mallowstorm's worlds

[mallowstorm]

a collection of stuff related to my clans.

you'll find everything from how they were founded and their beliefs to characters.

masterpost found here under a (no-so) brief introduction.

[mallowstorm]

a (not-so) brief introduction 

my clans started as what was supposed to be a small project to add some actual culture to the canon clans and play around with the idea of skyclan always being there. just some quick little stories that were actually supposed to be about canon characters, i believe! that idea was scrapped however as i've roamed so much from that concept as i build them up and rename most of them - riverclan is the only one that kept it's 'original' name - that they've become completely my own; not hard really, with the cardboard cutouts the erins churn out. still, that's how it started. 

i currently have five clans, maybe seven. heh. and there'll probably be a few more, the territory is quite large. the exact location is pretty loose. it might be set where the original clans were set in the UK, or i might have accidentally set across the waters in my own home of ireland - where, about exactly, i have no idea. i have a loose map drawn planned out in my head, but i really need to decide so i can research prefixes. ugh. i'm the worst for procrastination, truly. anyway, my clans.  

they were founded by five siblings; wigeon of riverclan, shadow of marshclan, aspen of moorclan, sorrel "thunder"of forestclan, and lavender of mountainclan.  

they were born an accidental litter of inbred maine coons; the teenager who had been caring for the cats while their aunts were away for three months got scared there was something wrong with the kits due to their parentage when their mother refused to let them nurse and at first handreared them in hopes they would be hardy enough to pawn off quickly before their aunts got home. but with their arrival date looming nearer, they left the five kits, around two weeks old by that stage, at a nearby farm they knew had a lot of feral cats with young in the hopes another cat would take in the kittens. as luck would have it, that was exactly what happened; their adoptive parent came in the form of velvet, a young black molly barncat who got her unusual name from her housecat mother, had just lost two of her own litter of three who were born early and sickly.  

velvet named them in the typical fashion of the local barncats, rogues and loners; for their pelt colours, as she had done for the kittens she had birthed herself, the only survivor of which was soot. she tells them the stories that are popular with the barncat beliefs - such as, after death cats go the great hunting grounds on the moon where they are many plump mice fat on grain like you find in the barns, and teaches them how to hunt and fight.  

after a couple of years, velvet is killed when she is struck by a car. the six siblings continue to stick together at the barn for a bit, before shadow decides to take off. she meets a loner a while afterwards, gets pregnant, and decides to settle in the marsh. she meets some other young cats who either have quite young kits or are expecting - or a mixture of both. there are no really older rogues in the area. shadow decides that they and their young will all have a better chance if the band together, so they set up home in the end of the forest near the marsh where they do most of their hunting. this clowder will eventually become known as marshclan.  

about two years later, shadow runs into a familiar cat as she's hunting in the forest. her brother sorrel - sometimes known by his kithood nickname "thunder" - has moved into the forest with his mate and young family. shadow and sorrel, whose spats are legendary, get into an argument over the squirrel they had been both been hunting and over whose blow had killed it. shadow relents when one of sorrel's daughter makes her way into the clearing. as the clowder grows and several loners begin to join sorrel's clutter, these argument's become more common and eventually they decide to start up a border after one comes to blows between two young cats. 

wigeon and aspen also decide to leave the barn, longing for something more. they come across their brother and sister. the idea of a group intrigues them, as the barncats were more so made up of different families sharing a hunting space than one large family like shadow and sorrel's groups seem to be. wigeon, who always had the strongest affinity for water, settles by the river with nir mate. aspen, known for her taste in adventure, decides instead to head towards the moors close by the loners who sometimes stopped by the barn would speak of to see what lies there. 

lavender, who had been the youngest, also ends up leaving the barn shortly afterwards. he meets each of his siblings again, and their growing groups. not wanting to choose between any of his siblings, lavender becomes interested in the mountain forest that sorrel did not claim to be part of his territory. there he finds several cats who escaped when a hoarder. he takes them under his wing and teaches them as his mother taught him, while also scouting out for loners, rogues and barncats who might be interested in joining their clan.  

about a year after lavender founds his clan, the winter is harsh and tensions are rising. especially between aspen and shadow's clan against sorrel's, and even wigeon with the river and forest more plentiful than the scraps of forest on either aspen's territory or shadow's, and the moor and marsh respectively. lavender, wary of the friction, calls a meeting between the five and all clan members of apprentice age and over who wish to attend. battle almost breaks out. the leaders just manage to get things under control. things are evened out after much discussion. gatherings become a monthly thing. 

at some point in that year before the winter, the cats begin to call themselves clans. wigeon, aspen and lavender name them for their territory (moor, mountain) or a very important and notable part of their territory (the river). sorrel first named his clan thunderclan - though he tried to argue it wasn't for his kithood nickname, shadow wasn't having any of it and so first named her clan shadowclan. they eventually changed it to forestclan and marshclan respectively, but arguments between the two clans are generally seen as petty by the other three ever since.

so the clans form over about four and a half years, and lavender creating the tradition of gatherings about a year after that. i imagine the founders make it to around nine, shadow lives the longest at ten and lavender, always sickly, at eight. i'm currently deciding if soot also started a clan, or if they stuck around the barn and thus founded the barn cat culture seen there today. i still have some details to work out after lavender starts his clan, so the last paragraph is subject to change. 

and i lied. that wasn't short at all. 

expect more soon. maybe about my clans beliefs systems.

