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 Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2017 9:42 am
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Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2017 9:46 am
Their Origins...The N'ezi-ozu are an ancient pride, their origins obscured by time and myth. No one can say where they truly came from, but according to their own accounts, they are descended from 13 lions once chosen by Death himself to know and keep his secrets. In the early days of the world, Mkodi left a riot of life in her wake, giving rise to everything from gods to mortals to populate her grand creation, but there was one being she did not create. Some say that she did so unintentionally, that he was born as a natural consequence of life, for what lives must also die, but that is not what the N'ezi-ozu believe. They believe that Death came into being with the universe itself, preceding Mkodi and her earthly creations, and that though he chose to bow to her, it is alliance, not allegiance, a symbiotic relationship wherein whatever life she gives, he will eventually take.
The world grew, prides and empires fell, and the N'ezi-ozu watched. They saw the consequences of reaching beyond one's purpose, and to prevent themselves from doing the same, they withdrew from the outside world. In time, they were almost entirely forgotten, and though life was not without its trials, they endured. They were insular by nature, fearing corruption by Mkodi's children, but they could not afford to close themselves off completely without risking extinction, so when new blood was required, it would be taken in with guidance from the Amoosu, absorbed into existing families as necessary. Still, even with occasional infusions of outside blood, certain genetic traits remain strong: most notably, they are smaller than average, and natural colors - pale and dark in particular - far exceed more vibrant ones.
Though they have narrowly avoided jamming themselves into a genetic bottleneck, their isolation and traditions nearly killed them anyway. The plague that took such a toll on the rest of the continent generations ago did not leave the N'ezi-ozu untouched: it slipped in with a rogue deemed worthy of becoming one of them, and ultimately wiped out nearly half the population. Perhaps the death toll wouldn't have been so high, if it hadn't been for their extreme veneration of the dead. It is only in the years since the plague that they have laid the bodies of their dead at the borders to be picked at by scavengers; for most of the pride's history, it was they who consumed the flesh of the dead, taking into themselves the strength and life of the deceased. Only when it was dicovered that this practice was making the plague more virulent did it stop. There are a few - not many and very old, but a few - in the pride who remember and took part in the old tradition.
The pride staggered onward, clinging to life but more suspicious of outsiders than ever, and though the plague had ended, their numbers slowly dwindled as fewer cubs were born. Then came the earthquake, that seemed a cataclysm - the bones of their ancestors were disturbed, and some portions of the catacombs collapsed and remain inaccessible to this day. The Amoosu became preoccupied with accounting for every displaced bone and putting it back with the skeleton or at the very least the family to which it belonged, not only paying even less mind to the greater world, but to the living pride itself. Years passed in this way, the pride barely clinging to life as the eldest Amusu insisted that none of the new blood with which they were presented was worthy of being made family. Litters became rarer and smaller, owing to a decrease in fertility as a consequence of the shallow gene pool - everyone is related at least distantly, and often at more than one point in their lineage.
Now, the the old Onyeisi, who had lived through both plague and earthquake, has passed into death, leaving behind only two sons who could succeed him, Owu and Itiri. According to tradition, they will undergo the Trials of the King to determine who is fit to be the new Onyeisi. Whoever emerges triumphant, they will have a fight on their paws if the N'ezi-ozu are to survive...
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