#blorboclaw's rewrite

[blorboclaw]

my rewrite's naming system rules:

Not two siblings with the same suffix, even if they're not littermates or just "half" or adopted siblings. In big families such as BrindleRed's family (which counts the four AshFernElderTulip + Cloudtail (adopted) + the older litter Sandstorm-Ravenpaw-Chestnutblaze) the leader has better not forget the rule or they will feel offended and so will the whole clan.

Actually that unspoken rule might come from the fact if a leader forgets who's related to whom in the clan it's the sign their mind/memory is starting to fail them. It's no ground to empeachment but it is enough to alert the deputy and medicine cat in case there's a later empeachment.

"Flight" for anything that isn't something that does fly (birds, some insects, wind, leaves and flying squirrels are on thin ice) is seen as an insult. Ex: Hollowflight, Hareflight, Swiftflight... their leaders are basically implying that they give them a warrior name because they're competent but they still want to warn them that they are being too arrogant/ambitious for the leader's taste.

"Fall" on the other hand can be given to anyone except birds, insects and wind, because then it's basically wishing something that's supposed to fly free to just crash down. Also never, ever give "fall" as a suffix to a kit who is the only survivor of their litter. Birchfall? congrats Firestar mate, you just slapped him in the face and wished for him to die too.

Stem goes for cats who have a spine, like such a spine that it's worth mentionning their strong-headedness or their loyalty as qualities in the ceremony.

Seed goes for cats who are good warriors but have so much more potential.

If littermates are super-duper close, they can have "twin" suffixes, but that's not suffixes that are the same. It's for example -fang and -claw, -flight and -fall, -leap, -step and -pounce, -foot and -leg, -pelt and -fur... ex Cinderpelt and Brackenfur.

If one of the parents dies during the apprenticeship of the litter, and has only one of the kits the same sex as the dead parent, then the kit is almost 100% assured to get the parent's suffix. Ex: Redtail dies during his son's Ravenpaw's apprenticeship, and they didn't know if Brindleface's yet-to-be-born litter would count a male, so everyone knew Ravenpaw's warrior name would be Raventail.

However if both parents died before the kits became warriors, their suffixes will be avoided because it would bring bad luck, hence why Ferncloud and Ashfur are not called Fernface or Ashtail or both.

The first litter to be born in a couple will be named after ancestors to be honoured (ancestors can range from great-grandparents/former leaders to that one uncle/aunt who died without kits). The second litter, even if there are still ancestors to honor, will have original names. One litter for the past, one for the future. If there are three litters like with Dust Fern, the third they're free to chose.

Whenever a leader dies, the first litter to be born among their direct descendants will have at least one kit named after them (ex: Firestar -> Firepelt and Alderheart). If the leader has no direct descendants (ex: Leopardstar) whoever has a kit after their death can take the name.

The name worn by a leader is generally not reused while they're still alive, but Shadowclan's cats thought it might score them points with Brokenstar to give similarly derogatory prefixes to their kits, hence Tangleburr, Stumpytail, Clawface...

re two points before: actually it's very rare for two cats with the same prefix to be alive at the same time in the same clan. Notable exceptions include when a cat comes back from the dead (Graystripe from the Twolegs or Hollyleaf from the tunnels for example) and someone had been named after them, or cats who weren't born in the clan (Mousewhisker, Mousefur)

It's very rare to have classic prefixes given as suffixes (ex: Mistmouse from Windclan, Sandgorse from WC, Snowbird from ShC, Firefern and Honeyfern etc) and when it's the case it's always as a tribute (Feathertail will be renamed Willowmist after Mistyfoot)

There are names going in and out of fashion but none will just appear out of nowhere: the -blaze of Lionblaze will have been present with Chestnutblaze (Sandstorm's OC littermate) since TPB, Stemleaf and Flowerstem are not the first cats with "stem" since Bramblestar's warrior name was Bramblestem (and actually he might not even become leader), Thistleclaw and Pinestar also were named -stem... It just so happens that when Firestar joined the clan the latest fashion of names in "wind", "strike", "blaze", "storm" etc was fading and giving space to "stripe" "heart" "cloud"... "pelt" "fur" "claw" "foot" and "tail" are just a good ole reliable classics.

There are fashions in prefixes too but I haven't quite put some thought in it yet. Let's simply say that there was a lot of names in trees that were not found in the lake territories after the great journey, as memorandom to the forest, and way more "pool", "water" and "lake" after the great journey than before.

