Feral Heart

"We're a pride composed and led entirely by its lionesses, acting as a unit, without a king or a queen. We are one lioness together, and we know no authority but the clenched fist of our pride. No male will dominate us and we fight daily to maintain ourselves on top of the food chain and untamed by those who would subdue us and breed us. We allow no traitors, if you have not the mark of our family, then you will find no warmth or comfort among us. If you leave our sisterhood, and dare show your face to us again, we will tear it apart and feed off of your corpse."

Mawuyya Kalahari, aka Flowers of the Kalahari, is a tribe/pride of lionesses that live without boundaries or a strict hierarchy caused from an overbearing dominant male or female; ironically known as a king or queen. To the point that they actually shun males or those who wish to fall under the normalcy of what most would call a pride. Seeming to attack those outright for even thinking about fouling their sisterhood and degrading their unspoken rules. Casting the perpetrator out to die from their wounds or to live out that fantasy of finding a forever home...being oppressed by their unruly leader. These lionesses have seen the scorn of these so called leaders and have finally decided to go against the norm, putting their trust in one another and forming an unspoken alliance.

• We are well aware that these actions are unrealistic in lion behavior but we are basing these occurrences on our experience rolpelaying in Feral Heart, being surrounded by TLK inspired prides. This does not mean that we won't rp out with natural  behaviors. We just won't allow a male to take on the pride.
• Since we just started there is an age limit for the lionesses allowed to join. Only the ages of 6-15 will be allowed in this roleplay. Later on we will allow lionesses of all ages to seek refuge in our pride/tribe.
• We accept different varieties of skill in roleplaying so you won't be left out! Just prove that you are making an attempt at roleplaying and are not using chat speak. At least one paragraph shall do.
• We are currently mapless but there may be a map in the future.

The past is simply a word that could never define who you are. It is a part of life  and everyone has a story that can not be erased.None the less it should not be a burden that holds you down. You should stand tall and strike back, for nothing but the future lies ahead.
- Imani

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Rules and Regulations

||OOC||

Adult oriented context, aka death, will be seen in this rp. This isn't Disney, but don't go full out of the 'sensitive stuff'. There's still a few young people on this game.

Don't be rude to our admins and mods. They are here to make sure you roleplay to our standards and don't break character.  We don't allow members not in the rp to join us. It's just annoying to have random friends over while we rp. If you don't feel like rping feel free to move away from the group and contact your friends there, but please don't drag people over while we are in the middle of something.

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||IC||

Do realize that even though we're semi-realistic and allow complex emotions and speach in this rp, suspect natural lion like behaviors while rping:

At any given chance one lioness may give off an alarm and cast you out from our pride. Please, do not take this oocly. This is simply what lionesses do. You can always try to regain our trust or make a new character to join, and gaining trust is as regained as easily in comparison as it is broken; If you went out and found a mate with which have cubs, you will want to submit when we encounter you to identify your scent and recognize you. If you mingled with another pride, and smell of them, you might want to roll in places we've marked, and wait a few days before returning. If you joined another pride, or brought a male with you, you WILL be met with force. Reminder; we have nothing against you or your character, this is simply realistic behavior.


Please remember that this is not Disney and understand we're not afraid to kill a member we think violated our un/spoken rules.

We do not allow tragic, abuse-covered pasts; Life is a struggle for in Africa. Every lioness faces her cubs being killed, her pride being hurt, or facing death by rivaling pride or natural disasters. Every day you'll be walking on deaths door , bear that in mind. Especially cubs. Though it's totally okay to mourn the death of a loved one, we understand that, but please no soap operas.

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||Appearance||

No items. Lions do not have thumbs. They can't put items on eachother. 'War paint' may be allowed if something happens...but to clarify it's literally just your lion rolling in mud. There's no pretty design.

Realistic colors only. Now a lot of people complain saying it ruins creativity and makes all the lions look the same. That's not true, it's just you being lazy. Lions colors can rage from Russet all the way to Champagne.

