Ashley Ignis

## **Profile**

**Ashley Ignis** (more commonly known as "Blaze") is a student of Beacon Academy, the leader of Team BLAZ, and is the keyboardist of Grimm Eklipse. Blaze originally hails from Huo Village, which is located in Mistral, and was born as member of the tribe of Huo. She is also the current Chieftain of Huo and Huo Village. Blaze made her first appearance in ORGN: Volume 2, Chapter 3: Old Friends.

## **Appearance**

Blaze is a tanned, Asian looking young woman with long, wild looking fiery red hair that fades into a yellowish-golden ombre. She has reddish-brown eyes, and after Volume 9, has the sigil of Zodiarche subtly embedded into her pupils as proof of her successful binding with it. She typically wears black lipstick and black nail paint, as well as a pair of thick-rimmed black glasses in most of her appearances, with the exception of her first initial appearance in Volume 2.

In her first appearance during Volume 2, Blaze actually had a different hairstyle from the one that she now has currently, which was a short bob with an undercut on her right side. She also had much different clothing as well, wearing a black surcoat, which hinted at her connection to Huo, with a black tank top that has red straps crossing in an "X" shape underneath. She also wore a black skirt with a skull 'n' crossbone pattern, long, black and red striped fingerless gloves and matching pantyhose, and black ankle height high tops. For accessories, she simply wore a black choker, a studded belt around her waist, and a wallet chain on each hip attached to the belt. She also was not wearing her glasses, likely due to Zander disapproving of her wearing them, though Blaze does start to wear them again after she begins dating Zeke.

Post-Volume 9, Blaze's clothing shifted from being a punk/gothic style to that of the traditional garb of Huo warriors, but not without some modifications and alterations to match her own personal tastes, namely by retaining some of the accessories from her previous design and adding others. She also retained her primarily black and red colour scheme, matching the uniforms of Huo warriors, and begins to grow her hair longer.

During Year 3, Blaze begins to don a slightly fancier variant of her preceding design, with the colour scheme inverting to red and black to signify her authority in Huo, as well as having her shoulders and legs exposed, indicating her increasing self-confidence and self-esteem.

In Year 4, due to graduating Beacon and taking on the responsibilities as Huo's Chieftain full time, Blaze begins to wear a short red and gold cheongsam dress, lacquered armour on her arms, waist, and shins, black thigh high socks, a black garterbelt, and a red mantle.

While attending class, Blaze wears her uniform blazer opened, her black choker, black and red Huo style thigh high socks, red ankle height high tops, and a belt around her waist. For formal wear, she wears a black high-low dress with lace at the top, a lace choker and key-shaped necklace made by Zeke around her neck, pantyhose and black heeled boots, with cherry red lipstick and smoky grey eyeshadow. Pre-Year 4, Blaze's pajamas consisted of a simple black tank top and red shorts, while after Year 4, she wears a black and red shrine maiden's outfit that she had adapted and altered into a babydoll-like nightgown.

## **Personality**

Blaze was initially a shy girl with low self-esteem that also had a hotheaded and impulsive streak when first introduced in Volume 2, but would later develop into someone with more confidence and gain a sassier, tomboyish attitude, who was still as impetuous as ever post-Volume 9. She can be a bit stubborn, as well as hot-blooded, and will even make reckless and brash decisions at times. Blaze can also sometimes be a bit naive and ditzy, but is still quite intelligent, perhaps even more so than Zeke in some ways. She possesses a great deal of natural charisma and charm, as she is rather friendly and trusting towards others most of the time. Blaze can also be quite lively and talkative, perhaps even a little too much, to the point of saying too much or downright blurting out things that probably should be kept to herself, and even tends to brag at times. Blaze is also bad at lying, not only because she's a generally honest person, but also because she lacks subtlety while attempting to do so.

## **Etymology**

Ashley is derived from an English surname that was originally derived from place names meaning "ash tree clearing", from a combination of Old English *æsc* and *leah*. Blaze, Ashley's nickname, is a nod to her brash and hotheaded nature, her affinity to fire, and her connection to the tribe of Huo being among Remnant's earliest innovators in the use of pyrotechnics, gunpowder, and other technological advancements utilizing fire and combustion, as well as having a culture that revolves around and even reveres fire.

Her surname, Ignis, is derived from the Latin word for "fire", further alluding to Ashley's flame based affinity and motif.

## **Trivia**

* Though Blaze's aesthetics and design is primarily inspired by that of ancient China, there also appears to be hints of Sengoku and Heian Period Japan influences as well.
* Blaze's fighting style and Semblance were heavily inspired by the Spellblade and Summoner classes from the Final Fantasy series.
	+ Her Semblance, Zodiac Invocation, as well as Zodiarche, were inspired by Final Fantasy XII in particular.
	+ Blaze's Shen Jing Forme, in which she fuses with Zodiarche to gain a temporary boost in power, was inspired by Armatization from Tales of Zestiria and Tales of Berseria, however.
* The Astro Set and Chi Set in Zodiac Invocation are based on the ancient Greek and Chinese Zodiac respectively.
* Blaze's weapon, Xuèdāo, translates into "blood blade" in Traditional Chinese. It was likely named for its crimson colour, and also for originally belonging to Solara, as an allusion to how Blaze had to inherit her mother's leadership by ultimately avenging her death, thus reclaiming her rightful place as heiress in blood, both in the sense of being Solara's daughter, but also by having to kill her father, Crane, in order to take it back.
	+ Huǒjiàn, Xuèdāo's transformation while in Shen Jing Forme, translates into "fire swords" in Traditional Chinese, straightforwardly named for simply being two Xuèdāo with ignited blades.
* Blaze's hair colour, as well as her Year 4 design, are likely intended to evoke that of a phoenix, alluding to both her affinity to fire, but also having risen anew from each fall that she has experienced, such as being forced to run away from her home to escape Crane's abuse, and subsequently returning to vanquish him to avenge her mother's death and betrayal, or having her heart broken by Zander, followed by finding a better relationship with Zeke.
* ORGN's writers have confirmed that Blaze is canonically bisexual, along with Valerie, Ballista, Noric, Doku, and Hades.
* Blaze's birthdate is March 15th.