As told by Bell, these are the kings that came before.


The First King Saek
Queen: n/a
Hunters: Paice, Giri, Fier, Fahn, Feille,

Founded pride and carved out the territory with the aide of his younger partner Vasillik. He had great charisma, but was a generally inept ruler and fighter, relying on the strength of the heir to whom he left his kingdom. Saek's maternal line is unknown and he left no descendants among the huntresses of the pride, though there may be some outlanders running around with his blood.




The Golden King Vasillik
Queen: n/a
Hunters:
Slaya,
Bayo from Slaya's Line,
Brine,
Beorn from Fahn's Line,
Bell from Feille's Line,
Birdie from Feille's Line,
Bindy from Fier's Line,

The peaceful nature of the golden king has brought hunger into the pride. The hunters grow restless. There are often fights among the lionesses. Slaya, Birdie and their daughters hunt their meager allotment by day and pray to Appendemak by night to deliver more prey. Outlander lionesses prowl along the outskirts of the pride, begging for scraps.

Muti, a lioness with folded ears, is born.

Vasillik's maternal line is unknown. He is the father of Dove, a sweet and warm-hearted broodmother lioness from Neine's line, and Bindy, a huntress of Fier's line.

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On this, the first day of the Star King's reign...

Everyone is dead.

Our prayers have been answered, and what a terrible thing we have asked for. Appendemak appeared in the night and called to Him the Golden King, Vasillik, with all his outlander consorts and ill begotten daughters. He has purged the weak among us and made us fewer mouths to feed, but also fewer rough tongues and soft voices. How quiet it is now, with only we the hunters who remain.

Apendemak himself has chosen Bayo's son, Volue, as king and granted him a terrible power. Outlanders journey here from the lands surrounding us to receive Apendemak's blessing from Volue. He nuzzles them, and they turn to clouds of sparkling dust.

Here are we who survived the first night of the great culling, in case we too are called to the stars.

Brine

Slaya
Queen Bayo of Slaya's Line
Princess Baroque of Slaya's Line by Bayo
Princess Baeyin of Slaya's Line by Bayo

Beorn of Fahn's Line
Cern of Fahn's Line by Beorn

Bindy of Fier's Line

Birdie of Feille's Line
Bell of Feille's Line
Censis of Feille's Line by Birdie
Cecchi of Feille's Line by Birdie

There are also two old outlander consorts who chose to stand with the pride and an outlander yearling sired by the Golden King, Vasillik.

Slaya, our oldest and strongest hunter, says we are still too many. In her time, there were only five and we roamed fast and free following the herds. There was always plenty to eat and not much work. I think she wishes to return to that time, but I fear that the culling is not yet over. I hope that she will not pray too hard for it, else it just might happen.

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On this the second month of the Star King's reign...

Outlanders continue to journey from afar to receive Star King Volue's blessing. Prey is abundant. We have so much that most of it goes to the monkeys. Our king is still young and inexperienced. He has difficulty enforcing our borders and he has not quite reached his lionhood strength yet, but I am confident that he will learn.

I can't deny that life has been easier since the night of Apendemak's culling. The grief has gotten easier to bear with time. Does that make me a selfish lioness?

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On this the seventh moon of the Star King's reign

Baeyin and Baroque have disappeared. They were last seen at twilight twenty days ago, and neither sight nor scent of them has been found since then. We do not know if they were stolen away for the culling or if they left to join a new pride. Their mother, Bayo, and their grandmother Slaya have gone to look for them, but they are untraceable, as if they have vanished.

I wish them well, wherever they have gone, be it to the stars or the outlands. We have plenty to eat and plenty to hunt, but the Star King Volue is not warm or affectionate. Our den is slow to fill with new cubs. Auntie Bell tells me it will be all right. I think she knows something that I don't, and I trust her judgement.

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In this, the second year of the Star King's reign

It has been one year since Apendemak led the great calling and Star King, Volue, was chosen to lead our pride. Our numbers are still few and our land claim vast. Our diminished hunting has allowed the grazers to deplete the fresh grasses. After a long dry season, the land is parched. Dust blows over the smoking plains.

We have lost two cubs before they were old enough to earn names, one was killed by a hippo and the other fell into a ravine. We have three left, but Bell's young cub is weak and Charlene's is a strange albino. Only Slaya, grandmother of our king's line, has a strong young cub.

