CATHEDRAL

CATHEDRAL is an in-development illustrated novel about cats and a murder mystery. Search the #info tag for more.

Next to an abandoned lake town reside three cat clowders - the Rosens, the Bethels, and the Darrows. They've taken pleasure in few predators and no human interruptions, any feral cat's dream. However, an unexpected disaster sent them spiraling. Darcy, a young Darrow cat, went on a killing spree. She was quick and gruesome as she blew through the clowders like a wildfire. The year-long terror ended when her life was taken by Milk Darrow, her own mother.

Also, I could’ve sworn you had a YouTube channel because I remember a pmv with some of the characters but I can’t find it 😭

Sorry, this isn't a question, just a connecting of the dots for me. I'm writing a book series that started out as a really convoluted fan fiction, and that fic eventually warped into it's whole own thing, and AT SOME POINT IN DEVELOPMENT I decided the characters were gonna be cats.

And I've joked for YEARS now that I cannot for the life of me remember WHAT inspired that change. It's just been this hilarious blank spot in the project's history. Went from IP, to drama fic, to now they're cats for some reason, to all sorts of magic and other nonsense being added, and them being cats is now so deeply integral to the story that it literally wouldn't work with human characters anymore.

Making it deeply funny to friends and I that I couldn't remember why I did that! I was just certain it wasn't Warriors or Tail Chaser's Song that inspired it, as those were properties I looked to for inspiration much later in development.

But it was you! It was Cathedral! I was so entirely smitten with the designs of Darcy and Rook in particular, and lore and atmosphere of it all, that I decided to turn my very human/humanoid cast into cats!

tl;dr: your art is incredibly inspiring

And I'm loving the new names, Maryn specially.

A question, is Honey still in the story? Or was she fused with Sparrow to create Aggie?

honey did in fact fuse with sparrow to create aggie

thank you so very much!!! ♥️

ok questions:

1. are you planning to post abt the recurring/background characters at all? i’m v curious to see who all made the cut & who didn’t

2. i love the change of the clowders being matriarchal since it reflects how a lot of cat colonies are irl! i’m also curious to see how that’ll change things for frond bc i remember a big plot point in the last incarnation was that thorn specifically wanted him as head cat if anything happened to her

3. are heartmates meant to be like bonded pairs?

overall i’m soooooooo so excited to see more of this world and the lore it’s been so much fun watching this project develop over the years & i can’t wait to see it finally come to fruition!

ANSWERS!

1. i’m definitely going to make a sheet for the side characters! as well as a few other important characters that are unaccounted for.

2. thorn’s wish for frond to fill her role was something i definitely regretted cutting… but there will be a similar sentiment that replaces it! the allure of cat matriarchy was too strong for me to ignore. 😹

3. in a way! heartmates are exclusively romantic. i wanted something that felt significant yet also semi-realistic, because i started to incorporate (kinda) real cat behavior and biology into the story. this left partners like darcy/wolfgang and a few others sticking out like a sore thumb. soooo i invented this Extra Special Soulmate Sauce.. definitely inspired by bonded pairs.

Major characters! Flat/simplified designs are below. 👇

I wonder if you'd ever make a post about how the story and setting of cathedral have got to the place they are now? Like, what gave you the idea for the story? Which cats and storylines used to be more entrenched in warrior cats and how have their stories changed to adapt to the departure from warriors? That kinda thing! I love seeing how stories evolve over time so I'd be really interested