So, after binge reading all of the Starclan chapters, I have a theory. I will say, it's a little out there, but I still think it could be true. Anyway, the bulk of the theory will be written out but there will also be imagery to go along with it. Whenever you see the word 'next' in brackets (Like this: [next]) then use the right arrow key, spacebar, or click the screen to go to the next image. Anyway, theory. My theory is that the forest is actually the dark forest. I have five points that support this, going from weakest to strongest. First point: [next] The first two points are the weakest because they rely on non-confirmed information. First, Breezypaw mentions that the forest is several hundred times larger than the living clan's territory. This reminds me of a Dark Forest fun fact: often Dark Forest cats wander in solitude. It is never explained why in the books, but having an absolutely gigantic area to cover would definitely make it easy to be alone for all of eternity. (TW for blood in the next image) [next] (Art by Tennelleflowers on Y of tube) Second, a concept that I have seen in a lot of dark forest maps (that is either canon or a popular headcanon) is that Dark Forest cats eternally bleed from the wounds that caused their death. This checks out with the idea presented in the comic of a Starclan magic healing radius. The reason Vole and Breezy have their wounds is because they went into the deep forest. The two's wounds only activate when they are far from the center of the regeneration point, so imagine what it would be like to a cat eternally stuck outside of the heal zone. [next] Third is the appearance of the forest. In the image, the top, lighter forest is the transition image to the normal Starclan while the darker forest on the bottom is the transition image to the woods. You can see the two images only a few panels apart in Chapter 6. The woods are much darker than the normal Starclan. [next] The other appearance difference is the lack of stars in the woods. The three images in the project show panels from chapter 3 and chapter 12, where Salmonpaw is near the river. However, I have combed every panel, and there is not a single star in the forest sky, which might literally mean it is the Place of No Stars. [next] Point four is a (maybe unintentional) detail that I feel like is important. When Feather is asking Haze about if she told Salmon everything about Starclan, she mentions only a singular border with the Dark Forest. When I first discovered this, it made me reconsider the theory, but I did a bit more digging, and figured out that it could still work with what I've gathered so far. [next] The map that Haze drew shows forests surrounding the entirety of Starclan, but only shows one stretch of forest directly connected to the river. The others are separated by hills and a lake. We never see the trio trekking over hills or swimming through a pond to reach the forest, so we can infer they only use the northern entrance. This would explain why it was called the singular border. [next] Point five is what sparked the idea of this theory in the first place because it is one of the two times (in the Starclan timeline) that the Dark Forest is mentioned by name. At first, I just thought "oh, cool detail!" and went on with my day, but Meadow said that the spoiler was something mentioned casually, which leads me to believe it's this. Now I'm thinking, why does the catapult point to the north forest? I've already explained that there is only one direct route to the woods, and it happens the only dark forest deterring weapon (that we were shown) points there? It feels too perfect to be a coincidence, so I doubt it is. Golden does say that he thinks the catapult overshot, but Red says that they didn't know how far it would launch. Since Red is the one who knew about these in the first place, I'm tempted to believe their stance over Golden's. Anyway, that's my silly Starclan EA theory (which was once again written at almost midnight) Characters, story, and most art by @Meadowfoot_ToPH
