Ok, so, I got inspiration from a RP on dyskord, and it’s basically going to be if the Clans were way more diverse in their culture. Like, ThunderClan is a democracy where every cat votes on every decision made in the Clan. This makes it super hard for them to make any decisions and they never get anything done, the leader has no power over the Clan other than being their mouthpiece at gatherings. RiverClan is a monarchy with nobles and peasants, but their population is dwindling and kits are arranged into marriage as soon as they are 4 moons old (THIS IS NOT P3DOPHILIA, CATS ARE OLD ENOUGH TO HAVE KITS AT 4 MONTHS/MOONS IRL), and expected to have kits before they become warriors. In their society, it is very sexist, and most cats are binary gender-conformant, and next to no one is gay/trans. They often arrange marriages with cats from other Clans. (To represent the way that marriage was in the 1700s, there might be age gaps in arranged marriages, but you can request for ur cat to have a m4te close in age to them if it makes u uncomfortable). The admins will assign kits their assigned m4tes at 4 moons. (Note: anyone making a form with a cat older than 4 moons must find another person who is also signing up with a cat 4 moons or older to be their assigned m4te and list them in their application) Only royalty and nobles have arranged marriages to cats outside the Clan, and it is usually a female from RiverClan being married to an important male from another Clan. WindClan is a republic with elected officials, and the tunnelers still exist- in their own separate camp, with different officials and everything. They are considered weaker by the other Clans because their leaders do not have nine lives, as there are multiple at once and they only lead for four seasons before another election. The tunnelers and the moor-runners consider themselves part of the same Clan, but they prefer to be separate. Relationships between the tunnelers and moor-runners are allowed but considered scandalous and frowned upon. ShadowClan moved from the Lake territories to a marsh that is a days’ journey away from the Moonpool. Their camp is in a dry clearing, and the dens are dug-out tunnels in the roots of the swamp trees that surround the clearing. The leaders’ den is in a natural cave created by the roots of the biggest tree in the clearing. It is a tyranny, where any cat willing to test their worth can challenge the leader- if they rip all of their lives away, they can choose to take the leader’s last life (considered merciful) or force the old leader to live in shame for the rest of their days. They have no deputy and no medicine cat. Each cat possesses a general knowledge of medicine (how to dress a wound, what herbs to use to prevent infection, what to use on infected wounds, what to take for basic illnesses, and poppy seeds for pain- a few cats know more about medicine than others and may help others in the Clan with more advanced issues but they are still normal warriors) and are expected to treat their own wounds or illnesses. This is because if you’re considered not to be pulling your slack (if you're too ill, ill for long periods of time, crippled, old, or in some other way not able to perform as a normal warrior), you’re chased away to go live on your own, so any injury or illness that requires a cat to be taken care of by others is reason to be kicked out. This happens often with ill or elderly members. They have a very strict code of obeying the leader’s orders to a tee, or being severely punished however their leader sees fit. Usually, their leader is sadistic (takes joy in causing others pain). Because scratch is a kids site, any punishment threads must be kept PG, so no excessive gore or otherwise explicit content. They do not attend Gatherings and consider themselves as a separate entity from the other Clans- they live near them but view the cats from the other Clans as foreigners. (They still accept marriage proposals from RiverClan.) SkyClan is a cult- they do not believe in StarClan, and because of this they live apart from the other Clans. They live at the Sun-Drown Place, and their camp is in Midnight’s (the badger’s) old den. Their religion is based around the sea and the weather. Like ShadowClan, they consider the other Clans foreigners. Their leader does not receive nine lives, and instead, when they die, their body is taken to Shark’s Teeth, a cave and the only holy site of their religion. The entrance is underwater, and to perform the ceremony a cat has to swim with the leaders’ body underwater, through a hole ringed with sharp jutting rocks (guess where the name comes from lol) in the submerged part of the cliff, and then swim through a long system of tunnels. There are pockets of air sprinkled throughout, but there is no place to rest until the cat reaches the central cave, where they lay the leaders body down and sleep in the cavern for one night. When the sun rises, the old leaders’ spirit (+)
(+) is believed to have transferred into the body of the cat that slept there, and the leader has a new life. However, the whole ceremony is a trick- the leader actually dies, and their spirit transcends into a place called the Ether- the new cat simply has the leaders’ spirit living in their head, giving them advice. Each new generation of leader hears the voice of every leader that came before them, and with the current leader being around generation 100, the leaders quickly go mad- giving the illusion of the same spirit with new bodies. The leaders all know the ceremony doesn’t work, but the religion is so based on lies and deception that there is nothing they can do. (More lore building will be done later lol) The RP takes place in the lake territories, but for simplicity reasons two legs do not exist lol. ThunderClan has taken over most of SkyClan’s old territory, and ShadowClan’s territory was taken over by a rogue group that will possibly be an option to play in, but hasn’t been created yet :’D
