Sun-DrownClan

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Sun-DrownClan are a largely coastal group, controlling hundreds of miles of coastline. They have remarkably complex society, being the only group to have a distinction between healing and preaching, or fighting and hunting.

## Territory

Sun-DrownClan is a remarkably large clan, having one of the largest populations and overall territory space. However, the leader rarely knows every cat in the clan, and messages take a long time to travel the entire length of the territory, usually taking days.

Sun-DrownClan's territories consist of long stretches of coastline and coastal forests.

The territory is broken up into small parts, each part controlled by a separate camp.

## Society & Roles

### Roles

There are several roles in Sun-DrownClan. They go as follows:

* The leader. They lead the clan in battle and are the main diplomat. They do not organise hunting patrols, but do organise border patrols. They rarely know everyone in the clan, since they operate on such a large scale. They fight for the clan.
* The Kin: they can become leader. The best cat of the Kin will be the next leader. (In other words, the deputy only comes from the Kin.) They always fight for the clan, and are trained for battle from birth.
* The priests: They are those chosen by the "Sea Kin". They have no knowledge of medicine, and are solely dedicated to religion. They do not fight for the clan, but bless the clan to give them and edge. they do not mate.
* The healers: They are relatively uninvolved in religion (they still follow it), but know far more about herbs than lake medicine cats. They go to various camps, healing sick cats. They do not fight for the clan, but heal injured cats. They can have a mate and kit.
* The hunters: These are the common cats, who just hunt in their sub-territories. They live in small camps with about one or two other families. They fight for the clan sometimes.
* The builders: These cats build small camps for hunters to live in. They are trained specifically for this task, and know how to make dens far more effective than lake clan ones. They only fight in desperate situations, but they do set traps.
* The judges: These cats are only judges part-time, and are priests or Kin most of the time. They judge cats for breaking whatever rule system Sun-Drown clan uses. They might fight, depending on what their other role is.
* Tutors: These cats can be anyone, sometimes elders. They each specialise in one specific thing. Elders teach the apprentices tales of old, and various other tips. Other cats will teach the apprentices about what they do. Tutors may teach several apprentices at once. They might fight, unless they are a priest, elder, builder or healer. Sometimes there is a secondary tutor, who is usually an elder who is too old to demonstrate.

* Apprentices: These are cats in training, and they receive a tutor for the type of work they will do in life. They do not fight.
* Elders: Pretty well lake cat elders. They usually teach.
* Camp leaders: These are the cats that run a camp. They organize hunting and patrolling. They are usually the founder, or decendant of the founder.

### Practices

#### Training

Sun-DrownClan tends to train its apprentices in large groups. They believe that it is better to train in large groups because it maximizes the amount of training per head of population. Camps train their own apprentices, unless there are too many (which is extremely rare). If there are too many apprentices, they are sent to the nearest camp that can cope.

#### Religion

The Religion of Sun-DrownClan is very complicated, somewhere between StarClan and deities. They believe that their ancestors live in a fruitful land, with great golden coasts and dense forests, full of prey.

However, the ancestors would grow stronger with time and training. Sun-DrownClan believe that if you had an infinite amount of time on this earth, and were forever in your prime, with enough training you could grow so powerful you could be godlike. In their afterlife, the dead cats have so much time on their paws that they can train to manipulate objects. Objects that another spirit can manipulate are harder to manipulate, so usually there is only one spirit for the trees, for example. sometimes a spirit will be remembered by a single tree. (For example, Oak Pineshadow Builder (see "Naming"), is their spirit of trees. But there is a large birch used to remember his great-great grandkit, Black Pineshadow Builder. Black Pineshadow Builder is the spirit of that one tree, but Oak controls them all.

Major spirits:

Blue Shore Star, (she-cat) spirit of the ocean. The first leader of Sun-DrownClan and also the first cat to enter the "second life"

Sky Shore Star, (tom) spirit of the Young Sea (see "Geography"). Mate of Blue Shore Star.

Oak Pineshadow Builder, (tom) spirit of trees and nature.

Grey Clawrocks Birch, (she-cat) spirit of the earth. (This means rocks and dirt.)

Gold Rockshadow Preacher, (It's unknown what gender they were, but it is assumed that they were female) spirit of family. This includes love, kit-bearing and kinship.

#### Naming

When somecat is given a name, it is broken up into three parts:

* Their first name. This is said when they are addressed casually. Possible first names can be trees, colours or plants. It is usually to do with the kit's appearance.
* Their second name. This is the name of their camp of birth. If they are the founder of a camp, then they change this name, but if they move into a camp, they do not. Camps are named after local landmarks.
* Their third name. This is their family name. All cats of that line use it. They only change it if they are the founder of a camp. There are several lines, but the major ones go as follows:

1. The Stars. This is the line of leaders. Only somecat with the third name "Star" may become leader.
2. The Builders. These were the first people to specialize in building. Some prefer mentoring and hunting, though.
3. The Birch. These were hard-working, usually just hunters, but they had a lot of respect. They are the most widespread family.
4. The Preachers. These were the first people to speak of the second life. They are not always priests, ironically. Priests do not have to be Preachers to be Priests.
5. The Warriors. These were first fighters, loyal to the Stars. Now, however, they have a bad reputation of turning traitor and raiding (though there are some good Warriors). They are now rivals of the Stars.

