Ignis Armada

'Warning: This article contains spoilers for Ignis at this current moment in time. Read at your own risk.' ''"I was the prince of the metal dragons: the "Titanium Heir to the Iron Crown", my parents would dub me. Stupidly long title, I think.

The only reason why we're considered a myth was because of the Kingdom of Flame's attempts to purge our history from their records, and it didn't help that my sister caused a genocide, leaving me as the last metal dragon standing."

- Ignis Armada, explaining the mythology of the metal dragons and his status to Queen Crystal.''

Ignis "Arkhan" Armada is a recurring character in the third season of Aleria, joining shortly after River's return from Zarika, and Keiyla's return to Aleria as a whole. He is the pseudo-eighth True Potential as a whole, and the first True Potential to have not been given his powers by Rosewood. He is a Metallican Draconid, a race long forgotten by Aleria after the Kingdom of Flame's attempts to wipe them away from history. Ignis is the second son of King Terren and Queen Aegis of the Kingdom of Titannium, and Glacia Armada's brother.

Unlike most dragons, Ignis speaks with a relatively thick, medium-toned and gravelly (Alerian version of a) slavic accent.

Amongst other things, Ignis is known to be an exceptional cook, and a blacksmith, being taught by his mother, and he's able to sing and plan things accordingly on his own. However, Ignis has no artistic talent whatsoever, and he warns people beforehand when trying to draw his plans out.

Personality
Ignis is typically seen as the silent and cold type, only ever speaking during a fight of some sort, or when someone talks to him. He keeps to his thoughts a majority of the time, and is rarely seen talking to the other characters. The only times he has been seen holding a proper conversation was with both Queen Crystal and River Current.

At a first glance, Ignis would often come off as dead-sounding and monotonous with a cold expression to boot. However, Ignis would, more often-than-not, be subtly grinning at a closer look. Despite his cold-shoulder expressions, Ignis is surprisingly friendly and is overly-trusting once he gets to properly know the other characters.

Ignis also has an awful sense of direction, often mistaking East with West and North with South. He usually excuses this with being frozen to the throne for over 300 years, but Ignis has been shown cases of mistaking directions back then as well. Most cases are very minor, only spanning across a city, but on one occassion, Ignis had managed to fly 1.5 kilometers North-eastbound to the Isle of Light instead of 300m to the west of Zimowy.

Ignis also tends to have a habit of substituting english words with the Alerian version of russian, typically when he's being endearing or serious.

Early Life
Ignis was born into royalty on April 5th 1671 to two royals: King Terren and Queen Aegis of the Kingdom of Titannus, becoming the second child of the royal family. However, despite living a royal life as a child, Ignis would always find himself playing with the other dragons down in the main plaza, and would often frequently share the food he'd scavenge from and cook while in the castle's kitchen with his two best friends Galvin Magna and Zinka Dural. Ignis's relationship with his mother and sister would be as close as a family could get, but because of his father's unusually long work schedule, Ignis never managed to grow a close bond with him, even as a child. Despite that, he would lead a relatively mundane childhood, unaware of the metal dragon's history of being shunned by the fire dragons over at the Kingdom of Flames.

Ignis held a close relationship with the two friends, but he held an even closer relationship to his mentor, Kasandra Orion, who had been with him since childhood and acted as his guide to the scythe and blade once Ignis turned 16. At the time, Kasandra was only 2 years older, and Ignis had relatively personal feelings for her which never came to light.

Everything would end up flipping on its head once Ignis turned 22, just a few days after his birthday on a stormy night. He was returning from training with his mentor only to find his family's castle encased in ginormous glaciers and shards of ice. Worried and terrified for his family's safety, Ignis would rush inside and make his way to the throne room, only to find both of his parents bloodied and beaten on the ground, with his sister Glacia standing over them with a longsword in her hands that Ignis had never seen before. She held the tip of the blade over their necks, muttering something that Ignis's couldn't quite hear from the other side of the throne room. From where he was, all he could here was something about his heritage: the metal dragons, but other than that, it was nothing but wispful murmurs that were surpressed by the storm. His mind was frantic as he tried to come up with a possible scenario that justifies a situation like this. He worried about storming in, scared that his own sister would turn the blade to him if he tried fighting back. He would try to keep quiet, watching the encounter from behind the door, but Glacia would quickly notice after a short pause. From then on, Ignis would watch her as she single-handedly ended both of her parent's lives with her blade.

Ignis was dazed and confused at first, but upon realization of what had been done to his own parents by his own flesh and blood, Ignis would confront Glacia in a fit of sadness and rage that would lead the two to fight an all-out brawl between kin. He would hold up a proper fight against his own sister, knowing her attack patterns well as Kasandra had used the same techniques on him, but something felt off that caused Ignis to zone out. He felt a strikingly unnerving aura, one so sinister that he could sense it coming from Glacia herself. He was scared. What does she know?

