#loudclanasks

[loudclan-clangen]

They mean the world to me..

\(๑'> o <'๑)/ OH! OH, TOO CUTE! The little pieces of moss stuck to them? Rosehippaw's adorable little scrunched up face? It's too much! My heart can't take it!

[loudclan-clangen]

im sure Eklutna will be okay. she will be so okay she will immediately take her newborns to the Crude Oil Moonpool and baptise them like god intended.

better yet, she will insist on giving birth by the pool, since its the closest way of interacting with StarClan. and they will help her. surely it will end well.

(pls dont let your cats give birth and dip their infants in crude oil.)

You're so right. Eklutna CAN'T die. She has PLANS.

If she dies who's gonna put her kids in the world's most dangerous dunk tank??? Also, yes, she HAS visited the Black Water Pool for a blessing, and yes, the healers were pissed, but they just don't understand. They don't understand that she is Starclan's special little girl.

(P.S. thank you for including your own disclaimer. Wonderful.)

Yes. Eklutna. All the time. She was one of the cats who first discovered it, then after getting into a fight with the rest of Ghostclan over whether or not they should tell the other clans about the Black Water Pool she limped her bleeding ass there to give herself a blessing before she continued up the mountain to Loudclan. Now she's taken a dip while pregnant to get Starclan to bless her unborn kits, which is a BIG taboo. But what are the healers to do? How do you punish someone for participating too enthusiastically in your state sponsored religion? She's not the only one to ever do it, of course, she's just kinda the most egregious about it.

-- Eklutna, 2024

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧Drama✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

[loudclan-clangen]

Alright, now I'm curious, what are the rules of StarClan's Oneway Dunktank? Are there cats who can't touch it (mediators for sure but anyone else?) Do healers meet there every half moon? They can sacrifice a life to speak directly to StarClan but what about other times?

(Also you're not gonna believe this, I looked up effects of crude oil exposure and studies indicate it may cause Anemia and low white blood cell count, so maybe she got a bleeding disorder because she can't stay out of the Forbidden Jacuzzi).

VERY LONG, LOTS OF TEXT, SORRY I GOT EXCITED TO LORE DUMP

The rules/powers of the Black Water Pool and Starclan are intentionally very nebulous. 1. Because I think starclan is more effective as a mysterious force than a clearly designated entity, and 2. Because I would like to have some flexibility going forward in the comic regarding the powers/rules of starclan. Here's what's clearly defined:

Any cat can touch the oil, like physically speaking. They will not just drop dead unless something else is going on that is worsened by the experience. But something may be worsened by the oil, especially if they are deeply exposed to it, like swimming in it or ingesting it the way one might if they weren't specifically trained in how to interact with it safely (like a healer or a leader). This leads to rumors of cats being cursed with terrible visions (hallucinations), disease (coughs caused by respitory damage), or wounds (chemical burns from prolonged exposure) because they touch the Black Water without permission. These could be actual curses from starclan, or they could be biological reactions to the oil, but that doesn't really matter because the cats believe that they are curses. (If that makes sense). For this combination of reasons, (religious belief and biological evidence), cats with open wounds, bad coughs, or who are actively pregnant are absolutely not allowed to touch the oil and are encouraged not to be near it. (Excluding dried oil worn by healers, we've covered in an earlier post that that is a stable form that isn't going to pollute others). This is justified by the healers as being times when one does not want to tempt death, and that being near the pool brings one's spirit closer to the dead, which is good for communing with them or asking them for favors, but bad when you are fighting for/actively creating life.

All of the leaders and their leadership teams have meetings staggered throughout the moon. Leaders and deputies meet on a full-moon, healers meet on a half-moon, and mediators meet on a new moon. (Gatherings also happen on full moons, just later in the day/night. The clans meet the leaders at the gathering place.) Healers might meet at the Black Water Pool but they do not always. Specifically, the Freezingclan healers refuse to meet at the Black Water, so if they want all of the clans' healers to meet they have to pick another place, usually the gathering place for simplicity. Since the healers can only commune with Starclan by sacrificing a life, they don't do it on a monthly basis and not meeting at the Black Water isn't inconvenient for them.

