#-step

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-step characters and -storm characters, huh?

I do agree that -step cats are especially interesting! I’ve made a couple in my time, Lizardstep being only one. I find them fun because you really have to research and you really have to think. You not only have to know what that creature generally acts like; you also have to figure out how to translate that into something cats could do/act like.

A recent -step of mine is Bitternstep. Now, she’s named for the bittern; in particular, the Eurasian bittern. These birds, brown with darker brown striping/spotting, are very secretive relatives of herons. They walk stealthily, inhabit marshes and such areas, and are quite shy and easily spooked! They move slowly but deliberately, and they’re also fairly solitary overall and rarely seen out in the open. The males have quite booming mating calls, which actually puzzled scientists before modern science because they could not figure out how such a small bird could have such a deep call! They feed on fish, insects, amphibians, fledging birds, small mammals, and crustaceans (depending on what’s in their habitat). They have a curious trait where if they’re spooked, they can kind of freeze in a curious position so as to try to avoid being seen.

How have I translated this?

So, Bitternstep is smaller than average for a ShadowClan cat. She’s a short-furred black spotted tabby (brown fur, black spots) with white paws and amber eyes. She’s also polydactyl. Bitternstep likes keeping to herself and overall is a very private cat. She doesn’t like Gatherings and when she’s in camp tends to stick to the ‘walls’ of the camp. She’s patient and stealthy, traits making her a very solid huntress. She’s especially good at hunting in and around the marsh; yes, she can swim and is fairly solid at it. She, like all ShadowClan cats, will eat whatever is available, but she very much prefers fish and amphibians. She walks slowly but purposely, paying close attention to where she’s stepping. Her voice is quite booming (note: the cats probably wouldn’t care to differentiate between males and females of most other species, especially since these bitterns don’t have much sexual dimorphism) but she doesn’t speak often. She doesn’t like being around others for too long and is easily overwhelmed by large crowds. She enjoys lurking around the marsh in her Clan’s territory in order to hunt for the Clan on her own time, as opposed to joining up with bigger patrols. She’s smaller, so she’s not that good at fighting, and would much rather hide from an enemy than she would face them down.

Thus, Bitternstep is a stealthy, private huntress who brings back good hauls of prey for the Clan. Very valuable, given ShadowClan has less territory to work with. So any prey brought for the Clan is great in their books! She never attends Gatherings, but doesn’t mind interacting with her Clanmates as long as she’s free to leave when things get to the point of dragging on for too long.

So I’ve taken the traits above, but adjusted them to fit a cat. Instead of freezing in a strange position, for instance, Bitternstep hides away and tries to avoid conflict as much as possible.

And that’s how to make a -step cat that makes sense!

As for -storm cats, I will agree that they’re hard to write! I find them the hardest kind of cats to write, actually. But there is a method!

The first step is deciding: to your Clan(s), what is a -storm cat? Do different Clans have slightly differing definitions, or are they all in unison about what the suffix means and how it’s displayed?

In my verse, a -storm cat is defined by one main trait: adaptability.

This means that they don’t get hung up on methods. If something doesn’t work, they rebound and try from a different angle. If something changes mid-leap, they adjust and adapt as quickly as possible. They’re like a storm in that things always changing and these cats are always ready to adapt to the changing.

However, my Clans view this trait slightly differently: -ThunderClan sees adaptability as more of a slower thing. Their -storm cats tend to be the kind who observe and then react. So maybe a -storm or -storm personality cat is hunting. They see prey, they’ll try to situate themselves so that if the prey does something unexpected, they’ll be in the best possible situation to react to it. ThunderClan -storms epitomize adaptability by planning.

-RiverClan sees adaptability as the river. This means they can have a variety of personalities. The main trait is stubborn adaptability, a mix of ThunderClan’s adaptability by plan and ShadowClan’s adaptability by reaction. So say a RiverClan -storm is hunting a frog and that frog goes trying to hop through the reeds, a -storm might go literally jumping after the frog, they might chase it down via running, they might try to cut it off by going at an arch, but they don’t just quit. Their end goal is finishing what was started. The only reason they’d stop chasing the frog would be if it crossed into ThunderClan or WindClan land; remember, in this verse, unclaimed land is fair game. However, unlike a -heart cat, this stubbornness isn’t about beliefs or rights and wrongs. This stubbornness is about action.

-ShadowClan sees adaptability as a fast thing. It’s not about planning, because everything and anything could screw with your plan. To them, a -storm is a cat who can walk away semi-successful at least a good portion of the time even if everything goes horribly wrong. So if a ShadowClan -storm cat is hunting and the bird flies away, they’d probably jump and try to snatch it or knock it down before it gets too high. If that fails, they act with the end goal of getting as much prey as possible still. This could mean following the bird through the trees, this might mean trying to scare it down from the tree it flew into, this might mean pretending to leave and waiting for the bird to come back. But regardless something happens. These cats don’t sit still for too often; they move, they act, they react, they do. It’s not about how many times you fail; it’s about how many times you succeed, if that makes sense. Since success can only happen via effort, a ShadowClan -storm does. They don’t sit and wait for things to fall into their paws; rather, they go out and make it happen. Like RiverClan, but more active. RiverClan -storm cats will plow ahead with the original plan or slightly altered versions thereof, ShadowClan -storm cats will change the plan as many times as they need in order to get the win. Again, their -heart cats are stubborn about beliefs; -storm stubbornness is about action. For RiverClan and ShadowClan, -storm and -heart are two different versions of steadfastness. For ThunderClan and WindClan, not so much.

-WindClan -storm cats are also defined by movement, but in a different way than ShadowClan. ShadowClan’s reaction is active; they react, but they still try to control the situation as much as possible. WindClan goes with the wind. Whatever happens happens; now go along with it. If a WindClan -storm is hunting and the rabbit dives into the burrow, they’d be more likely to keep running and try to chase down one of the other prey animals that might have been spooked by the chase. ShadowClan and a RiverClan -storms would be more likely to try to either flush that same rabbit out, or occupy themselves with something else productive until that same rabbit comes out. WindClan -storm would go to the other end of the territory and completely forget about the original rabbit. RiverClan and ShadowClan -storm would hang around the general area, maybe gather herbs for the Medicine Cat or hunt smaller prey at a distance, but would still be watching for that original rabbit.

For my RiverClan and ShadowClan, -storm and -heart are two different versions of steadfastness. One focuses on steadfastness of beliefs, the other focuses more of steadfastness of action. For my ThunderClan and WindClan, not so much. For them, -storm and -heart are fairly unrelated. WindClan is the Clan least likely to have a cat overlap for -storm and -heart, because if a -heart believes in never giving up, then that’s already contradicting the expected behaviour of a -storm.

Once you figure out what exactly -storm means to your Clans, you can figure out how to make such characters.