whatever Hippocampus it happens to, and the Nixie tend to rub it in a little bit with some playful ribbing.

Hippoborean's do, oddly enough, tend to give Griffons a notably warmer reception then the rest of Ponykind do. Which is at least partially due to their general acclimation to a higher level of danger. They tend to come off as 'less sheltered,' to non-Pony races, and have a greater appreciation for the value of retaining creatures with significant strength and natural weapons at hoof.

ZAUBERNACHS (Crystal ponies)

As established, rarely a meteorite will fall in the world which may be a source of Thunderbolt Iron or Fallen Stars. Once there was a time when using Fallen Stars for magic was one of the two primary ways of doing so, before the ascension of magic races into the world, and before magical runes were created. Some such meteorites have long sunk into the world. Such stones can and have been previously used for their self-sustaining feedback loops of mana to animate constructs and golems or create wondrous magic items across the world.

However, since the redefinition of Nature, while most of the world has been left full of barren Wastelands, what pockets of Nature there ARE are MUCH more magical then they ever were before. With the race who's magic penetrates deepest and widest across the world being Ponykind's. However on occasion, in hidden meteorites subsumed deep beneath the earth, a Fallen Star will sit siphoning Pony magic from the land, and it almost always is Pony. It doesn't have to be, but Sylvan don't need to use as much mana to maintain their Wild, True Nature by definition, and Dragons tend to hoard their power in much tighter radiuses. It is specifically Ponykind that uses their magic in a large enough range that occasionally a Fallen Star deep beneath the earth of sufficient size will absorb enough mana to wake up.

These will take the rough, jagged silhouette of a Pony, due to it being their magic that animated them. But uncarved or polished into a jagged, polygonal, crystalline shape. Such golems are extremely rare, with many sitting alone for incomprehensibly long stretches of time in caves underground. Though fortunately their strange golem minds inure them from such boredom. They don't immediately know anything and are often confused and volatile to interact with at first when discovered.

Strangely, they seem entirely capable of self repair, even growth over time, and are as hard you'd expect a golem made of solid crystal to be, although sheer hardness is not precisely the same as durability. Due to these wild, crystalline golems abilities to outright absorb mana, they can be incredibly potent Spellcasters simply because they can store diverse kinds of mana within themselves like a battery and absorb mana from spells used against them. Zaubernachs that manage to integrate into Ponykind society tend to polish themselves down to look more like a normal pony then a mass of uncarved crystal in the rough shape of one.

Zaubernachs are often highly prioritized targets for capture in the Wasteland due to their powerful abilities. ESPECIALLY by Dragons and Kobolds, due to their needs and desires to consume sources and stores of magical power to strengthen their own Draconic powers. A single Zaubernach is very rare and strategically significant.

MISCELLANEOUS: ZEBRAS, DONKEYS

Zebras and Donkeys are very similar species to Ponykind, though aren't true Tribes themselves. With most of them tending to live on Ponykinds outskirts. Where the Purification of Ponykind recedes and you're just left with the wilderness radiating from their civilizations before even that recedes as well into the Wastelands. While they have no intrinsic magical abilities, they are closely related enough to Ponykind that they CAN receive Knightings.

While Zebras have no intrinsic magical abilities. It's precisely because of this they remember the old magics that Ponykind has long forgotten as obsolete compared to their innate spellcasting. Zebras remember enough of the etiquette required to semi-safely interact with a wild Faerie unscathed. Faerie chaos magic is from where new things emerge, and such forests are constantly filled with new creatures emerging from them. But once anything becomes something, it is no longer potentially anything. The Zebras know how to forage for Mystical Flowers in the Faerie Forests, these are sort of proto-runes for their herbalism and alchemy. While this seems at first like a dangerous and expensive alternative to simply using Pony Runes. These Flowers are NOT constrained by the elemental categories of Ponykind, and have rare, niche applications that CANNOT be replicated by Ponykind. However such a practice, while occasionally VERY useful, is not often permitted within the bounds of Pony civilization, due to the risks using such flowers for Druidcraft would pose, serving as a vector to spread True nature.

However Zebras have a bit of a difficult relationship with Ponykind at time. Partially due to their cultural differences as more of a remnant of the old world. Zebras haven't changed their stripes since then and are never going to. Being outright immune to both corruption and purification. Zebras have a difficult relationship with Kirin and are often regarded with suspicion by more Solar aligned Tribes since their loyalty isn't assured. Especially since Zebras are rarely keen to reveal the finer details of the old lore they've remembered.

Donkeys conversely, tend to be very popular among most Ponies. They're generally conceived of as hard working, surefooted and a bit stubborn. However they tend to project a degree of certainty and confidence that puts Ponykind at ease in their presence. But apart from the social advantage, Donkeys do have one, fairly niche advantage unique to themselves. They possess a significant degree of resistance to Faerie influence, it is significantly harder for a Faerie to magically enchant or transform a Donkey into anything else then it would be for any other target. Which is a major contributing factor to why Ponykind always want them around. The Seelie, however, are a little less enthused about this fact, but that dynamic only reaches a default level of annoyance, not open hostility.

Both species are not often targeted as slaves to the same degree as Ponykind, since they don't serve as sources of Mana. If they are, its usually for some other, esoteric reason. Like simply actually intending to use them for labor, knowledge, or some other reason.

DISCRIMINATION AND INTERNAL CONFLICTS
As stated, here's a description of the various points of closer relationships or internal conflicts amongst Ponykind.

1. Solar / Lunar.
The distinct Pony Tribes of Ponykind were each designed by the Empresses, who imbued segments of Ponykind with the magic in the first place to create each Tribe. The Princesses are all subsidiary to both Empresses, but possess greater loyalty to the ones specifically responsible for creating their Tribe (generally). This tends to color their views on the decisions of their Empresses. Unfortunately Ponykind are pursuits are divided between different comsologies, the Sun and the Heavens and the Moon and the Stars.
Solar tribes generally more focused on the security, stability and prosperity of Ponykind. In particular being much more focused on stamping out corruption and maintaining Ponykinds territory. However this borders on luddism at times with their exceptional scrutiny towards magical advancement. There's always the risk of spells misfiring after all. Their desire for stability can occasionally veer into a need for certainty that can become overly harsh at times as well. Solar tribes simply want things to continue as they are, safe, peaceful and content. However this worldview borders on incurious to a fault, and is quietly forgiving towards some of their own more questionable actions to maintain such a peace, and lacks skepticism towards how the result was reach and why. However, regardless of what the future holds and how they reached the result, Ponykind, broadly, does live in peace, prosperity and security within their own borders.
Lunar tribes, conversely, are more focused on the pursuit of knowledge, magical advancement and progression of Ponykind. They're significantly more likely to take big risks in the pursuit of knowledge for better and worse. The Lunar Tribes are generally less convinced the motives of the Seelie were purely benign, some ponies even dare to suggest that Seelie might be taking advantage of Ponykinds rise to prominence as an extension of their own influence. Though they're fairly quickly denounced as radicals by anypony in positions of real influence. It is no coincidence Hippocampi and Thestrals were designed to explore the deepest, darkest crevices of their world, and that Unicorns made it much easier for Ponykind to access the full spectrum of their magical potential for their research. In theory, this sounds purely positive, but it takes for granted that deconstructing their foundation won't cost Ponykind its position, and that such large scale experimentation can be perfectly controlled and easily reversed.
This is most acutely relevant when the subject of the Empresses more controversial actions come up. Such as the Sun Empress forcing Faerie magic on the Hippoboreans, or the Moon Empress accidentally creating Nightmares in her original attempt to create Unicorns.

• Destriers, Pegasi and Kirin are considered Solar Tribes.
• Hippocampi, Thestrals and Unicorns are considered Lunar Tribes.
• Nightmares, despite being a Lunar Tribe, have no loyalty to the Moon Empress and are antagonistic to Ponykind as a whole.
• Seelie, despite being Faeries, consider themselves to be Solar aligned.
• Hippoboreans, despite being a Solar Tribe, are ambivalent to both Empresses, and remain neutral.

2. Mainlander / Outlander
Pony tribes that live in more extreme environments tend to develop significantly more atomized views of themselves. Pegasi, Hippocampi and Thestrals for example. Live in the sky on clouds and floating islands, under the sea and deep underground. Because of the inhospitable nature of these environments, its rarer for Ponies of any other Tribe to live with them in the homeland. Conversely, Destriers, Unicorns and Kirin all live together on different parts of the mainland, and are more likely to consider their tribes part of a greater whole.

• Destriers, Unicorns and Kirin are considered Mainlander Tribes.
• Hippocampi, Pegasi and Thestrals are considered Outlander Tribes.
• Seelie, despite being Faeries, are considered a Mainlander Tribe.
• Nightmares are antagonistic to Ponykind as a whole, but could be described as an Outlander Tribe, as they live in an entirely separate and inhospitable alternate dimension.
• Hippoboreans are technically on the Mainland, however their frozen environments are the most inhospitable of the Mainland environments. Despite technically being more accessible then the other Outlander tribes, they are culturally somewhat isolationist, so they're somewhere in the middle.

