An arrogant black cat raised with a Great Pyrenees and St. Bernard as his own, personal bodyguards readily earned the nickname "grizzled old warrior". 

This iris was named for him because its dense beard is black in the shade and shines reddish-black in the sun, just like his fur.  Near-white standards have blue-violet veining that's most intense around the edges, but light enough  in the middle to let most of the ground color show through. Yellowed-ivory ground of the falls is covered by a dense network of red-violet dotting and veining.   

Of course only those who have met the cat would make the connection, so I chose a black-bearded candidate with heaving veining, like the network of lines on the weathered face of an old Indian warrior. 

A fully fertile halfbred from Boaz X Jean Ralls.