#peredhil-loki

[nightflashart]

@peredhil-loki ‘s kiddo spark!

[wondrousworldbuilding]

I've been working on a world that's fairly stereotypical when it comes to the species there.. I've been working hard to give them all distinct cultures and history, and that's going very well. However, I've also been making their biology a little different. I was going to make the elves all fully functioning hermaphrodites, so that any elf could give birth or sire a child. Thing is, I'm not sure why they would have evolved that way. I wondered if you had any suggestions? Thank you!

Hi there!

Interesting concept. You can handle it several ways. As far as the evolutionary reasons…it makes perfect sense. We know of many lifeforms that reproduce asexually, gender bend, or are truly hermaphroditic. 

Now, in your fictional world. you can determine the reasons for why that evolution occurred as it did, which will be especially convincing if you do a little bit of research into why other species evolved that way. You can also look into the thought that human ancestors were hermaphrodites and that separate sexes later evolved. In many ways, the simplicity of asexual reproduction or a hermaphroditic people makes a lot of sense, so I don’t think you need a bunch of scientific evidence to back up your decision. This could be especially true if your species has faced hardship with population as they’ve evolved. 

And since you’re writing a fictional species in a fictional world, you can develop a fictional sexual reproductive system. For example, the asari in Mass Effect are mono-gendered but not asexual…or even hermaphroditic in its typical definition. They use “melding” with any partner of their own species or any other species to reproduce.

I would also, even if your characters are not human and their genital situation is normal for them, be careful with using the term “hermaphrodite” in your work, as the term has fallen out of use for humans in favor of intersex. You don’t want to offend your readers. I’m not sure what the correct option would be there…if any followers have thoughts on how to handle the PC-ness of that situation, please speak up! I am definitely no authority on that subject.

Happy writing!

[warriorsredux]

Ain’t we busy today. Hello all!

aberrantartificer: Hmm... well, -step names are formulated based on stereotypes, so a Foxstep would likely be pretty conniving and crafty, perhaps preferring the company of a few select Clanmates or being standoffish and apathetic towards other cats. Maybe they move and act like a fox, rearing up on their hind legs to play or having a pretty deep yowl or a “creepy” voice (you’d be hard pressed to find a Clan cat that likes fox sounds). Fox- and Badger- would have pretty negative connotations when paired with -step, honestly, but if it fits, it fits. 

Anon #1: I have to be honest, I don’t know for sure. Anyone out there got the answer?

Anon #2: Well, bearing in mind that leaders don’t get nine lives here, if StarClan were to give some sign that a leader shouldn’t be the leader, there’d be a big hullabaloo and the Clan would have many, many meetings on the subject. Whether or not the leader would inform their Clan really depends on the cat’s personality. If they don’t tell the seer, the seer will find out on their own soon enough. 

Anon #3: Oh, absolutely. The stuff mentioned in the Amendment posts are the most typical behavior, and a lot of it gets exaggerated. ThunderClanners can’t make or take jokes and don’t care about anyone but themselves, WindClanners are stiff and emotionless, RiverClanners haven’t worked a day in their lives, and ShadowClanners are fucking weird. Maybe they’re part magic, I don’t know. They just sit around and look real sad. It’s unnerving. There’s more stereotypes, but those are the baselines.

peredhil-loki: Super interesting questions! Name-changes aren’t incredibly rare, as you can tell from the allegiances, so it’s common to have at least one in camp at all times. A Clan with a lot of name-changes would be considered tough as hell and weirdly unlucky - why does StarClan keep sending them shit to deal with? What’d they do? At least the Clan can handle it, but seriously. 

Anon #4: Pangolins are the only mammals to have scales!

[catsofstars]

For each cat, what is your favorite silly experience, favorite heartwarming experience, scariest experience, and saddest experience? (If you wish to say, of course.)

Alright, so we got a lot of fellas here so we’re only going to do one for each! ;3 But I’m only going to do a little bit, if anyone wishes to question further you may!

-🐀 Rat With Steady Gaze | I think what stays in my heart most is the early morning my kits were born. And to know that all four of them are still happy and healthy... Though, I don’t think I’ll ever forget Elk Heart’s ceremony. 

- ☀️ Sunlight on Burning Leaves | I think the scariest thing was the storm that happened for my final assessment... Wind was crazy, the tree struck fire... It was crazy!

