#the great battle

[nightly-ruse]

i have a headcanon that firestar Knew he was going to die going in to the Great battle, not in an “im old and this might be my final battle” kinda way but in a “i know with absolute certainty that i will not make it out alive” kinda way and despite this he still leads the charge

Oh gosh I adore this a lot. He doesn’t care even as he feels the slight chill down his back that he always felt after losing a life. It was like Starclan’s landscape already fell under his paws as he charged to the great battle. That didn’t stop him, he did not cower from the shivering stars flickering across his fiery fur. He was a leader and he wasn’t going to shy away from the most devastating battle to come to the clans

[residents-of-the-darkforest]

AU where some of the Dark Forest warriors in the Great Battle choose to fight on the side of the Clans because they

--knew they messed up and want to make up for it

--weren’t ‘evil’ like cats like Tigerstar, but blinded by something that is now gone

--have kin they want to protect

It would have been nice to see the condemned as more three-dimensional. I mean, Starclan was going to condemn Leafpool and Squirrelflight, so there must have been at LEAST one cat in the DF that is actually super chill.

We see some of that in TBC which I really liked, so yay for that

[wc-wild-rewrite]

If we're allowed to ask about later arcs, how will the OOTS battle go down? You've mentioned Brackenstar, so i presume Firestar still dies, but what else happens?

Ah, The Great Battle. It's the biggest moment in Clan History since basically forever, every force, ally, and enemy of the clans clash together in a bloodbath. It's a major trauma for the clans that they never truly recover from, and that affects their very way of life afterwards.

But thats the poetic description, when it happened, it was chaos. The clans were tipped off by the Dark Forest recruits that backed out about the incoming attack, but nobody could've prepared for the hell that followed.

The Clan cats prepared themselves in their camps, reinforced to the teeth, with every kit and elder safely in hiding. They couldn't risk hiding them in another camp, so they could only pray. They had no specific date to wait for, but while they waited, the clans stockpiled on prey, burying it like they would in a harsh leafbare. The healers met up frequently to share much needed herbs, as the mystics begged Starclan for help.

They were so prepared that by the time The Dark Forest struck, they were ready. Slinking out of rivers, shadows, trees, anywhere they could pull themselves from the depths of, the ghostly cats came running, quickly backed by the recruits that still supported them, who had taken camp outside of all the territories. The first couple minutes weren't bad, the clans were holding their own, until more appeared, then more, then more. The Dark Forest had not only recruited living cats, but put a hole through the barrier between the Dark Forest and the Ghost Plane, the place where non-clan cats go when they die. Most weren't kittypets, the majority were rogues, but the kittypets that did fight were just as vicious.

Quickly, the clans were overrun. Getting a killing blow on these dead cats was hard enough, made only harder when they kept jumping back and forth between shadows. Despite the chaos, the sky was clear, and the blood of both living and dead was everywhere.

Suddenly, the sun was blotted out. Every cat in the territories froze as an eclipse filled the sky, in two clans, the fighting continued, though all were unsettled. In Thunderclan and Windclan, however, two groups appeared. Sol and Darktail, backed by their own rogue groups, came down on their despised clans with a vengeance. Darktail hadn't been abandoned in this AU, but his kittypet roots had soured his clan to him, and he had been pulled into the Dark Forest far, far too young, and in turn, he had pulled the other Windclan trainees in as well. And so, in the moons before the Dark Forest attack, he grouped up with his 'close ally' Sol, and pulled together a rogue group to tear down the clans in an ambush. Sol didn't originally intend to destroy the clans, but the events of Power Of Three made him more willing towards Darktail's plan.

And so, the clans were even further overrun. The living were starting to retreat, some muttering prayers to Starclan, when the clouds rolled in, not blotting out the eclipse, but thundering alongside it. The sky glowed as dozens upon dozens of Starclan cats raced down, claws out and yelling a battle cry that shook the very sky, sending lightning and thunder down upon the land. There had always been more Starclan than Dark Forest, and even with the ambush and extra dead rogues, they were no match for the numbers of Starclan.

