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bonefall · 2 months

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i was wondering, how different are BB!Windstar, BB!Riverstar, and BB!Shadowstar in Modern Starclan than they were alive? Esp compared to BB!Skystar and BB!Thunderstar.

Windstar is waaaaaaaaaaay different. Modern cats have completely forgotten that she was kind of a bitch. Of all the founders, I'd actually say that she's the most different. They de-girlbossified her.

Her revelation from Gray Wing the Wise was that she had a taste of battle and choked on it; ergo, she should expand her horizons. She spent the later half of her leadership doing just that, encouraging her cats to trade, forming alliances, and collaborating heavily with Shadowstar on technological advances. She was so loved that ShadowClan constructed a cairn at her burial-- a mound of stones around her body.

In life, she never lost her intensity. Though she took the revelation to heart, she often held grudges, took part in skirmishes against the others, and displayed a lot of bias within her heavily-hierarchical Clan. She could even be cruel and unfair in her judgements. Moth Flight personally experienced this in life, as The Wind Runner held her parentage against her before she'd proven herself useful.

In BB, Moth Flight is the daughter of Cloud Flight and Wind's terrible ex-mate, Branch. Windstar's kittens are Morning Awakener and Dustiest Muzzle.

(note: Names still might change. Park cat names are titles, three words at most, which are collected over their lives. Traditionally, a king bestows these titles, but in WindCo it's their parent. I feel like it fits her to have three kits called Big One, Middle One, and Little One tbh, lmao)

In death, these less savory aspects have been filed down by the sands of time. She's remembered as intelligent and jovial, loud and singsong. Her real build was lanky and wiry, but she's imagined to be as fat as a rabbit thanks to her trading and innovation. She gets associated with the matriarch doe that runs a warren.

(Gorselike Fur is depicted as harelike.)

The stories give her a king-like air to her. Most of the post-battle WindClan tales open up with her being approached in her camp, describing the kittens that took over after her death as 'heirs,' because the Wind Coalition didn't have deputies until Riverstar's death and a succession crisis.

In contrast, Shadowstar is actually the least changed founder. Her revelation was that she had failed to break her own legacy (remembered through history as failed to be compassionate, as her "legacy" of being the descendant of Broken Shadow is forgotten) and someone else would be broken for her. That turned out to be her nephew, Sun Shadow.

After winning a staring contest with One Eye, Sun Shadow won the right to become the God of the Sun. It is said that if someone else wins a staring contest with him, THEY will become the next god, so Sun Shadow defends his position viciously.

At night, he must rest, and his aunt is there to shelter him. This is why there is day and night-- as Shadowstar allows him to sleep in her embrace.

(Post-Lake there are actually arguments between River and Shadow "philosophers," who fight over if Sun Shadow is actually laying down to rest in Riverstar's embrace instead. Blood has been spilled. Average college professor discussion.)

So, as a patron, she's associated with shelter, safety, rest. Sanctuary. It's something that ShadowClan heavily values about itself at various points through history. So Shadowstar is seen as gentle, protective, and pragmatic. Someone who deeply regrets how she lost sight of the value of life, and will now fight to defend the cats under her charge.

Not all too different from who she was in life.

#And Riverstar will come up soon because ASC will end in a few months #But he is absolutely incomprehensible at this point #Closest thing to a biblical angel. He personifies water.#Spirituality overhauls #BB!Windstar #BB!Shadowstar #Better Bones AU #BB!StarClan

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warriors-official-art · 2 years

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Title: Thunder Rising

Arc: Dawn of the Clans

Country: China

Type: full cover art

Characters: Thunderstar / Thunder, Tall Shadow / Shadowstar

Artist: 刘野 Liu Ye

Source: https://warriors.huijiwiki.com/wiki/Category:%E5%88%98%E9%87%8E%E7%BB%98%E5%88%B6%E7%9A%84%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87

#chinese #fire #dotc

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bonefall · 8 months

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can you tell us more about bb!shadowstar? I really liked her in dotc but I think that was because I read it years ago and my brain has ignored canon and made her my blorbo since then lmao

also dotc autocorrected to ditch and I think that’s where it belongs

She gets done SO dirty in canon OH my god.

BB!Shadowstar is a pious, quiet person who cares first and foremost about what's most beneficial to her cats, and her cats alone.

