There's not much that's known about Leona's childhood. Well, there wasn't much. With the release of SNK's KOF98 Leona info, things are a bit clearer. Though a fair amount of this is still speculation on my part.
| Leona's story |
Leona is the child of Gaidel, one of the eight Orochi warriors (known as the Hakkesshu in Japanese). Amongst the Hakkesshu, Gaidel was the 'Keeper of Water', so I guess Leona inherited this position. Not that she would know this, and none of her moves are very waterlike. Who her mother was has never been stated.
Now, exactly what happened with Gaidel has never been exactly stated. Having read SNK's bio for Leona my guess is that though he was aware he was of Orochi descent, Gaidel refused to follow their creed and wished to lead a normal life. He had a wife, and a daughter, and did his best to live a normal life. My guess is he lived somewhere in the Amazonian jungles in an attempt to hide from the Hakkesshu.
When Leona was ten, Goenitz paid a visit (Gaidel didn't hide very well, did he?), demanding that Gaidel leave his boring humdrum life and come back to the Hakkesshu. Gaidel refused. Goenitz then incited the Riot of the Blood in Leona, Leona went mad (as you do in the Orochi Blood Riot), and killed her parents. She came out of the Blood Riot, her parents' blood literally on her hands, and Gaidel gasped out some reassuring last words. Leona was traumatised forever - or at least for the next ten years or so, which seems like forever when you're ten. She blocked out the memories of the event, quite convinced that Goenitz had been the one who killed her parents.
What Goenitz did then isn't known. I suspect that with his purposes accomplished with Gaidel's death, he just sodded off and left Leona to fend for her own.
Leona ended up wandering through the jungle, all alone, for an indeterminate length of time. She was finally rescued by a kindly one-eyed man - Heidern. Seeing as he'd lost his wife and daughter to Rugal, Heidern took the confused and scared Leona in and raised her as a daughter. He taught her how to fight, and also how to be indifferent and cool to people. After all, in the games, she's neutral to everyone, including her teammates, even! But Ralf and Clark are starting to break that shell - they manage to get a smile or two out of her in the KOF96 and KOF97 endings.
In KOF96, and more so in KOF97, she has to deal with her Orochi blood and heritage. (KOF98 doesn't count, it's dream match and doesn't have a story.) And she comes out of KOF97 more reassured about the whole Orochi thing...
In KOF99... well, the focus has moved away from her in KOF99. In the latest KOF game the focus is on the new Ikari Team member, Whip. In KOF99 you can get different endings depending on which character beats the boss - but when I defeated him with Leona I got the same ending Whip gets. That is, the one where Whip stays behind in the collapsing base to talk to Krizalid for a bit and then reports to Heidern after she escapes. No mention of Leona at all. No new stuff for her story this year. *grumble*