#worldbuilding for my fanclans

[souptomatostar]

Now it's not for the faint of heart, the path of a webweaver. Did I come up with that name myself? Yeah! Pretty clever, right? Of course I'm not weaving the webs myself.

They're not called Cat Webs.

Obviously, there's the spiders. That's a given. It's literally in the name, for Starclan's sake! (You'd be surprised how many cats don't get it through their heads that knowing spiders intimately is part of the lifestyle) But it takes a couple generations of living with a cluster of spiders for them truly treat you as their ally. It helps having the scent of them all over your pelt but I understand that's not the ideal for Some Reason. But hey, the ticks and fleas have to go somewhere and I haven't met an orb weaver yet that turned down a nice tick to feed her hundreds of eggs. Yeah, yeah. You don't have to get acquainted with them like I do. Just shake out your fleas and mites over there and take the webs from the ferns. I promise there's no spiders occupying those webs. Probably.

[gophergal]

Behold, the six "unique" roles of Stonevale, one of the colonies in Fading Hollow.

I've been thinking about this setting a lot lately, including all the characters. Honestly, I want to make every cat individual under the hood, but that is slowly driving me mad. For now, here are six of them:

Chief Ra'shira - the leader. Aggressive, irritable, but fiercely loyal to kith and kin.

Deputy Haystalk - her second in command and gentle younger brother. He has spent the majority of his adulthood smoothing over the trouble his sister's temper causes

Raven, the Seer - religious leader and second eldest cat in the colony. A grumpy bastard for the ages. The only company he enjoys is Mera and his sister, Blueshell

Mera Yari-tsa - a lifelong queen who has had a paw in raising every litter in the past 50 moons, earning her great respect. The most knowledgeable midwife in the hollow

Acorn - a senior messenger. He won't retire until his former apprentice, Puff, is ready to mentor another cat to take his place

Puff - a young messenger. He seems empty headed and the wrong body type for his position, but he has a fantastic memory and a knack for social situations

[bonefall]

I'm still on this. I think there are some who don't realize just how far removed a serval is from a domestic cat both genetically and behaviorally, how different ALL wild cats are from domestic housecats, what has to be done to make savanna cats, and also just how much of a problem these wild hybrids are

Molly housecats are crossed to tom servals. No molly serval has ever taken a tom housecat. Do you understand why it is wrong to breed a dachsund to a great dane? Especially an animal that bites as part of its courtship? Then you should understand why this is bad.

Servals and housecats have different gestational periods. All F1 savannas are born prematurely. This is also Bad.

Hybrid cats (of ALL crossings) are more prone to diseases like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, irritable bowel disease, and progressive renal atrophy. If you understand why lykoi and scottish folds are inherently unethical, you should understand why this is bad.

Servals are not pets, they are wild animals. They have needs well beyond a domesticated animal and are literally not built to be human companions.

Unlike domestic cats which form clowders when feral because of their domestication, wild servals do not do this. No other wild cat does this. This is a domestic cat behavior.

Servals are in a completely different genus. Domestic cat: Felinae/Felis/Catus Serval: Felinae/Leptailurus/Serval

Compare humans and chimpanzees. Human: Homini/Homo/Sapien Chimpanzee: Homini/Pan/Troglodytes

The BIGGEST threat to the conservation of several Felinae species is crossings with feral domestic cats, right behind habitat loss and poisoning. Real-world domestic cats are the most invasive species in the world and part of that is how they are diluting wild cat populations; the natural mesopredators of an area.

(Note: If I hear a single clown in my comments or replies trying to give me the talking point that 'Actually Humans Are The Most Invasive Species' I'm going to beat you to death with a copy of The Rise of Ecofascism: Climate Change and the Far Right.)

If you can understand that people breeding wolf x dog hybrids is bad you should also understand that exotic cat mixes are also bad. No matter how diluted they become with outcrossing, they should not have been bred in the first place.

They were, and ARE, the result of humans who want to feel special about having an exotic animal instead of getting a boring old normal cat bred for thousands of years to love you and have its needs met by you. There is a reason why these animals require a license or are outright banned in many areas.

"Ohhh but a savanna cat is so much smarter and more active than a cat, i want to take my pet for a walk--" GET. A. DOG.

