For fans diving deep into the world of Fantasy Cats, especially within series like Warrior Cats, the question of genetics and appearance often arises. How do these fictional felines inherit their striking colors and patterns? While the official books provide descriptions, many fans, including ourselves, enjoy creating alternative universes and family trees, leading to fascinating interpretations of fantasy cat genetics.
This exploration isn’t about real-world feline genetics; instead, we’re delving into a fun, fan-made logic system inspired by the Warrior Cats world. Think of it as “Warrior Cat logic” combined with a sprinkle of human eye color inheritance, all to create a more visually consistent and, arguably, believable system for our beloved fantasy cats.
The Foundation: Eye and Fur Color Inheritance in Fantasy Cats
Our core principle is simple: if both parents share the same eye color, all their kittens will inherit that same eye color. This forms the basis of our fantasy cat genetic system. Let’s expand on this and other aspects of feline appearance in our fantasy world.
Ginger Cats and the Tabby Rule
In our interpretation, all ginger fantasy cats are tabbies. If a cat is described as ginger but lacks the “tabby” descriptor, we’ll add it, unless they are a solid black, blue-gray, or a dilute color like cream (similar to Daisy). This ensures a more consistent visual language for ginger cats within our fantasy setting.
Warrior Cat Pelt Color Logic: A Blend of Parents
Drawing inspiration from how pelt colors are described in the Warrior Cats books, we envision a blending effect. Consider Firestar, a bright ginger-red tabby with green eyes, and Sandstorm, a pale ginger-brown tabby with light green eyes. Their kits, Squirrelflight and Leafpool, exemplify this logic. Squirrelflight becomes a dark ginger-red tabby with dark green eyes, inheriting the richer ginger from Firestar. Leafpool, on the other hand, becomes a medium ginger-brown tabby with pale green eyes, leaning towards Sandstorm’s paler tones. Crucially, Leafpool wouldn’t be a brown tabby with amber eyes because neither parent carries amber eyes. This “blending” logic allows for nuanced variations in fantasy cat colors within families.
Applying the Logic: Firestar’s Line
Let’s continue with Firestar’s lineage to illustrate further. Squirrelflight, now a dark ginger-red tabby with dark green eyes, mates with Bramblestar, a dark brown tabby tom with dark amber eyes. Their kits would logically be dark brown tabbies with amber eyes. We take Squirrelflight’s base color and shift it towards Bramblestar’s darker brown, resulting in dark brown tabby kittens. The amber eye color is consistently passed down from Bramblestar and now becomes the dominant eye color in this branch of the family.
Considering Leafpool, who, following our adjusted logic, resembles Sandstorm more closely, her kits – Lionblaze, Jayfeather, and Hollyleaf – would also differ from their canon descriptions. Lionblaze might become a brighter ginger-brown mixed with gray tabby, potentially with blue or green eyes. Hollyleaf could be a darker brownish-gray tabby with green eyes. Jayfeather could lean more towards gray or even black compared to his siblings, retaining his distinctive blue eyes.
Sorreltail and Brackenfur’s Family: Amber Eyes Reign
Moving to another family, Sorreltail, a pale calico with amber eyes, and Brackenfur, a light golden-brown tabby tom with dark amber eyes, provide another interesting case study. According to our eye color rule, all their kits would have amber eyes, as both parents possess this trait. Cinderheart could be re-imagined as a tortie/calico or a brown tabby, retaining the brown tones from Brackenfur and the calico influence from Sorreltail. Poppyfrost’s description could remain largely unchanged, except for adopting amber eyes. Honeyfern could stay a golden-brown tabby she-cat, but with amber eyes, perhaps leaning towards a more orange hue. Lilyheart, while staying a dark brown tabby, would also gain amber eyes, replacing her canon blue eyes.
Cinderheart and Lionblaze’s Kits: Diluted Browns
With Cinderheart potentially being a brown tabby (or calico/tortie variant), her kits with Lionblaze would likely be pale brown tabbies. If Cinderheart is a calico or tortie, their offspring might exhibit a greater variety of brown or brownish-ginger tabby patterns. Eye color in this generation would predominantly lean towards amber shades, as Lionblaze’s blue or green eyes would be the less common trait compared to the now dominant amber eyes in Cinderheart’s line.
Sparkpelt, Larksong, and Family: Dark Browns and Amber/Green
Sparkpelt, as a dark ginger-brown tabby with bright amber eyes, and Larksong, a dark brown tabby with green eyes (inheriting green eyes from his father, Snowbush, a white tom with green eyes), create a lineage of very dark brown tabbies. Their kits would all likely be dark brown tabbies, inheriting either amber eyes from Sparkpelt or green eyes from Larksong, resulting in a consistent dark brown appearance with variations in eye color.