- 🦉 Screech of Night Owls Hunt | Honestly the saddest thing I’ve had to deal with was Feather Dance’s passing.... I don’t remember much, but what I do recall isn’t exactly cheerful.

- 🐻  Claws of Hunting Bear | Cliff Rock’s passing was the biggest tragedy of my life... Though I must say I am glad that Hawk Flight doesn’t seem nearly as traumatized. 

- 🦅 Flight of Large Hawk | My favorite memory was seeing Tiger, Squirrel, Lion and Sky return to camp after their assessments - so happy and carefree and excited for their ceremonies!

- 🍂  Alder Leaf | Well, Fern Wind passed but she wouldn’t want me to linger on it. My happiest memory so far though was my assessment. I was so excited and nothing bad happened!

- 🌸  Frost on Softpetal Leaves | While my siblings deaths are still on my mind - I don’t feel enough time has past to properly move from it - I think I will be fine with time. So, instead I will speak about the joy I felt knowing that Stone Bear recognized I did indeed learn very well from Frost Water, and gave me a name to respect that.

- ☄️ Dawnheart | I believe my favorite moment was getting Foxpaw. Nothing against Mangledpaw, but I was so nervous to work with them; but Foxpaw had just been so excited to start training!

- 🐦  Pigeonpaw |  .... Well, I think I’m still making memories. I don’t think lingering on bad stuff really helps, even though we did face a lot of it... and while having fun with Lilypaw is always fun, I don’t know if anyone else would call them ‘exciting’ or ‘heartwarming’. 

- 🕊 Harrierflight | I think the scariest moment for me was facing that coyote a few moons back. I know we lost a lot of our clanmates recently, and I didn’t want to be on that list. Not when I told Larkstar I was going with or without his approval and told my kits I’d be fine...

- 🍀 Willowface |  I think my silliest moment was all of training with Spottedshadow!

- 🌙 Binx | You want to talk about scary? Try growing up with your father threatening your life, making you kill your siblings when you’re supposed to be safe, and then finding out you’re pregnant. Yeah, get back to me when you have the fear of being slaughtered and all your kits from the only tom who cared about you dying with you. Talk about scary - try facing the guy who tormented you like that every day as he threw you aside and threatened your life instead of leaving you alone and whispering how he’d keep you alive long enough to eat your kits!

- 🐣 Canary |  .... I was so happy when I had my kits... and despite coming here, I think the scariest part of my life was Pine telling me she wasn’t ready to have kits and I had to figure out what to do with them... I hope Deerpaw is safe with Huntinglion. Or, at least safer than Snickers and Oak....

-🗡 Katsu | My entire life is a joke.

[catsofstars]

What is each OC's greatest fear? Greatest desire? Favorite family member?

🍃 Rat Gaze: My greatest fear is losing my family. I care deeply for my tribe, don’t get me wrong; but I care for my family and I don’t know what I would do if I lost them. All I desire is for them to continue growing up happy - my kits. And since you’ve already asked my whom my favorite is, I suppose below Aster Petal is Elk Heart. A parent isn’t supposed to choose favorites but… when she took up her assessment, I knew that she would be my favorite….

🍃 Sun Leaf: Greatest fear? No way, what do I have to be afraid of? Any predator around here is just avoid or chase off, and any thing else is just the same. Danger’s avoidable usually… I can find a way out of it! I myself think since I was already even trained by Rat Gaze, I could be Runner one day. I like Young Bird and Night Screech equally - in that generally they dont seem to care for me for whatever reason. Jealous I bet, not to say we hate each other but I guess siblings are as far as our bonds go.

🍃 Night Screech: … I don’t … I don’t know what my biggest fear is…. I never really thought about it. I mean, the wolf attacks, bear attacks that happened a few moons ago… those were kind of scary but I don’t think thats my biggest fear…Or a greatest desire. I’m pretty… content right now. … I guess Sparrow’s my favorite family member. He’s my nephew and he’s too young to have done anything wrong so… He’s not annoying yet.

🎼 Hunting Bear: My greatest fear…? Everything and nothing. My older brother Cliff Rock once said that the strongest and smartest thing a cat who heads the Talon Guard can do is fear everything and nothing. Prepare for the worse. He was my favorite family member… and it was a sad day when he passed. My only desire is to live up to the potential he believed he had for me.

