Post by Rebecca on Dec 24, 2009 14:57:44 GMT -5
I was hoping the members of Starless would be interested in helping me with the last two things, a review more so than finding links.
Feel free to add anything that you feel has been missed in any of the sections. (:
The guide:
Introduction
Before you start to read this guide, you must understand that when someone says they would like to role play 'Warriors', they want to role play cats. Unfortunately, Warriors is not a genre about sweaty, sword-wielding body builders. You must be horribly disappointed.
The Warriors role play topics you see on the boards and in guilds are based off of the book series by Erin Hunter.
(Before you start to role play Warriors, I highly suggest that you read the first book or read a summary on it.) Warrior cats live in the wild with one another in a group, or clan. The common goal of all Warriors cats is to survive. Although Warriors role plays are different from high school, vampire, gifted, wolf, Harry Potter and every other role play genre plot-wise, we are not from a different world.
As in every other role play, ooc and bic are best friends. You cannot god-model or power-play, and using Mary/Gary-sues and chat speak does not make anyone happy. In other words, all the basic role play rules apply, along with others. However, we'll get to them later.
Warriors Hierarchy
Before you dive right into Warriors, there are a few things you should know about the series.
There is a ranking system for clan cats. It would be best for you to know these rankings before you even begin to role play Warriors. These rankings are in order from the most important position to the least so.
Clan Leader : Each leader is chosen by the previous leader and granted nine lives by StarClan, the ancestors of the clan, when they become leader. Once each leader receives his/her nine lives, the -star suffix is used in their name.
(Ex. Snowflower would become Snowstar.) Each leader chooses a deputy, or the cat that will take over as leader when the current leader runs out of lives. The leader of a clan carries out ceremonies, chooses a deputy, communes with StarClan, and is the first cat to march into battle. They are the most trusted and relied upon cat in their clan.
Deputy : Each deputy is chosen to be the next leader of a clan by the current leader. The deputy's duties are to send out border and hunting patrols and are looked to for advice when the leader and medicine cat are not available.
Medicine Cat : The medicine cat is the clan's healer and must be able to focus wholly on their work to keep the clan healthy and strong. For this reason, medicine cats are not allowed to have a "mate", "significant other", "partner", "beloved'" or "love".
The medicine cat knows the names of most herbs, how to use them, and how to mix them to make medical poultices. Medicine cats are not usually fighting in battle and are respected by all clan cats, in the same clan as the medicine cat or otherwise.
Medicine Cat Apprentice : Assigned to the medicine cat instead of being made a regualr apprentice, the medicine cat apprentice is the medicine cat in training. When the current medicine cat dies, the medicine cat apprentice takes their place. They are shown what to do with herbs, how to stop bleeding, how to diagnose a sickness, etc. They are also taught how to fight, but there is not much of an emphasis on this.
Elder : Usually oldest cats in the clan, elders are excused from all warrior duties and tended to by the apprentices. The elders are cats who have served their clan all their lives and are now too long to continue to do so.
A warrior may become an elder early if the warrior is permanently maimed and cannot continue to serve the clan.
Queen : A she-cat who is expecting or nursing kits. They are excused from warrior duties in order to raise and look after their kits.
Warrior : A cat who serves his/her clan. Warriors hunt for the clan, defend the clan, fight against other clan cats, mark borders, and train apprentices. They are the heart of the clan.
Apprentice : A young warrior-in-training. An apprentice is assigned a warrior a mentor to teach them how to hunt, stalk prey, recognize borders and scents, and fight. When the mentor finds the apprentice is ready, the apprentice is given their warrior ceremony and name. An apprentice's duty is typically to hunt, tend to the elders of the clan, and perhaps fight in a battle.
Kit : Another name for a kitten. At the age of six moons (six months in our time), a kit receives his/her apprentice ceremony. A kit and his/her siblings are cared for by their mother in the nursery.
Terms
Like other animal role playing genres, there are different names for everyday things. These terms should be able to help you understand Warriors a bit more.
Twoleg: A human.
Twoleg nest : A house.
Twoleg monster : A car.
Thunderpath: A road.
Kittypet: A domestic pet cat.
Loner : A cat who typically prefers not to be in any clan and wishes to live alone or with one other cat, usually means no harm to clan cats.
Rogue : A cat who lives alone, most likely to dislike clan cats and or attack them for one reason or another.
