Starless is a fancomic by ZeeStitch based on the popular Warrior Cats series. It is set in the Dark Forest and has a cast consisting both of canon and original characters. The comic heavily delves into the backstories of the Dark Forest cats and how their actions have affected the living. It's initially set prior to Mapleshade's Vengeance.
It can be found here
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Starless provides examples of:
- Attention Whore: Blossomfeather received a lot of positive attention from her Clanmates after her mother died. This gave her the idea to start poisoning her Clanmates in order to gain sympathy for failing to save them- rather ironic, given that she was a medicine cat.
- Body Horror: Dark Forest cats retain physical signs of how they died in life. This can be rather gruesome depending on how it happened- Briarpaw, in particular, has a tree growing from her spine due to the fact that she died from falling from a tree and then being crushed by one of its branches.
- Driven to Suicide: When Blossomfeather was killed, her clanmate, Owlwhisker, was devastated because he believed she was the only cat who ever truly loved him. He eventually poisoned himself with deathberries in order to join her (and left StarClan to be with her.)
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- For all of his flaws, Firefall does care for a few of his family members, including his sister Snowstripe (despite the fact that he killed her), and his daughter, Mapleshade.
- Blossomfeather truly loves Owlwhisker and defends him whenever a newcomer insults his appearance.
- Evil Redhead: Blossomfeather has a Furry Female Mane of red hair. She's also a known murderer nicknamed "The Queen of Deathberries."
- Femme Fatale: Blososmfeather is very beautiful, with most male cats instantly falling for her charms and her beauty. She's also a known murderer who poisoned a kit.
- Furry Female Mane: Many she-cats are depicted with either a tuft of head fur or a full head of hair, with Blossomfeather having particularly luscious locks.
- Master Poisoner: Blossomfeather was condemned to the Dark Forest for using deathberries to poison her Clanmates, including a kit (though the latter was intended to be a Mercy Kill). This is rather ironic considering she was the Clan's medicine cat.
- Mature Animal Story: While the source material does not shy away from darker themes, this webcomic takes it up a notch, including additional mature themes such as suicide. There is also significantly more swearing than the original books.
- Mercy Kill: While most of Blossomfeather's murders were done for her own selfish reasons, it's her poisoning of Twigkit with deathberries that ultimately gets her caught. However, she actually gave Twigkit deathberries because he was gravely ill, with the disease being a deadly, slow, and painful one. She fed him deathberries in order to end his suffering quickly and humanely.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Orchidtail was in love with a cat named Blizzardheart, but soon realized he had four other mates in addition to her. She tries to brush it aside, but after being bitten by a dog, she starts going mad and hearing voices telling her to kill Blizzardheart's other mates.
- Offing the Offspring: The story starts with Firefall forcing his father, Tanglestar, to kill him in order to protect the Clan. Considering Firefall ends up in the Dark Forest, it's definitely of the "bad seed" variety.
- Together in Death: Owlwhisker commits suicide after the death of Blossomfeather. He also rejects StarClan in order to join her in the Dark Forest.
- Token Good Teammate: Orchidtail. The crimes that sent her to the Dark Forest were all committed while she was losing her mind due to having contracted rabies. She seems to have the strongest moral compass of the main cast. It's lampshaded frequently, with other Dark Forest cats telling her she doesn't belong there.
- Really Gets Around: Blizzardheart has five mates, none of whom are aware of the others at first.
Word of God has confirmed that he's polyamorous and genuinely loves all of them, but isn't sure how to be open with them about his sexuality. - Villain Protagonist: By default, the main cast are all varying degrees of evil- the story is set in cat hell, after all. However, some characters, such as Orchidtail, are more sympathetic than others.
- Wrong-Name Outburst: Orchidtail discovers that her mate Blizzardheart isn't being completely honest with her after he accidentally calls her Spottedstem- which she later learns is the name of one of his other mates.
