Eight tribes codex

by gvozdengrom

Rating: teen
Tags: Discord, Princess Celestia, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Prince Blueblood
Length: 4627

Collection of documents, recordings and discussions as pertaining to the Principality of Equestria and Ponylaris federation, and the eight tribes of ponies that inhabit them.

A series of disjointed ficlets that serve as a worldbuilding medium of an alternate universe Equestria that features more diverse selection of Pony breeds, cultures and magics.

To avoid spoilers tags will be added as relevant chapters come.

Published 2014-03-29 06:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2016-07-15 18:39:33 UTC

Legends of Beginnings

Legends Of Beginnings

Based upon researches conducted by
Prof. Dr. Life Lesson (Hippology Ph.D), chair of social sciences Royal Canterlot University;
Dr. Twilight Velvet (History Ph.D), visiting lecturer to RCU, Manehetten City Colege, Cambridle outside Hoofington, Phillydelphia University, Stallbronne, Lopemonsov Stalliongrad City University;
Doc. Dr. Bold Venture (Archeology Ph.D), research professor at PU, visiting lecturer to RCU, MCC.

At first before anything was sapient on Equestria, there were Titans - the personifications of natural concepts who were so wast that nothing since them, not the mightiest of beasts, nor the tallest of mountains could ever come close to comparison. There were six of them.

While their names and temperaments vary slightly in various fragments upon which the legends are based, their domains are neigh universal. Also of note is that while some have speculated that they might have been gender divided, the majority of material refer to titans strictly in neutrum.

The names of the titans as used further in this text are the best estimation of how the most common ones used would be spelled in modern Equestrian. For usages as rendered in other languages, the reader is directed to consult 'Great Lexicanum” chapters 41 through 47.

The titans were:

Sol the radiant titan of energy

Phoebe the thoughtful titan of celestial cycle

Veridian the steadfast titan of natural balance

Chronos the crafty titan of time

Tethys the inexorable titan of change

Aura the dynamic titan of Force

One of the fragmentary remnants of “Trot mound tablets” refers to the titans as children (born) of Harmony and a hieroglyph in the recently rediscovered tomb located upon the inhospitable western crevasses of Kiima Kyeu in Zebrica further refer to them as incarnations of the (harmonious) power.

When the intelligent beings developed they were seen as no more than an interesting anomaly by the titans – that is until they started affecting the world, changing it to suit themselves and their needs. This behavior is said to have disturbed greatly Veridian whom saw it as challenge, or even insult to itself to the point that it rose to wipe all thinking life from the face of the world. The other Titans rose to oppose it, and preserve the nascent races.

The “apocryphal etchings” passage that states “Old tales tell us that when nature fights itself even those protecting life cause destruction incomprehensible” is postulated to also refer to this conflict, but at this point the validity of such supposition cannot be validated or disproved as the case might be.

War of titans is stated quite emphatically, in almost all of available materials, to have almost destroyed the world. Such vast amounts of power were released in the clashes that it caused rampant mutations.

Myths and legends of multiple races and cultures tie in with tales of some sort of event that caused the genesis of multiple, highly magical species and creatures from earlier, nonmagical organisms, including, but not limited to: Dragons, Chimeras, Hydras, Timberwolves, Windingoes, Phoenixie, etc, but also thinking species such as Gryphons, Diamond Dogs and Breezies.

Finally Phoebe was struck down, but in the counter-stroke managed to put Veridian into deep coma.
Witnessing what their struggles did to the world, and knowing that they could never restore it, even were all six of them working in concert, much less only the remaining four, the Titans fashioned the remains of their fallen sibling into the Moon, and entombed the sleeping Veridian deep into earth, though the leakage of it's power made sure nature above it's sleeping form will never be manageable again, and then convened to decide what to do next. Finally they concluded that with two of them down, they were too unbalanced and should not remain upon the world for fear that they would cause further harm. To complicate the issue they also knew that they could not remove their will from the power they commanded without the same power destroying the world in it's wild form, so they decided to imbue one of the races, and after long deliberations decided to offer it to the Equines. Some refused and their descendants went on to become non magical or baseline equines - donkeys and mules. Those who accepted became what our prehistorical ancestors arrogantly decried as the higher equines.

The term 'higher equine' is directly transcribed from the only remnant of early Shetland monolith pictography.

Thus Sol retreated itself into the sun, Tethys merged with the waters of the world, Aura submerged itself into the winds and the waves and the tremors that were the hearth-beet of the world. But wily Chronos it is said decided to take another path.

What this 'other path' might be is left unknown and unfortunately unknowable. What is known is that it somehow concerns the “chosen thirteen”, which can be reasonably extrapolated to be the earliest mention of the cult of Galopfrey yet encountered.

