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Characters / Codex Equus: Cunabala

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Here is a list of characters from the formerly isolated Grittish kingdom of Cunabala.

To return to the main character index, click here.

Cunabala

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    General 
  • Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: What Cunabala's hatred of Discord eventually evolved into. Their hatred dates back to ancient times, when the original Knights of Harmony failed to spread friendship and harmony thanks to Discord turning the other nations against them. Although Discord has already reformed, his deeds became so ingrained into Cunabula's cultural/social mindset that years of indoctrination turned the majority, including the Knights of Order/Tyranny, into fanatical Knight Templars who use Discord as a scapegoat to justify their horrible actions. Eventually, this mindset is what leads Cunabula undergoing a huge political upheaval - following the Tree of Patriotism's condemnation of the Knights of Order/Tyranny and the entire Danu Dynasty, a Civil War follows, with the most corrupt deities and mortals being ousted from power by their progressive, forgiving, and tolerant counterparts.
  • Royal Inbreeding: Before its removal from power, the Danu Dynasty practiced centuries' worth of inbreeding to keep their sons' physical resemblance to the original King Danu as closely as possible. This is part of a long-standing tradition of indoctrination that the Danu Dynasty has been perpetuating to keep the legend of the original Knights of Harmony as they saw it alive. Predictably, later generations were riddled with physical and mental ailments as a consequence of their inbreeding, with King Aengus being born with a deformed leg. Once he came to power, Aengus passed laws that forbade inbreeding.
  • Royally Screwed Up: The entire Danu Dynasty practiced Royal Inbreeding to keep their offspring as close to the original King Danu, one of the original Knights of Harmony, as physically possible. Predictably, this led to succeeding generations being riddled with physical and mental ailments; King Aengus the First was born with a deformed leg as a result of centuries' worth of familial eugenics. The Danu Dynasty also regularly abused and indoctrinated their children to follow a warped, puristic view of Patriotism as they saw it and not what they should be, creating an enduring Vicious Cycle that left many family members psychologically unstable.

    King Aengus the First, the Knight of Freedom 

Character: Heroic

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Type: Good King, Chaos Bearer, Pyromancer, Leucrocuta, Rebel Leader

Faction: Cunabala, the Knights of Chaos, Cunabalan Harmonic Restoration

"If order is the way of tyrants, then chaos shall be our way to freedom."

King Aengus the First (his entry here) is the nephew of the former King Danu who ultimately staged a rebellion to take the throne and set things right.
  • The Chosen One: He was chosen by Ar-a-mach to be his Element of Freedom and by the Tree of Patriotism to be its pick for the new king.
  • Handicapped Badass: He was born with a deformed leg due to inbreeding. This didn't stop him from being a Rebel Leader and effective combatant.
  • Hybrid Power: As a Leucrocuta, he has the magical roars of a Great Lion and the life magic of an Earth Pony.
  • King of Beasts: He's a Leucrocuta, a mythical Lion/Horse hybrid, who was bred to closely resemble the original King Danu through a millennia of eugenics and selective breeding. He originally started off as a Duke, but his refusal to follow his family's corrupt traditions and efforts to do something about them ends with him being crowned King and founder of a new dynasty once the 'Cunabalan Civil War' is finished.
  • Large Ham: Like his divine tutor, Magna, he is quite boisterous and has a knack for being theatrical.
  • Like Father, Unlike Son: Despite growing up in a toxic environment, Aengus was always openminded, tolerant, and reasonable, as well as a very capable leader. After being crowned King, he would rule with fairness and tolerance, ensuring the erasure of Cunabala's corrupt practices and traditions. By contrast, Angeus' father, Prince Neit, was a corrupt and fanatical person who abused his own son for being different physically and mentally, and fully endorsed the twisted version of order that Cunabala once peddled. Following the end of the 'Cunabala Civil War', Prince Neit would be tried for his crimes, likely by Aengus himself, and sentenced to life-imprisonment and exile from Cunabala, never to return.
  • The Magnificent: Known as "the Knight of Freedom".
  • Rebel Leader: He was the leader of the Cunabalan Harmonic Restoration during the Cunabalan Civil War, seeking to restore Cunabalan to the truly harmonic place it should have been.
  • The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: Invoked: his revolution was sparked by seeing the more malevolent factions rising against the government and seeing it would do no good, so instead he sought for his faction to be more benevolent and heroic. This was what attracted the Tree of Patriotism and Ar-a-mach to choose him.
  • Scars Are Forever: He has a large scar covering the right side of his face, inflicted by his father as a child for daring to have openminded views that ran contrary to the fanatical, corrupt traditions the rest of his family held.
  • A Shared Suffering: He befriends Prince Blueblood over their shared backgrounds of being abused by strict, controlling parents who tried indoctrinating them to corrupt traditions and punished them for deviating from said traditions.

    Queen Anu, the Dame of Loyalty 
  • Redeeming Replacement: She's the successor to ex-King Danu as the Canubalan Element of Loyalty - unlike him, she's The High Queen and a genuinely benevolent person who embodies true loyalty to what her country should be. For bonus points, they even have similar names, but her name is spelled without a 'D'.

Cunabalan Pantheon

    General 
  • Fantasy Pantheon: The Cunabalan Pantheon is the main ruling pantheon of the kingdom of Cunabala. While initially isolationist, xenophobic, and traditionalist like the mortal government they sponsored, the pantheon experienced a political upheaval when its more tolerant and progressive members challenged and fought their conservative counterparts in their own civil war, with the former group eventually winning out.
  • Token Evil Teammate: While it's unknown whether the Cunabalan Pantheon had infernal members pre-civil war, both Ar-a-mach and Queen Krásná Tradice are two known recorded examples of this. The former embodies things that are opposite of Patriotism like Chaos and Revolution (though really in the sense that Patriotism is about accepting 'chaos' in differences and stirring revolutions out of loyalty to one's country), while the latter is an infernal goddess who embodies the unfettered aspects of tradition, sovereignty, and order.

    Ar-a-mach, the Cunabalan Lord of Chaos 

Classification: Ethereal

Portfolio: Chaos, Revolution, Open-Mindedness

Rank: Godling

"The best antidote to close-minded tyranny is open-minded liberty."

Ar-a-mach (his entry here) is the Draconequus god of Chaos, Revolution, and Open-Mindedness, and is the constructively chaotic counterpart of the Elements of Patriotism.

    Queen Krásná Tradice, the Dutiful Queen 

Classification: Ascendant/Ethereal

Portfolio: Tradition, Sovereignty, Order, Prophecy

Rank: Divine (Tier III/Intermediate; formerly a demigoddess)

"It's no use following traditions when all it does is lead you to ruin in the end."

