Bones Like Bare Roots

A non-traditional Warrior Cats roleplay that follows the story of a clan-like structure called a Court being founded from day one. We have been open for 5+ years! The Court is slowly starting to find their footing in the world as a unified group. They've formed a council and are starting to feel ready to face the bizarre world around them. Applications open on November 8th.

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

Basics - Bones Like Bare Roots

We are an extremely non-traditional Discord based Warrior Cats roleplay following the early days of a group called The Court as they struggle to navigate the dangerous and often supernatural world around them. The Court was formed in roleplay. All systems of government and rules have been established and decided on by players in character. The original characters to form the court were summoned mostly by dream, though this is no longer the case for new characters. Be aware that as we have a system now, most characters will have to pass through the council to join the group. 

 Close to application time I will release a post of backstory suggestions and I will be posting adopts from players within the server (with permission from them, of course.) 

In the Court, cats can develop skills like drawing, building, weapon wielding, plant growing, and more. Characters often come in contact with creatures from a world beyond this mortal plane they’ve resided in all their lives. The ultimate goal of the court is to embrace and learn these skills while also learning to stand up against the dangers of the world beyond.

Some common BLBR themes are found family, discovering who you are and what you’re made of, exploring a character’s past mistakes, how individuals change over time, and dealing with the pain others have caused you. Broadly, we also dabble in horror and fantasy. Specifically, cosmic horror.

We have a tabletop component to our roleplay in the form of Expeditions, which have their own rules. 

We encourage you to bring characters who have good chances of staying in the Court and have drive to be there, as we will not at this time split off or expand to other groups. . It’s important to me, as admin, to ensure I can pour my full focus into the players by keeping it set on one group for the time being. We are incredibly character driven. I personally make a dedicated effort to include and further your character's stories. Your character’s choices, friendships, and decisions have a legitimate impact on the world around them. There are consequences for your actions, which can be quite fun!

We are set in Austin, Texas during the present day. You don’t need to know anything about the location to be a part of the roleplay. 

LGBT+ cats and players are always welcome. As of our 4/30/23 opening we are now an 18+ roleplay, but we are still extremely strict about there being no NSFW at any time, including NSFW jokes. Curses are permitted irp and ooc. 

We have slightly odd rules about time that you should know before entering the roleplay. We use liquid time, meaning you are free to have multiple roleplays going on at once and continue them for as long as you see fit. We roleplay within the channels of the Discord server, meaning there may be some overlap between roleplays at times though we have many channels to lessen any cramped feelings.

Time in roleplay is a strange beast for the Court cats. Some have been noted to “freeze” at a certain age due to their interaction with the life-prolonging death god they regularly interact with.The ooc reason for this is that due to the slower pace of BLBR or due to IRL struggles, it can be difficult to play out the life stages you want for your character in as much detail as you would like. We do follow regular life time passage as of right now, so you are free to age up your character naturally too. It’s a weird but useful feature for those who want to opt in, but you are in control of how your character ages, so it is fully up to your preference.

If you have any questions about any of these things or the lore, feel free to send in an ask. I’m always, always happy to help.

Our website has the most updated and concise information about BLBR! 

[halcyonmine]

Fifteen years ago, something shifted in the fabric of the universe. Whatever it was... it was imperceivable to most creatures, and life went on as normal. Nine years ago, that shift turned into a tear, and from that tear creatures not of this world came spilling out. Everything began to descend into chaos, human society began to break down, and then, two years ago, the humans just. Disappeared. However... cats have never been so fragile. The species that domesticated itself is known to be resilient, and knew exactly how to adapt. Sure, things weren't as easy anymore, but they certainly weren't going to lay down and show their bellies. Rumours began to circulate about a paradise, a haven among this new chaos, where prey ran abundant and conflicts were minimal. The journey, it was said, would be long and perilous, but the reward at the end would certainly be worth it. The question now is... do you have what it takes to travel to Halcyon Mine?

Halcyon Mine is an 18+ fourm-based fantasy inspired feline roleplay that borrows from multiple different sources. We feature a plot-driven roleplay where different events (called "Trials") drive progression, with periods of downtime between each trial for you to explore how the world has affected your character!

