#Pi is an opening particle which denotes that you experienced the information you're relaying firsthand

[bonefall]

Hello! Firstly, this is an incredible project you’ve got here and I’m very impressed by the amount of work put into this. I’ve always been frustrated warriors isn’t as good as it could be so it’s cool to see someone doing such a cool project.

Secondly, I remember reading that at least one cat was rewritten to be deaf, but I can’t remember who that was. Also, what do you think life is like for a deaf cat in the clans? They’d have more difficultly than a normal deaf cat since the clan cats use verbal language. Some books mention tail signals meaning specific things, so do you think the cats have a nonverbal system of communicating?

Deafness is THE hardest sensory disability for a Clan cat to have. Moreso than blindness, moreso than a lack of scent. The Clans are heavily inaccessible to people who are deaf, unfortunately, but the fact there's now 5 cats in recent memory with total deafness is causing active change.

The biggest problem is the fact that a deaf cat has a hard time understanding how loud they are. Hunting is a lot harder when you both can't hear prey scuffling around AND can't tell when your actions are making a lot of noise to scare your quarry off. In Clanmew, the sounds animals make are so important that they're even named after them; "European Jay" is Arkr, "Toad" is Amam, "Frog" is Roeg.

This comes easier when a cat isn't born deaf, but cats like Snowkit and Whitewing need a lot more training than an abled warrior.

The other problem is a lack of accessibility. Clanmew is heavily verbal with tone indicated by body language, Whitewing can tell you're being sarcastic but not WHAT you're being sarcastic about unless she's lipreading. Hearing loud commands over the heat of battle is also an issue, you can't obey a "RETREAT" order if you don't notice your clanmates are fleeing as well, even with an appropriate tail signal.

When you mention the tail signals-- that's from Battles of the Clans, and they're limited to combat commands. I also created a glyph system for the cats to write with as well which covers more non-battle concepts.

Snowkit in particular LOVED glyphs. Brackenfur (his nephew) was bonding with him over it, expanding it out. If Snowkit hadn't died, he would have forged a ton of new signs, especially related to constellations which he was very fond of.

I'm approaching deafness accommodations as something the Clans are actively working on, unlike a lot of other rewrites which have a sign language pre-prepared! Especially in the modern age when warfare has become more organized, giving the cats more time to work on new things.

The cats who are deaf in my rewrite so far are;

Featherkit (not super important but this is Dappletail's child and Graystripe's sister. She died of plague and Feathertail is named after her.)

Snowkit (sadly his death is narratively important, but has an expanded personality and he dies shoving Tawnykit out of the way of the hawk. It isn't related to his deafness.)

Whitewing (Feels pressured to 'live the life Snowkit couldn't,' which is damaging. Serious and pious.)

Dovewing (Loses her hearing along with her powers, frustrated by her lack of autonomy which eventually causes her to leave ThunderClan. "I don't WANT to practice glyphs right now leave me alone stop making yourselves feel better by trying to 'fix' me")

Fallowfern (In-canon she only loses her hearing in old age, but I want to make her hearing loss an earlier onset.)