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Description
Another batch of characters I've been meaning to draw for a while, the first two were the ones I was the most excited for, then I added Ni cuz I needed someone to fill the slot and the theme at the same time.

- Vikali was a gret, proud king, he was from far away pride, that still went my the old law of the strongest; when he came of age, he was chased out just like any other male. Vikali was able to find and win over a pride that also still went by the old rules, but by that point kingdoms were starting to become the expected norm, and he wanted his to also become one; one of the things he did was naming his firstborn (a daughter) his heir, and offer his second son, Kubeba, up for a betrothal; he was a bit skeptical about forcing his son to take on someone he didn't choose himself, so he reached out to a pride that had three bachelor princesses, the rocklands.
Vikali uphold his place as king for a long time, until a pair of stronger, younger rogues managed to chase him out. He escaped with his life, but was left with a gnarly scar and an aching jaw, caused by a blow to the face (it was a crooked fang, that went on to bother him for quite a few seasons).
He went to live in the jungle, and there he became secluded, the animals started calling him "Tanglemane", and eventually the nickname stuck. Simba meets him a few months into living in the jungle, and after they helped each other out, Tanglemane became like a mentor to him. He was starting to get old however, old enough to be Simba's grandfather (he's his uncle's father, but since he never talked about his son, and Simba never talked about his previous life, they never figured out).
Tanglemane was an interesting character to draw/design, the illustrations on the magazine he's featured in are a bit inconsistent, so I got creative in some points; I mainly kept him the same tho. I made the mane three shades of red and gave it a split, it has a very different style so I kept it, I was planning on toning down the white on the chin, but then I saw he had pink lips and possibly vitiligo, so I kept that, I gave him an underbelly, I saw many don't because the one he has in the magazine isn't colored in or make it orange, I compromised and made it a lighter shade of the main pelt color. Lastly I made the scars on his arm a bit bigger, cuz they look like cat scratches in the magazine.
He's Kubeba's dad, therfore he's also Nadra and Mtoto's grandpa, I may revist the latter's mane/design now that I have this done, I was never happy with it.

- - - - -

- Johari is a sheepish rogue, abandoned by his parents when he was a teen because they couldn't feed him, he lived his life in the free lands, constantly at odds with other lions and other predators. He briefly wandered into the Pridelands, where he met Simba, the nephew of his long lost cousin (he's not aware of any of that). Simba mistakes him for one of his ancestors and Joe decides to play along, if anything because the cub kept on bringing him food, something he's always had a shortage of. In the end he runs away before Mufasa finds out, but he also saves Simba from crocodiles in the process.
Joe is the nephew of Choyo, the selfish lion, and thus Uru's cousin, however he's much younger than her and they never met; in fact, since Choyo and his brother (Johari's dad) were estranged since they were teens, Joe has no idea he even has a uncle.
I love this dude's design, I basically kept him the same as his comic self (he's "King Joe" in the comic "A gift from the heavens"), I just had to cherry-pick some features around because the original drawings are inconsistent. My favorite part is definitely his mane, but I also like his weird nose shape. As for his colors, I noticed how orange his pelt is only afterwards, I guess we know where the orange of Mufasa and Simba's pelts comes from, Uru's side of the family! I don't have Choyo's parents figured out, but one of them definitely has an orange pelt.

