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April Fools 2020 Event (New Californian Expedition)
New Californian Expedition
After finding a portal in the wastelands, explorers from the New California Republic have found themselves in a magical land with bountiful resources and full of talking quadrupeds and find themselves in control of a significant chunk of land in southwest Equestria. Those humans who have journeyed to this strange new land must find their place in it, and some have even taken to the new (and not-so-new) ideologies found there.
- Humanity Is Infectious: A remarkable number of ponies flock to the NCR Expedition's cause, seemingly just out of friendship and the appeal of human ideals.
- Mundane Utility: While humans have absolutely no proficiency with magic, they find that magical crystals make effective focusing optics for laser rifles and thus use Old World laser rifles as their equivalent of the magic rifles other nations develop.
- Planet Looters: If the Expedition goes supremacist, they reject any sort of relationships with other nations as equals and see this new world as little more than a huge pile of untapped animal and mineral resources to exploit for the benefit of humanity.
- Puny Humans: The NCR Expedition is the only tag in the game that doesn't get any racial magical technology, not even the generic magical tech tree given to races that don't yet have their own. Also the tooltip for human spies and generals notes they smell bad.
April Fools 2021 Event (Dread Flood: The North Awakens)
Dread League
- All Your Powers Combined: One of the Society of Bones' focuses fuses the abilities of the three races, creating elite soldiers with greater abilities.
- Blood Knight: The Coven of Blood exalts war as the most beautiful thing in the world, which awakens the soul and strengthens the body. It is through war that one can see who is truly living or dead, and the vampires are the ones that are truly alive.
- Body of Bodies: The first step in the Society of Bones' experiment is the fusion of multiple bodies into one.
- Hive Mind: In their quest to bring all life together and destroy Death for all eternity, the Society of Bones fuses individuals into one shared Dread Consciousness, all obedient to the Hive-Mistress Rosa, who delivers second-by-second commands to every part of the vast organism.
- Human Resources: Since ghouls multiply fast and their blood is still nourishing, the Coven of Blood uses the blood of ghouls that die in factories to fuel their armies.
- Immortality Seeker: The Society of Bones seeks to put an end to the concept of life and mortality itself.
- Missing Reflection: The Kingdom of Midnight's vampires do not reflect in mirrors or register in cameras, in explicit contrast to vampires in the standard Dread League.
- Mobile Factory: Living factories created by the Society of Bones are massive and complex creatures of flesh and bones that are capable of serving as a mobile industrial base. After this focus is taken, all of the Dread League's factories will be converted into offmap factories, and any future built factory will be offmap.
- The Necrocracy: Like their regular counterpart, the Dread League is governed by a cabal of necromancers and a coven of vampire lords.
- Non-Standard Character Design: The vampires of the Kingdom of Midnight's portraits are sketched in pencil in a very distinct style from other portraits in the mod. Justified by how vampires do not register in mirrors, so their official portraits must be hand-drawn by artists.
- Purposely Overpowered: The April Fool's Dread League is deliberately meant to be broken, with overpowered bonuses beyond the comprehension of any serious country.
- Regime Change: After defeating the Arcturian Order, the Kingdom of Midnight tries to extend its influence to Skynavia, the Northern Tribes, Watertowns, Farbrook and the Firtree Villages through acolytes, fledgeling vampires and newly indoctrinated necromancers. Each of these decisions bloodlessly turns the corresponding country into a puppet of the Kingdom of Midnight (unless one of them is controlled by a human player who refuses), to be annexed once the Black Crusade is officially launched.
- Take Over the World: At the end of their focus tree, the Dread League launches the Black Crusade, providing them with claims on every state on the world, and a special ending event if they succeed.
- Visionary Villain: This version of the Dread League has much more inspiring goals than the vanilla one, with the Society of Bones dreaming to end death itself and the Coven of Blood seeking the subjugation of time.
