|
Post by wheeledwarrior on Sept 19, 2019 18:20:23 GMT -5
Top title says it all. I’m not talking about any cat having the ability to be chosen as an apprentice for a medicine cat. Rather, I’m thinking more of the idea of any cat learning about herbs and medicine, as well as communication with Starclan (the latter if applicable and possible).
I started the topic about queens as deputies/leaders earlier, and thought of this idea. I was then reminded about the issue of medicine cats not being able to have mates or kits, and how to solve the issue. But if one thinks about it, the issue lies within the Clan system itself.
There’s only one medicine cat per Clan (with some exceptions, such as mentor/apprentice combos or what happened in Avos). So if one goes out of commission due to being injured, killed, or being having children, the entire Clan is weakened. Spending time with kits is an issue because there may be prioritize over those duties, with the medicine cat being the only one that could provide them.
But a simple solution to all of this would be if the system wasn’t that way. What if instead of having only one medicine cat most of the time, any cat could learn about herbs and medicine at any time, provided they were at least apprentice aged. However, the cat is then treated like a medicine cat for the duration of the training ( so they can’t do much in the way of the warrior duties, or things like that). To make sure there wouldn’t be too many cats out of commission and unintentionally weakening the Clan, there could be a limit to how many could train at one time (Maybe a mentor and an apprentice, with two extra).
Then medicine cats could have kits, because there would be multiple people fulfilling their duties until they could return. Favoring kits wouldn’t be an issue either, since the different people acting like medicine cats wouldn’t favor the same kits. And if a medicine cat dies or other was cannot fulfill their duties, there could be money ready and willing to replace him or her.
I saw one story that did something like this with a society that functioned like a Clan, but sadly I haven’t seen it since. It would very interesting if the books did something like that, but it’s unlikely they will.
|
|
|
Post by Haze on Sept 19, 2019 18:54:49 GMT -5
Have some problems with that... like the energy and time necessary to train a medicine cat takes around double the time than a warrior and the fact that medicine cats have to be neutral in clans rivalry.
But anyway, a lot of cats know a little of the herbs and first aid because of injuries that they got themselves or by helping in the medicine den, like Brightheart, Squirrelpaw with rat bites and even Breezepelt of all cats.
|
|
|
Post by wheeledwarrior on Sept 19, 2019 19:03:25 GMT -5
They wouldn’t have to take on the role of medicine cats though. They would just take on the role of knowing the knowledge of herbs and medicine. And I don’t think it takes that much longer. How long it takes seems to vary from book to book, since I think in a few cases medicine cats received their names at the same time as warriors that were their age.
|
|
|
Post by Grizzly on Sept 19, 2019 19:26:43 GMT -5
They need to at least learn how to do basic emergency medicine. Specifically how to stop bleeding, how to establish and airway, how to do CPR (cause apparently thats a thing in warriors), and how to treat shock and hypothermia. These can easily kill in minutes and if a warrior gets injured outside of camp they could very well bleed out, die of axsyphication, etc, before a medicine cat gets there
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2019 20:02:53 GMT -5
Wasn't there a period when Firestar made his warriors learn basic herb knowledge and stuff?
|
|
|
Post by Skypaw13 on Sept 19, 2019 21:47:31 GMT -5
Tl;dr I think only one cat (maybe two) at a time should be able to talk to StarClan, but the study of medicine and healing should be open to anyone.
Personally, I think there should only ever be one medicine cat and sometimes their apprentice. To me the medicine cat is a spiritual position much like a priest, and they are essentially the sole representative of their Clan before StarClan. (I prefer StarClan being a more mysterious force like they were in the early books as opposed to the more blatant StarClan we see in Po3 and beyond).
However, I think medical assistants are a good idea. Cats who learn all there is to know about medicine and healing, but aren't a spiritual representative. Like Briarlight, who toward the end of her life probably knew just as much about medicine as most of the MCs before her, but never talked to StarClan. Or Cinderheart, who has full working knowledge of medicine, but serves as a warrior in her second life without StarClan interaction. Brightheart would be like this too. Also, if an MC lost their position as a punishment or StarClan was angry with them and they had to resign (like Leafpool with the first case), they could still use skills they've been trained for, but they just can't talk to StarClan anymore. Leafpool could still heal, but she'd be a medical assistant instead of a medicine cat. Having medical assistants also means if the medicine cat dies, another Clan won't have to donate one of theirs, one of the MAs could take on the role and only receive spiritual training from another Clan's MC (like Willowshine).
|
|
|
Post by Skypaw13 on Sept 19, 2019 21:54:44 GMT -5
Wasn't there a period when Firestar made his warriors learn basic herb knowledge and stuff? He did, and then there was an incident of cats poisoning themselves because they "didn't want to bother the medicine cat" and took the wrong herb. Jayfeather blames this on Firestar's idea. Unfortunately, we don't see any positive events come from the idea, only this one negative event, so it makes it seem like Jayfeather's right. (This is in The Forgotten Warrior, if you want to check for yourself) Personally, I think all cats should know how to stem bleeding at least until a trained cat gets there, and they should know how to expel water from a cat who's been rescued from drowning. Literally anything else should be left to the medicine cats/assistants.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2019 22:13:20 GMT -5
Wasn't there a period when Firestar made his warriors learn basic herb knowledge and stuff? He did, and then there was an incident of cats poisoning themselves because they "didn't want to bother the medicine cat" and took the wrong herb. Jayfeather blames this on Firestar's idea. Unfortunately, we don't see any positive events come from the idea, only this one negative event, so it makes it seem like Jayfeather's right. (This is in The Forgotten Warrior, if you want to check for yourself) Personally, I think all cats should know how to stem bleeding at least until a trained cat gets there, and they should know how to expel water from a cat who's been rescued from drowning. Literally anything else should be left to the medicine cats/assistants. I remember that, it was Mousewhisker and Cherrypaw. I thought he had a good idea, what if cats were injured, and there was no medicine cat around?
