#Bonefall Deerfoot

[bonefall]

Deerfoot Refresher

wdym by “catching deerfoot” ? i have a vague memory of deerfoot having a gorey death in BF but don’t remember completely

@figgybeans

[Image ID: Deerfoot from Warrior Cats. He is a solid brown cat with yellow eyes, long whiskers, and dark brown paws, tail tip, and mustache. His upper lip is slightly cleft, permanently showing his front teeth. He's drinking some sort of pink liquid refresher from a glass with a straw.]

Deerfoot is a ShadowClan warrior who has opposed Thistle Law since Brokenstar took power. He's a son of Lizardstripe and Mudfoot, and the brother of Tangleburr and Runningnose.

He was actually one of my first reduxes so I'm super fond of the whole Mudlizard family lmao

Him and Tangleburr are the "two halves" of ShadowClan symbolically. Tangleburr immediately threw her weight behind Runningnose and Brokenstar and enthusiastically supported every campaign they engaged with. Deerfoot meanwhile was working with Nightpelt to plan the coup.

How did he not die during Runningnose's Plague? Maybe he got lucky. Maybe Runningnose couldn't bring himself to kill his brother. In any case, when TigerClan rolled around, Deerfoot did as Deerfoot does and organized the rebels once more.

He meets his end after helping Mistyfoot, Featherpaw, and Stormpaw escape to safety. He was the only cat captured in the 'Great Escape', and refused to snitch on any of his accomplices, paying with his life.

Because of his actions, Reedwhisker, Mosspelt, Stumptail, Mudfur, Jaggedtooth, and others were never discovered as rebels. He saved them all with this sacrifice.

[bonefall]

BB!Firestar

[ID: Firestar from Warrior Cats with his tail on fire. The text reads, "Ssoen kafyar-ul ulnyams ssarshefpa," which is "Fire Alone will save the Clans" in Clanmew]

The man, the myth, the legend. Bringer of change, righter of ancient wrongs, ancestral patron of fire and of breaking bad habits.

Clanmew Name: Kafyarbabi, Kafyarshai [Wildfire + Heartbeating = Behaves like a wildfire.]

Alignment: ThunderClan

Relationships: Mates (platonic) - Sandstorm, Onestar (ex) Family - Squirrelflight, Leafpool, Cloudtail (nephew), Princess, Jayfeather, Lionblaze, Hollyleaf Mentors - Bluestar, Spottedleaf, Yellowfang Friends - EVERYONE. Graystripe, Deerfoot, Iceheart (Scourge), Brokenstar (post-death), Longtail, Cinderpelt

Chelford cats do not track paternity. It's not known who Firestar's father is, and it's probably not Jake anyway.

Firestar is aromantic. He is platonic co-parents with Sandstorm. He did not realize he was aromatic when he was seeing Onewhisker.

Other Clans consider him nosy. He's always trying to help out others, even when their sense of pride makes them hesitate to accept it.

Incorrigible. If he thinks he's right, you can't stop him. He also thinks it's important to make sure his Clan is well cared-for and doesn't give in to fear.

His personality is very passionate and outgoing.

Bonefall TPB:

To begin with, Rusty had to learn a new language to join the Clans. Clanmew and Townmew are sister languages but there was still a learning curve.

Spottedleaf was a big sister figure to him, she taught him how to connect with StarClan, what the rules are, and how to break them.

Bluestar left a deep impact on him as his mentor, she was the inventor of the mercy and grace which comes to define Fire Alone.

Like canon, he opposes Tigerclaw at every step once he realizes the cruelty within him.

Unlike canon, Better Bones is about having a strong anti-authoritarian stance, and to do that there's even MORE allies that Firestar connects with.

Oakfur, Stumptail, and Deerfoot in ShadowClan, and Mosspelt and Dawnflower in RiverClan are all cats who work directly with Fireheart, and were at times his Aftergathering buddies.

The end of Bonefall TPB is the battle with BloodClan, where he spares Scourge by defeating him honorably, ripping his collar off and forcing him to call a retreat.

The thesis of the arc is that Fire Alone can save the Clans because it's a radical change to the xenophobic, authoritarian culture of the Forest Four.

He lost a life in the process, from a huge slash across his chest and shoulder. It's meant to look like a mayoral sash, of sorts. His first deputy was Whitestorm, and after his death, his second was Longtail.

After the battle, he went a step further by bringing the collar back to Scourge as a gift of goodwill. He offered to uphold whatever he could of Tigerstar's Impossible Deal, and was shocked at the simple solution. BloodClan simply wanted things they couldn't get in Chelford; timber, glue, flowers, new types of foods they'd never tasted before.

Together, they forged a trade route that promised a bright future. During the destruction of the forest, Scourge eventually decided to lend his strength to the Clans for their Journey, eventually deciding to retire with them.

Scourge was eventually given the name Iceheart, so that he may live out his days with them in quiet peace.

Firestar's Quietus:

Brokenstar is the guardian spirit of the 5th tree of Fourtrees, which blighted and died after SkyClan's exile

His spirit cannot rest until SkyClan is safe. Firestar gets freakish dreams, Runningnose contacts him, and brings him to the Moonstone to figure this out.

It's there that he learns about Brokenstar trying to break into StarClan to make them do something. On learning that they just let an entire Clan get exiled, Firestar tells them to shove it and agrees to help.

Runningnose gives him a very emotional and significant acorn necklace which channels Brokenstar-- this item becomes important many arcs later.

Broken and Fire go back and forth a lot on what SkyClan should look like, what it needs, and how they should rebuild. The lesson learned is that SkyClan needed help, but can handle its own destiny.

