Post by Amadi on Jul 22, 2009 0:25:23 GMT -5
Name: Mbali
Meaning: "Aloof" in Swahili; "flower" in Zulu.
Lineage: Sizwe x Sauda: Ikenna, Nkosana, Imani, Anuli
Half-Siblings: Obi, Lindiwe, Nnamdi
Species: African Lion
Gender: Male
Age: Adult
Personality/Traits: While Mbali's loyalty to his pride is undeniable, he is gruff, short-spoken and not all that tactful. He lacks the refinement of most pridal lions, as he was really meant for the rough and often inglorious life of a rogue male, but this does not mean that he is stupid: on the contrary, he is every bit as calculating as his father, and can seem twice as callous when protecting his lands and family. Woe betide the hyena or nomadic male who meets him within Mnara. He is no diplomat and will seldom try to be when faced with a threat to its livelihood.
Among his pride one will still find him rather brief, but his devotion to them is irrefutable. He can often be found roaming the borders, either alone or in the company of his brothers and kings, and when he's not there it isn't unusual for him to be with the lionesses. His lack of talkativeness doesn't indicate an antisocial personality; on the contrary, he can be quite affectionate...but such displays are reserved for those with whom he's spent much of his life. A foreign lioness joining the pride, for example, would find it difficult to coax him into warming up to her. Likewise, even his nieces and nephews are tolerated at best. He would defend them with his life if need be, for as Mnara's next generation they are its most valuable resource, but he's not paternal and is largely content to ignore them beyond that.
He has a tendency to place the best interests of Mnara above all else; he wouldn't hesitate to drive others off of food or water so that his own pride could have them instead, and, indeed, has done so in the past. While it may seem ruthless--and is--he would much rather look out for his family's wellbeing rather than that of strangers and will accomplish this by any means available to him. Life is rarely easy or nice and he doesn't pretend otherwise, especially during more troubled times such as the dry season.
History: Prince Mbali was never meant to stay. He was not the chosen heir and so, his father Sizwe taught him from a young age, it was not his duty to remain with them all his adult life; instead he would depart from the lands of his birth, perhaps with his brother Nkosana, and make his fortune elsewhere. He might overthrow a weak king as Sizwe had, or form his own pride out of stray lionesses, but he could not stay with Mnara once his mane had grown in. His destiny was a far cry from Ikenna's or even that of his female siblings, who were unlikely to leave the pride, and no matter how you looked at it the fate that nature had in store for him was likely to be unpleasant and even brutal at times--it is, after all, much easier to inherit a throne than it is to acquire one by force.
Being told that you must abandon your friends and family while your luckier brother remains to watch over them has driven many a young male to jealous rage and it would not have been odd for Mbali to envy Ikenna, but Sizwe did not follow age-old traditions without reason and explanation. By sending his male children away to build their own lives and kingdoms, he said, they would ensure that his blood continued to survive and spread out through the savanna. This was the service they would do for Mnara; and Mbali, although less than thrilled about the idea of leaving everyone, was still the son of a conquerer. He listened to the story of Jumaane and took it to heart, and, with it, one of nature's most fundamental laws: the strong survive, while the weak are eradicated by them.
Mbali was one of the strong. He played rough and hungered for victory in in even the most trifling aspects of life. His friend and cousin Adetukunbo was stung by wasps after prodding their nest one too many times; he fell out of the same tree two days later while knocking it to the ground in retaliation and was stung several times himself, but despite the pain he wouldn't run until the nest was in pieces. For this he received a stern talking-to from his parents and the lioness who found him limping back home, but his wounds had been received in an attempt, however misguided, to defend his pride, and so Sizwe did not chastise him quite as harshly as he might have otherwise. He gave the injured cub a lecture about choosing his battles more wisely instead, but while Mbali tried to heed his father's advice he remained stubborn and was seldom capable of backing down for anything. This trait stayed with him until adolescence, sometimes admirable, often frustrating, until he left Mnara's borders for the first time.
