Original Post: Ember, April 1, 2018
Hi everyone! It’s been a pretty exciting month here on WCF. In-character, we wrapped up the harsh leaf-bare plot with the clans erupting into battle and declaring war on each other, the Deliverance getting together in one large meeting, and another battle between SunClan and EclipseClan to wrap up the month. For more information on these plots, check out the Plot Planning Pages and History Pages. Out-of-character, it’s also been an unusually exciting month. With the help of River and Alienfish, I sent out three surveys. The responses to these surveys are out now and I’m hoping to get more member feedback over the next few weeks, so please check those out and share your thoughts if you haven’t already.
This Monthly Meow will come to you in two parts: first, a an overview of how cats’ naming styles, origin, appearance, and general personality characteristics, gender, and rank vary from clan to clan. Next month, I will present an analysis of how different traits can be correlated with each other (for instance, grey cats have blue eyes with unusual frequency). Please note that all the data was collected on March 15th and 16th and therefore doesn’t perfectly reflect what the clans look like now.
First, here is a table of the summarized data:
📷
📷
Any bolded percentages in the individual clan columns represents an unusually high or low percentage, while any bolded percentage in the all clans column represents a variable with a wide range of frequencies between the clans.
The number of cats in each clan aren’t very even, but the numbers aren’t surprising either. MoonClan is the largest clan, as is expected, with SunClan a close second. EarthClan, a relatively new and disliked clan is smaller, and the newest and least liked clan, EclipseClan, is the smallest. The percentage of cats in each rank is fairly consistent across the clans, with the exceptions of MoonClan (which has an unusually high percentage of kits, possibly as a result of the kit wave they experienced last month) and SunClan (which has an unusually high proportion of kits as a result of the swell in pride cats). Generally, these values line up with past demographics overviews and nothing here stands out to me as particularly interesting.
The clans have a roughly equal male/female ratio, but there’s consistently no diversity in terms of nonbinary/gender fluid/genderqueer/etc. characters. With the exception of SunClan, each of the clans have a slight female majority, which is consistent with past demographics overviews and likely reflects the fact that the majority of roleplayers on this website are girls and most roleplayers tend to create characters who are more like themselves.
In terms of naming style, things get more interesting. MoonClan and EarthClan, oddly enough, have the highest percentages of traditional clan names, while SunClan has the lowest. This primarily reflects SunClan’s high percentage of tribe names and EclipseClan’s high percentage of non-clan, non-nature based names. These numbers align fairly closely with the next category, character origin. MoonClan and EarthClan cats are both majority clan born, while only about half of SunClanners are and a third of EclipseClanners. This is unsurprising considering clan values and history, but it’s interesting to see how closely these numbers actually align with these in-character forces, considering characters are created based primarily on out-of-character whims.
MoonClan, for instance, is mostly clan-born, with only tiny percentages of loners, kittypets, or outside-group cats joining, possibly as a result of their somewhat arrogant pride in their clan’s history and bloodlines. Their clanborn population would likely be even higher if more cats had specified origins in their descriptions, as MoonClan has the highest percentage of unspecified origins by a margin of 8%.
SunClan, meanwhile, is about roughly half clan-born, with very few kittypets, a small handful of loners, and a large percentage of cats joining from outside groups, primarily pride cats. This can easily be interpreted to reflect SunClan’s group-oriented, harsh life style that would exclude most former loners or kittypets.
EarthClan is composed of mostly clanborn cats, with no kittypets and a handful of loners and cats joining from outside groups. While the lack of kittypets is odd, these numbers can be interpreted to reflect their generally accepting nature, but history as the result of a merge of two large clans.
EclipseClanners’ origins are particularly telling. Only a third of EclipseClanners are clanborn, with a fourth of them being born kittypets, a marginally higher percentage of loners and rogues than the other clans, and a handful of cats joining from outside groups, mostly city gangs. This very closely reflects EclipseClan’s history and location, as it started with only a handful of clan-born cats and has swelled in numbers primarily due to an influx in kittypets and gang members.
Eye color values were fairly consistent, with about a third of all cats having blue eyes, a fifth of all cats having green eyes, about a third of cats having amber eyes, and then a handful of cats having odd eyes. The number of cats with blue eyes varried, with it being a less common trait in MoonClan and a more common trait in EclipseClan and EarthClan. There was an unusually low percentage of cats with amber eyes in EarthClan, as well.
Pelt colors were similarly consistent, with the clans having similar percentages of most of the colors. The exceptions to this general rule are white, with a about twice as many white cats in MoonClan than in the other clans, and grey cats, which are less common in MoonCLan and SunClan than they are in EarthClan and EclipseClan. This is an odd distinction, as it doesn’t follow the clan descriptions: proportionately, MoonClan and SunClan should have the most grey cats.