Leafstar and the Warriors of SkyClan are not a Clan like the Forest Four. They will do things their own way, and that is a beautiful thing.

Brokenstar's final action is possessing Firestar's body (establishing the rules of possession for TBC later) to eradicate the rats; which were the earthbound, tormented souls of SkyClan's ancestors.

That's how Brokenstar and Firestar become the saviors of SkyClan

Bonefall Po3, Cruel Season, and Bonefall OotS:

In the episodic revamp of Po3, Firestar is aiding the other Clans through their struggles with the new environment, and helping to raise his grandchildren to be honorable cats.

So, his role is essentially as both the Clan's leader, and as Grandpaw Firestar.

His deputy is Brackenfur, who was promoted after Firestar and Brambleclaw agree that he isn't ready for deputyship yet after his lapse of judgement with Hawkfrost.

Brackenfur is killed towards the end of Po3 in the Battle of the False Eclipse, a trick from Sol, God of Chaos, a preview of the night that is to come where the dead can walk the earth.

Brambleclaw succeeds him.

The Fire Scene is in the in-between book between Po3 and OotS; Cruel Season.

It was started by Whiskernose of WindClan, aided and abetted by Thornclaw and Breezepelt, as an intentional distraction so they could get Firestar alone to kill him on the Dark Forest's orders.

He has one last big scene after his death; coming down from Silverpelt when Jayfeather summons StarClan warriors to fight the Dark Forest.

After winning a rematch with Scourge, Tigerstar finally gets the battle he's always wanted, and Firestar deals with him once and for all.

His Legacy:

He becomes known as the Patron of Fire and Breaking Bad Habits. He's invoked frequently during wet days when it's hard to start a cooking fire.

Firekin are renowned as a family of heroes, something that can cause a lot of pressure for its youngest members.

Fire Alone and Traditionalism are the competing ideologies by the modern era, with support of Thistle Law being kept very quiet.

[bonefall]

what are the plot beats of bonefall tpb? i know youve mentioned its very politically focused, but what does the story really look like (if youve got that hammered out yet)?

It's very similar to Canon TPB in terms of plot beats, it's the least reworked arc because I think it's the one that needs the least amount of fixing. Even as-is I think it's a really good narrative against isolationism that just has some moderate stumbles (namely the introduction of BloodClan as the endgame enemy)

The majority of its problems come from its treatment of disability and its... terribly written romance. Even ships that should check out in theory like FireSand I think are just... frustrating at best.

So anyway I'll walk you through the changed plot beats off the top of my head. I'll also make some off-brand title changes for fun

Book 1: Into the Clans

Fireheart is aware of BloodClan to begin with and knows about their warnings of Clan Cats

Smudge has actually been seeing Spottedleaf in the darkness of the forest, she looks like an apparition of death because of her leaf-blight spots and bone-shaped markings

To begin with, more time is spent on Firepaw's apprenticeship before deposing Brokenstar

We're introduced to Channeling, which is an illegal way to contact a spirit... if they're willing to come when called. Spottedleaf does this to try and talk to her brother.

Redtail is not helpful because he is a jerk. Fireheart learns to not be afraid of death because of Spottedleaf's blithe attitude towards it

I also plan to establish at some point here that Longtail and Sandpaw's dads are Runningwind and Redtail and have Firepaw realize that the death of Redtail has affected them deeply

He considers this because he does not know what it is like to have a single dad let alone two, but if it's like losing a mom that's rough

Spottedleaf, Lionheart, and Rosetail die in the same raid where the Frostfour are snatched

Fireheart joins that patrol to retrieve the Frostfour from ShadowClan. Bluestar is on it, also.

Deerfoot is established as a rebel and Tangleburr as a Brokentail loyalist.

Deerfoot and many others don't like what Brokenstar has done, but he's a popular leader and they need help getting rid of him

Bluestar agrees to send the reinforcement they need. Tigerclaw is upset about this, citing that Clans aren't supposed to meddle in the affairs of others. They should just take the kits back honorably

An explanation of the ancient tradition of kit-stealing is given to Firepaw, which he is horrified by, but then he tunes back in to Bluestar rebuffing Tigerclaw with the Queen's Rights. He bows his head and agrees.

After Brokenstar is dethroned, Fireheart is named, and uses tarspot-blighted sycamore leaves to channel Spottedleaf for the first of many times.

Book 2: Blood and Water

Fire and Ice is basically unchanged, WindClan is retrieved, Silverstream is introduced, Cinderpaw and Brackenpaw apprenticed (though they are not below 6 moons this time), Brokenstar blinded, Cloudkit acquired, etc, but there's minor changes to motivations of scenes.

For example, the scuffle that gets Whiteclaw killed is an example of the Right of Challenge in action... and also Deadfoot and Leopardfur are equally matched the abelism in this fight bothers me.

Customary Deadfoot bonkening. All of his opponents get bonked once.

Graystripe's utter failure to train Brackenpaw is not forgotten, this is remembered. Fireheart is also asked to fill the role of Brackenpaw's mentor during the Warriorship ceremony later

Cloudkit is raised by Fireheart alone, Brindle just suckles him because Fireheart can't make milk.

Brindleface's kits are swapped! Ashkit is born later; the childhood friends of Cloudtail are Elderberry and Ferncloud.

Book 3: Old Secrets

In general THIS is the book where we would get an actual description of Thistle Law and its name

Fireheart also learns about Bluestar's Forget-Me-Nots, her old group of friends, and he starts to piece things together quicker than in canon.

