welcome to the garden - a clangen comic - updates friday-monday - asks are open for me or the characters - main account: jjnostredame (i follow from there!)
Our Garden Under Heaven is a supernatural slice of life following the mission of Imptail and Angelwing - two stars sent from Heaven to find a special cat who will rebuild an ancient Clan. With Heaven's intentions less than clear, they must work together to make the most of this life they've been given, in a land they hardly understand.
In the Beginning // Newest Revelation
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New Updates - Friday - Monday at 7:30 PST
The ask box is always open, and sending asks for both the author and the characters is welcomed and encouraged.
Allegiances -
Moon 12 // Moon 24 // Moon 36
Navigation -
Tag Guide // House Rules + FAQ // Official Playlist
TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR - religious (primarily Christian) imagery/themes/trauma, animal death/injury/abuse/neglect/illness, heavy discussions of grief, mild violence/blood/gore, pregnancy/birth, child abuse/neglect/abandonment, drug-like substances, depression, suicidal ideation, manipulation/gaslighting, indoctrination, overworking/burnout, misgendering/transphobia, eyestrain (bright colors), occasional strong language, domestic violence/abuse, cheating, high control groups/cults, sacrifice, and heavy use of eye contact and imagery - this list will be updated as needed. if you feel i have missed anything, please reach out via the ask box to let me know.
Our Garden Under Heaven is heavily based on a Clangen save, but please do not anticipate it sticking closely to canon Warrior Cats lore. Names, places, and in-universe laws will vary very greatly, and cannot be interpreted through the lens of canon Warrior Cats. While Clan Generator is used as an inspiration for the story, many liberties are taken in order to maintain the flow of the story.
Our Garden Under Heaven is a slice of life, Biblical-inspired fantasy. It takes place far in the past, and pulls much of its inspiration in story, characters, and setting from Bible stories. The story you are about to read is explicitly about religious trauma and existing within a theocratic society that often affects characters negatively. I am heavily critical of most religion and magical thinking, and this story is made as a partial reflection of past experiences with the church as well as my own complicated nostalgia. This blog is not a place for evangelism of any kind. No attempts to argue or convert anyone will be tolerated, and you will not be given a second chance if I see it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR -
You can call me JJ (he/him | in my twenties | ♉️). I consider myself far more of a writer/author than an artist, and this is the first and only comic I have ever made. I have been reading Warrior Cats since I was 8, and playing Clangen for YEARS now. This project began mostly as art practice and a good excuse to try new things and experiment with my art. Please expect plenty of mistakes and inconsistencies with my art style, and be patient with me as I continue to struggle to understand how Tumblr works.
You can find me on my main account - @jjnostredame , and on artfight. I am also active under the same user in the Clangen Creator Discord, which is a great place to come find me if you want to connect. Otherwise, I don't use social media very much. I do also have a Kofi, which I don't advertise much bc frankly monetizing my art scares me very much. But if you feel compelled to pay me, I won't stop you lol.
Please keep in mind I work a real job outside of this space. I have 3 cats and a partner to feed! I sometimes have to put the comic on breaks in order to make sure I don't run out of steam.
Thank you all so much for being here 🙏 I hope you look forward to watching our Garden grow.
Happy to report that I have answered this before !!! Here is a breakdown of naming traditions in the desert. It's a bit looser than canon Warrior cats, and different cats and groups will vary in their own practices. There's also a few things I might not have touched on there, but that's mostly bc they have yet to come up. I plan on doing a part 2 one day, but until then, I hope this helps !!!
let's assess the students and teachers for moon 36!!
i have a lot of big feelings about the current cast... here's a peek into the students, their training, and their feelings about their teachers.
the role of the teacher - to provide all of the training and insight into survival and life in the desert as possible, enough that a student might be able to graduate fully capable of surviving while relying entirely on one's own skills
the role of the student - to listen and learn, to adapt instruction into practical application, to strive to obtain the skills to survive totally independently should the need arise in the future.
these are slightly different for cats like Moonpaw, who is training for a specific role. while i think in canon warrior cats, apprenticeship is done to teach a cat to be a good CLANMATE, students in the Garden are being prepared for life as a whole - whether in the clan or not. the teacher takes on the role a parent would when cats are growing up alone, preparing the student in their charge as though they were their own kits. every student learns differently, and the challenge is typically as informative for the teacher as it is the student.
