Post by ♥Goldenheart♥ on Aug 22, 2007 16:47:51 GMT -5
Rankings
Great Cat of Iron: The Cats of the Roaring Path are lead by a cat known as the Great Cat of Iron. Sometimes, when the younger ones are in a disrespectful mood, they will refer to him/her as the Great Cat of Irony.
Black-pawed Cat: Their second-in-command is the Black-pawed Cat. When a Great Cat of Iron dies, the Black-pawed Cat will become the new Great Cat of Iron. (See "Ceremonies: New Great Cat of Iron")
Ceremonial Healer: Their equivalent of a medicine cat is the Ceremonial Healer, who conducts the ceremonies and heals the other cats. However, the Ceremonial Healer will only heal cats at night, and after healing four cats (the supposedly mystical number of great black paws a Thunderpath monster has) they must present a feline sacrifice to the monsters. (See "Ceremonies: Sacrifice") Only then can they heal more cats.
Fighter for the Path: This is essentially the same as a warrior, except the name implies the one difference: warriors fight for their Clan and for StarClan, but Fighters for the Path fight for the Thunderpath monsters, and simply assume that the monsters are too great to fight their own battles, and thus need simple cats to do the small things. Despite the fact that their rank name refers entirely to fighting, they are also the ones to hunt and to gather water, healing herbs, and cats for sacrifices. (See "Ceremonies: Sacrifice") Understandably, they have a fairly complete knowledge of which herbs can be used for healing.
Fighter-in-Training: They work a little differently than apprentices in the Clans do. Instead of learning to do things from one mentor, they are taught to fight, hunt, and gather the necessities in a group of all of them by any and all of the Fighters who are free to do so.
Kit-raiser: Instead of being raised by their own mothers, kits are raised communally by a she-cat whose only role is to take care of the kits. They are fed milk that is stored in moss (See "Other Customs: Expectant Mothers") and bond with all Cats of the Roaring Path as if they were all mothers. The kit-raiser usually has some disability to prevent her from being a Fighter for the Path, and there may be any number of kit-raisers.
Kit: Kits are those younger than four moons, raised by the kit-raiser(s). They don't do much, and no cat pays that much attention to them other than the other kits and their kit-raisers.
Ceremonies
Sacrifice: This is a component of most ceremonies. In fact, feline sacrifice by the Cats of the Roaring Path is comparable to the call to a Clan meeting by the Clan cats. The sacrifice ceremony begins a day before the actual purpose of it, when a patrol of Fighters for the Path goes out and captures a cat of the appropriate age for whatever ceremony is going on. (See table below for details.) In any sacrifice except for New Great Cat of Iron and New Ceremonial Healer (different rules apply, see "Ceremonies: New Great Cat of Iron" and "Ceremonies: New Ceremonial Healer" for details), the sacrifice will be carried out thus: Having been held prisoner for a day, the sacrifice will be taken to the Thunderpath. On the verge, the cat to be sacrificed will be held down by a guard of six Fighters for the Path, and the Ceremonial Healer will bite off the sacrifice's tail, which will then be flung into the Thunderpath. Then they will do the same with the left hind leg, the right hind leg, the right foreleg, and the left foreleg. Then, the legless, tailless, injured cat will be held until a Thunderpath monster is coming, and then thrown beneath its big black paws. Whatever ceremony is going on will then proceed.
| Ceremony | Age of Sacrifice |
| Healing | Elderly |
| New Great Cat of Iron | Newborn |
| New Ceremonial Healer | Kit 3 moons |
| New Fighter for the Path | In Prime |
| New Fighter- in-Training | About 10 Moons |
| Death | Any Age, Ill |
| New Territory | Any Age |
New Great Cat of Iron: Following the death of a Great Cat of Iron, the Black-pawed Cat will stand next to the Thunderpath with a newborn kit from sunrise to sunhigh. The first time after Sunhigh that a monster passes, the Black-pawed Cat will throw the kit underneath it and yowl, "Great Thunderpath Monster, I bring you this sacrifice to prove that I am worthy to lead the Cats of the Roaring Path!" (Note: This is the only time any cat other than the Ceremonial Healer conducts a sacrifice.) The next time a monster passes, he will yowl, "I stand here in the hope that I will become a worthy Great Cat of Iron!" He will then race across the Thunderpath behind it and wait for another monster. This time, he will leap onto the back of it, yowl, "I lead the Cats of the Roaring Path!" and leap onto the side of the Thunderpath he started on. He will then be the new Great Cat of Iron.
New Black-pawed Cat: Black-pawed Cats are chosen by the Ceremonial Healer, who will place four leaves from different trees side by side, spanning the road so that each is in a place where the tires of a Thunderpath monster may go. With each leaf, the Ceremonial Healer will meow, "This leaf represents [name], who is worthy to be considered for the post of Black-pawed Cat." The first of the leaves to disappear under the tires of a Thunderpath monster represents the new Black-pawed Cat.
