Well, it's been a while since I uploaded anything. I've been on vacation with my family and haven't drawn much. But you just have to keep motivated.
I saw a challenge on Twitter to take characters from different franchises and recreate them as Warrior Cats without any fantasy elements, so I tried doing it with some characters I like… They're a really quirky little group XD
Besides the designs, I gave each of them some lore to adapt them a bit.Get ready, here comes a wall of text. Don’t let it show that I love writing AUs XDDD :
-In this AU, Kil'jaeden is called Kyle (a name given by humans) and was born in a cat breeding facility. When he grew up, he was separated from his mother and put on display in a pet store. There he met Velen, and they became inseparable. Since they weren’t adopted, they spent a lot of time in the store, where they also met a mini Archimonde (Archie here). They had resigned themselves to living there until Sargeras (a rather problematic human in this AU) decided to buy all three of them.
As soon as they arrived at the house, Velen sensed that something was very wrong with their owner and that they had to get out of there. Archie and Kyle didn’t want to leave, because there they could live more comfortably than in the wild. Velen didn’t hesitate and escaped as soon as he could, going to live in the forest. Luckily, some forest cats accepted him, and he ended up becoming a healer.
As for Kyle, he held a grudge against him for leaving and swore to destroy all the forest cats. Unfortunately, Velen’s suspicions were correct: Sargeras was a horrible owner, giving them only the minimum attention to keep them alive and using them as punching bags whenever he had outbursts of rage. Although the little attention allowed Kyle to leave the house and organize attacks on the forest with the city cats—and ambush his former best friend every time he went out to gather herbs.
Over the years, his energy and fury have decreased, and he went from leading the ambushes to merely inciting them. He doesn’t even fight his nemesis anymore; if they meet, they just hiss at each other and then proceed to catch up on the news from both places (sometimes it’s Velen himself who seeks him out to chat and share tongues). Every day, he thinks more and more about running away with Velen, but his pride keeps him tied to Sargeras...for now…
-The fate of Morgott in this AU doesn’t stray much from the canon. He was born into a group of sectarian cats with a very specific religious faith and was rejected, along with his twin, by their mother for having Lykoi traits in some sewers. While his brother took a bloodthirsty path, Morgott, upon discovering his lineage, tried to earn the favor of the cat-sect by protecting their territories and confronting their enemies—but no matter what he did, his family never loved him. Even when the group itself split and destroyed each other, they continued to reject him.
As time passed, his energy has waned, and he no longer guards with the same intensity. Yet, he refuses to abandon his duty, even when there’s nothing left to protect. The local cats nicknamed him Dustywolf, partly as a joke, but since his mother never gave him a name, he had to accept it.
-Caine was adopted as a kitten by the manager of a tech company, who thought having a pet in the office would brighten up the atmosphere. However, he was a very intense and energetic cat, which was seen as 'problematic' (it’s not very pleasant when a cat jumps on the keyboard and resets the computer). They decided to replace him with a more relaxed kitten and abandoned him on the street.
Little Caine didn’t understand why the humans had left him there and thought it was an accident. With great effort, he managed to return to the office, only to discover that he had been replaced by Abel… and that the humans liked Abel more than him. In an uncontrollable fit of jealousy, he sneaked in and killed little Abel. He thought this would make his former owners love him more, but all he got were expressions of pure horror.
He was forced to flee and has lived on the streets ever since. Since that day, Caine has been wondering what Abel did to earn the attention that he didn’t. So, he began investigating humans to understand them and win their favor. He tries to imitate them when they speak, walks on two legs, tastes their food, and even 'smiles' (he doesn’t really understand it; he saw that humans sometimes show their teeth and it somehow makes them happy, so he goes around baring his fangs. It’s more creepy than anything else).
He claims that one day he will master humans, but no cat believes him. However, they usually leave him alone, because they know what he is capable of when he gets angry…
-In this AU, Lady Miranda is a mother who couldn’t overcome the death of her daughter, and instead of fusing with an ancient fungus, she started adopting cats nonstop (Mewgenics moment). As usually happens in these situations, having so many cats without any knowledge, the house cats were neglected, stressed, and forced to fight each other just to get a bit of attention.
Salvatore was kidnapped by Miranda one morning while he was playing in the garden of the house where he lived with his previous owners. Upon arriving at the new home, he suffered greatly due to the unfamiliar environment and aggression from the other cats. He lost his fur and began overeating, which led to obesity. He developed trauma and doesn’t dare go outside during the day, causing his skin to pale.
He became a broken toy, yet his new appearance earned him Miranda’s slight attention;she would heal his wounds and pet him occasionally. This caused Stockholm syndrome, preventing him from returning to his real home and making him praise her above all else.
He usually eats any food that falls on the floor and feels a great fascination for TV soap operas, even though he doesn’t understand anything. He uses an old, filthy blanket to calm himself. He is not aggressive, but if a cat bothers him too much, he defends himself by rolling over on him.
The four of them ended up forming a little club without even realizing it. At first, Kyle and Dustywolf had several clashes due to both of their temperaments. One complicated night, Dustywolf was attacked in an ambush by several cats that almost killed him. Luckily, Kyle was nearby and decided to help him. They began a relationship of mutual respect, which led to Dustywolf joining Kyle’s raids and forming a deep friendship. In their old age, they sit together and gossip about what’s happening in the city, complaining about the young cats like retirees on a park bench.
On another night, Salvatore decided to rebel and tried to run away from the house. After wandering through several streets, he felt remorse and wanted to return, but he didn’t remember the way and ended up crying in the alley where the two old cats were gossiping. They felt sorry for him and asked if he would stop bothering them if they took him home. He said yes, so they quickly located the crazy cat lady’s house and returned him. Salvatore liked them (mainly because they were almost the only cats who had been kind to him), so the next night he went to visit again. Dustywolf didn’t know whether to accept the weird cat, but Kyle convinced him by saying he was very manipulable and could be useful—for example, if a dog chased them, they could use him as a sacrifice (and unintentionally, he reminded Kyle a bit of himself and his relationship with an irresponsible owner).
Then Caine arrived. None of the three had the energy or will to run from him, so they ended up listening to his chatter all night. He would tell them about his 'progress' in understanding human behavior, and although the old cats laughed at him, they encouraged him to keep going (with their little cat brains, they thought there was a chance it could work and they might benefit from it T-T). He also occasionally roped them into a 'venture,' and they would end up exploring an abandoned factory or helping him steal something from a store.
I haven’t been able to decide the 'ending' of this AU because I can’t choose between giving them all a happy ending, free in the forest, or a conclusion more faithful to the canon, even though it would hurt me.
And that’s it for the post. What I’ve enjoyed most about this little challenge is developing the relationships between the characters and all that. I don’t know if anyone will read all of this, but if you do, I hope you liked it :D. I might make more little things from this weird AU; a duo between Archimonde and Mohg could get pretty intense. We’ll see. If you have any suggestions, it would be great to read them ^^
