Understanding the Timeline - Pt 1, Life Expectancy
So it's time - ha - for the first part of the timeline building. Honestly we have to start with the basics. In order for a timeline like this to work, deaths and births need to be sorted out so that I can properly put characters in and out as I need to. So I've put together what I think will be a pretty basic guideline to go off of when it comes to aging warriors.
As implied, this is only the first part of the timeline building. But for now, let's get into it!
To start, I've placed the average life expectancy for warriors at being around eight years. It's long than most feral cats, but much shorter than the standard housecat. I went with this as warriors are feral cats with basic medicine. Things that generally make housecats live longer are vaccines which are one thing that clans most certainly do not have. I've limited some things that medicine cats do in canon, but most of that will be for later. In short, diseases will be a bit more deadly and will spread quickly.
This makes the mortality rate for both the very young and the middle-aged higher than they were in canon by quite a bit. Especially for the littles. Kitten mortality is about half at where I've put it - which is standard for real life ferals. Once cats hit apprentice age is where I cut back mortality rates. Enough rambling though, I'll break it down.
Birth - Newborns in canon are treated like two-month-old kittens. Which is about as far from reality as possible. I wanted to keep kittens a bit more like they are in reality so I'm going with the helpess newborn kit here! At this point, mortality rate is high for kits, so most queens don't even name them yet. Queens don't allow anyone to visit except the father and medicine cat.
One Month (Moon) - Again, I'm treating kits like real-life kittens. They still drink milk from their mothers, but kits are able to walk around and visit the elders for a short amount of time a day. Kittens start to play with each other and small things like balls and feathers.
Two Months (Moons) - As kits reach two moons, they are weened and basically just really small and clumsy cats. They can play confidently and are at a much lower risk of death at this age.
Three to Five Months (Moons) - At this point, kits are preteens.
Six Months (Moon) - Young cats still become apprentices at six moons. I've also decided to make start persuing romantic interests at this age as it is the cat equivalent to teenagers. Mortality rates increase from what they had been from three to five moons as they are suddenly pushed into battle. Apprentices are more reckless and will make mistakes in battle.
Tweleve Months (Moons) 1 Year - Most cats become warriors at this point and are generally strong enough to take harder hits in battle. Mortality rate will go down once more.
Three to Six Years - These are fully realized warriors and at this point, many have started families. Mortality rate is at it's lowest here and most cats live through at least four years.
Seven to Ten Years - Once warriors reach seven years, they start to kind of slow down. Battle scars will wear on them at this point and many begin to die out from either sickness or battle injury.
Eleven to Fourteen Years - These are the elders. Few cats reach this age and it doesn't take much to knock these cats out. They go down to newborn mortality rate.
Now comes with the mortality ratings. I rule most things in the rewrite based on dice rollings. Just to make it interesting and to keep it from being to plot-armorish. I also just really think it's fun. So once again, I'll assign a ratio to an age group.
Kits (Newborns to one month) and elders are 1/2. A coin toss, really. Kittens aged two to six months have a 5/6 chance. Apprentices have a 4/6 chance. Once they are given their warriors names they move back to a 5/6 chance. Queens during birth have a raiting of 3/5. Senior warriors have a 1/4 chance.
Which all sounds terrible. And it is. Feral cats reproduce like crazy and Thunderclan arc 6 make it obvious.
Questions are open!
- panic
