Blaze Monroe

Blaze Monroe has always been a musician; even as a little boy, he usually has his older brother’s guitar in hand, strumming away on the strings. From a young age, he started hanging out with others like himself, into music, played an instrument. He met Thomas Walker in third grade and seeing that he played the drums already, started hanging out and jamming together often. It wasn’t long before they were jamming in the park to earn pocket change for guitar strings and drum sticks. Thomas broke so many in fact, that Blaze gave him the nickname of “Thunder” for how hard he hit the drums. When they started high school, it wasn’t long before they met a couple girls with their own band, Winter Snow and Sparky Dubois’s band name was literally “Terrible” and once they all started hanging out together and playing in Blaze’s garage on weekends, they realized they could make something on themselves. 

They practiced continuously and even dig gigs at some of the local clubs for spending money; even though they weren’t even old enough to drink. Within months, their popularity grew and they began making more money for each gig they did. The member of the bands believed that the sky was the limit and even changed their name “The Blaze and the Havoc” to change things up a bit.  They got their name after a fateful news report about a brush fire on the edge of town spreading to a Llama farm and while none of the animals had been seriously hurt, they’d had to scrape and scrub most of the roads near the Riverview Town Hall after they’d been herded back to their ranch outside of town. The more they played; at the concert hall or in the park; more and more fans showed up to watch and give the band tips dropped into Blaze’s guitar case.

Before long, they got the attention of Marius Pickard, a talent agent and former musician who arranged a meeting to discuss the possibility of representing the band in the future. Needing a manager, and not knowing anyone else, Thunder and Blaze agreed, even against the protests of the girls; who were clearly thinking twice about trusting   Marius at all. In the end, after several weeks of negotiations, Sparky and Winter agreed and signed the contract Marius had prepared for them and they now had a manager and an even more positive attitude about the band’s future. Things stayed the same for a long while and they continued to make lots of money; part of it going to Marius as their Manager. Before long Marius started implementing little changes to their routines, their instruments and finally to the songs themselves, infuriating Blaze and the other members of the band; who had all worked very hard on writing their songs and felt they were perfect as they were. Tensions began to grow between the band and Marius and there was a sense that a rift was forming between them. 

Trying to calm the situation, Marius called Blaze after a gig and set up a meeting with him at a local park. When he and Thunder arrived, they saw Marius right away, and in his company was Elwood Trahern; a known thug and criminal apparently taking the role of enforcer. Though Marius had implied on the phone that their disagreements could be worked out, he instantly started trying to impose further changes on the band, even threatening to sue them for breaking their contract if they didn’t do what he wanted them to do. The two men thought Marius’s requests were completely unreasonable, especially how HE wanted to control what songs were played during gigs and add some of the songs he wrote to the band’s repertoire, songs they knew already from when Marius was in the limelight.

A fight ensued after a heated discussion and though there was no clear winner between the two groups; everyone involved went their separate ways to nurse their cuts and bruises. Blaze and Thunder made their way back to Blaze’s garage and told the others what had happened at the park, solidifying the front against Marius, who seemed to want the band for puppets in the music industry, playing his songs, his way. They conversed long into the night and slept only fitfully; waking to a disturbing report on the news channel. 

According to the report, Marius had set up a meeting with his lawyer; Laurie Caldera to arrange a court date for the legal proceedings; going against her counsel and best judgment and vilely slandering the band in the local paper the next few days, until only a handful of fans remained loyal to them. The band tried to remain strong, but took a hiatus from playing until the legal matter was resolved and while they were confident that the judge would see things their way because of Marius seemingly neurotic behavior, there was still a nagging doubt in everyone’s mind since they had signed the contract. The day before their court appearance, Marius called Blaze, wanting another meeting, this time with the whole band present. He stated that it was his intention to give them one last chance to discuss things out before the trial began and though they were doubtful of the outcome, they drove across town to meet with Marius, Elwood and his lawyer Laurie.

Things went wrong from the start, with the irrational Marius demanding the band immediately accede to his just demands and Elwood looking ready to continue the fight from days before. When Blaze and Thunder both declined his offer, without warning Marius and Elwood attacked the men while Sparky and Winter tried engaging Laurie in a conversation, trying to find out how she is involved in this mess. 

The talent agent and his thug were seemingly intent on ending their rivalry one way of another and though the fight lasted for several minutes, when it was over, Thunder lay dead on the ground with a knife in his chest and Elwood; who’d been trying to kill Blaze, had a broken neck, his dead eyes staring at the circling sky overhead, the other mans’ arms still around his neck.


Marius fled while the band stared in silence at the body of their friend, who would never play the drums again. Sirens, flashing lights and a flurry of activity behind iron bars was all the band knew for the next weeks, all held on a charge of murder. Laurie testified that the women were not directly involved in the fight, so the judge released them without a pause. Blaze however was and even though everyone testified on his behalf that he had fought in self defense, the judge; who was known for “unusual punishments” for crimes followed the jury’s verdict and found him guilty. Blaze was given a choice for his sentence; his first option being a few months in prison before a public execution. His other choice was to participate in the Last Sim Standing competition, which the judge planned on wagering heavily on the outcome. Left with no choice, Blaze packed his belongings and was taken by squad car to the arena in Hidden Springs, where he would likely die before too long.