#bonefall rewrite

@bonefall Anytime you mentioned this death scene, I keep associating it with this song since the lyrics are LITERALLY this entire scene. "Bloodstains washing underneath the waves"??? "I can't hold on much longer, we're drifting down to the other side"?????? It was fucking PLAGUING me and I had to just get this out.

1. Do not Trespass = "Law of the Land"

This is now rule 1, because borders were the first thing to be established at the dawn of the clans.

  2. A True Warrior Does Not Need To Kill To Win Their Battles = "Law of Honor"

Another founding principle. The first two were established at the Battle of Fourtrees.

  3. Defend your Clan = "Law of Loyalty"

The Ryewhisker/Cloudberry story is virtually unchanged. HOWEVER, Cloudberry AND Ryewhisker are willingly joining the Dark Forest in protest. They are some of the oldest spirits there.

  4. The Weak are Fed First = "Prey Priority Privilege"/"Elder's Privilege"

This story is actually being completely rewritten, it's not coming from a celebration over a RiverClan Sunningrocks victory. Still a WIP though-- but Elders are actually the ones who extend the privilege of priority to kits, queens, the weak, and injured. Just a technical thing.

  5. Respect Prey; StarClan Sent It. = "StarClan's Grace"

Now more of a commandment about piety than about respecting prey. Wasting prey is downright sacrilegious, thanking StarClan is explicitly a prayer.

This is one of my small but meaningful (to me) sociological changes. This is the sort of law that religions often create because they're important and communicate an abstract value over generations. An individual warrior may or may not have a good understanding of land stewardship or ecology, but this law exists so they don't overhunt.

  6. Apprentices must be six moons old = "Six Moon Rule"

The Code of the Clans story is unchanged; this is also known as “Daisytail’s Law”. Brokenstar actually loopholes the hell out of this law; it says nothing about making early warriors.

(personally i think his child soldiers are horrifying but ultimately stupid. Pint-sized kittens can’t fight and do not live to become experienced warriors.)

Post-Brokenstar, this loophole is patched; an apprentice needs to be 6 months, a warrior must be 1 year.

The rule is extended FURTHER after Graystripe's failure to train Brackenpaw; a warrior taking a new apprentice must be 2 years old.

  7. A Deputy Must Mentor/Deputy Becomes Clan Leader/Deputy is Appointed Before Moonhigh = "Code of the Deputy"

Combined into one huge rule. A succession crisis split ShadowClan into two factions, lead by Mossfire and Jumpfoot, who were both what modern Clan Cats would consider 'deputies.'

Redscar settled it with his famous false sign, appointing Flowerstem as leader (Mossfire's sister) and she chose her second-in-command, Robinspot (Jumpfoot's son). Deputies were established as a hard title after this-- and there would only ever be one at a time.

  8. Boundaries must be checked and marked daily = "Right of the Challenge"

Instead of just being a no-brainer law, this is the basis of 'Might Makes Right' in the Clans. Boundaries are set where they're set, and warriors and the clans they're part of are allowed to challenge them freely.

A Clan that cannot defend its borders is not worthy of keeping them. A warrior that backs down from a formal challenge is a coward, and does not respect the Code. BATTLE CULTURE!!!

  9. A Warrior Rejects the Soft Life Of a Kittypet = “Kittypet Code“

Being shuffled, no longer formed as a response to Pinestar’s choice! It was actually a SkyClan law, in response to several cats defecting as humans destroyed their forest.

This lays the foundation for several events later; Oakstar uses this law to justify ‘crusades‘ against Chelford township cats in an attempt to appease StarClan. This directly leads to BloodClan’s formation, and Pinestar’s eventual defection.

This is the last code to be formed before SkyClan’s Exile.

  10. A Medicine Cat Serves Their Clan Above All Else = “Medicine Cat’s Vow”

Now a corruption of a vow that used to just be a point of honor for medicine cats, warped to control these powerful religious figures.

Before SkyClan’s Exile, Moth Flight created it for her and her children when they were torn apart by clan violence, when each clan wanted its own medic and sought to steal the young cats from WindClan. Its original intention was for medicine cats to value medicine ABOVE their clans, by never having a mate or kittens to fight for.

With the addition of this law, it was flipped on its head completely.