Also I'll probably use the principle of the cats pope (linked here) and the "pope" will have among their perks to decide whether a name can be used or not. Ex: "hey pope Yellowfang, can we keep using the prefix broken now that brokenstar's dead?" "nope. it's awful to name a kitten like that and also it will make his memory endure. don't" "ok." and other ex: "hey pope Littlecloud it turns out what blocked the river was a bunch of 'beavers', can we use that as a prefix?" "idk i hate that but i don't see any good reason beyond that to forbid it so yeah i guess".

There are clan-specific names. No cat from windclan will name their kit Windkit for example, because it's reserved to Windstar herself and basically sacred. Breezepelt is on thucking fin ice. If your name starts by Pine-, you're either Shadowclan or Thunderclan, sorry I don't make the rules (i do). Oakheart's parents had to ask an exemption to the pope of the time (luckily for them it was Brambleberry who was there at the birth) to be able to name him after a tree when they're Riverclan. It wouldn't be illegal to name your kit Oakkit in riverclan but it's a typical thunderclan name so having the backing of the pope herself makes it easier to shut down any rumors.

[blorboclaw]

Something I'll definitely put in my rewrite is Skyclan arriving around the lake during Bramblestar's Storm or something (the storm not being a flood but a political storm and his first challenge as a leader but also not his because he's not going to be leader).

And so every weird name during AVOS or TBC (like Blazefire, Spireclaw, Strikestone, Whorlpelt...) will come from a new fashion Skyclan is bringing around.

And on that note, Skyclan will have the wildest names. They will all have warrior names (no Tree, Egg, McGyver...) but those will be weird (Treebark, Eggshell, Whorlpool...) which will technically be eligible warrior names but will also be very uncanny valley to the other cats.

Then Shadowclan, their direct neighbour, will start using weird names too (hence Spireclaw, Blazefire, Strikestone, Whorlpelt...) because they've got no leadership and any new culture will start imprinting on them, while Skyclan will adapt to Lake culture and have less "weird" names, while still proudly keeping weirdness around (Kitescratch for example: kite is a normal bird but scratch is a weird suffix).

As a reaction to Skyclan's cultural impact on Shadowclan, Riverclan and Windclan will start going back on the uniformization they were going through and dust off old clan-specific names they weren't using too much anymore. Thunderclan will just keep the new standard which will become Thunderclan standard and was a mix of all clans' standards.

Fun fact is that Skyclan's going back to more normal names is inspired by a return to their roots and the names such as Leafdapple, Sharpclaw and Stormheart. Which means Skyclan's new standard is actually early firestar era thunderclan standard. So basically thunderclan's culture shift made a whole part of its history be forgotten by everyone except for another clan who doesn't know it's actually old thunderclan standard.

[blorboclaw]

Oh god, Poor Firestar, he'll have to learn all of those naming rules in your rewrite. Will someone teach him?

actually yes, Whitestorm doesn't die in the battle against Bloodclan so he's got a senior warrior looking out for him. I imagine Cloudtail would know a lot about it too since he spent so much time with the elders and those elders are charged to teach the kits the meanings of names.

So when he's got his own kits he's like "omg I'm going to make mistakes and alienate the whole clan I only know the rules about suffixes not prefixes" (basically) and Sandstorm will be like "chillax I know the rules about the prefixes". Then Whitestorm comes in to ask for the names (because since the leader is staying in the nursery rn it's the deputy who makes the announcement at the clan meeting) and Firestar asks him to double check if Squirrelkit and [whatever I'll put instead of Leafkit] are ok.

He also refuses to leave Frostfur and the other elders behind btw. No no ma'am you're not staying when we go on the Great Journey. We need elders in the clan. That has litle to do with the naming system but it was a peeve of mine that Frostfur and Speckletail were left behind.

[blorboclaw]

This family is the one where i will make the more changes in the names.

Dawnpelt is named Golden(dawn)kit after her grandmother Goldenflower, and Tigerheart is named Sun(heart)kit after his great-grandfather Sunheart. Flametail stays Flametail.

Ivypool becomes Ivyfrost because the timeline changes, Hawkfrost isn't a Tigerstar clone in behaviour and once in the dark forest actually starts changing, and redeems himself in the Last Battle. Because she was the only one who knew he was actually good at the time, and he was also her informal mentor, Ivypaw asks to be named Ivyfrost. It also comes from the fact her canon name is a refernece to a girl named Ivy Poole iirc and i don't know that girl so i'm not giving her that name.

