Welcome to Rooted-Clangen, the story of Starclan's Favored- Root!
Rooted is intended for an 18+ audience. Please proceed accordingly.
This is a ClanGen blog that uses Sel's Megamerge (found in the CG discord)! This has a loose storyline and may have plot holes or unfinished threads. There will be lots of drama (hopefully)!
Updates are currently scheduled for Wednesdays & Sundays at 5pm Newfoundland Canada time!
Rooted is on ComicFury!
See pages & WIPs early on P@treon!
I also run: @bisonclangen, @honeycombcolony, & @warmclan !
Content warnings (implied or explicit):
Animal death (all ages), murder, self-harm, suicide/suicidal thoughts, manipulation/gaslighting, all forms of abuse, cannibalism, cult/religious themes, bright colors, derealization
TAGS:
Updates - #rootedmoon
Asks - #answered
Mod talking - #yappin
Warnings are tagged as #tw (ex. #tw blood)
Characters are tagged by their adult name regardless of if they live that long.
I am grateful to each and every person that even THINKS about Root, let alone draws or writes about her in any form. You guys are so kind and I am so thankful!!
(sorry if you've answered something similar before)
with all the positive encouragement you post about it, I'm really considering making a clangen blog. since you have a few, is there anything you recommend before starting? a certain aspect of planning or anything you wished you would've decided on sooner?
Don't apologize, I'm happy to answer! In fact, I'm surprised people are even asking me, I'm just some guy. This is my second comic to even have traction (my first was a Steven Universe one lol)
BUT I shall answer below, and even provide my own personal Clangen Template that I made to track things- for anyone to use!
Firstly: if you want to do it, just do it! You don't have to commit to it forever, or even long, unless you really want to practice your professional ability to push through art slumps/lack of motivation. Especially in the clangen space, it's not taboo to just close/abandon a run you're no longer into.
Now, for more specific answers I guess...
What I recommend:
Keep notes starting from moon 0 if you have any inkling you want to make a blog. This means you may have runs you write several moons of before deciding it's not interesting/connecting/etc that are now useless, but it's better to have those and delete them than to not and have to backtrack ideas.
Pick a main character, or a couple, and stick with them. Trying to focus on all the cats quickly becomes an impossible task, and people won't connect as well as with a rotating cast as they will with a few set characters.
If the main character(s) dies, pick another to take over that role and slowly introduce them into the spotlight well before the other's death. Helps people swap over lol
Actually set up a world for the clan. Where is it set? What're the seasons like? How do they live? How are they different from the other clans, if there are any? It helps you with setting up practices, what characters value, and people like learning about it!
Keep posts focused on the blog. You can post about other things now and then, like life and other projects, but people follow you for a clangen blog in the end and may drift away if you post other things too often. I'd also say avoid venting, personal issues, etc as it can make folks uncomfortable and the blog isn't a diary.
UNDERSTAND YOU MAY GET PUSHBACK/CRITICISM/HATE. This is especially true if you handle sensitive subject matter like abuse, sa, transphobia & gender related issues, etc. If you want to limit this, you will need to turn off anon asks. I also suggest not even replying to them, as attention just brings more messages. It can suck, but blocking and moving on is key <3
What I wish I had done:
Kept the main character design simpler. I love Root, and I can handle drawing her again and again, but if I could have gone back I would have made her design/markings more simple. Find other ways to make cats look different than complex pelts, like weight and fur styles. You'll see me take this into account with later designs.
Cared less about interaction. For a lot of my starting posts, I was watching the number of notes very often and really tied my enjoyment of my comic to that. Truth is, some stuff works and others don't, and now that I am less concerned about that I find it easier to work on it.
Interacted with other blogs more from the start. I didn't realize just how much getting a comment or ask or reblog made me feel seen and happy- and while it's not everything it's nice. So I started doing that for other blogs, and it has led to me making some lovely friends.
Set up a solid genre. I started my blog heavy on horror but did not carry that into later moons because, well, it didn't fit. However that still impacts expectations to new readers- and has left me finding ways to weave it into the story as things go. So if I could have, I would have kept to a genre for the story from the start, but I'm still happy with where I'm at.
AND THAT'S WHAT I HAVE!!! I'm not expert and I have no say on what you want to do, so these are just my personal tips.
Now for the thing some people might be interested in... my personal Clangen Template! Here are previews of it empty and filled!
(Yes those are early notes of Hymnclan)
If you want to use it for yourself, HERE YOU GO! Please please please credit me if you do just by @ ing this account in your pinned or smthn, I worked hard on it! Just go to file -> make a copy.
hi im sorry if this has been asked before but... why do you keep reposting the last moonskip? /genq
I tend to reblog the latest moon when I feel that there's been a lot of posts after it so it's easier to find when the next one comes out <3 Sometimes I do it a few times but it it annoys ppl I can always stop??
I see your traumatized child and I raise you: more trauma.
Au under the cut (brief mentions of animal death and illness) ((im sorry i made her life worse rather then better <3))
Sundapple is the medicine cat of her clan, Fieldclan, and can be maternal and kind as she is merciless and stubborn. (She’s my evil med cat oc <3).
