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GRIFIX LORE UPDATE #19 - How many entertainment houses can I fit in one post?

Posted 19 hours ago :: Last edited 18 hours ago by MysteriousShine

More like I can't fit all the stuff in one post so it's gonna be split in two. And the first will cover all the entertainment houses :D

Kage no Kaiwa

All things bad should remain in darkness, all things good are never seen.

Name meaning: Shadow Conversations (at least I hope so)

House Mother: ???

"All things bad should remain in darkness,

All things good are never seen."

Kage no Kaiwa is a small entertainment house with no windows. It stands in complete darkness, and grifix aren’t allowed to use names, give advice or judge anybody. Strangers talk to each other about their messed up lives... try to feel like there's more like them, put shame aside cause nobody will know who they are.

But as expected, this is the place where most secrets are found... and as with any entertainment house, secrets are the best income.

All sorts of people go there to confess, talk with random people they can’t see, or be comforted by entertainers (which they must pay). They can touch the entertainers but they can’t see them.

They usually select their entertainers based on their voices.

The emblem of the house represents crows, as they are considered to provide guidance to those inside.

(This references the Three Legged Crow deitiy from japan. I used some ofuda amulets for inspiration for the design. More info HERE)

The Monastery

A weird cult formed around worshipping the Angel yokai from the House of Vanity.

The entertainment house was founded by some very radical entertainers from the House of Vanity, a while ago. They kept on preaching around the house various theories about the angels which got them turned into fallen angels, but they didn’t take it so they left the house along with some of their followers from there. They tried to form a clerics underguild but messed around with the Church of Time and angered the head of the church, which got them banned from ever forming an underguild in the Clerics Guild, meaning they could no longer form a legal religious cult.

They returned to the entertainment district and formed an entertainment guild where they worship the angels.

The House is a fairly wealthy entertainment house, having a building with an inner yard. The entertainers are named either monks (males) or nuns (females).

It is organized similarly to a romanesque abbey: a cloister with an open arcade, a scriptorium where the entertainers write and copy texts, dormitories and such. The main room, which they use to welcome in guests, has the aspect of a small romanesque church. There is usually a choir of entertainers playing religious chants and such in there. They burn incense made of frankincense and myrrh, though often they mix small amount of drugs in the smoke, especially psychedelic ones. Not much though, only enough to convince customers of their cause - they don't want the hallucinations to take over.

The church part is more of a cover-up. They can't be an official religious cult, therefore they must cover up their cause under the activity of a entertainment house. So they must provide music or some sort of entertainment. They use it to convince people who enter to convert to their cause. They are not so much centered around obtaining money - though they do need it to sustain the House. Therefore once converting someone to their cause they often end up convincing that grifix to become their patron and regularly donate money to the Monastery.

Angel Yokai roam the monastery, though mostly they stay in a designated worship room, where the entertainers and guests deemed "worthy" can come and see them, and offer their worship. In order for one to be deemed worthy, they must offer a lot of money to the monastery, or be a regular patron. While the entertainers prefer the angels to stay in there and not show to anybody, they can't do anything if the angels decide to roam around and pop up in random places. They consider them to be divine beings, and places like the Time Church or the House of Vanity Entertainment House practice heresy, not recognizing them for their true importance.

Kitsune Den

The Kitsune Den entertainment house is built around an ancient artifact, named the Fox Stone, which gives entertainers hatched under it’s roof special powers for as long as they reside within the house’s walls. Those hatched inside the house will have set sphirix from birth, all of them being kitsune. Most are born with only one tail, and will gain one if their magic grows stronger. The house mother is the strongest grifix in the house, having nine tails. Entertainers in this house are also born with the sphirix tail trait.

Eggs must spend a few days in the house before hatching in order for the artifact’s magic to sink in. Just hatching there isn’t enough. The house often buys eggs from other entertainment houses when the House Mothers are trying to get rid of them. All members of the house are hatched within the house’s walls and raised there. Those that leave lose their powers - their spirix can not gain any more tails, and they will usually lose all the tail they gained, reverting back to one.

In the Kitsune Den, there are two different ranks Entertainers can be put into based on abilities and heart. Zenko - “good foxes’ and Yako - “field foxes”.

Zenko are the higher ranked grifix that don’t wish to partake in mischievous behaviors, being all high and mighty, thinking they are the most perfect grifix out there. They mainly stay in their rooms or sit and watch the lower ranked entertainers hypnotize the customers with their tails.

Yako are the entertainers. Usually they run around serving tea to the customers, which they hypnotize after with their fabulous tails, dancing around and sometimes putting customers in trances, taking their money or jewelry. When the customers wake up they don’t realize their belongings were taken, never remembering a single thing.

The building of the House is split, having two compartments for each rank, so the Yako can plan their next performances together.

At times the Zenko will perform, but it’s a rare occurrence. If they do perform, their magic makes the watchers go into a super deep trance and the Yako will run around stealing everything they can.

The performers always wear their fox masks, which allows them to be sneaky and unrecognizable to the customers. One of the powers granted by the ancient Fox Stone is shapeshifting. All entertainers can use their magic to briefly shift into kitsune that look like their sphirix - it’s more of an illusion though. More powerful members of the House can also shift into other animals, but it takes up a lot of their magic, and they usually have to train a lot to learn a new “shape”, having to master each shape individually. Learning a new shape is usually the first step to gaining a new tail, because the effort will often help grifix raise their magic level. However, the number of shapes learned by a grifix is not linked directly to their number of tails. It is said that the house master is able to shapeshift into any animal out there.

Tsundae's Tale:

There's a story about the origin of the house goes back to the early days of the Empire, back when there were only a few houses in the Entertainment District. The Tale talks of a tall mare named Tsundae who used to be a dancer at one of those Houses. She had a sphirix in the shape of a nine tail Kisune, and the tails of one.

One night, as she was dancing for some customers, she got lost in the music and danced like she never did before, moving her body and her tails like the notes of the music, until she noticed that the music stopped. When she looked around she realized that everyone in the room had fainted, both musicians and customers. Terrified, she ran to her room.

Next day, when she walked down to do her job as usual, the House Mother stopped her. She told her that everyone in the room had been hypnotized by the way her tails moved, and that the customers woke up angry and refused to pay. If it ever happened again, she would be kicked out of the house.

Tsundae did her best to never dance like that again, but for some reason customers started falling asleep at every movement she made, and it was not before long that she got kicked out of the house.

She tried going around the other houses trying to get a job, but they all would faint when she tried to audition and refuse to ever let her in again. It was like that for a few weeks until she walked into a new House where there were no Entertainers - a grifix from the outside was trying to start an Entertainment House, but nobody wanted to get hired by him, so the business was bound to fail. It was like that for months, and everyone avoided the place, rumors even started to spread that he was cursed. But she had no other place left to go, so she walked in for an audition.

Shen Tsundae met him, she was surprised to see he had 7 kitsune tails just like hers. She danced in front of him for the audition, and to her surprise, he hadn’t fainted, he was just marveled by the beauty of her dance. He welcomed her into the house, introducing himself as Shikamaru, and together they decided to only hire other “kitsune”, who could perform her dance and use it for their business.

With Tsundae’s charm, they soon gathered enough entertainers to open the House, and soon it became one of the biggest Entertainment Houses.

Tsundae grew old in the House and became the House Mother. In her last years, she used to sunbathe on a big stone in the house’s inner yard. Legend says she died on that stone one day, but instead of her body remaining breathless there, she turned into a kitsune statue that still lays on that stone up to this day, and her soul provides the grifix born there with their special magical abilities.

This house is regulated by CrystalIzzy77

House of the Yurei

This entertainment house shelters many ghosts and yokai. The entertainers tend to their well being and are careful for them to not cause any troubles. Besides that, it looks like a fairly usual entertainment house and most customers don’t know about the spirits until one walks over them and starts whining about whatever.

The entertainers have shrines for every spirit in the house, where they place small offers so the spirits are happy. The spirits aren’t very powerful, but they can cause trouble for the business when they are upset, because they scare off customers.

Chopirako

Chopirako is the main spirit of the house. Chopirako is the ghost of a grifix which tends to whine all the time but most entertainers just ignore her. If a customer misbehaves and the entertainer cries or is hurt, she will attack the customer, because other grifix’s whines bother her very much, but she may also attack the entertainer for the same reason. It is very important that nobody cries or whines in the house for she will get upset and wreak havoc around the house. She doesn’t like hearing grifix talk, but she can’t stand at all hearing the sound of distress.

Chopirako was the mother of an old entertainment house. The building started to crumble and the customers stopped coming so all the entertainers left, leaving the old mother alone. She kept on living there, mumbling and whining about her fate all the time.
Grifix in the Entertainment District used to say to each other: “take care of your house and fix what is broken, or you will reach the same fate like Chopirako!”.
She lived a long time, and grifix started to think “she is so old, why won’t she die already?” But nobody ever found her dead body.
Nowadays they say Chopirako is still alive, or that her own ghost buried the body, but she has always lived there since anybody can remember.
In reality, she probably died at some point, but because nobody found the body, people kept believing she was there, so the magic in the air manifested at the beginning into a copy of the old mare, then later evolved into the strange being that is known today.
Because her death was never recorded, she is still the owner of the house, but a new mother took over and fixed up the house eventually. Still, the house has gathered many myths and spirits over the time, and apeasing them is much easier than working against them.

Yonaki

Yonaki is a shadowy grifix spirit that sits in corners of the house, usually in unoccupied rooms. It is often curled up in a ball and busy crying, when it is disturbed it will shriek and disappear.

Nopperabō

Nopperabō is a ghost in the shape of a grifix, but it has no face. it sits at one table and doesn't move unless scared off. If someone sits next to it its blank face will slowly morph to match theirs.

Sometimes if havoc is wrecked in the house, all the spirits run off scared and it takes a while for the entertainers to calm them down and take them back to their usual places. Sometimes, scared off by the chaos, TBN will start walking around, going through walls and entering rooms where customers are being entertained and it would morph into the customer's faces terrifying them, only fueling the chaos.

It would only do that when something is wrong, and entertainers would usually try to calm it and get it back to its usual place, especially since the spirit is forgetful and can't return on its own, so unless helped it will continue to wander around spooking customers.

Shadow Cubs

They look like cubs except their bodies are made of a dark smokey aura and they wear white porcelain masks on their faces and a shadowy chain around their right ankle.

When they touch objects, they will temporarily convert those things into shadowy whisps. But those often go back after a while when nobody is looking. If you try to look at them and wait for them to turn back, they never will.

Shadow Cubs do not like light. They will sometimes run around and try to steal things from grifix. You can tell one is near by their giggling.

Besides the few stronger spirits that have grifix-like forms, the house is full of fantastic creatures and hunted objects. In reality, none of the spirits are actual ghosts, they are but magical manifestations of the grifix’s common belief. But both grifix and the spirits don’t know that.

Gitsune's Vows

Gitsnue's Vows is a teahouse where entertainers walk around serving people while wearing Yokai masks, mostly Kitsune and Okami masks but not only. The House revolves around an old legend about a Kitsune who got married to an Okami.

The entertainers usually act like the yokai character they embody - kistune are mischievous, kicking stuff of the table and such. Okami are intimidating and assertive. Tanuki are playful tricksters, pulling pranks on the customers. Koma Inu are protective and majestic. There's many others, but the kitsune and okami are the most popular and most common in the house.

Through the animals they chose, entertainers act like popular character archetypes.

Unlike other entertainment houses, this one is often frequented by grifix who try to get together with someone, because the "yokai" here are considered great matchmakers.

The entertainers here don't really "attend personally" to the customers. Some kitsune might act like they're into it at first before pulling some prank on the customer and laughing in their face, hummiliating them. Strangely, most of those that end up in this situation knowingly, because they're into it.

Secrets of the Labyrinth

Secrets of the Labyrinth is an extremely small entertainment house. The building is practically falling apart, it's full of rotten wood and rusty nails, and crystals. Crystals everywhere. When entering you will pass through an arch covered in wards where a strange sensation will wash over you. Inside the house is in quite poor condition, being lit up only by crystals scattered everywhere and the occasional lamp.

There is no attractions except for a big cage in the middle of the room with a hole in the bottom. It looks like nothing is happening until some grifix will pull the paw of one of the entertainers and slip a coin in their paw. It is then that a bell will ring a mechanism will start to move. Soon a figure will emerge from the hole in the ground: a beautiful grifix, entirely covered in crystals.

