Fine-tuning the plot of my Warrior Cats fic before i start writing it

• Fire and Flood - A wandering stray named Hay meets with his Riverclan friend Molestep outside the clan's territory, as they do every spring. At first he's just going to go on after a few days like he always does, but is introduced to a fellow stray Tulip (who unlike him lives stationarily) by Molestep. Hay and Tulip make a nest in a grove some distance away, for at least until she gives birth to their kits Splash, Duck, and Sun. However a human building project destroys the grove when the kits are less than ten days old and are just starting to open their eyes. Molestep shows them to a new place closer to Riverclan, but when they're crossing a road, a truck suddenly appears and Hay freezes in terror. Tulip, who already crossed, runs back for him and they and Sun all get hit and die. Duck and Splash see all of this, and Molestep blames himself. He takes them Riverclan to a foster mother, but Duck dies either en-route or soon after arrival. Splash becomes Splashkit and his foster mother is Dawnfrost, who has just had Featherkit and Goosekit. However Molestep spends lot of time with him and is basically the one who raises him. Riverclan has suffered from spring floods and a few cats have died as consequence. Splashkit meets month-old motherless Ravenkit, who's withdrawn and hostile at him. While war's sparking between Riverclan and Thunderclan and/or Windclan, Splashkit learns Ravenkit's mother died in the floods and his father Sootshadow blames him for it. Sootshadow is also abusive, but Splashkit doesn’t know that and Ravenkit doesn't want anybody to know because he thinks it'll only make it worse or that nobody would care. Later, Magpiekit and Nightkit are born. Because of the inter-clan situations, Ruststar wants more warriors quickly and makes kits apperentices as early as warrior code allows, at six months. Splashkit becomes and apperentice soon after Ravenpaw, and meets the older Swiftpaw when they move to the apperentice nest. Ravenpaw is made Sootshadow's apperentice because Sootshadow hasn't had any yet, and they soon end up in battles at the Windclan border when Ruststar tries to conquee land on the other side of the bridge◊ between Riverclan and Windclan/Fourtrees territories.

• (Insert Title) - Splashpaw continues his warrior training, but his mentor Missingfang is (despite his ex-pet background) vaguely prejudiced against strays and does microaggressions. Molestep raises a problem with this, but nobody cares. Ravenpaw bullies Splashpaw over his outsider origins though it's implied to actually be jealously-caused resentment because Molestep is a better father than Soothadow, and Splashnose starts growing apart from Goosepaw and Featherpaw who become Ravenpaw’s "friends". Ruststar is placing unreasonable prey expectations before warriors and apperentices are allowed to eat, which results in Magpiepaw stealing a mouse from the pile because he's starving. Ruststar overreacts violently and Splashnose tries to somehow take the fall, but Magpiepaw runs away from the camp. After the things have cooled down they go looking for him. They bring him back, and on the same trip find an orphaned kitten near the owl tree. They take him into the clan and name him Sparrowpaw, unknowing that he's a kit soldier whom Shadowclan leader Antstar sent to spy on Ruststar's plans and backstab them at an opportune time^note  (Shadowclan already had child soldiers in Into the Wild, so. At least Antstar doesn't make him straight-up fight). Sootshadow is angry about how outsiders just keep coming in, but Ruststar doesn't care, both because he's pretty lazy about things that don't involve violence, and because more warriors is more warriors. Everybody else also ignores Sootshadow, because he's a cat racist and nobody likes him^note  (xenophobia isn't that rare in Riverclan, but most of them consider shouting at or actively harassing cats to be improper. They think they're better than that or something, and just whisper with their family members. Like the people in my home country). At some point they're attacked by a dog (or maybe fox?) and trapped in a tree for hours because it won’t go away. Splashpaw learns that Ravenpaw's mother was ex-kittypet Honey / Honeyspots who died in the flood (and who Ravenpaw always denied any relation to), and the kittypet thing is one of the major reasons why Sootshadow hates him. Ravenpaw also reveals to Splashpaw that Sootshadow straight-up abuses him. Ravenpaw dismisses it and tries to make Splashpaw promise not to tell anybody either of these things, and Splashpaw promises though he doesn’t intend to keep it. Finally, Molestep and Missingfang who went looking for them find them, and they manage to drive the fox off together.

