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Thinking about one of my older WC aus again… I’ve finally got a name for it: the Kinless Leaders au

In which I realized that it makes way more sense for the leaders in Warriors to be put under the “cannot have mates or kits” rule rather than healers…

Leaders are far more ingrained in politics and diplomacy than healers are. They’re the only non-healer, as well, who are known to have steady contact with StarClan, and have recieved a grand gift (nine lives) from their ancestors. Literally touched by the stars. They’d need to be “pure”, and completely unhindered by emotional or physical attachments (that being: immediate family, romantic attachments, and kits) that could cloud their judgement when it comes to the good of the whole Clan.

They’re allowed friends — to a degree. Deputies, and successors, would be chosen only if they have no immediate family to speak of, and can prove throughout their assisting reign to have the fortitude to not become a mate or parent. If a leader does have kits, they are to be immediately deposed, for they have lost their Clan’s trust, their connection to StarClan + their ancestor’s trust, and broken their vows. They are more likely now to jump to defend their kin in the face of political unrest, as well.

It would just make more sense, thematically, if this were the case… And provide way more drama. Like, so much more.

Thistleclaw could still have courted Snowfur and sired Whitestorm, but would have broken her heart and requested she invoke Queen’s Rights and not name a father — which could have led to Bluefur’s distaste for him, because of course her sister would have confided in her.

Bluefur could have been pregnant at the time Goosefeather told her of the prophecy, and warned her of Thistleclaw’s bloodthirsty intentions. By that time, Snowfur would have been dead, and we could just kill off Stormtail a bit earlier. Hence why she had to give up her kits, albeit far earlier, to secure her place as leader.

Tigerclaw wouldn’t have sired Goldenflower or Sasha’s kits. But kittens raised without an obvious father, especially when Sasha was a kittypet and Goldenflower’s first mate for her first litter was rumored to be a loner, would be far more easy to manipulate and guide under one’s wing. He could have offered Tawnypelt a place in ShadowClan under him for the same reasons as canon, and could have coaxed both Brambleclaw and Hawkfrost into the Dark Forest after his death regardless.

Crookedstar’s life now becomes ever-sadder, as he fell in love with Willowbreeze, who reciprocated, but could only be with her in secret. Then she and most of their kits die, leading him to believe it is a sign, and offer his only surviving kit to his estranged brother to take into his own mysteriously-born litter.

No more “Half of ThunderClan being direct Firestar descendants”, because Firestar now cannot have kits. Perhaps Squirrelflight and Leafpool were still his, however… Perhaps ThunderClan’s bright brand of fire isn’t as perfect as many believe.

Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight were mates and raised a family, however the argument of “they’re not really yours, so is it alright to step into leadership?” could be made in a society that values their leader’s purity…

Idk. Much angst. Many intrigue. It’s a personal favorite au of mine ^^

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Drew a thing because I went into a Star Flower spiral

Needless to say, I now have her whole deal figured out for OFND, and may I just say: she is gaslight gatekeep girlboss extraordinaire

Bonus sketch plus bonus colored (ignore the wonky lines; the program I use does weird things when exporting the final image) :D

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In a Warriors rewrite or generalized cat xenofiction/xenomoggy setting…

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Thinking of… making Star Flower a kittypet…

She’s a primary antagonist, so perhaps her being a house cat would also serve as fuel to oppose kittypets later on for the modern Clans…?

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It’s 1am and I’m thinking about Goldenstar…

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I could have SWORN that I had at least a few asks requesting Miss Bumble… But I suppose not!

BUMBLE

“I'm tired of being a kittypet! I want to lie in the sun all day and catch mice and climb trees!”

[Chocolate-and-ginger mackerel tabby calico with amber eyes.]

GUYS!! GUYS LOOK WHO IT IS!!! SHE’S FINALLY HERE!!!!! YIPPEE!!!

Design notes!

Curled ears.

Almost entirely dark face.

Especially round face.

Very thick, fluffy coat!

Unusually short legs, especially when in comparison to the rest of her body.