Since it is a rather controversial subject, I want to now state very clearly that this in no form constitutes as any sort of proof to the ludicrous ideas of Time ponies.

As time passed, the so called higher equines evolved further down the line into Zebras, Arabians, Shetlands and Dales. And, as species changed, so did their magics, with Zebras and Arabians coming to manipulate the extant magics of the world whereas Shetlands and Dales used inborn powers to affect the world without. This wider versatility of Shetlands and Dales caused them to eventually find a way to increase their inborn powers manifold, the side-effect of that being that the power mutated them. The list of mutations included antlers; batlike wings; dolphinlike lower half of body; manes becoming crackling, dancing flames for Shetlands. Dales on the other hoof exhibited such traits as becoming larger; sprouting feathery wings; spiral, magic conducting, single horns out of the centers of their foreheads; manes and tails becoming flowing multi-hued representations of their inner natures. Both races also came to be neigh immortal. Soon enough the two ascended tribes joined together and intermixed. With their great powers and extreme lifespans they came to rule most of the world.

Whether factual or not, these legends clearly display that at lest the concepts of Alicorns and Quilen existed long before the foundation of premodern tribes did.

They ruled well, but as titans before them, they were unbalanced and before too long started imposing order upon the world, until they went to far and disturbed the Harmony that lay at the hearth of reality. Thus to magic of the world tried to restore the balance, but lacking the sentience of the titans to guide it, resulted in manifesting the embodiment of Chaos to oppose the order of the so called 'Elder race'.

The first age of Discord is the earliest point of the history of our world that can be reliably determined, it is worth noting. The manuscripts from Boreal archive allow us to place it to approximately twelve centuries before his second coming.

As the civilization fell before him, and the elder race was unable to resist him, he even began to affect Viridian's slumber. And the thirteen came together in Chronos' failsafe. The reassembled Titan for all his wast power could neither destroy nor change the nature of Discord, but could banish him into the rapids of time, to reappear sometime down the line. And then he turned to the elder race. It was their irresponsibility and hubris that lay at the hearth of the disaster caused. At first Chronos tried to reverse what remained of the elder race back to Shetlands and Dales, but by that point the magic was so ingrained into their very bloodlines that it was not possible. So Chronos attempted to downgrade them into new race, and it worked - sort of. At first look it seemed that there were actually eight new races, each distinct in both appearance and magic, two each for every natural element, one nocturnal, one diurnal. Beneath the wide differences, however, lay a core, a quintessence that marked them as simply variations upon the same race.

The tribes separated and went their own ways, each to obey the tasks given to their tribe - for between the elders and Discord the natural order was irrecoverably lost.

How much of the legend is based upon real, solid facts, and how much was superstition given form is yet subject to debate and research, and as such is not subject of this text. What is factual is that the cult somehow did cause the end of the first age of Discord, and that the eight pony tribes appeared only after that.

Thus feathered Pegasi and leather-winged Thestrals rose to the air – Pegasi of fickle winds and stormy temperaments to manage weather patterns via cloud manipulation, while Thestrals, of the sure, tireless night winds became the nomads who herded wild winds and rogue tempests, incapable of settling in any one place; Feri with the strength and stolidity of earth itself spread around to work it acting as natural catalysts of the growing energies, while crystal-natured unicorns congregated to the mountains from where they used their single horns to focus magic and ensure the raising of the moon and coming of the night cycle; Dolphin-tailed Hippocampi descended to the sea-floor and managed the tides and currents, while the antlered, empatical Kelpies maintained and protected riverbeds; The fire tribes separately migrated to the far north since the warmer climates were uncomfortable to their natures - fire maned, tailed and tempered Aethon* expended their magic to raise the sun, while stoic and serene Lampae** of the flowing manes maintain the inspiring fires of mind by dreamwalking.

The conclusively disproven fables that unicorns controlled both the sun and the moon before the coming of princess Celestia and the end of second Discordian era can be reliably traced to king Strontium some forty eight decades before the founding of Equestria. Any reasonable scholar, even before the re-establishment of contact with the Ponylaris federation could tell you that the only result of unicorns trying to establish contact with sun is a debilitating migraine that lasts most of a day.
It is worth noting though that Ponylaris unicorns did externally supplement aethon when the fireponies population went into dangerous decline.

Special thanks go to lampae of Boreal mountain, which is the oldest pony habitation in existence, dating almost as far back as the first coming of Discord, and thus, arguably a far back as ponykind itself.

