Creating Your Character.

CHARACTER CREATION RULES.

FORMATTING.

1.) Our character sheet template must be used, and turned in completed. You are free to decorate and style the sheet however you please, but it must be readable; if it’s extremely designed, please submit as well a mobile-friendly copy. When you submit, be sure the document’s permissions allow it to be viewed.

2.) When you submit your character, use the appropriate tags and include the character’s name and clan in the title. If you’re using any items, list them and what they do.

3.) If your character hasn’t been reviewed in 3 days, you may ping staff.

4.) Secrets MUST be filled out unless inapplicable to the character. Any curse, blessing, or other spooky must also be detailed in the sheet. If you want these to be secret, you can black them out and mark as SPOILERS, but the information *must* be filled out.

GENERAL CONCEPT

1.) Your character must fit into the world of the Cauldron. The Cauldron Clans each have unique cultures and appearances, even have different interpretations or rulings on their shared code of law. You’re not expected to know the lore in every detail: each Clan guide has all the key information in the “Overview”, and a section on appearances & naming under “Cats of the Clan”.

2.) Treat disabled characters with the respect you’d show a disabled person. If you’re going to write a disabled character, don’t fly by the seat of your pants. Do not name characters after their disabilities, not subtly nor ironically. Do not make their disabilities all the character is. Being in the Veil, dreaming, magic, etc does not cure nor temporarily lift disabilities. Blindness, Hard of Hearingness, and Deafness is a spectrum, as is any physical or mental disability. If your character lacks a sense in the physical world, they don’t have it on the other side. Casual ableism is rampant in the Warrior Cats community, but it won’t be here.

3.) Joke characters are not permitted.

4.) Outsiders and cats from Beyond the Mountains must be appropriate for the world setting. They don’t necessarily need to fit into a Clan, but they can’t stick out like a sore thumb in the meta, either.

APPEARANCE & ACCESSORIES

1.) Stylization vs Canon. Illustrations of your cat can be stylized, decorated, etc however the artist desires; but in world, in canon roleplay, your cat *must* follow the setting rules. The cats of the Cauldron are the mortal cats we know with some leniency for fictional fun purposes. So for example, I hand wave that cats can’t taste sweet things, emotionally cry, nor see red-orange, etc. Their ability to weave necklaces and bracelets is not gotten into detail, for suspension of disbelief (theoretically they’d have the capacity to set up sticks to pull cords around and stuff, which personally is how I suspend my disbelief lol). They don’t grow full heads of hair, but it’s not out of the realm of reason for a cat to have particularly long fur on their chin or on their cheeks. Cats only have unnatural eye colors when something magical is going on. Our goal is to provide a balance of storytelling magic and realism.

TLDR: In canon roleplay, the character must abide by the semi-realism limitations. In everything else, you’re free to stylize & do anything you want, bc it would be wack to say otherwise.

2.) Accessories are permitted, with limitations. They cannot be human made, cannot be extravagant, cannot involve cloth, and can be no larger than a necklace. The cats have developed some system that permits the weaving of rough hemp into necklaces and bracelets, which will feature natural resources from their territory OR traded from another Clan cat. Wearing herbs, flowers, bones, feathers, etc is permitted BUT skulls cannot be worn as masks and feathers cannot be placed behind the ears.

3.) Be mindful of the provided height chart below. No cat can be taller than their head at Eveningstar’s lower shoulder.

PERSONALITY & BACKSTORY

1.) No “pathetic sad sopping wet” / “I was born with glass bones and paper skin,” characters. These are characters whose backstory is characterized by extensive suffering and their personality revolves around their suffering. These characters often don’t have goals or motivations outside of their misery. This rule is not saying you can’t make traumatized, broody characters; but when every thought or action circles back around to their misery, it doesn’t contribute to plot nor give any substance for your writing partner(s) to work with. There’s a lot of misery in the Cauldron, yes, but joy and love is here too. Keep in mind the Clans are highly communal and care about the survival of their fellows to the point of avoiding outright banishing even the liabilities, have a strong Code of Honor, and the existence of Matriarchs.

