Equestria: A History - Volume 1: The Misty Past and the Age of Division is a history book which can be bought from Jasper in the Crystal Library. It is written by Dr. Dusty Scroll. It is the first book out of a series of three, and it aims to give a general summary of commonly accepted Equestrian history.
The book is split into two historical periods, The Misty Past, and The Age of Division
The Misty Past[]
Popular theories about pony origins from this time state that ponies were created by divine beings, or that advanced creatures inhabited the world before being wiped out by aliens. Meanwhile, much of the scientific community insists that evolution was the true reason behind the existence of ponies, while others dispute that ponies are far too complex to simply be a product of evolution.
The earliest confirmation of pony civilization is marked at the 9th century BH. These ponies are believed to be nomadic, and aside from The Meadows Pendant and stone tools, there are no other remaining artifacts. This is believed to be a consequence of having primarily cloth-based artifacts. Life was harsh during this period, and since the unicorns and pegasi had not mastered their skills, life was considerably harder. There would also be frequent clashes with other species. The teamwork which arose from this time period has created the foundation for the concept of Harmony.
By the 8th Century BH, ponies would begin to settle and form agricultural societies due to pressures from larger herds, and a search for stable lives. The settlements from this time period are partially preserved, making it easier to study the settlement of ponies.
Once again, the increase in population would result in the rise of city-states, and the creation of governments. This would also allow the ponies to develop their talents. Earth ponies created the largest settlements, while unicorns would study magic to create artifacts and spells. The pegasi would master the weather to control the seasons.
The Age of Division[]
Volume 1: The Misty Past and the Age of Division
By Dr. Dusty Scroll
FOREWORD
This series is a historical overview; nothing more, but nothing less. I am only trying to summarize the commonly-accepted history of Equestria, not go into detail about specific periods, nor propose new and controversial academic theories. If you are interested in more speculative works, or detailed analysis of specific events, you may find other works, from a variety of authors, which better suit your needs.
The Misty Past
(??? - c. 400 Before Harmony (BH))
Any historian's attempt to describe the distant past, the time before even the Age of Division, is compromised by our lack of reliable primary sources from this era. We are forced to rely on a mix of archaeological evidence (which can be misinterpreted), oral tradition (which is heavily corrupted and intrinsically unreliable), and what few scraps of ancient writing we can salvage. Hence, the following section is merely informed speculation, and should be taken with a grain of salt.
Our world's distant past, and the pony race's true origins, are irretrievably lost to history. Some common myths hold that mighty, nigh-divine beings, with power over the celestial bodies, sculpted our world and its races out of a ball of lumpen matter. Several more modern theories propose alternative accounts: Dr. Frazzled, in his recent bestseller Ancient Ancestors, proposes that our world was once inhabited by some form of technologically-advanced creature, but that this entire species—along with all evidence of their having inhabited our world, conveniently—was destroyed by marauding space aliens eons before ponies came to be. On the other end of the spectrum, the theory of unguided evolution through natural processes is gaining popularity among the scientific community, though the sheer complexity of pony biology leads many to insist that all life on Equestria must have been... [Click Expand] at the top to read more.
It is not this work's place to analyze all the classic legends or modern theories in depth; we will limit ourselves to what information can be historically confirmed with some degree of certainty.
In any case, the first confirmed signs of pony civilization in modern-day Equestria date back to the 9th century BH. The earliest ponies were probably nomadic grazers, moving from region to region in search of new pastures in which to graze. The Meadows Pendant, a broken piece of stone- carved jewelry that has been arcana-dated to 831 BH, is the oldest pony-made artifact known to Equestrian archaeology. However, as most artifacts from the early nomadic tribes would have been made of cloth, they would have disintegrated from the ravages of time, so only a few scattered stone tools survive from the nomadic era.
Nomadic life was surely harsh; the nomadic herds would likely have been beset by famine, disease (exacerbated by nearly-nonexistent medicine), uncontrolled weather patterns, and clashes with raiders of various species. The unicorns and pegasi had hardly developed their unique arts of magic and weather control. Ponies' lives were, in the words of political philosopher Pumice Hooves, "nasty, brutish, and short." Ponykind's all- embracing herd instinct, which would become the foundation of our modern philosophy of Harmony, was its one defense in those dark times. When everypony lived on the border of life, nopony could survive without everypony pulling their weight.
Most of ponykind, during the 8th century BH, began to settle down and establish permanent agricultural communities. The nomadic tribes were probably driven to switch to agriculture by the pressures of feeding ever-larger herds, and their own quest for a more stable lifestyle. The construction of permanent settlements, some of which have been preserved partially-intact by various processes, has enabled archaeologists to speak with much more certainty and detail about post-settlement Equestria.
The next development in pony civilization was the rise of the city-state. As settlements swelled, spurred by new agricultural techniques and primitive medicine, they grew into larger towns. This population boom forced pony settlements to develop new and more stable forms of government, and caused other changes to pony society.
