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

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

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 ^^

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.

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

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

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

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.

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!

SUNSET BIRDS

LUTES

EVERLUSH BIRD

BOREAL LIGHTBIRD

GEMSCULPT BIRD

GIANT ARCTIC PIGEONS

CARRIER PIGEONS

MAGANA BIRD

GHANGEWINGS

BLIZZBEAKS

DULCE NUBE

FLUZENBALL

VITRI

BLOOD HERONS

ROSEWINGS

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!!

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.

Hello everyone! It's been quite a long time since the last lore update, and since the new lorebuilding forum has been added on Discord there are A LOT of new lore bits that piled up, so I better get to releasing all of it now! 

Expect more lore updates to come soon, but for now, here's what I have for you:

CATACLYSM'S BREATH

After the Great Cataclysm, a new disease was found to affect grifix. Luckily for most, it only occurs when a grifix sets foot in a high radiation area.

The Great Cataclysm left behind high levels of radiation all around Equestria, which decimated populations of most species and reached as far as the Crystal Empire. It caused radiation poisoning to almost every species in Equestria, and persisted for hundreds of years even far from the epicentre of the Cataclysm. 

The centre of the Cataclysm was no other than the Everdeep Lake in the Everfree Forest. By then, the grifix had already retreated to a place where they didn’t get wiped out by the waves of radioactive water, but no place in Equestria was safe of radiation, which forced them to travel as far as the Frozen North, far beyond the already inhabitable borders of the Crystal Empire.

To this day, high levels of radiation still persist in the Everfree Forest, which is now a swamp of radioactive water, home to strange mutant life forms. Scholars approximate that radiation will only leave that place in 20,000 years from the Great Cataclysm.

The Cataclysm’s Breath is the name that grifix use for Radiation Poisoning. All species can contact it when entering high radiation areas, including Changelings, though they seem to have much higher resistance to it. 

On grifix, however, Cataclysm’s Breath manifests differently than on other species, due to grifix’s strange magic nature.

Herbalists and other Scholars that travel to the Kirinaria Mercenary group must be very careful around the Everfree Forest, or if they are exposed too much to the radiation they might contact the Cataclysm's Breath.

Symptoms

The symptoms count as fatigue, migraines and loss of appetite, and even if the grifix eats, the food isn’t absorbed by the body, leading to emancipation. The grifix may also start throwing up blood, but besides migraines they don’t feel any pain. The grifix will also start losing hair and fur, and their skin will lose its healthy aspect.

Once the physical symptoms start, mental symptoms will follow as well: the grifix will start being more aggressive, getting annoyed easily and snapping at everyone. The symptoms will reflect clearly on the sphirix, which will look less shiny and vibrant, and later it will begin to “hollow out”. In the hollowing out stage, the sphirix will start to have holes, which will reflect on the grifix as lack of memory and parts of the self disappearing, until eventually, the sphirix will disappear completely, and the grifix will have lost their mind, together with any memories. This is called the zombie stage.

Zombie Stage

In the zombie stage, the grifix is hyper aggressive, they are unable to think, communicate or remember anything from their lives. They lack any magic manifestations, such as hair sparkles or sphirix, but their magic still flows, causing corrupted magic to leak in the atmosphere. Healthy grifix that breath in corrupted magic can get light symptoms of radiation poisoning, but they never get past the first stage, and there are no effects on the mind or sphirix, only on the body of the grifix. It is very important that grifix eggs are not placed in areas with corrupted magic from a “zombie”, for it will cause dysfunctions in the development of the embryo which can cause the grifix emerging from the egg to be dead or disabled.

Zombies will seek out magic sources, such as sphirix, which they can now see. They will always follow the strongest magic source they can see, so they will go after the most powerful grifix’s sphirix.

They can only see magic in this stage, but strangely they are able to avoid most obstacles, especially in grifix settlements, due to magic residue on buildings and such. When taken to a forest or area where grifix don’t live, they will be completely blind and walk into things.

When around other magical creatures, they seem to not see them unless they are using magic. Because of the grifix magic flow, they always see the grifix, but if the grifix covers their gems with the magic flow stopping lotion, the zombie will act like they don’t see the grifix anymore.

If the zombie sees a sphirix that has a close resemblance to their own, such as a similar animal, they will follow that one even if it is not the strongest magic source they see.

“Zombies” can hurt and consume sphirix and other magic sources. If they eat a sphirix, the grifix the sphirix belonged to will also become some sort of zombie, but they will not show a lot of symptoms related to radiation poisoning. It seems like the zombie stage is unrelated to the Cataclysm’s Breath and can actually occur without the disease, when the sphirix is destroyed in a certain way, erasing all information that it was holding from the grifix’s mind and causing them to mindlessly seek out a new sphirix.