[Applications are now OPEN!] They will remain open for two weeks, until February 14, 2025.

I have added a link to our guidebook onto this blog! The rest of the site has been mostly hidden from guests and registrations are closed, but please take the time to read through the guidebook before applying.

If you have any questions that are not answered in the guidebook, feel free to send in an ask! I will do my best to ensure all asks are answered in a timely manner.

* the text in the square brackets above ([ ]) is a link to the google form and can be clicked!

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

Check out Halcyon Mine, a project started by our beloved mod Buzz that I'm very excited about!!!

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

The Court has just gone through their first official public trial! Skinkthorn was on the stand for various transgressions, including but not limited to multiple counts of murder and kidnapping, as well as unethical magical experimentation.

In the end, twenty two members voted. The verdict was that he would be imprisoned with court-mandated counseling, and that he could only be released after multiple conditions are met. This discussion is still ongoing!

This was BLBR's first big event in 2025, but it's far from the last! We've got a special winter-themed event coming up next weekend, as well as lots of other tasty things down the line >:) As always, a big thank you to our wonderful userbase! It's so nice to be able to run contriversial events like this one and trust that our players will treat it and each other with the respect everyone deserves!

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

Alright, it's that time! By the time you're reading this message, all applicants have been contacted. Check friend requests, DMs, and all that good stuff!

We have only been unable to contact one person, whose Discord username didn't work and I can't seem to find the other social media listed. If you applied with a delightful character called Driftwood, please contact us or friend ocellifera on Discord!

We were humbled and thrilled by the number of applications and interest-- BLBR is truly a project of love and it seriously enriches me to know that others have as much love for it as I do.

For any of you who did not make this application period, thank you for applying regardless and know that it is truly never personal! BLBR is far from my last roleplay project, and whether we see you over on @halcyonmine or my own future project WWOTEO, I look forward to our paths crossing again.

What happens now? Well, we roleplay! We'll be leading our players new and old through this final arc of BLBR, working on storylines, tying loose ends, plotting, having shenanigans... all sorts of things. I may provide occasional updates here, or field questions, but ultimately my focus will be on the roleplay side of things.

Thank you again, and I can't express enough how deeply I appreciate all the love shown over the course of not only this application period, but over the public lifetime of BLBR.

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

Update

Hopping on here to provide an update now that I have a better view of the situation! With all the festivities and IRL responsibilities, it’ll be much easier for us to set our concrete goal of sending out invites on Monday, December 2nd.

So sorry for the delays, I know we have a lot of excited people waiting to hear back— and we’re excited too!!! The final week of November just ended up being much busier than I anticipated on top of power outages in the New Brunswick area where one of my beloved mods lives. Thanks as well for the birthday wishes sent in! Buzz’s birthday was yesterday, Sibyl’s is tomorrow! 3/4 of the mods are born in November, I guess you have to be a November guy to end up a BLBR mod.

Again, my apologies and thanks for your understanding!

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

Do you prioritize adopts over OCs, or vice versa, or is it a 50/50 situation? I ask because I run a (much smaller) RP server and I was wondering if your process was different.

It's honestly never occurred to me to prioritize one or the other! I generally judge applications purely based on quality of the content. Whether they're an OC or an adopt is not something I really pay attention to. I look for well-developed characters, skilled writers, and trying to get a feel for the player behind the writing.

That's part of why when I love an application but aren't able to give the adopt to that individual, I will instead provide another adopt or invite them to apply with an OC. We have one prospective player that will likely be in that situation.

We're not a super huge server by the way! I always wonder how many players folks think we have. BLBR will never exceed 50 total players, as that's about the amount I'm comfortable moderating with the amount of mods I have and the limit of how many character plotlines we can manage. Generally we were able to open multiple times due to natural shedding (I notice about 10 percent of players in any given roleplay opening just won't take to it, this number varies but I've seen this in every roleplay I've ever been in) and over such considerable time people's lives can change a lot and they feel more comfortable taking a spectator role or leaving to focus on IRL things.

As a note, players have been selected and sheets are being made now. Our soft date is the 28th to finish making sheets by, but with Thanksgiving for us folks in the states-- our goal for invites may be best delegated to the 29th.

