Clan Life
Common Attributes
- Long fur
- Long tails
- Small ears
- Large paws
- Long, agile bodies
- Mottled fur / grey and white colourations
Clan strength: Agility & Endurance
Overview
The average Stoneclan cat is long of body and apparently stocky of build, their true shapes hidden by thick coats of long insulating fur. In many cases they appear to be large, bulky animals but are in reality thin creatures, their leanness concealed by the volume of their pelts. This is something of an advantage for Stoneclan cats, for their rivals often assume that their apparent size is an indication of inflexibility and slowness, whilst the reality is quite the opposite. As an additional bonus, the thickness of their fur proves adept at concealing their true body conditions, and this is something that Stoneclan often uses to their advantage – many an enemy has been deterred by immaculate fur over a malnourished frame.
Mountain life has taught even Flat and Pool Hunters to be agile of body and mind, allowing them to put up an impressive fight even in the toughest of seasons. This is a huge advantage to these cats, for Stoneclan warriors spend half of the year in a state of borderline starvation, and only rarely fulfil the full potential of their bodies. It is this hardship of life that has informed the clans culture; everything is about the good of the clan, and those of selfish disposition are automatically and whole-heartily despised.
As far as the other clans are concerned, Stoneclanner’s are tough and often uncompromising felines – at least where their borders, and the wellbeing of their peers, are concerned – who should not be taken lightly. They also bear an ‘inexplicably’ short lifespan – shortest of all the clans – and name their cats senior warriors when most other cats are still believed to be in their prime. In short, anyone in any doubt as to the relative ease of life in other clans need only see and hear their confusion when they face a senior of Stoneclan, or learn of yet another Stoneclan death, and they will soon understand that true hardship is all but unknown to the other clans.
Customs
Leader & Deputy Roles
- As with most clans, the leader of Stoneclan primarily exists to protect the well-being, lifestyle and order of their clan; a challenging task at the best of times, and one complicated by the fact that some Stoneclanners are absent for days at a time. However, apart from making decisions and keeping order, Stoneclans leader largely lives, acts and is treated like any other warrior – their cats will not suffer themselves to be led by a tyrant or any who is not willing to give
more than the most dedicated of their number.
- The clans well-being is, and should always
be, the leaders greatest priority. They are expected to go above and beyond the efforts of all their warriors and stop at almost nothing to keep their cats safe and fed, even if doing so will cost them their lives. They are also expected to be the first to relinquish dwindling luxuries and the last to regain them as the good times return, for no other can be expected to do so if they will not. In other words, they must lead their clan by example, and always ensure that the right example is made.
- In another culture or place, Stoneclans deputy would likely be looked upon in much the same light as a spy, for it is their duty to keep tabs on the clans affairs and ensure that their leader is aware of any important developments. This is tolerated because it is considered necessary: no cat can lead if they do not know of potential issues before they
become issues.
- The secondary role of the deputy is akin to an insurance policy, for this is the cat who is charged with keeping the leader in line. Though they must ordinarily support and obey their leader, it is up to them to question and refuse any command that seems likely to lead the clan into trouble, and to ensure that their clanmates are treated appropriately and fairly at all times. Naturally, this can lead to a certain amount of conflict between the two positions, and it is consequently essential for the reigning Deputy and Leader to hold one another in high esteem.
- On a lower level, Stoneclans deputy is also responsible for backing up their leader’s example, and should strive to be the second most dedicated member of the clan. The deputy that cannot achieve these feats, or be seen to make a good attempt at doing so, is a deputy who should not be allowed to become a leader, for he might just weaken the clans resolve with his own weakness or hesitation.
- Stoneclan, of all clans, is by far the most likely to refuse to accept a deputy as their new leader when their predecessor dies or retires. This is connected to the clans overreaching sense of self-sacrifice and hard work, and their understanding of the hardships that they face. As far as they are concerned, any deputy who has not given
everything for their clan cannot be trusted to lead them, for they are not likely to make the greater sacrifices required of a Stoneclan leader.
Lifespan & Seniority
- Stoneclan cats have the shortest average lifespan of all the Valley Cats; a trait caused by their frequent starvation and the many risks involved in their hunts.