Cure

For Corrupted Magic neutralization and early stages of the disease

In order to neutralise corrupted magic from an area where a zombie has been, the grifix use a special solution with which they wash all walls of the building, even if it’s outside, and they also give it to grifix that might have breathed the corrupted magic to drink.

The solution is made of Amber dust mixed with oil made from Solaris flowers. Soap is added when the solution is used for cleaning something, but not when it is used for drinking.

Amber is known to have magic restriction abilities, but it usually acts as a barier against magic. Solaris seems to trigger an effect causing it to absorb magic and be especially effective against radiation.

In order to cure a grifix that contacted the Cataclysm’s Breath, the same solution can be administered if the disease is not in an advanced stage. While these grifix must drink the solution, they are also required to take a bath where the water is mixed with the soapy solution. This water will absorb the radiation from the grifix, but don't let them stay in there for too long, cause it wil absorb all the magic. Because of that, they must take such baths for about 15 minutes regularily, until the disease is cleansed.

In small doses this solution can be used as a protective lotion against radiation as well, but in large doses it is strictly forbidden to use it on the grifix, since it can organs that rely on magic absorption on the surface of the skin, and cause temporary or permanent skin infections or diseases.

For the zombie and hollowing out stages of the disease

If the grifix is already in the zombie or hollow out stage, a mixture of dried Solaris and  Rewind Flower petals must be burned and the grifix must be exposed to the smoke many times each day, until they will start recovering their reason, but the memories lost and the sphirix can not be recovered. 

If the grifix actually has Cataclysm's Breath they must still take baths and drink the amber solution, but if they only got in that stage because another zombie consumed their sphirix that isn't necesarry.

If the sphirix hasn’t disappeared yet, it will remain with holes, but the hollowing won’t advance. In stange cases, the grifix could grow other parts from those holes, but sometimes such parts are completely unrelated to the original shape of the sphirix, such as an extra leg that belongs to a different animal.

If the grifix was already in the zombie stage, they will simply have to re-learn everything about life and who they are, as their entire mind has been wiped out. They can start putting on weight, but none of the magic manifestations will apply to them anymore, they will no longer have a sphirix (but won't be bothered by it because they can't remember having one), and they can still leak corrupted magic sometimes, though in most cases the magic flow completely stops. They will lose their mind again if they aren’t fed any magic, but can live pretty well off of light beans, as they can provide enough magic. They don’t need any other food.

Such grifix can not see regular light, the only thing they can see is magic. In a grifix settlement such as the empire, it isn't a problem because every single thing is covered in magic residue so they can quite clearly see every building and grifix. They can't see through buildings, but they can see sphirix very clearly, as well as magic manifestations like yokai. If taken to a pony settlement or anywhere else outside a grifix inhabited place, they are completely blind due to the lack of magic residue. Unicorn settlements still have a bit of magic residue, but it's far from what a grifix settlement has, so they would still have trouble with seeing things.

If they don’t eat light beans or other magic sources for a long time, they will return to the zombie stage, and they must be exposed to Solaris and Rewind Flower smoke again. The smoke can be addictive, some will refuse to eat anything so they are exposed to the smoke more, but the smoke can lose its effect after too many uses., and then there won’t be any saving the grifix.

Light beans aren't edible for normal grifix. Only “zombies” can eat them. 

Thanks to Dawn-n-Night, Emizu_TH, kazoowary and MidnightStar for the large contribution on this lore piece.

THE KNOWLEDGE TREATY

The Great Cataclysm was a result of the Equestrian Leadership hiding information from the public, and even from those close to Princess Twilight Sparkle. She was worried about the statue that imprisoned Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow breaking, but wouldn't talk about it. When anybody would raise that issue she would lie and say it is impossible to break. Perhaps she just found it hard to rely on other people after the passing of her friends. Or perhaps she felt like she would fail Equestria if she couldn't solve the issue on her own. Or both. Regardless, she never solved the problem and the entierty of Equestria was destroyed. She failed everyone by lying and hiding the truth. 

By the end of her reign, no dangerous spells were available to anybody but herself. She collected any magical artifacts and completely erased their existence from history. Crime rate was as low as it could possibly be, and all were truly happy, so one could argue it was good. but in the end that prevented ponies and other creatures from finding a way to prevent the Great Cataclysm.

After the Great Cataclysm, a couple of leaders came together in order to find a way to prevent such events from ever happening again. They concluded that no creature should ever unite all species together and gatekeep their cultural heritage. That would make them vulnerable to loosing their cultures and the world's knowledge could be lost. They had to find a way to gather all of the World's knowledge and keep it safe. They concluded that the World's Cultural Heritage and Knowledge was more important than any life.

