History

The Clans didn't all start at the same time in roleplay, instead, they gradually became what they were today after certain events took place.
Below is the detailed history of each individual Clan.
A chronological list of rank succession for each Clan can be found here.
## MoonClan

### Official Founding

MoonClan was originally founded by Echo, a strong, heavy built warrior of a now distinct Clan called MarshClan. The original downfall of the previous Clan came about by a group of rogues who wanted the territory to themselves and believed Clan life was worthless. They drove out and killed a number of several cats, including the leader, Twistedstar, who hadn't had a deputy appointed at the time. The remaining cats in MarshClan scattered and formed their own groups, giving up their hopes in not only StarClan but Clan life in general. However, some followed Echo, who attempted to create his own new Clan in honor of the previous one. The Clan started out small, but grew in numbers quickly, and had several loyal warriors to help spread their territory and make their fierce new Clan known. Some even say the cats that passed away in the previous Clan are still watching down from StarClan today, and even sent several omens to Echo before his decision to found MoonClan.
Eventually, as all leaders do, Echostar passed away after losing the last one of his nine lives, and his deputy, Dapplestar, was given the next line of leadership. The Clan remained prosperous and well-protected by it's warriors, but another unfortanuate incident had almost ruined this. Dapplestar mysteriously went missing after a band of twolegs came closer into their territory and forced some of the cats to move out, and the Clan once again suffered a downfall in their number of cats. Before Dapplestar's mysterious appearance and later death, she allowed several Clanless cats to join and allowed some of them to keep their original names. She kept close watch of these cats, especially given their history with them, but those who weren't trusted were originally driven out or killed by other warriors. One of these cats was Maxwell, who she appointed as her deputy sometime before the mess with the twolegs.
### Middle Ages

Under Maxwell's new leadership, several changes happened throughout MoonClan and the Clan was shaped completely different under his ownership. He did his very best as leader to keep peace with everyone, including Clanless cats especially, considering their original fallout with them in their previous history. Maxwell also formed an allegiance with another group, CaveClan, who he and his cats aided in the time of war later on that would be against a huge group of rogues calling themselves DarkClan. CaveClan and MoonClan's allegiance came to a quick end as these rogues manipulated these cats to think that they had been stealing eachother's kits, attemping to steal territory, and killing eachother's Clanmates. A short war broke out between the two, but was eventually put to an end after finding out DarkClan had been manipulating them and doing all this themselves.
During Maxwell's reign as leader, the belief in StarClan shook these cats quite a few times after everything that had happened with them. Some cats were torn to believe in StarClan and some weren't, which eventually ended up creating problems of their own in the Clan. Maxwell quickly put this to an end and had given up the belief in StarClan himself, and the cats were no longer divided. However, some still had faith in StarClan's doings and would ask them for help, but recieved no message due to their lack of belief and anger shown towards them. At this point, CaveClan cats wanted nothing to do with MoonClan completely, and had a strong dislike for how much they had changed since Maxwell first began rule. They cut off communication and alliegiance with them entirely for their disbelief and small disputes of StarClan, but agreed not to attack them unless they were seen doing something suspicious near or on their territory.
Eventually, Maxwell and his mate gave birth to a son, who would eventually grow up to succeed him and be the next leader of MoonClan. Before his death, Maxwell trained his son to rule in line after him, and made it a law in the Clan that leaders may only be chosen by generations rather than just a random cat. He believed that this would be a bound of trust, but hadn't thought that this could eventually cause future problems and disputes between siblings if one hadn't been chosen for the leadership. Though MoonClan hadn't followed the same customs as the other Clans and was referred to as more of a group of loners and rogues rather than a family by other cats, Maxwell still led MoonClan to be powerful and worthy under his rule right up onto his death.
At one point after Maxwell's son, Smokestar gained leadership, he was sent several omens by StarClan along with his Medicine Cat. Smokestar slowly began to direct his cats towards the following of StarClan, and soon enough, once again, the Clan was whole and followed in the pawsteps of their ancestors. Today, this group and it's cats take pride in knowing they follow the rules and directions of their ancestors, and will always have Smokestar to thank, despite his father teaching him and so many others otherwise.
## CaveClan

### Official Founding

CaveClan was the first Clan out of all of them to be founded. They are known for having the deepest and darkest past of any other, struggling with leadership issues, alliances with rogues, and several more problems with quite possibly still occur today. The Clan was first founded as a tribe, and didn't operate as a normal Clan like other normal groups would. They had no belief in StarClan, all had one rank besides the Leader and the Healer, and had several generations passed down before it was officially named **CaveClan**. The first official cat to found CaveClan is unknown, but it was a group of cats who first lived in the mountains and moved their territory to a place with more prey and land to reside on.

