Nocturnia

**Nocturnia** is one of the territories of Equestria. Historically it has also been known as the Batpony Lands.

Most of its population is made up of Batponies. A significant Guruvni diaspora exists as well.

## History

*See also Timeline.*

Nocturnia was the first nation to join the Council of the Tribes other than Equestria's founders (Gaia, Icaria and Ceria).

## Military

The jewel of the Nocturnian army are the Hussars of the Night, who are famed for being powerful and striking hard but at the same time being stealthy and near undetectable during the night.

## Economy

### Ecology

Nocturnia is heavily forested and timber is a major resource.

Overexploitation of timber has always been controversial among the native Batpony population.

## Culture

### Architecture

Batponies have traditionally lived in caves. These caves have been turned into more elaborate forms of dwelling with apartment complexes being carved into rock. Although other forms of dwelling have been constructed to house the growing population, these apartments remain the most unique feature of the architecture of Nocturnia.

### Games

In Nocturnian card games, a variant of the Equestrian deck of cards is commonly used where spearheads and Pegasi are replaced by moons and Batponies respectively.

### Gastronomy

Fruit makes up most of Nocturnia's food production and gastronomy. Cold climate fruits such as apples, pears, plums, grapes, cherries and raspberries make up most of the fruit.

Warmer climate fruits, such as mangoes and papayas, are highly valuable in the region but require greenhouses to grow locally. Alternatively, these fruits are often imported from Mbizi.

#### Mushrooms

Nocturnia has a large fungiculture industry in its dark and cool caves. Mushrooms are considered a staple food together with fruits.

#### Liquors

Fruit liquors are considered typical of the region. Nocturnians usually distill liquor using pits, seeds, peels and lower quality fruits or fruits that have started to go bad which would otherwise go uneaten.

When distilling liquor, the first amount produced is burnt as a sacrifice to the moon. This ritual has the practical effect of getting rid of the dangerous foreshot.

Nocturnian fruit liquors are known as "moonfire". The name became tied to controversy as it became used by Icaria distilleries to refer to their own fruit liquors and Nocturnians considered this an undermining of their own distilling industry, made especially grave by the historical discrimination against Batponies from other races.

Tensions in the liquor industry escalated as Nocturnian distilleries released rainshine imitation products in return, and were eventually settled when a court case ruled that a liquor could only be called moonfire if it was produced in Nocturnia and it could only be called rainshine if it was made from rainbowberry.

### Superstitions

Mirrors are rare in Nocturnia as many Batponies believe they cause bad luck. This is due to the false belief that the light reflected in mirrors isn't affected by illusion spells, as some Batponies used to use illusion spells to avoid becoming the victim of pogroms during anti-Batpony attacks and they feared that mirrors could reveal them to other Ponies.