Instead of SHadow and Light I'm naming the two kits Shadow and Thunder, seems more in-theme. Nightstorm is because it's the mix of shadow and thunder at once. If we're giving meanings to these names we're doing it properly

[blorboclaw]

So today's problem is how do you make sure not everyone is related?

Well the answer is to shuffle the litters around so that in a group of siblings instead of two hyperfertile cats on one side who got all the next generation of the clan, and three sterile branches, you've got two different litters, each with it's fertile and sterile branches.

Also not everyone is half/step siblings.

And I split BrackenCinderBrightThorn

[blorboclaw]

ok so re: Spottedleaf and Tigerclaw look like Cloudstar's kits Spottedpelt and Gorseclaw.

Made them be descended from them twice so that the genetics would stay so strongly from one generation to the other. Oakstar and his family are the kids of Gorseclaw and Adderfang is Spottedpelt's son.

Deerdapple and Rabbitfur are not OCs: they're a warrior (headcannoned almost retiring at the time) and an elder in Mapleshade's Vengeance allegeances.

[blorboclaw]

funny fact no one asked for:

I swapped the names. Crookedstar was born as Oakkit before becoming Crooked (then crookedbranch so that it was still something that was possible to give him even with his original suffix) and Oakheart was born as Stormkit. Also I swapped the couples so "Oakheart" is now Silverstream's father and Crookedstar and Bluestar had a forbidden romance when they were not even deputies.

Anyway now

Stormfur is named after both his grandfathers and Willowmist is named after both her grandmothers.

[blorboclaw]

Swift is a TigerGolden child? Is he from a different litter or the same as TawnyBramble?

(that's about my rewrite in which Swift and Lynx are TigerGolden)

two different litters! Tigerclaw will be noted to care much more about his older kit (Swiftpaw) than the two still in the nursery, and when Swiftpaw leaves to attack the hounds it's because he wants to prove his loyalty to the clan (because they judge him much like they judge Brambleclaw in canon).

[blorboclaw]

You have a rewrite? Can you tell us more about it?

Well I call it a rewrite but it’s more like a “rewrite that will later be made into a human au and then the names will be changed and I will call it a totally original idea for a fantasy book” but let’s talk about it.

Working title is Rains of Fire.

First thing is that they are faes/faefolk, which explains why, although humans, they still have very distinctive markings and colours (Bluestar is litteraly blue for example), and why they have litters instead of individual births.

The kittypets’ origin comes from the story of the Great Tribes: LionTigerLeopard (except with better names because they’re faes not big cats). The three great tribes were living in that territory (that is not exactly the forest but is closer to the forest territories than the lake territories) that was going on until the horizon. Then the Invaders (twolegs but here they are more like eight-legged octopus-shaped aliens, i will have to rework that part to make sense) came and the Lionclan, who was lazy, decided to strip themselves of their honour and their mane to become kittypets/slaves/kittypets but humans. Leopardclan prefered to hunt alone and split between the rogues and loners we know today’s ancestors. Tigerclan is the ancestor of the four tribes we know right now. It’s both a legend and actually kinda true, but I don’t know how true yet.

As for other things, there are:

- The Windclan succession war will actually be bloody and make victims.

-There will be something akeen to royalties: while Tigerclaw is the closest to royalty since his father and grandfather were both leaders, some consider their line ended and dynasties changed when Sunstar came to power, and he’s Lionheart and Goldenflower’s grandfather in my rewrite so Lionheart as a new deputy is just Bluestar (adopted by Sunstar after Moonflower’s death) continuing Sunstar’s line instead of starting her own (by naming Whitestorm for example, or her stepson Darkstripe). Also deputies are called Chancellors and leaders are called Monarchs.

- A few ages or families change: Lionheart and Goldenflower will be Sunstar’s grandchildren, Tigerclaw will have trained at the same time as Lionheart and Redtail, Thrushpelt is Graystripe and Darkstripe’s confirmed father...

- Working the “fae” thing I think Starclan’s attribute (instead of looking like they’re covered in stardust) will be that they have fairy wings.

