First things first, please take a look at the 'naming' and 'character' sections of the rules, seen Here. These describe how to name your character, and what is and is not allowed. Remember that mutations and special pelt colors and markings are buyables and not free!

Left By StarClan uses close-to-realistic genes for all characters. While this may initially seem very limited, the combinations are actually quite vast! We have here (link wip) a written and visual genetics guide to help. Remember, though, we do not require you to know or put down genes yourself, but your cat must have an apperance that can translate to fit our genetics.

For appearance, know these things about your character:
- Striped or non-striped (solid)
- Type of stripe (if present); ticked, mackrel, spotted, or classic
- Main Coat color; allowed main coat colors include: black, white, orange, brown, cinnamon, gray, fawn, lilac, and cream
- Any white parts on the body; if there are white markings present, they must be up to any three seen here: jowls, ears, eartips, dabbles, neck, throat, chest, belly, groin, legs, paws, toes, tail, or tailtip. Otherwise, they would require a unique marking mutation.
- If biologically female, are there any orange or cream parts in addition to their base coat color? This will make them a tortoiseshell or (if striped) a tortoiseshell tabby (tortie)
- If their base coat appears 'shadowed' or the tips of their fur folicles are a different color, this makes them silvered if tabby or tortoiseshell, or smoke if solid
- If they have a mask and points, are they: dark color on light color (siamese), dark color on dark color (burmese), or in between/a bit of both (tonkinese)?
- If the cat is pure white (but not albino), disregard all of the above. White overrides all other coloring (even with white markings).
- Finally, what is the cat's eye color? Remember that any eye color is allowed, even purple or red. Why? Because the genetics were complicated enough without factoring in eye color so just go wild. Remember, however, that only blind cats can have totally white or totally black eyes!

Below is a series of apperance formulas to assist you in figuring out how your character can realistically look, using the knowledge above. If you have an idea in mind or a picture you're going off of, the formulas can still help guide you to describing the apperance in a LBS-friendly way. These are meant to be just guidelines and can be added/subtracted to or prettified in wording. Also keep in mind that size, gender/sex, mutations, and scars are not included in these formulas.

A reminder that having slightly lighter undersides (belly, chest, and/or insides of legs) are NOT linked or defined by LBS genetics and any cat can have them. They just can't be considered cream or white or a completely different color altogether. Also make sure it makes sense. Ex, a white cat can't have lighter unders...

Anything in [ ] is only included if applicable.



Age is also very important. A character's age is calculated in moons, or months. Most kits will be between 0 (newborn) to 6 moons old. Most apprentices or otherwise apprentice aged cats will be 6 to 12 moons old. Adults are anywhere from 12-14 moons old on up. Warriors in most clans generally serve for life but if they get particularly wounded or old enough to start getting run down, they may retire around the age of 70 moons (or sooner if wounded) and remain elders until death. Clan cats, rogues, and loners on LBS only live to 7 years old or 84 moons before dying of old age! Kittypets, however, can live to be 12 years (144 moons) old before passing away from old age. If a clan cat or rogue becomes a kittypet, they will only qualify for this age extension if they became a kittypet before they were 36 moons of age.

Personality can be as long or as short as you want it, but it must give a general idea of what your character is like, be it through paragraphs, bullet points, or key words.

Then there are your character's stats. Learn more about these specifically on the Stats Page. Each character gets a starting amount of stat points to allot into their character depending on their age group. 10 total for kits, 25 total for apprenticed-aged, and 50 total for warriors. When (and if) your character becomes a leader, they automatically get to allot 5 more points into their stats. There are also ways to gain stats after character creation. 100 points in the shop buys a single stat point upgrade you can apply to any one stat on a single character, and is rebuyable. There are also ways to in-character gain a point in a stat, such as hunting, patroling, training, or in the rare Site Wide Plot (SWP).
Important Note: If you have any mutation or negative (see below) that causes a stat penalty (such as a -2 to END), you cannot gain stat points in that stat.

Finally, there are these things called "negatives". These are features your character can have for free (up to three) that are generally bad (hence the name), but can add interesting gameplay to your characters and also come with their own benefits. Taking one (1) negative allows you to allot 5 more points into that character's stats, up to twice (depending on how many negatives are taken.) Taking the max amount of negatives on a single character (3), will also give you a free random (positive) mutation that will be rolled for that character.
Beware. Like mutations, negatives have a chance to be inherited by kits born to a character that has them. In addition, having negatives, and the type of negative, adds to infant mortality (see Pregnancy & Kits).
*Starting pool of points cannot be used on traits that are affected by negatives.

Without further ado, here is the negative list and the effect each negative will have on the character that has it: