#askhearts

[hearts-entwined-clangen]

Does Amblepaw have a disorder? Or is she just nervous?

To be more specific in real-world terms, Amblepaw is a wobbly cat!

She has cerebellar hypoplasia. The part of her brain related to motor skills didn't develop properly, so she moves and speaks a bit differently than other cats.

In real life, our own boy Apollo-- while not a CH cat-- was hit in the head at some point before we got him.

You can see how his nose is skewed from it! It's also damaged his brain in a way that causes (among other things) similar symptoms to a mild case of CH, mainly appearing in the way he runs.

Amblepaw is a little love-letter to our boy, and to all the wobbly cats that get looked over for being "scary."

[hearts-entwined-clangen]

so its like the pharaohs??? vassals get sacrificed when a monarch dies? thats so cool!! and fucked up!!

I didn't know that that was a thing with the pharaohs, you've just given me so much more to look into!

You've predicted the second part of the BloodClan section on funeral rites though, yeah! A monarch is buried along with those who served them best in life, even if they're still living.

It's considered a great honor to be buried with a Monarch, as the idea goes that through their greatness, the vassals will live on forever in StarClan, never fading.

The inspiration actually came from, weirdly enough, the game Road To Empress, where I learned a bit about the treatment of cairen at the time. In that context it was being sent to spend the rest of one's life in servitude, but at one point in time (look into the beginning of the Ming dynasty) it was a much more gruesome affair.

Taking a glance at the treatment of pharaohs and their servants seems like it's way closer, which is interesting! I'm excited to read up on it.