#Spiritual changes Bonefall Rewrite

[bonefall]

Trip to the Lake: REDUX

I have been re-planning how cats move between the Lake, Mountain, and Forest for a long while. Since @halogenwarrior​ asked some specific questions about it this morning, I finally sat down and made a 1st draft of the Between-the-Territories map, and a quick guide to the Sundrown Patrol’s Expedition.

NOTE: this is still a rough draft. SkyClan’s territory wasn’t included because it isn’t relevant at the moment, and Midnight’s den is nondescript beach as I’m still working out what it looks like in the revamp... since Midnight is a god now, and should have a cooler den.

(also i considered casually ‘revealing’ this is a world totally unlike our own by having the sun set in the North instead of the West at one point but im not that funny... yet.)

[ID: A map of the territory between the Warrior Cats ‘forest territory’ and the ‘lake territory’, including several landmarks. A Beach and an Unknown Town are labelled purple. The Tribe Land and its Stone Ward, Cave Ward, and Valley Ward are marked in blue. The Mouth of River Chell and Mothermouth are marked in red. The bottom of the map is marked “FARMS” in a purple box. The top of the map is marked “LAKE” in green.]

The Tribe’s waterfall feeds into nearly every waterway in the area at some point, and the Lake is the northernmost point between them all. Just above the forest territories is farms. There is now a sizable wetland below the lake territory, at the base of which is the Tribe’s third settlement, the Valley Ward.

In that wetland is probably more farms, roads, factories, and various types of human structures.

Travel time has been given hard definitions; it takes an adult warrior, traveling alone at maximum reasonable speed (not marathon-running), a full week to go from the Mothermouth to the Lake. That’s two weeks for a round trip.

This journey becomes longer with multiple traveling cats, or cats who don’t know the way. In addition, a lone warrior will have a harder time hunting in the unknown land and be more exposed to the dangers of the wild.

An adult warrior, traveling alone at maximum reasonable speed, takes 2 days to reach the beach. Going to the town is easier; that trip takes a little over a day. Round trips double the time, more cats are slower but safer.

So let’s take a look at the new Sun Drown Patrol Roadmap!

[ID: The same picture as above, but grayed out in color with red dots marking the journey of the Sun Drown Patrol over the TNP journey. They start at the Mothermouth, go north to the Lake, then go west to the Beach, go southeast and hit the Tribe Lands, and end in the Farms.]

Set-up Changes:

The beginning of the journey is a bit different and there are some changes to Bonefall TNP as opposed to Canon TNP worth noting;

Bonefall TNP is split between the perspectives of the Four Tigerkin; That’s Tawnypelt, Brambleclaw, Hawkfrost, and Mothwing.

Tawnypelt is the new leader of the Sundrown Patrol.

Crowpaw is a full warrior before going on this journey. His name was Crowfoot, he requests -Feather as an Honor Title.

Gods are real now; Sharptooth and Midnight are deities for Summer and Spring respectively.

They are starting this trip at the Mothermouth

Bonefall TNP: The Sundrown Patrol’s Expedition to the Lake

StarClan no longer sends them to the ocean. They sent them directly North, to the Lake.

Something happens that sends them on a detour west, to the Sundrown Place. I’m not sure what it is yet; I’m thinking it could be Fallen Leaves (is now Time Travel Hollyleaf) appearing to be a StarClan warrior and completing a time loop, or, Midnight creating a false sign to coax them over because she’s a lonely god who wants company.

From the Sundrown Place, they do a little bit of basic geography and realize they need to travel southeast. That’s when they hit the mountain.

There is no more Silver Warrior prophecy. The Tribe cats help the Sundrown Patrol cross the mountain, but recognize they’re long-lost descendants of the ancient Sun Trail Cats. There’s a happy celebration, interrupted by the resurrection of Sharptooth, a god who has plagued the Tribe through history.

The Tribe has killed Sharptooth before and they’ll do it again. They assure the Sundrown Patrol that they will survive... but the Patrol looks at the graves of the cats who helped them cross the mountain, slaughtered suddenly by what they think is a LionClan warrior. They realize that the Tribe will survive, but there’s no way of knowing what individual cats won’t.

(technically Sharptooth is a European Cave Lion but they don’t know that)

The Sundrown Patrol makes a choice; Do they run home to complete their mission, or do they stay and help?

They unanimously agree to kill the beast. The Tribe says they’re family, and this is what family does. A bit of a moment where the cats of the Sundrown Patrol decide THEY are family, as well.

