Art by Glitch-.

~ Backstory ~
In an ancient world, the lioness named Rachel was born as a male cub named Raphael to a warrior named Horatio and a healer named Anastasia. Since the days of Raphael's youth, 'he' longed for adventure and was stricken with wanderlust at the tales of his father. Though born male, Raphael never quite associated with the ways of a boy in his culture, always showing interest in more feminine traits -- rather than the sword and spear, Raph preferred dagger and staff; rather than sports, Raph preferred to use 'his' imagination. An avid fan of belly dancing, Raph oft fantasized of wearing the sensual outfits of lady dancers. Even so, he feared his father's opinions on such, as the acceptance of LGBT folk varied from pride to pride of lion-folk in his home world.

One day when Raph was twenty years of age, his father went off on one last adventure, having unfinished business to attend to regarding a warlock that had plagued the savanna they lived in. When Horatio did not return, Raphael took up his dagger and quarterstaff and chased after the warlock, having been trained in the fighting arts by his father.

In two weeks' time on his quest, Raphael met with increasingly strange dreams, especially given the nature of dark magic associated with his quarry and their handiwork. More and more, Raphael began to piece together bits of his true identity on the journey; memories of his feminine associations in the past, tied together with strange phenomena and other eldritch dreams and visions throughout his young life. Met with the warlock at last, Raph learned his father was to be sacrificed at the next new moon to appease the titans of their world. Fighting valiantly, Raph was blasted with bolts of eldritch energy throughout the fight, but did not fall dead from the otherwise deadly forces.

By the end of the battle, with the lion(ess) successfully slaying the warlock, the uncanny sensations from the arcane blasts became overwhelming, and Raphael collapsed. His father freed, Raphael was brought to a healer by Horatio, the younger lion's body mutating and shifting rapidly. Throughout a short-lived coma, Raphael's mystical traits had awoken deep within. Through mystical bloodlines on Anastasia's side of the family, Raph's true nature came to the forefront -- the lion's spirit was feminine, and was associated with phantasmal powers.

When Raph awoke, he possessed the anatomy he'd dreamed of for many moons -- that of a lioness, even a lioness with male genitals. More and more, through focus and willpower (and especially bouts of emotions), he found he could control his body's form through magic, among other inborn powers. If he wanted, he could even turn his intersex shape into a fully masculine one... but with his dream self realized, why would he ever want to?

Adopting the name Rachel, the lioness within was now free and in the flesh. As time went by, Rachel would grow to become a wandering witch... and even gained the ability to visit worlds outside her own.

~ Behind The Scenes ~
Rachel was, for the most part, inspired by Nala and Kiara from The Lion King. I've always had a thing for Nala's sassy style and Kiara's heroism and sense of adventure; as such, Rachel came into being.

Originally there was another version of Rachel I had. Wanting to change her up since my coming out as transgender, here is a new version of her backstory.

Her dead name, Raphael, was a name I used for a now-defunct male form of her.