Equestrian Demigods

Princess Celestia

Origin

Celestia's Ascension to god-hood has little to do with any single action on her part. Centuries before Celestia's birth, the monarchy of the Old Kingdom, beleaguered by invasions from the Ancient Predator kingdoms and suffering from a great famine, sought a way to unify their people and defeat their enemies. It was under these conditions that King Eomer Hoofton II secretly sought the help of Gnosis, a powerful unicorn with an unscrupulous reputation. Numerous councils were held and ultimately Gnosis presented a bold plan: they would create a god. To transform a mortal into a god, a great deal of magical energy would be needed. Initially, Gnosis proposed mass ritual suicide to harvest the necessary energy, but of course this was not approved. In the end, the monarchy approved a long-term plan to siphon energy from the population via a ritual prayer in the Elder Tongue that Gnosis had devised. The prayer would steal energy from whomever spoke it and transmit that energy to a collecting device. In order to encourage the long-term use of such a prayer it was also designed to bring tangible relief and serenity to those who uttered it. The monarchy provided the necessary social engineering and ministrations to construct a religion around the ritual prayer. For the next few centuries the religion gained widespread use and the collecting device, a large subterranean crystal hidden beneath Canterlot's court, was filled to capacity. Gnosis managed to sustain himself, as a part of his bargain for helping the monarchy, by extracting some essence from the collection crystal. Meanwhile the monarchy bred themselves in order to create a mortal with characteristics that would be able to handle the Ascension ritual. Celestia and later her sister Luna were the first candidates in the eyes of Gnosis who he felt could survive the ritual. Thus it came to pass that, after several decades of preparation, Celestia and Luna underwent the Rite of Ascension and were granted their god-like powers. In an unforeseen consequence of the rite the collecting crystal was destroyed and with its destruction Gnosis reportedly died.

The Ritual of Ascension

Celestia and Luna may appear to have strange powers compared to standard gods in a D&D setting. This is because the Ritual of Ascension, as Gnosis conceived it, was not just a straightforward "You become a god" spell.

In mechanical terms the Ritual of Ascension did several things. First it created a small Outer Plane (see for example Astral Seed. Celestia and Luna were then granted divine rank sufficient to make the entire outer plane their godly realm by transferring the cumulated energy stored in the crystal to the Sisters. Finally, the properties of this Outer Plane, namely the Sisters' godly control over it, were merged with the Material plane via wide-spread permanent planar breaches, cast via Alter Reality repeatedly. At the time it was thought that continued breaches linking the outer realm with the material plane would allow Celestia and Luna to ultimately control an arbitrary sized section of land on the material plane, but the intercession of the existing pantheon prevented this. It may seem remarkable that the plan was ever permitted to begin by the pantheon. For this, we have the bickering indecision of the pantheon to thank. It was only until the growth of Equestria was deemed too great that the pantheon decided to step in. Since that time, Celestia and Luna have entered the pantheon, albeit at very low rank and low influence. One of the great strengths of Celestia that goes unknown to the population at large has been her ability to make alliances and deals with other gods in order to prevent any further intervention on their part. See godly politics section.

Notable results

Celestia/Luna's godly control of a portion of the material plane is actually tied to a small outer plane via wide-spread planar breaches connecting the material plane to that world. This has a few odd consequences. If one passes through the final breach boundary on the way out Equestria there is a noticeable "boundary" condition effect. The gravity and atmospheric pressure is mostly equalized, but not quite, and the difference is perceptible. The topology of the breach is not perfectly spherical. In fact, near the edges it is porous. The exact topology is a closely guarded state secret, as it has obvious military consequences. Celestia's divine rank is actually fairly low, although she permits speculation to the contrary among mortals. Even the most powerful gods of the pantheon do not exert the same extent of direct control over the material plane as she does. The precarious nature of Celestia's position in the pantheon is well known in some circles, but within Equestria is nearly unknown. In fact acknowledgement of other gods within Equestria is one of the few activities that Celestia has been known to suppress. Godly Politics:

