Why each Clan is great
BY THE EDITOR
New readers will quickly find themselves thrust into the world of the Clans as Rusty fights to make his place among them. But just what is it that marks each Clan as unique, and makes each Clan fantastic in their own way? In this article, we will be looking at the top five things that make each Clan great!
ThunderClan
5 – Their cool name
Each of the Clans carry a name that honors some attribute of their territory or the Clan’s manner of hunting or fighting. WindClan live on the wind-swept moorlands, RiverClan hunt and swim in the river, and ShadowClan keep to the shadows in hunting and in battle. ThunderClan’s name isn’t quite as straightforward at first glance, but it also has an inherently cool sound and feel to it. It conjures images of cats with the explosive power and strength of thunder surging fearlessly into battle. The name comes from the Clan’s founder, Thunderstar, who was named after his mother, Storm, and how he alone survived the storm of dust and stone that rained down on his family when he was a kit. Even seasons after the death of ThunderClan’s mighty founder, his Clan continues to bear his name proudly, impressing both cats and readers alike with their strength of purpose and fierce courage.
4 – Their prowess in battle
Every Clan has warriors who are well versed in fighting, but ThunderClan’s skill in battle is something special to behold. The densely packed floor of their forest home gives them a particular knack for fighting in thick undergrowth and other cramped conditions, and their focus on strength and teamwork over speed or ambush make them particularly impressive fighters. They’ve been known to adapt to the fighting styles of other groups as well, such as the tree-climbing battle moves inspired by a certain group of branch-traversing cats…
3 – Their focus in the story
This part may be debatable for some―ThunderClan’s prominence in the story can make the other Clans more appealing in a sense―but there’s no denying that the amount of time the books spend with ThunderClan has allowed readers to get to know them better. We’ve tread the sunlit trails of the oak forest alongside countless ThunderClan patrols and pushed through the gorse tunnel leading into camp more times than we can say. The sheltered, sandy ravine has welcomed us home so many times, far more than RiverClan’s island or WindClan’s hollow. The cats of ThunderClan are like old friends waving a greeting to us each time their name catches our eye on the page. To many, the comfort of that familiarity has made them a favorite.
2 – Their acceptance of outsiders
Ever since Bluestar took in a certain ginger kittypet, ThunderClan has gained a reputation for frequently taking in outsiders, whether they be kittypets, loners, cats from other Clans, or cats from groups beyond the Clans’ borders. To the other Clans, this is often a point of mockery, but there are so many ways that it lends strength to ThunderClan, and to the series as a whole. Outside cats means fun new characters to explore with fresh perspectives that Clanborn characters might not have to offer. Any skills they learned in a life before ThunderClan can help make the Clan stronger and more adaptable to change. Beyond that, the willingness to take in outsiders shows a compassion and an openness of mind that is commendable and may raise ThunderClan’s esteem in the eyes of readers.
1 – Their honor
ThunderClan’s sense of honor has landed them in hot water plenty of times, both with enemies and with their fellow Clans, who often accuse ThunderClan of involving themselves in other cats’ business and trying to tell them what to do. But whatever the other Clans think about it, ThunderClan’s dedication to honor is something it holds dear, and it will always be a driving force for its cats. They will always try to do what they think is right, whether that’s following the warrior code or breaking it, obeying a leader or defying them, fighting a battle or averting one. That’s not to say that ThunderClan’s actions will always be good. A Clan is made up of individual cats, and ThunderClan cats aren’t impervious to being wrong or malicious. But in the end, the Clan’s strong ideal for honor is one of its most defining features, and one of the things that makes the Clan truly great.
ShadowClan
5 – Their cool territory
The dark gloominess of the pine marshes has a certain charm to it. It was what first drew Shadowstar, the legendary founder of ShadowClan, away from the moorland and into the land where her Clan would thrive for generations to come. It may be the smallest of the Clan territories, and not rich of prey, but there’s a reason ShadowClan, so suited to striking from the shadows, has remained in the gloom of the pines for so long.
4 – Their skill at ambush
While other Clans prefer the honor of open battle, ShadowClan cats are more pragmatic. They have perfected the art of stealth, using the gloomy darkness of their pine forest home and the cover of night to stalk both prey and feline enemies. It’s hard to deny the cool factor of cats who can slip silently in and out of the shadows, striking fear into the hearts of their enemies as they appear from the darkness and melt back into it unseen. Their ambush techniques make them hard to predict in battle, and have helped make them a source of fear across the Clans.
