wheat 🌾

Note: This list may be subject to change as the story goes on, or as alterations are made from suggestions and critiques. 

Suffixes come in four categories: Status (defining a cat’s rank in the Clan), Skill (referring to something the cat excels in), Personality (summarizing the cat’s overall demeanor and attitude), and Appearance (generally describing the cat’s physical attributes). These are listed in highest to lowest priority - meaning, naming after a cat’s status comes before naming for a skill, which comes before personality suffixes, with appearance being the last category considered for a name. As such, the possible suffixes will be listed according to their tiers. 

Note that there are occasionally exceptions, as leaders may give a name that stands out from the rest of what is average for their particular Clan (for example, if there aren’t many -heart cats but plenty of -whisker cats, the leader may name the warrior -heart instead). That being said, the tiers are so commonly upheld that the lists below are considered the standard for all warriors. 

The naming system we use is "traditionalism", which I was introduced to here on Tumblr by the blog Ailuronymy - more or less the base version of the system. I've been almost exclusively using traditionalism in every aspect of my time in the Warriors fandom since I learned about it, specifically because it gives meaning, limits and structure to warrior names and makes naming characters a lot easier for me. It was natural to me that I use it in the original Redux, and that carried over to Iterum!

There are a couple of universal terms of affection ("ant" and "dove" being the main ones, amongst the many versions of "little (type of bird)"), but some are unique to each Clan. We've mentioned before that "honeymouse" is a ThunderClan matriarch's specific term that has been passed down the generations like a verbal heirloom, which is unique amongst the Clans - no other Clan has a nickname specific to a single rank that no one outside of it uses.

"Duckling", on the other hand, is unique to RiverClan, though it's used by everyone. Most commonly, it's from parents for their children, but cats that are parental by nature (matriarchs especially) will call someone lower in rank or age "duckling" out of affection. It's a well-meaning term, so it's very rare that anyone takes offense to it.

ShadowClan prefers "dear heart" themselves. It's used between mates, as well as parents to their children - essentially, someone you would give your life for. They are the "heart" of your soul, and just as vital to your well-being as the real thing. Before you ask, never would a Warden call their seer charge that, or vice versa. Even though they ought to feel very strongly about each other, its most common reference to a mate makes ShadowClan uneasy to use it in a deliberately celibate relationship.

How scrawny and small is he compared to your average shadowclan warrior? Is he still apprentice sized like he was in canon?

Additionally, does he have any notable scars/features/details on the way he looks?

Scourge is bigger than a ShadowClan cat, but not by much. I would call him apprentice-sized for RiverClan, who are about the same height of a regular cat. He's thin, to the point of looking delicate - like Firestar thought of, you could kill him just by pushing him over. At least, that's the impression one gets.

Just popping in to say I regularly reread this story; I love love love it so much. In particular how individual and developed each clan’s culture and identity is. And how much Thunderclan slowly warms up to Firepaw over time. Though nothing will beat rereading chapters 24-26 of “A Kindling” again (and again, and again). Charred Legacy is my fav book (out of the first three books) but that section with Bluestar and Firepaw lives rent-free in my brain. So many good sections in all three books (and looking forward to reading the forth soon!). Gave a shot at drawing each of the clans based of their apperance descriptors were. Not perfect by any means but I hope its a bit of fun ~<3. I will say trying to make Windclan the “ugliest” clan when Shadowclan exists in all its tiny scrawny glory was hilarious and we vibe with cute gremlin Shadowclan here.

When a kitten reaches six months of age, or half a year, they are old enough to leave the -kit suffix behind them and gain -paw instead, labeling them as a student of the Clans’ way of life. They will then spend around half a year (sometimes more or less) training under a selected teacher, called a “mentor”, and learn how to perform their future adult duties with skill and patience, before earning their next and (usually) final suffix to denote that they have matured into a grown-up.

The apprentice rank is the most flexible in the Clan system; one can train to be a warrior, seer or matriarch, and even within simple warrior’s training can specialize in any specific skill – or multiple – and earn a suffix based off of that. Apprentices are carefully monitored by their mentor and the leader of the Clan to judge what they will be called in the future as an adult in order to make their name as accurate as possible to their talents, personality or simple appearance. Those who have multiple options for a suffix are a regular occurrence, and the first adult choice many of them make is what their name will be when the leader consults with them on their preferences.

Kits are eligible to become apprentices as soon as they are six months, or two seasons, or half a year old.

Apprenticeship may be delayed or expedited in emergency situations, including:

A lack of current apprentices (expedition).

Developmental challenges keeping the kit from being regularly active (delay).