For newcomers: The Forget-Me-Nots were a friend group of Bluestar, Deadfoot, Ashfoot, Barley Sr, Lizardstripe, and Oakheart. Her love of these people is what causes her to lead the way she does, helping all clans in a way unlike any other leader before her.

Similar to canon this is the book where Silverstream dies, Graystripe leaves, Tigerclaw is exiled, and Brokentail is poisoned. Not much else is different.

Book 4: Rising Fire

Runningnose does a little bit of epidemic. As a treat. Kills Cinderfur and Nightstar and installs Tigerstar

This is the book where Longtail starts to rise up as a close ally of Fireheart, more reliably than his younger sister Sandstorm who has more of her own mind.

The apprenticing of Elderpaw and Fernpaw is changed; Dustpelt is too young to have an apprentice and is rewarded for his loyalty by becoming the secondary apprentice of a Clan builder.

Frostfur gets Elderpaw, Darkstripe gets Fernpaw

Dustfern does not happen while Fernpaw is an apprentice, ick. She admires him one-sidedly while he is a young warrior arguing loudly with her awful mentor, though.

Snowkit is given some extra personality as being serious like his mom, and quite religious.

He is also a friend of Tawny and Bramble.

His death after the forest fire by a hawk is unchanged; and the start of Bluestar's cruelty arc.

We get Littlecloud and Whitethroat's thing, Cloudpaw's abduction, the beginning of Bluestar's cruelty arc, the forest fire, RiverClan sheltering them, and the deaths of Snowkit, Yellowfang, and Runningwind largely unchanged.

Book 5: Paths Chosen

Who_Let_The_Dogs_Out.mp4

Bluestar's cruelty arc continues

Ashfur is born in this book

Graystripe refuses to let Leopardstar murder Fireheart and is exiled; his kittens remember this

Cloudtail is made a warrior and Swiftpaw and Brightpaw go play with puppies

IMPORTANT: Brightpaw's "Dishonor Title" is SWIFTHOUND, it has nothing to do with her scarring. Her actions got Swiftpaw killed and that is what is dishonorable about this. Scars are a desirable trait in this rewrite.

It's a dare to StarClan; take her as Swifthound or make her live with this name.

Shuffle: Tigerstar lays claim to his kits after Swiftpaw dies, that was his oldest son and he says that ThunderClan is not capable of protecting his children

Shuffle: Sandstorm is the new mentor of Tawnypaw, Brackenfur is too young.

Firestar is aromantic, no confession scenes. These two actually have kittens together later as a form of honor-siring with coparenting.

They do the dog relay race, Elderpaw replaces Ashpaw because Ashkit is literally baby rn

Longtail replaces Graystripe on this race because Longtail's got zoomies and Graystripe's extra thick; NOT a runner.

Bluestar dies

Also as a side note the redux of Bluestar's Prophecy opens up right here, with Lizardstripe playing as her defense lawyer in StarClan and the trial framing the story. Thistleclaw also LEAVES StarClan in that book in protest to Bluestar being allowed in.

Book 6: Hour of Need (but also it would be funny if this one was called Before The Dawn and then TNP opened up with Dawn lmao)

Tigerstar actually offers BloodClan land in exchange for them helping him. This is important.

Fireheart evolves into Firestar like canon

Sorrelkit's poisoning results in her developing epilepsy after this, which will follow her for the rest of her life.

TigerClan officially forms... though I am thinking of pushing this back to the previous book so it's formed for longer.

The Bonehill is actually a really stupid idea in-universe and cats are working themselves to the BONE HHA to finish this incredibly pointless vanity project

I'm thinking a TigerClan rebel actually fetches Raven, Fire, and Gray to get them to help save the prisoners. Unsure who; maybe Primrosepaw or Reedpaw.

Execution of Stonefur like canon

There are several TigerClan rebels, one of which is Deerfoot, who help the Halfclans escape. Jaggedtooth is another, Primrosepaw, Reedpaw, Pikepaw, and Mosspelt as well.

In escaping, the only cat captured is Deerfoot

He refuses to rat out the other rebels, saving their lives, and is executed for it

Tangleburr is distraught

Later, WindClan is attacked and Gorsepaw dies.

Laterer Tigerstar gets unzipped by Scourge

AND THIS IS THE BIGGEST CHANGE;

Firestar calls to speak to Scourge, to ask what it is he really wants

He essentially learns that Scourge is sick of the dishonor of Clan cats, he was promised forest and he will have it. Diplomacy breaks down and the battle must happen

When Firestar and Scourge fight, Firestar dies once, revives, and beats him by ripping the collar off, but sparing his life.

"A true warrior does not need to kill to win their battles"

Scourge calls for a retreat

The Clans Win; but a lot of cats died on both sides

Longtail, not Graystripe, becomes deputy

Epilogue is ThunderClan, WindClan, and occasionally ShadowClan (but they're difficult) engaging in diplomacy with BloodClan, including trade and foraging rights.

Aaaaaaaand there you have it! Bonefall TPB summarized. If something wasn't mentioned here (like Tawny defecting) you can assume it happened in the book in a similar way.

[bonefall]

Why was Runningnose in the dark forest in ur au?

WAR CRIMES! LOTS OF THEM! A LOT OF WAR CRIMES!

Bonefall Runningnose is very different from canon. Instead of being another victim of Brokenstar desperately trying to do harm reduction and save people from his madness, Runny is his partner-in-crime. Brokenstar is the brawn and passion, Runny is the brains and calculation.

A short list of things Runny did, in increasing severity:

Forbidden magic. He spoke with the Dark Forest whenever StarClan refused to speak to him, learning lots of poisons and forbidden treatments

Frenzy herbs. One of the banned treatments he got from the Dark Forest was how to turn warriors into berserkers (to be clear this is not a 'mind control' thing, this is an 'eat this root to maul your enemies' thing).