"Do a dance!!" the grifix that payed will call. And the crystal grifix will obey. Once the dance is complete, the mechanism activates again and the crystal grifix is pulled back under the floor.

The customers all start to boo. "Bring her back up!!! Where is she gone!!??"

"PAY!!" the entertainer shouts, hitting their fist violently on the cage bars.

Silence falls.

And then another paw reaches out with a coin.

And the bell rings again.

That's how it goes for hours. Once the house is open, the customers can pay for the crystal grifix to do various activities. If nobody else pays for a new activity by the end of the first one, she will go back down in the floor and the assistants will start encouraging people to pay to bring her back up. Then the bell will ring again once one of them pays….

This will happen a few times every day before grifix will get excited and start paying for more activities, making them pile up so she doesn’t go back down… until late at night when the customers start to leave, and all becomes quiet again.

The most excited of customers can pay an exorbitant sum of money to gain a crystal growing from her body. The crystals decorating the house are harvested from her body as well. Some naturally fall of her body, but if needed the owner will order the entertainers to rip them of her body. They are only allowed to touch her when ordered by the owner.

She is usually kept on magic supressing drugs that the owner buys for her diet.

The entertainers aren't allowed in the crystal grifix's room unless they bring her food or help her bath. The owner will watch over them to make sure they don't talk to her or do anything suspicious.

The place has very few entertainers, and usually they're the cheapest, worst kind because the owner of the house doesn't want to pay for good entertainers. After all... he doesn't even need them. Most entertainers do not stay very long if they even get hired. But if they ever leave, their lips are magically sealed so they can never talk about the crystal grifix, no matter how hard they may try.

The entertainers are tasked to take care of the Crystal Grifix (feed, water, etc) and keep the house from completely falling apart. During open hours, they may be atending to the customers, collecting payment from them and serving alcohol cause customers pay more when they're drunk. The ward stands at the door charging for entrance, while the other entertainers go around serving cheap drinks.

History:

There was an individual merchant that was traveling to the underground sometimes to sell stuff to the grifix there. He was very stuck on seeing the Underground City but the underground grifix didn't want to take him there, until he fooled one to take him there. There he met the Crystal grifix, and he thought he could make money off of her. So he promised her all sorts of stuff on the surface and tricked her to come up with him. So she left the underground city with the merchant but the merchant locked her in his house and then took her to the Entertainment District where he bought a house where he locked her up.

He then made it into an Entertainment House where grifix came to stare at the Crystal Grifix who was placed in a cage in a middle, and the crystal grifix was forced to dance and put on a show while they would stare at her like they were some sort of animal in a cage.

AAAAND THAT'S IT FOR NOW!!! That was a lot. See you very soon with more if all goes as planned! :3

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GRIFIX LORE UPDATE #18 - Melting Sphirix Syndrome, Klugetown, Icho Springs, Umbra Prisoners etc.

Posted 2 months ago :: Last edited 2 months ago by MysteriousShine

It's been a long time since I've made one of these, so this one's slightly longer than usual... Got a lot of new stuff to cover!! :3

Melting Sphirix Syndrome

The disease is known by many names, some of which are Melting Sphirix Syndrome, Soul Core Corruption, Soul Melting, Skeleton Sphirix Syndrome and many others. It is unknown what it is caused by. Some suggested that it isn’t even a disease to begin with, but a symptom of the divided gene that occurs sometimes, like any other type of corruption the Divided grifix face.

✦ It only affects Divided Grifix.

✦ It is chronic (so it can not be healed), but it doesn’t kill the host. However, depending on how quickly it advances, some grifix may live to the point where their entire soul is corrupted by it and they become soulless bodies. That rarely happens though, because it usually takes longer than a grifix gets to live.

✦ It is a genetic disease and it can be passed on from parents to offspring.

✦ It causes the sphirix’s skin, meat and organs to “melt” until there is only the skeleton left. As grifix can feel pain when their sphirix is injured, this will cause a lot of phantom pain for the grifix. It can sometimes be agonizing, but rarely. In very advanced stages of the disease, the bones will melt as well and eventually the sphirix will be completely gone.

✦ It causes magic to spill or bleed through the eyes, nose and mouth of the grifix.

✦ The grifix often dreams of their sphirix in their unmelted state and that is the only time where the patient feels at peace so they tend to sleep a lot.

✦ In the advanced stage of the disease, after the sphirix fully melts, dreaming is the only way to meet the sphirix. Patients in this stage may even refuse to wake up, and it is a sign that their soul is almost gone.

✦ Once the soul is gone, they won’t be able to dream anymore, and their consciousness will be completely faded away. They don’t act on their own anymore so they can’t chew or swallow on their own. They can walk because of muscle memory, but they need to be led around by a caretaker or they will just stand and do nothing.

✦ There is a belief amongst grifix that once a grifix’s soul has fully melted away they will never be able to go to the afterlife, that their soul is completely gone. They also believe that the soul will never heal, so if someone dies with their soul in the early days of decay, it will remain in that painful stage for all eternity. There are legends of mothers killing their children when they are diagnosed with this disease, as they do not wish their child’s soul to live in suffering for all eternity.

Umbra Prisoners

Prisoners during Umbra's reign were treated very poorly. Those were grifix that committed crimes against the King, but those crimes were often just speaking up against him. Their feet would be chained up, sometimes their feathers were plucked out as a way to mark them as criminals. Sometimes if a grifix said something against the king, their whole family would have to pay for the crime. It depended on different things, such as whether the family stood by their side or how bad the crime was. Often those grifix would even be condemned to die.

But if two grifix that had an egg were condemned to die, they would only be killed after the egg hatched, so the egg wouldn't die. The baby, or if those grifix had any children, would be kept alive in the dungeons, as a way to "pay off" their parents' crime. They'd be used as test subjects for spells and torture devices. Those born there have limited speech ability, sometimes they don't have a sense of identity or understanding of things such as gender so they are entirely androgynous. Their sphirix often fades away from abuse, and repeated usage of the gem covering lotion that causes the sphirix to disappear. Some remain with no sphirix for the rest of their life. Sometimes their magic solidifies around ghosts that come and go, and there's plenty of those in Umbra's dungeons, that are haunted by all the dead prisoners. Rarely, some ghost will permanently become a grifix's sphirix.

Most of those prisoners don't get to live for long, but if they're old enough they will be forced to become Umbra Warriors.

Up next is mainly a bunch of explanations about grifix gender flow covering some questions and discussions we've had on the topic of genderfluidity. It's not a closed subject so if you have any ideas or questions still, go ahead and ask em on Discord :3

Genderfluid gender flow

The natural transition of a grifix’s biological gender is mostly influenced by the grifix's own perception of self. As they grow older, that becomes harder to change, or it changes slower. In the case of a genderfluid grifix, however, that wouldn't be the case, as their perception of their own gender would change quite quickly. But physical changes would still take a longer time, like a few weeks at least, as that is the speed the magic can work at. So if the genderfluid grifix changes their gender more often than that... they would constantly be transitioning, and never fully male or female. That would also be very soliciting for their magic, since transitioning absorbs a lot of magic continuously until it's done. Unless if this grifix has really powerful magic, it would wear them out and they might end up constantly sick.

This happened in the past and the healer found many ways of dealing with it, in order to help the grifix.

One way is a certain potion that acts similarily with that used on abandoned eggs, and it causes the body of the grifix to use external magic instead of their own. But that turned out to be quite dangerous as the grifix can end up being affected more by other’s perception of them and it can have really weird unpredictable results. If used long term the grifix might actually become someone else entirely.

More safely to use, there is a potion that simply stops the body from morphing from one gender to another, and it simply remains stuck often in a more androgynous state which allows the grifix to simply change their gender expression without having their bodies morph with it. This way their mind doesn’t impact their body so much anymore and their magic isn’t drained so much anymore. It is generally a pretty good option for most.

These potions are unknown to the divided grifix. They are known by Everfree Village healers and Frozen Empire medics, as for the Lost tribe and the Forbidden Colony it is uncertain as of now.

During the Magic Glow stage, all magical progress is accelerated so the transition is as well. However the Magic Glow stage requires a magic boost of some sort. Some grifix can learn how to achieve it through training or by having very intense emotions but all it does is stop the body from properly regulating the magic flow and if overused it leads to serious health issues, so inducing it every time one needs to transition would be rather dangerous.

Note: Night Glow does NOT accelerate transition, only Magic Glow.

Icho Springs

Headmaster: ??

Icho Springs is a medium sized Entertainment House, operating in a traditional manner. They don't have much special about them, it's a very regular house with the regular traditional japanese aspect. Entertainers play traditional instruments, dance, serve ginkgo tea and tell stories to entertain their guests, and for a special fee you can book them for private meetings in the house's guest rooms.

The house has an inner yard with a small teahouse in the middle. The teahouse is placed on a small island surrounded by a pond with golden koi swimming inside. Above the teahouse grows a big Ginkgo tree, rumors saying that it was planted by the founder of the House, who used to be a Herbalist. But if any herbalists were to set paws in that place they would quickly see that there is nothing keeping that tree alive, and any plant would wither in those conditions. A knowledgeable scholar would quickly identify it as a mere magic manifestation, and they would be able to tell that the koi fish swimming in the pond are also nothing more than that.

The house mother is an old, kind Entertainer. While she will greet customers with a friendly, kind smile, she can also be very harsh to them. But to her Entertainers she is the kindest, and will always lend them a shoulder to cry on.

Icho Springs is different from other Entertainment Houses in one subject. Entertainers here are allowed to keep their children. The house mother says that in her 50 years of serving the house, that has never affected the house's earnings, and she finds it a cruel practice to take the children from their mothers. Because of this, Icho Springs is one of the only Entertainment Houses that isn't made entirely of orphans. The consequence? Entertainers have their mothers, so they all find it weird to refer to the House Mother as "Mother" so they all call her "Grandma".

This is because when she was young, she had an egg and the previous House Mother took it from her. She often wonders what happened to her child. So she made sure no other entertainer in her house would have to go through that.

Up next there's a bunch of information I was going to cover in the Grifixverse Canon series, but it's been discussed a lot lately so I decided to include it here cause it might be a while untill I'll be able to pick up that series again.

Klugetown

Before the Great Cataclysm

I'll cover this bit in the Grifixverse Canon series when I get to it.

After the Great Cataclysm

Klugetown was very far from the core of the Great Cataclysm, therefore it was almost untouched. With almost the entirety of ponykind extinct, and all the pony settlements crumbling to the ground, it became one of the biggest cities in the world. It is by far the biggest port in Equestria - every single thing that you can find for sale somewhere has at some point passed through Klugetown. The name of the city can be found on every single thing in Equestria (kinda like “Made in China” is in our universe)

The place is still unchanged, though much, much bigger and more crowded. People build up, down, sideways, anyhow they pleased. It’s a lawless place, nobody is in charge, no authority.

The only thing keeping those creatures in check is the fear of the “Storm God”. Legend started from the memory of the Storm King, a tale that parents used to tell their cubs in order to frighten them. Now that’s forgotten, but sea storms are still very much real, and very terrifying, especially in such a poorly built place. A Storm almost always tears homes down - but it only takes a few days for new structures to be built in place. That’s why the place is ever changing shape.

Because of the fear of storms, they started praying to the “Storm God”, and now live under the “divine authority” of a non-existent being. That doesn’t stop many from leading a life of crime, but it does stop some of them.

Klugetown is mainly populated by Klugetown Folk, Storm Creatures, Abyssinians, Orinthians and any other species that might have traveled there.

Klugetown Folk

img source

Klugetown Folk is the species that built Klugetown and to this day they are the most numerous species in Klugetown. The species is composed of two subspecies: ocean folk and desert folk.

Ocean folk are creatures that emerged from the ocean, and the desert folk are creatures that emerged from the desert. They evolved from animals under the influence of a magical artifact, which infused them with magic and caused them to evolve into their more humanoid shapes. While they are infused with small amounts of magic, that is nothing they can make use of. The magic took ages to make them evolve.

The artifact that caused this is buried deep underground and the two species are subconsciously attracted to it. That's why they all left their habitats and built Klugetown, over the place the artifact is buried.

The desert and ocean folk are not aware of the artifact’s existence, nor do they try to find it, but somebody else was: The Storm King. That is the reason why he colonized Klugetown. It is unknown whether he ever found the artifact or if it still lies under the city.