Queen Krásná Tradice (her entry here) is the Deer-Draconequus goddess of Tradition, Sovereignty, Order, and Prophecy, and is one of Pokhot's older daughters.
  • The Ace: To the Alvslog Deer of her home kingdom, she was the ideal Doe: A graceful and intelligent Princess, an excellent student, a talented mage, and a mentor figure for her younger siblings, yet submissive to her male relatives and peers as she was expected to be. Even better, she was born a Seer, which meant she was destined for great things like becoming a great Queen and mother. However, it's deconstructed as the standards she was held to proved to be hypocritical and toxic, contributing to both her psychological trauma and her bigoted mindset. Much of her character arc involved overcoming the bigotry she grew up with so she can be her own person instead of what others dictated she should be.
  • Animal Gender-Bender: One of her chimeric traits is a peacock's fanning tail, which is associated with royalty. However, the peacock's fanning tail is exclusive to males of the species. Her lion's mane is also a trait exclusive to male lions.
  • Animal Motifs: Her chimeric animal traits are based on animals that are associated with royalty and strength, such as lions, eagles (though a harpy eagle in her case), bears, peacocks, and badgers. Fittingly, she was born a demi-divine Princess in a now-fallen Alvslog Deer kingdom, before she moved on and became a full-blooded divine Queen of her own hell-fief; ironically, her former Alvslog subjects expected her to become a Queen due to being born a Seer, but she fulfilled said expectations in a completely different way.
  • Anthropomorphic Personification: She's a Deer-Draconequus goddess who embodies Tradition, Sovereignty, Order, and Prophecy.
  • Appeal to Tradition: Deconstructed and played for drama. Like many Alvslog Deer, she grew up a staunch traditionalist, yet the bigoted traditions and attitudes of her society hurt both herself and her family personally. One of her younger brothers was killed by their father, an Alvslog King, for being born a hybrid. And even after moving to a more tolerant environment, she clung to her fawnhood traditions because they're all she had, alienating her Bogolenya relatives. The fact that she herself was born a hybrid gave her self-loathing issues as well. She later runs away to find some justification for her existence, but it's not until she meets Blue Suede Heartstrings that she rethinks her beliefs. She ultimately chooses to focus on punishing those who became obsessed with tradition and antiquity so more innocents wouldn't suffer like she did.
  • Badass Cape: As the Queen of her Alvslog-esque hell-fief, she wears a blue druidic cloak with golden patterns and leaves sewn in. She's also a goddess with strong Reality Warper abilities, a powerful Seer and druidess, and is a skilled archer and fighter.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Invoked and played straight.
    • Played Straight: She approved of Blue Suede Heartstrings' friendship with her younger half-brother, Prince Stoltur Skjöldur, and even foresaw them becoming a couple later on, though she respected Blue Suede enough not to go full-on Shipper on Deck like her more eager family members. Her vision eventually comes true when Blue Suede marries Stoltur and adopts her after making a full psychological recovery... though their relationship is made complicated and awkward by the fact that Stoltur is technically her 'father' now. To Blue Suede's credit, though, he initially didn't want to adopt her because of that fact, but did it anyway because he felt she deserved better after growing up with an abusive, xenophobic, and traditionalist father.
    • Invoked: Part of her punishments revolve around giving stubborn reactionaries exactly what they wanted: A return to the 'good old days' as they're actually portrayed, with all the flaws and malicious aspects of the very civilizations and historical periods that reactionaries often romanticize, complete with toxic, harmful traditions that they fanatically upheld in life. One of her favorite punishments regarding wicked, reactionary Deer is to place them in illusionary worlds depicting cruel, dystopian parodies of proto-Alvslog Deer civilizations that lived In Harmony with Nature in the First Age. Though by her own admission, she had to do quite a bit of research to get it right.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: While she loves all her family members, she's pretty close to Blue Suede Heartstrings. During her time as a runaway, Blue Suede helped her with her trauma and encouraged her to protect innocent people from toxic traditions, which led to her Ascending to true godhood after years of punishing the wicked. While their relationship hit a rough spot when she kept Blue Suede's problems a secret (which he requested), she made amends by being part of the group who psychically entered Blue Suede's mind to save him from 'The Colonel', and helping him psychologically heal once Blue Suede wakes up from his Angst Coma. She is later adopted by Blue Suede, now King Caerulus Melodia Equestria-Corporatum, finally giving her a loving and tolerant father-figure... though Caerulus' marriage to her half-brother, Prince Stoltur, makes their relationship complicated and awkward. She does stay in touch with Caerulus and his family after opting to stay in the Bogolenya Deer Pantheon.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Subverted. She wanted to protect her younger brother from being killed by their father just for being a hybrid, but duty to her kingdom and growing fear of her father prevented from doing so. The incident would haunt her for years, and it partly contributed to her running away from home. However, meeting Blue Suede Heartstrings during one of her travels would influence her to become a punisher of the wicked so people like her younger brother wouldn't die senselessly for the sake of tradition and order, and she would receive emotional support from those who genuinely want to help her recover.
  • Blessed with Suck: Invoked as a perversion to the Alvslog Deer Herds' cultural reverence of prophets and Seers. Having precognitive powers might seem good on paper, but it soon gets extremely hard to discern a true vision from mere hallucinations without a filter. To punish those who abused their precognitive sight to either give people false hopes or do horrible things to secure a good future, Krásná grants the damned shades unfiltered psychic visions that drive them mad. Either a future ironically manifests thanks to their actions, or whatever future they tried to avoid happens anyway.
  • Blue Is Heroic: Subverted. She has a peacock-blue pelt, and she wears dark-blue royal Alvslog Deer robes and a blue druid's cloak with golden patterns. She is by nature an evil and depraved goddess who acts like a rigid, cruel, and dystopian tyrant, but she uses her nature to target those who committed crimes related to the unfettered and toxic aspects of tradition, order, and sovereignty. However, her traditional upbringing as an Alvslog Princess has made her more moderate and controlled in her evil, making her a Token Good Teammate for her family by conventional standards. She was also influenced positively by those who are both associated with blue and genuinely heroic, such as Blue Suede Heartstrings/King Caerulus Melodia Equestria-Corporatum, who would later become her adoptive father.
  • Boomerang Bigot: Deconstructed. She was prejudiced against non-Deer and Deer hybrids despite being a hybrid herself, which was the direct result of growing up in a deeply traditionalist, xenophobic, and reactionary society. Deep down, she hated herself for being a hybrid and was haunted by her failure to save one of her younger brothers from getting killed for the same reason, which later influenced her to run away to find some justification for her existence. It's not until she meets Blue Suede Heartstrings that she rethinks her beliefs and chooses to punish wicked, unrepentant traditionalists so no one will suffer like she did. Her Bogolenya relatives understand that she's ultimately a product of her environment and sympathize her for it, but they were still alienated by her attitudes all the same and appreciate her efforts in changing herself for the better.
  • Bow and Sword in Accord: Her main weapon is a royal spear with an ornate design, but by tradition, she is also a skilled archer who uses enchanted arrows to inflict elemental damage.
  • Broken Ace: She was considered the ideal Princess by Alvslog standards, being an excellent student, a talented mage, a mentor to her siblings, and a submissive Doe overall. However, she was deeply traumatized by her society's entrenched sexism and xenophobia, largely thanks to the actions of her birth father, and she ended up becoming a bigot herself due to her indoctrination. Fortunately, meeting kind non-Deer like Blue Suede Heartstrings would gradually make her see that her people's beliefs were wrong, and she would see various psychiatric deities to help overcome her trauma.
  • Broken Bird: Her early life sucked. Her birth father was among the worst of the Alvslog Kings, and she grew up surrounded and indoctrinated by xenophobia, sexism, traditionalism, and puristic views of evil. When one of her younger brothers was killed by her birth father for being a hybrid, she didn't intervene out of fear and was haunted by it for years, yet she was unable to properly grieve since Alvslog society condemns those who support hybrids. When she and her family moved to the Erobreseg Deer Realms, she clashed with her extended family in the Bogolenya Deer Pantheon because her bigotry was all she had left. She ran away in self-loathing, but it was during her adventures that she met Blue Suede Heartstrings, who helped her during her Darkest Hour and encouraged her to oppose the toxic beliefs that hurt her so much. Inspired by this, she chose to become a divine punisher, but she was left with lingering trauma that required visits from psychiatric deities to get over.
  • Child of Two Worlds: Her mother is Pokhot, the infernal Bogolenya Deer-Draconequus goddess of Pride, Lust, and Sex, while her father is a mortal Alvslog Deer King. Her heritage, combined with her father's emotional abuse and the toxic environment she grew up in, gave her no shortage of grief and even made her almost as bigoted as her father. Thanks to kind people like Blue Suede Heartstrings, though, she eventually accepted her heritage and became mostly at peace with her existence.
  • Close to Home:
    • She loathes child abusers, especially of the familial variety. Her father was an abusive, puristic, racist, and increasingly tyrannical Alvslog Deer King who gave her many harmful lessons and killed one of her brothers for being a hybrid. Even after he died and she moved to a more tolerant environment, she took a long time to overcome the bigotry she grew up with because they're all she had. When punishing the wicked, she saves her worst punishments for child abusers, which are so horrible that the Erobreseg Deer Herds avoid talking about them to stay her wrath.
    • She also hates stubborn reactionaries and traditionalists. She had the sheer misfortune of growing up in one of the nastier Alvslog Deer kingdoms, which promoted Undying Loyalty to tradition and antiquity to the point of staunchly opposing anything that 'threatened' the natural order. The Alvslog Deer Herds' intolerant attitudes poisoned her mind, and directly caused the death of one of her younger brothers when he accidentally revealed himself to be a hybrid, leading to her father killing him on the spot. It's not until she meets Blue Suede Heartstrings that she rethinks her bigotry, and has since focused her efforts on punishing those who harmed others with their traditionalism so people like her brother wouldn't die senselessly.
