Clangen: ShardClan

Two young cats, once lost to twolegs, have stumbled their way onto this ancient clan. Having found each other out in the wild by sheer grace of StarClan, Lilacpetal took Ospreypaw under his wing and began mentoring him, intending on finishing his warrior training even as they searched endlessly for SunClan. Unfortunately, it was not to be found; dirty, exhausted, and cold, the two cats found themselves on their last thread when they were discovered by a ShardClan patrol and brought to Flightstar. Given that this leaf-bare had been particularly hard on the clan, with several of the warriors perishing to ensure the survival of the kits, Flightstar decided to allow them to stay. Lilacpetal and Ospreypaw were just…tired, at this point. Tired of wandering, tired of searching for something they would never find. At least now Lilacpetal could fulfill his promise to Ospreypaw to see him become a warrior - in more than just name.

ShardClan is an ancient clan, with history going back longer than even the stars. When the first cats walked the earth and the night skies lay empty, it was three clans that ruled: LionClan, TigerClan, and LeopardClan. But in the face of such magnificent beasts, what were their smaller cousins, cats, to them? Nothing, or so the story goes. Too small to win in a fight against titans, cats were forced to prowl the unseeing darkness to survive. For with only the moon, waxing and waning, to light up the night sky, all creatures were equally blind in the dark. All creatures, except one: twolegs. And they were relentless in their hunt, felling titan after titan until all the creatures of the world feared them.

It was in this darkness that the first glimmer of another light appeared. Here the story has it that the cat who would become Shardstar was fleeing a twoleg hunting party, the towering creatures hot on her heels, and prayed desperately to whoever might be listening for salvation. A glimmer of light caught her eye, and she veered toward it, diving into the hole with outstretched paws. A hole that proved to empty out into what seemed like a void, where she fell almost endlessly, her terrified yowl convincing her pursuers of her impending demise.

And yet, she didn’t die. Oh, she hit the ground, and hard, breaking what felt like everything and anything in her body, but when she pulled herself half upright, it was to find herself surrounded by the ghostly forms of cats long gone. Cats that had been forgotten. They had stayed in order to provide light for the cats who had once sheltered here, where giants could not go, but in the wake of twolegs and their cleverness they had fallen, and all the dead remained trapped. “The darkness hurts us all as one; not since the first twoleg walked the earth has it been our shield against the world. Shatter the crystals. Free us, and we will light up your sky.”

With the very last of her strength, the cat did just that. Bright light exploded from the cracks as the spirits burst free, each soul rushing through her body in their bid for freedom, leaving little traces of themselves behind. And by the time the last soul had left the now dimly glimmering crystals, the cat was fully healed, filled with overflowing vitality. Whatever name she had before she cast aside; for the crystals had remade her. Shard, for the crystals that started it all. And star, for the souls that now lit the way. 

Nine times over would ShardClan’s founder come to die, and yet it was only on the ninth that she finally breathed her last, and took up her rightful position in pride of place among the stars. Even now, Shardstar shines the brightest: if you can find her in Silverpelt, you will never lose your way. And ever since has the clan remained, here in the very cave that once housed the first stars in the sky.