Those who signed the Knowledge Treaty were Queen Selenara of the Grifix, King Wolfwood of the Hippogriff, Queen Amethyst Flare of the Kirin and Changelings united, the Leader of Farasi and the Silent One.

The treaty implied that 4 enormous libraries would be built in the South, East, West and the North, the North one being the biggest and safest. 

The Great Southern Library is situated in the South of Equestria, on Mount Aris, but the most important artifacts are underwater, in Seaquestria. It is ran by Hippogriffs.

The Great Eastern Library is situated in the East of Equestria, in Farasi. It is ran by zebras, abada, kelpies and oni.

The Great Northern Library is deep in the Frozen North, in the grifix Frozen Empire. It is the biggest of them all, and the Treaty implies that all knowledge stored in the other libraries should eventually end up here. That is because grifix can't possibly create a united species empire, because nobody can see them, so there is no threat of history repeating. At the same time, the climate there is too harsh for anything to try to live there. Nothing could take over of that place, because once the grifix are gone it's impossible to live there. They are the only ones that can live there, so all information is safe from harm.

The Great Western Library is a mythical place. It was supposed to exist, but records of who the Silent One was have been forgotten by most, even tho they still exist in the Great Northern Library. If it was another species running this library in the west, they are believed to have went extinct by now, for nobody has heard of them in ages. 

Other than that, there's the Kirinaria Mercenary Group in central Equestria, right next to the Everfree Forest. Their "mercenary" title covers up their true purpose. They take jobs like any normal mercenary group and do people's dirty work, but they always keep an eye out for books and ancient artifacts, or anything that contains knowledge, like memory orbs. They temporarily store such artifacts in their camp until expeditions from one of the three libraries come to pick them up. Scholar Guild's grifix often send expeditions here.

There is however another reason for their placement next to the Everfree Forest. But first, it is important to know that the Great Cataclysm erupted from the Everdeep Lake, and caused a huge wave of radioactive water to hit Canterlot, so the area around Canterlot is the most damaged, mostly inhabitable, full of magic radiation. The Everfree Forest is almost entierly covered by a radioactive magic swamp. Still, what has become of the Tree of Harmony is still there, underground. And it hold some of the most important magical artifacts of all, more important than even the Elements of Harmony. That is what the Kirinaria Mercenary Group must keep watch of, in order to protect.

They don't live right next to it tho, because the radiation is too big there, they live a couple miles away, in an habitable area. Still, they are affected by slight radiation which causes their traits to act much more individually then in the past (for example, not all changelings look the same anymore).

Changelings and Kirin are united under one ruler because the changelings trust Amethyst Flare. When Chrysalis tried to take over them they refused because she showed signs of weakness in her actions, which they were disgusted of. Amethyst Flare may show compassion, but she never shows weakness so the changelings chose to follow her.

Most changelings in the Mercenary Group stay in their dark form, but it is unknown wether that's their true form or they just choose to shapeshift into that permanently. Kirin can now control their fire and use it to fight and kill if required.

Regularily, the Scholars Guild sends expeditions to the Kirinaria Mercenary Group or one of the two other libraries that are part of the Knowledge Treaty in order to bring artifacts and books to the Frozen Empire. Most grifix aren't aware of the Treaty, but it's usually cause it's none of their business, not because the information is kept away from them. 

The Crystal Empire Academy is not afiliated with the Knowledge Treaty, and the crystal ponies are not aware of it. The Crystal Empire has the 4th largest library in the world, tho they believe it is the biggest because they don't know of the Treaty. Members of the species part of the treaty do sometimes try to infiltrate and steal from the Crystal Academy so they can bring the Knowledge to one of the Knowledge Treaty libraries. However, in most cases they just transcribe books instead of stealing them.

Plants of the Grifixverse

The plants submitted during the Loveliest Woods event are finally up on the site! You can see all of them here together with some other plants created in the past which fibally have proper pages of their own! Thanks to everyone who submitted, and stay tuned for the release of the birds and animals submitted during the same event!

THE WATER PASSING CEREMONY

Funerary customs of the Lost Tribe

When a Lost Tribe grifix dies, the tribe will build a boat or a raft, depending on the deceased's social status, on which they will place the body under a pile of hay and dry wood, sometimes with important objects for the deceased. They will then push the raft onto whatever water they find close and an important grifix for the deceased (a member of the family or a friend) will fire a flaming arrow at it, burning the body.

It is believed that crossing the water will lead the soul to the First Warriors. The body and objects are burned to set free the soul from any earthly bindings.

