#prides

Prides

Prides can range from 3 to 40 members, with 15 being the average. Children in prides are called cubs. Prides are organized in a strict hierarchy, with the head alpha(s) at the top, omegas second, and beta females last. The head alpha eats first, then the omegas, then the cubs, and finally the beta females.

Prides are usually led by one head alpha, but sometimes they will have two. They never have three or more head alphas. The main job of the head alpha(s) is to protect the pride’s territory through patrols and to protect the omegas, beta females, and cubs in their pride from danger. They mark their territory with their scent, and if an alpha or beta male were to enter it, they would kill them. Any omegas or beta females who enter would be absorbed into the pride, but this very rarely happens, as omegas and beta females never leave the pride they were born in. It only really occurs if they wander in accidentally while hunting.

Omegas are the most powerful group after the head alpha(s). Omegas and beta females are in charge of hunting for the pack, creating clothes, and having and raising cubs. The omega with the oldest omega cub has the most control after the head alpha, and power descends in age order of omega cubs after them. Cubs are raised communally, with mothers helping each other with watching the cubs in order to more effectively distribute tasks. All omegas in a pride are the claimed mates of the head alpha, and all children in the pride are fathered by the head alpha. This is why there are rarely more than one head alpha in a pack, as most alphas do not want to share their omegas.

Beta females are the least powerful group in a pride. They never have intercourse with the head alpha, and therefore never have children. Because of this, they are seen as the most expendable members of a pride, and are therefore given more dangerous tasks and expected to do more work. Despite being treated badly, beta females never leave, because they know there is nowhere they can go where another pride or lone alpha wouldn’t just take them and treat them exactly the same or worse.

Because prides are run mainly by omegas and beta females, with only one head alpha, prides have a very strange relationship with alpha cubs and beta male cubs. These cubs will grow up to leave the pride and try to find one of their own, making raising them an effort that does not benefit the pride very much. However, alpha cubs are still seen as valuable because of the head alpha’s instinct to advance their bloodline. If another pride is run by one of their cubs, then all the cubs born in that pride will be their grandchildren. Therefore, raising their alpha cubs is in a head alpha’s best interest.

The same is not true for beta males. Alphas are stronger than beta males, meaning beta males have a very, very small chance of ever running their own pride. Because beta males cannot be trusted as manual members of a pride like beta females are, as they are capable of impregnating the omegas and beta females, they are therefore seen as useless, and are left to die at birth.

All cubs are raised by their mothers, and will learn valuable hunting and other survival skills from them. Omega and beta females will also be taught how to make clothes and food, while alpha cubs will be taught how to fight by their father.

Alphas will leave their birth pride between the ages of 14 and 18. When one alpha decides to leave their birth pride, all their alpha siblings 14 or older will go with them. If an alpha cub does not leave their pride by the time they turn 18, they will be forcibly removed by their father. After they leave, their father will see them as an active threat, and they will be killed if they try to return.

After leaving their pride, the group of alpha siblings will roam, avoiding prides as they learn to survive on their own and grow strong. Head alphas will not show them mercy if they catch them in their territory as they will see them as future threats, even if they are all still cubs. When they decide they are ready, alphas will leave their sibling group one by one to find new prides and head alphas to challenge, until there is no one left in the group.

Once they’ve left their sibling group, alphas will find a pride with a weaker head alpha and fight them to the death. To initiate a challenge, an alpha just needs to step into a head alpha’s territory. The second they are found by the head alpha, the fight will commence. Other members of the pride will not intervene, no matter which way the fight goes. If the challenger loses, their body will be left on the territory line as an example. If the challenger wins, they will carry the old head alpha’s corpse to the center of their territory, where all the pride members live, in order to show them who their new head alpha is. They will then kill all of the pride’s cubs, no matter their secondary gender. They do this in order to kickstart all the pride’s omegas’ heat cycles, as omegas’ cycles stop after they give birth until they either lose their cub or their cub completes puberty. Because this is culturally expected, omegas will direct their grief at the dead former head alpha instead of the new one, as they hold them responsible for not being able to protect the pride. The new head alpha will then sleep with and claim all the omegas in the pride in order to cement themselves in their new position.

If a pride has two head alphas, then the challenger will have to kill both of them. For this reason, prides with two alphas will usually be replaced by two alphas, but singular challengers still commonly risk it by attacking the current alphas singularly while they’re patrolling alone. 

Some alphas, not wanting to risk losing a fight to a stronger alpha, never try to take over a pride. These alphas live nomadically, staying clear of prides’ territories in order to avoid fights with head alphas. Sometimes, a solitary alpha will find an abandoned beta male cub, and will raise it as if it was their own pup. Rare cubs who successfully ran away to avoid death when their fathers were killed by challengers also sometimes join these groups. Very rarely, these groups have gotten big enough that they try and invade a pride in order to steal beta females and/or omegas, but they are usually culled by said beta females and omegas and the head alpha.