#boughask

[boughclan-clangen]

So wait a non clanborn has to have a ritual to get their wings?

thank you so much for the ask!

to your question: indeed! this will be touched on more later, so i'll put a small explanation below the cut for anyone who wants to avoid spoilers.

in essence, dreams are a very powerful force in this setting. the demiurges, of which there are many more than the ones worshipped by the Clans, are the pillars of dreams. boughclan's demiurge essentially allows cats to "dream the dreams of birds", which is a symbolic way of saying that the demiurge is what gives boughclan cats their wings.

at this juncture i'm not sure exactly how thoroughly this will be explained in the comic proper, but i do know that the dreams themselves will be explained in a special episode, so stay tuned for that!

[boughclan-clangen]

idk how much lore of the appearances you give to the other clans, but are SpireClans horns all different? All different shapes of sheep or ram horns or even antlers?

great question, my friend, and thank you for the ask! so the short answer is that they're quite diverse hahaha. the concept of the demiurge will be expounded on in the comic but there's a bit more explanation under the cut if you're interested!

each clan prays to starclan as well as its own unique sort of "demigod" called a demiurge, represented by a particular skull or set of bones that they keep. the demiurge is what grants a clan its traits. SpireClan is unique in that it has two, so they end up looking a little more varied than the other clans!

[boughclan-clangen]

🛡How does your clan (and/or the neighboring clans!) choose new deputies?

thank you so much for the ask! and my apologies for how long it took, i was mulling this question over for quite some time.

deputies are traditionally chosen by the leader, as in canon warriors, but there are more factors they tend to take into consideration:

the leader's own age, & how many lives they have left

the temperament of each candidate (a given)

the age of each candidate

their relationship to each candidate

each clan has its own biases within these considerations; for example, spireclan tends to look down on leader-deputy mated pairs, as they believe deputies should be chosen on merit first and foremost, and that kind of partnership indicates, to them, clouded judgment on the leader's part. spireclan once went for several moons without a deputy when the only suitable candidate was the leader's partner, as all other cats in the clan were too young, too old, or hadn't had an apprentice.

reefclan leadership tends to conduct long vetting processes when it's obvious another deputy will soon be necessary, whether that be because the current leader is not long for this world, or because the current deputy is soon to retire. the most tumultuous times in reefclan come about when a leader or deputy dies suddenly with no cat lined up as replacement; if a cat in reefclan is being considered for the deputy position, the whole clan will know.

frostclan is the only clan that relies on the stars to help them choose deputies. their theurges will search for omens and signs when the time is right, and convey anything they find to frostclan leadership for interpretation and debate.

boughclan has a long-standing tradition of leaders having more than one deputy; older leaders choose younger deputies as successors, while young leaders choose older deputies as guides and confidantes. they believe that a deputy is the leader's first and strongest support, and the right choice is imperative for a clan's strength. this tradition has not been broken even in times of intense turmoil; for instance, the prior leader, harrierstar, chose hollystar (then hollysong) as his deputy over eveningnose because she was younger (among other reasons--the list of suitable candidates was quite small at the time).

[boughclan-clangen]

For the ask game -

🏘️ What is the twoleg activity like in your setting?

(or any other lore / worldbuilding question you wanna answer - the idea of doing winged cats for a clangen run is SO good, i wanna know all about em...)

-Gutterclan

@gutterclan thank you so much!! if i can be honest, the wings inclusion was whimful hahaha i didn't have many thoughts when i was drawing references of the founders other than "wings would be neato." by now they're more fleshed out and there's a reason they have wings, but i definitely did not go into this with a solid plan.

🏘️ What is the twoleg activity like in your setting?

it's actually quite rare to see twolegs! the mountains SpireClan inhabits are the tail end of a pretty long mountain range that stretch nearly all the way to the coast. there's a small coastal village at the base of the mountain closest to the ocean called lumenport, but it's the only human settlement for miles and miles.

with their territory being closest to lumenport, reefclan are the ones that deal the most with twolegs. boughclan sees them maybe once a year or less!