• (Insert Title) - Splashpaw reveals Sootshadow’s abuse of Ravenpaw to the clan, and even though Ruststar doesn't really punish Sootshadow, he gives Ravenkit to a different mentor - Heatherpelt. However, Heatherpelt doesn't really care, and doesn't like Ravenpaw. Ravenpaw is first angry at Splashpaw for getting involved in things that aren't his business, but Splashpaw tries to get closer to him. They start having some kind of a relationship which Ravenpaw insists on hiding from the clan, and it's hamöered by their both's psychological issues. Swiftpaw loses most of his tail in an accident^note  (i'm still thinking what should actually happen. Would a bear trap be survivable?), and Splashpaw, Nightpaw, and Magpiepaw lie with him in the medicine cats' den through the first night. Ravencall overhears Ruststar and medicine cat Herbgrove talking about Ruststar having some kind of a terminal illness, and tells Featherstorm and Goosefoot that Ruststar is dying. Sparrowpaw lures a fox into attacking the camp (where it kills Herbgrove) and tries to frame Splashpaw, but while Splashpaw's name is cleaned Sparrowpaw doesn't get caught. A wandering pack of strays travels through the area and Splashpaw develops a crush on a female member of the pack, and briefly considers joining them and leaving because of recent and earlier events and his curiosity. However he doesn't want to leave Molestep, Ravenpaw doesn't want to go, and Splashpaw eventually recognizes he's only attrached to her appearance and doesn't even know her yet, and just says the pack goodbye when they leave. Herbgrove's apperentice Dustbird ends up having to show his ability as a medicine cat for the first time when a malevolent spirit starts moving at the river^note  (I'm doing what some rewrites have done, and giving them wandering spirits, and more rituals and spirituality), and Ravenpaw and Splashpaw get accidentally involved and are attacked by the spirit (maybe Ravenpaw freezes and cowers instead of helping when the entity gets hold of Splashpaw?). At the or near the end, Splashpaw, Nightpaw, and Ravenpaw become warriors.

• Blood In The Water(?) - At autumn or spring, fishes start dissappearing from the river and Splashnose, Molestep, and Troutfang and his mate Rosedusk are sent on a multi-day trip to investigate (i don't know what could be it's cause, or how could five cats fix it). It turns humans have caused it somehow, and they get into conflict with a Windclan patrol sent to investigate the same issue (they qalso fish in some parts of the river because it's convenient). Splashnose and Molestep are introduced to Troutfang's and Rosedusk's kittypet boyfriend Polar^note  (he's named that because he's fluffy and all-white), who has a (limited) understanding of human language and can (somewhat) explain them what the humans are doing. Meanwhile Sootshadow dies, and Ravencall is conflicted because he got neither revenge nor closure. Ruststar also dies, shocking the clan because he was so old and had been in charge for so long that it's hard to understand he's just died. Ravencall tells Goosefoot and Featherstorm that he's sure Lionstar will find himself not up to the task of a leader and will step down sooner or later, and it's Ravencall's opportunity. Nightflank meets a wandering stray from far away, named Stork, and they start having a thing though Ruststar didn't let her into the clan and she doesn't feel like straight-up joining even once Ruststar is dead.

