Name: Ajani (African for 'He who wins the struggle')

Sex: Male

Parents: Deceased

Siblings: Deceased

Mate: Deceased

Cubs: Lutalo; Samanya (adopted)

When Rendered: Mufasa's build with some of Kovu's influence for his mane

Personality: Grumpy, cynical, and overall a nasty piece of work. Ajani has a hair trigger temper and also unstability due to inbreeding in his family, but he has learned to cope with it. However he does not like other lions or lionesses, only working with them under certain circumstances. He is wise, full of pride, and did I mention full of grumpy?

History: Ajani's parents were siblings of the same litter who felt attracted to one another (not in love, just attracted), and mated. Ajani was the only survivor of his litter, and he was frail and sickly, a stage he sort of grew out of as he got older. Surviving to adulthood Ajani quickly abandoned his parents to go find a life for himself. His parents died not long after him, killed by a pack of hyenas they were unable to ward off.

Ajani joined a pride of rogue male lions, never making nice with any of them, but just relying on them for survival. A couple years after his arrival came another lion named Judas who was only a year old and who abandoned his family. At first Ajani thought of him as a nuisance, but as the years went on Ajani saw Judas's growth as a male, and came to respect him as an equal, something that no other lion has earned from him to date. When Judas broke away to find a pride for his own, Ajani broke away to though his intentions were the complete opposite of Judas's. It turns out that he found a female in heat during their travels, and though he hated to mingle with the opposite sex he still mated with her. He soon found that she might be the exception to that rule, so he lied when he said that he was only following Judas's example.

For a while the family was happy together despite Ajani's occasional violent slip-up. One day, though, Ajani's mate went off to hunt and never came back. At first he thought nothing of it, and watched over Lutalo while she was gone. When several days passed and she had not returned, Ajani took Lutalo and the two of them went searching for her. They eventually found her, dead and nearly only bones. She had been outnumbered by a hyena pack while she was hunting.

Ajani quickly took Lutalo out of the area, and over the years taught his son how to take care of himself. Lutalo was often subjected to his father's violent outbursts, some of the scars on his body being proof of that, but despite the abuse he had to deal with, Lutalo stayed by his father out of undying loyalty. Over the years Ajani protected his son, fighting any and every male and female off who dared to challenge them. One fight left his hind leg useless, and because it was difficult for him to run at the speeds he used to Lutalo had to take over.

One day he bumped into a young female named Samanya who was also a product of inbreeding on her grandfather's side. She fought Ajani, but the old lion was able to overwhelm her without her landing a threatening blow. Once subdued Samanya cried, saying she killed her father and had nowhere to go. Grudgingly Ajani took Samanya underneath his wing, feeling pity for the small lioness. Though he mainly took advantage of her to get him food that he was unable to get much on his own, Ajani found that he did care a lot about Samanya, and so did all he could in his power to teach her how to control her temper.

The three of them became a close family unit, and the violent outbursts ceased to exist, at least until Ajani's death from a blow to the head by an enraged water buffalo.

Relation to TLK: Father figure to the granddaughter of Malka; was also in a pride with Judas, son of Mufasa and Sarabi

Thank you Fallen for giving him to me! ^^