The Shadow Family is descended from Broken Shadow, who famously adopted The Tyrant and ruled by her side through the destruction of the Kinships.

With the lake poisoned and the ancient forest cut bald, it laid a curse on the family. All Shadow cats are born with pure black pelts. If they come without one, they are dead before their first moon.

Tall Shadow has lived her whole life with the curse of tyranny in mind. It defines her. She is both ambitious, and wants to rule through respect.

She cares immensely about the will of the Stars, and listens when they send a sign... though, she can still be guilty of interpreting their omens in a way that benefits her people.

She speaks with a LOT of "we" statements.

When Jagged Peak broke his leg and it didn't heal, it wasn't her idea to exile him. It was Clear Sky.

She didn't know how to feel about it, necessarily... it struck her as wrong, but he phrased it as fairness. "A cat who does not contribute cannot take. We can't make exceptions. He was broken for a reason."

When only Bright Storm returned, carrying a little kitten with a leg missing in the same spot Jagged Peak broke his, her stomach twisted in horror.

She was convinced, instantly, that Gray Wing had crafted that child. Xey had sent them a sign; what they'd done was cruel and unforgivable.

The first child of the forest, an echo of the first cat who died here.

From that day on, everything she did would be for the health and safety of ALL her cats. She would spend the rest of her life atoning for what she allowed to happen to Jagged Peak.

After a fight with Clear Sky because he rejected his child, Tall Shadow broke off her supporters. They didn't go to the Marsh at first, that happened slowly.

Their first camp was at Snakerocks, in the cave the dogs hid in many generations later. There's ochre drawings from them deep inside.

Her kindness only extended to her own cats, however. While she allowed Turtle Heart to bring Bumble to the group, she was clear that it was only on her vouch.

If Bumble couldn't learn to hunt then she would not be allowed to take. Clear Sky had still left a mark on her, and the whole Clan.

This wasn't a cruelty of herself alone; this was the agreement that the Clan had come to.

So when Turtle Heart died, they sent Bumble away. Thunder Storm returned from his time with Clear Sky. The rest is history.

But, when Thunder Storm and his cats came to ask for Bumble's kittens, Tall Shadow asked how she could know if they could care for them?

Part of her was legitimately concerned, and this was the part she put foward. Another part of her realized that the budding group could benefit her somehow.

She's not completely selfless, nor is she totally heartless. She's more influenced by Clear Sky's mindset than she realizes, but can take a stand when she feels it goes too far. Tall Shadow isn't above using people as chips to bargain, but stops short of putting them in danger.

Of all the leaders, she tends to play the most safe. Even Riverstar will stick his neck out for his ally Thunderstar on occasion, but Shadowstar needs to see something that could threaten her before making a move.

#better bones au #BB!DOTC #BB!shadowstar

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bonefall · 9 days

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Bit of a random one but rereading the parable of the squirrels got me curious: how would clan cats (or just thunderclan in particular) view black/melanistic squirrels? Have any of them ever seen one? Im not sure how common they are in the uk, but i know they can be relatively prevalent in areas that have them sometimes

Black squirrels are nothing more than a simple morph! They get common in areas that have melanistic genes present as a result of simple genetic drift, though I've seen it proposed that black fur is an advantage in cold areas.

The gene is rare in the populations the Warriors come across, so they almost never see it. In spite of ShadowClan's unwillingness to control the gray squirrel population, ThunderClan is so aggressive about it that the pool stays shallow. Red Squirrels (pishkaf) do not have this gene. Only Gray Squirrels (chakchak) do.

So every time a black squirrel manages to occur, it's treated like a dire omen. Even ShadowClan takes it seriously.

Black as a color is associated with day and night cycles, because of Moon Shadow, Sun Shadow, and Shadowstar. Gray Squirrels are associated with war and benefit at the suffering of others. These things together herald great upheaval-- so cataclysmic that it would likely not be an "honorable conflict."

If you came to your Cleric with this omen, they would be struck with a look of terrible alarm. They'd be interested in its context, what it was doing, if it was eating anything, what its surroundings looked like. Someone like BB!Runningnose, interested in supporting Brokenstar's ambitions, might spin it as a positive sign.