Covered the claws of warriors in deathberry juice to cause infection. The intent behind this action was to dwindle WindClan's herb supply and kill as many combative warriors as possible.

Covered Raggedstar's murder. Brokenstar killed Raggedstar only once, his father's last life. Runningnose helped to cover this up.

Complicit in a massacre. He helped to plan the invasion into WindClan's camp at every step, ensuring that there would be no ShadowClan losses as they slaughtered scores of WindClan cats.

Killed Marigoldkit. They needed to get Yellowfang out of the way, one of the last voices of reason, so they could invade WindClan's camp. Marigoldkit was blinded by an eye infection and was taking herbs in a raspberry 'capsule' to encourage her to eat them. Runningwind filled the raspberry with poison and tricked Mintkit into saying Yellowfang killed his sister "with red berries."

Started an epidemic in ShadowClan to kill Cinderfur and Nightstar. To make way for Tigerclaw to become deputy, and then leader. Nightstar was too weak, Tigerclaw had ambition, and Brokenstar always approved of him. The sickness was on purpose. It was caused by a sick bat and blamed on a carrionplace rat.

If Runningnose has any regrets, it's that last one. It leads directly to the death of his brother, Deerfoot, and Tigerstar aimed to eventually disband ShadowClan. Runningnose realized that too late.

So, if 6 reasons weren't enough for StarClan to send him to the Dark Forest, there's also the fact that Runningnose doesn't want to be there. He thinks they're a bunch of smug hypocrites, and besides, he doesn't want to be anywhere that Brokenstar can't go. He walks into the Dark Forest without a second thought.

[bonefall]

Renamings in the Bonefall Rewrite

So if you’re familiar with my rewrite, you’re probably aware that I try to avoid renaming warriors and creating OCs. This is because I tend to find it confusing, and I want to stick with either reworking existing characters or saving cats that unceremoniously died.

But I do have a few renamings! There tend to be four reasons why I’ll rename a warrior;

1. They had a duplicate name. I’m eliminating repeats, and the more important warrior keeps theirs. (Mudclaw WindClan > Mudclaw ShadowClan, ergo Mudclaw ShC = Mudfoot.)

2. They are being combined with another character. I want to preserve the ‘roles‘ of certain characters while eliminating redundancy, so the name will be combined so it’s easier to keep track of who was who. (Hollytuft + Larksong = Hollylark)

3. Their canon name is an ‘honor title’. Respected warriors can take new names (an “honor title”) after a great achievement, shedding their old one. Unless there’s a conflict, the FINAL name will match their CANON name. (Hoprunner = Deadfoot, Crowfoot = Crowfeather)

4. A previously dead apprentice/kit survives, OR they achieve a new title in StarClan. I’ve saved certain characters and allowed them to live long enough to get their warrior names (Marshkit = Marshwing), and additionally, I follow the Code of the Clans “Smallstar” logic and allow kits and apprentices to appear as adults in StarClan if they so choose (Petalkit, Patchkit, Larchkit = Petalstar, Patchpool, Larchface).

I’ll be updating this post as I decide on new names. I won’t be mentioning a rename in this post until it has become relevant in the rewrite though, to avoid bloat (and also so I don’t have to bang out every single CotC conflict yet, as a lot of stories are being overhauled)

Duplicate Names

Mudclaw (ShC) = Mudfoot. Mate of Lizardstripe, father of Deerfoot, Tangleburr, and Runningnose.

Applefur (TF) = Appledapple Mother of Ratscar, Snowbird. Renamed to avoid conflict with Applefur (OotS)

Flowerstem (AVoS) = Flowerscar Child of Grassheart and Stonewing. Getting an honor title to avoid conflict with Flowerstem (CotC) though she will be named after her.

Cloudberry (TC) = Cloudbelly Goosefeather’s mentor, and the medicine cat who joins ThunderClan after the death of Ravenwing during Mapleshade’s Vengeance. Renamed to avoid conflict with Cloudberry (CotC), now a Dark Forest spirit out of conscious objection to StarClan. Cloudbelly’s mentor Echosnout named both of her apprentices with the -belly suffix.

Frecklewish (SkC) = Frecklewing SkyClan’s current medicine cat. Renamed to avoid conflict with Frecklewish (MV)

Ivytail (RC) = Ivytuft. Renamed to avoid conflict with Ivytail (ShC)

The Three Milkfurs (MV, YS, WC) Mother = Milkfur Daughter = Milkbelly Holy Ghost Ancient WindClan Deputy = Milktooth

The FOUR Robinwings (TC, RC, WC, SkC) ThunderClan = Robinwing RiverClan = Robinwish WindClan = Robinflight Code of the Clans = Robinspot/Robinstar

The Three Darkstars (MV, CotC, SkC) and their Codes Mapleshade’s Vengeance = Darkstar. Being reduxed to have invented the Protecting Kittens law of the Code. Code of the Clans = Eliminated. The story behind the 3rd law of the Code (feeding elders and kits before warriors) is being completely redone. SkyClan = Dalestar. Creator of the 13th law, to never question your leader

Combined Characters

Larksong + Hollytuft = Hollylark Plus a ton of family tree fixes; Hollylark becomes the mate of Sparkpelt and was the grandson of Firestar through Lionblaze.

Ashfur (ShC) + Ashheart = Ashheart More of a fix than a combination. Ashfur is completely unconnected to any other cats (no parents, no children) and Ashheart is closer in age to be Yellowfang’s ‘old friend‘ anyway.

