Gentle Giant

Mohatu: Savior
Pride Affiliation: Pridelanders (Birth)
Relations: Mate to Varona: [link], Father to Ahadi: [link]

Mohatu was only an infant cub when his father was killed by the hyenas, leaving the Queen to carry out her duties alone. Without a father, Mohatu had a close bond with his mother, eager to learn the important lessons of being the future King, such as maintaining order in the balance of the circle of life, and using a firm paw only when necessary. Mohatu loved to learn, but one thing he couldn't bring himself past is the idea that one animal must die to nourish their pride. Even when his mother explained that when their bodies died and became part of the grass eaten by the antelope, he couldn't bring himself past killing another creature. He tried desperately to become a vegetarian, but found that the grass and leaves could not nourish his natural predatory inclination toward meat. After several failed attempts and finding that such a diet made him sick, eventually he relented, but decided at a young age that he would at least make it fair on the prey animals, no hunting by the rivers and streams especially during times to drought. All animals were to be respected by all members of the pride.
As Mohatu got older, his body caught up to his vast size making him one of the largest lions born in the line of succession, but despite his size he was a very fair and gentle lion. Now that it was almost time for him to succeed the throne, his mother thought it time to arrange for a betrothed. With most prides having sons, or already arranged their daughters to a potential mate, she sought out a distant pride that they hadn't made any negotiations with in the past known as the Dawn pride. It was with luck that this pride did have one daughter who was not yet married, the only female in a litter of sons. With a promise of alliance and fairly sizable dowry, the princess was sent back with the Queen to marry her son. Mohatu was quite taken with this beauty from a distant land, but she was extremely shy having never ventured so far from her home before. Seeing his gentle personality, Varona eventually found herself taken by the King, who found she was a bit more rough around the edges than she let on, but Mohatu liked this contrast to his own personality. A combination of toughness, and gentleness with the softest of voices and sternest of paws.

Satisfied that her son was in good paws, the Queen stepped down from the throne.

Thus began Mohatu's reign, and the animals revered him as great and wise for his age. He even managed to peacefully resolve a situation with the dreaded Choyo and his pride of rogues. As time passed, Varona bared him a son, who he saw a lot of promise in, thus was named Ahadi. Yet no matter how badly his son acted up, the gentle King could not bring himself to raise a paw at the boy, leaving Varona to punish him whenever necessary. Still, at the very least he was able to imprint his mothers teachings on Ahadi, including the teachings of the stars.

Perhaps had he known that his negotiations with Choyo's rogue pride had resulted in him moving to another territory and destroying the Ashlands, he might have dealt with Choyo in a different manner, which may have been one of the reasons why he betrothed Uru to his son in the first place, aside from the fact that he wanted a princess for his son and wanted to use that opportunity wisely. Although he was a great King, he wasn't without his mistakes and perhaps he was too gentle, for later on in life he saw his folly in being too gentle with his own son who rejected the Princess Uru. For the first time, he had to be harsh with his son, which took a toll on his aging body.

He eventually died, succumbing to the stress of his heart both due to old age, and his oversized body.

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So this is my version of Mohatu. I made him slightly different from the books, but I tried to at least stay true to his colors. I gave Mohatu a beard and decided to give him matching colored paws rather than marked paws that are usually characteristic of males in TLK. He was considered one of the greatest Kings for being gentle, yet gentleness is a double edged sword as he wasn't stern enough with his son, and regretted later on that perhaps in some situations, such as Choyo's situation a more violent approach was really necessary. He had no idea that another pride lived in the area that he'd sent Choyo to. He tried really hard to do the right thing, but he's not perfect and messed a few things up. Still, he's a nice guy, but unfortunately too nice and a pushover.
Also when I drew him he ended up being huge. I don't really think it was intentional, but I decided to run with it and have fun incorporating it into his backstory. So my Mohatu has gigantism. ^^ Unfortunately gigantism can cause problems with the circulatory or skeletal system, so when Ahadi rebelled against Mohatu's wishes, it sent Mohatu who never wanted to be harsh with his son into cardiac arrest. Not the most interesting of deaths, but it explains why he's not around to see the birth of his grandsons. Ahadi DOES feel bad about his father's death, which may be why he does grudgingly marry Uru.
Also, giganticism can be passed on through a mutated gene, which is inheirited by Ahadi and Mufasa, although it affects them in lessor degrees. Fortunately for Taka/Scar, he doesn't inherit the gene, since he takes after his mom in body type. Simba doesn't seem to have the gene either, so it could be assumed that the gene is in the other 50% of genes that aren't inherited by the parents and thus lost. So Simba's more of a normal sized lion but is still a good size compared to Scar.
So yeah, a few design tweaks because I think he looks too much like Mufasa, plus I gave him the beard so that Ahadi does inherit one of those traits, but when I post Varona's design I imagine Ahadi got most of his looks from his mum, while he got his dad's body size and beard. Mufasa actually takes after his mom in that her side doesn't have the beards. If Ahadi's design can have such contrast in design, why not Mohatu?