The mother of the kit needing to leave the nursery immediately (expedition, though keeping the kit in their rank while the queen leaves is more ideal).

An injury that requires the kit to rest and recover for an extended period of time (delay).

The need to provide a soon-to-be deputy an apprentice when there are no other cats able to take on the role in a short range of time (expedition).

A lack of available mentors (delayed).

In these cases, the kit must be older than four moons, and the matriarch of the Clan and/or the kit’s mother may veto the leader’s decision if the kit is younger.

Apprentices are not to be killed, accidentally or on purpose, in battle. The price for an apprentice’s death is double that of a warrior’s – whatever that will be is decided by the leaders whose Clans were involved in the battle.

In the case of developmentally challenged cats, such as an individual who is mentally stuck in kithood, the leader may choose to not give the cat a warrior name – in other words, making them a permanent apprentice. This must be agreed upon by the majority of the Clan.

Apprentices may have their mentor changed for any reason, including their own request for a different mentor. They may also be denied this change if the leader and deputy do not find their argument sufficient (for example, if the apprentice just wants a mentor who will let them get away with more mischief than their current mentor allows).

Apprentices are to be given a warrior name after between six months and nine months of warrior training.

If an apprentice is excelling at their training in all regards – hunting, fighting, tracking, mentoring, etc. – they may be permitted to become a warrior early. The earliest age legally acceptable is four months after their becoming a -paw.

All apprentices must have their suffix changed from -kit to -paw at their apprentice ceremony. Any cat with the -paw suffix is granted all protections and honored laws listed in this section.

Abuse of any kind inflicted on an apprentice will be punished with the same severity as abuse of a kitten. If the mentor is the one abusing them, the apprentice must be switched to a new mentor as fast as possible.

Mentors may be related to their apprentice, by blood or by adoption. It is ideal to pair up cats who have no familial bond, but not a legal requirement.

Leaders are responsible for naming an apprentice accurately. Conferring with their mentor and the deputy is recommended to ensure the correct warrior suffix be given.

How have you come up with the terminology for the Clans, such as the Three's names, numbers or places like the Aulmir ? I am very curious to know the process to figure it all out.

The feline language has a set list of letters and sounds that we use to create words, but that's from the Iterum era. The names of the Clans, gods and town are all from the Redux, which means I made them with no real idea of how languages work.

However, one running throughline between Iterum and Redux is that cats name things using sounds associated with that thing. Ronamir, for example, is the feline name of ThunderClan, with "Rona" emulating the rumbling sound of thunder (the word itself meaning "loud noise") and "mir" sort of sounding like the kind of noise a cat would make in a half-purr, half-meow when surrounded by their community that they know and love. That's the general theme behind every translated name! "Aul" means "human" and references just how loud and obnoxious we can be. With "mir" attached, you get "HumanClan".

In the case of the Three, I wanted to use sounds that, for a cat, would carry a sense of intensity, unease and danger - "S" like a hiss, "R" like a growl, and in Rokhar's case, "K" for a cracking, sharp feeling that would make any cat startle. They are giant beings, after all. Even worshipers would be a little nervous in their presence.

I'll give you this for now: a major character in the third arc will be neurodivergent. I hesitate to use any specific labels, because these cats don't experience mental disorders or conditions the same way humans do (both for plot and worldbuilding reasons), so I won't be using them except as a comparison. I guess the best I can say is that this character will lean very hard into traits you'll see most often in autism, even if they aren't one-to-one with it. Along the way, as we plot out the second arc, we may add in more divergent characters (or alter characters to be divergent), but I won't declare it as a certain thing, in case we don't or can't get to it.

Now, for the lore questions! I'll give a rundown of the big information here, so we have a main post to link to people when they want more context:

We've mentioned before that conditions that affect the brain are not super easy for the Clans to handle. They can understand a broken leg, but (for lack of a classier term) a broken mind is invisible, and you can't just fix it with licking a wound clean or giving someone prey until they can get up and go hunt themselves. This is mostly in the cases where one hallucinates, or is severely mentally handicapped, or struggles with suicidal thoughts or depression - the Clans do not have therapists or a rank specifically built to handle such issues. The best they often can do is provide physical care and work around these disorders to keep the cat alive and as happy as they can be in the Clans. That doesn't always include becoming a seer.

Gooseleaf was extremely lucky that he happened to be in tune with the spirit world and became a seer apprentice, otherwise his schizophrenic episodes would have landed him in the elder's den as soon as he got his name. There have been plenty of challenged cats (and other disorders are included in this) that were just regular warriors, and some became elders quickly in their lives (though there have been perma-apprentices before, but they're treated as elders are all the same). It all depends on the severity of their condition and how it affects their quality of life.

