Duskstar's entire life was uneventful. He was a healthy (albeit small) kit who grew into a warrior and then was noticed by Wolfstar. He was never really the smartest cat, nor was he very good at being social, but he had his occasional moments of brilliance and Wolfstar saw potential. Once the old deputy retired, Wolfstar made Duskblaze the deputy and made his intent to train the cat into a suitable leader clear.

Mere moons later, Wolfstar was gone. He'd been so young, no one had expected his lives to be taken away so quickly, but Softoak's kits were threatened by a snake and he had leapt into action, killing the snake and dying multiple times from the venom shortly after. Duskstar was confused and scared and underprepared, but he did his best. Heeding Mallowshine's advice, he made Frost the deputy - despite the fact that he was originally a kittypet and hadn't taken a warrior name, he was a good strong cat with a good head on his shoulders and Duskstar was happy that his clan was pleased with at least one decision he'd sort of made.

A decision that they weren't nearly as pleased with ended up being Duskstar's choice to allow Stonelight to join the clan. At the time, Stonelight was a grown warrior from ShadowClan who was an odd yet friendly cat who went by any pronouns. Apparently, her father was in RiverClan and she wanted to experience the RiverClan lifestyle to see if she liked it more than being in ShadowClan. She did. Duskstar allowed both the trial period and the clan switch, which ShadowClan was okay with as a whole since they'd picked up a RiverClan warrior under similar circumstances just a few moons prior. Crowstar knew, reasonably, that as long as her clan was okay with it that she couldn't go to war with RiverClan over something petty like that that was ultimately her warrior's choice, but Stonelight had been not only her apprentice but her last living relative in ShadowClan, so she was quite upset with his choice. Upset enough to swipe at Duskstar over it, giving him the large nick in his ear. Instead of retaliating, Duskstar understood and forgave her, although Crowstar didn't necessarily want to be forgiven.

Despite nearly bringing RiverClan to a war, Duskstar had been fairly compassionate and truly did want what was best for RiverClan, although the other clan leaders still see him as a dumb kid and don't take him seriously. When ShadowClan went to war with SkyClan, Duskstar looked the other way, though it made him feel uneasy to see two clans fighting the way they were.