The pantheon of gods consists of three main powerful factions: those concerned with magic, those concerned with life, and those concerned with death. Other factions do exist, but they are not powerful enough to cause trouble or even to care. It is Equestria's strong magical and vitality that has allowed Celestia to make continued and long-lasting ties with gods of the former two groups. While the creation of new gods in the pantheon is rare it is not generally prevented, unless the existing pantheon feels threatened by the new entry. The creation of Equestria involved many new lives, much magic, and much death. Thus numerous gods in the pantheon saw it as a positive development -- and frankly it was a fairly novel occurrence that piqued many a curiosity. Now centuries later some of the pantheon are unhappy with how blatantly utopian Equestria has become, particularly gods of death. Fortunately for Equestria and Celestia, she has managed to maintain at least a quorum of support. Because gods are immortal they still consider Equestria to be experimental.

Personality

Celestia was born into a position of high demands and high stress. Unlike her sister, she has excelled in this environment. Celestia is usually seen to be "serene", but this is more or less a mask she wears. The following list describes her traits:

Impatient: Celestia is ostensibly a forgiving and just ruler, but she has a sometimes unsubtle way of getting her way and getting it quickly. A favorite tactic of hers is to handle dalliance by circuitous promotion and delegation. If one delays in carrying out an order for the Princess, one may soon find another pony just as smart and capable having already done the task and now occupying your job. If the pony doing her bidding cannot thus be replaced, but is not performing to Celestia's standards, that pony may find themselves seeing the less serene side of the Princess. Didactic: Celestia has a genuine interest in teaching others. She personally oversees a number of higher learning institutions, the most famous of which is housed in Canterlot. A shrewd way of looking at this particular trait is to say that Celestia wants a large pool of competent minions. Visionary: There are many revolutionary concepts in politics, magic, and strategy that Celestia can claim responsibility for. Open Minded: Apart from maintaining her position as god of Equestria, Celestia is fairly open to new developments or other ideas presented to her. There are very few cultural practices, devices, or actions that Celestia forbids, so long as they do not infringe on her ideals (which are now codified in the pony bill of rights). Zero Tolerance: This may seem an oxymoron when coupled with "open minded", but it works, so long as you accept that Celestia can be open minded within a fairly general boundary. Outside the boundary, however, Celestia has been known to be downright brutal. Sub-Cultures which don't align with ideas like, "All gender orientations are treated equal", quickly find themselves restructured. Celestia's most common trick is to use cultural dilution, either by moving a large population of approved cultural adherents in or by dispersing the unapproved culture with relocation programs. The latter is more rare. In some extreme cases, ponies are exiled outside of Equestria. It is Celestia's policy to avoid killing anypony at all costs. Loving: Few see this side of Celestia, but she genuinely loves her sister, Luna. Sisterly love... It is unknown who else Celestia really holds dear. So many other ponies are expendable to her and she is known to dislike much of the royal court and bourgeoisie, despite using them for various tasks. Twilight Sparkle, when she was alive, may have been an object of true affection for her, given her relation to Midnight Star, whom she loved as much as Luna. Apart from this, Celestia espouses a policy encouraging love and friendship between all ponies. Troll: Trollestia is one personality that Celestia loves to indulge, often in the name of instruction. Given her position, she finds endless amusement from how often she can get people to think she is serious, when in actuality she is joking around. Much lulz were had, although most ponies don't get it, which of course makes Celestia only enjoy it more.

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Discord

"This creature is called a Draconequus. He has the head of a pony and a body of all sorts of other things." — Cheerilee

Discord has a horse-like head with a right deer antler, a left goat horn, a fang and a beard. He has a lion's right arm, an eagle's talon for a left arm, a lizard right leg, a goat left leg, a bat right wing, a pegasus left wing, a snake tail and tongue and different sized pupils.

Personality

Discord is a mischievous, manipulative trickster who uses powerful magic and illusions to alter reality and control others. He seeks revenge against Celestia and Luna for imprisoning him in stone, by stealing the Elements of Harmony and causing disorder all across Equestria.

