valerianbreeze

lichenclan

longhaired taupe lynx point molly

The young molly has a stature which is average of size and mass, if slender. A firm, supple figure allows her to move with elegance and grace. Her legs and neck are tall, almost spindly, in contrast to small and dainty paws. Paws which are capable of great speed and agility as well, for which she received her warrior name.

It is the lack of a thick, downy undercoat that gives Valerianbreeze her silky fur. She may not take well to cold waters or harsh winters, but her coat is not so thick and lengthy as to bog her down or require constant maintenance. While the spread of her fur is even throughout, it grows longer around her flanks, rump, and tail.

Her extremities behold lilac color and tabby marks, which have a soft brown glaze covering them. As she's grown into adulthood, the coloration has extended up her flanks and become much more visible at its strongest points. In contrast, her broken-up stripes have faded, much like the spots of a lion; appearing just a bit darker than her taupe fur.

The triangular shape of her head is one of her most distinctive traits. Aiding a more streamlined look, the top of her skull is almost entirely flat. Her muzzle is long and straight, fox-like. Another strong feature; her eyes are almond-shaped, slanted, and starkly blue.

Valerianbreeze has always been interested in self-improvement. She has a sponge-like mind for learning and adapting, which makes her a lot more open-minded than might be expected of a LichenClan cat. But at the same time, this core trait of hers has been contained by the tight seal of LichenClan rhetoric and divisive gender roles. She's limited by her experiences and she doesn't yet realize all that she doesn't know.

Taught to keep her head down and her opinions passive, Valerianbreeze is a meek, humble she-cat. She isn't one to put herself above any other when it comes to equality or importance. If anything, she's more likely to place herself lower on those ladders than anyone else. Being selfless is not necessarily a factor, but rather a genuine lack of self-importance.

This often makes her too timid to speak up for herself or for others. She's easy to intimidate or frighten, especially when brute force is involved. Valerianbreeze knows the extent of her skills, which do not extend to fighting, and her self-preservation instincts often tell her to flee from conflict rather than face it head-on. She is usually submissive.

Growing up in LichenClan, there is a lot of emphasis on not showing your true colors. If Valerianbreeze ever had a contrary thought, it was usually squashed by either her mentor or her peers. She learned very quickly that no one valued what she thought, and that how she felt about something didn't necessarily matter in the grand scheme of things. For this reason, she can be very impassive. Through years of conditioning, sometimes it's hard for her to know what she really feels unless the emotions are incredibly strong.

Hazelwing was her mother, a queen with whom Valerianbreeze got most of her looks and talents. She was a clever warrior in battle, an even greater huntress, and though she was not in love with the idea of being a mother she knew it was her duty to her Clan.

When Valeriankit was the only one to survive a litter of three, she was destined to be doted upon by her mother. There were no siblings to compete with or grow jealous of, there was only her and her mother -- and the rest of those who were in the nursery at the time. Her father, Duskheart, was not very present in her life while she was growing up. He had an aloof personality, visiting often but only for short periods. He left much of the rearing to Hazelwing.

And Hazelwing would fill her young mind with thoughts of greatness, of achievement, and of unrivaled perfection, such promises fell flat against her ears. It did not excite her mind to be told from the beginning that she was great. It took the challenge out of life. When platitudes are all you're told and perfection is all that's expected of you, everything else becomes that much more... electrifying.

Valeriankit skirted her mother's preachings often in favor of socializing with those of 'unrefined heritage'. It was her first initial taste of how condemning life in LichenClan truly was for those few that didn't have the favor of the many. Only, she didn't realize it at the time. That her friends were sectioned off from the other queens and kits for a reason. Why baptisms and confessions were especially important for them to attend. How their family's lives were used as fodder for Minnowstar's war. Looking back on it now, her childlike view of it all has become shrouded by sinister clouds.

But she made her friends nonetheless, even if they didn't live such lives of easy comforts or high social standings. And Hazelwing, though she was shrewd of judgement and knew far more than a mere kit, did not even try to maintain a vice grip on her daughter's scruff. For she loved her more than she even expected to. Hazelwing never did like those who followed blindly, who were just another one of the Clan. So she wouldn't promote such a future for her daughter, even if deep down she feared the consequences of that choice.