Rosa Maledicta
Rosa Maledicta the Queen of the Undead
Rosa Maledicta the Hive-Mistress
Rosa Maledicta the Queen of Midnight
Rosa Maledicta the Queen of Eternity
- Arranged Marriage: The initiation of Rosa into the Coven of Blood is framed as a marriage to the First Vampire.
- Hive Queen: In the Society of Bones' path, Rosa becomes the Throne of the One Being, who commands hundreds of thousands of all kinds of beings.
April Fools 2022 Event (Twilight Theory)
In General
- All for Nothing: Completing all of the Canterlonian Regency's focuses reveals that Celestia and Luna simply went on vacation to Zebrica and Twilight along with the rest of Equestria failed to get their note, meaning the five way civil war and the misery unleashed by the Regency was meaningless.
- Civil War: The disappearance of the two Princesses plunges Equestria into a five-way civil war.
- Crossover: With fellow HoI4 mod The New Order Last Days Of Europe as part of the April Fools' Day event for 2022.
- Expy: All five states that emerge from shattered Equestria are inspired by Russian warlords well-known among the TNO community.
- Poor Communication Kills: All of this begins because Celestia and Luna go on vacation to Zebrica and nobody got the note they left. As a result, Equestria fell into civil war and millions died.
- Reset Button: With all the Element Bearers dead by the time Celestia and Luna return from their potentially years long vacation, Celestia's only reaction is to state that she's prepared for this by keeping "others beyond the mirror portal to act as replacements". Celestia once again becomes ruler of Equestria as if nothing has happened... even if you were nearly complete with conquering all of Equus by the time they return.
- Satellite Character: Among the five warlords that emerge from the collapse of Equestria, only the Canterlonian Regency and the Union of Equestrian Socialist Republics have actual focus trees and can be tag-switched to. The other warlords only have generic focuses, and their content revolves entirely around their interactions with the playable ones.
- Secret Character: Gutriosa, Valery Stablein, Shostavia, and Platinum II only ever appear as leaders for the April Fools event.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The Buffalo Chiefdom and the Dragon Badlands exclave play no role in the collapse of Equestria, instead being automatically swallowed up by the Princessdom and the Equinists respectively.
- Whole-Plot Reference: Fitting of being a crossover with The New Order, Equestria's shattering echoes the situation in the former Russian SFSR, which shattered into numerous warlords by 1962. A full 1:1 recreation of the Russian Anarchy within Equestria would no doubt see many more warlords in the mix.
Unicornian Sisterhood
Name: Unicornian Sisterhood
Ruling Party: Einhornische Schwesternshaftnote
Ideology: Ultranationalismnote
- Expy: The Sisterhood is a expy of the Aryan Brotherhood to the point of being a near total Distaff Counterpart, both being fascist states that oppress 99% of their own kind. Unlike the Brotherhood's leader Gutrum Vagner, who is an ethnic Russian that believes Germanizing Russia is the only way forward and is slavishly loyal to the Nazis, the Sisterhood's leader Gutriosa is at least actually a Unicorn.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Despite being a Unicorn supremacist state, they can still have Earth pony and Pegasi generals
. - Gratuitous German: Even though they're located in English-speaking Equestria, the name of their ruling party is refered to as Einhornische Schwesternshaft (meaning Unicorn Sisterhood in English), befitting an Expy to the Aryan Brotherhood, which consists of Russians speaking "Deytsch"note
- Politically Incorrect Villain: The Unicornian Sisterhood is an ultranationalistic state that openly promotes unicorn supremacism.
- Shout-Out: Unicornia is actually the name of a location from My Little Pony (G3).
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: While the Sisterhood do not have events of their own to give insight on their rule, one of the UESR's focuses being called "The Revolution of the Unhorned" implies they enslave Earth ponies and Pegasi.
Gutriosa
Party: Einhornische Schwesternshaftnote
Ideology: Ultranationalismnote
- Adaptational Villainy: Rarity◊ is the mare behind Gutriosa's mask, leading a Unicorn supremacist breakway state while a Changeling took her form to avoid suspicion.
