Knowing that every Rippleclan founder is going to be a celestial makes me wonder what Carnationspeckle and Oilstar will be celstials of (plus Downstar! Since we don't know what she's the Celestial of yet)
Its weird that those two are the last of the founding cats….
Also! Puddlespeckle being a judge makes a lot of sense, especially since they mentioned to be staring at Shadowdrop and being angry I imagine he was on the side against letting shadowdrop into starclan for some reason.
I suppose I can share my planned titles; The Celestial of RippleClan Caretakers and the Celestial of Ghost Sight
Also YES YOU NOTICED WHAT I DID WITH PUDDLESPECKLE AND SHADOWDROP
So who are Rippleclans Celestials so far and what are their roles?
I'm going to organize this chronologically. This list includes all those who have died before Moon 90. I'm not including Moonpaw in this list because she is the StarClan Guide, and therefore has a greater presence than Celestials.
Twinekit: Celestial of RippleClan Kits
Role: Fetcher
As the first RippleClan cat to enter StarClan, Twinekit left a permanent impact on the culture of RippleClan. RippleClan queens ask Twinekit to help their kits grow safely and happily.
Locustseeker: Celestial of Young Martyrs
Role: Jobless
While apprentices have died for their Clan many times before, RippleClan felt particularly emotional about Locustseeker's death and deeply honored their bravery. Without them, RippleClan might not have been recognized as a Clan by AshClan. As such, apprentices pray to Locustseeker to give them the strength to do dangerous tasks, while adults pray to them to save the lives of their apprentices who lay close to death from those tasks.
Puddlespeckle: Celestial of RippleClan and AshClan Relations
Role: Judge
Puddlespeckle may have been the first elder of RippleClan, but he is better remembered as a figure of AshClan culture within the developing society of RippleClan. His influence gave the Clan an odd number of AshClan traditions. Mediators, artisans, and other diplomats ask for Puddlespeckle's guidance when negotiating with AshClan.
Fennelspot: Celestial of RippleClan Clerics
Role: Blessed One
As the first cleric of RippleClan and one of the guiding voices of its founding, every cleric looks toward Fennelspot's legacy to guide their paws in both medicine and spiritual matters. As they reach graduation, clerics may pray to Fennelspot for his blessing. Honeybuzz and Weevilsight have both reported Fennelspot visiting them in their dreams at StarClan's Shrine after they got their names, so it is believed that you must be visited by Fennelspot to be accepted as a full cleric. If you are not, you must continue your training.
Rustshade: Celestial of RippleClan Codekeepers
Role: Jobless
Even though Rustshade prefers to enjoy his afterlife and truthfully wasn't the greatest codekeeper in the world, he was still RippleClan's first, and every founder shall be remembered as a Celestial in RippleClan's heritage. Like Fennelspot, codekeeper apprentices pray to Rustshade to pass their assessments and guide their training.
Scrubmask: Celestial of RippleClan Warriors
Role: Judge
Scrubmask was everything a good warrior should be, in the eyes of RippleClan historians. Warriors pray to her to develop their skills in battle and protect their Clan as best they can. She is another figure that apprentices ask blessings of before assessments.
Parsley: Celestial of RippleClan Loners
Role: Judge
Parsley was the first loner accepted into RippleClan, establishing a precedent that continues with cats like Estherfern. She was such a vibrant personality within the Clan that no one wanted her memory to fade. The Clan asks for Parsley's advice on accepting outsiders, while outsiders are told that if they want to connect to RippleClan's spiritual heritage, they should pray to Parsley. She shows that you don't need kin in the Clan to be remembered and valued.
Tempestshade: Celestial of Cursed Demise
Role: Fetcher
Tempestshade couldn't help the dark energy that sunk into them at birth, the curse that endangered others when they were alone with them. Their tale is somewhat tragic, but Tempestshade was still a happy cat. By praying to them, it is said you can ward off the effects of a deadly curse.
Weedfoot: Celestial of RippleClan Deputies
Role: Fetcher
Did anyone doubt Weedfoot would be a Celestial alongside her first and second mates? She reflects all a deputy should strive to be. Oilstripe will make certain that all RippleClan deputies think on Weedfoot's legacy and search for her blessing.
Foampaw: Celestial of Protection From Autumnfrosts
Role: Jobless
With the introduction of a new common Spirit of Shadow, the Autumnfrost, the Clans looked for a figure they could pray to for protection. Who better than the first cat documented to die at the ghostly fangs of this spirit?
