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Who Needs Harmony?: An MLP Empire Quest

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Edtherr said:
@Questor

~~~~~~The difference between a board game and a war zone~~~~~~​
He really did not understand, from a strategic viewpoint. He has been learning, by himself, and by with his tutors game. He developed scenarios, he fought imaginary battles with his friends, to understand the art of war. He has been immersed in political and social teachings since his tender age. And like his father, he excelled at understanding whatever was thrown at him. For his Father, it might make him a great merchant, for him, it might make him a great tactician.

He tries not to be arrogant, but even he was able to picture the advantages of fighting a numerically superior foe in a easily defendable place you could lay traps on. The idea he thought on for the defense of his empire, was the same the very empire used (of course he didn't need to suggest that, your mother, your father, They woudn't miss something like that, either).

That is why he didn't understand why both of his parents were there, basically at the front lines. They are, without any doubts, the core of the entire empire, in high AND low politics. The population love Garrick Golden-Feather, even before he united the Griffon people as one. The sheer amount of progress, of betterment of the average population, is nearly uncontable. Every farmer with a hothouse thanks him publically for the technology he made real. Everyone that stops to think how they can eat in the middle of a magically enhanced winter thank him.

His mother is as much loved as he is, specially for a people like his. The Griffons love their fights, they are entrenched in discipline and military might. And Gabriella Golden-Feather is known as one of the fiercest warriors in the entire Empire. She is considered a Goddess of War, that fought most of her life in the battlefield, going from fight to fight even before the disappearance of Discord, then came back and became Queen. If your father were to fall, she would keep the empire whole. She is a very talented ruler, you seen it first hand, and your father advisors would follow her. Every single Knight Corps (which you know personally) are loyal to her.

So, why both of them were commited to the frontlines of the Winter Wars? Why the two of them, And who is considered the oldest, strongest Knight, the Kingslayer, commited to a personal fight against a vastly powerful foe with unkown force multipliers? If both his parents fell, the Empire would be in turmoil, he doesn't believe he would be able to keep the Empire whole. He is smart, he knows, but he doesn't have the political capital in order to keep everyone in line. He might manage, by some sort of miracle and a lot of goodwill, but he doesn't think his chances are any good.

Not to mention the fact he is not of age yet to assume any royal duties, and the Regent is younger than him. She might live, by what he understand, a lot more than him. To the point he will be able to show, hopefully, his grandkids to her and she will still look on her prime. She might be the best possible regent a empire ever had... at least after she reaches maturity.

So he did not understand, why make a possible single point of failure on the entire Empire? that was his thoughts, until a minut ago. Until he stick close to one of his closest friends, Girck AshenBlade, a personal friend of yours, and whose father is being buried a noble's funeral cerimony, for having fought bravely on the front lines as well. His father was a lesser noble, and he could probably have maneuvered himself out of harms way by some loophole or another, but he decided to fight for his people. Like your father decided to fight to his people.

And as he stays by his friends side, watching him silently swallow his tears in order to watch Kint Ashenblade be sent away, he understands. If he had to be in a battle, where his friends would be fighting, where the loss would mean his people would be destroyed... he would commit himself as well. As his mother done as well.
Gawain Golden-Feather did not understand the difference between assigning resources in order to achieve a result, and risking one beak and limb for the sake of your homeland. Now he does.


Any Omake bonus granted by this post, I would like given to the first diplomatic action towards the Yaks, if possible.
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+15 to a roll! Nice to see some things from Gawain's perspective!
 
Questor said:
It's already been rolled. Don't worry, it's not another 1. I'm not that cruel.
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Aw I was hoping you would be that cruel, it make for a rather epic story, when the empire historians look back at this time they would call it the epic age, where chaos was literally everywhere, even when discord was gone life found a way to make the empire really fight for that position at the top.
 
zac1 said:
Aw I was hoping you would be that cruel, it make for a rather epic story, when the empire historians look back at this time they would call it the epic age, where chaos was literally everywhere, even when discord was gone life found a way to make the empire really fight for that position at the top.
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Alright, I'm going to be real with you, I'm goin to say that if we just so happened to roll a 1 and met with a force on par with sombra for a second time... well, I'm pretty sure the quest would be done.
We wouldnt even be fighting for the top. At best, wed be hoping to scrape by at the bottom. In the best case scenario, we live with massive losses. In the most likely scenario though, wed be wiped down to a few and become nomads and be forced to restart elsewhere.
 
Lisain said:
Alright, I'm going to be real with you, I'm goin to say that if we just so happened to roll a 1 and met with a force on par with sombra for a second time... well, I'm pretty sure the quest would be done.
