eye of the storm - an ever changing warriors oc story
my main is felidthing! this blog is for my warriors oc story that ive worked and reworked since like 2014. the reset that the current version stems from happened in 2018!
eye of the storm is about a thunderclan apprentice named applepaw working against her leader and mentor redstar, who has been waging war against shadowclan and skyclan.
toyhouse folder
i have some writing posted on ao3
base/beginning-of-story info on the main 4 characters under the cut!
last edited: january 27th, 2025
applepaw is a highly driven but emotionally unstable thunderclan apprentice, still feeling the effects of her mother's- and the clan's former leader's- death two and a half moons prior. her mentor was the deputy, and the newly appointed redstar is switching things up and pushing on the neighboring borders. she's desperate for the approval of her leader and mentor, and slowly grows apart from her father and brothers under his influence.
lightningpaw is a skyclan apprentice that joined as a rogue. his only strong bond is with his mentor gingerleap, who he sees as a father, until he meets applepaw at a gathering and latches on to her, oblivious to her passive aggressive attempts to push him away. he's loud and friendly but has a lot of deep-seated issues from his past.
sagepaw is an outcast in windclan- everyone can tell she's half-clan (even if they dont know which clan her father is from). she was never given an apprentice name; her mother trained her without the leader willowstar's permission. sagepaw doesn't go to gatherings and doesn't have any friends in her own clan.
hollypaw happens upon windlcan with his brother thrushpaw. they're taken in as the healer, meadowmist, is gaining power within the clan to take over as leader. unaware of just what he's gotten into, hollypaw trains as a healer apprentice and goes along with whatever meadowmist wants to keep himself and his brother sheltered and fed.
redstar is a very "end justifies the means" and opportunistic type cat. under emberstar's leadership he resented her friendliness towards the other clans, but was good at keeping it to himself. he believes in the strength of his family and was always a hard-working and upstanding citizen of thunderclan. he helped mentor lots of apprentices, in addition to his first apprentice asterpaw, who died before he could become a warrior. when emberstar's mate amberstrike had kits and she was busy helping in the nursery, redfoot took the responsibility well, and emberstar apprenticed her daughter applepaw as thanks- and in memory of asterpaw. as leader he finally acted on his ideas to strengthen thunderclan and cut friendly relationships with outsiders.
meadowmist is windclan's healer, an only child with a strong bond to his mother heathermist. when she died, he requested his suffix be in her honor. heathermist raised him with faith in starclan as his top priority. he's intensely devout even for a windclan cat. after his mentor retired, meadowmist started turning his clanmates against willowstar, sowing distrust until the right moment came to depose him.
more apples i drew as i was trying to make another almost 2 hour long explanation of how i draw her. i finally acknowledged what the back of her head is supposed to look like
i really like doing stuff with the post-war clans because ive established that the narratives opinion on clan life in general is negative. so im writing about characters i really love/care about/enjoy who for the most part have chosen to keep living in the clans. they were given an opportunity to leave and for whatever reasons none of these cats took that opportunity. and i love writing about the leaders and how theyre each trying to manage their clans in a time where the clan leadership system has been loudly called into question. and the majority of all these cats i LIKE on some level!! or theyre background characters that dont have much going on but some of those are gonna be cats i think positively of too! its a bunch of characters i like and want good or interesting things to happen to all living in circumstances i think suck but theyre not going to leave
i LOVE sagespeckle in this time period so so much bc shes such a clear choice of someone to have leave the clans. but she JUST found her siblings and father she JUST reconciled with her mother she wants to get to know her family and riverclan. sagespeckle values the relative familiarity of staying in the clans even if its a new clan. rather than completely leaving everything behind. shes also just Scared and part of her is so desperate to see if she'll finally be happy in riverclan. like her whole life shes been miserable and lonely and now she suddenly is being handed the possibility of all the love she ever dreamed of. and she takes it. she chooses that lifelong fantasy
^my tags in paragraph form. anyways i wanna talk about leaders
i think of eaglestar and icefang as generally good/kind people, but their leadership choices are based on treating redstar's leadership like it was bad just because the wrong cat was in charge. i like that theyre going for peace and fairness, they were trying to present a moral standard when they didnt execute or exile redfoot. i think given time eaglestar and icefang would be good clan leaders, especially if applestrike sympathizers in thunderclan gain influence
cloverstar and brightclaw get a lot of lenience because shadowclan was the most impacted by this. theyre all very retreated into themselves and focused on rebuilding. theyre also trying to remain proud/dignified while also making sure thunderclan and windclan take responsibility and help in that rebuilding. cloverstar and brightclaw were missing for a while and theyll probably have some emotional issues that hurt their capability as leaders, but shadowclan is very close knit so theyll have support. i dont think either of them will step down unless they become disabled in the longterm
aspenstar is the one i call "genuinely inclined to kindness but also opportunistic and looking for ways to present riverclan as the most righteous." owlstep doesnt have much personality but i think of her as confident/capable/insert deputy personality trait. her deputyship is one of strong support and picking up slack, rather than a counterbalance relationship like eaglestar and icefang. riverclan was undamaged by the war, other than some of their warriors leaving to join thunderclan/redstars guard. aspenstar makes a big deal of reprimanding/putting together punishments for the riverclan cats that come back. i dont think anyone is exiled unless i decide a returning riverclan cat has done exceptionally Bad Things
