Far From Home | A Clan Creation Guide

Building a Clan - Method 2

While the first method deals with creating the names and appearances of the cats within the Clan first and then the family tree, this one attempts to be more genetically correct by creating family trees while creating the Clan.

I'll try to explain this step-by-step:
Step 1: Create your leader and medicine cat. Give them parents.

These are, arguably, the most important figures in the entire Clan. In MoorClan, these positions are filled by Foxstar, a ginger tabby she-cat, and Nightleaf, a black tom. Eye colour is a little harder to find genetically, so I'll focus on the easier to decipher fur colour, which will be explained in the genetics part of this guide.

Foxstar, being a ginger she-cat (which are actually quite rare), is only possible if the tom is a ginger or cream tabby and the queen is either ginger, cream or tortoiseshell. For this reason, we'll make both of her parents ginger. Nightleaf, being black, is possible through a variety of combinations, so let's make his parents a black tom and a grey and white she-cat.

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Step 2: Create their siblings.
Using a genetics guide, we can now create siblings for Foxstar and Nightleaf, like so:
Pair 1: ginger tabby she-cat x ginger tabby tom
= Foxstar, 1 cream tabby she-cat, 1 ginger tabby tom

Pair 2: grey and white she-cat x black tom
= Nightleaf, 1 grey and white tom, 1 black and white tom

You can name these new kits at this step, or choose to name them afterwards. If you don't decide to name them, it's a good idea to use some sort of numbering system, such as 'kit 2a, kit 2b, kit 2c' for pair 2's kits.

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Step 3: Create some more 'base pairs'.
The pairs you have created are your base pairs. But, as we can see, there are four toms and two she-cats, which means this Clan's chances of survival are quite low. Pick out some pelt colours for another 2 - 3 pairs to add some more cats to your Clan.

Pair 3: white she-cat x brown and white tabby tom
= 1 white she-cat, 1 grey and white she-cat, 1 brown and white tabby tom

Pair 4: brown tabby she-cat x black tom
= 1 brown tabby tom

Pair 5: grey she-cat x cream tabby tom
= 1 dilute tortoiseshell she-cat, 1 grey tom

Again, you can name these right away or add them to your system (such as kit 5a, kit 5b for pair 5).

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Step 4: Create MORE kits!
The sad part about your base pairs are that they are either old or dead. So, in order to create some younger warriors, you can do these things: 1) create second litters for existing couples and/or, 2) create new pairings.

NOTE: Careful not to pair cats up with their littermates! You will also want to create a good mix of pairings so that their offspring have more options for mates (you don't want them having to mate with their littermates or cousins either).

Let's give pair 1 and pair 2 some more kits:
Pair 1: ginger tabby she-cat x ginger tabby tom
= 1 cream tabby she-cat, 1 ginger tabby tom

Pair 2: grey and white she-cat x black tom
= 1 black she-cat, 1 grey tom

And pair up some existing offspring! Make sure to continue your numbering where you left off so things don't get confusing. You can also create multiple litters for them, if you like.

Pair 6: grey and white she-cat (3b) x ginger tabby tom (1c)
= 1 tortoiseshell she-cat, 1 dilute tortoiseshell she-cat, 1 brown tabby tom
= 1 tortoiseshell she-cat, 1 black tom

Pair 7: dilute tortoiseshell she-cat (5a) x ginger tabby tom (1bb)
= 1 cream tabby she-cat, 1 ginger tabby tom, 1 brown tabby tom

Pair 8: black she-cat (2aa) x brown and white tabby tom (4a)
= 2 brown tabby she-cats, 1 brown tabby tom, 1 grey tabby tom

Pair 9: cream tabby she-cat (1aa) x grey and white tom (2b)
= 1 cream tabby tom

Pair 10: brown tabby she-cat (8a) x brown tabby tom (7c)
= expecting kits

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Step 5: Time to actually put the Clan together.
A Clan is actually defined as a group of families who live together, so we've been following the literal translation to create it in this method.

Now that you have a whole bunch of cats, it's time to put them into a Clan. There are multiple ways to do this, but these are the three things you must decide on regardless:
1) names
2) ranking/age
3) deceased

Doesn't matter which order you do it in, though I personally like to decide on ages first, deceased second and names last (because then I'm not using my best names on the cats that have been killed before the start of the story).

After some sorting, this is the Clan I come up with:

LEADER: FOXSTAR - ginger she-cat with green eyes
DEPUTY: SWIFTHEART - white and grey 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 and white 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
LARKSONG - 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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Look familiar? It's actually the same Clan I used in the previous method, but instead of building it up from the youngest, I built it from the top, as its easier to figure out litters when you know the parents' fur colours. Both methods are great; it just depends on how genetically accurate you want to be.

This explanation was pretty rough and only really went through two generations for the sake of keeping it short, but I would suggest going through about three or four before deciding on which cats actually make it into the Clan. The age of a Clan varies from 0 - 120+ moons, which is quite a range, and one that is hard to cover with only two generations.

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The next section will deal with extra pointers to creating your Clan, including rules for mating and an age guide.