- All the magicky/reincarnationsy/darkforestandimpostor things will be toned down, either metaphorical (Thornclaw doesn’t train in the Dark Forest: he is just seduced by Tigerstar’s ideology and wants to stage a coup against Firestar, etc. Lionblaze is such a good warrior that he must be a reincarnation of a tiger lol joking etc) or explained by Starclan giving their powers to warriors and medics because the living won’t take kindly direct interferences...

- also yeah medcats are blacksmiths.

- the iconic couples (SorrelBracken, DustFern, CloudBright...) won’t die separately: they will die in the same battle, or in the same epidemic, or storm, etc.

- FireSand will have two litters and a half (explaining the half right now). They will have SquirrelLeaf at first (although Leaf won’t be called Leaf), then Redkit and Tallkit (named after Redtail and Tallstar, who just died, born in Dawn, who will become Redflame and Tallwhisker or something like that) and in the Sight they will pretend that LionHollyJay are their kits because they don’t have another medic to take care of the clan if Leafpool is forced to step down.

- Also scars and such won’t be seen as ugly because they’re a mofing WAR CULTURE. So basically Daisy will still be like “oh my gosh what’s that” when she sees Brightheart’s face, but everyone else will be like “what do you mean that’s her face??”. I will probably scar Thornclaw and Brackenpelt too in some way because only their sisters have been disabled by Tigerclaw’s plots and I will have that change.

- There will both be more and less “named-after”: for example Sandstorm’s death will prompt the birth of a Windkit because storm = wind. It will be like people naming a little Esteban after his uncle Stephen: it’s basically the same name but it doesn’t sound the same at all.

- Also almost all elders’ death will prompt the naming of a kit with their name in their line, because if the name is “strong” enough to make them live old, we would be fools not to give it to them. Half-Tail dying means Runningwind’s kits will count a Sparrowkit, but Dappletail died without offspring so no cat will be named like her for a while. There’s a whole culture about names and inheriting names and family names.

- Actually I think names will be like the most important part of my rewrite. Fireheart is named after Lionheart, who took him in (it will also be an argument when he is named deputy: he is more or less the adoptive son of Lionheart, who was deputy and who was a leader’s grandson, so he’s got a right on the throne). Sandstorm after Whitestorm. No one will be named “tail” for a while because it was “reserved” for Ravenpaw as his father’s suffix (father who was murdered during his apprenticeship: not all kids get their parents’ suffixes) but since he’s “dead” too...

- Also Raven, Tulip, Cricket, Lynx, Swift... not being reused anytime soon will be explained by the fact that if a person dies before becoming an adult their name is considered bad luck somehow.

- Naming someone after someone who is still alive is considered a great mark of honor to the “source” person. The reason why there are so many “Tangle-”, “Claw-” “Stumpy-” etc under Brokenstar’s reign is because his closest allies named their kids with similarly derogatory names in order to honor him.

- Laws regarding who can marry whom. Basically taking it from the Catholic Canonic Law, where you can’t marry your godfather/godmother/godson/goddaughter, here you can’t marry your mentor/apprentice. No law against marrying their sibling but most of the time siblings don’t train together, and here anyway the age difference is way bigger between people than in cat years. You also can’t marry your first cousin unless the Priest(ess) and the leader both agree to the union. Snowbush+Lilyheart would not have been approved for example. The law comes from the dawn of the clans when Skystar tried to make Thunderstar marry one of his half-sisters (a kid of StarFlower and Skystar) as a proof of alliance between Skyclan and Thunderclan. Yikes.

- Chestnutblaze will get married with Runningwind and give birth to his kids but then he will be killed by Tigerstar. Longtail (who was not blinded) will become her second husband around Twilight.

lots of other stuff.

But anyway you’ve got the jist. Also I wrote twice as long as that before deleting half of it, just so you know I’ve spared you some.

[blorboclaw]

remember someone a while ago saying they were redoing the shadowclan family tree for their rewrite and agonizing about it and like...

same buddy.

there are like two clusters of half-siblings all related. none of them had kits. None of them can have kits because again all related.

and then next arc they are all dead and a new generation is there.

[blorboclaw]

snippets of my rewrite, which i daydream more than i write. feel free to ask questions

[blorboclaw]

In your Warriors rewrite, who are Sandstorm's parents?

So in my rewrite, Sandstorm is Ravenpaw's littermate (as well as another female apprentice to balance a bit the demographics, Chestnutpaw) and their parents are Redtail and Robinwing.

THat being said the family tree is not definitive yet.