* singular and plural are the same
** singular Lampa

Compiled and annotated by V.V.W.B.B. Blueblood (S.Sc.B)
For Equestrian Principality Historical Society Almanac

A to Z of Equines: Aethon

Published by Equestrian Educational Authority
Limited edition primer
Authorized by royal request of H.R.H Princess Celestia year 1984 Celestial era

Aethon

The eponymous firesteeds and original flavor hotheads aethon are rough and rambunctious breed.
Characterized by crackling flamelike emanations of personal empathetic magic that apparently takes places of manes and tails amongst the adults of the tribe, aethon are by and far the most extroverted of all equinity.

Their personal magic being so closely tied to their emotional state it is no wonder that the effects of their fiery manes wary depending on the predominance and intensity of their emotions.
Thus, for example, an aethon in boiling rage tends to light up every single hair on their body in white hot flames, wile a melancholy one tends to have the ends of their manes and tails barely flickering and blue-tinted.
In spite of the traditional beliefs it has been conclusively proven that in the neutral emotional states - such as during meditation or detachment - the 'flames' do not go out completely. While their manes and tails do mostly go back to hair of the same coloration it had during their foalhood, the key word there would be 'mostly'. Even in states of absolute tranquility induced by the kelpies, the flames persist, at the ends of hairs, but in colorations outside of visible spectrum for ponydom.

Their habitats are the northernmost of all Pony tribes and they live in harsh, unforgiving environs of northern slopes of Ponylaris mountains, and expanding tundra all the way to Everice, and thus are the first line between the savage Arctic canines, and the thinking peoples of the south. This in part explains the extremely short lifespans average Aethon experiences. It is no exaggeration to say that peaceable death is something aethon at large are unfamiliar with. Despite that, it is theorized that, what with their active personal magic cycles, aethon should normally be comparable to that of earth tribes at the very least. Others have postulated that, since all other tribes have matching life expectancies across paired elemental affinities, it is not unreasonable to expect that aethon could match the extreme, multicentenial lifespans of their nocturnal counterparts lampae. Whatever theory proves right in the fullness of time, the recorded oldest aethon to ever live was one Amber Scythe who lived and remained hale to the age of 130, before he fell in battle.

One of the two pony tribes whose natural magic expresses itself in outward directed manipulations of energy into spells (the other of course being the nocturnal-earthtribe unicorns), aethon have been responsible for the movements of the sun for as long as there has been ponydom. Even the oldest surviving records prove that as they still are, they had always been politically separated into twelve clans - traditionally one for every hour of sun's trek over the sky with clan territories arrayed from east to west.
The Twelve clans being in order:
Daybreak, Dawning, Wake, Sunrise, Morn, Sunhigh, Midday, Feasting, Sunfall, Evening, Dusk and Twilight.
In practical terms in these modern times however, for all practical purposes there are only seven active clans. Clans Wake, Morn and Evening exist only in name and ancient clannholds, consisting mostly of unrelated freeholders and/or small families banded together for extra survivability, clans Sunhigh and Midday having more or less merged together some five centuries ago, and clan Dusk being absorbed into clan Twilight shortly after discordian times and the rise of Diarchs.
Being the two clans who respectively began and ended each days daylight cycle, it is not surprising that clans Daybreak and Twilight had close relations with unicorns whose tribal domain was after all the movement of the moon and night cycle. This fact alone allowed them to weather hardships much better than the other ten clans, and even prosper when most others went into decline. Clan Twilight is especially notable for the fact that for their entire history it had as many unicorn as aethon members. This might explain why clan Twilight has been and remains a fundamental factor in the politics of frozen north and dominant power within Ponylaris federation.

On the nature of Aethon magic manipulation, there have been many treatises written, many studies conducted and many theories proposed; all of them boil down to the same thing any adolescent aethon could have told you - aethon magic is art not science. Whereas unicorn spellcasting follows clear, rigid, mathematically describable set of rules that are equal across the tribe and make spells (theoretically) learnable and repeatable, each and every spell any aethon performs is unique in and of itself.

Another important point of difference between unicorn and aethon spellcasting is in mana economy. Whereas unicorns have slow buildup but can regulate their output, aethon regenerate their entire manapool in rapid succession, but likewise will empty it with usage of even the simplest of spells.

Due to being locked in near constant state of war for millennia, aethon design and manufacture tends towards spartan, stark and strictly utilitarian, despite their mastery of steel-working and especially armor and weapon-crafting.

Author's Note

Yes, I know this is weirdly/badly/confusingly written.
Ironically for journalist's child I am tragically awful at writing reports and articles. Sorry about that, but I don't really have an idea at how to fix it.

