Blake Belladonna

**Blake Belladonna** is a Cat Faunus huntress, a member of Team RWBY, a former student at Beacon Academy, and one of the main protagonists of *RWBY*. She is a former member of the Faunus terrorist (originally social rights) group White Fang, alongside Adam Taurus, her then-boyfriend, partner and mentor, before she left in disgust of their violence and seeks to become a huntress to create peace between the faunus and humans.

## Statistics

* **Name**: Blake Belladonna
* **Origin**: RWBY
* **Gender**: Female
* **Age**: 18
* **Birthday**: January 19
* **Classification**: Faunus (Cat), Former Beacon Academy Student, Huntsmen-in-Training, Member of Team RWBY
* **Blood Type**: AB
* **Height**: 168 cm (5'6.1") minus ears
* **Weight**: 58 kg (128 lbs)
* **Skin Color**: Pale Light
* **Eye Color**: Amber
* **Hair Color**: Black
* **Relatives**: Ghira Bellodona (Father), Kali Belladonna (Mother)
* **Alignment**: Good
* **Status**: Active
* **Class**: **S-Class**
* **Notable Attacks/Techniques**: Phantom Slash, Shadow Strike, Black Shot, Boom Shadow, Ice Shadow, Stone Shadow, Ferocious Beast, Blade Beam, Black Death
* **Voice Actor**: Yū Shimamura

## Appearance

Blake is an attractive, fair skinned young woman with amber eyes, long, wavy ashen-black hair, and a slender, curvaceous figure. As a Cat Faunus, she basically has black cat ears on top of her head. She wears purple eyeshadow in catseye style. After her confrontation with Adam at the Fall of Beacon, she has a scar on her left abdomen.

Blake wears a long white tailcoat with dark gray lining and a sleeveless black crop top. The crop top has rectangular and diamond shaped cutouts around the neckline. Additionally, she wears a white belt over black fitted pants. Across her torso is a diagonal strap that contains a smaller magnetic clip used to sheathe Gambol Shroud. She wears thigh-high black heeled boots with gold-colored edging around the top. The left boot has a belt wrapped twice around the thigh. Each boot bears her belladonna emblem in white on the outer side of the thigh, and a white pouch is attached to the back of her belt.

## Personality

Blake displays a cool, reserved, and serious personality most of the time but does not lack a humorous side, which is usually in the form of dry wit and sarcasm. Blake is a righteous person, respecting other people's lives regardless of whether they are Faunus or not. She strongly despises those who judge and discriminate based on racial prejudice. Blake is outspoken, going so far as to indirectly insult the Schnee Dust Company in front of its heiress and defend Faunus of any kind.

Blake is shown to be an introvert. Although she reads books to distance herself from the discussion at hand, she is later shown to be more facetious and friendly as a result of being more comfortable with her team. Blake appears most conversant when discussing the history and plight of her people.

As a Faunus, Blake has faced discrimination in the past and wears a bow when around Humans in order to be treated for her character and not her species. However, despite having no hate for Humans, she has seen how the real world works and wonders how she can undo so many years of hate and pain. After the Fall of Beacon, Blake discards her bow and does not cover her ears again even around the presence of Humans, showing she is no longer afraid to be seen as a Faunus.

Blake's past negatively influenced her personality, leading to stubbornness, sleep deprivation and trust issues at times; however, she has a strong sense of righteousness. As a member of the White Fang during its former, peaceful leadership, Blake strongly disagrees with the level of violence and hatred they exhibit toward Humans. She sees her Semblance as a prospect of her tendency to avoid conflict, especially when caused by the White Fang, but Sun persuades her to let her friends help her as much as she believes she is helping them. She uses this in turn to persuade Ilia to leave the White Fang and to confront Adam with others' help.

Blake's Cat-Faunus features also seem to give her other aspects of a cat, such as climbing up to Ruby's bed to stay away from Ruby and Yang's pet dog, Zwei, instinctively follow laser pointer lights, and has a great love for tuna to the point of drooling.

## Abilities and Equipment

**Gambol Shroud**: Blake's weapon is the Gambol Shroud, a set of two swords consisting of a katana, used as a primary sword, and a large cleaver, which is used as a sheathe. The essence of the two weapon components is that they fit together as one, but come apart to be two, so that they are compact for easier carrying. The katana also has a compact, striker fired pistol built into its hilt, allowing it to be used as a ranged weapon or for the recoil to be used to swing or anchor the blade. When in pistol form, Blake wraps a black ribbon tied to her right arm around Gambol Shroud's trigger, allowing her to freely swing it around in a way similar to a kusarigama. In this form, her fighting style is somewhat similar to that of Ruby Rose, as both girls use the recoil from the firearm to increase the velocity of their weapon. The ribbon has been shown to be very strong, durable and elastic, as it has been reliably used as both a slingshot and a grappling hook.