- Height and Cave Hunters have a noticeably shorter lifespan than the rest of their clanmates, with many being killed in accidents long before they reach six years of age (72 moons). Pool and Flat Hunters live an average of two or three years longer, and are more likely to be killed by illness or starvation than injury or accident.
- Unless crippled by early injury or illness, Stoneclan warriors remain warriors until the moment that they become incapable of serving their clan. Until that time arises they will usually cling to their duties with all the stubbornness of an ox, preferring to trade the most dangerous versions of their work (such as Height Hunting or patrolling the eastern borders) with progressively safer and easier tasks (such as flat hunting or guarding camp) until their leader or medicine cat puts their foot down, or something makes them accept that they can no longer serve.
- In Stoneclan seniority is heavily dependent on the type of hunting in which a given cat has specialised, and is determined by such because specialisation has a significant influence on lifespan. The typical ages of Senior Warriors are as follows:
Flat Hunter: 100 moons and up
Pool Hunter: 96 moons and up
Cave / Height Hunter: 72 moons and up
Resource Use & Prioritising
- For Stoneclan, fresh-kill is always considered a resource of exceptional value, for it is the one resource that they can rarely collect in abundance. The scarcity of prey is such that all cats are taught to accept any kind of fresh-kill from the moment they are weaned, and all apprentices taught to hunt anything that they can find.
- Second in value to fresh-kill is bedding; a luxury that is freely available only in leafhigh, and almost impossible to find in leafbare.
- Though swiftly and aggressively broken out of fussy and selfish tendencies, Stoneclan kits lead pampered lives and have only a very distant concept of hardship. The entire clan does everything in their power to keep their young fully fed and comfortable and often spoil them shamelessly, for they all know that it won’t be long before they go cold and hungry. Indeed, by the time a kit is five moons old they are already being weaned off of their easy lives - a process that will continue throughout their apprenticeship.
- Although by no means as pampered as kits, Stoneclan elders also lead semi-spoilt lives, for it is relatively rare for a Stoneclanner to survive to an advanced age, and those that do are thought to have faced more than their fair share of hardship. In an effort to honour these cats, Stoneclan warriors make a point of ensuring that they are the second (kits being first) to benefit from any booms in resource, and the second-to-last to suffer when any resource begins to dwindle.
- Apprentices are the third to benefit from times of plenty, and third-to-last to suffer from harder times. This is not a reflection of any effort to spoil them, but rather the result of the clans reluctance to tear them straight from their easy kithoods and dump them into adult hardships. Instead, the clan is careful to ease them into their adult lives as gently as possible; a tendency that has produced a clear difference between the lifestyles of their youngest and eldest apprentices.
- Whilst young apprentices have an easier time than older apprentices, the same cannot be said of warriors. Instead, the system is reversed amongst cats of these ranks, with any surplus of resources being directed towards the elder warriors, and away from the younger. The reason behind this is much the same as that behind the pampering of Stoneclan elders, though it is here combined with an additional factor: young warriors have yet to be spoiled by starvation and injury, and are thus more capable of suffering through the hard times than their older counterparts.
Assigning Specialities [and Mentors]
- The scarcity of food and dangers of the mountains necessitates an exceptionally careful pairing of Stoneclan mentors and apprentices. Leader and warrior alike must be
sure that all cats are bringing in the maximum amount of food at the minimum amount of risk, and cannot afford to give any mentor a cat who might put
them in danger, or force them to abandon their own speciality. Neither will they tolerate such an occurrence; apprentices who cannot handle their mentor’s speciality or teaching style are immediately reassigned.
- Since a mistake corrected is almost as costly as a mistake ignored, Stoneclan has developed a series of tests that are meant to prevent apprentices being assigned to mentors with specialities that they are unsuitable to face. This system is by no means fool proof, but it has significantly decreased the frequency of mistakes, and ensured that no cat is pressed into training for a speciality that will force them to face their fears.
- Kits are tested sometime during their fifth moon, and can be made apprentices at any time after they have been completed. Though the leader is expected to take personality traits into account whilst choosing mentors, the tests largely focus on establishing whether or not a kit fears water, heights, or confined spaces.
- Each test is overseen by a senior warrior from the corresponding speciality. These cats are the ones who decide whether a kit has passed or failed the test in question, and are therefore highly influential in the selection process.