  11. No Fighting at Gatherings = "Full Moon Truce"

A big change; Ripplestar wasn’t fighting for no reason. Son of a medicine cat who had to abandon him due to Rule 10, and developing a hatred for the wrongful exile of SkyClan, Ripplestar was leading skirmishes and rebellions against the other clans. His goal was to force them into dividing their land to eventually give to a returned SkyClan.

The full moon truce was only a tradition before this point, and Ripplestar was making a point. He attacked them during a time of peace, and this incurred the wrath of StarClan. They smote him on the spot, and this event lead to rules 11, 12, and 13.

  12. The Warrior’s Vigil and the Warrior’s Pilgrimage = “The First Tasks“

Another post-exile law that encouraged obedience, albeit in a much softer way. Vigils and pilgrimages to the moonstone were only tradition before this point, just like the full moon truce, but formalized to encourage piety to StarClan.

  13. The Word of a Leader is Law = “Leader’s Rights“

The big bad one. Also sometimes called Dalestar’s Commandment, or the 13th Law. The leaders had enough of arguing, and in their minds, it was a disrespect of authority that lead to Ripplestar’s shenanigans. Warriors that didn’t know their place, medicine cats getting too uppity. The law was laid down here; that their word was always the final authority.

This, of course, was a huge mistake and is eventually reckoned with in The Broken Code arc, and replaced by the “Clan’s Rights“ to challenge a bad leader instead.

14. Kittens Are Protected At All Costs = “Queen’s Rights”

Also called Darkstar’s Commandment, formed in response to StarClan’s fury at witnessing the Mapleshade incident. Every cat involved was sent to the Dark Forest in blind fury, and Darkstar and Oakstar were commanded to add this law or be damned as well.

Darkstar correctly identified that this law would mean nothing if a queen HAD to reveal who the father of her kittens was, because then the clan would be forced to punish them if they had broken the Law of Loyalty. With the establishments of the Queen’s Right (to remain silent), if she had been disloyal, it stays between her and StarClan.

Before this time, stealing kittens from other clans and outsider groups wasn’t uncommon in order to maintain genetic diversity. That practice was abolished here, though there were a few cases of it happening in modern history.

15. The Clans Must Unite in Times of Need = “Law of the Lake”

Being formally added after the arrival of SkyClan, in AVOS instead of Bramblestar’s Storm.

A law of reparation for SkyClan’s exile so many generations ago, and an agreement after the journey, the battle with the Dark Forest, and with the Kin, that the Clans would never let a threat to one clan go ignored by the others.

16. A Cat May Change Allegiance = “Bristlefrost’s Law”

I won’t elaborate too much on this one, because as of writing this, A Starless Clan is not complete and there may be more changes to this law by the end of the arc.

I made these glyphs to be rudimentary, only covering things that the clans would want to warn other warriors about (no names, no words for species). I see their culture as very straightforward, so I tried to reflect that with this practical system.

DANGER is the quickest and easiest sign to scratch, for this reason. Write it on a tree and get out of there! Or, more gruesomely, if a cat was dragged off by something, that's what their claws in the dirt would look like!

I go back and forth on if it's meant to be written Left to Right, or Top to Bottom, but the most important glyph always goes last. A sentence can totally change based on order!

For example, CAT NEST usually refers to a bed or a good sleeping area. NEST CAT means family.

Sometimes, glyphs end up being combined when it's aesthetically pleasing or makes it easier to write. The word for kittypet is CAT TWOLEG, with the ears of the cat extending into the stick legs.

I chose to only make one word for HEAL and HOLY, because traditionally, their culture didn't have a distinction. A healing herb is HOLY PLANT.

SICK is a flea, but it can be anything from actual illness (CAT SICK), or poison plants (SICK PLANT). A quarantine den would be CAT NEST SICK... where a mass grave of greencough victims would be CAT SICK GROUND

Predators are defined by their behavior. Venomous snakes are written as SICK PREDATOR. Birds of prey are almost always defined with when they hunt, so hawks are DAY WIND PREDATOR and owls are NIGHT WIND PREDATOR. Dogs are so dangerous that it's just assumed that PREDATOR DANGER means dogs.

Need to warn someone that a river floods in spring? NEWLEAF WATER CAUTION. Are there hawks in an area? DAY WIND PREDATOR DANGER.

Let's do a really complicated one. "The twoleg lets the dogs free at night, but they are chained in the day.

The safety of the day is the least important part here, so that sentence goes first. DAY SAFE, TWOLEG PREDATOR DANGER NIGHT.