Even then, the battle was hard, but righteous. Kits long dead blocked the entrance of nurseries, half faded elders fought side by side with their distant descendants, and, of course, past leaders flung themselves furiously at the cats who dared attack their clan. In Shadowclan, a group of cats both living and dead, led by Flintflang and Deerstep, tore Brokenstar apart while chanting the names of those he killed, as Badgerfang kept the living kittens quiet and hidden, despite his shaking paws.

The clans were winning, one paw strike at a time, but it was a struggle, for every Dark Forest cat killed, a Starclan cat was. For every Rainfloweer was a Spottedleaf, every Frecklewish was a Featherwhisker, and the living were beginning to drop from injury and blood loss too. They were winning the fight, but the war was still raging.

and then, an even bigger surprise occured. Midnight, leading the tribe cats and the mercats, came storming in, along with their ancestors. The Dark Forest were definitely outnumbered now, and started fleeing as The Six's powers were fully awakened by the prescence of their original spirits, massively faded but still there. The bloodbath turned to the side of the good, but there was still tragedy to come.

The thunder and lightning continued, as did the eclipse, as fire spread in all territories, setting a blazing background for the leaders and their fighting. Onestar chased Darktail down to the lake as the tom tried to escape, Mistystar fought against Mapleshade with the fury of the Applekin before her, Blackstar pinned one of Brokenstar's old loyalists on their back, and Firestar fought tooth and claw against Tigerstar, using every trick he had learnt in the time since their last match. The smoke was thick in the air as the remaining Dark Forest cats fled, leaving only the most stubborn, or stupid.

A tree was struck and fell between the two thunderclan cats, but Firestar nimbly jumped it, and with one last attack, Tigerstar vanished into nothingness, leaving only a smudge of dark, tar-like blood where he had stood moments before. They had no time to celebrate, however, as the camp continued to crackle and burn. But, while coated in the blood of himself and his clanmates, Firestar knew Starclan was sending rain, as the first drops hit his fur and the eclipse cleared. It was too late for him, he knew that, and he dropped to the floor as his clan gathered around him, old and young, living and dead. His spirit rose from his body, nuzzled goodbye with Sandstorm, and disappeared into the sky, the rest of the dead following.

As Thunderclan mourned their leader, Crowfeather desperately leaped into the lake to save Onestar, only to come up empty pawed and soaked through. Their leader, too, was gone. As was Shadowclan's, having tried to race to Windclan through the tunnels as aid, but getting caught by the flooding caused by the storm that broke only minutes later. Mistystar, thank the stars, was alive, but badly injured.

With three of four leaders left, the territories destroyed, and over a dozen cats dead, the clans entered their new era. Brackenfur- now to be star- prayed this would be a better one, but we all know how fate isn't a fan of the clans.

And so, came Arc 4 and a half. Or, as i call it, The New Prophecy (Propheciless Edition), actual name still pending.

[syninplays]

Got bored last night and felt like opening my second favourite game <3

[dragoneyes618]

What I think would have been really cool is if Hawkfrost had shown some sign of being impacted, of emotion, of something, when Mothwing saw him and called out to him during the Great Battle against the Dark Forest, in Mothwing's Secret. Like if he'd hesitated before going on to attack, or said something to her, or whatever.

[blorboclaw]

Jayfeather: “What do you care, Mothwing? You don’t even believe in Starclan!”

Mothwing: “oh well actually, since the Great Battle, I do.”

Jayfeather: “AND YOU DIDN’T THINK TO TELL US????”

(note: between the great battle and Lost stars, five years have passed)

[wuxiaphoenix]

A Bit of Map Squee

This is not going to be a full book review of Korean History in Maps, edited by Michael D. Shin, because I just got it and have started flipping through it to read. It is going to be some gleeing instead. Because this is an example of a good worldbuilding source, with the kind of information you want to build a basic structure for your story setting.

