For clarification regarding Barkface and his mate, I strive to make the clans unique from each other and so that combining them into one clan would be like someone saying, "North, South and Central America should all be the same country because they all have 'America' in the name."
Based on the fic from @aerial-jace where medicine cat is an inherited position called Augurs, I decided on WindClan encouraging legacies of Mothflight to be medics and so react positively to their medics having mates.
So to summarize medics and kits;
ThunderClan - You can have both a mate and kits but there must already be another fully trained medic before you can have kits. You can keep the other parent a secret from the clan if you want but they must de disclosed to the leader for apprenticeship purposes.
WindClan - Please have a mate and kits. At least on of your kits will be a medic whether they like it or not. We won't force you to take a mate but we'll be visibly disappointed if you don't.
RiverClan - If you have kits, you keep that to yourself. If you choose to raise them, you must step down from your position. Depending on who your mate is, you may be delegated to only apprentice duties until your leader decides you've been shamed enough.
ShadowClan - If you have kits, you will be forcibly removed from your position as a medic. You must raise your own kits and everything they do will reflect on you. When your failing is discovered, you will not eat for two days and instead focus on prayers to the Souls for betraying them.
Before anyone asks, Yellowfang kept her position as medic because Raggedstar never told anyone that she was Brokenstar's mother. He was toxic and somewhat abusive but he did love her and even at his angriest, he refused to completely destroy her life that way.
Raggedstar and Yellowfang are now friends in StarClan. Raggedstar spent the first moon after his death inside the Pool of Memories and found himself disgusted by the way he treated the cat he claimed to love in life and resolved to do better in death. Yellowfang is no longer interested in him romantically but is willing to be friends.
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 ^-^
---------------------------
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. *****
---------------------------
* - 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.
Defend your Clan, even with your life. You may have friendships and relationships with cats from other Clans, but your loyalty must remain to your Clan, as one day you may meet them in battle.
Do not hunt or trespass on another Clan's territory.
Elders, queens, and kits must be fed before apprentices and warriors. Unless they have permission, apprentices may not eat until they have done a service for the clan that day. Queens, elders, and kits must be cared for by all. If any warrior or apprentice is sick or injured, they may eat while the elders, queens, and kits are eating.
Prey is killed only to be eaten. Give thanks to StarClan for its life. Waste as little as possible from the prey and bury it after eating.
A kit must be at least six moons old to become an apprentice.
Newly appointed warriors will keep a silent vigil for one night after receiving their warrior name.
A cat cannot be made deputy without having mentored at least one apprentice or preforming a similar act of guidance.
The deputy will become Clan leader when the leader dies, retires, or is exiled.
After the death, retirement, promotion (to a leader status), or exile of the deputy, the new deputy is typically chosen within a week, if conditions are awkward the leader will make either a council or let the medicine cat chose if something where to happen, backup plans are made by said higher power.
A Gathering of all four Clans is held at the full moon during a truce that lasts for the night. There shall be no fighting among Clans at this time. Festivals and other holidays must also be respected and treated with the same rule.
Boundaries must be checked and marked daily. Anyone wanting to cross the border must wait for a patrol and ask to cross, except for urgency. If a warrior must cross without permission for a dire situation, they should not be punished.
No warrior can neglect a kit in pain or danger, even if the kit is from a different Clan or outside the clan.
The word of the Clan leader is to be respected, but if a leader causes harm to the clan it is a warrior’s duty to challenge the leader. A leader’s word is not law and can be challenged.
A warrior has no need to kill to win battles, unless needed for self-defense.
Each Clan has the right to be proud and independent, but in times of trouble they must forget their boundaries and fight side by side to protect the four. Each Clan must help the others so that no Clan will fall.
Cats on their way to the Moonstone must not be stopped, threatened, or attacked. They can cross the borders freely.
Medicine cats may take a mate and have kits; however, it is the duty of the medicine cat to have someone to fill in for them. An apprentice is required before a medicine cat has kits.
Kits must stay in camp until they are apprenticed, unless they are with a warrior or medicine cat.
The safety of the Clan as a whole is more important than the safety of one cat, but an effort must be made to help all cats.
Clans must not unite together to drive out another Clan.
Clans must not force another Clan to share territory.
Enemy patrols must not attack cats if they are on a mission that all four Clans have agreed upon.
Cats cannot eat when going to the Moonstone or Moonpool to speak with StarClan.
broke: the warrior code is bad because it has rules that don’t make sense and are unfair and do nothing to discourage cats from actually breaking them
woke: starclan is bad because they were the ones who encouraged the creation of the code and the weird rules and didn’t allow the cats to adapt them as time went on, and never ensured that the code was obeyed and dished out random punishments without taking into account what happened and why the code was broken, including giving different punishments for the exact same crime
What even is the medicine car code in Warrior Cats? They never talk about it unless someone took a mate when they’re not supposed, too. Which is bothering me because we DON’T KNOW WHAT THE REST OF THE CODE IS!!!!!!
There's the answer- if a med cat wants to have a mate and kits they just gotta be like "oh I'm a warrior right now, I'll go back to being a med cat at dawn"
literally what would have thunderclan done if they knew she had kits
she was their only medicine cat
actually she put her clan more at risk for leaving thunderclan for who the fuck knows how long to hide the fact that she had kits, may i remind you, DURING LEAF BARE, WHEN CATS ARE MOST VULNERABLE TO GREENCOUGH AND THERE AREN’T MANY HERBS
at least she’d BE IN CAMP if she had the kits there if something happened, squirrelflight could still help watch them, y’all live in a CLAN to LOOK OUT FOR EACH OTHER there were TWO LIVE IN QUEENS THAT DIDN’T EVEN HAVE KITS AT THE TIME they could watch them between feedings so leafpool could do medicine cat stuff, brightheart and other warriors could assist her when she’s busy with the kits to collect herbs and whatnot, APPRENTICES AND YOUNG WARRIORS HELP MEDICINE CATS COLLECT HERBS ANYWAY!! she could have the kits in the medicine den when they got a bit older if no one was staying there, teach them about herbs and stuff and have all three of them help organize them, maybe jayfeather would have ACTUALLY wanted to be a medicine cat then, or hollyleaf would have been better at it, maybe LIONBLAZE would have wanted to be a medicine cat then
wait is that seriously the reason??? wtf by that logic medicine cats shouldn't be allowed to have friends either or have a relationship with their parents / siblings cause then they'd have a bias there as well??? do the erins actually think through rules before making them or