Most Clerics would announce that the squirrel needs to be killed IMMEDIATELY, and launch a massive hunt to destroy it. What would come next would likely depend on the culture of the time, but for the most part I can imagine some sort of mass "purification" ritual. The whole Clan trying to identify how they can avoid the cataclysm, one of the few times where they see a glorious war as a bad thing.

The cat who kills the squirrel would likely earn an Honor Title. It's also very likely that the body of the animal is treated as a very powerful material-- burned to ash to prevent its use in forbidden magic or carefully preserved and made into something special, no in-between.

(Thinking about it... thanks for the idea I'll totally do this for Brokenstar's Cataclysm lmao. The sinew of the black squirrel is probably used to re-string Runny's acorn necklace.)

#Note that this is why Clanmew doesn't use a generic term for squirrel #Reds and Grays have maaaaassively different cultural meanings!#You can make Pishchak or Chakaf on the spot but it would hit weird to a Clan cat.#Closest English example; it's like calling a fox a 'reynard' or a wolf a 'lupine beast'#Clan culture #Pishkaf om chakchak #Squirrels #Gray squirrel #Red squirrel #Better Bones Au

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bonefall · 2 months

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Skystar is the first leader to die and Riverstar is the last, but have you decided the order the other leaders die? (and who their successors are if you've changed them)

Quick list so far, of order and of successor!

Skystar -> Sparrowstar THOUGH I also wouldn't mind her getting snubbed. For a long while, I had an inkling of an idea that Sparrow Heart betrays her brother, Pebble Heart/Owl Eyes and her living mother, Bumble, joins Clear Sky and fights by his side for her whole life, and then... dies or is replaced before becoming leader. Causing her to SEETHE in StarClan, furious that she's a minor patron of loyalty, and become desperate to finally take what she feels was denied. Would be a BANGER thing to do for an arc of BB that has something to do with the "vacant position" left by Skystar's heavenly double-death in Ashfur's jaws.

Thunderstar -> Owlstar If he dies so early, it's because he was engaged in so many fights with Skystar. Anyway, not many changes here, besides the fact that Owl Eyes was the first official Honor Title and his birth name was Pebble Heart. Bumble also survives to see her son become leader of ThunderClan, and she's very proud of him. Thunderstar dies around the same time as Windstar, I think, either a little before or after.

Windstar -> Gorsestar or one of her kids I kinda just don't want Gorselike Fur to ever become leader, or if he does, he rules for a really short amount of time. More like a Queen Reagent than an actual ruler, you get me? Just running WindCo until their chosen heir is ready to take over. He's calm and laidback, but also too naiive and relaxed to be a good leader. He'd want to hang up the star as soon as possible-- so he wouldn't take the lives in the first place. She might get followed by Morning Whisker instead, and to avoid conflict with Morningstar of ThunderClan I make the name into "Risingstar" or something. Windstar herself died of some kind of chronic illness. It took several of her lives, shortening her rule, in addition to fighting off SkyClan's raids once Moth Flight had 4 oracle children and every Clan desired a Cleric. Her grandson, OR great-grandson depending on how the timeline shakes out, is Duststar. Duststar is going to be leader of WindClan when Commandment 4, the Law of Loyalty, is passed. The one which Cloudberry and Ryewhisker are going to leave StarClan in protest of. I'm feeling that Duststar was named for his uncle/granduncle, Dustiest Muzzle.

Shadowstar -> Possibly still Ravenstar, not committed to a successor yet. She significantly outlives the other three. She was a long-lived leader, it's just that Riverstar outdoes her! In fact I'm probably going to have Quick Water end up being one of the oldest Dark Forest demons, having made a coup attempt on her for some sort of reason. Maybe she was deputy for a while. Unsure. So, I'm not too plussed about choosing a successor for her. She might have gone through a few deputies. Whoever the successor is, they're a bit of a bastard who aggravates the River Kingdom's succession crisis.

#BB!DOTC #better bones au

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bonefall · 2 months

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What roles are Willow Tail, Quick Water, and Fern Leaf going to be like in your rewrite? I hate most of DOTC but I do enjoy a lot of the side characters, especially them

Willow Tail I know what I'm doing with, Quick Water and Fern Leaf I'm less sure of.

BB!Willow Tail -> Willow Flayed Bare

Willow is a young molly from the Wind Coalition who fought at the First Battle. Her first name was Tabby, and she earned her title for presenting a large, weaved willowbark basket to the Wind Runner. She's an artisan with a useful talent.