Grifix believe that having their death ceremony held on the Origin Shore is much more honourable than anywhere else. Stubborn elders will not die anywhere else and drop dead the moment they reach the Origin Shore out of pure will power. Some will refuse to leave if they believe they will die the next 7 years, so sometimes members of their family will have to stay with them on the Origin Shore and wait for the Tribe’s return.

If there is no water next to where a grifix died, their body will be simply burned on the ground, but that is considered very humiliating for the deceased. Sometimes the family will refuse to hold the ceremony there, and carry the body around until they find some water, risking the well being of the tribe by attracting insects that carry diseases or animals that feed on corpses.

Thanks to CrystalIzzy77 for the large contribution on this lore piece

This is all for now! 

All the lore bits posted in this lore update have their own official pages on the site. Please do not refer to this lore update for the canon versions, as this post will NOT be updated so any lore changes in the future will only be visible on the official pages. Click on the titles in this post to see the official pages.

It's been a while since the last lore update, so we got some big stuff to cover. 

Let's begin!

Empire traditional foods

Submitted and composed by RubyNoble1

✦ Tokku: A bowl or cup of shaved milk ice made with musk ox milk, traditionally topped with cloudberries and cloudberry syrup. (inspired by Bingsu)

✦ Litsat: A dish consisting of cooked fish (traditionally Salmon) marinated in arctic water (containing salt), Pepper, and parsley leaves. On the side is cooked reindeer moss with parsley.

✦ Ratir: A dish consisting of Arctic Bunny meat cooked with sage. With Reindeer moss seared with sage and parsley.

✦ Askat: A Cloudberry Liqueur, Cloudberry can be processed down into liquor, this became a traditional alcohol for the Grifix later on in the generations, At the same time as Tokku became traditional.

✦ Vinn: A soup consisting of rabbit or arctic owl meat, water, Eskimo potato, reindeer moss, 1 bay leaf, topped with salt, pepper, and Parsley.

✦ Atak: A traditional “medicinal” tea, made up of bearberry, although the taste is good, it is recommended not to drink too much, as it can cause a bit of a stomach ache.

✦ Varin: A snack consisting of fried shrimp with sage, this snack is most enjoyed on a skewer similar to Arin.

✦ Arin: Not to be mistaken with Varin, this savory treat is arctic owl meat marinated in sweet cloudberry syrup and pepper. This is most enjoyed on a skewer.

✦ Lit: A sauerkraut made up of roseroot, traditionally fermented with sage, pepper, and boiled salt water. Put into a jar and sealed by wrapping cloth around it. Then digging a hole and leaving it in there for 18 marked days. (it is recommended to mark the spot it is in). 

(Lit, Tokku, Askat, Varin, and Arin are most enjoyed and famously bought on holidays and especially the New Year's Holiday)

Ingredients:

✦ “Butter/oil”: Sea lion fat

✦ Herbs: sage, parsley, eskimo potato, bearberry, roseroot. Grown by the Herbalist Guild, they are plants that grow at the south of the Frozen Empire. The Hunters Guild sometimes find them in their expeditions, but they are mainly supplied by the Herbalists Guild.

✦ Meat: Rabbit, Arctic Owl, Shrimp, and fish from the arctic.

✦ Seafood and fish: obtained through long expeditions made by the Hunters Guild to the Ocean. The Empire is far from the shore, so it takes a very long time to get to somewhere where one can fish, therefore the Hunters catch very big quantities for provisions.

✦ Salmon: can be found in rivers slightly south of the Empire.

✦ Cloudberry, bittersweet and can taste sweeter when turned into syrup. It can also provide Vitamin C. The Herbalists Guild have been able to grow those for a long time, even before they discovered the formula to magically growing plants in the Empire. They also grow naturally around the Empire in the warmer seasons, but even so are hard to find outside. They are however, very important in preventing scurvy so the grifix consume them throughout the year.

✦ Vegetables: Reindeer Moss, also grown by the Herbalists Guild, can also be found outside the Empire.

✦ Musk Ox Milk: can taste sweet. It seems that the Crystal Empire has a consistent drading market with the Musk Oxes. The Miners Guild sometimes obtains Ox Milk as payment for minerals.

✦ Pepper: from the herbalist Guild. It's a relatively new ingredient as they only started growing it recently but it gained a lot of popularity amongst the grifix.

✦ Salt: derived from the arctic ocean water brought by Hunters from their expeditions.

✦ Bay leaf, Parsley, sage,  and Pepper: Hertbalist Guild.

✦ Bearberry has actually adapted to the Artic climate, likewise Cloudberry.

PS: If anybody wants to contribute with foods, it would be very helpful, especially for the other grifix settlements. They will soon be added on the site with artworks, so it would be nice if we would have some for the other settlements as well.