3. Caster / Nature
While every tribe is a natural wellspring of their own magical element, not every Tribe has intrinsic spellcasting ability. With Nature races needing to rely on various spell foci instead. However Nature Tribes roles in nature are more often constant upkeep. Each of which constantly having Druids of their Tribes imposing Nature on Ponykind territory manually. While Caster races often have more contextual or reactive roles. With Kirin being charged with maintaining the Purity of their Nature and rooting out Corruption, and Unicorns more focused on the production of Runes and magical advancement. The caster races also tend to be wealthier for various reasons, with Kirin's Heavens Runes always being in high demand due to the constant risk of Nightmares, and Unicorns simply rarely needing to use Runes at all. It's also common for Caster Tribes to presume they're more qualified then spellcasters of Nature Tribes, even with their own elements, especially for Unicorns.

• Destriers, Hippocampi, Pegasi, Thestrals and Hippoboreans are considered Nature Tribes.
• Unicorns, Kirin and Nightmares are considered Caster Tribes.
• Seelie, despite being Faeries, are considered a Caster Tribe.

4. The mere existence of Nightmares
I feel this is self explanatory.

TRIBAL CHARACTERISTICS CHART

NON-PONY RACE DESCRIPTIONS

Within the bounds of Pony civilization, things are much safer as has been repeatedly reiterated. but outside of bounds of the cozy, purified bubble of Pony civilization. The Wilderness, Wastelands and Faerie Forests can get much rougher. There are only 3 races with the innate reservoirs of mana required to reimpose nature on the World. Ponykind, Dragonkind and the Faeries, and of the 3, Ponykind is the most benign.

While some non-pony races, such as Zebras and Donkeys eek out a living in Harmony or at least on the outskirts of Pony civilization. The wider world can be very dangerous for a Pony in the wild. The races that have managed to eek out an existence in this world either have to be rough enough to take what they need from one of the magic races of the world, or throw their lot behind them.

DEFEAT, CAPTURE & SLAVERY

A Pony defeated outside the borders of Pony civilization will more often find themselves captured and enslaved then killed. As a renewable wellspring of elemental mana. A Pony is often far more valuable alive then dead, even against an enemy otherwise willing to kill them if necessarily. It's rarely ever pragmatically efficient to do so.

While Ponykind themselves doesn't engage in and attempts to denounce the practice of slavery (although what Seelie do with Nightmares they capture undermines them significantly). They don't rule the whole world, and this opinion is viewed more as self-interest then virtue by many non-pony races for whom the practice makes up their primary method of holding any part of the Wastelands for themselves.

A Pony has to be very careful not to be caught vulnerable or defeated away from their homeland. As the defacto result usually ranges from either corrupted by Nightmares, enslaved by Dragons/Griffons, placed under a Sphinxes' geas or enchanted and spirited away a servant or as entertainment for Faeries. On the flipside of this, it is comparatively rare for this to result in a Pony's actual death. Since most of their opponents will take prisoners, with only the truly corrupt, such as a Wendigo or an Unseelie actually defaulting to go for the kill.

Its often the case even that Nightmares, given the extreme rarity of their Hells rune, as they are generally uncooperative with Ponykind. Can simply become wealthy the precise moment they desire to. Often simply teleporting towards the Wastelands to simply purchase slaves for easy thralls. This then often results in the Nightmares teleporting back to Pony civilization to enact some evil scheme, and as a result of being defeated by a Kirin, unwittingly returning Ponies back to their native civilization. Though this is not a guarantee.

KOBOLDS & DRAGONKIND

Disclaimer: Kobolds look more anthropomorphic then True Dragons would in-universe, as they get more powerful they get both larger and start to default to a more quadrupedal posture.

The previous dominant species of the world. Dragonkind once lorded over the lands when True Nature dominated the world. Closely aligned with the Sphinxes, Dragonkind ruled not only with their sheer physical might, but also by making heavy use of ancient magitech constructs. Hoarding all the Fallen Stars that would hit the world for themselves, Dragons simply had the most magical power of any Race that wasn't a Faerie or Sphinx.

The Sphinxes favored them for their dominance, as their advanced and powerful civilization brought a harsh order over the lands. However, ruin came for their society, having had to spend their powerful civilization as the bulwark against the spread of the Corruption. While they are still quite powerful, they are quite far from their former glory. Their collapsed society having unfortunately devolved into scattered warlords in the Wastelands, squabbling for dominance and reigning over the small pockets of Nature they maintain and reign over as their Dragon's Lair.

This state of affairs is one Ponykind would highly prefer to remain stable as long as possible. As the thought of a reunified front of Dragons would be one of the most credible possible ways of undermining Ponykind's dominance.

Dragons aren't immediately born as full on true Dragons. Dragons start off as Kobolds, which aren't immediately stronger then Ponies. Their inherent mana pools starting off much smaller, and without the advanced forms of movement Ponykind have available to the, However they compensate in other ways.

Kobolds start off with Darkvision, and have the advantage of having claws with digits on them over Ponykind's hooves. While Ponykind is more magically advanced, Kobolds are arguably quicker with technological advancement, though this ability is severely limited by scarcity. They're cunning and effective at pack tactics. Often skilled in tunneling, trapmaking, animal taming, thieving, scavenging and forming crude underground farms.

More crucially though is that Kobolds have the ability to grow significantly in strength if they can scavenge and devour enough sources of mana to begin to develop the various Powers of a Dragon. These are each gained through devouring large amounts of each kind of mana, though they do not allow a Kobold or Dragon to cast spells of different kinds of mana then their color would allow. A Kobold starts off with the Draconic Power the magical element their own color has would give them, and is only considered a true Dragon when they develop them all.

A very difficult task, given Dragons rarely use much more of their own magic to maintain more Nature then the immediate vicinity of their lair, and tends to lord over their territory and hoard such power for themselves, leveraging those in their lairs need for the pocket of nature they provide to survive amidst a massive expanse of empty Wasteland to coerce obedience out of them. Usually consisting of Kobolds, occasionally some Griffons and any Pony slaves they've managed to capture. Dragons are often on better terms with species that have avian, feline or serpentine attributes.

There are currently not any Dragons with Faerie magic, gaining the abilities from devouring Faerie magic is not required to be considered a true Dragon. This is more a note for what would happen if they managed to eat a large amount of Faerie mana.

True Dragons are exceptionally rare, considered to rival the power of the Alicorns themselves. Not even most Dragon Warlords have technically reached the full breadth of their potential.

While Black Dragons are far more malicious then Nightmares are capable of, they are still generally not as lethal as Wendigos or Unseelie, due to their overwhelming greed making them loathe to give up something valuable for its own sake, and their pride meaning their actual, innate personality still overrules the corrupting darkness of their Hells mana.

Being defeated by Draconic enemies often results in imprisonment or enslavement. With Dragonkind ravenously hoarding sources of mana, of which Ponies are one of them. Though they also often find themselves put to work for tasks requiring more strength then dexterity. Kobolds are good with 'animal handling', after all. While it would technically be possible for a Dragon to simply devour a Pony for their magic, this almost never happens since it would be a waste of the magic they could get by keeping them alive as a renewable source.

GRIFFONS, HIPPOGRIFFS & THE WASTELAND
As established, not every race in this world has any intrinsic Spellcasting ability. While anyone could cast a Spell with a couple runes and a staff. That's still a big ask for someone who isn't participating in Pony society. However, Griffons are one of the strongest races remaining without inherent Magic. With their sharp beaks, sharp talons and powerful wings. Griffons are the dedicated Wastelanders of The Orrery. Subsisting in various outposts in the Wasteland by forming raiding parties to scavenge resources, runes and occasionally prisoners from the edges of Pony Wilderness, Faerie Forests and Dragon's Lairs. Though usually the former due to its comparative lack of risk.

Griffons are rather physically imposing, being strong then 5/8 of their Tribes (Though Destriers, Hippocampi and Hippoboreans exceed or match their strength). Being almost as capable of a flier as a Pegasus (Their wings are technically stronger, but Pegasi subtly manipulate the weather as they fly, which edges out Griffons). While Kobold claws are more dextrous then Griffon talons, its still an advantage Griffons have over Pony hooves.

If a Griffon outpost manages to capture enough Ponies and/or Kobolds as slaves such that they can become partially self-sustaining instead of entirely dependent on raiding food, runes and supplies to survive. They begin to form an oasis instead. However, not all Griffons live this way. With some ending up serving under a Dragon Warlord, it is rare but not unprecedented for them to even integrate into Pony society.

Griffons are capable of interbreeding with Ponykind, giving birth to a Hippogriff. Tempering the strength and aggression of what would normally be a natural enemy to Ponykind with the attributes of a Pony. Such Hippogriffs are often distanced from their Griffon kin, with their greater empathy for Ponykind isolating them from a Race that makes a living off of predating on them. Hippogriffs do have some capacity to use Ponykinds Elemental Magic, though with about half as much mana to work with as a regular Pony, and a selection of spells coming off as a mix between Lands and Skies capabilities as a sort of "Highlands" element.

