Here’s an experiment. Ask a Clan cat where their ancestors are and they will all say in StarClan, in the sky, the very stars themselves. Ask them how they get there and how they honour their ancestors; they will all have different answers.
The short Warrior Cats fanfic Tell me about your Ancestors
by Drowsy_Salamander is an attempt at differentiating the Clans culturally.
Each Clan has their own religious beliefs and burial traditions. They all differ radically from one another, which causes some shock and confusion between the Clans.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Anthropomorphic Personification: ShadowClan cats believe that the moon is Shadowstar's eye.
- Animal Religion:
- RiverClan cats believe that StarClan lives in the Sky-river. They place their deceased kin in rivers to let them flow to StarClan.
- WindClan believes StarClan cats run in moors as wind. They leave their dead out in open moorland, akin to sky burials.
- ShadowClan believes in the canonical StarClan that exists in the stars.
- ThunderClan believes that spirits become trees once they die. They bury their dead near trees.
- Barred from the Afterlife: Discussed. After Onestar dies underwater, Harespring is worried that he won't be able to run in the skies with the other WindClan dead.
- The Beautiful Elite: RiverClan cats are mistaken for being vain because they cherish beauty so much. They groom themselves more than the other Clans. To them, they're honoring the ancestors by appreciating the beauty in life.
- Culture Clash: Tigerstar bringing together RiverClan and ShadowClan caused cultural issues. ShadowClan felt uncomfortable at RiverClan warriors sharing tongues in the bare moonlight, because ShadowClan considers the moon too sacred. RiverClan disliked how messy ShadowClan cats left messes were and how they tossed aside beautiful things, because they cherish the beauty of things as a way of honoring their ancestors.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Other Clan's beliefs confuse and offend others. For example, WindClan feels that being buried is unthinkable, but other Clans are grossed out by leaving the dead out in the open.
- Dishonored Dead: Mistystar is furious at Darktail's dishonouring of her dead Clanmates.
- Divergent Character Evolution: The oneshot differentiates the Clan's cultures. Their religious beliefs are all radically different. They don't even all believe in StarClan.
- Excessive Mourning: Inverted with WindClan. Communal mourning isn't a part of WindClan culture.
- Hollywood Atheist: ShadowClan considers moonlight to be sacred. Needlepaw and Sleekpaw don't believe in StarClan. They brazenly sleep under the moon, instead of in dens.
- Personal Effects Reveal: Sort of, when Silverstream is placed into the River, it's with all the gifts she'd been given by her loved ones- including Graystripe. While the Clan was aware of the items, they didn't know who had been giving them to her until after her death.
- Shout-Out: The moon being Shadowstar's eyes is similar to how cats in Warriors Redux believe the moon is Leopard's eye. It's also similar to how cats in Tailchaser's Song think of the moon as the Allmother's eye.
- Villainous BSoD: Downplayed but once Blackstar becomes leader he doesn't believe he is worthy to sleep under the moonlight because of the acts he committed under Tigerstar and Brokenstar. It takes Littlecloud giving him a pep talk to convince him.