This is a very recent book (just updated in 2022), meant to go along with courses in Korean history. So the history bits aren’t terribly long, about 10 to 20-odd pages per era depending on how much information we have from archaeology and the historical record. But it is condensed and useful information. What we know about the culture, agriculture, trade and wars of each era. If you wanted to set a story in any particular timeframe in Korea, this book would be a very good place to start building up, “what was it like to live in this place and time?” There are lots of photos of artifacts, including the “knife money” of Old Joseon and the Silla crown, and the maps....

Oh, the maps. Not just squiggly blob maps of “where this kingdom was, we think”. The maps include cities. Fortresses. Known market areas. There’s a topographic map of the peninsula, so you can see all the wrinkly mountains that make this an interesting area for would-be conquerors. There are maps of land and sea trade routes as far as we know them in each era, and what were major items of trade to and from each place the kingdoms interacted with. For the Joseon Dynasty we even have a map of which organizations of merchants traded in which parts of the kingdom. So if you wanted to, say, get a book on medical acupuncture from the Ming Dynasty to Hanseong (Seoul), it’d probably come overland from Shenyang through the Uiju merchants and either down the Korean coast by ship through the Gaeseong merchants, or overland through Pyongyang and then Gaeseong. If you wanted black pepper, though, it’d come in from Japan by way of Tsushima.

The section on Goguryeo (the era The Great Battle movie is set in) has some of the most info I’ve found on that kingdom in one place. Specifically it has where Ansi Fortress (Ansiseong) is. I’ve found other maps locating it before this, but they generally were set in part of the Liaodong Peninsula alone, and so not in scale with the Korean Peninsula. Making putting the two together a headache. This has it all together in the map of Goguryeo. So now I can look at that, and say, “Okay, I’m putting Daehan’s borders here. Which means the Jurchens are over there - north and west of the original timeline. And I have info on what they’d be trading, which helps explain why Nurhaci isn’t as mad at Daehan as he was at Joseon....”

Some of what they’d be trading to the Jurchens is salt, farm equipment, and cows. If you know history, you know salt is a big thing.

And trade flowing means information flowing, and at least a few people moving between places carrying those goods and ideas. If you want to have a feel for how your world works, knowing who is moving what where is an excellent foundation.

[charmedrust-rewrite]

Cats killed in the Great Battle

ThunderClan

Ruststar

Maplepool

Ravencall

Berrytail

Bumblethroat

Mousefur

Willowgaze

****

ShadowClan

Onyxstar

Tallpoppy

Ratscar

Redwillow

Tigerheart

Olivenose

****

WindClan

Downfoot

Sunstrike

Furzepelt

Whitetail

Galehop

Hopstar (one life)

Oatwhisker

****

RiverClan

Primrosefoot

Duskfur

Dapplenose

Beetlewhisker

Troutstream

[mydairpercabeth]

season 4 is gonna hurt me i fear

[wildshadowtamer]

Concept:

The Great Battle occurs on a blood moon, but it turns everything red ala Avatar The Last Airbender, and when Starclan wins, the regular moon returns

[pokemon-npcs]

[residents-of-the-darkforest]

what if when the Dark Forest dudes+dudettes go to the living like in the Great Battle, their organs and vitals are more suspectable to fatal harm, whereas when they’re actually in Hell, they can withstand a LOT

yes this is completely just to allow the characters to go apeshit (more than they already are). Instead of games of mossball it’s games of HEARTS

[cryptidclaw]

New wc oc: a borzoi named Bignose who was adopted by a wc queen and now the clan just has some huge weird looking long dog in their ranks

[ofswordsandpens]

I fear that "fire bending didn't come easy to zuko" and "zuko isn't a prodigy" (both true) has somehow snowballed into "zuko is a bad or at best average fire bender".... which simply isn't true, especially by the end of book 3

[choochooboss]

”Perhaps a Pokémon battle with you would jog this memory loose… Would you honor me with a battle, <player>?”

[kaibacorpintern]

yugioh isn't "good" i.e. its hardly a cowboy bebop or NGE or FLCL or mushishi but if anyone was like "it's bad" i'd be like be quiet. kaiba's about to summon obelisk out of the fucking ground