A place of endless night

Every Clan cat is taught to revere the wise and powerful ancestors who watch over them from the stars. Medicine cats pass on the wisdom of StarClan through signs and omens, and leaders rule their Clans with the blessing of nine lives, gifted from the stars. But there is another place, less spoken of, where the cats too dark and cruel of heart to be allowed in StarClan’s lush hunting lands wander after death. This month, as we look forward to the release of a book bearing the same name as this desolate place, we will take a closer look at the dreaded Place of No Stars.

Alternatively known as the Dark Forest, the Place of No Stars is where cats who committed crimes too grave to be forgiven are sent after they die. A cat’s ultimate fate after death is decided at a trial, held by the warriors of StarClan before a cat is due to die. If StarClan concludes that a cat does not deserve to join them, the cat’s spirit is cast into the Dark Forest upon their death. The forest is a dark, eerily empty place with bare looming trees blotting out any light from above, fungus and dying bracken dotting the ground between the trees, and a sickly glow that seems to come from no source. A black, starless sky hangs over the barren woods, reminding every cat who walks under its gloom that their starry ancestors do not watch over them here.

The Dark Forest is meant to be a place of everlasting punishment. The spirits who walk there are supposed to walk alone, unable to meet any of the other tormented souls that populate the woods, with only the memories and regrets of their own bleak lives to keep them company. But over the seasons, some of those dark spirits found ways to meet with each other in their hopeless prison and even walk in the dreams of living cats. At some point, a plan was hatched. The residents of the Dark Forest began training living warriors in their dreams, stoking their jealousies, fears, and anger against their Clanmates, all with the goal to lead an attack on the living Clans who had dared to turn against them and abandon them to the realm of stories used to frighten kits.

Ultimately, the battle was fought and won by the living Clans, and the disgraced spirits slunk back to their desolate home. According to StarClan, the forest has since become overgrown and even bleaker and emptier than before, the spirits who dwelled there either hiding or having faded away after the devastating defeat in the Great Battle. But with a book bearing the forest’s name due to be released next month, and a rogue StarClan spirit dragging living cats into the forest itself, it seems those bleak woods still have a role to play in the destiny of the Clans...