Prologue
There is a story which the Elder tells all young kits. It's a story about four saplings that one day sprouted next to one another. As they grew, they started to fight one another for resources. One would grow taller than all the others to spread its branches wide and absorb all the sunlight. Another would grow its roots out to force the others to stay trapped and claim the water and nutrients for itself. Another would grow wider than all the others to push the other trees out from the area altogether. The fourth tree existed in the shadows, crunched for space and food, weaker than the others and yet its will was strong and determined.
All four clung to life, desperate to live and take what they could for themselves. However, it started to dawn on the four trees that they could not live like this forever. They were not only starving one another, but they were starving themselves with this rivalry. So, instead of staying as four independent forces, they combined into one and grew together. Together they towered high over the land around them and they could see every tree in the forest. They may still be four separate entities, but their roots were not entwined, their leaves sheltering one another. They may be separate, but their essences were interwoven. They helped one another to survive even as they helped themselves.
With time, the four trees started to notice a large amount of feline life start to populate the area around them. They fought one another and starved one another. They caught what prey they could and kept what they could from others. The four trees started to see a similarity between these felines and what they had gone through with each other and their wills hurt. They could see the pain and suffering, but saw no way in which to help. It all came to a climax when the felines fought below the trees themselves. The trees could taste the blood now and it caused them to writhe internally at the vicious cycle.
The fight would eventually die down. There were some felines whos souls had already moved on and the trees tried to reach out to grab them, but they had no power over these lives. These felines had died on their own will with no structure and no relation to the four trees that had watched over them. The felines that were left standing took the time to look back on the process and see what had happened. Families mourned for the lives lost and friends searched for those they cared about - friends that needed to be healed with no knowledge on how to heal.
Four felines stood above all others. They saw the bloodshed and the anger and knew that something must be done or it would never end. They wanted an end to this savage way of life. They sought structure, forgiveness. They wanted a life where kits could grow up, be trained to be warriors and fight for their families and friends. They wanted a life where groups of felines had their own ways of life and their own areas, but needed not worry about the safety of their kits. Every feline deserved a chance to live to an old and ripe age and if they did such, if they served their life in the service of others and lasted through hardships, that they would be honored for their life long service - not shunned for being old and weak.
Thunder, Wind, Shadow, and River proclaimed this under the will of what the felines called Fourtrees. This new mindset gave the trees power, a stronger will to believe in the future of these felines and of the forest as a whole. They saw the goodness that rested in the hearts of the felines and sought to help them find their way. Together the four trees reached out and with their combined wills and determination, sought to bring back the souls of the felines who had died this day. They threw these souls into the night's sky and small dots of lights started to shine brighter in the black abyss next to the moon. These souls than reached out to the felines below and helped them structure what would be called the Clans.
Thunder would take the felines who showed promise with hunting through the undergrowth of a largely diverse forest. River took the felines who showed a compassion for the water and were undeterred by the thought of getting their fur wet. Wind took the lithe felines who wanted to run across open expanses of land and were willing to sleep unprotected underneath the lights they had just realized were their ancestors. Shadow took with him those that were willing to live on less and hunt in the shadows and darkness.
There was another feline called Sky who took the felines with strong jumping that would hunt in the canopy of the trees - although Sky's Clan would be lost to history as beings who walked on two legs encroached into their territory and pushed them out. But the other four lived for many generations. ThunderClan, RiverClan, WindClan, and ShadowClan worked together in conjunction with their ancestors which they called StarClan.
There was a secret that very few felines ever knew. Whenever a feline that passed away, that feline was caught in the canopy of leaves that belonged to Fourtrees. The ancestors would converse about the feline's life and either the Fourtrees would send them up to the sky as they had those first few felines in the First Battle or the tree would send the souls back down to the forest where the souls would be trapped in their territories, but in complete and utter darkness. Fourtrees' leaves would never allow sunlight or moonlight to bless these darkened souls.
Time has passed and these secrets lasted through many generations of the Clans. Eventually stories circulated about the "Dark Forest" where souls that had betrayed their Clans and betrayed the Warrior Code would reside alone for the rest of their existence, unless a family member ever was sent to the Dark Forest as well. What these rumors did not specify though was that these souls existed side-by-side with the living. These souls existed in the same territories as their living counterparts, but there was a veil that existed and created by Fourtrees that separated the living from the damned. Should this veil ever diminish, these darkened souls would be let loose with the living.
Time passed and hardships befell the Clans. These Clans survived through many threats that jeopardized their way of life, but they persevered. They went through fires, their territories being invaded, and hard leaf-bares where prey was scarce. However, no matter how hard fought the battle was, the Clans only lasted so long. Many generations of felines had to watch in StarClan as the Clans dissipated as Twolegs invaded and poisoned the four Clans. The Clans had a choice, but they avoided moving from Fourtees, Mothermouth, and the lands they loved and knew. Instead, they separated and smaller groups of felines existed. They were back to the pre-Clan lifestyle, but with one minor difference.
There was a group that lived in the area surrounding Fourtrees. They would never be attacked and there shall never be blood spilt in the Fourtrees area again. For even though there were some groups that gave up their relations to the Clans of the past, they all remembered the importance and pride of Fourtrees. This special group of felines known as The Risen acted as a scholarly type. They remembered how to heal. The leader of The Risen, known as The Elder, was entrusted with stories like these of the past. The Risen are here for the felines of the forest to heal and negotiate peace between warring groups. Fourtrees has survived as a neutral portion of land so that The Risen can perform their jobs as necessary.
But there have always been groups that have detested this sign of peace in the forest. They hate the power The Risen have. The Risen do not fight and don't even train those born into their ranks to fight, but there are many groups that will fight for The Risen so any group looking to destroy them will have to contend with many others and would therefore cause an all out war in the forest, just like back in the day.
And if we, The Risen, ever fall, so do does the past and that will only allow for darkness to flood the forest.