Scorchbreeze + Raggedstar = Raggedpelt is an honor title. No need for Ragged to have a brother. Scorchbreeze was his name before Raggedpelt became deputy, named after the many well-earned scars on his pelt.

Thornclaw + Spiderleg = Spiderthorn Frostfur’s kits are too prevalent and prevented other characters from developing. Spiderleg will be mentored by Thornclaw, and take on his role as an argumentative traditionalist after Thornclaw’s death in the Great Battle.

Honor Titles

Raggedstar, Darkstar, and Flowerstem (AVoS) were previously mentioned; see above.

Deadfoot = Hoprunner Earns an honor title after inventing a battle move called “Deadfooting“ which involves clubbing an enemy with a raised paw.

Crookedjaw = Stormpaw, Stormkit Spent months away from the clan at the barn, developing unique hunting and fighting techniques. His warrior name is an honor title to acknowledge this impressive feat, ergo he was never cruelly renamed as a child.

Crowfeather = Crowfoot Was a warrior on the great journey, fixing the timeline discrepancy where Deadfoot would have been dead before he was conceived. He hated his old name because BOTH of his parents were -foot named; requesting the honor title in memorial for Feathertail.

Ratscar = Meltpelt Literally buried in angry rats at the carrionplace, surviving the worst infection ShadowClan had ever seen.

Clawface = Daylight Renamed by Brokenstar after a very bloody battle with WindClan. Clawface always thought his old name was too soft, reminding him of his weak brother Nightpelt.

Survival Names + StarClan names

Marshkit = Marshwing The Tallpoppy kit saved by Brackenfur during the Great Journey, survives to adulthood, mentors Tigerheart.

Smokepaw = Smokefall The ShadowClan apprentice who fell during the Great Journey, surviving because of the Tribecats being better guides. (This character is also being merged with Smokefoot, whose name was a writer oversight.)

Talonpaw = Talonclaw Rowanclaw’s apprentice in TNP who died to the vicious kittypets, surviving because of Smokefall being around to save him.

Elderkit = Elderberry

Fixing some age gap problems by making Ashfur younger than Ferncloud, but preserving apprenticeship situations and giving myself more ‘bodies‘ to work with in TNP by saving one of Ferncloud’s other littermates.

Perchpaw = Perchshine Leaves RiverClan for the barn following Mapleshade’s Vengeance, but Darkstar honorably bestows a warrior name on him before he departs.

Mapleshade’s Litter Petalkit = Petalstar Larchkit = Larchface Patchkit = Patchpool

Mosskit = Mosslight

Shrewpaw = Shrewface

[bonefall]

Had a dream where Better call Mapleshade AU's Mapleshade helped Misty during Tigerclan. Like she came to a Sleeping Reed and had him run to Thunderclan after Misty , Storm, and Feather escaped, and she personally helped Primrose, Perch, and Pike haunt Riverclan.

The fun part about anons is that I have no way of knowing if you're just one anon who's blessed with dreams about my AUs like BoneClan's best prophet, or if BCMapleshade starts walking in the dreams of everyone who visits this blog

BCMapleshade would ABSOLUTELY help out anyone who wanted to do a little retributive haunting. She'd try to make sure that StarClan couldn't trace it back to her, but she would teach them the methods for walking in dreams, and encourage them to share the techniques across all the other cats with unfinished business.

I'm very fond of the idea that Primrosepaw and/or Pikepaw died under TigerClan's rule; in the Bonefall Rewrite, I even plan for Primrose specifically to collaborate with Deerfoot, helping the halfclans escape after Stonefur's death.

But anyway, back to Better Call Mapleshade AU. Maple probably wouldn't save Reed, in fact she may even try to keep him there. It's the best way to have an inside witness to the horrors of TigerClan, so she can build a good case against its loyalists. She also isn't against making his life worse by giving TigerClan warriors 'ammo', like harmlessly messing up his hunts, or putting the worst people on his patrols.

She will gladly make a cat's life worse, if it means she can prevent their tormentors from being in StarClan with them.

[bonefall]

jaggedtooth has the right idea. if shit sucks,hit the bricks!

HE DOES and deadass this is the reason I didn't keep him in one of the Clans. He's right. Jaggedtooth went above and beyond for Tigerstar in-canon and really didn't do anything wrong.

The worst thing he's ever done is help install Tigerstar in power by biting one of his claws off for him. Ok, a false sign-- that's not good but in his mind, this is the one chance he'll have to become a real warrior. It's loyalty. And when Tigerstar didn't make him deputy, Jaggedtooth didn't hit the bricks THEN because power's just a bonus to him, not his goal.

After this, he takes Rowanpaw as his apprentice and seems to train him well. He joins TigerClan and isn't shown to have ever killed anyone. The only other notable thing he did? Was when he passed guard of the halfclan cats over to Ravenpaw after the execution of Stonefur.

I was going to have the guards get knocked out in my rewrite by the insurgent group inside of TigerClan (Deerfoot, Primrosepaw, Mosspelt, others), but I may just make Jaggedtooth a collaborator of theirs, since the False Claw Sign is being removed in my rewrite. Bonefall Jaggedtooth is a good dude.

He still fights for BloodClan, though. On one hand, I'm sure he does want to be on the winning side and is hedging his bet on Scourge. On the other hand... he's really sick of the Clans. Jag's seen the worst of it, and has decided he doesn't really want to be part of this life.

I could make him the sire of Tangleburr's kits, though, since she'll probably be claiming Queen's Rights anyway. They could maintain a friendship after the BloodClan battle.

