The Lion King MUCK

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The Lion King MUCK is a role-playing MUCK based on the movie, as well as on African wildlife in general.

The Lion King MUCK was founded by Joshua C. Templin, and was originally based on his fan fiction The Tales of Tanabi. Storyline changes have included resets of the Feature Characters from the movie.
 * Addresses:
 * MUCK server: [telnet://muck.tlkmuck.org:7675/ muck.tlkmuck.org, port 7675]
 * Website: http://www.tlkmuck.org/
 * LiveJournal: http://community.livejournal.com/tlkmuck/
 * Ran from/to: June 1995 - present

Feature Characters
Feature characters are the official characters who appeared in Disney's The Lion King and its sequels. In the MUCK's early years, Mufasa, Sarabi, Simba, Nala, Scar, and Scar's fan fiction 'son' were all present and active on the MUCK as adults. Over the years, various attempts were made to 'reset' the feature characters and storylines with new players, however, most of the selected players connected to the MUCK very little if at all, and the attempts largely failed.

In October 2011, an announcement was made that the feature characters would be relaunched, in a long plot following the movies that will stretch over two years real time. Ketekh posted 2011 FC Re-launch Announcement, describing the goal "to introduce new characters that accomplish several goals: they fill the role of Feature Character; they allow us to tell the history of “The Lion King” without changing timelines; and they give us the opportunity to reinvigorate the MUCK with new stories, new blood, and new players." Ketekh also stated, "We have three alternatives at this point aside from the path I’ve chosen for us: Leave the Pride Lands empty; allow Player Characters to move in; or shut down the MUCK. For me, none of those are viable options and re-launching our Feature Characters has me more excited about our MUCK than I have been in a very long time. [...] The new characters being introduced tonight are Mohatu, an adult lion; his mate Tetema, an adult lioness; and their newborn son, Ahadi."

Ketekh had planned a multi-year story arc, broken up into 33 chapters. Monthly updates were to be posted to The Lion King MUCK's website. Only the first two chapters were ever posted.

The multi-year story arc was attempted again in 2019, coinciding with the 2019 The Lion King movie. Much like in 2011, only the first two chapters were ever posted.

Rules
Since September 10, 2006, players are automatically "asked to agree to the rules every 90 days" upon connecting to the MUCK.

Adult Male Lions
Prior to July 1998, AMLs were extremely limited on the muck. In an effort to keep them from overrunning the muck, and because there was no special title for pride leaders, there was a 'waiting list' of sorts that male lions went on to when they became adolescent. When the wizards saw fit (usually due to population growth or loss of a previous AML) they would have a 'mantlement' ceremony and allow the top adolescent on the list who was eligible to be granted the species of 'Lion' which meant they were eligible to lead a pride.

The rule as stated in the July 1998 revision of the rules and policies was that, discounting feature characters, "there is a limit of ONE(1) AML per player at any given	time." Players could have more than one male lion character, but it had to be a cub, juvenile, or adolescent. The rules as of February 2002 stated "we will only be allowing ONE male lion per player" which allowed each player to have one male lion character of any age.

In October 2005, the rules were relaxed to allow each player to have up to two male Lion characters. In June 2007, the rules were relaxed again to allow male lion characters to start at any age, as can any other character, and to remove the aging restrictions; previously a male lion character had to spend three months at each stage of cub, juvenile, and adolescent before reaching adulthood. The limit of two male lion characters per player remained.

Prides
Prior to July 1998, there were no official pridal rules. Any character that held the species of 'Lion' was entitled to have a pride. In an effort to make a distinction between AMLs and lion kings, a program called the Leonine Monitoring Program (LMP) was introduced. The limit on the number of AMLs the muck could have total was lifted, and the LMP was introduced to have 'automated' control over lion characters.

Under the rules of the LMP, once a lion turned adult, they were given the species 'Adult Lion.' A lion then had to spend a minimum of 3 months as an adult before he could apply for a pride. Once a lion had 5 lionesses listed in his pride and had been adult for 3 months, he was given the species 'Lion King.' If he dropped beneath 5 lionesses, his pride was disbanded and he was returned to the species of 'Adult Lion.' Only one king existed per pride, although some ICly had more than one king. After a lion had been adult for a year and a half (king for 15 months), he was given the species 'Elder Lion' and no longer eligible for kingship. Lionesses who were part of a pride were given the species 'Lioness' while those not part of one were listed as 'Nomadic Lioness'.