- As a rule, those who fail height tests are automatically refused Height Hunting mentors, those failing water tests are refused Pool Hunting mentors and those failing confined spaces / dark tests are refused Cave Hunting mentors. Any kit who fails all of the tests will be given a Flat Hunting mentor, because there is rarely time to train apprentices out of their fears.
- If a kit passes a test, but there are no suitable mentors from that speciality, then the leader will either postpone that kits apprentice ceremony or assign them to a flat hunter. Which action is taken is often influenced by the season; if its leafbare or late leaffall, the kit will almost certainly be apprenticed immediately, but if its newleaf or early Greenleaf then there is a good chance that the leader will postpone the ceremony for a moon or more.
Missing Cats
- In Stoneclan, finding yourself unable to return to camp (be it through injury or loss of direction) or going missing is extremely bad news. The mountains and their dangers, not to mention the heavy workload, has led to Stoneclanners accepting that missing almost invariably means dead, and it is subsequently uncommon for search parties to be sent out in the hopes of finding a living clanmate. The likelihood of such being done is typically affected, not by number of family or friends (those this factor has some influence), but by speciality, for this is recognised as a reliable indicator of the missing cats chances of being alive.
- In most cases, the absence of a missing Flat Hunter will be noted swiftly, and a search mounted. This is primarily due to the fact there are relatively few spots to search when these cats vanish, but also the fact that Flat Hunters typically return to camp several times a day, and are rarely killed by their mishaps.
- Missing Pool Hunters are searched for approximately half of the time, for, like Flat Hunters, they will usually return to camp at least twice a day and are subsequently relatively easy to miss. However, there is a strong correlation between the experience of a Pool Hunter and the likelihood of a search party being sent after them; cats who are relatively inexperienced, and consequently limited to stiller, shallower areas of water, are usually rooted out, whilst their more experienced counterparts are more likely to be assumed drowned, and mourned without a search.
- The dangers involved with Height Hunting have made it rare, at best, for searches to be mounted when one of their number disappears. This disparity occurs for three main reasons: Height Hunters are typically absent from dawn to dusk, and thus not easily missed; only other Height Hunters can safely search for a missing peer, and such cats cannot be easily sparred; and a missing Height Hunter has almost invariably fallen foul of a rogue or suffered a bad fall, and is already dead.
- Unless fortunate enough to have a sizable ring of friends and family, missing Cave Hunters are almost never searched for. This is not due to a lack of feeling on their clans part, but rather the fact that Cave Hunters are often absent from camp – or simply not noticed – for days at a time, meaning that it is difficult to realise that one of their number is missing rather than engaged in a long hunt or patrol. Unfortunately, these means that such cats are usually dead long before anyone notices that something is amiss, and even were that not the case, they are almost impossible to find within the labyrinths that are their domain.
Border Defence
- Stoneclan is notable for being unusually lax in the maintenance of its borders, and also for having the most changeable range of all the clans. This largely stems from the relative scarcity of food in their territory – particularly during leafbare – but also their ability to use the entirety of the mountains; an ability that no other clan possesses. There is also a distinct difference in the way they defend different parts of their borders, with those areas in the valley being decidedly static, whilst those in the mountains remain fluid.
- To the south, Stoneclan’s borders are permanent and virtually undisputed. Their lands are separated from Waterclan by an almost sheer drop and an area of ground that their neighbours scarcely visit, leading to the assumption that there is little point in guarding these regions too closely. As a consequence the patrols sent here are more afterthoughts – a means to keep up appearances – than a necessity, and are usually of highly relaxed natures. Most apprentices will have their first taste of border patrols along these borders, for it is well known that there is virtually no chance of an attack coming from Waterclan.
- To the west the borders are marked by the near banks of the river, but also less secure than one might assume. Although relatively uncommon, it is not unheard of for Treeclan to attempt to push into the scrubby edges of Stoneclan territory, making patrols here both frequent and serious. Serious too are the scuffles that occasionally occur between the neighbours, for Stoneclan cannot afford to lose so much as an inch of this region; it is the richest part of their land, and is often the only thing standing between them and starvation. As a consequence, apprentices are banned from joining western patrols until they are fully versed in fighting, and have also proved that they can take orders and work effectively as part of a team.
