| “ | You can save your sympathy. I don't need it. I have a family now. These are my Kin. | „ |
| ~ Darktail when meeting with Onestar after many seasons. |
The Kin are major antagonists in Erin Hunter's Warriors book series, serving as the main antagonists of the A Vision of Shadows arc, the secondary antagonists of Super Editions Hawkwing's Journey and Onestar's Confession, and overarching antagonists in Super Edition Tigerheart's Shadow.
Initially a band of rogues led by Darktail who made their way to the lake to conquer and destroy the Clans after driving out SkyClan, they eventually took over ShadowClan, with many members like Sleekwhisker and Needletail voluntarily joining, while others are far more reluctant to do so. The Kin captured, tortured and killed many Clan cats, but when WindClan's leader Onestar sacrificed himself to kill Darktail, the group disbanded.
Description[]
The Kin is a group of rogues led by Darktail, a vicious and brutal cat seeking revenge for himself. They are part of a Clan-like structure with warriors serving a leader, and they attempt to live on the lake territories alongside the other Clans. However, they are mostly interested in taking over their land. They first lived on ShadowClan’s border but, after they invaded it, they merged with it, gaining authority over their territory and absorbing their members, some of them willingly becoming followers of Darktail.
The Kin does not follow the warrior code and they observe the law of the fittest: only the strongest can lead and survive, while the weakest are left to themselves. It is a tyrannical power where the leader rules with fear and violence only.
History[]
Hawkwing's Journey[]
While out on a walk one day, three SkyClan warriors named Hawkwing, Plumwillow and Sandynose encounter a rogue black-and-white tom named Darktail, deciding to bring him back to camp. SkyClan's leader Leafstar agrees to let him stay in camp for a while after discovering he knows a lot about the other four Clans and could help SkyClan find them.
He tells everyone that the other Clans live in a clearing beyond a tree with only three branches, knowing that badgers live there and intending to get the patrol sent there killed. His plan partially succeeds when the patrol's leader Billystorm is killed by the badgers, but although some members of the Clan have their suspicions, Darktail is not caught for this until much later.
The Clan becomes uneasy when more and more rogues start popping up around their territory. Later, Darktail brings a fellow rogue named Rain to camp, and although apprehensive, the Clan welcomes the gray tom nonetheless.
A few days later, Hawkwing wakes at night to the sound of rustling bushes and and the scents of foreign cats. Soon, a large group of rogues invades the camp and begins attacking its residents. During the battle, Darktail betrays the Clan by revealing that he's the leader of the rogues, killing many of the Clan's members during the battle; most notably the deputy Sharpclaw. SkyClan is then driven from their home, and the rogues take over.
A Vision of Shadows[]
The Apprentice's Quest[]
The ThunderClan medicine cat apprentice Alderpaw is tasked with a mission from StarClan to find SkyClan after reciving a vision of them. He goes on a journey alongside his sister Sparkpaw, their grandmother Sandstorm, two warriors named Cherryfall and Molewhisker, and a ShadowClan apprentice namd Needlepaw. Soon thy reach the gorge and find Darktail and his rogues have taken up residnece. But since Sandstorm, the only one of the group who actually knew what SkyClan was, had died during the journey, the rest of the group assumes that the rogues are SkyClan.
Wanting to know where the other four Clans actually live, Darktail confirms their thoughts that his group is SkyClan and claims he's the leader, allowing the group to stay for a while, claiming that SkyClan does things differently when asked why he isn't named Darkstar like a traditional leader. After a hunting patrol brings prey back, the rogues begin fighting each other for it, with the most of the Clan cats watching in horror, but Needlepaw joining in. Sparkpaw confronts Darktail about this, telling him that true Clan cats work together and feed their most vulnerable first instead of fighting each other for scraps, but he responds that SkyClan has their own code that rewards the strong.
Alderpaw is shocked that a Clan could stray so far from the warrior code, and Cherryfall begins suspecting that the "SkyClan" cats aren't who they seem. Later, the Clan cats happen upon a real SkyClan cat named Mistfeather, who's been separated from his Clanmates and now lives as a loner. Mistfeather explains what happened to the real SkyClan. Darktail then finds them and kills Mistfeather before taking the Clan cats prisoner. The group manages to sneak out during the night though, and begins heading back to the lake where the other four Clans reside, unaware that Darktail and his rogues are following them.
Thunder and Shadow[]
Darktail and his rogues arrive at the lake, settling near the border. They later attack a WindClan patrol, killing a warrior named Furzepelt and taking the Clan leader Onestar's second-to-last life. Onestar urges ShadowClan's leader Rowanstar to drive them out, but Rowanstar is uncertain.
