Spiderberry

A lean, long-legged tom with an average build. He has a soft tail and compact paws. He is primarily a dark, smoky-gray colour, with an even darker patch on his back, and the same coloured stripe on the base of his tail. He has a large, dark grey spot on his forehead, and spotts the same colour on his cheeks and back - plus a stripe leading from the base of his cheek, past his eye and ending behind his ears on both sides of his head. His muzzle is a ginger colour resembling berries. The same colour can be found on his chest, stretching under his belly all the way to the tail, plus his feet and the entire back of his legs. He has a light, cream patch at the end of his tail, and a heart-shaped one on his throat.

Cold, ambitious and vain. Spiderberry has high expectations from those around him that he expects them to fulfill. He has a strong dedication to his clan, to the point that he doesn't concern himself with the business of other clans (frankly, who needs gatherings?). He believes that power is the most important thing in life to have, and those that don't have a high drive or ambition to achieve it aren't worthy of StarClan's grace. Another one of his strong albeit perhaps slightly delusional beliefs is that StarClan only looks down kindly upon those in a place of power - the rest are simply stepping stones to something greater, and those cats should always show respect to their superiors (he especially doesn't look down kindly on kits. In his eyes, they're useless to the clan until they undergo their warrior training and receive their full name. He doesn't get along well with apprentices, either.) 

Despite his controversial and sometimes harsh beliefs, his drive to make his clan the best is one of the things that landed him the position of deputy. He is a rather authoritative cat that works incredibly hard, which earns him the begrudging respect of his clanmates. He looks out for only those that believe in his ideals and are willing to follow and support him (favouritism amongst his clanmates), which has also led to a strange sense of loyalty forming from quite a few of his clanmates. His leader admires Spiderberry's calculated nature, but is at times suspicious of his secrecy and occasional air of mystery

Spiderberry has a slightly dark history that has formed the way he is now. His father used to be an unstable, unreliable, emotionally and physically manipulative cat with a heart harder than stone that never truly cared for his son. Despite this, his father was incredibly controlling and critical of Spiderberry ever since he was a kit. Part of the tom's delusional ideology was actually born of his father, as he had learned early on that StarClan looked down on those not in a position significant to them, and that the only way to make anything of life is to have power. That was all that mattered.

His mother had not been any better. She had been entirely neglectful of Spiderberry. Upon his birthday, she had instantly given him to another queen that kindly raised him. He had been the only one in his litter, but his foster queen's litter was a fair deal larger. This only complicated growing up, as, although the kind she-cat did her best to feed and take physical care of him, emotionally she was exhausted from having to look after so many kits, so she never truly had time to create a meaningful bond with him. Plus, his father did not help. While his adopted siblings grew up in a happy and functional family with both loving parents, Spiderkit's own father shunned and berated him, ensuring that he was as distant from his foster mother as possible so that his father would be the cat closest to him, all so he could take advantage of his son and make the young tom do his bidding. Thus, Spiderberry never really had the opportunity to attach to a caretaker, or to create meaningful relationships that might have prevented him growing into the cat that he is today.

Some moons after Spiderberry's apprenticeship ended and Spiderpaw was officially no more, his father had mysteriously disappeared. The clan had searched for him fruitlessly, but there had been no scent to track and no trail to follow. It was almost like he had evaporated into the cold, pine-scented air, and for good. His son didn't grieve.  In fact, it might be noteworthy to remark that he didn't even seem to be particularly surprised, either. He still had his mother, of course, but their relationship was non-existent and they treated each other as strangers, while his distance from his step-mother remained as strong. All Spiderberry felt was coldness and hatred towards his father after all that he had put him through, but he was also grateful to him - in somewhat of an eerie way - about teaching him how cruel and unjust the world was, and that in order to not be dominated by it, he had to dominate the world instead. And, so, his ambition brewed in the dark corners of his mind, fuelled by the anger his father had left behind.

Not interested in much, including sleeping, eating or other forms of self-care, Spiderberry worked incredulously hard to prove to everyone, especially his leader and perhaps partly his missing father, that he was stronger than the world, and that he was determined to succeed at any cost - even if the cost was his life. His spark had actually begun early in his apprenticeship, as he was motivated to become a warrior as soon as possible. He made sure to flawlessly memorise every instruction, move and technique, especially taking even greater care in memorising the warrior code, in such a cold way that blew away and sometimes also worried his mentor. Mostly though, it left the older tom impressed. He made sure to push his apprentice, who devoured every bit of extra knowledge and training with a steely hunger. Eventually, there was nothing left for Spiderberry to learn. At his mentor's recommendation, Spiderpaw became a warrior way earlier than any of his denmates, and perhaps much earlier than any apprentice had for a very long time, if ever. 

Spiderberry's early warrior ceremony had been an accomplishment in of its own, but, of course the blaze of his ambition was only grew preceding his warrior years. He worked harder than anyone in his clan, patrolled vehemently, and followed the warrior code to the letter. This made his clanmates notice him even more, and more and more cats began to respect and endorse him. He received his apprentice rather soon for a cat as young as himself, and soon enough, the old deputy had died. His leader had first considered appointing a more experienced warrior, but Spiderberry's drive had left a strong impression on the leader. Combined with the growing respect his clanmates seemed to have for him, his leader decided that one day, Spiderberry would become leader one way or another, and it would be best for the young tom to learn as much as he could from the current leader. Spiderberry has since embraced his role and strove to work even harder, this time also expecting his clanmates to do the same by pushing them along.