With the new advent of unbreedable Leopon kings, it got me thinking about other more unusual possibilities for royal candidates. I'm also into the idea of mutations affecting gameplay.

I'm aware all king-related site material is set to display "he", and I don't suggest we change it because the work would be monumental and certainly not worth it, but I thought it might be neat to have the ability for maned female lionesses to "play the role" of male lions-- the ability to patrol and be crowned king. This would be voluntary, irreversible and function like a sex change except with the retention of lioness look. They'd also obviously be unable to stud, like the Leopons.

Maned lionesses are an asset due to their male looks sometimes in the defense of the pride.

I'm sure people will point out it's unrealistic for maned females to lead a pride-- but we also have pink lions and decorations like wings and such; so why ever not? And it's not unheard of for female lions to display male behavior:

“It would be interesting to know if she behaved like a male,” he added. “Two similarly aberrant Serengeti lionesses were outwardly female—they did not have manes, but were almost male-sized, and they challenged and fought unfamiliar males for territories as though they were males!” source

Heck, why not bring on the occasional matriarchy?