| “ | My littermates said I was too small...too weak. But I have proven them wrong. I've learned how to live for blood. Because that's the key. The only answer. I am leader of BloodClan. I am Scourge. And I have won! | „ |
| ~ Scourge in Rise of Scourge. |
Scourge was the founder and former leader of BloodClan and the final antagonist of the first Warriors book series "The Prophecy Begins", appearing as the main antagonist in The Darkest Hour. He later appears as the main protagonist of the manga The Rise of Scourge. He also made a cameo appearance in Bluestar's Prophecy as an unnamed kit. After his death Claw is made the new leader of BloodClan then Fury in Graystripe's Vow. The she-cat Fury leaves BloodClan and Ice and Snake are currently leading the clan.
History
The Rise of Scourge
Tiny is born to Jake and Quince, with his older siblings being Ruby and Socks. His brother and sister dislike Tiny because of his small size along with their belief of Quince favoring him, mocking him about his small size and refusing to let him join their games. One day, when their Housefolk takes them outside, she puts collars around the three kits before they explore the backyard. Tiny finds a hole in the fence that shows the forest he heard his mother talk about.
He gets called away to see Socks and Ruby playing with a toy a kid has, and thinking that they are not playing with it right, Tiny ends up taking it from the kid to his siblings' annoyance. Later on, Tiny asks his mother about the forest, and she tells him, based on what his father told her since he explored it a couple times, that wild cats that live there, and are a scourge upon the name of all good cats live there. The next day, after Socks and Ruby refuse to let him play with them again, Tiny decides to show he is big and strong by going through the hole in the fence. He is fascinated by the actual height of the trees, before seeing a tree stump and climbs onto it. A crow then flits over Tiny, and he is proud that he held his ground. Tiny then returns to his family and exaggerates his adventure a bit, which leads to his family to not believe him.
A couple of days later, a family of Twolegs comes to look at the litter for adoption, and Tiny sits away, having no interest in the Twoleg family and not wanting to be near his mean siblings. Ruby sees this, and cruelly mocks Tiny by telling that unwanted kits are thrown into the river. This horrifies Tiny so much that he runs away through the hole in the fence the next day when the Twoleg kid ignores him.
Tiny walks along the side of the fence until two unamed kittypets get his attention. They tell him he's a long way from home and he should go back. Tiny objects, and they tell them about the wild cats of the forest, and how they would easily eat a small cat like him, which causes Tiny to lash out at that statement.
He then smells something good, and follows the scent into the forest, and ends up coming upon a ThunderClan patrol of Bluefur, Thistleclaw, and Tigerpaw. Bluefur defends Tiny's venture into their territory by saying he's just a kit, but Thistleclaw brushes her comment off, and asks his apprentince, Tigerpaw, on to decide on how to deal with the "kittypet". When the apprentice says he should be taught a lesson, Thistleclaw approves, and Tigerpaw attacks and almost kills Tiny; however, he is stopped by Bluefur, and the apprentice tells Tiny "You'll never forget me, will you?", and the patrol leaves.
A hurt Tiny goes back home at first, but then remembers what Ruby told him about unwanted kits. Hence, he makes the choice to run away from his home and never come back.
Tiny then makes his way to Twolegplace, where an old she-cat gives him food, and when Tiny asks what a "kittypet" is (since Thistleclaw and Tigerpaw called him that), she explains that it's a cat that lives with Twolegs, which his collar gives away. Seeing that he no longer lives with Twolegs, Tiny tries to take off his collar, but is unable to, and the rogues laugh at him.
Tiny then comes across an old dog whose teeth is falling out. He tries to use one of the fallen teeth to cut his collar off, but it gets stuck in instead. When taking a nap, he has a dream of Tigerpaw asking him if he will ever forget him, and after waking up from it, Tiny vows he will never forget. The next day, he comes across some rogues eating, and Tiny asks them if they could share their food. Seeing the dog tooth, one of them asks Tiny how he got it, so in a desperate attempt to get food, he lies that he killed a dog and wore the tooth as a trophy. The rogues are somewhat skeptical, but let him eat.
The story spreads, and two rogues named Bone and Brick ask him to defeat a dog that is keeping many cats from food. They give Tiny until moon high to decide, and threaten that he should leave if he decides not to fight. Later, Tiny climbs to the top of a Twoleg den to see more of what Twoleg place is like, and sees many hungry cats that he thinks are worse than the forest cats. He then sees the dog, and is terrified to find that it's huge. Nonetheless, Tiny decides that Twolegplace is his home now, hence he will fight the dog.
