to preface this, i understand that any mutation of this kind is incredibly art intensive, & the anniversary stream indicated that the next intended hybrid -- however many potential years away -- would be a jaglion, so i don't make this suggestion with any sense of immediacy at all. all of our current hybrids (or planned hybrids) follow the formula of "female lion x male [other big cat]", for pretty good reason - it's what works most intuitively with our breeding system. but as we near the end of the roster of known hybrids that would fit this format, i thought i'd propose something that might expand our options here & breathe new life into the submale system.

MY BRIEF PITCH FOR LIGERS AS THEIR OWN SEPARATE THING
the difference between a tigon (female lion x male tiger) and a liger (male lion x female tiger) is not only a semantic detail. for one thing, a liger lacks growth inhibitors and can come to be fairly gigantic, easily surpassing both of its parents. (i don't condone the practice breeding ligers in real life -- it's surrounded with a host of problems, health issues among them.) below is a very rough mockup to illustrate that the markings / base wouldn't necessarily be too redundant with our existing tiger hybrid's.



METHOD OF OBTAINING - SUBMALE LINEAGE
on completion of a submale patrol, there is a very slim chance that something to the nature of the following text will appear at the end of the results:

"In his travels, [SUBMALE] encountered a peculiar feline! She introduced herself as a ‘tiger’ in an ‘unlicensed roadside zoo.’ The two struck up a conversation, during which [SUBMALE] boldly offered to wrest the cage open for her. The tigress smiled sadly and assured him he was very heroic, but her lifetime of captivity had rendered her unsuited to a life in the wilderness. They touched noses through the dilapidated metal barrier and parted ways, but the thought of her lingered in [SUBMALE]’s mind..."

(my illustration just for fun)


following this event, there is a very slim chance that the litter your next breeding produces will contain a single 'newborn' (0 months old) liger cub. you'll receive a message along the lines of:

“[LIONESS] admits that [SUBMALE] returned late from patrol in the dark of night, carrying a peculiar cub. He entrusted it to her care, claiming a captive tigress had passed it to him through a covert gap in her enclosure, wishing for it to grow up wild. Awash in the emotions of her own recent birth, the nursing lioness didn't have the heart to say no.”

a peek at the cub’s lineage will reveal further truth of the situation – the submale is its sire.
i'm not sure if it's enough to sate inquisitive minds on this subject, but mentions of things like the 'covert gap' in the enclosure are meant to doubly allude to how the initial "deed" could've possibly transpired.

ideally, the chances of getting a liger cub would be about comparable to that of randomly getting another first-generation hybrid - however, unlike its predecessors, it wouldn't dilute the broader random mutations pool. you'd need the patrol encounter first to even trigger the chance of the cub appearing in a litter. my hopes would be that this could be something that could add relevance and value to the submale feature, considering male lions don't tend to be especially utilized as things stand, apart from as heirs to be kings.

ALTERNATE METHOD - KING LINEAGE
an idea utilizing your king as the sire instead could involve an escapee from the exotic pet trade. just for fun, i gave this tigress a tranquilizer dart ‘earring’ in my rough concept art below, to visually distinguish her from our other tiger friend in the wilderness (the tigon father).



there is a very slim chance your king could encounter this resilient character in explore. after a lifetime of captivity, she’s always seeking to gain more insight into wilderness survival. as with the Old Lioness npc, interacting with her appropriately will give you a quest.

the tigress’ quest will task you to complete [x] number of submale patrols (possibly only the ones returning with food items?) – she’d like to see how another solitary big cat such as herself takes down prey.

possibly, she could also ask you to complete a smaller number of successful hunts with your lionesses as well. this could help explain why she would later entrust her cub to one of them – she’s seen the social nature of lions in action, and she might even be familiar with some of your lionesses.

in any case, on completion of this quest, she will grant you a pretty decent material reward. some additional flavor text at the end will hint toward a second, much less guaranteed bonus: she’d like to spend some more time with you before leaving. you have a pleasant ambiguous hangout session, and she slips back off into the night.

with this, your next litter will have an incredibly small chance of containing a liger cub, which your king will be listed as the sire of. the nursing lioness will report that the tigress had briefly showed up to entrust her with it, for whatever reason – perhaps the tiger had wanted her half-lion cub to get the opportunity to grow up in a social setting; perhaps she wasn’t interested in raising cubs; perhaps, taken from her own mother as a newborn cub in an illegal pet trade, she wasn’t even sure how to.

thanks so much for reading, & feel free to let me know your thoughts or feedback. everything here is conceptual rather than stuff i want to put forth as concrete per se.