Their official founding began with an unnamed tom who settled in the underground caves closer to the Loners & Rogues territory, which at first, began to be very peaceful - but as the saying goes, all good things come to an end. Since the territories were so close and prey was scarce at the time, CaveClan's leader had formed an alliance with these cats in order to keep peace and prevent war from breaking out. CaveClan's leader also proposed that he would allow some of these cats to join his Clan if they proved loyal enough to him and promised to always protect them, and to some of these cats, it began to seem like a dictatorship, and unfair treatment to them just because they weren't apart of their so called "Clan life."
### Middle Ages

Several of the Loners & Rogues began to question this alliance, and slowly cut themselves off of their "friendship" with the Clan entirely. A few of these cats, frustrated and wanting more privilege among these forest cats, formed their own little group that came to be known as DarkClan. The leader of CaveClan heard about the plots the rogues had, and immediately began driving them out of the territory and threatening their lives if they ever returned to CaveClan territory again. It was officially founded by Dark, and their territory was moved shortly to the western side of CaveClan. Despite the reputation DarkClan has today, it was originally based upon freedom, which meant these cats all worked together with each-other and had no rules.
These cats made plans to make their way back to CaveClan, now in larger numbers and much stronger than before - and they definitely didn't feel obligated to be "protected" by the Clan cats any longer. They made demands to meet with the Clan's leader, and the first demand they had asked for was their own territory and hunting rights. Along with this, they had also asked they were recognized as a Clan, although they were considered savages by several of the CaveClan cats because of their choosing of a life with no rules or respect. At the time, CaveClan had been in a rather bad place - several cats were starving because prey had become scarce in the winter time, and cats were beginning to doubt the leader's abilities to actually lead the Clan.
In fear his own cats would turn against him and the DarkClan cats would slaughter all of them if he disagreed, he gave them approval and allowed the DarkClan cats territory rights and the right to live beside them once again. Peace was made between the two once again, however, CaveClan's leader was still doubted among several of his cats, and he was unaware of what the DarkClan cats had really been planning. The DarkClan cats made a plan to kill CaveClan's leader in attempt for an obsession over power, and carried it out quite successfully, as well as a mass slaughter of several of their cats - however, they mercifully allowed some of them to stay alive to fend for themselves, as they believed they had no longer had a leader.
Several days later, Dark and his group of cats recieved word that CaveClan's leader was in fact very much alive and well, and he had regained trust from the cats that had scattered after his small slaughter of his cats. Dark grew angry and demanded to know how this was possible, and sent several spies into CaveClan to find out what had happened. The spy he had sent out eventually reported back and told Dark that the leader of CaveClan had 9 lives - now 8 that he had killed him. Infuriated and still confused, Dark thought of this and demanded to know why and how. CaveClan's leader grew severely ill, which gave these rogues an opportunity to sneak into the Clan and go undercover to temporarily join and try to figure out how he had nine lives. Several of the warriors explained to them that it was the work of StarClan - and that the DarkClan cats, as well as any other Loners & Rogues, could not receive these 9 lives because they had not believed in these traditions. However, Dark didn't understand this and furiously demanded to speak with these so called "StarClan" cats at the moonstone.
