Folklore: Ghosts, Spirits and Monsters
Beliefs are strange things in the Territory. Questions are both raised and silenced when your ancestors are so undeniably real and regularly appear in the dreams of even the least trained seer. There can be no argument that souls and the afterlife don’t exist.
For Clan cats, anyway.
There has never been a clear-cut answer on whether other animals, or even other cats that don’t belong to the Clan, can become ghosts and live in their own special heaven. StarClan doesn’t appear to know that themselves when asked, and many contradictory stories fly around the Territory faster than a member of The Fleet. It’s impossible to go to any group and come up empty when asking about a spirit or monster of some kind that one of the members believes in.
Here are a few of the most popular.
The Catamount(s): Also simply called “giant(s)”, it’s heavily debated whether there’s just one or multiple, similar to the Sasquatch of human folklore. They’re described as massive creatures that wander the mountain’s borders, lurking in plain sight thanks to blending in with the scenery around them. It’s said that they can perfectly mimic the voice of anyone they hear once. Where they come from, no one is sure - some believe they’re simply magically-enhanced ghosts of pumas, and others say they’re something else entirely. Something older than the mountain itself, with purposes that a modern creature could not understand.
The Stalkers: Also known as Inbetweens, Links and Halfers, among many other nicknames. Believed to be an impossible breeding of cats and giants, they speak a near incomprehensible version of Felis and steal apprentices and kits that get too close to the border. There are two variants on what they do with those young ones: either they kill and eat them, or they raise them as their own and send them back out into the world as adults to lure more apprentices and kits to their side, snatching them away and continuing the cycle. They’re usually described as strangely large and grey as a rock, with dark marks denoting something sinister that also changes with every telling.
Tovers: The remains of the predators so rarely seen near the Territory that their very descriptions have become almost mythical. They tend to be shaded like mist and just as see-through, though it’s not impossible to witness a freshly dead one that has yet to lose its old colors. Most of them are believed to be leftovers from the days before the Union, hence the name. Exactly how dangerous they are is regularly argued, but it’s advised no matter what to just walk past them and mind your own business. There’s no telling what a ghost could do if they get too close to you, after all.
Lanterns: Lights usually seen in the distance, often moving around in pairs. Small ones are rumored by elders to actually appear in the valley and use magic to appear far away, goading kittens into chasing them in the hopes of leading them away from their family and safety for amusement. Visitors often try to explain that these lights come from humans, but as humans are almost never spotted in or near the Territory, this only adds to their fantastical nature.
