This is for my own use, but also anyone else’s! Feel free to reblog, or repost in its completed form, but please give credit if you use it, and link back if you use it offline.
Formation: How was this clan created, how did it come together? Based on canon clan history? Or another event?
Rivals: Are there other clans, or other groups of cats? Or is it simply twolegs, predators, or something else?
Age: Is it recently formed? Or are the clan beginnings fading into history?
Shaping Events: What are the things that are most commonly told in story form? Were there any great wars? Unsettled grudges? Crazy legends and Myths?
Heroes and Villains: Are there any forces or cats that your cats aspire to be like? Any villains invoked to encourage kits to behave?
Map or General Description: Either draw a map or describe the territory.
Location: Where is this clan generally located? What country, what area?
Climate zone: What are the common temperatures and seasonal changes? Rainfall?
Fauna: What are the common animals that live in the territory? This can further be subdivided into predators, prey, and neutral.
Flora: What are the common types of trees? Is there undergrowth or not, what about open fields. What types of plants are most common?
Medicine: Common medicinal plants and remedies.
Defining features: What are the borders? Rivers, Mountains, Ridges, clearings, fields, cities or towns or houses, etc.
Important locations: These are places unique and important to each clan. Places of training, places of prime hunting, places of meeting and gathering, places of burial, places of celebration, etc.
Religious centers: Are there any specific places tied to the clan’s religion? A place where they may go to worship their deities or ancestors? Where is it? What is it like? Who is allowed to go there?
Camp: Where is the camp? What does it look like? Where are all the dens/where do all the different cats live? What are the exits and gathering areas? Are there any designated play or training areas? Where does the leader speak from to gain the clans attention, is there a place for the leader to meet with his advisors or deputy? Any other important parts of camp? How is it protected?
Build: Is there any specific part of their appearance that is different from other feral cats? Any wildcat or house cat ancestry? How tall, or heavy, or long do they get?
Pelt: What are the most common pelt colors in the clan? Common eye colors? Are there any anomalies introduced through wildcats or housecats (bobtails, color points, white cats, blue or other eye mutations,etc)? Is the clan mostly long furred or short furred?
Leadership: What is the leader’s role in the clan? Authoritarian and controlling, adviser, or figurehead? Laid back and letting others do the job, or involved in day to day particulars? Leader’s rule is only authority, or is there a sort of council of elders, or senior warriors, or clan voting system? Is the leader the judge and jury, do they follow a specific code of law, or make decisions on their own? How is leadership passed down? What is it that affords the leader their authority?
Deputy: Similar to above, what does the deputy do in your system? Are they simply a leader in training, the leader’s right hand cat, their adviser, or the ones that really do the work? Are there more than one in the clan?
Medicine cat: Is there a medicine cat for your clan? If so, what are their duties? Are they simply medics, or affiliated to the religious system of your clan? If they are, do they follow some religious code? If not, are they simply medics? What role do they play in maintaining the mental health of their clan? How many medics are there? How many apprentices? How do you become an apprentice? Any unique aspects that are particular to medicine cats?
Elders: What is the average age for warriors to become elders? What is the place of elders in the clan? Is it one of reverence and preference, or is it one of barely accepted tolerance? What are the elder’s duties? Is becoming an elder something cats would look forward to, or is it something most cats put off as long as possible? Are elders sought for advice on governing of the clan, or are they holders of the clan’s knowledge?
Warriors: Are warriors the most common group in the clan? What exactly are warriors in your system? What are their specialties? Do they hunt as well as fight, or are these two separate categories? If they are fighters, what type of fighting do they specialize in? What are the specifics of their fighting style? (Examples short quick movements, wide sweeping movements, speed-based, strength based, stealth based, height based, etc) If they are primarily hunters, what do they hunt? How do they hunt? How often do they hunt, and when? Do they have any other duties besides hunting, or fighting?
Queens: What is the position of queens in the clan? Is it of reverence or tolerance? Are they given preference in daily life? Is this station an exclusively female role? Are only cats who have kits in the nursery, or are there other cats who take care of the kits as well? Do queens (or whichever title you wish to give this role) take on care of other cats kits?
Apprentices: How old are cats apprenticed? What is the apprentice system like? Are they called apprentices? How long are cats apprenticed? What do they learn? What is the system of learning? (e.g. is it divided into distinct spaces of learning, or is everything learned at the same time) What are the requirements to become a warrior?
Kits: What is the philosophy of the clan towards kits? Are they raised collectively, or only by the cats in the nursery? What are kits allowed or encouraged to do? Is there any education? If so what kind? Are there any games or activities used to distract or engage them?
Other: Are there any other roles in the clan? Are there cats who are in charge of cleaning, or maintaining camp, or scouting, or in charge of education, such as knowledge-keepers?
Gender Roles: While yes this is a sensitive topic, there is no denying that in some cases there might be gender roles in a society. This also has to do with how your clan is governed. Is it a matriarchal society? Patriarchal? Or something else? What place does each gender play in the clan? Is the clan very fluid about gender and sexuality or very strict?
Code of Conduct: These are the basic rules which govern the clan and its functioning. Is it the normal warrior code? A slightly different one? Or something completely different? What is a part of this code of conduct? It may not be codified in the way the warrior code is done, so in what way is it passed down? Is it a loose set of rules, or strictly followed? List the most important parts of it, or write it out in its entirety (Unless its super long).
Process of law: How are the laws of the clan kept? Who is the judge? Is there an equivalent to a jury? What is the system of punishment? What is the system of pardon?
Mates: Is there a specific system in which cats can become mates? Are the cats of the clan monogamous or not? Are cats mates for life, or can the relationship be terminated whenever they want? Is there a ceremony or a special status or symbol for cats who are mates? Are there cats who can be arranged mates? Are mates simply for having kits, or are they for companionship? Can a mate relationship be between any cats or only between male or female cats?
Ceremonies: What are the ceremonies for cats who have reached another stage in life? What happens when a cat is born, when a cat becomes and apprentice, when a cat becomes and adult? What are the special ceremonies for cats of special ranks? What happens when a cat dies? How does the clan mourn? How does the clan celebrate?
Naming: How are kits named in this clan? Is it by appearance, the standard suffix/prefix model? Or is it a different way? Do their names change over time, with the achievement of new ranks? What are each of the ranks called and referred to? Are nicknames common?
“Name of what the Clan Worships”: So what does the clan worship? Starclan? Ancestors? Something else? What is this force or deity?
Influence: What powers does the force/deity have? Can the clan contact it? Is the clan connected to it in any way? What power does the force/deity have? Can it see the future, interact in the lives of the cats? Or is it impersonal, or fictional and completely in the minds of the cats who worship it? How does belief in this force/deity affect a cat? Are there cats who are more spiritually attuned/connected with the force/deity? What does this mean for a cat’s life?
Worship: How does the clan worship or revere the force/deity? How do they honor it? Are there festivals, or rituals? Are there particular chosen cats who are the link between the clan and the force/deity? If so what are their duties? How can individual cats show their reverence?
Holidays: What are the special days of rest or celebration connected to religion (or unconnected)? What does the clan do on that day/days? How is it connected to religion or the clan culture?
Afterlife: Is there an afterlife for cats? If so is it exclusive? How does one get into it? Or is there no afterlife? How do cats bury their dead, what is the culture of the dead, how are they remembered or not?
