Viperstar

[attr="class","arrgenMAINTEXT"]❝ CALM: while there used to be a time when viperstar was high-strung and alert he has since calmed down significantly as if he's found peace in his life. he has indeed found peace in his life with the death of his half-brother emberstar. he's also very soft-spoken for a cat.

❝ EMPATHETIC: viperstar genuinely loves his clan. he has great expectations for them, but he genuinely cares about them. he is a windclanner through and through. he will spend hours talking to different members of his clan and is great when it comes to listening and giving advice. he tries to look at all sides of the story before he comes to a conclusion, especially in situations where he has to make big decisions. he wants to treat all in his clan fairly, and with a real presence within the clan.

❝ STRATEGIC: while he's small and fighting is very difficult for his size, viperstar is a very good strategist. he's good at finding clever ways to attack and defend himself. he's not the kind of cat who provokes fighting, in fact, he doesn't tolerate it within his own clan, nor does he simply attack at random if it should come to battle. he fights with precision and every move is thought out in advance, like chess.

❝ PASSIONATE: once again we get to the fact that viperstar loves his clan and will do almost anything to make them great. he often surprises his clanmates with how he lives life to the fullest when during his younger moons he was very much reserved. do not mistake this for him being an extravert. he is most definitely an introvert but is also an opportunist.

❝ AMBITIOUS: even though he seems very calm and collected, viperstar is actually very ambitious. he snuck his way into the deputy position and rose his way to the top through ambiguous means. every cat knows his story. some may not agree that he deserves to stay in the leader position, but he's stepped up in ways that others cannot comprehend.

❝ OBSERVANT: viperstar watches his clan with great interest and not much gets past his observation skills. of course, he's not perfect and he doesn't catch everything, but he's not above noticing the behavior patterns of the cats in his clan. should he catch you breaking the warrior code? now that's an entirely different issue.

❝ DIPLOMATIC: despite his passion and ambition, unless he sees it necessary, viperstar would much rather play the diplomat than the war leader.

❝ ALERT: just as he is observant, viperstar is very alert. he trusts very few, and even those he does trust know little about what goes on within his mind. he simply learned not to trust people because of emberstar's cruelty. he watches other cats closely, even those within his own clan.

❝ SECRETIVE: once again viperstar trusts very few, instead he is inclined to keep his cards close to his chest. while everyone knows his story and some may even be afraid of him because of it, viperstar is most definitely secretive about his plans. he doesn't need spies knowing what he's thinking, even from those who are within his inner circle.

❝ DANGEROUS: now here is where things start getting interesting. because of his half-brother's reign as leader, and the dark time that it was, viperstar is not above killing in extreme situations. he killed emberstar, with the help of others, and to protect his clan he's not afraid to do it again.

❝ HAUNTED: despite the peace that he exudes to the rest of the world, he is not above having nightmares and visions relating to certain deaths and situations in his younger moons. he hates being touched by anyone that's not his mate and will not take kindly to manipulative words.

❝ DISTANT: viperstar keeps a lot of his emotions to himself. he's gotten very good at a poker face over the moons. the only cats he will share his emotions with are his mate, his best friend, and his apprentice.

[attr="class","arrgenMAINTEXT"]KITHOOD
30 moons ago: they'd only been mates for a few moons when it was announced that she was pregnant with his kits. she was convinced that the two of them were end game. that he loved her just as much as she loved him.

but when it was announced that applefeather was pregnant with snakestrike's kits tigerfang couldn't help but be just as jealous as she was in love. her hatred for the gentle and easily manipulated she-cat grew and grew every day.

so when she died during kitting and leaving only one kit, tigerfang was outright offended when snakestrike came to her and asked her to take care of him. emberkit he was named, after the beautiful red tabby pelt that came from his mother. she was ecstatic with bitterness, pain, and fury when she was asked. and they fought for a long time outside the camp. where no one could hear them.

the breakup was official then. and while snakestrike loved emberkit, tigerfang's hatred only grew stronger and stronger. she treated him gently but her voice was filled with barbed briar. she spoke to him with sweet venom in her gentle mews. and she would watch as her two tom kits would bully him with adderkit at the head. they grew up like this.