We've also got two mod birthdays this week!!! My gift to them is putting them in the mines to work on character sheets. [Sarcastic, but if we are delayed further with any life events, holidays, etc, I'll make sure to let the blog know!]

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

how many apps did you get in total? i know you said you had 14 at one point but im curious!

Astoundingly we closed with 32 total! I’m floored and completely flattered. We’re just about finished reading through now, and now we’re in the decision making and sheet making process!

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

The world is changing. Kits are born still, elders are fading, and colds are claiming the lives of healthy cats. Prey grows more and more scarce, all of your neighbors have the flu, and it grows harder to lift yourself from the nest with each passing day. How many more losses will it take for you to seek safer grounds or, at least, answers?

This final arc of BLBR focuses specifically on magic draining from the world. Once, magic permeated the world like an invisible ocean, providing for healthy plants, animals, and stable conditions. Now, that well is all but depleted, with the last pocket remaining on Court lands and in the souls of the individuals across the world. 

The Bright Realms, a surreal and horrible world the Court can access through a strange little well on their land, is alive and hungry. It drains the world of magic. Magic can be defined as many things, but ultimately the 'spark of life' or 'soul' is made entirely of magic. With each slow drip being taken from the world, more will die. Eventually, nothing will remain.

We are an 18+ Discord roleplay vaguely inspired by Warrior Cats that explores themes of fantasy, magic, cosmic horror, body horror, and found family. We offer a TTRPG style skill system and crafting! Our story follows a group called The Court in their struggle to now find many paws to prevent the end of the world. We will expect you to be coming in without much context and we are fully prepared to help you along and encourage you to learn as your characters do. As this is our final arc, we have about a year guaranteed left in roleplay-- but likely more! This is the last time we will open to the public.

See all information including our rules, themes, backstory suggestions, adopts, and more on our website!

Have any questions? Send in an ask, we're always happy to help.

Applications are open and will be until the 22nd, at which point we will go through and send approvals and character sheets.

Apply Here!

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

Applications close tomorrow! I’ll begin reviewing then.

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

Applications close tonight!!! Midnight CST!

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

Going to close them up now! Thank you all so so so much for your interest, it means the world. we can't wait to start reading through!

Like stated, it may take us some time to read and then make sheets for incoming players. As of now, estimate to see our 'all players have been contacted' notice around the 28th just to be safe-- but it may be earlier depending on mod scheduling. Thank you again!

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

The world is changing. Kits are born still, elders are fading, and colds are claiming the lives of healthy cats. Prey grows more and more scarce, all of your neighbors have the flu, and it grows harder to lift yourself from the nest with each passing day. How many more losses will it take for you to seek safer grounds or, at least, answers?

This final arc of BLBR focuses specifically on magic draining from the world. Once, magic permeated the world like an invisible ocean, providing for healthy plants, animals, and stable conditions. Now, that well is all but depleted, with the last pocket remaining on Court lands and in the souls of the individuals across the world. 

The Bright Realms, a surreal and horrible world the Court can access through a strange little well on their land, is alive and hungry. It drains the world of magic. Magic can be defined as many things, but ultimately the 'spark of life' or 'soul' is made entirely of magic. With each slow drip being taken from the world, more will die. Eventually, nothing will remain.

We are an 18+ Discord roleplay vaguely inspired by Warrior Cats that explores themes of fantasy, magic, cosmic horror, body horror, and found family. We offer a TTRPG style skill system and crafting! Our story follows a group called The Court in their struggle to now find many paws to prevent the end of the world. We will expect you to be coming in without much context and we are fully prepared to help you along and encourage you to learn as your characters do. As this is our final arc, we have about a year guaranteed left in roleplay-- but likely more! This is the last time we will open to the public.

See all information including our rules, themes, backstory suggestions, adopts, and more on our website!

Have any questions? Send in an ask, we're always happy to help.

Applications are open and will be until the 22nd, at which point we will go through and send approvals and character sheets.

Apply Here!

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

Applications close tomorrow! I’ll begin reviewing then.

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

Applications close tonight!!! Midnight CST!

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

sorry question: when u say apps close tomorrow, do u mean that apps close at like midnight tomorrow or midnight tonight or at some point tomorrow?