Name: Johari
Name meaning: Jewel

Place of birth: Freelands
Residence: Freelands
Title: rogue

Parents: unnamed lioness, Rahisi
Siblings: N/A
Mate: N/A
Children: N/A

Cause of death: unknown

- - - - -

- Ni's life is a sad one, he never met his parents, he lost/was abandoned by them when he was too young to remember, he was barely old enough to eat meat. He had to survive off bugs and small/lizards at first, always hiding from any predator he came across, he started mudding up his fur to mask his scent, he leant how to talk from listening to other animals talking, for the longest time he didn't even have a name. Later, when he first had to introduce himself to another rogue that helped him out, he decided to call himself Niko hai, because despite all the odds being against him, he was still alive.
He wandered into the Pridelands in his late teens during Scar's reign, where he met Nala, Kula and the others, before being chased out by the hyenas. He came back to meet them at the borders a couple of times, and has he grew older and could hunt more, he started bringing them food as well, each time he'd have a new scar,as life kept being unforgiving to him. Later he helps Nala run away to seek help, he wanted to help her find a few males to usurp scar as well, but his leg gets chewed by a hyena as they were escaping, and he had to stay behind, at grass walls, to heal while Nala searched for help. When news came that a new king overthrew Scar, he decided to go back and see. He started meeting Kula and Tama in "secret" afraid the new King would chase him out like many had done before (Simba knew, but Nala explained him Ni's situation and he let it slide). A few months in, Kula and Tama went to him to... seek help forming a family, and he agreed to help them. At first they kept it a secret, but as Kula's pregnancy became more obvious questions started rising, she'd answer that the cub(s) were her wife's, of course, but in the end she and Tama admitted they recieved some "help" form a certain rogue. They convinced Ni to talk to Simba, who gladly let him stay; he became a border guard and later a loving ""uncle"" to Aisha and Chaka.
My twist on good old Ni from "Nala's dare", I wasn't too thrilled about him, I just wanted to get him out of the way, then this ^^^^ happened (as it always does as of late). Design wise I made him a bit more scrawny and gave him a longer snout compared to Simba, but kept his overall book appearance (added a dupe nose gradient to make him a bit more unique)... except for the scars... I started with the one on his paw and then it got out of hand, he got them: from getting gored by a buffalo's horns (face), getting bit by a crocodile (front paw), attacked by a leopard (belly) and of course the one on his hind leg is from a hyena. The one on his face resulted in him losing a couple of whiskers as well.

Name: "Ni"ko hai
Name meaning: I am alive

Place of birth: Freelands
Residence: Freelands (formerly), Pridelands
Title: rogue (formerly), border guard

Parents: unknown
Siblings: unknown
Mate: Kula (donor)
Children: Chaka , Aisha

Someone stop me, these headcanons are getting out of hand (or don't, maybe you enjoy my ramblings).
As you can see I wasn't too thrilled about drawing Ni (started the sketch on a bad night), then it got out if hand (again), I love him! The name was what prompted me to go off the rails with the backstory, I'm pretty happy with it.

Still using these as cool-off while I work on a bigger, unrelated piece, it's almost done, I should have it ready in the next two days.

edit: added them to the family tree .

TLK by disney
art by me, do not copy, trace, repost, reuse ecc without my permission please.

Description
Another batch of characters I've been meaning to draw for a while, the first two were the ones I was the most excited for, then I added Ni cuz I needed someone to fill the slot and the theme at the same time.

- Vikali was a gret, proud king, he was from far away pride, that still went my the old law of the strongest; when he came of age, he was chased out just like any other male. Vikali was able to find and win over a pride that also still went by the old rules, but by that point kingdoms were starting to become the expected norm, and he wanted his to also become one; one of the things he did was naming his firstborn (a daughter) his heir, and offer his second son, Kubeba, up for a betrothal; he was a bit skeptical about forcing his son to take on someone he didn't choose himself, so he reached out to a pride that had three bachelor princesses, the rocklands.
Vikali uphold his place as king for a long time, until a pair of stronger, younger rogues managed to chase him out. He escaped with his life, but was left with a gnarly scar and an aching jaw, caused by a blow to the face (it was a crooked fang, that went on to bother him for quite a few seasons).
He went to live in the jungle, and there he became secluded, the animals started calling him "Tanglemane", and eventually the nickname stuck. Simba meets him a few months into living in the jungle, and after they helped each other out, Tanglemane became like a mentor to him. He was starting to get old however, old enough to be Simba's grandfather (he's his uncle's father, but since he never talked about his son, and Simba never talked about his previous life, they never figured out).
Tanglemane was an interesting character to draw/design, the illustrations on the magazine he's featured in are a bit inconsistent, so I got creative in some points; I mainly kept him the same tho. I made the mane three shades of red and gave it a split, it has a very different style so I kept it, I was planning on toning down the white on the chin, but then I saw he had pink lips and possibly vitiligo, so I kept that, I gave him an underbelly, I saw many don't because the one he has in the magazine isn't colored in or make it orange, I compromised and made it a lighter shade of the main pelt color. Lastly I made the scars on his arm a bit bigger, cuz they look like cat scratches in the magazine.
He's Kubeba's dad, therfore he's also Nadra and Mtoto's grandpa, I may revist the latter's mane/design now that I have this done, I was never happy with it.