Later, Needlepaw and her friend Sleekpaw begin meeting with the rogues often. on one of these meetings, they bring Violetkit to meet Darktail and his rogues, and the kitten is shocked to hear the apprentices agreeing when the rogues mock the Clans' ways of life. Later, Needlepaw is too proccupied to pay the rogues another visit, so she sends Violetkit out on her own to inform Rain of this. Violetkit is attacked by an owl while going to deliver the message, but the rogues save her and let her stay in their camp for the night.
Later, Needlepaw and Sleekpaw rebel against Rowanstar, accusing him of being a weak leader, and join the rouges alongside several other ShadowClan cats, mostly apprentices. The apprentices who joined give themselves warrior names, with Needlepaw and Sleekpaw renaming themselves to Needletail and Sleekwhisker. Violetkit is brought along as well, and becomes Needletail's unofficial apprentice, getting renamed Violetpaw. After this, Darktail gives his group of rogues and ex-ShadowClan cats a new name: The Kin.
A little while later, Rain confronts Darktail over who should be The Kin's leader, with the two getting into a fight that ends with the latter tearing out the former's eye. Violetpaw is shocked by this and sneaks off to rejoin ShadowClan. However, shortly after this happens, The Kin raids ShadowClan and defeats it, absorbing almost all of its members. Some ShadowClan cats agree with The Kin's ideologies and join willingly, but others, such as the Clan's medicine cat Puddleshine, are reluctant and only join so they may be with their Clanmates. The only three members of ShadowClan who don't merge with The Kin are Rowanstar, his mate and deputy Tawnypelt, and their son Tigerheart.
Shattered Sky[]
Now knowing of how much of a threat The Kin poses, the remaining three ShadowClan cats, as well as all of ThunderClan, RiverClan and WindClan team up to drive them out. They attack in ShadowClan's former territory, which The Kin now inhabits, and at first have the advantage until Darktail pins down Onestar and whispers something into his ear. After this, he abruptly calls for WindClan to retreat from the battle, leaving the other Clans outnumbered, and they are soon defeated.
The Kin starts to recruit more rogues, meanwhile ex-ShadowClan cats who realize their mistake and try to leave start disappearing. While Darktail is being treated for his injuries from the previous battle, Rain tries to kill him to usurp leadership, but the black-and-white tom kills him instead. Due to this, he becomes less friendly and more suspecting towards his other peers.
At the suggestion of a Kin member named Raven, Darktail convinces three kittypets named Max, Loki and Zelda to join The Kin by promising them fun adventures and a welcoming community. He makes them swear a blood oath of loyalty, pricking their paw pads with his claws, and afterwards assigns them mentors; Raven for Max, Sleekwhisker for Zelda, and Violetpaw for Loki.
The Kin then launches an attack on RiverClan, succeeding in driving out yet another Clan. The RiverClan warriors Heronwing, Petalfur, Foxnose, Shadepelt are all killed, and The Kin takes the Clans deputy Reedwhisker along with Icewing, Brackenpelt and Mintfur prisoner, as they're too wounded to flee with the rest of their Clan. Max is killed in the battle too however, leading Loki and Zelda to flee The Kin and return to being kittypets.
The RiverClan prisoners are kept in an old den and starved, with Darktail making them swear an oath of loyalty out loud in return for food, humiliating Reedwhisker in particular by having him repeat the oath louder. He then feeds the four small scraps of mice before sending them back into their den. Meanwhile, the rest of RiverClan takes shelter in ThunderClan, with their leader Mistystar leading a patrol to their old territory to get the bodies back for burial and save the prisoners. Raven denies letting them do so, threatening to kill the prisoners if they try again.
Alderheart and Mothwing, medicine cats of ThunderClan and RiverClan respectively, go with a plan to try and get into RiverClan's former camp and see where the prisoners are being held by claiming that they're just gathering herbs that got left behind. Needletail, who's faith in The Kin has shaken ever since the death of Rain, allows them to, so long as they teach Puddleshine about different types of herbs in return. The two also find out that the ex-ShadowClan cats Dawnpelt, Lioneye, Birchbark and Mistcloud went missing ever since they tried to leave, worrying they may have been murdered - which is later confirmed to be true. After pretending to teach Puddleshine about herbs, the two gather some and leave, spotting the den where the hostages are on their way out.
Darktail finds out that Alderheart and Mothwing were allowed to take herbs and keeps Needletail as prisoner for letting them, as well as briefly punishing Puddleshine for the same reason by making him take care of the prisoners, but letting him return to his medicine cat duties soon after upon realizing that The Kin can't afford to not have a healer.