The LMP was disposed of sometime in 2001 or early 2002, and for a while all species remained as they were at its disposal. In early 2002, the rules were adjusted to drop the adult and elder distinctions. Any adult lion was simply listed as 'Lion' and kings had the species 'Lion King.' The naming of prides also returned to manual status, and was limited to the average number of peak connections during a given month. (The highest number of prides there were under this system was 3.) The rules stated that a king had to maintain 5 lionesses in his pride and have an average online time of 12 hours per week during a four-week rolling period. These rules were not often enforced, leading to a couple of the prides growing stagnant.

In June 2007, the rules for lion kings and official prides were changed: the wizards "dropped the limit on the number of prides that can exist on the muck, and adjusted some of the numbers required in terms of membership (dropped the number down to 3 lionesses and an additional 2 lions of any age/gender) AND adjusted pridal online times to include the pride as well as the king." Under the new rules about prides, there is "a five year (RL) maximum time period in which a character can start a pride which begins the day a lion becomes an adult. After this period has passed, male lions will no longer qualify to start a pride."

The policy as revised in November 2009 includes a section on multiple kings, specifying that in addition to "both Kings must meet[ing] the requirements", for "each additional King, a pride is required to gain the support of two additional lionesses and one leonine of any age or gender".

Healers
Since at least 1998, the rule has been that only primates (and to a lesser degree, meerkats) i.e. animals considered to have opposable thumbs, can be healers. At least one other MUCK, Endless Round, advertised a policy of not restricting healer characters in such a way.

The rules as revised in August 2006 state that "Players are welcome to roleplay healer characters if they wish, however if a task requires opposable thumbs, then your character must have opposable thumbs."

Interspecies mating
Until at least 2000, interspecies relationships, both romantic and parental, were common on The Lion King MUCK. Since at least 1998, the policy statement was that "the administration STRONGLY ADVISES AGAINST interspecies mating" and "NO offspring may happen of such union". The rules as revised in February 2002 have no mention of interspecies relationships; nor does the August 2006 revision. Even though not mentioned in the rules, cross-species are not allowed on the muck.

TinySex
Explicit sexual roleplay (TinySex, or TS) was allowed on The Lion King MUCK prior to 2006. In the first few years, this policy was vague. The rules as revised in July 1998 stated that "The policy regarding TS is to restrict it to PRIVATE areas", that the activity not involve incest, pedophilia, or rape, and that a player involved not be a minor. According to the 2002 revision of the rules, "There are only two issues with this. It must be done in PRIVATE rooms, and it CANNOT be with a minor."

In August 2006, the rules were changed to include the statement that "sexually explicit content and activities have no appropriate location within our system.". Two new MUCKs, Otherlands and Romance in the Savannah, opened in the wake of this decision; both allowed explicit sexual roleplay and the latter had the motto Adult Friendly African RP.

Elders
From 1998-2002, the only elders were male lions who had been adult for a year and a half and were no longer eligible to start a pride. It was a forced aging, and many players of male lions felt it took away from some of their freedom to roleplay their character the way they wished.

In 2002, with the removal of the LMP, the elder species was dropped and all male lions simply had the species "Lion". The elders system was revamped to take on more of a "tribal elder" status, intended to be someone to look up to instead of the hated forced aging. Eligibility for elder status was opened to any species that lived in groups (lions, meerkats, hyenas, etc.), and the character had to have been a former leader of one of these groups. Available spots were limited, with one spot for each gender plus one extra spot per 100 characters of a species. Ultimately, no elders were ever named under this system.

The position of elder was revived on January 10, 2008, expanding eligibility to characters of any species, not merely ones who had been leaders of groups. The title "Elder" is placed before the character's species name in the species field. It is an honorary position denoting the character is aged and wise, and may cross territorial boundaries at will. A character must have nominations from ten different people to be considered for elder status, and elder status is optional to the character. To be considered, the character must have been an adult for at least two years, must never have broken the MUCK rules, and must have good roleplay skills. The title of elder can be revoked if the character breaks the MUCK rules or abuses the position.

