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Daroga is born the Crown Prince of the Eternal Pride but was sent to the Lost Lands for "training" as his father puts it. The truth of the matter is that Phantom, formerly known as Erik, can't stand to look at his teenage son and doesn't care to teach him - not when all of his attention is on cooing over his wife Christine or spoiling Daroga's only full-sister, Aria. Daroga is set aside simply because he does not look enough like his mother, a grave sin in his father's eyes. He and and the rest of his sisters - none of whom are Christine's children - have been set aside only to be called upon when needed. The Eternals need more hunters? Nessa and Emilia can be trained easily enough. Maintaining what fragile alliances they have left with the Lost Pride? Rey and Tira are "loaned" to King Durin's ranks.
While his sisters have no shortage of resentment for the self-serving Phantom or his "perfect daughter", Daroga doesn't begrudge either of them. He knows that his father mentally isn't all there and how his mother does her best to calm his rages and keep him sane. He knows how lonely Aria is at the top of the heap. Rather than stew on his fate he has chosen to reach out to the family he was estranged from and help them as best he can from a distance. He exchanges messages with his mother and sister by way of the local birds and on the rare occasions when the Lost and Eternal prides come together he is never far from Aria's side. Aria more than appreciates her brother's efforts to befriend her and in return talks him up to their father, praising and complimenting him at every turn, playing on the Phantom's vanity by comparing her brother to her father in favorable ways. Slowly but surely her tactics seem to work, and while it takes as many years as the Phantom has left and Aria catching him in one of his more merciful mood, he does allow Daroga to return home.
When Daroga finally returns to the Eternal Pride the situation is worse then ever. By this time the Phantom has gone completely insane, having forgotten his identity as the mild-mannered Erik long ago. Not even Christine, his mother, whom through all his madness his father had loved so gently and passionately, can no longer find the lion she married in the Phantom's monstrous mind. He is old, senseless and raving, and the moment he lays eyes on his son with any sort of clarity he flies into a rage that no one can stop. Daroga tries to defend himself but the old lion attacks viciously and relentlessly, adrenaline and years of pent up aggression and cruelty are unleashed on his much younger, less experienced opponent. The Phantom catches Daroga in the face and tears at him with wicked teeth and claws, only stopping to come up for breath.
The barrage stopped. Daroga, still so young and now covered in blood, cowered in fear before the creature who once was his father; His father who held him and sang lullabies to him as a cub, who took he and his sister on walks that lasted hours and were full of laughter. The father who kept finding reasons to avoid him when his mane started to grow in. The father, who when faced with his son's yellow eyes and pitch black mane growing down his spine had felt hatred instead of love, who saw in the boy a mirror of himself when he was still young, guileless, and unmarred (no scars, no ruined face and body) and hated the innocence - the weakness - he saw. The father who had still been sane enough to send his only son away when he found himself dreaming of a still childlike voice crying out, wheezing out his last breaths, blood and gray fur on his paws and stuck in his teeth. The father who now looked down at his child through the haze of violence and mania and saw him clearly for the first time in so many years, so many wasted years. He could place the name to that face again. He could think of his name and look at the boy who had grown to look so much like himself, like his mother with whom he shared his kind and gentle heart, and feel no hate. He felt love. He, (Erik? Erik!) He, Erik, loved his son. He loved his son so much! He loved his son and he had hurt him, hurt him badly. He was bleeding so much, too much - 'Erik loves you son, loves you very much, Erik is sorry, Erik is very very sorry, Erik didn't want to hurt he's so sorry, he loves his son, he loves-'
"Daro...ga...?"
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Later, after assessing and treating Daroga's wounds as best they can (tendons torn in his right hind leg, slashes over both his eyes and across his face, many bite and claw marks all over his body. He will always walk with a limp, he will never see out of his right eye again and has damaged his left, and every single mark will scar. One testicle and most of the other have been removed. He will never father cubs but he may keep his mane if he's lucky.) The pride wonder what could have brought down the Phantom at the height of his rage and having every advantage possible. It wasn't exactly an unwelcome thing when their king had suddenly collapsed, dead and glassy-eyed but it certainly was bizarre. All heads turn to Christine, their sullen matriarch who has not smiled in years but has always been gracious. She holds her son close to her body, the young lion having fallen unconscious after his ordeal, stroking his mane gently.
"When his mind returned, his heart gave out."
The pride lay him to rest with silence and respect in King's Glade where all his ancestors and fore bearers rest. No one weeps or mourns, not even Christine, but when they say goodbye the name they say is 'Erik'.
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