Volue has been journeying to the edges of our land to look for water. Some evenings he leads us to a new wallow to quench our thirst. More often he brings us roots full of water or prey full of blood to drink. He is a strong king, even when our hunters weaken. This evening he has brought us a foundling, a tiny girl with the stars in her pelt. She is not yet old enough to be named, and she is small compared to Slaya's cub, but she fills the void in our empty den. She is a precious gift from the sky and we cherish her.

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Slaya is a maneater. I saw her.
- Censis

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On this joyous day of the Star King's reign...


Our little foundling, Cherish, and Slaya's daughter, Clauwe, have both grown into fine young lionesses. They have returned victorious today from their first hunt. Charlene miscarried her first litter, but she is young and there is time for more. It is good to see the next generation of hunters beginning to shoulder the burden of providence.

My hunting party is aged. We have a little time left to teach the new lionesses, but we are ready to take our rest and spend our days lounging about in the sun, looking after cubs. Only Beorn is still lacking in grown daughters to inherit Fahn's savage blood.

Here are we who stand proud before the Star King Volue


Brine - Retired
Cern of Brine's Line


Grand Queen Slaya
Princess Clauwe, of Slaya's line whose sons shall next be kings
Queen Bayo of Slaya's Line
Star King Volue of Slaya's Line by Bayo



Beorn of Fahn's Line, no living daughters



Bindy of Fier's Line
Charlene of Fier's Line by Bindy


Birdie of Feille's Line
Censis of Feille's Line by Birdie - Apprentice Scribe
Cecchi of Feille's Line by Birdie
Bell of Feille's Line - Myself, the Scribe


Cherish - a foundling hunter


The Star King Volue has been called to service by the ancient desert gods. Over these past moons, we have heard the stirring of a great serpent. Volue has cautioned the hunters to avoid the evil things that slide and creep over the earth. At dusk he goes out to face them, fighting them and then binding them into an amulet when they are weakened, and each dawn he returns, exhausted and wounded, but satisfied with his night's work. We are proud to serve the Champion of Bastet. May his great deeds be known.

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On this day of the Star King's reign...

The celestial war has come to our territory. The Star King Volue was called to fight on behalf of the great god Apendemak. The good king brought the matter to his hunters to decide whether we should side with Apendemak or with his daughter and the challenger Apollyon. Volue has sworn loyalty to Menhit and her new kingdom, but Queen Bayo remains loyal to Apendemak.

She has taken her sister Claue, and her hunters Cern and Charlene, and defected, cutting off the royal maternal line of Slaya. Volue cannot go against his mother, but he has forced the three hunters to breed, chaining them to the pride by pregnancy. As soon as the cubs are weaned, the hunters will be banished. They prowl the outlands, awaiting their punishment.

Slaya's bloodline will be expunged, leaving us without a queen and without an heir.

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On this day of the Star King's reign...

The disgraced Queen Bayo, her sister Claue, and Charlene of Fier's Line, have been forcibly brought back to the den to birth cubs. The ruthless King Volue crippled them; he performed the bloody deed himself, breaking the bones of his own mother and aunt. They will remain here, at his grace, unable to hunt and unable to fight, alive by the mercy of the pride.

Cern of Brine's line died in the outlands. Her name will be expunged from the ancestry.

A new crop of young lionesses is reaching maturity, and it is nearly time to test the new hunters.

Here are we who stand before the Star King Volue

Dover daughter of Brine's line - Initiated

Beorn daughter of Fahn's Line - Retired
Dhroga of Fahn's Line by Beorn - Initiated

Bindy daughter of Fier's Line [Vasillik] - Retired
Daemo of Fier's Line by Bindy [Vasillik] - Untested

Birdie daughter of Feille's Line
Cecchi of Feille's Line by Birdie - Our current eldest hunter. No living daughters.
Censis of Feille's Line by Birdie - Myself the Scribe. No living daughters.
Drivan of Feille's Line by Birdie - Untested

Bell of Feille's Line by Birdie - Retired
Djin of Feille's Line by Bell - Failed


Cecchi is trying for one more litter before her body fails and she must turn over leadership to the next generation. .
As for myself, I may have a few more cubs left in me to to produce an heir to Feille's line, but we may have to leave that to our youngest sister, Drivan. Though Djinii has caught the king's favor with her beauty, she has not been a successful provider, and prefers to lie about with his harem, chatting with his beautiful daughters, rather than go out with the proper hunters, strength of the pride.

