Oroszlán: the Lions

Now, a number of lion subspecies are extinct -- the Cape lion and the Barbary lion being only two examples. Their genetic patterns are preserved only among the Oroszlán, where occasional throwbacks still occur. As a result, Oroszlán of European and Asiatic origin may have a longitudinal fold of skin along their bellies in their feline form, and the males may not have quite so luxurious a mane as their African counterparts.

The body of a lion can vary from tawny to grey, and the mane of the male can vary from matching the body color to black. The distribution of the mane over the body -- small coverage to large coverage -- is the most striking variation.

Lions roam in social groups known as prides that consist of a number of lionesses, their young, and a single or at most two males.

The Oroszlán

The Oroszlán Pride consists of gender-segregated bands of 2-24 individuals, including both Changers (usually oroszlán, but can be others) and Kin. Occasionally, non-Kin felines and/or humans stay for limited periods of time with a Pride. Generally only one or two adult males are permitted to remain in a Pride, although a large Pride may have several adult male Kin as well as the one or two adult male Changers.

There is an extensive network of fosterage between Prides, which creates complicated bonds of kinship between family groups, and children are frequently sent away to learn the ways of other Prides. Female children occasionally decide to stay with those Prides, but most often return to their ancestral Pride, and remain members of their ancestral Pride for life. Male children are encouraged to leave the Pride setting entirely in late adolescence. They are always identified as children of their ancestral Prides, but their childhood homes are not places they are generally welcome for more than short visits. Kin, female and male both, will often settle in the Pride where they have been fostered.

Female Oroszlán generally wander during their youth, returning to their ancestral Prides to bear young and to settle down in old age, although powerful and charismatic individuals will occasionally found branches of their Pride in other locations. Each Pride maintains careful records of its genetic relationships with other Prides so as to better evaluate potential males for residence (and breeding). Being a female member of a Pride does not confer a responsibility to breed with the resident male(s), however. Many female Oroszlán form life-bonds with other, non-related (and, sometimes, non-Oroszlán) females and, occasionally, males.

The male Oroszlán and Kin who are not associated with a Pride generally form or join all-male bands known as Coalitions, a term borrowed from the Duma. Most Coalitions are not in fixed locations and do not retain constant membership or identities. Some do, however, and are often anchored by a family group of gay (and/or bachelor) males (Oroszlán, Kin, and others). Most males retain a loose relationship with a particular Coalition in which they have social ties, even if they have taken up residence with a Pride.

Some of the largest, best-known Prides in North America include:

• the Pride of Mississippi, which resides on the western bank of the Mississippi River, about 200 kilometers north of the river's outlet into the Gulf of Mexico, and consists of about a dozen female Oroszlán, a varying number of female Kin, a single male Oroszlán, and usually two male Kin
  
• the Pride of Mexico, a nomadic group that roams a territory that claims most of what used to be western Texas and a large section of western Mexico, and consists of between half a dozen and a dozen female Oroszlán, a single male Oroszlán, and any number of female Kin and humans; they have a particular reputation for taking in women and children who have been pushed out of their homes by the local vampires
• Califia's Pride, probably the largest in the western hemisphere, settled in a loosely organized series of villages along the remaining central coast of what was once California; the Pride's member numbers near the hundred mark
• the Panhandle Pride, another nomadic group that claims the Florida Peninsula and associated islands; this group is considered fairly mysterious and their communications seem fragmented

Oroszlán Gifts

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