SPHINXES, ELEMENTS & LAW MAGIC
Before even the era pre-dating the corruption, the world was an endless expanse of Faerie chaos in all directions. Eventually, even the Sphinxes themselves emerged from this state of chaos. They developed a potent form of Law magic and a powerful Runic script with which to impose order on the world, describing the world into specific things instead of potential anythings.

This was far from easy, with the Sphinxes having to hunt down and kill various Great Serpents to claim their territory for the world. Continuing to guard the borders of the World to this day, along with sites of great magical importance or obscure knowledge. The world actually extends far beyond the edges of the world the Sphinxes guard. However beyond their guard the world devolves into complete disorder and the creatures beyond possess unimaginable strength.

Because the Sphinxes are the ones who asserted the rules of this world in the first place. Them and their runic script possesses an extremely potent magical power. While Ponykind are technically able to make rude "runes" as stores of mana. The Sphinxes can actually read, write and REDEFINE the language itself. This is exceptionally dangerous as it means the rules of elemental magic are essentially arbitrary, and while they can't conjure new things with their magic with their own Law magic. They CAN control what someone ELSE is capable of doing with THEIR magic.

For example, a Sphinx could simply arbitrarily assert that your element was any new concept they can sum up in in a word, and then that arbitrarily element is now codified as a real element and its what you're using. A Sphinx could just assert your element is now "Gravity", despite no such element previously existing, but now it is and its what you have.

Sphinxes can be bargained with in exchange for rare or valuable information, however its very difficult to discover any lore a Sphinx is not already aware of. For obvious reasons, Sphinxes do not get along with Faeries of any kind very well, although they at least won't attack a Seelie on sight if the Seelie clearly identifies themselves. A mature Sphinx is generally in the same ballpark of raw power as a True or nearly True Dragon, Faerie Royalty, or one of the Alicorns. However due to the broad, semantic natures of their power and generally cunning disposition, it is very ill advised to directly attack a Sphinx.

Unusually, Sphinxes are prone to more sexual dimorphic behavior then most other races. With Gynosphinxes being significantly more likely to put intruders through riddles or puzzles, and Androsphinxes being more likely to use a physical trial or combat as a test. Failures in any kind of Sphinx trial risk being cursed, enslaved with a geas or devoured, with Androsphinxes eating failures more often.

Sphinxes often use their Law magic to simply define themselves as not being something that lacks the needs to eat, drink, sleep or breathe. However while they can simply assert these facts to hold themselves together with their magic. Not doing these things still causes the discomfort you'd expect. With Sphinxes considering slaves under a geas of theirs to essentially be a luxury.

However, despite the obviously extremely powerful applications of a Sphinxes power over the fundamental rules of magic. It is limited by the fact that it has to be expressed through language. Language has the weakness of being vulnerable to semantics, and on the spot alterations to the rules are rarely thought out enough not to leave the language vulnerable to new exploits. This has been a major contributing factor in Faekind developing their capricious adherance to their evershifting rules and etiquitte in an effort to flummox the attempts of law magic to limit their influence, In retaliation against the Sphinxes efforts to constrain their chaos magic. Additionally, while Sphinxes can keep assigning rules and restrictions onto the things Faeries create, Faekind will simply always continue to make MORE new things in kind.

SYLVAN COURTS AND FAERIE FORESTS
As stated previously, what Faerie magic actually is is essentially chaos magic, but not "chaos" as in "randomness", "chaos" as in "the primordial state from which all new things emerge from". These creatures are as varied as they are capricious and unpredictable. Where Ponykind have Tribes and Dragons have Colors, Faeries have Courts. There are many different Courts scattered across the Faerie Forests, but there are 6 major courts, the Seelie, the Unseelie, and various Sylvan courts, though not every Faerie is a part of a Court.

Sylvan are usually not immediately hostile unless slighted in some way. Which can be difficult to discern, since all Faeries repay debts, avenge insults and seemingly act on an inscrutable and everchanging etiquette that can be difficult to discern, though its generally a good rule of thumb to always take them completely literally, remain unfailingly polite reveal as little information about yourself as possible,

While Faeries are shapeshifters, Seelie are known to generally default to equine forms as befitting their allegiance to Ponykind. Sylvan on the other hand are much more varied in appearance. The one thing that they cannot replicate is a Rune Insignia however, as it's part of the Sphinx's law magic that constrains a Ponys magic. They can however, STEAL this rune for themselves. As mentioned previously, this tends to cause a Pony to become capricious and unstable, reverting to a sort of proto-faerie-eqse 'wild' state, removing the elemental restrictions of their magic, but also making their spellcasting more unstable, along with removing any of the associated proficiency with whatever skill their mark designated as their purpose. Faeries are also capable of transforming a Pony's physical form much easier without their Insignia.

It is considered highly ill-advised to eat any of the food a Faerie gives you, it usually tastes fantastic and is particularly healthy, but its almost always addictive and impossible to produce yourself. Sylvan in particular are also known to occasionally spirit other races away to their Courts with their Enchantments to serve as pets or playthings for the Court, using their Dreamweaving abilities to penetrate deeper into their marks minds.

It's exceptionally difficult to recover people abducted this way since Faerie Forests can occasionally veer into outright non-euclidean geometry, and that's without accounting for their ability to Planeswalk into the Faewild. It's important to avoid unnaturally perfect circles of flowers in Faerie Forests, as they can serve as hidden gateways to the Faewild, with the laws of that world being more akin to a dream. Often the only way to recover someone subjected to such a fate is to negotiate with the Court for their safe return. New creatures from the Faewild are constantly emerging from such circles, with Faerie Forests being constantly filled with new kinds of creatures and monsters all the time.

The goal of the Sylvan Courts as it currently stands is to restore the state of Nature in the world back to a state of "True" nature, where it can self-sustain without requiring constant magical imposition. While they are opposed to spread of Corruption. They seem to generally consider that opposition only mildly more extreme then the ideological disagreements between their Courts.

They are however weak to Cold Iron, iron that has never been smelted, and only ever worked raw. It's very difficult to work with, but is mere touch can burn Fae of any kind. Beware however, since your intentions are CLEAR with it on your person.

DEER AND WENDIGOS
The Faerie Forests may be a constant wellspring of new life, however they're not exactly a place anyone generally WANTS to live if they can help it. The risk of encountering a Faerie, slipping into the Faewild or encountering something new and dangerous makes it somewhere not to be treaded lightly, even with much of the land being a Wasteland otherwise. But there is one race willing to live within these woods.

The Deer inhabit these forests and enjoy lives of plentiful abundance alongside the Fae, and can cast their own spells from their antlers. However the kinds of Magic they can use are more specifically rooted in Seasons rather then Landforms as the basis for their 'Elemental' system instead. You can distinguish them based on the color of the leaves sprouting from their horns.

While the hedonistic luxury their close alignment with the Faeries has afforded them, with the Faerie Forests being filled with natural abundance. Their magic comes with a hidden cost, as unlike Pony magic, it DOES have a genuine spark of Faewild in it, serving to spread True nature with every cast. Additionally, its Seasonal based for a reason, with having a subtle temporal effect on the nature around it, while it doesn't actually age those around them, it does help 'progress' the spread of Faerie Forests much faster.

There used to be 5 seasonal variants of Deer, however this 5th seasonal variant of Deer wasn't in favor of participating in the Sylvans desire for them to serve as a vector to spread True Nature through using their magic. Then they disappeared, and people began spotting Wendigos in the Faerie Forests. At first they look like deer, but with blackened like blackened hands and sunken eyes with black sclera. But when they reveal themselves properly you can see their forehooves split like claws, their faces skull-like and their movements more resembling knuckle-walking then a cervine trot. Their senses of sight, hearing and smell exceptionally sharp. They cannot be defeated without a weapon imbued with some kind of magic, (Enchanted, Blessed or Cursed) or made from a material like Silver or Cold Iron.

Where a Nightmare's corruption is tempered by Ponykinds innate friendliness. Wendigos share no such temperament, and have lost most of their resemblance to their cervine kin. They cannot even be expected to act in any kind of intelligent interest towards some greater goal. They will simply stalk their prey with a sadistic, bestial hunger to devour them alive.

UNSEELIE AND UNDEATH
There is nothing funny about an Unseelie encounter.

The Unseelie may technically be Faeries, but the Faerie propensity for capricious mischief gives way completely to a sadistic and remorseless bloodthirst. While technically considered Faeries, it would perhaps be more accurate to describe them as Demons. While its never beyond the realm of possibility for any kind of Faerie to veer into capricious mischief or avenge slights with severe interest. Unseelie do not need a reason or justification to behave with extreme violence.

As the creators of the Corruption with true Faerie Magic, an Unseelie is far and away the WORST possible thing one can encounter in their travels. Where Purified Nature has more benevolent flora and fauna, and the Faerie Forests of their Sylvan kin serves as a crucible for new things to emerge from. Corrupted Nature or Faerie Forests has the particularly dangerous property of preventing things from staying dead. With roaming undead gorging on the living. The Unseelie exploit this property to further slake their sadism as they're unable to break their playthings as easily.

