Notes on The Winter War and Equestrian/Griffon Differences
I've seen some discussion about The Griffon's Capabilities and Culture recently in the thread. Most notably a lot of arguments about if they should be at the stage of development and why or why not they might have reached it. As such I have decided to provide so more information on why the Gryphus Empire is the way it is. The most important thing to talk about it the war with Sombra or "The Winter War" given it has perhaps the biggest impact of any event so far in the world.
The Winter war began shortly after the Empire was reunified, Garrick defeated his main rival Brochard in battle, who was killed by Grandmaster Konrad Hardbeak now Konrad "Kingslayer" and given that he squeezed his kingdom very hard in order to raise his army pretty much all his nobles were quick to proclaim their loyalty to the new soon to be Emperor Garrick giving him a lot of popularity with all levels of society at the start of his reign. He then managed to get the rest of the minor states to join diplomatically and began to explore beyond it its borders, the first expedition to the west found the Yak tribes... the second to the south found Sombra approaching with a brainwashed army of about 100,000 slave soldiers plus various dark magic horrors alongside an unnatural blizzard that wrecked the land.
The Griffons responded by not just gathering every troop they could but from mercenaries and knights to militia also putting into production as much of their more experimental weapon concept as possible, things like gunpowder, cannons, stationary flamethrowers and eventually a newfound rare anti-magic ore called Orichalcum. The Yaks responded by send every fighting age Yak of every clan to the battle under portents of certain doom from all their shamans. Even then they were outnumber badly.
As such the strategy chosen was to fortify the pass through the Peregrine mountains on their southern border, Redstone Pass and meet Sombra there. A chokepoint like this made the makeshift mines, cannons and flamethrowers very effective in these battles... even though the first was cleared by Sombra sending waves of starving disposable slaves. To summarize the battle the Allied forces held the pass against successively harsher waves with causalities mounting. Sombra eventually had enough and choose to go all in with himself as he lead his elite guard and horrors. Despite serious causalities instead of blowing the pass with explosive to trigger an avalanche and retreating they instead choose to gamble on collapsing on him in hopes of winning it all. It was effective at damaging his forces but Sombra nearly broke the lines anyway with his magic until the Empress Gabriella rallied them and the Triumvirate of Griffon Unification; Empress, Emperor and Grandmaster charged Sombra. The first two worked together to distract him until Konrad can cut Sombra's horn off destroying his army but having to watch his shadows spirit flee south once more. The Imperial war memorial mentioned by Snowdrop was built to commemorate this battle but with the knowledge they would be fighting a war with more sacrifice on the ay in mind.
This lead to a second longer stage of the war as the heavy losses from the battle mean they can't pursue immediately. Scouting then also results in the Griffons finding out that Sombra's blizzards make an invasion practically impossible and the full horror of Sombra fully mind-controlling his entire population with the first Crystal ponies being rescued by horrified Griffons. The war turns into a several years long stalemate where the Griffons rebuilt and upgraded their army, built up their war machine, built fortifications on the border, committed what sabotage they could to Sombra's war effort and saved what Crystal Ponies they could. Sombra responded by sending winter storms to sabotage their agriculture and making this a fight on literally every level of society to the very bottom rung.
The Griffon found a huge break when they made contact with Neighpon and found new allies quick to support them fully against the Shadow King. Ones with a smaller army but with plenty of magic including Qilin Pyromancy which meant they could now actually send an army to attack the Crystal Empire. Instead of immediately attacking however the Griffons choose to meet Sombra's army on their fortifications, he even brings a full grown dragon corrupted by dark magic... Konrad kills it. Then he lights his sword on fire and kills Sombra a second time in his shadow form. This let's them finally attack the Crystal city and after diving into Sombra's dungeon to find the Crystal heart awaken it from a mix of the love from the imperial couple, collective love of the army for their comrades and patriotism of all involved defeated Sombra while also freeing his slaves. Konrad doesn't technically kill Sombra the final time himself but a lot of stories credit him with it anyway.
It did not however revitalize the land that was devastated or heal the trauma from his rule. As a result in order to not starve to death most Crystal Ponies end up in the Empire which implements an "Adopt a Pony Program" to help house them. With the Emperor leading the way by adopting a new daughter and the population have spent years hearing about just how bad Sombra was most see it as a patriotic duty so they are integrated fairly easily. The Crystal Empire itself annexed as the Crystal protectorate with the option to join or leave down the line save a naval base leased to the Neighponese as the Empire begins the process of rebuilding.