A to Z of Equines: Alicorn & Quillen

Published by Equestrian Educational Authority
Limited edition primer
Authorized by royal request of H.R.H Princess Celestia year 1984 Celestial era

Alicorn & Quillen

Despite their widely different appearance, we are assured by her royal highness herself that alicorns and quillen are in point of fact a single tribe, one that simply displays extreme case of sexual dimorphism, which would go a long way in explaining why every single alicorn in recorded history has been a mare, and likewise for the all-male quillen. Of course, with the pool of members being so minuscule
it is no wonder that the connection had been missed.

As there had been so very few of them - by her highnesses testimony only four alicorns, counting herself, and two quillen in her lifetime - the majority of information we have now had been, per necessity, provided by her highness.

The peculiar nature of this tribe stems from the fact that all of its members started as members of one of the regular tribes, that through acts of great power and enlightenment - or through agency of extreme outside forces - pushed past the thresholds of their own magic and ascended to a higher plane of existence as beings of pure magic, wherefore they experienced metamorphosis and grew out to encompass not only the magic they started with but magics of three other tribes as fit their nature. Finally they would return back to the regular plane physically transformed. The transformation would usually be incomplete due to the immaturity of their newly expanded magic and it would take time and personal dedication for the newly ascended to finish the process and fully transform - a process that per her highnesses personal testimony takes between three and five centuries. Most either never bothered, or were never given the chance to finish their magical maturation.

While they take physical appearance of lampae, pegasai and the earth tribes in the case of alicorns and water tribes, aethon and testrals in the case of quillen, it should be noted that the magics they hold do not follow their physical traits. Her highness recounted how one of the lost alicorns ascended from a hipocampi and gained the powers of a kelpie, an earth pony and a lampa. Thus wile possessing pegasus wings, the best she could do in the air was awkwardly glide since she completely lacked any magic as pertained to air.

When asked if she had any idea why the physical characteristics of her tribe were so distributed across gender lines, her highness admitted that she was as perplexed as any other pony, though she did mention that the strongest theory she had encountered so far indicated that it had something to do with progenitor races.

Author's Note

Yes, it is painfully short.
I sat upon it for two days trying to figure out a way to expand it into something more, but I always came back to the fact that this is supposed to be an entry in a short general information booklet, and about a subject on which sources basically boiled down to Celestia.
I dunno, I could have written it in more words, but felt that that would actually diminish the... entry, let's go with entry.

A to Z of Equines: Andalusian

Published by Equestrian Educational Authority
Limited edition primer
Authorized by royal request of H.R.H Princess Celestia year 1984 Celestial era

Andalusian

The mighty Cabbaleros of Neihiberia, proud of hearth, hot of blood, high of gait, long of legs, of manes flowing and withers most elegant.

Considered by many ponies to be the most attractive of our bigger, non-magical cousins, Andalusians bare the distinction of being the equines with farthest reaching history. Cave paintings from the province of Andalucia - from which they take their name - prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that andalusians have existed as intelligent species - and inhabited Neihiberia - for at least twenty two thousand years. As a point of reference, all evidence tell us that modern day pony species only came into being after the first Discordian era, some twenty four centuries ago.

Despite being nearly ten times older than us as a specie, as far as culture and civilization goes however, andalusians are second only to zebras in their backwardness. It has been only the last three hundred years that Heyspania - the most powerful and influential of all Neihiberia's kingdoms - abolished serfdom, and even today most of the donkeys and the mules, which compose 38% of Heyspania's total population, are considered second class citizenry there, not to mention their horrific history of raiding into what is present-day zebrica for slaves.

Neihiberia's bloody history can be laid straight at the hooves of andalusian Grandes, and their prickly pride and overpowering greed. Historians across the races agree that without the rise of Carthusian dynasty, andalusians would have exterminated themselves with their mindless feuding. Not that any historian actually considers rise of Carthusians actually as any kind of good occurrence. After managing to unite the other Grandes, by sword or marriage, they turned expansionist, warring and ultimately subjugating bovine tribes, than spreading north driving camargues before them until friessians of lowlands came to aid their neighbors and stymied the expansion. This prompted the institutionalized derision towards friessians that is still a staple of andalusian traditionalism.

After being stopped in the north, Heyspania tried to expand towards south, but were stopped cold by the highly organized and magic wielding Arabians. Next they started building ships to bypass arabians and reach the extraordinarily rich territories in what is modern day Zebrica. Zebras being tribal and widely dispersed could not hope to stymie the invaders, despite also being magic-workers. Moreover, the very fact that they were magical made Zebras, especially the foals, highly prised slaves to heyspaniards. This shameful state of affairs continued until traders from relatively recently established Equestria came south seeking new markets and trading partners. The eternally greedy Grandes ordered the traders to be attacked and enslaved, and their exotic wares seized. While the merchants were forced to abandon their wares, not a one was captured tanks in no small part to the aid of several zebra slaves. In thanks to that, when equestrian punitive forces arrived, they not only captured and publicly executed heads of every Grande family including every single adult of carthusian blood, they also demolished their lavish estates and then promised them that if their raids into Zebra controlled lands continued they would come back and the next time the buildings they would destroy would not be evacuated beforehand.

