Goldenstar was originally intended to have lived a few generations before Stormshade's birth, as the main character of his own story called Goldenstar's Rain. In the book, he lead WindClan against an evil version of the Tribe of Rushing Water. It was my second ever Warriors Fanfiction.

In Goldenstar's Rain, Beestream was originally Goldenstar's deceased mate. 

Dark Clouds takes a lot of influence from a roleplay I had with a friend of mine, Forestfire. In the roleplay, Stormshade became mates with Mouseleap, but had to deal with her abusive mother tormenting him in his dreams. He also came to blows with Jay, who is an upcoming villain. Goldenstar served as Stormshade's predecessor in this roleplay, the first time the two cats were ever alive at the same time.

Hailpaw was originally discovered by Mouseleap and Stormshade, but I instead choose Beestream and Stormshade instead because it fit their relationship better. 

In the original arc, Stormshade's third mate was Willowpool, a RiverClan she-cat. In the rewrite, Oceaneyes was my first choice to serve as his mate, because I wanted to give Oceaneyes a bigger role. I still planned for Oceaneyes to be his mate up until partway through Chapter II.  

Dark Clouds originally was meant to focus almost entirely on Mouseleap and Stormshade's relationship, with Cloudstar as the main villain. However, the plot was pretty much nonexistent and the book was aimless, so I rewrote it into its current form. 

Rushstripe originally brought Goldentooth, rather than Sunclaw, to Stormkit's birth.

The book cover was made by a friend of mine, azalea_db! 

Stormshade as a character was originally a ThunderClan warrior, in my first story Stormstar's Victory. I switched to WindClan for his next story because I felt like it was an underrated Clan, and I wanted to be unique.