|
|
|
Post by Skypaw13 on Sept 19, 2019 22:44:21 GMT -5
He did, and then there was an incident of cats poisoning themselves because they "didn't want to bother the medicine cat" and took the wrong herb. Jayfeather blames this on Firestar's idea. Unfortunately, we don't see any positive events come from the idea, only this one negative event, so it makes it seem like Jayfeather's right. (This is in The Forgotten Warrior, if you want to check for yourself) Personally, I think all cats should know how to stem bleeding at least until a trained cat gets there, and they should know how to expel water from a cat who's been rescued from drowning. Literally anything else should be left to the medicine cats/assistants. I remember that, it was Mousewhisker and Cherrypaw. I thought he had a good idea, what if cats were injured, and there was no medicine cat around? The Clan territories aren't that large, a MC can cross them in a few minutes. Most injuries will be able to wait until a MC/MA can get there. Those that can't wait are often because of bleeding, which is why I said everyone should know how to stem bleeding. Additionally, most cats travel in more than pairs, so there shouldn't too often arise a case where you have to leave the injured alone to get help. I do think being able to do first aid to injured cats is a good idea, but giving them too much information can lead to harm too. For example, bellyache is really common, and treating it would be considered "basic" medicine. But as we saw, that can lead to poisoning, plus a bellyache is almost never so severe that it needs to be treated before a medicine cat can get to you.
|
|
|
Post by wheeledwarrior on Sept 20, 2019 9:48:35 GMT -5
Tl;dr I think only one cat (maybe two) at a time should be able to talk to StarClan, but the study of medicine and healing should be open to anyone. Personally, I think there should only ever be one medicine cat and sometimes their apprentice. To me the medicine cat is a spiritual position much like a priest, and they are essentially the sole representative of their Clan before StarClan. (I prefer StarClan being a more mysterious force like they were in the early books as opposed to the more blatant StarClan we see in Po3 and beyond). However, I think medical assistants are a good idea. Cats who learn all there is to know about medicine and healing, but aren't a spiritual representative. Like Briarlight, who toward the end of her life probably knew just as much about medicine as most of the MCs before her, but never talked to StarClan. Or Cinderheart, who has full working knowledge of medicine, but serves as a warrior in her second life without StarClan interaction. Brightheart would be like this too. Also, if an MC lost their position as a punishment or StarClan was angry with them and they had to resign (like Leafpool with the first case), they could still use skills they've been trained for, but they just can't talk to StarClan anymore. Leafpool could still heal, but she'd be a medical assistant instead of a medicine cat. Having medical assistants also means if the medicine cat dies, another Clan won't have to donate one of theirs, one of the MAs could take on the role and only receive spiritual training from another Clan's MC (like Willowshine). The thing is, in real life, there’s no limit to how many priests that can be. So I feel like there shouldn’t be a limit to how many cats can speak with Starclan, provided they are qualified and understand the responsibilities. The other thing too is that perhaps a medical assistant could be chosen as the next medicine cat with Starclan’s approval. That would make the whole process of training an apprentice from the ground up a lot easier as well. Or maybe multiple ones could be chosen.
|
|
|
Post by Skypaw13 on Sept 20, 2019 14:46:50 GMT -5
Tl;dr I think only one cat (maybe two) at a time should be able to talk to StarClan, but the study of medicine and healing should be open to anyone. Personally, I think there should only ever be one medicine cat and sometimes their apprentice. To me the medicine cat is a spiritual position much like a priest, and they are essentially the sole representative of their Clan before StarClan. (I prefer StarClan being a more mysterious force like they were in the early books as opposed to the more blatant StarClan we see in Po3 and beyond). However, I think medical assistants are a good idea. Cats who learn all there is to know about medicine and healing, but aren't a spiritual representative. Like Briarlight, who toward the end of her life probably knew just as much about medicine as most of the MCs before her, but never talked to StarClan. Or Cinderheart, who has full working knowledge of medicine, but serves as a warrior in her second life without StarClan interaction. Brightheart would be like this too. Also, if an MC lost their position as a punishment or StarClan was angry with them and they had to resign (like Leafpool with the first case), they could still use skills they've been trained for, but they just can't talk to StarClan anymore. Leafpool could still heal, but she'd be a medical assistant instead of a medicine cat. Having medical assistants also means if the medicine cat dies, another Clan won't have to donate one of theirs, one of the MAs could take on the role and only receive spiritual training from another Clan's MC (like Willowshine). The thing is, in real life, there’s no limit to how many priests that can be. So I feel like there shouldn’t be a limit to how many cats can speak with Starclan, provided they are qualified and understand the responsibilities. The other thing too is that perhaps a medical assistant could be chosen as the next medicine cat with Starclan’s approval. That would make the whole process of training an apprentice from the ground up a lot easier as well. Or maybe multiple ones could be chosen. I didn't necessarily mean exactly like a priest. I'm not very educated on real world religions so I couldn't think of any other spiritual positions to illustrate my point. I do think speaking to StarClan should be a special thing for one cat from each Clan. StarClan often chooses medicine cats (Goosefeather, Yellowfang, Jayfeather). I don't know, I guess I just feel like having more than one (and their replacement) sort of cheapens the position?
|
|
|