Freespirit speculates how long the Clans have existed.
This is a subject I have pondered and pondered, spending many a sleepless night, with a copy of Dawn Of The Clans in my hands, how long have the clans existed?
It’s a quite confusing thought, and can have multiple answers, based on how you draw your conclusions. It has to have been long enough for both the clan, and the tribe to have forgotten, and on top of that, establish an entire society, down to new names, a hierarchy, rivalries, and so many generations of cats, that not even the elders stories can feature them all. It also has to do with wild cat life span, and a LOT of things will probably be assumed, but here it is.
The first answer is, no one knows. There is simply not enough evidence in the main books to even draw up a reasonable conclusion. Add the guides and manga, and you’ve got yourself an impossible task. Old leaders are referenced all the time, but you never know if it was one leader or a hundred ago. Even if you only count the confirmed leaders, there is still not enough evidence. In Thunderclan, for example, there are 15 known leaders in the books and more still coming. Also, the life expectancy of Warriors is still rather vague, so one cat could live for 15 years, while another 2. So no matter what, unless the Erins themselves tell us, we can’t know, Sorry. But we can make a guess!
First, we’re going to assume some things about the cats. One, none of the Thunderclan leaders got delayed warriorship, got to be leader around the same age, and none died prematurely. And you may be screaming WHAT ABOUT PINESTAR/THUNDERSTAR/INSERT LEADER NAME HERE at me, but lets just assume that. If I did every single difference and alteration, this would go one forever. Also, I’m basing this off Thunderclan leaders, as they tend to pop up a bit more then every other, and Thunderclan cats are pretty much invincible. So here we go.
According to the internet, feral cats that live in groups, have an average life span of 5 years, or 60 moons. The first 12 moons of their lives are spent as kits and apprentices. Then, they become warriors, leaving us with 48 moons left. Next comes the long, dull process of an apprentice, deputy, waiting for the past leader to die, which will probably take two to three years, around depending on the age of the old deputy and the leader, so maybe you’ll be 42 moons old, lets say. Then comes the real trouble, and the reason I’m counting it by leaders. Their impossibly long life spawns. While warriors live about 5 years, leaders will live several years longer, due to being able to live through an illness that many warriors would succumb to, just losing a life. According to one source, Thunderclan leader Bluestar died at 7-10 years, around 96 moons. Another source, said Firestar also died around this age. So, lets use this as a base. 96-42=54, so leaders lead for 54 years, based off the lifespan of 2 leaders. 54×15=810 moons. 810 divided by 12 is 67.5. But Wait, let me do the math again, and exclude Bramblestar, since he IS a new leader, so he wouldn’t have ruled his full 54 years yet. That would make 63, making the clans around 63 years old, in the best case scenario. Quick cool fact, the clans have been around for about as long as Queen Elizabeth II has been alive!
Cool!
Very interesting! 😀 I agree with your idea of 63 years. (I love the Queen Elizabeth fact you put in, too! 😀 )
Nice Article, I’ve always wondered that. But, couldn’t you just count up the number of moos each ThunderClan leader went through, starting with Thunderstar, then that would the the number of moons/years?
There isn’t enough information on all the leaders. 😛 Some are only mentioned in one or two books
Thanks for clearing that up!
I like to think they’ve been around a century or so – the longer the better, in my view, I like the idea of their society being around a long time and these early leaders and traditions fading from memory. But that’s just me. It has to at least have been early enough ago that cars were around – considering cars featured at the very beginning of the Clans – but there’s nothing saying they had to be modern-looking cars. 😛
Cars were invented in 1885/1886 so who knows? But I like to believe Dawn of the Clans was in the 1930s and The Prophecies begin was in 2000-2005. And AVOS should be about 2015/2016 aka now
Gotcha. ^^
I’d like to think that the Clans have been around for a long time, but I can’t exactly find out very well myself because my library doesn’t have Dawn of the Clans. 🙁
nice
Oooo, nice one, Freespirit! I always thought that the modern (or at least, moderner) Clans lived maybe around the turn of the new millennium so it leaves enough space for such large ecosystems as well as human civilization with cars, heavy duty vehicles (since they tore up the forest territory pretty quickly) and what I believe must be at least heavy duty lights (thought not necessarily LED).
As for DotC, maybe going back around 50 or so years? While both Bluestar and Firestar (and Mistystar, but she came later), ruled for long, long, loooooooooong periods of time, we don’t know if that was the same for the older leaders. For all we know, Bluestar and Firestar were merely beginning the average ruling time for a leader.
We know that the Tribe of Rushing Water was created generally around the same time as the first Clans, albeit not the exact same moment, since Jay’s Wing and Half Moon are from the time of DotC (though not mentioned, as far as I’m aware, in the actual books). The group that the original DotC cats are from, on the other hand, might be anncccccieeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnttt 😛
Think of the original group being like Africa, where humans first started, and then they migrated out to Asia and Europe (to the forest territory). Some stayed in Europe and Asia, developing their communities and technology (forming the Clans). Much, much, much later on, around the 1600s, stuff happened and they decided to move out and head to the Americas (going to the lake territory).
Anyways, I’ve been rambling and I’ve completely forgotten what I typed all that for 😛 If you made it here, hi :3
This was an amazing Freespirit! Great article!
… Soooooooooooooooo cool! Good math!
Wow, great article!
Ooh, this is very creative! I loved it, fantastic job! 🙂
Awesome article your really good at math
very well researched!! I haven’t thought of this at all before! and i must admit you put up an amazingly accurate argument, Great job!