✦ ✦ ✦

The harpsong House

Regulated by CrystalIzzy77

Patreon/ goddess: Harp Song

Founder: Melody

House Mother: Celtic Harp

Apprentice: Faith

Speciality:

Hierarchy

The House Mother

Instrument Crafters

Music Writers

Performers:

History:

Hello and welcome to the 10th lore update!! The first lore update has been done on 08/27/20, so it's been... exactly 800 days? That's funny. A bit over two years, but I didn't expect it to be such a fun number of days XD

Anyway, I asked all the species members to submit random ideas for this special edition lore update on Discord. All the information will be added in this post and all the people who submitted will receive a special limited item:

OLD DRAGON NECKLACE

Category: Event items

Rarity: ✦✦✦✦✦

 

You found this item in the forest, close to the village. You wore it once and thought of something, which then seemed to... become reality. But that only happened once, now the necklace is useless to you. 
You wonder who it belonged to? Does it really have supernatural powers? If so, why can they only be used once?

Uses: Collectible

Source: Given as a reward to users who submitted ideas for the 10th lore update

So, let's begin!

RubyNoble1's SUbmissions:

✦ The same way the Frillback Pigeons came to be through selective breeding, something similar happened to the Starfell Clan. It is quite common that the Starfell Grifix have feather fluffs that look this way.

✦ There are some rare vegetables that actually grow in the snowy biome of the Frozen Empire. They are extremely rare. The grifix love them.

✦ Some gems are prominent in the Frozen Empire: amber, seraphinite, and Dendrite Quarts. Amber is used as the symbol of the Frozen Empire since it represents warmness in the freezing cold.

 

✦ The Grifix in the Frozen Empire are much fluffier and have more feathers especially around the wings since they have adapted to the cold weather over time. They also can have insulated feathers (instead of fluffy feathers they have insulated feathers and fur that allows them to keep their heat in the cold weather).

 

✦ Shaped Freckles: this is a new trait category which will allow some sort of freckles customisation. However, it will be locked behind this item that you will have to purchase from Wolfsbane's Store. Some shapes will be locked behind special events.

SUN STAINED BRUSH

Category: Collectibles

Rarity: ✦✦✦✦✦

 

This old brush seems to do more than manipulate paint... Selenara told you it belonged to her predecessor, Queen Rosa.

Uses: Unlocks usage of Freckles Shape traits

Purchaseable At: Wolfsbane’s Store

Emizu_TH's Submissions

✦ Everfree Village grifix parents tell little myths to their cubs to make them behave, or just have fun seeing them get excited over the information and spreading it around: "If you (inset action) at (location or infront of a random item) during (time), you will be (insert effect which is totally not real, but kids trust it anyways because they are kids)." These are often influenced by the Queen who is reigning at that time. Back in Eclipsa's reign this myth was similar to "standing infront of a lake during an eclipse will make you trip thrice in a row". But there were also myths like "helping with the harvest while wearing a flower on their head during the Great Harvest Holiday will bring you good luck", so that kids can be tricked into helping. In the future, these types of rumours help shape their personality, discipline, etc. The myths are different from family to family, but it also happens that the cubs tell them to eachother and they spread around the Village. Sometimes two different versions of a myth appear and cubs start fighting over which is the true one.

✦ There is a common tradition that if parents place a egg looking rock or object near their egg, it will protect the egg to not be eaten by predators. This variation of Rumours varies in different locations.

The origin of this story is old, from back in the Old Kingdom, when grifix were slightly more exposed to predators and started placing egg shaped rocks near nests to distract them. As grifix settlements evolved, the tradition lost it's original meaning in some places, and changed more to some sort of superstition.

The Divided grifix will Surround their egg with a lot of rocks, almost making some sort of rock bed.

Lost Tribe grifix place moss and leaves on top of the egg to make it in with the surroundings.

Everfree Village grifix place a painted rock near the egg, decorated with the same patterns the egg has. they say they do this to fool the evil spirits that might want to harm the cub inside, so that the evil spirits will attack the rock instead. When the grifix born reaches adulthood through the Sphirix Shape Ceremony, they take the rock that was placed near their egg outside and break it.

Summer_Stars's Submissions

JOKE PLANT LANTERN

Category: Collectibles

Rarity: ✦✦✦

 

Dangerous is this plant to the Grifix species. Because of a certain hair growing event,  the grifix cubs are warned to avoid plants like this.
This lantern has multiple purposes: to be of a thing to fear, or serve as a good light source. 
Still, what is it doing here if it is so dangerous? Is that glass really enough to protect you from it's influence?

