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.

Vocabulary: 

The Great Migration: refers to when the grifix left the Everfree Forest and migrated to the Frozen North
Underguild: minor guilds part of the Council Guilds
Council Guild: Guild part of the Council

✦✦ organization

The current time of the Empire is set 1000 years from Selenara's corronation, so around 700 years since the events described above. The Empire's population is way bigger than what the Everfree Village or the Lost Tribe had. The Frozen Empire is ruled by a council formed of 12 guild leaders and a council leader. The 12 guild leaders are the leaders of the biggest, most influential guilds of the Empire, but there are many minor guilds that are affiliated to the main ones. It is possible for a minor guild to grow and overthrone one of the 12 main guilds. Every grifix is affiliated to a guild.

The Soldiers Guild

Guards and Protectors of the Empire.

The Hunters Guild

In the Frozen North, the whole Empire depends on the food they provide, but it is a dangerous job, for they must adventure in the cold outside the Empire. One wrong step and they could loose their life. One bad hunting expedition and the whole Empire would starve. There is no room for mistakes.

The Guild itself has lost all it's influence in the past years, and very few grifix still come to join. If they weren't so important they would long be gone from the 12 council guilds. Despite all that, they still continue to fight the harsh outside for the Empire.

The craftsmen guild

They provide all sorts of things to the empire, most of the everyday objects used by the grifix are crafted here. Among it's underguilds there count the Blacksmiths Guild, the Carpenters Guild, the Potters Guild.

The tailors guild

A guild that till not long ago used to be part of the Craftsman Guild. Under the Leadership of Velvet Sky, it's influence raised in the past few years and it became one of the Council Guilds. Maybe they could bring new beauty to the dark, grey Empire.

Underguilds: The Jewellers Guild

The entertainers guild

A place ruled by norhing but money and bodily desires. Burries itself under the cover of beautiful dresses, dance, music, theather and art. Truth is that all leads to acts much darker, dirtier. 

It is ran by a bunch of major underguilds, called houses, that all serve the same purpose. They fight for every beautiful female that joins the guild, as beauty equals money and influence. They all try to obtain as many connections as possible through the Entertainers they own. All secrets are revealed here. Nothing can stay hidden. Beauty reveals all, because it lies, it deceives, it steals everything.

Houses: The Moonshadow Crane, The Red Moon House, Trinisette Bouquet, Fafnir's Treasure, Yokai no Ie

The Scholars Guild

After the Cataclysm that destroyed Equestria, the Grifix realized there wasn’t anybody left to record the events of the world. They started paying a lot of attention to writing books, recording history, studying magic etc. A big part of the City consists of libraries. They gathered books and scrolls from all around the world, even sending grifix out to gather them. 

Now the Frozen Empire is the place with the most written knowledge in Equestria.

It is the guild with the most influence and underguilds. Amongst those there counts the Herbalists Guild, which had a big raise in influence lately. Following the study of plants and sunlight they found ways to raise plants in special glasshouses, which allowed them to create new food sortiments for the grifix that fed on meat alone for hundreds of years.

Underguilds: The Herbalists Guild

The Miners guild

A guild that used to be part of the Scholars Guild till not long ago. They used to focus on mineral study, but recently they began excavating and digging close to the empire and found a lot of minerals, mostly crystals. Following that discovery, the current headmaster of the guild had the idea to trade with the Crystal Empire. Using special spells she could reveal herself before ponies, and so they began exporting to the Crystal Empire. The Crystal Empire is currently one of the only places with stable politics in Equestria, and became a very important trade center, as it had good relations with every other place. The grifix obtained a lot of goods in exchange for minerals, such as seeds that the Herbalists could use and grow. It brought a big change in the Empire.

the clerics guild

Various stories of the grifix from the past turned to legends and legends to deities. Loosing the cult of the ancestors, the grifix have now a politheistic religion. Each guild is protected by a God, but there are also those who serve all Gods, the clerics.

the Medics guild

Often the cold breaks into the Empire, and often the grifix may fall ill to various causes. The medics make sure they let no grifix fall to the illness.

The starfell clan

They deserve a prize for being the most persistent group of grifix to have ever existed. 2000 years later, they are still there, the same as always, usless and full of themselves. Still, they are now slowly falling appart, their children leaving the clan in pursue of freedom and love.

The merchants guild

Despite all expectations, this place is not too corrupted. The grifix here are strangely honest and live for helping the others. Spread throughout the Empire, it is up to them that all live hapily. Nobody must be left without food or water, or the means to do their job. They deliver stuff around the empire and arrange deals between grifix, in order for the place to run smoothly.

They do not actually own any goods to sell, their job being just to arrange trades throughout the Empire. They also receive part of the money from the deals they arrange. This way no things will get sold as a too high price, and everyone will be pleased at the end of the day.

The builders guild

A guild that has been part of the Craftsman Guild a long time ago, but raised in influence at some point. Currently, it seems to fall back as other minor guilds, such as the Herbalists Guild, threaten to steal it's place in the Council. 

The Builders aren't too preocupied with their reputation and influence, and just care about doing their job, build and repair houses. As they have barely any contribution in the Council, they will probably soon go back to being an underguild of the Craftsman Guild.

✦✦ Appearance

The Empire is so far north as it experiences polar day/night, when they get up to 2 months of night and then 2 months of day. However, the polar day is still quite dark there, as the place is surrounded by some very tall mountains that cover the sun most of the time, and the clouds cover the sky almost every day, leaving the place in an obscure light that doesn't really allow plants to grow. The Grifix have a bit of night vision, but they still prefer light so this bothers them a bit. That’s why the city is built around a giant tower, that has a mechanism on top, which uses the magic it absorbs from the air to bring light.

The City was designed by Eclipsa. She is no longer alive, but was alive during the Great Migration and she was in charge of building the City and turning that place into the empire she always wanted the Village to be. She can rest after that. It is because of her that the light mechanism on top of the tower resembles a solar eclipse.

There is a hot spring somewhere in the mountains, and it’s a very important place for the grifix. They sometimes go there to bath, especially those that work outside the City, like the hunters. The spring is ran by a family of grifix that permanently reside there. They are part of the Merchants Guild. They sometimes return to the City if the winter makes it impossible for them to stay out there.

✦✦ Relation with other settlements

Currently, the Empire grifix only interract with the Crystal Empire ponies, but even that happens rarely. The Crystal Heart protected the Crystal Empire from the Cataclysm, and Cadance continued to rule for a while. After the things settled in Equestria, she and Flurry Heart retired and left the Empire (Shinning Armour was long dead). Cadance decided to find the other alicorns, as she could still feel their presence in this world. Now the Crystal Empire is some sort of democracy, and it repressents a very important trade center in Equestria, as well as a very significant university center, being one of the last places in Equestria with intact libraries from before the Cataclysm.

The Crystal Academy

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

✦✦ hierarchy

The order in the Empire is imposed by the Soldiers Guild, yet they are not the ones on top. Who is actually ruling the Empire is a mystery to most. Some believe it is the Leader of the Council, but few know who that is. Most believe it is the Council itself, and that is pretty much the official version. In essence, the whole place is ran on influence and connections between grifix.

The part that is clear to everyone is that every guild has it's own hierarchy. If you want to know more about it check the pages of the guilds themselves.