Fluffy, slightly loner-than-average tail.

Subtly honeycomb-patterned collar.

Scarring includes: None!

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BUMBLE

INDEED!!!!

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Would this au rewrite or add to Bloodclan? While I like the idea of Scourge forming it, it often seems unnecessary cruel? Like how it's described and how Scourge is described. I thought that, due to what he went through, he created the group as a way to help those who suffered like him.

The only reason he agreed to help Tiger, was to betray him, and also gain more resources for the clan. It would be interesting if Bloodclan ever had an alliance to the clans as they can get items the clans otherwise wouldn't have. Plus, gain more new blood to prevent... the dreaded family tree

I agree heavily with your view here! It was so odd to me that, after experiencing such traumatizing violence, Scourge would then go on to… create a system that idolizes violence. Of course, this can happen as a means of a victim coping, but it’s just odd to me that Tiny, a young cat who was shown to be very curious and with a thirst for knowledge and to make himself be seen as “great”, would go on to make himself into a monster to achieve that.

I have some ideas on how to restructure BloodClan, but I think that, ideally, Scourge would focus more on the “blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb” thing. The streets are a cruel place with a very heavy “only the strong will survive; the weak have no place here” mentality… So Scourge comes in and pointedly MAKES a place for the “weak”, the forgotten, the alone — so that no one else will ever feel as he has.

Sure, he’s nowhere NEAR a perfect leader; he’s got a short temper and a sharp tongue and a tendency to leap before he looks, but… he didn’t even really want to be a leader in the first place. And he’s pretty young, as well; no one blames him for his flaws. He’s almost heralded as a god by his cats, who he has gathered, sorted, and protected fiercely… but he’s always held a grudge on the Clans of which he derived BloodClan’s name to spite them. His Clan is the greatest, one born of true loyalty, community, and protection…

The Clans of the forest should learn to take a page out of his book… But Scourge won’t be the one to take that first step.

I like to think that Tigerclaw, here, is a bit more paranoid and with clearer motives (though that’s another post for another time). He keeps his cards close to his chest, and keeps his enemies far and his allies further; he might seek BloodClan out specifically because it’s hard garnering control over the amount of cats he suddenly has under him, and harder still to earn his loyalty… but BloodClan is twice the size of TigerClan, and yet still thrives even in the worst of places. He might have sought advice, initially, and then an exchange of resources, an offer to merge and share… and Scourge takes his time deliberating on the offer of the tom who scarred him and clearly doesn’t remember him.

I’ll come back to his and sort it into more sense later 👀

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Maybe each clan sees mental health slightly different? Mainly due to the leaders. Ones like Brokenstar probably would see it as a weakness to hide

Bluestar something that is inevitable and tries finding better ways of dealing with what has already happened; Goldenstar really pushing for more help after her experience. I could see her maybe forming anxiety ontop of the Depression and PTSD, as with all that happened, she'd be scared of what could happen to her clan moving on.

Not sure how Tallstar/Windclan would view it. I imagine Riverclan and Leopardstar maybe being more protective over those that have it; as they are a big family. Or Leopardstar at first thinking this, before changing once Tigerclan formed, as situations change.

I could just overall seeing the view of health, and even the roles the Medicine cats play, being affected by the leader in charge. At least to some degree. Adding to the Fading Leaders get, it would probably also had fear and anxiety to the leaders who know of their inevitable decent.

I do like the idea of a Clan’s specific attitude changing on the topic of health depending on who leads them…

While I really do want to keep the topic of generalized health across the Clans as “this cat just needs some extra help, attention, or medicine, and that’s okay”, I do think that a Clan’s mindset about it would wax and wane with the health of their leader. Because even when a Clan’s leader starts to fade, the Clans don’t just… write them off. They still treat them with respect and honor and try to make them as comfortable as possible.

But I definitely think that certain leaders would try to push the views of mental (and physical!) health into a more negative light. Claiming those afflicted as weak or unfit for the Clan; better to cut them loose than risk whatever they have spreading to infect the strong. Who would be left to defend their way of life then? Brokenstar especially would be rather keen on weaponizing it and sparking fear throughout ShadowClan.