Unseelie can take many varied forms, but often take much more abstract and intimidating forms then their Sylvan or Seelie kin. It is heavily discouraged to ever attempt to fight an Unseelie without extreme levels of experience and preparation. Instead its encouraged to attempt to cross the nearest river or stream as quickly as possible, the pure, flowing water hopefully preventing the Unseelie from pursuing.

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CHARACTER BIOS

GLORIA GRACES

"The first in a trio of adventurers along with Galena and Bluebonnet. Gloria's spent most of her time working as a hospitalier, but during a crisis in her hometown she stepped up to the plate with her lance and holy magic simply due to being the most qualified pony available. Having decided to become a paladin after the fact to help fend off threats to Ponykind as a whole.

Gloria is a legitimately strong mare, having a fairly natural aptitude with her lance despite how recently she's begun to train with it. Though Gloria is more proficient with her Heavens magic, particularly those with a more protective, purifying or healing bent to them. However, while Gloria HAS won real fights against the odd Nightmare in the past. The odd individual Nightmare is far from the most dangerous threat in the world, but her previous successes have given her a warped sense of scale for how much rougher things get outside her familiar, comfortable bubble within Pony territory.

Where Gloria begins to falter is the difference between merely being a competent guardian and a proper ADVENTURER. Gloria perhaps overly fixates on the need to improve at actual fighting. Mostly seeking to be more effective at protecting others, defeat opponents and to prevent panic among civilians. What Gloria has NOT thought about are the more abstract logistical challenges of ADVENTURING. Such as running low on supplies, becoming exhausted after a SERIES of fights or being outmaneuvered and surrounded in enemy territory.

Gloria has taken her homefield advantages for granted. Even more acutely, Nightmares are generally constrained in the ruthlessness of their schemes by still ultimately being a Pony. Along with Nightmares generally starting off weak and only really becoming a major issue if ignored. But Gloria doesn't really know how to fight something that isn't a pony, let alone something much STRONGER then a Pony.

Overall Gloria has a hospitable, dutiful and nuturing presence earned from her long stretch of experience as a hospitaller. While Gloria's confidence in her strength isn't completely unwarranted, she wouldn't actually get very far alone. Left to her own devices she would likely end up overextended and exhausted far from home. She's much more suited to a supportive role then a central one, but Gloria adopted the role in the first place because it was needed and she was qualified for it, even if its not what she's best at."

BLUEBONNET

"The second in a trio of adventuring mares, Bluebonnet is a young Unicorn mare who's still studying in her magic college to become a wizard. Participating mostly for more field experience to advance her studies. She's quite smart but tends to struggle with lateral thinking. While its very evident that she has an incredibly sharp memory for arcane lore and a long spell list in minute detail. Her actual understanding is perhaps overly rigid.

Bluebonnet suffers from a severe lack of lateral thinking skills. It's very clear that while her actual MEMORY is exceptionally sharp, her critical thinking and problem solving skills are not. Bluebonnet is terminally lacking in creativity, and seems to only ever consider the most direct and intended use of any of her spells. However Bluebonnet isn't quite self-aware enough to recognize this personal failing, and interprets her strong memory as evidence of general intellectual prowess and a source of personal pride, and tends to insist on being the most qualified to try to solve problems with her magic.

She can be kind of a ditz at times, often she can talk through a solution to a potential problem. Even to the point of borderline SAYING the solution, without ever realizing that she just solved her own problem. Bluebonnet's insistence that she'd be the most qualified to solve a magical problem as an aspiring unicorn wizard tends to unwittingly annoy others with the insinuation that its simply obvious she would cast their own spells better. Bluebonnet however definitely wouldn't even notice it could be interpreted that way. Her desire to help is sincere, she's just a ditz.

Ironically Bluebonet is much better in combat then at puzzles, because the intended combat application of most spells is usually much more obvious. However Bluebonnet would likely be hurt by the suggestion given her entire motivation as an adventurer is to further her studies. So insinuating she's not good at problem solving with magic would undermine her self-image.

While Bluebonnet spends a lot of time with Gloria and Galena with the three of them forming a small adventuring trio. Although of the three of them Bluebonnet has the least conviction. In her desire to learn obscure arcane knowledge she sometimes takes sketchy sources of information a touch too seriously, combined with her occasional ditziness tends to make her easily corruptible. She's the least likely to reject information from a Nightmare out of hoof on the grounds that they are ontologically evil."

GALENA GRAVES

"Galena is the third of a small trio of adventurers with Gloria and Bluebonnet. However unlike Gloria and Bluebonnet, Galena has more actual experience with adventuring, having been an adventurer in the past. However Galena has actually attempted to retire from such pursuits in the past to focus on her craft as a blacksmith. Unlike Gloria and Blue, Galena distinctly LACKS any form of naivety at all, being the one that truly understands the real scale of danger outside Ponykind's borders.

She doesn't actually have any desire to participate in adventuring anymore, actually being rather jaded and cynical about the practice. However Galena also thinks that Gloria and Bluebonnet are liable to simply blunder into danger and get themselves captured, corrupted or worse if she leaves them to their own devices. Galena possesses a strict, disciplined and no-nonsense demeanor. Often coming across as irritable and impatient. However on closer inspection of the REASONS for her scolding usually reveals a strong undercurrent of worry.

Unlike the other two, Galena is a ruthless and dishonorable black knight. Unlike Gloria, Galena never expects a straight fight, Galena expects to be outnumbered, outflanked, ambushed, exhausted or simply overpowered. So Galena defaults to planning to fight dirty and cheat. This is generally a mindset that would keep her alive in desperate straits. But it's reeked havoc on her general reputation when she continues to act this way on returning to Ponykind. Making her simply look unreasonably aggressive, reckless and destructive in the much calmer and safe environment of her homeland. While her solutions are ruthlessly pragmatic and efficient, they look like callous overkill when applied to pettier threats, and the fact she ALWAYS makes such suggestions makes it harder to convince people to heed them quickly when they're actually proportionate to the issue.

She's a noted perfectionist, even being entirely unwilling to so much as draw her sword. Considering it her work-in-progress masterwork, with the intention of it one day becoming a legendary weapon, she's unwilling to risk giving it an imperfection in such a way. She even procured an enchanted sheath that puts the unfinished, red hot blade in a sort of magical stasis inside to 'pause' working on it. In an actual fight, she simply hits people with the sheathed sword, and sometimes partially unsheathes the red hot blade to weaponize the convection heat."

WHALETAIL

"Whaletail is a young Hippocampus mare who's recently set out as an adventurer and druid, armed with her magic staff to cast Sea elemental magic and her strong tailfin to smack anything she can't rely on her spells to defeat. Whaletail is a young, enthusiastic and curious young mare. Motivated to pursue her path as a druid out of a desire to sate her curiosity to see the world. Having specifically enlisted to patrol nearer to the outskirts of Ponykind civilization. Where the pocket of nature they maintain has its purification begin to taper off, reverting to more into actual wilderness before dispersing entirely into the wasteland.

While Whaletail is a curious and enthusiastic young mare. She's definitely not experienced, both as an adventurer or even with surface life in general. Having spent most of her life in the undersea cities most Hippocampi reside in, the majority of Whaletail's previous experiences with the surface come from small excursions to the small lovers towns on the coasts. Populated mostly by couples where only one member was a Hippocampi, and their children couldn't be born underwater in case they weren't born a Hippocampi. Because of Whaletail's very limited experience with the surface, she's a bit of a fish out of water about certain facets of surface life other ponies take for granted.

She's also prone to pushing her luck a little too far when it comes to sating her own, along with also being a bit of a slow learner and having the unfortunate tendency to repeat her own mistakes. Though her sincere desire to learn and enthusiasm in doing so somewhat mitigates this personal weakness, though not entirely. Not that Whaletail is STUPID, she's slow on the uptake, but she isn't quite as ditzy as some of the other mares on this list (Bluebonnet, Poison Seeds), she has a much better understanding of the logistical challenges of roughing it in the wild as an adventurer then some other mares (Gloria Graces, Bluebonnet) and most importantly, Realizing just how different life on the surface is from the undersea has put into perspective for Whaletail how much she DOESN'T know. For this reason, despite her enthusiasm and inexperience, Whaletail is at least consciously aware of that fact and at least trying not to temper her naivety."

CLOUDY CUSHION

"Cloudy Cushion is a soft, fluffy and serene Pegasus mare who could be most accurately described as 'calm'. She's extremely unreceptive to any attempt to rouse her into urgency over all but the most dour of events or dire of circumstances. Cloudy was born into wealth, spending most of her time living comfortably in her family home on a floating island called "Angel's Rest". With her wealth coming from growing a rare and valuable kind of fruit. Due to a substance called "Ambrosia" that only forms in Purified environments at high altitudes, affecting fruits grown in soil with traces of Ambrosia into a glistening golden color, which grants it valuable magical healing properties.

