archclan culture

CAMP MAP

Cultural practices

"Give me your sickly runts, and I'll make a climber out of them yet."

To be an ArchClan cat is to be in constant seek of higher- elevation, thrill, power, everything and anything is something to desire for these cats. These cats work alongside the day, being active with the sun.

Because of predatory risks, cats are organized into squads upon graduation, consisting of a guard, hunter, and an herbalist. A guard typically keeps watch while the hunter and herbalist search for materials and prey. Typically one sticks to their squad for life, but can be reorganized due to infighting, bullying, death, or retirement.

Kittypets and outsiders are gladly accepting into ArchClan as long as they show a willingness of climbing and exploring. Cats with fears of heights, however, are easily ridiculed here. Though there are efforts to include them, it's hard not for them to stick out like thorns when clan culture focuses so dearly around climbing.

When courting, ArchClan cats are firm romantics, and believe in setting up scenic dates such as visiting sandstone underpass, or making the trip to the great canyon. Gift giving is seen more as a GrottoClan culture, while ArchClan cats believe in giving their partners their true selves and nothing more.

Coming of age

"Scale the forefather's eyes."

ArchClan is known as the climbers, and with good reason. In order to pass their assessment, all cats must climb to the top of Forefather's eyes, and at the top is where they will sit vigil for the rest of the day. The climb will take most of the day to complete, and is done with the entire cat's family watching. Once complete, it is believed that the cat has the forefather's blessing.

CEREMONIES

"You and I, we're carved out of the same stone."

When a courting is successful in ArchClan, the small ceremony hosted by the Sheriff, referred to as a wedding. During this wedding, the clan will each present some gift- be it a verbal indication of approval, or handcrafted goods, or even something as simple as a headbutt out of love- to the newly weds. The pair will take what is known as the climber's vow- to serve each other and help each other through new heights together.

When a cat wishes to adopt another cat, they must climb to the top of hightail together with no external support but each other. The rest of the clan must watch this climb, and the climb itself must be succesful. At the top, the Sheriff will declare them as family.

When a sheriff becomes sheriff, they must take a trip to the hoodoos to mark their own in order to be seen as the proper leader of ArchClan. It is believed this hoodoo is their connection to this world when they pass on, and thus they must mark it with a clawed inscription.

Festivals

"Ascent of the forefathers."

In late fall, to celebrate having made it this far, the entirety of ArchClan will dedicate a week to a festival of climbing up Hightail's entire rockface. This structure features climbing lessons and opportunities for all age groups, including the youngest of kittens to the oldest of skilled guards. There are various challenge paths maintained, being that of carrying prey up the rockface as well as dodging obstacles such as balled up plants thrown by other cats perched along the rockface. Everyone is encouraged to join in, either by participating in creating obstacles along the course or by simply cheering on their friends and relatives. On the rare occasion, even Poet will join in and watch the clan cats climb.

Another festival, though not unique to ArchClan, is that of the first rains in the early spring. During this day, a courier will have delivered the message between both clans the day prior, and they will meet in ArchClan camp or GrottoClan camp (depending on who is to host as it alternates) to celebrate and share stories. Prey and goods are exchanged and shared between clans, and a sparring ring as well. The winner typically gets some rare prey and accessories to bring back to their den.

Funeral practices

"We will return you the way you were given to us."

Akin to GrottoClan, ArchClan incorporates a lot of the idea that we are made of dirt, and will just as easily return to it. Unlike them, however, they believe in a proper burial service. Deceased cats are mourned, with the family tending to the body and cleaning it before burial.

When a Sheriff finally passes on, their body is cleaned, and the deputy's job is to carry it to the fracas field. There, the cat is buried nearby camp for all future kin to remember them. Relatives and friends of the sheriff will stay near the field, celebrating the life of their lost leader until the dawn of the next day.

Cooking

"Nothing compares to our stew!"

During the rebuilding renaissance, both GrottoClan and ArchClan flourished, and as such developed a variety of textiles, tools, and even methods of cooking food. Fire is a valuable tool that generally only caretakers are taught- they are at camp the most, so it tends to be their duty to start the fire. Learning how to start fires is useful, but it is important to know that these cats take upon them an oath to not use such power for ill intent. In ArchClan, the role of chef is rotated between all able adult warriors, resulting in them having to make rations for the rest of the Clan for the day. Typically no more than three cats are assigned cooking duty, and are to dry smaller prey for longer storage time in the form of transportable jerkies, cook the famous ArchClan stew for the day, as well as ensure the kittens and the elders are fed.

ArchClan stew is a hodgepodge stew that never seems to be made the same (unless the same chef is working on it again!). It is a slow-cooked stew with seasonings depending on the chefs preference, left to boil from sunrise until sunset, when the bones within it are tender that even the weakest elder's teeth can turn them into mince. The meat is derived of the prey catches of the day, bugs, eggs, as well as water. Because plants offer little nutritional intake, generally they tend to be avoided unless for flavouring or simply for personal flair. Some herbs are added for seasonings, while others are added to boost immunity. While not necessarily a ritual, it is common clan practice to return from dusk patrol, lap up a bowl of stew, and rest until the next day.

While most cats don't typically have sweet taste buds, the desert cats of dueling sands find themselves having a bit of a sweet tooth compared to your normal feline. Yeast was discovered when someone had added some rotten berries to a wildrye-dough, resulting in bread. In ArchClan, a favoured sweet is a small, pillowy bread bun stuffed with marrow butter and prey fat in a cream-like filling. These are made on special occasions as in order to make the bread, one must harvest soiling berries and skin them to add the yeast to the wild rye dough mixture. They are then placed into clay pots and left over a fire to rise, before being filled. These buns, known as marrow buns, are given to newly graduated apprentices as well as newly expecting monarchs, and so forth.

