So, this has been a long time coming. Blame IRL priorities and my own laziness.

But, lately, I've found time to sit down and truly write about Clean Breeding as it exists on Lioden and, to an extent, on Wolvden. Between Quarantine and University coming to a close, I've found myself with more time on my hands. For those of you in CLFL, our clan is close to reaching 2000 members and we are, of course, the first and largest Clean Breeding clan on Lioden. Clean breeding is the largest and most popular style of non-standard breeding on Lioden, and has been acknowledged by the site’s admins several times in official capacity. As far as I am aware, it is the only player-made playstyle to have been alluded to so frequently in things like the news, weekly comic, and by staff themselves.

And finally, as of me writing this, we have made the top 10 clan list in terms of size!

In acknowledgement of those milestones, we clean breeders deserve a proper lore. However, since the lore literally spans years and my own motivation comes and goes, it’ll be easier on me to write it (and likely easier for readers to digest it) in parts. So without further ado, here’s the first part of the deep lore of Clean Breeding as best I can remember it!

Origins & Spread

Clean Breeding was created in mid 2017 by myself. Before this, I was just like any user, trying to breed the best marks and the highest stats. But moreso pretty lions and valuable mutations. I went for the high dollar bases: Kimanjano, Sidereal, Celestial, ect. Once I figured out how genetics worked, no one could stop me. However, I did notice that unless you were a stat monster, were the direct offspring of a stat monster, or had a super special (that’s what we called them back then. In 2016-early 2018, there were no “Rare” or “uncommon” bases) base like Kimanjano, you were basically out of luck as far as studding went. Even passable mutations like primal and piebald, introduced late 2016/early 2017, didn’t really mix this up much.

So when I got tired of base/mark breeding, I decided to try my hand at statting. There was a well known stat breeder who was planning to put up the next big stat monster, one of Keyser Soze’s direct offspring but more impressive. It was April 2017. The plan was to stat the submale up as much as possible before he was old enough to risk dying on rollover, then use the spring back feature in April to age him down to 6 years instead of the normal 8 years in order to make him last as long as possible. We had an agreement. In return for all my event currency for April, which would be used to buy eggs yolks (which give 0-15 stats), I was allowed to stud any 20 lionesses to the Lion once he was kinged, for free, at any time during his reign.

To make a long story short, this fell through, and it was a promise transaction made before promise transactions were protected under the CoC/ToS rules. I believe one or two of my lionesses were bred, as promised, but not the other 18. There was nothing I could do. In the interim for all of this, I learned about Cerrates’ Hard Mode play style and was interested, but the restrictive nature of the challenge wasn’t for me. So, two months later, inspired by both Cerrates’ Hard Mode and likely by the encounter with that Stat Monster’s player, I kinged a low stat, no heritage groupie I acquired from the May event in June named Nava on my Side Account and swore off popular lines.

It may surprise some of you to learn that Clean Breeding wasn’t conceived as a community challenge, but a personal side account project. Actually, clean breeding was not even called “Clean Breeding”. The first name I gave these lions was “New Blooded”, and this name can still be seen in CLFLs description from it’s inception as a clan. The project, which precedes the clan, was one I documented offsite called the “New Blood Project”. The term “Clean” (which would not be coined for another few months) from what I can see from my records, was a term I specifically reserved for the Studs of others users who were not big 4 related and later realized these terms could be interchanged because there was no real difference between their studs and my lionesses.

(Side Note: The term clean is also a common playstyle from other breeding sims, where incest is avoided. However Clean Breeding is and was chiefly about avoiding the big 4 (and often incest in the process). The fact the names are identical is pure coincidence, like the hair color blonde evolving in two completely different places at two completely different times. I am not a big sim player, so the name being “taken” wasn’t something I was aware of. )

All-in-all, it seems like clean breeding was a project I undertook in order to distinguish myself from all other users, most of whom were big 4 related. So, the reality of how fast and far it spread is a delicious irony, I suppose.

As we can all see, when it came to New and Clean, it would ultimately be the term “Clean” that would go down in Lioden’s history as the name of the playstyle; chosen not by me but by the other people who were interested. Despite not really advertising my playstyle, I would receive many DMs from many users regardless, who were curious about the “rules of the road” so to speak. Some of these users would even be owls, blue paws (Helpers - when they existed), green paws (Moderators), and yes, even one yellow paw (Admins). I don’t know why clean breeding was so appealing to so many people, though my guess is that since the staff admins hold a great deal of power and influence, their own interests and taking on of the style led to a cascade of interest and taking on of the style.

Before 2018 was rang in, Clean Breeding had gotten popular enough to warrant the creation of the first and oldest Clean Breeding Clan: Clean Line Felines. And then as now, the definition of the playstyle was posted to all those who might’ve been interested (and to save my poor inbox):

“ What Is A Clean Blooded Lion?
A clean blooded lion, also called a New Blooded or Clean Lined or sometimes simply "clean" lion is a lion who is not related to any of the big four. Take a glance through almost any non-rolled or non-ncl lion on Lioden and you will find they are related to the four: Keyser Soze, Hot Hot Tater Tot, Boombah, and The Savannah Prince. This is the first and oldest definition of clean breeding, created by user Jaxter (98288/103364).

These four lions are the ancestors of most of lioden and their bloodlines quickly mingle with all of the newest marks, mutations, and other features. And there-in lies the challenge: creating worthwhile, beautiful lions with new bloodlines!”

However, not everyone was pleased with this new playstyle that had arrived on the scene. Clean breeding was looked upon by non-clean breeders as an exercise in elitism, though the point was a challenge and fun. With the rise of the term “Clean breeder” came the term “Dirty breeder”, and I cannot say for sure who coined it. It might’ve been me, but I’ve yet to find a record that confirms this as being the case.

Tensions between Clean and Dirty breeders, which still exists, would ebb and flow as circumstances and events surrounding the style would develop. But I think that’s enough for a first chapter!

Next Chapter: Styles, The Incest Counter & Heritage Crisis