[bonefall]

ShadowClan Patch Notes

For the big rewrite I’m doing. Here is a compilation of the biggest changes I’m doing to ShadowClan for the first arc. In particular, there are major changes to 1. Brokenstar, 2. ShadowClan culture and history, and 3. various background characters.

Timeline things are also slightly shuffled around, as well as some family tree rewrites to allow modern ShadowClan to be ‘cleaner‘ genetically.

I’m tentatively calling a story I would tell with these changes “Brokenstar’s Cataclysm,“ replacing Yellowfang’s Secret (which is a book I beef with)

Brokenstar Changes:

First of all, Brokenstar’s reign lasts MUCH longer. It’s several years, not six months, and he was deputy for a long time before that.

StarClan desperately tried to prevent him from being born. In fact, they’ve been stalling since SkyClan’s Exile by strictly controlling medicine cats, but his arrival was inevitable.

There were once five trees at ‘fourtrees‘, but after the exile, one fell over and cracked in half against the Highrock. It was an omen; his broken tail resembles it.

He even looks like a SkyClan warrior, actually. His back legs are huge, his paws are thick, he’s very good at climbing and was excellent at ambushing his opponents from above.

He did not kill Raggedstar nine times, and was his loyal deputy through a long-standing war with WindClan. It was started by Heatherstar long ago for full control of the Mothermouth moors.

Most importantly, he isn’t ‘born evil.‘ He was born angry. He has a short fuse and a ruthless sense of justice, his tyrannical mindset is given to him by the clans and is an extreme reflection of the clan’s battle culture, not an innate lack of morals.

Culture Changes:

WindClan abandoned the tunneler role because of this war; enlisting all of their skilled diggers as above-ground warriors and letting the peaceful tradition die in order to win.

Because of fury with this war, ShadowClan is willing to do whatever it takes to fight back.

The war has been going since before Yellowfang was even born; 

Brokenstar can’t remember a time they weren’t fighting.

ShadowClan often has to push into ThunderClan and even RiverClan territory when times get especially rough. 

Brokenstar has never seen another clan offer aid.

Honor is gradually eroded from both clans; the first code that ShadowClan becomes lax about is “a warrior does not need to kill to win their battles.“ The rest follow.

When Tallstar became leader, he decided to uphold Heatherstar’s legacy and keep the contested moorland in gracious “exchange” for aid.

Brokenstar has never seen another clan admit they were wrong.

ShadowClan becomes VERY divided on Brokenstar’s methods. He’s ruthless and rules with iron claws; but because of them, they won a war that lasted three generations.

Supporting Cast Changes:

Lizardstripe

No longer cartoonishly abusive. She’s harsh, mean, and has a sadistic sense of humor... but is greatly respected in her clan.

She really shouldn’t have been a parent though. She treats her kittens like warriors and expects the three of them to sort things out between themselves.

When she’s bored she tends to run ‘exercises,‘ which tend to be too harsh to be age-appropriate. Her kits are in the medicine den a lot for small injuries.

Sagewhisker prevents Yellowfang from arguing, overprotective of causing suspicion.

Lizardstripe is less of an ‘adoptive mother‘ to Brokenkit and more of a wet nurse. He’s allowed to join their exercises though... acclimating him to the idea of training kits early.

Mudfoot (previously Mudclaw; the only name changes I’m making are for repeat characters) was a really cool dude, but a very traditional mate who didn’t help Lizardstripe out a lot.

He dies of overworking himself in the middle of a leafbare, when there wasn’t enough food to go around.

This became a formative memory for Brokenpaw.

Raggedstar

Overly permissive just like in canon

His nine lives are tragically short, lost in battles, greencough outbreaks, and general starvation because of the war.

His last, weary act was going to be accepting Tallstar’s offer of aid to end the war he’d fought his whole life, giving WindClan the mothermouth moorland in the process

He was on his last life.

Brokenstar wouldn’t let that happen. He couldn’t let that happen. If he did, then what was all that suffering even for?

Runningnose

Brokenstar’s close confidant, his most important supporter.

Runny has a KNACK for manipulation and rule-bending.

Appointed as medicine cat apprentice by Raggedstar at Brokenpaw’s insistence.

Yellowfang didn’t like it but when has Raggedstar ever listened to the woman who’s right all the time?

She knew she couldn’t just reject him entirely so she went for the pride by saying, “Fine but I’ll get to pick his medicine cat name and it’s not going to be nice.“

StarClan didn’t want to talk to Runningnose at first, but then he responded to that by being super OK with talking to Dark Forest warriors.

After that StarClan spoke to him a lot more, like they were jealous or something.

Runny and Broken are extremely close, always running their schemes by each other. The smarter things are usually Runny’s ideas. Brute force is Broken’s calling card.

Runny came up with a lot of dark warfare ideas. He’d cover the claws of warriors in deathberry juice before a battle, he braided thorns into long fur. BloodClan would have been impressed.

He would neeeeever leave ShadowClan without a proper leader... but Nightstar is so frail, imagine what would happen if there was some sort of... epidemic.

How lucky for them that Tigerclaw happened to be in the right place at the right time! Lucky, lucky, lucky.

Deerfoot and Tangleburr

Indicative of the two ‘halves‘ of ShadowClan politically speaking

Deerfoot is a rebel, Tangleburr is a loyalist.

Tangleburr follows Brokenstar into exile, reconciling with Deerfoot when she re-joins ShadowClan under Tigerstar.

Deerfoot is eventually executed at the Bonehill after being caught helping Mistyfoot and the apprentices escape. He refuses to rat out any of his accomplices.

Tangleburr is devastated by this, but eventually outlives her entire litter and survives well into OOTS

I plan to use her as a background elder and give her a few kittens so ShadowClan isn’t just... SnowbirdClan.