- Bait-and-Switch: With their similar appearances and her role in a post-Changeling victory playthrough, you'd think Gloriosa and Gutriosa were one and the same. Except that it's Rarity of all ponies under that mask.
- Canon Character All Along: Gutriosa's true identity is Rarity.
- Domino Mask: Wears an ordinate one in her portrait.
- Expy: One to Gutrum Vagner, the leader of the Aryan Brotherhood, complete with sprinkling some German in her new society and Putting on the Reich. The only good quality about Gutriosa is that that she is at least not a Boomerang Bigot like him.
- Hate Sink: Gloriosa is a Unicorn supremacist who turns non-unicorns to slaves and is the most vile of all of the warlords. Regent Twilight's actions at least stem from snapping under the pressure of her situation, but Gutriosa has no reason for her cruelty.
- Identical Stranger: Bears more than a passing resemblance to Rarity, right down to the color scheme. This is not a coincidence.
- Karma Houdini: If the UESR wins the civil war, she discards the Gutriosa identity and returns to her old life as if nothing happened—nopony is aware that the unicorn supremacist slaver state was led by her.
- Malevolent Masked Woman: Her mask isn't exactly concealing much, but Gutriosa is a unicorn supremacist slaver that is the most downright evil of the warlords.
Union of Equestrian Socialist Republics
Name: Union of Equestrian Socialist Republics
Ruling Party: Vsesoyuznaya Kommunisticheskaya Partiya (Bolshevikov) - Stableinstynote
Ideology: Equestrian Socialismnote
- Chummy Commies: The UESR is by far the best Equestrian warlord to live in. Their focus tree has significant focuses set to help their citizens get used to Marksist rule and introduce equality for Equestrian minorities such as the thestrals.
- Expy: Of the Buryat ASSR in the Russian Far East, both being benevolent, idealistic communist warlords fighting against a clearly worse rival.
- Gratuitous Russian: The USER's ruling party is referred to in-game as Vsesoyuznaya Kommunisticheskaya Partiya (Bolshevikov) - Stableinsty, or All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) - Stableinists in English, even though the UESR is located in the northeastern part of English-speaking Equestria.
- Shout-Out: The original Valery Sablin from TNO (who also reuses his TNO portrait) ending up in Equestria is a nod to the Human In Equestria genre, a staple in Friendship Is Magic fanfiction.
- Wedding Finale: The UESR's final event after the return of the Princesses is a wedding between Valery Stablein and Starlight Glimmer.
Valery Stablein
Party: Vsesoyuznaya Kommunisticheskaya Partiya (Bolshevikov) - Stableinstynote
Ideology: Equestrian Socialismnote
- Expy: One to Valery Sablin, a humane communist that leads a revolt against the tyrannical Genrikh Yagoda in TNO.
- Expy Coexistence: The original Valery Sablin joins the UESR as an admiral in an event, and Stablein even remarks on the similarity of their names.
- Non-Indicative Name: Despite having the usual Equestrian naming convention, Stablein is actually a thestral.
- Punny Name: In true Equestrian fashion, his last name is Stablein.
- The One Guy: The only male leader of a breakaway state in post-collapse Equestria.
- Token Minority: Stablein also happens to be the only non-pony in charge of a breakaway state. This is likely also a reference to his TNO counterpart as while Sablin himself is ethnic Russian, most of the people he commands are Buryats.
Equinist Republic of Equestria
Name: Equinist Republic of Equestria
Ruling Party: Equinist Association
Ideology: Democratic Socialismnote
- Adaptation Distillation: The only party in the Equinist Republic of Equestria that can take power is the Equinist Association, based on the Humanists. Among the three other parties, only the Bastillards are named after one of Tomsk's salons, with no analogues to the Decembrists or the Modernists being present. The third and fourth parties, the Poetists and Conservatives, are not based on any salon.
- Expy: Of the remnants of the Central Siberian Republic based in Tomsk, both being republics with intellectuals in charge. Although unlike the CSR, the Equinists are not what's left of a once larger republic.
