This is a lethal mut based off of the irl LWO gene in horses. I loosely skimmed through suggestions to see if someone suggested the same or similar but didn't really find what I was looking for so feel free to yell at me if this has already been said lmao.

before the "uhm, ackshooaly" people come in, remember that a lot of bases and muts in the game aren't 'realistic' either. go away.


Anywho.


The tldr rundown, is that when two carriers with a copy of the gene are bred, the foal will come out entirely white and will not live past a few hours to a day after birth. The reason for this is because the digestive/intestinal tract did not fully develop.

How would this work in game? Rather than assigning a bunch of lions the LWO gene copy at random, the mutation could have a rare (3-7% ??) chance of happening when two piebald lions (Mainly Tovero, Tobiano, or Splash variants, basically anything with a high-white factor) are bred together.

This can be boosted with breeding items that increase the chance of potential mutations/lethality like Cotton Root Bark but only slightly.

The cub will come out mark-less (or the markings are all at 1% opacity) and entirely white. This does NOT affect the base color or the eye color- white markings are just markings and the white of LWO is one gigantic white spot.

Cubs could live one to two months. You can freeze them, obv.
I don't think a lineart change is really needed for this tbh as it's an internal defect rather than a really visible one (other than the white).

ETA; I changed my mind. New lineart would be a skinny, ribby cub to distinguish them better from achromia, also because they ain't getting food if their tum ain't working.