• Into Night and Fog^note  (It's a reference to nazi Germany's Nacht und Nebel-directive because yes, i went there) - After Ruststar's death Lionleap becomes Lionstar, and goes to the Highstones to get his nine lives. The situation between Riverclan and the other clans becomes less volatile, but Lionstar is stupid, incompetent, wimpy, and preceived as spineless and weak (that's what nepotism gets you). The other leaders can all see his weakness and unsuitabliness, and the Rivenclan cats aren't happy. When he's alone with Splashnose (implicitly after snogging), Ravencall suggest they use violence on the problem, and promises to make Splashnose his deputy. Splash rejects the proposition, but doesn't tell anybody. Ravencall starts plotting with Goosefoot, Featherstorm, and Boulderstep, and tries to get the medicine cat Dustbird on his side, but Dustbird rejects him because he doesn't think Ravencall will ever get power^note  (How do you try to bribe a medicine cat? If they were human Ravencall could give him money or promise to promote religion, but what do you use as a bribe for a herb cat in a feral pack?). Meanwhile, Lionstar fucks Splashnose over somehow, and also makes multiple other cats personally angry at him. Ravencall gets cats on his side, and Lionstar dismisses the warnings of Heatherpelt and his deputy Weaselclaw, and the other cats from Ruststar's inner circle encourage this. After the majority is on Ravencall's side, he has Featherstorm and Boulderstep assassinate Weaselclaw and (seemingly) murder Heatherpelt, and then approaches Lionstar and basically strong-arms Lionstar into making him the new deputy. Ravenstar approaches Splashnose again and makes the same offer, saying they can kill Lionstar together. Splash is alarmed by Ravencall's isolationist and xenophobic dogmas, and the fact that he has already killed and is planning on killing more cats, and rejects him, saying their thing is over. Ravencall then basically has Splashnose put under house arrest in an empty nest and kept prisoner there, and makes minion Boulderstep the deputy in all but name. He then starts having half-clan cats, half-kittypets/strays, and ex-strays, ex-kittypets, and cats from other clans killed, starting with the ones who don't have any blood relations in Riverclan because it's easier to get people fired up for that first, so that they'll (theoretically) accept when he comes for the born-there cats later. At first, they just dissappear and other cats ignore it out of fanaticism, fear, or compliance. Molestep digs into Splashnose's prison with Sparowflight as a lookout, and they then escape the camp with Nightflank early in the morning. They're caught by the night guards, and Featherstorm is mortlly injured in the resulting fight. They escape, while Goosefoot lays next to Featherstorm as he dies and watches Ravencall casually ignore it in favor of frothing about the escapees. The escapees find Heatherpelt alive at the border and swim to the Sunningrocks in order to get out of Riverclan territory as soon as posdible, but get intercepted by a Thunderclan patrol. They surrender immediately, and somehow get to meet Cloudstar. Ravencall tries to replace Splashnose with the grieving Goosefoot^note  (Goosefoot's still a xenophobic dick though) and is furious about Splashnose's "betrayal", but continues according to the plan. He takes Boulderstep as his de-facto deputy, and keeps Lionstar a prisoner similarly to how he kept Splashnose, but with better guarding.

• Fallen Star - Ravencall tries to have a thing with Goosefoot while making war plans to butcher all the other clans to the last cat and take the whole map as Riverclan's lebensraum which he'll control from a new camp at the Fourtrees, while Nightflank's rebels plot to take back the power. Ravencall decides the just kill Lionstar and make himself Ravenstar^note  (i need to figure out an explanation for why didn't he do that right away or even just earlier), but Lionstar escapes his execution and makes it to Nightflank's rebels in Thunderclan along with random guy Toadpounce. Lionstar is pressured to choose a new deputy ASAP, but he stalls because of the few options, the choice's importance, and self-doubt. As Ravenstar has more not-completely-Riverclan cats killed (including Missingfang who's drowned) and Goosefoot thinks Splashnose and the others died, Goosefoot starts getting cold feet. Increasingly aggressive and paranoid Ravenstar notices this and starts becoming increasingly threatening towards him, implying any traitors will be killed. Other cats are getting very dissatisfied and alienated with Ravenstar, but there's never enough of them at the same time and anybody who steps out of line finds themselves alone because the others don't have the balls to risk their lives against tyranny. Near the final battle, Goosefoot straight-up runs away while Raven's out, but gets intercepted by a Windclan patrol and tells them about Ravenstar's plans and the camp's new layout. The information travels to Nightflank and Splashnose (through a secret alliance Cloudstar and Windclan's leader made earlier when Ruststar was in power and dictatorships (the other being Antstar's Shadowclan) were menacing both their clans from two sides) who prepare to mount an attack to the camp with Cloudstar's reinforcements, but are faced by Ravenstar's warriors at the Sunningrocks (they've already crossed the river and are right there, and would've been able to surprise attack the refugees and Thunderclan if they had left much later). Nightflank came to the battle despite being pregnant with his and Stork's kits^note  (He trans. Her too.) because he thought the rebels needed their leader, and tries to fight Ravenstar. However he's faced with Boulderstep, while Ravenstar goes for Splashnose. He's off his rocker a little after Goosefoot's dissappearance, and thinks literally everybody is turning against him (he may not be wrong), but blames Splashnose and Nightflank for it. Splashnose fights him and tries to take him alive, thinking he had the leader's nine lives, but he's wrong and Ravenstar dies for real - he never had the nine lives because Starclan, which is supposed to give them, rejected him and he obviously kept it secret^note  (if you've read the books, you've noticed Starclan gives almost literally all the leaders nine lives regardless of what they've done previously). Boulderstep and some others flee at Ravenstar's death, while the rest surrender. Lionstar makes Nightflank his deputy and then immediately steps down, making him Nightstar. After Nightstar has given birth to the kits and chosen somebody as his own deputy, he travels with Splashnose and Magpieheart to the Highstones to get his nine lives.^note  (Or maybe the final battle should still be them attacking Ravenstar's camp, possibly just when they're about to kill somebody else. I'm also not sure how they'd fix Riverclan's society after all of this has gone down)

Shadowclan's then-current leader Antstar, also a paranoid dictator and already in power back when Ravencall was an apperentice and long after his death, dies from a massive stroke when Sunspot is a kit and most cats are relieved. Shadowclan's society then goes into apathetic shit. Sunspot only has his boyfriend Icestrike and his family, medicine cat Tallcloud, and his mentor Marshrose to rely on as everybody else either ignores and excludes or dogpiles him. After Marshrose gets paresis of the hind legs, Sunspot is assigned to a new (ableist) mentor, and he also has to hunt for Marshrose sometimes because the clan doesn't pool and share prey like they should. Another apperentice Embermask, who's ablebodied but also treated like shit and has no support like Sunspot does, is approached in his dreams by Ravencall's ghost who indoctrinates him and intends to use him as his agent on earth to put his ideology into action and get revenge on Riverclan in general and his exes Splashnose and Goosefoot before they drop dead on their own or something. Ravencall tells Embermask what to do and he does it after he's made a warrior, gathering support who try to kill cats who are only half Shadowclan or don't have Shadowclan blood at all and cats who are disabled (Sunspot and Marshrose might be the only ones or there might be more. Being half-some other clan, half-stray, half-pet cat, or ex-pet or ex-stray is more common than being disabled). Before or during all of this, Embermask poisons Tempeststar and frames the half-clan medicine cat Tallcloud for her assassination and uses it as a pretext to having Tallcloud murdered as a traitor, and Tempeststar's deputy runs away, leaving Shadowclan leaderless^note  (the clans' only real hierarchy besides warriors and apperentices are the leader and their deputy who'll take over when they die or retire, and the medicine cat(s) who's the shaman that communicates with the ancestors and thus is important, but can't really go anywhere from there) and Shadowclan breaks into factions. Some join Embermask's by-all-definions-cat-neonazis, some join Marshrose in saying no to this shit, and the rest don't really do anything. What happens after this is more unclear at the moment, but Embermask keeps consulting Ravencall on in his dreams and basically treats him as the clan's leader even though he's not only different clan but dead^note  (my intent is that Embermask's generation in Shadowclan doesn't know who Ravenstar is three generations after his death; is this possible or is it too little time given all the events?), and thus never becomes leader himself^note  (meaning he doesn't have nine lives or the "-star" suffix), tries to kickstart a war of annihilation against Windclan and Thunderclan and kill Splashnose, Goosefoot, and Marshrose's pack. What exactly goes down is unclear, but Embermask is finally reduced to leading a small band of basically bandits/terrorists while Marshrose tries to pull the rest of the clan together, and Embermask eventually gets killed. It's left unclear if Ravencall's paternal role to Embermask was faked for the benefit of his plot, or if he actually cared about Embermask because of their similiar backgrounds even though he was Shadowclan.

This is supposed to be the last of four arcs each focusing on the next generation after the previous protagonists, each in a different clan, so i'm not sure how to best end the story especially since afterlife exists and all. Not that i know what to put in the Windclan or Thunderclan arcs either. Ravencall/star's the villain in both first and last arc and both arcs have an overarching theme of antifascism, arc 1 being about xenophobia and arc 4 about ableism, so i'm unsure about what to put in the two middle arcs. Ravencall was also more for clan isolationism and/or Riverclan being the only clan in the forest having the entire area for themselves and everybody else dying, and seeking for followers from Shadowclan was more of a desperation move because he wanted to get to kill his enemies before they died from old age or something. Him encountering Embermask specifically could be chance, and he'd then pick Embermask because he reminds Ravencall of himself when he was a kitten. He did make an "exception" for Splashnose too after all.