Coat length and build are not particularly enlightening, as the majority of character descriptions didn’t specify either. However, based on the cats whose descriptions do provide information, these categories do not line up well with clan histories or descriptions. For coat length, an unusual number of EclipseClanners have a short coat, possibly as a reflection of their relatively sheltered camp that makes a thick, long pelt less advantageous than in the other clans. However, this way of looking at pelt length doesn’t accurately reflect the rest of the data, as SunClanners are the least sheltered and would have the highest percentage of long-haired cats, which is untrue. The coat lengths also don’t reflect the clans’ descriptions, with SunClan being mostly short-pelted, EarthClanners having long or medium length fur, MoonClanners with medium or short fur, and EclipseClanners having the widest variety of coat lengths. For build, you’d expect MoonClanners to be large to average, SunClanners to be small to average, and EarthClanners and EclipseClanners to be all over the map. This doesn’t actually bore out with the data as SunClan has the highest proportion of large cats, while EarthClan is large-skewed, and MoonClan has more small than average-sized cats. Only EclipseClan lines up as would be expected, with roughly equal proportions of cats in each size category.
The personality categories hold fewer surprises and lessvariety than I expected. This may be a result of how they were calculated, in particular the difficulty of defining each character in terms of one personality trait, then organizing these personality traits into ten broader personality categories. Ultimately, each character is much more . However, I expected some the clans to have higher percentages of cats in particular personality categories that line up well with their clan descriptions (for instance, MoonClan was expected to have higher than average percentages in aggressive, dedicated, and dominant, SunClan was expected to have higher than average percentages in dedicated, reserved, and sharp, EarthClan was expected to have higher percentages in spirited, warm, and entitled, and EclipseClan was expected to have higher than usual percentages in aggressive, dominant, secretive, and sharp). Few of these actually bore out, with the clans having approximately equal percentages of characters in most of the personality groupings. EclipseClan stood out in a few places, with higher than average percentages in aggressive and sharp alongside a low percentage of spirited cats (which includes extroverts and particularly adventurous or playful cats), as could be expected based on their clan description, but an oddly low percentage in dedicated (considering the threat of banishment for cats deemed unworthy).
While I think the data from this demographics overview is interesting, and would become even more so if we were able to monitor the clans over time, this Monthly Meow took much longer than initially anticipated (10-15 hours of work, in total) and while I may be able to smooth out some of the wrinkles in further editions, I will need member support if we want to do another editions of this style of demographics overview. Let me know if you would be willing to participate. As well, if you want to noodle about with the data yourself, let me know and I can send you the spreadsheet I was working with.
MoonClan
Apprentices:
Sapphirekit, Tigerkit, Servalkit, Gypsykit, Leopardkit, Tundrakit, Pumakit: Early April
Flutteringkit, Desertkit: Mid April
Rustlekit: Late April
Warriors:
Tangypaw, Emberpaw, Smolderingpaw, Kiwipaw, Chickadeepaw, Antlerpaw, Stonepaw, Silverpaw, Leopardpaw: Early April
Sunnypaw, Specklepaw, Brownpaw: Mid April
Poplarpaw, Mosspaw, Juniperpaw, Mistypaw, Turtlepaw, Dreampaw, Whitepaw, Lakepaw, Pricklepaw: Late April
Elders: Stallionstar, Ghostfang, Stillpool, and Wolfdaze
SunClan
Apprentices:
Kingkit, Black Magic, Nightfall, Flamekit, Bramblekit, Rainkit: Early April
Footprints, Lightning Dust, Dark Thunder, Falcon, Grasskit, Heavens: Mid April
Clatterkit: Late April
Warriors:
Slip-paw, Brewingpaw, Wildpaw: Early April
Jackalpaw, Blitzpaw, Oakpaw, Desertpaw, Heatherpaw, Desertpaw: Mid April
Pinepaw, Royalepaw, Fatalpaw: Late April
Medicine Cat: Veinpaw (Early April)
Elders: Driftpetal
Deaths: Ambrosia
EarthClan
Apprentices:
Kelpiekit, Maplekit, Lostkit, Blueberrykit, Blackberrykit, Persimmonkit, Plumkit, Midnight, Mountain, Oddkit, Smudgedkit, Notchedkit, Lionkit: Early April
Cariboukit, Elk-kit, Deerkit, Buffalokit: Late April
Warriors:
Jackalpaw: Early April
Polarpaw, Smolderingpaw, Beachpaw, Sandpaw, Sprucepaw, Sandpaw, Dauntlesspaw, Quakingmoon: Mid April
Elders: Brokenstar, Rivertwist, Pondstep
Death: Penguinflight
EclipseClan
Apprentices:
Willowkit, Sheerkit, Coldkit, Torrentkit, Mintkit: Early April
Warriors:
Queenpaw, Tigerpaw: Early April
Jumble, Kindle, Mirna, Coyotepaw: Mid April
Medicine Cat: Marshpaw (Late April)
Comments