The Place of No Stars

The Place of No Stars, informally known as the Dark Forest, known by the ancients as DevilClan is the opposite of StarClan's hunting grounds. It is a place where cats that have committed great crimes against their Clans and the warrior code go when they die. 
== Description ==
=== General ===
: There is no prey and cats feel constant hunger. Instead of walking the skies with friends and family like in StarClan, cats here are banished to walk through the forest in solitude. Time also passes strangely, with residents often losing track of how much time has passed, meant to be a torture device for the sins the cats have commited. Unlike StarClan, they do not need the Moonstone or the Moonpool to communicate with living cats.
: Dark forest spirits are constantly bleeding out, and their wounds never heal unlike in StarClan. They bare the wound they gained upon their death, and it constantly bleeds, trailing blood on the ground or worse. They are also dark, shadowed cats whose eyes are bared pure black, which is an appearance to scare the living cats. Sometimes, it feels as if though they are melting.
: Several Dark Forest spirits can walk in the dreams of living cats, though it is a skill that must be learned. Usually in the dream, the cat finds themselves in the Dark Forest with the deceased cat. Though sometimes Dark Forest cats can enter into living cats' dreams. There seems to be no limitations on who the Dark Forest cats can visit. Upon waking up from the dream, they will retain all characteristics acquired; for example, if they get wounded in the Dark Forest, they will have the same wound in reality as well. This also applies to fatigue and skills practiced in the dream. This also includes death, as cats who are killed in the Dark Forest die in real life. At times, cats can dream themselves into the Dark Forest without a spirit guide, by harnessing on dark thoughts and being open to negative emotions, such as anger and hatred fear, anguish and hopelessness, and jealousy. Cats can enter with their physical body by being dragged by a spirit cat through the Moonpool.
: StarClan cats are able to pass into the Place of No Stars if they need to, but by doing so, they risk the chance of becoming lost and never finding their way out again. From StarClan, there is a barrier of sorts consisting of a great cloud of mist, which eventually leads to the Dark Forest. Living cats are able to visit the Dark Forest when guided by a StarClan cat, although on one occasion Leafpool was able to see it without any StarClan cat to help her. Dark Forest cats can also sometimes materialized into the living world though on rare occasions.
=== Relation to living cats ===
: Clan cats are aware of the Dark Forest, and older warriors and elders frequently told tales of the spirits there as warnings for apprentices. Mentioning the Dark Forest is often used a fear tactic. Throughout the Clans' history, the Dark Forest has preyed on cats in the living world, manipulating them and teaching them advanced battle moves through brutal training sessions in their dreams. Spending time in the Dark Forest can also turn a good cat bad. Numerous Dark Forest spirits wished for vengeance on the living world, and plotted for war against the Clans. In the moons since the Great Battle, the Clans passed on nursery tales of the Dark Forest, and often spoke in hush murmurs about the spirits that resided there.
== Territory ==
: The Dark Forest is a dark, shadowy forest with lots of tall, dark, gray trees. It is mentioned to be a dull, vast empty place—the complete opposite of StarClan's hunting grounds, which are warm and sunny and bright. The air is cold, thick, foggy and damp and it has an echoing silence. It smells of damp earth, rotting wood, and rotting fresh-kill. There is a pale sickly light and a chilly wind blowing. The Dark Forest also has a black and starless sky, and the trees are so tall, it is unable to see anything above them, allowing no light whatsoever to reach it. Mist is mentioned to wreathe the thick, sticky, bare forest floor. It has a sluggish river, its waters rippling with blood, with no stepping stones or fallen trees to be used to cross it, and around the river is sucking mud. Fungus eerily glows on trees, and there is limited undergrowth beyond dead ferns, mulchy grass,and rotting weeds and bracken.
: The land also appears to shift with caves and tunnels, valleys and rocky slopes, marshes and ridges, and endless forests with dead trees. Cats can have difficulty trekking through the changing terrain. There is a large lake with blood water that feels like soft pelts and ice cold water. A low, small muddy island sits in the middle of the lake with rotting trees. A slim stretch of mud leads from the shore to the island.
: The border between the Dark Forest and StarClan is a white, eerie light. Here the grass is thin, and it eventually disappears altogether. At this point, the air becomes so foggy, that any cat there finds themselves having trouble breathing. This border was sealed by Ashfur with thick bramble walls, tree branches, and vines woven together tightly. The barrier couldn't be forcefully pried away by brute force, but instead feelings of hope. 
==See also==
*StarClan
*List of Dark Forest cats
Category:Reference
Category:Warriors Wiki