Because of her calm, serene and even lazy demeanor, it's surprising to discover Cloudy possesses a natural aptitude for weather magic. However, Cloudy's wealthy status meant she was able to simply eat the increased expenses of runes required for a non-Unicorn student to attend. Despite how she appears, Cloudy's seemingly oblivious serenity masks a surprising level of confidence and a closer attention to detail then she initially appears... Sometimes bordering on precognisant, with Cloudy having some intuitive sense for divining which way the winds are blowing often before any conflict even starts. She may be lazy and complacent, but she is competent enough of an heiress that she isn't simply blowing her inheritance, and keeps at least a few contingencies prepared ahead of time in case of emergencies... If for no other reason then to ensure she can continue lazing about, and she often wears a golden fleece that's imbued with a powerful protective enchantment over her wardrobe, just in case. She's much more competent, capable and even creative then she lets on... Provided you could motivate her to get her head out of the clouds and contribute anything at all.

Though despite her unbothered appearance, this belief belies the faintest hint of cynicism that things could ever get much better either. Not that she's complaining given her admittedly charmed upbringing. She's not cold nor is she apathetic, she's rather easy to get along with really, she gets lone well with most ponies and likes to treat her friends with her wealth. But she's she's deeply and profoundly unconvinced of the idea that breaking significantly from the status quo is even possible, or at least that it could ever effect her in any lasting way, generally expecting things to return to normal after maybe a 30 minute timeslot of slice-of-life or so. Though this can come off as deeply lazy, profoundly immature or even an inability to take things seriously at times that can get on ponies nerves at times, especially Galena. Cloudy and Gloria on the other hoof get along particularly well. However Cloudy tends to entrench Gloria's naivety, unwittingly reaffirming her difficulty understanding the sense of scale of how dangerous threats in this world can really be.

Cloudy and Bluebonnet get along reasonably well, with both of them having gone to the same wizardry college. Though Cloudy's at least a little bit older, and no longer a student herself, while Bluebonnet hasn't quite graduated yet. Cloudy's memory isn't quite as sharp as Bluebonnets, but her understanding is usually much bit more practical and flexible. Cloudy tends to gravitate towards the important bits and not worry so much about getting everything perfect. Well, the bits she considers important anyways. Especially the fun ones.

Cloudy and Mae are also fairly close, with Cloudy and Mae spend a bit more time together as neither of them are adventurers or combatants. With Cloudy even usually keeping particular guest rooms of her Estate reserved for Mae and Gloria specifically. Cloudy finds Mae's creations an intriguing novelty and fairly entertaining even if she doesn't really care anywhere near as much about the actual game of Mae's herself. With Mae managing to scrounge up the Fallen Stars for her golems mostly financed through runes from minor side jobs helping Cloudy with her Estate over the years. Relatively recently Cloudy even hired her for a more significant task of helping her make a few golem servants."

MAE BASKETS

"Mae Basket's is an enthusiastic, intelligent and creative, if a little bit odd Destrier mare. While her actual profession is mostly working with clay and ceramics, making plates and flower pots and such. Mae has a strong fixation on her hobbies as a LARPer and a wargamer, even if her game of choice is a little basic. She has a bit of a reputation as a 'basketcase', in particular due to her tendency to roleplay as the general of her own figurine army, in spite of her having no actual military experience to speak of.

While Mae isn't a fighter and has no real combat or military experience, her creative and strategic mind is real, and she can be quite clever when she needs to be. She's also bigger and stronger then most mares and she knows it. While raw strength isn't a substitute for actual combat training or experience with a real weapon, getting kicked by Mae would REALLY hurt if she needed to. Additionally, while Mae's actual job is acting as a ceramist, she does know a fair bit about golemancy from research and experience for a personal passion project.

Mae is self-admittedly a bit odd and perhaps even a touch lonely, but she's puts a fairly bit of effort into being inviting and hospitable. While she's a fairly big and strong mare, she tends to move carefully since she's usually surrounded by a bunch of small, mute (and fairly stupid) figurine golems of hers she could otherwise step on accidentally. Though despite her quirks, she can have a bit of a snarky streak, especially towards mares prone to moments of ditziness or incompetence COUGH Poison Seeds COUGH.

Mae often tries to temper her snarky quips to be polite, but can sometimes accidentally veer into sounding patronizing instead, especially if she thinks she's smarter then you, or she thinks you're cute. Mae's has a tendency to be overly sure of herself in subjects she's deeply familiar with. If Mae feels like it's something she should know like the back of her hoof, she likely simply isn't ever going to check until it bites her. Ironically, Mae tends to suffer from one of the most well-known pitfalls of any strategist, fighting the last war.

Mae's favorite game is called "Sovereign Grounds", and is a realistic (in-universe) war-game in which you command a modular army of pieces which represent ponies, which can have both a tribe and a job. Each banner gets a 'fortress' somewhere in the board or play area, and the win condition of this game is to either A. successfully occupy the enemy fortress, or B. render all opposing pieces unable to oppose you. A piece with magic job can use that magic to alter the terrain of the board, how it allows them to do so depends on which tribe that piece is, and can be more or less advantageous/disadvantageous to pieces of different tribes. However non-magical jobs usually get more movement, health and/or damage.

This game isn't one Mae personally designed, however she does play by a custom ruleset due to the fact that she animated her pieces using small, marble-sized golem cores made of a rare, magical gemstone known as a "Fallen Star". Which can be used to trap elemental mana inside, even to the point of creating a self-sustaining feedback loop capable of refilling itself. Meaning they physically perform the tasks she tells them too and try to fight each other. Expanding the potential options and adding more unpredictability to the game.

This was quite an expensive and skill intensive process, and while Mae isn't poor, she isn't particularly wealthy either. but it's her something of a personal passion project for her, and her friend Cloudy Cushion helped her save up the runes to afford it in exchange for a few odd jobs at her estate on a floating island called "Angel's Rest".

In order to always have somepony around to play against, Mae animated her favorite doll from her childhood with a larger golem core. Her character will be detailed later in the "Flower Crown" section. But the important bits are that Flower is much smarter then the figurines and does possess a voice box, and serves as Mae's wargame opponent and roleplay partner. The roleplay premise of Mae's game is that she is a Knight in command of a Banner of troops, and an evil enemy commander has abducted a Princess she's sworn to protect, which is the casus belli of all her games with Flower Crown. However, in reality, Flower Crown is both roleplaying the captured damsel, but PLAYING as the commander of the evil enemy army. "

POISON SEEDS

"Poison Seeds is a comically ineffectual sympathetic collectathon sidequest villainess. Ontologically evil due to her nature as a Nightmare, Nightmares are still a completely legitimate tribe of Ponykind, and due to the pronounced friendliness of Ponykind as a race, their evil usually doesn't extend beyond controlling ponies with dark magic, siphoning their mana, spreading corruption or imprisoning them. Not that they're a complete non-issue, far from it, but despite being intrinsically evil, they aren't intrinsically AS EVIL AS POSSIBLE, they're still ponies after all.

However Poison Seeds is particularly stupid and ineffectual even by Nightmare standards. She uses a Fallen Star gemstone brooch in her cloak, which automatically refills with the Lands elemental magic of a Destrier, combined with her own Hells magic as a Nightmare to create corrupt seeds. Teleporting through shadows to hide them around to spread a dark magical corruption allowing her to control ponies and siphon their mana.

...The problem being that they're still PLANTS, and take WEEKS to finish growing.

Which wouldn't be that bad if not for the fact that Poison is SO proud of her plan that she always, without fail, loudly announces her evil plan in detail for everyone to hear the precise moment she finishes hiding the seeds. Her plan wouldn't even be that bad if she would ever learn to keep quiet about it, but she never will. She puts a lot of effort into this, she's truly a sinister gardener she is, and if you disagree? Heh, she'll only CRY for a COUPLE of minutes... And woe to those who try to engage her in combat... She'll get scared and teleport out of this dimension IMMEDIATELY!

Despite these weaknesses, Poison Seeds is notably ambitious and even a bit limited by her own sense of integrity. She's very unwilling to trade some of her own power and agency for greater strength with the Nightmare's Alicorn like many others of her kind, wanting the accomplishment and spoils of victory to be hers and hers alone!... Not that she's thought far ahead to consider what she would do if she ever actually conquered something.

Arguably her biggest weakness is that she has more pride in her creation then she has actual desire to win. Her seeds are a unique invention of hers and hers alone, and are actually incredibly powerful. They remove one of corruptions most striking limitations, the need to spread through nature as a conduit, they can be quite difficult to remove once they've matured unless you can get to the root of the problem and expose her to almost no personal risk to use. The only problem is that Poison Seeds is so proud of them she can't shut up long enough to let them work or consider using them as means instead of ends. However, her entire motivation IS her stubborn pride, the validation of being considered an evil villainess, and that she is a thing that is intrinsically evil.

When she isn't actively performing her one scheme, Poison also engages in more mundane forms of gardening and botany. She legitimately enjoys it and is quite good at it, and is responsible for actually producing most of her and her older sister Wicked Season's food and most of Wicked's alchemy ingredients. She also gets a bit quieter and less theatrical, the persona she puts on when actively schemeing seems to be a thing she thinks is 'part of what you're supposed to do'. She's actually a bit sensitive, both physically and emotionally. If she weren't a nightmare, she'd likely just be a somewhat ditzy gardener, but instead she's an EVIL gardener.