When addressing formally, you would:

say the second and third name (to a superior),

say the full name (to one of equal importance),

or say the first and second name (to an inferior).

When addressing casually, you would say the first name.

#### Gatherings

Every new moon, camp leaders venture from all across Sun-Drown Clan's territory to congregate at the camp of Shore. They talk about various matters, announce births, apprenticeships, passing of apprentices and deaths. The leader keeps a tally of all able-bodied cats, should they ever need to go to war.

In a gathering, the leaders sit on a small stretch of sand in front of a large rock in the sand. The current leader sits on the rock to address the camp leaders.

Leaders of old camps, like Clawrocks, Pineshadow and Rockshadow sit nearer the front. The deputy sits at the foot of the rock, but (s)he is facing towards the camp leaders, not the leader. Leaders of newer camps sit at the back.

Note: The gathering does not actually take place on the new moon, but camp leaders start their journey on the new moon. The meeting takes place when the tide is far out.

#### Diet

Sun-DrownClan diets vary, depending where in the territory they are.

In most areas, exept Clawrocks, shellfish and other small oceanic invertabrae are delecacies. Apprentice hunters in these areas always know which are healthy and which are poisonous. In Clawrocks, these creatures are eaten, but are not as popular because they are very common. Clawrocks usualy trades them for other prey that cannot be found in their barren home.

Fish are common in Shore, and are eaten regularily. The current leader, Grey Shore Star, does not like fish and perfers forest prey and shellfish.

Pineshadow has access to dense forests and commonly the cats that live there eat rabbit, vole, shrew and other comon forest prey.

Rockshadow has plentiful prey, and usualy has a surplus. This is given to the island or sent north to feed Icepelt.

Icepelt cats eat whatever they are given. If they don't, they starve.

Goldpelt cats have a wide, varied diet due to the wide ecosystem their beaches hold.

## History

### Formation

Once, on a little island, not too far of shore of an unnamed land, a cat by the name of Blue Shore Star gained several followers. He built the largest camp ever seen on that island (for at that time it was divided into microgroups, with sorry excuses for camps). He took over the entire island, and declared himself leader.

His people liked him, but feared death. This problem became obvious when they were engaged in battle with the only remaining group on the island, who's name has been lost to the sands of time. The enemy had religion, and were not afraid of death. They threw themselves into battle, ready for anything.

One night, a cat by the name of Alder Shore Leaf had a dream. She saw her leader, in his nest. By this time Blue Shore Star was very old, and she watched him die in his sleep.

She then found herself in a new land, a vast, lush and empty land. She saw her leader, but he was like a young cat again. He said to her: "Do not fear death. That is but the fog over the path. It blocks your view of where you will go. The little kit shies away from the fog, afraid of not seeing what lies ahead. The knowing cat walks on, and faces the fog, fearing not the danger ahead. My people have been the little kit for too long. Let them be the knowing cat! Tell them of this land, the second life! Your line is no longer "Leaf". I name you "Preacher", so you may guide our cats through the fog of death."

And so she did. The clan no longer feared death, and conquered the enemy.

### The sand bridge

Some thousand moons later, it was noticed that one could wade most of the way to the mainland. Unfortunately, the mainland was still unreachable, due to choppy waters. (Scientific note: this happens in the real world. This is a growing sandbank.)

However, over the hundreds of moons that followed, the water grew shallower and shallower. One day, when the tide was at its lowest, there was a path all the way across. Over the following moons, the path grew wider. The clan decided to try to cross. They found plenty of food, so kept coming and going. One day, however, during LeafFall, a hunting party was trapped on the mainland. When a rescue part came the next day, they found that four of the five cats dead.

To avoid another situation like this arising, they set up a new camp. It was called "Rockshadow", due to the high cliffs that shadowed it.

They had now reached the mainland.

### Current state

Over time, they took over the coastline of the mainland, and met the clans that lived there. They settled peacefully along the miles of coastline.

## Geography

The island from which Sun-DrownClan comes from is relatively small, just off the west coast of the mainland. The sea in-between is called the young sea.

The western side of the island is rocky, with high cliffs and choppy waters that can possibly be fatal. The camp of "Clawrocks" is here.

The east is made up of hilly forests that meet flat, golden beaches. This is where the low-tide crossing is.

The north side has thick pines and steep beaches. The camp of Pineshadow is here.

The south side of the island is full of lush woodlands. This is where Sun-DrownClan comes from. The camp of "Shore" is here.

East, in the mainland, are the coastal sea cliffs of Rockshadow.

Far north of Rockshadow you will find Icepelt, the cold beaches where few cats live. Though poor in prey terms, it is near the FlurryClan border, and strategicaly important.

A little east of Rockshadow you will find Goldpelt. This is made up of open, golden beaches, rich in prey and very profitable.

Goldpelt and Icepelt are twin camps, in spite of the distance between them.

Sun-DrownClan borders on FlurryClan and PineClan

## Allegiances

Leader: Grey Shore Star

Everything else: N/A

*To be expanded. @derpprojava*

## Notes

* This clan was supposed to be semi-dystopian. They worship the first leader as a god, and only those of the "Star" line may inherit leadership.
* Camps are given to the eldest kit of the camp leader when the camp leader dies.
* This is a work in progress.
* If lighteningsnail agrees, Goldpelt might be a disputed area.