A quick concept sketch for Matriarch.

this is Subira, Nak and Iuk's Mother, Lady Imuyaa.

you'll only get a sketch because I'm still working on her body and color design.

Like Subira, Imuyaa was a 'take-no-nonsense' type of woman who was stern and serious around all but children (who she had a soft spot for). she was also the very first woman to rule the country of Al'alappa after having been ruled over by 9 other individual kings throughout the years since Al'alappa's great discovering.

Her relationship with her husband, the unofficial King Dosoman, was not exactly a very intimate one.
they hardly showed any of the 'mushy/gushy' affection to one another that most married couples did, in fact it seemed more or less that they mostly ignored one another after their three daughters were born. but that wasn't exactly the case, the two really did love and care for each other, it was just that Imuyaa was always too busy to actually spend time with him.

As for her relationship with her children, she did love all three of them equally, but she could not help but be a bit frightened of her oldest daughter, Nak, who always had a tendency to be a bit too aggressive for her own good. most of Imuyaa's attention went to the younger sisters, Iuk and Subira. Iuk received a lot of attention due to her multiple birth defects (light deafness, albinism, crippled) so she required an extra amount of care to keep her alive. whereas Subira gained a lot of her mothers' attention for she was chosen to be the next ruler instead of Nak, who of course, was more than angry about it.

usually in the standard tradition of the Forest hyena societies, the oldest female is to take charge once the ruling female has passed or has given up her leadership. Imuyaa wanted to give the title of ruler to one who was strong in mind and body and kind at heart.
Nak was definitely one who was bold and clever, but she had this awful habit of showing terrible cruelty to those weaker than herself (most notably her disabled sister, Iuk). although she loved her, Imuyaa did not want a 'Tyrant' to rule after her.

Subira was the one who fit her expectation almost perfectly, she was tough and was the one who almost always took charge and knew exactly what to do in most difficult situations, but she was also gentle and kind to those in need, and unlike her older sister, chose careful planning and reason before violence at the beginning of most difficult situations, unless it was truly needed.

Nak was furious at her sister being chosen over her, but knew she could not do much about it.
she couldn't back talk her mother, and she couldn't start anything with Subira who despite being younger than her, was almost twice her size in both height and muscle and could easily take her down with so much as a simple push. instead, Nak took out her frustration on her younger sister, Iuk who was very much unable to actually speak at that time.

for as long as Subira was being trained, Iuk silently suffered through with her older sister's punishments.
along with not being able to speak, she was also kept quite through many constant threats of being killed by Nak.
this bullying went on for a span of 3 years, until one fateful day when Nak's beatingsto her sister was found out by Subira who tried all she could to stop it. the confrontation went from a screaming argument to an actual all out brawl between Nak and Subira.

Nak had grown tired of using Iuk as her punching bag, and more so, tired of playing second best to a younger sibling, this drove her mad and she intended on assassinating both of them in hopes of 'winning back her mother's affection'. of course, this did the complete opposite...Imuyaa reluctantly ended the battle by knocking her unconscious with a powerful hit to the back of her head.

to make things worse, Imuyaa tried everything she could to talk sense into Nak when she regained consciousness, but Nak ignored all of her talk of peace and kindness, and still had her mind stuck on ruling with cruelty and violence. seeing her own daughter as too much of a danger to others and herself, Imuyaa was reluctantly forced to throw Nak in prison.

Imuyaa promised herself that she would release Nak from prison before she died, but never got the chance to do so due to dying in her sleep.