One of my biggest interests is the Warrior Cats series by Erin Hunter. ("Erin Hunter" is actually a group of writers, not just one person.) I started reading the books in 2015. I had heard of them before, but didn't know much about it. When I started reading the first book, I thought it was the stupidest thing ever. But I continued on, because I have a hard time not finishing books I start. About 50 pages or so in, I started enjoying it. Way more than someone my age should've. And so I read the rest of the series. At that point in time, arc 5 had just wrapped up. Arc 6 wouldn't come out for quite some time. I eventually lost interest. Then, a few years later, I remembered its existence and saw it was up to arc 7, book 1. So I read all of that. And then, kept up with the series from there on out.
This page contains spoilers for all arcs before the 8th. Mostly minor though, but read at your own risk.
About
Warrior Cats is basically a long, ongoing book series about a bunch of feral cats living in the woods. The first book, Into The Wild, was first published in 2003. As of me writing this in the year 2024, there are 7 arcs consisting of 6 books each. And there is an 8th arc that currently has 5 books. Then, there are a plethora of super edition, novellas, and graphic novels. How it doesn't have a movie or TV show by now is a mystery to me.
There are five different "clans" that these cats live in. Thunderclan, Riverclan, Windclan, Shadowclan, and Skyclan. They all live by what they call the "warrior code." They each have their own bit of territory that they stick to. They hunt for their clan and patrol their borders. And they all follow Starclan. Which is basically where good clan cats go when they die. Bad clan cats end up in The Place of No Stars. Also known as the Dark Forest.
There are different roles each cat has within their clan. There are apprentices, who are learning to become warriors. Then, warriors, who hunt and fight for their clan. When they get too old to do such things, they become "elders" and are taken care of. Then, there's medicine cats, who are basically healers. And they also interpret signs from Starclan. Then, there's the clan leader. They receive 9 lives from Starclan and appoint a deputy. The deputy helps out the leader and will become the next leader if the leader dies before they do.
Most of the cats have a sort of two-word name. Like Alderheart, Redtail, Crowfeather, and Stonefur, to name a few examples. There's a naming convention the cats have, where the second half of their name indicates where they are in their training. A kitten's name will end in -kit, an apprentice's name will end in -paw, a warrior's name is just, a two word name. And a leader's name ends in -star. For example, a kitten called Bluekit will have her name changed to Bluepaw when she becomes an apprentice. Then, her name will be blue followed by another word these cats are familiar with. Like, fur. So she'll be Bluefur. Then if she becomes leader, she will be known as Bluestar. There are rare exceptions where an outside cat might join a clan but wants to keep their former name. Doing so is generally frowned upon though.
They also use their own terminology for things. People are called "twolegs." Cars are called "monsters." Roads are called "thunderpaths." House cats are called "kittypets." Standard feral cats outside of clans are "rogues" and strays that simply keep to themselves are "loners."