July 15, 2019
This section talks about the main religion in Warriors, StarClan. It goes over what the canon has allowed us to do with them, as well as some unique use cases for them that expand on the religion. Everything here carries over to all the names for StarClan mentioned in canon as well as its counterpart, the Place of No Stars.
StarClan in general is treated as the heavenly body of Warriors. In canon, it had some pretty limited uses up until The Power of Three arc started, then their power and reach extended greatly into the mortal realm of the clans. While this caused some major continuity errors with The Prophecies Begin arc, it really allowed fanfiction writers to do whatever they pleased with it. There are many ways to use StarClan better than the Erins, though.
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DIVINE OVER-INTERVENTION
StarClan is the Warriors universe equivalent to your general god pantheon and afterlife. Cats go there (or to its underworld counterpart the Place of No Stars, aka the Dark Forest) when they die, not forming or following a pantheon of god cats; StarClan is simply everyone who has been lost. They live out the rest of their 'existence' in Silverpelt and watch the living below. They fade out of existence when forgotten by the living in full, which usually takes many, many generations. They have exerted their influence on every single arc in the series, and in most auxiliary books. They give out prophecies and omens, speak to medicine cats, oversee important ceremonies, and guide cats in times of trial. Many see StarClan in the form of their deceased friends and family. Unlike StarClan the Place of No Stars is easier to reach, for one just has to seek its influence to be corrupted by it. A cat does not have to be evil to be in this underworld; they just needed to ignore the two rules for getting into StarClan: believe in them, and follow their rules. All seems normal as far as this literary trope is concerned.
There is just one issue with StarClan, and that is their power. They are simply too influential to the story at large. Nothing, literally nothing, happened in the first four arcs unless StarClan knew about it or had even the smallest amount of paw in it. There is absolutely zero doubt they exist, no matter how many deniers and nonbelievers the Erins try to throw at us. Both StarClan and the Place of No Stars are able to field themselves on mortal battlefields and fight for and against the living. They can give extra lives to cats they deem most worthy, and reincarnate those they feel still have work to do. They can even give cats powers, giving them a huge power spike compared to their other mortal companions. Worst of all is that they shattered the limits and restrictions that were implied in The Prophecies Begin arc. This power spike was done for the sake of breaking the limits the Erins had unintentionally placed on themselves in the first arc, as well as to expand what the young and hungry fanfic community wanted to do with them. In the end we are left with a heavenly body that has a not-so-consistent power level.
Other than that, StarClan is a standard god pantheon and afterlife. So what does that do for us? Not much. That can be good or bad depending on what kind of story we want to tell, or what kind of rules we are binding ourselves to.
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STARCLAN IN FANFICTION
The mysticism set up in the first arc quickly evaporates, unfortunately. It prevents StarClan from being as strong a narrative tool as the deities of other fictional works. The only bit of it that remains is that StarClan has no god pantheon. It is a congregation of the deceased, just like the Place of No Stars. No one controls or directs them. And they do not seem to have influence over humans (this is great; the last thing we need is cats destroying bulldozers and summer camps or whatever). Regardless of these restrictions, the tighter restrictions in storytelling methods ensure that StarClan remains inconsistent and demystified. This is copied over in your fanfics.
The most common use for StarClan and the Place of No Stars in canon is as a plot device. They are shaped, buffed, and nerfed depending on the demands of the story. Since our fanfics are derivative works, we derive their use of the afterlife. Most of our stories use them as plot devices as well. We do tend to steer clear of the amazing feats that they have performed in canon, leaving them at their The Prophecies Begin power level. Despite us dialing it back with the reincarnations and the ghost cats killing living cats, we almost exclusively use them for prophecies. Main character gets a premonition, they do what they need to do throughout the story... so why was StarClan involved? Well of course they gave out the prophecy. Who or what else would.
Honestly, it is surprising to see such restraint in our use of one of the strongest tropes in any fictional work, especially since novice writers tend to really get behind using pantheons and afterlifes for literally everything. This restraint does make our use of them a bit too predictable. Of course they will be present in the leader ceremony, and there to guide our MC through their prophecy. Luckily, StarClan's malleable powers create some interesting use cases.