  • Compelling Voice: As a goddess of Sovereignty, she has a 'compelling voice'. She can shout booming orders that compel her listeners to obey them, terrify her enemies into submission, and force her subjects to be more orderly.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: She had the sheer misfortune of being born in an Alvslog Deer kingdom whose King, her birth father, was an extremely puristic, xenophobic, and prideful individual that punished even the slightest hints of evil and corruption. His toxic beliefs and emotional abuse made Krásná increasingly fearful of acting against him even when it counted, and when one of her younger biological brothers after he accidentally revealed his hybrid heritage, he quickly executed the young Prince regardless of anything he did. Even after the Deer King died a Karmic Death at the hooves of the Elternteil Deer Pantheon thanks to the manipulations of an enraged Pokhot, Krásná's abuse and trauma still lingered to the point where she became a Troubled Sympathetic Bigot, suffering things like a poor self-image and Extreme Doormat tendencies yet still clinging to her society's traditions because that is what she was taught.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: She felt unwilling to talk to Blue Suede Heartstrings at first because she was taught by her Alvslog father to shun 'interlopers', and as an Alicorn, Blue Suede qualified as one. However, Blue Suede's kindness gradually influenced her to open up, especially when he assured her that she's beautiful after seeing her true Deer-Draconequus form.
  • Deity of Human Origin: While she was born a demigoddess thanks to her mother being a 'true' goddess who mated with a mortal Alvslog King, she would eventually Ascend to true godhood herself by devoting her nature to punish those who abused their sovereignty and foresight, or imposed toxic, bigoted traditions onto others.
  • Distinction Without a Difference: She sees her interactions with the wicked as her giving them advice on the best course of action, but really it's little different from tempting them into darker, more depraved paths. Her traditionalist fawnhood upbringing might have something to do with it.
  • Even Evil Can Be Loved: Despite holding some really bigoted views in the past, many of her immediate family and relatives still loved her. It's justified as everyone knows of her restrictive and abusive upbringing and how it turned her into a Troubled Sympathetic Bigot. Nonetheless, they're still hurt by her intolerance, with her relationships with them deteriorating until she runs away from home and meets Blue Suede Heartstrings. Realizing how much she has hurt her family, she reevaulates her beliefs and makes huge efforts in being less bigoted, which her family appreciated.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Despite being a constructively Evil goddess who punishes the wicked and 'persuades the morally weak into taking the best course of action', she has various people in her life she loves dearly.
    • She's a Cool Big Sis to her younger full-blooded siblings growing up and this extended to her infernal half-siblings and relatives once she got over her self-loathing and bigotry. She's also a loving mother to all her children. However, she is sometimes frustrated with her infernal family's depraved hedonism and impulses, to the point where she established a rule for them that they can't have sex in their hell-fief unless they do it with someone they genuinely love and away from prying eyes.
    • She loves the nobler, virtuous side of her family as well. Belyolen in particular was able to connect with her during her emotional lows because as a son of High King Irminsul, he understood what it's like to grow up with harmful, toxic teachings, which are what kept him from speaking up against his family's abuse of Temnobog for years in his youth.
    • One of her biggest influences in her life is Blue Suede Heartstrings, now King Caerulus Melodia Equestria-Corporatum. When Blue Suede found her in her Darkest Hour, he treated her with kindness and encouraged her to protect people from harmful traditions. He also helped her reunite with Pokhot, who was looking for her runaway daughter. This motivated Krásná to rethink her bigotry and devote herself to becoming a punisher of the wicked like the rest of her infernal family. When Blue Suede suffered a near-Fall, she repaid him by helping him defeat 'The Colonel' and staying by his side while he recovers. After becoming a Prince and joining the Equestrian Pantheon, Blue Suede/Caerulus decides to adopt her to give her a loving father-figure, though it's hilariously made somewhat complicated by the fact that Krásná's younger half-brother, Prince Stoltur, is now Blue Suede's husband.
    • She's also close friends with Moon Ray Vaughoof, a member of the Trimortidae. Much like Krásná, Moon Ray also grew up with an abusive father and thus understood what it's like to come out trauamtized for it. For her part, Krásná is horrified when she learns what Moon Ray's father, Sunny Mane Vaughoof, did to him as a colt. It's noted that they have 'hit it off' because of their shared pain.
  • Evil Reactionary: Due to growing up in an Alvslog Deer kingdom and seen/experienced the worst aspects of her society's obsessive traditionalism and stubborn, reactionary mindsets, she hates reactionaries in general with a passion. Her hell-fief, which is modeled after a typical Alvslog Deer kingdom, was designed to be a nightmarish dystopia reflecting all the evils of the 'good old days' that were often looked upon fondly, all so the reactionaries could choke on it upon death and damnation. Ironically, she was one herself in her youth, clinging to her deceased father's bigoted teachings despite being personally traumatized by them, which drove a wedge between her and her family. It wasn't until she meets Blue Suede Heartstrings during her time as a globe-trotter that she rethinks her views and chooses to do something productive instead, such as punishing reactionaries.
  • The Evils of Free Will: Invoked. Many of her punishments for damned shades in her hell-fief revolve around forcing them to adhere to rigid, uncompromising schedules and traditions, living in orderly environments where even the slightest deviation isn't tolerated, or being turned into statues as a perversion of order through inorganic stillness. This reflects how the recipients engaged in tyranny in life by enforcing harmful, toxic rules and traditions in the name of order, with no care to how many innocents they end up hurting in the process.
  • Extreme Doormat: Justified. Because Alvslog Deer society is heavily patriarchal, she was taught to be submissive and deferential to her elders, and slavishly devoted to tradition. It's deconstructed as that way of thinking is extremely toxic and made her a "complete pushover" who is reluctant to speak up and/or directly intervene when it counted. Her passive behavior has led to tragedies in her life, such as the death of her younger brother who was killed by her father for accidentally outing himself as a hybrid, and Blue Suede Heartstrings' near-fall when she obeyed his request not to tell anyone about his problems. It also nearly made her the victim of a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown when an enraged Princess Tough Love attempted to make her "face the consequences", though Prince Crystal Clear shielded her. She eventually learns to grow out of it after being encouraged to stand up for herself by various people in her life, and is currently seeking therapy with Mentálne and Amour-De-Soi to rebuild her self-esteem.
  • Freudian Excuse: Many of her more unsavory behaviors stem from her extremely traditionalist and xenophobic upbringing. It's deconstructed, as those behaviors turned out to be holding her back.
    • Because the Alvslog Deer Herds are extremely intolerant towards non-Deer and hybrids, Krásná came to believe that she's extremely ugly for being born a hybrid, despite being incredibly beautiful in both her default and true forms. This led to her suffering from low self-esteem, which took her a long time to recover from even after moving into a more racially tolerant environment like the Erobreseg Deer Realms. Even Blue Suede Heartstrings telling her that she is beautiful caused her to break down crying. She is trying to resolve this by attending therapy sessions with Mentálne and Amour-De-Soi, who are both helping her develop a better self-image.
    • Because she was taught to emulate the ideal traits of Alvslog femininity, she became submissive, obedient, and loyal to her people and elders, even against her better judgment. Her reluctance to speak up led to a few tragedies in her life, such as the death of one of her younger hybrid brothers and the near-Fall of her friend, Blue Suede Heartstrings, with the latter case happening because she followed Blue Suede's request not to tell anyone about his problems. Fortunately, various people in her life, such as Blue Suede himself and her great-uncle, Belyolen, have been encouraging her to defy tradition if it's genuinely unjust, causing her to develop a more proactive stance.
    • Because she was given many harmful teachings by her deceased father, who was an emotionally abusive, puristic, and xenophobic bigot in life, she became almost as bad as her fellow Alvslog Deer, clashing with her Bogolenya family/relatives over differing views on a lot of things and hurting everyone around her with her insensitive, bigoted remarks. However, during a period of globe-trotting, she met Blue Suede Heartstrings, who convinced her to oppose things that encouraged toxic mindsets like hers. She took his advice to heart, and devoted her experiences to punishing fanatically traditional and reactionary bigots so no one will suffer her hardships again.
  • Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: This goes both ways.
    • Her entry makes it very clear that while she has extremely sympathetic and understandable reasons for becoming a Troubled Sympathetic Bigot, her bigotry and closeminded view on things still alienated her divine family and relatives, and created a rift between them that would not heal until she realized her beliefs were wrong. To be fair, her divine family and relatives understood that she was a product of the worst aspects of Alvslog Deer society, but still wanted her to become better.
    • She would end up comparing the disgraced ex-Prince Neit to her birth father, being so fanatical in their devotion to good and moral purity that they ultimately left themselves vulnerable to corruption. When Neit's damned spirit tried justifying his actions by blaming Discord, she would roar back that he was responsible for his own crimes, not Discord.
      Queen Krásná Tradice: You are just like my father, believing in the eradication of 'evil' in favor of 'good', only to be seduced by the very evils he opposed! And now you're here in my paws, suffering for your sins!
      Prince Neit: Everything I did was to prevent the Serpent-!
      Queen Krásná Tradice: (roaring) DISCORD NEVER MADE YOU DO THE THINGS THAT DAMNED YOU! YOU DID!
  • God of Evil: Specifically, she embodies the bigoted and toxic aspects of societal/cultural traditions, order, and sovereignty, as well as the use of prophecy as an excuse to do morally reprehensible things. It's subverted as she follows constructive evil and her role is to punish those who became obsessed with traditions, power, and obtaining 'good' future outcomes at the expense of everything else.
  • God Save Us from the Queen!: The damned shades who are sent to her for punishment see her as a rigid and uncompromising tyrant who robs them of the capability of choice and free will. However, she's seen as The High Queen by her children, siblings, and demonic servants/champions. Ironically, her Alvslog people wanted her to become a Queen of her own kingdom, and she fulfilled it in a completely different direction than they expected.
  • Gold-Colored Superiority: She has a lion's mane made of golden Sovereignty energy, she wears divine golden armor with an elaborate design, and her royal Alvslog druidic cloak is dark blue with golden patterns. She's the ruling Queen of her hell-fief, which she designed to punish abusive, tyrannical rulers, stubborn, tradition-obsessed reactionaries, and prophets who used their future sight for amoral/villainous means.
