From Kitten to Adult: upbrining in clans of the Mountain [WoodClan lore]
With more and more weird roles like "tutor" or "chieftain" being dropped in alliances, it is time to discuss the differences between canon clan hierarchies and those from WoodClans' universe.
With three out of four clans almost covering giant plots of land, some having multiple camps, etc., the number of cats and tasks requires a much more diverse division of labor. But to describe each role, its purpose and inner workings would be soul-crushingly boring. So instead, let's take a look at some of these through the upbringing of a clan member.
First cats to welcome kitties in the world, aside from healers and queens, are midwives - cats assigned to tend to the needs of mothers and their newborns. Usually, if a kitten has a full family, the midwife acts only as an additional pair of eyes for the healer; but in other cases, they take on the role of a helping hand and emotional support to a single parent.
Once kittens can eat solid foods and parents move from the nursery, kit may be assigned to a tutor. The primary function of a tutor is that of a daycare: if parents aren't able to have a "maternity leave" from their duties, tutors will keep an eye on their offspring while they're away. Another function tutors can have is one of pre-apprenticeship mentors - if the kids' family/kid has already decided on a future path, tutors will prepare them for the upcoming training.
Once a cat hits the 6 moons mark, they become an apprentice and assigned to mentor. Mentors come in all shapes and sizes: from experienced elders too bored to just enjoy retirement, to young, passionate pioneers in their field, gifted with the talent of teaching. Regardless, to start mentoring, a cat must have approval from both the leader and the chieftain member of the respective role (more on that later).
The way an apprenticeship goes is there’s a basic set of skills that every upcoming warrior must have (like hunting, basic fighting, swimming, etc.) and one that is directly tied to the cat's chosen role. While some speciality training are timid, like midwives and tutors, others can include fights, hunts and much more, strangling cats from a young age.
In case the apprentice doesn't feel that their chosen field fulfills them, they're free to change it, albeit it’s heavily encouraged to do so in the first months of apprenticeship.
When a cat reaches the 12 moons mark, they're granted not only a general title of warrior, but also of their specialization.
The inside of each specialisation usually has additional divisions, for example, builders having separated cats for digging, shelter building, water routing, etc. The strictness of subdivisions varies as far as from cat to cat - while some builders may be good at multiple things, others are specifically tasked with certain things.
Another thing inside specializations is a hierarchy. Usually there are three ranks - workers, heads and chieftains.
Workers are just that - workers. Heads are experienced workers, respected amongst the cats of their role, who naturally start to take on leaders' role in their unit. Usually, with mentors apprenticing not just 2-3 apprentices but a group up to 5-6 cats at the time, bonds formed in youth transfer over to adulthood, making who head would be pretty obvious from younger years.
If the head succeeds in leading their group and their leadership spreads further, they may become chieftain - a cat who commands not over the workers, but over heads, making them a key component in making clan-important decisions.
Chieftains are accountable to leaders directly, but usually they’re also heavily dependent on other clanmates' support - if chieftain doesn’t have much authority amongst clan members, they’re unlikely to hold their title for long.
There’re five roles that bypass the usual system - deputy, leader, medicine cat and med. cat’s apprentece.
Deputy is usually chosen either by clan leader and then approved by clan members, or entirely pitched by clan, or some other way, that heavily depends on the situation. Same goes for the leader, but with a twist - aside from the clan, the new cat must be approved by StarClan, gift of 9 lives and all. Again, this may vary from clan to clan (for example, GardenClan gets away without any StarClan business just fine), but the point is - it usually gets a whole clan involved, rather than just a few high ranked members.
Medicine cats and their apprentices are another can of worms - these roles are directly connected to the StarClan, meaning that the last word on choosing a new prodigy would be spoken by med. cat or\and cats with strong link to stars. Something-something God StarClan works in mysterious ways, leading some cats in clans to not trust med’s choices.
Hunters: cats whose primary objective is to provide for the clan. Come in two flavors: generalized (multiple, usually not too hard to catch prey) and specialised (fishermen, birdcatchers, etc.). Beside their main task, can sometimes be tasked with driving away dangerous predators or being an additional eyes for patrolling cats.
Messengers: with clans covering large territories, some - with quiet challenging terrain, messengers are an important part of communication both inside and outside of the clan. In some clans there is even a secret subdivision of private leaders’ messengers, used to deliver special messages.
Soothsayers: now mostly extinct, SnowClan-specific speciality. In older times, these mysterious cats would speak with StarClan and arcane spirits of the forest, gaining insights of the past, present in the future. According to legends, some of them even gained powers from stars, although, nothing to prove it survived to the modern day.
Path keepers, water specialists, denbuilders, diggers - all subdivisions of builders,tasking with building, upkeep and repairing their respective buildings. Probably one of the biggest specialities in every clan.