That was the end of great Heyspanian state, and fully half of their Neihiberian territories seceded and established themselves as new states.

Best example of that would be the united free city-states of Toledo-Maredrid, famed for their superb metalwork, and the southern principality of Grenada that established relations with the arabian emirates to the point that most present day population of Grenada is of mixed andalusian-arabian heritage and technically constitute as a breed of their own.

As far as the physical characteristics are concerned, Andalusians are the tallest of horse breeds, and second only to the clydesdales amongst the equines.

They are most notable for their distinctive upright steps in the trot and canter.

Author's Note

Welp, there we go.
I want to apologize to everyone of Spanish descent for this entry. I have nothing against any of you, and in fact adore and am ever in awe of the sheer beauty of Andalusians.
This entry was intentionally negatively biased for storytelling purposes.
While it will not be actually acknowledged anywhere in text proper, the putative author of A to Z of Equines was a very snobbish canterlot native. Rest assured that Celestia had some very sharp wards with her afterwards, and the bias, condescension and outright derision such as displayed here was one of the main reasons the booklet itself only ever had one edition, and never entered curriculum of any equestrian school.

I used horsepuns wherever I came up with any, but if anyone sees any I missed feel free to inform me with your suggestions. I cannot promise to use any of them, but I most probably would.

A to Z of Equines: Arabian

Published by Equestrian Educational Authority
Limited edition primer
Authorized by royal request of H.R.H Princess Celestia year 1984 Celestial era

Arabian

While in sizes they come closer to us than the other horse breeds, Arabians are indisputably horses, as evidenced by the viability of crossbreeding with other, non-magical breeds of horsedom, and complete inability to crossbreed with ponies.

While theoretically all arabians owe allegiance to the Sultana (current one being Aliyah Al-Shama) and the Divan out of imperial city of Buckdad, in truth every Malik, Emir and Sheik freely rules their domain as they see fit; thus the arabian realms boast widely different customs, traditions and even laws. That is not to say that Sultana and the Divan are powerless. Nothing can be further from the truth. They are simply fairly hooves off in dealing with politics outside Buckdad. But woe betide the one who draws imperial ire, for the consequences tend to be swift, brutal and completely disproportionate. Aye, even princess Celestia herself trots very carefully indeed when dealing with Buckdad.

The source for such overwhelming power of Sultana is of course in her inexhaustible coffers that afford her the very best of magic.

As with Zebras, Arabians are thaumaturgical in their magic. Meaning that their magic is not inborn, but rather constitutes in universal capability to draw in and manipulate extant energies of the world. Since they have no mana, and are free from constraints imposed by tribal and personal predilection, the only limiting factor of a thaumaturge are the resources they can invest in their workings.

Where they differ from Zebras is in their approach to magic. Whereas Zebra magical traditions are all spiritual, Arabians are completely academic. Indeed, the single greatest period of advancement in unicorn spellcasting came when Equestria first established contacts with the Emirates and the Arabian books on and of magic became available.

The best way to demonstrate the difference between Arabian thaumaturgy and pony theurgy would be to compare them to workings of unicorns, since the principles involved are, for the most part, same.

The most egregious examples one could offer would be in the matters of writing and flight.

So, where a unicorn could just pick a quill in their aura and get on with it, an arabian who decided not to mouth-write would need most of a day, and 60 bits and upwards of sundry other resources to create an enchanted quill to write for them, but, on the flipside, once created, the quill would proceed to write, with no blots, no smudges, no mistakes, with complete grammatical and stylistic expertise as befitting the necessary format, in clearly legible, aesthetically pleasant calligraphy, in as many issues as desired, and all with no further involvement of the spellcaster whatsoever.

On the matter of flight magic, without active aid from one of the airtribes, a pony is rather out of luck. Any spell that granted the ability to fly would be prohibitively complex, even more magically difficult, and quite short-lived. On the other hand, the preferred long distance method of travel amongst arabians are flying carpets, that need only need the slightest of skills in magic to be directed and barring accidents or moths, last for decades.

That is not to say that all Arabians are mighty wizards. Few indeed have the time and resources available to master even cantrips, much less proper spellwork.