Post by Dreamer on Jan 12, 2017 17:10:53 GMT
Star trails by Brian Tomlinson, on Flickr
The All Force
Our Starclan is based on the concept of the All Force. This is an all encompassing life force, similar in idea to pantheism. The difference here, is that each being/animal/creature has a piece of the all force which is their life force. When they die their life force returns to the all force. This is where our story starts.
The Ancient Ones
They were ancient egyptian cats, whose adoring humans had entombed them and mummified them. To their surprise, the cats found that after death, their life forces did not return to the All Force, instead they remained... and remained... and remained. In time the Ancient Ones grew lonely, and began to call on their living descendants. Sometimes it worked, however due to the more solitary life of cats, their words reached very few, and even fewer managed to join them in the spiritual plane. After all the afterlife was based on burial, and without the correct burial rights, a cat's life force either returned to the all force or remains attached to the real world, forcing the cat to wander the world aimlessly until they fade into nothingness.
Eventually they managed to contact one of their descendants, a tom named Wave. He went beyond anything they had expected, taking their words, and his charisma and wooing several cats to his cause. With their guidance and Wave's character, they started the clan, and once cats began dying, they found themselves alone no longer.
After so long with so little company, the ancients have developed their own personalities. There are four of them, one for each phase of the moon. Eclipse is the Ancient of the new moon, all darkness and shadow, he delights in conflict, and in upheaval, chaos. The next ancient is the lovely Equinox, and she is the ancient of choices, of justice, of balance. Solstice is the ancient of the full moon, full of fire and rage and energy, unbridled emotion and passion. Penumbra is the ancient of the waning moon, she is the icy cold to Solstice's bright flame, she is reason, logic, she is absence of emotion.
The Ancient Ones are above Starclan, their powers far above the average Starclan cats. They can see into the future, and into the past, and occasionally they will benevolently grant Starclan knowledge and visions to pass onto the clans.
Starclan
Starclan began with the death of the first clan cat, and their subsequent burial under the guidance of the Ancient Ones.
They began to populate the spiritual plane, something of a flip side version of the world. In time, as Starclan grew, it became more of a large family, and as new clans formed, the only thing which united them was death, and then life after death.
While they are on another plane, they can still watch over the clans and occasionally connect with living cats to understand their thoughts and ambitions. However this connection works less with words and more with images and visions. Starclan sees what the clan cats desire, their plans, their schemes, their beliefs. Starclan thus watches over the clans, trying to anticipate evils before they can occur, or even good occurrences. However they cannot truly see into the future, this ability is only present in the Ancient Ones.
Yet some Starclan cats find this existence not as exciting as their past lives, which is when they choose to have another chance to live vicariously through someone else, and offer themselves to bond with other cats.
Bonding with Starclan
Starclan's power is manifested in the clan in three major ways: the leaders, the medicine cats, and the guardians.
When the time comes for a new leader's ceremony, they come before Starclan and are judged if they are worthy and strong. If they are, eight spirits are chosen (they usually volunteer) to bind their life force to this leader. Therefore each leader has nine lives. These lives are lost when a leader receives a mortal wound or sickness, but certain sicknesses and wounds cannot be cured. Cancer cannot be cured, severing of more than one major artery cannot be cured, and multiple organ destruction or failure cannot be cured. For most of the time the effects of the life forces are not evident, but whenever they are within the bounds of the burial grounds, they often speak to themselves as if someone were speaking to them, which they often are. The closer the leaders are to their graves, the life forces bonded to them can speak to the leaders. This is why often in times of trouble, leaders will go to the burial grounds to get advice from those cats who they are bonded with.
Medicine cats bond with one starclan cat, often a past mentor or med cat from their clan. This bond is far more personal and close than that of the leader's bond, and it is easier to access that bond. The bond afforded to medicine grants direct contact to Starclan, although it usually works best in dreams where they are more detached from the physical world. They receive advice and visions from their bonded adviser from Starclan, and they can see when a cat is going to die, and any lost spirits wandering.
Guardians have the most physical bond with Starclan, as the bond enhances their senses, especially sight, as they can see both on the physical and the spiritual plane. Their bond with a prior Guardian improves their sense of smell, hearing, and their endurance, similar to caffeine giving them extra energy and strength to last, but eventually their bodies will collapse and if they remain untreated and do not rest, they could die. Unlike every other cat they are the only beings which can attack spiritual beings, and thus they protect against malignant spirits as well as living creatures.