The artifact had no effect on abyssinians or orinthians, those are just neighboring kingdoms to Klugetown.

A lot of Klugetownians are hybrids of various animals, not all of them though. Most are hybrids of different animals of the same folk, but rarely there are also hybrids of desert folk with ocean folk. The magic induced in them made them compatible, but they can't breed with other species.

Character Reference info

If you want to make a Klugetown Folk character, ask MysteriousShine for a sketch to follow for the reference, because they have too variable body types to make bases for them.

Donkeys

Note: the two characters on the left are mules, while the ones on the right are donkeys.

Donkeys are a species that coexists with ponies, and are even capable of mating with them. They have slightly different body shapes than ponies, with thin legs and wider hooves, string tails, big muzzles and much longer ears.

They can not have cutie marks, horns or wings, nor do they possess any magic.

Please use designated donkey bases for references.

Mules

A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and female horse/pony. They have a very similar aspect with donkeys, so you can use the donkey bases for them.

They can not have cutie marks, horns or wings.

Hinnies

A hinny is the offspring of a female donkey and a male horse/pony. They have the same traits as donkeys, but an aspect closer to that of a pony (wider legs, shorter muzzles). See the hinny bases for examples.

They can not have cutie marks, horns or wings.

This is all for now! See you next time everyone :3

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Grifixverse Canon #3 - Season II episodes 1-13

Posted 1 year ago :: Last edited 1 year ago by MysteriousShine

Time to move on to season 2! We really got a lot to cover this time, and a bunch of really important stuff like the Quarray Eel and Timberwolves.

S02 E01 · The Return of Harmony - Part 1

Nothing to note

S02 E02 · The Return of Harmony - Part 2

Nothing to note

S02 E03 · Lesson Zero

Nothing to note

S02 E04 · Luna Eclipsed

Nothing to note

S02 E05 · Sisterhooves Social

SHEEP

They are intelingent creatures. They are similar to cows, being quite instinct driven. They are herd animals, and need each other's company, that being why they live together in large numbers. They depend on ponies for a lot of things, and therefore they usually live in the proximity of pony settlements. There are, however, groups of sheep that will roam freely in the mountains and only come to pony settlements in the winter to sell their products while the mountain tops are too cold to live in. They possess no magic and live mostly by the laws of nature and instinct. This, however, does not reduce their mental capabilities.

S02 E06 · The Cutie Pox

For the first time during this series, we got some new flora to introduce!

THE HEART'S DESIRE

The Heart's Desire is a rare flower found in the Everfree Forest. It has magical abilities which allow it to reveal one's talent. It can be used for a grifix to recover their passion if they forget why they liked to do something, and it can also be used to treat other phychological issues. It is a great cure for depression and other such things, but it only helps if it is in moderate quantities.

For ponies, the plant can cause a pretty bad desease called "Cutie Pox", but for creatures without a cutie mark it is much safer to use. Still, in big quantities, it can poison a grifix as well, and can cause them to develop strange obsessions with all sorts of things, making them unable to perform properly. In that case, the Flower of Truth can help remove the symptoms.

FLOWER OF TRUTH

The Flower of Truth, also known as the Seeds of Truth, is a magical plant that grows in the Everfree Forest, as well as in other parts of Equestria. The seeds only sprout when someone speaks of a heartfelt truth. The flower is a cure for Heart's Desire poisoning, and is often used in cures together with it.

It is very rarely found in the Everfree Forest, but is pretty common on the route followed by the Lost Tribe. Lost Tribe lovers will sometimes plant Seeds of Truth and confess their love in order to make them bloom, showing that their love is true.

S02 E07 · May the Best Pet Win!

Yee excited for this because it is finally some Divided Grifix lore!!

GHASTLY GORGE

Ghastly Gorge covers a big area between the Everfree Forest and the Macintosh Hills. The gorge becomes extremely tall in some areas, with peaks reaching above the clouds. Inside the Gorge, the Divided Grifix reside. It is also the home to the dangerous Quarray Eels.

QUARRAY EEL

Quarray Eel are huge creatures that live in holes in the side of Ghastly Gorge, waiting to snatch up any prey that might pass in front of their holes.

They are incredibly dangerous and divided grifix know very well to avoid them.

They killed many grifix in the past, and the thought of them fills them with fear. In the Divided Grifix mythology, they are raised almost to the rank of gods because of the danger they are to grifix.

S02 E08 · The Mysterious Mare Do Well

Nothing to note

S02 E09 · Sweet and Elite

Nothing to note

S02 E10 · Secret of My Excess

Not much to note, but when I make a page about dragons I'll have to make sure to add the fact that their physical size is linked to the amount of belongings they have

S02 E11 · Hearth's Warming Eve

WINDIGOS

Windigos are a race of ghostly creatures with a horse-like appearance. They are winter spirits that feed off of the fighting and hatred between others and create blizzards and freezing weather.

They always roam in a group of three. They are believed to be much weaker if separated.

They do not show signs of sentience, they are merely malice driven spirits.

The Everfree Grifix have tales regarding them, but those tales sound different from the tales pony-kind has...

Note: windigo shaped sphirix are ALLOWED. That is because windigos are not considered sentient species, and only their appearance is horse-like.

S02 E12 · Family Appreciation Day

Finally, time to make a page for timberwolves!! I hate drawing timberwolves.

But first...

ZAP APPLES

The zap apples are magical apples that grow in the Everfree Forest. They appear and disappear quickly in the span of five days, which is why they must be harvested very quickly.

Theere are five signs that signal when they are ready to be harvested.

The first sign is the howl of timberwolves. The beasts are strangely attracted by the Zap Apple Trees during the time that the apples grow.

The second sign occurs the next day after the first sign, a sudden strong wind starts blowing and the skies get covered with dark clouds. The naked trees starts buzzing with blue sparks around their branches, and soon the sparks disappear and big leaves sprout, which grifix call "zap apple leaves". The clouds quickly disperse, and once the storm is over, the apples will be due in exactly 4 days.

The third sign is another sudden wind and gathering of dark clouds, and a flock of crows circles above the orchard, making an apple shape with their flight pattern. Glowing teal flowers sprout on the trees and blossom into star-shaped flowers, accompanied by blue electric sparks. The clouds quickly disperse and the flowers stop glowing but remain on the trees.

The evening before zap apple harvest, the zap apples sprout on the trees after a meteor shower. In this stage, the apples are small and grey. This is the fourth sign.

For the last sign, the weather changes abruptly for a final time before the zap apples are ready to harvest. There's a lightning storm over the orchard, then a rainbow shines over it, and the zap apple trees are once again teeming with electrical sparks. The zap apples turn from gray to rainbow-streaked, and rainbow-beams fire all across the orchard from the apples. An aurora-like rainbow shines behind the apple trees and the zap apples change shape from small round apples to larger, more elongated and squarish. The apples are now ready to pick.

Grifix use the zap apples for baking and making jam, similarily to ponies. The zap apples have a lot of medicinal uses, but because they only grow one day per year, the healer usually slices them very thin and dries them, or uses the jam if she is out of slices. There must always be a few jars put aside for the healer, in case of emergency.

TIMBERWOLVES

Timberwolves are the most dangerous race of predators in the Everfree Forest. They spread out to many of Equestria's forests, but their biggest population is in the Everfree Forest. They are fueled by chaos magic from the Everfree, so the populations outside are smaller and not as strong.

They are the biggest natural enemy of the grifix. Even when killed, they will often rebuild themselves out of wood. The grifix magic is the only kind of magic that can completely kill a timberwolf, but that is very hard and one grifix doesn't have enough power to do that.

Timberwolves can be scared by loud noise, but that doesn't always drive them away, especially when they are very angry.

They are the main cause of death for the Everfree Grifix after diseases and old age.

S02 E13 · Baby Cakes

Nothing to note

This is all for this time! See you next post for the second part of season 2.

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Grifixverse Canon #2 - Season I episodes 12-26

Posted 1 year ago :: Last edited 1 year ago by MysteriousShine

I am back with the second part of the 1st season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic! I shall go through everything that might be relevant for grifix, mostly fauna but we also got some interesting lore on buffalos and Appleloosa! So here we go!!

S01 E13 · Fall Weather Friends

Trees require ponies running for leaves to fall. This is somewhat of a confusing topic to me. Like I mentioned in the previous post, I'll have to think of season changing once I'm done with rewatching the series, so I won't be commenting on it.

S01 E14 · Suited for success

Nothing to note

S01 E15 · Feeling Pinkie Keen

Froggy Bottom Bogg

A large swamp at the south of the Everfree Forest. One must pass through it to get to the Ghastly Gorge, which is partly the reason why the Everfree Grifix and the Divided grifix haven't met in over 1000 years.
It is a dangerous place, because of the Hydra that resides there. It's also populated by cragadiles and many other dangerous creatures.
Grifix usually avoid it, unless they have to go there to pick up medcinal plants and stuff.

The Hydra

The hydra is a big dragon-like creature. It has four heads on long snake-like necks and a large, orange, dragon-like body, with only two legs and no wings or arms. They are extremely dangerous to grifix, but forunately they are rare. One resides in the Everfree Forest, in the Froggy Bottom Bogg, so grifix know to avoid it. However it is not the only one in Equestria. They are known to prey on dragons if they are weakened and can't fight back, because they love warm food.

S01 E16 · Sonic Rainboom

Nothing to note. Although it would be interesting to think if a grifix can do one...

Also, the spell Twilight made to allow the rest of the main six to walk on clouds can work on grifix as well.

S01 E17 · The Stare Master

Cockatrice

Dangerous creature living in the Everfree Forest, being half chicken, half snake. It's stare can petrify upon eye contact. It does possess magic. It can reverse the petrification on will, but it rarely does so. The petrification is permanent unless reversed by the cockatrice or magic potions.

Everfree Village rifix often get petrified by them, it's a rather common encounter. Usually they are found by other grifix and brought back to the village, where the healer takes care of them.

Grifix from the Lost Tribe encounter them sometimes as well. But for them it's a rather rare occurence. They do have a cure for it.

Best prevention against cockatrices are mirrors. Some warriors wear reflective metal armor when fighting them.

On trifix, the petrification is only temporary, lasting usually for a few hours. If a trifix has timbermist on, they can not be petrified. If a cockatrice tries to petrify a trifix with the evermist trait while they have their timbermist on, the spell can be reversed and the cockatrice will get petrified.

S01 E18 · The Show Stoppers

Nothing to note

S01 E19 · A Dog and Pony Show

Diamond dogs

I will certainly add lore on them at some point, but I'll leave it for when I start reviewing the comics cause there is a big chunk of lore on them in a comic.

S01 E20 · Green Isn't Your Color

Nothing to note

S01 E21 · Over a Barrel

Appleloosa

The land around the core of the great cataclysm has become nothing but deserted plains for miles and miles, with no end. The earth is full of radiation, so anything around the Everfree Forest till the edges of Equestria is gone, save for some mutated plants that are poisonous to any living being.

But that is not something that can stop the surviving ponies, especially those who have lived in the desert for hundreds of years prior to the Great Cataclysm. Infertile land won't stop them from trying to grow plants and survive. And a small village, with the help of the buffalos, really managed to live through it.

The Appleloosans and the buffalos signed an agreement to help eachother survive after the great cataclysm. The bufflo migrations allowed them to find things such as soil that might be fertile, unmutated plant seeds and such. And they always took those things back to Appleloosa. But their journeys are not easy, for they must travel for days through deserted land, with no grass or plants to feed on, so the Appleloosans must assure that they provide canned apples and other food that can be kept for long periods of time without going bad.

Few buffalos still remain in Appleloosa throughout the year, being settled there. Some made families with the ponies, even without being able to have children.

Other species in Appleloosa are cows and mules, probably the last surviving of their kind.

Other creatures sometimes come and pass, but usually just one or few of them. Some settle there, but there isn't a consistent population of them, just one or a few individuals.

It's still a small village, and the only one for miles around. They haven't seen an outside pony in hundreds of years, but the blurred out noise coming through the radio signals tells them that there must be someone else out there.

Buffaloes

Big, strong creatures that take great pride in their culture and traditions. They follow the same migration route for thousands of years, traveling through Equestria.

They have a treaty with Applelosa that allows them to pass through the apple orchird in exchange for apple pies. After the Great Cataclysm, they started to provide the village with fertile soil and clean seeds in exchange for canned food that allows them to continue their migration through deserted areas of Equestria, without starving.

