King of the Jungle Tiber Redshine

The First King of the Arcadian Pride, Samis is a strict leader, though not entirely merciless. In his youth, he proved to be much more ruthless and unforgiving, but with age, seemed to mellow out and grow kinder. This can, in large part, be attributed to his queen, Sunahi, who had been his lover since adolescence.

When, one day, Sunahi witnessed Samis killing a rogue lioness and her unborn cubs for stealing food, she gave him an ultimatum - she would leave the pride unless Samis agreed to change. Samis knew that, being the influential member of the pride she was, Sunahi's leaving would prompt many of the lionesses to follow her, and so he agreed.

In time, Sam came to understand his wrongdoing and sought to become a better lion. This led to him seeking out King Kirano, a long-time rival and leader of an enemy pride, and forming an alliance. Although Kirano did not trust Valentine immediately, he was a good-hearted lion, and willing to give Sam a chance, if he proved himself. [~]

Over time, and with the strength of their combined alliance, both prides grew stronger. A time of peace and prosperity came over the prides, allowing them to grow in strength and size. Of course, things couldn't stay perfect forever. Late into Samis' reign, tragedy struck.

Disease hit both prides one dry season, taking advantage of a lack of food and medicine, sweeping through the prides ruthlessly. The kings shared what resources they could, but in the end agreed that the best thing would be to quarantine their prides from each other, in an effort to prevent the spread of the disease. At the end of that very difficult dry season, Samis sought out Kirano's pride, only to find it had been completely wiped out by the plague.

Searching through the fly-infested graveyard, hoping for any sign of survivors, Sam found something seemingly impossible: a young cub, just barely alive, nestled up to a lioness' corpse. Taking the seemingly lone survivor, who seemed untouched by the sickness that had killed the rest of the pride, Samis decided he would raise it as his own.

Over time, things returned to normal - or, as normal as they could. Life was different without the sister pride of Arcadia there alongside them, but as the time of mourning passed, things settled down. After nearly a decade of rule, considering an heir was not out of the question for Samis. As many cubs as he had sired, there was only one he felt drawn to naming as his heir: Kaiden, the lone survivor of the sickness that had destroyed his pride.

[wip]