Sunflash the Mace
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Sunflash the Mace, later known as Sunstripe, was a male Badger Lord who sported a unique golden stripe running down the center of his snout. He was the son of Bella of Brockhall and Barkstripe, the grandson of Boar the Fighter, the great-grandson of Brocktree, the great-great-grandson of Stonepaw, and the great-grandfather of Rawnblade Widestripe.
Sunflash was born at Brockhall in Mossflower Woods less than a year before Verdauga and his horde arrived and took control of Kotir. When his father Barkstripe was slain in a failed attempt at eradicating the wildcat from Mossflower, a very young Sunflash swore to avenge him and ran away from Brockhall. After failing to return for many seasons, he was presumed dead and his mother, Bella, eventually gave up hope of his return.
The young badger had in fact been captured by Swartt Sixclaw and his gang of vermin in the cold north. The prisoner was used by the evil ferret as a slave and an outlet for vermin cruelty. Swartt called him "Scumtripe," and Sunflash accepted the name as he could not remember his original one. However, when he met Skarlath, a young kestrel that had also been captured by Swartt's vermin, the pair managed to help each other escape from the gang. In the process, Sunflash mutilated Swartt's sixclawed paw with a large hornbeam branch. The two became mortal enemies and each swore to destroy the other. The kestrel Skarlath gave Sunflash his name.
Sunflash and Skarlath became inseparable friends and grew up together as they wandered through Mossflower, defending the weak and helpless. Sunflash's original hornbeam branch was molded into a formidable club, spiked with arrowheads and speartips, that came to be called his "mace".Sunflash and Skarlath then made their way into Mossflower woods where they rescue the families of both Tirry Lingl and Bruff Dubbo from a pair of foxes.The two befriended the families and stay with them for many seasons.When Sunflash saves the children of Tirry Lingl from adders he recieves deadly wounds.While near death Sunflash has a vison of his father Barkstripe,his grandfather Boar,and great grandfather Brocktree.They tell him that he must live on and journey to the mountain Salamandastron to become Badger lord.With this message Sunflash awakens from his slumber and journeys to Salamandastron the next day.He encounters many conflicts on his journey and with the assistance of Skarlath succesfully makes it to the mountain.Sunflash becomes Badger lord of the mountain and is widley respected and loved by many.When Swartt lays siege to the mountain Sunflash rises to protect it.After his beloved Skarlath was killed by Swartt's vermin, Sunflash went into a beserk rage and he and his hares hunted down the horde and the badger made an end of the ferret at the summit of Bat Mountpit. Shortly after, he traveled to Redwall Abbey and was reunited with his mother, Bella of Brockhall. He stayed with her until her death before journeying back to Salamandastron to continue to rule.
Sunflash the Mace is a unique Badger Lord in that he enjoyed writing poetry, and was the first badger lord known to do so. He later became interested in farming, and cultivated the slopes of Salamandastron. When not influenced with the Bloodwrath, Sunflash was uncharacteristically gentle and kind and enjoyed playing with youngsters - and seeing any young ones come to potential harm sparked a rampage, as was the case when he rescued shrewbabes from a corsair slaver in the time before he became Lord of Salamandastron. After his fighting days were over, he took up a life of peaceful farming and changed his name to Sunstripe.
[edit] Trivia
- Coincidentally, Sunflash's name is given to him by Skarlath, but his mother Bella knew his name already. Another assumption is that, in Mossflower, Bella states that she named her son. If this is true, then Skarlath could not have known the badger's name was Sunflash the Mace.
- The part of Outcast of Redwall where Sunflash meets the elderly hares Breeze and Starbuck at the entrance of Salamandastron is an excerpt from the end of Mossflower.
