Username: RupturedRaptor
100 words (minimum) about their territory/where their pride will be built/how they achieved this territory:
The fire lands include a range of habitats, all with one thing in common; the wildfires the territory experiences. A lot of the fire lands consists of dry shrublands and dry grasslands as its wedged inbetween desert and a jungle.
The territory begins South, on the edge of the desertlands. The pride king/leader Ozmore started off with small pride of 3 males, a group who reluctantly banded together for survival purpouses after being exiled from their different prides. The rivalry between Ozmore and one of the other more dominant males was fierce, eventually causing the group to split and go their separate ways. During this event Ozmore managed to claim a small spot of territory at the border area between the desert and shrublands. He pushed the rival males further back into the desert, claiming otherwise unoccupied desert territory as he went. Ozmore currently owns approximately 10 miles, although there is potentially room for expansion in that area. This desert territory includes a small area he calls the rocklands, its basically just a very large rock that was partially exposed some time ago. He owns the entire rock and he's rather proud of that accomplishment. It's a few metres above the normal ground level in the area, but the climb isn't too difficult. The desert area, especially the rocklands are a key area to survival, as its an area wildfires cannot reach. There are smaller rocks throughout the fire lands and beyond, but nothing is as safe (in wise of not being burnt to death) as rockland.
Away from the desert area is a mix of dry shrublands and grasslands (with grasses of various lengths) called the drylands. There are few trees, a mix of young trees and older mature ones. The only trees that survive long enough are more fire resistant species. Ozmore owns a decent stretch of the dryland, mostly obtained through strategic measures involving moving large branches and logs whilst they're set on fire in order to cut off an eliminate competition. He's learnt to use the wildfires to his advantages by picking off burning material and moving it to areas that aren't on fire yet in order to surround areas. This has allowed him to continue to claim territory (and also defend it to a decent level, although it doesn't always work, causing him to flee for the rocklands instead).
At the North end of Ozmore's territory is a small woodland that eventually mixes with a large jungle on a slope (the slope is a mountain, it gets steeper the further you go up). With his current territory Ozmore can only just reach the very edge of the jungle (the area where it's mixing in with the woodland). He calls the small woodland and the jungle the treelands. He has hopes of conquering the treelands but there's a lot of competition there, and its all competition he can't deter (or kill off) by strategically using the fires, since this area is less prone to catching on fire compared to the rest of his territory.
North East in the drylands is a river. He only controls a small part of the river, but its enough to drink from and hunt when prey are migrating. There's potential for cutting off prey as it crosses over the river, but to do so he's need a few individuals to help him. Territory by the river is difficult to fight for and he only owns a tiny bit of land on the opposite side (the East side) of the river. There are rival prides he hasn't managed to move using fire on that side and crossing is often too dangerous alone. On the West side of the river he owns a decent stretch, altough nothing too impressive, its just part of what he claimed after a more recent wildfire.
Towards the west is a seemingly never ending drylands. The drylands actually go further up north, its just that Ozmore is unaware of this as he's claimed territory in an area where the gap between the jungle and desert is the closest together that any other location. Most of that area is untouched by Ozmore, at least for now.
Wildfires are the most common time that Ozmore gains new territoy. Wildfires are very common (at least in the dry grasslands and dry shrublands that make up the majority of his territory). Without finally forming a pride with other members besides himself it's impossible for Ozmore to gain any more territory and actually defend it. The thing is, instead of fighting a male and taking over a pride Ozmore is too afraid to fight other lions and would rather just try to trap them in a fire. This either causes them to flee and loose a chunk of their territory or die in the process of trying to escape.
Maned or not maned: Maned
Inspiration/preferences/design prompt:
A very dark brown mane (nearing black but not quite that dark). A coat to that's an oddly darker version of a natural lion's coat (maybe a little darker than
this lion? like dark but not too dark, if that makes sense).
The could could be darker towards the top of his back, forming a single darker stripe (a stripe lighter than his mane but darker than the rest of his coat) that starts at his nose and runs all the way down his back and his tail (if the tail could entirely be the color of the dark stripe that would be great). The stripe could be is a solid stripe down his back or done more as a gradient, i don't mind.
In general i'd like his design to remain simple, plain and dark.
im so sorry that's probably not very interesting to design, i just really want a plain design that's easy to draw.