S01 E22 · A Bird in the Hoof

Will add more lore on phoenix birds as the show progresses, cause this episode mostly covered just Philomena and there's not that much lore on the actual species.

Phoenix Birds

Phoenixes are magical birds that regenerate by bursting into flames and being born anew.
The females and males are differentiated by the feathers on their head: the males have pointy feathers, while the females have thin feathers that are round on the top.
For grifix, phenix birds are highly respected and protected. Their feathers have strong medicinal power and are a required ingredient in many magic potions. They can also offer warmth in time of freezing.

S01 E23 · The Cutie Mark Chronicles

Nothing to note, although it would be interesting if someone made a grifix that had the sonic rainboom Rainbow made in their backstry somehow

S01 E24 · Owl's Well That Ends Wel

There's a big ass dragon in a cave in the Everfree??

I feel like that would cause a lot of issues later in the show, so the fact it wasn't at all mentioned later indicates that it maybe moved. But it is certain that it lived there for probably a long time during Eclipsa's reign.

S01 E25 · Party of One

Nothing to note

S01 E26 · The best night ever

There’s some horsified mice running around somewhere Is that the equivalent of furries for ponies? horsified animals??

Excluding that, there's nothing to note in this episode.

And with that, the 1st season is done!! See you again for season 2 or some comics next time, not really sure what I'll do next. Would like to take it in chronological order, so maybe comics.

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Grifixverse Canon #1 - Season I episodes 1-12

Posted 1 year ago :: Last edited 1 year ago by MysteriousShine

Hello everyone! And welcome to a new series about the Grifixverse lore.

So how is this different from the regular lore updates?

Well here's what this is about: i will be rewatching the entirety of the MLP:FiM series and I'll be covering every bit of lore that might be relevant for the Grifixverse. This will mainly be about different species of animals and sentient creatures and their role in the grifixverse and ivolvement with the grifix, but other stuff too.

Each post will cover half of a season, unless there will be areas that are more empty or full than the other.

So, let's begin with the very begining!!!

S01 E01 · Friendship Is Magic - Part 1

Would you look at that, there is absolutely nothing to note in the very begining!!

Still, maybe it's worth mentioning that this episode is also the day during which Selenara was crowned. Yes, she was crowned during the Summer Solstice! A weird thing for the grifix is that during that day the night lasted weirdly long, and the moon's markings changed once Eclipsa left the Village. Surely that must've given birth to some legends of the grifix about Eclipsa and the strange mare in the Moon that was there during her entire reign...

S01 E02 · Friendship Is Magic - Part 2

While the first part of this episode was quite lacking in anything special, as the mane six first venture in the Everfree Forest, we get quite a lot of content.

The Everfree Forest

Just a few quotes I'd like to point out about it:

"it ain't natural. Folks say it don't work the same as Equestria." - this is because of the magical essence of the place. That is the magic of the spirit of Malice, Cosmos. The magic of the Everfree Forest is malicious, looking to kill those that walk in. The grifix aren't native to the place, their magic being different. The deer magic acts to control the malicious magic of the Everfree, and so does the Tree of Harmony, together forming balance. Still, the forest is full of dangerous things, which is why grifix try to stick together when leaving the Village.

"everypony who's ever come in has never... come... out!"

The MAnticore

Added to the fauna index on our site

Manticores are magically enchanted creatures. They do not possess magic of their own, but they are magically merged hybrids.

They have the body of a lion with the tail of a scorpion and bat wings. Some have horns, however not all of them do.

They reside in the Everfree Forest, but they can be found in other places of Equestria as well. They are a known threat to the Everfree Village and the Lost Tribe.

They are the main predator of Sunset Birds.

Steven magnet

✦ Wiki

Steven Magnet is found crying in a river cause Nightmare Moon chopped off his moustache. He's not really very important to the grifix. We don't really know what he's doing there and even in his later appearances in the show he has nothing to do with the Everfree Forest so the canon version in the grifixverse is that he just happened to be in that river for some reason, but he doesn't reside in the Everfree Forest. I'll just say that is the same river that flows through Ponyville, and he just lives in the river, but tends to stick closer to Ponyville. I think it's fun to think that he just walks around Ponyville and nobody bets an eye.

Now about his species - he is not an Asian dragon/lung dragon. He is a sea serpent, as stated in the show. So lung dragons are still usable as sphirix, in case anybody was concerned about it.

The castle of the two sisters

Place of interest, even for the grifix. While they genrally avoid it, it is too big for them not to know about it. grifix are not allowed to go there unless approved by the Queen, the Healer or the Captain of the Guards. But many snuck over there at some point, temptation is too big.

During Eclipsa's reign, she sent many grifix over there to take books and ornaments, such as tapestries which Eclipsa sometimes used to ornate the castle. The library in the Everfree Castle still holds many books taken from the Castle of the Two Princesses. Still, there are many left as most grifix don't know how to read, so it wasn't of so much interest.

Whatever books have been left after the Great Cataclysm has sincee been taken by grifix scouts and members of the Kirinaria Mercenary Group and moved to the Great Libraries.

S01 E03 · The Ticket Master

Finally, time to move on to another episode! Not this one though, nothing to note in here.

S01 E04 · Applebuck Season

This would be the first appearance of cows and mules in the show. They're not too important, but they are certainly intelingent creatures. While cows are very much instinct driven, they are not stupid and probably as intelligent as ponies. They often work for ponies by producing milk in exchange for protection and shelter. They possess no magic and live mostly by the laws of nature and instinct. This, however, does not reduce their mental capabilities.

As for mules I can't say much from one single frame of one. So that will be covered in the future.

S01 E05 · Griffon the Brush-off

While I should cover the topic of griffons, I think I'll leave that for later in the show, when Griffonstone is introduced, cause theis episode doesn't really tell us anything about them.

S01 E06 · Boast Busters

This episode introduces some very important fauna for the Everfree Forest, so naturally I've added it to the fauna index.

The Ursa

Ursa are giant magical beasts that take the shape of bears. Their lifespan is extremely long, and they are often found in pairs: Ursa Major, the mother, and Ursa Minor, the child. Due to their long life span, it is unknown wether the baby grows to turn into an Ursa Major or remains like that for their entire life.

While they are found in the Everfree Forest, they haven't formed there, and can be found in other places as well, such as the Frozen North. This means they are a big threat to the Frozen Empire as well.

The pair in the Everfree Forest lives in a cave system in the northern Everfree Forest. The caves strech neeply under the Forest and emerge back on the south fo the Forest, but also in other parts. They harbor many monsters known to the grifix, such as Keisha, Auihoa and others. Grifix know to be wary of caves due to this.

S01 E07 · Dragonshy

Nothing to note

S01 E08 · Look Before You Sleep

Nothing to note

S01 E09 · Bridle Gossip

Zecora

I kept posponing this... but at least... I can run no more. I have to find a way to relate Zecora to grifix, she's just too cool not to do that!!

Zecora's hut is placed very close to Trifix territory. When she settled in, the trifix were furious, for she was unwanted presence. To them she was no different than the ignorant ponies in Ponyville, so they started attacking her. She had no idea what was going on, as she couldn't see them. Timberwolves also went after her together with trifix. The trifix didn't try to hurt her, but to drive her away. Still, she was stubborn and refused to leave so Oracle asked the Wise One to talk to her, as he was the only one she could see.

After talking to her, the Wise One was convinced of her motives and decided she should be allowed to stay. Now, the trifix leave her alone, but they still keep an eye on her. She is well aware that something is watching her, and she knows it is the same thing that one tried to drive her out. Because of that, she tries to leave offerings for the trifix, little trinkets and potions she makes. Trifix do take them, and they often study the composition of her potions if they prove helpful. A few times, they even tried asking her for help by placing items that indicated their issues, such as when a strange illness affected a trifix. She managed to help them out a few times. In return they placed some potions of their own for her.

One day, Zecora left. They were sad to see her go, so sometimes trifix go to clean up and mantain her hut in case she ever returns.

Poison Joke

This one's been handled a long time ago, so if you wanna read about it go here.

S01 E10 · Swarm of the Century

Parasprites

Bugs that reproduce asexually by eating. If fed, once they digest the food they will burp out another prasprite. They are very dangerouns as they reproduce extremely fast and are always hungry for more.

About at the begining of Selenara's reign, a new variant appeared in the Everfree Forest, that consumes anything but food. Grifix know not where they came from but after their appearance Selenara had to cast a spell onto the magic barrier in order for it to keep those vermins out. It's a wonder how they haven't yet devoured the entire Forest. Probably there is a predator that keeps their population under control inside the Everfree Forest.

They only live inside the Everfree Forest, but they can spread out into other parts of Equestria by sticking to ponies they meet along the way.

S01 E11 · Winter Wrap Up

This is a weird episode. Will have to get back to the topic of seasons change after I complete the rest of the series.

S01 E12 · Call of the Cutie

Nothing to note

This is all everyone! See ya next time for the second help of season 1!

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GRIFIX LORE UPDATE #17 - Gender Flow, Gemweaving, Entertainment Houses, ETC.

Posted 1 year ago :: Last edited 1 year ago by MysteriousShine

Welcome to yet another lore update! And time to answer a REALLY old question about grifix in this one >:)

So let's begin!!

Genderflow

It is time to adress a very old question regarding grifix: biological gender.

As it is well known, grifix do not reproduce sexually. They reproduce through magic. So it was asked pretty early in the species' creation... what defies their gender? What organs do they have and so on...

Well for once I am here to explain... at least part of it.

Well, to begin with, grifix biological gender is mostly defied by their body characteristics: size, shape, bones... as well as hormones and such stuff.

Sexual organs are... not exactly present for grifix, at least not in the way they are for other animals. About this subject I won't talk much, I don't really have an answer for it, nor do I plan to find one. All I know is that males and females are almost identical in terms of sexual organs.

Do grifix have milk to feed their young? This is a subject for some other time. I don't have an answer for it yet.

So let's get to the actual subject of today... The biological gender, and the effect of grifix magic on it.

It is well known that the grifix magic acts on the belief of the grifix, and if one thing is believed strongly enough it can manifest it.

And so... the belief of a grifix can even impact their bilogical gender. In other words, they can naturally transition from one gender to another by their will alone.

Basically if a grifix feels very much like another gender, their magic will alter their hormone production, which will then cause a transition, similar to humans, except it happens naturally. The magic will also alter other kind of stuff that can't be changed by hormones, but still, it has it's limits.

When transitioning, the grifix will change their facial features, musculature, voice. Their bone structure can not, however, be changed if the grifix is fully grown, but it will be impacted if they are a child, growing up.

Transitioning lasts a few months for adults. The older the grifix is, the longer it takes. On a baby it can fully happen in a week or even faster. That is because the body is easier to alter, but also because their perception of self is much more frail, and easier to change.

As children, grifix can transition many times without even being aware of it. Babies especially transition a lot of times, as they have no perception of gender or self. And in most cases it is impossible to see by other grifix, since baby grifix have almost no gender differences. So the parents are usually never aware of it. The healers can tell tho - from the baby's magic and other stuff. But it's normal so they usually ignore. It is more weird if it doesn't happen at all.

Usually, by 3 years old, the gender of the grifix is more or less settled, but depending on the family enviroment, how many gender norms and stuff are imposed on them, they could still transition, and quite often. At this age it can take about a month to fully transition.

By 6, grifix usually stop transitioning. It is the time of their life when they have a set identity for the first time, and they usually simply don't focus on gender. Before, the gender change was triggered unconsciously. But from now on, it is much harder for that to happen, since they become much more aware of who they are.

By the early teen years, a lot of grifix rebel on their old identity. It is usually the last period of their life when they might transition. A lot of them decide to do it just to rebel against everyone, but truth is, if the grifix doesn't fully believe in it in their own subconscious mind, it won't happen, so most grifix fail to do it, cause they don't truly want it.

From 15 years old up, grifix rarely transition. Their growth is almost done, so even if they were to transition, their bone structure would remain the same. Transitioning takes from 6 months up to a few years.

From 50 years old up, it is almost unheard of of a grifix transitioning. It is unknown how long it would take.

Most grifix stop transitioning from 3 years old. It is not that common for them to transition when older than that, but still a good number of them do. Few find an identity in this. After all, it is natural.