There is no question that the Winter War had a great impact upon its participants. Every race, every nation and clan and class was affected by the conflict. The Yaks learned the horrors of true war, and became aware that the world beyond their homeland was both very big and very dangerous. The varied races of Neighpon were forced to reevaluate their differences and rivalries in the face of a mutual threat to their freedom and existence. And Gryphus? The nation that fought and bled and suffered the most at the dark hoof of Sombra, the nation that served as a bulwark against his cruel ambitions?
The Empire of Gryphus went from a collection of fiefdoms loosely affiliated by virtue of a shared history to a unified nation under a centralized authority. It's people, once divided along cultural, economic or racial lines, were united in the face of a dangerous outside world. The demand for material to fuel the Imperial War Machine led to a massive increase in agricultural and industrial output and the creation and spread of numerous revolutionary innovations. Though countless lives were lost, the Empire has emerged from the war stronger than it was before.
As a result of the Winter War while neither Griffons nor Equestrians see war as something to be glorified or celebrated, with many Ponies seeing it as a last resort that should only be considered once all other options have been exhausted, only the Griffons see armed conflict as both inevitable and ultimately unavoidable. And despite, or perhaps because of so many Imperial families having lost loved ones to the fires of war, there does exist a certain romanticization of war and combat in Imperial Culture. Those who serve, be they knights, sailors or common soldiers, are adored and seen as heroes by the civilian population, and even the idea of dying in battle is looked upon with a certain degree of fondness. If the best way to die is of old age surrounded by loved ones, then the second best way is on the field of battle surrounded by your brothers and sisters in arms, giving your life for the nation and those you fight to protect, be they your family, your comrades or the Emperor.
While this is also true to a lesser extent in Equestria, you have not yet had this belief challenged by a massive, nation-spanning conflict like the Winter War. Any armed clashes you have witnessed were between individual Counts, Dukes and Barons in the days before the Alicorn Sisters unified the nation, with skirmishes smaller in scale and scope than the Battle of Wingbardy, codes of conduct between the warring factions, and casualty counts that never exceeded the low hundreds. Your understanding of war is thus quite limited.
The Griffon view of nobility, like so many other things, was irrevocably changed by the Winter War. At the Battle of Redstone, and the Peregrines, and the Storming of the Crystal City, nobles and commoners fought and bled side by side on the front lines. When the battles ended and the dead were accounted for, many nobles, officers and knights alike, were among them. They were cremated upon the same pyres as the lowest enlisted soldier or militiagryph, and when it came time to promote surviving non-commissioned officers to replace them, many commoners, battle hardened veterans, suddenly found themselves possessing equal or greater ranks in the military than members of the nobility. At first, this chafed at their sense of superiority...but as the war dragged on, and the promoted commoners proved themselves equal in skill and bravery time and again, in some cases saving the lives of their noble counterparts, the commoners earned their respect and admiration, if grudgingly.
This, combined with the settlement and establishment of the new province of Kestrella necessitating the elevation of numerous commoners to the ranks of the nobility to administer it (more than one of which was a Diamond Dog), the Post-Discordian economic boom leading to many merchants and bankers building up levels of wealth previously only held by Nobles, and rapid industrialization producing a burgeoning middle class of city-dwelling burghers, resulted in many of the social barriers between the Nobility and the common people being greatly weakened. There still exists a social divide, but it is much less than it was a few decades ago.
By contrast, the Equestrians, who have not experienced an equivalent war, sudden economic boom or rapid industrialization since the end of the Discordian Era, are still very much an agrarian, feudal society divided along class lines, with fewer opportunities for social mobility.
Current events are also very much affected by the Winter war. The Winter war made the culture of Gryphus very anti-slavery so when relations with Maretonia began with several of their citizens sold into slavery that they refused to even admit they had until the Griffon read out a list of their owners things were deeply hostile from the start. It also made the Griffon's warry of starting a new war so soon after the old one and the Maretonians unwilling to attack since it would bring in Neighpon at minimum since they signed a defensive treaty with the option of more joining in due to positive relations. Instead their was several years of stand off were the Griffons refused to offer any compensation to slaveowner for the return of their citizen till they could have their spies rescue them and high tensions between both until the Queen died starting the Civil war.
These are just some of the differences between the Empire and Equestria that are likely to result in confusion and culture clash at some point in the future. Hopefully this help give a better understanding of why the Gryphus empire is the way it is however.