She remains somewhat self-centered and antagonistic though, but it manifests more as 'seeking out somepony to bother who won't threaten to hit her for it'. She does have people she prefers to antagonize more then others though, particularly Mae Baskets. Who she has a bit of a vendetta against for using her figurines to root out her seeds, leading to her cursing her doll Flower Crown as described further down. Plus Mae's usually a bit too hospitable and tactful to directly insult her very often. Plus she has a lot in common with her since Mae does some gardening of her own and makes a living selling ceramic pots and plates and such which Poison buys from her sometimes. The thought that she could steal them hasn't occurred to her yet. Though she probably wouldn't anyways because Mae's like more then a head taller then her and could lift her with one hoof if she tried to stop her, and if she had to worry about that then she doesn't really know what else she'd really do with her free time."

WICKED SEASON

"Wicked Season is Poison Seeds far more competent older sister. Wicked isn't necessarily an exceptionally powerful nightmare, but unlike her little sister Wicked Season is capable of forming new and effective schemes of her own, avoid explaining her entire plan to her enemy and is capable of standing her ground in a fight with her scythe without immediately running away.

Despite her increased capability and aptitude compared to her little sister. Wicked Season DOESN'T match up to her little sisters level of integrity or ambition. Wicked Season threw her weight in with the nightmare's alicorn a long time ago, trading her fealty for the easy power of a flawed Knighting from the nightmare's alicorn commanding her corrupted alicorn thralls to Knight her on her behalf.

Due to the frequency at which Nightmares spam the knighting ability from their corrupted alicorn thralls, and them having their magic siphoned by the nightmares alicorn herself. These flawed knightings, instead of giving a Nightmare all the advantages of being two tribes at once, cost about a third of their existing dark power for about half the powers of the corresponding tribe in question. Wicked Season has about 2/3rds the dark magic of a regular nightmare in exchange for half of the power and abilities of a thestral. For this reason, Poison Seeds Hells elemental magic is actually STRONGER then Wicked Seasons, but Wicked has some ability to cast the Depths elemental spells of a thestral, letting her cast fire spells Poison can't.

However, because she traded her autonomy for easy power. Wicked is possessed of a particularly strong sense of ennui. Since her victories aren't truly her own, and she doesn't get to reap the sole rewards of her efforts. Wicked doesn't bother to engage in any large scale schemes of her own. Mostly using her powers for her own personal gratification or to avenge petty grudges.

While Wicked DOES care about Poison Seeds enough to make sure she doesn't get seriously hurt. She doesn't care enough not to make fun of her all the time. Wicked comes off as a bit of a bully and an insufferable bitch at times. However she's still a nightmare, and while her schemes are far more effective and tend to result in some kind of actual benefit to herself. Wicked's schemes tend to be more akin to magically enhanced bullying then true sadism."

FLOWER CROWN

"Flower Crown was originally just Mae's favorite doll from her childhood, but when Mae was working on animating her wargame army, she needed to make sure she would have a roleplaying partner and wargaming opponent. The figurines of her army couldn't cut it for the role, as while they are sapient, they're also mute, and quite stupid. So Flower was made with a voicebox and a much larger golem core, along with being significantly larger then the figurines, more the size of filly or large teddy bear. Flower Crown was made to be quite intelligent, and serves two purposes, to roleplay as the captured damsel the casus belli of the wargame is about rescuing, but also to act as the evil enemy commander of the opposing army.

Though while Flower's default persona tends to speak more like a princess, there's a bit of an undercurrent she enjoys the role of an enemy military commander far more. But one thing Mae hasn't fully considered is that, while Flower is aware that she's only playing a game, Mae MADE her to fulfill the roles, so the roles Flower is playing is 'herself'. Flower is only actually roleplaying in the sense that she's just saying what she would do in that position. Mae hasn't fully realized this nuance, and often acts as if she thinks Flower was also only putting on a persona. A dynamic which causes Flower no small amount of resentment, both of her personas were meant to fulfill positions demanding authority, respect and prestige. Which is something Flower ONLY possesses in the bounds of the game and in her banner of figurines. Mae otherwise tends to find her cute, and can sometimes be a bit patronizing and condescending towards the doll.

Flower tends to default to speaking in a fairly eloquent and superficially polite manner as her default persona. Though she tends to sarcastically exaggerate it sometimes when she starts getting annoyed. Despite the superficially princess-like ettiquite she defaults to because of her roleplaying persona. It's worth noting that role was her purpose and not her decision, Flower doesn't ACTUALLY care about the ettiquite, and actually shares a lot of Mae Basket's snarky intellect, except while Mae tempers her with a sincere effort to be inviting, Flower can be shockingly rude with or without provocation at times, even before Poison's influence.

One day when Poison Seeds was once again doing her standard evil scheme of hiding a large amount of corrupt seeds to spread her corruption again, she had the misfortune of Mae Baskets and Flower Crown actually being present. Only for Mae to decide to order Flower and both of their banners of figurines to "seek and destroy" Poison's corrupt seeds. This genuinely infuriated Poison far worse then usual, not because Mae foiled her plan, but because she didn't even PERSONALLY look for the seeds herself. This pushed Poison Seeds to her last resort: thinking.

Poison Seeds would then use her Hells magic to teleport into Mae's home under cover of night, and cast a curse on Flower Crown herself, so that she would sabotage Mae so that she wouldn't be able to trivialize Poison Seed's plan the same way again. However, since 'playing against' Mae Baskets was already Flowers purpose, the curse ended up making Flower Crown much SMARTER. Mae Baskets DID notice some changes in her behavior, in particular that she became much harder to beat in her wargames. But since Flower was made as a roleplaying partner and wargaming opponent, she was already capable of deception and strategic thinking, and Mae brushed it off, self-assured that if something serious had changed, she would already know. Unwittingly, Poison Seeds had created a villainess with much greater cunning then herself.

Being a filly-sized plush princess doll, Flower is rather weak, not having the strength or magic even a real filly would have, but she compensates with cunning, strategy and a few small, unusual advantages due to being a plush golem.

• Flower continues to secretly issue commands to her half of Mae's clay figurines, the banner that represent her 'army' in the game, in order to get a few small tasks done for herself discretely.
• Flower's 'missing' glass eye is actually a useful scrying tool, because she can actually still see out of it regardless of where it is. Flower actually prefers it missing, since she uses 'looking for her missing eye' as her catch all excuse to disappear for prolonged periods of time.
• Being a lightweight plush doll, Flower's plush hooves make very little noise as she walks, and she's very adept at moving around undetected. Additionally, to ponies that don't personally know her, she can easily trick them into believing she's a normal doll by remaining motionless.
• While Kirin can normally discern whether a pony has been corrupted by dark magic. Because Flower is an animate OBJECT, it's much harder to tell as long as she keeps her cards close to her chest.
• Flower was even smart enough to seek out and browbeat Poison Seeds herself for some extra equipment. Threatening to not only stop sabotaging Mae, but actively seeking out Poison's corrupt seeds herself unless Poison got her some extra tools. Which is why Flower has her own magic wand.
• Flower also pressed Poison to help her make an illegal piece for her army, a clay figurine of her own in the shape of a Nightmare. Since the figurines possess the slightest scrap of real magical power. This gives Flower a small scrap of Hells mana for herself. More importantly, since Nightmares siphon the mana of other ponies, its a way of centralizing all of her army's mana into a single point so that it can be used for more significant spellcasting.
• Flower has a small hidden zipper pocket in her back, which she uses to hide contraband. She also tends to pilfer all of the loose runes Mae keeps leaving by her sink or on kitchen counter to use them for spellcasting later. This is also where she keeps her magic wand and nightmare figurine when she needs them, but she otherwise has a few hidden stashes hidden in and around Mae's house to hide them when she's not using them.

While Flower Crown, even after being cursed doesn't actually dislike Mae Baskets. Her resentment over not commanding any real authority or respect outside the game wasn't purely a result of Poison's dark magic. Flower really would like to reverse their roles for a change."

MAE & FLOWER'S FIGURINE ARMY

"When Mae was making the figurines for her golemancy-enhanced variant of the wargame "Sovereign Grounds", she was technically making her own custom variant of the game. The game is a generally fairly well known within the somewhat niche sphere of hobbyists that know about it, to the point of actually being generally considered somewhat simple, even entry level. The reason that Mae picks that as her usual game is that she is intending to also LARP at the same time, that by virtue of the pieces actually physically fighting each other adds actions, strategy and chaos that wouldn't be present in the normal game, and that the figurines in her army are not very smart. While these figurines are sapient, and Mae regards them as such. They're also mute, pretty dumb and just kind of odd at the best of times. However, these figurines do possess limited magical abilities resembling that of the ponies they're modeled after. For example, the Pegasi figurines can fly, but only a few feet of the ground at most.