Those who start finding an identity in their transitioning are usually those who transitioned after 15 years old.

In other words, a grifix wouldn't identify as "trans" if they transitioned before 15. But being "trans" is not a thing for grifix, they don't use that word.

Facts:

✦ a grifix can be biologically androgynous

✦ other grifix's belief can help transitioning. If a grifix manages to convince the others that they are of a different gender, their magic will also help boost the transition. Because of this, babies spend most of their time in the gender the parents believe they are.

✦ sphirix can never change their gender after they set their shape. Before the sphrix shape ceremony, they can change their gender on will.

✦ most sphirix have the oposite gender from that of their grifix.

With this said, I have also made a page exclusive for Magic Manifestations, since the list of them was becoming quite long, so I thought they'd be worthy of it:

MAGIC MANIFESTATIONS

So let us now move on to the next subject... a little bit of culture drop for the Forbidden Colony!

GEMWEAVING

Gemweaving is a traditional practice used by trifix in order to decorate their wood. It involves placing a crystal, jewellery, gems, gold pieces or anything of this kind into a wound made into the tree bark covering their body, and letting the wood grow around it, embedding it inside.

Trifix often use this when they become wounded in a fight, as a way to make their scars look prettier. The embedded oobjects are there permanently, and can only be removed with force. Removing them can cause permanent scars to the wood.

The process hurts when the wound is created, but the rest is just healing, and it doesn't hurt. In most cases, when the wound has been caused in battle, doing this adds no extra pain to the healing process.

Trifix don't only do this to their own bodies, but also to actual trees, like if there's a particularily special tree they would do this to it, or if a tree has been scarred by a boar or something else they would place jewelry inside the tree's wound.

Now, there are some new Entertainment Houses to introduce! That's a constant for lore updates lately... Well I'm quite glad about that. Never thought they'd get so popular.

KRAKEN'S LURE

A shipwreck in the most unusual of places...

You stare at the unusual sight in front of you. A boat...? On a mountain cliff. Surely you can see the port of the Fishing Guild from here if you fly a bit over the surrounding buildings, but still... how you a ship sink... up a mountain??? And it looks othing like the few, small grifix ships they use fir fishing. It's huge compared to those. And old...

You heard that the boat was probably there from before the Empire. It was in fact, a pony fishing vessel. The freezing cold kept it from rotting for thousands of years before the Empire settled over there, and soon enough, grifix started to use it for various things, and luckily, they took care of the wood and made sure it didn't rot and crumble to pieces.

Now a wooden sign swings above the door: Kraken's Lure. The name starts to make sense as soon as you notice your sphirix shying away, hiding behind your ear. He says that there is a giant octopus covering the boat. And he begs you not to go in there. But the thrill that fills you when your shared emotions make you tremble lures you inside...

Inside it's dark, only a dim green glow fills the room - you imagine it's from the giant octopus sphirix, which you can't see, but it's big enough for it's glow to fill the room. The room is filled with smoke, and all sorts of weird smells - none particularily pleasant. You soon start to feel dizzy, so you sit down on a side chair, waiting for an entertainer to serve you. After this moment, you can't seem to remember a thing...

✦

The Kraken's Lure is an Entertainment House based on the legend of the sirens that lure sailors to their death through their singing. Therefore, the entertainers in this house are called "sirens" and they often dress acccordingly, with ripped pieces of clothing, fishnets, seashells and other such things. Inside they often burn various drugs that help induce high sensations onto the customers - the sirens grew up there. They are imune. They often use singing to induce high sensations as well, but they also have a large collection of sea shanties gathered from old pony books, which customers seem to really enjoy singing to, especially after drinking a bunch of sake.

The Kraaken's Lure is a pretty big entertainment house, despite most being afraid to go in there. Mostly really messed up grifix go in there just to feel something. And do not freit, cause even if someone developed immunity to all the drugs and booze - they have one more attraction that is sure to make anybody feel something.

In the back room of the guild there is a small pool of water. When customers are taken there, the sirens will push their head underwater and hold them there against all of their struggles. Fear, terror, imminent death - all building up until hypoxic euphoria hits, after which they'll be pulled out and tossed like a rag onto the deck.

Few grifix walk out of that place before the morning, they usually all fall asleep sometime during the night, only to wake up in the morning robbed of every valuable thing they might've had on them - and no siren to be seen, just other confused customers. They can only walk home, having no recollection of the night before.

So why would one even return here...? maybe it's just... the Krake's lure.

And the last one for now...

OOGAMA SENTO

Oogama Sento is a medium sized but tall bathhouse located in the nicer looking streets of the entertainment district. It is named after the Oogama yokai and looks like a traditional bathhouse with frog theming. The building consists of three floors and a basement.

When stepping inside you will be greeted by a comforting warmth and a sweet lavender smell. There are many fake plants, small ponds and tiny waterfalls about, though on each floor there is one big pond where you can find the Oogama yokai. You can interact with them, give them coins or food but they will do nothing, though it is believed that gifting them something can bring good luck. A receptionist is in the front which will take your order and lead you to a bath. Most baths are small except for the one large bath that may not be used by anyone, for it is for a 'special guest' if he decides to stop by.

Attire for entertainers is traditional bathhouse clothing and they must have their hair tied up at all times. Mostly females and cubs work here, but sometimes there are males as well. Entertainers must have a polite personality and must please their guests.

The bathhouse is run by an elderly enterainer, she lives in the very top of the building. She is quite kind but is known to be crafty, tricking others into working for her.

The basement is for very loyal grifix. Only two or three work there at a time. It is hard work, water needs to be heated and herbs and scents are mixed their then sent to the baths. It is much warmer here, almost insufferably so. To work here is a true testament that you are worthy to be at the bathhouse.

This house is regulated by Dawn-n-Night

This is everything for today! Have a wonderful day and see you next time! We got plenty more to cover!!

Of course, thank you very much to everyone that contributed to this!

As always please reffer to the official pages for the canon information. All the titles in this post are links to the official pages. This news letter will NOT be updated in case of any changes to the official lore, so it shouldn't be taken as reference in the future.

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GRIFIX LORE UPDATE #16 - Firestone, Beekeepers, Kage no Neko-ya, etc.

Posted 1 year ago :: Last edited 1 year ago by MysteriousShine

Hello once again! It it time once more for more lore to drop >:3

Enjoy!!

FIRE AMBER/FIRESTONE

It was thirty years ago when a greenseekers expedition was returning from the southern parts of Equestria. They were supposed to be met by a hunters patrol that would help them back to the Empire through the snowy mountains, but despite waiting in the meeting place for three days nobody came for them. They were running low on food, so as a desperate decision, the leader of the expedition decided to set off and try to find their way to the Empire alone. But that was a decision they had to pay in blood, for even after weeks of wondering through thee frozen mountains they hadn't managed to get a single glimpse of the Eclipse Tower, and soon enough they started losing members of the expedition.

One by one, they succumbed to the cold of the arctic north, until there were only three of them left. And in their despair, trying to find shelter from the snow storm, they stumbled into a cave. But something was strange with that cave: inside, there was dripping water from the ceiling, while in that cold, there shouldn't be no running water. And it didn't take long for them to notice that there was warmth radiating from deeper in the cave. So they went to investigate, and after walking for a while they reached a big opening in the cave:

There was a huge room inside the mountain, filled with a warm, amber glow. But this was different than regular amber, for it was actually, warm. Andd the walls were made entirely of this stone. But that wasn't all. Apparently, the warmth of the stones created a perfect enviroment for plantts to grow: it was like nothing they have seen before so far north. It was like one of those jungles they would find in the southern parts of Equestria, completely covered in plants of all kinds.

Quickly, the greenseekers took out a few seeds and plants they had been carrying with them - which were on the point of dying by now. As they put those on the warm ground, they looked as if they were magically revived.

They looked at eachother and didn't say a word, but they all knew what they were thinking: back in the empire, there was absolutely no way to grow plants. But this - this might allow them to do so! And that would do so much for the herbalists guild and the Empire... They HAD to get these firestones back to the Frozen Empire. They couldn't die now.

But how were they gonna do that? They were lost, they could've been miles away from the Empire, and probably nobody would ever find them. But at least they had food now - the cave was full of plants and fruit they could eat. So they were simply going to wait for now.

A few days later, they were found by a hunter patrol that managed to follow their trails, and they took them back to the Empire together with some Firestones. The Herbalists then started experimenting with the stones and managed to start growing plants for the first time in the history of the Empire. However, the stone's warmth seemed to slowly fade away, and 6 month later it was almost gone. Therefore, a new hunter patrol was sent to gather more stones. It seemed like the mountain in which the stones grew had magical properties, but the stones were mere simple amber once taken away from their cave.

Still, that allowed the Herbalists to grow plants, even if in small quantity. And since then, the Herbalists Guild became a very important guild in the empire, despite still being just an underguild for the Scholars Guild.

Thanks to @rubinoble1 and MidnightStar for the large contribution on this idea.

Next is a new Trifix Role, part of the Artmasters Faction:

Beekeepers

Honey is one of the trifix’s favorite foods, being used as an ingredient for a lot of their traditional foods, or consumed raw. Because of this, there is a group of trifix dedicated to beekeeping, so they can provide honey for the whole colony.

Beekeepers hold the bees in hives placed in a special area, filled with trees. Some of the hives are placed on the ground, while others hang from the trees (they have small bowls under the hives to collect any dripping honey). The bees trust the trifix and rarely attack them, but beekeepers still have special suits they wear just in case.

Trifix use honey for a lot of foods, such as a mixture of honey with acorn dust which is similar to chocolate cream. The cream can be eaten as it is, or mixed with milk.
Honey is also used a lot by medics, as it helps with healing a lot of illnesses.
Beekeepers also collect wax from the bees, which they use to make candles and other stuff for the colony.

Let's continue with some important clarifications about the Hair Vines trait for trifix:

The vines are always GREEN. As the trifix grows old, they become orange/grown-ish as they wither.

Cubs do not have vines.

When a young Trifix turns 13, their vines grow in but before that at age 12 their asked what they want to do. Whatever they say, the forest hears it, and the vines will grow.

Trifix can change their faction. What they do is cut the vines and seek Oracle. She'll let them in a special room where they'll "talk" to the forest and express their wish. Soon, new vines will start to grow. It's not exactly common but it still happens every so often even though most Trifix are completely happy with their role that they initially chose.

Hunters are born as hunters and they can NOT change their role.

Lastly, it is time for one more Entertainment House to be added!! Otherwise known as Not-Quite-Cat Cafe, get ready for....

KAGE NO NEKO-YA

A cat cafe with a rather strange feeling...

Kage no Neko-ya is a Cat Cafe, being set in a small building, painted red, with dark wooden beams and paper screens, set in a quiet alleyway.

The entranceway is flanked by weathered stone steps, leading to a portal framed by an ornate archway.

Inside, the dimly lit space features low tables with cushions on tatami mats, atop rugged stone flooring. Soft light spills from hanging lanterns, casting a faint glow on the ink paintings of cats and caligraphy showcased on the walls. The air is still and quiet, with the occasional creak of the worn wooden beams adding an eerie undertone.

Amidst the serene appearance, the cats move strangely, their eyes glowing faintly in the low light, and their behavior slightly out of the ordinary. Some seem to stare into space or exhibit unusual movements, adding to the peculiar ambiance. Their movements seem oddly calculated, blending seamlessly with the enigmatic ambiance of this unconventional establishment. Overall, there's an inexplicable feeling of unease, as if something is not quite right within this otherwise tranquil cat cafe.

✦

As a visitor in this enigmatic cafe, one would find themselves drawn to the strange cats roaming the place. Engaging with them, one might feel a subtle strangeness, an indefinable quality that sets them apart from what one might think of.

As you sit, enjoying tea with a 'cat' perched contentedly on my lap, you'd pet its fur, noticing an uncanny smoothness and an odd warmth that's different from what you'd expect. Their behavior might have a peculiar precision, almost as if they're performing what being a cat is like. Still, any unusual qualities simply register as unique traits of these unfamiliar creatures rather than deviations from the norm.

Throughout your visit, a lingering feeling of curiosity might persist, a nagging sense that something about these creatures doesn't quite align with your imagine of actual cats. But the charm and the odd familiarity they evoke would likely outweigh any doubts, allowing you to immerse yourself in the whimsical experience of enjoying tea and playtime with these mystical feline entities.