Because it was a sacred place of StarClan, and they hadn't believed in them, the CaveClan cats refused to tell - which made the relationship of the two Clans even poorer. DarkClan had refused to have a Medicine Cat or a healer of any kind because of their connections with StarClan. Some cats had knowledge of herbs and could use them to heal themselves, but there was never an official medicine cat of any sort.
CaveClan's leader began losing lives relatively quickly due to the illness that had struck, which only made him weaker and weaker. Once he had passed, a new leader was appointed named Spiderstar. In attempt to decrease the size of CaveClan to nothing, the DarkClan cat's pushed it's ideal of freedom. Rather than having one leader, Dark appointed his sister Ambrose to lead alongside him. This drew a few cats away and off of CaveClan territory, but they desired more and attempted to convince and manipluate cats from CaveClan to join them instead - explaining that Spiderstar and his way of life were weak, and that the rogues have always been and always will be much stronger.
DarkClan continued to have its disputes within CaveClan, including the stealing of kits, murder of cats, and manipulation between its members; but before long, attacks and arguments with the Clan lessened, and the real fights took place within DarkClan itself. Several cats would fight about wanting more power and pushing CaveClan out of the forest entirely, and the Clan was slowly breaking itself apart. The ideal of freedom and the Clan running itself not working out very well in the end. The cats who had left CaveClan to join the rule-free DarkClan bowed their heads in shame and returned to their home Clan to once again serve Spiderstar.
After many moons, DarkClan decided that it would attempt to lure CaveClan into their mountain territory by making them extremely enraged. In the end, they'd cause an avalanche, thus destroying the CaveClan filth on the mountain. The Clan aimed to steal the leader's kits, and succeeded, luring the Clan to their mountain.
However, the plan backfired majorly. The avalanche was caused too soon, ending the lives of multiple DarkClan cats that had been trapped down below, including Dark. They did succeed in killing off a few CaveClan warriors as well, but hadn't thought their plan fully through. They ended up destroying some of their territory, and in the end, had to move out. Several of Spiderstar's cats had also chased off other DarkClan cats, and majorly wounded Dark's sister, Ambrose. Ambrose had eventually passed from lack of blood and her severe injuries, and only a few of these lawless cats remained. The rest of the DarkClan cats that escaped with their lives followed their own way of life and eventually left the forest to roam the twoleg place, knowing if Spiderstar and any other of the CaveClan cats had found them, they would be dead just like the two founders of their Clan.
Shortly after the destruction of DarkClan, Spiderstar appointed a new deputy, Heronwing, who eventually came to be known as the best thing that had happened to CaveClan, and one of the most reliable leaders. CaveClan had finally settled down on all of it's rogue drama, and went several moons without any trouble or disputes with other Clans. Once Spiderstar was old enough, he stepped down and allowed Heronwing to take his place, and StarClan had called on Heronwing to be the new leader - and for them, the best leader they ever had.
## SplashClan