Midnight tomorrow! CST time, as that’s my own time zone. Means you have the rest of today and tomorrow to send in any final applications!!

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

The world is changing. Kits are born still, elders are fading, and colds are claiming the lives of healthy cats. Prey grows more and more scarce, all of your neighbors have the flu, and it grows harder to lift yourself from the nest with each passing day. How many more losses will it take for you to seek safer grounds or, at least, answers?

This final arc of BLBR focuses specifically on magic draining from the world. Once, magic permeated the world like an invisible ocean, providing for healthy plants, animals, and stable conditions. Now, that well is all but depleted, with the last pocket remaining on Court lands and in the souls of the individuals across the world. 

The Bright Realms, a surreal and horrible world the Court can access through a strange little well on their land, is alive and hungry. It drains the world of magic. Magic can be defined as many things, but ultimately the 'spark of life' or 'soul' is made entirely of magic. With each slow drip being taken from the world, more will die. Eventually, nothing will remain.

We are an 18+ Discord roleplay vaguely inspired by Warrior Cats that explores themes of fantasy, magic, cosmic horror, body horror, and found family. We offer a TTRPG style skill system and crafting! Our story follows a group called The Court in their struggle to now find many paws to prevent the end of the world. We will expect you to be coming in without much context and we are fully prepared to help you along and encourage you to learn as your characters do. As this is our final arc, we have about a year guaranteed left in roleplay-- but likely more! This is the last time we will open to the public.

See all information including our rules, themes, backstory suggestions, adopts, and more on our website!

Have any questions? Send in an ask, we're always happy to help.

Applications are open and will be until the 22nd, at which point we will go through and send approvals and character sheets.

Apply Here!

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

Applications close tomorrow! I’ll begin reviewing then.

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

Can our character be affiliated with any of the groups listed on the official website (ex. The Sewer Cats, Branches of Truth, The Order) before joining?

Sure! A couple notes for any folks considering the same:

Some of this is stated on the website, so pardon any repeat information! The Sewer Cats are pretty few and far between after being taken out by the Order. Regardless, cats could definitely still come from that background. It was dangerous to be associated as a sewer cat at one point, but that time has passed and perhaps some are coming out of the woodwork?

The Truth's group is open to make cats from! We have BLBR players who are his children and one in particular, Dirge, who is thinking of stepping in and taking over the group. This is something to just keep in mind for all that, and if you do go that route you could plot with that player once approved!

The Order is all but crushed out at this point. Nobody wants to return to that lifestyle and be outcast from society in the city, which is only now beginning to truly heal. Of course, your cats having been part of that big brutal group in the past is completely fine though! Better be careful who they share that information with, though...

We have a group called the Pack on the website whose player-run and is directed by an old Court Member. This player is on a hiatus right now, though, so keep that in mind if you consider the Pack-- not much may be able to be done with that at this time.

We also have a small group of cats who live in a food truck park and trade all kinds of ingredients for containers.

And finally, we have a group of refugee warriors who don't quite call themselves a clan. I've been calling them the Ladybird Lake warriors, as that's where they live. They don't follow traditional clan life exactly, but they still teach and hunt and keep similar traditions to keep the culture alive. At this time, they're hesitant to jump back to clanlife-- as it comes with a lot of old wounds. The Order sought to wipe them out as well, and many clans have been lost to sickness or other events. It almost feels dangerous to claim the label still. This is a looser group, I have a few NPCs here but if anyone wanted to take charge and develop this more-- I'd be happy to allow you to with your application.

Let me know if you have any specific questions!

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

how many applications so far? are any adopts in particular need?

Hey!

Right now, we're sitting at about 14 apps! Not bad for a roleplay several years in the running. As a reminder, we're able to take a really decent number of players so don't let that number discourage you.

Our adopt apps have been updated on the doc and masterlist, and I'll lay them out here too!

Shadestar - 1 Brunswick - 2 Wayfinder - 1 Strange chick - 2

Adopts without auditions: Lavender, Truffle, Echo, Junebug, Dulce, Hopeful, and Ezra

I hope that helps your decision making process along!

Applications will be closed and reviewed this Friday! If you're considering applying, try to do so soon!

Apply here!

