Strixa

G2 Mane Imperial.

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Strixa was an orphaned lion cub raised by a lone hyena mother, grieving the loss of her own pups and riding the high of maternal hormones; it was enough to circumvent their species' natural hatred of each other. Strong-willed and suffering no fools, her adoptive mother showed her what it took to survive on your own in the harsh landscape of the savannah. When she was an adolescent, her mother was accepted into a growing clan--but as the newest female she was damned to remain at the bottom of the pecking order until someone newer came along. Ever prideful, it was only a matter of time before her mother staged a coup by challenging the queen one-on-one. It was a fierce duel and the reigning queen barely came out on top, sporting injuries that would hinder her for the rest of her life. Strixa's adoptive mother came out worse, succumbing to her injuries within a few days.

Strixa was permitted to live in the clan solely to be mocked and bullied, ranking even below the lowest of the males. She kept her mother's rage and ambition close to her heart and withstood the abuse solely to survive. The lioness was often delegated to acting as the distraction in their hunts. This role was easily the most dangerous for an untested adolescent, requiring her to dance and nip at large prey to maintain their attention and running the risk of getting gored. She used these opportunities to strengthen her body into a formidable weapon, and when she finally cusped into adulthood, the lioness came full circle and challenged the hyena queen for her throne.

She remembered her mother's fight vividly and knew how to use the hyena's old wounds against her. The duel was one-sided, and it needed to be to preserve her strength for the real fight. Strixa anticipated that the other hyenas would not easily accept a lioness for their queen. She had no friends in the clan and her only advantage was its relatively low population. She easily overwhelmed the others with brute strength and those that refused to submit were killed and made an example of.

Strixa rose to the matriarch's throne and ruled through fear from the resident hyenas. To circumvent their inevitable coup, she went out of her way to adopt the weak and orphaned hyena pups from neighboring clans and raised them to be strong in both body and personality just as her own mother had. These pups were joined by an intense loyalty to their queen and fiercely protected the lioness wherever she would go.