There are five species in the Panthera genus. One of them is lions, the main focal point of this game. Two others, the leopard and tiger, have lion hybrids in this game. Another, the jaguar, is likely to never naturally meet the lion due to this thing called the Atlantic ocean.

But that's only four. What's the fifth?

The snow leopard. And I propose we have snow leopard/lion hybrids, what I call snowions, in this game.

Now, I realize that there are no living 'snowions' today. And that Snow Leopards are in north Asia and lions are in Africa.

However, I quote Wikipedia:

" In snow leopards and lions, the mitochondrial genomes of both species was more similar to each other than to other Panthera species, indicating that at some point in their history, the female progeny of the male ancestors of modern snow leopards and female ancestors of modern lions interbred with male ancestors of modern snow leopards."

So a Snowion sounds like it is more naturally possible than a leopon! Yay!

Now, I suspect you might have three questions:

How would the two cats meet?
What would they look like?
How would the in-game mechanics work out?

Well!

1. How they'd meet.

I propose we have an encounter in the December event. December seems most probable, but February could also work. I chose December due to all the 'snuh' on the ground in the LD-verse.

event location aside, something draws the male leopard down to Africa. Maybe it was the 'snuh', or maybe it was all the love in the air that awakened those good ol' mitochondrial DNA ties.

I see this playing out similarly to the August event 'Maneater' studs. There would be a link on the main event page that led to his lair. Now, this fella is elusive, just like all his kin, so he may only show up a few times a week, or he might be there several times a day! Who knows?

When you do find him in his den, he might greet you and express his interest in your pride, especially your in-heat ladies. However, this fellow also wants to see that you are a wealthy lion, because apparently wealth is a big thing for his people. So, he will ask you for an expensive LD item OR a very large amount of event currency. I dunno which yet.

Anyways, once you give him the currency or item(s), he'll tell you to come back tomorrow. This time, he'll be waiting for you and you can easily find him after rollover. He'll ask you to do a hard NPC-related quest in order to show your courage (maybe battle some elephants). Once you complete that quest, he will again tell you to meet him tomorrow.

When you meet him this time, he tells you he is pleased with you and he would like to grant you one favor in return for aiding him in this foreign land. You can ask him for two things: to breed with ONE of your in-heat ladies, or to give you an artifact from his land.

If you ask for the artifact, you will receive a Jade Token. Keep this in mind.

If you ask for the breeding, he will seem affronted, but he will agree if you give him a large amount of event currency. Then, just like with the Maneaters, you choose your lady and hit submit. At rollover, you will receive a message telling whether or not the leopard got your lady pregnant. I say there's a 75% success rate for this. If he fails, he'll give you a Jade Token Half.

You ask him to make two Jade Token Halves into a Jade Token. (Jade Tokens would work like normal items and can be traded/sold/gifted).

So, what the heck are Jade Tokens? Well, I am thinking that out Leopard friend was accompanied by a handsome male buddy of his down here, but they split ways. You can meet him (in a RARE encounter) wandering through Lioden. If you have the whole Token, you will have two options: fight or give token. Fight is just an NPC fight. Give Token has two options: he will ignore you or follow you curiously. If he ignores you, sorry! If he follows, you can click 'view Snow Leopard' and it will take you to a page that looks like the Maneater stud profile. For a lesser amount of event currency than his buddy, you can stud him to one of your in-heat girls. Again, this has a 75% chance of success.

Now, your girl is pregnant. Yay! the cubs will have a small chance (bigger than leopon but still small) to be born a Snowion!

2. What will they look like.

WIP

3. In-game mechanics

Females would be fertile, and males would not be. In fact, I imagine these guys behaving almost identically to Leopons.

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Anyways, that's the Snowion! Hope you enjoyed and tolerated my walls of text! Feel free to post suggestions and why you may not support!

Suggestions:

By 13th nightmare: make it a variant of Leopon kind of like how the Primals work (I really like this idea). No event required for this

Felicity Smoake: lower the quest requirements (less items currency) or maybe have a special event currency that he takes as a fee. Limit to breeding 1 or 2 females to him per person per rollover.

Rita Bane: zoo escapee?

Criticisms (I will not respond if you mention these again):
~Size and anatomies are very different (It's the genes that matter. Look at our diverse dog mixes aka Husky and Scottie!)
~Remote range (They can still access each other as land goes between their ranges)