| Darkstar | |
|---|---|
| File:Placeholder person.png | |
| Vital statistics | |
| Quote | "Pay close attention to everything around you." |
| Gender | Female |
| Species | {{{Species}}} |
| Clan | Darkclan |
| Position | Leader |
| Family | {{{Family}}} |
Overview
Darkstar was one of the most admired and revered leaders of Darkclan. She pulled Darkclan through many disasters and stressful situations. She was known for her incredible negotiation skills and her selflessness. She was truly a clan cat, giving everything to the betterment of her clan.
There hadn’t been a leader like her in many decades, and there likely wouldn’t be another leader like her for many more.
Physical Description
Darkstar is a small, short-haired cat. Her fur is pure black. She has a muscular build. She has no scars or defects, and is very healthy and strong. She’s rather rounded and sturdy in appearance.
Personality
Darkstar is quiet, peaceable, and observant. She tends to think first and speak later. Some might describe her as eerie, as she tends to stare at other cats from a distance, observing. She’s very calculated. Every cat she meets, she sizes up and picks apart, determining their motives and their weaknesses and strengths. Her quiet nature makes her naturally stealthy. She’s said to walk like a ghost; quiet and nearly undetectable by those not paying attention.
She has amazing negotiating skills. Even the most riled of warriors could be swayed by her gentle, calculated words and calm demeanor. This kept her clan out of trouble the majority of the time. Her wisdom gave her the proper insight to keeping things calm and helping cats reach win-win solutions when there were spats.
Darkstar is naturally suspicious. While not quick to antagonize strangers, she generally does not trust cats from outside of Darkclan. Her negotiation skills might have gotten her clan out of trouble, preventing wars between her clan and others, but this does not change the fact that she is completely untrusting of other clans. Any minor act performed by an outside clan is interpreted as an elaborate plan or a severe threat to her clan.
She has an air of arrogance about her. Confident that she’s making the right choice, she rarely accepts outside input. Criticism is treated as a direct threat to her authority and a direct insult to her personally. She may not appear angry when these slights occur, but she is, in actuality, angry. What seems like calmness on the outside is a cold sort of rage on the inside.
She’s usually distant and can be quite cold. She’s secretive and private, and is prone to treating every friendly cat as an enemy in disguise. This results in her having few friends.
Her Life
Darkstar was born during leaf-bare to a loner named Shell. She had no siblings. Shell was incredibly old and she died while giving birth to Darkstar. By pure chance, Sunstar, the then leader of Darkclan, stumbled across her while on above-ground vigil.
He knew that he had to take the kit in, but also knew that the kit would be discriminated against and might even be cast out of the clan once she reached an age where she could be independent. Darkclan at that time was suspicious and weary of strangers and outside influence after a loner cat brought in a terrible sickness that killed half of the clan.
Sunstar created a plan. He would claim that Darkclan’s ancestors delivered the kit to him. This would make Darkstar a cat of prophecy, guaranteed to be accepted by her clanmates. No cat would dare throw out a kit marked by Darkclan’s ancestors. He took her back to the clan camp and did just that.
Darkstar was given to a queen named Whiteflower to care for. Whiteflower named her Darkkit after her pitch-black coat. Her littermates did not care for her, finding her creepy, as she was very quiet and very observant.
Once she became an apprentice, she was taken in by Sunstar. He mentored her, teaching her how to fight and other necessary warrior skills. During this period of her life, she was inundated with comments about her prophecy status. A great deal of pressure was placed on her to be the most exceptional cat in the clan. This pressure hardened her, and helped contribute to a vague sense of arrogance that she developed later in life.
She was very quickly promoted to warrior status. Her name became Darkfur.
Being the cat of prophecy, she immediately replaced the clan’s deputy, Buriedtooth, once she became a warrior. This enraged Buriedtooth, earning both Sunstar and Darkfur a lifelong enemy.
Darkfur was then promoted to clan leader after Sunstar died from a coughing sickness known as Redcough. Before he passed away, he urged for Darkfur to meet with him in the leader’s den. He then informed her that the prophecy had been completely made up. He died some hours later.
Darkfur, now Darkstar, was enraged by the news. The pressure to be exceptional had made her distant, cold, and had put a rift between her and her clanmates. Though adored, she was placed on a pedestal that made socializing as equals with other clanmates difficult.
In the end, she decided to not reveal Sunstar’s lie. She accepted her new leader status and went on to become one of the greatest leaders in Darkclan history. She appointed a cat named Snagfoot as deputy.
One of the few cats to break her tough, outer shell was a cat named Deepheart. They became very close friends, before then becoming mates. She soon had four kits, named Birchkit (later Birchleaf), Leafkit (Leafheart), Oakkit (Oakclaw), and Moonkit (Moonshine).
Her death was a result of her failure to negotiate with a rival clan known as the Pact Under the Clouds. In her arrogance, she refused to listen to the rival clan’s ambassador and deeply insulted their leader by accident. The leader launched an all out attack on Darkclan, invading their camp.
Darkclan successfully beat the clan back, but Darkstar’s daughter, Leafheart, had sustained severe injuries. She was to die.
Throughout her life, Darkstar had been unable to connect with her warrior ancestors. They simply wanted nothing to do with her it seemed. Sunstar, being a liar, had been shunned by his ancestors, and he urged Darkstar, Darkpaw at the time, to obscure the truth of her being unable to connect with Darkclan’s ancestors. She agreed.
As her kit lay dying at her paws, she screeched deep into the earth, begging Darkclan’s ancestors to take her life instead of her kits, as she was deeply ashamed at the fact her own arrogance caused her kit’s death.
The ancient cats of the past responded. Leafheart made a miraculous recovery, and Darkstar passed away in her sleep that night.
Accomplishments
- Guided her clan during the Great Hunger, when prey became very scarce. She did this by establishing set rules for when prey could be consumed and how often prey could be hunted for. She was known to go without food the majority of the time during this period.
- Regularly negotiated peace treaties with groups of cats, loners, and other clans.
- Made large changes to the Darkclan justice system, making rulings and law proceedings fairer.
- Made adjustments to the Darkclan code of honor to allow greater personal freedoms for her clanmates.