Reply Round-Up: Sausage and Story Beats
In this reply I respond to various questions that have been popping up about minor things in the Bonefall Rewrite, including some clan culture tidbits and general narrative direction
I’m replying to @halogenwarrior, I hope you're cool with me paraphrasing your exact questions and comments. I’m also breaking this up into two sections, one for Rewrite stuff and the next for Clan Culture things
Bonefall Rewrite
Leafpool being mistreated by StarClan is interesting, the motivations of the Three and Squirrelflight are better off for removing StarClan forcing them to do things, but is there a way to keep that struggle for Leafpool? (Reply to this post)
I’m keeping it in mind, but I haven’t thought of anything yet. It’s especially difficult because Leafpool is also unable to ‘drag‘ Jaypaw into the medcat role thanks to Longtail jumping in to train him as a warrior, so there’s very little opportunity to show StarClan sending Leafpool mixed messages.
But on top of it, I’m not sure I want StarClan to just do things that are bad for the sake of doing things that are bad. I’m quite fond of how I’ve fixed their malicious incompetence and made them much less horrible. I can’t figure out a goal that would make them bully Leafpool; in my Rewrite, they do not want the Three and are generally terrified of them. I’d rather have StarClan be consistent than force conflict in where it no longer is.
But, I’m thinking about it.
The title of Bonefall Bluestar’s Prophecy
Right now it’s Bluestar’s Friends because I think that title is delightfully cute in contrast to how the book is about Blue’s friend group forming, falling apart, her being subject to a terrible fate, the death of so much of her family, etc. But I can pitch some other titles and go with the most popular one
I’d like for each redux to have a new title to reflect how it’s different; so other titles could be
Bluestar’s Fate: Emphasizing the StarClan trial that frames the book
Bluestar’s Purpose: Pointing out how Goosefeather has foreseen her destiny and how Bluestar breaks predestination with her actions
Bluestar’s Flower: Referencing thistles as well as forget-me-nots
Bluestar’s Friends: Her friend group is the biggest change about this redux
Will every reduxed arc of the Rewrite have 6 books?
It’s not a hard rule, but it seems to be happening that way. Bonefall TPB perfectly fits into the 6 books of the original arc. Bonefall AVoS will probably be 5. At first I figured Bonefall OotS would be 4, but the more the Dark Forest Trainees get buffed up, the more it seems like 6 books may happen anyway.
TL;DR I just do what feels right but based on how much material I’m adapting, it’s looking like it’ll fall into place as 6-ish books an arc anyway.
Thornclaw and Brightheart Adoption; The Distinctive Tabby Queen
I’m not fully committed to Thornclaw and Brightheart being not biologically the children of Frostfur yet, but I am leaning towards it because everyone seems to find it to be a really interesting idea
If they were found and retrieved from the ShadowClan nursery...
Bluestar and ThunderClan would make some kind of effort to reunite them with their parents, but months go by and they are not found. Their mother may be a dead WindClan queen, or stolen from a rogue, but the trail goes cold and they’re already bonded to their mother Snowfur.
If they were the children of the Distinctive Tabby Queen...
It’s true that it would present a problem to the family tree, since I already had to wiggle and squeeze to fix the tree as it was...
But I could bump Speckletail out of the Tawny/Rain family like I was already considering, and put Distinctive Tabby there instead... she could even be the sister of Darkstripe and a child of Dappletail, Cricketkit.
To the tree it wouldn’t matter because the parentage of Bright and Thorn would get swapped to Frost/Lion for all intents and purposes (adoptions in the BF Rewrite only count towards the adoptive parents), but genetically it could mean Thorn and Bright could qualify for getting great hair.
Cricket would either invoke the Queen’s Rights, or I could simply have it that their sire was Lionheart anyway. As for her full name, Cricketleg or Cricketclaw would be good titles.
Or I could just keep the Frostfour as Frostlion kits biologically and split the litter.
That is the simplest option.
Clan Culture
Aaaand here’s the section for some misc logistical questions
How do Clan Cats make sausage casings?
Hog hunting is very rare because wild boars in England are themselves are both rare AND extremely dangerous (I am, in fact, going to be largely replacing deadly badger and fox encounters with hogs). But it isn’t impossible to hunt them, either. The Tribe would be able to kill them, along with sheep and deer, on a regular basis.
(I would like to make an entry on hog hunting, one day, basing it off medieval boar hunts)
But sausage cases can be made out of any intestine, actually. Humans just tend to use the tracts of goats, cattle, and pigs because that’s a good size for a human and those are the animals we hunt.
Clan cats can use geese, ducks, deer fawns, hares, rabbits, even rats. I’m also trying to find if it’s possible to use the intestines of large carp and salmon, but I can’t find the information I need with a simple search and would have to dig deeper.
I’ll do a ShadowClan Sausage entry for Warrior Bites at some point
Do you plan to use more cat-specific diseases?
Yes! I actually want to limit the Color Coughs to legitimately deadly outbreaks. It’s too casually used, I would like it to be associated with serious, encroaching dread.
Specific ear infections, allergies, and food poisonings should be more common imo, especially for sickness outbreaks that are narratively just supposed to be unpleasant, not deadly. I’m still working on specifics, though... a lot of the most common cat ailments are just, not the sorts of things I would like to include in the story for comfort reasons (UTIs for example)