Violetpaw later helps two ex-ShadowClan elders, Ratscar and Oakfur, escape The Kin, and agrees to help with a plan to free the prisoners; feeding Darktail and his closest supporters with poppy seed-laced prey, then sneaking the hostages out while they're sedated. Needletail agrees to help Violetpaw with this plan, but Sleekwhisker catches them, and the two are dragged to the lake by her, Darktail and Roach. They begin to drown Needletail in the lake while making Violetpaw watch, but before she dies, Darktail lets her breathe and commands her to prove her loyalty to The Kin by killing Violetpaw. Needletail approaches Violetpaw, but instead of attacking, tells the apprentice to run as she turns around and attacks her captors. Needletail is killed as Violetpaw flees back to ThunderClan.
A patrol, sent to go sneak out the prisoners if the plan had succeeded, arrives at RiverClan to see said prisoners as well as several ex-ShadowClan cats rebelling against The Kin. The patrol join in, and The Kin is forced out of RiverClan territory, and the prisoners are freed, being taken back to ThunderClan to be tended to.
When the other Clans confront Onestar on why he made WindClan retreat and what Darktail whispered to him, the leader reveals that Darktail is his son. He explains that The Kin's leader was born to him and a kittypet she-cat named Smoke, but he abandoned them both out of fear of what his Clanmates would think about his codebreaking. He adds that Darktail whispered to him that a cat who abandoned and then killed their own child would surely end up in the Dark Forest, making Onestar paranoid as he's on his last life. He then agrees to face the consequences of his actions and bring WindClan into the final battle to drive out The Kin once and for all.
The five Clans - including SkyClan, who the ThunderClan apprentice Twigpaw had found and brought to the lake - then start making plans on how to defeat The Kin. The spirit of Firestar then sends a message from StarClan: "The Clans must remember their names." Alderheart figures out that each Clan must use their own unique skills to fight The Kin with: ThunderClan's strength, RiverClan's swimming, ShadowClan's stealth, WindClan's speed, and SkyClan's climbing.
With this strategy, the five Clans all face The Kin together, and this time are at an advantage, with the rogues being chased away from the lake en masse. During the battle, Onestar confronts Darktail once more, and the two get into a fight as the leader taunts that his son would have never made it as a Clan cat, and would've been better off staying a kittypet. The two deeper and deeper into the lake as they fight, soon sinking below the surface. Darktail tries to escape, but Onestar drags him down, and soon enough the two of them drown.
With their leader gone, The Kin scatters and disbands. Many ex-ShadowClan cats return to their Clan, and their territory is reclaimed. Sleekwhisker, Yarrowleaf and Spikefur don't go back to ShadowClan, instead staying with the rogues. However, upon the latter's death, both she-cats return to the Clans. Onestar goes to StarClan, Harespring succeeds him as the leader of WindClan, and Darktail's spirit soon finds his way to the Dark Forest.
Notable Members[]
- Darktail - Founder and supreme leader (deceased)
- Rain - Unofficial second-in-command (formerly, deceased)
- Raven - High ranking member (status unknown)
- Nettle - High ranking member and unofficial healer (deceased)
- Roach - High ranking member (status unknown)
- Sleekwhisker - ShadowClan defector and high ranking member (status unknown)
- Juniperclaw - ShadowClan defector (Defected, deceased; currently guardian of the Dark Forest)
- Spikefur - ShadowClan defector (deceased)
- Yarrowleaf - ShadowClan defector (Defected)
- Berryheart - ShadowClan defector (Defected)
- Flame - member (status unknown)
- Silt - member (deceased)
- Thistle - member (status unknown)
Victims[]
- Sharpclaw (killed by Darktail and Rain)
- Bouncefire (killed by Darktail)
- Stormheart (unknown killer)
- Patchfoot (unknown killer)
- Mistfeather's mate (unknown killer)
- Mistfeather (killed by Darktail)
- Furzepelt (unknown killer)
- Rain (killed by Darktail)
- Shadepelt (unknwn killer)
- Heronwing (unknown killer)
- Petalfur (unknown killer)
- Foxnose (unknown killer)
- Max (indirectly; killed in the RiverClan raid)
- Mistcloud (unknown killer)
- Lioneye (unknown killer)
- Birchbark (unknown killer)
- Dawnpelt (killed by Darktail)
- Beenose (killed by Darktail)
- Needletail (Killed by Darktail, Sleekwhisker and Roach)
- Onestar (drowned alongside Darktail)
External links[]
The Kin on the Warriors Wiki
