Totally Original Cat Story 2: Playing with Realism
The Erins disregard for realism is both a boon and a hindrance for Warriors. Them waiving cat genetics allows them to create pretty and unique designs like Sol, the lion-like tortie tom. Medicine cats wouldn’t exist and I like medicine cats. We wouldn’t get the cool battle scenes. However, this disregard has led to batshittery like the cats doing stuff they are not physically equipped to do. Somehow amputating limbs with rocks, setting bones with splints, tying knots, etc etc. There’s a lot of insanity in this series. While waiving realism aside can be beneficial for a xenofiction, I feel dipping so far into fantasy that you break the immersion of the world is not the solution, especially if you’re writing about real animals. In short, my suspension of disbelief can only stretch so far.
Believe it or not, my tolerance for humanized animals is pretty high. I don’t care if they’re super smart or have magic. I just draw the line at animals doing shit they cannot do like stitching wounds with their paws somehow. I want them to feel like animals. With xenofiction, you’re going to humanize the animals regardless, however it is up to you to sell the illusion of being plausible. That sense of being real. It doesn’t have to be realistic. It just needs to feel real. That is what the word “verisimilitude” means. And one of the easiest ways to create that illusion is by answering logical questions based in reality. How far can you stretch realism without breaking the illusion?
Restrictions Lead to Creativity
When I was drafting my unnamed story, there were things I initially wanted to keep from Warriors, but I had to scrap because it broke the illusion I wanted to sell. Cats irl are not combative. Not really. They only fight when they have no other choice. They tend to puff up and scream and if their competitor doesn’t back down, they either fight or flee. Cats are flighty animals. Because I was working within this framework, I had to scrap the big battles I like from Warriors. Besides, my cats fighting each other didn’t make sense anyway when they’re so far apart territory-wise and they’re dealing with predators way more dangerous than a cat. Fighting with the other colonies when disputes can be discussed is just stupid. Fighting leads to injuries and injuries lead to death.
I got rid of Gatherings, another thing I liked from Warriors, because it clashed with my environment. Again, there are predators everywhere. It doesn’t make sense for the cats to choose to congregate in one area and loudly argue where coyotes could hear them. Realistically I don’t think coyotes are dumb enough to attack a mob of cats, but the cats are also not dumb enough to risk it, especially out in the open at night. It didn’t logically track for me so I got rid of it. But I still want the colonies to interact with each other. Without Gatherings, what can I do? Festivals! Games!
I don’t want to spoil all of my stuff, but I will discuss the Spring Festival. Every spring, the colonies send about 5-6 cats to the other colonies and there those cats play games and chat within the camp. There, the cats hang out for like a week before returning to their camp. This is to keep morale high and tensions low and it gives me an excuse to have the characters interact with each other. I also have ambassador meetings which are like Gatherings, but for 1 cat per colony, the ambassadors. Ambassadors are the messengers. They meet up at a set neutral zone and exchange news once a month. The commander can also call a council-to-council meeting if political stuff needs to be ironed out. So I have many ways for the cats to interact with each other without breaking the framework.
Alright so cat genetics. Warriors doesn’t give a shit about cat genetics, but yet we haven’t had a single character with Bengal markings! We don’t have a cat with rosettes, braided tabby stripes, marbled patterning, nor charcoal shading. We don’t have any kaparti cats. We don’t have curled ears, bob tails, or curly fur. We don’t have different fur textures. For all that freedom they given themselves, they have not utilized the coolest and prettiest parts of some breeds. Where are my Lykois?! Where are my smokey cats? We don’t get a fucking Bengal inspired cat, but we get abominations like Bee. This is a crime.
(little side note: I recently learned that the breeding of Lykois are inherently unethical. The gene that causes their werewolf look also causes a horrible skin disease. Pretty sad, but breeding in harmful mutations for the sake of style has always been a thing and it’s always been awful. Look up all the problems Scottish Folds (folded ears), Manxs (short tail or tailless), and Munchkins (short legs) have. It’s super depressing. Personally I’m sticking with the fun stuff aka fur colors and textures.)
I think Warrior Cat fans seem to assume cat genetics are very restrictive or some shit, but they’re really not. Genetics are so cool and cats are too pretty. I want a Savannah Cat antagonist goddammit so I’m taking advantage of genetics and breeds. Most of my cats are moggies, but white spotting alone is enough to differentiate them. You can create unique designs by staying within this framework. And I also got some purebreds running around because I said so. I have a Bengal, a Siamese, a Havana Brown, a lot of Maine Coons, a Nebelung, and more because I love these breeds and I wanted them in there. Using these handy sources [link 1] [link 2], I’ve been slowly learning cat genetics and designing my characters accordingly. Cats are fucking gorgeous. We don’t need to make them sparkle.