Sanctuaries have a hard time taking these cats because of breeders that sell them to rich morons who get Surprised Pikachu when the wild animal hybrid they bought for several thousand dollars suddenly starts acting like....... get this......... a wild animal.

Even for the exotic cat hybrids in the same family, the other 6 of the 7 Felinae species, please, I'm gonna bold this,

Wild cats are solitary animals!

Wild cats do not form complex social groups! Nor do they have a social need!

Only domestic cats and lions do this!

Early generation hybrid cats require that aforementioned license because they don't take to litterboxes and spray the whole house (even when neutered), are aggressive, have sharp wild instincts and a desire to wander and make their own, individual territories

Wild cats do not form clowders if left on their own. Domestic cats are incredibly, profoundly unique. This is something we only see in domestic cats and lions, a feline species so far removed it can't meow

No, not even the other 6 species in the Felinae subfamily. Jungle cats, black-footed cats, european wildcats, sand cats, chinese mountain cats, and african wild cats do not form non-familial social groups, let alone caracals and servals

Domestication did that to them. That is why Fluffy loves you.

So why would animals that do not even have societies invent their own full languages?

Who are they talking to when Clan cats aren't around? What are they saying besides, "GET OUT" and "I'm a hot single in YOUR area!"

This is the fundamental reason why I personally will never entertain the idea that wild cats can learn how to truly speak Clanmew. If they ever did, I would firmly put it on the same level as Noam Chimpsky's (actual name) "GIVE ME ORANGE" sentence; an understanding of some basic words with no grammatical structure.

Hybrids I would treat on the same level as something half-apelike. But, I don't even see a need for that. Wild cats exist in their own ecological niches-- why could Clan cats not just interact with them like the strange, solitary wild predators they are?

There's plenty of social animals out there waaay more likely to develop their own species' version of languages, even rudimentary ones. Monkeys, elephants, parrots, wolves, european rabbits, even other domesticated species like cows and dogs. Why the solitary wild cats?

Wild cats are such a neat concept for Clan cats to explore! Why ruin such a unique opportunity just to have "Clan Cats 2"? If they're going to have a whole culture and language and are exactly the same as their domestic relatives, why not just make them into a different Clan?

What's unique about them if they're just Special Exotic Loners who can be recruited and reasoned with like any other domestic cat? Don't even call them wild cats. That's just a rogue or loner with a special coat now.

I find it personally antithetical to my ecological fixes and expansions, and it's why I'm passionate about it for my own worldbuilding!

Bonefall, what about wild cats? Like servals, ocelots, water cats.ect? How does your worldbuilding effect them? People own them as exotic pets, so it would be possible for them to learn townmew and maybe clanmew as well-

Personally I will be ruling No in my own rewrite. Chimpanzees can't speak no matter how hard we try to force them (the sign language thing is baloney) so why would humans keeping exotic felines allow them to speak Townmew?

It's deeply unethical to both own exotic pets, and to attempt crossing them with domestic counterparts. I won't write legitimacy of that practice into the BFRW by saying those solitary animals are perfectly capable of acquiring and speaking language, and can happily join a Clan

They aren't domestic pets. They are wild animals. They should be in an accredited zoo, well-funded sanctuary, or back in their natural habitat.

They don't naturally have a concept of society, or of language like cats in this area do. If a hybrid joined a Clan, then it's capable of some language, but should be treated as half-man, half-gorilla.

[knarme-art]

Huge WIP dump / collection of some of my Kxayltirey characters in this same CSP file... I'm addicted to drawing these face refs. The villages of people living inside my head are becoming more detailed, it's delightful.

I love looking at them together because I'm like... Yeah this fanclan worldbuilding feels even more real to me when I look at them like this.

[basaltbutch]

i love accidentally never posting anything about my actual projects. did you all know i have a (permanently) work in progress spec fic world with thousands of hours of worldbuilding put into it. and also it originally started as a warrior cats fanclan.