I think that, in the light of the other og leaders, Bluestar would be very dismissive and defensive about the topic. I think that she’d be afflicted with fading unusually fast, because mental illness runs in her family (see: Goosefeather) and be deeply in denial about it; her medics didn’t catch it until it was too late, because she’d been hiding it so fiercely until she physically couldn’t keep up the front anymore.

Goldenstar wouldn’t want to follow in her predecessor’s paw-prints, however, because Bluestar’s defensiveness made ThunderClan wholly unprepared for her death; in their eyes, her condition started deteriorating, and then she was dead within a few moons. She’s very open about her health, checks in with her medics often, and tries to keep ThunderClan’s wider mental health as bolstered as possible by hosting various games and pitching ideas for new holidays. Snowstar follows her example, and makes it a tradition, for every leader following Goldenstar to try to form a holiday that would be followed for under their reign.

WindClan as a whole is very tight lipped and closed off; the mental state of their Clan is their business and their business alone. Tallstar lessens this to a degree by embracing WindClan’s traditional openness, though primarily they’re still pretty quiet about their status. Onestar jerks them right back into near-silence, but Harestar works to undo the damage he’s done.

RiverClan are huge about physical and mental health. They’re very protective of those afflicted, but they don’t baby them; they work with a cat’s limits and assign duties as it fits the individual. Crookedstar, being disabled himself, is a fierce advocate for others being able to lead the path they want to and at their own pace.

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Goldenflower (finished)

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To my readers:

If your comment is long and rambling and full of quotes you enjoyed, I will love it.

If your comment is full of story related questions, I will love it.

If your comment is a single sentence, I will love it.

If your comment is a single emoji, or a string of them, I will love it.

If you comment, I will love it. It's that simple.

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I wonder how the clans would treat something like mental health? I doubt in the past they'd really understand certain things, or maybe treated them differently? Or had certain beliefs should something come up

Canin doesn't seem to mention anything, or tends to downplay or act like things can he magically healed

But I feel like in a culture that stresses living wild, being loyal to the clan, denouncing the life of kittypets; they'd probably view certain health maybe as bad to have? Like its the cats fault

Or others as normal and just needs to worth through it, with few being really looked at until situations force them to. I imagine a lot of cats having PTSD. Possibly even depression due to events that happened (Goldenstar might have them).

I’m assuming you meant “canon” and not “Canin” cause otherwise I have very little idea on who that is hsjdbbfn,,

While I don’t think they’d have the same amount of knowledge we have, nor many words to definitively describe and label certain ailments, I imagine that the Clans are aware that mental illness exists. Especially medics, whose job is to care for the health of their Clanmates — which means physical and mental, to a degree. While most of their job is centered around tending to scrapes, curing illness, and mending battle wounds, every medic is equipped with knowledge meant to help diagnose and help their Clanmates should an invisible illness arise in them.

I really don’t think the Clans would treat it especially… Special? In their culture, which is centered around survival and defense, there’s bound to be tons of cases of PTSD and depression happen. The medics will help their Clanmates through it as much as possible by lending their ear, offering herbs to ease their ailments, and just generally talking to the deputy and leader to keep them off the cat’s back as much as possible.

No cat is blamed for being ill, whether it’s physical or mental.

But the idea of Goldenflowerstar having depression is one that has been rattling around in my brain because it makes a lot of sense for her, especially, to develop it… I imagine all the leaders get depressed and have PTSD to a degree (since the whole, y’know… ‘being the last member of your family’ thing is so prevalent for them), but Goldenflower especially having it, as a woman who never wanted the role, who just wanted a family and to be loved, only to step up into it after her family is all torn from her… AUGH

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Coughcough gentle tap

Okay… with what we’ve got for DOTC already…

What’re y’all’s thoughts there? 👀

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Y’all I just got such a good idea for how to rewrite DOTC,,,

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Imagine the drama of River and Sky at first being close. Only for things to at some point reach a breaking point, ans then River becoming more closed off.