RECIPES

jerky [a staple across both clans for long journeys]
sausage/salami [made from prey offal lining, soaking in salt harvested from the salt lake and then smoking or air drying]
pemmican [dried meat, prey fat, and some berries]
yeasted breads [made through using either pine needles or rotten berries to have yeast for the bread to rise]
flatbreads [made through indian ricegrass and some prey fat as a binding ingredient]
marrow buns [specific to archclan]
archclan's cowboy stew [specific to archclan, a stew made of a hodgepodge of pieces of prey everyone catches during the day to then share right before dusk]
cave cakes [specific to grottoclan]
grub pie [specific to grottoclan]
dumplings [made with prey offal typically for the dumpling wrapper]
barbecued meats
butter [made from marrow often and lots of prey fat]
stews, soups, etc [great source of food and water as cats don't drink a lot]
teas [made from brewing long-gone herbs with prey blood for flavor, helpful to wake up with. can have honey added to them]
berry-based drinks, juices
WINTER ONLY
- iron pops [preyblood spread onto snow and rolled up onto a stick to eat]

Tools, Clothing, and Water

"We work hard to protect ourselves from the sun's glory!"

During the rebuilding renaissance, both GrottoClan and ArchClan flourished, and as such developed a variety of textiles, tools, and even methods of cooking food. Due to whisker fatigue, using prey bones and prey skulls as bowls and the like are not ideal. Instead, the clan cats discovered methods of harvesting the clay within the soil, baking it, and forming it into bowls and pots for storage. The clan cats also utilize dried out plant matter and discovered a tedious, but reliable form of weaving to make baskets and netting. These help to keep ArchClan cool in the intense heat of the sun, and protect them from sunburn, heat exhaustion, and blistered pawpads. Not all clothes are made simply for use, and some are to flaunt one's abilities. In the winter, preypelts are woven and worn to combat the snowy temperatures, as well as used to line ones den during the cold desert nights.

Water is an incredible resource to the clan, and because of how scarce it is in the desert, it is common practice to simply venture out to the great canyon and bring back as many moss-soaked rags as you can of water. The cacti that grow around camp are an additional source of water, though some may find the taste unpleasant. Additionally, hunters have been trained on how to find small springs through the power of their nose to bring closer, but smaller amounts of water back to camp.

With all the developments in cooking, water storage, and temperature regulation came the development of writing and the written language known as cat scratch, or "scratch" for short. Most cats all know a primal version of this, regardless of their origins- it is the method of which catscratch is understood that varies. While most loners and kittypets may know of dirt-bound scratch, the clan's scratch is one that is used primarily for record keeping. ArchClan prides itself upon its sheriff's saguaro for being carved with infinite details of each sheriff from moons prior, describing events of grandeur and battles bravely fought.

MUSIC

"I've never feared the drums of war,"

During the rebuilding renaissance, both GrottoClan and ArchClan flourished, and as such developed a variety of musical instruments along with their other inventions in this era. ArchClan is notably different from GrottoClan with how their instruments tend to be more brass and percussion based. Instruments are made of metalic scraps left by car accidents, humans, etc, woven plant matter, and animal bones as needed. Things such as drums, horns, bells (cat-made or twoleg made!) exist aplenty. One special instrument is a large set of drums best known to be brought to the sunset roundup and played during the spars as background music.

Another instrument, though not necessarily unique to ArchClan, is the use of voice. In general, music is not often heard within the canyons- after all, the loudest noise can easily attract unwanted predators or even trigger a rockslide. If music is made, it must be done carefully- confided to only ArchClan camp. ArchClan music as a whole tends to be more lower in range than GrottoClan music, typically resting from bass to baritone.

RANKS AND RANK DESCRIPTIONS

The ranks in ArchClan differ from those in GrottoClan to an extent. They are as follows.

SHERIFF; The leader of the clan who takes on the -SUN suffix. Enforces the Forefather's oath whenever necessary, officiates ceremonies. Must make the journey to Poet's cave to receive their nine lives to officially be considered a sheriff, may bring either their deputy or one other cat who they trust (family, friend, etc).
DEPUTY; The second to the Sheriff, the one who will become sheriff should the current one chose to retire or should they die from any causes.
DOCTOR; The main healer of the clan, will train the nurses of the clan to take up their role should they pass or retire. May have kits so long as a trained nurse is present. There are a maximum of three at any given time.
NURSE; Apprentices to the doctors. Once evaluated they will get their full name after the currently reigning doctor and Sheriff decide.
COURIER; The main messenger of the clan, as well as clan mediator. They deliver messages to and back from Arch to Grotto, and are to try to ensure peace between the two clans whenever possible. There are a maximum of three at any given time.
CARETAKERS; The nursery aid of the clan, these cats will raise the kits and allow for monarchs to get back to work as fast as they'd like, and will also always raise any orphaned or abandoned kittens. These cats know how to start fires as well, and are commonly seen cooking when not in the nursery.
APPRENTICES; The trainees for any rank. Will be trained by all of the cats of the rank as available with no real set mentor unless the apprentice particularly clings to any cat.

TRIOS are made up of three cats, one of each of the following ranks

HERBALISTS; The gatherer of the group, this squadmate will primarily focus on searching for herbs and edible plants, getting seasonings or snacks along with important healing herbs for the doctors and nurses to use. They are commonly seen crafting and making poultices at camp.
GUARDS; The watchman and brawler of the group. They keep constant vigilant watch over their squad and are relied upon to ensure no predators or harm comes to their squadmates. At camp, they spar constantly to retain their skills.
HUNTERS; The hunter of the group, this squadmate focuses on hunting and catching as much prey as possible, and provides most of the prey for the clan to use. They are expected to bring back water to the clan when possible.

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