She comes to terms with the way she was mistreated in childhood, and makes an effort to be better to her own children.

Newtspeck, Littlecloud, Rowanclaw

Newtspeck is in a sort of Goldenflower arrangement with Brokenstar.

They aren’t lovers, but she admires him enough to ask him to surrogate her kittens.

The two kits, Littlekit and Rowankit, are made apprentices at 3 moons. She supports this, swept up by ShadowClan’s bloodlust.

Brownpaw and Wetfoot are not hers; they’re swapped into Darkflower’s litter, making them Cedarheart’s brothers.

Newtspeck is a supporter of Brokenstar who fights for him during the battle, but doesn’t follow him into exile.

Brokenstar and Runningnose don’t think much of the two kits, but after Littlecloud survives the rat sickness epidemic, Runny sees a lot of his father in him.

He took him as his apprentice with great fondness, amused at how smart and adorable the little guy is.

Littlecloud has a special interest in prophecies, StarClan, the warrior code, basically everything to do with clan culture. His mouth runs a million miles a minute. Runny likes how it fills up the silence.

Rowanclaw has a harder time finding his place, eventually taking out his complicated feelings through a rivalry with Tawnypelt.

[bonefall]

Tangleburr, Deerfoot, and their Parents

EDIT 2: On 1/30/2023 This post was changed to be accurate to the current version of the rewrite.

So here they are! Lizardstripe, her mate Mudclaw (renamed to Mudfoot in my rewrite because I don’t like major characters having name repeats), Tangleburr, and Deerfoot.

Info below

So in general, I give ShadowClan cats big eyes and very long whiskers, plus a lot of facial hair. Mudfoot and Deerfoot both have a classic ‘shadowstache,‘ a bundle of short whiskers around the mouth. I also wanted Lizardstripe to have green eyes because I always see Tangleburr with that color, and she got a bit of an overbite (which Deerfoot inherited) because there’s not enough cool dentition in Warriors.

Lizardstripe

She’s very, very different from canon. Instead of being just a sour, abusive mother, Lizardstripe is one of Bluestar’s oldest friends and used to sneak out to hang out with her friend group, the Forget-Me-Nots.

Lizardstripe was the first Forget-Me-Not to die, taken out in a battle over the Mothermouth moorland, before Brokenstar took power.

She was a young mother, not ready for the experience nor particularly happy about it, but she did still love her children. When she was bored, she would go on ‘exercises‘ and bring her kittens along, resulting in them being in Yellowfang’s den a lot for scrapes and dings.

She agreed to nurse Raggedstar’s motherless son for him when he still needed milk, but didn’t raise the little guy.

Mudclaw Mudfoot

Wasn’t the best mate, but a decent father. He was particularly close to Deerfoot, passing on many of his skills.

He was one of the best builders the camp had ever seen. They used to joke that he could out-dig a badger and still come back with a rabbit. He died of greencough and general weakness during the last winter of Raggedstar’s reign, shortly after which all three of his kits started to drift apart.

Deerfoot

Inspired by a red stag, I wanted him to look noble, but not in a ThunderClan way. His brow whiskers are thick and brush back like antlers, with a big bushy ‘stache (he’s proud of it. Tangle makes fun of it) and dark paws like hooves.

While he supported Brokenstar at first, it quickly becomes clear that him and Runningnose are bending the code to fit their needs. But, he got the same smarts that his brother Runny did, and learned quickly to shut up and get sneaky. Sure, he’s loyal, sure, he follows orders... to the letter. And the rules didn’t say anything about sneaking a few mice to the exiles. Mice full of herbs. Birds full of messages. Frogs full of rebellion.

He’s principled and honorable. He can have a fair amount of the good old ShadowClan dark humor in his fangs, but he gets tired of nonsense very quickly. He honestly regrets a lot of the things he said as a kit, and gets frustrated that Tangleburr never seemed to grow out of being a bully. After one too many comments that went to far, he stopped talking to her entirely.

They had just begun to reconcile when TigerClan took power, and Tangleburr became a fast loyalist. Deerfoot organized the rebels, just as he’d done before, resisting tyranny at every step. After helping the half-Clan cats escape, he was the only one captured and put on trial. He refused to name his co-conspirators and was brutally executed.

Jaggedtooth, Mosspelt, Dawnflower, and Reedwhisker, just some of the cats who owe their lives to him.

Tangleburr

DUMB! AS!! ROCKS!!!

I needed her to look like the funny little guy she is. She’s a little fluffy. A little chunky. She’s got this little tail and these big teeth and she’s always grinning. Her whiskers twist over each other, tangling at times. Sooo many appearances of her make her brown and white so I decided she needed ALL of the colors. Heterochromia also.

“Think before you speak“ but Tangleburr has never had a thought in her life. She’s all emotion. Swat first and ask questions later. She never has a good idea of boundaries or what the appropriate thing to say is.

In contrast to Deerfoot, Tangleburr was a loud and proud supporter of Brokenstar’s leadership up to the bitter end. She was ready to take over the entire forest, with no regard for how much space ShadowClan could actually use, or the suffering of other clans. After all, they’d never have peace as long as there were borders to battle over. She happily ate up every excuse and loophole Runningnose came up with-- she felt lucky to have such a smart brother and powerful leader!

As you’d expect, this caused a lot of tension between her and Deerfoot. When he cut her off, she blamed him at first for being stuck up all the time. Later, when they reconcile, she comes to realize that she was destroying the clan she loved, and that she’d lost so many clanmates while she’d been gone. When Deerfoot died, Tangleburr was distraught and could only think to keep him alive with her actions

She started asking herself what Deerfoot would have done, letting her paws be guided by his actions. This lead to a strong connection with StarClan (for a warrior, at least) and she became a good friend of Tawnypaw’s. She’s “No good at saying good, wise stuff, but I got two ears and one mouth! If you want a listener, I mean. Yeah.”

