Name Meaning:
"Infatuation", "Love" or "Devotion" in Arabic

Pride Affiliation:
Ash Pride

Generation:
6

Relations:
Sister to Haba
Semi-mate to ???
Mate to Jororo
Adopted mother to Iqhwa
Mother to Salimika

Fate:
Struck by lightning

Voice Actor:
Susanne Blakeslee

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Gharam is one of the very last monarchs to rule the Ash Pride,thought she wasn't a queen by birth. Originally born to a lowly cubsitter, Gharam is envious of the pride's royal family growing up. They always got the best food and called all the shots in the pride, and it isn't long before Gharam craves that sort of power for herself. She promised herself that someday, somehow, she would find a way to become the Ash Pride's queen.

She begins to put her plan into action when the pride's king Jororo announces that he and his mate Khanyisile were expecting a cub. Gharam seduces a passing rogue and conceives a litter with him, and once the queen gives birth she could find a way to discreetly get rid of her and worm her way into the king's heart. But it turns out Gharam didn't need to get her paws dirty as Khanyisile ends up passing away from complications shortly after the birth of their daughter, Iqhwa. Gharam has her cub around the same time and offers to be a wetnurse for little Iqhwa, which Jororo allows. In reality, she felt nothing for the pale little cub, but she feigns kindness and treats both Iqhwa and Jororo well as part of her little plan.

Just as she had hoped, Jororo later asks Gharam if she can be his new mate, to which she gleefully accepts. They are soon wed and Gharam becomes the pride's new queen, and not long afterwards she kills Jororo by slipping poison into his food, staging it to look like he had died under mysterious circumstances. After becoming the pride's sole ruler, Gharam's attitude towards Iqhwa changes and she pretty much casts her aside. She had only cared for her just so she could become the pride's new queen, and now that Jororo was gone, she was nothing to her. She isn't that attentive with her own blood-related cub either and mostly leaves her to be looked after by the rest of the pride. All that mattered to her now was the wealth and power that she now possessed.

But Gharam feared that it wouldn't last. Iqhwa was growing up into a very fair and beautiful lioness, and since she was the king's daughter that would mean that Gharam would someday have to hand the throne to her. And on top of that, Iqhwa seemed to be surpassing her in beauty as she ends up winning the heart of a random rogue passing through the Outlands. Gharam couldn't stand it any longer; that pale princess had to go.

In secret, Gharam orders her brother Haba to take Iqhwa out on a hunting lesson and kill her once they were far away from the pride. Haba protests, but Gharam threatens to kill his daughter if he doesn't comply and also demands that he bring back her heart as proof. Later that day, Haba returns to Gharam in secret and brings back what appears to be Iqhwa's heart, stating that he left her body to be eaten by the crocodiles so that no one would ever find it. With this knowledge, Gharam was very satisfied.

However, some time later Gharam hears from a passing group of meerkats about a pale lioness protecting a burrow they attempted to raid. After forcing some more info out of the mob's matriarch Nikita, Gharam quickly comes to the conclusion that Haba must have let Iqhwa escape. She tries to find Haba so that she could "punish" him for his disobedience, but he and his daughter are nowhere to be found as they appeared to have fled the pride. Enraged that she was tricked and that this little threat was still alive, Gharam leaves the Ash Pride to find Iqhwa and take her out herself.

Gharam does eventually find where Iqhwa was hiding, and she had indeed been living with a mob of meerkats just as the one she interrogated had said. She waits until the mob leaves to go foraging leaving Iqhwa with some pups and a young adult, at which point Gharam attacks her. While Iqhwa is able to hold her own for a while, Gharam knocks her out with a swipe to the head. But before she can deliver the finishing blow, Iqhwa's meerkat companions rush in and attack her. Tiny though they were, they fight viciously, clawing at Gharam's face and biting into whatever vulnerable part of her they could reach. Gharam soon manages to shake them all off and rears up to attack them back, screaming that she'll strike them all down.

But then, as though it were a divine act from the Great Spirit himself, a bolt of lightning comes down from the clouds and strikes Gharam, killing her instantly.

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Gharam is a lionized version of the Evil Queen from Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. She was actually named Queen Grimhilde in some early publicity material as well as the old tie-in comic strip, so I tried giving her a name that sounds similar to the word "grim".

Oh, and here's a fun fact: in the original Brothers Grimm fairy tale, Snow White's husband forces the Evil Queen to wear red hot iron slippers and dance in them until she drops dead. You know, for kids!