Olivepaw’s reaction in the latest update sort of surprised me, since up until now she’d seemed to me like the more understanding one between her and her sister. I assume it’ll get explored more in-comic, but can I ask what caused such a strong explosive reaction from her? Has she been insecure about lacking a dad previously? It wouldn’t surprise me since Crow, Honey Fruit, and the MothDreamer kits all have (at least) one, but I don’t remember her being shown to have any problems with it until now lol
Olivepaw is a teenager. She is a very passionate and proud person. She is also very emotional, and very straightforward about her feelings.
She hasn't ever been insecure about not having a father, but that was because she didn't really Need to be. He was dead. She thought all of her family that Was was with her, and no one ever challenged that. When The Dreamer died, she felt like she could share that pain with her friends; because while she never knew the cat who sired her, she certainly Would Have missed him had she gotten a chance to know him. Especially in the Garden, there is a strong emphasis on a parent's relationship to their kits. Parents train their children (or pick the cat who does) and chose their full names. The cats of the Garden do not grow up and leave their parents' sides. They share their lives together.
There's a lot of pain in her reaction to Rubble's existence. It's easy as an outside force to read what Lake says and cross reference that with what has been seen of Rubble. He is textbook awful.
Olivepaw does not know him though, and her only frame of reference for fatherhood comes from the parents of her peers. When she thinks of a father, she thinks of Mulberry Wine, Fisher, Moth to Flame, and The Dreamer. The young cats of the Garden haven't had many truly bad experiences, and she has not seen abuse in a way that would inform her interpretation of Lake's story. She has no reason, in her mind, to believe that Rubble would be cruel to her. She knows lying is usually wrong, she knows a father is usually an important and good thing, and she feels denied a chance to have known him and decided for herself. He might have loved her, after all. And Lake lied about him being dead, so Olive doesn't feel like she has much incentive to believe Lake.
Her feelings are messy and complicated. She once felt very secure in knowing how much her mother loved her, and in her place in the Garden. Now there is another part of her out there, a cat she does not (and is being told she cannot) know. She's idealistic, and her world at home feels shattered. So she builds a version of Rubble that is honest and welcoming, because why would her father be anything different?
I notice that brightest dawn and darkest night have solid genders, but angel and imp dont. Why is that? Were the first pair not stars too?
perhaps it was innate - the subconsciously chosen the moment they took physical form. perhaps it happened even earlier - an energy so deeply baked into themselves even before they were given life. perhaps it was how it is for all creatures - random chance.
or perhaps heaven chose its most decisive stars for the mission - ones that would settle into a binary as easily as determining black from white, or day from night. perhaps it felt the mission necessitated a strong sense of identity.
perhaps when choosing imp and angel, heaven thought a different approach was needed. perhaps it all happened so long ago that no cat may ever know.
Oh you made a mistake encouraging author asks (/silly) because I have THOUGHTS
In your opinion, would Moonpaw still have chosen to train as a prophet/healer if she hadn't been attacked by the hawk? Because that had her spend a lot of time in Dreamer's den as a kit, but she would've been there a lot anyway as Dreamer's kit. Idk I'm curious
(I am Moonpaw's strongest soldier I left an impassioned vote for her in the favorite character poll)
I just wanted to say that I really appreciate how you wrote Olivepaw's reaction to finding out about Rubble. It's messy and not what anyone with an outside perspective (like the audience) would want or react, but Olivepaw is in that painful and confusing stage of not being a child and not being an adult and just had a bombshell dropped on her. She finds out that she has a father and the most important adult in her life lied to her for all of it. She sees what pretty much every other cat her age in the Garden has but she does not and she feels that she was deprived of it for no good reason, because there was only a lie not the truth and if Lake lied about that, how can she believe anything now? (Honey Fruit has Locust and Mulberry Wine, Little Crow had Moth but also the Dreamer, Beetlepaw, Heartpaw, and Moonpaw had Moth and the Dreamer).