  • Good Powers, Bad People: She's a goddess of Tradition, Sovereignty, Order, and Prophecy, which are good domains for a ruler to have; in Alvslog Deer society, such domains are highly valued due to the Alvslog Deer Herds' traditionalist mindset. However, due to being a divine punisher of the wicked, she takes her domains and uses them to inflict horrible punishments on damned shades for their crimes in life, such as turning them into statues or putting them in dystopian versions of the societies/time periods they lionized.
  • Half-Breed Angst: Because of the Alvslog Deer Herds' extremely intolerant views on hybrids, she grew up hiding and hating herself for her hybrid heritage, especially after one of her younger brothers was killed by her birth father for accidentally exposing himself as a hybrid. She believed that her hybrid nature made her 'ugly' compared to pure Deer, which ironically made her almost as racist as her dead father. Eventually, she ran away from the Bogolenya Deer Pantheon in part because of this. Blue Suede Heartstrings finds her and helps her with some of her issues, which goes a long way in her making an effort in overcoming her ingrained bigotry and protecting innocents from people like her father once she reunites with her family.
  • Happily Adopted: She would be adopted by Blue Suede Heartstrings after he mostly recovered from his traumas and joined the Equestrian Pantheon as a Prince, which not even she objected to since her birth father was an abusive and hypocritical bigot. But what makes their relationship somewhat awkward is that one of her younger half-brothers, Stoltur Skjöldur, is now Caerulus' husband, which by her own admission she finds a little weird. To Caerulus' credit, he acknowledged this and initially didn't want to adopt Krásná because of it, but did it anyway because she deserved a much better father-figure in her life.
  • Heavenly Blue: She has a peacock-blue pelt, and she wears dark-blue royal Alvslog Deer robes and a blue druid's cloak with golden patterns. She's a goddess, though an evil and depraved one who acts like a rigid, cruel, and dystopian tyrant to punish crimes relating to the unfettered and toxic aspects of tradition, order, and sovereignty. Ironically, her traditional upbringing as an Alvslog Deer Princess made her moderate and controlled in her evil compared to the rest of her family, and she is positively influenced by those who are both associated with blue and genuinely heroic, such as Blue Suede Heartstrings/King Caerulus Melodia Equestria-Corporatum, who would later become her adoptive father.
  • The Hedonist: Subverted. While she's evil like many of her infernal family members, her traditionalist upbringing made her more moderate and controlled about it. She tolerates her infernal family's sexual forays, but she feels uncomfortable with them doing it wantonly - she has made a rule stating that anyone wanting to have sex in her hell-fief must do it away from prying eyes and with a partner they truly love.
  • Hiding Your Heritage: Because she grew up among the Alvslog Deer Herds, the most xenophobic of the main four Deer Herds, she, her mother, and her younger siblings had to disguise themselves with glamours to protect themselves from racial persecution. When one of her brothers accidentally revealed his hybrid heritage, her birth father executed him on the spot. This, combined with her upbringing, deeply traumatized her and contributed to her relatively non-existent self-image, among other things. Fortunately, being adopted by Blue Suede/Caerulus and receiving help from therapeutic deities is helping her overcome her issues.
  • The High Queen: One expectation foisted upon her as a fawn was becoming the Queen of her own Alvslog realm/kingdom, on account of her developing the highly-prized Seer powers. She eventually does become Queen, but of her own hell-fief for the damned, a completely opposite direction of what her former Alvslog herds wanted her to be. While she's still seen as this by her own children, siblings, and demonic servants/champions in the Bogolenya Deer Pantheon, the damned shades who are sent to her for punishment see her as a rigid and uncompromising tyrant who robs them of the capability of choice and free will.
  • I Am Not Pretty: Due to Alvslog society hating and persectuting Deer hybrids for their very existence, as well as losing one of her younger brothers to her xenophobic father, she came to believe that she was 'ugly' for being born a Deer-Draconequus. This took a toll on her self-esteem and influenced her decision to run away from home after her family moved to the Bogolenya Deer Pantheon. When she met a traveling Blue Suede Heartstrings and saw his true Alicorn form, she wept at how handsome he looked compared to her. However, Blue Suede was quick to assure her that she, too, is beautiful upon seeing her true hybrid form and comforted her during her upset. Both Mentálne and Amour-De-Soi are currently helping her restore her self-esteem in regards to this.
  • Insistent Terminology: In regards to her interactions with wicked Deer:
    Queen Krásná Tradice: I do not 'tempt' the wicked. That would imply something of lesser character. I merely persuade and give them advice on the best course of action.
  • Ironic Hell: Invoked. Like her mother and many of her immediate family and other infernal relatives, she designed her hell-fief to punish those who committed crimes that relate to her domains of Tradition, Sovereignty, Order, and Prophecy.
    • Those who were obsessed with upholding traditions (especially toxic ones) will be victimized by cruel parodies of those traditions. Any attempts to change them to improve their own lives will be met with severe punishment, much like how they themselves punished innocents for doing the same thing. Alternatively, the damned shades would be put in illusionary worlds that bring out all the horribly malicious aspects of the 'good old days'; one of Krásná's favorite punishments for reactionary, nature-obsessed Deer is to place them in a time period where the world was dominated by pre-Alvslog civilizations... but with all their flaws present and none of their good traits. By Krásná's admission, she had to do quite a bit of research for that.
    • Those who were absolute 'Control Freaks' would be either turned into statues as an utter perversion of absolute order through inorganic stillness, or subjected to strict routines that deprived them of their free will and punished them for even slight deviations. Similarly, those who used their sovereignty and political power to become controlling, abusive tyrants will be either reduced to the lowest dregs of society, forced to serve the whims of Krásná's family and subordinates, or placed in illusionary worlds where, no matter what they do, they are subjected to horrible fates, such as having their power, thrones, and identities usurped by more benevolent rulers or having their entire homes burnt to the ground by enemies and/or oppressed subjects.
    • Those who used their prophetic abilities to give people false hopes, or commit atrocities in the name of obtaining the best future possible, would be granted the ability to see as many futures as possible... at the cost of being reduced to broken, gibbering wrecks. Because they can predict the future with perfect clarity and accuracy, it becomes difficult to discern which visions are correct, or which ones are real or mere hallucinations. Any attempts to change the future will have one future ironically occurring or result in another future they're trying to avoid happening to them anyway.
  • Ironic Name: Krásná means "beautiful" in Czech, and like her mother, she's beautiful in both her default Deer form and true Deer-Draconequus form. However, because she grew up in an Alvslog kingdom that persecuted Deer hybrids, she believed that I Am Not Pretty for being born a hybrid and hid her true form with glamours so people wouldn't antagonize her for it. Fortunately, there are many people who don't see her as 'ugly' and are quite willing to tell her the opposite, with Mentálne and Amour-De-Soi working on helping her rebuild her self-esteem.
  • Karmic Jackpot:
    • After meeting Blue Suede Heartstrings, she made huge efforts in being less bigoted towards her infernal and hybrid Bogolenya family/relatives, and helped her mother Pokhot punish damned shades who commmitted tradition/order/sovereignty/prophecy-related crimes in life. This allowed her to Ascend to true godhood, after which Pokhot gifted her with her own hell-fief to rule over.
    • She made amends for her role in Blue Suede's near-Fall by helping him defeat 'The Colonel' and staying by his side while he recovers. She would later be adopted by Blue Suede following his coronation, though he did it more out of desire to give her a more loving and tolerant father-figure.
  • King of Beasts: One of her chimeric traits is the eyes and golden mane of a lion. She's the ruling Queen of her own hell-fief, and while she's regarded as The High Queen by her family, the damned shades see her as a rigid, uncompromising tyrant. Ironically, when she was younger, she was expected to become a Queen of her own kingdom/realm after developing precognitive powers, which is a highly prized trait in an Alvslog ruler. She fulfilled said expectations, but in a completely different way.
  • Lady of War: She's intelligent, demure, and feminine compared to many of her half-siblings due to being raised among the Alvslog Deer Herds, and she's the ruling Queen of her own hell-fief. She's also skilled in archery and wielding a spear, and being a goddess of Prophecy makes her an excellent tactitian.
  • Magic Hair: Due to her divine 'age', her lion's mane is made of rippling golden Sovereignty energy.
  • The Magnificent: Known as "the Dutiful Queen", due to her dutiful personality and being a goddess of concepts like Tradition and Order.
  • Maker of Monsters: It's believed In-Universe that she was responsible for creating the Glory Hounds due to having similar chimeric appearances and traits to them. When Jade Shell asked her about it during an interview, she was left quite stunned and confused, with Blue Suede/Caerulus' medical Glory Hound Sunny looking equally confused while Caerulus himself is heard laughing in the background.
    Queen Krásná Tradice: I... what?
  • Massive Numbered Siblings: Exaggerated. She has lots of younger brothers and sisters from her biological Alvslog family, but later on she would gain even more upon moving to the Bogolenya Deer Pantheon, where it's revealed that she has hundreds, if not thousands of half-siblings thanks to Pokhot sleeping around. After being adopted by Blue Suede Heartstrings/Caerulus Melodia Equestria, she discovered that she has even more siblings, aunts, and uncles by virtue of her adoptive father also sleeping around (though not as much as Pokhot) and being connected to the Trimortidae, by itself an extremely large family. It immediately led to her fainting.
  • Meaningful Name: Her name translates to "beautiful tradition" in Czech. Ironically, she grew up in an Alvslog Deer kingdom that was so obsessed with tradition that she suffered for it as a fawn, and grew to hate and punish obsessive traditionalism years later.
  • Mix-and-Match Critters: Being part-Draconequus through Pokhot, she has chimeric traits of animals that are associated with royalty and strength, such as the branch-like antlers of a divine Deer, the eyes and mane of a lion, the wings of a harpy eagle, the fanning tail of a peacock, the left hind leg of a bear, and the right front leg of a badger.
  • My Greatest Failure: For her, it's her inability to step in and protect one of her younger brothers from being killed by their xenophobic, puristic father after he accidentally outed himself as a Deer-Draconequus hybrid. Although Pokhot avenged her brother for her, she is haunted by the incident because she let her own fears and obligation to her kingdom keep her from acting. Worse, the Alvslog Deer Herds' extremely intolerant views on race and hybrids prevented her from grieving her brother's death for years. Fortunately, Cloudy Brush of the Trimortidae would help her open up with her feelings and let her cry.
