The med. cat code in canon is super vague, and never actually... stated, aside from a few one-off rules. So, I wrote up a whole code for the healers in Healing Fire! Asterisks have been added for laws that I want to talk about a little bit more in-depth, and you can find my notes below the "read more" cut ^-^
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1 - No healer may take a mate or have kits. It is fine to fall in love, but no feelings can be acted upon. *
2 - No healer can allow personal views to guide the way they heal. They cannot refuse a cat treatment, nor can they put a loved one's health above another's.
3 - A healer must do everything in their power to save a sick, injured, or dying cat, regardless of which Clan they are or are not from. **
4 - A healer may only retire when their apprentice has been fully trained and is ready to take their place. However, if a healer dies or cannot continue their work, the former healer will be pulled from retirement. ***
5 - Every half moon, healers will meet at the moonstone and commune with StarClan.
6 - Healers may only discuss their visions and omens with their leader, deputy, or other healers unless given permission to do otherwise.
7 - Borders are open to all healers, unless otherwise stated by a leader. ****
8 - Healers are free to share whatever news from their Clan they desire, so long as they keep in mind that those they speak to may share that information with their Clan.
9 - While a warrior may become a healer, no fully-trained healer may become a warrior.
10 - While healers are outside of Clan rivalries, they must learn how to fight.
11 - A healer cannot share private information shared with them, unless that information may lead to the harm of others.
12 - If there is no deputy after a leader's passing or exile, the healer must wait for a sign from StarClan of who the new leader will be. Until then, they will act as Clan leader. *****
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* - No healer may take a mate or have kits.
I absolutely abhor this rule in canon, because it has such a stupid reason for existing, but it drives a lot of early (and later) plot in the canon books that would be kind of tough to write around. And thus, I turn to Clan cultures. In WindClan and Ancient SkyClan, a healer having a lover and/or kits is super frowned upon. You may as well be kicked out entirely for it. In ThunderClan and RiverClan, it's definitely not encouraged, and healers with kits tend to become a bit ostracized, but it's not like breaking that law will completely destroy your life. In ShadowClan and Modern SkyClan, it's a rule, it exists, they just don't give a singular fuck about it. Generally it's expected that you've trained an apprentice before having kits, but it's not a super big whoop if not.
** - A healer must do everything in their power to save a sick, injured, or dying cat, regardless of which Clan they are or are not from.
Really the only thing I wanted to talk about here is the "Regardless of which Clan they are or are not from" bit. I always thought it was kind of stupid that the rule in the warrior code talking about kits only ever specified that it didn't matter what Clan they were from. I mean, logically, even if they were a kittypet kit, it'd be a warrior's duty to help them. So, yeah, I tacked the last bit of that code on in order to keep any healers from going "Well they weren't a Clan cat, so I legally didn't have to help them."
*** - A healer may only retire when their apprentice has been fully trained and is ready to take their place. However, if a healer dies or cannot continue their work, the former healer will be pulled from retirement.
Again, I only want to talk about the second bit. It's less of explaining my thinking and why I added it this time around, and more of "Here's a little lore tidbit I want to tell people about ^-^". The first sentence was made as the entirety of this code, and the second sentence was tacked on later when a Clan faced the problem of "Oh fuck our healer just died uhhhhhhhhhhhh shit" and had their former healer come out of retirement.
**** - Borders are open to all healers, unless otherwise stated by a leader.
While borders are open to healers, that doesn't mean that they can just go wandering off into other Clan territories. To be more specific- borders are open to healers when needed. If a healer is in desperate need of an herb, or they need advice from another healer- those are all valid reasons for them to be crossing borders. Just wandering over for a chat with a friend is not.
***** - If there is no deputy after a leader's passing or exile, the healer must wait for a sign from StarClan of who the new leader will be. Until then, they will act as Clan leader.
This law is heavily inspired by the reason law nine (a new deputy must be chosen by moonhigh) came to be. If you haven't read Code of the Clans, what happens is essentially this; ShadowClan deputy gets sick and dies before they can earn their nine lives or appoint a new deputy. There's some fighting about who will be the next to lead, two cats die, and the resident med cat fakes a sign from StarClan about who the true new leader of ShadowClan will be. I imagine that scenario lead to this rule being created, as a "just in case" sort of policy.
