Roan An Empires Tale
Pride
The greatest and most dangerous ingredient of disaster for a great nation.
This was the Roan Empires history.
A history of great strength and chivalry, one of pride and foolishness.
These ponies had not the wings of feather or leather.
They did not have the horn to harness magic.
Nor the wisdom and knowledge to know thyself better.
They were full of national pride, a dangerous pride that they wore as a badge of honor, and as a shield.
Yet shields wear away and shatter when not cared for, and a nationalistic pride, is certainly more harm then good.
The wheel of time would turn slowly for the Roans, allowing them to relish in their glory, but like all things, one good turn, deserves another, and a painful turn it was.
The Roans had finally overstepped their boundaries, their pride leading them to believe they had a right to more of the fertile land around them, including that of the Canidians, a generally peaceful land of mutts who enjoy cartography and exploration.
The brunt of the Roan cavalry quickly charged across a well know land bridge called the Wolfs Fang due to its shape, a glorious charge it was, their colors sailing high in the sky, a serenade of cannon fire pushing them on wards towards the Canidian front.
The Roan elite, so focused on their superior speed, would find themselves overwhelmed by a new addition to the Canidian armament. The simple creation of firearms, rifles, ballistics that can easily outdistance any Roan, no matter how fast they were.
The battle of Wolfs Fang was devastating, the Roan charge utterly decimated by the ordered firearms of the Canidians.
Roan, left without its fighting elite, would quickly find their territories threatened on all fronts by a joint force of Canidians and Gryphons. If not for their pride, Roan would have found help in the form of their old allies, but pride is a painful trait that turns even the best friends into enemies.
The future of Roan would be a grim one, filled with sorrow, as they worked away, indentured to the many countries they once looked down upon, and yet they would learn a great lesson in humility, and the curse that is pride.
The Roan Empire were given granted the worst Treaty in their time, with a debt so large that it not only broke their economy, but it brought most of the entire pony kingdom into indentured servitude or worse, slavery.
As they were only road ponies, so called because of the vast network of roads they helped establish, they were put into menial labor such as farming, mining, and of course low end conscripted soldiers.
For well over a hundred years this would progress, while the world around them advanced, leaving the poor roadies behind to suffer the vagaries of life and labor.
Elsewhere in the world, the dragons were finding themselves in anarchy, their own young rebelling back at them and demanding what they believed should be rightfully given to them, the right to the Aether streams.
The elders found themselves duking it out with the younger generation in intense aether staring contests. To any outside observer, it would see am rather primitive and silly, two drakes glaring at each other, because they would never see the intense amount of magic that is passing between the two.
The loser would find themselves completely obliterated in most cases, and though the elders had the strength, the youths had the numbers.
Soon enough this would lead to the cataclysmic Aether Wars.
More Roan History will be released, detailing the world, its ponies, and of course the other species that inhabit it.
To any outside observer, it would “see am”
Should be “seem”