3 – Their focus in the story
While ShadowClan hasn’t quite gotten the front-and-center treatment in the books that ThunderClan has, they’ve definitely gotten the most focus in the main series of any of the other Clans. In the first arc, they mostly fill the role of antagonist, always at the bottom of whatever trouble is in the forest, always the home to the current tyrant threatening the other Clans. While the Clan will grow and change in the series that follow, that first arc gave us a chance to get to know the cats of ShadowClan. For many, it’s that familiarity that makes ShadowClan such a favorite, and makes them want to see where this troubled Clan’s path will take them next.
2 – Their unique culture
ShadowClan follows the warrior code and has the same traditional hierarchy and duties of any Clan, but there are some fairly unique aspects to their culture that the other Clans don’t share. Their deep pride in their Clan, tendency toward loyalty without question, and willingness to take territory from the other Clans are certainly noteworthy, but it goes beyond that. They have a practicality in the way they fill their fresh-kill pile, in that they’re willing to add prey to the pile at which the other Clans would turn their noses up, because keeping their Clan fed and healthy matters more than their prey being appealing. This not only means adding lizards and frogs to the pile, but also taking on the fierce rats at Carrionplace, and even scrounging crowfood from beside the thunderpath, so long as it’s still safe for eating. They also, unlike the other Clans, give their medicine cats a full warrior’s battle training, so that even their healers are ready for any threat that may come.
1 – Their dark edge
The other Clans used to say that the cold north wind blew over the hearts of ShadowClan warriors and left them chilled. Their reputation has improved over the years, but there’s always something a little bit harder, a bit more willing to unsheathe their claws, a bit quicker to make the difficult choice than the other Clans. To many readers, it is ShadowClan’s harsher edge that makes them the most interesting. As Blackstar himself once said, ShadowClan will always, at least a little, be the dark heart of the forest.
SkyClan
5 – Their skill at jumping
All of the Clans have their own unique set of physical skills to survive in their chosen environment. RiverClan are strong swimmers, WindClan are swift runners, ShadowClan are masters of ambush, and ThunderClan are powerful hunters in the undergrowth. For SkyClan, the skill their cats have inherited over seasons of hunting prey in the trees is a powerful jumping ability. Firestar first notices the powerful hind legs of the ancient SkyClan cats in his visions, and many of the cats descended from the first SkyClan are noted to still carry that inherited strength in their hind limbs. Cherry and Borris were recognized as descendents of the first SkyClan by Skywatcher because of the way they leapt into the trees as they ran off after harassing him, and the new SkyClan has continued to employ this strength over the seasons since their revival, snagging birds and squirrels out of trees to feed their Clan, and leaping into the safety of caves in their rocky gorge home during dangerous events like the flood.
4 – Their imperfect founder
For a long time, Skystar was the only founder we knew nothing about. Thunderstar, Shadowstar, Windstar, and Riverstar had all been introduced to us through the tale of the First Battle, first told in Secrets of the Clans, but as SkyClan had not yet been discovered then, there was no mention of Skystar in the tale, and subsequent years left readers wondering what the founder of the fifth Clan was like. When Skystar finally did appear in Dawn of the Clans, he quickly proved to be a uniquely flawed and divisive character. His aggression and arrogance was the driving force of much of the conflict of Dawn of the Clans, and his complicated relationships with his son and brother made for uniquely tragic perspectives from them as they tried to reason with the hostile tom. While Skystar did settle into a less openly war-seeking, though sometimes still divisive, style of leadership later on, his strong personality and heavy influence on the events of Dawn of the Clans make him a very striking character and part of SkyClan’s history.
3 – Their tragic backstory
While eventually all five Clans would know the pain of being uprooted from their territory by twolegs, SkyClan is the only Clan that had to face this hardship alone, and the only Clan to have been so completely betrayed by the other four that it would take countless seasons for it to return from the state of exile the other Clans had sent it into. Cloudstar’s rage at the other Clans for demanding his Clan leave the forest rather than giving up any of their precious territory so the fifth Clan could stay where it belonged, his desperation and uncertainty in leading his Clan into the unknown, and the final shattering of his faith in starry spirits who had done nothing to prevent his Clan’s exodus from their ancestral home, are such an integral part of SkyClan’s introduction to the readers and the pain that SkyClan takes so long to recover from that we had to include it here.