James: Celestial of RippleClan Elders
Role: Jobless
What, do you think James is going to work in the afterlife? Ha! This tom was born to be an elder with his natural laziness. As such, as RippleClan gets older and goes to the elder's den, they'll ask James to help them rest and give them a peaceful retirement.
Oh man, the family tree shows Lemmy is in the Dark Forest? How close was it? Was she almost allowed into StarClan?
StarClan decided that she let her fear of her former allies cause too much suffering. Like the founding message of the Clan, Lemmy’s actions created a ripple effect of heartbreak. She can’t be part of the stars.
Would love to know the meaning or reason behind Vervaincough’s name, it’s so unusual I’m so curious
Looks like another personally requested Name Deep Dive! Vervaincough time!
Prefix: “Vervain”
Vervain is a well known plant with tiny, bright purple flowers grouped together into a sort of cone. Now there are technically no purple cats in the Clan (Thundergale… yeah I don’t know what to say that woman is purple, but canonically brown so idk), but purple substances like vervain flowers are popular picks for black, dark gray, or dark blue cats. While that may seem silly to some, artistic parents may love the prefix. It’s also a beautiful flower, and therefore could imply a beautiful cat.
Vervain has multiple medical uses. It reduces inflammation, especially in the throat, eases anxiety, fights off tooth and gum infection, and promotes healthy gums. Clerics often experiment with the herb to find other uses. This makes “Vervain” a prefix ripe with powerful medical connotations.
Suffix: “-cough”
So I won’t lie; “-cough” can be a little controversial. In the language of cats, cough is synonymous with disease, with the prefix denoting the telltale trait of the disease. Greencough literally means the green disease. This means that “-cough” appears more frequently in dishonor titles as opposed to typical names.
However, some like Downstar are able to separate cough from disease and instead view its definition as “the body creating an abundance of”. In this definition, greencough’s literal meaning is “the body is producing an abundance of green”. For names in this perspective, “-cough” implies that the cat in question produces their prefix, or is so rich in their prefix they literally cough it out. It isn’t pretty, since coughing is harsh, but it can work!
Full Name: Vervaincough
Let’s look at this name from two angles: Vervaincough as a disease, and Vervaincough as “the body produces an abundance of vervain.”
Vervaincough as a disease sounds like some type of cough that also affects the gums. It brings to mind images of purple gums, but clearly this isn't what Downstar was going for, even though it is funny to think that Vervaincough's name means "Gum Disease".
In actuality, Vervaincough's name implies an abundance of beauty and usefulness. She is actually a beautiful molly, despite her insecurities. While she is a codekeeper, she is also very skilled at maintaining the territory with the caretakers, something that Downstar took to note. Downstar chose this name in order to relax some of Vervaincough's seriousness and remind her of her skill.
At one point I believe you said in an ask that Weedfoot had died several times and each time you reloaded the save to ‘save her’, are there any other cats who’s fates you’ve changed like that?
I don’t know if this would be considered controversial in the Clangen community, but when I move onto a new moon, I constantly reload if I’m not particularly engaged with what happened. It’s usually because I don’t see any hooks to continue the current plot or an important character died before they could do something I needed them to do. Lemme see if I can recall some notable fates…
Rabbitjoy has murdered members of the Clammask family multiple times. The game really made her hate Clammask to the point of killing Leathermask at one point.
Parsley was supposed to die just two moons after she healed in a rogue attack alongside Weedfoot
Rapidleaf confessed her killing to Whitepaw a few times. That would have been cool to keep, but there were other factors in each of those moons that made me dismiss it.
Weevilsight and Anchovystrike have had a few death scenes, but I wanted to keep the entire Star-blessed trio alive.
Clammask died on a patrol as Clampaw, suffocating under the sand while Carnationspeckle watched gleefully.
During the AshClan war, Clampaw and Burdockpaw both got killed on patrol in the mass rogue event.
There have been multiple mass casualty events that I reset on because a character I wanted to keep alive (Oilstripe, Weevilsight, etc) died.
Can’t say I’m at all shocked that the summoning of the predators is now gonna backfire lmao. I mean, honestly. They were summoned using the song that summon the Lords in Black lol.
Now to see what chaos this will create
Yes, someone who noticed the Lords in Black song! I have art in my head of the Six Predators summoning inspired by that stuff
I absolutely do want to hear about your guidelines when it comes to writing about suicide. Especially as someone who has been suicidal before in my life, I really want to address the subject in my own writing, but I'm afraid of stepping over some line given that I know my own experiences aren't the classic kind. I am kinda scared of fucking something up and offending others who have been in similar situations haha 😅
Opening with a personal note; I think it is so important to write about suicide in fiction, and not as a shock value thing. When I was in middle school, I loved the angst of it (like how other people love reading about their favs getting tortured in fanfic), but I knew it was a serious and often poorly portrayed topic. I started doing research into proper suicide depiction in the media and grew to understand how it can play an effective role in a story while not demeaning it or, God forbid, endangering others. I’ll try to add links to stuff when I can.
I’m not going to add trigger tags to this post, just be careful with reading it if this stuff is overwhelming.
First things first, let’s dive into the intention and purpose of the suicide, just as we would any other plot point. This is not the sort of topic you want to add in for shock value. It would be insulting to the trauma of it all and could actually hurt people. The big thing to consider with writing about suicide is suicide contagion. This is the phenomenon where, after learning about a recent suicide, others are driven to kill themselves as well. It's also called the Werther effect due to the number of copycat suicides following the publication of a popular 1774 novel called The Sorrows of Young Werther. Treating suicide as something to be highly publicized and dramatized incentivizes people to commit suicide as well. It's our responsibility as writers, and really as people, to not contribute to this.
It wouldn't be right to perpetually ignore suicide in literature and media, though. It's real and life-changing and personally, I just love stories that include it. So when should we include it in our stories?
You'll need to be analytical as you design this plot point so you can be careful in your approach. Forgive me for blunt and technical language here, but this is for the sake of education. Suicide can prove an interesting plot development for characters with deep-seated mental health issues or crises. You need to consider the character's mindset and situation, and how this would alter the rest of the story. When Trumpetspore died in-game, after these moons of chaos, I considered her character. Her trait was "nervous", she grieved deeply, she likely inherited depressive tendencies from her grandmother and the trauma of her youth. Changing her death from rogue attack to suicide made sense thematically, especially compared to upcoming plot points.
For another example, look at Anya from Mouthwashing (amazing game, would not recommend to those with lots of triggers tho). Her suicide was an excellent choice from a narrative perspective. She's trapped on the ship, she's pregnant, trapped with her rapist, she's trying to care for a dying man and it is traumatizing. Her choice to die by suicide supports her story and the themes of the game. All in all, if a character is going to make that choice, you as a writer should at understand it, even if your characters/audience are left in the dark.
Now onto the actual suicide. I learned about the intriciacies of writing about the event via recommendations on reporting on suicide. This advice is geared toward the discussion of real life suicide, so not all of the information here applies to fiction. However, I've taken this advice and shaped it for my own use in suicide fiction.
If you can, try to avoid bringing up the suicide method. This can vary depending on the circumstances of the story and what you're trying to accomplish, but if there's no need to know the method, it's better not to say anything. This helped me with Trumpetspore, because TBH I was very stumped on how I wanted her suicide to occur. In the end, though, not telling anyone heightened the intensity and serves to protect readers.
If you let the audience know how the victim died, don't show the moment of death. Sometimes knowing how someone died is important for the story! In The Politician, it is narratively important that River uses a gun so that we can see the emotional toll it has on Payton, but you never show someone actually shooting themselves or swallowing pills or landing on the ground from a dozen stories up. In writing, you can do this with a bland, non-descriptive statement, like "And then he shot himself." In a visual medium, if you actually show the moment of death, you are risking an increase in actual suicide rates. Do not do that.
Add links to suicide prevention resources at the end of your work. I've seen multiple TV shows do this whenever suicide is brought up, and its becoming good form.
Answer important questions, but don’t explore the preparation. Let’s say you want your character to try hanging. In a modern setting, there’s no need to explore where they got the rope or the knots they tied, those sort of answers are usually simple. But let’s say it’s a child; how would a child get rope? Or let’s say in Warriors, a character eats deathberries. Did they come from the forest or the medicine den? The answer changes the story. Still, don’t dive into the character’s quest to obtain the right items and prepare for their attempt.
Ask yourself, does it need to be a completed suicide, or can it be an attempt? Attempts naturally offer a more hopeful story with the promise of recovery. Does the character need to die for the sake of the plot? Or does making it just an attempt fulfill the same goals?
From there, it’s mostly about treating the incident with respect. Explore the reactions, explore the recovery after the fact, don’t be afraid to let a character or two screw up in handling the situation, and don’t be afraid that your own experiences aren’t universal. They’ll make your story better because they’re your own.