The healers (and leaders) can only speak directly to Starclan by sacrificing a life period. One of my biggest issues with the actual books is that speaking to Starclan is so casual that they constantly have to justify the cats not being able to in order to maintain any form of mystery or miscommunication, or risk making beloved characters look like jerks for not telling the living cats something important/make the entirety of Starclan look less powerful by claiming that they just "didn't know". My very simple solution to this is to put a layer of separation between them. In order to talk to the dead you have to die. This means that characters will only do so if they feel it is VERY important and they are certain that Starclan will give them a helpful answer, which they will not always do. (Why doesn't Wildfirecry ask Starclan how to cure Rosehippaw? Because he knows that there is a very high likely hood that the answer is "you can't" and then he'll lose both his daughter and a life that he could have used to help his clan in a more effective way).

Circling back to how normal cats are meant to contact starclan if they aren't allowed to touch the Black Water Pool by themselves, we finally get to talk about Loudclan burials! (This idea has been rattling around in my brain since the bonus art for Moon 18!) Okay, so: When a cat dies, the ground on the mountain is too hard and shallow for them to really be effectively buried. Due to this, the body is placed into a shallow dip dug into the ground and then covered by a pile of heavy stones in a make-shift cairn. The cairn discourages larger scavengers, like foxes or ravens, who might carry pieces of the deceased away, but allows smaller scavengers like mice and insects to eat away the fleshy bits. After a few moons, (during which family and friends are encouraged to keep their distance and learn to live without the deceased) when the scavengers are finished and all that is left are clean bones, the body is exhumed and repositioned so that the skull is left exposed outside of the cairn that covers the rest of the body. This is meant to allow cats to speak directly to the spirit of specific dead clan mates, though there is, of course, no expectation that the spirit speak back. (This is what we see Fiercestripe do in the Moon 18 Bonus Art). All burials happen in a field of forget-me-nots (small, blue. five petal flowers) as they cover the scent of decay, and therefore the cairns/graves are often decorated with them, along with other flowers or plants that may have been special to the deceased. Less commonly, a family member may ask to take a piece of the deceased from the cairn, such as a small tail bone or claw that they will wear to "carry the deceased with them". This is only allowed if the cats are known to have a close relationship, and is very frowned upon if the requestor is not a close family member or lifelong mate.

The major exception to all of this "Starclan is nebulous and distant" stuff is when I draw ghosts (like Bluepaw talking to Owlstar, which, admittedly, I drew before I had a good grasp of what I wanted to do with spirits and starclan). I know that it sort of negates that distance but... I just think it's fun. I think it's more fun to see what the spirits have to say (on occassion) than strictly sticking to never seeing Starclan outside of the Black Water Pool. So for those instances just remember that you, as the audience are getting sort of a third person omniscient view. You can see the ghosts but the characters in the story cannot (unless it is stated that they can due to like ghost sight or something).

Of course, as I said at the beginning, I'm trying to remain flexible, and I'm sure I'm going to break all of these rules at some point, but if I do my job correctly, then moments when these rules break should be important, and not just because I'm disregarding or forgetting them.

On a completely different note: You're not gonna believe this but I actually did know that! I did a decent amount of research into the effects of oil exposure when i was thinking up the Black Water Pool and yeah! It absolutely has played a part in Eklutna's condition. She's had hemophilia since birth, (which very simply means that her blood doesn't clot very well (for all of you biology nerds out there yes i know that it is rare for a cis female to have full hemophilia but it is possible if both of her parents had it)), but that has 100% been worsened by her love of swimming in "the forbidden jacuzzi". As long as we are sharing fun facts: exposure to crude oil while pregnant, while not always, can occasionally cause birth defects like weak lungs!

[loudclan-clangen]

Hello, been loving your comic for a while now! Been enjoying clangen comics a lot, and your's is one of my favourites, your artstyle and just the way you draw each character so unique is amazing. I was thinking of maybe starting my own clangen blog sometime in the future, if I get the courage to start posting publicly, and your blog is absolutely one of my biggest inspirations so far!

And thank you for cutting up the panels, I had trouble reading the moons where the quality got nuked by Tumblr and the cut up panels help with reading and seeing all the little details!

(And regarding the font thing, FontForge is one I used a while back and is also free)

Have a nice day, can't wait to see all the cat drama ™️ next moon!

