Original Post: Ember, June 26, 2017
Hello everyone! I hope you’ve had a fantastic June and have even more exciting plans for July. The roleplay has been pretty active lately and we have lots of fun things planned in-character. Out of character, registrations are still open and are likely to remain so for a while longer, so if you have any friends you think might be interested in the site, please show it to them.
This is part five of the series of Monthly Meows comparing the canon universe to Warrior Cats of the Forest. Rather than jumping straight into discussing our specific clans’ specific to the individual canon clans, for this Monthly Meow I’ll be going over the general similarities between our clans as a whole and the canon ones. Previous topics in this series included The Warrior Code, naming conventions, demographics, and the living clans’ relationship with their dead. As in the previous Monthly Meows, I used the Avon paperback 2004 American edition of Into the Wild, my sketchy memory of the rest of the books, and the Warriors Wiki to write this, so if you see anything inaccurate please speak up. As well, The Warrior Cats canon universe is notoriously riddled with contradictions and continuity errors and is far beyond the scope of these newsletters, so I’ve limited these Monthly Meows to primarily focusing on the first six books published (Into the Wild-The Darkest Hour).
Our clans differ in a few key ways from their clan counterparts beyond the specifics of clan personality and territories. For instance, while the canon clans are all named after their founders, the only clan on this website to follow that tradition is MoonClan, the first clan. The rest were named rather haphazardly, with RiverClan being named after the canon clan and BoneClan being modeled after the canon BloodClan. I called up the friend who named StormClan, but she didn’t remember her reasoning so that one’s a mystery. NightClan was next, named to match MoonClan. DawnClan followed the nighttime theme with a bit of hope symbolism to reflect the reason Amberstar founded the clan to begin with. SunClan was named both to mirror the other clans’ names and the fact that SunClanners live in full sunlight without the shade of trees or buildings. EarthClan got its name both to fit in with SunClan and MoonClan, and to reflect a sense of stability that the new clanmates hoped for.
The other differences are centered on the clans’ location. The canon clans are located in England, while ours are near Detroit, Michigan. While a bunch of plants native to England have bled over onto this site (such as gorse), others haven’t (blackthorn is mentioned several times throughout the first book). The recently published Herbs Guide lists more specifics, but due to the shift there are some herbs from the canon series that do not thrive in Michigan, and some herbs that are unique to this website. As the herbs guide is so new it has yet to be integrated into the website fully or affect roleplay yet, but I look forward to seeing medicine cats using our Michigan natives in the future. The weather in both Michigan and England is wet and fluctuates with the season, so even members who don’t know that the clans here are located in Michigan go ahead with our seasons system without any trouble.
While this departs more into clan practices, which will be covered in a future Monthly Meow, the canon clans don’t know where the others’ camps are (page 94 and 254 of Into the Wild). I don’t know how this would be the case, given that there is a history of fighting and they always seem to target each other’s camp. Cats on this website fall into the other extreme, knowing so much about the other territories that their knowledge can step into being unrealistic for those who have not lived in another clan. This knowledge gap could be attributed to territory size. In the canon series, it takes a few hours to cross over a clan’s entire territory (page 59 Into the Wild), but on this site it isn’t unheard of for even DawnClanners unaccustomed to running long distances to travel from their camp to NightClan’s camp at an unbroken run. Even less realistic, cats jump between threads like no time has passed at all, usually for the sake of convenience and sometimes to the detriment of the roleplay.
I’ve already gone over the specifics of clan structure on the Warriors Hierarchy Guide, so I won’t be too repetitive here, but while the overall clan structure between our clans and the canon clans is mostly the same, there are a few key differences. Leaders and deputies, for instance, do not play an entirely essential role in organizing the clan’s day to day activities. Rather, warriors set up patrols of their own and patrols are generally less formal than they are in the canon books (Into the Wild, page 93). This is mostly for out of character reasons, as leaders and deputies can’t be online all of the time and if they were expected to set up every patrol, nothing plot-related would ever get done. Leaders in the series also take a more active role in resolving personal issues, a role which is mostly left to other clan members due to the sheer size of the clans on this website. As discussed in the last Monthly Meow, medicine cats on this website serve mostly as healers, with their role as a spiritual guide and interpreter being pushed to the side. As well, queens take up the responsibility of teaching kits about the code on this website, not medicine cats. Warriors take up a larger portion of our clans than they do in the canon series. As well, senior warriors are a much more official rank in the series than they are on this website, where the term is rarely even used. The warriors of the series also know some basic herbs (Into the Wild page 240), while roleplaying warriors with medicine cat knowledge frowned upon on this website. Warriors in both the canon clans and in our clans are responsible for training apprentices, but again for mostly out of character reasons, the bond between mentors and apprentices is much stronger in the canon series. Despite those differences, the role of a warrior in both the canon clans and in our roleplay is the same: to feed and protect the clan.
Are there any other differences you guys have noticed between the clans in the canon series and our clans on Warrior Cats of the Forests? I’d love to hear them in the comments! The next Monthly Meow in this series will likely be comparing the clans to their canon “counterparts.”
MoonClan
Apprentices:
Thunderkit, Tawnykit: Early July
Silverkit, Autumnkit, Crimsonkit, Leafkit, Owlkit, Barredkit, Jaggedkit, Glacierkit, Heatherkit, Kaiser II, Cinderkit, Callingkit, Shellkit, Nettlekit, Riverkit: Mid July
Foxkit, Lionkit, Falconkit, Riverkit, Moonkit, Jaykit, Maplekit: Late July
Warriors:
Flamingpaw: Early July
Ghostpaw: Mid July
Hirondelle, Dragonpaw, Unbreakingpaw, Redpaw, Doepaw: Late July
Elders: Kendrick, Dawnfire, Silentcrusader, Twistedgrin
EarthClan
Medicine Cat Apprentice: Mossypaw (Early July)
Apprentices:
Hawk-kit, Dark-kit, Spiritkit, Fallenkit, Nightkit, Skykit, Legendkit, Meadowkit, Sinkit, Risingkit, Firekit: Early July
Rain, Tigerkit, Risingkit, Owlkit: Mid July
Warriors:
Blazingpaw, Velvetpaw: Early July
Penguinpaw, Walruspaw, Mask: Mid July
Ravenpaw: Late July
Deaths: Silverpool, Ricochet
SunClan
Medicine Cat Apprentice: Maplepaw (Mid July)
Apprentices:
White Oak, Beautiful Valley, Red Cloud, Star Dancer, Young Eagle, Foxtail Grass, Willowkit, Graykit, Daisykit, Variety of Flowers, Restless Sky, He Fights, Races Eagles, High Backed Wolf, Cottonwood, White Tailed Deer, Dusk-kit, Standing Elk, First to Dance: Early July
Walks Without Sound, Apep, Nephthys: Mid July
Burningkit, Downwardkit, Robinkit, Distant Thunder: Late July
Warriors:
Venompaw: Early July
Patchedpaw, Tigerpaw: Mid July
Elders: Coalnose, Bramblefrost, Sedgefoot
Deaths: Snakeslither, Tugstenwolf, Jaguargaze
NightClan Rebels
Warriors:
Red Cedartail, Stormpaw: Early July
DawnClan Rebels
Warriors:
Loomingpaw: Early July
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