The development of city-states enabled each pony race to express their unique talents more fully than they could when they were merely struggling to survive. Earth Ponies' natural resilience, work ethic, and farming talent enabled them to build larger settlements and support larger populations than unicorns or pegasi were capable of. Their neighbours didn't remain static, though; unicorns began to develop the formal study of arcana, creating magical artifacts and a wide variety of utility and combat spells. Pegasi, likewise, developed the art of weather control, and used it to bend the cycle of seasons to their command.
The Age of Division (c.400 - 29BH)
The Age of Division is the popular name for time period between (on one hoof) the rise of the centralized racial governments of Athmanes, Gaullop, and Cloud-Cuckhoof-Land, and (on the other hoof) the first pan-Equestrian alliance, formed during the First Rakshasa Incursion. The Age of Division is defined by these Three Great Powers, and their constant fratricidal squabbling.
Out of the squabbling mess of city-states that defined the late Agricultural Age, three great powers emerged: the aristocratic Unicorn city-state of Athmanes, the Earth Pony feudal Kingdom of Gaullop, and the Pegasus mercantile republic of Cloud-Cuckhoof-Land. These three powers would eventually forge hegemonies over their respective races, forging much-needed political, economic, and cultural ties among unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies. Despite their internal unity, however, the Three Powers still mistrusted and fought against each other. Equestria, during the Age of Division, was a battleground between the respective ambitions of Athmanes, Gaullop, and Cloud- Cuckhoof-Land. Even during times of peace, the three races stared each other down from behind heavily-guarded borders, distrusting each other, and blaming each other for their own weaknesses.
The Athmaneian Republic
According to the inscriptions on the Rock of Ages - an ancient record of great events in Athmaneian city history which escaped the city's destruction and burial - the Republic of Athmanes was the first of the Three Powers to emerge, founded in 322 BH. Arcana-dated pottery fragments with Athmaneian inscriptions, recovered from the excavation sites of ancient Athmaneian settlements, seem to support this claim. In any case, Athmanes was a city of tradition, wealth, aristocratic majesty, wizardly power, and (especially in the eyes of its detractor neighbours) insufferable arrogance.
Supposedly situated on the north bank of the ancient Glade River delta, the city of Athmanes sat astride two valuable river trading routes, and became very wealthy as a result; much of this wealth escaped the city's fall, and signs of it still remain. To this day, many of Cantermore's modern nobility claim to trace their heritage back to legendary Athmaneian families; these claims are historically questionable at best.
Athmanes was an aristocratic republic. Most governing power was vested in a bicameral legislature, split between the aristocratic Senate and the more democratic Assembly. The Senate, made of representatives from the 46 most ancient and powerful noble houses, appointed various executive officers and passed most laws. The Assembly, which was open to all land-owning citizens, approved all financial expenditures. passed any bills not vetoed by the Senate, and had to approve all declarations of war. Executive power and supreme military command were vested in two Consuls, which the Senate elected from its own numbers.
Though this sounds fairly modern, it's worth noting that non-unicorns and non-landholders had few political rights. Regardless, as Athmanes' influence grew, so too did its burgeoning nation; other unicorn settlements began to crop up around the city, and spread out across a sizable distance. Most other unicorn settlements looked up to Athmanes as their great, crowning glory, making Athmanes both their capital and the name of their nation, which does cause some confusion when researching either's history.
Athmanes's greatest achievements, however, were in the arts. Athmaneians produced most of the Age of Division's great sculptures, poetry, theater, and philosophy. The Colossus of Pones, a towering bronze statue which was large enough to span the Glade River itself, was a shining example of Athmaneian architecture, as were the glorious marble archways which often straddled their ancient trade routes. The legendary philosopher Aristotle produced an elaborate system of metaphysics, which posited that all of reality was fundamentally aligned toward a universal principle of Harmony. The Early Harmony Age scholar, Pumice Hayquinas, would later elaborate on Aristrotle's work in writing his magnum opus, the Summa Harmonia.
Kingdom of Gaullop
Ruled by the great Mareovingian dynasty, the Kingdom of Gaullop was the preeminent Earth Pony nation during the Age of Division. The Kingdom was founded by the warhorse Coltvis in 253 BH, after, it is told, he defeated a large Dryad force at the Battle of Bushy Glade. Over the ensuing decades, his realm expanded to control nearly all Earth Pony territory.
Gaullop itself was ruled by a king, mostly from the descendants of Coltvis; however, they often relied on the support of the nobility, which generally consisted of the most notorious farmhooves of the land. The Mareovingians needed the support of their lesser nobility to exercise any real power, and often sought to pacify any discontent by leading them on constant expeditions of expansion and plunder. After Gaullop had conquered all the nearby Earth Pony tribes, it butted heads with the established Unicorn and Pegasus powers of Athmanes and Cloud-Cuckhoof-Land; this is usually seen as the kicking-off point of tensions between the three tribes.