Shostavia
Party: Equinist Association
Ideology: Democratic Socialismnote
- Adaptational Badass: Octavia Melody, usually just a background pony that happens to be a talented cellist, is now a Rebel Leader in charge of a breakaway republic.
- Ascended Extra: Octavia usually only appears in a few Equestrian events in the main game, usually in regards to producing music to raise morale on the homefront during the Changeling war. The most important role she plays is with postwar interactions with Jachs in a Changeling victory, where it's revealed she's a spy for the ELF.
- Composite Character: Shostavia is a combination of MLP character Octavia Melody and Dmitri Shostakovich, who in TNO is the leader of the Tomsk Humanists in addition to being a composer of classical music.
Princessdom of Equestria
Name: Princessdom of Equestria
Ruling Party: The Old Court of Equestria
Ideology: Despotismnote
- Expy: To the Principality of Kemerovo, both being a new monarchy unrelated to the past royals of their respective lands that strongly invokes the Days of Future Past.
Platinum II
Party: The Old Court of Equestria
Ideology: Despotismnote
- Expy: Of Rurik II, both adopting the name of an ancient ruler from their respective country's distant past and have no royal lineage themselves.
- Famous Ancestor: According to the Regency focus "The False Princess◊", Platinum II claims to be a direct heir of the original Princess Platinum. Although unlike with Rurik II, there's no answer regarding if she truly believes such or is putting on an act.
- King Bob the Nth: Much like her inspiration, she is Princess Platinum II, the first Princess Platinum that Equestria has seen in a long time.
- No Name Given: Unlike the case with Rurik II, whose real name is Nikolai Krylov and was a former Red Army/Central Siberian general, no details are given on who Platinum II used to be in her old life.
- Rags to Royalty: A commoner nopony who eventually took up the mantle of Platinum II, claiming to directly descend from one of the original Founders of Equestria.
- Winged Unicorn: Platinum II also invokes the image of being an Alicorn, courtesy of wearing a fake Unicorn horn as the original Princess Platinum was a Unicorn, while Platinum II herself was born a Pegasus.
Canterlonian Regency
Name: Canterlonian Regency, Holy Equestrian Principality (post-reunification)
Ruling Party: Twilight's Regency
Ideology: Celestial Cultnote
- Adaptational Villainy: Both Prince Blueblood and Soarin'◊ serve Twilight's Regency and get caught up in atrocities committed in the name of a theocracy.
- Dark Is Evil: Much like their inspiration, the Regency is pitch black on the map and Twilight will unleash Tartarus on Equus to reunite Equestria under the Princesses.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: In a notable departure from the Regency's inspiration, some of their Focuses have them recruiting non-pony troops, such as natives from the southern jungles.
- Expy: Of none other than the Holy Russian Empire, the most radically totalitarian and far-right of all possible reunifying Russian statelets, the absolute Bad Ending for the entire region, and one of TNO's most infamous creations.
- Gorn: The focus icons for the Regency are among the most gruesome in the mod, if not in the entire game's modding community, with abounding images of mutilated bodies, faces with empty eyesockets, and bloodied knives.
- King in the Mountain: Regent Twilight insists that the Princesses will return someday and until then, Twilight will rule on their behalf and reunite Equestria. She unknowingly is right. The Princesses return after the continent has been turned into a war-torn dystopia that just lost its dictator. They bring in alternate copies to replace the dead characters, resume ruling and pretend nothing happened.
- Persecution Flip: Upon defeating the Sisterhood, the Regency's focus "Shackle the Unicorns" implies they turn the Sisterhood's policy of slavery right back on them.
- Rightful King Returns: Twilight wants the Princesses to return but much like Tsarevich Alexei, they're not ever coming back.
- Salt the Earth: In the focuses dedicated to fighting the Princessdom, one of their Focuses simply reads "Burn them Down". Given that Platinum II seems to be more of a Berserk Button than even the other leaders, the Princessdom after the Regency's victory might just very well be made a wasteland.