In theory, the rules of the game supports modular armies, but in practice Mae can only actually have so many animated figurines. She has sets of normal pieces outside of these that she doesn't use as much, but in terms of the animated ones. Mae own's enough to fill up 2 banners of 20 figurines, one for her and one for Flower. They have a 50/50 gender ratio, and consist of 6 Destriers, 3 Hippocampi, 3 Pegasi, 3 Thestrals, 3 Hippoboreans, 1 Unicorn and 1 Kirin each.

Mae's actual reasoning and strategy behind this is that Destriers, as the biggest and strongest tribe by a large margin, make the best soldiers, however she needs at least some of the other nature tribes around for more specialized strategies or in case they're used against her. While Unicorns can be the most powerful piece on the board, they require a lot of support from other tribes in order to be so, and a Kirin is around mostly due to its capacity for healing as to avoid losing via attrition.

The figurine armies frequently arm themselves with tiny, makeshift weapons using string, sticks, bark, gravel and beads to make crude weapons like staffs or spears. Outside of the game Mae still carries them around in her saddlebaskets, which double as their fortresses in the wargame. Often tasking them with gathering dropped loose change while selling flower pots, vases, plates, bowls and cups at her cart in the marketplace of the small town of "Grandmeadow".

What Mae does not know is Flower Crown secretly has an illegal piece modeled after a Nightmare. That figurine is a mare, and shares at superficial resemblance to Poison Seeds herself, oweing to the fact Poison was involved in its creation. As in, Flower browbeat her to show up to source the Hells mana required but did most of the actual Golemancy herself in secret. Meaning there's actually a total of 41 animated figurines total. Though Flower does not actually use this piece to cheat in Sovereign Grounds, instead she keeps it secret from Mae and mostly commands it to help with her actual schemes. This is to the eternal frustration of Flower's Kirin piece, who fully understands that Flower is cursed, but is unfortunately mute.

There are very minor variations in personality across the figurines, mostly as a result of divergeant experiences, and how they are distinguished by sex, tribe and their usual specific role in Mae's games. But broadly they all have the same basic patterned personality at their core. Which is that they're clumsy, strange and not very smart at all without a guiding hoof. They're the type that would trip over themselves by rushing too fast to give a salute. If you simply sit and watch them wandering around when they don't have a particular goal in mind, sometimes their actions seem strange less because they're merely stupid decisions, but because its hard to tell what they're even trying to achieve in the first place.

Despite this, they aren't quite as dumb as they first appear. Their movements in combat are actually fairly well performed, it's just that they're only about 3 inches tall so they aren't capable of doing much damage. They are at least intelligent enough to fight in formation, perform patrols, scout for each other, search an area for a particular object, simple tasks like that. Though they generally require some oversight micromanaging their actions to operate to their full effectiveness. They do however demonstrate a very loyal personality, some crude sense of duty and honor driving their actions, and a degree of protectiveness towards Mae and Flower."

WINTER LILY

"A hippoborean cleric from the northern border settlement of Whitespring. Winter Lily is a dutiful cleric for Ponykind's old faith worshipping Epona. A gentle and bookish, even somewhat demure mare, she's not specifically responsible for manning any of the settlements actual fortifications prepared as a precaution against any Unseelie that attempts to brave the Frosts of their boreal home really. For the most part, Lily's life is relatively mundane, though part of her religious duties does happen to involve occasional worship at some of such fortifications, with a significant amount of them positioned in a large bunker embedded partially underground. With the noteable benefit that this results in such structures being sacred enough to further help ward off such demonic entities.

Despite the traditional architecture of their boreal village bordering on archaic on occasion, and the Nixie engage in relatively little trade, with the rest of Ponykind or otherwise. The majority of what they do engage in is usually construction materials for fortifications from the Destriers and arms and armor from the Thestrals. Despite her generally soft-spoken demeanor, being completely unprepared for a dangerous situation out there can be a death sentence, as Whitespring happens to be disconcertingly close to a section of True Nature corrupted by the Unseelie themselves.

She's not a trained adventurer or even particularly that brave, and her martial training is mostly fundamentals as its more of a precaution then her passion. But living in a dangerous environment simply acclimates you to certain pressures regardless. As cold as her winter home may be, freezing up is a death sentence. When an aspiring thestral warrior had travelled north accompanying a shipment of armament happened was caught out in an Unseelie ambush on their caravan. Lily had managed to ward off the demon with the rites of her older faith long enough to allow the mare to escape. Who rewarded her for saving her life by forging the mare a set of custom-ordered gauntlets. Both for the purposes of armor of course, and because she's trained to kick particularly hard and fast if necessary.

While Winter Lily speaks in a fairly gentle manner, there's often an undercurrent of steel just underneath the silk in how she speaks. Most acutely, Winter Lily will often assert not what should or needs to be done, and often defaults to simply asserting what will happen as a result of her piety. Regardless of her actual level of certainty and even confidence at the time. Along with this, Lily can be fairly pedantic at times, even to the point of becoming noticeably more confrontational if the subject happens to be related to her religious studies. She's somewhat of an actual religious scholar, to the point of not just having studied the actual texts, but specific common lines of argumentation. Where someone like Gloria, while faithful, wouldn't worry about memorizing the fine details as long as she was following the spirit of the thing. Lily is the type to get caught up on small things like the way a sentiment is framed even if she agreed with the statement.

Most of the time however, Lily's not generally particularly stringent and inflexible outside of when she's actually acting serving as a cleric. For the most part, she generally has a fairly gentle, even relaxed demeanor. Simply trying to put those constant dangerous and ideological schisms out of her mind long enough to enjoy the life she has. Though there's a bit of a colder rationale to it then most mares in Ponykinds heartlands would have. With it less being confidence nothing will go wrong, and more that part of preparation is to let you put something out of your mind for awhile because it's already handled. While she's mindful enough to not immediately voice such opinions out loud, Winter Lily isn't naive, and will begin to expect the worst fairly quickly, even if she makes token, placating comments otherwise just to avoid spreading panic and damaging morale."

BLOONA BLAZES

"Bloona is completely non-canon to the setting of "The Orrery", due to completely predating the project, using MLP:FiM's looser rules for magic and possessing firearms."

"A delusional arsonist with a mysterious past, wherever she came from she certainly burned it down along the way, as it's incredibly difficult to discern anything about her history at all. Bloona generally has a kindly and sweet persona, but she's dangerously unstable and delusional, and she can become incredibly violent without breaking kafabe at all. Though she certainly still remains capable of conscious malice, and seems to at least be capable of avoiding harm to her own allies. Though she reacts badly to anyone who would burst her delusional bubbles.

Bloona is surprisingly crafty and cunning all things considered, she seems to possess at least a basic understanding of engineering, to the extent that she's good at improvising junk weapons and keeping her own gear intact. She also seems to possess a surprisingly adept understanding of magic, particularly the fire spells, and her horn seems to BURN rather then glow when she begins spellcasting. Living the transient life of an unstable mercenary, Bloona seems surprisingly wealthy, even if she has to carry most of her possessions on her back in her saddlebags. Her skill and affluence being something she seems marginally smug about at times.

Bloona's armed with fire magic, a flare gun, an old fire axe wrapped in barbed wire, a custom shotgun with an extended stock, rifle sling and cutesy green and yellow floral print, incindiary grenades, fireworks, a jerry can and a propane tank. Bloona's fighting style relies on ambushes, rapid combinations of attacks and tendency to go for attacks that HURT worse, rather then cause more damage."

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ORRERY CYOA - WIP OPTIONS

Ideally, this will serve as me attempting to write out what some of the options in the CYOA are going to be when I actually get around to making that shit. I'll transcribe that stuff into the document here a little later.

The framing device would be that you were rescued by a new mare, one that would be invented specifically for the purposes of the framing device of this CYOA, lets call her 'Rosemary Remedy' for now. It would simply be assumed that (You) have amnesia, but you would then pick what the backstory is for why she was discovering you lost in the woods. You would then choose options like:

1. Lost in the Wilderness.
2. Escaped from a Nightmare's corruption.
3. Escaped from a Dragon's Lair.
4. Escaped from a Sylvan's enchantments.
5. Escaped from a Griffon Outpost.
6. Broke free from a Sphinx's geas.

You would then be presented a series of miscellaneous customize your character esqe choices. In most other CYOA's I heard people complain these sections don't add value, and the counterargument is usually people play them without thinking about what the character they made is LIKE. I agree with the latter with the additional fact that this is an excuse to establish worldbuilding about different types of poni in a more engaging way. So the choices would be something like:

1. Male or Female
2. Pick a Tribe.
   A. Destrier
   B. Hippocampus
   C. Pegasus
   D. Thestral
   E. Unicorn
   F. Kirin
   G. Nightmare
   H. Seelie
   I. Hippoborean
   J. Zaubernauch
   K. Hippogriff
   L. Zebra
   M. Donkey

(Seelie and Nightmare may not end up being presented options? I like the idea of presenting an evil option for the CYOA though? Idk.)

3. Pick a Body Type.
   A. Average
   B. Athletic
   C. Lanky
   D. Chubby
   E. Muscular
   F. Waifish
   G. Stout
   H. Towering

(Tbh I just need to get better at drawing different body types in general.)

