#wc leaders

[bonefall]

any changes to the nine lives ceremony? or who gets lives from who?

Yep! There are new rules for the Nine Lives Ceremony, in the hopes of making it more narratively flexible. Not all ceremonies follow the same pattern.

Lives are gifted, NOT obligated.

If there aren't 9 cats who want to give you lives, you could walk away with only 4. If StarClan wants you to do tasks to earn them, you have to do what they say. There are many ways to get one's lives, and the ceremony can look completely different between characters.

Blackstar has to earn his lives slowly. He starts TPB with a marking like a black executioner's hood, and it slowly turns white from how often he visits StarClan appealing for his next one.

However... StarClan's games are kept in check by,

The Dark Forest can give lives too.

If they jerk a leader around, at any point, they can complete their ceremony with the damned. You can even get a mix; and it wouldn't be impossible for a StarClan warrior to sneak out of heaven to attend an unholy celebration.

Brokenstar was actually almost given a life from Heatherstar, but got so angry he rejected her completely and wrapped up his ceremony in the Dark Forest.

But there are some limits...

No leader can get lives until the previous one is dead.

Before the end of TBC, there is NO ability for a leader to step down without death. NONE. Even with ONE life left. You accept the position for the rest of your life.

Nightstar could not become leader while Brokenstar was alive AT ALL. Sunstar also only had one life. Rowanstar plunges into the Moonpool with his daughter Tigerheart's body, drowning his lives away so she could live.

[residents-of-the-darkforest]

All ShadowClan leaders according to canon and this blog

[....] -> Indicates unspecified gap

Some leaders are stand-alone, such as the ones seen in books with short stories. Many come from Code of The Clans, and will be placed in order of the code introduced (because obviously)

Also links will be provided for canon characters to their wikis!

This currently only includes some OCs, the main arcs, and cats from Code of The Clans. If you know a ShadowClan leader that I missed (canon or otherwise) feel free to let me know!

.

FOREST TERRITORY, FIVE CLANS:

Shadowstar (formerly Tall Shadow)

Ravenstar (formerly Raven Pelt)

[....]

Hollystar

Brindlestar

Lakestorm (Brindle's deputy and likely succeeding leader)

[....]

Lilystar

[....]

Blizzardstar

[....]

Cuckoostar

Stormfleck/star

Aldereyes/star

Rainbur/star

Snowpad/star

Flowerstem/star

[....]

Ripplestar

Marshscar/star (safe to assume he becomes leader, as he was deputy when Ripple died)

[....]

Yellowstar

[....]

Silvermask (deputy and likely future leader)

[....]

Dawnstar

FOREST TERRITORY, FOUR CLANS:

(Ds)

Snaketail (Dawn's deputy and likely successor)

[....]

Cedarpelt/star

Raggedpelt/star

Brokentail/star

Nightpelt/star (unofficially)

Tigerclaw/star

Blackfoot/star

LAKE TERRITORY:

(Bf/s)

Rowanclaw/star

Tigerheart/star

[....]

Blacknettle/star

[....]

Tanglewhisker/star

==========================

Holly and Brindle are both alive alongside the same leaders, so it's safe to assume they lived together. Hollystar agreed to the proposition of the first code: loyalty to the Clan above all other things.

.

Brindlestar was one of those that agreed on the second law of the warrior code: that borders were not to be crossed.

.

Lilystar introduced the fourth law of the warrior code: prey is killed only to be eaten, and cats must send thanks to StarClan.

.

Blizzardstar was alive when the fifth law was made: kits must be at least six moons before beginning their training. He, along with the leader of WindClan, Hazelstar, agreed to the code due to the fierce argument for it from the queens on both sides.

.

After the death of Snowstar and her deputy, Brightwhisker, Redscar (the medicine cat) faked a sign that Flowerstar should be chosen as the next deputy. He proposed the ninth law of the warrior code: the deputy must be chosen before moonhigh.

.

Ripplestar attacked the other Clans at a gathering, prompting the creation of the tenth code: the gathering is a time of peace.

.

Yellowstar agreed to code thirteen: the word of the Clan leader is the warrior code. (Though her eyes look troubled when the law is introduced).

.

Silvermask was alive when the fourteenth law was introduced: that warriors do not need to kill to win their battles.

[endlesscats]

Brambleclaw/star

Post-possession/retired:

"I will do my best to live each of these lives according to the gifts you have made. Firestar, your Clan will never forget you. And if I can be half the leader you were, I will be proud." ― Bramblestar

[scourge-sympathiser]

SCOURGE SUNDAY 027/???

ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ

[bramblefake]

darktail redux

[magicdungeon]

Leopardfoot and Pineatar

[airoarts]

Leader and deputy

[Image description: a digital painting of Squirrelstar and Ivypool from Warriors. Squirrelstar is a small dark red cat with green eyes, standing in front of the much taller Ivypool, a gray tabby-and-white cat with blue eyes and many battle scars. The background is dark blue. end ID]

[fog-and-the-frost]

A Bad Feeling

[bogcreacher]

coronation

[eggfeather]

moonlight

[nyan-1233]

I swear if i buy the next warrior cats book next month and they say that Starclan rejected Squirrelflight for any reason im going to lose my mind. I'm not even joking i will give up on the series

[bonefall]

BB!MALICIOUS ENTITY: Ancestor Rats

A cruel fate that can befall a shattered pantheon, and the enemies of Firestar's Quietus

With SkyClan homeless and exiled at the end of the Skyfall Era, StarClan itself was in chaos. 1/5th of their ranks broke from the sky to walk with their descendants into exile, with only some of the most powerful ancestors staying behind.