- Of all the borders, it is those to the north and east that are the most curious. Though Stoneclan maintains two distinct lines to mark the supposed end of their territory (see valley map), and their neighbours believe these mysterious edges to be as far as the clans hold extends, it has been many generations since Stoneclanners truly abode by them. Rather than being the limits of Stoneclans range, these borders simply exist to tell
others that they will not be tolerated to press any closer to the valley. In effect they act as the narrow divisions between ‘acceptable proximity’ and ‘much too close to camp and kits’ and are consequently guarded with all the jealousy and ferocity Stoneclan warriors can muster.
- Uniquely amongst the clans, Stoneclan has a fluid secondary border along its northern and eastern ranges. This tends to expand and shrink in accordance to the season; leafbare pushes it further out into the mountains, until it comes close to encompassing the entire northern and eastern range, whilst the easier greenleaf pulls it closer to the real borders, for there is no longer the need to travel so far in the search for food. Unfortunately, the size and nature of this range makes it impossible for Stoneclan to defend it as they would other borders, so, whilst their hunters do their best to drive away rogues and lones, it is not uncommon for such cats to roam between the two ‘lines’, and encounters are both violent and far more frequent than anyone would like.
Other
- Comradery is everything to Stoneclan cats; kits, elders and the ill are always fed first (with adults going to great lengths to keep kits younger than three moons from knowing real hunger), and warriors often surrender their own meals to feed clanmates who have gone hungry for more than a couple of days.
- Although every Stoneclan cat goes to great lengths to protect the wellbeing of their clanmates, it is not uncommon for individuals to know little to nothing about most of their peers, or to have only a very distant relationship with the cats they live alongside. This is the result of a combination of factors, the most predominant of which is simply the fact that most Stoneclanners spend so much time patrolling and hunting that there is little left over for socialising. On the whole, Flat Hunters and Pool Hunters are by far the closest-knit cats of the clan, and usually those with the most friendships, whilst Height and particularly Cave Hunters – those who spend days away from camp, or can’t travel safely with more than one or two peers – tend to have the fewest.
Hunting
Stoneclan uses four hunting methods, and is excruciatingly careful about which apprentices they assign to warriors of each speciality. The hunting methods are;
Flat Hunting: Warriors bearing this speciality hunt almost exclusively in the lower mountains and over any large stretches of flat ground. As a rule, they avoid areas that are confined and / or border dangerous drops, and are comprised of cats that have a fear of heights and / or confined spaces. However, this is not always the case, for all apprentices are required to learn this style of hunting, and warriors of all types are prepared to resort to it when food is scarce, or other forms of hunting become too dangerous to attempt.
Pool Hunting: As the name suggests, Pool Hunting occurs exclusively in tranquil pools, most of which lie either at the end of a stream / river, or separated from a river. As a rule, the abilities of Pool Hunters are determined by their age; apprentices usually fish from the shore and shallows, young warriors usually hunt in the shallows and just below the water surface, and senior warriors usually dive for prey. The exception is in Leafbear, when ice frequently forces Pool Hunters of all ages to join the Flat Hunters.
Height Hunting: Warriors using this style of hunting spend much of their time in the upper mountains, on narrow ledges and at the sides of gorges. These are the cats that travel the furthest into the wild mountains, and also those that are the most likely to be killed by mishaps. As a consequence, Height Hunters must be a minimum of twelve moons old before they can engage in solo hunts, and ten moons before they can Height Hunt without a fully recognised Height Hunter – even if they become warriors before this time. As a further precaution, Height Hunters must have a minimum of three moons solo hunting experience before they can become mentors.
Cave Hunting: The Cave Hunters world comprises of caves, tunnels and any confined crevice found by Stoneclan warriors. These cats need strong senses, good memories and considerable courage to be successful, if only because many tunnels open into thin air and / or are unstable. They must also be prepared to spend most of their time away from their clanmates, for it is easy to lose track of the time in the darkness and inadvisable to wonder the mountains at night. In fact, most Cave Hunters lead decidedly reclusive lifestyles, returning to camp only long to deposit freshkill before they head out again.
Cave Hunters must have a minimum of six moons hunting experience before they can become mentors, and their apprenticeships often last the longest of all the specialities (largely because many mentors forget to report apprentice progress to their leader / deputy).
Prey:
Whatever can be found