The Clan cats have a faith system based on the concept of StarClan, a group of the spirits of the Clans' deceased ancestors, who provide guidance to the living Clan cats, usually those of the Clan in which they resided in life. After death, the spirits of most Clan cats join StarClan and reside in a paradisiacal forest. StarClan often provides guidance to the Clans through dreams and other signs like omens, most often directed towards each Clan's medicine cats, part of whose role it is to commune with StarClan, in addition to providing medical care to their Clan. In addition to StarClan, there exists the Dark Forest, also known as The Place of No Stars, which takes the form of a never-ending forest. The spirits of cats who caused great pain and suffering to others while alive walk alone there as a form of punishment. Although cats of the Dark Forest are meant to be isolated as punishment, they eventually learn how to appear in the dreams of living cats much the way StarClan does.