He was growing older but it was not yet time for his exile, and so he departed voluntarily; he had been spending a great deal of time shadowing his mother on solitary hunts, for a lone male must be able to feed himself in order to stay alive, and he was eager to test his survival skills while he still had the safety of a pride to return to if necessary. He had been gone for less than a week before he encountered another lion, a rogue as he would one day be, savage and cunning and six years older than him besides, and, bursting with confidence and foolish hubris, Mbali did not retreat from his challenge. He seldom lost wrestling matches with his brothers, due to his ferocity and large size, and assumed that this confrontation would be no different. Mock fights with other half-grown lions in which neither really intends to harm the other are, however, different indeed. Those seldom result in anything other than bruises; Mbali's blood was spilled across the parched earth the day he met his first rogue. The experience nearly killed him, and he came away from it with a lesson in humility and a greater understanding of just what Sizwe had meant about picking his battles. Caution was not tantamount to cowardice.
Time passed, during which he came and went from the pride sporadically. His first fight was certainly not his last, but he was smarter about which ones he engaged in after that. Some traces of his pridefulness remained, and this was perhaps most obvious in the fact that he chose to distance himself from Mnara before he had to, as if it had been his own idea instead of Sizwe's--but, by and large, he was a very different lion than the cub who had grinningly suffered wasp-stings so that he could get at their nest. He was quieter and less belligerent, and, undeniably, also much stronger than he'd been before. His hide bore the marks of hard living.
He was gone when Sauda died, out alone once again, and when he returned to hear of his mother's passing Mbali was horrified. His whole world felt shattered with the news of her death, and, stricken with grief, he did not leave the pride again. His mourning was a slow and agonising process, exacerbated by the fact that he had been absent as she drew her last breath; it was a very long time before he could reconcile himself with his guilt. Life went on as it always does, but Mbali was changed again. He no longer retreated from Mnara so that his eventual banishment would be easier to take. Instead he stayed close to his family and pridemates, soaking in their companionship while he still could, as he realised now that it was entirely likely they would all die apart from him.
How wrong he was! Pride Rock fell almost in tandem with Sizwe, and brought with it several lions and lionesses. Their final resting place was with the stone formation that had once provided them with shade and shelter, now a wreck, a graveyard, the site of a horrific disaster. And, in the aftermath, Ikenna and Nnamdi gathered the survivors and moved them south. Mbali went with them. His brothers did not ask him to leave and he did not offer; in the wake of such a catastrophe, regardless of tradition, his place was with his pride.
Now the dry season is upon them, and Ikenna's cubs are growing more and more with each passing day, but still Mbali remains. Who, after all, would want to leave one's family after it has suffered so many losses? And who would force a member of one's family to leave when it has dwindled so much already?
Prince Mbali was never meant to stay, but he has, it seems, become a permanent fixture within Mnara. And there is no doubt that he is useful.
Description: Mbali is a big, rather intimidating cat, long and heavy--he's built to fight, not hunt, and it shows in the stocky, muscular set of his body. He isn't as quick as a lioness or a smaller male and never will be, but the sheer amount of power that he commands more than makes up for it. This is an apex predator in the prime of his life, who carries himself with justifiable confidence, even arrogance. There aren't many animals who are likely to attack him while alone, aside from another lion, and he stands taller than most of his peers.
His fur is unremarkable, a medium shade of tawny brown that fades to cream and then white on his stomach, his legs, his face and nose. This gradiation also marks the areas surrounding his eyes, and on each pale brow rests a darker blotch of pigment. His mane is shaggy and full, shielding his neck, chest and shoulders. The colour of it isn't much different from the rest of him, at least around his broad face; it darkens several degrees as it fans out towards his shoulders, to more of an umber.
Mbali's eyes are, unquestionably, his most arresting feature. They're a gold as bright as the setting sun, and their stare is nothing less than penetrating. They almost look unreal against his considerably more drab pelt, and oddly young in contrast to his nicked muzzle and ears--a reminder that, despite the wear on his face, he is not an old lion.
