Mildgyth
Senior Moderator
Humata, Hukhta, Hvarshta
*History of Equestria, Part 6.1 – The Middle Sasanid period: 480-982*
Anban's dominance's length is unknown. Some argue that the very concept of _time_ didn't apply during that period. Because of that, to avoid controversies, The calendars usually use the convention of placing its entire hegemony in one day ("13th of Tir, Tištrya":https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th) of the year 480. Despite the horrible impression that that period gained, no death actually occurred within it. Anban seemed to think that death was something completely unchaotic, since not even it could reverse it.
At some point, two Crystallian earth ponies that had been part of a auxiliary division in the Equestrian army, _Ælia Calpurnia Cælestia_ and _Luna Calpurnia Cælestia_, set out to defeat Anban, and in the proccess, found six gems that supposedly could harness the power of the Amesha Spenta, on a crystal tree that had been planted by Setaresuvirles and his companions before their disppearance. Having been judged worthy by them, the two defeated Anban, encasing it in stone, and almost immediately after, were ascended to alicornhood.
However, the dominant theological opinion of the time was that the last Saoshyants, the ones that would bring about _"Frashokereti":https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frashokereti_, would be a amalgam of all three races, like Ælia and Luna had become. Soon enough a large millenarian movement arose around them, fueled by the widespread discontent for the social order, which would have helped bring Anban.
The reigning Equestrian shah, Yazdegerd III, soon found herself pressed to accept the Crystallians as co-rulers. Fortunately for her and her dynasty, neither of them actually had any wish to supplant her, tried to stop any excesses commited by 'their' movement, and emphatically rejected the notion that they were supposed to bring about the end of the world. However, even though they had no association with any heretical sects, the policies they began to implant were derived from Mazdak's own ideas. In addition to that, Ælia received the position of _mowbedan-mowbed_, helping the orthodoxy to become more and more Mazdakist in nature.
Through the next century, Ælia and Luna tried to reorganize Equestrian society, balancing the interests of the different social classes, and helped defending the nation from incursions by dragon tribes that took the opportunity that a weakened Equestria presented. In counterpart, while the Sasanid shahs had retained their throne, after Yazdegerd's death, her successors increasingly fell to the sidelines, to the point that all the Sasanid shahs that reigned after Warahrān VII (died in 530) up to the end of the Middle Sasanid Period are (unfairly) titled _Kardanečshahan_ (do-nothing queens).
Meanhile, Hrom before Eris had been attempting to reconquer its former territories in the west. In the aftermath, not only the west was lost to them forever, as even a good chunk of their remaining western territories was lost to griffon invaders, and in the wake of these disasters, a controversy regarding the use of religious icons began, sparking on the reign of Léaina III (537-561), and being alternately suppressed or endorsed until 682, under the reign of hatchling-empress Theodora III, when a council at Takht-e-Rum reinstated the veneration of icons.
Farther in the east, Anban also led to the collapse of the regining dynasty in Čina, and about 72 years of fighting amongst rival candidates to the throne.
In Equestria, things had mostly stabilized themselves after the first 200 years. However, in 979, a former centurion in the Crystallian army and a very powerful and malevolous mage, _Caeso Latrius Sambrialus_, killed _Aula Anicia Olybria_, the then consul of Crystallia, and instituted a reign of terror that led most of its senatorial class to flee to Equestria and Ælia and Luna to attempt to intervene. While Caeso was defeated, before the death of his physical body, he cursed his country to remain in stasis for the next 1005 years and vanished it from view.
The failure on saving her homeland proved a particularly strong blow for Luna, and she eventually fell prey to a "dark Ahrimankert entity":/tags/nightmare+forces. After being possessed, she tried to attack her sister, only for the Amesha Spenta to banish her to the moon.
Anban's dominance's length is unknown. Some argue that the very concept of _time_ didn't apply during that period. Because of that, to avoid controversies, The calendars usually use the convention of placing its entire hegemony in one day ("13th of Tir, Tištrya":https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th) of the year 480. Despite the horrible impression that that period gained, no death actually occurred within it. Anban seemed to think that death was something completely unchaotic, since not even it could reverse it.
At some point, two Crystallian earth ponies that had been part of a auxiliary division in the Equestrian army, _Ælia Calpurnia Cælestia_ and _Luna Calpurnia Cælestia_, set out to defeat Anban, and in the proccess, found six gems that supposedly could harness the power of the Amesha Spenta, on a crystal tree that had been planted by Setaresuvirles and his companions before their disppearance. Having been judged worthy by them, the two defeated Anban, encasing it in stone, and almost immediately after, were ascended to alicornhood.
However, the dominant theological opinion of the time was that the last Saoshyants, the ones that would bring about _"Frashokereti":https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frashokereti_, would be a amalgam of all three races, like Ælia and Luna had become. Soon enough a large millenarian movement arose around them, fueled by the widespread discontent for the social order, which would have helped bring Anban.
The reigning Equestrian shah, Yazdegerd III, soon found herself pressed to accept the Crystallians as co-rulers. Fortunately for her and her dynasty, neither of them actually had any wish to supplant her, tried to stop any excesses commited by 'their' movement, and emphatically rejected the notion that they were supposed to bring about the end of the world. However, even though they had no association with any heretical sects, the policies they began to implant were derived from Mazdak's own ideas. In addition to that, Ælia received the position of _mowbedan-mowbed_, helping the orthodoxy to become more and more Mazdakist in nature.
Through the next century, Ælia and Luna tried to reorganize Equestrian society, balancing the interests of the different social classes, and helped defending the nation from incursions by dragon tribes that took the opportunity that a weakened Equestria presented. In counterpart, while the Sasanid shahs had retained their throne, after Yazdegerd's death, her successors increasingly fell to the sidelines, to the point that all the Sasanid shahs that reigned after Warahrān VII (died in 530) up to the end of the Middle Sasanid Period are (unfairly) titled _Kardanečshahan_ (do-nothing queens).
Meanhile, Hrom before Eris had been attempting to reconquer its former territories in the west. In the aftermath, not only the west was lost to them forever, as even a good chunk of their remaining western territories was lost to griffon invaders, and in the wake of these disasters, a controversy regarding the use of religious icons began, sparking on the reign of Léaina III (537-561), and being alternately suppressed or endorsed until 682, under the reign of hatchling-empress Theodora III, when a council at Takht-e-Rum reinstated the veneration of icons.
Farther in the east, Anban also led to the collapse of the regining dynasty in Čina, and about 72 years of fighting amongst rival candidates to the throne.
In Equestria, things had mostly stabilized themselves after the first 200 years. However, in 979, a former centurion in the Crystallian army and a very powerful and malevolous mage, _Caeso Latrius Sambrialus_, killed _Aula Anicia Olybria_, the then consul of Crystallia, and instituted a reign of terror that led most of its senatorial class to flee to Equestria and Ælia and Luna to attempt to intervene. While Caeso was defeated, before the death of his physical body, he cursed his country to remain in stasis for the next 1005 years and vanished it from view.
The failure on saving her homeland proved a particularly strong blow for Luna, and she eventually fell prey to a "dark Ahrimankert entity":/tags/nightmare+forces. After being possessed, she tried to attack her sister, only for the Amesha Spenta to banish her to the moon.