New Ceremonial Healer: When an old Ceremonial Healer dies, the successor (named by the dying Healer) will stand in the center of the Thunderpath at sunset, holding a kit about three moons old. The first time a Thunderpath monster comes along, the new Ceremonial Healer will drop the kit beneath the paws of the monster, leap to the side away from the camp, and yowl, "I promise to give to you, the Thunderpath Monsters, the sacrifices of blood that you deserve! This I promise, for I am to be the new Ceremonial Healer of the Cats of the Roaring Path." When the next monster comes along, the Ceremonial Healer will race across the Thunderpath in front of it, far enough that it won't run them over, but not so far away as to be out of the beam of its glowing eyes, and on the other side yowl, "I promise to heal and protect the cats I have long lived with and loved! This I promise, for I am the new Ceremonial Healer of the Cats of the Roaring Path."
New Fighter for the Path: A sacrifice of a prisoner in the prime of their life is made at sunhigh, and the Ceremonial Healer asks the Fighter-in-Training who has finished training, "Do you promise to fight for the Thunderpath Monsters, to gather that which the cats who follow them need, and to guard the kits of this great order from those who would have them follow things we cannot touch?" "I do." "Then your true name will be [name]. You are now a Fighter for the Path." The entire group would then celebrate.
New Fighters-in-Training and Kit-raisers: The four-moon-old tomkits will be brought out to the Thunderpath by the Ceremonial Healer at sunrise, along with two prisoners about ten moons old. One of the prisoners, as well as any of the tomkits who are blind, deaf, or crippled, will be sacrificed while the prisoner and other kits watch, and then the Ceremonial Healer will stand in front of them and tell them, "You are four moons old and ready to be trained to fight for the Path. You," he/she will tell one of the kits, "will be known as Trainee [one number higher than the current highest-numbered Trainee]. Learn well, and fight for the path." This will be repeated for as many kits as there are. Then the Healer will bring them back to their camp and into the Fighters-in-Training's den, and then bring the four-moon-old she-kits to the Thunderpath. The remaining prisoner will be sacrificed at that time, and then the Ceremonial Healer will tell any she-kits who are crippled, blind, or deaf, "You are ready to help raise and care for the kits who are too young to be trained to fight for the Path. You," to a random disabled she-cat, "will be known as [adjective] [body part]. Be a loving raiser of the kits in your care." This is repeated for all the disabled she-kits, and then the attention will be turned to the healthy ones. The ceremony is the same as for the tomkits, except they will use "Trainette" instead of "Trainee."
Death: When a Cat of the Roaring Path dies, the dead cat's closest surviving kin sit a day with the dead body while a patrol goes out to capture a sick cat of any age, with any illness. After the day is up, the kin and the Ceremonial Healer bring the body and the prisoner to the Thunderpath. The prisoner will be sacrificed with the words, "As this enemy of the Thunderpath Monsters is crushed beneath their great paws, [dead cat's name] joins their work in a new way, in death." The dead cat is then buried in the tunnel (see "Other Customs: New Camp"), a layer of earth pushed in after, and then the living cats go home.
New Territory: The Cats of the Roaring path move into new places rather often, and so have a special ceremony conducted when they do. It starts with them standing at the stretch of Thunderpath closest to their new camp, all of them except for kits and kit-raisers, and with a prisoner. The Ceremonial Healer announces, "We stand here in a new territory, with the first prisoner captured in our new home." A sacrifice is then carried out. The Ceremonial Healer then continues, "Our great organization of cats is continuing still, and we will be even stronger in this new place, for it contains what was gone in our old home." They all cheer, and consider the new territory theirs from then on.
Other Customs
Names: The Cats of the Roaring Path have names that would be considered odd by Clan cats and kittypets alike. The Fighters-in-Training have names such as Trainee 1 or Trainette 4. Those who have become full Fighters for the Path have four-syllable names that seem to make no sense, such as Estanaba and Risitnerri. The kit-raisers are named as soon as they normally would have become Fighters-in-Training, and their names are more recognizable for outsiders: names like Fluffy Paws and Bushy Tail and Pretty Nose. Ceremonial Healers are all known as simply "Healer," and Great Cats of Iron and Black-pawed Cats are known by their titles. Kits have no names, and are referred to by their looks. For instance, a kit-raiser might be heard yowling, "White tomkit with black spots! Come over here RIGHT NOW!"
Expectant Mothers: Every time a she-cat is expecting kits, she will work as usual until she becomes too heavy to, and will help the kit-raiser from then until she gives birth. At that time, she will be milked every day until her milk dries up, and the milk stored in wads of moss. However, between milkings, she will continue to serve as she normally would. (Due to this custom, it is permissible for mature cats of any rank to have kits.)
New Camp: The Cats of the Roaring Path occasionally have to move camp, due to problems such as the food supply running out, no Thunderpath monsters coming that way anymore, and no more cats able to be sacrificed. When that happens, they fill in the holes they have made and tear down their dens, eat the last of their fresh-kill, and set off in search of a new home. Upon finding one, they set up their camp by assembling dens, designating areas within the camp for various purposes, and settling down the kits. Then the Fighters, Fighters-in-Training, Great Cat of Iron, and Black-pawed Cat exit the camp. They will dig a tunnel under the nearest Thunderpath that stretches almost but not quite to the other side to bury their dead in, and then get to work deciding where they should do things. They require one area for hunting, a second area for gathering herbs, a third for collecting water, and a fourth area for their ceremonies. Once that is decided, they will conduct a Ceremony of New Territory (see "Ceremonies: New Territory") and return to everyday life, this time in a new place.