The Gaullops were clannish, traditional, agricultural, and fiercely independent ponyfolk. They remained rooted to the countryside, even as the pegasi and unicorns started moving into their respective cities. Their towns and houses weren't much to look at, mostly consisting of thatched hay buildings; very little of their architecture has survived the passage of time, but what they lacked i
Though they took care of their own kinsponies well, the Gaullops easily started fights with the other tribes and races, and eagerly marched against neighbours on the slightest of pretenses. This would become prevalent in the Age of Division; out of all the races that went to war in that period, the Gaullops were easily the most active in that regard.
Cloud-Cuckhoof-Land Mercantile Republic
The Pegasus merchant weather-princes of Cloud- Cuckhoof-Land lacked the martial prowess of Gaullop warrior chiefs, or the mystical knowledge of the Athmaneian aristocracy. Their power was command of the very skies themselves; Cloud- Cuckhoof-Land built a wide-reaching mercantile empire with its mastery of weather control. The product of a multi-year cloud construction project by several pegasus tribes, Cloud-Cuckhoof-Land was formally founded in 283 BH, an event still commemorated by many pegasi yearly. The city was ruled by a council of the most prosperous Weather Guild merchants, led by an elected Duca. Theoretically, any pegasus could run for election, but each Duca tended to be one of the richest weather-princes of their respective age, so it can be assumed that wealth played a large factor in this election.
The Cuckhoof-Landers were well-known for their exuberance and strange sense of humor; the latter has consistently defied all attempts at easy academic categorization. Though their cultural output was not as prolific or dignified as the
Athmaneians', the Cuckhoof-Landers still contributed their unique brand of music, literature, and theater to our cultural corpus. They invented the art of Aero-Dance-Debating, a unique combination of legislature, aerobatic sport, and art form, which still baffles many scholars over a millennium later.
Being situated on a huge cloud, the new city had little in the way of natural resources, but it secured its economic position by renting out its weather- control teams to settlements across what we would now recognise as Equestria. Though the Cloud- Cuckhoof-Lander Weather Guild charged high prices for their services, their services allowed all Equestrians to have a more modern, agriculturally- prosperous, weather-controlled lifestyle.
Although they provided a valuable service to the rest of Equestria, the Cuckhoof-Landers constantly made a massive nuisance of themselves. Athmanes and Gaullop already resented having to pay pegasi for a service as valuable as weather control, but the Weather Guild's chronic unreliability only worsened their city's reputation. When a Guild weatherpony drenched a Gaullop baron's manor in a cotton- candy storm, instead of the gentle rain shower which the baron had ordered for five days ago, the baron tortured the weatherpony with bad poetry for five days straight. How much of this malfeasance was because of Cuckhoof-Lander honest ditziness, malicious japes, or just completely invented by xenophobic Unicorns and Earth Ponies, is unknown.
The Wars of the Age of Division
Without major external threats to unify them, or a unified philosophy of Harmony to guide them, the Three Powers often found themselves at odds. They carried on basic trade relations, but little cultural exchange; Athmanes banned the classic Cuckhoof- Lander surrealist play, Oranges and Other Fruits, for "subversive and undignified artistic insanity". (Your humble author, having read Oranges in its entirety, personally believes the Athmaneian ban to be a just and noble act.)
Relations between the Three Powers frequently broke down into violence, of one form or another. At the Battle of the Trotoburg Forest in 153 BH, the Gaullop tribes dealt a devastating blow to an invading Athmaneian army commanded by Quarterius Varequus. They lured the Athmaneians into a cunningly-concealed tourist trap, and swindled the gullible cityfolk out of house and home by selling overpriced tchotchkes. Upon seeing the debt which his army had accumulated, an Athmaneian Consul supposedly wailed, "Quarterius Varequus, give me back my treasury!" The Athmaneians took their revenge at the Battle of Agincolt in 111 BH, by occupying the topographic and cultural high ground, and breaking the Gaullops' fighting spirit through barbed, well-aimed criticisms of the uncouth barbarians' fashion sense.
The next few centuries were marked by similar conflicts. This is not to imply that all Three Powers were always at each others' throats at the same time; often, two of the Powers would ally with each other to try and bring down the third, though such alliances would quickly dissolve from backstabbing and mistrust. From our modern, enlightened perspective, the Age of Division was truly a dark time; ponies were wasting their talents and resources to tear each other down and squabble over precious resources and petty disagreements, instead of cooperating to achieve much greater things. Between Athmaneian philosophy, Gaullopish tight-knit community, and Cuckhoof-Lander exuberance, the three nations had already developed the fundamentals of our modern philosophy of Harmony. Still, they would only cast off their old hatreds and embrace each other as brothers when their pride had been shattered by an unexpected and civilization-shaking cataclysm.
Creating Equestria: A History - Volume 2: The Rakshasa Incursions and the Founding of Equestria