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Issa was the son of King Hami, who was a strong and powerful king that Issa never really followed in his same footsteps. He has always been a more subdued and timid cub, hiding behind his mothers paws when he was just a few weeks old. Hami was so proud of his son being born, and as the cub grew and starting exploring, even just taking baby steps, Hami named Issa his heir at just a few months old. Issa had some large pawprints to fill, and it was quite intimidating growing up. Issa has always been gentle-natured, always treading as softly as he spoke. He was always apprehensive of one day taking his father's place, and drug his feet all through cubhood to make himself almost as useless and unassuming as possible. His father took none of it, always pushing him to do his best, or making him redo it if Issa purposefully failed at it. It wasn't until he became an adolescent that he started to find his own stride and actually kinda looked forward to one day taking over for his father. The reason? It was more of a who, a submale named Mosi that took him out on patrols and taught him that there was more to being a protector than looking and being big and powerful. Mosi taught him about the lands he someday would rule, showing him the best and worst parts of it. Issa was able to work with Mosi to present some ideas to help improve the lands to Hami, and Hami couldn't be more excited when he really started showing more interest.
Mosi was most able to bring out Issa's more outgoing nature to be able to approach lions and other predators in their lands. He brought out his confidence, only giving him gentle nudges so Issa could make all the progress and reap the benefits himself. Tuliza, Issa's mother, has always been his biggest supporter. She knows he's not always been wanting to be king, but would frequently tell him stories of his father's glory days as a king like when he saved the pride in a severe drought by finding water in an Oasis that had somehow trudged on when everywhere else was dry to the bone. Issa's favorite story has always been how Hami wooed his mother, it always gave him some insight that his father really did have a vulnerable side. It told him he didn't have to be an impenetrable force. When he started showing more interest in being king, his mother was overjoyed. She took to showing him how to interact with the lionesses in the pride. Specifically she showed him how important it was to make sure they were all happy and healthy. One lioness had been lashing out and lugging behind in hunts. Issa approached her and got her talking and she expressed that she didn't feel appreciated or given enough attention. Issa from then on made sure to check up on her daily and talk with her, she started to become much happier as more people started to talk to her and give her praise for when she started to take the lead in her hunting party.
Issa is still unsure of his future as a king, mostly just nervousness of getting all the responsibility of taking care of the pride, protecting the lionesses, and making sure his decisions are what are best for the pride and not just for himself. He has taken a more active role at Hami's side to give his own insight on major decisions, which Hami takes quite seriously and usually molds his own decisions to what Issa has suggested. Issa continues going out with Mosi, who continues helping Issa build his confidence and figure out what kind of man he's going be. Perhaps he'll take on a more speak softly, but act bluntly. He's always checking up on all the lionesses and making himself known, though usually they seek him out before he can get to them first. Despite his ever growing size, he really tries to move as slowly and gently as he can so he doesn't seem as intimidating and people aren't as likely to be immediately scared of him. Hami has started to prod him to use that to his advantage, to disappear and be unseen in meetings so people are more likely to speak around him that they might not have if they had noticed him.
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Issa has the total burly and large body type of a primal, with large fangs being usually the first thing people notice before the rest of him. He has a large and busy mane that comes to a point at the top, a stocky head and a wide black nose. His ears nearly disappear into his mane, large and rounded as they are. Large shoulders give him a wide appearance, with natural buff from the muscle he's built up from running and climbing rocks with his friend Mosi. Large paws tend to leave large pawprints but lions tend not to hear him coming as he steps with just toes and moves pretty quietly. He has a good downslope of his back with no obvious deformities and appears to be of sound body with no cricks or creaks or deformities. He has a very short tail that is mostly covered with fur that gives it a lot more bulk than its actual size.
He has a gorgeous vanilla coloring that dominates most of his body. His nose going up to the forehead and over the eyes is the same vanilla color, though the lower half of his face is a very light cream with some strips of the darker vanilla just under amethyst colored eyes. His mane takes on a slightly darker vanilla tone towards the bottom that fades to a indigo towards the top and up to the tips. This indigo coloring continues down the back of the neck and over the tops of the shoulders, stopping at the mid back. Small white splotches can be found on the shoulders, the splotches getting smaller as they go towards the front of the legs. The front paws are vanilla on top and fade to cream bottoms up the legs and to the underbelly that continues back to his rump. The cream goes up just a little on the sides before stripes of vanilla begin to break it up to the full vanilla strip, with some white spotting on the back before being interrupted once more by the same indigo on the mane and shoulders. The indigo forms a large circle on the rump that just brushes the top of the back legs and start of the tail. The back legs are more marred by white splotches that flow more into the cream the lower down it goes, with just spots of vanilla peering through towards the front of the legs. His tail fades from vanilla to cream at the tip.
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