StarClan by Emberpaw

Emberpaw explores StarClan and it’s ways of doing things

(Also, SPOILERS AHEAD!)

Greetings, BlogClan! It’s me, Emberpaw! And, uh, before I start, just want to say that I’m not going to be writing any Undercat articles simply because, eh, well, I don’t really feel like writing them, sorry 🙁 But, hey, I’ve got a new article for you guys!

In Warriors, when a cat dies, we all know that that cat goes to StarClan, or, in human words, afterlife. However, during the story, we don’t learn much about what it’s like in StarClan. Sure, we know a lot about what they do – make or receive prophecies, send warnings to leaders, medicine cats, or just regular cats about events to come in the future, give nine lives to leaders, etc. – but we don’t really know much else. So, surprise surprise, that’s what I’m going to be looking at in this article! Ready? Here we go!

So, first of all, I’m going to look at how a StarClan cat travels between StarClan and the world of the living. Many times in Warriors, we see StarClan cats travelling between their home and the home of the Clans. For example, in “Long Shadows”, Raggedstar and Runningnose appear when Jaypaw and the crew are faking a sign from StarClan to make ShadowClan to return to the warrior code. We know that when a cat dies, a member of StarClan accompanies them and brings them to their new territory. So, I’m thinking that there might be some sort of invisible bridge that connects Clans’ world to StarClan, and it’s only accessible by the spirits of the dead cats. There would also likely be another bridge in the Dark Forest; if there wasn’t, then the Dark Forest residents would have to cross through StarClan territory to access the bridge, and I’m quite sure that StarClan wouldn’t let them pass through without a fight.

But you might be asking “Well, if StarClan can access the Clans anytime, then why don’t they just hang out by the lake whenever they want?” or “Well, if the Dark Forest could just attack any time, why not just do it whenever they wanted?” Well, like StarClan says many times in the books, it’s best to let the Clans figure out stuff by themselves. StarClan only seems to visit the Clans when it’s an emergency, so maybe the bridge is only accessible in emergencies, or maybe StarClan simply wants to keep their visits to the Clans to a minimum. As for why the Dark Forest didn’t attack before they did, they were simply outnumbered. Sure, they had vicious fighting moves that the Clans and StarClan never had, but they still had to fight StarClan and four Clans. Tigerstar claimed that there were enough cats in the Dark Forest to match StarClan, but how do we know if that’s even true? I doubt that there were as many evil cats as there were cats decent enough to be allowed into StarClan. Besides, even if there were that many cats, they would still have to fight the four Clans, so it would pretty much be StarClan + Four Clans vs. Dark Forest. The Dark Forest first had to make sure that they had enough loyal recruits in the Clans that were ready to fight on their side and had mastered all their savage battle moves.

When I was reading the prologue for “Long Shadows”, something else caught my eye. When the founders of the four Clans that now live by the lake (Thunder(star), Shadow(star), Wind(star), and River(star)) were talking with Midnight, River(star) ask why Midnight chose to speak with them, and he adds: “There are younger cats than us in StarClan. Why call us back from the very beginning?” This seems to imply that very old StarClan residents live much further away from the other StarClan cats, or that a StarClan cat lives further away depending on how long ago they died. We know that when a StarClan cat dies a second time, they fade from existence. However, after they die, they may just be residing with the other long-forgotten cats far, far away in another StarClan or in an isolated part of StarClan.

However, it seems to be impossible for a StarClan cat to fade from existence completely just from old age. After all, in the Dark Forest, there’s a cat called Maggottail that’s described as pretty much transparent. Maggottail must definitely be younger than the four founders because we never see a Maggottail in DotC (unless Maggottail knew about and believed in StarClan before the Early Settlers discovered them; however, I find that to be unlikely.) If Maggottail is younger than the four founders and he’s transparent, then the four founders shouldn’t even still be visible and should’ve disappeared a long time ago. So if they’re still alive, then they seem to be immune to fading due to being dead for too long. Maybe in the Dark Forest, cats eventually fade because, well, if they did loads of bad stuff, I guess StarClan, or the physics of the Dark Forest, is going to punish them by making disappear.

But now I have another question: is StarClan’s territory infinite? I doubt it, ’cause if it was, the ancestors of other cats would have no territory of their own to live in! But StarClan might, after all, over time there’ll just be more and more cats coming to StarClan. But at the same time, cats will be fading away and moving to the faraway land for faded cats. So if cats come to StarClan and disappear from StarClan at an approximately equal rate, then there wouldn’t really be a need for infinite territory. I also found some evidence that supports the fact that StarClan’s territory is finite. In the short story “Spottedleaf’s Honest Answer”, at the end of the story, Spottedleaf asks a StarClan cat named Cherrypaw to bring the reader to the border of StarClan. Since in Warriors, a Clan’s border indicates the end of a Clan’s territory, we can assume that StarClan has a finite territory and they don’t control the entire sky above the Clans. I’m assuming that on the other side of that border is the place where the faded cats live.

So, uh, anyways, that’s all for this article! And here’s just something to keep in mind: as much as I hate to admit it, Warriors hasn’t been the most consistent series. There have been fur color inconsistencies, gender errors, dead cats coming back to life, etc. I’m not the best fact researcher, writer, and conclusion maker, either. I’m sure that there’s a bunch of you in BlogClan who could re-write this article and find much better evidence, supporting facts, and conclusions. Maybe write your own article featuring your own theories and ideas!

Anyways, that’s all for this article! Do you agree with me, or do you have your own theories to share? See you guys next time! 😀