Due to the nature of Starclan bond, any cat (leader, medicine cat, and guardian) is forbidden from mating and having kits with another cat. This is because the bond with Starclan causes dangerous mutations to kits, or causes the mother to miscarry or die herself. Some of the mutations include kits without a life force, kits who leech the life force of the cat bonded to their parent, and simple debilitating physical mutations. Having kits or mating with another cat when bonded with Starland is a grievous offense and not only stackable but also the clan itself will hold the cat in judgement of their actions. And as such, having kits/ mating will be a priveledge which can only be bought or a plot point.
Leaders and Nine Lives
Very few know the workings of starch an and the lives which they give to leaders, and in fact even the leaders and medicine cats themselves are often confused. Leaders will usually know after an event has transpired how many lives were lost, as they can sense the life forces bound to them.
Although the ways of life and death are still somewhat mysterious, for the sake of roleplay, this guide has been set up, so as to adequately and evenly describe how lives may be lost.
Losing a life merely brings the leader back into a stable condition, bringing them back from the brink of death, anything after that is up to the medicine cats, and not a few leaders have lost a life later after their wound due to infection.
Single life events
Sealing a major artery
Damaging a major organ (heart/lungs/liver etc)
Heart attack/stroke/organ failure
Viral sickness in the body
Multiple life events
Sealing a wound in the gut or throat, based on which number of these following items must be healed: sealing the wound, sealing several organs, purging infection
Sepsis, gangrene or other infections which affect multiple organs or the bloodstream itself (two lives for a limb, three lives for more)
Healing a broken spine (two lives)
All remaining lives events
Cancer which has spread throughout the body
Brain failure
Spiritual Affinity
While the Ancient One's power will always be abundantly clear to those cats who are directly bonded to Starclan, it is possible for warriors to not believe in Starclan. Of course, that sends a warrior's spirit straight back to the All Force, but they wouldnt know the difference. Even within clan cats who believe in Starclan though, there is often a difference in their spiritual affinity. This difference is also affected by the age of characters. For example, both kits and elders can see spirits relatively, as both are on opposite ends of the spectrum close to death. But between these two extremes, cats have different levels of affinity, from weak, moderate, to strong. Weak cats rarely, if ever, see spirits or feel any connection to the spiritual plane, these are the most likely to not have a personal belief in Starclan. Most cats are in the moderate part of the spectrum, and can see spirits who manifest themselves, and be manipulated by their mind whispers. A select few cats are on the strong side of the spectrum. Many of these cats tend to seek careers which bring them closer to Starclan, and some of those with the strongest affinities become medicine cats with the -Sight suffix. Those on the strong end of the spectrum can see certain spirits even when they are not manifesting physically. Unfortunately cats on the strong end of the spectrum tend to be particularly susceptible to mental illness and even insanity, due to their strong connection to the spirit world. Their state of mind is fragile and could at any moment deteriorate. Many die young, or live many moons under the care of the medicine cats.
Burial Rites
Be aware that these could be considered gory.
Guardians are an odd group of cats, primarily they protect the Burial Grounds, but one of their other duties involves performing burial rites for clan cats. Burial rites start in the clan, as the cat is prepared for burial by the medicine cats and immediate family members, or the elders in the absence of any loved ones. the bodies are rubbed with the scents of their clanmates during the last fairwells, as well as fragrant herbs like lavender, thyme, and honeysuckle. Once the clan has said goodbye, and the leader announced their departure a Burial Party is chosen. Usually this involves the close family, as well as a few trusted and respected warriors to help carry the body. Usually one medicine cat or the deputy will accompany the Burial Party. The Burial Party often carries trinkets, prey, other things that they wish to bury with their loved one that they may take with them to Starclan.
Once the Burial Party arrives at the Burial grounds, the Guardians take a primary role. They take up the burden of carrying the body to a slanted rock. Two Guardians will hold the body long enough that the blood pools at the bottom of body, and then they slit the arteries to drain as much of the blood as they can. Once as much of the blood has been removed as is possible, they fill the cavities with dirt and rocks, as a form of preservation. Then they are finally interred in the earth.
Due to being unable to complete the Burial Rites like the ancient Egyptians did, over time spirits are likely to fade away, and no other cats have achieved the same power as the ancient ones. Blood and the presence/lack of it, or where it is spilled mark life and spiritual attachment, which is why the blood is taken from the body and becomes soaked in the soil of the Burial grounds. Separate from the bodies, the blood marks a spiritual connection, that the spirit of the cats are released, but it is the grounding of the body by the weak link between the physical and spiritual world which allows clan cats to transcend to Starclan.