26 moons ago: the anger and hatred grew in emberkit, and it was evident in the way he attacked another kit in the nursery for a moss ball and sent them into the medicine cat's den for the next few sunrises. it was then that tigerfang realized what she had created. she'd created a little monster.

APPRENTICEHOOD
24 moons ago: swiftfoot was a great warrior and a strict one at that. viperpaw was unimpressed at first. knowing that she was really respected in the clan, but her strictness took away from that thought. he and adderpaw were the best of friends, meaning they were both troublemakers. even though adderpaw was the instigator. their mother had ignored them in favor of her little monster so there wasn't a reason for him to respect a strict mentor.

but over time swiftfoot won him over. her strong personality and strict behavior confused him. under the watchful eye of his mentor, viperpaw began to understand that what he'd been doing to emberpaw was wrong, and at times he tried to convince adderpaw of the same thing, but the tom would just reprimand him and continue what he was doing.

he never noticed but emberpaw was watching them.

19 moons ago: he couldn't breathe, he could barely see. his vision tormented by tears and blur. The world seemed to spin around him, his heart pounding like the sound of a full warrior patrol heading out to battle. While his terror screamed inside him nothing would escape his maw. His throat was too tight and the only sounds that came out were small squeaks as his eyes darted from one cat to the other. One laying still on the ground, the other standing over him triumphantly, and the tree he fell from towering over them.

There was no question from that moment on there could be no speaking of this day. Of this very moment, viperpaw could never speak of it again. And in moons to come, he would completely forget this day, this moment, to the point where he would deny it ever happened if asked. His mind wouldn't let him remember due to the trauma it caused him. But he would always remember Emberpaw's ruthlessness. Mother's little Monster.

He always hated it when she would call him that. Most, if not all, of her attention, was on Emberkit from the beginning. Her own hatred forced her to give him all of that attention and viperkit was jealous. They would talk behind Emberkit's back all the time. Pushing him around. Giving him hell as their jealousy grew and grew.

But here and now, staring at the dead body of Adderpaw as Emberpaw explained how he fell from the tree while they were playing to the patrol who found them, viperpaw could only regret how they treated him. He felt sick and was out for the count for several days, unable to reconcile in his mind what had actually happened that day. Even his mentor couldn't get him to leave the nest.

WARRIORHOOD
18 moons ago: He was named Vipereye for his hunting prowess soon after, just a little bit late than when he was supposed to be. his depression had kept him in the apprentice's den for longer than it should have. but as soon as swiftfoot was able to get him out, they were able to have his warrior assessment. he passed, just barely.

All he could remember was his mother calling his name and even that couldn't get him out of the fear and the grief he was going through. Adderpaw was his best friend. and he should have been given a warrior's name too.

But it wasn't long before he found himself once again under the mercy of Emberpaw. This time he was the one laying on the ground motionless. Whispering "please... please... I promise I won't tell anyone. Please spare me..." He begged the blood-hungry tom quietly. "I'll do anything you want... please don't kill me." His fear only grew as their relationship grew. His strength dropping more and more as, now a warrior, Emberspark manipulated and walked all over him.

What could he do? Emberspark was a better fighter than he was, there was no way he could win a battle against him. Vipereye was at his mercy from the very beginning. Even back then it was Emberkit that held everyone's attention. And so Vipereye survives. Waiting for the day that Emberspark gets bored of him and death takes him, or for death to take Emberspark.

a few days later tigerfang went missing. completely out of nowhere. her body was never found. emberspark was the only thought that came to mind when vipereye thought about it, but he never said anything, the eyes of his half-brother watching him carefully from the shadows.

