Long ago, the land of Gryphonia was changed forever by the God of Chaos, Discord. He placed upon it an affliction of Seasons. Ever since that time, summers and winters became longer, some lasting a decade, and autumn and spring became almost non-existent.

The gryphons that live in this cursed land have learned to adapt. In the North, where even summers bring snow; castles, keeps, and eyries are built over hot springs and volcanic vents, and great swathes are cut into the forests for firewood that is traded all over the Five Kingdoms. In the South furs are collected, traded, and hoarded during the summer years.

For the South, summers a hot and humid, and ice is imported from the North to cool baths and keep food from rotting. In the North, summers are still relatively cold, with summer snows not being uncommon.

Gryphons in the East and West are treated with temperate winters and summers, almost like a spring or an autumn, but not quite. They still need the commodities provided by the North and South, but in their state of transience they have things neither of the others have, including rare herbs, spices, and flowers which are shipped both within the Gryphonian borders and into Equestria.

Gryphonia is split in four distinct kingdoms, each one led by it's own royal family. The four kingdoms divide the land in the four cardinal directions, North, South, East, and West. The four kingdoms are situated so that they leave space between them for another kingdom, known as the Seat of the Emperor. The Seat is the central government of Gryphonia, from which the Emperor rules the four other kingdoms. While the Seat is the body of the government, where universal laws for all five of the kingdoms are made and passed, each of the other four kingdoms are self-reliant and rarely interfere with the Seat. However, when a time of war is upon the kingdoms, the Seat calls upon the four kingdoms to put up a unified front of defense. For inter-kingdom warfare, the Seat is an independent party, never interfering and only keeping an eye on the conflict in case it is attacked.

Equestria's role in present-day Gryphonia is that of an older brother, keeping an eye on it's younger sibling but not getting involved in its affairs to save face with it's friends and to keep the younger one independent. The Seat's position on the matters of the Equestrian government is that of any neighboring governments, they keep the peace through negotiations and the Emperor sits upon the Council of Nations led by Equestria's crown-princess Celestia.

Our story starts in the dead of Winter, in the North.