Toms and She-cats : Tom = Male Cat
She-cat = Female Cat
Gatherings: A time at which all clans peacefully come together and discuss the going-on in their clans. Gatherings are held on full moons.<br>
StarClan: The ancestors of clan cats who watch and guide the clans. StarClan cats are honored and revered by the clan cats, and the clan cats who do not believe in StarClan are usually frowned upon.
Silverpelt: The night sky.
Moonstone/pool/whatever : The thing that clan leaders and medicine cats commune with StarClan. They commune with StarClan by pressing their nose against the object, falling asleep, and have a dream in which StarClan speaks to the cat. This object could be a stone, rock, pool, or whatever you decide it should be. The name of the thing generally starts with Moon- as a prefix and what the thing actually is as a suffix.
(Example: If what the cats used to commune with StarClan was a rock, it would be called 'Moonrock'.)
Ceremonies : A process in which a cat enters a higher rank in the clan cat hierarchy.
Fresh-Kill Pile : Cats who are old and skilled enough hunt for prey to feed their clan. The fresh-kill pile is the name of the pile which they place their kill. Any cat in the clan is allowed to take and eat from the fresh-kill pile.
Sharing Tongues : When two cats lick each other and share the days' events with one another. No, the cats who share tongues with one another are not romantically involved. You sickos. :0
Your Character
Yes, the best part of the role play: Your character. They can be a clan cat, a rogue, a loner, a kittypet, or anything in between. However, there are things you should know when you're creating your character.
We'll divide this into three parts:
The appearance
The name
The personality/history
The Appearance [/u]
- Try to restrain yourself from making a dragat (Half dragon, half cat), or anything that is not realistic. So no, your character should not have angel wings or a halo, a lizard tail, be able to lay eggs, fly, have a unicorn horn, be able to transform into a human, etc.
This is a Warriors role play. Not a fantasy one.
- There is no such thing as a white tabby.
- White cats with blue eyes are most often deaf. Prepare to explain if your character is a fluffy white cat, has blue eyes, and is not deaf.
- Unless they were once a kittypet and joined a clan, it is very rare and would require a lot of explaining and genetic reasoning for a Siamese, Bengal, or any other "rare" type of cat to be in a clan.
- Calico and tortoiseshell tom cats are an extremely rare and sensitive subject. Some role players claim that it is physically impossible for a calico to be a tom, others say that it is possible however the calico tom would have severe medical issues that would disable it in the wild; others say that it is possible and nothing would be wrong with the calico tom. The same notion applies with the tortoiseshell tom. Use these characters with caution .
- Solid-colored cats and tabby cats are usually what you can find in a clan. There are many different colors of cats that you can choose from in many different shades.
The Name
A cat is named after something it resembles at birth, so a brown kitten could be named Sparrowkit. When a kit becomes an apprentice, its name is changed to show that it is an apprentice.
Sparrowkit becomes Sparrowpaw.
When an apprentice becomes a warrior, it receives its warrior name. Sparrowpaw becomes Sparrowheart.
If Sparrowheart were to become deputy and then leader, Sparrowheart would become Sparrowstar.
Names matter a lot to Warriors role players. You may not be able to join a board if you decide to use a certain name. Why is this?
Some believe that names should be simple and desrcibe the personality and appearance of the cat as names were in the original Warriors books (Traditional namers). Others believe that traditional names are boring and overused, so they create their own prefixes and suffixes (Creative namers) usually only based on the flow of a name, how the name sounds, or on a history of some sort.
Traditional Name Examples: Snowflower, Lepoardtail, Whitefang
Creative Name Examples: Lunarwind, Autumnbreeze, Waterlily, Simpleheart
There is a huge difference between both, and it's up to you to choose which type to use. However keep in mind that to traditionalists creative names are irrational, idiotic, and illiterate. There is a chance that you will be bashed for using the name Lunarwind on a role play or asking for it be rated on a rate board.<p>
Personality/History
So, you've got the name and the appearance, correct?
Good. Now you need a personality and a history.
Your character's personality can have many traits. They can be: Lonely, irritable, good-natured, depressed, impatient, kind, motherly, defiant, etc. Personalities are usually in sync with a history. So if your character's parents died a horrible death in front of him/her, they might be depressed and irritable because of this. Remember not to go overboard with the histories of your character; this is like any other role play. If you need help on this, view Blizz's help page on characters. You wouldn't have Cheryl come from Mars in your average high school role play, would you?
Hopefully not.
