First chapter here!

Picking up from where we left off in Chapter One, with the rise of the Clean movement came the rise of the dirty movement. If there was ever said to be a Lioden specific group of reactionaries, dirty breeders were definitely that bunch. As far as I know, the name was self-coined; the logical conclusion that ‘if they (meaning us) were “clean” then the rest of us (meaning them) must be “dirty”.’

However, aside from verbal spats, there was little dirty breeders could actually do to stop clean breeding from spreading. And in response to this unprovoked ire, many clean breeders began restrictive breeding. In 2017 and 2018, it was common to see Clean Breeder stud rules that said “I will not breed inbred lions” and/or “I will not breed relatives of my king”. Obviously, this didn’t help relations.

CLFL’s founding would be followed by the creation of DD, or “Dirty Daddies” (now defunct: clan thread here). Dirty Daddies was the dirty breeder hub, which quickly eclipsed CLFL in numbers, and really brought the term “dirty” into common LD parlance. The stated goal of the clan was to create lions that were inbred and to breed without restrictions. However, this came under scrutiny from Clean breeding clans and circles, of which there were several at this time. Breeding without restrictions, after all, was simply the standard lioden breeding in 2017-2018. Despite the term “dirty” being seemingly embraced onsite, it was still considered considering pejorative to many non-clean breeders. And so I introduced the term “Standard Breeder” in order to assuage those concerns.

But like the term “New”, Standard Breeder did not stand the test of time.

Things were also heating up within the Clean circles among fellow clean breeders. Slowly, clean breeding began to have a noticeable affect on the market. Clean lions, particularly muties, were increasingly considered more valuable. And dirty lions that were otherwise identical were chosen last on the TC and in forums. In many cases, they were not chosen at all. Clean breeding was no longer just a challenge or for fun. Now, it had profit consequences, and many standard breeders felt pressured to join the playstyle in order to compete in the market.

Others tried to compete by riffing on the rules. Though rare now, one would occasionally see lions advertised as “Semi-Clean” or “Clean on the first page”. However, these styles would be largely dismissed by the clean community as a whole and those pushing them would be accused, and often reported, as scammers. However, since clean breeding was a player made style, nothing was truly enforceable by staff.

Although several staff members had taken up clean breeding, the first time it was acknowledged in any official capacity was the introduction of the inbreeding counter in 2018. According to my triangulating, it was somewhere around (or more likely on, since it’s a friday) May 25th, but whenever it happened, clean breeding was not only more or less broadcast to the community at large but now everyone was keenly aware at all times whether or not their lions were inbred should they check the lineage whether they played the style or not. However, at introduction, there wasn’t even a stir and the ramifications of it all wouldn’t be clear until much later. It is worth noting that, from comments made on the thread by both players and admins, that the inbreeding counter might’ve been bugged at introduction.

Months later, in September 2018 on the 20th, that heritage bug was fixed and in another universe, that wouldn’t have mattered. After all, a lion’s heritage has no bearing on it’s function. However, with heritage repping being a standard part of the very popular clean breeding style and arguably the most expensive part, the discovery of Big 4 names showing up in lineages otherwise verified as being clean prompted an outrage and the Clean Breeder movement called PUTP. PUTP, started by user Louse, stood for Picking Up The Pieces and was a community movement where Clean Breeders came together to help fellow clean breeders who had been adversely affected by the bug by offering free studding, muties, and even assisting with repping costs. The thread can still be seen, here. After being contacted by many concerned users, Staff made an official comment about the update.

These two events, PUTP and the Counter, were most likely what gave rise to the inbreeding focus in Clean Breeding. Big 4, while still in the car, was no longer in the driver’s seat and became second to having a non-inbred lion (termed Pure Bred, Squeaky Clean, Double Clean, or simply Clean). The PUTP business, and a simple desire for efficiency, is the reason things like Low Gen and No Gen/Heritageless became so popular. A short heritage from rolled or groupie lions meant glitches would have no impact + were not a pain to search through. Also, while Clean Breeders were trying to right themselves from the update, some dirty breeders took it upon themselves to laugh and jeer at us (but some did help!). This deepened and worsened the tension between dirty and clean breeders.

But as the months march on, and Clean Breeding became increasingly conflated with which player’s lions were selling and which ones were not, several primary or secondarily clean breeding clans would arise. The Dirty Breeder stronghold, Dirty Daddies, would become inactive and later invalid.

Next Chapter: Contemporary Clean Breeding - Lioden and Wolvden