Feathertail, of course, dies. Crowfoot is never the same. Sharptooth will return someday, but when he does, this time he will haunt the Clans... or at least, the Forest Territory they left behind. That part isn’t decided yet.

Because of all the detours, size of the patrol, and fact it was unknown land, the Sundrown Patrol’s Quest takes well over a month.

The Clans leave, together, shortly after. It still takes coaxing from each member of the Sundrown Patrol to get all of the leaders on the same page, but the extra territory-pummeling helps to encourage Blackstar in particular to be less stubborn.

[wildfire-rewrite]

Introduction to the Wildfire Rewrite

--=-=--

The Wildfire Rewrite aims to improve upon the issues within Warriors series of books. The series has plenty of issues, from ableism to incest to xenophobia, I plan to fix and adjust these issues.

This will also be one of those "cats but more advanced" rewrites, inspired by @bonefall's Better Bones AU, @cryptidclaw's Rise of Change AU, and @ailurocide's Xenomoggy.

Below the cut is more information, links, tags, and more.

--=-=--

First things first...

✦ -> History Masterpost

✦ -> Culture Masterpost

✦ -> Family Masterpost

✦ -> Language Masterpost

✦ -> Writing Masterpost

--=-=--

Important Tags...

#wildfire rewrite - The tag used to differentiate the posts. I also use this tag to find fanart if the blog is not pinged.

#october updates - When the author, October, provides non-rewrite updates.

#WF!____ - The blank is where a character will go when they are in a post.

#wildfire: ___ - The blank is where a topic can go. The topics are listed below.

#wildfire: masterpost // link #wildfire: culture // link #wildfire: environment #wildfire: history #wildfire: fanart #wildfire: spirituality #wildfire: language // link #wildfire: fall thunderbringer #wildfire: deep nightfall #wildfire: cold creekbay #wildfire: sky breezemoor #wildfire: band of blood // link

#WF: ___ - The blank is where a written or planned-to-be-written novella or series will go. For example, Rise of the Sects would be WF: Rise of the Sects, and Pineheart's Wish would be WF: Pineheart's Wish

--=-=--

Other...

✦ -> Trigger Warnings

✦ -> Outsider Groups Information

✦ -> Fanart Masterpost

--=-=--

[bonefall]

ngl: all this time I FULLY believed that "seasons" was just the clan's way of referring to years. I think it's just because the timekeeping system confused me because they have words for a week,or two weeks but not an entire year, which you'd think would be important to these cats???

Timekeeping is REALLY bad in canon, which you'd think would be the ONE thing the clans would be good at tracking. Not only is their rigid work-obsessed society based around the hunting possible in each season, but they also have an astrology based religion

Personally I've broken it down and given them real terms for everything they need.

Cycle = Year. Refers to star positions in the sky. Time is based on celestial movement, not temperature or other seasonal metrics.

Season = 3 moons. These are related to leaf-fall, leafbare, etc, but are actually no longer EXACTLY the same.

(Yes, this does mean they now have terms for winter/spring/summer/autumn but these are purely astrological in this society.)

Moon = Complete moon cycle. Unchanged from the books.

They're also keeping fourth, half, and quarter moons... at least, until I can find a more celestial way to phrase a week. Their terms will stay moon-centric.

Also batting around the idea of creating a LionClan story they tell to explain the concept to children... it'll actually secretly be about Rock! Rough draft: He hunted the moon and tore it to pieces, like a father feeding his kittens rations of time itself. He might be called Mooneyes or Moonmane in the story.

[bonefall]

Morality of StarClan and the Dark Forest: REDUX

When approaching the Dark Forest and StarClan, I want to make both of them more morally ambiguous without completely removing the Heaven and Hell similarities.

StarClan tends to act as a benevolent, collective entity that acts to preserve the Clans; where the Dark Forest is more of a collection of individuals with various goals when they interact with clan cats.

The nature of the two groups is shifting as a result, based on the cats currently aligned with it. Their morality changes over time, alongside the shifting cultural values of freshly deceased cats.

So here, I'm going to cover StarClan, and then the Dark Forest.

(I have another post in the works that's more about how being a spirit works, updated powers, what fading is, and how they get to their afterlives; this one's JUST about the two as groups!)

StarClan

While ultimately StarClan's goal is the preservation of the Clans and the oversight of the living, they can be extremely vindictive and capricious. StarClan's wrath IS something that exists and should be feared.

Common ways of making them mad;

Dishonorable and malicious behavior

Threatening kittens and elders

Disrespect towards StarClan or the Code.

The ranks of StarClan consist of average cats still remembered by the clans on a personal basis which 'fade', and spirits immortalized by legends and stories.