Fieldclan has been at war with their neighbor Fogclab for as long as Sundapple can remember. A war she eventually finds out her leader, Willowstar, is encouraging. However, Willowstar threatens to kill her if she comes forward with the information and so Sundapple is forced to work with her leader.
However, she comes up with a plan and ventures out to find the herbs needed for it. In her way she instead finds this poor kit all alone and smelling of rot and death. Sundapple, seeing this both as an opportunity and feeling genuine sorrow for the kit, takes little Rootkit home and insists Willowstar make’s her Sundapple’s new appearance.
She raises Rootkit, soon Rootpaw, as her own her beloved daughter-but also inducts Rootpaw into her plan. She tells Rootpaw of Willowstar’s deception and admits to Rootpaw that she has been poisoning their clan mates, but for good reason! It’s to save them all, you see, if there’s no healthy warriors to fight Willowstar will have to give up the war! Totally 💯 valid reason right? (lol)
“It’s our job as healers to save our clan, no matter what. This is how we do it. This is how we survive. This must be our path.”
Sundapple isn’t a big star clan fan but once she realizes Rootpaw is she definitely starts lying and saying this is what starclan would want them to do!
And depending on how loyal Rootpaw is Sundapple may even admit to killing some of Willowstar’s most loyal followers.
Eventually however, Willowstar finds out and attempts to kill Sundapple for her actions-the Molly escapes but it’s unknown to everyone. With Willowstar telling the clan that Sundapple was a traitor and they killed her for the clan’s safety, leaving Rootpaw mourning her adopted mother.
For a few moons Rootpaw is left by herself-does she run away? Stay with the clan? If she does Willowstar keeps a close eye on her. If she leaves she may just find her mother
If Rootpaw were to stay and earn her warrior name, Sundapple would try to approach her by the Starpoint(the starclan meeting place in this world), and ask her to kill Willowstar, providing no the death berries.
Rootpaw is left uncertain and speaks to starclan-earning her full name but not given any answer by them.
Conflicted and alone, she’s left with a big choice to make…
—
Less story and more just personality and such:
I think Sundapple would be very kind and sort of ‘lovebombing,’ for lack of a better word, to young Root. She spoils her rotten. Later this is somewhat replaced with guilt-tripping, but tbh she never fully stops spoiling Root.
That baby wants anything she’ll get it, and Sundapple would open up a lot while sharing meals in private together-not about her plans but about Sun’s life and the war and her more genuine personality.
Root would also be forced to learn to be a on battlefield medic lol.
—
Ahahah sorry I wrote so much. I got exited! You’re free to add whatever you want or think about it differently this is mostly just following Sundapple’s plot as an outline. Hope you like it!
(Already thinking of an au of this au where Root is the one to tattle on Sun because cannon Root seems like she’d be hesitant to murder for what’s a bad reason and also maybe smart enough to realize Sun’s manipulating her lol.)
An evil mother? Let's gooooo!! I love that you are considering an AU of the AU where Root isn't tricked, but tbh this idiot would be easily manipulated!! Especially with lovebombing <3
Root has 0 real foundation of how being a healer really is done and she is willing to trust that her new mom is telling the truth and that the whispers from Starclan she can't quite make out are agreeing. Just like she excels in canon, she becomes a very good poison maker and very underestimated due to her childish nature. She's energetic and playful, but loyal to only one cat, and that's Sundapple.
When her mother is 'killed' Root starts to plant the seeds of doubt amongst her clanmates, using her clear connection with the dead to tell them their leader is leading them down the wrong path. When she goes to get her name, and sees her mother again, she is so happy that she would do anything to make her proud and get her back into the clan. So there's no hesitation to take the deathberries and do what needs to be done. Root might be childish, but that lack of emotional regulation means the rage is burning too.
After the deed is done, and the blood is on her paws (after all, the berries could only do so much but one can damage a still body <3 ), she brings back her mother and asks to be named Rootshine after her.
I saw @rooted-clangen's YCH template and I couldn't resist having Otterstar and Shinemuzzle(kit) find her!! Lore under the cut.
Since Otter and Shine were the only survivors of their birth clan after a coyote attack, I think they would be able to relate to Root's struggles and grief--especially Shine, who was also just a little baby when his clan died and could have definitely used the company of a peer. Then a few moons later, when Otter has her FIVE kits, I bet it would be a whole lot easier/more fun to have both Shine and Root babysitting them while Otter hunts!
Shinemuzzle's ClanGen trait is "unusually strong fighter", so I like to think that he wasn't necessarily "meant" to be a medicine cat, but was chosen purely because the position needed filling and there was nobody else to do it... So I would imagine that Root might take up that role instead! Since Mossclan lives in a cave system, I wonder if the dim lighting and echoey acoustics would make her visions of Starclan worse...
And who knows what ripple effect her being the medicine cat would have on the rest of the clan! Maybe Podkit doesn't die of kittencough, or maybe other cats DO succumb to illness when they don't in canon. It's fun to think about!