It's messy and painful and it's very realistic and I really appreciate how you've shown it so far instead of having everyone immediately rally to Lake's side and perspective.
Thank you!!!! 😭 this means so much to me. I really enjoy the messy and complicated, ESPECIALLY in regards to family. This is a really Really good analysis and breakdown of her mental state at the moment, and I cannot wait to share more of her in the future.
Anyway !!! Here is a more modern Olive from the backlog as an exchange for the lovely ask :3
new comic anon again, on that note, what is something ur excited for ppl to see, out of context
i'm looking forward to getting to showcase where trust has been built, and where it has been broken. i'm excited to talk more about duty, about responsibility, and about sacrifice. i'm a little over halfway through year 5 at this point in my writing, and we are starting to see a new cast of characters come into their own in the Garden. i'm very excited for people to get to know them, and to see how the influence of our current members impacts the generations after them.
also in my backlog right now, i am beginning to get to flesh out two of my favorite favorite relationships in the whole Garden. a few of my favorite cats ever have joined. there's also a handful of action scenes i'm SUPER psyched for. and some deeper exploration of our older members and how living in the Garden has affected them.
and of course, probably the single biggest change to imp and angel's relationship so far...
from someone hoping to start my own comic soon, how do u handle the excitement, when u get the urge to share everything but dont wanna spoil things either. i am losing my mind i dont even have one page but i need to tell everyone everything
Ahhh this is so real and I struggle with it too!!! The temptation for instant gratification is so sweet 🤤
I think this is a very subjective topic, mostly bc I totally believe that if a story is good enough, it will hold up even with spoilers. There are plenty of things I have seen loads of spoilers for, and while suspense is So Fun!!!! It is not always required.
BUT if you want to keep your suspense, there are a few good ways to blow off steam that I try to partake in. The first is to have a spoiler tag !! That way people who do not want to be spoiled for your story can avoid them entirely. You work hard on your art, and it's okay to want to show it off. Remove whatever context you don’t feel comfortable sharing, but give your audience little peeks for fun.
My biggest reccomendation would be to talk to someone!! My boyfriend and I live together, and both of us run comics. We are both deeply embedded in each other's creative process. Em is the only person in the world who has seen Every Single Bit of Our Garden Under Heaven, and who knows where its going. When I want to talk about a future plotline, he's my guy. And I'm his when he has EchoClan stuff to share.
Get comfortable talking about your art !! If you don't have anyone in your life rn that Wants to listen right now, you can find creative communities. The CCC discord allows you to make a channel dedicated to your work. You can post as much or as little as you want, and it's a nice, more private place to share ideas or show off things to come. I often put things i dont want to clog this blog up over there, and I enjoy chatting to other people who are interested in where I'm at on the comic.
I would just find your comfort level. Decide what you feel okay showing off, and have fun doing it. I love spoiling designs or small panel shots if cats are looking especially cute. I like making events out of it, like when I run polls.
Since it sounds like you are just starting out, you might want to take some time to make promo art. Or concept art! Or post little snippets from what you ARE working on. Post vaguely if you want to keep it secret - only you know what's really going on in your head, and it's harder to guess off of a few out of context screenshots than you think. And if someone Does guess? That means you have laid things out in a way that is clear and well presented. Congratulations!!!
hypothetically. how many deaths have been drawn so far? not including the dreamer. i need to get my tinfoil hat back on and start raving about my theories like a madman again
hypothetically. how many deaths have been drawn so far? not including the dreamer. i need to get my tinfoil hat back on and start raving about my theories like a madman again
Been getting a bunch of new followers recently (thank youuuu) so this is just a reminder that the ask box is always Always ALWAYS open :333 come bug me about the kitties pleaseeee
