#bb!spiderstar

[bonefall]

OOOOGH okay Skypelt related questions: Since their ancestors were Rats, did Spiderstar only take the -star suffix as tradition? No nine lives? Nowadays, do Skyclan leaders only get their lives from Skypelt or can they get a mix of Starclan and Skypelt? How's Cloudstar coping with his Rat Crimes now that he's been freed and in Skypelt?

Spiderstar

She wasn't able to get the full 9, but she did receive at least 3. Their "Piece of Heaven" was crumbling, but hadn't yet completely fallen apart at the moment of Cloudstar's death.

They had no particular place where she could have gone to get those lives, so she climbed to the very top of the farm's silo where Cloudstar had just died. As the Clan mourned the hero who had kept them together for all this time, Spiderstar was pressing her entire body against the cold, silvery metal of the human structure.

Those bastards had taken their forest from them-- they least they could do for her was lend her their towering mockery of a Moonstone.

The first moment she knew something was about to go very, very wrong was the fact that Cloudstar was not one of the cats present to give her a life.

In Skypelt, she is the Patron of Adaptation. She has dominion over getting used to things, over not being too rigid that you overlook the correct solution, and of innovation especially through learning from others.

Because of her, baby spiders are sacred. SkyClan has immense reverence for the idea of "crafting wings" out of silk to fly away on the breeze.

Cloudstar

Was horrified and shameful of what he had done as that horrible monster, but Skypelt is much more forgiving than Silverpelt.

He kept his promise. Even as he lost his mind, his body, and his Clan, he clung to that vow when there was nothing else to hold. He is a hero to them, even after what he'd done, they love him as they do all of their family.

In self-inflicted penance, Cloudstar is Skypelt's primary fetcher. He's akin to the Grim Reaper for SkyClan tradition, unlike the other Clans who almost always send a fetcher who was close to the recently deceased. He is a Patron of Oneness (Paokepba en Ul-Arra), giving him dominion over reunions, collaborative efforts, and even Gatherings.

It's not quite a Patron of Unity, though it would be a close translation. It's Ul-Arra. Wholeness. Togetherness. In SkyClan, it also has an association with "reformations."

Skypelt Giving Lives

Modern SkyClan highly values self-reliance, as a result of their past. It's why they maintain Skypelt instead of fully integrating into Silverpelt, they are adamant that they are not subservient to anyone else's ancestors but their own.

This doesn't mean the two are totally separate. Think of it sort of like a small bubble connected to StarClan-Prime. Spirits can go back and forth between the two, but Skypelt could leave again if it ever wanted to.

So to answer your question, SkyClan leaders could receive lives from Silverpelt warriors. In practice, this is VERY rare and considered a huge honor.

If you wanna check out the old draft of Leafstar's Leadership Ceremony, it's over here! I'm probably going to make a new draft sometime soon, since BB!Firestar didn't actually loose any lives so far. I want him to the "the fire that lights the new torch," kicking off the ceremony by transferring one of his lives to her, because that seems super cool and very fitting of him.

[bonefall]

Do you think we could get a rundown of Skyclan leaders like you did for Shadowclan? From when the destruction of their forest territory started to when Skyclan broke up?

It would be a pretty short list, because of the massive interruption.

Leaders Flystar -> Cloudstar -> Spiderstar -> (RATS WE'RE RATS WE'RE THE RATS) -> Leafstar

Clerics Twigtail -> Fawnstep -> Brackenheart -> Oakstep -> (Unnamed Link) -> Pricklenose -> Skywatcher

You'll notice that the Cleric list doesn't have an interruption; that is because the Cleric took the role we eventually see Skywatcher in. They called them the Hub, after the center of a spiderweb. It was someone who would keep track of where all the dispersed cats were and pass on relevant news.

Modern Clerics evolving out of the Hub is why SkyClan's medics are so strange. They have some massive differences from a Forest Four Cleric.

There is no law against them having children. In fact, it's preferred that they did, as it's proof that they know how to care for other cats.

They can have mates, too. Echosong is actually casually the girlfriend of Leafstar.

They act more like a combined doctor/therapist than a doctor/priest. SkyClan clerics are here to treat physical and mental needs. Instead, the leader takes on more spiritual roles.

Anyway, leader succession guide;

Flystar

The destruction of the territory was happening before he was leader, but he took over when it started getting real bad in the Skyfall Era.

He was a HARDCORE kind of loyalist leader. We would know him today as a Hard Traditionalist, insisted his warriors pray harder and live better lives to prevent the destruction.

He invented the Law of the Wild, which we know as the law that bans becoming a kittypet. He did this in response to many of his warriors trying to live double lives.

Lived for a very long time, and oversaw the worst of the destruction, but Forest Four remember the story completely wrong.

The story is told that Flystar forestalled disaster with his hard ways, but Cloudstar was a weak, bumbling successor, who is ultimately blamed for SkyClan's exile.

In truth, Flystar died and left Cloudstar as a young successor. Cloudstar hadn't lost a single life or ruled for more than a year when the last acre of forest was clear-cut.

Flystar was a brown cat with black dapples on his face and chest.

Cloudstar

Gets done so, so dirty in the Forest Four history lessons. I have an entire scene dedicated to Firestar realizing that the story sounds pretty fucked up in Firestar's Quietus.

His first deputy was Buzzardtail, who was his best friend. They tried to keep the Clan together, wandering for years while looking for a new home.

In terms of personality, Cloudstar was a total worrywart. He was always preparing for the worst, and his ingenuity saved a ton of lives. He cared a lot for safety and making sure the travelers were procuring rations.

It still wasn't enough. He was a fantastic leader, soft, caring, beyond dedicated to his friends and family. Cats still died.

He was constantly missing his mate, Birdsong, and his kittens. He was notoriously amazing with the kits, often carrying them when they got too tired.

He was a big guy, too.

Displays the same vitiligo as Skystar and has a striking resemblance to him. Definitely a direct descendant.

His blotches loosely resembled an eye on his side, which ended up becoming... that.

Spiderstar

No Buzzardstar in BB. Buzzardtail died during the very long journey.

But Spiderflight knew him very well. He was her mentor.

Cloudstar died in the abandoned barn where the rats would eventually gather, every night.

Spiderflight had spent most of her life traveling, most of SkyClan had. She did not remember the old forest, just the general stretch of land that would become their Gorge territory.

She only knew what had been taken from her in stories. Kit's tales, to her, she'd been born on the move and that was where her heart was.

She picked up a lot from Cloudstar's resourcefulness. She'd always been close to the leadership, ever since she was young. Slotting into the role was easy.

Cloudstar never wanted to leave such a young successor, as Flystar had done to him, but he had no choice in the end.

She'd never been "good" at sadness. She didn't want to sit vigil in that barn with everyone else; it was too easy to give into despair if she didn't keep moving.

It was Spiderstar who settled SkyClan into the area, and she was the first Hub really. She just happened to teach Oakstep how to do it next.

Important since she only got three lives.

She had distinctive web-like stripes on her tabby body, a large "cape" over her shoulder of two big spokes connected by smaller strokes.