Since I completely overhauled Moth Flight's Vision into Moth Flight's Vow, which has a NEW origin for how the Cleric's Vow occured, I'm still reworking the Bunny Bones plot that I'm fond of.

I'm unsure if it's going to be a novella or a catalyst for the conflict of another book. It might be a good way to create an opportunity for Quick Water to run her rebellion

Willow has a petty dispute with one of Clear Sky's kittens; Tiger Sky. It's a TINY bananas squabble. She doesn't like seeing her rude ass sunbathing on the moor, so she starts leaving bunny bones on the border and accusing her of stealing to get her banned from the area.

Skystar, being the man that he is, takes the accusation that one of HIS warriors, his oldest (remaining) DAUGHTER no less, VERY personally. What started as a mean girl moment quickly exploded into total war.

I LIKE the way that the original plot was so unjustified and avoidable it's painful. I just wish it was framed as the miserable, violent moment it should have been. I'm planning on keeping Willow's blinding, but it's the final straw for Tiger who can't stomach this any longer.

Willow is likely going to end up in the River Kingdom, exiled for starting the conflict. She might still get retooled; in a later draft she may become a ShadowClan Mountain Cat.

Quick Water

Aside from a brief moment in Sun Trail where they give her the trait of being 'vain' and being woman 34 that Clear Sky smacks around to relieve stress in Forest Divided, she's suuuuper neglected in the main arc imo.

I haven't read past the part where they unceremoniously kill Sun Shadow in Shadowstar's Life, so I hope to revisit it before retooling Quick Water more. I hate how DOTC takes every opportunity to shit on Tall Shadow when she doesn't fucking do anything.

(Side note: it's kinda why i cant see Shadowstar as the girlboss ppl want her to be. Wind Runner is the girlboss. Canon!Tall Shadow is absolute girlfail. In BB, Tall Shadow is less girlfail but she still has the pervasive energy of... this isnt going to make sense to anyone but me BUT BB!Tall Shadow is SO girl obama to me. Well-spoken high road liberal who gets steamrolled by dirty fighters.)

So BB!Quick Water,

For one she's going to be part of a full family. It's either going to become the Water Family OR her name will change and she'll become Quick Tail.

I think she's going to become good friends with Shatter Frost, as Shadow's Clan early "conservative" types who think Clear Sky has a point.

They might end up with kittens, because DOTC is supposed to be about. Like. Ancestors. It's bizarre that they gave the Quiet Rainkin like 20 surviving descendants while everyone else dies off. Not cool actually.

In any case, I want to boost Quick's role significantly. Let her be one of Tall's key cats, either a hunter or a fighter. Something that isn't surprising when she eventually tries to toss Shadowstar out of power

Shadowstar actually survives this coup. She's one of the longer-lived founders in BB!DOTC, unlike canon where she was the first to go. Quick, meanwhile, is one of the VERY FIRST Dark Forest demons, which I can hopefully have a lot of fun with.

Fern Leaf

(CW: Canon!Slash and the racist trope he's written as that includes physical and sexual violence)

She is VERY up in the air currently, because I'm rejecting Slash as a villain completely. It was SUPER fucked up of them to make TWO stinky, born-evil native villains and then write one of them the way they did. Not only is it thematically RANCID, but it's also LAZY writing.

They have to make Slash a lustful creep so that Clear Sky looks better, because they DIDN'T WRITE A REAL REDEMPTION WHERE HE FACES ACTUAL CONSEQUENCES.

Like... I'm sorry, we understand that the way they wrote Slash is a really old trope, right?? "The natives will kidnap our women and hurt our children if we don't unite, and that's why the colonization of this land was totally cool" Warrior Cats is no stranger to xenophobia, but this time it went so far it invoked an outright racist trope.

(And then they just... totally gloss over that Star Flower is "young" compared to Clear Sky, who was less than 3 at the time, meaning she must be around the same age as the son he is actively abusing and EURGH Forest Divided makes me want to throw up)

SO.

Now that I have screamed about how ROTTEN this part is to stress WHY I need to gouge it out with a rusty spoon;

First of all, Slash has an updated name to help separate him from canon a bit. The Mountain cats call him Dashes for his leg markings, the Park cats call him The Silver Pelt for the color of his fur, his real name is Star-shine. Just "Star" in a casual context, his birth name. "Shine" is a leader suffix.

