Aging System
The aging system determines how long a character will remain in their current rank before being promoted. A character cannot be promoted before the specified length of time has passed, nor can they be in that rank for longer than the time listed.
Kit: 1 month
Apprentice: 2 months
Warrior/Medicine Cat: 8 months
A queen carries her kits for 2 weeks before they are born
Elder: 1 month
Ceremonies happen three times a month, split up into early-month (the 1st-10th), mid-month (11th-20th), and late-month (21st-end of the month) ceremonies. A character’s post date determines which of the ceremony groups they will be promoted on for their apprentice and warrior ceremonies. For instance, a character posted as a kit on June 3rd would have their apprentice ceremony a month later, in the early-July ceremonies, and their warrior ceremony two months after that, in the early-September ceremonies.
Medicine Cat and Medicine Cat Apprentice ceremonies follow the same pattern as warrior and warrior-apprentice ceremonies. However, while Medicine Cat ceremonies happen in the camp by default, the Medicine Cat’s owner can request to the leader’s owner that their character have their ceremony at the Moonstone instead. Be certain to reach out to your leader a few days in advance if you’d like to have a Moonstone ceremony.
Elder ceremonies can be conducted at any time of the month, at the request of the character’s owner, but take place in the late-month ceremonies by default if the character’s owner doesn’t reach out to the leader’s owner with a specific request. For example, that same cat who was posted as a kit on June 3rd and became a warrior in the early-September ceremonies would become an elder in the late-May ceremonies of the following year. The character must die by the end of the month, following the month of their elder ceremony. For example, that same cat who became an elder in the late-May ceremonies must die before the end of June.
For more information about the various ranks, see the Clan Hierarchy Guide. For more information about how to post to the Character Updates Page and how characters are promoted between ranks, see the Character Updates Guide. To check when a character or ceremony was posted, see the Public Records.
Birth Dates
One of the most important parts of posting a new character is correctly listing their birth date, as it allows members to easily check on characters’ ages, reduces the amount of background record keeping that I need to keep up with, and reduces the number of late ceremonies and mistakes on Monthly Meow ceremony lists. A character’s birth date must always be listed as “Month day, year.” For instance, May 20, 2018 or December 2, 2017.
To calculate a character’s birth date, take their post date (the day on which the character was posted to the Character Updates Page) then subtract their age upon posting (kits are zero months old, apprentices are one month old, warriors are three months old, and elders are eleven months old) from that date. For instance, a warrior posted on April 18, 2018 has a birth date of January 18, 2018. Below is a cheat sheet you can double check with if you’re ever uncertain of your character’s birth date.
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