  • Nostalgia Filter: Deconstructed and defied. As a goddess, she embodies everything that defined the super-reactionary Alvslog Deer Herds of her fawnhood, such as Tradition, Order, and Sovereignty, and deeply understands what it's like to cling to the past where Deerkind reigned supreme and lived harmoniously with nature without evil to trouble them. However, she has no delusions that the Alvslog Deer Herds' nature-based societies are "better" than the progressive ones the other mortal Deer Herds have developed over time, because in her youth, she grew up in an Alvslog Deer kingdom that was at its worst and suffered personally for it. Even after moving into a more tolerant environment, she continued clinging to her society's traditions because that's all she knew, until she met people who sympathized with her and encouraged her to overcome her bigotry. Much of her punishments in her hell-fief revolve around giving traditionalists and reactionaries exactly what they wanted, being put in cruel parodies of the civilizations and past time periods that they fondly look back upon.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: Following ex-Prince Neit's death and damnation, she would accuse him of being similar to her birth father, who was so devoted to a puristic form of 'good' that he gradually became an abusive, insane tyrant. When Neit tries blaming Discord for his actions, she would roar back that his actions were his own.
    Queen Krásná Tradice: You are just like my father, believing in the eradication of 'evil' in favor of 'good', only to be seduced by the very evils he opposed! And now you're here in my paws, suffering for your sins!
  • Oh, My Gods!: She mutters "By the Father of All Deerkind..." in horror when she learns that Moon Ray Vaughoof gained a nasty-looking head scar as a mortal, courtesy of his drunkard father. She then proceeds to mentally chastise herself for it.
  • Omniscient Morality License:
    • Deconstructed. In a perversion of the Alvslog Deer Herds' cultural reverence of prophets and Seers (especially precognitive Alvslog royalty), Krásná punishes damned shades who abused their powers and station in life by giving them unfiltered psychic visions, turning them into gibbering wrecks that are unable to distinquish true visions from hallucinations. Any attempts to change the future will either have one future ironically occuring, or whatever they're trying to avoid happening anyway. This especially reflects how High King Irminsul selfishly tried fulfilling his prophetic vision of a golden age for mortal Deerkind by purifying his unborn son of his inner evil in-utero to create a 'perfect' and flawless god, but ended up killing/mutilating his son instead.
    • Invoked with other benevolent prophetic deities like Moon Ray Vaughoof and Prince Shamrock Bloom, the latter whom shares Krásná's domain of Prophecy. Krásná has been 'persuading' them to use their foresight to change fate however they saw fit as part of a Secret Test of Character for them. They have refused.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Deconstructed. Because of her fawnhood upbringing, she agreed to keep Blue Suede Heartstrings' growing insecurities and other psychological problems a secret, despite her better judgement. After Blue Suede snaps and nearly becomes a Fallen Alicorn, some of Blue Suede's friends and family were furious, with those like Princess Tough Love attempting to beat her up in retaliation. However, others like Prince Crystal Clear protected her and argued that everyone bore as much responsiblity in Blue Suede's near-Fall as she did.
  • Reality Warper:
    • As a goddess of Order, she has powers similar to Discord's, but can magically make things 'ordered' according to her whims rather than chaotic. A few of her capabilities include making all buildings and other forms of architecture look the same, eliminating anything that can potentially make people inclined to do chaotic, criminal things, and creating illusionary worlds that are cruel, dystopian parodies of past civilizations and historical periods that are often fondly looked upon. She mostly uses the last power to punish those who obsess over the past.
    • To a lesser extent, her domain of Tradition grants this power. She can create literally any tradition known to sapientkind, enforce them, and punish those who fail to follow her traditions.
  • Really Gets Around: Implied. As par the course of being one of Pokhot's daughters, she has slept with many lovers over the centuries and sired children with them. However, she's more restrained about it compared to the rest of her infernal family due to her upbringing, and wants all sex-related matters be restricted to the bedroom.
  • Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Justified. One of her domains is Tradition, which gives the power to create her own traditions and enforce them, while creating punishments for those who fail to follow said traditions. In a twist, she uses these powers to punish those who become utterly obsessed with upholding traditions to the point of harming innocents without reason, much like the tradition-obsessed Alvslog Deer societies she grew up in as a fawn.
  • Seers: As a goddess of Prophecy, she's a powerful Seer who, while capable of having flashes in the day, receives potent visions at night while asleep. She can grant her visions to others, though she uses this ability to punish damned shades who use prophecies to mislead others or commit atrocities to obtain a 'good' future outcome. In her youth, the fact that she was born a Seer among the Alvslog Deer Herds, who prize Seers highly, caused her people to expect her to become a royal advisor, a mother of powerful, intelligent children, or a Queen of her own realm.
  • Semi-Divine: She was born a demigoddess due to her parents being a 'true' goddess and a mortal Alvslog King. She would eventually Ascend to true godhood by becoming a divine punisher of wicked souls.
  • Shown Their Work: In-Universe. One of her favorite punishments is to put reactionary Deer in illusionary worlds with cruel, dystopian parodies of proto-Alvslog Deer civilizations that lived In Harmony with Nature. By her own admission, she had to do quite a bit of research in order to ensure her punishments are historically accurate to the source.
  • Silk Hiding Steel: Justified. She grew up an Alvslog Deer, and because she was born with precognition, she was expected to take on important yet traditionally feminine roles such as a royal advisor, mother, or Queen. After moving to the Erobreseg Deer Realms and making huge efforts in overcoming the Alvslog Deer Herds' bigoted, hypocritical teachings, she would become more proactive in ruling her hell-fief and fighting alongside her family.
  • Super-Empowering: As a goddess of Order, she can sense how much order is in any given area and empower herself and/or her allies based on that.
  • Supernatural Fear Inducer: With her Sovereignty-based Compelling Voice ability, she can use her voice to terrify her enemies into submission.
  • Taken for Granite: Like many deities of Order, such as King Issun/Despotic Destiny, she could turn victims into stone or otherwise inorganic statues by touch, a perversion of absolute order through inorganic stillness. Each of these petrified victims could be animated via magic as a Living Statue that serves her will, unable to disobey thanks to being stripped of their own will.
  • Token Good Teammate: Downplayed. While she's a constructively Evil deity like many of her infernal family members, her traditional upbringing as an Alvslog Princess keeps her from being unapologetically evil and left her feeling uncomfortable with some of the depravities her family participates in. She doesn't like the idea of anyone sleeping around solely for pleasure, and has made a rule that anyone wanting to have sex in her hell-fief are only allowed to if they do it with someone they truly love and away from prying eyes. She's also merciful enough to send genuinely repentant souls to the Purgatory-Realms governed by her cousin, Princess Vykup. That being said, she won't hesitate to inflict horrifying punishments on the damned such as robbing of them of their free will (literally in some cases) or driving them mad with unfiltered prophetic visions.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: Her upbringing as an Alvslog Princess left her quite intolerant, especially in regards to things like morality and race. Her bigotry is what prevented her from getting along with her relatives in the Bogolenya Deer Pantheon, and what influenced her to run away from home. But after meeting Blue Suede Heartstrings, she realizes her beliefs were wrong and makes huge efforts in acting less bigoted towards her family, instead directing towards damned shades who promoted social/cultural intolerance like her former Alvslog herds did.
  • Troubled Sympathetic Bigot: She's explicitly classified as such by Cultura, due to her upbringing in one of the nastier Alvslog Deer kingdoms that were obsessively traditionalist, xenophobic and puristic. Despite the trauma she suffered in her fawnhood, she still clung to the traditions of her homeland because they're all she had, and initially had difficulty getting along with her relatives in the Bogolenya Deer Pantheon because of her reluctance to be tolerant and open-minded as them. Her inability to fit in a more tolerant society led to her running away and becoming a globe-trotter just to find some justification to her existence. To her credit, she would eventually acknowledge the harm of her bigotry thanks to the kindness of non-Deer like Blue Suede Heartstrings and work hard to change her views, while her family was understanding of her on account of her being ultimately a product of her restrictive and abusive environment.
  • True Blue Femininity: She's a peacock-blue Deer-Draconequus goddess whose attire as Queen of her hell-fief consists of blue royal Alvslog Deer robes and a druidic cloak with golden patterns. She's also traditionally feminine by Alvslog standards, though initially like many Alvslog females, she was submissively deferential to her elders and slavishly loyal to her people's societal and cultural traditions. It's thanks to the emotional support from everyone who genuinely loved her that she's working on overcoming her bigoted upbringing so she could oppose the harmful traditions that poisoned her.
  • Unable to Cry: She feels horribly guilty for not preventing her emotionally abusive father from executing one of her younger brothers. But because Alvslog society frowns upon and even persecutes Deer hybrids, she was forced to hide her grief, leaving her very messed-up later on. Cloudy Brush of the Trimortidae would help her finally achieve emotional closure by letting her cry as long as she wants.
    Cloudy Brush: Emotions are not something that can be easily controlled or 'switched off' when it's convenient. Like air, they all need proper ventilation. And there is no bad time to grieve, whether a death of a loved one or a serious wrong that was inflicted upon you. You really need it, so cry for as long as you want.
  • You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When she starts crying over how beautiful Blue Suede's true Alicorn form is compared to her true Deer-Draconequus appearance (despite Alicorns also being chimeric deities by nature), Blue Suede assures her that she's beautiful and tells her not to listen to bigots who dictate how she should look. Due to her upbringing, she finds it to be such an Armor-Piercing Response that she continues crying, so Blue Suede hugs her and does his best to comfort her.
    Blue Suede Heartstrings: Yer beautiful, Krásná. Yer beautiful an' ya always have been.
    Queen Krásná Tradice: But- But I'm not...
    Blue Suede Heartstrings: Shhh. Don't let 'em bigots tell ya how you should look or anythin'. They’re all wrong. They're only looking fer excuses ta control yer life an' wear ya down.