In-canon, Fern Leaf's purpose is to be abused by Slash enough that she reveals information to Gray Wing, and to contrast Beautiful Boy Clear Sky who beats the shit out of women and kids for good reasons so his abused underlings still wuv him.

So... no. Not keeping that. Lol, lmao even.

While I'm not totally against allowing Star to remain some type of harsh or even abusive towards his cats, IF that remains, I need to stress how much it is influenced by the constant stress and violence the Forest Cats are surrounded by. Harsh times don't cause abuse, but they do contribute, and even important, protective people can still abuse a victim.

Doesn't make it okay. Doesn't even make it easier to heal from. It robs you of the simplicity of it all-- being hurt by someone you desperately want to remember fondly.

Still, it's a very fine line to walk when I already have a big problem to fix here. I'm dealing with an egregiously racist trope, even if I HAVE already removed the MOST awful parts related to Canon!Slash's behavior (it's not appropriate for the tone I'm setting or something im comfortable writing).

But the physical abuse is a huge part of Fern Leaf. So, do you see my conundrum? I am confident handling the nuances of abuse, but this part of the story could use bleach.

I have a few ideas, one I'm leaning towards, but I'm still open to suggestions

Idea 1: Fern Leaf is one of Misty's kits

This was an earlier thought I'm moving away from, but it's worth mentioning. I already have Birch and Alder I'm doing this with, with Alder Claw eventually defecting from SkyClan, so adding Fern Leaf to the litter might be redundant.

In any case, Milkweed was mates with Misty. If this idea stays, Fern could be the one kitten she managed to escape with, forced to leave the other two behind. But then I wouldn't keep Fern's abuse, y'know?

(Plus Milkweed has so many kittens to pick from that I already need to shave some down. She's got like 6 in canon; I've gone over it before but a massive reason why WC's family trees are so tangled is because of "superqueens" like this. They tend to give one parent a lot of kits instead of giving a lot of parents a few kits.)

Idea 2: Fern Leaf is Star's daughter

Either with or without abuse, this is the one I'm leaning towards. It would mean she can show up a lot through the story as his ""lackey"" until Thunder and Bright learn that her and her dad are just like them.

If I nix the abuse (which seems wisest at the moment, honestly) then Fern can still be covered in her iconic scars, just from tangling with Park and Mountain cats constantly. Naturally she's at the forefront of battle patrols, she's fighting alongside her dad.

Plus, there's lots of opportunities for overhauling the dynamics from canon. Her mom didn't "abandon" them, she was probably attacked by the settlers. Star can be a good parent or just one with more complexity, instead of whatever canon was trying to do with Slash and this unrelated kid he hits.

(Re: very strange they refused to acknowledge that sometimes biodads are not worth forgiving or coddling. Interesting that Tom the Wifebeater and One Eye are sympathized with by the narrative for having kids. Curious they decided Canon!Slash of all characters would NOT be a father.)

Idea 3: Shuffle Fern into a Mountain or Park group.

AKA: prioritize the portrayal of intense physical abuse and her recovery, while avoiding tying it to the Forest cats entirely.

I feel like this one is the least interesting, but I'm keeping it on hand just in case. Like it says on the tin, she'd get any association with Slash/Star removed. I'd try to keep her developing a bond with Bright Storm though, since one of Gray Wing's... okayish moments was his interactions with Fern in trying to encourage her to leave.

(Even then, i really cant stand how the narrative concludes through Gray Wing that Slash is super evil because he doesnt feel love. And that he just decides to not tell Tall Shadow there's an evil group of cats spying on her and planning to invade because... Wisdom idk.)

If I do this, I will probably put her into WindCo. Their "homestead" system where individual families own mini-territories is a ripe situation for abuse to occur in, and the very structure of WindCo means that there's no one around to stop it or seek out for help.

Plus, maybe I could find some way for her to help out Thunder's crew as a WindCo insider. It's not a total wash, I just find Idea 2 more interesting.

#better bones au #BB!DOTC #Cw Slash dotc #Tw abuse #Cw abuse #BB!Quick Water #BB!Willow Tail #BB!Fern Leaf

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bonefall · 1 month

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Do you have a family tree for DOTC and the ancient tribes around the lake with Hollyleaf/Fallenleaf?