* **Dust Abilities**: Specialized Dust cartridges can be inserted into Gambol Shroud to modify the effects of her bullets, giving them elemental properties based on the type of Dust being used. This Dust can also alter Blake's Semblance, changing her Shadows into more than just mere afterimages, in a manner not dissimilar to Weiss Schnee's weapon, Myrtenaster. The form her Shadows take on depends on the element of Blake's choosing, significantly increasing her Semblance's tactical applications.
	+ **Fire Dust**: Changes Blake's Shadow into a fire bomb that explodes violently when it detonates, damaging enemies. Also called "**Boom Shadow**".
	+ **Earth Dust**: Changes Blake's Shadow into a stone statue, which can be used as cover and defense from attacks, or to create a small earthquake that knocks back and stuns enemies. Also called "**Stone Shadow**".
	+ **Ice Dust**: Changes Blake's Shadow into an ice sculpture, which with correct timing can trap enemy weapons inside, or freeze them entirely if they are close enough. Also called "**Ice Shadow**".
	+ **Violet Dust**: Changes Blake's Shadow into a dark haze, lingering longer than her normal clones and blocking people's vision.
* **Phantom Slash**: Moving at supersonic speed, Blake slashes through her opponent in a straight line.
* **Shadow Strike**: Blake dashes at the enemy, slashing them and creating clones that deal follow-up slashes, up to two times in a row.
* **Black Shot**: Using the gun function of Gambol Shroud, Blake fires three bullets at her opponent(s) from a distance.
* **Ferocious Beast**: Using the kusarigama function of Gambol Shroud, Blake delivers a rising slash followed by a barrage of slashes and bullets in quick fashion.
* **Blade Beam**: Blake launches a horizontal beam from her sword that passes through and stuns enemies.
* **Black Death**: Blake kicks her opponent in the air and slashes them with both blades of Gambol Shroud before jumping above and delivering a spinning strike with her sickle function, driving down to the ground, leaving nothing but dust in the wind.

**Semblance: Shadow**: Blake's Semblance allows her to create Shadow-clones. These clones can be used by Blake to either distract, shield, or hide herself from the enemy for a brief amount of time. These copies are not just illusions and have some substance to them, as Blake has demonstrated the ability to jump off of them and use them to exert force on herself as a means of reaching greater heights. It is unknown exactly how long a shadow copy can appear for or how far away from Blake they can exist. So far, they have only appeared in Blake's immediate area, normally right next to her.

**Faunus Physiology**: As a Faunus, Blake's physical capabilities are slightly stronger than an average human's, mostly their five senses of sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste.

* **Enhanced Senses**:

**Aura**: An ability that all those with a soul can use, at least with enough practice. Because Aura is the manifestation of the soul, it can appear very differently depending on who is using it. For example, the color of Aura is different from person to person. Also, a person with a strong Aura may radiate bright colors when using it. It is mentioned that anything with a soul has an Aura, but Humans and Faunus seem to be the only beings able to weaponize it for their own protection. Skilled users of Aura can create their own barriers or even increase their own abilities in some way. Weapons and armor can also act as a conduit for Aura, allowing for an even wider range of offensive and defensive capabilities. It has been shown that Aura strength degrades with continual use. This limits the applications of Aura in combat as, with time or heavy use, a person's Aura will decay to the point where they are left weakened or even incapacitated.

**Master Weapons Specialist**:

* **Master Swordswoman**:
* **Kusarigamajutsu Expert**:
* **Expert Markswoman**:

**Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant**:

**Enhanced Strength**:

**Enhanced Speed & Reflexes**:

**Enhanced Endurance**:

**Enhanced Durability**:

**Genius Intellect**:

* **Master of Stealth**:
* **Master Escape Artist**:

## Weaknesses

Continual damage to her Aura will cause it to decay to the point where she can be left open to more significant damage.

Aura's durability is cumulative; it will deplete with each attack she takes and can be brought down by characters of similar strength.

Semblances drain Aura by a small amount and without Aura they cannot be used until the user's Aura is recharged.