The Warrior Code
The set of rules every Clan cat lives by.
The warrior code is the set of rules followed by all Clan cats in Warriors, a code of honor that every warrior must obey. It is one of the two things that make a group of cats a Clan: BloodClan is not counted as a true Clan because its cats believe neither in StarClan nor in the warrior code. The series creator Victoria Holmes has described the code as the morality of many cats living together in a small space, created from lived experience.
Lore & Background
The rule the story tests most often is the ban on love between cats of different Clans. Graystripe of ThunderClan and Silverstream of RiverClan break it in the first arc; Forest of Secrets states that the code allows friendship across Clan borders but not love. Leafpool and Crowfeather, and later Lionpaw and Heatherpaw, face the same choice between the heart and the Clan. The code also sets six months as the age at which a kit may begin an apprenticeship, a rule Brokenstar breaks when he trains kits early and sends them to war.
In Power of Three, Hollyleaf is an ardent follower of the code with an inflexible reading of it. The field guide Code of the Clans has Leafpool explain the code rule by rule, with a story for each about how and why it arose, and a final chapter on additions that failed. The laws themselves change late in the series: the heroes of The Broken Code change their Clans' laws to prevent further tragedy, and A Starless Clan deals with the unrest those changes cause.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if a cat breaks The Warrior Code?
The books show different outcomes: when Graystripe's forbidden love for Silverstream comes out, ThunderClan no longer trusts him, and Leafpool loses her place as medicine cat when her kits are revealed.
Where does The Warrior Code first appear in the series?
The warrior code is part of the series from its first book, Into the Wild.
More in The Warrior Code & History
Elsewhere in Warrior Cats
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