[nanistar]

hi, im a new reader!! rediscovered a bookmark i had made and read thru the entire thing today, and im obsessed!!! the worldbuilding (and lore!) is my favorite part of it. do u have any advice or tips on developing fanclans with that much depth?

hi! thank you :)

a lot of the SBC lore comes from the setting itself . its easy to fall into warriors cliches when your setting is just a forest so i suggest taking it and putting it somewhere unique to you. i also have fanclans that are local to me in Washington state becuse i have a lot of love for the area and with them and with the mojave clans i can put a lot of that love and appreciation for those two biomes into my worldbuilding and story. additionally, a looooot of sbc lore came from after i started working on the comic itself and needed to fill in gaps in the story. there's nothing wrong with coming up with something on the spot, because a lot of the time i wont even consider something until someone brings it up and asks me a question, and then i can go oh, this is what the do, or whatever. i suggest sharing your world with your friends and asking them if they have any questions about the characters or the world, because then you can work on both at the same time

[thebayclans]

hi there !! i was wondering if it would be okay to take inspiration and add couriers to the ranks of my fanclans- if not it's totally okay, i really love the concept and your worldbuilding in general ^_^

Yeah of course! Go wild I’m definitely not the first person to come up with a messenger role for their fanclans it’s a neat rank. Also thank you!

[babsbabbles]

consider. I infodump to you my warrior cats fanclan worldbuilding that Ive resurrected from my childhood

[estuarywarriors]

Welcome!

Hello Warrior Cats fans!

This blog is dedicated to a subsection of my six FanClans that I have been working on for the past eight years! This will include original maps, family trees, lore, and worldbuilding.

I'm looking for more people who enjoy both making and learning about FanClans, so please do interact with this post if that is you :)

I look forward to showing off these fun little cat characters!

[clanborn]

hi i was feeling keen on talking about fanclans so i thought you’d be a good victim since ive been loving your alaskan clans! I recently changed my clans to live in norway with TarnClan, SkerryClan, HeimsClan, and AsphodelClan in the mountains, coastside, alpine woods, and wetlands. Buncha political stuff happening in these clans. I’d like to say i really like your couriers, i actually have a similar idea called quickpaws, who function essentially the same.

What’s your favorite worldbuilding/story addition you added to your clans? For my own clans, i think i really like my StarClan portal the Moonpine! it’s a albino tree :) hope this doesn’t come off as annoying

Ooh that’s super cool, I don’t think I’ve seen any Norway-based clans before, and I loveee those clan names. Very interested to hear more about them and their politics. And yeah I enjoy the messenger/courier role a lot it’s a fun one to implement

And don’t worry this isn’t annoying! I love hearing about other’s fanclans I like to see people salvaging the bare bones from this mediocre series and actually doing something really cool and creative with it.

As for my favorite part of my clans I haven’t mentioned it yet but their Starclan connection area is an ice cave with a frozen lynx skeleton.

So that and figuring out the clans’ gods and weird cosmic relationships with them is probably my fav aspect so far.

[pickerelstripe]

Hiya! Recently I've been trying my hand at creating some FanClans. They're based in a setting inspired by the Taal Volcano and lake region in my native Philippines. Super super excited over developing it but also a tiny bit nervous! Could you perhaps give some insight/tips on how you developed ClayClan? I'd be really grateful if you did 🥹 I'm a tiny bit overwhelmed and don't know where to start.

P.S: here are some cool photos of Taal+some extra info below bc I'm a nerd and can't help myself lol

Where's the volcano, you may ask? The answer to that is: it's the lake you see in the photos! Basically Taal erupted so much in prehistoric times that the rock collapsed inward+downward into the empty magma chambers, forming a bowl shape (otherwise known as a caldera). It's also got like, a fuckton of vents and craters that it also erupts out of too sometimes. She's funky and I like her!

tldr volcanoes and cats r pretty neat :3

WOAH that's so cool!!! :0 This is awesome, thanks so much for sharing! I loooove seeing unique fanClans, it's such a versatile prompt. And a caldera is a GREAT setting! What a pretty one, too!

As for advice... I've been making fancontent for Warriors for a decade now, so a lot of it just comes naturally. I'll explain how I made ClayClan then give some tips I find helpful! And thank you for asking, I'm really flattered :]

(Info + tips below the cut to keep this from being a huge text wall!)

ClayClan started as a worldbuilding project to support a story I was tossing around in my head. At the time, this story was unnamed and followed Minkpaw, a new apprentice who joins the Clan and unravels a mystery.

At this point I only knew it was set in a swamp. I like taking reference from National Parks, so I started searching for Parks with swamps, and after some googling I found out Arcadia National Park has a ton of wetlands! So I started compiling a species list. As I worked I gradually switched the model region from Arcadia to a general Maine wetland, as this was more appealing to me.

Once I had that together, I started working on ClayClan's culture. This was largely a matter of tossing ideas at the wall and seeing what stuck! I wanted there to be a new rank between warriors & deputy, so I gave them captains. I like exploring religions unique from canon's StarClan, so I gave them the pantheon. I couldn't decide if I wanted their camp to be in the woods or by the lake, so I gave them two camps. Once I had down my base ideas, I just refined them until they felt complete, and since then I've been adding fun tidbits to my own liking.

As I worked, I realized that Pickerelstripe - a supporting character in the original story, as Minkpaw's mentor - was much more interesting to me than Minkpaw herself. So I decided to switch the story to her perspective, and it began developing into the Heart Rot that I love!

With this switch came a change in tone, as Heart Rot is much darker and more serious than my early plans. So I made some worldbuilding changes to fit! ClayClan's religion solidified, kepbon sculptures came into existence, that sort of thing. I'm still making tweaks here and there to tighten everything up.

Okay! Thanks for sticking with me through all of that, here's some random tips! :D

A good place to start is with location! I'm a total nerd about ecosystems, so I like to make my Clan territories as close to their real-world inspirations as possible. iNaturalist is a great reference for finding species in a specific area! Google is also your friend, and I've even used physical field guides in the past. It's a really fun process and enriches your knowledge of the real world - win-win!

Of course, not everyone's interested in this level of detail, and that's all good! I would, however, recommend having an idea of your Clan's territory and the types of animals/plants they regularly encounter. It can be a good springing-off point for worldbuilding! Take ClayClan's bobcat lore as an example, that came directly from wanting to do something cool with bobcats being in Maine.

Is this worldbuilding for a story? If so, what story are you trying to tell? Try and focus on worldbuilding that will affect the plot and see where it leads from there. For example, if your story focuses on family ties, you can explore how your fanClan views family!

Does your inspiration region have any interesting history? If so, you could try and tie it into your Clan's mythos! For example, the setting you've got makes me really curious about how your Clan views the caldera, and all its vents & craters. Do they believe the caldera has always been there? Do they have some lore about the ancient volcano? How do they rationalize the vents? There's lots to explore!

What do you want to see expanded on in Clan culture? The rank system, naming, religion, social structure, etc? Go ahead and change them to your liking, then see how that impacts the world! This is your Clan, after all, play with it how you'd like.

Focus on what's interesting to you! At the end of the day, this is your project, and you should enjoy working on it. If something doesn't interest you like it used to, you can take a break from it and find a different focus, or toss that part entirely and start over. Do what makes you happy!

I hope this is helpful! Sorry for rambling haha. Thank you so much for sharing your new Clan, I wish you the best of luck with developing it :] If you end up sharing any more on Tumblr feel free to send it to me, I'd love to see what you come up with! Have a great day/night!

[ccextendeduniverse]

Hello!

I'm Hero (he/him)! I'm an autistic writer and artist whose two biggest interests of all time are Warrior Cats and Japan. This is a side blog for my fanclan/multiverse that...combines those two! This is just where I yap about it; the characters, the worldbuilding, post art of it, etc!

Both my avatar and banner are two art pieces I received for the CCEU characters during ArtFight by the user akihikoSanada; go give em a follow!

So...here's a quick rundown! (Of course, you can always read the Google doc, but that's less fun than a blog, yaknow?)

What is CCEU? (And WEU too)

CCEU stands for the following: "Cloudclan Extended Universe"! This is an umbrella term for all stories within the universe where Cloudclan and its surrounding groups reside. So, CCEU includes WEU (Wispclan Extended Universe), DAD (Dancing and Dreaming), HSO (Hangout Strike Out), and other stories. 

WEU, is in a sense, a smaller CCEU inside of CCEU? It's its own little universe inside of CCEU using the clan's old name Wispclan as a placeholder. WEU specifically refers to a multiverse of stories about the following three characters: Beatleeyes/Kabutomushi, Foxrun/Fox that Burrows in Snow, and Soba/Meiro/Brightseer. These stories do not happen in the same timeline, though some things remain consistent between them all. Some CCEU stories are canon to all timelines, or only some. 

The reason for this…really confusing set up that really only I understand is because…well, trying to come up with one, concrete story, for these OC's, drove me insane. I had too many ideas and too many fun dynamics and storylines running around in my brain that just couldn't be confined to one timeline. So: CCEU and WEU were born. Out of the two of them, however, WEU has the most content. 