I’ve kind of fallen in love with her. Her son is Talonclaw; being saved from the vicious kittypets to help fix the family tree.

[bonefall]

Regarding the bonehill I'm using a similar concept in my oc colonies, tyrant Spottedstar forces her followers dig up the remains of their fallen clanmates and that's where they get bones from. You don't want to follow her orders? That's fine little apprentice, guess what, you get to go against everything you have been taught and bring back the bones of the deceased, destroying their burial grounds and any burial traditions in the process. Then boom, its brought to a hill where she makes her throne on. If that's not intimidating I don't know what is!

I'm not sure how decomposition with cats work, but this could be applied here as well. According to the events timeline in warriors, a TON of cats died since Fireheart became an adult, and even more so if we count those who died when he first joined. Again, we do have to count for scavengers, but the same logic can be applied to Tigerstar in the case where a tyrant forces their subject to break all their practices and beliefs as punishment.

Pretty scary if ya ask me! We could even apply the socialism aspect with this- boom your clanmates aren't going into kitty heaven now because you messed up their burials. double whammy if said tyrant is against religion here.

Absolutely. There's also definitely a ton of control in forcing a person to exhume the grave of someone they really cared about, the physical effort of breaking through grass, moving all that dirt, so on.

Cats decompose just like all other kinds of remains, really. The speed of decomposition depends mostly on moistness of the soil plus warmth of the environment, but I bury my pets in my garden and I've come across a bone or two over the years.

The reason you dig deep is to prevent the body from being dug up by scavengers in the first place, so as long as they're buried, don't worry too much about those. 6 feet deep came from the black plague because it was thought to prevent the spread of disease, but 2 - 3 feet deep would be sufficient.

For Tigerstar, I think I really want to focus on the intimidation aspect more than the forcing clanmates to break rules aspect. Bonefall Tigerstar is a person who doesn't really care for the code, or justice, but he uses it to his advantage. Commanding people to break it outright is something he progresses into, more to fulfill a goal or do violence against a group he dislikes (Like getting rid of Stonefur or, later, Deerfoot and other rebels) than to tell TigerClan that their religion is pointless.

In fact I kinda want to remove the canonical implication that all villains are actually godless heathens who reject the true and good religion, as a Godless Heathen myself lmao. But it would be a pretty metal plotline for a tyrant leader to start making an "underclass" of people who oppose them by forcing them to do sacrilegious things, marking them as damned in the eyes of their clanmates.

Sort of like how some societies would force butchery and undertaking to oppressed classes, then they'd stay oppressed because they had to do those jobs, which marked them as an underclass, so on in a cycle.

[bonefall]

Absolutely feel free to hijack my AU, questions like this fuel me.

They did influence each other growing up, but they’re not siblings in any way. Lizardstripe took out her frustrations on Brokenkit whenever possible, which usually looked like reminding him “Your mother doesn’t want you and I don’t either” in creative ways. She’s more like a wet nurse than a foster mother.

They were more like best friends, in a schoolyard bully duo kind of way. Runny learned a lot about manipulation from the fact that when they were far away from Lizardstripe, he could butter up to Broken to boss his siblings around, but when they were close to Lizardstripe, she would make Broken do whatever he wanted.

As they got older, this became much more deadly and refined. Brokenpaw was huge and violent with a short fuse, and Runningnose knew how to use his friend as leverage while playing the long game. An absolute power duo. When he became leader, Brokentail even considered making Runningnose his deputy, but then they had a MUCH better idea.

As for Tangleburr and Deerfoot, they are important background characters because they represent the ‘two sides‘ of ShadowClan during Brokenstar’s reign.

Tangleburr is loud and proud, never loses that mean streak, and is not very bright. She’s excited to run into battle and drive out other clans, never considering how sustainable it is to have more territory than they can actually use; and risk kittens to that end.

Deerfoot is much smarter. He grows into a very honorable warrior, which puts a rift between him and his family. While he first supported Brokenstar as leader, eventually he can’t abide how Brokenstar bends the rules for nefarious ends. However, he sees how ‘misfortune‘ follows Brokenstar’s detractors and learns to start hiding his opinions. He does a lot of secret ‘resistance‘ actions, like warning other clans and feeding the elders.

I may end up functionally replacing Cinderfur with Deerfoot.

Darker (if not evil) Runningnose is an idea you don’t see often in the fandom, considering hes usually just defaulted to “good boy”.

Reading your rewrite for him was very interesting. Also Dark Forest med cats are always cool

Thank you! Honestly, seeing you in the notes made me want to post Runny before any of the others.

I do appreciate the canonically compassionate, stressed-out Runningnose who's just trying to do good things in bad situations, but ultimately I feel like thematically it just makes him and Littlecloud blend into each other. Especially since one of my goals in the rewrite is to create actual clan culture.

If everyone in a bad clan is just a good person being lied to, and no one REALLY supported Broken or Tiger's ideas, what does that even say? That it's just a matter of some random prophecy that Evil People are going to be born who ruin your utopian society now and then? The fact of the matter is, no man rules alone. No one is ever 'just following orders.'

It shouldn't be coincidence that ShadowClan managed to get rid of Brokenstar, but then the next time they had a crisis, they welcomed the next strongman who waltzed onto their doorstep.

AU Runny is the most influential Brokenstar supporter, but he's definitely not the only one.