Pride Lands Policy
A Pride Lands Policy was added and went into effect on July 1, 2009. It includes provisions that "Occupancy of the Pride Lands will be determined by the wizards." and "Only leonine prides may occupy the Pride Lands as rulers. This is not intended as a discriminatory action, but rather to keep the theme of the muck aligned with the theme of the movie upon which it is based." A limitation is that "A player may roleplay the ruler of the Pride Lands for no more than five years." At the end of this period, "the wizards may - at their discretion - appoint the next ruler and/or allow the existing ruler to continue in a temporary capacity until a successor is chosen."

Wizards

 * Ketekh - Head Wizard - Site Admin & Policy Manager
 * Jioni - Helpstaff & Pride Manager
 * Wanachi - Programming Manager (Feb 2019-present)

As of June 2019 Head Wizard Ketekh last connected to the MUCK on May 04, 2019 Wizard Jioni on April 21, 2019, And Wizard Wanachi on June 02, 1019,

Past wizards
The Mage position was added in December 1998. These players had a Wizard bit but no administrative access to the MUCK account; they were intended primarily to handle character management.

Helpstaff

 * Badiliko - RP/TP/Guest
 * Balana - MPI/Building/Newbies/Guests/RP/PR
 * Karove - RP / Writing / PR / Guests/ Ask Away!
 * Khairi - RP~Newbies~Building~Ask Anything
 * Kikora
 * Kucha - General-Building-Rp-TP's-Newbie
 * Motoni - Event Coordination / RP and Character Ideas
 * Mzohari - RP | Building | TPs | MPI | Ask Away!
 * Vikali - RP/TPs/MPI/Building/Animal Info/Just ask me!

Past helpstaff

 * Arianna - General/Building/RP/MPI/little MUF/Fast food
 * Furahi - MUF/Newbies/Building/DidImentionMUF?/some MPI
 * Haiba - RP~Newbies~Building~Ask Anything
 * Jabari - MPI, Newbie Help, Building, all around craziness!
 * Jamango - Anything. (If I'm not idle.)
 * Jammet - Small things.
 * Jihani - RP/Guests/Newbie/Some building/Just ask!
 * Johari
 * Kenket - Obscure Species Promotion
 * Kimya - Anything but MUF&MPI - Videogaming help! :D
 * Kivuli'Nyamaa - Roleplay | Feline Species Expert | Muck commands
 * Mondini - General-Building-Rp-TP's-Newbie
 * Muthumaji - LSEdit - Newbies - RP - Mangoes - Cuddly things
 * Tailen - Mewse of MPI/MUF/Anything/Master of Distortions
 * Tamba - Guests/Newbies/RP/TPs (from November? 2006 - 2010)

RP Staff
(September? 2006 - November? 2006)
 * Gesten
 * Hakika - RP Conflicts, Newbies, Anything RP!
 * Jammet - Roleplaying, Newbie Help, Pouncing lessons!
 * Ras

Species
This textual roleplaying environment has a rather high population of lions (as might be expected) including three official Kings and Prides. Leopards (as well as their melanistic individuals, listed as panthers) are also common, as are cheetahs, hyenas, and other African species.

It is common for there to be exclusively lion characters active on the MUCK at any given time.

Early years
In the early years of the MUCK, it was common for characters to pair up and reside together in private rooms (usually titled "(name) and (name)'s (domicile)." That declined over the years, particularly with the banning of TinySex in 2006, and most rooms are now public.

Guest characters
From 1995, The Lion King MUCK had a system of guest characters; these characters could become permanent, without the g. in front of the name, after a week. By December 1996, guest characters were still described in the rules and policies, but were no longer being created; new characters were created without the g.

Server and website
The Lion King MUCK's server address, previously tlk.otterspace.com, changed to tlk.muck.limitless.org in March 1999.

The Lion King MUCK's website used to be located at http://www.thumper.net/tlkmuck/. In 2002 the website was redesigned by Nalina and at a new address, tlkmuck.org.