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

Will we still be contacted if our application is denied? I feel so tense waiting :sob:

Hello!

Typically we do not reach out if you were not one of the accepted applicants (as we feel that it's worse to see a request/message from a mod just to find out you weren't accepted, particularly since our main contact method is Discord and you can’t always receive a message until you accept the request) - however, we do post on the blog once all acceptances/contact attempts have been sent out! That will be probably around November 29th, as staff will be reviewing each application in detail and then making character sheets as well.

Thanks for your interest and we look forward to reading your application!

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

Hello! Would a character with bird wings be acceptable as one who has already lived a life dealing with magic? I still plan to submit an application either way, but just thought I'd ask!

Hah, yes, I'd allow that! As long as it's reasoned out, I'm open minded.

The benefit of being this far into the roleplay and the benefits of starting to get into all the juicy magic stuff does mean I'm willing to let folks get a little weird with characters.

Have fun! I look forward to seeing your application!

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

What is the technology level of the humans as of modern day in the RP's world? Since it seems like they still exist

This may be one of our weirder selling points, but we follow real time mostly! We have exceptions for liquid time in roleplays and events, but generally we're set in 2024. Humans are modern day humans-- TVs, fridges, grocery stores and all.

The Court goes on an annual run to a local store every year to steal everything they can get their paws on. It's probably a documented local phenomenon, and maybe some keen naturalists have taken note of a really extensive colony of cats sighted in the woods. The Court lives on protected land, though, so they don't get much human activity at all stepping on their toes. They do live by a neighborhood on one side, but it's not exactly unusual to see cats walking around there... though it might be a strange sight to see them elaborately dressed in baby-sized peanut costumes or wearing armor-- both of which some characters own in roleplay.

Humans will see the last of the effects of magic draining on the world. Likely by the time they'll have realized something globally is going on not attributed to other standard human horrors, it would be too late anyways. Humans in BLBR are very detached from magic, as it is a modern world and they have no reason to question otherwise.

One of the reasons I loved Warriors roleplay is that it explores the world on a small scale. You grow to learn about the herbs in the area, see each nook and cranny in the forest as a possible camp for a clan, and see the world from this small perspective. I think, in that way, it's fun and enriching for me personally to have the creatures in charge of preventing the end of the world-- as silly as it might sound-- come from that perspective. They're observant, they're in touch with how the prey is running, how the herbs are growing, the rates of litters being born dropping would be a noticeable occurrence on a community-wide scale. And, in some way, they're a little more in tune with the imperceptible. Cats are notorious after all for watching shadows and tracking things we can't see.

I think often about the effects of end-game BLBR. If the Court is able to prevent the end and restore magic to the natural world, then things would change drastically in the relations between humans and felines and probably all animals. It would be a very different world in the aftermath of this roleplay. I have a concept written up for a post-BLBR roleplay about the setting it would leave behind. Since this is my final Warriors roleplay, though, I may hand that concept off for someone else to take the reins on if they were so inclined. It's fun to think about though. I'm someone who takes primary interest in taking what might be a bit of a silly concept and trying to explore it to its fullest extent.

So yes, our cats do magic, face horrors untold, and sometimes die trying. Meanwhile, there are still humans going to their 9-5s, watching the new season of Bake Off, and thinking about switching cell phone plans. Strange concept, but it works for us and I find it personally enriching!

[boneslikebarerootsrp]

can you give us irp posts to help us understand more about what will be expected in roleplay samples? what do court members have to say about potential newcomers?

Sure, I'll share a few snippets from roleplays! Shared with permission, this is just an exchange between me and Buzz after our last event. Generally, we range a lot! Some folks write a lot, some folks keep to briefer posts, some match length. Really, the writing sample doesn't need to be anything complex or long and nor does it even need to be Warriors RP specifically. As long as you're putting a little thought into it and showing us what you can do, I'm sure your ability will shine.

As for the Court's impression of incoming members... I reached out to ask! Shared with permission as well.

We have honestly a pretty wide range! I think it's going to put new players at a really fun and interesting spot. Luster joined the Court recently... as a prisoner initially, for context as well so they are even more torn up about it all.

We may have some early crafting practice events with new members to start to build up new quarters for having new faces around. Sounds like fun to me!