Marsheyes

ThistleClan

black smoke tom with a white chest and unfocused green eyes

Standing above most of his clanmates, Marsheyes is a daunting sight. He is tall and heavy set, with thick muscles. His thick fur only makes him appear taller and more intimidating. He walks with slow, heavy steps and the world seems to shake under him.

Marsheyes’ fur color is a swamp of black and gray with a white island on his chest. A wide white diamond starts just above his nose and carries down his chest and tapers off in a thin line. His four paws are tipped in white. His fur is long, thick and easily gets tangled. He tends to take things easy, and avoids messing up his fur as cleaning it is such a hassle. His toes have thick tufts of fur between them that often pick up muck and blood. At his back is a long tail with fur that billows out like feathers.

Marsheyes has a wide muzzle framed by high cheeks and long whiskers. Typically his eyes are half closed or completely shut. He looks constantly tired, and his facial expressions are languid. But sometimes you'll catch a glimpse of earthy green eyes. When Marsheyes is looking at something, unless it's right in front of him his eyes won't focus. Instead he’ll appear to be looking at nothing at all. His ears are far apart, and tend to always be moving as he listens in to his surroundings.

Rare trait Nano2023 for being born with a visual impairment

Marsheyes is smart with keen senses. He makes up for his impaired vision with scenting and hearing. His ears are always alert, picking up the smallest of noises. He's talented when it comes to fighting and hunting, and makes good use of his heightened senses.

He is mysterious and alluring. Others are easily drawn in by his cool, confident persona. Marsheyes has no trouble making friends and finding new lovers. He knows exactly what to say to get someone swooning.

Moving with slow gestures and speaking in sticky honeyed words, Marsheyes comes across as lazy. He lives life at his own pace, only doing things when he wants to. Into the later years of his life, he does not make time for useless things he will not practice since he's already better than everyone else.

Marsheyes is always right and he knows it. He wants you to know it too. His words drip with arrogance, easily coming across as condescending as he lays out plainly what his opinion is as if it's the sole truth. But he says things with a sultry, easy going tone that you can't help but believe in. He will get his way.
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Splintersight sought to create a legacy, though it's hard to say if she succeeded or not. She found a suitable sire, a tom by the name Lynxfoot. Thinking she couldn't possibly beat him, he accepted her challenge for a spar. And when she won, Splintersight got exactly what she wanted: kits. One tom kit named Marshkit for his messy dark gray fur, and a she-kit named Needlekit. As soon as the two were able to understand her words, Splintersight informed them their grandfather was a rogue. It wasn't exactly unheard of to have rogue blood mixed in a family line, but feelings towards outsiders were changing quickly. Late in the year, a rogue stole one of the kits Marshkit grew up with, and murdered the kit's mother. Everyone in the clan was on edge. Everyone except for Marshkit, he was thrilled to find out he was part rogue. He loved the idea of being a cool, wild cat.

Marshkit loved to fight, and his mother didn't help his tendencies. Splintersight often encouraged her two children to duel, and embracing cruel rogue-like tactics, Marshkit always came out on top. But at some point Splintersight notices something off about the kit. His eyes never focused on things far away. He can clearly see things right up close, but anything further is blurry and sometimes unrecognizable. Ratwhisker can't diagnose the exact condition, but confirms that Marshkit was born with a vision impairment. Despite that, Marshkit thrived as a little warrior with keen hearing and smell.


At the start of the new year, Marshpaw and Needlepaw are made apprentices. Perhaps because of his condition, Thievingstar assigns the mid-rank warrior Redwhisker as his mentor. As frequently as he saw his mentor, Marshpaw also saw his mother. Splintersight was constantly interrupting his training to make sure he was learning properly, and it was getting on Marshpaw's nerves. She pressured Thievingstar to assign him a new mentor and eventually she relented and Yellowtalon took over Marshpaw's training. He was furious with his mother for the interference and complained to her that she set his training back by doing that.

Despite changing mentors midway through his apprenticeship, Marshpaw thrived as an apprentice. He quickly rose to a higher rank among his peers, proving himself by winning every spar or challenge presented to him. His sister was no exception and constantly challenged him, to which he won every time. His cool, mysterious demeanor almost made him quite popular. Toms and she-cats alike tried to get his attention, but he only enjoyed it when toms begged for him.

During his apprenticeship, rogues were becoming a serious problem. And one apprentice, Nettlepaw who was curious about outsiders was kidnapped and used to lure Thievingstar out. Marshpaw continued to hold to his belief that his rogue blood made him stronger despite the clan growing xenophobic towards outsiders.

