whalefall

PERSONALITY .

Whalefall is a terribly nervous cat, always jumping at shadows. She assumes the worst in others and is violently paranoid, expecting anyone at any point to discover her worst secrets. Her greatest fear is being exposed as a liar and a coward and worst of all, a murderer, but she keeps tight-lipped regardless. At one point, Whalefall seemed like a perfectly self-possessed cat. That point has long passed, and now, they’re just a shell of themself.

If there are any echoes of what they were remaining, they remain in Whalefall’s kindness and self-sacrifice. They’d do anything for anyone, always willing to give their life for the cause, always wanting to atone. Whalefall is loyal, and kind to others, and surprisingly empathetic when they aren’t working themself to death.

Another major aspect to Whalefall’s life is their faith. Regardless of the blows the world has dealt them, they do believe in the greater good, and in something higher than them. They want to serve the world around them, even if they die trying.

HISTORY .

Whalefall’s history is storied.

Born the secret daughter of a Marrowclan Oracle, Burstfire, and one of Marrowclan’s warriors, Whalefall never really knew her parents growing up. Her father, Seachaser, was distant, as if he didn’t want to be reminded of what he’d done, and Burstfire was even worse in that sense. Both parents treated Whalekit like a secret to be kept, until she was three moons old.

At three moons old, something changed.

For whatever reason, Whalekit began taking a great interest in the stories and myths that surrounded her as a daughter of Marrowclan. She loved hearing about Astron, and whenever other kits in the nursery would play Clan, she would always fancy herself the oracle. Whalekit dreamed of becoming an oracle, in fact. Her hope was to one day be one of the best oracles ever seen. So she began spending time in their den, speaking with Newlight or Candlenight or even Burstfire. And Burstfire took private excitement in this– after all, Whalekit was her own child, and there was a joy to be held in that.

At least, until Whalekit began asking weirder questions– like, what if there were other gods beyond those known. In rigid Marrowclan, this would be a little strange. But Burstfire still indulged her kit. She began treating Whalekit differently than the other kits– like something special. Whalekit was told that she was something unique, and she was entirely willing to listen.

On the cusp of becoming an apprentice, Whalekit went to her mother, though that secret was still unbeknownst to her. She told Burstfire about her aspirations, willing to shatter the world to pieces just to rebuild it. Burstfire, for her part, was horrified. Horrified, but not willing to crush her kit’s dreams just yet. No, instead she tried to push Whalekit on a different path.

(TW RELIGIOUS TRAUMA)

Whalepaw was apprenticed to Grizzlyroar, and yet, in private, Burstfire told the older warrior to keep a special eye on his new apprentice. For a while, Whalepaw was upset at being relegated to “just another warrior.” But they would make a few friends in the den, and they supposed they understood, if Greystar needed more warriors than oracles. Whalepaw would just need to ask after this conflict blew over!

The conflict would not blow over, and Whalepaw would grow impatient. Again he went to Burstfire, and begged the oracle to make him her apprentice. Burstfire, backed into a corner at that point, made a mistake. She told the young apprentice of a “prophecy” she had received, hoping that Whalepaw would keep it secret. This prophecy being that Whalepaw was important, that he was going to be leader someday, and he had a super secret destiny beyond that. A lie told in a panic, but this would shape the lives of both cats.

Whalepaw began putting on a persona, of someone she was not. She tried being unreasonably perfect, unreasonably willing to shoulder the weight of the world. Whatever friends she had vanished as she became isolated in self-percieved martyrdom.

Whalepaw placed her faith in the gods, and her one remaining friend, a young Marrowclan apprentice named Serpentpaw. The two were close, simply because of the expectations placed upon them, no matter how self-inflicted. But Whalepaw was zealous in her faith, and soon enough, she would be “rewarded” for it.

As her mentor, Grizzlyroar, had been training in the Bright Grove, a member of that afterlife took notice of Whalepaw. She, a molly with a name that sounded like the abyss, appeared to Whalepaw, under the guise of a Starclan cat. She began training Whalepaw, who fully believed this as the outcome of his destiny. Soon enough, Serpentpaw was roped in too.

As conflict heated up in the clans, Burstfire got swept up into her own duties. She ignored Whalepaw, too terrified of the way her kit acted, and Whalepaw was crushed by this. Of course, they understood. They just needed to work harder! Work harder, they did.

Whalepaw and Serpentpaw trained every night with their unknown molly, who still masqueraded as a child of the stars. By the time the Battle of the Stars began, Whalepaw was entirely wrapped up in their own importance.

They, however, doesn’t remember much about the Battle of the Stars– only the yowling of the battling cats around them and the urging of both of their mentors to fight with the cats of the Dark Forest.

Well, only that– and what happened to Burstfire. Whalepaw ran across them during the confusion of the battle, and their mother was horrified at the blood running down their paws. Enough so that she admitted herself as such– Whalepaw’s mother. Burstfire claimed that she had made a mistake, having Whalepaw in the first place. She admitted the lies she had told, about the prophecy and Whalepaw’s importance. Whatever hope Whalepaw had for their future shattered right there.

Their Dark Forest mentor urged them forward, and Whalepaw would attack their own mother, slaying her in the battle. And then disappearing from the battlefield with no trace. Whalepaw would be found near the Faering a few days later, ragged and terrified. They grew silent in the next few moons, saying not a word to anyone of what happened– what they did to Burstfire. Eventually, they would earn their full name, Whalefall, under the weight of the stars.

And when Seraphimstar about daemons, about gods of hunting and mountains and more than just the sun, moon, and stars, Whalefall knew that she would follow him from Marrowclan. There was never anything for her there, anyways.

Now in Zenithclan, Whalefall works to atone for her sins, always feeling the drag of the Dark Forest under her skin. Her patron of Vis only makes things much worse, for as much as it is a comfort to know that, in her own clan, she can choose her god, not the other way around.