Otterstar!!!! I love Mossclan so tysm for this <3 I may not have an adult design for this AU but it is very interesting to consider how she may have changed things for them... Being in the caves is like her original home so maybe she tries to morph Mossclan into somethng more like Hymnclan thanks to her old ghosts haunting her? Maybe she becomes a cat lost to visions and hides away... so much to ponder
What’s this? Posystar found a little kitten! Well, Shatterkit has a new little sister I guess (spoilers for the future underneath)
Shatterkit is beyond excited to have another cat other than her parents and Pixie in the clan and a kitten at that, maybe a bit too excited
With Root joining the clan, the future changes for the better. With 2 kitten, Pixie’s murder plan falls through and he is shortly exiled and Shatterkit gets to live to see her apprentice ceremony.
While Saffronbark is not exactly the happiest with the new kitten, she learns to love her two kits
Root goes to join her adopted mom in becoming a medicine cat apprentice. Saffron is vehemently against anything to do with those Starclan cats, and if Starclan sees a new and impressionable apprentice that can be used to further their prophecy, whose to say
Posy I’m so sorry I haven’t drawn any of you in almost a year I’ll remember what you look like soon
This is SO good?? I adore your style and the kitties have such awesome designs... I'll have to draw Saffronbark sometime. ALSO the little fluffed up Root??? Peak!! I don't have ideas for an adult version for this AU but I am so happy her being there makes life better for them <333
Au: SilkyMint and Robinkit was looking for an old territory that A barncat told them about, when hunting/ looking for herbs SilkyMint came across the Rootkit, after noticing no mother around he made the choice to take her with them, which as the eventually founded DandelionClan, where for a few moons She was raised along side Robinkit as her little sister.
SilkyMint soon realized Rootkit had almost no interest in hurting others, offered to teach her the way of a medicine cat. Eventually earning her name as RootHarvest!
(Sorry if this is terrible, I love RootRiver and she deserves a excellent adoptive family)
Okay but Rootharvest goes HARD as a name?? She would be so so happy to have a family and to be able to repay them taking her in by keeping them healthy and safe in her own way. I really love Silkymint's design too, what a pretty kitty!!!
TYSM for participating and I'm sorry this is so late dhfkjsd
@rooted-clangen here's Rootkit and my gal Minnowfin!!
Some small story stuff down here :D
Minnowfin met Rootkit while running away from her old clan, Oceanclan. She was finding her way over to the city, when she heard the sound of a lost kit. She decided to bring Root with her, and raise her as her own.
Root and Minnow create their own rogue group together, with Minnow being the leader of their group, and Root being her second-in-command.
Okay but Minnowfin is SO PRETTY??? If Root gets like half her style then I'd be grateful!! I love the idea of her and Minnow becoming a rogue group and maybe running a beach or cove... Root learns to swim and collects corals and uses urchins as accessories <3
Perchlight finding a little Rootkit!! for @rooted-clangen' ych
Spoilers for the first 10 or so moons of Gatewayclan, its not anything terribly major, and mostly au!
Perchlight would find tiny Root while out on her first patrol of Gatewayclan's territory i imagine, in this little au. Perch has always wanted kits, so it was kind of obvious from the moment she found her that Perch was adopting her.
Rootkit would be very loved, maybe a smidge smothered by her new adoptive mom. There wouldn't be any other kits for a while, so she was kind of spoiled by the entire clan. She would get a particular eye for bothering Oleanderrise, though. Given that he is huge, and that its wildly clear how much of a crush her mom has on him. I like to think she speeds up the process of him letting go of his prickly exterior and letting Perch in.
Hollyhockfoot would likely get a few dreams telling her to get Root a foot in both warrior and medicine cat training or something like that, leading to a kind of strange dual apprenticeship thing happening. She would struggle at first, but eventually learn to take it in stride. Her warrior mentor would be her very own adoptive father, and he would make sure she can handle anything thrown at her.
When she graduates her strange apprenticeship, she would be named Rootpath, and honored for her adaptability and emotional strength.
And she would love her new clan, but never stop feeling pulled back to her old home.
So one day, she would leave, with every intention of revival. Not alone though, with a few friends at her side and the approval of now Perchstar.
Perchstar would mandate that she visit once a moon and tell her how its going, though.
Perchlight is the mom Rootkit needed after the horrors she had faced, and she is forever grateful for this. While she grows up being a bit of a brat due to being so spoiled, she also gets humbled pretty thoroughly when the dual training kicks her ass. She'd always been special, so failure wasn't something she dealt well with. After a meltdown that her mother walked her through, she ended up having to actually grow up and face hardships and find out the satisfaction in the effort made.
She stays with Gatewayclan until well into her adult life before she can no longer ignore her duty to her once home- so with her parents blessing she leaves to found their neighboring clan, a new clan called "Pathclan" based off her warrior suffix, taking the traditional leader name and creating a clan that many find home in.
Of course, she visits her mother twice a moon, and the two clans are close allies.