Thank you so much! I am honored to be one of your favorite blogs! And I hope you do start your own! Of course, take your time and wait until you are comfortable and prepared, but once you get there just... do it! (Don't wait until it doesn't feel scary. It never doesn't feel scary.) And keep doing it until you get a result that you're happy with! It took me a couple month long breaks before my posts started getting any attention, and then when they did I was slightly horrified because I hadn't planned for that, so my advice would be not to expect success, but be ready for it! (If that makes sense?) Do things in a way that is fun and easy for you and you'll be able to hold out longer in the earlier stages and have more of a chance of sticking it out until people discover you. Also don't be afraid to take breaks. Long breaks. There's never a time at which it's too late to come back. Leave when you feel tired and come back when you feel energized. And remember that everyone in this community is here to see other people's creative work! People want to see what you've got!

[loudclan-clangen]

Dude I’m so confused when was the moon where JaggedTail said something about Rose and why did his design change from the ask to the moon????

My deepest apologies for the confusion, Jaggedtail didn't say anything about Rosehip in a moon update, it was mentioned in this ask response.

For his design: I've been trying to experiment with how much detail I want to put into ask responses, I felt that the characters weren't super recognizable so I was trying to draw their patterns but using their eye colors so that it was a limited palette and therefore less work but I think it was too confusing so I probably won't continue with it. His real colors are the ones in the moon updates, i was just trying something new to see how it looked. I think I will go back and tag all of the characters in my posts to try and limit issues like this in the future, I just need to block some time out for that, maybe after moon 22 is finished. Anyway, sorry, hope this helps clear things up!

[loudclan-clangen]

I love Eklutna. She's bad at communication. She says ominous things frequently. She's been thrown around multiple times. Her vibes are so off-putting a doctor was willing to let her bleed out. There's probably oil in her blood. She hasn't even done anything which harms anyone yet. 50% of cats in power dislike her. She's amazing.

Last ask for tonight.

X, we are on the same wavelength. You get me. Here's some bonus art that you unlocked by sending an ask that scratched my brain:

Starclan spoke to her and now what? She's just supposed to sit down and take orders like any other warrior? Neither Owlstar nor Wildfirecry would have gotten their lives without her, they owe their power to her and yet their mates hate her? Can't they see that everything she's done is for the good of Loudclan? She risked her life to lead them to the pool and this is the thanks she gets???

Like she definately has PLANS (tm) but... who's to say that they're bad? What has she done to prove herself untrustworthy? (Just want to make it clear that I TOTALLY understand why people dislike her, I am the one who made her that way, but to me, she is very clearly slaying.)

[loudclan-clangen]

do you think Fiercestripe tried to clean Mothtree like she always did before, but this time off blood and dirt and grit? even though there was too much blood and it kept flowing, despite the injuries closing on their own over time (im not a corpse expert, but generally that's how that works). she hopelessly tries to rouse Moth to wake up as she keeps going, futilely believing that maybe she will wake up and complain like she always did and they will have a laugh about it. but Moth doesn't wake up and other cats wonder when will be the best time to get Fierce away from the body so they can bury it.

or is it just me

Hi anon, this imagery was great, you’re absolutely right, please accept this slightly more happy interpretation cause we’ve been focusing only sad stuff too much recently:

Grouping these two together cause I’m trying to get done with the Moon 18 related asks to move onto bigger and better things. Fierce is… Okay. She’s not doing well, obviously, but she has a very loving mate, at least one healthy daughter, and enough life experience to keep her from completely spiraling. Grief and stress are taking their toll but Fiercestripe is not the kind of cat to just lay down and give up, ya know? Sure, she’s probably a little overprotective of Rosehipkit, and maybe she doesn’t get much sleep because she’s busy listening to make sure that Rosehipkit doesn’t stop breathing, but that’s all expected given the situation. While she doesn’t know about the rosehip omen (Wildfirecry didn’t have the heart to tell her) she knows her mate well enough to understand that he doesn’t have much hope for their daughter, and she is trying her best to stay strong, knowing that Dogwoodkit will need her regardless of what happens to Rosehipkit while not emotionally isolating herself from Rose. In the end, she’s staying strong in the face of everything. It’s the only thing she knows how to do.

[loudclan-clangen]

Thinking abt how the kits would have absolutely zero grasp on the concept of mortality and death and how they'd be really confused on why their parents are upset and where Mothtree wen't :^)

Hi friend, I don’t want to be like a major downer but… Rosehipkit is VERY sick. She and Dogwood, more than any other kits, absolutely understand the concept of mortality and death in a way that they should not have to.

