One piece of the Code seemed to cause the cats more problems than any other, and it is part of the very first rule: “You may have friendships with cats from other Clans, but your loyalty must remain to your Clan, as one day you may meet them in battle.” This rule warns warriors against falling in love, and mating with, cats outside their own Clan. But the Warriors family tree is rife with inter-Clan couples: Crowfeather from WindClan and Leafpool from ThunderClan; Dovewing from ThunderClan  and Tigerheart from ShadowClan; Graystripe from ThunderClan and Silverstream from RiverClan; Bluestar from ThunderClan and Oakheart from RiverClan. Recently, Finleap left SkyClan to join Twigbranch in ThunderClan, but she decided to hold off on being mates until she’s ready to raise kits. And in The Broken Code, Rootpaw from SkyClan develops a huge crush on ThunderClan’s Bristlefrost, though, so far, she hasn’t returned his feelings. But a quick dip into any of the Warriors series shows that while the cats may understand the no-mating-outside-your-Clan rule, it’s much harder for them to control their hearts. Even though it usually has huge consequences, warriors just can’t seem to stop falling in love with cats outside their Clan.

Other Codebreaking is perhaps less obvious, but still notable. Mothwing didn’t believe in StarClan for a very long time, even though she was a medicine cat. After the Dark Forest battle, she revised her opinion to acknowledge that StarClan does exist, but she still argues that StarClan is not working to better the lives of their living descendants. For many cats, this amounts to blasphemy. But Mothwing has proven herself over and over to be a skilled and strong medicine cat who cares deeply about the health of her Clanmates. As Mothwing has been more open about her beliefs, many cats seem to simply accept them as the eccentricity of a beloved Clanmate.

While some cats might argue that the Warrior Code must be followed to the letter, most cats’ actual behavior implies that they regard the Code as something to aspire to. Every cat acknowledges the Code as a framework to live by, but few are able to say that they’ve never broken it. Even simple rules like thanking StarClan for prey are often broken, not because the cats don’t care, but because they forget, or perhaps because they don’t think that breaking that particular rule is that serious. In each era of the Clans, some rules are considered more sacred than others. For example, while the Clans have always agreed that a kit in danger must be given help, regardless of Clan affiliation, at times they have been less strict about marking and crossing their boundaries. The rule about not killing cats except in self-defense or to defend the Warrior Code may make total sense in peacetime, but seems harder for cats to remember in the heat of battle. And Firestar made Brambleclaw his deputy because StarClan sent Leafpool a sign saying that he was the right cat—even though Brambleclaw hadn’t yet had an apprentice. In that instance, it seems StarClan was actually encouraging Firestar to break the Code.

But one thing we’ve never seen in the history of warriors is StarClan reacting to the cats not following the Code. When we discussed it among the story team, we weren’t even sure the cats’ belief system allowed for StarClan to “punish” living cats for not following the rules. Which of course begged the question: What if they did? Or what if the cats believed this was happening, because something occurred that was so terrible, StarClan’s punishment seemed the only logical explanation?

Which leads us to The Broken Code series. In Lost Stars, we saw the cats react to StarClan’s sudden and complete abandonment of the living cats. Many possible explanations were thrown out: Maybe it was the weather. Maybe it was the medicine cats’ faulty methods.

Or maybe—Bramblestar suggests once he’s met with StarClan to receive his next life—it is that too many cats have broken the Warrior Code.

Virtually every cat living has broken the code in some way, at some time, whether intentionally or not. But after Shadowpaw has a vision of specific Codebreakers, they are held solely responsible for StarClan’s wrath.

The Clans immediately set about the task of determining how severely to punish them—but will their efforts be enough to win back StarClan’s favor? If not, can the Clans survive without their celestial ancestors?