We wouldnt even be fighting for the top. At best, wed be hoping to scrape by at the bottom. In the best case scenario, we live with massive losses. In the most likely scenario though, wed be wiped down to a few and become nomads and be forced to restart elsewhere.
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The neighpons have a low growth rate. That means they would have a lower population than us. And, since they don't have a mind controlling super being in charge they wouldn't have a military as large. The idea that they could "wipe us out" is laughable. Our people are not helpless all of them can and do know how to fight. So unless the entire neighpon population is warriors and they all invade at once they couldn't do more than defeat our military and force some lopsided treaty on us.
 
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Adventwolf said:
The neighpons have a low growth rate. That means they would have a lower population than us. And, since they don't have a mind controlling super being in charge they wouldn't have a military as large. The idea that they could "wipe us out" is laughable. Our people are not helpless all of them can and do know how to fight. So unless the entire neighpon population is warriors and they all invade at once they couldn't do more than defeat our military and force some lopsided treaty on us.
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To be fair, I'd expect something worse than "hostile fire nation of qirins" from a natural one. That one is more in the range of 5-15. A Natural One is something catastrophic, going by Sombra or potentially Yak Ghenghis Khan.

In case of Neighpon i think it would be that one of their Dragon Gods has awakened and demands the sacrifice of all outsiders' hearts on its pyre of gluttony or something in that vein.
 
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Chronic said:
To be fair, I'd expect something worse than "hostile fire nation of qirins" from a natural one. That one is more in the range of 5-15. A Natural One is something catastrophic, going by Sombra or potentially Yak Dschingis Khan.

In case of Neighpon i think it would be that one of their Dragon Gods has awakened and demands the sacrifice of all outsiders' hearts on its pyre of gluttony or something in that vein.
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Unless that dragon was an actual god all that would accomplish was both side killing a lot of each other. We know and have killed Dragons in this world already. Even if it was a god it would need to take the field for a truly devasting death toll. We simply breed and grow faster than neighpon.
 
Adventwolf said:
Unless that dragon was an actual god all that would accomplish was both side killing a lot of each other. We know and have killed Dragons in this world already. Even if it was a god it would need to take the field for a truly devasting death toll. We simply breed and grow faster than neighpon.
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I feel that you are underestimating the Qilin a bit considering how little we know of them. For all we know every one of them is a magician with the same amount of fire power as one of our stationary flamethrowers. Or they've already invented fertility rituals that allow them to negate their starting disadvantage of infertility - we have by now negated 1 or 2 of our starting disadvantages so there is no reason to assume others can't do the same.

Also, given that their starting advantage regarding the Dragons was called Divine Intervention i am pretty sure that their gods are actually divine, or at least so much more powerful than the average dragon that they can make a credible claim to the title.

A Natural One Neighpon would have been another existential threat to Griffonia, just like Sombra is an existential threat and Yak Ghenghis Khan would have been an existential threat.

Edit: Another cool way to bypass the numbers disadvantage: The Qilin might have enslaved the spirits of their homeland and use legions of trained from birth Oni janissaries to make up their lack of numbers!
 
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Adventwolf said:
The neighpons have a low growth rate. That means they would have a lower population than us. And, since they don't have a mind controlling super being in charge they wouldn't have a military as large. The idea that they could "wipe us out" is laughable. Our people are not helpless all of them can and do know how to fight. So unless the entire neighpon population is warriors and they all invade at once they couldn't do more than defeat our military and force some lopsided treaty on us.
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Expect that we just came out of one war and can't afford another.
 
I think Exploration isnt worth the cost, we do it to many times we either get rolls for encounter and god forbid we a nat 1 again. x-x

We need to get stable again, and this time I think we should remain a little bit isolated and not go out and explore, we need to prepare for another encounter with sombra because our regent is still a baby so she wont be much help in defending the empire for a very, very, long time.
 
I always saw the show as making the most sense if you assume every race has an alicorn equivalent of similar power. Even. Draconequui are the alicorn equivalent of sea serpents (like Steven Magnet) in my headcanon.

Among other things, it explains the lack of fear other nations have of Celestia.
 
Star said:
Expect that we just came out of one war and can't afford another.
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Yeah it would be unaffordable. Like I said it would. Any war that we might have gotten into with the Neighpons at this point would only result in a lot of death and little else. None of my arguments were that it would be easy or that we could even win. A war is one we would lose my original post was countering the argument that the Neighpon could wiped us all out as the first poster said.

zac1 said:
I think Exploration isnt worth the cost, we do it to many times we either get rolls for encounter and god forbid we a nat 1 again. x-x

We need to get stable again, and this time I think we should remain a little bit isolated and not go out and explore, we need to prepare for another encounter with sombra because our regent is still a baby so she wont be much help in defending the empire for a very, very, long time.
