#sorryyyyyyyyyy

Oh my beloved Birchface... I'm a bit sad he never appears in the actual fic due to being dead before it begins, because I grew quite fond of him while coming up with a backstory! sooo Birchface lore dump time...

TL;DR Oakstar would NOT be happy. He basically wanted Birchface to be an exact copy of himself... He hoped to make Birchface his deputy once he finished training Flowerpaw. Birchface was his golden child who could do no wrong. Oakstar HEAVILY favored Birchface over Frecklewish. (because, well, he's a huge misogynist. Frecklewish could give him grandkits... but Birchface? Birchface could be his successor!)

However, this heavy favoritism ironically drove Birchface away, comapred to Frecklewish, who clung to her dad and his ideas, desperate for approval. Birchface was painfully aware that Oakstar loved the *idea* of him. The idealized, incomplete version of Birchface that lived in his father's head. He had to hide who he was from his family and his clan because they weren't accepting.

He was actually in a half-clan relationship. And part of a secret group that will get more focus in upcoming chapters + in Frecklewish's Lesson 👀 His mate was Swiftflight of WindClan. (the guy whose tail Mapleshade steps on at the gathering lol) Ironically, Birchface planned to leave ThunderClan to escape from his father and the homophobic clan once he was done training Flowerpaw.

So yep that's the Birchface lore. He was painfully aware that his father would disown him and possibly beat or even exile him for his sexuality, (as he recalls when another cat, Spottedpelt, was beaten for confessing her feelings to another she-cat when he and his sister were apprentices) so he hid it and planned on running away. It'd be fun to explore his character sometime, in a time period where he's actually alive lol