Far From Home | A Clan Creation Guide

Building a Clan - Method 1

Now that you have your setting and history together, the last step is to, of course, build the Clan you will be using in your fanfiction! There are multiple ways to put together a Clan, two of which I will be discussing below. The first starts with putting together your Clan hierarchy first, then creating family trees, and the second does somewhat the opposite, putting together family trees as you go. Both methods work, though I find the second a lot easier to do (especially in regards to genetics).

The reason why I bring up family trees is that I find a sore lack of them in a lot of fanfictions. The Clan revolves around the idea of family and loyalty to it, so why would such an important part be left out of the planning process? While I don't demand that everything is genetically accurate (though that will be discussed in a later part), it's nice to have an idea of who is related to who.

Relations can also help to add drama to a story, which is good to keep in mind.

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Method 1: Hierarchy to Family Tree

I think this is the preferred method of Clan creation throughout the fandom, which is why I put it first. As is obvious to all Warriors fanfiction writers, every Clan needs a leader, a deputy, a medicine cat, warriors, apprentices, queens, kits and elders (though the nursery and elders' den might be empty at times).

Keep in mind that a Clan should have about 25 - 30 cats, though those numbers can be greater in times of plenty and smaller in times of trouble.

Let's put together MoorClan, centuries after Lionstar's reign:

LEADER: FOXSTAR - ginger she-cat with green eyes
DEPUTY: SWIFTHEART - grey and white tom with amber eyes
MEDICINE CAT: NIGHTLEAF - black tom with amber eyes
MEDICINE CAT APPRENTICE: STORMWATCHER - grey tabby tom with amber eyes
WARRIORS:
BREEZEFUR - grey and white she-cat with green eyes
FIRETAIL - ginger tabby tom with amber eyes
CLOUDFEATHER - white she-cat with amber eyes
ASHFLOWER - grey and white she-cat with blue eyes
SNAKEFANG - brown tabby tom with amber eyes
ASTERPELT - cream tabby she-cat with green eyes
YELLOWSTRIPE - ginger tabby tom with amber eyes
GREYWHISKER - grey tom with amber eyes
DARKPOOL - black she-cat with amber eyes
DAWNPETAL - dilute tortoiseshell with green eyes
SAGETAIL - grey tom with green eyes
DUSTCLAW - brown tabby tom with amber eyes
KESTRELFUR - tortoiseshell with amber eyes
LARKSON - brown tabby she-cat with green eyes
GORSEFANG - brown tabby tom with amber eyes
PALEFUR - cream tabby tom with amber eyes

APPRENTICES:
CREAMPAW - cream tabby she-cat with green eyes
SANDPAW - ginger tabby tom with amber eyes
TIGERPAW - brown tabby tom with amber eyes
RATPAW - black tom with amber eyes
SPOTTEDPAW - dilute tortoiseshell with green eyes

QUEENS:
MOTHPELT - brown tabby she-cat with amber eyes; expecting kits

ELDERS:
GINGERPOOL - ginger she-cat with amber eyes
BLACKTHORN - black tom with amber eyes

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Now that you have your Clan, you can put together some family trees. Here's what I did, step by step, to create some family trees for this Clan:
- group your apprentices first, since there are less of them than warriors
- split your warriors into three groups: young, middle, senior (don't forget to add your leader, deputy and medicine cat/med cat apprentice here!)
- find your apprentices' parents first (probably young or middle age)
- now, you have two options: have the senior warriors be parents to the middle and the middle to the young OR have the senior warriors be parents to both (as in multiple litters); you can also use a mix of the two
- group the warriors into litters and find them parents (elders & deceased count!)

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That's a really rough guide on how to create family trees and I find it's much easier to go from the youngest up rather than eldest down (though that might just be my personal preference). It might take you a few tries, especially when you start getting into littermates/mates because I like to avoid incest where possible. If they're second or third cousins down the line somewhere, it's probably alright since no one will be following along your family tree throughout the story.

You should also remember that the world of Warriors is a bloody one and cats die pretty much all the time. So, once you're finished sorting your living cats into a family tree, you can also add some deceased siblings or shuffle around mates to create room for those who have gone to join StarClan.

Also, cats don't actually mate for life, so couples don't necessarily need to stay together. I, personally, find this a little weird when applied to Warriors, as the cats are depicted as very faithful in canon, but it could provide a good twist!

Here's the family tree I put together for this Clan (deceased are in italics):

Gingerpool x Sorrelfur
= Foxstar, Firetail, Heatherstorm
= Asterpelt, Yellowstripe

Breezefur x Blackthorn
= Nightleaf, Swiftheart, Batstorm
= Greywhisker, Darkpool

Snowpelt x Browntail
= Cloudfeather, Ashflower, Spiderheart

Mudfang x Shadeclaw
= Snakefang

Sootcloud x Goldenfur
= Dawnpetal, Sagetail

Ashflower x Firetail
= Dustclaw, Kestrelfur, Morningfur
= Ratpaw, Spottedpaw

Dawnpetal x Yellowstripe
= Sandpaw, Creampaw, Tigerpaw

Darkpool x Snakefang
= Larksong, Stormwatcher, Mothpelt, Gorsefang

Asterpelt x Swiftheart
= Palefur

Mothpelt x Dustclaw
= expecting kits

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And that is all! You can also add ages at this point, if you so wish, but if not you're pretty much done creating your Clan! This method is not the best for those of you who like to follow genetic rules when creating your characters, but it works for all other intents and purposes.

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The next section will deal with method #2!