I don't yet. When I finish up my re-read, I'm going to gather ALL of the DOTC cats and start dividing them up into the three cultural groups. After getting them all in bundles, I'm going to whip them up into proper family trees.

If you're asking about canon's family tree... I can make it if you'd like, but I'd just be showing you the ticking timebomb of genetic diversity they set up for themselves. It's all Quiet Rainkin and random forest cats, most introduced after book 3. None of the other settlers had grandchildren and the living children have no mates.

Sun Shadow died.

Lightning Tail died and Acorn Fur was forced into a vow of chastity

None of Turtle Tail's kits have kits; one is in a vow of chastity

There's nothing to "preserve" about the canon tree, unfortunately. It's not really a "tree," it's more like a couple of bubbles with a ton of dead women floating around outside.

For funsies, let me try and remember all the "bubbles" off the top of my head, plus when the characters were introduced

Ravenstar x Juniper Branch (Book 6)

Milkweed x Leaf (Book 5, Book 2, plus existing kits with an unknown mate)

Misty (Book 2; kits have no kits.)

Shadowkin: Tall, Moon, Sun (1, 1, 5, extinct)

Jackdaw's Cry x Hawk Swoop (extinct)

Turtle Tail x Tom the Wifebeater (endangered)

Riverstar x Finch Song (Book 1, super edition)

Wind Runner x Gorse Fur (Moth Flight and Dust Muzzle are born in book 3)

Willow Tail (introduced with a sibling in book 4; extinct)

Shaded Moss was the father of Rainswept Flower (extinct)

Fox and Petal were siblings (Petal raised Misty's children)

I forgot the name of Drizzle's mom and sibling (book 6)

I think there's also a cat called Apple Bottom Jeans or something in Thunderstar's Echo who has a litter, but I can't remember her mate without google. There were also some litters born in Riverstar's Home I can't remember. I barely remember the side books, were there any others born in Shadowstar's Life...?

Here's all the pairings in the Quiet Rainkin family, as contrast;

Quiet Rain x Unknown (4 kits)

Clear Sky x Bright Stream (Died pregnant; gave birth to 2 dead angel fetus children in heaven)

Clear Sky x Storm (Thunder was the only survivor of 3)

Clear Sky x Star Flower (two litters; the first was 3 iirc, the second unknown)

Jagged Peak x Holly (3 kits)

Gray Wing x Slate (3 kits iirc)

Thunder x Violet Dawn (4 kits)

So... bottom line is, something like 50% of births were coming out of the Quiet Rainkin family, and they account for something like 30% of cats with existing family at all.

Personally, I think that's awful in a prequel arc that's supposed to be about ancestors. So I'm going to be making whole families for BB.

#bone babble #Re: this is all from memory #Did I miss any?#Also this is a large reason i think theyre just bad at handling family trees.#It was a completely clean slate and they are still barelling towards a pretzel in a couple generations #Unless they continue to summon fresh bodies from the bushes #MY excuse is that I don't work with OCs and have to handle the small population sizes.#I work with limits theyve set and even I can still think more carefully about family trees #They do not care at all about them or consider them outside of superficial references #And I dislike that. The whole draw of the series imo is following them through their lives and subsequent generations #But hey. My kitchen my spices.#If BB ever had its serial numbers sanded off I'd keep the BB!DOTC families into the modern era too lmaoo #But that's neither here nor there

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bonefall · 8 months

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We know Riverstar is the last founder to die, but what about the other three? What's the order of deaths here in BB?

ASSUMING that no other material for DOTC comes out that I end up wanting to adapt, the way I would plan to kill the leaders is in this order;

Skystar Star Flower leaves him with only a single life, after sacrificing him 8 times. While he ends up lasting longer than you'd expect, terrified into obedience for a few seasons, he ends his life with a final onslaught of war. Because he kept fighting even with only one life left to sacrifice, one of his final sermons brings words of inspiration to modern warriors, "Ten-and-one-less deaths for one long life; ten-times-thousands for a single oak tree. We die for the future to be built upon our buried bones." (9 Warriors must die to create the lives of a leader, an unfathomable amount of lives are sacrificed to grow an oak.)

