The Champion Of Longsword

The County Of Longsword is a small, little nation that has been calling the region of Central Griffonia on the Griffin continent of Griffonia it's home for the last 200 years. However the region's history goes back much, much further. Around one millennium before Luna's banishment the first Riverpony tribes began to move in east from the Riverlands before settling in Longsword. While they would occasionally unite together to push out various incursions by Griffins, Riverponies, and sometimes even Diamond Dogs, they usually only kept to themselves, living in separate tribes.

However population pressures and ambitious tribal chiefs eventually started to advocate to start raiding foreign lands and sometimes even settle in them. The Longswordian River Boats would reach as far as Rijekograd in the east and Herzland in the west. But the Griffin estates we're their primary target, as they we're packed full of treasure ranging from exotic foods to gold itself. On top of that there we're hundreds of them along the bank of the Griffking River which made them easy targets. But this made Longswordian ponies, and to an extent Riverponies in general, into a bitter enemy of the Griffins.

In reprisal the Griffins would launch several incursions led by Knightly Orders into Longsword, however these would always be repulsed by the tribes as they would use Longsword's many marshes, swamps, and forests to ambush and whittle down entire armies to nothing via attrition. This also had the unforeseen consequence of making Longsword ponies more stubborn and warlike than the ponies of the Riverlands, further increasing their raids on the Griffon estates.

This went on and on until around 780 ALB (After Luna's Banishment) when the Longswordian tribes would actually begin to unite under one ruler, Duke Zemaitukas. As well as under the faith of Varene, the goddess of the hunt. In 785 ALB Zemaitukas founded what he called to be The Grand Duchy Of Longsword, to safeguard the ponies of Longsword against another Griffin invasion of their homeland.

Sadly it was not to last, as that same year and only a few days after the first Griffonian emperor, Grover I died. Nimbusia, a Riverland nation and regional power further east would invade the Gryphian Host, a small little Griffon frontier nation. Even though this attack was repelled by the Griffins, it had the unfortunate effect of causing mass panic within the newly formed Griffonian Empire, as well as prompting it's new Kaiser, Grover II to launch the first of his many crusades towards the east, with Longsword being his first target. It was torched to the ground, with Zemaitukas falling in battle before a Griffon blade.

Longsword was then granted to the noble house of Dusktalon as a reward for their faithful service in the crusades. However he also required the nobles to share their power with the Order of Rosewood The Knights Of The Order Of The Rosewood Spear,who helped spearhead the campaign. In a sort of dual monarchy fashion/advisory council, unlike in Hellquill. The reasons as to why he did this are still unclear and debated, but many speculate that after the first crusade failed to completely annihilate the Riverponies it was a measure to safeguard the new county from a pony reprisal. But that theory has never been proven.

However something must have been done right, as Longsword became an Imperial protectorate, or March as the Griffins call it, the noble family and the order got along near perfectly, all pony invasions were held at bay, and the county prospered. Although there we're a few issues between the ponies and Griffins at first eventually the ponies we're allowed to remain in their tribes as farmers as long as they paid taxes, however Longsword and Hellquill we're still both seen as places for Griffon colonization.

There would be no more eventful events for the next 200 years, save for Grover II's death at the hooves of a Nimbusian spear and the ending of his famous crusades. Up until The Republican Revolution Of 978 ALB, where the empire had been slowly declining for 100 years with poverty running among a majority of it's citizens, a much increasing corrupt government, and a general dislike of the newly crowned Kaiser Grover V, many a Griffon were killed that year. After the uprisings Longsword severed the last of it's ties with Griffenheim, along with a lot of counseling from it's friend and ally Hellquill, abandoned it's Imperial March status in favor of it's own goals. Many believe this is when the first of the Reformisten began to appear as well, as well as them potentially having a hoof in persuading Longsword to severe it's ties with Griffenheim.

For a while the newly independent county prospered as the Griffonian Empire slowly diminished. But that all changed when the newest count of Longsword, Count Pallas Dusktalon came to power. At first he was perfectly content with the traditions that we're in place. But eventually he caught wind of a new political ideology and organization growing and gaining more and more power within Hellquill, The Reformisten. Mainly believing in "Griffon Supremacy", as well as holding the ponies as the main enemy of all of Griffonkind, and on top of that solely blaming them for all of their problems. Their goal was to make Hellquill into what they called a "Proper State", clearing the way for Griffin colonization with their leader, Wingfried Von Katerinburg as it's sole leader.

These new and radical ideas interested the count, and he began to invite more and more of them to his court. As well as to teach him their ideals. Over time these ideas of supremacy and hatred took hold and manifested in Dusktalon's heart, and he began to implement these ideas all across Longsword, at the expense of all ponies living within it's borders. Hellquill fared much worse, especially as it was the birthplace of the Reformisten. Over time this butchering of the ponies would come to be known as the Longswordian Genocide.

Thankfully however not everypony was simply content to wait for the Reformisten to come and kill them. A group of partisans calling themselves The Longsword Liberation Army or IIA for short, and led by the famous partisan fighter Starry Night are actively fighting against the count and his Reformisten lackeys. Meanwhile the military is growing more and more discontent with the mass slaughter of ponies, and on top of that Pallas decided that in order to see his fruitions come to pass he needed to abolish The Rosewood Order in order for him to have enough power to wipe out the "pony scum" once and for all. Thus making two enemy's at once and sending the county careening towards an inevitable civil war.

Meanwhile one partisan fighter and considered Starry's pupil by many, a pony named Night Storm is more determined than ever to avenge not just his own family, but his entire village and all of the ponies slaughtered by the Reformisten. Joining Starry's group at the young age of 6 he has been fighting for 9 years to liberate his homeland, and he is prepared to sacrifice everything in order to do so.