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Kozah started life roughly, his mother spent more time in the East, among the snowy mountain territories than she ever did in the southern or western Savannahs and plains, alongside her pride. She would disappear for what seemed to her pride like weeks on end, and one of the times she returned, she came back pregnant with a single cub. When Kozah was born everyone could immediately tell he wasn't quite... Right. His fur was thick, fluffy, and long, covered in little leopard looking spots but with an almost silvery, white tone. He was smaller than any of the other cubs in the den, and he didn't seem to seek much warmth like other cubs tried too. "Not the traits of a lion", noted the pride queens and denmothers who were quick to judgement of both the infant cub and his mother... Kozah, even as a tiny baby, was already an outsider to those he should have considered his family. During his cub years he remained very different, better at climbing, more agile, more balanced, but less adept at teamwork and more solitary than normal cubs usually are, and still always smaller and weaker in strength.
As Kozah aged, his otherness only seemed to widen the gap between him and the other lions his age. Their baby spots eventually faded, while his only intensified, their manes began to grow thicker and more obvious, while Kozah never had any mane to speak of but far longer and thicker hair all over than a lion should. The males made fun of him, and the females ignored him, the elders incriminated him, as though his very presence was an abomination to the pride, and the King? Well, the King didn't even acknowledge his existence. Around a year and a half into Kozah's adolescence, his mother ventured back off towards the mountains, adamant that Kozah stay and learn from the other lions during this crucial time of development but she never returned and Kozah was left completely alone and still looked at like an outsider or anomaly from those around him. One day the young lion was faced with a male his age after a failed hunt that was unfairly blamed on him, and after much taunting and being smacked around, Kozah snapped. Ready to prove his strength and ability, he used his better agility to go after the male, dodging his rival's blows and using his smaller stature to slide beneath the adolescent lion and rake his large black claws down the males soft, exposed, belly. It was effective, but too much so, the other lions and lionesses did all the could to save the adolescent male, but his injuries proved too much, and the cub ultimately passed away. Kozah was immediately exiled, cast out from his pride and home lands, the king threatening his life should he ever return again. Kozah had no interest in staying around anyway- he had had enough and set off for the icy mountains his mother had traveled to so often during his youth. His only friend, a little lioness with a mutation of her own followed him in his exile, and together they set off to find somewhere else to call home.
Kozah learned to adapt and grow into the new snowy home he had found, growing to far more enjoy his solitude than he did the pride life, much to his companions dismay. He learned he could hunt effectively, even on almost sheer cliff faces, traverse easily through ice and deep snow, and his coat thickened even further, gowing more lustrous in the freezing climates to accommodate. He grew into a healthy, capable, and lethal adult. Still maneless, fluffy, and covered in spots, but lithe, agile, and dangerous. When Kozah found the Snow pride leader through scent tracking, and the scouting of his few companions, he was quick to make sure the king would never be found nor heard of again. While he was smaller and weaker than most full lions, he was also bigger and stronger than most of the strange looking cats that inhabited these cliff faces and the shadowy forests below. He decided to claim these lands for himself by taking the "missing" King's place, absorbing some of the old King's queens and daughters, while also taking in or bringing along some of his own. Through his experience in life, he has grown to be self absorbed, narcissistic, quick to temper. He prefers, and only fully accepts, cubs and lionesses with similar markings to his own, and casts harsh judgement on any cubs he finds too "plain" or "unexceptional". Kozah lived a hard life, and now he is a hard king who commands respect and demands submission. While he can be reasonable, and even soft in very sparing moments, he always remains cocky and prideful maybe in an attempt to compensate for the pride he never felt come from others.
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