Mapleshade

"Can you imagine what that feels like? To be rejected twice? To be a loner when all you tried to do was love? But don't worry, I made them pay. I looked for revenge whenever I could! Why do you think I'm here?."

- Mapleshade to Crookedstar

Mapleshade is a major background villain in Erin Hunter's Warriors book series. She is a large, primarily ginger, tortoiseshell-and-white she-cat with amber eyes and a long, thick, fluffy, white tail. She serves as the main antagonist of the super edition Crookedstar's Promise and the main protagonist of the novella Mapleshade's Vengeance, which shows how and why she became evil in the first place.

History
Mapleshade was a she-cat born in ThunderClan. She was a bold, loyal and skillful warrior, courageously facing enemies such as cats, foxes and badgers. It was believed by some that she would be leader one day. However, she fell in love with a RiverClan tom named Appledusk, sneaking out at night to meet him in secret. He told her he loved her more than anything.

After many moons of secret meetings, Mapleshade became pregnant with Appledusk's kits, giving birth to them in ThunderClan. Since Mapleshade said she would raise them alone, the Clan leader's daughter, Frecklewish, assumed that her deceased brother, Birchface, had fathered Mapleshade's kits. The irony in this is that Birchface was killed (apparently accidentally) by Appledusk, the real father of Mapleshade's kits, during a clash between ThunderClan and RiverClan. Not wanting to lie to her Clanmates, but also not wanting to put her kits in danger, Mapleshade neither confirmed or contradicted this assumption.

However, Ravenwing, the ThunderClan medicine cat, later deduced that Appledusk was the real father of Mapleshade's kits and told the Clan. Mapleshade and her kits were then banished from ThunderClan as traitors. She left vowing that they would regret what they did that day forever. In desperation, Mapleshade tried to seek refuge in RiverClan. On the way, however, her kits fell into the river and were swept away. Mapleshade almost drowned trying to save them, but they were already gone. She made to the other side, but to her horror, Appledusk blamed her for what had happened. He wanted nothing more to do with her and RiverClan refused to let her stay, not even for just one night. Heartbroken and enraged, Mapleshade left, swearing vengeance.

An embittered Mapleshade then became a rogue, having lost her home, her kits and the cat she'd fallen in love with. She felt Ravenwing was to blame for the death of her kits, because he had revealed her secret and thereby gotten her and her kits cast out. She stalked him and murdered him, then uncovered his grave in revenge. Then, having learned that Frecklewish had watched her kits get swept away and done nothing to help, she lured the she-cat into a trap and got her bitten by an adder, blinding her and eventually killing her.

Mapleshade then turned her rage to Appledusk. Using his apprentice, Perchpaw, as bait, she lured him to RivewrClan's border and challenged him to a fight. Appledusk refused, but then his new mate, Reedshine, already pregnant, arrived on the scene. Blinded by rage and jealously, Mapleshade attacked Reedshine, but Appledusk stood in the way and was killed instead. In the process, Mapleshade was attacked from behind and mortally wounded by Perchpaw. Before fleeing and dying from her injuries, Mapleshade vowed to the pregnant Reedshine that she would haunt Appledusk's descendants forever for what he did to her.

Because of the murders she committed, Mapleshade's spirit was denied entry to StarClan and instead sent to the Dark Forest. There, her lust for vengeance still unsatisfied, she plotted against ThunderClan and RiverClan, the clans who cast her out. When she saw Crookedkit, a young disfigured kitten who had been rejected by his mother and was now restless with unfocused ambition, she seized the opportunity. Mapleshade promised Crookedkit that she would make all his hopes come true in return for one thing; that he would hold his Clan more precious than anything else in the world. Crookedkit agreed.

With the future RiverClan leader in her thrall, Mapleshade trained him to become the warrior she had been, while steadily stealing everything he loved most. She made watch his mother drown, his brother fall in love with a ThunderClan cat and later die in a rockfall, and his mate and all but one of his daughters die of sickness. When his last remaining daughter, Silverstream, fell in love with a ThunderClan tom called Greystripe, and died giving birth to his kits, Mapleshade declared Crookedstar's "punishment" complete. She was delighted to see a cat go through the same pain that she had.

When the Clans moved to new territories, Mapleshade followed and plotted with the other Dark Forest cats to destroy them once and for all. During the battle between the Clans, StarClan and the Dark Forest, she tried to kill Sandstorm, claiming she had everything Mapleshade ever wanted: a mate who loved her, having kits that she could watch grow up and one day have kits of their own, and respect from her Clanmates, which she believes that StarClan stole all that from her. Mapleshade neary killed Ssndstor, but was stopped by Spottedleaf, the spirit of the former ThunderClan medicine cat. Enraged, Mapleshade attacked and killed Spottedleaf, causing her to fade away forever. Mapleshade was then chased away by Sandstorm and never seen again.

Trivia

 * Mapleshade is the only major female antagonist in the Warriors series. She is also one of the most popular villains of the franchise.
 * During her exile, Mapleshade had visions of her drowned kits, initially wailing for help and then urging her to commit murder. According to one of the authors, Vicky Holmes, these were actually hallucinations caused by Mapleshade's grief and feelings of betrayal, which drove her mad.