Ramblings about founding and traditions and stuff:
The clans were formed over 100 years ago (from into the wild). The clans were merged from dozens of small colonies of cats under the leadership of the cats who were best suited for their job. Wind, Shadow, Thunder, and River led their groups until their deaths. The Clans were named after them.
RiverClan created the apprenticeship system. River saw that the young cats were not progressing well in their training with their parents alone, so he’d assign the cats special mentors. He shared this idea with the other Clans at a gathering, and they thought it’d do wonders for their cats.
Formal mentorship ceremonies and the -paw suffix didn’t come until a while after River was dead
RiverClan was originally a very welcoming Clan who would gladly welcome outsiders to hang around in their camp. They also had a very lax mentorship system, where an apprentice could learn from whoever they wanted. However, when the war over Sunningrocks began, they began to lose that calm nature and focused on becoming stronger. Kits were expected to show the best traits of RiverClan, which led to “ugly” kits being shunned from the Clan. The warriors’ section was divided into different dens to prevent fighting, which had started due to the stress of the war.
RiverClan‘s main problem is infighting, which is what allowed TigerClan to take over. After Tigerstar is killed, TigerClan is dismantled, and BloodClan is driven from the forest, RiverClan cats begin to reevaluate their lives. They realized how they had been putting such high expectations on their young and how it molded them into spineless cats desperate for affection.
WindClan’s tunneler and moor-runner ranks were at first a great way for cats to specialize and aid their Clan in the best way possible, but it wasn’t long until tensions rose. Leaders had to be a mediator between the tunnelers and moor-runners, as they’d argue all the time. Heatherstar merged the ranks into just warriors in hopes it’d stop the fighting, but it did no such thing. Tunnelers felt abandoned by their Clan and weren’t able to catch up with the previous moor-runners. Tallstar brought back both moor-runners and tunnelers and made sure kits weren’t pressured by their kin to become a tunneler or moor-runner. Apprentices are allowed to switch ranks whenever, as are the warriors.
Until it was made law that kits don’t become apprentices until their sixth moon, leaders made them apprentices whenever they wanted or whenever their mother wanted.
ShadowClan kits were made apprentices the youngest, as ShadowClan wanted their kits to be prepared for anything
ThunderClan and RiverClan kits were made apprentices whenever. Usually, they’d wait until the kit gained their true eye color. ThunderClan leaders would bend to the will of the queens, so that day would come sooner for some.
WindClan was the basis for the six moon age requirement. WindClan, having the most open and therefore most dangerous environment for young cats, didn’t want to send their kits to their deaths
ShadowClan originally had their apprentices survive in the northern half of the territory for a moon, but the development of the northern twolegplace prevented them from going there any longer. They chose the leadenhalf due to it’s hard-to-navigate nature, and shortened the assessment time to half a moon instead of a full one. Apprentices were taking too long to become warriors, and with rats beginning to appear ShadowClan needed all the warriors it could get.
The tradition hadn’t been lost because ShadowClan cats fear they’d upset their founder, Shadow, and would lose their night vision as a result (ShadowClan is primarily nocturnal, so this would be devastating).
ThunderClan had been having problems after the merging all throughout Thunder’s leadership. It wasn’t until Owlstar became leader that something was done about it. He decided to hold honor duels which would be held in front of him to determine who was right, and who was wrong. He soon found out this was...just a bit flawed, as the same cats would win every time, so he added more rules.
The rules of honor duels are:
No grabbing of the scruff or throat. This could lead to serious injury or death
Claws are allowed but the eyes must be avoided. Accidental clawing of the eyes will still lead to punishment, as a true warrior should know how to control themselves.
Once the leader calls for the fighting to stop it MUST stop. Cats who continue the fight have a chance of being exiled.
Rusty’s fight against Longtail was an honor duel. Longtail may have been the stronger cat, but he broke multiple rules and was generally being an ass, so Bluestar crowned Rusty as the winner.
SkyClan was lost to time after their exile from the territories not too long after their founding. They traveled far and lost many cats along the way before they found the gorge, their perfect home. Their Clan didn’t survive long, however, as twolegs established a twolegplace nearby. Cats were fearful and didn’t trust SkyClan’s way of life anymore, and began to leave the Clan until only one cat remained. This one cat passed down stories to her young, who did the same to hers, until it finally reached Skywatcher. Skywatcher, old and frail with no kits of his own, decided it was time to revive SkyClan.
Firestar and Sandstorm don’t revive SkyClan because why would they, Skywatcher can do it himself.
SkyClan has their own little StarClan because the dead SkyClan cats want nothing to do with the other dead Clans.
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