2 – Their daylight cats
In the very first book of Warriors, Rusty was warned that if he was to choose Clan life, he must commit to it fully and forsake his kittypet life forever, for a cat cannot have a paw in each world. This may have been taken as a wise truth in the earliest books of Warriors, where survival only seemed possible if every cat was completely dedicated to serving the Clan at all times, but the SkyClan invention of daylight warriors proves that there’s more than one way to serve as a loyal warrior of one’s Clan, and that abandoning rigid definitions of what loyalty requires and trying new ideas can actually make your Clan stronger, not weaker. The daylight warriors faced much opposition in their early days in the Clan, and were even openly sabotaged by Sharpclaw from being able to participate in battles and prove their worth. But their determination to keep their Clan strong and be loyal to their friends, their ability to stay strong and well-fed for their Clanmates even in times of lean hunting, and the unique knowledge and skills they were able to provide after a lifetime living with twolegs, helped SkyClan to survive those early moons of living as a Clan once more.
1 – Their adaptability
We’ve already touched on one aspect of SkyClan’s adaptability through talking about the daylight warriors, but that’s only one example of this Clan’s unique ability to take on new ideas and reshape themselves to fit new environments and situations. SkyClan is not only the only Clan to have had daylight warriors and medicine cats, they are the only Clan to create an entirely new rank (mediators) since the very dawn of Clan life, the only Clan to create its own unique version of the warrior code to suit its more visitor-friendly style of life in the gorge, the first Clan known to adapt nonClan names into warrior names like Billystorm and Harveymoon, the first Clan to train in Twolegplace as well as their own wild territory. They had far more interactions with outsiders and different ways of life than the other Clans, and they learned to accept new ideas in a way the other Clans still sometimes struggle with.
WindClan
5 – Their picturesque territory
While the other Clans seem uncomfortable on the exposed moorland, what WindClan’s territory lacks in shelter, it makes up for in beauty. WindClan warriors get to enjoy rolling hills of vibrant gorse and rippling swathes of heather, with nothing but open sky above. When night falls, there is nothing between them and the shimmering expanse of Silverpelt.
4 – Their deep connection with StarClan
The unbroken view of their starry ancestors in the night sky may well be responsible for this next point. WindClan consider themselves the closest of the Clans to StarClan. As the Clan whose territory other Clans must cross to reach the Moonstone, and with the clearest view of the stars in the night sky, WindClan shares the closest physical ties to StarClan, and the fact that their Clan produced the first medicine cat and was the Clan that named StarClan in the first place grant WindClan a claim to having the closest link to their ancestors. Their deep sense of spirituality has carried them through the many hardships they have faced.
3 – Their hardy nature
The exposed nature of WindClan’s territory means that their warriors have had to adapt to find other ways to feel secure in their own land than being able to climb up a tree or duck into the undergrowth any time a threat appears. They of course have their unusual swiftness as a means of escape from danger, but it’s more than just finding ways to physically protect themselves. WindClan have suffered some of the greatest tragedies, defeats, and shows of disrespect from the other Clans. From Brokenstar driving them from their territory, to the illness and starvation that plagued them the hardest of any Clan during the destruction of the forest, to even their allies in ThunderClan thinking that they would come crawling back for help when they tried to assert their place as a Clan the equal of any other, WindClan has weathered all of it just as their moorland home weathers the constant wind sweeping across it. They have a faith and a quiet determination that keeps them from crumbling no matter what horrors come their way.
2 – Their tunneling history
Though you wouldn’t know it just by reading from Into the Wild onwards, WindClan wasn’t always made up only of cats who race after rabbits on the open moorland. For countless seasons, up until the days of Tallstar’s youth, warriors were divided into moor-runners and tunnelers. The moor-runners hunted rabbits in the open air while tunnels worked belowground, exploring existing tunnels and creating new ones to use for discreetly crossing the territory, finding new sources of food, or taking shelter in cases of fires or other disasters. Though the days of tunneling ended before The Prophecies Begin, it is still a fascinating chapter of WindClan’s history, and markedly unique compared to any of the other Clans only having a singular form of warrior.