- - - - -

- Johari is a sheepish rogue, abandoned by his parents when he was a teen because they couldn't feed him, he lived his life in the free lands, constantly at odds with other lions and other predators. He briefly wandered into the Pridelands, where he met Simba, the nephew of his long lost cousin (he's not aware of any of that). Simba mistakes him for one of his ancestors and Joe decides to play along, if anything because the cub kept on bringing him food, something he's always had a shortage of. In the end he runs away before Mufasa finds out, but he also saves Simba from crocodiles in the process.
Joe is the nephew of Choyo, the selfish lion, and thus Uru's cousin, however he's much younger than her and they never met; in fact, since Choyo and his brother (Johari's dad) were estranged since they were teens, Joe has no idea he even has a uncle.
I love this dude's design, I basically kept him the same as his comic self (he's "King Joe" in the comic "A gift from the heavens"), I just had to cherry-pick some features around because the original drawings are inconsistent. My favorite part is definitely his mane, but I also like his weird nose shape. As for his colors, I noticed how orange his pelt is only afterwards, I guess we know where the orange of Mufasa and Simba's pelts comes from, Uru's side of the family! I don't have Choyo's parents figured out, but one of them definitely has an orange pelt.

Name: Johari
Name meaning: Jewel

Place of birth: Freelands
Residence: Freelands
Title: rogue

Parents: unnamed lioness, Rahisi
Siblings: N/A
Mate: N/A
Children: N/A

Cause of death: unknown

- - - - -

- Ni's life is a sad one, he never met his parents, he lost/was abandoned by them when he was too young to remember, he was barely old enough to eat meat. He had to survive off bugs and small/lizards at first, always hiding from any predator he came across, he started mudding up his fur to mask his scent, he leant how to talk from listening to other animals talking, for the longest time he didn't even have a name. Later, when he first had to introduce himself to another rogue that helped him out, he decided to call himself Niko hai, because despite all the odds being against him, he was still alive.
He wandered into the Pridelands in his late teens during Scar's reign, where he met Nala, Kula and the others, before being chased out by the hyenas. He came back to meet them at the borders a couple of times, and has he grew older and could hunt more, he started bringing them food as well, each time he'd have a new scar,as life kept being unforgiving to him. Later he helps Nala run away to seek help, he wanted to help her find a few males to usurp scar as well, but his leg gets chewed by a hyena as they were escaping, and he had to stay behind, at grass walls, to heal while Nala searched for help. When news came that a new king overthrew Scar, he decided to go back and see. He started meeting Kula and Tama in "secret" afraid the new King would chase him out like many had done before (Simba knew, but Nala explained him Ni's situation and he let it slide). A few months in, Kula and Tama went to him to... seek help forming a family, and he agreed to help them. At first they kept it a secret, but as Kula's pregnancy became more obvious questions started rising, she'd answer that the cub(s) were her wife's, of course, but in the end she and Tama admitted they recieved some "help" form a certain rogue. They convinced Ni to talk to Simba, who gladly let him stay; he became a border guard and later a loving ""uncle"" to Aisha and Chaka.
My twist on good old Ni from "Nala's dare", I wasn't too thrilled about him, I just wanted to get him out of the way, then this ^^^^ happened (as it always does as of late). Design wise I made him a bit more scrawny and gave him a longer snout compared to Simba, but kept his overall book appearance (added a dupe nose gradient to make him a bit more unique)... except for the scars... I started with the one on his paw and then it got out of hand, he got them: from getting gored by a buffalo's horns (face), getting bit by a crocodile (front paw), attacked by a leopard (belly) and of course the one on his hind leg is from a hyena. The one on his face resulted in him losing a couple of whiskers as well.

Name: "Ni"ko hai
Name meaning: I am alive

Place of birth: Freelands
Residence: Freelands (formerly), Pridelands
Title: rogue (formerly), border guard

Parents: unknown
Siblings: unknown
Mate: Kula (donor)
Children: Chaka , Aisha

Someone stop me, these headcanons are getting out of hand (or don't, maybe you enjoy my ramblings).
As you can see I wasn't too thrilled about drawing Ni (started the sketch on a bad night), then it got out if hand (again), I love him! The name was what prompted me to go off the rails with the backstory, I'm pretty happy with it.

Still using these as cool-off while I work on a bigger, unrelated piece, it's almost done, I should have it ready in the next two days.

edit: added them to the family tree .

TLK by disney
art by me, do not copy, trace, repost, reuse ecc without my permission please.