Examples
Good History Example:
Darkstorm was born to two loners: Janie and Stone. Darkstorm's loner name was Night. When Darkstorm was very young, Stone was killed by a twoleg monster and Janie had to fend for Darkstorm and herself. Janie was eventually attacked and killed by a fox when Darkstorm was seven moons old, and he found himself unsure of what to do. Luckily, Darkstorm found MarshClan. The clan was in need of warriors and did not have many apprentices or kits, and Darkstorm was not hostile towards them. He was accepted into their clan and made an apprentice. Darkstorm's former name, Night, was changed to Darkpaw and then Darkstorm when he became a MarshClan warrior.
Why it Works : Loners usually hold nothing against clan cats, so it wouldn't be a huge controversy for a loner to join a clan for protection, shelter, and or food as Darkstorm did. Janie and Stone also died deaths that make sense. Although upset by this loss, Darkstorm moved on and didn't decide to kill a bunch of twolegs and foxes in revenge.<br> (Please note that Darkstorm would probably not be able to kill a human or fox {by himself} anyways.)
Bad History Example:
Darkstorm was born to two rogues: Janie and Stone. Darkstorm was originally named Night. Janie and Stone hated clan cats and raised Darkstorm to be as such. Darkstorm loved his parents and followed their every order, until one day a meteor fell from the sky and killed Darkstorm's parents! Darkstorm luckily escaped with out much harm, but his left ear was badly torn. Darkstorm was very upset, but the meteor had destroyed him and his parents' den, so Darkstorm had no choice but to move into the cold meteor that night. One day Darkstorm met a clan: MarshClan. Darkstorm decided to join them and now serves as a loyal warrior.<br>
Why It Doesn't Work: Rogues hate clan cats and some will even go out of their way to harm clan cats. A cat raised by rogues and never being taught anything different would be prejudiced; in other words Darkstorm would have rather died than joined the Clan. Also, why would he have just randomly decided to join them after just meeting them?
Why would the Clan have let Darkstorm join them after just meeting him?
Secondly, the chance of a meteor "falling out of the sky" are extremely slim and the chances of Darkstorm surviving this without being killed are slimmer yet. Darkstorm would also have been so scared of the meteor he probably would have left the forest, not have decided to make it his new home.
Mistakes
These are a few of the most common and or stupid mistakes you could make during a Warriors role play. So obviously if you make a few of these in a role play you invite critique, which most people like to avoid. Keep these things in mind when role playing!
Do Not
- Have your character be the daughter or son of a medicine cat. Medicine cats are strictly forbidden to have a beloved and kits.
- Make your character, who is the clan leader, under twelve moons old. This leader is apprentice/young warrior age, while he should probably be around twenty or thirty moons.
- Have your queen, who just announced she was expecting to her beloved in your last post, have her kits in your next post. Nature works in strange ways, but nothing that strange.
- Let you apprentice be able to hunt/fight better than their mentor right after they were apprenticed. All cats have a natural ability to fight yes, but the idea of a young apprentice being better than an experienced warrior is idiotic.
- Have your new-born kit be able to run around and talk (meow) the second after they were born and let them be born with an eye color other than blue. It takes time for every new creature to advance; no newborn has been able enough to walk and talk before. Do not think your character is an exception, because that can be seen as god-modeling.
Kits are born with their eyes closed, all born with blue eyes and their eye color changes over time.
- Let your cats leap from tree branch to tree branch like the ninja off of Naruto. Cats climb up trees, but are too afraid to come back down. Do you really think they would like to jump from limb to limb like a deranged bird?
- Put the setting in a place where it is almost impossible to live. So sorry, but it's not a good idea for SnowClan to be located in Antarctica unless they were a civilized herd of arctic foxes.
- Let your character double as leader and medicine cat. Both are full-time jobs and one character alone cannot handle them both. Unless of course, your character is Firestar. (- Jokeisobviousjoke.)
- Call a she-cat a female cat and a tom a male cat. There are proper names that describe the genders of cats.
- Capitalize the first letter of the suffix in a warrior name. You should only be capitalizing the first letter of the prefix.
Example: RussetClaw
- Only capitalize both the first letter of the prefix for the clan name. You <i>should</i> be capitalizing the first letter of the suffix, too.
Example: Dustclan
Helpful Links[/b]
Now that you've finished reading Rebecca's guide, hopefully you've learned a thing or two about role playing Warriors. These are links to even more Warriors help pages.
End Guide
...which still need to be found. I'm too lazy to post the URLs to the guides I found but they are: Ten's Naming Guide and Dawn's Naming Guide.
Hopefully this guide isn't a total failure, haha.