In thanks for the Star King's alliance and as compensation for the loss of Slaya's line, the gracious Princess Menhit has sent a young male to be adopted by our pride and trained as the Star King's heir. He is quite beautiful, and it is a shame that I will be too old to carry cubs when he is finally of breeding age.

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On the first day of the Dawn King's reign....

The Star King Volue has been overthrown and the prior scribe Censis has been killed. I have been unable to record until now. Here is a record of recent events.

It started with the famine. We were desperate. First we had nothing to spare for outlanders, even when they were heavy with the Star King's cubs. Then we had nothing to spare for the beautiful daughters. The Star King gave them what little we caught and made they hunters do with less, but one by one they left for other prides. We were so desperate, but Birdie still refused to break the ultimate taboo and our hunters took her side against the Star King, so he killed her and ordered the hunters to take prey from the village.

We should not have. We should not have. We should not have. WE SHOULD NOT HAVE.

We became man-eaters and brought Man the Hunter into our midst.

The Star King struck back with all of his power but they would not stop, so we ran, but they did not stop with our pride. All lions suffered. All creatures suffered with us. We broke the taboo and it was the right of other kings to slay Volue, but they could not. He killed many adversaries but we could not.

In his last grief, the Star King called upon Apophis the Chaos Serpent for aid and almost destroyed the world.

Perhaps Menhit forsaw the Star King's decent into violence. The lion to finally defeat him was Vindicate, his own groomed heir. Vindicate bonded with the goddess Baast to counter the power of the serpent. He chose not to open his power until all the pride was gone, for his killing blow flowed into Volue's blood and down through his line, pulling away the life of each lion. Not only is he defeated, all his get are wiped away from the earth.

As the curse flowed into me, my unborn young of Vindicate's get flared brightly and I was spared at the cost of my litter. Now I am the only one who remembers and I have become the new Scribe.

The Dawn King will gather a new band of hunters and build up a new pride. May he reign long and well.

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Blessed is the Dawn King who will deliver us from this war.....

He has purged the curse from our blood and dethroned the Hyena Queen. N
ow, he is making peace with the tribes of Man. Lionesses who have lost their prides come from afar to seek his blessing, hoping that he will choose from among them. They have formed small hunting cohorts, but thus far he has not taken a leadership role. Instead, he uses his own strength to negotiate on our behalf, but he allows us to roam and hunt freely on his land.

His first brood of beautiful daughters are ready to be tested as hunters, though they are not practiced or organized and he has not recognized them as his own. Perhaps he is truly divine, for he seems unconcerned with the trappings of power that ensnare mere mortals.

Wan the Scribe

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Blessed is the Dawn King who discovers all deceit....

The Dawn King Vindicate dragged the Snake before the pride leaders today. Snake has been requesting that we hunt man in exchange for his services. The Dawn King is clear in his decree; absolutely nobody should go to the dens of men. Nobody shall bother their trails and all shall seek to avoid them. Should a group of men set up an encampment to hunt us, we will call him to personally remove them. No others may put themselves at risk and no others shall touch them.

Tribes of men, like prides of lion and hyena clans, are not all of one mind or under a single governance. It is up to our kings to negotiate with the tribes who will listen in order to drive out the tribes that are not. The Dawn King tells us that men make powerful allies. Their cruelty is often great and their actions unfathomable, but when they are moved to act, they can accomplish miracles that no lion could ever hope to achieve.

Wan the Scribe

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Blessed is the Dawn King returned to the sky....

The Dawn King Vindicate has achieved many things. The Tribes of Men have agreed to a truce and he has brought abundance back to us in the form of a surge of fluffballs. In order to secure this blessing, the Dawn King Vindicate drank from the primordial spring, sacrificing years from his own life force and weakening himself. He has chosen an heir from the line of the first hunters; Wren of Feille's line through Birdie, and ascended back to the divine.

Given his new name, Verify the Truespeaker, now leads our pride on its return to former glory.
He is now to be tested against the other kings in the Tournaments, to secure standing of our pride and his own political bargaining power.

I also, must being looking for a successor.

Wan the Scribe

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