Hermitclan's Stories (A Hermitcraft x Warrior Cats AU)

(NOT A CHAPTER) Headcanon Talk: Gender Terminology

Hello guys! Author Rocky here, and this is an experimental kind of segment here where I talk about my personal headcanons for this AU. Specifically, I reworked some of the worldbuilding in the Warrior Cats canon so I could better create conflicts and fix some issues with the main series that I didn't want in my own narrative. I'll be doing more of these in the future if you guys are interested!

For this one, I'll be talking about gender labels. As of now, in the canon of WC, there are only she-cats and toms. Already, I've seen the idea of replacing "she-cats" with "mollies" since they use "toms" and not "he-cats" for male cats, but giving it further research, "molly" specifically refers to pregnant female cats, so we'll be sticking with she-cats for the AU.

The main issue this causes is the lack of other gender representation. As someone who is non-binary, and who is dealing with cats under the non-binary and trans umbrellas in the AU, you can see how this is something I'd like fixed. I've suggested it on my discussion board, so I'll say it here: to fit with the other gender labels already distinguished in the world, I've decided to refer to non-binary cats as "mush-cats." The mush part is short for mushrooms, which are prominent in the non-binary community for having millions of different sexes and are natural plants that the cats could canonically know about, so it would make more sense to use.

Mush-cat is also an umbrella term, and paves the way for other genders under it to be considered and given a name. I've come up with some ideas, but I'd rather not speak on behalf of communities I'm not a part of, so if you'd like to give your own suggestions about what your gender should be called in my AU, go ahead! I'd be so happy to see your thoughts!

Here's the list of ones I came up with. Again, these are very prone to change and I would happily take the suggestions from those of you who identify as any of these (or none of these, I'd be happy to learn about your gender identity as well!)

Non-binary: Mush-cat
Agender: Leaf-cat (based on how the leaves on plants aren't used for reproductive purposes and therefore have no sex. Plant leaves are also often green, and the agender flag includes the color green!)
Demi-girl/Demi-boy: Half-she/Half-tom
Trans women/Trans men: Toad-she/Toad-tom (based on how, in real life, toads can change their sex to help their species survive. Many animals do this, but I thought the cats would be more likely to know what a toad is than, say, a clownfish)
Genderfluid: River-cat (based on the fluidity of the gender being like the water in a river, ever flowing and constantly cycling)

As for the characters themselves, there are plenty of OCs I've used that are under the trans and non-binary umbrellas, such as Tallspruce and Applestar, but I'd like to list the actual MCYTers who are trans in this AU. All of this is pure headcanon (except for Cleo bc she goes by she/they irl), so don't take it as hard fact.

Mush-cats: Mistskull (Iskall) (they/them)
Leaf-cats: Falseeagle (FalseSymmetry) (she/her pronouns, uses gender neutral terms for anything else)
Half-shes: Cleo (she/they)
Half-toms: Blueslime (Jevin) (he/they)
Toad-toms: Scar (he/him) and Goattail (Zedaph) (he/him)
Other mentions: Joehill (Identifies as a tom, but isn't very strict on using he/him, basically he's lenient with his pronouns)

This list is also prone to change along with my headcanons, so I'll keep you all updated.

For a while I thought about doing the same kind of labeling with sexuality, but WC terminology for relationships has always been gender neutral and I'd prefer to keep it that way for the AU.

Thanks for listening in and reading this fic! It means alot to me!