The clans writing and art
Read bellow about it!
How their writing and art works and how it's made?
The paper that commonly is write and drawn on, is made of papyrus(i know it's on Egypt, but since it's fictional, i think it doesn't matter so much), and the things they use write and draw with vary by clan and acessbility.
For historical events and important cats, cats write on clay, since clay can last for very long time without going bad, they write on it using strong sticks, elongated stones that were sharpened or crafted tools for it.
All the clans can use animal's blood from rests of fleshkill, trough that can be considered a waste if the freshkill can still be eaten, so cats eat all they can while writing.
All the clans use flowers to write and paint(mainly paint and draw), Thunderclan and Windclan have a large variety of flower types, whille Shadowclan and Riverclan unfortunally only have acess to the lotus flower and water lily in their territory, and as variety thoses flowers can be, it's very small compared to the Wind and Thunder diversity. The paint are made as the flowers are smash in a bowl, into a paste and puts alchool or hot water(depending in which clan that the material will change), and mash it with a mash tool(i couldn't find the name sorry), and the paint is made.
The next is kinda complicated as it uses fire, the clan has to start a small fire, pick a tiny stick, burn the tip, put out the fire, and use the coal as an writing pencil, it's more recommended to do it in Riverclan than any other clan(Principally Thunderclan in drought season), as it can cause massive fire, to make a small fire safelly, you would need to circle it with alot of stones and it's recommend it to put it in the middle of the clearing, away from any plants or flammable tools and objects.
For paints, it's very recommended to use a brush instead of your fingers, so you wouldn't accidentally paint your own fur, and it's hell to take the paint of the fur, so the brush is made with a stick or a stone that is more elongated than common, use a cotton(that can planted by the Riverclan, Windclan with their massive open moor can more easily plant it, but Shadowclan and Thunderclan can't plant it, since their territory have more shade, so the cotton can't grow, so they have to trade with Windclan and Riverclan) or squirrel's tail to use as the part were the paint goes, after painting or writing, it would need cleaning before using it again.
Where it originate from?
The modern clans writing system originally came from the Park cats, as they would learn it from the humans(the term two-legs wouldn't exist at that time) with them coming at their park, which Riverstar teached his own clan about, changing and creating new symbols for better understanding of his clan, but he was kind enough to share his knowledge with the rest of the clans.
The first painting came from Windclan, with a cat named Dust Muzzle, creating a painting of his family, Windstar, Gorse fur and Moth flight, the painting was said to be beautiful, even when it was also said to be very distorced and disproportionated when compared to the real cats, but the painting was lost by time, but with that Windclan created a tradition, to every new crafter, they have to try to draw the first painting with their own interpretation on how Dust Muzzle's would look like.
This a painting that an unknown apprentice made, this is their own interpretation on how Dust muzzle and his family would look like.
The Writing system itself
The writing system is very simple actually, since i don't want to waste hours and hours of my life creating a new complex writing system, so it will use own alphabet but with symbols instead of letters, but it doesn't mean it doesn't have its how rules to follow:
Note: This is a concept art.
Each symbol has a explanation on why i choose it specifically, i picked up names that start with that letter, so for example: Petal for the letter P, and the symbols can only have one colour however, so it's easier to identify it.
Symbols:
A = Acorn;
B = Bee;
C = Cloud or Cherry;
D = Daisy;
E = Egg;
F = Feather(new), Fern(outdated);
G = Grass;
H = Heather plant;
I = Simple Ice pattern(new), complex ice pattern(outdated);
J = Jagged line(new), Juniper berries(outdated);
K = Kestrel bird;
L = Leaf or Lion;
M = Maggot;
N = Moon, since it appear at night;
O = Olive;
P = Petal or Pine;
Q = Quail bird head;
R = Rat or Rain;
S = Snake or Spots or Sun;
T = Tadpole or Thistle;
U = Motion to something that is under something;
V = Vine;
W = Web or Wolf;
X = Of viXen(i couldn't find anything, sorry);
Y = Yarrow;
Z = Three Zigzag patterns;
After know which symbol is which letter, you should know how to write it, for example, we will use Fireheart's name as an example:
The right way to spell words here, is writing them down, and using an arrow bellow the last symbol, to move to the next vertical line, and "-" that separate the words, so it doesn't get too confusing.
And when you write a cat's name, you have to ask them, which symbol they use if that symbol have more one option(example S, with 3 options), since using 2 or 3 different symbols in the same word is wrong and cause confusion, principally if the symbol is outdated, so for example, Fireheart use Rain instead of Rat for his R.
The wrong way to spell the words is writing horizontally, using both the arrow and "-" incorrectly, multiple different symbols in the same word and the wrong symbol for the cat, and using outdated symbols.
Outdated symbols were the original ones, but fell out of use for one reason or another, example: "F" used to be a fern, but feel out of use, since it was too similar to "H" symbol, heather, so now the feather is used instead of the fern.
Finalization + author notes
This took way too long, but i'm happy with the result, i accept construtive criticism about it!
I wanted to use this kinda of ""Writing system"" for some time(even when it's not, but i like to swap the words with other drawings, it's cool), this thing will be more present in how the clans preserve their history, of course, things are still lost by time, but somethings like the clans leaders of each era, important events and cats, prophecy and etc.
And a litttle challenge, more like a dare, can you guess what Smallear wrote in the paper?
Anyway, again, english is not my first language, so if you find any mistakes, tell me and i will fix it.