#firemask

This was tough. I'm sure you know the problems with the Tribe, if you don't, look it up. It's easy to find. For the rewrite, I'm using Waterfall to show a contrast, to say "Actually, RELIGION SOMETIMES GOOD"

I like one word names, and so I went with Waterfall for the rewrite name.

Waterfall stays around the same area, and was started after cats began to help each other. Sympathy for the old, the weak, and the young bound together the early members of Waterfall. An old cat born without a leg would teach a younger cat with the same disability how to climb the fastest, while two other cats watched the sky for danger. Abandoned kits would now have somebody to cling too at night, instead of sobbing alone and scared.

In Waterfall, you catch prey for yourself, then turn to the others, devoting your free time to helping the ones who need it. It's held together by common decency.

And then, the Endless Walkers (Tribe of Endless Hunting) appeared in dreams, in their own mountain afterlife (related to Limbo but I need to flesh that out). They appeared to Tech, Bunchy, and Hemlock, three former kittypets who joined Waterfall, and guided them along the way to properly form Waterfall into a society. The kittypets, along with a few other cats, formed a council for Waterfall, making decisions and basically doing cat democracy.

Unlike StarClan, the Endless Walkers are straightforward, telling cats what they need to do for the best outcome. They will not let their descendants suffer needlessly in anxiety and stress.

The queens name their kits in similar ways to the canonical Tribe, but it's one worded names, and it's after the first thing they think of. For example, if Brook looks into the eyes of her kits and thinks of a leaping wildfire, she may name them something along those lines, such as Wildfire, Grace, or Danger.

Speaking of Brook, I'm going to give her, Stormfur, and Feathertail their own separate posts, but Feathertail dies in a similar way, the traveling cats stay a little longer at Waterfall then in the canon tribe, resulting in Brook expecting Stormfur's kits, portrayed similar to an accidental pregnancy between two eighteen year olds, and not as a sort of 'white dude falls in love with native girl' thing.

By the time they're about to leave, Brook is all that Stormfur has left. Silverstream is dead, Feathertail is dead, Stonefur is dead, Crookedstar is dead, and for all he knew Greystripe is dead as well. Add that to kits, and somebody he actually loves and somebody who actually loves him, and it's not surprising he chose to stay. Waterfall is great at supporting parents, and even if he didn't want to raise the kits, plenty of cats would take them in there. Stormfur also had fears of history repeating itself, and his kits being considered 'half-clan', so add trauma too.

dear zuko ,

i’ve never written a letter before !  i’ve only read about people sending letters to each other in the books you and uncle iroh bought me , and some of the ones at school . so i wanted to try writing a letter to you !  i know you’ve been really busy and haven’t been able to come visit us at the tea shop so i just wanted to tell you what’s been going on over here \o/

( not that anything’s been happening really , nothing’s happened since you and aang brought peace everywhere !  )

In the Firemask Rewrite, I'm giving all the clans a sort of exclusive rank. This sprang from when I was thinking about Jayfeather, and if he should remain a medicine cat in the au, and had a wonderful idea.

ThunderClan has "Medical Assistants". Cats with enough training to stabilize wounds, keep an injured cat alive, and not make things worse until the actual medicine cat arrives. These cats often go with battle patrols, or go on duo patrols to watch for cats that need help.

Jayfeather started this when he was complaining to Leafpool about how normal warriors should have some training as medicine cats, so they can keep cats alive, and Leafpool went "That's actually a good idea" and Firestar said okay, Leafpool checked with StarClan and they said okay.

Oh, this is fun!

StarClan can appear in dreams as sort of advisors, to guide them along the best path, and help them out with some troubles. Or...guide them along their own individual agenda.

Some examples of this are...

Skystar. After SkyClan was driven out, his worldview did a hard pivot, and he practically turned against StarClan. It's surprisingly often that a cat will go "huh...i think that should change-" "HI MY NAME IS SKYSTAR, WANT HELP?". This behavior mostly stopped after SkyClan died out, due to Skystar attempting to murder Thunder in rage. He was exiled to Limbo, and it takes a lot more power to dream into the real world from there than from StarClan. (As Scourge can tell you...*hint hint*).

Snowfur to Spottedleaf. I'm going to make my own post about Spottedleaf's Heart, now Spottedleaf's Life in the Firemask Rewrite, but the TLDR of it is: Snowfur gets angry and so does Mapleshade, Snowfur becomes an accessory to a 'murder' that basically all of StarClan condones.

Riverstar to Frostpaw. I will elaborate once ASC is completed, but it's fun.

Crookedstar to Jayfeather! The phrase "StarClan Guide" is taken more literally this time, and Crookedstar ends up teaching Jayfeather about his powers, given knowledge by StarClan and wanting to help out before anybody else messes it up.

There's a word that throughout the rewrite, plenty of cats use. It's made up of a certain prefix, and the word "Kin".

This is fun.

So, after the clans help Waterfall during the borders storyline, Waterfall helps them back, introducing the concept of mental disorders, therapy, and treatment for mental disorders to the clans.

This is flawed, as they are cats, so they diagnose by symptoms. The symptom itself is the disorder to them, not the culmination.

Here's the list of what Waterfall considers to be disorders, and the symptom they accompany. Many of these fall under the diagnosis of "Haunting Disorders", where it seems like something else is haunting you, eg: intrusive thoughts. Tell me if any of these are offensive to other people with mental disorders, as I will gladly change them.

Owl-Mind is what they call insomnia, named after owls, seen during the night.

Self Haunting is their term for intrusive thoughts, as cats have described it as "It's not something else. It's me. But it's not mine."

Full Mind/Stuffed Mind/Multiple Soul is the term for what is described on wikipedia as "the presence of two or more distinct personality states", and can be summarized as the word for DID.

Haunted by Nightmares/Haunted by Daydreams is what Waterfall calls disturbing dreams during the night/flashbacks during the day, it's also a term for when somebody has specific triggers connected to trauma.

Weighted Paws is the term for executive dysfunction, and from personal experience, it fits.

Weighted Soul is the term for fatigue induced sadness/very bad brain fog/feeling like you've been drained of energy.

These are the major ones, but there's a lot of other terms that cats use because that's what it feels like for them. The clans are confused at first, but since they're basically a PTSD support group, they're generally okay with it and recognize themselves in those terms.

For treatment, it mostly comes down to coping mechanisms and accommodations, herbs are rarely involved. If a cat thinks another is having a nightmare, they'll nudge them awake and stay with them if the cat doesn't say no. For a cat who's becoming worried about their thoughts, another will distract them with some tasks or something that makes them happy.