— INTRO

So last night I couldn't sleep and was thinking about lioden mutations, right? I was trying to think of a new mutation, so I thought about muscular dystrophy. Then I was like, what if it was more extreme, so a lethal mutation at birth? So, here's some ideas I brainstormed after some research!! c:

A Little Background
So basically muscular dystrophy is where muscles degenerate slowly. Most people with this condition usually have trouble swallowing and breathing. It's an extremely rare condition, so it'd be rare in the game as well!!

— APPEARANCE

The cub would be smaller, and much thinner. Their ribs would show, their face skinny, and very bony looking legs. To save time, cubs would just be born skinny instead of progressively getting thinner, as that would take a lot more time making more art than necessary! However, the newborn cub stage would be a slightly thinner version of the original, the young cub pose being even thinner, and then the normal cub pose being very bony/thin. They'd have scarcer fur, only a few tufts around the chest and tail. Lion would be shown laying down. The cub wouldn't be able to make it past being a cub either, see lethalities.

— LETHALITIES

Because the cub wouldn't have modern medical assistance, they would die much earlier. They wouldn't be able to get around very well, and they would have trouble eating from either fatigue, a hard time chewing, or even loss of appetite. The cub is also unable to be trained.

For the cub, standing and walking around would be very tiring. These complications would prevent the cub from growing to adolescent or adulthood. The age the cub would die would be around 3-5 months, the reason being they could survive from suckling, but health complications without movement would surface quickly. The cub could die from;

- malnourishment (not being able to suckle from loss of appetite / fatigue - 3 months)
- heart disease (cardiomyopathy / not getting proper excersise - 4 months)
- trouble breathing (muscles associated with breathing would be too weak - 5 months)

The choice between these deaths would occur through RNG

— MESSAGES

For either checking up on the lion, or monthly health report!

Checking on the Cub

- [Cub] looks up at you and weakly smiles, waving their bony arm.
- You panic as you see [Cub] laying down as if they were dead, they look up at you with a confused look as you hover directly in front of their nose.
- [Cub] lays closely with their mother, breathing shallowly. Their mother looks up at you with concerned eyes.

Eating

- [Cub] refuses to eat, saying it would cause them too much pain. Eventually they eat after some convincing.
- [Cub] takes a few bites before turning their head.
- [Cub] ate reluctantly, you and their mother were relieved.

Playing

- [Cub] batted [object] weakly a couple times, smiling.
- [Cub] rolled over, staring at [object] and laughed weakly.

Month 1

- [Cub]'s mother looks down at her newborn cub. They looked a lot smaller, and their tiny little ribcage showed on their small body. [Cub] suckled softly.

Month 2

- [Cub] said they didn't want to play with the other cubs, and just wanted to lay with their mother.

Month 3

- [Cub] told their mother that their chest hurt. [Cub] didn't suckle for a couple days.
- [Cub] died from malnourishment.

Month 4

- [Cub] complained about their chest again, cuddled close to their mother. [Cub]'s mother looked very sad as she looked down at them.
- [Cub] died from heart complications.

Month 5

- [Cub] died from health complications

Tell me why you don't support or what I could improve upon please!! <3