Due to the constant rogue problems, Thievingstar sets a curfew in place. Marshpaw becomes a warrior shortly after, but his sister had already gotten her name. Needlepaw graduated a moon before him, taking on the name Needleleap. Thievingstar names him Marsheyes, perhaps a jab at his blindness. But he takes it as a compliment. Half blind or not, he's still stronger than any other cat his age. Marsheyes blames his delayed ceremony on his mother's interference. He was ready when Needleleap was. If she hadn't forced a reassignment, he would have graduated with his sister.

At the end of the year, a flood forces ThistleClan out of their camp. Marsheyes’ father dies in his den. He mourns his father, but is not too upset about it as they were never close.


In the new year, the flood recedes and ThistleClan decides to return home only to find their camp overtaken by rogues. They are forced to stay away and come up with a plan to reclaim their home. While at the campground, his mother's cousin gave birth to two kits: Tornkit and Smallkit. Marsheyes takes an interest in the two and convinces Thievingstar to let him mentor one of them. Tornpaw is assigned as his apprentice, and the two grow close. Normally cold and distant, Marsheyes has a soft spot for Tornpaw's playful attitude and shares so many stories with the apprentice. He speaks all about Graystar and how the clan was like under his rule.

Finally they drive the rogues out and are able to return home and rebuild. But as soon as he gets back, Needleleap challenges Marsheyes to a duel. He accepts, thinking he'll win like every other time. This time, however, she surprises him and beats him. Not used to losing, Marsheyes is furious. He tries not to let it affect him, but he becomes visually distant with his sister.

Late in the year, another kit is taken by the rogues. Cederkit is kidnapped and it is revealed her father was a rogue. Birchsong is banished for taking a rogue as a mate. Marsheyes is furious with the decision. This ThistleClan is not the ThistleClan Graystar led moons ago. In Graystar's clan, Meadowpaw and Cederkit could embrace their rogue heritage. Rogue blood made them stronger. His sentiment is not taken kindly by the rest of the clan, and he starts to be more selective about who he shares his beliefs with and how be phrases them. Splintersight's support for the banishment causes a rift between the two.


The fight with the rogues continues and so do efforts to rescue Cederkit. Efforts that are in vain. He fights in the battles all the same, not willing to let his status change. Marsheyes enjoys the thrill of battle anyways. He fights alongside Splintersight to drive the rogues out when they attack the camp. But during that battle Thievingstar is killed and Needleleap is badly injured. Stagstar rises as the new leader of ThistleClan and Marsheyes is less than pleased. He dislikes the weak-willed tom. Firfoot is chosen as deputy, a position Marsheyes thought he'd be more fit for than an aging grumpy tom. The worst part of the battle was Needleleap's injury. Stagstar tasks Splintersight and Marsheyes to help Needleleap relearn how to fight. He begrudgingly does as he is told, but often complains and makes comparisons to how he was able to learn to overcome his disability on his own. The relationship between the two and their mother grows strained.

Near the end of the year, Marsheyes is called into battle against LichenClan and the rogues. He fights with brutal efficiency and drives his enemies back. But his mentor Yellowtalon was killed in the fighting. He's enraged, frustrated by Stagstar's and Firfoot's leadership. Graystar would do better. He would accept the rogues and make ThistleClan stronger. Now look at them, they are weaker and smaller than the other clans. He takes advantage of his mourning clanmates to start pushing Graystar's ideals, worming them into the heads of his peers.


Marsheyes continues to help his sister recover and learn how to fight with her injury. He's not happy about it. When the blizzard hits, Marsheyes shelters with his sister. Spending so much time in a cramped space together only worsened their relationship.

And one disaster turns into another and a flood forces ThistleClan out of the camp once more. Taking refuge at the bearstones, Marsheyes starts to notice a worrying sentiment among his clanmates. Many, including Stagstar and Firfoot wish to keep the land as theirs. Now, don't get it wrong Marsheyes would love more territory. But he has his doubts. The clan is in no state to win a war with RedwoodClan. He's quick to express his dislike for Stagstar's decision to stay and will eagerly chime in with his own thoughts on how to win this losing battle. They need more capable cats who can fight to kill. Now… where could they possibly find more bloodthirsty cats?



Stagstar and Firfoot decide to keep the bearstones for ThistleClan, but not without having to fight for them. RedwoodClan and ThistleClan fight battle after battle to control the stones. Marsheyes finds this all quite tiresome, but he enjoys his fight against almost-mates Cressclaw and Clovershade. Marsheyes takes note of the brewing tension between his leader and deputy. He suspects it will eventually reach a boiling point and sets his sights on Firfoot as the potential victor. With that in mind, he works his way closer to Firfoot to win his favor though the grouchy tom is not a fan of him.

His bet pays off when Firfoot beats Stagstar in a duel and claims the position of leader.

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