- Shout-Out:
- Outside of the obvious references to The New Order and its Holy Russian Empire, the Regency path also evokes the spirit of the classic My Little Pony Creepypastas of the early 2010s popularized by the infamous Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles) story, with the over-the-top gore, images like ponies with empty eyesockets, and the overall theme of child-friendly characters being corrupted.
- The concept of Twilight Sparkle becoming a bloodthirsty, cultish despot ruling in the name of the Princesses appears to be directly lifted from Equestria Divided, where she does exactly that.
- State Sec: Twilight's answer to Taboritsky's Imperial Shturmoviki are the Friendship Brigades, who carry out the Regent's orders without question.
- The Theocracy: While still claiming to be the same Equestria from before the Princesses vanished, Twilight fully embracing the Celestial Cult turns Equestria into a theocracy that worships the Princesses as outright goddesses who demand Equestria to be wiped clean of traitors and heretics.
Twilight Sparkle
Regency portrait
Post-Ascension portrait
Party: Twilight's Regency
Ideology: Celestial Cultnote
- Adaptational Villainy: Though the original Twilight had some moments of megalomania and clock-related madness, she certainly had never stooped so low as to burn down Equestria in order to bring it back under the Princesses.
- Evil Chancellor:
- Much like her TNO counterpart, Twilight is a loyal monarchist and only rules in the name of the Princesses. However, her fanaticism will see her transform Equestria into a theocratic totalitarian dictatorship and will stop at nothing to create a pure and loyal Equestria for the Princesses to return to.
- Also reflected in Twilight's trait◊, which gives her a 15% boost to a number of areas and a 5% boost to recruitable population, but at the cost of a 15% reduction to stability.
- Expy: To Sergey Taboritsky, one of TNO's most infamous (tragic) villains, who also declares himself the Regent of a long gone monarch. Her appearance and name post-alicorn transformation also reference Equestria Girls Midnight Sparkle (who is technically a separate character).
- The Extremist Was Right: Turns out when she said the Princesses would one day return to Equestria, she was actually right.
- Irony: The Princesses actually do return, just as Twilight says they will, whereas the murdered Tsar(evich) Alexei Taboritsky heralds in TNO...doesn't. They only come back after she dies, though.
- Promoted to Playable: If the April Fool's option is not enabled, Twilight is only technically playable when she becomes Equestria's ruler at the tail end of the ELF's storyline (at which point there's no content left). The April Fool's event is the first time Twilight is playable with actual content.
- Sanity Slippage: While genuinely trying her best to keep Equestria united after the Princesses vanish, the stress of her new position of power and the growing disunity in Equestrian society begins to get to Twilight, but doesn't fully snap and become a Celestial Cultist until the breakaway states actually form.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Twilight's first reaction◊ to being told the Princesses simply vanished and that she is now in charge of Equestria is a simple exclamation of "Horseapples".
- Undignified Death: After becoming Midnight, Twilight leaves this world by way of taking a Staircase Tumble while looking for Spike◊ which breaks her neck.
- Winged Unicorn: The Regency's penultimate event "Ascension◊" has Twilight become an (even more powerful) Alicorn through the power of the Crystal Heart, completing her transformation to the tyrannical Midnight, with lofty plans to spread the Princesses' rule to the whole world and beyond but dies before getting the chance to do so.
April Fools 2023 Event (Dawnclaw Heresy)
Imperium of Griffonkind
- Book Burning: Under the Imperium, literature and teachings deemed heretical are put to the torch, with only select copies being escorted back to Griffenheim to be placed under lock and key in the Basilica of Secrets.
- Burn the Witch!: After the Imperium takes over Northern Griffonia, the Holy Inquisition is deployed to purge this region. Their pyres burn bright as shamans and witches have their primitive tricks exposed.
- The Empire: The Imperium of Griffonkind is a brutal theocracy that will embark on a Grand Crusade, a long war of conquest to put the entire continent of Griffonia under its rule.
- Expy: Numerous elements of the Imperium of Griffonkind are deliberately based on the Imperium of Man from Warhammer 40,000:
- The Imperium of Griffonkind, much like its namesake, is a theocratic monarchy ruled by the Imperial Cult of a corpse-Emperor that is barely kept alive by a life support device that also serves as his Throne.