One's lack of prior experience with real cats would prevent one from questioning the authenticity of these beings. Instead, one would wholeheartedly accept them as the embodiment of what they've only heard and imagined cats to be—cherishing the joy they bring and savoring the enchantment of this remarkable encounter.

✦

The workers in this place are sweet entertainers, with personalities much more genuine than in other entertainment houses. Grifix come to this place not for their companionship, but for the "cats", so they aren't so much forced to put on an act, as they would be in other houses from the Entertainment District.
These entertainers embody a genuine affection and care for the cats, treating them as any animal lover would treat a beloved pet.

Their interactions are filled with warmth and compassion, as they attend to the needs of these enigmatic creatures, believing wholeheartedly in their feline nature. They might discuss the cats' personalities, quirks, and preferences with the visitors, sharing anecdotes and stories about their daily experiences with the cats, bonding with the customers and helping the buisness in this way.

The entertainers exude a sense of dedication to their role, ensuring the cats are well cared for and the visitors have an enchanting experience. Their attire reflects a casual yet welcoming style, fostering a sense of approachability and ease among the guests.

While they're genuinely nurturing and attentive to the needs of these mysterious beings, their unawareness of the truth lends an authenticity to their interactions, deepening the veil of illusion that envelops the cafe.

Most of the workers in the cafe do not have cat sphirix, or they think they do, but the sphirix is in fact a not-cat, like the "cats" in the cafe. Those that have actual cat sphirix find the "cats" in the cafe very uncany and strange. So very few such grifix work there.

✦

The Mother of the house embodies an air of enigmatic wisdom, carrying herself with a graceful poise that hints at a depth of experiences and hidden knowledge. Her presence would command respect and admiration among both the workers and the visitors to the cafe.

She dresses in attire that stands out subtly, adorned in flowing garments of exquisite craftsmanship and timeless elegance. Her clothing, while mirroring the workers' style, might bear additional ornate details and embroidery that speak of her role as the keeper of secrets.

Her demeanor exudes warmth and kindness, but beneath that gentle exterior lies a depth of mysteries and untold stories. She possesses an uncanny ability to guide conversations and interactions, subtly nudging them toward deeper truths without revealing too much.

There is an air of melancholy or wistfulness about her, hinting at experiences beyond the cafe's facade. Her eyes, filled with a mix of kindness and a hint of sadness, held secrets of encounters with real cats from a distant past—a past she keeps guarded, perhaps even from herself.

She is be the guardian of the illusion, the keeper of the cafe's enchantment, and the one who understands the true nature of the mysterious beings within the establishment. Yet, she chooses to uphold the illusion, preserving the magic for those who step into her realm of wonder and fascination.

While she presents an outward appearance of nurturing care and warmth towards these creatures, inwardly, she harbors a mix of emotions. She keeps her distance from the cats, but nobody is able to comprehend why. Despite her genuine affection for them, there's an underlying discomfort, a haunting reminder of what these creatures mimic but ultimately lack—the true essence of real cats.

Her care for these beings stems from a sense of responsibility, not just as the owner of the cafe, but as someone who feels a need to protect these creations born from collective imagination. She ensures they are well-cared for, loved, and treated with kindness, even though their existence might stir up conflicting emotions within her.

Note: the text on about this house has been mostly AI generated, as well as the designs of the "cats" are based on AI generated depictions of cats. This has been done in order to deepen the unnatural feeling of this place, and enhance the immersion of the reader.

Lastly, thought I'd link the pages of the existing yokai apparitions here. They were introduced for a while now, but just in case you missed them ^^

NIGHT SQUEAKER

NIGHT BELL

NOT-CATS

KOINOBORI

This is everything for today! Hope you enjoyed the new info, and see you next time!!!

And of course, thank you very much to everyone that contributed to this!

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GRIFIX LORE UPDATE #15 - The Flame Rising Ceremony, House of the Rising Sun, Sphinxes

Posted 1 year ago :: Last edited 1 year ago by MysteriousShine

Hi everyone! I'm here for a very quick lore update, officially adding a bunch of stuff that sort of existed already for some time and clarifying some stuff.

But don't worry, if this is not enough for you, there will be a BIG lore drop later next week, so look forward to that >:)

THE FLAME RISING CEREMONY

This is the Everfree Village’s funerary ceremony. The mourning grifjx gather in an opening in the forest where the body of the deceased is put on the ground, covered by the Healer in special plants. The ceremonies are always accompanied by the Healer and the Queen.

The body is set aflame by the magic of the Healer, the flames absorbing remains of the deceased’s magic from their body and turning into the same color as their magic due to the plants it is covered in.

Then, the healer would start dancing around the body, moving as if she was just another flame in the fire.

The Flame Dance is, however, not just a simple dance, but a spell that requires moving. It cannot be performed without flame magic, which is a very hard to master kind magic, and requires very strong magic capabilities. It is quite draining for the Healer.

Prior to Eclipsa’s reign, the Flame Dance used to be performed by Flame Grifix, which were specially trained grifix with flame fluffs. For grifix with flame fluffs, Flame Magic is much easier than for others. Eclipsa, however, didn’t like having these grifix learn such powerful magic so she forbade those practices and the task of doing the dance fell onto the Healer.

Recently, a new flame grifix has been found in the Village and now she can perform the dance instead of the Healer. Healers, however, still need to learn the dance and be able to perform it, so sometimes the Flame Grifix is joined by the Healer Apprentice and the two dance together around the fire. The dance is even more impressive when performed by two grifix at once.

The dance is very spectacular, and can only be performed if it is accompanied by flame magic. Most grifix don’t know this, as it is not exactly obvious, but if one were to try performing the dance without the Flame Magic they would fail.

The Sphinxes

The sphinxes were introduced a while ago, but only now I managed too figure out a way to actually explain theeir existence, so here it is:

Back in the time before Equestria, there was a powerful species residing in the desert. They were wealthy and lived very happily, until eventually a tyrant took over as their king. But he liked not to be the king of these people, and he liked not that all of his wealth had to be shared with them, so he took an ancient magical crystal and with a spell absorbed all of his subjects inside, remaining as the only Sphinx, guarding his treasure.
When he eventually died, in the times of the Great Cataclysm, the spell broke and his old subjects were expelled from the crystal. They had no more kingdom to go to, so some of them settled in Saddle Arabia while others set off to various parts of Equestria. As the only safe place in Equestria at that time, they eventually arrived to the Crystal Empire and settled there among the crystal ponies. In the two thousand years that they resided there, they developed thicker fur from the desert counterparts

HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN

A place for the restless Children of the Sun

Selenara, the Queen of the Sun, offered shelter to many orphans in the village since her reign begun. The children of the Sun often decided to spend their entire life working for her and enjoying their lives at the castle, but some just didn’t fit in. And no matter how many chances the queen might give them… The Head of the Castle Servants, Frozen Mountain, had limited patience. And when one continuously messes up things in the castle… they’re bound to get kicked out.

Truth is these children just had too much energy and mopping the floors all day just ain’t it for them. So they all sort of started to gather around the blacksmith at that time, and help around there, where work was truly tiring and they had something to out their energy into. Truth is they were all obsessed with how freaking cool the blacksmith was and just wanted to impress him.

The daughter of the blacksmith at that time, started jokingly calling her house “the house of the rising sun” as a reference to all the “children of the sun” gathering up in there. Over time, she took over as the Blacksmith but now the place is full of grifix doing various jobs such as glassmaking, pottery, or forging.

They all wear the same feather accessories as the castle servants, as they are considered servants of the queen, but they don’t live in the castle. They’re like a big family.

HEAD OF THE HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN

The old Blacksmith of the Village. He's like a grandpa to the kids. He used to make the coolest stuff out of metal so the kids were obsessed with him. He's retired now, but he still gives a lot of advice to the young ones, and they are often amazed by the results they get by following his advice.

Nowdays his daughter took over the job of Blacksmith, and also that of the Head of the House, but her old man still goes around giving orders to everyone if he feels like it.

CHILDREN OF THE RISING SUN

The grifix that do various crafts in the House, such as forging, glass making and pottery. Some just live here without partaking in any such work, but then they cook and help around the house.

They all wear the special feather ornaments which are the castle servants symbol, as they are in fact part of the Castle Servants.

The feathers can be any type of feathers, but the little wool balls are always the same colors.

The Children of the Rising Sun so far are Pumpkin Flare, Artifice and Malus. Owners can update their bios if they feel like it's needed after this new information, but that is not required. The references of Artifice and Malus need updating, but as the cause of all this I will make sure to handle this myself and add the feather accessories on them.

Other stuff:

The species pages for GRIFFON, HIPPOGRIFF and CHANGELING have been updated with new information. The griffon page is the only one that has actual new stuff, the others only got some info on the species appearance.

This is all for today, hope you enjoyed this lore drop!

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GRIFIX LORE UPDATE #14 - The Sky Falling Ceremony, Yokai, House of Vanity, Flora

Posted 1 year ago :: Last edited 1 year ago by MysteriousShine

Hello everyone! I'm back with a lore update, and this time I'm dropping some very important lore bits, so please make sure to read the first two parts carefully!

I'll begin with the Sky Falling Ceremony: this ceremony replaces the Sphirix Shape Ceremony for the Lost Tribe grifix, and explains their "birthday" system, so it is EXTREMELY important.

THE SKY FALLING CEREMONY

The Starbeam Poppy has a very strange ability, which the Lost Tribe makes use of. This contributes to the importance of the flower for the Lost Tribe and the many beliefs surrounding that flower.

When a baby hatches in the Lost Tribe, the Water Healer Mentor will make a special solution by boiling Starbeam Poppies in water, like some sort of tea. Following that, the family of the baby will gather around for the Sky Falling ceremony. It’s mostly a family ceremony, but a lot of grifix join if they’re free, because all the Tribe grifix know each other so they gladly jump in to see the ceremony. The baby will then be submerged in the Starbeam Poppy solution, together with their sphirix. They’re only submerged for a very short period of time, so they don’t drown, but that’s enough for the solution to take effect.

The solution allows the sphirix to settle its shape on its own whenever it is ready. Meaning the grifix won’t have to go through any sphirix shape ceremony later in life, because the sphirix will just settle their shape one day, whenever they’re ready.

For the Lost Tribe, the actual birthday of the grifix has no meaning, but the day in which they begin their duty (as healer or warrior) is considered their birthday. That is, always, the day when they get their sphirix. If they change their duty later on in life, the day they do so will be considered their new birthday. This is also why cubs with unsettled sphirix shape all have butterfly masks: the tribe considers them to not be “born” yet, just hatched.

After the ceremony is over, the family will give a symbolic offering to he Water Healer Mentor as thanks for doing the ceremony. After that, they will give snacks they brought to anybody who came to see the ceremony.

Following this, I have a new magic manifestation of the grifix to explain. It mostly appears in the Frozen Empire, and it will be relevant for a future event ^^

YOKAI and ApparitionS

Apparitions are a magic manifestation of the grifix, but it seems to only occur in really big conglomerations of grifix, like the Frozen Empire.

The collective belief in something can create very vivid apparitions of that thing. They are like sphirix, beings formed of the grifix magic, but they look much more real and material. The only way to tell them appart from real things is to touch them. They even seem to develop their own will, based on the grifix's belief about their behavior. They can touch and move objects, but they can also pass through walls, but usually they don't because they are unaware of that possibility.

Apparitions form various beings from legens, things that do not exist in reality, and behave accordingly to those legends. Sometimes, apparitions are objects that have been in a place for a long time and have been suddenly removed, but the collective memory persists so an illusion of that object will form.

Illusion beings are particularly common around the entertainment district, while rarely being spotted outside. Perhaps that is because of the many myths and legends spoken in the entertainment houses. They are often refered to as "Yokai".

Illusion objects tend to appear anywhere in the Empire, but they don't have much impact on the life of grifix.

Now I have a new Entertainment to introduce, regulated and created by Dawn-n-Night:

THE HOUSE OF VANITY

SPECIALITY

The House of Vanity is an Opera House in the entertainment district where grifix can sit and enjoy performances such as singing and ribbon dancing.

DESCRIPTION

The house has a strict etiquette, if a guest is too rowdy or is not wearing something fancy they can get kicked out. Most grifix that come here are high class, such as Starfell grifix and scholars. The house may have the appearance of being angellic, but the members may not be so pure. Its easier to gather secrets and wealth if they are seen as trusting and innocent.

