Yet another bit of backstory to go with another awesome picture, from an RP with  seneca99 .

Unlike Nieve, Blake is a mostly ordinary character in most of my depictions and RPs. He's a normal guy, a Southern, inner-city cop who has an English professor for a dad, a cop for a mom (drawing a great deal of her characterization from Elisa Maza of Gargoyles), and formerly a cheetah mate and fellow policeman named Darren who, as stated, died in the line of duty. Most of the time he's just a slightly bumbling, kind-hearted, extremely protective and moral fellow who hides it behind a gruff, tough, macho facade. (No I did not borrow this from Cody Frost of ISO; it's just a common persona for tigers it seems.)

But there is another side to Blake which, at least at first, even he doesn't know about. His family is British in origin (I took the name Parrish from "Jumanji", and even without Johnathan Hyde playing Alan's father I knew the name was British)...and while only certain members of the family know it, either because the secret was carefully passed down or, as in Quentin's case, they did a great deal of careful scholarly research, this particular tiger family is descended from Sir Gawain of the Round Table.

Yes, I went Arthurian again. What do you expect from an English major? :P It's only one of the greatest stories/myths ever told, if not the greatest. (Even if you doubt the validity of it or have issues with certain depictions of gender, religion, nationalism, or what have you, you can't deny the cycle's epic nature, great emotion and power, or powerful effect on literature and even cinema.)

So. For those who didn't know, like the Green Knight who was his adversary, Gawain's weapon of choice was an axe. And for those who aren't familiar with the canon, depending on the story, writer, or point in his character arc, Gawain was sometimes...less than chivalrous and shining. Enter numerous descendants in the family line, each attempting to live up to their ancestor's virtue and expiate his sins, fighting evil and achieving true justice wherever they went. Something which, to a lawman like Blake, appealed immensely once he learned of his heritage and called on it for the first time.

As to why fire? Why, Rule of Cool of course. And it kills so many things!

A couple of other interesting points: though it is not depicted here (partly so as not to obscure him, partly because it is used only in the summoning), Blake's armor is also supposed to be made of fire, or at least conjured by it and then transformed into its present appearance. And the reason for all the tiger faces is because I had Alpha0 draw upon old medieval sun sigils which, like old maps depicting the four winds, bore a man's face. I just made them tigers for the obvious reason.

Blakeson Parrish copyrighted to me, art copyrighed to  alpha0 .