- Their Star Knights, genetically-modified elite troops clad in armour made of thick ceramics and steel plates, wholly sealed and resistant to anything any regular soldier could unleash upon them, are modelled after Space Marines. An event describing them also echoes one of the Emperor of Mankind's quotes, which originated in the 3rd Edition core rulebook describing the Space Marines. Their main weapons are the Bolzengewehr, massive guns that fire not bullets, but rather small explosive shells using experimental rocket propellant. While ostensibly named after their inventor Belisar Bolzen, their name also invokes the identical boltguns which serve as the Space Marines' iconic weapon.
- Archrector Dominus Belisar Bolzen, the madgriff responsible for creating the Crystal Throne and the Star Knights, is based on Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl, an eccentric genius and inventor of the Primaris Space Marines. With the Emperor's auspices, he turns the Yale Rectorate into the Cult of the Machine, where science becomes a sacred act, mirroring the Adeptus Mechanicus. They also turn entire cities into massive hives of industry entirely dedicated to military production—essentially downscaled versions of the Mechanicus' Forge Worlds.
- Most generals who join the Imperium of Griffonkind early in its focus tree wear uniforms that evoke the Cadian Shock Troopers. Two of them, Kork Deddog and Sebastian Yorrick, are clearly named after Imperial Guard iconic characters Nork Deddog and Sebastian Yarrick.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Much like its inspiration, the Imperium of Griffonkind is a theocratic, expansionist monarchy that preaches zealotry, ignorance and militarism, but its nemesis, the Dawnclaw Heresy, is interested in little other than spreading suffering.
- Machine Worship: Archrector Dominus Belisar Bolzen recasts the Yale Rectorate into the Cult of the Machine, where science and development are no longer merely a calling, but a sacred act.
- Powered Armor: Made from a combination of diamond dog and griffon technology as well as pony magic, Star Knight armour is stronger than that of both ironpaws and griffon knights, and demands preternatural strength from the wearer.
- The Purge: In an early focus, the Imperium launches a drawn-out, painful purge to remove all traces of treason from the armed forces and society, no matter the cost.
- Schizo Tech: The Imperium's technology, which originates from Warhammer 40,000, is far more advanced than anything else in the world, rivalled only by fellow April Fool's country Katzennia (whose reports remark that their equipment is 'at least forty thousand years ahead of this planet's most sophisticated technology').
- Secret Police: The Holy Imperial Inquisition is tasked with ensuring the spiritual purity of the Imperium. Their authority is absolute, their mandate divine, and they will do whatever it takes to ensure that heresy and treason do not fester in the Imperium.
- State Sec: The Holy Imperial Inquisition commands extensive authority, including its own armed force. When an agent is present, all other authorities will be subordinated to the Inquisition, bar the Emperor himself.
- The Theocracy: The Imperium is a theocratic monarchy where the Emperor is also leader of the Imperial Cult and holds both temporal and spiritual authority.
- Un-person: After conquering Aquileia, the Imperium erases the very memory of their country's existence from all documents. In due time, all that will remains will be little more than fairy tales dismissed as fanciful myths.
Emperor of Griffonkind
- Dark Lord on Life Support: As he lays dying, Emperor Grover V is entombed in the Crystal Throne, an experimental device that provides life support and revitalisation for the severely ill. Not only that, Grover V also turns from an ineffectual leader into the divine Emperor of Griffonkind, who will launch a series of conquests to unify the entire continent of Griffonia under his rule.
- Expy: The Emperor of Griffonkind has very little to do with Grover V's standard incarnation, instead serving as a version of the Emperor of Mankind transplanted into the world of Equestria at War.
- God-Emperor: In the Imperium, there is only one god, the Emperor on the Crystal Throne, who supplants the griffons' traditional faith in Boreas, Arcturus and Eyr.
