Divestar

Divestar is a spiky-furred chocolate tabby cat with yellow eyes. They are the current leader of SplashClan, succeeding Sundust as deputy and later Flickerstar as leader after their deaths, and former mentor of Otterthorn and Wavepaw. They changed their name entirely on being made leader, to mirror their coming out as nonbinary.
==Description==
===Appearance===
:Divestar is a tall, fine-built cat with clear warrior inclinations. Their fur is warm-toned, strongly marked with tabby marbling in shades of deep chocolate and lighter ochre. Their face is angular and expressionate, set with rounded eyes in changing shades of hard amber and warm honey.
:Despite their lifelong career as a warrior, Divestar's pelt is almost unmarked by scars save for a nick in their left ear and a long slash through the muscle of their right shoulder, leaving them with a slight limp in cold weather.
:Their soft fur is permanently unkempt, midlength except for where it sticks up along their spine, shoulders and tail. As an apprentice it warranted some teasing about permanent nerves but as they grew older Divestar began to appreciate the added boost to potential intimidation.
===Character===
:Assigned male at birth, nonbinary. Pansexual and demiromantic.
:As their austere looks might convey, Divestar is a proud and driven leader with little patience for distraction and frivolity. They have a strong internal code based on honour, loyalty and ethics, although this is tempered by a strong sense of pragmatism and expedience. They make most decisions with logic and probability rather than emotion, making it easy to misjudge them as heartless or cold. In reality Divestar is merely practical, there is no use for overt emotion in their daily life and so they do not display it.
: Despite their apparently aloof facade, Divestar does enjoy the company of their Clan, particularly that of the eligible cats of their own age. While Divestar does not actively flirt, it's not unheard-of for them to hint at attraction in smaller ways, and perhaps in time could show a more endearingly romantic - or even just friendly - side to their removed nature. If someone wished to pursue the leader, however, they would need patience and a thick skin, for the spike-furred chocolate tabby has a sharp tongue and scalding wit when their patience wears thin.
:While relatively egalitarian in leading style, Divestar does appreciate respect from their Clanmates. They respect opinions and ideas being shared but will not tolerate real disloyalty to the Clan, although they're even-tempered enough to be able to take being the butt of an occasional joke. As a teacher and mentor they are patient but firm until suddenly they aren't, although the youngling in question would need to put in a lot of effort to annoy them that severely. If their relationship with a cat is close, most interactions are quietly humorous as Divestar relaxes more around those they has meaningful connections with.
===Abilities===
:Divestar is a capable leader, their levelheaded and practical nature makes it easy for them to find common grounds and goals with other leading parties. They are at heart a lover of peace and do everything in their power to maintain it, however they are also a competent strategist and prefer to out-think rather than simply out-fight their adversaries, taking some small measure of pride in their Clan when these plans succeed.
:As their build dictates, Divestar is build more for speed and endurance than brute strength. As such their capacity for rational thinking and strategy serves them well in battle, as they cannot win simply by hitting harder than the often heavier opponent.
:Unlike many leaders, Divestar has little to no connection to StarClan. They instead place their faith almost entirely with the spirits of the waves and tide, with what faith remaining being devoted to trust in their own abilities. This lack of belief is concerning to some but as Divestar is a fair leader, any protest raised tends to be fairly quiet.
==Life/Biography==
:Divestar's father died before the four kits were born. Shallowreed felt his loss deeply but hid the pain from her kits, instead passing on to them the principles of respect and honour that Kestrelflare had valued while hiding her own grief, so as to leave their kithood untainted by pain. She bore it so they didn't have to. However, the grief ate away at her health and not long after the four were apprenticed Shallowreed succumbed to a bout of greencough and left to walk with the spirits of the moon and tide. Divestar and their siblings felt her loss keenly, though as she had taught them to mourn with dignity they managed to go about daily life, with Divestar's new mentor Swiftstrike proving himself a hard but fair taskmaster. The four completed their apprenticeships with relative ease, and moons passed with little event. Eventually Divestar was given their first apprentice, a serious cinnamon-and-white she-kit with an intense set to her young frame. Otterpaw was a learning curve, Divestar would set her one task and minutes later she'd be asking for a new one. To this day the two are firm friends and confidants, and Divestar likes to tell the Clan they had no other choice in mind for their deputy.
:Otterthorn was made a warrior early after assisting in defending against a marauding dog, and a couple moons later Divestar was made mentor again to Wavepaw. The lilac tabby was a polar opposite to solemn Otterthorn, lively and playful and brilliant, and Divestar found they thought of her almost like an endearing younger sister more than a student at times. The warrior worked closely with Heronpaw and his mentor in training Wavepaw, and began drawing Shellpaw and Huntermoon into some basic lessons as well. However, this was cut horribly short when on a hunting trip Wavepaw fell from the cliff and was killed, her body unretrievable. For the first time, Divestar felt a loss that they couldn't simply brush aside and the guilt at the young cat's death still eats at their core today.
:Not long after Wavepaw's death, the deputy of the time Sundust was killed by a greencough outbreak that also took Sagefoot's life, and Flickerstar surprised Divestar by naming them as her new deputy. So began a second apprenticeship, with Flickerstar instructing the spike-furred warrior in diplomacy and the logistics of leading a Clan. She had led the Clan for many peaceful years and lost her ninth life calmly in her sleep when Divestar was perhaps twenty-seven moons old, leaving them to ascend to leadership in the eyes of the wave spirits. They'd never put much though into faith and identity, but the dreams that they were blessed with led to a revelation of identity and they changed their entire name to reflect that. The ceremony was bittersweet, with lives given by familiar faces and those entirely new to them, including a strange calico who hailed from the Tribe of Endless Hunting.
:Immediately on returning to camp Divestar announced their choice of deputy, and so the the tabby warrior took on their driven and impatient apprentice yet again. As yet Divestar's rule has met with few challenges other than the loss of young Heronpaw and wise old Huntermoon in a freak windstorm, and they continue to lead fairly to this day.
:Several moons into their leadership, Divestar took on another apprentice, Larkpaw. Initially the young tabby rubbed Divestar the wrong way as they struggle to empathise with petulance. However, as is their way, Divestar eventually managed to connect with Larkpaw and remains close to her today even though she has finished her training.
==Lineage==
Mother:
:Shallowreed: Deceased
Father:
:Kestrelflare: Deceased
Brother:
:Sagefoot: Deceased
Sister:
:Rockrose: Alive
:Swallowfern: Alive
==Quotes==
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==Cameos==
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==Relationships==
Otterfern: Close working relationship, long-time friends.Shellskip: Sees as something of a younger brother, concerned for their mental health.
==Images==
===Life===
===Character Pixels ===
===Other Art and Colouring===
==Trivia==
Category:Cats with WPOSC Arts