Cats gather around to watch Tiny fight with the dog, and Tiny soon sees that the dog is scared by his large shadow and runs away. Tiny claws its tail in an attempt to get another trophy, only to get a few pieces of its fur. All of the cats are amazed and grateful, and one of them asks Tiny for his name, and not wanting to admit his name is "Tiny", he remembers what his mother told him about the wild cats being a scourge upon the name of all good cats, and tells them his name is Scourge.
Since then, cats begin to treat Scourge with respect and come to him with their problems along with offerings of teeth, claws, or food after Brick and Bone spread word about the new leader.
Some time after, Bone and Brick tell Scourge about a group of rogues causing trouble in their terrortory. While they are approching the group of cats, Scourge smells their forest scent and thinks it might be Tigerpaw, but instead it turns out to be Brokenstar, former leader of Shadowclan. Scourge tells them to leave, but they mock him for his size, and his own cats start to doubt him. Furious, Scourge decides that all cats must respect him, and slashes one of the rogue's throat open, which kills him. Brokenstar and his followers, who are stunned by this, quickly leave. Soon after, cats start to bring Scourge tributes.
Days later, Scourge is visited by Ruby and Socks, now grown up and severely underfed and emaciated, telling him that they were abandoned by their Twolegs. They beg him for help, which makes Scourge disgusted since they would come to him after how they treated him as a kit. When Ruby tries to appeal to the fact that they are kin and asks if blood means anything to him, Scourge responds that the only blood that matters is the blood of his enemies; however, he lets them eat before telling them to never return.
Moons later Bone and Brick tell Scourge he has a visitor. Tigerstar and a few other shadow clan warriors tell Scourge they have a proposition for him. Telling him if he and his clan help them defeat Firestar, Bloodclan will reciece part of the forest and all the prey it contains, Scourge agrees to help, telling himself that revenge will come soon and to be paitent.
During the final battel Tigerstar orders Bloodclan to attack to scourges reply "I am their leader they attack when I say. There will be no battle today." Tigerstar jumps at him calling him a traitor when Scourge jumps to meet him, his large claws racking down Tigerstars belly, spilling him guts on the forest floor.
Tigerstar looses all nine lives at once. Firestar shocked that such a small cat could kill a leader nine times over in one blow. Scourge tells the forest cats that they have threee days to leave or they will face Bloodclan.
Three days latter they return and the clans decide to fight. Scourge pins Firestar to the round killing him with a blow to the neck, then turns to face Cloudtail. Firestar being a leader with nine lives revives and Scourge and him have this to say-
"Sourge, turn and face me." Firestar said
"W-what! But I killed you!" Scourge said in astonishment
"You did, but I am a leader with nine lives that fights along Starclan, can you say as much." Firestar says as he jumps on Scourge
-
Firestar pins Scourge to the ground with his claws digging into his neck. Scourge dies due to the blow.
After his death Scourge is mentioned in Graystripe's Vow.
The Darkest Hour
Much time passes, and Scourge gets visitors in the form of Boulder, an ex-BloodClan member, and his escort, the new ShadowClan leader, Tigerstar, to present a proposal to Scourge. Scourge immediately recognizes Tigerstar as Tigerpaw, having never forgotten the other tom's attack on him when he was a kit. Tigerstar proposes that BloodClan help his Clan take over the forest, promising a foothold of it for BloodClan. Scourge agrees and goes to the forest with Tigerstar.
Tigerstar calls WindClan, ThunderClan, and TigerClan together to have WindClan and ThunderClan join TigerClan, in which Firestar and Tallstar, leaders of ThunderClan and WindClan respectively, refuse. Tigerstar signals for BloodClan and they appear along with Scourge. But when Tigerstar calls for BloodClan to attack, but they do not. Scourge says that BloodClan serves him and him alone. Firestar takes this moment to explain to BloodClan Tigerstar's history, from killing Redtail and framing RiverClan for it, to the attempted murder of Bluestar, and setting a pack of dogs on ThunderClan, saying that if Tigerstar's history shows anything, it's that he will do anything for power, and all land that has been offered to BloodClan is a lie.