woolstar and deermask are stressed as fuck because they dont have a proper healer. windclans spirituality is so important and its been so tainted by meadowmist. they also uh. really really need A Healer. someone to heal illness and injury. thrushleaf is the only cat in windclan with anywhere close to enough medicinal knowledge and the rest of windclan just has to suck it up that their new healer is a former rogue with no spiritual training. thrushleaf does not want to be the healer and shes suffering emotionally in the position and when sagespeckle goes to woolstar and deermask about it woolstar's response is "i understand that this isnt ideal but its whats best for windclan" which pisses sagespeckle off. woolstar is firm but not unkind to sagespeckle about it and she Does feel kind of bad but she also believes in sacrifice and virtuous suffering and whatnot
tigerstar and yellowpetal are very loving towards their clan and deeply betrayed by the skyclan warriors that spied for redstar. they get exiled. i think skyclan cats are the most emboldened to physically or socially punish any Traitors. and theyre strict about their borders for a While but also avoid direct contact with windclan or thunderclan patrols
i really really need to write the actual scene of sagespeckle choosing to stay. bc it would be a direct conversation with applestrike. sagespeckle isnt gonna just quietly never show up to any of applestrikes meetings or the final going-away patrol. theyre friends, applestrike is going to talk to her about it. she might already assume sagespeckle is obviously leaving, like lightningheart. so applestrike will ask her directly or she'll start making plans involving sagespeckle and sagespeckle has to say no, actually, im staying here. i want to stay with my family, i only just met them, i wanna stay close to them
applestrike FULLY expected sagespeckle to be one of the cats that left with her. she knows how horrible sagespeckles life in windclan was, she knows sagespeckle agrees that the war and the issues connected to it aretn an isolated incident but something fundamentally wrong with the way their society works. but applestrike also exactly understands sagespeckle wanting to stay with her family. applestrike used that reasoning both times lightningheart suggested the two of them run away. she might think about or float the idea of sagespeckle taking her family with her, but its not gonna happen. applestrike wont stay, and sagespeckle wont leave. they know theyre never going to see each other again
apple/sage is reciprocal but they arent at the right time in their lives to ever get together. at this point they care about and admire each other but they also havent actually known each other very long and everything is chaotic and crazy and then applestrike leaves and sagespeckle stays. if theyd stayed in close contact for longer they wouldve gotten together #doomedyuri
the thing about my interest in "committing" to applestrike being the equivalent of an oriental longhair is that shes very stylized. so trying to shift how i draw her to look more like a specific breed would end up making changes to her actual design rather than just my style. arguably i dont need to do anything to "commit," ive already committed by declaring that her closest breed would be an OSH/maine coon mix and choosing to equate that to an OLH. but aside from all that its fun to actually take a look at real cats and see what makes a breed look like itself. oriental longhair vs domestic shorthair faces! and a referenceless human profile
the other thing about this design thinking: my cats arent just stylized, theyre humanized. oriental cats may have a distinct muzzle shape, but the standard random bred cat also has a pretty smooth profile. my cats are drawn with a hard stop based on a human face. even the cats with a convex muzzle shape have that same stop! because i designed them with that muzzle to look like a human nose shape
applestrike being an "oriental longhair" while looking like she does is just as realistic as any warrior cat being an actual breed. it dont matter
i completely forgot i drew aspenstar. riverclan's leader! she is genuinely inclined to kindness/generosity but she's also opportunistic and looks for ways to present riverclan as the most righteous
i guess this doesnt make sense it shouldve been someone who met her post transition but i didnt think about that until now. this is misgendering not tboy swag
i love you female characters who make selfish choices they know will be bad for everyone. i love you female characters who think they're making the right choice but make things worse. i love you female characters who are making the right choice but noone else understands it.
darkpelt is silly and mischievous and bothers people for funsies. shes one of thunderclans best stealth hunters and likes to hide and jump out at her clanmates. bother and scare them for funsies. she loves her littermates so much. she's shy and embarrassed around cats outside thunderclan because she "cant talk" and doent want to open herself up for ridicule. she overworks herself due to thunderclan ableism and smokemist has to check in on her frequently. thats actually the main thing she thinks about when applestrike starts talking about her issues with clan life. darkpelt was raised to believe she always had to give 110% and after her injury she felt she had to Make Up for not being able to do harder jobs. and then shes like hey fuck that actually. why did everyone make me feel like i had to do all that. which extends to just like hey why does Any of this work the way it does and she decided to leave with applestrike
yknow what im looking for more disability opportunities, i can give featherleg some kinda chronic fatigue or pain. riverclan is the most disability friendly clan but hes still experiencing fatigue and/or pain and it makes him frustrated and grumpy. very much an outward appearance and anyone who knows what he deals with gets it and his clanmates see him all the time and get more opportunity to interact with him on good days etc