2.) Give your character at least one motivation / goal / quest to strive for at submission. This gives your character a reason to participate in plot, and is necessary for character growth.

3.) We welcome antagonists in the Cauldron— anti-heroes, villains, just really nasty individuals, etc. HOWEVER: the number of these must be kept to a reasonable number, and those we do have must be of quality. They must have goals and a purpose, cannot be “chaotic anarchy feral gremlins”, and cannot be miserable to write with. An antagonist *forwards* the plot, not arresting or trying to one-up it. You can see if antagonistic cats are open for submissions in the CCRA Allegiances sheet.

4.) YOUR CHARACTER MUST BE CONTEXTUALIZED IN THE CAULDRON. THEY DO NOT EXIST IN A VACUUM. KEEP IN MIND THE WORLD SETTING AND YOUR FELLOW WRITERS & THEIR CHARACTERS. Your backstory will be reviewed with these factors in mind.

4.) Transferring Clans and Cross-Clan Romances must be purchased using a Ticket.

MIXED-CLAN CATS AND NON-STANDARD APPEARANCES.

Because the Clans allow for donor sires from across the border, a cross-clan cat may not need a Cross-Clan ticket under certain circumstances.

1.) If the cat matches up to the standard appearance of their home Clan, a ticket is not needed.

—- Examples: Triggersight of FjordClan.

2.) If the cat majorly matches up to their home Clan but has a couple traits from the other parent’s Clan, they may need a ticket. This depends on how dramatic the traits are. This applies even if the genes are from further back in the family tree.

—- Examples:

3.) if the cat is very obviously of mixed-Clan genes, they will need a ticket. This applies even if the genes are from further back in the family tree.

—- Examples: Chickadeepaw of SteppeClan

NAMING

1.) The prefix must match the appearance, and the suffix pertain to skill, personality, or appearance. Prefixes cannot be verbs (exception detailed below) nor reference eye color nor circumstances of birth; if the prefix is “stretching it” for matching appearance, it won’t be accepted.

—- 1a.) The cat’s names as we write them are translations from their Cauldronik. Between this and for flavor, a specific word from the full name of the animal that is still evocative may be chosen. Ex: Praying- from praying mantis, Chanting- from pale chanting goshawk. In these cases, verbs can be used as a prefix. The full name of the prefix source must be included in the meaning section.

—- CAULDRON SUFFIXES & MEANINGS: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1quyf_nauykjMI5cYzwd2Kpd0WUCGpIzIvGxkXOc2M5U/edit?usp=drivesdk

2.) No prefix duplicates. However, scientific names don’t count as a duplicate. Player characters have precedence over adoptables, and prefixes cannot be dibbed for adoptables.

3.) You may use the scientific names of animals and plants; HOWEVER, they must, quite frankly, sound nice.

4.) Prefixes cannot reference magic, mythology, celestial bodies, or monsters; the scientific names rule cannot be used to get around this. Sun-, dark-, eclipse-, star- and moon-, etc are not viable prefixes. The exception to this rule is characters dedicated to Silverpelt or Goldeneye, either at birth or having changed their prefix to something such as Sunlight, Moonlight, etc etc. This must be relevant to their character.

—- ANY animal/plant named from mythology / monsters / etc can’t be used to get around this rule. Ghost is not a viable prefix.

5.) Characters with compound word prefixes or prefixes that end with the same letter as their suffix must have their names hyphenated; this is for the ease of our dyslexic community members.

6.) A silly name must be a nickname, and not the character’s “actual” name. It’s hard to stay in the scene when the friends and family of the cat bleeding out before them are begging Squimblebimble to stay alive.

7.) When deciding your cat’s bloodrune, ask yourself “what’s the story behind this name?”. What does it say about your character’s family and/or bloodline? How does that impact who they are?

8.) A character’s name cannot be a compound word. Ex: no Bluebird, Strawberry, etc.