Delphi

Role in the Pride:

Delphi got her rank as the Oracle of the Mountain Pride because, to put it simply, she was born to be able to be it. Ever since she was little, Delphi remembered (or rather, didn't remember) parts of her life; instead, there would simply be blank spots, and according to her father (the only one to know, and who consistently covered for her and hid her away when these episodes happened), she wasn't herself, saying and acting like someone completely different. She very rarely behaved in the same fashion either; her father had no way of knowing when the incident would happen, and if she would be docile or incredibly aggressive. When Delphi and Hephaestus got to the Mountain Pride, Hera was able to explain it to her, terming it a gift as opposed to the illness Delphi saw it as. Those were Mountain Pride ancestors briefly inhabiting her body and attempting to speak with the living; only certain lions descended of the Mountain Pride were capable of being vessels for those ancestors, with no discernible reason for who can or can't, and Delphi is one of those few. Despite the dangers the role possesses, namely that the possessions can risk driving the host mad, Delphi finally had an answer for what she had felt marked her as an absolute oddity, and even with the risk, Delphi agreed to do it (especially since, most likely, the ancestors would continue possessing her whether she agreed or not, seeing as they'd been possessing her before she'd even known about the Mountain Pride).

History:

Delphi was born to one of the nobles in a pride far different than the Mountain Pride. Her father never told her about her mother; she was a stranger, not even her father's mate, who left as soon as Delphi was born. That already made some consider Delphi's status in the pride dubious at best, though most respected her father's blood to much to cast her aside. If they'd known about the sudden bouts of illness that overtook her, where she would black out and not remember anything she said or done, they surely would have tried to cast her out, but her father helped her hide that "quirk" from everyone else. She was not meant to participate in the politics of the pride, and was simply meant to be a token to be bartered with for her father to gain a higher status. (Though her father did love her in his own way, the pride's dynamic and their relationship was not healthy for Delphi.) Delphi was going to be married off to one of the younger princes, a marriage she did not want, and when her best friend, Hephaestus (the only one in the pride besides her father to know of her condition), found out, he helped her run away a few nights before the ceremony. Eventually, they found the Mountain Pride.

Playlist:

Speechless from Aladdin (2019) - Growing up, Delphi was not originally a member of the Mountain Pride. The pride she was raised in was one that was much stricter, and Delphi was not the lioness she is now. In her birth pride, Delphi was timid, afraid to speak out and consistently told to mind her own business. Despite being in a position of nobility, Delphi was simply meant to sit by and look pretty, not actually participate in the important discussions going on. The poor girl had been told such things for so long that for a time, she genuinely believed them. It didn't help that she and her father were also concealing the fact that, sometimes, she had bouts of time where her memory went completely blank. She could not remember what she did, but her father said she would say cryptic things, and wasn't herself. If anyone found out, it would be ruinous to her marriage prospects. (Of course, later she would find out this was the ancestors speaking through her due to her unknown mother being a member of the Mountain Pride.) When Hephaestus learned of the marriage she was going to be put into, he helped her escape, and since that time, Delphi has gained the courage to speak and hold her own presence. Nothing could ever force her back into the way she had been living before Hephaestus got her out.