Name: Etana (meaning ‘strong’ in Swahili)

Age: Adult

Breed: African Lion

Gender: Female

Parents: Dharau and Adila, King and Queen of the North Mountains all (c) me

Adopted parents: Takata (c) me

Siblings: Jelani, Prince and Heir of the North Mountains (c) me

Crush: None

Mate: Baraka (c) me

Cubs: Has three, two sons and one daughter, all (c) me

Likes: Her twin brother, and mother (though she never hears from them again), Baraka (of course), Arif and his family, helping Baraka in the royal duties of the kingdom, stargazing (even though she cannot see), time with Baraka, and their children, and her position as Baraka’s Queen.

Dislikes: fighting, knowing that others hurt in some manner. Refuses to allow others to be hurt by family the way she was by her father King Dharau of the North Mountains. The nightmares she often suffers as a result of her father’s lack of love. She also hates rain because it cripples her extended senses.

Personality: Is quiet but loves talking to others who seek her counsel and wisdom. She and her brother were very close and there are times when she misses him terribly. She often wondered if she, along with her adopted father, Takata, would ever be accepted into a pride. Being in the Pridelands gave her hope and her friendship with the King helped her regain her trust in Kings, especially after her own father’s cruel treatment of her. She began to spend time with Baraka and realized he loved spending time with her. And she helped Arif move on after he separated from his wife, Akase.

History: Daughter of King Dharau and Queen Adilia of the North Mountain Pride, Etana is the first born daughter of Dharau's royal line and is named heiress of the throne that is until her father and mother discover she is blind. Dharau is enraged and will not allow his daughter to be the next queen of the North Mountains as he feels that a lion or lioness, a royal one, born not being able to see, is considered in his eyes, weak and unfit for the leadership. He disowns his daughter at the news and decides to train his only son, his second born child, Jelani to be his heir because he can see.

As Etana grows up she tries her hardest to be like the other cubs and play with them but the cubs want nothing to do with her due to her impairment. She finds comfort and solace from the cubs and her father in her brother and mother and Jelani teaches her how to be normal despite the blindness. Her mother does the same, when she is not dealing with the kingdom or trying to keep her mate away from her daughter. Through her brother's teaching Etana is able to not only see as well as a normal seeing lion but is able to separate the pride members by listening to their steps in the grasses or on the rocks and hearing their voices and sniffing the air, catching their different scents.

As time passes the pride is astounded by how well she is learning and the elder lionesses, the ones who were there when Etana's grandfather, a blind lion himself, was ruling offer to help the princess and teach her advanced ways on how to be normal though being blind. Adilia is impressed with her daughter's urge and determination to be normal and wishes her mate would just realize that Etana would be a good queen whether she was blind or not but Dharau, set in his ways, would not hear of it.

Etana wishes her father would love her and she tries to come and spend time with him but Dharau pushes her away and hurts her verbally but saying the four words no child wants to hear from a parent, 'I don't love you'. With those words, the young princess finds herself at a terrible loss but her soul is strong and it gives her the courage to keep trying to win her father's affections.

The more she learns and demonstrates what she has learned, the cubs of the pride see her in a new light and welcome her with open paws, which pleases the adults and Jelani greatly but time is growing short for the princess in her home though she does not realize it.

One late night, Adilia, fearing for her daughter's life, takes her away from the North Mountian territory hoping that she could have a better life as her mate, the king, may one day decide to kill her because he fears that with Etana's education, that the cub, when grown, may overthrow him and take the throne which Dharau feels, should belong to Jelani. It was Jelani who suggested to his mother that Etana be taken away from the pride for her own safety. The young prince said he would keep his father at bay while she was gone.

When Adilia makes it out of her home's territory, she wanders until she stumbles upon a rogue lion named Takata. She tells him her story and with great hesitation but persistance, the black colored lion takes the princess of the North Mountains as his own daughter. In the depths of her heart, Etana herself knew it was too dangerous for her to stay in the North Mountain and gladly calls the black lion 'father'.

Like some of the lionesses, her brother and her mother, her new father teaches her more and more and when Etana is fully grown she has surpassed all doubters’ expectations. She sees without seeing and looks on a creature directly in the face. She studies them, how they walk and talk and memorizes their scents. Because of this, she is living her life as normal as possible except for being a rogue.

As the years passed she showed no anger or frustration on her mother for leaving her as Etana knew it was in her best interest. Thanks to her mother, she was alive and with a lion who loved her as if she were his child of blood. She thanks the gods everyday for the second chance. One day she and Takata decide to find a pride that would take them in and the two start walking hoping to find that special pride. They live in a jungle until Takata hears of a pride that is a haven to those who have nothing or are in need of a home... the Pridelands.

There, her presence changes everyone. She forms a deep friendship with the king and his family. She can heal stricken animals by lying beside them and taking their pain upon herself, freeing them of their illnesses if she does so in time. She heals a guardian’s wife, the Prince/Shaman’s daughter from emotional struggle, and later another guardian’s sister after she is attacked by Prince Arif’s wife, Akase.

Overtime she tells King Baraka of her past, which draws them both closer together. When the rain season starts, Etana tries to return to Pride Rock only to be attacked by a childhood friend of the King, Prince, and the guardians, a lioness named Hasira. She nearly dies from the lioness’s attacks and is crippled more than ever being out in the rain and is unconscious when Baraka, a guard, and her adopted father come to the rescue. She is taken by to the caves and once she is healed, the King, after taking her to a waterhole where they could talk privately, admits his feelings for her and she admits she’s in love with him too.

After the rain season they marry in a double ceremony with Prince Arif and the lioness Saada, and there she is also crowned Queen of the Pridelands.

Relation to TLK: Mate of Baraka, the son of Kovu and Kiara

Long bio, I know, but I consider Etana my absolute favorite and greatest character ^^

Headshot and body pic (c) me