As far as the Clans are concerned, you do the best you can to contribute to your community, and if you simply can't because you're mentally a kit or beginning apprentice, or you can't do much more than sit there and stare at nothing, then it becomes time for the community to contribute to your survival. Often, this includes retiring someone early, or limiting them to staying near or in camp if a caretaker isn't around. In some cases, these cats do end up going to the Houses - not that anyone wants to do that, per se, but sometimes it's just better to let the apprentice who can't learn basic hunting or fighting techniques go be a kittypet, where they'll be safe and warm and cared for their entire life.

The way a Clan decides if a cat needs to leave the territories entirely is pretty simple: if the cat is in significant enough danger from their issues that they need a guard with them at all times, even when they're in camp, it's just not a life anyone considers worth living. The Clans may have contempt for kittypets, but they're not fools; they know that kittypets live longer than any other class of cat in the known world, and they don't have to struggle. The logic then follows that their challenged Clanmate won't have to struggle either, so it's best to ensure their safety and happiness and take them to the Houses. Not anyone's favorite thing to do, but they consider it for the best.

Now, for less intense disorders, such as cat-ADHD or cat-anxiety (simply referred to as "nervousness"), where the cat can function but just has a few "quirks", no one would probably think twice about them as anything but that cat being that cat. Little Cherrypaw is just a fidgety molly who's easily distracted, she can't help that. Better get her a mentor who can keep her active and help her focus in her best way. Oh, and Ravenkit? Yes, yes, he's scared by default, so let's all approach him carefully and back off when he starts to shake. Hey, don't get upset with Mosstail, she's wandering in her mind again. You know she does that sometimes. Don't shake her, she'll get upset and yell. Just let her come back when she's ready.

I’m always very curious since the community has such a wide range of approaches to cat appearances— from talented artists making whimsical stylized patterns to equally talented ones who can tell you exactly which gene corresponds to different aspects of the designs!

I'm the one in charge of tracking genetics! Part of Quartz Heart's groundedness is about maintaining the genetic accuracy of its characters, which can—and do—play a role in shaping the characters and plot as you've seen with Bramble and Cloud!

So have a grab-bag of information about genetic particulars, my treat:

Firestar is a heterozygous ginger ticked tabby, Rosy is a heterozygous black tortoiseshell ticked tabby, Sparks was a Ruddy Somali (thus a homozygous black ticked tabby), and Nutmeg was a lynx tortie point of humble moggy origins (the type of tabby she was isn't important, but it sure wasn't ticked). Making Cloudpaw a flame point was to give an in-narrative excuse for bringing up the "kittypets and their funny colors" thing.

Goldenflower is actually a cryptic tortie! For whatever reason, her black-based fur doesn't have a huge presence on her body, so everyone thought she was just a regular ol cream tabby. That's how she was able to pass on the black-based X to Bramblekit and make the Tigerclone. If you were to ask me what kind of tort Tawnypelt is, I'd probably say a cinnamon tort (cinnamon does strongly resembles the color of the tawny owl for which she is named), but I'm pretty uncertain about having cinnamon crop up too often in the Clans. Finding a chocolate moggy out in the wild or in someone's house is already a rarity, cinnamon is pretty much only found in pedigree cats—I'm getting off-topic.

Speaking of chocolate, both Teaselfoot and Mousefur are chocolate! Teasel a tabby, Mousey solid.

Silverstream was a black silver tabby, Graystripe is a blue tabby, Mintpaw is a blue silver tabby, and Stormpaw is a black smoke.

the only thing i got are themes of the fear of death and religious trauma :shrug:

This may be a pointless ramble, bear with me.

There are a couple different ways that people develop stories. I've heard some folks like to decide on a message they want to send and build the plot, characters and world around that (environmental opinions, questions about how handle grief healthily, etc). Others take a setting they've developed and make a plotline out of the natural issues that come up from that setting (severe class divide, elements of nature going out of control, etc). There's also people (like me) who start with one of the three factors of a story (plot, characters, worldbuilding) and sort of build them at the same time as each other, so they're woven together.

But for actual ideas...I can't really speak to your sort of creative mind, because I don't know how your brain functions, but I'll describe how my stories come to me. Hopefully it'll help you.

My favored path to a story, setting, or character is inspiration. I'll see something I really like that speaks to me (or is just plain fucking cool) and I'll take it and develop how I want to do it my way.