Everyone but BloodClan and Scourge are horrified by Tigerstar's long history of betrayal. However, Scourge says he will take more consideration on the matter, and that there will be no battle today. Enraged by Scourge's refusal to cooperate, Tigerstar calls him a traitor, and lunges to attack him. Scourge dodges the attack and slashes Tigerstar's shoulder, causing him to fall on his side. Scourge then reveals his dog teeth reinforced claws and stabs Tigerstar's neck, and starts running his claws from the neck to his tail. This destroys all of Tigerstar's nine lives, all in one horrific blow.
Firestar apologizes for Tigerstar's lies, and tells Scourge that BloodClan can hunt as they please on their way home. Scourge laughs and says that the forest is much better than the Twolegplace where there is little food, and says they will stay. Scourge tells all four Clans that they have three days to deciede whether to leave, or meet BloodClan in battle for dominance, and they will meet on the fourth day.
Firestar, already having WindClan on his side, asks what remains of TigerClan for help. Leopardstar agrees, and they form LionClan in order to defeat defeat BloodClan. On the fourth day, BloodClan and LionClan face against each other, with many casualties occurring from both sides, including Whitestorm, the Thunderclan deputy, and Bone.
In the chaos, Firestar finds Scourge and they battle. Scourge takes Firestar's first life and leaves to fight Cloudtail, Firestar's former apprentince and nephew. Firestar is revived by StarClan to face Scourge once again. Scourge is shocked by Firestar's reappearance, and says that he killed him. Firestar responds by saying that StarClan has gifted him as ThunderClan leader with nine lives, realizing that Scourge only has one life to lose because he doesn't believe in Starclan.
Firestar lunges onto Scourge and bites his throat. Scourge looks at Firestar in the eyes with hatred, but he then turns to panic as he realizes he is dying, and he stops, dead. Another member of BloodClan lunges at Firestar, but then recognizes the body at his feet, and declares that Scourge is dead. Everyone stops, and the BloodClan cats now appear as they really are, confused rogues that were rallied by fear, and are chased off by LionClan. All known attempts of reviving BloodClan afterwords have failed.
Scourge died as he was treated in his early life: with hate. He never went to StarClan or the Dark Forest when he died, as he has no belief in such things. If he did ever go to an afterlife, we do not know. His story as the Clans knew it, however, was told many times from old to young, and most likely will survive as long as there are four Clans.
Physical appearance
Scourge is a small black tomcat with icy-blue eyes, one white forepaw, a torn left ear, and an eerie, high-pitched voice that sounds like the splintering of ice. He wears a dark purple collar studded with the teeth of cats and dogs he has killed, and his claws are reinforced with dogs' teeth.
Personality
Younger, Scourge (then, Tiny) was a curious and innocent kit, only wanting his siblings to like him. He was adventurous and playful.
But later on in his life, Scourge had a great personality change. He became a cold, calculating, vengeful and extremely bloodthirsty tyrant, ruthlessly and brutally killing any cat who opposed him and his rules, which were cruel. He was described as having "no sense of right or wrong" by Rock. He was also very cruel. A good example of this is when Scourge ordered Ice and Snake to kill Violet (who happens to be Ice's, Snake's and Barley's sister) in front of Barley because they disobeyed one of his rules, resulting in Violet becoming severely wounded. He had absolute power over every cat in his group and had subordinates (for example Bone) who would obey him and do the dirty work in his place.
Being feared and having power over every cat in BloodClan was rather important to Scourge, as he mentioned in The Rise of Scourge that being feared was as good as being liked within his clan, or even better.
Abilities
Despite his small size, Scourge is one of the deadliest fighters in the Warriors universe. A prime example of his fighting skills is shown when he slew Tigerstar, an exceptionally large, strong and dangerous warrior cat, with a single blow. Scourge was also able to overpower the WindClan warrior Onewhisker and the young ThunderClan warrior Cloudtail, in single combat, respectively, with relative ease, and left both his opponants with gruesome injuries. He also held his own very well against Firestar, a larger tom and an exceptionally skilled fighter in his own right, in two rounds. Although Scourge won the first round, he ultimately lost the second.
In addition to his surprising prowess as a fighter, Scourge is also quite intelligent; he is a cunning and patient strategist and opportunist.
Trivia
- Scourge is revealed to be the half-brother of Firestar since they both share the same father in Jake.