Compared to the Dark Forest, it is MUCH easier to get into StarClan, but also much easier to find eternal peace and fade away. It's more shifting than the DF.

Because of that, there ARE cats in the Dark Forest who might not have been sent there by modern morality. More on that later.

Lastly, because of the structured nature of StarClan and its MASSIVE reverence of authority, there is now a concept of dark magic in the Clans.

There is an expected structure of contacting StarClan, you are IDEALLY expected to go through a medicine cat, who contacts spirits through proper channels... or at the very least, contact a spirit through StarClan first, not individual spirits.

That said... there are rogue StarClan warriors. 'Improper' prayers are made. It's just a real set of social expectations now!

IN SUMMARY:

Their judgements are not always objective, and can be weighted by emotion and current morality

StarClan has a higher acceptance rate than the DF; But also a higher turnover.

There is a 'proper' way of invoking StarClan now.

Dark Forest

Because of the individual nature of the Dark Forest, there are LOTS of ways you could end up here. It can be anything as bad as being an actual murderer, to just being a disrespectful heathen.

Here's some examples of various cats in the Dark Forest in this rewrite. TO BE CLEAR; the MAJORITY of cats in the dark forest are sent there for heinous actions. This short list highlights variety.

Ryewhisker and Cloudberry: Conscientious Objection. The law that was formed in response to Ryewhisker's death was abhorrent to them, and after Cloudberry's death, they left StarClan together.

Morningstar: Failure to uphold the Code Desperately trying to maintain peace and preventing his warriors from engaging in the Right of Challenge weakened ThunderClan, during a time in Clan History where cooperation was not widely accepted. By modern standards he would be a tragic figure; by the standards of his time, he was condemned.

Clawface: Murder and Kitnapping Kitnapping was once widely accepted by the clans before the Queen's Rights were established and his kills might have been ruled accidental, but like Morningstar, shifting morality sent him to the Dark Forest.

Ravenwing, Appledusk, Frecklewish, Oakstar: Clouded Judgement For the exile and death of three kittens, StarClan was so furious that their judgement was clouded. Oakstar was told to repent, but he didn't repent hard enough and was sent to join them after his final death.

As previously mentioned, the Dark Forest is also full of cats who probably do deserve to be there; Darktail, Mudclaw, Ripplestar, Tigerstar, Darkstripe, Silverhawk, Mapleshade, and Thistleclaw.

But the truly evil cats don't often cross paths with the less terrible ones. Something about the Dark Forest is isolating if you want it to be, and Dark Forest cats can't kill each other anymore. A Dark Forest cat mauled to "death" by another denizen just pops up again the next day.

By the very nature of being in the Dark Forest, cats here are usually more remembered by the living, and don't find the peace they need to fade away. So, its denizens are more scarce, but also tend to stick around faaaar longer than StarClan Warriors.

There is also absolutely nothing stopping Dark Forest cats from contacting the living, if they're channeled or allowed into a cat's dreams. Perhaps out of malice, or even just out of boredom, Dark Forest cats have a habit of being quite influential on the living.

IN SUMMARY

There are lots of reasons Dark Forest cats can be condemned; some are even here by choice.

The majority of the population is still bad guys

You don't HAVE to meet other cats here if you don't want to, however, and they can't kill each other.

Lower acceptance rate than StarClan; equally low turnover

DF warriors are generally more likely to contact the living on an individual basis, for various reasons.

[bonefall]

Bonefall Rewrite Masterpost

uh

HELLO THIS IS UNDERGOING CONSTRUCTION. PARDON THE DUST.

“So what exactly is the Bonefall Rewrite?”

It is a fix-it redux of the Warriors books, sticking to the canonical order of events while making the narrative stronger and eliminating pointlessly uncomfortable aspects.

Full disclosure, it is mostly notes, outlines, and thoughts because I’m tired all the time

There are three FOUR goals;

To make a more thematically consistent WC series with a more conclusive stance on anti-authoritarianism and consistent politics for both Clans and the individual cats that constitute them.

To flesh out the culture of the clans, as well as those of the groups they interact with.

To expand on related supernatural elements including StarClan, nature entities, nature gods like Midnight and Rock, and the Dark Forest

NEW! To be cool as hell and add better battles, deaths, and dramatic scenes.

All of this is being attempted while following the ‘iconic‘ events of the main series and allowing the clans to still be flawed while textually addressing their problematic elements. I’m trying to limit massive changes; the point is to tell a more compelling version of the WC series with the same skeleton.