Thunderstar It came with the territory, literally. He was closest to Skystar, he was involved in every major fight, he was the one who upheld justice even when it was hard, went hungry when there were mouths to feed. And Skystar's lucky he died first, because if Thunderstar had gone before him, he probably would have fought against his placement.

Windstar She was actually quite old. BB!Windstar was not a young cat, she was an adult when the Park was destroyed and King Arc lead her people to safety. She has been coalition-building for a long time, and survived many fights and disease outbreaks. Eventually, they just caught up to her. She burnt through a couple defending Moth Flight's kittens, more defending against SkyClan, a disease outbreak. She was succeeded by her own family. I'm not sure if it was Gorsestar in BB though, but by the time of the Succession Crisis, the Wind Coalition had been ruled exclusively by Windstar's direct family. Duststar was in power, and a young leader, at the time.

Shadowstar She was not particularly ambitious. Rather, she was savvy, calculated. Under her, ShadowClan spent its early existence in relative peace. She was known as a leader who took action when she had to-- but did not make major waves. And why would she need to? ShadowClan's marsh was hard territory to invade, and harder still to live there if you're not familiar with the terrain. She held onto her lives for a long time, but simply couldn't outlast Riverstar. Mostly, ShadowClan and the Wind Coalition were allies involved in a lot of trade. This was before borders were so strict, and the groups collaborated a lot during the innovation of flax processing.

#better bones au #BB!DOTC

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bonefall · 8 months

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So you decided to kill Gray Wing? Asking BC you mentioned in the BB!Shadowstar post that she believed Thunder was drafted by Gray :P

I dipped my toe in and, yeah, I think I'm gonna do it. KABLAMMO

GRAY WING THE DECEASED

I'll worry about updating everything at some point. But the more I considered it the more it made sense. Gray Wing the Wise is the first leader of the group, and with xeir death, the Clans were inevitably going to fragment.

The groups need a figure to invoke and call to. I could keep using The Ancestors, but this is a LOT more impactful if we have a specific name and connection, and I just can't see Shaded Flower filling that role.

The thought that it was Gray Wing who crafted Thunder Storm and sent him down to Bright Storm, while she was alone having failed to save Jagged Peak, BEGGING for some kind of sign, ANYTHING, just so she'd know if this was all for nothing... mmm.

#better bones au #BB!DOTC

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bonefall · 10 months

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does tall shadow/shadowstar ever get better? will there be a redux of shadowstar's life?

Somewhat. She does eventually join the effort to kill One Eye, but she is not the one who breaks the family's curse of association to The Tyrant.

Shadowstar is always religiously motivated, listening to her ancestors is above all. While Skystar halted during the Great Battle on the promise of getting more power later, Shadowstar listened because it was the spirits doing it. I want to keep Shaded Moss' dumbass canon scolding, but actually make it meaningful, NOT clownhonk.

The spirits have these things to say to each leader. Both a warning and a prophecy;

(First Battle has activated starclan's trap card... solemn scolding lmao)

Shadowstar "Grow a heart and think about what you believe in. You have failed to break your own legacy; and if you don't change course, someone else will be broken on it instead. You will be known for how you pick up the pieces."

Riverstar (King Arc, his father, dies in this battle) "It's time to start taking responsibility, now that your father has laid down his life to save you. There will be hard choices to make, and they will now look to you to make them. Become worthy of that."

Windstar "People don't just exist to benefit you, let go of grudges, find loyalty towards your cats just as they have been loyal to you. Expand away from battle, innovate, grow."

Thunderstar "You've fought so hard and come so far, no one has tried harder than you to do the best for all cats. We know you ache for peace and retribution, but beware the thin line between justice and revenge."

Skystar "you fucking donkey."

"Anyway, unite or die."

The next entry after BB!DOTC is Thunderstar's Justice, a redux of Thunderstar's Echo. It picks up after the First Battle, with One Eye having been called to the forest for the smell of death. Sun Shadow is going to have an important role here; StarClan's cryptic warning ringing true.

After that is Moth Flight's Vow, but I haven't made plans or outlines beyond that point yet. Honestly, I don't care at all for Shadowstar's Life... it felt like yet another book of everyone in DOTC being frustrating and learning nothing, plus the sudden, pointless death of Sun Shadow because GOD FORBID anyone have a bloodline except the Skykin

So Shadowstar's arc will probably come to a tenuous peak in Thunderstar's Justice, besides a major choice she makes in Moth Flight's Vow to try and take one of the Mothkin kits, since she didn't have a doctor.