[mallowstorm]

masterpost

apparently editing the first post effects the views and that bothers me, so. i'll throw them here instead.


● a (not so) brief introduction

[mallowstorm]

a probably not-at-all quick overview of religions and beliefs

for now, i'll just ramble about the Five and their beliefs. it'll probably be just a quick overview as i'm still developing them, though i hope to someday do a more in-depth post about how they interconnect and how the beliefs developed in the first place. as a quick note, there are mentions of stillbirth and miscarriage in how they fit in the clan's beliefs. 


Syvelyn
(say-ve-lin)
the great hunting grounds that features in all of the Five's beliefs. it was originally a barncat belief. of a great hunting grounds located on the moon. 


in mountainclan, syvelyn is said to be home to the godael, from which they watch over the earth. 
in windclan, syvelyn is where a cat's spirit goes when all on the living plane have forgotten about them. 
in forestclan, syvelyn is where the muloil craft new spirits to send them down to the living plane at birth. 
in riverclan, syvelyn is a place of respite for thosewho have passed and the godael alike from their protection duties.
in marshclan, syvelyn is where cat's who have lived each of their ten incarnations go once the last has passed on earth.


Muloil
(mu-loo-il)
the great cats. four siblings who were born from oblivion: scova, sarva, sepva and snova.
sarva's fur is a cool grey, scova's is a warm cream, sepva's pitch black, and finally snova's made of a pattern of blue, cream and white.
as kits, the four created the world while they played. their last creation, as adults, was creating cats.
oblivion, jealous and resentful, sought to destroy their creations to bring her kits back to her. 
the siblings fought her back. two formed a barrier; sepva and snova circling the world, sepva at night and snova at day. 
scova is said to embody the day and sarva the moon.


Godael - Riverclan and Mountainclan
(god-a-ale)
the plural collection of the many goda, gods and goddess that are seen within mountainclan and riverclan's pantheons; though the two's godael are very different.

riverclan's godael are cats who once were living, breathing members of the clan, and as such their pantheon is ever growing. these cats have usually done something in life that has become a tale that is recounted often. over the moons, long after their passing, the tale becomes exaggerated and for some, they become regarded as a goda. for example, a queen named stoatflower who spent a lot of the year in the nursery helping out with kits and soothing first times queens dies. they're remembered by their clanmates, particularly the queens who they helped. in times of stress around the nursery, the queens may invoke stoatflower's name: "stoatflower, give me patience." in time, stoatflower becomes viewed as a highly nurturing and patient cat seen as a protector of queens, especially for cats having their first litter, and kits.

mountainclan's godael are rarely added too and are highly unlikely to be based on real cats. there are many godael. for example, an overall goda of hunting - and there is another goda of hunting who specialises in hunting. it's said godael can be called upon when in a time of need by performing certain actions; such as collecting blackberries and burying them by the river for a goda who is said to be fond of them. 


Reincarnation - Marshclan 

marshclanners believe in reincarnation.

in syvelyn, all souls are crafted by the four muloil with nine long tails and one bob tail. with each reincarnation, the whole maum (a collective term meaning spirit and essence) loses a tail; after the first time the maum's physical incarnation dies, the maum returns to earth with eight long tails and one bob tail. while waiting for all ten incarnations to return, the spirit's wait in the munsepta - the resting place in the stars that i need to develop more.

leaders are cats who's maum has shed all the nine long tails and has only the bobtail remaining. the lifetime gift's the receive upon their leadership ceremony is memories from their past lives. after the death of the tenth incarnation, the ten spirits belonging to the maum are given entrance to the syvelyn. 

a reincarnation counts for cats who live to see their second moon. for kits who are stillborn or die before their second moon, a ritual is said that will send the maum back and let the 'tail' be reborn and hopefully live a full life. on a similar track, cat's who are banished from the clan and are believed to reside in the place of no stars also have a similar that with hopefully let the maum regrow the lost 'tail' and separate from the banished cat. though, they believe it is up to the muloil to judge the cat in question.


Starclan - Moorclan and Forestclan

forestclanners and moorclanners believe in starclan. (though moorclan likely under another name that i'm still deciding on)

at first glance outsiders may believe the beliefs between the two are similar, but those outsiders are probably unaware of the tension and fights that have arisen from how truly different they are. moorclan, in short, believes forestclan's beliefs are abhorrent and cruel; cat's disappear when they're forgotten on the physical plane, that cats who do not share their beliefs are not given entrance to starclan and are as good as lost to oblivion, that miscarried and stillborn kits do enter starclan. 