Now onto the colony structure. The structure of the forest colonies is pure fantasy as cats do not behave this way, but I wanted it so I crafted it in a way that feels plausible for cats. To better explain this, let’s look at Watership Down. We all know rabbits do not have Owslas, but irl rabbits do keep watch for predators while they’re out grazing and warn others of a predator’s presence. Most prey animals do this actually, including cats. Adams took a real world thing and twisted it to work within his story. This is the verisimilitude I keep preaching about. It’s fantasy, but it feels grounded. It feels real. I’m taking more liberties, but I followed this logic.
Real world cat colonies usually form around food resources and are usually made up of female cats and their offspring. They do have a social hierarchy, but it’s is nowhere near as strict as dogs. Cat colonies are matrilineal, usually led by older female cats. Males usually float around the fringes and are mostly solitary, but are generally friendly with a colony, especially if they’re related. Males can even from their own little groups that overlap with the nearby big colony. Male kittens that reach sexual maturity are usually pushed out if they start being all aggressive and male. Colony cats raise and protect kittens, hunt solitarily with the occasional sharing of food, repel predators, and establish territories. Outsiders are usually chased away, but if they’re persistent enough they can slowly join the colony. Aggression between intact males can happen when a female in heat is near by, but sometimes they may just wait their turn. Cats are polygamous by default and females are superfecund which means they can be impregnated by more than one male, resulting in litters full of half siblings. Males tend not to be involved in the rearing of kittens, but there have been observations of them helping from time to time. In short, cats are interesting little beasts. I linked sources below if you want to learn more about cat colonies.
Following what I know about cats, I took this and created two different colony types. There’s the town colonies that behave just like real colonies (no change) and then there’s the forest colonies who are very different. I detailed them in post one. They’re the ones with the strict hierarchy, jobs, and military ranks. I felt it made sense for very intelligent cats facing a very dangerous environment to create something like this. To maximize survival, they militarized themselves and created this system. Shadow and other outsiders think they’re weird. They’re also monogamous, much to the bewilderment of my main boy Shadow. I did this for two reasons: 1) The idea of having my main character call monogamy weird is really funny to me and 2) the cats are strict on breeding to keep the population down and manageable. It also lessens in-fighting and makes keeping track of bloodlines a lot easier. I’m not going to get too into this. The novel goes over this in more detail as it is a plot point.
When it comes to the realism illusion, I did a lot to make it feel grounded while also leaving room for fun and mayhem. I’m not going for Watership Down. I’m going for Felidae. Restrictions lead to creativity. Challenge yourself. Give yourself blockers and force your brain to work within the restriction. It’s a great way to create really interesting worlds and concepts.
Taking Liberties with Realism
While I did restrict myself overall, I did give myself wiggle room for fun. Like I said, I got purebreds running around because I wanted them there. Eh, some irresponsible idiot just lost their expensive Havana Brown and didn’t bother to look for them. That’s explains why they’re there. I got rid of estrus cycles because they clashed with the colony structure. Mollies going into heat caused so many logical problems that I had to get rid of it. No one wants to read that shit anyway. The cats are super smart. They understand quite a lot of human things except for the spiritual, artistic, and philosophical stuff we badger on about. I think animals are practical beings. They don’t think about their place in the universe. They just exist and survive. The forest colony structure, all their rules, and how they operate are big liberties obviously. I mean, that gets called out in the narrative. The forest cats are weird to everyone else. Oh and some of the characters have unique eye colors. Nothing crazy like purple eyes but different shades of green and yellow for diversity.
And… that’s about it, I think.
Draft One Updates and Other Stuff
Now that I made my point about realism and what I did with it, let’s get into some updates. I’ve changed my perspective from third person limited to first person. I feel the story will flow a lot better in first person. We’re only following one character anyway, Shadow, so it makes more sense for it to be in first person. Plus the dry humor I want to put in is better suited for first person. This is another challenge for me as I usually don’t write this perspective but hey! I’m down for a challenge.
Look at my family tree!
Click to view a clearer image. This isn’t every single cat in the colonies. Just the ones who have mates, siblings, and/or kittens.
I’m not lying when I say I’m using Warriors as a cautionary tale. I look at what they did wrong and avoid making those mistakes as much as possible. This family tree took ages to make. I’m very proud of it. Do note that some of the names are not final.
And that’s it for now. Once I have more to show I’ll make another post. Feel free to ask questions.