Knights of Harmony/Order/Tyranny

    General 
  • Adaptational Karma: While in canon the Knights were defeated and captured, here there's the addition of the Tree of Patriotism personally manifesting to personally chew them out and reclaim its Elements, having found them no longer worthy. It then proceeds to broadcast this to Cunabala, ensuring they're now disgraced in their homeland and everyone knows they've been stripped of their position.
  • De-power: The Tree of Patriotism declares the Knights unworthy as Bearers when they refuse to see the error of their ways even after being defeated, and formally strips them of their Elements.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: For abusing their powers as Bearers to hurt people and starting a war with Equestria unprovoked, they were deemed unworthy by the Tree of Patriotism and stripped of their chosen Elements. The Tree of Patriotism also dubs them the "Knights of Tyranny" for how they used their Elements in tyrannical ways, and broadcasts their crimes to the entire country of Cunabala.
  • Only the Chosen May Wield: The current Knights were chosen to wield the Elements of Patriotism based on them being strong magic-users rather than genuinely embodying each aspect of Patriotism in character. It's deconstructed as the current Knights were so indoctrinated into being Bearers by their predecessors that they misused their Elements by applying them in ways that would actually benefit a tyrannical regime. The Tree of Patriotism hoped that their conflict with the Equestrians would make them see the error of their ways. But once it became clear they didn't change, the Tree of Patriotism confronted the current Knights and punished them by deeming them unworthy and stripping them of their respective Elements.
  • The Psycho Rangers: They're what the other Bearers could become if they were raised by toxic, bigoted people and indoctrinated to have a Black-and-White Morality towards Harmony and 'good'. The Mane Six especially applies, with ex-King Danu being the complete opposite of Princess Twilight/Amicitia Sparkle and a living representation of what happens if Celestia actually groomed Twilight/Amicitia to become a Bearer while leaving her utterly incapable of thinking for herself.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The Tree of Patriotism chews out the Knights for their atrocities before deconstructing both their collective worldviews, revealing how they came to embody the tyrannical sides of their respective Elements instead of healthy, constructive Patriotism as they should be. He also points out that regardless of how they were raised by their predecessors, it still didn't justify their choice to wage war unprovoked with another sovereign nation and hurt innocent people for possessing other sets of Elements.
  • Tyke-Bomb: Deconstructed. The current Knights were chosen to be Bearers based on magical strength/potential, and then raised and indoctrinated their whole lives to embody the Elements of Patriotism as how their predecessors envisioned the Elements, not what they actually are. This abusive, restrictive upbringing prevented the current Knights from thinking for themselves and turned them into Knight Templar fanatics that are unable to comprehend things that are beyond what they're made to do. When the Tree of Patriotism shows up to deem them unworthy of their Elements and De-power them, the experience breaks them.
  • Villainous Breakdown: The Knights are devastated when the Tree of Patriotism deems them unworthy as Bearers in a lengthy "The Reason You Suck" Speech and strips them of their chosen Elements. Of the six, however, two start feeling genuine remorse for the atrocities they committed.
  • Villainous BSoD: Being chewed out by the Tree of Patriotism causes at least two Knights to feel guilt for their actions. Because of this, the Tree of Patriotism is less condemning of them and encourages them to redeem themselves so they can truly be worthy of their Elements.

