10/5/2024

Out of the books in this Dying Stars trilogy, I think The Last Ancestor is the best written. I didn't plan on taking eight years to finish them all, but they were written across monthslong bursts with years of inactivity in between. All except this one. I started writing in 2021, but scrapped the first draft after several months because I didn't like the story I'd first envisioned. I restarted again in 2022 because I didn't like the revisions I made to my outline.

The story was originally about the purpose and effects of the warrior code on cat clans. It involved Mira, who was unnamed at the time, becoming more and more insane as StarClan, her environment in space, and cosmic horror-inspired beings pull her in different directions. That idea was thought of before I'd finished writing A Reign of Thunder and Lighting, and it wasn't good. When I restarted again, the story was to focus on Mira's acceptance of her past mistakes while being pushed in other directions by Proxima and her environment. That was also scrapped for a more Mira-centric story with a deeper connection to the last two (though this is still loose, in my opinion). I settled on completing a loosely connected story arc versus one centered around the more canon elements of Warriors. And in space. That's about as far from canon as you can go without removing the cats.

Speaking of, the setting being in the far future and not on Earth was less story-centric. From a narrative standpoint, I wanted the events of the previous books to feel like history rather than a continued storyline. From a literary standpoint, I liked the challenge. I was concerned readers wouldn't understand some of the sci-fi terminology or concepts without directly explaining them, which I intentionally avoided. I don't think I succeeded in this. But I'd never seen a Warriors fanfic set in space without it being a spoof or roleplay. I'm a huge fan of Star Trek and had to restrain myself to keep the worldbuilding from taking over the plot. I tried to keep most of the plot points centered around Mira's actions within the setting instead of Mira interacting with the setting. The ringworld is the problem and primary obstacle, but not the main thing Mira has to overcome.

Unlike the previous two books, clans take a back seat. It makes sense with Mira spending most of the story roaming, but it is probably the next most noticeable departure from canon. I'd already changed clan structure greatly for the last two books, so it didn't feel so odd to make yet another book where this was the case. Though the first two had a greater emphasis on society and culture. With the story being more about internal struggles and the journey of a single character, this was unavoidable.

Finally, there's the reverse chronological story that every chapter is split into… I wasn't sure about this decision. It came up on the fly during my second rewrite and just felt right for the story I wanted to tell. But I'm still learning a lot about writing and wasn't sure I could pull this off. Especially since the story starts in the "middle," with the reverse of Mira's most important life events going backwards in time while Mira finishes her journey going forwards in time. I really hope I communicated this well enough to not confuse readers. I had to rewrite those sections the most to add clues to better connect them. I formatted them to be in the same chapters in a sort of "tick-tock" pattern to keep it all uniform. I really hope it came together, because that's my favorite part about this fanfiction and was my favorite thing about writing it.

I hope you enjoyed reading this. It took me the longest to write and was the most difficult for me to put together, but was the most enjoyable. I won't be doing another trilogy anytime soon for Warriors, but I still have a lot of standalone fanfic ideas.

Just like the last two, here are some small facts about The Last Ancestor and its process for anyone curious:

- If The Last Ancestor had a theme song, it'd be Solitude - Felsmann Tiley Reinterpretation by M83.

- The Last Ancestor is 118,797 words, sorter than both A Reign of Thunder and Lighting and Bleed.

- The Last Ancestor title was thought of before I finished writing A Reign of Thunder and Lightning. Originally, Littlestar and Blackleaf were the last cats in StarClan.

- Mira was the only named character for a long time, even after I started the first draft. When I added the chimeras, I branched off it and named them after NASA's names for stars or star systems (Mira [Omicron Ceti, Proxima [Proxima Centauri, Moldoveanu [XO-1, etc.) while giving the fore name "Proxima" to any sharing Proxima's trait.

- The districts are named after mythological or religious beings from various cultures.

- Skhul Terra is named after Skhul Cave, a prehistoric cave in modern day Isreal where some of the earliest remains of modern humans outside of Africa were discovered. Terra refers to Earth's Latin name.

- The setting was originally a large, abandoned, zero-gravity space station drifting into a star. An abandoned ringworld made more sense when the original outline came together.

- The book was originally supposed to have a depressing ending, but I felt like the other two books were enough of that. Plus, I couldn't think of a satisfying reason for Mira to fail, especially one that justified the whole self-reflective journey.

- Mira was originally a young cat, like Littlestar and Blackleaf. An elder-aged main character made more sense with how much of her story was being covered, and she was aged up with each restart.

- Farstrider was added in the final rewrite and was supposed to be missing from the start. I couldn't find a good reason why Farstrider had to be out of the picture for Mira to grow.

- Faypaw (originally Fekit) was supposed to be remembered by Mira after her memories were restored by StarClan halfway through the story. I thought it made for a better final act if Proxima's damage to Mira's memories were permanent.

- StarClan was originally not supposed to make any physical appearances in the story. I felt their commentary made Mira's journey tangible and less stuck in her own world.

- Vo's pack was added last, around halfway through the first draft. It seemed needed to prevent readers from having just Mira's thoughts for the final arc. The climax itself was written without any outline.

- Yonder Five and its characters were completely unplanned. They weren't even named until after their chapters were finalized.

- Proxima was originally a kinder character throughout the story, but I didn't want Mira to think of Proxima as solely a mother, a friend, or a mentor. I thought the distance in their relationship added needed internal tension beyond just Mira and StarClan.

- Of the StarClan cats, only Littlestar and Blackleaf were originally planned and were supposed to follow Mira for the whole story. This felt even more disconnected from the prior two books, however, than it already was.

Overall, I hope you enjoyed The Last Ancestor and the Dying Stars books as much as I enjoyed writing them. Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it or the trilogy.