Skystar himself, Patron of War, was one of them. He scoffed that a Clan that couldn't hold even a sliver of land had failed his teachings, and deserved nothing.

Scores of cats died in exile, starved, exposed, killed by predators. Cloudstar desperately tried to keep his cats together as SkyClan dwindled. Soon, there were barely enough cats to maintain a Clan, let alone such a large pantheon.

When Cloudstar died, his successor Spiderstar found herself facing a new threat. One she couldn't defeat.

Over and over, there were rats who would attack the camp. Horrible, twisted creatures of many colors, with sharp claws like a cat and jaws full of needle teeth. They swirled like a storm around a central point, wound so tightly that it was impossible to see what lay at the eye.

While watching baby spiders fly away from their mother on little silk balloons, Spiderstar devised a Great Plan. SkyClan would live apart but connected, loosely, like a web. The Rats could not kill what they could not find.

As she watched her Clan disperse, some to humans homes, some to live as rogues, the blood roared in her ears. It pounded, throbbed into a rythmn, until the words of a prophecy became overwhelming,

"EEK SHARRARRAM SSARSHAIWO!"

[Rat ancestors disastrous-they-will-kill]

Could this be true? Would their ancestors save them from the rats, someday?

(Below the cut; a guide to Ancestor Rats and how they are dealt with in Firestar's Quietus. CONTENT WARNING: BODY HORROR, GORE.)

Firestar's Quietus; The Secret of the Rats

Exactly as before, when Firestar and the spirit of Brokenstar gathered the SkyClan web together, the rats had one point of attack. They washed over the soon-to-be warriors in a wave, but they were able to fight them off.

Skywatcher laid on his side in the clearing, trembling and wide eyed, covered in horrible bites. At first they could barely get a word out of him, too shaken to speak. When he was finally able to force a word out, he could only mumble;

"I saw Lowbranch. That was my mother..."

And then, someone else came forward, sharing that one rat had the same stripes as their brother. Another recognized their son's tufts on another's ears. The camp buzzed with tension as the stories bubbled forth.

Everyone recognized something in the rats.

Something had happened to their ancestors. Something terrible. It became clear why they had never answered their prayers or sent a hero to save them. Brokenstar tried to reach them, but he could only hear a command echoing in the darkness.

"Neek urrspeekorreen urrsnyarhak, karrl urrsnakochya." "THAT WHICH CANNOT BE FIXED, MUST BE BROKEN"

It was only later, when they went to confront the rats once and for all, that they realized what those words meant. Stumbling out into the dim light out of the barn, they saw them.

Those weren't just rats!

And the most horrible thing of all was the atrocity behind it all, the creature at the center of the swirling, agonized mass, the eye of the storm...

The Rat Leader; Cloudstar

He promised to keep his Clan together. So he did.

As each life wasted away and his Clan dwindled, smaller and smaller, as their heaven crumbled above them and became too tiny to hold their ancestors, Cloudstar kept them in one piece.

When he died, that mission continued. Trapped as this cursed creature, Cloudstar was mindlessly commanding his cats like a storm around him, dragging in both the dead and the living in a desperate attempt to save the Clan he'd vowed to protect.

SkyClan could not mend until this curse was broken. These fallen angels needed to be released, by force, to rejoin a new heaven of modern making. Slipping into the body of Firestar, Brokenstar was able to lend all of his talents for one final fight. It was just like being back at Carrionplace.

With his purpose as the fallen 5th tree, a guardian spirit, fulfilled and the rats freed from their prisons, Brokenstar's soul grew sleepy with peace. Firestar buried the acorn necklace that he had used to channel him overlooking the gorge, where it quickly sprouted into a new oak.

Rat Ancestors; Tome of Beasts

When an afterlife is destroyed, through mass death or supernatural attack, and the spirits within it cannot peacefully fade away or join a new pantheon, all of its souls can become earth-bound.

There are many types of entities and curses in this world, each one completely unique. Ancestor Rats are the form that this pantheon took.

From a distance, an Ancestor Rat could be mistaken for an odd, escaped domestic rodent. Their faces were an unsettling mix of rat and cat, with teeth laid out like a cat's but endlessly growing like a rat. They had the blade-like claws of a Clan cat, tearing through the skin and laying at various angles.

They had no physical needs, but were unable to handle being separated from their leader. Cloudstar himself, however, did need to rest in some way, returning to the barn where he died every day.

When one was killed, it would flash blue as if briefly turning into a shard of the sky, before leaving a completely standard rat corpse in its place. As long as Cloudstar was alive, the pulsar of each spirit would simply be dragged back into another rat after some time.

There was no escape until he was killed.

After the defeat of the Ancestor Rats, the spirits moved on to SkyClan's special heaven; Skypelt. Even after moving to the lake, Skypelt maintains its independence from Silverpelt, judging its own souls and staying separate (but connected) to StarClan-Prime.

With an abundance of rat bodies on their paws, SkyClan started a morbid tradition for a very special celebration. "The New Day" is celebrated every year with a grand feast, where a traditional rat meat dish called "Roasted Grandpaw" is served.

[clanslist]

[endlesscats]

"I know the warrior code is important. I never would have broken it if I hadn't felt I was doing the right thing. I hope the mistakes I've made, I've made out of love." — Squirrelflight

[loonarmuunar]

Obsessed with the implication that Bluestar sees this tiny devil and is like “👀 son? sonboy?” without fear of her/her clanmates getting kittypet fae cooties

@skyclan-funny-name-squad

[manywarriorcats]

have some self-indulgence and draw ur favourite cat

always happy to draw him