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The dice has already been rolled if it was bad enough for them to be hostile it would have happened when our fishing boats met them. As for going isolationist that is the stupidest move we could do right now. We need allies for next war. Also need someone who actually knows a damn thing about magic. The Yaks only have their shaman who they're never going to let us meet until much later. The Diamond Dogs have yet to show if their alphas are anything more than just legends. The only other option we have is the Neighpons. We need to get into contact with them even if they are isolationist we have stuff they need natural resources a lot of natural resources. And they have stuff we want.
 
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Adventwolf said:
Yeah it would be unaffordable. Like I said it would. Any war that we might have gotten into with the Neighpons at this point would only result in a lot of death and little else. None of my arguments were that it would be easy or that we could even win. A war is one we would lose my orgiorig post was countering the argument that the Neighpon could wiped us all out as the first poster said.



The dice has already been rolled if it was bad enough for them to be hostile it would have happened when our fishing boats met them. As for going isolationist that is the stupidest move we could do right now. We need allies for next war. Also need someone who actually knows a damn thing about magic. The Yaks only have their shaman who they're never going to let us meet until much later. The Diamond Dogs have yet to show if their alphas are anything more than just legends. The only other option we have is the Neighpons. We need to get into contact with them even if they are isolationist we have stuff they need natural resources a lot of natural resources. And they have stuff we want.
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As much as I would like to turtle up and isolate...
Adventwolf has a point, Sombra by HIMSELF killed hundreds of soldiers.
Even without a direct confrontation we barely avoided a famine just from the winter he was bringin with him.
Had he disengaged when his beasts fell, shadow moved himself and just kept guerrilla tactics, we would face a slow, painful depletment of forces and infrastructure.
Even with the horn cut we dont jnow how much he can still bring to the fore (canonically we assume he has the Crystal heart).
So we actually really need a way to counter his magical or at least be able to detect him.
Now while sometime ago i mentioned some smaug like fire, we have a 3 year old dragon... thats off the cards.
What is maybe possibly onthe cards is a possible meeting with another magical species... maaaybe one who has some connection to fire?
 
ExNihilo said:
Indeed. No need for integration yet, getting a formalized defensive pact and helping them learn to modernize will doubtless do wonders. Imagine Yak chargers with enough steel plate to qualify them as heavy cavalry, including gratuitous spikes.
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Star said:
I believe that they are on the way of integration. They are realising that there are threats out there and that they are safer inside the empire.
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Pittauro said:
agree with this. We should have had a decent first impression, now it's time to build on it.

I'm not naive enough as to expect immediate unification, but if we help them recover from their losses and improve their situation this will raise our relationship. Once it's high enough and we know each other's cultures and people THEN we can propose some kind of joining.

We have even a good argument for it: "The Mad Sorcerer is still out there, we have to stand together if we want to destroy him once and for all. What better way than to unite our people?"

or "The Mad Sorcerer brought us together in time of war. Why can't we be togethere in times of peace as well?"
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Kinda feel like were the cultural version of the Borg lol. We are the Gryphus Empire, you will be integrated, your Cultural and Economical identity will be added to our own. Resistance is futile.
 
Questor said:
It's already been rolled. Don't worry, it's not another 1. I'm not that cruel.
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..actually i would have found it interesting. It makes for an interesting story at least.

Star said:
Expect that we just came out of one war and can't afford another.
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well, not this year, but i think we could afford it in 2-5 years. We wouldn't WANT it, but we could if we had to. 2 or three turns should be enough to have our army return to its previous numbers, + a some new tech and more artillery.


And if we have no other choise there is always the forced conscription option (especially once we have the mass produced steel to quickly equip all conscripted)
 
Somnia said:
Kinda feel like were the cultural version of the Borg lol. We are the Gryphus Empire, you will be integrated, your Cultural and Economical identity will be added to our own. Resistance is futile.
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Not every nation should be integrated. Just those too weak to resist or those who desire to join due to us saving them or just the clear benefits of being part of us, until we reach the point inner dissent might start to be an issue, then it's time to stop rather than reach for one more cheesecake producing stretch of land.
 
Well since some of us are discussing a theoretical war with the Qilings I'd like to pitch in. Now this is all Purely Theoretical but since the dice can be fickle bastards it's always good to have a plan of action.

Now the biggest point of concern when it comes to war with Neighpon is Divine intervention by their Dragon ancestors. Our saving grace is that this is mainly a defensive feature and only "activates" when all hope is lost, so unless Chronic is right and a the Qilins took a page from the Aztec book of Civ-Building they shouldn't be too much trouble at the start.