4. Describe your mane style, mane color, coat color, coat pattern, tail style and tail color.

(Because these choices are qualitative, this wouldn't be a list of preset options this is just a prompt to imagine what yours is in your own mind.)

5. Pick a special talent.

(Again, because these choices are qualitative, this wouldn't be a list of preset options this is just a prompt to imagine what yours is in your own mind. This is important to draw attention to because I need to establish how 'legally not QT marks' work in this context.)

6. What is your pony's profession / class?

(This'd just be another thing I brush past fast or at least simplify heavily. Kind of like how in D&D they ask you for your background and the options are all phrased in incredibly broad ways. Like you can pick "Criminal" and then the particulars of what that actually means is up to you. This might also come with some kind of super simplified class choice thing if the horse is intended to be a combatant, idk.)

7. Choice of weapons (if applicable).

You would then get like a "Choice of weapons" or whatever and tbh, how I intend to handle that is to literally just draw a big goddamn wall of a fuckton of weapons and let you pick as many as you could afford based on an arbitrary points system. It would essentially just be a big picture. I consider the actual choices here kinda arbitrary, with the real purpose being to establish material qualities and how wands and staffs work and such.

To elaborate slightly, the idea would be that more intricate/larger weapons like a greatsword or a halberd would cost more then a broadsword or a handaxe from whatever arbitrary system this has. But you'd also have to pick the materials and the options would be like or something. This isn't mandatory because it also isn't mandatory for your pony to even be a warrior or any kind really, pony can just be cute amre without being cute amre (fight).

to be really ambitious there could even be like, enchantment/blessing/curse/haunted modifiers too which could effect the price for various special effects, but I don't know about writing a list of presets for that at a certain point going too in depth about something like this becomes a cyoa of its own and the only real purpose here is to convey material properties in an immersive way. But it could be fun so it might happen.

tbh I tried to research different kinds of woods hardness and symbolic significance for this, will all the faerie and celtic influence in this the idea of different kinds of woods with different qualities being used for magic weapons sounds cool. But alot of woods that are important for that mythos are too soft for that and its also just not as intuitive as metals, and I lost my notes for it. To be clear, ponies arent using solid gold wands even if they could afford it just because of its enchantability, I'm more imagining like gold caps or bits and pieces on wooden staffs and wands if that makes sense. If I can find (or be assed to re-research the subject) I might write that stuff here. But again I'm worried about this section becoming overcomplicated.

simple: broadsword, handaxe, rapier, sabre, katana, club, mace, hammer, quarterstaff, spear, dagger, cestus, sickle, khopesh, blackjack, whip, flail
heavy: battleaxe, longsword, greatsword, warhammer, glaive, halberd, lance, pike, trident, scythe, catchpole
defensive: shield, parrying dagger, cloak
ranged: longbow, crossbow, slingshot, sling
thrown: throwing knife, throwing star, throwing axe, javelin, boomerang, dynamite, bolas, net
magic: staff, wand, spellbook, severed horn
materials: wooden, bronze / iron / steel / silver / gold / thunderbolt iron
modifiers: enchanted, blessed, cursed, haunted

like imagine a big picture of a bunch of these just arranged on it and divided into sections worth some arbitrary point values or something.

8. Starting supplies

There would also be a choice of some items or something and you could pick a few which would also be an elaborate excuse to explain lore in a veiled way again. Like making the items a bag of runes or ambrosia fruit or just some magic horseshoes idk, it doesn't really matter. The framing device here is that you're being helped out by that Rosemary character or something and this is either gear she discovered you with or gave you to help you make your way back home.

9. Where do you live?

Okay to preface this part, the way I worldbuild is generally fairly 'abstract-first' if that makes sense. What I mean is that I think about what would generally happen, what would generally be in the world, significantly before I think about any specifics. I can describe a lot of averages, I could tell you the population breakdown of a town in destrier, pegasi, hippocampi, etc territory on average without even really having any of them named yet. This would be a choice for where your Pony comes from, but I'm a bit 50/50 on whether or not that choice would name a particular town, or simply describe a general kind of town that you could arbitrarily imagine exists for your character. Not that I have no specific towns or cities in mind, but in the lore's current state I don't have a preset map that must be adhered to. The real function of a choice like this is to communicate the broad strokes of what different regions of majority X pony tribe are generally like. The choices would be something like:

A. Destrier Meadows
These would be the easiest place to live and the most diverse in practice, with many members of other tribes being present, though Destriers maintain their majority simply by there being a lot of them. Basically Ponykinds heartlands, pleasant meadows and prairies and such. Mostly a lot of open fields and stretches of farmland. In terms of population breakdown, its mostly Destrier > Hippocampi, Pegasi, Thestrals > Unicorns and Kirin > Hippoboreans > Donkeys, Zebras, Griffons. The amount of Seelie in any area is always difficult to gauge. Basically if you wanted to live in an equivalent to Ponyville it'd be here.

B. Unicorn Magical Woods
These more forested regions would be where unicorns live. Their towns would be a lot shadier from the amount of trees mixed in with the buildings. It wouldn't be that hard to live here either, and this place has a lot of different tribes of ponies as well. Though despite unicorns stated preferences for unity with other tribes. Because of the presence of their Wizardry Colleges and Silverwood Groves, along with unicorns general wealth. It's a bit more of expensive to live here then Destrier territory. At least some Kirin presence must always be maintained both to protect their SIlverwood and to deal with potential corruption as a result of spell misfiring.

C. Kirin Mountain Sanctuaries
These mountain sanctuaries are a bit more difficult to live in just because this is where we start getting into more difficult terrain, but the kirin's ability to walk on thin air makes these mountains a non-issue for them. While quite possibly the safest place to live if you're worried about corruption. Kirin's cultural desire for stability going relatively unchecked can lead to their sanctuaries feeling a bit repressive at times. Though not so severely as to be outright tyrannical. Their towns have gone generations without any major significant changes. Though the sight of Pegasi isn't uncommon due to their close proximity.

D. Hippocampus Underwater Cities
The most isolated of regions, given that other ponies can't breath underwater without being Knighted or some other kind of specialized magical workaround. Hippocampi territory is isolated but vast, and theyre the second most self-sufficient tribe behind Destriers, although their deep-sea environment requires them to trade for materials and tools they can't manufacture underwater.

E. Pegasi Floating Archipelago
Pegasi's towns on floating islands and cloudys are more diverse then one might immediately expect, since Thestrals, Kirin and Seelie can get around them just fine for the most part. Though the travel up and down from the surface can be difficult for them just due to the sheer distance, especially on some of the higher islands. While beautiful the tendency for these to float around means their position fluctuates, and it requires regular adjustment to ensure they remain within Ponykind territory. While their floating islands mean they do produce some food of their own. They are dependent on importing food and building materials for the most part.

F. Thestral Molten Cavern Cities

G. Hippoborean Boreal Tundra Settlement
H. Coastal Lover's Towns
I. Nightmare's Barren Otherworld
J. Ponykind Outskirts

Except with way cooler names then that.

10. Are you part of a faction?

This choice would allow you to decide if you're part of any of the diffferent factions I've associated with each tribe? Although I need to decide on what the NAMES of those factions are. Which is basically the major stumbling block atm. Again the idea is kind of like every tribe gets their own Wonderbolts except instead of an athletic group vaguely hinted at being military adjacent sometimes its reads more like ttrpg factions if that makes sense? Idk.

1. Unaffiliated
2. Destrier's faction of druids
3. Pegasi's aerialist faction
4. Hippocampi's naval faction
5. Thestral's stealth/sapper faction
6. Hippoborean's border sentinel's faction
7. Kirins order of paladins and clerics
8. Unicorn's Wizard colleges
9. Seelie's dreamweaver faction
   This ones the closest to actually having a name, I've been calling them 'Dreamweavers' cause of their vicious tendencies towards Nightmares.
10. Nightmare's corrupted legions

Then maybe there would be some kind of choice to take on potentially quests of some kind for your horse that they have to do against the various adversarial factions, which could potentially lead into some kind of latergame reward, like Knightings or something idk.

The big twist at the end of the plot is that You don't actually have amnesia what's actually happening is that Rosemary Remedy is secretly a Sylvan who's just using Fae magic to fuck with you by transforming and enchanting you in accordance to your choices.

Maybe I tie that into some kind of annoying mystery box esqe choice? Idk, I dont have any ideas what I'd put behind a choice like that. But it'd be like that revealed that choice and there would be hints as to what the choice was beforehand in a really subtle way.

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STARTER PLOT OUTLINE

I had my plot written out here for a bit but then I started stressing out about spoiling it I've probably shown this off to 2many people, I might put this back later idk

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To do list:
• Edit this to be more concise - that'll be hellish to do, but its important.
• Come up with names for each tribes cool faction.
• Maybe come up with any lore about who those alicorns I need for mechanics are supposed to be.
• Create additional art assets to break up the evil ass rape walls of text.
• Finish CYOA chart - the idea would be there's a CYOA that serves as a character creator with a touch of conflict to serve as a more engaging way of learning the important bits then the unholy wall of text of the actual lore documentation in here.