Badgerstar

A green-eyed, scarred black tom with a damaged left ear

Badgerstar is a pure black tom with a short coat of sleek fur. He bares his large frame along on rather long legs, which are covered in countless scars. However, much of that size comes from muscles developed by running the moors rather than fat or outright bulk. There are a number of scars on the rest of his pelt from battles fought over his lifetime, although no scar is as apparent as the claw marks over his muzzle or the portion of his left-paw ear that is missing. He has amber eyes set into a tightly-framed face.

Badgerstar is a tough sort of cat who is stern and unwavering on the surface. To most cats, he is stoic with little room for jokes or tender moments. As he talks with his Clanmates, there is no shortage of admonishments and constructive criticisms. However, deep within his core, he is an empathetic cat who cares about the cats around him. While he has difficulty showing such, he does his best nonetheless. Badgerstar views himself and his nine lives as a shield for the weakest of the Clan and would gladly lay down each of them if it meant safety for WindClan. That said, he is hardly friendly or kind to outsiders and sees purity as the only way WindClan can continue to survive as it always has.

• Born in the Moon of Tiger's Wraith (2016) 091

Badgerstar was born forty-two moons ago as a WindClan kit to Stormwing, his sire, and Ravenfall, his mother. His parents decided the name, taking inspiration from the pale stripes that marred his tiny body and the ferocity of his mewls for milk. Alongside his siblings born that same evening, he was officially named by the leader at the time, Honeystar. Within three moons, the troupe of them were terrorizing the camp. As it would turn out, Badgerkit was the only son out of that litter. Stormwing, while not inherently disappointed, did have expectations for his kits. As he noticed Badgerkit acting ‘soft’ in comparison to his sisters, who showed desirable traits of potential warriors, he decided to intervene and ensure that his only son would survive. As he put it, only the strongest could survive in the wild. While the Clan would provide for them as kits, Badgerkit would have to provide for the Clan as a warrior. If he couldn’t do that when the time came, Stormwing promised he would chase him all the way to the Twolegplace. By the time Badgerkit was to be apprenticed, the soft-hearted and gentle kit had grown into a much more withdrawn and stoic apprentice candidate. All of this? All because Stormwing made sure to push his son towards what he thought was the proper path. In the end, he received the name Badgerpaw at six moons. Additionally, he was assigned a mentor suggested by his father who would be tough on him when he could not. Through the moons of his apprenticeship, Badgerpaw learned that Clan life wasn’t as easy as it had been when he was a kit. Such had been drilled into him by his father, but he began to see it first-paw himself. Cats came back battered from patrols, cats became sick, and cats died. This was the first time that Badgerpaw fully understood the harsh reality of Clan life. And, for the first time in his life, he went hungry in order to feed others. It took time for Badgerpaw to grow his hide thick enough to become inured to the horrors of living wild, but he got there. Through training and constant reminders to be strong, Badgerpaw blossomed into a warrior by the name of Badgerclaw. And with his name, he would spend much of his younger warrior moons being the first on the territory and the last to come home. Whether it was battles or hunting, he pushed himself to provide for cats who needed protection and food. He wanted the kits to grow up safe and secure while elders were free to enjoy the last days of their lives in peace. Most of his warriorhood went by uneventfully apart from participating in battles that resulted in an accumulation of scars. Badgerclaw was prepared to spend the rest of his life doing the same few activities to maintain the livelihood of the Clan until the greatest change in his life came. Honeystar, who had reigned since he was a kit, had taken interest in Badgerclaw’s development as a warrior. Following the death of the previous deputy of hers, it came as a surprise to the black tom that he would be named deputy. With Honeystar’s age, it had been expected that she would choose a senior warrior with more experience… and yet that did not come to pass. Once Badgerclaw was named deputy swiftly in the aftermath of the death of the previous, Honeystar began to train him in earnest. With how fervently she guided him through the tasks required of a deputy, one might have guessed she was worried about the time she had left. If only it had been known how close she was to her final days. About three moons ago, Honeystar had been out with Badgerclaw to investigate a potential trespassing by ShadowClan. Unfortunately, as they were checking the Thunderpath, a monster began to rumble past. Honeystar had been just too close and just too slow, resulting in a horrible injury to her hindlegs. Badgerclaw and the patrol rushed her back to camp, but there was little that the medicine cat could do. Within days of her death, the deputy was forced to become a leader. And now? Now he is still coming to terms with how sudden and unfortunately Honeystar left this world. Equipped with nine lives as a fresh leader, Badgerstar looks to the future of his Clan and the brewing tensions of the territories.

• Ride on my Gallant Huntsmen (9FG'20)

Stormwing (sire) Ravenfall (dam)