The House can be rented for high sums of money for parties such as wedding celebrations, and a lot of high class grifix enjoy doing this.

The House of Vanity also has it's darker side, and once the curtain falls and everyone goes home, all appearances are forgotten, and only the drunkards and those wiith dark thought remain, awaiting to be further entertained by the Fallen Angels.

The house isn't only about the wealthy. Despite the appearances, it is still an entertainment guild full of orphans and not so fortunate grifix. None forget where they came from, and where they are bound to die.

No religious house is willing to officiate weddings for entertainers, and in most cases entertainers are not allowed by the house mothers to get married amongst themselves. But the Entertainment District is still full of secret couples, and they often seen a way of linking their souls together, and that's where the House of Vanity helps them out. Fallen Angels often officiate weddings amongst entertainers for free, but in most cases such weddings remain a secret forever...

OUTFITS, TRAITS AND SPHIRIX RESTRICTIONS

House members are expected to wear gowns that are flowy, similar to wedding dresses, and a mask that covers the upper half of their face and adorns eyes. The masks are decorated with feathers, wings, horns or rings, and always have eyes on them. Feathers and false wings are also accepted on outfits, as well as gold or silver jewellery. Higher ranking members will sometimes wear veils.

All angel ranks are required to wear a mask with wings and eyes:

You may download this image to use in references, or draw your own mask: House of Vanity default mask

Fallen Angels have a similar wear as the as normal angels, but with darker colours (and sometimes vibrant reds). They can also have more provocative clothes and males would sometimes wear suits. Their masks have no eyes, and the wings are often webbed wings instead of feathered wings, and they also often have horns on their masks.

All fallen angers are required to wear a mask with wings but no eyes, that has a silver part restraining the magic flow of the forehead gem:

You may download this image to use in references, or draw your own mask: Fallen Angel default mask

Sphirix must be feathered or winged creatures.

Forehead Magic Gems with orb magic flow are required for most ranks, the orb determining the rank:

✦ Seraphims: Stellated Icosahedron
✦ Cherubim: Stellated Dodecahedron

✦ Thrones: Stellated Octahedron

✦ Dominions: Icosahedron

✦ Virtues: Dodecahedron

✦ Powers: Octahedron

✦ Principalities: Hexahedron

✦ Archangels: Tetrahedron

✦ Angels: Sphere/none

✦ Fallen Angels: any, but they must wear a magic restraining headpiece made of silver which stops their magic flow.

HIERARCHY

SERAPHIMS

On top of the house's hierarchy, there are the Seraphims, grifix with Stellated Icosahedron magic orbs. Currently there are 3 of them, but at one point there had been up to 7. They all count as the house's "Mother" and together they represent the "Mother". They take all decisions regarding the house together, which often leads to conflicts between them, as there is no one grifix to hold all authority. Unlike other House "Mothers", they are completely uninvolved in the house's life. They simply make decisions and represent the house in Guild Meetings. They are also the ones to turn members of the guild into Fallen Angels.

CHERUBIM

There is only one Cherub, known as the Opera Mother. She has the Stellated Dodecahedron orb. She is the true "mother" of the entertainers, taking care of them, raising them and doing everything a house mother has to do for her entertiners.

THRONES

There is only one Throne, known as the Fallen Mother. She has the Stellated Octahedron orb. She is the "mother" of the fallen angels. She takes care of them and "harvests" secrets. She is the one that gathers all the profits off of the fallen angels' dirty work.

THE HIGHER CHOIR

DOMINIONS

Few grifix that have Icosahedron orbs. They write and decide on which opera will be played. In most cases they don't actually write new plays, but they just assign roles and decide who's gonna do what during the performance, so that it turns out as well as possible.

VIRTUES

The lead actors of the play. They have Dodecahedron orbs. They never take background roles, but they're the only ones allowed to play "characters". They are also the only ones allowed to sing. They are the true stars of the show, and therefore they get pretty stuck up.

POWERS

Grifix in charge of mantaining the order in the house. They have Octahedron orbs. They can kick out any guests if they are misbehaving but they also keep lower performers in check. Those in the lower choir are not allowed to stand out or act as individuals to guests. That is reserved to those on stage or those who have fallen.

THE LOWER CHOIR

PRINCIPALITIES

Grifix that have Hexahedron orbs. They appear on stage behind the Virtues as background dancers and crowds. They never play individual characters. They often dance together on stage between Opera plays.

ARCHANGELS

The grifix in charge of the instrumental music. They have Tetrahedron orbs.

ANGELS

The lowest rank, these are usually cleaning the Opera house or serving guests food and drinks. They have Sphere orbs. Grifix without orbs are also allowed in this rank, but they must work very hard to prove themselves as having them there is considered a misfit and most other angels will look down on them.

✦

FALLEN ANGELS

Grifix who have misbehaved or brought shame to the house. They are not allowed to show up during performances, but are often let out after the official ending of a performance, once most guests have left. Those that are still there are waiting for something else, and that is what the fallen angels must take care of. Whatever desires those guests have, they must take care of them. At this point, all other angels have left. There are no Powers around to keep the customers in check.

They all must wear silver head pieces around their head gems to hide their magic flow. Nobody can know who they once were.

LOCATION

The house has a big room where all the performances are held and where the customers are entertained after the performances. The room has a big auditorium seating, as well as loges up on the sides. Between the auditorium seating and the big stage, there is an area with tables where customers are treated to fancy snacks, and where they can dance with fallen angels after the performances.

On the ceiling there is a large painted depiction of a Thrones Angel. The room has stained glass windows depicting other types of angels and the many house mothers the house has had over the years. Above the main stage there is a smaller stage where music performers will perform, as well as massive organ.

Rooms for entertainers will be found behind the main stage, and the rooms for the house mothers is hidden away somewhere in the house. No one knows where.

Lastly, I have a few animals to introduce from those submitted back in the Loveliest Woods event (click on them to see info):

Pliau

Forest Eggeaters

Misk Moths

Cave Eggeaters

Polar Eggeaters

This is all for today, hope you enjoyed this lore drop, and thanks to everyone who contributed to this ^^

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GRIFIX LORE UPDATE #13 - Entertainment Houses, Arachumo, Birds

Posted 1 year ago :: Last edited 1 year ago by MysteriousShine

New lore update...? So soon...? Well, I gotta make up for the 5 months without any lore updates, din't I? There's a ton of stuff that piled up after all. So I finally managed to make official pages for a lot of old stuff that have been waiting around in the lorebuilding forum for months... As well as some more recent stuff.

To begin with, here are a few entertainment houses which already have tons of characters in them... ~~I should've uploaded these a long time ago.~~

The WATASUMI HOUSE

✦ LOCATION ✦

the frozen empire

the entertainment district

the watasumi house

✦ OUTFIT REQUIREMENTS ✦

The entertainers wear clothes which resemble long fish fins and tails, usually made of silk.

✦ SPHIRIX RESTRICTIONS ✦

The entertainer’s sphirix must be sea animal related or animals that live in water.

✦ CHARACTERS ✦

✦ OPEN ✦

you may create characters part of this faction freely, but you require permission from the regulator of the house, CrystalIzzy77

Name: the Watasumi House

Patron goddess: Watatsumi

Founder: Kai

House Mother: Cordelia

SPECIALITY

The entertainers of the Watatsumi House dance in water, using the movement of water and reflection of lights to create mesmerizing effects.

OUTFITS AND SPHIRIX RESTRICTIONS

The entertainer’s sphirix must be sea animal related or animals that live in water.

The entertainers wear clothes which resemble long fish fins and tails, usually made of silk. They can also have veils which flow beautifully in the water.

HIERARCHY

HOUSE MOTHER

She decides on the schedule, which stories and dances will be performed and by who. She is the one who raises entertainers from a young age and decides wether she allows or no outside entertainers to join. It is very hard to get into this guild if you haven’t been raised in it.

LEAD DANCER

Currently Mystic Waters. She is the most experienced dancer in the House.

PERFORMERS

The grifix in this house often have looks that remind one of the exotic pictures in the ancient books from before the Great Cataclysm… One has never seen the sea, yet images of it will flood their mind when witnessing the dance of the entertainers, their sea creatures features, having fish tails or fins, the colors of sand and water, or even manes like tentacles or jellyfish like manes. Their clothes also contribute to this impression, the entertainers wearing silk outfits that can withstand the water, and resemble fish fins or corals.

The entertainers can hold their breath underwater for a long period of time, being trained since a young age to do so.

They usually start off as synchronized dancers, dancing together with other entertainers, but if their performance is outstanding they can be allowed to dance alone. Still, most of them alternate between synchronized dancing and solo performing, depending on the requirements of the performance, and what the House Mother asks of them.

Some performances require flying out of the water and using the droplets to create special effects, reflect light, or even use their magic to control the water splashes. It takes great skill, so usually only the more experienced performers get these parts of the performance. Still, all of them are trained to have a basic knowledge of doing so.

Children raised in the guild aren't allowed in performances because they are not yet skilled enough, but they sometimes stay outside the tank and control fish puppets suspended into the tank. These are rarely used in performances that require grifix to jump out of the tank, because they can get tangled in them, and they're usually close to the surface for the same reason.

LOCATION

On the Main Street of the Entertainment Guild, next to the Moonshadow Crane House there is a simple entrance to a House, looking just like the rest on that street. But also similarly to the rest of the Houses on that street… once you enter you will be met with a very different sight. The inner yard of the house is covered in a water pool, paths being built on top, which you can walk onto. You will often see a few individual dancers moving smoothly and alluring through the water, sometimes splashing you to tease you. The path on top of the water will lead you to the main building of the House, which is quite big compared to the other buildings that surround the square yard, which are at most two stories high. The main building is, however, much taller, because of what it hides inside…
As you walk in you are met with a tall wall of water, where grifix swim, moving swiftly, turning and swirling in the water, as if they were made of water themselves… you watch mesmerized, in a daze from the movements and lights, when one dancer seems to be swimming closer to you. In the daze, you step forward, until you are just one step away from the glass surface that’s separating you two. But the dancer is still getting closer, and then their head emerges from the water, almost touching your forehead, their breath blowing through your mane. Then they pull back in the water and continue their performance.
Wait what? You only now seem to realize there is no glass wall holing the water there. The water wall seems to be held together by… nothing? Hold on, that can’t be right! Is it… magic perhaps? You seem to remember a rumor you once heard, but haven’t payed much attention to: it is said that the Watasumi house owns an ancient artifact which can control water. Is that really what that is? Guess you’ll never know, after all… entertainment houses are best at one thing, and that is keeping secrets…

BACKSTORY

Kai was a scholar who studied old books from the south of Equestria. He was mesmerized by the beauty of the sea from the pictures in the books, by the sea creatures, conches and sand. He wished above everything to travel to the Great Southern Library and witness the beauty with his own eyes, so he worked really hard to be chosen for the expedition team. While part of it, he traveled to the Kirinaria Mercenary Group many times, but no expedition was sent to the Great Southern Library, so he never got to see the beauty of the Sea. As he got older, he decided to take the matter in his own paws and hired a mercenary to escort him there and payed the Mercenary Group to lie to the Scolar Guild Expedition that he was killed by a wild beast. This way, he traveled in the company of a kirin to the Great Southern Library, where he spent a couple years documenting the sea.
One night, as he was sightseeing when he saw a female hippogriff with waterfall-like hair flying on top of a huge wave, diving in and out again as the wave rolled to shore. She would use her magic necklace to turn into a Seapony and back into a hippogriff, sending splashes of water into the sky, making bubbles and water flow around her as she flew up and danced in the water, sending the fish from the sea flying in some of the bubbles. The female hippogriff dove down into the water and started doing tricks in the water, later on going and swimming up a waterfall and diving back down into the sea. Kai was amazed by what he saw, seeing the hippogriff dive in the water...

Years later, Kai was getting old, and when she met another kirin that was going to depart for the Kirinaria Mercenary Group he asked them to take him with. From the Everfree Forest, he payed another mercenary to escort him to the North of the Crystal Empire, from where he walked to the Frozen Empire. Few grifix remembered him when he arrived, but he had no interest in his old job. He didn’t even stop to greet his old co-workers, for he thought it was best for them to believe he was dead. He headed for the Entertainment District where he bought a House and gathered a few entertainers. He founded the Watatsumi House this way, then left, nobody knows to where, never to be seen again. Perhaps he still heard the calling of the ocean, and wanted to see it one last time before his end…

Nobody remembers this story nowdays, having been burried by time. All that's left are legends of the goddess Watatsumi.