1 – Their swiftness
Perhaps WindClan’s most famous trait, their legendary swiftness of paw is as integral to their lifestyle as swimming is for RiverClan, or ambush from the shadows is for WindClan. All cats are fast of course, but WindClan are not only born with smaller, lither bodies better suited for speed, but they train specifically for running in a way that the other Clans don’t, teaching their apprentices how to make sharp turns while running, training them for endurance and for running on different types of terrain. Their swiftness not only aids them in running down and catching hares large enough to feed multiple cats, but also aids them in battle, allowing them both a better chance of escape and an advantage of agility in fights they prefer not to run from.
RiverClan
5 – Their sense of isolation
The other Clans seem to be in each other’s business, don’t they? So many clashes over prey and territory. And sure, RiverClan isn’t fully immune from such things. They fought with ThunderClan over Sunningrocks more times than either Clan can remember, after all. But it was only the fact that Sunningrocks offered such rich hunting for land prey that made ThunderClam covet it so, not the fish that RiverClan cats prefer to hunt. RiverClan’s unique territory and taste in prey have largely kept them safe from the other Clans. Few cats would consider it worthwhile to struggle across the river and fight a battle just to win territory they don’t like, to eat fish they won’t eat. This has led to RiverClan feeling uniquely isolated from the other Clans. This has led to some of the more unique aspects of their culture that will be discussed on this list, and has made their history more self-contained, focused more on inner Clan relationships than worrying about their neighbors.
4 – Their sense of pride
RiverClan has a certain haughtiness to its character that the other Clans lack. This pride doesn’t generally manifest in puffed-up aggression like ShadowClan, or a sense of closeness to StarClan like WindClan. Instead, it is simply RiverClan’s comfort in knowing their own worth and skill, allowing them to hold their heads high and present a front of grace in front of the other Clans. This pride can come across as smugness to some, and in some cats it can certainly escalate into a feeling of superiority. But while viewing others as inferior should be checked, there is strength in knowing one’s own worth, and RiverClan’s confidence in themselves and their ability to use water to both feed and defend themselves from any threat has certainly carried them through many trials. As long as they know the river is on their side and that they have each other, RiverClan will always stand proud among the Clans.
3 – Their founder
All of the founders have interesting stories and personalities, but there is something about Riverstar, the first leader of RiverClan, that truly grabs our attention. He is, so far, the only founder to have his own super edition, and the path his story takes feels so unique compared to cats like Thunderstar and Shadowstar. His Clan wasn’t founded on the back of bloody skirmishes and betrayals of blood and kin like the others. Instead, he forged his own path, attracting cats to his group through peaceful overtures and solving conflict through words rather than claws whenever he possibly could. His quiet sense of wisdom and spirituality, his deep respect for and connection to the river, and his love for peace backed up with a willingness to defend that peace when given no other choice, make a fascinating cat and a founder that any Clan could be proud of.
2 – Their love of beauty
RiverClan has an appreciation for beauty, whether in themselves, other cats, or the world around them, that few other cats share. RiverClan are noted to be unusually glossy, well-fed, and graceful cats, even in the harshest seasons. Their sleek appearance serves practical purposes beyond just looks of course – their glossy fur sheds water easily, and their plump physique is a sign of how prey-plentiful their beloved river is. Though, this tendency towards beautiful coats and figures has had one unfortunate side effect – RiverClan’s cats are stolen by twolegs to be made into kittypets far more often than any other Clan. But this is still a rare occurrence compared to the other challenges Clan cats face, and it fails to dent RiverClan’s pride in their own beauty. They make their surroundings beautiful in whatever way they can. They are the only Clan known to decorate their dens, weaving shells, feathers, and shiny odds and ends from twolegs into the walls of their dens.
1 – Their affinity for water
The most obvious thing that sets RiverClan apart from the other Clans is also arguably the most interesting. Beside a few odd outliers among the other Clans, RiverClan cats are the only ones that swim. Kits are raised on the Clan’s island home, with the murmur of the river a constant soothing part of their surroundings from the moment they are born. Apprentices are taught how to safely navigate the river, learning how to feel as confident in water as they are on land, before learning how to use it to hunt, fight, and defend themselves and their home. They learn how to hunt in streams, wider stretches of river, and deep pools, learning how to keep their shadow from falling over the water, how to hunt different types of fish, and how to use the sun’s glare and the direction of the current to their advantage. By the time they are warriors, RiverClan cats are as agile and deadly in the water as any other warrior is on land. They have the same deep-rooted trust in the river that Riverstar instilled in the Clan countless seasons ago.