    Ex-King Danu 
The leader of the Knights of Harmony/Order, the former Knight of Loyalty, and the former King of Cunabala.
  • Big Bad: He's the leader of the Knights of Order/Tyranny and thus the main antagonist of the Canabulan Crisis.
  • Big "SHUT UP!": He shouts "SHUT UP!" in response to Twilight/Amicitia spelling out to him that he's essentially nothing but a twisted reflection of the original Knights of Harmony, forced to follow their beliefs by his father his entire life by narrowminded people like his father until he could only think about his purpose.
  • Don't You Dare Pity Me!: He is enraged by Twilight/Amicitia's genuine sympathy for him, insisting that he's his own person and quickly roaring at her to shut up when she points out he was essentially indoctrinated by his father his entire life into becoming a twisted reflection of the original Knights of Harmony.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Justified and deconstructed. Like his father and ancestors before him, he is a product of a long-standing Vicious Cycle of abuse and indoctrination. Because of how he was raised by his father, he believes in a very twisted form of Patriotism and is incapable of thinking beyond that. He is enraged by Princess Twilight/Amicitia's sympathy for him, and when the Tree of Patriotism later deems him unworthy of his Element of Loyalty, all he does is protest that he was "raised from birth to use that". His inability to comprehend true empathy and loyalty to one's country and people elicits genuine sympathy from Princess Twilight/Amicitia, as his father did to him what her mentor, Celestia, was accused of doing to her. However, the Tree of Patriotism condemns him for his horrible actions and points out his background doesn't justify them, revealing that he had every opportunity to break free of his indoctrination yet chose not to.
  • Evil Counterpart:
    • To Princess Twilight/Amicitia Sparkle Equestria. Both were magical prodigies chosen by higher authorities to achieve a great destiny, except ex-King Danu was indoctrinated since foalhood to follow a very twisted form of Patriotism and kept from going beyond his designated purpose of being a successor to the original Knights of Harmony. Twilight/Amicitia, on the other hand, was tutored by Celestia, who, while flawed herself, was open-minded and genuinely tried to give her morals and compassion in addition to nurturing her magical talents.
    • To Princess Rainbow Dash/Fidelitas as well. Both of them were chosen to bear the Element of Loyalty (though with different contexts behind it, as his Element pertains to loyalty to one's country while Rainbow/Fidelitas' Element pertains to loyalty to one's friends), except they took their Element to completely opposite sides of the spectrum: Ex-King Danu embodies Loyalty in the sense that he became extremely fanatical to the point of waging wars with other countries unprovoked for the sake of his own, whereas Rainbow Dash embodies Loyalty in the sense that she acknowledges her friends' flaws and mistakes yet is willing to protect them out of genuine love and loyalty for them.
  • Freudian Excuse: Deconstructed. He was indoctrinated by his father, the previous King Danu, into behaving like the original Knights of Harmony and upholding their beliefs, leaving him psychologically unstable and unable to think beyond his designated purpose. When Princess Twilight/Amicitia realizes this, she starts feeling genuinely sorry for him. However, as the Tree of Patriotism later points out, he was never instructed to do the horrible things he did by the people who raised him - all of that was by his own hoof.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: The Codexverse expands on his fate following his defeat - he (and his Knights) is confronted by the Tree of Patriotism, who not only furiously condemns him for perverting/abusing his chosen Element, but strips him of said Element and broadcasts his crimes to all of Cunabala. He is also stripped of his royal legitimacy of King of Cunabala, ending the Danu dynasty with him, and his more benevolent nephew, Duke Aengus, is crowned 'King Aengus the First' in his place, starting a new dynasty.
  • Shadow Archetype:
    • He's everything Twilight/Amicitia could be if she was influenced by puristic, bigoted, and corrupt people with a very narrowminded view on Harmony and 'good'. Instead of a compassionate hero who befriended everyone and fought to protect them from genuinely wicked entities, King Danu became a xenophobic, fanatical Knight Templar who desired to destroy the other Trees of Harmony (save for Cunabala's own Tree of Patriotism) and kill their Bearers because he couldn't trust others to use the power of Harmony for good. And as a result of his restrictive upbringing, King Danu cannot see beyond his Black-and-White Morality or his designated purpose of being a Knight of Harmony.
    • He's also everything Rainbow Dash/Fidelitas could have been if she was indoctrinated to be loyal to Equestria to the point of becoming a fanatical extremist willing to do horrible things unprovoked for her country's sake, just like he was.
  • Tyke-Bomb: Deconstructed. His father, the previous King Danu, raised him from birth to follow the original Knights of Harmony and indoctrinated him to follow a very narrowminded, corrupt version of Patriotism. This not only turned him into a fanatical Knight Templar, but also left him utterly incapable of thinking beyond his designated purpose. Twilight/Amicitia feels genuinely sorry for him because of how horribly he was treated by his father. However, the Tree of Patriotism condemns him for his horrible actions and points out his background doesn't justify them, revealing that he had every opportunity to break free of his indoctrination yet chose not to.

    Princess Ceridwen 
  • Attention Whore: Deconstructed. Instead of using her Element of Equality to help ensure her subjects are treated fairly, she uses it to be the center of attention so she can relish the praise people give her for helping them. If she isn't given her due praise, she lashes out at the offenders like a spiteful, spoiled child. This gets her dubbed the Element of Appeasement and stripped of her chosen Element by the Tree of Patriotism.
  • Evil Counterpart:
  • Ironic Name: She's named after Ceridwen, a 'white witch' who, though flawed, is a benevolent woman (or goddess, depending on the legend) who genuinely wants to help others via her wisdom and sorceries. Unlike the Celtic Ceridwen, however, she's a spiteful, spoiled child who only helps others out of desire to be praised instead of genuine goodwill.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: When she objects to the Tree of Patriotism stripping her of her Element, it declares she's a spiteful, spoiled child who only treated their people equally out of desire to be praised, not genuine compassion.
  • Royal Brat: Like in canon, she's King Danu's daughter, but is a spiteful, spoiled child who misused her Element of Equality to garner praise for herself rather than out of genuine goodwill, nearly destroyed the kingdom of Orinithia, and later helped spark a war with Equestria unprovoked out of sheer spite. When she is dubbed the Element of Appeasement and stripped of her chosen Element, she immediately tries - and fails - to reach for it like a disobedient child who had their toys taken away as punishment.

    Taranis 
  • Pride: His Fatal Flaw. While he is the Bearer of Pride, he perverted his chosen Element by seeing himself as Cunabala's pride and joy, bragging about himself constantly, rather than taking pride in his country and all that it is and could be. Because of this, the Tree of Patriotism dubs him the Element of Hubris and strips him of his Element.

    Balor 
  • Dragons Are Demonic: He's a Dragon much like his predecessor in the original Knights of Harmony, but out of the group, he is genuinely malicious, as he is a Sadist who enjoyed using his Element to rob people of their magic and watching them suffer for it.
  • Evil Counterpart: He can be seen as this for Princess Twilight/Amicitia - both of them embody the Element of Magic (though with different contexts behind it, as his Element pertains to magic that comes from patriotism to one's country while Twilight/Amicitia's Element pertains to the magic of friendship), but Twilight/Amicitia used her Element for good, which led to her Ascending. Balor, on the other hand, was a Sadist who enjoyed watching people suffer after robbing them of their magic, and thus was punished by the Tree of Patriotism by having his Element stripped away.
  • Logical Weakness: His magic negation abilities only work if he can touch whoever he wants to de-power or can see the attacks he wants to negate coming. Celestia, Luna, and Sterling exploit this to defeat him in short order.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: He was a genuine sadist who enjoyed robbing people of their magic and watching them suffer for it. In a rather karmic turn, he is later punished by the Tree of Patriotism by being stripped of his Element.
  • Sadist: Of the Knights, he is the most sadistic, as he actively enjoyed robbing people of their magic and watching them suffer for it. Because of this, the Tree of Patriotism dubs him the Element of Malfeasance and strips him of his chosen Element.
  • Token Evil Teammate: Though the current Knights of Harmony/Order are a bunch of xenophobic Knight Templars, he is noted by the Tree of Patriotism to be the most sadistic of them, as he's the one who actively enjoyed the harm he caused in ridding people of their magic. As a consequence, he is dubbed the Element of Malfeasance, which is wrongful/unlawful conduct that is intentionally conducted by those in positions of authority/power. As a sign of how evil he was, the Tree of Patriotism is far harsher and more condemning with him compared to the other Knights.