🎼 Hawk Flight: Hm… I don’t have a greatest fear I suppose. I mean, I think everyone fears the worst will befall their kits and kin, but I suppose since that’s so normal a fear… My only desire is for my kits to find happiness. And I don’t really have a favorite family member - that’s not very fair.

🎼 Alder Leaf: Oh, that’s kind of hard. I’m actually afraid of drowning… I had a pretty bad scare when I was a lot smaller and there was this weird pond on the territory that shows up during certain times of the seasons… I really dont want that to happen again. But! Spider Berry’s my favorite! She’s great! And I wanna be a great Prey-Hunter like Hawk Flight and Otter Chase!

🌊 Softpetal Frost: I believe my biggest fear is being useless to the tribe… I don’t want anyone to think I don’t have a good place here. It’s my only desire as well really… find my place happily. Right now my only living relatives are Sun Stone and her kits…. Which is fine I suppose; her kits are young yet, and since Lion Hearts passing I believe we are working on our relationship.

🐚 Dawnheart: My biggest fear is disappointing my clan. I’m trying to learn what I can from Crowstar, but he seems to make some members of the clans uneasy and … I don’t want to do that… So I guess that’s my desire and fear? … I really like all of my family, so I think I’ll leave that one alone.

🐚 Pigeonpaw: Lilypaw’s my favorite! She’s brave, and smart! I mean, I like my other siblings I guess, but Lilypaw gets me the most! … I think I’m just afraid of those coyotes. Mom says they’re gone now, but…. well…. it was pretty bad. I’m going to be a strong warrior like my dad was to help keep the clan safe if it ever happens again!

🗻Harrierflight: I’ve seen enough to know that my biggest fear lies in the balance of my clans safety. I only desire to make sure we don’t have to face so many losses again… And I don’t have a favorite kit; and I’d never say a kit or mate are more important the one another…

🗻 Willowface: What, the rogue thing wasn’t bad enough for you? Can there be a greater fear dealing with all of that? My desire is just staying alive, it’s been a weird season…. And I have too many siblings to pick a favorite, that would be pretty wrong.

🌌 Binx: We don’t need more bad things happening around here, so why don’t you take that stupid question elsewhere? The Moon Court doesn’t have fear. And my desires are already met. I’m alive, my kits are alive - all of them - and I have my mate. That’s all that matters.

🌌 Canary: I just dont want my kits to die or stay in danger… They’re special here, no ones going to kill them here so I’m okay with that. I wish Pine were here though… But at least I have Snickers.

⚓️ Katsu: I don’t want to do this, thanks though.

[skycancats]

Foxstorm here! I'm curious-- will the cats in the Skyclan redux be any of those from the books (Leafstar, Sharpclaw, etc) or all completely new?

Hello again, Foxstorm! The cats will be completely new! There may be a “cameo” as in a cat that is named similarly or maybe one of the rogues, but for the most part, the cats are new (a couple are based off of stray cats I know!)

I plan on putting up allegiances pretty soon once I finish working on some other stuff, and that’ll be all the cats that appear in Arc One.

[skycancats]

Ah, also! What about the names? Will you be going with a 'tradtional naming style' in that prefix = color, suffix = skills/personality, or will you incorporate the kittypet prefix + suffix style of canon..?

Ah, names. 

So, again, SkyClan won’t have an understanding of how names work. The most they understand is you put this word and another word together and you have a nifty two-part name. They will understand that kittypet names don’t make sense within this naming convention, however, so we won’t have any Billystorms.

It’ll probably be a weird clash of traditional and nontraditional until they finally figure out what works best for them.

[skycancats]

Hello! Foxstorm of the Feline-Helix here. I'm quite curious-- are you planning to keep the Daylight Warrior idea in, and if so, how will it come about/work in your deconstruction? From some discussions I've been in, I feel it could work, depending on how it was done, but I'm very interested in your take.

Hello, Foxstorm! I am!

As stated before, the new SkyClan only has a very basic understanding of how clans work. They make up their own code and laws and most similarities other than the basics (basic customs and most ranks) are purely coincidental on their part.

Because of this, they won’t have the stigma attached to having a paw in both worlds, so to say. For some cats, they can just only come out during the day, and that’s fine by SkyClan. Sometimes it’s safer for them to only be out during the day, and the other warriors understand and accept this.