For example, I really love the concepts described in Downtrodden (which you all should look at, it’s so sick): small animals in a world with beasts much larger and more dangerous than them, having to rely on their own cunning and abilities to survive, complete with an interesting culture and unique interpretations of other animals for different races. So I took that and ended up making multiple settings with my own personal spin on them - one with bipedal cats as the dominant race but every animal, including their livestock, is still the same size as in our world; one in a book I’m working on now with regular prey animals in a redwood forest; and one with unicorn-people who have to destroy corpses so they don’t automatically come back as shambling zombies thanks to the earth’s desire to negate death. The materials and coats of paint are entirely different, but the core inspiration is still there. I just saw something I liked and said, “Now, how would I do it?” In the process of molding it to my liking, it changed enough to not be just a repeat of something someone else did better.

The same is to be said for story ideas. While it is just a fix-it fic, for Iteurm, Lynx and I saw Warriors as it is, used the plot as a baseline, and ended up coming up with things that are a far cry from canon (which you’ve seen in the worldbuilding and will be seeing a lot more of in the third arc’s plotline). One original project, Seeker, was inspired by Moonstuck, Prequel and all of MSPaintAdventures – I liked the idea of interacting with player commands, and worked that into the story as a major plot point. In every instance, I wanted to play with a concept someone else did, and it became its own unique thing by virtue of being done by a different person with different opinions, ideas and desires. It can follow beats or slither the same general pathway of a movie I watched (or whatever), but it’s still its own thing, and you didn’t have to claw at your brain trying to figure out something “new” and “original” (which is the most blatant lie artists tell themselves – there is nothing new under the sun, and trying to go so different to everyone else will just fuck you over).

The main key for this method is that you are saying it with your voice and your interpretations of the world around you. A lot of people just blatantly copy something someone else did without thinking about why they were so inspired, and what specific themes and concepts lit a fire in them. Taking from multiple stories helps with this, because in order to make them fit together, you HAVE to say it your way.

I recommend watching this section of C-Puff’s video about My Adventures With Superman, because she says a lot of this way better than I did, and it’s a good place to start thinking about stories in general.

There's a couple reasons, yes, and they all border around the same issue: the kits themselves.

Nowadays, the code states that the mother's Clan has automatic ownership unless the queen or someone of equal authority gives them away, but it wasn't always this way. There have been a number of battles started over this kind of situation in the past before the law was put in place, and the losses on both sides were not worth a single litter. However, Clan cats being Clan cats, they were driven to claim these growing warriors as their own, and so they kept fighting. After entirely too many deaths, it was agreed to make a law to prevent further altercations, and by that point Reason 1 for No Cross-Clan Relationships was acknowledged: the kits will lead to fights for who gets to keep them.

Reason 2 is a less immediate, but inevitably obvious one. The Clans, as said once before, are sort of in a class of breeds all of their own, meaning that each Clan looks drastically different for each other and are built for entirely different lifestyles. A ShadowClan cat will not do as well in RiverClan - they'll struggle hard to adjust to the unique challenges of that territory. That goes for every other Clan in every other home. Now take one of these Clans' members, that is bred to survive in one specific area, and shove their genetics into a kitten whose mother is bred to survive in an entirely different area. The kits will struggle in some way no matter where they live. A half-WindClan apprentice will have a hard time climbing after their pure ThunderClan fellows, and likewise half-RiverClan warriors can't keep up with the rest of WindClan. It's going to be difficult, and, more importantly, it's going to be noteworthy.

Which leads us to Reason 3: the kits are not going to be able to get away from their lineage. That may not sound bad at first, but some things to consider are the current day climate and physical appearance. What if a half-Clan kit's father is from a Clan his mother's is currently fighting against, or will be fighting against by the time he's grown? And what if that kit is the spitting image of their father in a Clan that has drastically different colors and body builds (you tell me a RiverClan cat can look like a WindClan cat and I'll laugh in your face)? The Clans believe that kits are innocent and separate from their parents, but it's a lot harder to say that when your Clanmate looks a lot like your current enemy. Cats aren't perfect, and their minds will slip up on things like this.

Finally, Reason 4: loyalty conflicts. Because of everything listed above, a kit may not be comfortable living in their current Clan. They may look across the border wistfully, wondering if their life would be easier with their father. They'd hate themselves for it, because the number one rule is loyalty to your home, but it won't leave their head. But even if they left, who's to say they'd be successful, or even welcome? They grew up in another Clan, after all, and they clearly don't mind abandoning their family. So maybe they get bullied, or ignored, or they just can't figure out how to hunt and fight like the others. Worse, the leader might use them to get intel on their current rivals. No matter what, they're living with a paw in each world, even if they don't want to. It's hard for everyone, but especially them.