Forum History

## Year One

Blood (formerly known as Shadowstar), a past leader of WaveClan who was overthrown and exiled, returned to the coast and began to violently attack cats of all the Clans, even killing MeadowClan's medicine cat, Firefeather. WaveClan's current leader, Shardstar, attempted to face Blood alone in order to defeat him, but wound up losing his last life. Jaggedstorm, his son and deputy, then fought Blood in his stead, fulfilling a prophecy given to the Clan's medicine cat, Pebblenose, earlier on by finally killing Blood. Jaggedstorm assumed leadership as Jaggedstar immediately afterwards, appointing a senior warrior named Pinefern as his deputy.

In MarshClan, a rogue named Rust was found on the territory, and was brought into camp when he demanded to see the Clan leader. Rust pretended to come begging for food for him and his starving, nonexistent mate and kits — however, Reedstar and Scarletflower quickly determined that, despite his claims, Rust didn't look malnourished, nor did he smell of kits, and opted to remove him from the camp, as the coming leafbare put the care of their own cats as a priority. However, one of the Clan's kits — a small tom named Lionkit — felt sorry for the rogue, and snuck out of camp in the middle of the night to bring Rust prey. Rust then attacked, toyed with, and ultimately killed Lionkit, leaving his body on MeadowClan territory to incite war between the two Clans; Rust's daughter, Petaldust, had been taken in to MeadowClan some time before, after she fled from Rust's abuse, and Rust took her joining after the Clan drove him off as a betrayal. Reedstar confronted MeadowClan's representatives about the matter at the following Gathering, but ultimately investigations concluded that Rust was responsible, and MarshClan and MeadowClan did not fight, though tensions remained high between the Clans for some time afterwards.

From there, rogue activity increased around all of the Clans, though particularly around WaveClan. Violent rogues, (mostly) led by a tom named Barrett with a sworn grudge against Jaggedstar, attacked and injured various cats along the borders and in the Clan's territory, causing distrust for outsiders and general unrest to rise within the Clan. A pair of rogues named Claw Shadow and Lonely Flower attacked and abducted MarshClan's medicine cat apprentice, Moonpaw, spilling blood and covering the area in fox scent in order to make it appear as though she had been killed by a fox, rather than kidnapped. Twin rogues named Viper and Vixen attacked a pair of MeadowClan kits — Violetkit and Lilackit — that snuck out of camp through a few narrow tunnels, killing Violetkit and injuring Ashpaw when the apprentice arrived and attempted to defend the kits, leaving Ashpaw with lasting damage to her vision. Meanwhile, a mysterious rogue named Nyx began to attack cats of all the Clans, including injuring Twilightpaw of WaveClan, and killing Jumpstone and Eagleflame of MeadowClan, Birchpelt of WaveClan, and Goldentail and Hazelwing of MarshClan.

Amidst the prevalent rogue problem, a few internal Clan problems cropped up, as well. In MarshClan, Blazepaw, an arrogant, ambitious apprentice was apprenticed to Burnrunner, a warrior who, on the surface, acted sweet and kind — but who was, in reality, just as ambitious, and manipulative and cunning to boot; the two formed an alliance based on mutual goals, and began formulating a plan to take over MarshClan, then all three Clans. Leafbare brought a greencough outbreak to WaveClan, infecting many and killing an apprentice named Splashpaw, a loner staying in the Clan with his weeks-old kit named Black, and Falconkit, one of Jaggedstar's adopted kits, in addition to taking one of Jaggedstar's nine lives. Barrett's very specific grudge against Jaggedstar led the rogue to lead a raid of WaveClan's camp with several other rogues, injuring many WaveClan cats, killing a she-cat named Frosteyes, and costing Jaggedstar two of his lives. Though Barrett's forces were eventually either driven out or killed, leaving very few rogues left alive, the incident left a deep impact on many in the Clan, and even prompted Thunderheart to leave WaveClan along with two of her and Jaggedstar's kits (Brightkit and Shimmerkit) to live away from the Clan as loners.

The myriad of conflicts that the Clans faced with rogues came to a head at a Gathering. Rust collected allies after killing Lionkit, including Viper and Vixen, Claw Shadow and Lonely Flower, some exiled former Clan cats, and what remained of Barrett's forces, and devised a plan to attack all of the Clans on a full moon, after his careful surveillance of the Clans revealed to him that the Clans gathered at Heartstones every full moon under a truce, and was the cat leading the Gathering Attack.