moorclan, meanwhile, that cats do to the munsepta (a resting place in the stars), a place between syvelyn and cainno (cai-ihn-o, the living plane; home) where they help protect those on cainnoa from oblivion and offering advice, particularly as a leader's nine advisers. cat's who are forgotten on cainno move on to syvelyn as the last and greatest honour in a cat's life, having completed their duties to their clan. for cats who do not share their beliefs, they believe that all worthy cats reside in the munsepta and then syvelyn after death, regardless of their beliefs in life; that the muloil feel all cat's must carve their own path's in life if those path's lead them astray. for kits who were miscarried, stillborn or died before their fourth moon, they believe they can change their appearance at will to appear between two and four moons old.

forestclan's beliefs are seen as the strangest within the other clans - harsh even, after a harsh life. if moorclan finds them cruel, they find them soft, imperceptive of the truth. they are the most religious of the five clans, and are fiercely protective of their beliefs and traditions. for them, syvelyn is the place where the muloil take rest at different part of the days and where they craft new souls to send to earth (cainno) to settle upon a kit's first breath. for misscarriages and stillbirths, they believe the soul did not fully settle - as this only happens at the first breath - and so the soul moves on to settle on to another vessel. stories are a large part of their culture, as they believe stories keep cats alive in the munsepta. when a cat is forgotten by all those on earth, they slowly fade away.

-------

might still be a little rough around the edges. i'm working on mountainclan and riverclan's respective godael. i tried to avoid overuse of conlang here, but here's a quick guide:


cainno - (cai-ihn-o) - earth. means home.
goda - (god-a) - non-binary word for pantheons, i.e, goda, gods and goddesses.
godael - (god-a-ale) - plural of goda; used for a collection of goda, gods and goddesses.

maum - (mau-oom) - a cat's essence; soul.
muloil - (moo-loo-il) - the four great cats who created the world.
munsepta - (mun-sept-ah) - the hunting grounds in the stars.
 sarva - (sar-va) - one of the muloil, inhabits the moon 
scova - (sco-va) - one of the muloil, inhabits the sun
sepva - (sep-va) - one of the muloil who runs around the earth, the night sky
snova - (sno-va) - one of the muloil who runs around the earth, the day sky
syvelyn - (say-ve-lin) -great hunting grounds on the moon. 

[mallowstorm]

added suffixes
i adore traditional naming. it's what got me back into warriors in the first place. playing around with ailuronymy's writing challenge led to me wanting to create some suffixes of my own. this will be added too, hopefully. i have a rough idea for at least two others planned. 


-pool
i always liked -pool. it's been awhile since i read the first series, but if i remember correctly greypool was the one who told fireheart about stonefur and mistyfoot? and i really wanted a suffix for a storyteller since it's quite an important skill, especially within forestclan. 

-pool is found across all of the Five clans, but originated in marshclan. shadow herself is often said that had they been invented, she would have been a -pool cat. there are many pools in marshclan territory. some are stagnant and others are full of life. stories - or rather, those who tell them - can also sometimes be stagnant or full of life. those who are especially skilled at bringing tales to life may receive the suffix to denote that they breathe life into their words. it quickly spread to the others clans after it's creation.

a particular pool is important in marshclan's religious beliefs, as it is where leaders swim and go to think when they wish to remember something from a past life which may also have played part in it's creation and why it was chosen to denote storytellers.

-pool cats are often found in the keeper ranks, as they are likely to have an interest in history and mythology of the clan.

[mallowstorm]

time dialect
just a very quick post that needs some serious adding to, but i was writing some warriors related stories today and wanted to jot this down.

(Sepva/Snova)'s Step - the full term for an hour. 
Step - abbreviation for a hour. 
___ of (Sepva/Snova)'s steps = ___ hours; multiple hours.
Steps - abbreviation for multiple hours.

[mallowstorm]

where the bad ones go
not all cats gain entrance into the munsepta or syvelyn, depending on which clan we're talking about. despite their differences of where the worthy go, those who are unworthy are pretty much agreed on the few places they go. some remain on cianno as ghosts altogether. others go to the place of no stars. occasionally known as the dark forest, or sedva's domain. 

sedva was the youngest of the muloil. their pelt colour is not remembered. some say it was very dark tabby, that let her easily slip through the young trees. others say it was as white as undisturbed snow. whatever their pelt, they was oblivion's favourite kit, never straying far from their mother's side. they became angry at the other's as they went against their mother's wishes. but oblivion, realising four of her kits were slipping from her grasp and plotting to guard their protections from her, saw potential in having an insider. 

the great four eventually found out that sedva planned to create a gap in the creations to let oblivion through. sarva was so angry, she created another plane and sepva and scova chased sedva into it. it is said to look like a great dark forest. sarva's eye does not watch over it, nor does scova's. the sky cannot be glimpsed through the thick trees, but if it could it would be darker than sepva's pelt.

the cats who betray their clan are sent to sedva's domain. 

in her anger, it was not perfect. enough to keep sedva in place, forever trapped. while there are times when the cats who reside there can meet in the so-called dark forest, each cats spends most of their time isolated in their own private section. some say, with their worst fear, their worst memory. relieving it over and over again. and some can slip through the gaps, just big enough for a cat, to walk cianniv again as a spirit on the new moon when sarva mourns the loss of sedva.