When he eventually snapped out of it, Glacia would immediately slash Ignis's right eye and strike the pommel of her blade against his stomach, knocking him directly onto the throne. He tried to get up, but Glacia would quickly freeze his hands and feet to the throne, slowly making her way up from his toes to his head. As she did this, Ignis would plea for release, shouting at her to ask what has gotten into her, but she wouldn't respond.

Soon enough, Glacia would completely encase Ignis in ice and trap him to the throne for the forseeable future.

Pre-arrival
350 years after the fight between brother and sister, Ignis would finally thaw out of the ice that strapped him to the throne, reawakened from his slumber as he struggled to break free from the rest of the ice. He was shivering, blowing hot flames on the ice that still trapped him as he tried to remember recall what happened. Once he broke free, he'd finally notice his surroundings: the castle was in ruins, the throne room's roof had collapsed, bookshelves and torn pages from books lining the floor from the library that was just upstairs. The pillars had collapsed in on themselves over the years, with several of the murals stained with marble dust. Looking down, Ignis would cover his mouth to the best of his shivering ability, notice the skeletal remains of his parents, causing him to tear up and nearly puke his own organs out. The view of their frozen, rotting corpses was enough to make him almost hurl. He was barely lucky enough to not have to deal with the stench, but the sheer sight alone causes him to go very uneasy.

The hypothermia was enough to nearly kill him, but somehow still, he was about to hold out until he made himself a little campfire in the throne room. The room was freezing cold, almost as if the world had gone into another age, but Ignis knew something was off. For a moment, he'd rush to his room to grab a coat he knew would keep him warm and would make his way back to the throne room in haste. The silence was defeaning, and Ignis would feel dizzy on the way back from the cold. He'd just needed to push through, and then he'd be able to figure out a way to survive the night.

Terrified, lost and scared, Ignis was desperate to look for anyone who could still be alive once he made his way out of the castle, but with every turn down in the plaza, Ignis wouldn't find anyone but the remains of the people he'd once see roaming the streets frozen under thick sheets of snow, crimson red blood staining the pure white. It was disgusting for Ignis to look at, but the realization had already hit the moment he walked into the plaza. Everyone had perished after the metal prince had been frozen to the throne, presumably by Glacia. If this is what she had planned, she had long accomplished her mission before Ignis even woke up. To say he failed his own kingdom was an underestimation, but he would keep a brave face.

The thought of losing his only family, his only friends, his only mentor, Ignis could feel nothing but guilt as tears began rolling down his cheeks. Without anyone else in Galvan, the prince became the only metal dragon left in existence. All he could do was survive the night in the castle, not spending it by sleeping, but by giving his friends and family a proper burial, even if he couldn't find some of their bodies. They had to be buried in the snow somewhere, but Ignis wasn't sure if he would want to dig though all that.

''"I'll never forget any of you, and all the joys you've brought into this world and my life. On behalf of my sister, I'm sorry for what she did to all of you, and I'm sorry...

...for failing all of you as well."

- Ignis Armada, bidding his final farewells to the graves of his parents and friends before leaving for Aleria.''

With nowhere left to go the morning after, and with little to no knowledge of the outside world other than what's been taught by his father, Ignis would venture forth and retreat to Aleria in hopes to seek shelter there, and with any chance, a new destiny.

Weapons and Accessories
Deadlock (Makeshift): Ignis wields nothing more than a makeshift version of his signature weapon: Deadlock, a sword-scythe hybrid held together by a steel chain. In this version, the sword and scythe are much flimsier, only being put together quickly shortly after Ignis' awakening. The scythe handle acts as a scabbard for the sword, and can be unsheathed to split the sword and scythe into two seperate weapons: Deadline and Heartlock. This version of Deadlock is nothing more than a weapon for self-defence, as the weapons are too flimsy to be used in an actual battle.

Terren's Gifted Necklace: Hung around his neck, Ignis wears a necklace with a gray four-pointed star-shaped gem hanging on the end, with yellow points in between the gray gems. At first glance, the necklace seems powerless as it's being used as an accessory, but Ignis is given powers completely unknown to him every time he holds onto the gem piece. On gem activation, the gray gem will begin to glow from a range of light gray to a bright white depending on how strong the magic is. It's responsible for amplifying a majority of Ignis's magic in human form, and also responsible for giving him his True Potential form.

With its immense power, Ignis had assumed that the necklace was the sole reason for Ignis gaining powers in his human form, oblivious to the fact that he had already learned magic (though a very weak variant of it) which was simply amplified by the necklace given by Terren. Up until now, Ignis doesn't know this fact, but eventually will over the course of the seasons.

During Ignis's transformation into his True Potential form, the gem would glow a bright white before splitting itself into multiple segments: one large gem in the middle with 8 smaller gems surrounding it to resemble something akin to a snowflake. From there, it becomes integrated with Ignis's insignia on his chestplate to give him his new form.