### Official Founding

SplashClan was originally founded by a cat now known as Shellstar, and is said to be one of the "older generation Clans." The founding of this Clan first came of when Shellstar, at the time being named Shellstrike, left CaveClan due to all of the problems that had arose with DarkClan. Shellstrike was put in the middle of a bad situation, and although he was loyal to CaveClan at the time, thought that it was better to leave than be put in between the fued and possibly lose his and his mate's life, whom had been carrying his kits. Several other cats had left to go with him, and he formed his own small group of cats that had agreed CaveClan and it's leader was going to fall due to all the problems that had come up.
One of these cats included was a cat named Adderheart, who eventually had birthed Shellstar's kits. Adderheart and Shellstar gave birth to two healthy newborns, Birchkit and Thistlekit. Although SplashClan was a small group at the time, it grew rapidly as several other cats who had been chased out of their original Clan by Rogues came to join them. It's purpose was never exactly to exist for the sole purpose of keeping the forest safe from rogues, but at this point, something had needed to be done. SplashClan was said to be peaceful at first, and a last resort for anyone to get away from all the "drama" that had been happening- but it soon turned to be one of the Clans with a dark history behind it.
### Middle Ages

Soon enough, with everything that had been happening, Shellstar began to lose hope in StarClan, wondering why they would allow everything to go the way it did. In some sort of way, he felt that he was doing "StarClan's work" by allowing several cats into the Clan that needed refuge after DarkClan and the rogues attacked. Although when Shellstar first made the Clan and StarClan agreed to give him nine lives, the cats who had given him these lives definitely would not have approved of his next few decisions. At this point, Shellstar had made his own morals and law of right and wrong, and during a gathering, he encouraged the other Clans to do this as well. Although most of the other Clans didn't agree and wanted to put the past with the Loners & Rogues behind them, he continued to do what he thought was right. Soon enough, a massive slaughter of Rogues was due, if they were even so much as scented near the territory or somewhere outside of it. No one in this Clan at the time had trusted them, and they certainly weren't about to disobey the leader's orders.
Although Birchflight, who was Shellstar's son, didn't agree with what was going on at all, he kept quiet, and hoped that someday he would get a chance to make things right by following in his father's footsteps. Other cats in SplashClan disagreed with this law as well, and some even decided to attempt to "sneak in rogues" that weren't considered dangerous to keep them safe, and add more members to the Clan. Birchflight eventually got his wish, and was appointed deputy by his father. His father was assassinated by a large group of rogues a few days later, and Birchflight was then given the role of leadership. Birchflight gave his childhood friend, Darkfang the deputy role, and hoped that now being leader, everything would calm down and he could undo some of the damage his father had done.
tbc.

## SpringClan

### The Beginning

SpringClan was originally founded by a tom named Coriander and a small group of closer cats that were Loners. These cats that were a notable part in creating this group were Gia, Atlas, and his later to-be mate Myrna. Together, the 4 of them formed and created the foundations for what SpringClan is today. SpringClan's territory was not always as small as it used to be, and has expanded quite well throughout the years after it's creation. Sadly, Gia passed away a few generations after the founding, but most of the traditions have already been set up by then.
The beginning and settlement of SpringClan's territory was perhaps the most peaceful out of all the other Clans, but it still didn't come without some sort of trouble. A small dispute between Codes that should be followed arose between Atlas and Coriander, and some of their cats began to disregard the rules of the codes completely. Coriander was known throughout SpringClan and the other Clans to be a formiddable oppenent who stood his ground and never gave up on what he believed in.
SpringClan cats in their early days were known for breaking almost every law of the Warrior Code after it's creation from all the leaders, and this is what they are judged the most for today. Eventually, Atlas stepped down and gave his full share of leadership to Coriander. Although SpringClan had a rough beginning, Coriander shaped them up before he passed away, and although his mate never really cared about leadership as much as he did, she continued to keep the cats in tact after his unfortunate passing.
### Middle Ages

After the passing of Coriander, Myrna gave birth to a she-cat who would eventually be one of SpringClan's next leaders, Dawnwhisper. At this point, SpringClan had a new appointed leader by the name of Shrewstar, who eventually appointed Dawnwhisper as his deputy once he saw fit.
Before becoming Shrewstar's deputy, Dawnwhisper trained under him for several moons as an apprentice and continued seeking guidance from him as she ranked up to a warrior and eventually deputy. He was mostly a father figure to her and the one she never got to meet, but she was proud to know her father founded such a strong noble Clan and still carries on it's legacy even after his death.
Shortly after Shrewstar was close to loosing the last two of his lives, some of the SpringClan cats were chased out of their territory due to the Twolegs building their own homes closer in the forest. A patrol of cats along with Dawnwhisper were sent out in attempt to find more territory away from the twolegs that had been moving out, however, an unfortunate event caused Dawnwhisper to be killed along with one other cat being severely wounded on the patrol. A pack of dogs had attacked them and drove some of the cats even farther back into their territory, but when it came time closer to leafbare, all of the twolegs left and the SpringClan cats were free to move farther back into their original territory.
## Other History

Due to some of the past histories with the Clans, several minor things had happened that shaped the future of the Clans and their decisions. Because of the previous history with DarkClan, and several other attacks, at one point, Loners & Rogues were considered a major threat and ordered to be killed if seen on territory by any of the Clans. In the past, some of the Clans had decided to follow their own law of morals rather than StarClan's, which had resulted in a massive slaughter of these cats, whom at the time, they referred to as "Outsiders".
Although this was a huge issue in the past, more shed light upon in the fanfiction A Paw In Two Worlds, the Clans no longer follow this law and the groups live in peace, all avoiding conflict with Loners & Rogues if at all possible. Small fights break out occasionally during leaf-bare because of prey and territory issues, but most of the time everything remains calm, and the past stays behind them.