#better bones au #BB!DOTC

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bonefall · 11 months

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Nature spirit Star flower? Bleeding Clear Sky dry eight times over? I am curious please explain more

Here's the general idea of it, this would all come after the end of BB!DOTC, which closes out with the aftermath of the First Battle and the naming of Windstar, Riverstar, Thunderstar, Shadowstar, and Skystar.

NOTE: You're basically about to read notes. This is not solidified yet. I have "Moments" I want to build towards, but they're loosely strung together. Fragments.

First off, Hollyleaf's Century gave us the intro to the Four Gods of this region.

They go by many names, but each is connected to a season. Sol, Midnight, Rock, and the man of the hour himself, One Eye, God of Summer.

One Eye was last seen possessing Lion's Roar. It's established that you need a certain number of violent, blood-based sacrifices to invoke him.

And, of course, he is drawn to the smell of death, the reek of rot in the summer's sun. The First Battle called him here, investigating the wonderful scent.

Star Flower is his 'daughter'. Natural objects of great value can manifest into beings of their own once destroyed, and Star Flower was an extinct, localized species of forest flower back at the Lake.

Still working out the exact rules of that, but it seems like nature spirits do have to be born somehow (like Broken to Yellow). One Eye found her in his travels and took her under his wing.

So anyway back to the arrival of One Eye in the Clans

(WIP STUFF, basically put a bunch of ???s past this point, this is plotting stuff.)

He is currently still possessing the body of Lion's Roar, an old and ragged thing. He's not fancy like Sol, who likes to travel around through time with its change powers.

One Eye took a shine to Clear Sky and his warmongering, infiltrating his group, and eventually making his nature known by eating Tom

He has a palette for violent people and accumulated evil. He will promise you 'revenge' to get at your enemy and make you into a delicious meal as well.

Skystar is NEVER getting a redemption arc in BB!DOTC, but he's not a moron either. He realizes that Sharptooth is practically trying to season him, and the horrifying death of Tom is what makes him work with the other Clans

to save his own giblets

Thunderstar Did Not Like That, but there's a bigger fish to fry

(Side note: One Eye was probably deified long ago for being the inventor of fire... vague cooking motif, perhaps?)

The Clans worked together to get rid of One Eye. It's important that the person who landed the final blow was a Tribe-born cat-- probably Sun Shadow.

One Eye vows revenge on his killer's homeland as he dies... not realizing that Sun Shadow was not born here, he was born at the tribe.

(May shuffle this moment to later, you'll see why in a moment)

Star Flower at this moment begins her own work, buddying up close to Skystar, getting close to him so she can stab him in the back

And she does! She drags him to the place where One Eye was buried, and bleeds him slowly, exploiting his 9 lives with a horrible magic loophole;

If he dies of blood loss, StarClan heals THAT, not any of the tiny injuries she's put on his body.

So he's letting out 8x the blood of a normal cat.

But before he can die for the last time, she is interrupted, probably by Thunderstar

She offers him this; "Go on! Take the last sacrifice! One Eye will be grateful to you. You'll get what you want, have your revenge, and Skystar will never threaten you or your family ever again."

Seeing Skystar, pitiful, bloody, and helpless, he refuses this. This wouldn't be honorable. To kill to win his feud is not justice; it's revenge.

(Here's when I was thinking of shuffling that earlier Sun Shadow moment to, have the resurrection be incomplete and have a final fight of partially-summoned One Eye. Angrily lays that curse for having his plan thwarted. Boss fight against half-fossilized cave lion.)

After this, I'm not sure what to do with Star Flower. She just killed Skystar 8 times, so, SkyClan isn't going to take her back.

I could have her be wandering, a loner or rogue who is just part of the background now. Maybe I don't need to wrap it all up here just yet.

So, there you have it! This is pretty rough but it's where I'm at with her.

Since this is post-main arc DOTC, it may make for a very good redux of Thunderstar's Echo. Maybe Thunderstar's Justice? Something like that. Make the central conceit be Thunderstar vs Skystar, wrapping up their arc from the main series.

#I'll tag as Thunderstar's Justice until I decide on a name #Thunderstar's Summoning or Ritual could be a good one too though and a unique title #BB!DOTC #Better Bones au

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