Led By Shadows
ShadowClan has been subjected to more leader changes than any other Clan in the Warriors series, all of them occurring in the original six books. Each leader of the often misunderstood Clan has had a different style of leading, though two out of the five were nothing but a negative influence for the Clan. These rapid changes of leaders often took a hard toll on the cats of ShadowClan, leaving the members in turmoil as they watched one leader after another be driven out or die.
The first leader of ShadowClan the readers hear of is Raggedstar, who is understood to be an incredibly just leader, though he was murdered by his son Brokentail so the second generation could take over the position to feed his own ambitions. Under Brokenstar's rule ShadowClan slowly deteriorated as the majority of the Clan lived a life of terror under the tyranny of Brokenstar and his tight ring of followers. The wounds scarred in the minds of the cats who were growing up in this era will last for their whole lifetime, from being made a warrior many moons early to seeing all of their kin dying around them as Brokenstar ruthlessly through his warriors into battle with a complete lack of empathy. The damage inflicted by Brokenstar did not only affect his own warriors, though. His conquest for territory came to a head when he drove out WindClan, and ended when ThunderClan succeeded in aiding the ShadowClan warriors to overcome the unjust leader.
The shortest leadership witnessed in the books is that of Nightstar, who wasn't even fully approved by StarClan because the previous ShadowClan leader was still living. The mysterious sickness that claimed so many ShadowClan cats claimed Nightstar as well, and also took the life of Cinderfur, his deputy, after that. It's no wonder that ShadowClan accepted Tigerstar no matter how shadowed his past was, because the Clan truly needed a miracle at their weakest point. When Tigerstar, the leader who showed the Clan a vision of prosperity and power in the future, was killed in one blow by the miniscule rogue cat Scourge, there was no doubt that ShadowClan was devastated by both the loss of their leader and his old crimes being revealed.
After Blackfoot was accepted by StarClan as Blackstar, the Clan slowly began to recover under his strong leadership. ShadowClan has showed no signs of breaking down since the former rogue rose to power. Although more hostile than some of the other leaders in the forest, Blackstar knows the warrior code by heart, as any leader should, and does his best to keep ShadowClan a strong, if not the strongest, Clan in the forest. Some would accuse ShadowClan of high treachery in the later parts of The New Prophecy, where the Clan was trying to take back some of ThunderClan's territory on the other side of the river. Many fans forget, however, that this was manipulation of the deputy by Hawkfrost of RiverClan, responsible for most of the problems that occurred in The New Prophecy. In the original series, Graypaw tells Firepaw that ShadowClan lives where the cold winds blow over their hearts, as they are inspecting Fourtrees. ShadowClan has often been portrayed as a more ambitious Clan than the others, though they could never be described as evil. When Graypaw and Firepaw were discussing this Clan, Brokenstar was the leader, and that will have changed all cats' perception of ShadowClan.
A leader's actions shape his or her Clan greatly, and can affect the balance of the whole forest for generations to come. ShadowClan has had a large amount of leaders over a relatively short period of time, and though the majority that are seen in the books gave the Clan a dark reputation, they are now entering a golden age of sorts after peace and order are restored at the end of Sunset. Under their new leader Blackstar, ShadowClan is promised to flourish.
the dawn patrol