• (Book 1) - In the prologue, Shadowclan's old leader (and longtime paranoid dictator) Antstar dies from a massive stroke and his deputy Tempestwhisper becomes Tempeststar, and everybody is secretly relieved he's gone. Later Sunpaw, a kit during the prologue, becomes an apperentice and his mother dies from blackcough. He becomes closer with his kithood friend and fellow orphan Icepaw who only has one living sibling. Shadowclan's don't-give-shits culture and the cat society's ableism leads to other cats either abandoning the somehow physically disabled Sunpaw on his own devices or actively mistreating him, and he only has Icepaw, his mentor Marshrose, and the medicine cat Tallcloud. Marshrose resents what Antstar's reign did to Shadowclan's society, and has ambitions of becoming the leader so he can fix the clan's shit. The also orphaned but ablebodied^note  (being ablebodied and physically normal doesn't help if a group of other adolescents, or even one or more adults, decide they want to beat you up) Emberpaw is similiarly abandoned by society, but doesn't have any kind of support network, and starts seeing a black Starclan cat^note  (I don't like how the Erin Hunters made up a cat hell, so in my fic there's only one afterlife. I generally don't like it when writers give fantasy and scifi mythologies christian traits) in his dreams. The cat takes him under his wing and gives him training and reassurances he doesn't get from his actual mentor, and Emberpaw grows very grateful and devoted to the black cat. At the end, the black Starclan cat is revealed to be named Ravencall, though Emberpaw doesn't recognize him, the reader is supposed to.
• (Book 2) - Marshrose suddenly gets paresis of the hind legs from an injury or illness, leading to his removal as Sunpaw's mentor. Sunpaw is moved to the ableist Blackstorm, who yells at him and keeps pushing him too hard. Marshrose tries to get her removed as Sunpaw's mentor, but Tempeststar and the rest of the clan don't give enough shits. Sunpaw tries to bear it and trains alone with Icepaw in his own pace when he has the time and strenght, trying to find a way to cover for his weaknesses and use his strenghts the right way, and starts developing feelings for Icepaw. Sunpaw and Icepaw also have to hunt for Marshrose because he can't, and the clan doesn't pool and share prey like it should. Marshrose resents his situation, and all he can do is to try to support Sunpaw psychologically. At the same time Ravencall, loved and trusted by Emberpaw, starts feeding him his fascist, ableist, and xenophobic ideas about what's wrong with Shadowclan. When Emberpaw starts believing him, Ravencall starts telling him the only way to "fix" it is to kill cats. He becomes a warrior alongside Icepaw (Icestrike), and gets Bonepaw as his apperentice, letting Bonepaw in on his secret. Prompted by Ravencall, Embermask approaches younger warriors and older apperentices with his ideas.
• (Book 3) - Tempeststar is poisoned and dies horribly in the first chapter and Embermask accuses the half-Thunderclan Tallcloud in front of the clan, alleging that he poisoned her to destabilize the clan so that Thunderclan would have an opening to attack them. Tallcloud is horrified and denies it, but Embermask's associates and "neutral" characters block him from escaping and he's basically mauled to death by furious cats. The next scene immediately reveals that Embermask did the poisoning on Ravencall's orders, to remove Tallcloud from his powerful position, and so that his full-clan apperentice Deadmoon (who's secretly in on Embermask's agenda) can take the position of the medicine cat. Tempeststar's deputy doesn't know Embermask did it, but starts seeing the writing on the wall and after Deadmoon fakes threatening signs, he decides he doesn't want to die and runs away from Shadowclan. Deadmoon then starts using her position as a cat shaman/seer to spread the idea that the clan's previous authority figures have turned their backs to them and that Starclan is speaking to them directly through her and Embermask. Embermask targets the elders and disabled cars first, telling the clan they're a "resource drain" that drags down their swamp clan where prey is already scarcer. Over half of Shadowclan's cats either agree or are accomplices by inaction by not doing anything about it. As the fervor rises, Blackstorm turns her back to Sunpaw but insists that she's not supporting Embermask and actually somehow opposes his agenda (not true. She's accomplice at best). Marshrose decides they need to leave and him, Sunpaw, Icestrike, Icestrike's sister, and a handful of other cats "sneak out" of the clan - by walking out of the camp in broad daylight, one at the time or in small groups, which isn't noticed until later. Ravencall tells Embermask to take advantage of this and send Bonepaw and Swiftstorm to agitate at the Thunderclan border to set up the stage to tell the clan Marshrose and the others are traitors who've gone to Thunderclan with information on them and that Thunderclan attack is thus imminent, so that Shadowclan will have an excuse to attack Thunderclan. Ravencall tells Embermask that there'll never be peace, or "order" or "safety" in the forest as long as Thunderclan is around right on the other side of the road, living on better land.