Uses: Collectible

Purchaseable At: Wolfsbane’s Store

This was all for the 10th lore update, our first milestone! Should we hold events like these every 10 lore updates, or have bigger milestones? It did take us over 2 years to get here, so I think 10 posts is enough.

Either way, see you next time and hope we will reach 20!

Hello and welcome once again! MysteriousShine here. In this lore update I will cover two new underguilds: Yokai no Ie (Entertainers Guild) and The Jewellers Guild (Tailors Guild). I am so glad to see once again people contributing to the lore of the grifix like this!

After that I will cover information on some new traits, but most important STYLES which are a trait category I've been using for a while but people still seem to not understand what they are so maybe I should clarify it in a post.

So, let's begin!

YOKAI NO IE

THE JEWELLERS GUILD

This guild is regulated by RubyNoble1

Thank you RubyNoble for coming up with this aewsome underguild, I think the backstory of it is awesome and hope it will get filled with characters once!

Now I'll go into some new traits and what the Trait Styles are!

NEW TRAITS

Please don't use these posts as notifications for new traits as most new traits are not announced here but on Discord. It's just now and then I add them to lore updates.

EAR LAYERING

WING EXTENSIONS

Sphirix Wing Alteration clarification:

The feathers are shaped in such way that they resemble the wing shape of the sphirix. The wing is NOT the wing of the sphirix animal, it is just altered to have a similar shape.

The image displays a butterfly EXAMPLE. It can be any animal, that is just an example.

Styles

Styles are NOT traits. They do NOT have to be selected or anything like that. They are purely for inspiration.

They are often trait combinations that can look cool together, ideas, all sorts of stuff like that. They can all be found here, and you can always give me more ideas for them. Each of them has listed in the description what traits you must use to obtain that style. The rarity I picked for each is just the highest rarity of the traits it contains.

Again, they are not traits, they are just possible combinations and ideas with the already existing traits.

I'll dump here all the styles that exist for now, you can pick any for inspiration and click on them to see what traits they require. This will NOT be updated so do not use this post for reference in the future.

They also have no specific order. I just copy-pasted them from the visual trait index where you can find them updated whenever you need.

Arrowhead Fluff Style (Common)

Leaf Ear (Common)

Petal Fluff Style (Common)

Rib Fluff Style (Common)

Star Ray Fluff Style (Common)

Sun Ray Fluff Style (Common)

Teddybear Ear (Common)

Fur x Feather fluff material (Rare)

Heart Fluff Style (Rare)

Phoenixtail Ear (Rare)

Valkyrie Fluff Style (Rare)

Chicken collar fluffs (Epic)

Fur x Smoke fluff material (Epic)

Pigeon Collar Fluffs (Epic)

Smoke Cluster Tail Fluff (Epic)

Smoke Tail (Epic)

Spiral Fluff Style (Epic)

Unlayered Double Underside Ear (Epic)

Bat Sphirix Wing Alteration (Legendary)

Bee (Insect) Sphirix Wing Alteration (Legendary)

Butterfly Sphirix Corruption (Legendary)

Butterfly Sphirix Wing Alteration (Legendary)

Dragon Sphirix Wing Alteration V1 (Legendary)

Dragon Sphirix Wing Alteration V2 (Legendary)

Fish Sphirix Wing Alteration (Legendary)

Frillback Sphirix Wing Alteration (Legendary)

Pterodactyl Sphirix Wing Alteration (Legendary)

Whale Sphirix Wing Alteration (Legendary)

Feel free to trace any of the wings if you want to use them but don't know how to draw them well enough. Or ask me for it if you want to use wings for an animal I didn't make examples for and I'll draw it for u.

I'll make this shorter Lore Update in order to clear some stuff that were left out in the past lore updates, and maybe also clarify some website stuff.

Queen ivy

She is the subject of many legends and stories amongst the Lost Tribe, but those are yet to be revealed to us. Today I shall only tell you about who she was...

Design by kazoowary, MidnightStar and MysteriousShine

Queen Ivy was a grifix from the Starfell Clan who used her special abilities to make the First Warriors approve of her. She could see sphirix, and wanted to rule the Tribe alone so she wouldn’t spoil her pure blood so she never chose a king.

She was a trickster and tricked the First Warriors into believing she'd be the best for the clan, but once she was in power, she tried to break off all the connections to the First Warriors and to lead the tribe into a better future, but was stopped doing so. In the fear of being betrayed/manipulated again, the First Warriors declared that no queen should ever rule again. 

She was a dark spot in the history of the Starfell Clan, but secretly they all admire her. Maybe it is the silent wish for liberation of all grifix that made her name last through the ages, like a faint echo of a prayer for change.

The first children

Ever wondered what happened to the children of the First Warriors? Who were they?