- Mercy Kill: When a scared and broken Diellza von Katerinburg shows up in Griffenheim after being ousted from power in Katerin, the Emperor grants her the mercy of death.Diellza von Katerinburg: I don't know... I don't know... I'm scared, I don't want to be scared. I don't want to be here. I don't want to hurt any more...
Emperor of Griffonkind: THEN CLOSE YOUR EYES, DIELLZA VON KATERINBURG. LET ME GRANT YOU THE MERCY I COULD NOT BEFORE. - No Indoor Voice: All of the Emperor's dialogue is written in ALL CAPS.
- Not Himself: While the Crystal Throne ostensibly saved the life of the critically-ill Emperor, it also turned the frail, meek, indecisive Grover V into somegriff (or something) entirely new. To those who knew him, Grover V seems all but gone, and the Emperor that now occupies the Crystal Throne is singular in vision, implacable in will and divine in power. He is the guiding light for a formerly dying Imperium, one that will finally reach out and claim its rightful destiny: lordship over all of Griffonia.
Dawnclaw Heresy
- Anarcho-Tyranny: The Dark Imperium's lords are not interested in rulership as much as pure and plain suffering. Maarite cults engage in continent-wide acts of violence and hedonism, and Griffonia sinks into an age of chaos.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Parodied. One of the Heresy's focuses describes work quotas as a necessary evil, before denying that this was ever considered at the first place:As mundane as quotas are, they are a necessary evil for furthering our goa- Wait. Did we really just consider the possibility that we might regret doing something evil? No, of course not. Implement the quotas, and make sure they're harsh.
- The Empire: The Heresy launches a massive war of conquest across Griffonia simply to spread pure and plain suffering.
- Expy: The Dawnclaw Heresy is the Chaos Space Marines, who turned to the worship of Maar (Chaos) and rebelled against the Imperium of Griffonkind (Man):
- The backbone of the rebellion is Void Knights, Star Knights (Space Marines) who betrayed the Emperor and Imperium to side with Warmaster Dawnclaw (Horus).
- Their most deranged and zealous Void Knights, who have been granted the same kinds of visions that the Warmaster was and are charged with sacrificing the faithless, are clearly named after the Word Bearers, the most fanatical Traitor Chaos Space Marine Legion (and the only one who cannot be played as Loyalists under Horus Heresy rules).
- Human Sacrifice: The Heresy sacrifices the faithless to Maar if they can serve no other purposes.
- Persecuted Intellectuals: The Heresy sees no merit in intellectuals, who will share their ideas and plans with interrogators before being sacrificed to Maar.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: The forces of the Dawnclaw Heresy engage in an orgy of death and destruction wherever they go.
- The Social Darwinist: The Heresy believes that the weak and homeless are only good for target practice.
- Sociopathic Soldier: The sadism and cruelty of the Heresy's warbands are singular.
Warmaster Dawnclaw
- Composite Character: Warmaster Dawnclaw is a combination of Ferdinand Dawnclaw and Horus Lupercal, the Arch-Traitor who turns to Maar (Chaos) and leads an army of traitor Star Knights (Space Marines) in rebellion against the Emperor of Griffonkind.
- The Corrupter: After coming to Cloudbury, Dawnclaw exploits the frustration and anger that have festered for two decades within the republican revolutionaries, who were promised liberty only to be given exile and starvation as their leaders bickered and schemed, to corrupt them into Maarite cultists.
- The Hedonist: Warmaster Dawnclaw, after embracing Maar worship, decides to indulge in every pleasure he could find.
April Fools 2024 Event (Katzenreich)
Katzennia
- Build Like an Egyptian: A kilometre-high pyramid is inaugurated to serve as the nexus of Katzen high command.
- Child Soldiers: Kattail ponders why fighting is restricted to just the adults. The more Kats in the military, the better.
- The Empire: The Katzenartig Imperium is a state built for one singular purpose: war.
- Mega City: A series of ambitious architectural projects turn most of Abyssinia into a gargantuan megacity housing tens of millions of Katzen citizens, befitting a planetary capital.
