In the wilderness of Chihuahua, Mexico, meet the three thriving artisanal clans.
SILKWEAVERCLAN —
Current Leader: Minkystar (she/her)
Silkweaverclan resides in the sandy deserts. They are experts at making fabrics and weaving them together. Their most valuable fabric type is silk— it’s light, cooling, soft, and hard to make. To make silk, they cultivate silkworm moths and boil and work the silk threads produced from their cocoons. They’ll also make other types of fabric using plant fibers, animal fur, animal skins, and cotton. Depending on the material, the product has different uses.
They commonly make shawls, bandannas, and cloaks to wear to protect from the desert sun. These are usually made of silk or plant fibers. They also make decorative tapestries and blankets, which are typically very intricately dyed. Their camp is a masterpiece— shelters made from shrubs and sticks draped with beautiful tapestries and banners.
As for their dyes, they get them by trading with Colorfastclan. Silkweaverclan provides blankets for their nests and animal skins for canvases, while Colorfastclan provides them with the pigments they produce. Often, Silkweaverclan will adorn their clothing items with decorative stones or clasps, and Stonecutterclan is the clan to provide them with these.
They tend to name their cats after fabric types, weaving methods, or patterns.
STONECUTTERCLAN —
Current Leader: Alexandritestar (he/xem)
Stonecutterclan resides in the rocky cliffs. More specifically, in the gypsum caves located within the cliffs. They are lapidaries, and they bring the stones to life. They have a special patrol type for rockhounding and collecting the rough gemstones they can find in the caves. These are brought to the Stonecutter, who facets and sets the stones into pendants or other kinds of jewelry. These enhance Starclan connections and provide wearers with ghost sight. On extremely rare occasions, the connection can be strong enough to provide a cat with special abilities or powers.
Most often, the jewelry they make is worn decoratively. However, they also produce tools using particularly large rough crystals. These can range from prosthetic teeth and claws to daggers and chisels. Jewelry and tools are often passed down to younger cats through generations.
Stonecutterclan trades often. They provide Colorfastclan with pigment-making stones like lapis lazuli and malachite, as well as small quartz jars, while Colorfastclan in return provides them with glues. With Silkweaverclan, they provide brooches, clasps, and decorative stones, while receiving string and twine.
They tend to name their cats after different types of gemstones. Since cats are often referred to with only their suffixes, names are rarely reused for a while.
COLORFASTCLAN —
Current Leader: Blossomstar (he/she/any)
Colorfastclan resides in the shrublands. They specialize in paint and color. They create pigment powders and store them in little quartz jars (courtesy of Stonecutterclan). When they are ready to be used, they’re mixed with oil and animal fats to create a vibrant paste. They use this to paint artistic images, as body paint, and to dye ones’ fur. The paintings they create mean a lot to the clan— it’s hundreds of years of history and little everyday moments and emotions captured in personalized images. As for body paint, the most common purpose is just for decoration, but sometimes they’ll paint their fur to blend in with an environment. They also will often paint a line under their eyes, much like human football players, to reduce glare from the sun and see further.
The pigments themselves are made of various materials. They’ll use cochineal, iron, clay, cinnabar, lapis, malachite, grass, cactus, flowers, metals, berries, a whole lot of boiling and grinding, and more. They’re then bottled up and stored in a special den until they’re ready to be used or traded. The extract produced from boiling is also bottled up separately and used as dyes for fur or fabric. The cats are also well aware that some of the pigments are toxic, particularly the ones made from cinnabar and malachite, so these are used sparingly and sealed immediately.
Colorfastclan gets a lot of their resources from Stonecutterclan, including the jars they use and some of the resources required for pigments. In return, they provide sap-based glue for the stonecutters to set stones with. With Silkweaverclan, they provide bottled dyes, and Silkweaverclan provides animal furs for canvases.
They tend to name their cats after colors, paint types, and painting techniques.
EXTRA—
The clans generally maintain a good relationship, as each relies on the others for special resources. Fights can still rarely happen if disputes are large enough, but none of the clans would ever want to imagine a future without one of the three. They will readily support each other with medicine and against rogues if need be. Gatherings are very friendly and are mostly just a social hangout between the clans. Sometimes gatherings will hold art galleries and contests, where cats from all the clans can come and admire each others’ work from their different cultures.
The three clans have existed for a couple centuries at this point, allowing time for their cultures to develop and connections between the clans to form.