CCEU takes inspiration from a lot of different things---worldbuilding wise, I'd say the main inspo is the BetterBones AU! Which, by the way, is one of the coolest things of all time, IMO. My goal for this Tumblr blog, I think, is to get a post a month out exploring the world of Cloudclan. Feel free to send in asks!

A visual, in case that's confusing.

Now that that's out of the way---

I'll get to working on worldbuilding posts and stuff later...I've never run this type of blog, so I hope it goes well.

[firestarishomophobic]

love my slopeclan stuff but honestly it’s been soooo poorly planned and i have plans for other fanclans which could translate well into a clangen comic with some more worldbuilding… might end up using slopeclan as my test run bc it was NOT thought through. apologies to the everyone community

[bonefall]

i was scrolling through your clan culture tag and saw you talking about how the clans could make string, and it was really interesting so i decided to look more into it myself for my own fanclan worldbuilding and saw that apparently animal sinew can make really strong string? is sinew string something the clans would realistically have access to?

Mostly in ThunderClan-- though that's because of the unfortunate limitation of being a human in a human-centric society

See, there's no reason you can't get sinew from squirrels and rats, but it's too small to use effectively because we need longer string. Every guide I've found so far to make sinew string has been focused on large, lean animals like deer and livestock.

So the Clans CAN get it from the wild boars, muntjacs, and roe deer, and it's one of the best strings they can work with. It's more powerful than any plant fiber they can find, and it can be somewhat stretchy. It's invaluable. The REAL question is this;

Can they also get sinew from hares and rabbits?

I'm actually trying to answer that still and I'm passively researching it in my spare time.

[fan-clan-fun]

Hi! I saw you would answer other people’s fanclan submissions, and was wondering if you could look at mine? If you don’t do this feel free to ignore!

My “clan” is less of a clan or tribe and something moreso of its own thing. The group calls themselves The Stone Kin, and live in a large plain with plenty of rocks and trees. They use the tribe naming system, so they’re named things like Ember of Dying Flame or Rock That Parts Creek.

They’ve learned to hide their prey under large rocks, to keep away from predators, they use rocks to build a walkway in rivers, and kits even use them to decorate the dens! They’ll also use rocks and stack them around their camp as alarm systems for attackers.

I’m still struggling to come up with their history and how they got there, as well as more lore as well.

So, there's not a ton of information for me to go off of here. It seems what you've made is closer to a tribe, if only because of the naming conventions you've chosen to use.

Personally, I would use a lot of caution when it comes to making things close to the tribe in canon. It's a pretty shallow and caricatured portrayal of a society which is an analog for a Native American tribe, which plays a role in canon which is... Not great.

Though that is a whole gnarly different discussion that I can't even begin to weigh in on, since it's not really my place. I'm just trying to offer advice on Worldbuilding in a nuanced way as best as I can.

Best I can say is, build your group from the ground up, make it so everything is intertwined and meaningful to the culture.

Using the guide I have helps, but it's not always the only thing. What's important is your group should be cohesive. The setting should lead to the story, which should lead to their culture, and then to their naming, and so on and so forth.

As much as I would like to help with all of that, some of that ground work is stuff you will need to decide. What history, what setting, etc. I can offer some advice, but I need a stronger base to offer it on.

Im sorry I don't have a better answer, but I hope this helps a little!

[crowborn666-warriors-ramblings]

Welcome!

This is a side blog I use to create and add random things people can use for their fanclans!

You don’t have to credit me, as I get ideas from multiple sources(like the internet or my brain), but it is definitely appreciated.

You’re more than welcome to ping me in the things you create, I LOVE seeing what people can get creative with!

Having said that, enjoy your stay!

Check out my warrior cats generator on Perchance!

I made a Warrior Cats Written Language!

(Masterlist under the read more)

~~~~~~

Masterlist

When the first Masterlist in a section is getting long, I’ll create a second part! Suggestions are happily welcome!

Random

Quotes

Character Design

Design Ideas

Songs and Themes

Worldbuilding

Clan Origin Ideas

General Clan Things

Roles

Terminology

Events

Hobbies

Clan Cats in Different Centuries

Monster-Hopping

Imprisonment

Superstitions

Friendly Dog

The Murk

Darker Themes

Cannibalism