Glimmerstar, leader of Sheerclan
Glimmerstar, lithe and swift, leader of Sheerclan, and fastest sprinter in the clan, was abandoned by his father before he could remember and was the only kit of his litter. Thus, protecting his innocent and naïve mother, Shimmersigh, was most important to him. Glimmerpaw trained harder than most apprentices. Naturally talented, his skill in silent-stalking and battle-strategy was unprecedented. Yet, all the talent in the clan did not save his delicate mother from a cruel death where she was found maimed by an unknown assailant.
Orphaned, Glimmerpaw never knew if his mother had been murdered by a feline or beast, and the unanswered question of her death haunts him to this day. Shimmersigh's mysterious death broke Glimmerpaw, so he coped by training obsessively through grief and rage until the deputy noticed his skill. Days later, Glimmerpaw was chosen to be amongst the front-line cats during skirmishes and battles, despite his apprentice-level. This early exposure to battle and responsibility hardened his emotions and desensitized him to fear and pain. He did so well that Icestar himself took over Glimmerpaw's training and grew attached to the young fighter. Icestar helped Glimmerpaw master elegant dance-like battle-moves and silent-hunting-techniques which earned him the warrior name, Glimmerdash. While Icestar refined Glimmerdash's skills, the leader was simultaneously cold and only ever rewarded Glimmerdash with praise if he succeeded. When Glimmerdash failed, Icestar's coldeness and apathy was punishment enough to make Glimmerdash cry, often triggering depressive episodes and explosive rage.
Glimmerdash's personality grew to become arrogant and intense; however, these qualities were fruitful on the battle-field, leaving him with an almost spotless victory reputation. Furthermore, Glimmerdash's intense charisma charmed the clan-cats into mostly unquestionable faith, but his ego grew so large that he was unaware that sometimes he could say offensive things. For all the missions that were successful, there were rare but catastrophic failures that resulted in causalities and serious injury. Although failures were few and far between, Glimmerdash's greatest weakness is fear of failure to the point that he would do anything to prevent losing, resorting to impulsive measures to achieve victory and praise. Enabled by Icestar who's image benefitted from Glimmerdash's lethal skills, Glimmerdash's pride muffled the voices of his advisors in favor of impulsive but sometimes innovative decisions to earn his leader's praise. While Glimmerdash's notoriety grew, the deputy fell ill and died of plague. Icestar immediately appointed Glimmerdash as the deputy of SheerClan; some celebrated, some scowled out of jealousy and distrust. And what's more, the illness that expired the first deputy infected Icestar, stealing his last life. Before Icestar died, he blessed GlimmerDash in a delirium, telling all those who witnessed that he was the "Chosen One" that would "Unite the Night Sky with the Day with The Wings of Avira".
To everybody's surprise, Glimmerdash became Glimmerstar, after only training one apprentice in his young life. The youngest leader ever to take on Sheerclan, Glimmerstar believes he is the best for the job and that he is the Chosen One, calling himself, "The Wings Of Avira". And although his talent is impressive, he is young, inexperienced, uninformed, headstrong, and passionate. His tendency to feel in extremes gives Glimmerstar the potential to bring Sheerclan to glory—Yet, his big ego may threaten the stability of Sheerclan should it be triggered negatively, and his fear of failure and rejection remains to be the only hurtle that Glimmerstar cannot defeat, always feeling a guilty void from his mother’s death and his father’s abandonment and as a result, a never-ending need to impress and be acknowledged as "The Best."