15 moons ago: he was more a snake than snakestrike was. he manipulated vipereye in the background, isolating him from the rest of the clan, keeping the snake brother by his side at all times, and using his sweet words to tear vipereye down. sweet sweet words. he laughed, he cried, he mourned along with the rest of the clan, keeping a low profile. and vipereye watched from the sidelines as emberspark cooed to his clanmates. taking the stance that the reason vipereye didn't speak to anyone because he was still mourning adderpaw's death.

so no one approached him out of respect.

but emberspark never went near Morningstar. vipereye watched him. charming his clanmates, working hard. but he also knew that Morningstar was watching him just as closely and vipereye decided not to say anything, fear that no one would believe him. after all, he was nothing if not loyal to his half-brother, too afraid that starclan would not accept him after death.

it wasn't long before emberspark was gifted with an apprentice. one that went by the name bluepaw. no one knew what happened, but the young apprentice ended up drowned in the river, his body washing up on the bank.

CHERRYSONG
13 moons ago: she was beautiful. despite the fact that emberspark controlled his entire life, to the very relationships he had with the rest of his clan, cherrysong was completely out of his domain. she was beautiful and strong. she talked a lot, which gave vipereye the ability to listen. she was strong in her voice as well as strong in character. she was definitely bigger than vipereye was. and they fell head over tails for each other. the only problem... she was a shadowclan cat. and that was why their relationship worked so well. because Emberspark could not get to her. and vipereye was sneaky enough to escape Emberspark's eyes.

she gave him a confidence he'd never had before. this confidence began to give him courage and the feeling of safety. this courage gave him the ability to build a friendship with a cat known as Alderstone within Riverclan. this gave him the confidence to tell him about Emberspark, especially since vipereye knew he'd been the killer of several other cats. vipereye and adderpaw's mother and Emberspark's own apprentice were among them.

Cherrysong was soon to ask to join windclan to be official mates with vipereye when she fell sick. it was a moon before vipereye saw any sign of her.

and what he got instead of her, was a cat he recognized as Cherrysong's best friend, rabbit-tail. he had been searching for her at the border every day at their same time when he came across a deeply distressed rabbit-tail. he met her at the border and told him about cherrysong's death. one of three kits survived and they stayed in shadowclan, never to know who their father was. this was to keep the kit safe from emberspark.

REDELM
13 moons ago: to the chagrin of emberspark, vipereye is given an apprentice that goes by the name, redpaw. with vipereye's growing confidence the two get along swimmingly. once again, even though he was quite young, redpaw soon grew much bigger than vipereye. this gave him an idea. one that would begin to stir within him slowly, the plan was perfect, but he needed to get the cats required for it. he already had Alderstone, who was his trusted friend in the clan, and redpaw, who he ended up telling as well, and both supported him. they began to form an idea. but they needed time.

SNAKESTRIKE
12 moons ago: even though vipereye never really cared for his father, when snakestrike succumbed to sickness, he mourned him anyway. Emberspark did not. it was then realized by vipereye that snakestrike had hated their father, so then why had he not killed him before now? why did he let their father live?

JUNIPERBLAZE
7 moons ago: juniperblaze was just 3 moons younger than himself. but he'd been watching her ever since the death of snakestrike. he soon realized that he fell in love with her, even though he'd never spoken to her. but it was juniperblaze who noticed him looking at her and she quickly understood what's going on. even though vipereye was a very reclusive cat during this time it was juniperblaze who approached him instead of the other way around. they soon become fast friends, and in public no less.

vipereye realized that as his confidence was growing, his friend circle was growing too. he learned to trust these three cats, and it's not long before he tells juniperblaze about his troubles with emberspark. she insisted on doing something about it, but vipereye calmed her and told her his plan. she agreed.

it's not long before the two of them announce that they've become mates, and this angers emberspark. he approached vipereye, but could never catch him without one of his friends. he never went anywhere without juniperblaze, alderstone, or redelm (who was now a warrior and a big one at that). he continued to grow in his confidence but soon pledged himself to follow after emberspark regardless, insisting that his three friends know nothing. this seemed to satisfy emberspark for the time, as he bullied vipereye into the ground to threaten him otherwise. but it was emberspark's rise to power that gave the four of them the opportunity to bring their plan to fruition. to unify the clan against him.