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DIFFERENT USES FOR STARCLAN
The Erin's liberal changes to StarClan's power gives us the same freedoms for our fanfictions. We are not writing nearly as much as they have already, so we can have a consistent power ceiling. Our divines can match the needs of our plot, and it would all still derive from canon since they have done so much there already. Because of this, there is no one correct way to use StarClan or the Place of No Stars. At the core, they are tropes and plot devices; of course they can be so much more than that, and some fanfics have already done more with them. I will go over examples and ideas on how to use StarClan if you want to go beyond the standard 'gives prophecies and stores dead relatives' approach.
In many fanfics out there StarClan's power is greatly diminished, preventing them from impacting the plot and storytelling too much. While this usually makes them a plot device, it saves room for the characters and setting to do their thing. Since most of the powers given to them in canon are ignored anyway, this is how we normally see StarClan in our stories. This is equivalent to the power they had in The Prophecies Begin arc and is only considered 'underpowered' because of what future arcs have done. There is nothing wrong with using StarClan as a plot device, but it is probably not the exciting new approach you were hoping to hear.
In a few fanfics, I have read a description of StarClan that has ill intentions (purposefully or not) for characters or for the world they inhabit. These characters either spend the story being slowly corrupted by them or running away from them and their prophecy. In the most literal sense of this type of StarClan, they become the villain. In this case, it is usually one or a few cats who use their position in Silverpelt to manipulate the mortal world to their own liking. They usually mention their evil dead cat's plan in the story's description (do not do this). Without a regulatory pantheon in cat heaven, this is entirely possible in canon, too. We just do not see it. In a lighter use case of nefarious StarClan, they warn that the MC in question must lose something precious to them (usually a mate or littermate) to fulfil their prophecy. The MC subsequently tries to alter their fate in any way they can. Whether or not the prophecy is inevitable depends on how it is written by the author. The Erins have done this with a few omens throughout Warriors, but the stakes are too low for anyone to really resent StarClan in a non-evil way. Nothing is stopping your fanfic from holding resentful or unwilling believers.
One thing I have almost never seen in fanfics is the complete absence of StarClan and the Place of No Stars. Because of the confirmed existence of these places in canon and the influence they hold, fanfic writers are always reluctant to omit them entirely. And it can be argued that the only reason the canon happens the way it does is because of StarClan and their prophecies (and their corporeal ghost warriors). Their absence would also push your fanfic into alternate universe territory. I have read a single story description omitting them: they stated their influence waned over generations of weakening belief, so the clans were at constant war with each other without the warrior code or their heavenly body to guide them. This is the way I think of StarClan in my own fanfics. I think 'what does StarClan add to the story if they directly intervene' and I usually decide against such an action. If they did not exist at all, it would make for quite the different story about a political and social structure that was invented by them in the first place.
On that note, I have never once seen varying beliefs and subcultures emerge from StarClan or the Place of No Stars. Everyone in canon believes and follows StarClan in the same way, with the same customs and practices that they even do together sometimes. The only subculture in the faith from canon is the tribes, and this is loose at best since they mostly just rename things the clans already do and have a slightly different social hierarchy. This lack of subcultures within this shared faith comes from the clans having no unique cultures of their own (see the 'Original Clans' section for more detail on this). Since the clans are the same, their belief in StarClan is so as well. But this is fanfiction. You can do what you want. For inspiration, there is no better place than the centuries following the Protestant Reformation. Christianity had splintered into several major sects, from the traditional Catholics, to the ultra-hardcore Puritans, and everything inbetween. This is common among all of the world's major religions, however. When millions of people follow one faith, it is reasonable to think they would not all agree on how it should be followed. The same could be said about our cat clans (plus, a bunch of ultra-zealous Puritan-type StarClan worshipers would make for a pretty cool fanfic).
These are just friendly nods to the possibilities this religious body holds. StarClan can be more than the prophecy-giving plot devices, or the deus ex machina at the end.
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IN CONCLUSION...
StarClan and the Place of No Stars do not need to be so overpowering to be impactful in our stories. Doing things like taking inspiration from real religions or subtracting them from our plot can make their presence feel more important to the story without overshadowing the power of our moral characters. Available to you is a spectrum of intervention levels that you have complete control over.
Do what you will with the feline divines. They can be anything from a plot device to a setting; it is a fanfiction, after all.
- Tyto