A MeadowClan queen named Mistflower had also kitted early during the battle, giving birth to four kits, two of whom Mistflower took with her back to MeadowClan, while the other two were given to their father, Tallshadow of MarshClan, in secret, allowing him to take them back to MarshClan and raise them there. Moonpaw, who had been captive to Claw Shadow and Lonely Flower since she was taken from MarshClan, had escaped her captors during the battle, but, due to her blindness and the chaos around her, got lost outside of Heartstones and wandered away from Clan lands once more instead of reuniting with MarshClan. Those that were in mostly fit states were sent back to Clan camps to get assistance, and at dawn, cats from all Clans gathered to treat their injured Clanmates, help hurt cats back to their camps, and bury their dead.

## Year Two

Following the Gathering Battle, all three Clans struggled to provide for themselves while so many warriors were out of commission, the medicine cats working overtime to heal the wounded while the encroaching cold season made herbs more and more difficult to find. On top of these existing complications, some rogues from Rust's forces that had survived the Gathering Battle continued to harass the Clans; Barrett, his mate, and their two kits, in particular, continued to torment WaveClan cats around the Clan's borders, attacking and injuring patrolling cats, including apprentices Blackpaw and Shardpaw.

Though the conflict against the rogues briefly united the Clans, tensions began to brew between them again as leafbare set in. A patrol from each of the two Clans encountered one another at the MeadowClan and MarshClan border, and wound up getting into a skirmish: the MarshClan patrol claimed to have found MeadowClan scents on their side of the border, while the MeadowClan patrol denied having crossed the border, which resulted into Cherryfall of MarshClan losing her temper and attacking Thistlefish of MeadowClan. Though this did not result in war between the Clans, tensions heightened to the point that MeadowClan announced that they would refuse any and all aid to MarshClan that season, including medical assistance that might have otherwise been provided by the medicine cats. Around the same time, a sudden fish shortage in WaveClan caused mass starvation, as without fish and with seabirds having largely migrated elsewhere for the winter, the Clan was significantly weakened. As a result, a group of WaveClan apprentices — Fallowpaw, Shadepaw, and Sweetpaw — crossed MeadowClan's border and stole prey off of MeadowClan territory. Although it fed the Clan a bit better for a day or two, MeadowClan figured out what had happened and, when WaveClan refused to repay MeadowClan their stolen prey or give up extra territory for MeadowClan to hunt on, declared war on WaveClan.

The ensuing battles were brutal and bloody. MeadowClan cats, unaccustomed to doing combat on precarious cliffs, lost the first two battles they waged against WaveClan, with many of their warriors getting injured both fighting enemy warriors and falling from steep rock ledges. However, MeadowClan's deputy, Sedgestorm, instructed battle patrols to roll rocks down the cliffs at WaveClan warriors in the next two battles, subsequently turning the tides and winning those two battles for MeadowClan. In the fifth and final battle, neither Clan won — instead, Jaggedstar saved Halfstar's adoptive daughter, Coldbreeze, from falling to her death from one of the cliffs, ending up losing one of his lives in the process. The war was subsequently concluded through negotiation, just in time for the arrival of newleaf; MeadowClan negotiated to be repaid triple the prey that was initially stolen from them, but WaveClan got to keep the territory along the cliffs by the border.

Though there were still tensions between the Clans, things remained peaceful until late in greenleaf. At that point, the heat caused a fire to break out along the coast, in both MeadowClan and MarshClan's territories. Several cats sustained burns or throat and lung injuries from the smoke, in addition to each Clan sustaining casualties: in MarshClan, the two elders Bonescar and Morningfur, and in MeadowClan, an elder named Fogtrail and a new apprentice named Tunnelpaw both died, while Halfstar lost one of her lives. MeadowClan's evacuation of their camp was assisted by a rogue named Jock, who arrived in time to help evacuate some of the kits and apprentices, and was subsequently allowed to join MeadowClan for his deeds. The fire, though it did not affect WaveClan as it did the other Clans due to their rockier terrain, also spread to the very edges of WaveClan's territory and into some of the unclaimed woodland beyond, prompting Thunder and Shimmer (Jaggedstar's former mate and his daughter, respectively) to return to WaveClan for refuge.