SHE IS HERE. I am insanely proud, and her earlier incarnations got a lot of love, so I think the story of her making deserves a thread!

So I first conceived this project in July 2023 as a newbie. It involved four Piety markings and therefore waiting for November. But the hard part was this:



Breed-only base, breed-only skin, four breed-only or RMA-exclusive markings. And some kind of NCL-exclusive eyes because I liked their fails. The mane didn't matter since I'd be using a Lab Frog. Spoiler: I ended up getting a BO mane too, and then going an extra mile to keep it.

Phase 1: baby's first breeding project

The initial bottleneck was Bushveld Quail Flecks, which only existed on like 30 lions and mostly in slot 1. Sure enough, a raffle lioness with BQF s9 was released as soon as my project got underway, but I digress.

After stalking the Trading Center for a few weeks, I got my hands on a lioness with BQF s5. I picked a stud with Quail skin who happened to have Terracotta eyes and Cimmerian mane. I used Opal Saltlick, Rock Salt, and Ochre Gnawrock. The mane color passed naturally and has miraculously stayed on ever since.

I bred their cub to a Silky Fawn stud using two Gnawrocks, Opal Saltlick, and Rock Salt. I kinged the result.

No more studs, so that’s nice. I stockpiled lionesses with Noctis Okapi and/or Celestial Speckles, used the salts on my king and succeeded soon enough. I changed kings once, after Noctis Okapi passed.

This entire phase only took a couple months.

Phase 2: the Bushveld base

Come November, I added the four Piety marks, two applicator marks, and a Special base:



Time to mass-breed Bushveld lionesses! Some of them had breed-only mane shapes and I was lucky enough to end up with Savage. If a breeder had a marking in one of my BO/RMA slots, I removed it. I used the salts each time, but no Ochre Powders or anything else.

I started in January with 20 breeders, and my Bushveld heir was born on April 18. So it took less than 100 litters. I just had to wait until next November to re-apply the Piety marks I lost along the way and ultimately get:




AND THEN I WANTED HETERO EYES. And I thought, easy peasy. This is essentially the same project all over again: base, mane, and four marks need to pass naturally while skin and eyes are guaranteed with items. I’ll king that Bushveld unfinished, start breeding in September, and be done by November 30.

Phase 3: the hunt for Hetero Intense Salt & Malachite

I spent the summer preparing breeding stock. HISM and HMIS-eyed lionesses were plentiful after May, so I used them to get cubs with the eyes and some of my traits. With breeders who had my mane shape & color, my four marks, and an Uncommon/Rare/Special base, the chance of success would be about 1/300. Half that if the base was Common. Not bad, right?

Lesson 1: it takes hella time to pass 6 traits onto any significant number of lionesses. Even in September, when I started the actual project, my average odds were way below 1/300.

From June to November, I bred 482 litters and 774 cubs. My best result had a Crested mane and I was THIS close to kinging it. Punk Breeding Challenge would be a walk in the park. And I could eventually breed my Savage mane back on. However, after several near-misses, I was painfully aware how bad the odds of Savage vs. Crested were. So I resisted the temptation, but I did kick out all non-Savage breeders.

Very long screenshot of my project cave on the evening of November 30

Alright, so I was in for the long haul. I added the missing Piety marks to the Terracotta-eyed queen, fixed her opacities, and mut-repped her.

Lesson 2: playing with an unfinished king is depressing. No stud requests, no pretty cubs, no point buying valuable lionesses, no cash. 0/10 wouldn’t recommend.

The final two months were fun.

My project lionesses started getting genuinely pretty, thanks to the high opacities. At that point, if they were missing multiple traits, I sold them as fodder. Of course, they were incredibly inbred. But people loved them! A lot of them were kept or even kinged!

Some of the lionesses I had chased came back to me as G1s. Their cubs sold even better and made me a surprising amount of money.

Lesson 3: it would actually be fairly easy to keep the whole thing clean if I just heritage-repped every month. I would make back the retirement fees, the ungodly amount of I spent on salts, and then some. On the other hand, surely Lioden doesn’t need that many moldy cubs?

The mane shape now passed reliably, but I got TWO cubs that were missing Celestial Speckles. Okay, that’s a breed-only mark but it’s not load-bearing. I can live with Gilded Speckles instead. Or … I can RMA.

RMA result one:



Algae Rogue in s9. 21 total lions, one inactive king. It’s even green! And it looks like ass.

What the hell do I do with the lion now? Genuine question.

RMA result two:



Seal Siamese in s9. Cimmerian Quagga in s1 for good measure. Love the Quagga on him, but it would be ugly on cubs. Hate the other marking. Had no idea Seal Siamese of all things could mess up a lion so badly.

Lesson 4: don’t RMA in top slots.

I could have saved the because…

Happy ending

She was born on February 9.

Final tally:

• 5 months
• 779 litters
• 1249 cubs

That’s just the project per se, without the G1s and the summer pre-breeding. 545k spent on salts just to get a lazy eye. Yay.

Final long screenshot of project cave

Excluding G1s, fodder, and the bunch of new cubs born that day, it held:

• 154 breeders (94 HISM and 60 HMIS)
• 93 Uncommon+ bases
• 15 Special bases I had applied to up my odds
• 9 Bushvelds

She’s renamed in the screenshot, but heir’s mom was HISM #250. She had Savage Cimmerian mane, all four marks, and a Common base.

By the way, Lesson 5: Roman numerals are confusing! I’m glad I used the chance to practice them, but I’ve applied an Opal Saltlick to the wrong lioness more than once.

Of course I took the heir on an RMA adventure, too. She was missing two Piety markings (Noctis Web s7 and Gold Freckles 3 s8) that would have to be replaced with applicators for now. And I’ve always had an app marking in s1. I want Vitiligo 9 in that slot, but, well, that’s going to take literal years.

The highlights:

• RMA #11: Goridhe Okapi s1. Gorgeous but I have Okapi in another slot.
• RMA #15: Feline 10 Lilac s8. First lion ever with this slot, 73 lions and 4 kings with the marking. Except Lilac is the worst possible addition to my color scheme. Sorry BO collectors. I knocked up some NCLs for you before removing the mark.
• RMA #44: Noctis Quagga s1. I liked Quagga, didn’t I? Well scratch that. If I’m settling for tier 6, give me Nimravus at least.
• RMA #47: Cream Ghost Feralis s7. Just no. Remember lesson 4?
• RMA #62: Marigold Unders s1. Oh? I love this actually?? Quirky and matchy but still a bit basic, which gives me an excuse to continue the Vitiligo project.
• RMA #76: Onyx Nyala s7. Wow shit. Okay. Lesson 4 be damned. This is gorgeous.

Can't wait for Patches to be released for Spirited pose so she can flaunt that mane!

Wardrobe link

What do y’all think? Is she perfect? Does she need Noctis Web back? Or maybe Freckles somewhere? Does the Marigold look weird?

And, was there an easier way to get the eyes? Except figuring them out at the start, I mean