Powers and Abilities
Humanoid Form:


 * Eye of the Beholder: Using the gem necklace Terren had given to Ignis, he's able to think up any magical power relating to metal as long as he's able to put a lot of concentration into it. He isn't able to go outside of that range as the gem would fail. This power has saved him multiple times, as he managed to put up a proper fight against Tia in her True Potential form.


 * One/Two-handed Scythe and Longsword Proficiency: Ignis knows how to properly handle a longsword and scythe easily, especially after being trained to use Deadlock since his early childhood. He is still far from mastering both, but he is knowledgeable enough to defeat novices.


 * Unbreaking Shield (only applies to his Dragon Form): Being made of Titanium, Ignis is able to withstand and deflect any potential cut and impaling, making it easy to use him as a shield. The only way around his armour is to use indirect magic against him. Use of penetrating magic attacks are affected the same way regular physical weapon would.


 * Howling Screech: Ignis's roars are much louder than other dragon's roars, making it easy for someone to go temporarily deaf if their ears remain uncovered. Being easily circumventable, Ignis usually uses this as a surprise attack or a last-ditch effort to try to gain the upper hand.


 * Flaring Mimicry: Sharing the same ancestral race as the Flaring Draconids, Ignis shares the same abilities as a fire dragon would. He's able to set himself ablaze as a defence mechanism, manipulate fire and have a stronger resistance to the cold. However, despite sharing the same powers, Ignis's Flaring Mimicry makes his fire-based powers moderately weaker than Pyrim's fire abilities.

Strength: 20/20

Dexterity: 12/20

Constitution: 18/20

Intelligence: 15/20

Wisdom: 12/20

Charisma: 18/20

Emblem of Titannus
Pictured to the left is the Insignia of the Kingdom of Titannus, often seen on the uniform of post-preparration Galvan soldiers or on the shoulderplate of Ignis's iron armour. The insignia distinctly resembles Ignis himself, as it was made during the pre-cursor period of Ignis's transition to power as the future king of Titannus. The insignia depicts a yellow-black dragon skull with a small shield or collar underneath. The dragon skull portion of the insignia would contain a scar running down from just above to just below the right eye, and would also contain black facial markings that lead from the corner of the second pair of horns to the second outer teeth. Prior to Glacia's genocide agains the metal dragons, the insignia previously had no scar on right eye, only being added after Ignis had reawaken.

Beforehand, the kingdom's insignia resembled much more akin to King Terren, featuring a much broader dragon head with a larger, spikier shield below. The wings would wrap around the dragon head itself and would be tattered and torn around the membrane area. The dragon head would resemble much like a knight's helmet, with a purple four-pointed star depicting a shine from the left eye through the opening of the helmet itself. The horns of the dragon head would also curve outwards instead of inwards, much like a ram's horns.

Emblem of Titannus, Remarked
Pictured to the right is the Insignia of the Kingdom of Titannus, stitched together piece by piece within the realms on Ignis's mind, as it represents the rage and his desires to break free from the chains of the ones that betrayed him. The insignia shows does not show up anywhere except for Ignis's True Potential chestplate, being a biproduct of his full awakening from the gem. This version of the insignia has received multiple alterations, the shape of the dragon skull completely changing as a whole. It's now in an open-jawed state with Terren's True Potential gem inserted in between the upper and lower jaw. The horns are now much spikier and more rigid, with two extra pairs of horns on the lower jaw. The cheek marks similarly shown on Ignis is now present on the upper and lower jaw. The eyes have been replaced with one four-pointed star representing a shine on the right eye, with the right point stretching to the other end of the skull. The wings have been replaced with three pairs of metals blades placed next to the top two horns, and there is an added crown, depicting the Castle of Galvan just in front of Mount Chroma. The shield has been upgraded with three pairs of blades as wells.

Trivia

 * Ignis Armada, being both simultaneously referring to fire and water, is a callback to Arcadia's cancelled dragon continuity "The Land of Sea and Fire", which had a more sci-fi aspect to mix in with the medieval nature of dragons.


 * Unlike the dragons in Titannus being a twist on various metals and different metal processes, and while Ignis' family are twists on respective elements, Aegis and Ignis don't follow the same path, with Ignis being the Latin word for fire.


 * Ignis is the 6th character in NagaQuest's Armada sub-continuity, and the 56th in the Arcadian Continuity, a collection of his own multiverse.
 * Ignis was going to have a purple power colour, but was replaced with yellow/gold after conflicting colours with ARMADA-3.


 * Astral nicknames Ignis as the long lost forgotten bee dragon species.


 * The metal dragon creation story follows the tale of a group of fire dragons using transmutation magic to make a new elemental dragon, only to be outcast by the Kingdom of Flames. However, there were suggestions as to make metal dragons come from the light dimension shortly after River's return.

Gallery
Image Article: Ignis Armada/Image Gallery