To that end I’m avoiding creating OCs and re-namings when possible. The exception being duplicate names because I will NOT allow there to be four Robinwings, three Milkfurs, or two Ashfurs

Other ‘fixes‘ include stretching out the timeline, shuffling around litter orders to diversify sibling dynamics, a reworked Lake map, and MASSIVELY untangling the family tree to allow for better genetic diversity and generally make the canonical pairings less gross.

“Sounds cool, where should I start?“

With this HISTORY LESSON! It’s a mega truncated guide to how each arc affects the future ones politically, just mentioning the biggest changes I’ve done to each arc so far.

Other important ‘meta’ changes you may wanna start with,

Here is my redux of the Warrior Code

I try to avoid renamings, but here is every character with a name difference from canon. Conflicts, saved kits, honor titles... (if you ever don’t recognize a name and it’s not on the wiki, check here!)

Better reasons for the scarred cats to be named like that (looking at you, Crookedjaw)

The first draft of the reworked Lake Territory map

Color-coded version

Rules and Guidelines for Family Tree reworks

StarClan’s shifting morality and a redux of the Dark Forest

After that, you can search the tag #Bonefall Rewrite, or, check these links below! I tried to sort everything that’s relevant into sections (so please lmk if I missed something you think should be here)

Family Tree Changes

(re-posted link from above) Rules and Guidelines for Family Tree reworks

First draft of the reworked ThunderClan family tree

Second draft of the reworked ThunderClan family tree (focuses on modern ThunderClan)

Assessment of WindClan

Assessment of ShadowClan

Initial thoughts for ShadowClan

Individual Cats + Reworked Relationships

Initial thoughts on The Daisy Chain (her and her family)

Spottedleaf is a rogue StarClan warrior WITHOUT that weird crush angle, and Redtail is rule-obsessed

Redtail was a strict and disciplined deputy in life, and mates with Runningwind

More examples of Spottedleaf and Redtail’s dynamic

Runningwind, Redtail, and how they as parents have affected their children, Longtail and Sandstorm

Spottedleaf’s ghost is channeled with tarspot-blighted sycamore leaves; further principles on how I approach Redtail and Spotty

Redtail would HATE being a spirit guide

Graypool is the sister of Willowbreeze from an OLDER litter (Diversifying sibling ages in general; Longtail is the older brother of Sandstorm, Tigerheart is younger than Dawn and Flame)

Spirituality Overhauls

(Reposted from above!) StarClan’s shifting morality and a redux of the Dark Forest

StarClan/Dark Forest Reply Roundup

The Dark Forest can ALSO grant lives

Why Thistleclaw walks the Dark Forest

Antpelt’s second death is an accident because they don’t know the living can kill spirits.

Sol, Rock, Midnight, and Sharptooth are gods of the four seasons

Harry is Possessed by Sol; Cinders was a lie

(Continued)

Sol meets Midnight and Proposes a Game

Through Sol’s trickery, Hollyleaf IS Fallen Leaves

Outside Groups Redone

Tribe of Rushing Water Redux

  Plus a possible replacement of the naming system and governance of the Wards

  Plus expansion on the religious customs

BloodClan Redux

MAIN ARCS REDONE

ShadowClan from the era of Yellowfang’s Secret up to TPB is MASSIVELY overhauled, Brokenstar is no longer born evil

Crookedstar’s Promise redux initial thoughts

Follow-up with more solid ideas

Bluestar’s Prophecy redux

Bonefall TPB

Firestar’s Quest redux

Bonefall TNP

construction

Bonefall Po3

construction 

Bonefall OotS

construction 

Bonefall AVoS

construction 

Bonefall TBC

SUPER EDITIONS AND NOVELLAS

Ripplestar’s Rot

Stormpaw’s Demon

Bluestar’s Flowers

Brokenstar’s Cataclysm

Firestar’s Quietus

Cloudtail’s Vow

Sol’s Game

Hollyleaf’s Century

Squirrelflight’s Horror

  #Forget-Me-Not AU

Bluestar has a friend from each clan and the group meets in secret. These friends are Oakheart, Lizardstripe, Barley, Ashfoot, and Deadfoot! There are also now two Barleys; Senior, and his nephew, Junior. They symbolize their friend group with forget-me-not flowers.

  #Father!Lionblaze AU

Lionblaze and Cinderheart are now the parents of Ivypool and Dovewing. Birchfall is Dovewing’s beloved mentor, Ivypool is the apprentice of Brightheart. Ivypool’s role is also greatly expanded in TBC, actually taking Bristlefrost’s place in some events.

This post will be continuously updated as I keep working on the rewrite, so keep checking back!