• (Book 4) - Marshrose and the others have gone up to the mountains behind the Mothermouth in fear of being pursued. There aren't many others; Sunpaw, Icestrike, Thrushclaw and his mate, their kits Flamedash and Redbreast, Redbreast's mate Tinyclaw, Deadmoon's daughter Scorchtail and his adopted daughter Bullkit, Icestrike's sister, Sparrowflight, and Shadowleap. Despite his disability, Marshrose becomes the group's de facto leader due to being the oldest and most experienced cat besides Sparrowflight (who doesn't want the responsibility of their survival). Life on the mountains is hard and prey is scarce, but they find shelter. Marshrose assumes the authority to give Sunpaw his warrior name, and Sunspot tells Icestrike about his feelings. Icestrike also likes him, but didn't tell earlier because the overall situation always seemed inappropriate when it kept getting worse and worse. In Shadowclan, Embermask has attacked Thunderclan, killing many cats and driving the rest out of their own camp, and young Shadowclan warriors Wheatpelt and Goldendawn don't approve of where the clan is going, but are afraid to openly rebel and instead try to covertly prod Deadmoon and Embermask for information about their plans. Rustgaze also privately questions who's talking to Embermask in his dreams and what his endgame is, but remains in the belief that he's doing the best for his clan by fighting against Thunderclan. Deadmoon tries to turn the clan hierarchy more into something where the leader nd the medicine cat wield dual authority, which Embermask doesn't like, but Ravencall tells him to not kill her until they have another medicine cat. Because the warriors didn't find a trace of Marshrose and the others in the Thunderclan camp Embermask orders to look for them elsewhere, finds out they're in the mountains, and orders an attack. They can't spare many cats because they're occupying Thunderclan, so Marshrose's cats are able to fight them off. Trushclaw throws himself and his brother Batfang (who had joined Embermask) down the mountain and they're both impaled by a sharp rock, though Batfang dies immediately and Trushclaw a few days later. It's discovered that Rustgaze's and Threeheart's apperentices, Bluepaw and Claypaw, are halfclan, and Deadmoon makes Bluepaw infiltrate the rebels, telling her that because of her spiritual powers she will know if Bluepaw won't act as told, and if she steps out of line her sister Claypaw will be killed. While Deadmoon's plotting this without telling him, Embermask plans a campaign against Windclan. Bluepaw is to lead the rebels to the neutral territory around the fourtrees under the guise of trying to get help from Riverclan^note  (they don't go to Windclan because of some serious past conflict, despite them being closer), and when they're out in the open without high ground advantage, they'll kill them all. However Marshstar has formed an alliance with two small stray packs (to defeat two other stray packs led by the pack leaders' enemies, somewhere after the mountain battle) that come with them, evening their numbers. Redbreast's and Flamedash's mother is killed in the fight, some other cats from both sides die, and Icestrike seemingly dies when he falls off the bridge into the river. Wheatpelt and Goldendawn flee with the rebels, not getting to Riverclan. Contrary to her claims, Deadmoon doesn't have psychic powers and doesn't know the ambush failed until she's informed. Claypaw plans to escape before Deadmoon gets to her.