Well the first warriors had two types of children: "legitimate" and "illegitimate" but they obviously didn't call them like that. The illegitimate children were simply... not theirs.

The First Warriors had a bunch of children who's parents were unknown. Some of the first warriors didn't want the others to know who they made a child with so they often asked Bluebell to apply a special lotion on the egg that made it absorb magic from all the grifix around it, and this way the child would take traits from everyone and be, biologically, a child of many. Not all the children on the First Warriors were like that though, but those who were were treated like they weren't anybody's child. Amongst those there was Mossy Peak, Nighttime, Moon Gemstone, Hena and others. The First Warriors used these children to their advantage, promissing to treat them better or reveal who their actual parents were in exchange for various things. 

The crystal academy

I'll jump to some Frozen Empire lore now.

Like I mentioned before, the Crystal Empire is a university center in Equestria and contains records of knowledge that has been saved from before the Great Cataclysm.

The university from the Crystal Empire is called the Crystal Academy, and its libraries hold almost all the world's knowledge between their walls. It is only, perhaps, the Frozen Empire's library that hold more knowledge than this.

The Crystal Academy also regulates most of the trades in the Empire, including the trades with the Frozen Empire.

If you want one of your non-grifix characters to attend the Crystal Academy contact MysteriousShine. All sorts of creatures attend the academy so as long as it is not an original species it's likely they'll get accepted in the grifixverse like this :D

Site stuff

Lastly, some updates on website stuff:

- I added a link to download the grifixverse font in Navigation. The font is free to use BUT ONLY fir grifixverse related stuff. Please respect this, I worked a lot on this font. Get it here: GRIFIXVERSE-REGULAR.TTF

- I added the "achievements" prompt section. Usually just having one grifixverse character should assure you to complete at least three achievements. They are usually locked behind completeing other achievements, so there's a certain order you can complete them in. Just check whichever ones you have available: ACHIEVEMENTS (they offer rewards such as limited items, MYO Slots and Star Points or even coupons).

IMPORTANT! The event has been moved here. This post is here just for archive purposes.

Twilight Sparkle became the most adorred ruler of Equestria, and once with that the longest period of peace in Equestria began. Twilight united all the nations of the world under friendship and harmony, and Equestria became a place populated by all sorts of creatures. However, that harmony was protected by nothing but a thin layer of stone...

Year 300 after Twilight's corronation, it all fell appart. The three gratest villains of Equestria broke out of their stone prison and set to wreak this world appart, and break harmony once and for all. It was so sudden, and no creature expected it. From the core of this civilization they emerged, in the royal gardens of Canterlot, just a short flight from the throne room. It was all over in a matter of minutes. She was gone, our Queen. She was gone, our Harmony.

*smack!*

The grifix closed the book. 

"That means it all ended for us as well in that moment. Our old enemies, the changelings, were back. They could sense us, feel our love, kill us. But that wasn't even the worse part. An enemy like we never saw before, who could feed of the very core of our being: magic. When Tirek emerged, the Queen knew that it was time for us to leave. She summoned to the Everfree the Chief of the Divided and the Guide of the Lost and united the three for the journey. But she came not with us. The Divided felt not worthy to follow us, so they stayed with her, all but a few. One was Jade Hoof, one of the founding grifix of the Empire. But we were not queenless or guideless without Selenara, for great leaders stood ahead of us. The Dark Queen Eclipsa came back from the lost to build the beautiful empire she failed to build during her reign. The eternal Aeterna left the Smokey Mountains to guide us to the promised land. And in front of all, the children of the Sun themselves, in which Selenara and the folk put their trust, Dusk Garden and Silver Scroll, were meant to protect the grifix from the unknown. And so we set on the jouney to the Unknown, to find tthe Promised Empire in the heart of the Frozen Mountains north of the Crystal Empire, the only place untouched by the war, protected by the Crystal Heart."

The Grifix build a new empire in the north, between mountains covered in snow throughout the year. Aeterna's sphirix, the immense roc bird who used to guide the queens to their grave, grows even larger, enough to cover an entire city, and the grifix build their new city inside the sphirix. The magic and the soul of the sphirix keeps the city warm and the sphirix safe from freezing.

✦ ✦ ✦

Hello everyone! I am so glad to finally begin this MYO event, as I have been working on this for almost a full year! This is also the first MYO event on our new website, meaning that the site is fully functional now, and the species has successfully migrated here!

Once with this MYO event I am introducing a new grifix settlement, one that will take us to a new world, in the future of Equestria! But the lore behind this is too big, and too much to introduce at once, so I will introduce just a portion of it for now, and the rest will come in future MYO events!