Maybe they still tried keeping the ideas of their founder? Willing to help Windclan, maybe by offering them food as food would be extremely hard to find during the winter. But the relationship was never as close as it was with Sky, and even that eventually fell apart. Thunder and River started being at odds due to the sunning rocks, and even issues before that involved both clans (cough cough Mapleshade cough)

And Shadow they never were overally friendly with. Maybe they're still the clan most likely to accept outsiders; especially Queens and kits and forming strong values relating to family and protecting them no matter what (possibly caused to not have another Mapleshade event with Appledusk).

I like to think that, prior to SkyClan’s fall, RiverClan retained the exact values of their founder: being open to everyone, sharing with the less fortunate, allowing passerbys to rest with them, etc etc…

Actually I quite like the idea of SkyClan’s fall being the catalyst to RiverClan closing itself off. Beforehand, they were always very charitable and open to all the Clans, but that was primarily because, if RiverClan happened to be on hard times, SkyClan would always jump to help. With SkyClan gone, RiverClan reasoned that they would no longer receive that aid, so they retracted all of theirs sans to outsiders who requested aid or asylum of them. All the Clans are very family-focused, but RiverClan especially in the manner of “family outside of kin”.

But the idea of them doubling down on that after the whole Mapleshade thing is very interesting, I like that yes yes

I’d like to write a bit of a rivalry between River/Ripple/River Ripple and Thundering Cry, just as fun foreshadowing to the tension between their two resulting Clans… I’m thinking of having the lake being the territories that Thundering Cry was born, so there won’t be any Sunningrocks just yet; that comes later in history.

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It would be interesting if the original clans sorta kept to a bit of canon? As in, Riverclan

Like how it started as a group River had, and then became a clan. It would be interesting as then this clan would have their own beliefs that, even with eventually becoming similar to the other clans, still made them stand out. Maybe being more open to Kittypets? Like friendly and most likely to take in cats

Or maybe some of the cats from River Ripple's group also helped to form Skyclan? They were there before the mountain cats, and so seeing what's happening due to Clear Sky, they want to fight back to protect their home. This then would later make Skyclan and Riverclan the closest until Skyclan disappeared. Maybe due to the lost of Skyclan did Riverclan change some views they had on Kittypets

Oohhhhh, I do like the idea of each of the Clans retaining and reflecting the values and origins of their founders…

River Ripple (whose name I’d like to cut down to just being “Ripple” or “River”, to further differentiate him from the mountain cats) being an “outsider” who is very open and worldly, and thus stressing to his eventual Clan that staying open would be for the best.

I also REALLY love the idea of what would become RiverClan being the most attractive to outsiders, so they all feel especially fiercely to protect their newfound community and home, thus moving into SkyClan in a genuine attempt to help and spread the word of open acceptance to a group Clear Sky has curated to be closed-of and suspicious. That’s very poetic and also sets a cool theme of “accepting help from others” that would be really interesting to tack onto the whole of AoA’s DOTC….

SkyClan and RiverClan thus being the most intertwined of the Clans also makes me really intrigued, because it sets up a lot of drama just right off the bat… These two Clans don’t share a border, yet are so extraordinarily friendly with one another. It could have caused the whole thing between Cloudberry and Ryewhisker; Ryewhisker could be a SkyClanner rather than a WindClanner. So tensions begin with the death of Ryewhisker and the establishment of a new addition to their fledgling code… This could, in turn, be the beginning of the breaking point that would then push RiverClan into accepting driving SkyClan out.

Their history with SkyClan likely pressures RiverClan into closing themselves off a little more once SkyClan falls, turning the focus onto themselves and the culture set by their founder, alongside just a general newfound attitude of “RiverClan and RiverClan’s health first” that would go on to stretch through the generations. Leopardstar’s reign probably really cemented this — until TigerClan happened lol

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Okay… with what we’ve got for DOTC already…

What’re y’all’s thoughts there? 👀