Yet it's the one choice Valerianbreeze has been and always will be grateful to the queen for. Because she did, indeed, learn to think for herself. It could be said that it prepared her better for the woes ahead, or perhaps the opposite could also be true. But Valerianbreeze would not have it another way, and it was for that which she holds an undying admiration for her mother. Even if Hazelwing was not the most warm and loving mother, she allowed her daughter to grow into the she-cat she was meant to be.

Adolescence: Describe the character’s adolescence as an apprentice, to-be, or young cat as an outsider, including their training, mentor, den-mates, friends, crushes, or any impactful events.

Yet when Valeriankit became an apprentice, her mentor did not reflect the sentiment that her mother did. Violetshade was the kind of loyalist that kept her head down and her voice low, doing whatever was expected of mollies in LichenClan. She passed down these lessons to the young, impressionable Valerianpaw. It was never explained why things were the way they were, only that they were -- and it was their duty to adhere, to submit, to be passive. Those were good qualities, Valerianpaw was taught.

Violetshade taught her what she needed to know, focusing more on hunting -- and rarely any advanced methods. Mainly, the focus was on teaching Valerianpaw how to act as a LichenClan queen, which would likely be her role in the Clan as a healthy molly of good breeding.

Because of this training ideology, Valerianpaw was only able to watch from her mentor's side as her peers surpassed her in talent. But whenever she felt badly about this, Violetshade would take her out on hunting expeditions. She leaned into it as a way of clearing her head. Even as a warrior she seems to have a love for hunting.

When she became a warrior, she was named for her speed and grace; she would be known from that day forward as Valerianbreeze. But, as a warrior, she felt a bit incompetent beside many of her clan-mates. It was no surprise that she spent a lot of her time with Violetshade even after her warriorship.

She tried to help when her mentor's kits were born -- knowing that it would be good experience for the day when she would become a queen, too, and fulfill her destiny as a molly. In that way, she involved herself often in the happenings of the nursery; acting as an extra set of paws or watchful eyes should the queens need them -- which, they usually did.

But Valerianbreeze's interests didn't lie in the nursery, at least not solely. She wanted to be a better warrior. A lot of this motivation centered around impressing and gaining the attention of her father, Duskheart. And although she's only improved marginally since her apprenticeship, she did manage to forge a deeper bond with her father as an adult. He seemed more comfortable with her then, versus when she was a young kit, and she got to know him; his dreams, his goals, his views on the Clan politics.

Duskheart introduced Valerianbreeze to the complexities of warrior life, even taught her how to fight a little better (though she certainly doesn't have a natural aptitude for it). He was a tom filled with well-hidden feelings and thoughts, privately voicing his disapproval of the current LichenClan regime to Valerianbreeze. She didn't like to hear about it. She knew, instantly, that just knowing her father's opinions put her in danger. So she distanced herself after that, not wanting any part of the "fight from within" he ambitiously whispered about.

Valerianbreeze did as Violetshade had always taught her; she kept her head down and did as she was expected. Now, she realized, it was for her own safety. For her own sake. So she refrained from interacting with those who voiced their disapproval of Minnowstar, staying far, far away from them; keeping her name clean, minding her own.

Then... the trials happened. LichenClan lost a bulk of its ranks, deemed traitorous, unholy, deserving of exile for a plethora of vague reasons. Valerianbreeze and Hazelwing watched in horrified silence as Duskheart was outcast from the Clan -- and warriors turned their sharpened gazes toward the two she-cats he left behind. Their family would never be the same again, life in LichenClan was never the same.

And when Duskheart's body washed ashore a moon later, uncovered by the rogues that had been let into LichenClan... Valerianbreeze felt a part of herself die with him. She was never able to look around at her Clan and see them all the same way. It didn't feel like where she belonged anymore, and the increasing tensions in the air, the bloody battles fought on LichenClan's soil, the deranged outcries of Minnowstar; these events only serve to drive her further and further from her Clan.