- Schizo Tech: Katzennia, which originates from a Stellaris mod, brings with it technological marvels hitherto unseen in the world of Equestria at War.
- Soul-Powered Engine: The Soulbot is a mechanical chassis capable of housing a genuine organic soul. Fallen soldiers can then have a second chance, and leaders could also transfer their consciousnesses into such bodies, drastically enhancing their cognitive and physical capabilities.
- Terraform: The Imperium's Gigaprojects include Zebtropa (a dam to drain the Arabian Sea for more land while greening the Zebhara Desert) and Eiswasser (melt the permafrost from the far north so the land can be put to better use).
Kaiser Kattail
- The Coup: Kattail takes over Abyssinia by gathering a following and marching on the capital, at which point King Gomez seems almost happy to give up his crown.
- Nuke 'em: Knowing what they're capable of doing if not stopped, Kattail has a large cluster of nuclear bombs dropped down the Mareiana Trench to get rid of the sirens (who serve as a crisis faction in the corresponding crossover content in Gigastructural Engineering And More).
- Pet the Dog: After defeating the Storm Kingdom, to reward his loyal Abyssinians for sticking with him, Kattail has the Storm King's palace literally dismantled stone by stone and shipped from the Eye of the Storm all the way to Abyssinia, then rebuilt as a museum to both old Abyssinian culture and history as well as its recent newfound Katzen glory.
- Take Over the World: Kattail is an insane megalomaniac who seeks to conquer all that exists, though since Equestria at War is a mod for a World War II-themed game, there's only one planet for him to take over this time. This makes Katzennia one of the few nations that can do a world conquest run without having to justify war goals.
- Trapped in Another World: Instead of Flusion as he expected, Kattail finds himself somewhere unfamiliar, where gravity is stronger, the climate is warmer, and the population is much more rural.
United Free States
- The Alliance: The United Free States consists of every nation in the world united to fight Katzennia.
- Enemy Mine: When Katzennia invades Equus or Griffonia, every nation in each continent, regardless of ideological differences, will team up to combat the Katzen threat.
- Player-Exclusive Mechanic: The world can only unite into the United Free States if the Katzenartig Imperium (and no other country) is controlled by a human player, as understandably it would mess up with a game played as any other country.
Legacy Characters
Caramel Marks
An Equestrian unicorn who, alongside her friend Fire Angel, wrote the program of their underground organization "Union of Struggle for Justice", thus creating a new ideology named Communism.
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Quite obviously a pony version of Karl Marx.
Steel Stallion
A follower of Marksism who led a revolution against Severyanan nobles and Celestia, but died of illness shortly after establishing Stalliongrad.
- Egopolis: Princessyn, the capital of Severyana, was renamed to Stalliongrad in his honour after his death.
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Vladimir Lenin with hooves, although his name is more reminiscent of Joseph Stalin.
Guto VI
Last king of Griffonstone who was slain by a cyclops on his way to assume his position on the Regency Council of Grover V.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Because of his death the Idol of Boreas was lost and the Regency Council slid into incompetence.
Gumberto I
King of Wingbardy and father of Garibald Talonuel III, he was assasinated early in the reign of Grover V.
- Plot-Triggering Death: After Gumberto's death, his son led Wingbardy to secede from the Griffonian Empire on the accusation that they were involved in his assassination, kickstarting the Imperial collapse and countless revolutions.
Cnoof and Ivor
Two Olenian brothers who together were granted the blessing of the Olenian King and set out to conquer Hindia for him, starting an age in Zebrican history known as Deerlaw.
- Composite Character: They are both modelled after Romulus and Remus (one of the brothers even died childless), and Ragnar Lodbrok's sons who established Danelaw in England.
Storm King
A charismatic yeti who unified his people and led them to conquer most of Zebrica before being defeated through a combination of Hippogriff sudden attack, Mane Six's involvement and Tempest Shadow's betrayal.
- Adaptational Wimp: Doesn't conquer Equestria here, instead he is defeated in Zebrica while preparing a naval invasion of Hippogriffia.
