#blackflood

[pigeonleap]

Authority figures hate her Preacher's Daughter realness

[summerthundercomic]

style test

[ontheknifesedge]

attack for @pigeonleap of rowanstar and blackflood!

[pigeonleap]

map for my story, featuring full color and Clan borders! I've been having a lot of fun with this. Please send any questions in asks, I would love to talk about it!

Notes under cut

setting is the Colorado Rockies but obviously I have made up everything here

this is kind of a side view so that you can see mountains better so you can't see a lot of Blizzard's plains. Off to the right is what the cats call a "town" because they haven't seen one, it's really a couple ranches that have cats at them.

A lot of the place names are possessive (e.g. Eagle's Meadow) which means they're named after important members of the Clans' history.

Storm has a bigger territory than Blizzard, mostly due to access - Blizzard has more plains off to the east and is obstructed by mountains to the west, though they're expanding in that direction.

Neither territory is big. I am not good with scale but it's not meant to look like a ton of acreage: this is because the cats face heavy predation, with the woods full of almost every large North American carnivore you could think of. The clans are both small in population.

The unclaimed land from Cloud's Tooth to Sky's Heart will probably remain unclaimed and serves as a sort of political buffer. It's also just not great land. No one wants the freakin' Tempest Drop, and Thunder Ridge is very dangerous too.

You'll notice there is no designated sacred place of worship. StarClan is unlike canon in my story, which I may go into later. StormClan is extremely pious, but BlizzardClan doesn't care all that much because they have a lower rate of clairvoyants. Storm cats travel to the summit of the Cloud's Tooth to prove themselves as a Prophet, because they're extra. And, you know, the Stars will not let you survive the journey if you're not worthy, which can be interpreted however you want! Maybe your Prophet-to-be was just not a good hiker!

Besides the ranch "Human Town" to the east, and the long-abandoned Thunder Ridge, there is no human intervention in the area for many miles. Thunder Ridge, a steep backbone of boulders with not enough switchbacks, proved to be too dangerous (three guesses how) for humans after a tragic accident, and the trail was closed.

Lots of elk in the Colorado Rockies! The Clans respect elk and consider it a great honor that their river is named after the large and majestic animals. This would be flattering for elk if they knew about it, probably.

[pigeonleap]

about to use my powers to make something truly fucked up out of clay. This paper is just a glimpse into my twisted mind. Haha only a guy like me could dream something like this up

[pigeonleap]

get vectored idiot

[pigeonleap]

YOUR FANCLANS ARE SO COOL!!!! i cant wait to see more of them omg! could you share some more on the clairvoyants/prophets and their pilgrimages up the mountain? :o also, did you have anywhere specific in colorado in mind when mapping? it looks gorgeous! and i love the landmark names omg, how'd you come up with those? sorry for all the questions im just very excited about these guys!

YAY thank you so much that means a ton! you're enabling my infodumping I'm about to write 1500 words (serious). Don't ever worry about asking too many ST questions it's all i think about.

Here's a MSPAINT doodle of the girls. hope nothing bad ever happens to them

easy questions first!

ST's set in the northern Colorado Rockies where they border the Great Plains. Somewhere unpopulated in the northern Front Range!

Landmark names are usually named after past leaders/healers/deputies of the Clans, who I just made up on the spot (except I have a Blizzard playthrough on Clangen so I used some of those leaders and important cats.) To come up with a lot of the names I researched local fauna. Colorado has a LOT of elk and a lot of large carnivores! Summer Thunder has a storm motif (did you know) so a lot of the place names have to do with that

I'm going to go ahead and put the Clairvoyant/Prophet stuff under a cut because I write headcanons as I go and it gets so lengthy lol.

SORRY IN ADVANCE. this is like 3/4 just for me so i can put it in my document

Clairvoyants are the cats who would have "a strong connection to StarClan" in canon text. StarClan (usually called the Stars in-universe) are not an explicit thing or confirmed. There is something spiritual going on, but it's a lot more like a Primal Force than it is "My Dead Aunt Says Hello To Me In My Dreams." The technical name for cats who are tuned in to this spirituality is "Clairvoyants", though it's an ambiguous label and not something that ever puts cats into a group. Most cats aren't clairvoyant or are to a very low degree (this works since level of clairvoyance in any universe doesn't affect how much you believe in a higher power).

Prophets, a role found only in StormClan, are kind of like canon Medicine Cats except I separated the role into its composite Prophet and Healer. Some cats are both, in which case they'll call themselves whichever one makes more sense - usually Prophet because it's rarer and so it can feel closer to your identity. A Prophet is sort of like how Ancient Greek Oracles were. They are rare and usually have a medium to extremely high level of Clairvoyance. (ex. Leafpool, Goosefeather.) Their role, like medcats, is to speak as the Stars' voice and share wisdom with the Clan. The Stars do not "give prophecies" in the literal sense that they do in canon - cats interpret things how they will, like we would in real life. It's easy to think of an omen or prophecy if you want to hear one.

Storm cats just take it really seriously because they REALLY love the Stars. They have a higher genetic predisposition of Clairvoyants, so they have become really connected to spirituality and piety. They believe in fate and destiny and will use the Stars to justify any achievement. Naming ceremonies often go like "You are so lucky to be blessed by the Stars with such amazing jumping skills - your new name will be Pigeonleap." (Maybe Pigeonleap just got really good at jumping because he trained for his entire apprenticeship. It doesn't matter. It's the Stars.)

Pilgrimages, which I may start calling something cool (like the Prophet's Ascent maybe?) are taken by aspiring Prophets when they want to prove their connection to the Stars. Prophets are usually apprenticed to someone who is also Clairvoyant/a Prophet or a Healer if there isn't one. When they reach the end of their apprenticeship they are sent to hike Cloud's Tooth via Thunder Ridge/Lightning Point. Usually their mentor will follow them as far as the path from the Ridge up to Lightning Point (I'm thinking this is like a day's hike), but the mentor in most cases has already done the hike and is not interested in doing it again.

Cloud's Tooth is tall (probably around 9-11,000ft???) and not too forgiving. Cats are sent when the weather is predicted to be good, but anyone who's been to the Rockies knows that can change in about five minutes. The Clans are crepuscular in my universe like regular cats, so, in the interest of safety, cats usually just try to hike the mountain during the day. It can be 7-9 hours to the summit. They spend the night at the top and the Stars speak to them (whatever that means for the particular cat.) No one else except Prophets hikes this mountain, not even people - it's rocky, without water in most places, and very windy. And slick when wet. And worse when snowy. And you'll notice all the surrounding landmarks have something to do with storms.

That being said - a cat who makes it up and down again is pretty much guaranteed the Prophet role. Otherwise, they probably just fell to Stardom down a scree slope.

[pigeonleap]

87 rowanstar or blackflood, I am sooooo fascinated by them btw

"I remember falling through these streets Somewhat out of place, if not for the drunkenness It makes my chest hurt to think of it Not of regret, but of missing that

Cheerful oblivion Cheerful oblivion"

oc lore vagueposting is my favorite!!!!!! this was fun i love harsh lighting and i also love divorced cats with complicated feelings about each other

(song reqs still open, send me an ask with number 1-100 and a character)