To begin everything, please make sure to read this, as it will introduce you to this new location and tell you everything you need to know! If you don't read it you'll probably not understand the rest of this post. But don't worry, it's pretty short.

Now that you were introduced to the Frozen Empire, you should know that the Empire is organized in 12 major guilds. This MYO event will allow you to create characters from three of them: The Tailors Guild, The Hunters Guild and the Entertainers Guild.

If you decided what guild you want your grifix to be part of, make sure you read the wiki about their guild! Here they are:

THE TAILORS GUILD ✦ THE HUNTERS GUILD ✦ THE ENTERTAINERS GUILD

A little specification about the Entertainers Guild: you are free to come up with underguilds for this guild and design their headmaster! But they will all have to be approved by MysteriousShine. In fact, know that I encourage this, I really hope someone does come up with more entertainers underguilds.

If you are looking for various information about the grifix species, look here: Navigation

Here's a trait guide to make it easier for you to design your character: Trait Guide

Usage of God traits is not allowed. Everfything else is free during this MYO event.

See the other Frozen Empire characters: Frozen Empire Masterlist

rules and how to enter

✦ Read and respect the species Terms of Ownership.

✦ Read this if you are new to the grifixverse: Get Started, Grifix Species Summary, Grifix Features

✦ Join our Discord server and register on this site

✦ Make a comment saying you want to join, and what guild you want your grifix to be part of. I'll reply with a question, answer it.

✦ You have three MYO tickets, meaning you can design up to three characters. If you want more, here's how you can obtain more MYO tickets: Share this event with someone that wants to join, and tell them to mention your username when they reply to my question. For every person you bring to the MYO, you get one more ticket! You can, for example, share the event on a discord server or on your social media and ask people to mention your username when they join.

✦ Feel free to chat about the MYO event and show WIPs in the #tapestry-of-frozen-dreams-myo-event channel on the discord server. Once your character is finished, post it in the #MYO-approval channel. After it will be approved there, I will create the MYO slot for your character on the site.

✦ In order for your character to be approved, it will also need to have a short character description that fits the grifix lore, and a reference made according to the Get Started page linked above. 

Take part in the event to obtain the limited item PIN OF FROZEN DREAMS:

This myo event will end on 01/01/2023.

All hail to another Great Harvest Holiday that I missed cause I wasn't paying attetion to the time! But worry not. I shall do something for it anyway, even if I am a few days late. I'll introduce a new legend, which revolves around the Great Harvest Holiday!

Click on the titles to go to the respective page, they are links. Still, all the information on the pages can be found in this post, but in the future they might be updated and this page won't be.

THE SPIRIT OF THE GREAT HARVEST HOLIDAY

The idea belongs to kazoowary, the art is made by MysteriousShine but it is provisory, it may be changed later, as well as the story. But after all, every legend is different depending on who speaks it, so is there really a canon version to it?

Next I shall introduce some of the Entertainment Houses! The first two were created by me (MysteriousShine) but the others were created by other members and I cannot express enough how much I love them! They exceeded any of my expectasions!

!IMPORTANT! The Entertainers Guild underguilds will no longer be called "underguilds", they are now called "houses" cause I find this term to be more suitable. 

THE MOONSHADOW CRANE

This outfit is mandatory for Moonshadow Crane grifix under 16, so you must include a version of your grifix wearing in the reference if the grifix fits in that category. You can find bases using this oufit in the base gallery.

THE RED MOON HOUSE

TRINISETTE BOUQUET

House regulated by Emizu_TH

FAFNIR'S TREASURE

House regulated by Dawn-n-Night

Lastly, I observed recently that there are some misunderstandings regarding the way sphirix are named, which made me think of it, so I'll explain a bit how they are named in each settlement:

the everfree Village, the lost tribe, and the frozen empire:

The sphirix in these settlements aren't always named at birth, and their name is whatever the grifix starts calling it. Unually they get a name whenevr the grifix starts talking and names it whatever. That sometimes leads to some weird names, but that's how it is (the same way children name their teddybear). Sometimes though, the parents name the sphirix but that's a bit weird for them to do since they can't see it. In the Everfree Village they can ask the Healer for name suggestions, since the Healer can see it.

the divided grifix camp

There is a strange grifix living deep in the in the Divided Grifix Camp. Grifix normally don't walk that far into the cave, so they don't interract with him. They sometimes bring him food but he seems uninterested in it. He doesn't seem to need that food to survive. They call him the Prophet, but truth is he never gave any prophecies or anything. In fact, he never talks. He is blind, but seems to be able to see sphirix. The Divided grifix bring their new hatched babies to him, and he names their sphirix by writing the name on the ground with a stick.

That is all for this lore update! Hope you enjoyed reading it! See ya next time and have a wonderful time till then!