GODDESS: WATATSUMI

She is an elegant grifix with a long mane which resembles a waterfall as she wears golden decals all over her as well as pearls and wears a flowy silky gown. She has finn fluffs, and the legends speaks of her being able to change her back legs for a fish tail. Nobody really knows where her legend came from and she’s a relatively new deity, so the general conception is that she was made up by the founder of the guild. Her magic is said to watch over the guild. In the end… there are a lot of mysteries surrounding this guild, like the water wall standing up on its own, so maybe there is some truth behind this legend.

But a grifix being able to turn half fish? Really? That seems like total baloney if you ask me!

THE SWAN PALACE

✦ LOCATION ✦

the frozen empire

the entertainment district

the swan palace

✦ OUTFIT REQUIREMENTS ✦

The guild’s aesthetic is based on medieval Russian nobility.

The entertainers always have their eyes covered, ofen by a piece of lace

✦ CHARACTERS ✦

✦ OPEN ✦

you may create characters part of this faction freely, but you require permission from the regulator of the house, CrystalIzzy77

Patron goddess: Morana
Founder: Iceheart
House Mother: Snowflake Ice
Storywriter: Snowbird

SPECIALITY:

Figure skating performances, usually accompanied by storytelling.

OUTFIT REQUIREMENTS:

The guild’s aesthetic is based on medieval Russian nobility. The entertainers always have their eyes covered, ofen by a piece of lace.

HIERARCHY

THE HOUSE MOTHER

An old, experienced entertainer that spends most time training the entertainers. She’s very harsh on them.

STORYWRITER

Gathers stories for the performances, often from the popular stories amongst the grifix and writes the steps for performances, planning everything about how that story would play out on ice.

ENTERTAINERS

Figure skating performers. Most of them act as background dancers for the most popular entertainers. They are all allowed to prepare single performances but when a less known entertainer does a performance they are usually given no background dancers, and few grifix come to see them. Still, that’s where all of them start from.

Popular entertainers have grand performances with many background dancers, long and complicated storytelling and big audiences.

During storytelling performances, their outfits are specially tailored to fit their roles in the performance. Due to the complexity of the performance, an entertainer will usually perform the same role throughout a couple years, because it’s hard for them to learn a new role, and consumes are too expensive to change often.

Costumes and the skates are purchased from the Tailors guild.

ICE BREAKERS

A small group of grifix that take care of the ice and make sure it is in good condition for the performances. They sometimes have to bring water into the cave which they would throw over the ice when it becomes to scratched to clean.
They sometimes pay the hunters guild to bring them blocks of ice from outside the Empire which they use for ice sculpting. Ice sculptures are placed throughout the cave, and they often match the story of the current performance show. Sometimes, ice sculptures even play roles in the performances. It is often in those stories that a character becomes frozen and is replaced by a sculpture. But rarely do those stories have a happy ending, for in that cave, what is frozen often remains so, even in the stories…

LOCATION

The house is built above a large underground cave, where the warmth of the sphirix protecting the Empire doesn’t reach. The cave is half full with frozen water, but there’s still a large empty area above. There’s a tunnel leading to the cave from inside the House’s building. They host regular performances from the Entertainers which ice skate of the frozen water, but their performances often include flying as well, and the large cave gives them enough room for that.

The House is one of the oldest in the Entertainment District. It’s been there ever since the cave was found, soon after the founding of the Entertainment Guild.

The cave is not outside the empire, it is in fact quite in the middle of it, but deep underground.

HISTORY

Long ago, a young grifix named Ice Heart lived in the house near the hot springs. Because the spring wasn't covered by the gigantic sphirix of Aeterna, the grifix living there had to gather wood in order to keep warm. During a blizzard storm, Ice Heart got lost in the storm on the way back after going with her parents to fetch wood. Ice Heart was shivering and crying out to her parents as she tried to get home, shielding her face from the snow with her wings. Since she couldn't see due to the storm, she ended up sliding on a frozen pond and when she stood up the ice started to crack. She tried to run off the ice but the ice broke underneath her and she fell into the frozen water, crying out for help before she started to drown.. but suddenly a bright glow started swimming down towards her, grabbing her and pulling her out of the water and flying her over to a pile of snow. How could she be safe..? Who saved her..? The young grifix coughed as she saw a tall blue and white figure standing on the ice with shiny silver ice skates and a long beautiful blue gown with snowflakes all over it, crystals of ice and snowflakes dangling on the sides of her face as her long flowy white mane was pulled up into an elegant bun with a silver crown on her head. Ice Heart didn’t say a word until she saw the figure fly off and start skating across the ice, being able to manipulate the snowstorm to her will, dancing on the ice, mesmerizing the young grifix before she skated over to her and took her paws and started to dance on the ice with her. Ice Heart giggled and smiled until suddenly the figure let go of her and little one saw the figure disappear into the storm. Ice Heart found her way back to the hot sprig, but she never forgot the event.

When she grew up she began to go out into the forest and skate on the ice after making her first pair of ice skates. Later on she found the frozen cave when visiting the Frozen Empire for supplies. The Empire was still being built, but not far from the cave there were a few other grifix that built some houses where they would entertain other grifix with dancing and music. Ice Heart soon befriended those grifix and got the idea to create an ice skating entertainment house. Together with other three houses close by, they founded the Entertainment Guild. It is unknown which ones the other houses were, but it was never forgotten that this was one of the original four.

PATRON GODDESS

Morana is a tall blue and white grifix with shiny silver ice skates and wears a long beautiful blue gown with snowflakes all over it, crystals of ice and snowflakes dangling on the sides of her face as her long flowy white mane is pulled up into an elegant bun with a silver crown on her head.
She was one of the grifix living in the house near the hot springs. She didn’t want to follow in her family's footsteps and always ran off to play in the snow and watch the animals slide around on the frozen lakes and ponds. One day she saw a snowy white deer that looked like to be around her age start to try and cross a frozen pond to get an ice covered flower, the deer getting her hoof stuck in the ice and Regina decided to go and glade over and help save the deer, making a friend and going to play in the snow with the deer. She decided to start trying to skate around the ice, using her wings as support and her deer friend would watch her dance and glide gracefully across the ice.
Soon, her family found out and forbid her to go out anymore, because of the forest's dangers. Morana however, was not ready to give up, so she would sneak out every night to meet up with her firend.
One night, Morana was just showing up at the lake when she saw her friend chased by a wolf, trying to escape on the lake. She ran to save her and distracted the wolf with her torch, but then she found herself endangered. She thought of melting the ice under the wolf, so she threw the torch which melted the ice and the wolf fell in. However, the wolf tried to crawl out towards her, and she couldn't back pout in time. The wolf's weight broke the ice under her and she was dragged under the water, meeting her end in the frozen lake.
Her deer friend mourned her death, crying tears which fell on the snow, meling it and reaching the ground. Legend says it's her tears which later bloom into snowdrops in the spring.
Morana's parents later had another child, Ice Heart.

NAISUKE GA FUCHI

✦ LOCATION ✦

the frozen empire

the entertainment district

naisuke ga fuchi house

✦ OUTFIT REQUIREMENTS ✦

Koinobori Costume - for koi-kodomo

✦ CHARACTERS ✦

✦ OPEN ✦

you may create characters part of this faction freely

🎏 🎏 🎏

Headmaster: Tomoe

The house is ran by Tomoe, a young male grifix. He is known as one of the richest and also brokest grifix in the Entertainment District. He seems to have an endless spring of money, yet he is always broke. He is the one who founded the house, in an old entertainment house building that was crumbling to dust after it was abandoned. The building is in barely better shape now.

The house seems to be full of children dressed up as koi fish, the costumes completely concealing their identity. They run around serving guests and cleaning up, but actual entertainers are very few. Even amongst the few adults in the house, a big number of them are merely servants, dressed as koi like the many kids helping around.

It's a great place to go and have a drink and eat some snacks, but that's not what people come for in the Entertainment District, so the income of the house is quite low.

In the entertainment guild, if an entertainer has a child, that child will have to work their entire lives for the guild they were born in, with little chance of getting out. If the mother has the smallest opportunity to sell their child, they will, because it is a chance for the child to escape that place. But unfortunately the house mothers will ask for great amounts of money for this, and in most cases the child will only be bought by some other entertainment house, which could lead them to an even worse faith.

Entertainers can be purchased later in their lives, but depending on their age the prices can be very high, because the house mother spends a long time training them.

Tomoe’s entire savings go into trying to “purchase” as many entertainers as possibly. He gives his best to buy children who never worked, because that way, they may actually have a chance outside the entertainment district. If a grifix is known to have been an entertainer, it is impossible for them to be accepted outside, but if he manages to raise them in anonymity he can use his connections to give them a life outside the entertainment district. He hopes that this way they can have a chance at a more happy, meaningful life.

He also purchases entertainers that are already entertainment workers. Even if they can’t find a life outside, if they are miserable in their house he will try to buy them so they can have an easier life in his house. He doesn’t force any to do the entertainment work, but most have to help around and clean, with their identities concealed.
Some still do the entertainment work, either because it’s not something they dislike, or because they want to help him with his work, and it’s the only way for him to gain money and buy more entertainers.

Children and grifix that do not work as entertainers in the house wear a koi costume that completely covers their face and any features people could recognize them by. These grifix are called Koi-Kodomo. Here's how the outfit looks:

The outfit is usually dark blue/black for male adults, red for female adults, and children can have it in any color. But this is not enforced, every grifix can wear whatver color then want.

This outfit is mandatory for Naisuke Ga Fuchi grifix under 16 or those that do not perform entertainment work, so you must include a version of your grifix wearing in the reference if the grifix fits in that category. There is one base available for this outfit which you can use.

Tomoe was one of the first, maybe the first entertainer raised and trained by Lady Byakko when she started her house (or started being the house mother). Back then she was more involved with her house, because she was just starting and had to get it working. Because of that, Tomoe knows more about her appearance and stuff than most entertainers in her own house. Even now, they are quite close, and Tomoe often seeks her for help. It takes a lot out of him, but he usually manages to persuade her to give him money every time he decides to purchase an entertainer and doesn’t have money for it. Time is important for this, so he can’t just wait, plus he would never get enough money to help all the grifix he wants to, so he persuades her for it, sometimes promising to give it back but never doing so.
That’s where he gets his money from, and it's also the cause for the rumors that he is so rich, when he’s in fact broke all the time, because his house is one of the poorest out there and business is a mess with how few actual entertainers he has and how many members he has to feed. Nobody knows of this though.

Now... another thing that has been waiting around for months is the legend about the spider monster in the Frozen Empire, Arachumo.

ARACHUMO

Legend speaks of a monster that once roamed the Frozen Empire’s streets during the long months of complete darkness in the winter. She sought for light in despair, yet her eyes could not perceive candle lights or fire. She, however, saw the light of the sphirix and was attracted to it. When she would find a sphirix, she would grab it and wrap it in a web cocoon which she would take to her cave, where it’s light would shine from the cocoon for a couple hours, until she grifix’s life would fade away, being deprived of his sphirix, so the sphirix would die as well. Then the monster came back, looking for another light.
In the day of the Equinox, a grifix was chased by the monster in the darkness. Despaired to protect his sphirix, he did not watch for his step and tripped, the impact making his light beans fall off and roll away. He then watched hopelessly as the monster reached for his sphirix, unable to move, but right when he lost all hope, the monster turned around and looked at the light beans. She then turned around and rushed towards the light beans, which she picked up and took into her cave, outside of the Empire. She then didn’t return anymore, for the light beans did not loose their light for the whole year. Grifix, however, did not forget.
Every year, on the spring Equinox, after the grifix’s light beans fall off, they place them in front of their home, so the monster would pick those up and leave. Legend says that every Spring Equinox the last year’s light beans’ light fades away so she comes to the Empire together with smaller spiders to gather new lights. If a grifix doesn’t place light beans in front of the door, the monster will come inside the house and take their sphirix away in a web cocoon.

Arachumo belongs to Dawn-n-Night

Lastly, here are the official pages for the birds submitted during the first phase of the Loveliest Woods event earlier this year!

Well, this is all for today, hope you enjoyed the new lore additions and thank you to everyone who contributed to this! Stay tuned for what's yet to come!!

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