The Warrior Code, And How The Clans View It - Code 1
1 - Defend your Clan, even with your life. You may have friendships with cats from other Clans, but your loyalty must remain to your Clan, as one day you may meet them in battle.
RiverClan;
RiverClan finds the idea of courtly love incredibly romantic; a lot of their stories and songs include star-crossed lovers who can never truly be together. Cross-Clan relationships are regarded as a sort of open secret here; everyone knows that Plainpelt is mooning after a WindClan warrior, and there’s definitely gossip about it, and oh isn’t it so romantic- but it’s not really openly discussed, especially among non-RiverClan cats.
ShadowClan;
In ShadowClan, Cross-Clan relationships are generally regarded as okay- however. A cat engaging in one must openly declare their relationship and who it’s with. Sometimes there’s a match for them to defend their love life- claws sheathed, of course, and watched over by a high rank or two. Since ShadowClan values quiet and privacy, loudly declaring your love like that is seen as proof that you are devoted to your mate and the life you may build together. Once a relationship is declared, the ShadowClan cat’s partner will be viewed as almost an honorary member of the Clan; they will not be badly harmed in battle, their secrets will be kept, and they will be welcomed warmly if they ever choose to join.
ThunderClan;
Cross-Clan relationships are tricky to navigate in ThunderClan. Whether or not they’re allowed and how one goes about them depends almost entirely on who’s leading at the moment. Under the rule of Oakstar, any sort of friendship, let alone romantic relationship, with a non-ThunderClan cat was strictly banned and could lead to exile. Under Pinestar’s leadership, both friendships and romances were allowed, so long as he knew of them and no extremely poor choices were made. Under the current leader, Sunstar, friendships are perfectly fine, but romantic relationships are off limits.
WindClan;
Loyalty to your Clan is a firm belief here. Cats can mate with a loner or kittypet, but only under certain conditions; they cannot invite them to join the Clan, all of their kits will be raised as fully WindClan warriors and may never meet their other parent, and their Clan and duties come before any sort of relationship they have. A relationship of any kind (platonic or otherwise) with a cat from another Clan is highly looked down upon. However, under the leadership of Tallstar, WindClan has started to warm up to the idea of being friendly to the other Clans.
Clan Culture Tag
Cultures of the various Clans. Superstitions, common values, accents, etc.
RiverClan
ShadowClan
ThunderClan
WindClan
Ancient SkyClan
Modern SkyClan
Deities
The various deities that are important in HF.
Deity Profiles
Slightly more in-depth profiles of the HF deities.
Character Cards
Individual character cards!
Important Prefixes & Suffixes
Various prefixes and suffixes in the world of HF, what they mean, and why they matter.
Lore & Worldbuilding tag
HF worldbuilding and lore tidbits.
Clan Lore tag
Written myths, lore, and legends in the world of HF.
Name Changes
A list of names that I've changed to fit the world of HF.
Added Characters
Unnamed characters that appeared in Canon who I've renamed.
The Warrior Code, And How The Clans View It - Code 2
2 - Do not hunt or trespass on another Clan's territory.
RiverClan;
RiverClan isn’t particularly motivated to break this law. They have plenty of fish in the river, and rarely need to hunt land prey. They’re also perfectly content with their own territory, and see no need to expand what they have… for the most part. Some pieces of land, of course (sunning rocks, places near the gorge, etc) are highly contested for.
ShadowClan;
There is… not a whole lot of prey on ShadowClan territory. They often have an issue regarding how large their Clan is, and will push their neighbors boundaries territory-wise. They are of the belief that if prey crosses from their territory to another Clan’s, it is still their prey, and therefore they have the ability to continue hunting it.
ThunderClan;
ThunderClan, much like RiverClan, doesn’t have a whole lot of motivation to break this law. They cannot fish, they do not know how to hunt on marshy ground, and the idea of being out in the open without the cover of trees freaks them out. They do, however, have an issue with helping. ThunderClan cats are perfectly willing to ignore borders if they think there is something for them to help with, whether that help is wanted or not.
WindClan;
WindClan has harsh punishments for one of their own crossing borders, and are deeply confused and annoyed that the other Clans don’t seem to have the same. Expanding territory is one thing- crossing a border for laughs and giggles is another.