EMBERSPARK
6 moons ago: no one was surprised when emberspark was chosen as morningstar's deputy after the sudden death of rowanheart. horrified by this vipereye soon suspects foul play somehow, but everyone else sees the tragedy as an accident. this delayed vipereye's plans as he no longer has time to spend with his friends while emberspark keeps them all separate and terribly busy.

it wasn't a surprise, because morningstar had grown to trust emberspark and his hard work. vipereye thought about telling his leader, but he didn't think the she-cat would listen to him. so he kept the plans to himself.

in a random encounter, vipereye overhears emberspark speaking to one of his friends, angry and frustrated. speaking about how he never wanted the position of deputy. and that was why he kept out of morningstar's way. confused and uncertain vipereye's hesitancy quickly became horror as emberspark came to the conclusion that this might actually be a good thing. that he could do whatever he wanted as a leader, including satisfy his own urges and be himself out in the open, only as long as he had those who were willing to follow him.

vipereye left then, wondering if some of the ones who actually followed emberspark were afraid of him and his minions rather than actually wanting to follow him.

EMBERSTAR
5 moons ago: emberspark summoned vipereye to morningstar's den and he watched as his half-brother takes the last life of their beautiful leader. he watched as morningstar's expression goes from shocked to lifeless in a matter of seconds. he told no one what he'd seen and accepted that emberspark had now become emberstar. The medicine cat took him to the moonstone and for his growing confidence and the closeness he'd always had with emberstar, the new leader announced vipereye as his deputy.

It wasn’t not long before emberstar showed his true colors and his followers come out of hiding. the clan is split in two. those who support emberstar, and those who fight against him. vipereye watched as his beloved clan fell into chaos under his half-brother's rule, with different cats ending up missing or dying at the hand of their leader. soon enough he began to work through his plan again. he ended up having a conversation with their medicine cat, who told him that emberstar never got his 9 lives and that starclan rejected him as leader.

and with that knowledge, he ended up talking to a bunch of warriors and apprentices who he knew wanted emberstar out of power. he continued to play the loyal deputy on the outside, ruthless and dangerous, but his group grew every day in order to fight against emberstar and his band of supporters.

FATHER
3 moons ago: to vipereye's horror juniperblaze got pregnant and a moon later had his kits. emberstar was pissed and killed one of them to keep vipereye in line. one was left and juniperblaze called him adderkit. naming him for his brown tabby coat and after his brother, who emberstar killed.

vipereye was devastated and silently swore revenge against him.

RIVERCLAN
0 moon ago: Emberstar purposefully and openly threatens Riverclan for half-clan kits. The gathering is over early as both clans prepare for a battle that was sure to come.

VIPERSTAR
0 moons ago: a fight broke out in the middle of the camp. one that had been planned for moons. It wasn’t long before it became a full-on internal battle. emberstar was unaware that vipereye was the one who started the fight in the first place. It was then that a Riverclan patrol came and crashed the party, giving vipereye the opportunity to bite emberstar in the throat, and fatally wound him. there was a bit of a fight between them afterward, but emberstar was slow and terrified and couldn't keep up with vipereye's reaction time. It wasn’t long before he collapsed on the ground and his life left his body.

everyone stopped dead in their tracks as vipereye yowls about emberstar's death. there was silence as everyone waited for him to get back up, but he never did. this invigorated vipereye's followers and the Riverclan patrol and they were able to chase out emberstar's supporters. riverclan was broken and it was vipereye's job to put it back together.

Vipereye went to make the moonstone journey with their medicine cat and gained his leader name as Viperstar.

VIPERSTAR'S NINE LIVES
1. tigerfang - mother - humility
2. snakestrike - father - pride
3. rowanheart - former deputy - understanding what is seen
4. cloverpaw - emberstar's apprentice - compassion
5. adderpaw - brother - forgiveness
6. cherrysong - former mate - loyalty to one's clan
7. rosesong - emberstar's mother - mother's love
8. hornetkit - son - to bring unity in one's clan
9. morningstar - former leader - trust

ROGUES
0 moons ago: even though they were chased out, the band of Emberstar’s followers continues to attack at the windclan and riverclan borders. Cats of both clans are ending up dead and wounded. This causes tension between the two clans.