Ferncloud and Dustpelt’s Interesting Mix
Ferncloud, a pale gray she-cat with darker gray spots and light green eyes, and Dustpelt, a light brown tabby tom with pale amber eyes, produce a fascinating combination. Icecloud, instead of being pure white, would inherit spots from Ferncloud, resulting in a white cat with gray spotted patches. Foxleap could become a dark brown tabby with amber eyes, drawing from Dustpelt’s tabby and amber traits. Birchfall could remain a light brown tabby tom with amber eyes, similar to Dustpelt. Spiderleg could be reimagined as a very dark grayish-brown tabby with green eyes, blending the gray from Ferncloud with the brown from Dustpelt and inheriting Ferncloud’s green eyes.
Spiderleg and Daisy: Pale and Creamy
Spiderleg, now envisioned as a very dark grayish-brown tabby with green eyes, paired with Daisy, a pale cream colored she-cat with blue eyes, would produce kits with very pale creamy grayish-brown tabby coats and blue eyes. Since Daisy carries blue eyes and we’ve established Smokey (Daisy’s brother and father of her kits in this scenario) also has light blue eyes, blue eyes become the dominant eye color trait in this lineage.
Berrynose and Poppyfrost: Golden Creams and Amber
Berrynose, imagined as a paler, dustier version of Daisy, when paired with Poppyfrost (now with amber eyes), would have kits that are very light golden-cream colored tabbies with amber eyes. Poppyfrost’s amber eyes ensure the amber eye color dominance, while Berrynose’s pale cream influence lightens the fur color towards golden-cream.
Mousewhisker and Hazeltail: Spotted Coats and Blue Eyes
Mousewhisker and Hazeltail could retain their gray and white spotted coats but gain blue eyes. This adds another variation in coat pattern while introducing blue eyes into their lineage.
Whitewing and Birchfall: Brown and White Spotted Tabbies
Whitewing, remaining a white she-cat with green eyes, and Birchfall, a light brown tabby tom with amber eyes, would have kits that are all brown and white spotted tabbies. The brown tabby pattern from Birchfall combined with Whitewing’s white spotting creates a consistent pattern in their offspring. It’s important to note that Dovewing and Ivypool, their kits, should not resemble Ashfur, highlighting the importance of parental traits dictating appearance.
Graystripe and Millie: A Palette of Browns and Grays
Graystripe, a dark gray tabby tom with a darker spinal stripe and light amber eyes, and Millie, reimagined as a light brown tabby with blue eyes, would produce kits with a range of brown and gray variations. Briarlight could become a pale ashy-brown tabby with dark amber eyes, blending Graystripe’s gray with Millie’s brown. Blossomfall could be a dark grayish-brown tabby with pale amber eyes, leaning more towards Graystripe’s darker tones. Bumblestripe could remain a gray tom with black stripes and bright amber eyes, showcasing more of Graystripe’s dominant gray and stripe pattern. The original descriptions of Blossomfall as calico and Briarlight as brown are inconsistent with parental colors in this fantasy genetic system.
Blossomfall and Thornclaw: Varying Amber Eyes and Brown Coats
Blossomfall, now a dark grayish-brown tabby with pale amber eyes, paired with Thornclaw, a golden brown tabby tom with dark amber eyes, would have kits with varying shades of amber eyes and brown coats. The kittens would inherit brown coats, ranging from golden-brown (like Thornclaw) to grayish-brown (like Blossomfall) or a combination, and all would display amber eyes in different shades due to the amber eyes present in both parents.
Dovewing and Tigerheart: Browns and Whites with Amber Eyes
Dovewing, reimagined as a brown tabby spotted with white and amber eyes, and Tigerheart, when paired, would produce kits devoid of black or gray. Their offspring would all be varying shades of brown and white tabbies, consistently inheriting amber eyes from Dovewing.
Ivypool and Fernsong: Brownish Ginger and Amber Eyes
Ivypool, similarly reimagined as a brown tabby spotted with white and amber eyes, and Fernsong would have kits that are brownish-ginger tabbies with amber eyes. The kittens would display a mix of brownish-ginger or grayish-brown tabby patterns, or a combination, always with amber eyes inherited from Ivypool.
Your Fantasy Cat Genetics
This exploration provides just a glimpse into one fan-made interpretation of fantasy cat genetics, specifically within the Warrior Cats universe. It’s a fun exercise to reimagine character appearances based on a consistent set of rules. We encourage you to develop your own versions and share which character descriptions have always seemed genetically puzzling to you! The world of fantasy cats is vast and open to endless creative interpretations.