• (Book 5) - Icestrike is found from the river by a Riverclan patrol, and finds out Thunderclan's survivors have fled to them. He mentions Ravencall, the name he heard when Embermask was initially trying to recruit him, which elicits shock from the older Riverclan cats. Icestrike speaks to Splashnose, who tells him who Ravencall was and what he did. The question is what he intends to do to his Shadowclan supporters once they've done their job, and what he's planning for Riverclan^note  (remember, in Arc 1 Ravencall straight-up wanted to genodice the other three clans, make their territories Riverclan's lebensraum, and move Riverclan's camp in the middle of the map from where it'd all be easier to control). Splashnose suggests that he's trying to get them killed by the end. What he'll do to Riverclan is an open question, but Splashnose assumes it'll involve murdering him, Goosefoot, and Nightstar in the very least. Embermask allies with the other two stray packs' leaders, Wolf and Tuna, in order to gather the necessary manpower to attack Windclan, while Deadmoon's apperentice Lilyheart bones Tuna and ends up pregnant (breaking Embermask's law), but figures she can hide the kits' parentage. Almost the whole Shadowclan mobilizes to attack Windclan, enabling Claypaw to sneak away. Rustgaze sees her go, but doesn't tell anybody. Deadmoon gets mad when she notices she's gone, and Embermask finds out she's been acting behind his back, and kills her. He then orders everybody to go to attack Windclan, and chase down and kill as many cats as possible. The rebels finally decide Marshrose needs to go and get the nine lives, after earlier disagreements on it and worries that Starclan could refuse because of his paresis. When they're down at the Mothermouth, Claypaw arrives to tell them about the attack on Windclan and Marshstar sends Sunspot, Scorchtail, some others, and the stray packs to help Windclan. Windclan's driven out of its camp, but Riverclan and Thunderclan also arrive, outnumbering Embermask and his allies. His accomplices by inaction also start folding. Icestrike reveals to them who Ravencall actually was and where he was from, and what he planned to do to Shadowclan while he was alive. This shocks them and causes doubt, but Embermask goes into denial and multiple cats stick with him. The ones who still want to fight lose and are driven out, while Lilyheart runs away with Tuna's pack. Embermask and his remaining supporters, and Wolf and his pack, are chased all the way to the city limit where they decide to give up the chase and go back to the battlefield. Windclan's leader has died of her wounds and lots of other cats have died (or in Shadowclan's case, died and gotten exiled. Though they had the highest population at the start and the other clans had less). The clans agree on peace and close cooperation until at least the next full moon in order to recover and rebuild faster, and be ready immediately if Embermask and his allies come back. They return to their camps, Shadowclan and Thunderclan walking together until the Thunderclan camp for security because the city is right next to their territories. Shadowclan's thinking abiut what to do to it's Embesmask's turncoats/accomplices by inaction.
• (Book 6) - Next full moon, Marshstar meets the other leaders for the first time. He allows himself to be carried until almost at the fourtrees, but insists on walking (by heavily leaning on his deputy) where the other clans can see him because he wants to look strong and dignified. The deputy walks him to the speaker rock, which he climbs on his own and greets the other leaders. They notice something's up, but assume it's a wound. Shadowclan has less than 28 members left, when you count the other stray pack which joined the clan(while the pack led by Tuna's enemy went back to wherever they came from), and the cats are privately worried such a small number might not be viable without taboo-breaking^note  (ie. incest. Because i really think they should have a taboo against boning your first cousin, which they don't seem to have in canon. Don't worry though, nobody will end up committing incest in this), and the other clans have also lost a significant number of cats this year to disease and the battles. When Shadowclan returns to their camp, they encounter Rustgaze who wants to come back to Shadowclan. They decide to take him with them now and discuss it later, because having him where they can keep an eye on him constantly feels like the best idea, and he can't possibly overpower them alone. In the city, Embermask has allegedly had a kit (despite being a male tortoiseshell, which are usually infertile), named Cinderkit^note  (she's, unlike the name would suggest, ginger. Her name comes from how she was born in a recently burned or burning building and had cinders on her fur).

I haven't figured out entirely what happens from there, but Embermask remains convinced Ravencall cares about him and deserves his help, and basically becomes bandits/terrorists with his pack (and also seeks revenge against Lilyheart for having a kit with Tuna and ditching Embermask's pack). In the end, Sunspot kills Embermask while Cinderfur, Bonepaw, and possibly some others escape. It remains unclear whether Ravencall might have actually cared for Embermask, or if his paternal role to Embermask was just a tool. Wolf also dies, but not before trying to betray Embermask, and Lightningtail learns Embermask killed Deadmoon.

I don't know how to actually resolve this conflict, because how do you get permanently rid of ghosts? The Warrior Cats canon already did the ""the deadfight the living and each other and can die a second time"", and possession and the like have also already been done by the Erins.