No slitted pupils, fuego pupils, or flat muzzles, or eye colors that are unrealistic or not native to lions, such as purple, red, or blue. These are lions. They have long muzzles and eyes ranging from misty, grey-ish green to golden, brown-gold, and orange. Anything inside that spectrum goes, outside of that spectrum is a no-no. Granted we encourage different body types of our characters and no two should look the same, remember that you are a lion.  This also inclused size. We don't want to have oversized house cats, or itty bitty cub appearing lionesses that are as thin as sticks. Lions that live in the wild are well toned and have a heavy, muscular, built.  Please keep that in mind.

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||Hunting and cubs||

We have a system for different things that range from hunting, spying on other members, and birthing. Be aware that we don't actually support announcing going through heat cycles, but if you choose too, this is how it we go about it:

If you're in heat and decide to have cubs you must leave the pride and hunt for a  Bachelor male, or a male that's without a pride. ( Also known as an NPC,please do not rp this out for the love of Neptune.) This should last for three in real life days. After those three days your female may return pregnant...but let it be known that you must roll in one of our scent trails, else we may not remember you and attack.

We may then ask a member to play as a red-billed oxpecker ( A species of bird) that spies on you to make sure you are not a traitor, and decide to join a random pride. You as a character shouldn't notice this bird following you.

Once pregnant you may stay pregnant for as long as you want. There isn't a limit. There is a limit to how many cubs you have. To determine this we will roll a die and it'll tell you how many cubs you may birth. If you wished for more..you may also birth them but they will die and only the giving number we told you shall live. We cannot have too many mouths to feed in the pride! Lionesses also undergo a cooling period after birth, so you cannot go about popping babies. The cool down lasts about two to four weeks depending on the player.

Before giving birth you must leave the pride and stay away for a number of three irl days. That way you can pick the people who will play as cubs with sufficient time. The said members you picked must be active for three, not one, but three irl days. If one of them isn't without a valid reason, it is to be assumed they are dead or lost, and you as a mother must abandon them to be able to care for your remaining cubs. Reminder; many cubs die before they can even reach adolescence. Even the most experienced lioness may have a cub of theirs pass away. Though it is disheartening, it isn't as tragic as losing all your cubs. Please don't let this alter your characters decision. It takes only a day for a mother lioness to stop hunting for her missing children and their main priority is usually settled towards rearing the remaining few.

Once the cubs are born they must age slowly. You must tell the members you picked to play as the cubs to age slowly. There is no newborn and then suddenly adolescent.

For the hunting, we'd like to keep it realistic. Our pride will not bring down an animal and kill it each time. To determine this we will roll a dice to see if we will have a successful hunt. Once decided we will pick a member to stay behind and rp as the prey we will be hunting. You will get to decide what the prey is. Then we will attack you. How we decide who rps as the prey is decided on a turn based system. One day you'll rp as the prey and then the next someone else will be picked and so on. Remember, Lions do not have the highest success rate when it comes to hunting. Hyenas are surprisingly more successful and /lions/ more often than not steal from /hyenas/.

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Terminology

• Bachelor; dispersal males that do not live in a pride. Most of the time they can be found in large coalitions.
• Coalition; a group of male lions that have bonded and travel together. Most of the time they are related.
• Rogue; a dangerous male or female lion that is to be considered a threat at all costs. To be disposed of.
• Mute; a stillborn or dead cub that does not respond to external stimulation. Ex: " He was mute, so I abandoned him."
• Wet tail; a lioness who insists and acts on the desire to be in a pride dominated by a male.
• 'syaat; a male lion that rules domain over a pride. Foreshortening of the word  Bakaasyaat which means slave.
• Choot; an envious lioness who steals cubs from their mothers.
• Uuch; unwanted or unfit cubs that are usually abandoned. Most of the time they are runts or born deformed.
  
• Biyek; a traitorous lioness that leaves the pride without a word or goes against a member of the pride. An insult.

* more will be added later.