He has a sense of showmanship and drama, preferring to be playful towards his victims before getting down to business, even mocking and bantering with Celestia and the six main ponies in Canterlot Tower, after he first appears. He delights in chaos and confusion at the expense of others and believes that the laws of reality are beneath him. While attempting to corrupt Fluttershy, he shows his lack of patience when he finds he can't corrupt her as easily as he did with the others.

Discord delights in causing others to act almost like their total opposites. He relishes breaking Twilight's spirit, and belief in the power of friendship, believing that he and his chaos are unstoppable, due to Twilight's belief in friendship being the key to defeating him. His "Playful Persecution" shows through, as he acts the part of Twilight's friend; encouraging her to get in the spirit of the new, chaotic Ponyville, and attempting to get her to watch his tricks. When he sees her moping under a cloud of chocolate rain, he even removes it from above her, and eats it. However, when she says she is leaving, he celebrates the departure of one of the last who could stop him.

It is interesting to note that Discord displays little in the way of malice, anger, or hate - the Traditional "evil" emotions for a villain. His main motivation seems to be to have fun through chaos, as shown that he prefers to play pranks on the citizens of Ponyville--through the use of his powers--than actually hurting them, and when he laughs hysterically after pulling a prank. However he has a complete lack of regard for the feelings of others, and the nature of his fun is usually at someone else's expense.

History

Before he is introduced, the effects of his presence are seen, with clouds made out of cotton candy that move of their own accord, chocolate milk pouring down from the sky as if like rain, or animals and plants that behave uncharacteristically and may even spontaneously change shape. Princess Celestia explains to Twilight and her friends that Discord is the spirit of disharmony. He was a powerful and anarchistic menace to Equestria that caused unrest and unhappiness throughout all of Equestria for earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi alike. Celestia and her sister Luna rose up against Discord and used the Elements of Harmony to turn him to stone.

Celestia continues, explaining that since she and Luna are no longer connected to the Elements of Harmony, the spell imprisoning Discord broke and he has escaped from his stone prison. When the Elements of Harmony go missing, Celestia accuses Discord of stealing them, because they were held in a chamber protected by a spell that she believed only she could break. Discord appears in the stained-glass windows of the palace and replies with a riddle, which Twilight connects with the Canterlot castle labyrinth.

When Twilight and her friends venture into the palace labyrinth, Discord magically removes the ponies' wings and horns so that they would be unable to use their magic or be able to fly to "cheat" in the "game" he forces them to take part in. He also separates them by raising sections of the labyrinth's walls. Discord uses representations of the cast's cutie marks to subtly manipulate them into behaving in discordance with the element they represent, with the exception of Fluttershy who doesn't fall for Discord's manipulation, leading him to snap and simply convert her by touch.

He eventually plays with Rainbow Dash's loyalty to her friends by showing her a vision that her hometown of Cloudsale would be destroyed without her. He offers her a choice: she can either have her wings back and go to the aid of Cloudsdale, or continue seeking the Elements. This tricks her into flying out of the labyrinth, breaking Discord's first rule that magic and wings are forbidden, so he wins. Discord then causes the entire labyrinth to collapse, and standing before the five remaining ponies, gleefully states that Equestria will now be thrust into eternal chaos.

When Twilight lashes out at him, Discord warps them back in time, to help Twilight with the riddle he spoke of earlier, afterwards turning Ponyville into what he claims will be his 'capital of chaos'. When Twilight forcefully places the elements on the corrupted ponies and Spike, (substituting for the absent Rainbow Dash) the Elements don't work, so Discord continues his chaos. When Twilight finally cures all her corrupted friends, Discord continues to act calm and complacent, thus allowing him to be easily defeated with the reawakened powers of the Elements. After being struck with a rainbow similar to that previously used on Night Mare Moon, Discord was turned back into stone, but this time with an expression of horror frozen onto his face.