    Mannah 
  • The Atoner: Mannah ultimately makes a Heel–Face Turn and tries to atone for her crimes.
  • Gender Flip: Mannah is canonically male, but female here. This is because she was introduced to Codex before that was made known and was assumed to be female.
  • Graceful Loser: She realizes she was wrong in starting a war with Equestria unprovoked, and simply accepts her punishment of being stripped of her Element and having her crimes broadcasted to Cunabala by the Tree of Patriotism. Her genuine remorse causes the Tree of Patriotism to encourage her to seek atonement for her mistakes so she can truly prove herself worthy of being a Bearer.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Mannah ultimately changes her ways and becomes The Atoner.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Like Morrigan, she experiences the same remorse for what she did to Equestria, except she simply bows her head in acceptance and genuinely apologizes to the Tree of Patriotism for abusing her Element.
  • Token Good Teammate: Deconstructed. She wasn't as self-righteous, fanatical, or (in Balor's case) sadistic as the other Knights and genuinely believed that their cause would benefit Cunabala, but she still condoned their horrible actions, and thus had to be punished. However, her genuine remorse and acceptance of losing her Element nets her some sympathy from the Tree of Patriotism, who encourages her to atone for her mistakes so she can truly prove herself worthy of being a Bearer.
  • Yes-Man: Deconstructed. As the Tree of Patriotism points out to her, she perverted her Element of Acceptance by slavishly condoning/agreeing with anything the Knights did as long as they benefit her country, instead of accepting compromise as a necessity or realizing that the Knights might be genuinely corrupt. For that, she was dubbed the Bearer of Sycophancy and stripped of her Element.

    Morrigan 
  • The Atoner: A later drabble reveals she became a student of Bon Bon/Princess Fasan Creideamh Grittin, and eventually succeeded in proving herself worthy of wielding the Element of Faith again.
  • Heel–Face Turn: After having a Heel Realization once the Tree of Patronism calls her out on her sins, she ultimately becomes genuinely heroic in an attempt to atone for her crimes. She ultimately succeeds in earning her Element back.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: She breaks down sobbing when the Tree of Patriotism chews her out for perverting her Element as she did, something she was already beginning to feel after her Element briefly abandoned her for Shining Armor.
  • Our Banshees Are Louder: It's revealed she's a Banshee, though a more mythologically accurate one who doesn't actually kill with her scream, but rather to mourn and warn of death. It's noted she screamed louder than anyone had ever heard her do right before the invasion of Equestria, unknowingly foreseeing the oncoming civil war awaiting Cunabala.
  • The Fundamentalist: She believes Faith should be unwaivering chains to be obeyed no matter what, and got mind control abilities from her Element. The Tree of Patriotism dubs her the Element of Zealotry as it strips her of her Element, which fortunately causes her to genuinely repent of her crimes.

Other Residents

    The Tree of Patriotism 
  • Big Good: Much like the other Trees of Harmony, the Tree of Patriotism serves as a benevolent force in Cunabala, and has a big influence on its society and culture. Seeing the fanatical atrocities committed by succeeding generations of Element Bearers would gradually anger him until the current Knights of Order's unprovoked war with Equestria pushes him to his Rage Breaking Point.
  • Botanical Abomination: Like the other Trees of Harmony, he is a mystical tree that holds its own set of Elements, in his case the Elements of Patriotism. However, he is actually an extremely ancient and powerful god who is implied to be a son of the Genesis Sovereign.
  • The Chooser of the One: He chooses those who resonates strongly with each Element of Patriotism, such as Magic (as in 'Magic born from Love of One's Country'), Acceptance, Loyalty, and Faith. However, both the Cunabalan monarchy and its government would twist the Elements' true purpose by promoting a very narrowminded, borderline tyrannical view of Patriotism and indoctrinate succeeding generations of Bearers into following their dogma. When the current Knights of Harmony/Order ignited a war with Equestria unprovoked for fanatical reasons, he was enraged enough to directly intervene and strip them of their Elements in an Insignia Rip-Off Ritual. He then made a decree that Cunabala will no longer indoctrinate future Bearers or peddle their own corrupted view of Patriotism, sparking a Civil War that ended with the more tolerant and progressive factions winning.
  • Divine Parentage: He's implied to be a son of the Genesis Sovereign, who created the Trees in order to help fix the damage caused by the Void Sovereign's attempt to destroy Equus during its Second Age. This means, since all of the Trees of Harmony are 'children' of the Genesis Sovereign, he is an 'uncle' of the Grand Primevals.
  • Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: During his "The Reason You Suck" Speech, he points out that yes, all of the Knights were indoctrinated by their families/teachers into becoming facsimiles of the original Knights of Harmony... but the war they started with Equestria unprovoked was still their own doing.
  • Good Is Not Soft: It's genuinely benevolent and wants Cunabala to be the best it can be, it also is not beyond letting them suffer the consequences of their actions. It revealing the crimes of the Knights and tripping Danu of his royal position results in a years long Civil War, but it's pointed out the government had become so irreversibly fanatical and corrupt that It Is Beyond Saving and the civil war was the only way to get rid of it.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: He chose the current Knights of Harmony/Order to be the Bearers of Patriotism because he sensed they truly loved their country... only to discover later on that his chosen Bearers were a bunch of warmongering fanatics thanks to a long-lasting Vicious Cycle that peddled a twisted view of Patriotism. He deeply regrets his choice and apologizes to everyone the Knights have hurt, even though, as Princess Twilight/Amicitia points out, what happened was not his fault.
    Tree of Patriotism: I found you six worthy because I sensed you truly loved our country! But I see now that love was a fragile house built on shifting sand! So easily turned to nothing but warmongering fanaticism!
  • Insignia Rip-Off Ritual: Of a sort. He confronts the Knights of Harmony/Order over their actions towards Equestria following their defeat, gives them each a lengthy "The Reason You Suck" Speech on why they failed as Bearers of Patriotism, and strips of them their chosen Elements, leaving the Bearers powerless. According to one of the Codex writers, the whole affair was supposed to echo the real-life process of military commanders condemning dishonorably discharged soldiers by ripping medals off their uniforms.
  • It Is Beyond Saving: The Cunabalan government as it was previously had become so fanatical and corrupt that the Tree views it as this, something proven correct when loyalists remain in control after Danu is stripped of his position and publicly condemned by the Tree. As a result, it allows a year long Civil War to happen, understanding that it's the only way anything will change.
  • King of Beasts: Though specifically a Leucrocuta, a mythical Lion/Horse hybrid, he is a Tree who uses one as his avatar and ancient god who serves as the Big Good for the kingdom of Cunabala.
  • Rage Breaking Point: While he was angered by the actions of the Knights of Order and their predecessors, he never intervened because he hoped they would reach a Heel Realization on their own. Their unprovoked war with Equestria is what pushes him to intervene.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: While confronting the Knights of Order, he deconstructs their actions, goals, and mindset, pointing out how they let their psychological indoctrination consume them instead of choosing to break free from it. He then deconstructs each Knight on an individual level, revealing how they each perverted each Element of Patriotism into aspects of Tyranny, and dubs them all the "Knights of Tyranny". While he does so, he strips them of their Elements, having deemed the Knights unworthy. The only Knights he shows sympathy for are Mannah and Morrigan, who show genuine remorse over what they had done.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His decision to make the current Knights of Harmony/Order his chosen Bearers eventually led to them waging war against Equestria unprovoked for fanatical reasons. Out of guilt, he apologizes to everyone the Knights have hurt, even though, as Princess Twilight/Amicitia points out, what happened was not his fault.

    Ex-King Danu's father 
  • Abusive Parents: Implied. He groomed his son, the ex-King Danu, to be a Bearer of Patriotism like the original Knights of Harmony, never giving him the freedom to be anything beyond his designated purpose. He also indoctrinated Danu to believe in Patriotism as he thinks it should be, not what it actually is. This led to Danu becoming a psychologically unstable Knight Templar who did horrible things in the name of his country, including starting a war with Equestria unprovoked. When Princess Twilight/Amicitia realizes this, she starts feeling sorry for Danu, much to his fury.
  • The Chain of Harm: It's implied that he's part of a long-lasting Vicious Cycle of abuse, fanaticism, and psychological indoctrination based on extremely warped perceptions of what the Knights of Harmony stood for. It's this upbringing that eventually created the ex-King Danu and the current Knights of Harmony/Order.
  • Create Your Own Villain: By abusing and indoctrinating his son into becoming a facsimile of the original Knights of Harmony, he turned the ex-King Danu into a fanatical and xenophobic Knight Templar who was willing to wage war with Equestria unprovoked in the name of his country.

    Ex-Prince Neit 

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