Deviation Actions
Description
Name: Chipo - "Gift"
Age: Adult
Species: Lion
Gender:Lioness
Rank and Pride: Huntress of the Delta
Personality:
.Compassionate.
Chipo was raised to be compassionate, and so she is. To her, there is no other way. She shall listen and care, for that is her purpose, and no one can deny their destiny.
.Stubborn.
A negative trait that appeared after her departure from the Plateau, Chipo does not like being told she is wrong. Most of what she does is left from her training and days with the Priestesses, and she knows what she does is just and right in the eyes of the Goddess- who are others to judge what the Goddess deems good?
.Helpful.
Chipo is a healer, through and through. If one requires her skills, Chipo would not hesitate to give it, regardless of rank or deed- her gifts are Goddess-given, and if she fails to use them, Chipo had been taught it would be a slight against her. And so she cares little for who she is helping, as long as she is!
.Fearful.
Born of living with cruel slavers, Chipo doesn’t know where it is right to place her paws, or what words are acceptable to speak. So, she simply does and says nothing unless ordered to directly, for fear of doing the wrong thing. Thanks to her early days of being hit or attacked for things she thought were simple and innocent, she tends to flinch at quick movent.
.Secretive.
Ghariki allowed no religion or worship, and so Chipo is used to keeping her heart and prayers and customs silent. Perhaps some of the Delta lions will be able to crack this shell and learn a bit more about their pride sister.
History:
Chipo was born in a land far from the Delta, across a great hot desert, in the shadow of a great plateau, surrounded by great fertile lands. There was no true pride that ruled here, and yet no pride attacked in order to claim this 'promised land', as the lions who lived here in the shadow of the plateau was an order of priestesses that worshiped and served a nameless Goddess, heralded to be the one true Goddess that birthed the world and watches over it from above.
Chipo was an orphan cub, one of the many the priestesses took in and raised communally. As a female, she was raised apart from the male cubs, taught and trained for a lifetime of service to the Goddess, to serve all in her name as a healer and adviser. As a young cub, she was simply taught the stories of the order, of old lionesses who served great kings or did great deeds.
When she grew old enough to understand the worth of a life, and to know right and wrong, Chipo's lessons grew from simple stories to the art of healing- and with healing, also death. The Priestesses taught her which herbs would heal, and which would kill, and the uses of each. She learned doses and effects, and which herb was appropriate for which illness and symptom. She loved these days of her training, and when she speaks of them, it is always fondly.
When she reached of an age to understand the thoughts of others, and motives, and the fact that not all lions are as noble and good as the Priestesses, Chipo was introduced to a different aspect of the Priestess' service, and one just as vital as healing- in the caves beneath the plateau in which she lived, the Priestesses kept and cared for criminals, thieves and kinslayers and murderers. It was then she began the training that would change her life forever- training as a guard and a witness to the prisoners.
She was a young lioness, and naive, and had not yet learned that the deeper the cell, the worse the criminal. One day, she traveled deep into the caves, simply curious. Curiosity was never a crime she was punished for, and she found something that day. A proud lion, a great pale grey king with a mighty red mane. She was in awe the moment she saw him. He convinced her to visit him often, and more came of their friendship than Chipo was truly ready for.
When the Priestesses found their young sister sneaking off to enjoy the company of a cub-killer, she was promptly punished, and restricted to the outer caves that held oath-breakers and thieves. It was there she met a nameless lioness- she was a quiet, bitter thing, and rarely spoke to anyone, yet one day she pulled Chipo aside. The nameless lioness professed to the younger Priestess her crime- she had been a Priestess once, as well. Yet she bore 'unsanctioned' cubs, bastard children the Grand Matron, the leader of the Priestesses, did not permit. When the Priestesses came to kill the corrupted cubs, the lioness had defended her children, and her name was stripped and she was thrown into the caves... After watching her babies die.
Chipo was too young to realize the prisoner had known she was with cub, and the knowledge of what would happen to her poor babies terrified her. That night, Chipo left, never to return to the Plateau. She ran until she reached the edge of a great desert. It was there she scratched out a life, hunting what she could until her cubs were born. Her daughter was stillborn, the strain of a scarce life and a mother too young having taken her life before she even left the womb. Chipo's son, however, still lived- Joyous, Chipo rushed away to hunt, determined she would keep him alive, at least her one precious son.
When she returned, Chipo found nothing but a mound of dirt where her daughter had been, and pawprints. Her son was gone.
Lost and alone, and unable to return home, Chipo made her way into the desert, making a deal with the Goddess she served- Should she find the other side, she would continue living, and leave her old life behind. She found it, countless days after she began her journey. She passed pride territories and rogue lands alike, searching for a new purpose, when a new purpose found her- Uduak. The slaver-catcher was chasing a runaway, and mistaking the scene for an escaped prisoner and a Priestess, Chipo jumped in to help Uduak capture her quarry.
By the time she found out what had truly happened, when Uduak presented her to High King Ghariki, Chipo was too terrified to correct the strange lioness. What if they made her a slave, too, or killed her? With Uduak vouching for her skill and strength, Ghariki permitted Chipo to remain, as a huntress. Chipo kept her head low and did her duty, keeping her past and skills as a healer secret from the rest of the Delta lions. To them, she was simply some rogue Uduak took in.
Over time, Chipo and Uduak became close friends, with the slaver-lion teaching her friend to keep her religion secret, and all the ins and outs of the Delta. When Ghariki fell and Ruh took over the Delta as King, Chipo was relieved, yet sad. She even chased after her friend, in secret, and earned nothing from it but scars. Agian, she is really, truly alone.