However I would like to point out that there is a way to avoid Divine intervention all together and my friends is Not Winning Too Much. What do I mean by this? The answer lies within our own history more specifically the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. Long story short Prussia was winning the war soooo decisively that Bismarck (yes that Bismarck) was worried that the other nations might intervene (aka Divine Intervention). So if we were to fight a war with Neighpon without having to face their dragons we should try to win without "Winning too Much".
Now something most of us seem to be overlooking is the Qilings one fatal weakness, their bad temper. Remember that when a Qiling loses their temper they become hyper aggressive and lash out against anything and everything including their fellow Qiling. This leads them uniquely vulnerable to Political subterfuge. A well executed operation could cause a large amount of civil unrest and maybe even spark a small riot/uprising.

Now as I said this is all Purely theoretical as we aren't in any shape to launch any kind of offensive and with Sombra still out there we currently have our talons full.
 
Asmodemus said:
Not every nation should be integrated. Just those too weak to resist or those who desire to join due to us saving them or just the clear benefits of being part of us, until we reach the point inner dissent might start to be an issue, then it's time to stop rather than reach for one more cheesecake producing stretch of land.
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and look at that! the Yaks are both too weak to resist (only 10k warriors and probably low hundred thousands pop) AND might decide to join of their own free will given a bit of time to actually consider the pros and cons.

actually @Questor we already discussed quite a bit about it. Can you tell how many Yaks are there more or less? More than 100k? Less than 500k?



By the way a possible problem if we ever fought vs the Qilin (which will hopefully never happen)... They're firebenders. Some of our strongest weapons are currently the flamethrowers and molotovs. They'll probably be able to use them against us, sending back the fire. We have basically no chance to burn their ships.
 
Pittauro said:
and look at that! the Yaks are both too weak to resist (only 10k warriors and probably low hundred thousands pop) AND might decide to join of their own free will given a bit of time to actually consider the pros and cons.

actually @Questor we already discussed quite a bit about it. Can you tell how many Yaks are there more or less? More than 100k? Less than 500k?



By the way a possible problem if we ever fought vs the Qilin (which will hopefully never happen)... They're firebenders. Some of our strongest weapons are currently the flamethrowers and molotovs. They'll probably be able to use them against us, sending back the fire. We have basically no chance to burn their ships.
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true but! We're the only dudes on the sea with canons hopefully probably maybe. and I don't know much about naval combat but I know canonballs are stronk. Not to mention our boarders can fly and hopefully probably maybe swim.

hehe, I just imagined a bunch of gryffins cutting down enemy sails and noping away and as the enemy prepare to set new sails D-Dogs were under their ships punching up holes and before the enemy can set up new rigging they're sunk. Probably a stupid idea that wouldntwork but hey, least i can dream.
 
Chronic said:
we have by now negated 1 or 2 of our starting disadvantages so there is no reason to assume others can't do the same.
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That reminds me:
Questor said:
Untamed Land: Griffonia is utterly infested with monsters, brigands, rogue dragons, and worse. Purging the land of threats to your people will be a difficult task.
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While Sombra's blizzard was bad for our cities, it must have been infinitely worse for those beings lurking in the untamed wilds. Many monsters will have frozen to death, and brigands will have suffered as well. It might be a good idea to clear house now, while using it as a chance to train new recruits.
 
Pittauro said:
By the way a possible problem if we ever fought vs the Qilin (which will hopefully never happen)... They're firebenders. Some of our strongest weapons are currently the flamethrowers and molotovs. They'll probably be able to use them against us, sending back the fire. We have basically no chance to burn their ships.
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Keani said:
hehe, I just imagined a bunch of gryffins cutting down enemy sails and noping away and as the enemy prepare to set new sails D-Dogs were under their ships punching up holes and before the enemy can set up new rigging they're sunk. Probably a stupid idea that wouldntwork but hey, least i can dream.
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The sails are definitely a neat trick (albeit if they see us coming they can probably climb the netting and defend their sails somewhat, so pack crossbows (muskets could be exploded if their firebending has range))
but I do not see the dogs working (unless we invent scuba gear) - the "easier" (given that they were invented earlier) solution might be submarines with drills.
 
Keani said:
hehe, I just imagined a bunch of gryffins cutting down enemy sails and noping away and as the enemy prepare to set new sails D-Dogs were under their ships punching up holes and before the enemy can set up new rigging they're sunk. Probably a stupid idea that wouldntwork but hey, least i can dream.
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cutting the sails could work, but...diamond dogs underwater? that's a bit more unlikely.

Now, if we got some seaponies on our side instead...



So the Yaks are about 10% of our pop.. a bit more than i expected, but not by much. i thought 300k tops.
 
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