Application

Though we prefer to meet you in game, in the off chance you can't get online and you want to make sure you'd be accepted, you may post a screen-cap of your character that includes the size slider on the character creator page. Then below that please add your character's name, age, and a brief take on their history ,as in not the full history just important bits, along with a short rp example.

As example;

//IMAGE//
Name: Imani
Age: 9 years

||History||

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque vel convallis sapien. Duis semper quam nec sem placerat, sed rhoncus risus feugiat. Integer a accumsan sapien, interdum porttitor metus. Aenean vestibulum quam non odio iaculis bibendum. Phasellus ullamcorper ut dui id volutpat. Sed eu sollicitudin tellus, sit amet aliquet nibh. Fusce rutrum augue eros, ut malesuada neque scelerisque a. Nulla facilisi. Nam in ipsum in lacus aliquet mattis. Pellentesque pellentesque arcu urna, interdum pretium odio rutrum non. Nulla facilisi. Vestibulum eleifend nunc quam, et pretium lacus placerat id. Fusce vel lorem commodo, interdum nisi dictum, ultricies justo. Maecenas tempus fringilla leo vel tempor. Vestibulum id blandit nibh. Aliquam pellentesque nisl diam.

||Rp||

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque vel convallis sapien. Duis semper quam nec sem placerat, sed rhoncus risus feugiat. Integer a accumsan sapien, interdum porttitor metus. Aenean vestibulum quam non odio iaculis bibendum. Phasellus ullamcorper ut dui id volutpat. Sed eu sollicitudin tellus, sit amet aliquet nibh. Fusce rutrum augue eros, ut malesuada neque scelerisque a. Nulla facilisi. Nam in ipsum in lacus aliquet mattis. Pellentesque pellentesque arcu urna, interdum pretium odio rutrum non. Nulla facilisi. Vestibulum eleifend nunc quam, et pretium lacus placerat id. Fusce vel lorem commodo, interdum nisi dictum, ultricies justo. Maecenas tempus fringilla leo vel tempor. Vestibulum id blandit nibh. Aliquam pellentesque nisl diam.

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Members

Imani
  :: Founder

Shaw
  :: Co-founder

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Questions and Answers

• Can we have any given name?

It'd be preferred that you'd have either a name that's African in origin or a made up word.
 

• Can our characters have accents?

They can as long as it's African in origin. Keep in mind that Africa is made up of many different cultures and languages, so it's not really limiting. Though, we'd prefer if you didn't rp out the accents. Simply because it'd be hard to read. Instead a great example would be emphasizing that they have an accent before you actually post dialog or after.

• Can we have maned lionesses?

Heck yes you can! We love our maned ladies.

• If the lioness is casted out of the pride/tribe , can they rejoin?

Yes but it'd be somewhat difficult to do. You'll have to take the time in regaining the pride/tribes trust all over again. This doesn't mean going out on your own and hunting for them. You may have to act rather submissive towards them and follow the pride/tribe in the outskirts. Getting close after being outcasted could be dangerous for you and recklessly running back could mean the end.

• Can we have permanent mates?

Maybe in a different pride but here it can get you killed if you were caught in the act of smooching up to a male.

• Can we RP a male trying to take over the pride?

Yes! In fact we encourage male interaction even if we do not allow them to take over the pride. You will be subjected to being mauled though, so don't expect coming in and thinking you can chit chat with our pride.

• If we leave the pride/tribe to join a different one but change our mind can we go back to this pride/tribe?

No. You have broken the alliance and will be considered a traitor. If you are seen within the perimeters of our territory you will be killed.

• What if my lioness is unable to kick their adolescent male cub out of the pride, and decides to stow him away within the territories?

For now, both your lioness and the young male will be evicted from the pride, though later on we may allow a small band of adolescent lions to trail after the pride before becoming an adult. As long as they are not seen by the pride they may remain within the Mawuyya pride's territory in a peaceful way, as they may help deter other males from trying to claim our territory.


* edit )) If you have any questions, please, feel free to ask! They'll be answered and posted on this topic.[/list]