Hi! I was thinking a lot about ShadowClan during Yellowfang’s time there and holy WOW so many cats are just being passed around, like so many characters from that period end up being siblings (Blizzardwing’s and Toadskip’s litters mainly)
Really curious as to how this would be handled in WCSR… honestly shocked they’re not more inbred than ThunderClan LOL
ShadowClan actually has like, no inbreeding at all. in canon they're like one fart from death, but they're not there yet. So, surprisingly, i make very few changes to the tree!
The only major tweak is that i move Dawncloud to Featherstorm's first litter, making her the littermate of Scorchwind and Raggedstar. This is to fix the horrendous age oversight for her being a mother by Into the Wild, and also to better match with her description given in that book (elder queen and an old friend of Yellowfang. They're childhood besties now!)
but back to the minimal changes. There's a few reasons for it. first of all, ShadowClan in the shortly pre-TPB era is enormous. Like, they're bigger than modern ThunderClan, but none of them are related at all, hardly. Currently working on that era for my character index. ShadowClan has 74 named characters who live in years 90-100, and that population really doesn't get whittled down at all until the Carrionplace epidemic where they lose about 60% of their population in the course of 3 months lmfao (compare to Thunderclan, who has a similar number, but nearly all of them can be linked in a family tree that still continues to current books)
And secondly, they don't have the long, winding lineages that ThunderClan has.
For example, with that big complicated siblings web....
Hal has Russetfur, but she has no mate or kits
Hal and Featherstorm are mates and they've got pretty much the only Yellowfang-era lineage still surviving to modern ShadowClan. Scorchwind's descendants include the TigerDove family.
Featherstorm and Blizzardwing are mates but of their kits, Dawncloud is the only one to have kits of her own, and her two named kits die as babies
Blizzardwing and Hollyflower have an affair, but Fernshade is the only one of theirs who has kits. Likewise, her son, Badgerfang, dies as a baby and has no kits of his own
Then this tree is connected by Fernshade's mate Wolfstep, whose dad has 3 litters with 3 mates, one of whom is unknown. Of all Toadskip's six children, the only lineage that goes anywhere is Clawface, who is mates with Rowanberry. however, their three children all die as babies as well.
lots of dead babies here. maybe brokenstar saw a future where shadowclan became a family wreath like modern skyclan and thunderclan and sought to prevent it. so uh... everyone say thank you brokenstar.....?
none of these lineages really make it past TPB. most of the ShC characters today can be grouped into families, but the families aren't super intertwined. yet.
the CinnamonSlate kits are pretty good since they have no living relatives besides each other and their parents. (Cinnamontail is an outsider, and Slatefur's only living family member is Puddleshine, who is a medicine cat)
likewise, Stonewing and Grassheart and their kits are also like their own little island with no relatives. all good there, they can be paired with anyone and be fine.
The two Problem Families of shadowclan genetics wise are Snowbird and Scorchfur and Tigerstar and Dovewing
Redcloud and Sprucetip mark the joining of these two lineages via Pouncestep and Flaxfoot, something I choose to ignore since ShadowClan is like the last bastion of untangled genetics in warrior cats and I want to preserve that as much as I can :P and i kinda imagine their families as like the capulets and the montagues. scorchfur and rowanclaw did NOT get along and that beef has never died out.
...and because PounceFlax makes the two newest generations in ShadowClan first cousins. which has me tugging on my collar and gulping cartoonishly because you know what this means for Erin Hunter's Love Of Hat-Pull Matchmaking.....