[loudclan-clangen]

I ONLY MET MOTHTREE TODAY BUT IM SO SAD!! did she at least get to bond with the fiercestripe kits at all? :(

Yes! Though due to their age difference they obviously weren't like besties but Mothtree made time to hang out with them, even if she remained adamant that "they weren't her sisters" that doesn't mean that she didn't treat them like they were!

[Also i know that I forgot to label them but the wifi at my motel doesn't work and it took an act of god to get this from my iPad to my phone and I'm not going redoing that process so: orange is Moth, blue is Rosehip, green is Dogwood, and yellow is Fierce.]

...Plus, they make for a good distraction when you don't want any help with your grooming.

[loudclan-clangen]

dw guys it's just ketchup. it was a food truck and it just spilled some ketchup please guys. it's just a prank. guys. guys. please. omg

AU Where nothing bad happens

[loudclan-clangen]

I love Weed. I like having a healer that doesn't trust starclan.

Weed is one of those characters that is so funny to me cause she fully believes in starclan’s existence she just doesn’t believe in their ability to make responsible decisions for the clan so her entire life is pretty much just this:

And honestly I agree, love that for her.

[loudclan-clangen]

also. uh. realized Bitterpelt was Siltsplash's apprentice. this is the second one that died, even though Bitter did graduate. poor man is going to lose his shit. (i think Silt's prons are he. sorry if i forgor)

i think this will be a part of the 'make it worse'. along with Eklutna probably making some wacky comments/jabs at Silt. hm.

Haha, what? Noooooo, it’s not like they have any underlying insecurities about their place in the clan that losing both of their apprentices might bring to the surface. And I am certain that there’s NO ONE in the clan who would use a tragedy like this against them. /sarcasm

(Also, Silt uses they/them pronouns, but I dont think I ever outright stated it. I had planned to have them discuss it as a part of their anxiety about possibly having kits in moon 15 but it got cut for time.)

[loudclan-clangen]

Can we send asks to the cats? If so

Jaggedtail, why did you say that about Rosehipkit? That's a cynical way to think, that she just won't get better. Don't you have any faith in Wildfirecry?

Oops sad again. Anyway…

Don’t worry he got got. Wildfirecry was not gonna let that slide.

[loudclan-clangen]

too bad moth and bitter died virgins... They couldve fucked on the tracks

Hi anon,

1. Funniest ask I have ever received. Congrats.

2. Just as a general rule, before we speculate about the theoretical virginity of any of my Loudclan cats, just do us all a favor and go outside and grab a big handful of grass before clicking send.

3.

[loudclan-clangen]

i love fiercestripe shes such a good mom

I love her too! She and Rosehipkit are 2 of my favorite characters of all of the 1000 moons I've played through and I am so glad that so many other people love her as well! This is the first drawing I ever did of Loudclan characters and it was, of course, of my favorite married couple (even if I wasn't sure quite what they would look like yet):

[loudclan-clangen]

Is there a reason why the lead mediator is never allowed to touch the black water pool, or is it a unexplainable tradition? Are normal cats allowed to touch it?

The lead mediator must stay entirely separate from starclan (in life, at least, they still join when they die.) in order to make sure that they aren't being swayed by them, and are keeping their attention on the clan. (Their job is basically to make sure the leader and healers don't pull a "the best way forward is allowing everyone to starve to death because starclan said so" situation.) The black water is the symbolic link to starclan, and many believe that touching it allows you to connect with the spirits, thus, they keep their distance. This is generally viewed as a major sacrifice among their clanmates, as they can’t receive blessings from their ancestors, and they are granted a lot of respect because of it. Almost all other clan members will come in contact with the black water at some point in their lives, whether they are accompanying a healer to ask starclan for guidance or receiving a blessing before battle, though they rarely touch the actual pool, leaving that to the leader or healer accompanying them. The healer will usually dip a paw into the pool and then wipe the oil onto the other cat as a way of asking the ancestors to pay special attention to them. Cats who have open wounds, are severely ill, or are pregnant are not allowed to touch the black water for fear of infection, pollution, or deformation. There are some cats who refuse to touch the black water as well, because they don't wish to follow starclan and/or it just creeps them out. Weed, the other healer, is one of these, for example.