NIGHTSTAR
AS A WARRIOR, NIGHTSTAR , then known as Nightpelt, was dedicated, thoughtful, and well respected.
Cedarstar appointed him as mentor to Brokenpaw, hoping that Nightpelt’s gentle approach would soften some of the angry young cat’s impulses. Brokenpaw had no patience with a warrior that he saw as weak and cowardly, and sought training from Raggedpelt instead. Nightpelt retired to the elders’ den soon after Brokentail became a warrior and prepared to live out his days peacefully. But Brokenstar’s bloodthirsty rule, and the death of kits too young to be forced into battle, stirred Nightpelt to action.
When Brokenstar was captured by ThunderClan, Nightpelt put himself forward as ShadowClan’s new leader. He went to the Moonstone with the medicine cat, Runningnose, where both cats were dismayed to learn that StarClan regarded Brokenstar as the ShadowClan leader still, and thus would not give Nightstar nine lives. It was perhaps Nightstar’s greatest moment of courage that he was prepared to lie to his Clanmates and tell them that StarClan approved of his leadership, in order to save them from any further influence from that dark-hearted cat.
Nightstar tried to steer his Clan into a time of peace and recovery, but age and ill health caught up with him and he died after just a few seasons. A bout of greencough stole his single life, leaving ShadowClan lost and leaderless, and ready for Tigerstar.
TIGERSTAR
TIGERSTAR WAS BORN IN ThunderClan, son of Pinestar and Leopardfoot. Soon after Tigerkit was born, his father left the Clan to take refuge in the life of a kittypet. The shame of this stayed with Tigerstar for all his life and beyond, and his pelt burned with the need to prove his own loyalty, with the warrior code running through his veins. Mentored by the cruel and ambitious Thistleclaw, young
Tigerpaw, whose warrior name would be Tigerclaw, wanted to be the greatest warrior his Clan had seen. A skirmish with a young stray kittypet—which Tigerpaw won easily—fueled his hunger for victory. In a clash over Sunningrocks with RiverClan, Tigerclaw saw his chance to kill the ThunderClan deputy, Redtail, and blame it on their rivals. Bluestar eventually made Tigerclaw deputy as he had hoped, but by then her attention had turned to the new arrival in the Clan, a former kittypet named Firepaw, who seemed to be taking the place in Bluestar’s confidence that Tigerclaw sought for himself.
As Bluestar declined into old age, Tigerclaw decided he had to hasten his promotion to leader.
He tried to lure Bluestar to the Thunderpath but a young apprentice named Cinderpaw came in her place and was badly injured by a passing monster. Increasingly desperate, Tigerclaw plotted with rogues that had once belonged to ShadowClan, and with Brokenstar, the former leader of ShadowClan now held captive by Bluestar, to launch a direct attack on the ThunderClan camp. The attackers were defeated and Tigerclaw was banished from the territory forever. He left swearing vengeance, and found it by joining up with rogues and then charming his way into ShadowClan, which was floundering under Nightstar’s leadership. Desperate for a strong cat to reassert their position among the other Clans, ShadowClan welcomed Tigerclaw, and when Nightstar died, he was the natural successor instead of the elderly deputy, Cinderfur.
Tigerstar began plotting against his former Clan at once, first laying a trail of dead rabbits to lure a pack of wild dogs into the heart of the camp, and then forming an ill-advised allegiance with Scourge and his violent cats from Twolegplace, BloodClan. Little did Tigerstar realize that Scourge was the young kittypet whom he’d fought all those moons before. At the moment when ShadowClan, RiverClan, and BloodClan were poised to leap into battle against their neighbors, Scourge turned on Tigerstar and ripped all nine lives from him with one terrible blow.
But for Tigerstar, death was no obstacle to his pursuit of revenge on Firestar and all of ThunderClan. He walked in the dreams of his sons, Hawkfrost and Brambleclaw, training them among the shadows of the Dark Forest and urging them to kill Firestar. Hawkfrost, a RiverClan warrior, was willing to do whatever it took to please Tigerstar, but at the last moment Brambleclaw realized his loyalties lay with his Clan leader, not his long-dead father, and he killed Hawkfrost instead.
Undaunted, Tigerstar walked in the dreams of more and more cats from the Clans, raising an army of warriors who were discontented, restless, or simply keen to learn more fighting skills. Finally he led an onslaught of warriors, dead and alive, out of the Dark Forest and into the living world of the Clans. Face-to-face with his enemy Firestar, Tigerstar struck the fatal blow that took the ThunderClan leader’s ninth life. But Firestar matched it with a strike that ended Tigerstar’s existence in the Dark
Forest, and put him beyond revenge, beyond influence, and beyond a warrior’s darkest dreams once and for all.
BLACKSTAR
BLACKSTAR HAD THE UNENVIABLE task of taking over the leadership from Tigerstar. ShadowClan was in ruins, awash with the blood of its own warriors and stained by the memory of inviting BloodClan into the forest. Blackstar took a dogged, loyal, and almost unnoticeable path to restoring the strength of his Clan. He had faith in the virtues at the heart of ShadowClan, the loyalty and courage that ran through the veins of every cat. He acknowledged the role of ShadowClan in bringing death to the forest, but refused to apologize for cats who no longer walked among his Clanmates. Instead, he looked to the future, spoke calmly and without challenge at Gatherings, and willingly let Tawnypelt—born in ThunderClan but now firmly part of ShadowClan—join the quest to find mysterious Midnight and learn the destiny of all four Clans.
Settled in their new territory beside the lake, beneath pine trees that reminded the ShadowClan cats of their former home, Blackstar became disillusioned with a life that seemed as difficult as ever for his warriors. Scarce prey, troublesome kittypets, even Twolegs that invaded the clearing at the edge of their territory, were all things he hoped to have left behind. When his medicine cat, Littlecloud, didn’t seem to be getting reassurance from StarClan, Blackstar began to question why their ancestors had brought them to this place.
Then a charismatic rogue named Sol moved to ShadowClan after a battle involving all four Clans.
Sol offered a different way of living to Blackstar, one in which cats took care of their own needs, hunted for themselves, and lived free from the burden of the warrior code. He told Blackstar that each cat was more powerful than StarClan because they could control their own destinies. The fact that Sol had predicted a recent eclipse of the sun convinced Blackstar that he should listen to this stranger.
ShadowClan stopped attending Gatherings, and Blackstar forbade Littlecloud from visiting the Moonpool. He returned to using the name Blackfoot and ordered all apprentice training to cease.
In despair at the disintegration of ShadowClan, Lionblaze, Hollyleaf, and Jaypaw schemed with Tigerpaw and Dawnpaw to create a false message from StarClan. Lying in wait for Blackfoot in a marshy part of the territory, they dug up saplings to fall onto the former leader and trap him while
Jaypaw pretended to be a StarClan cat with a dire warning to start believing in the warrior ancestors once more. At the last moment, Jaypaw was joined by two real StarClan cats, Raggedstar and Runningnose, who told Blackfoot that Sol represented darkness and the imminent loss of the warrior code. Stunned back into faith, Blackstar reclaimed his leader name and exiled Sol.