Blegh

Before I really get into things, I wanted to go over the two main points people usually bring up when talking about Ashveil; him being the leader of the Galaxy Rangers, and his possible connection to Voracity.

If you've been around the fans enough, you probably have seen them bring up one or two of these points regarding him, but where did they come from?

Let's start with explaining the Galaxy Ranger part first.

Ashveil being the Leader of the Galaxy Rangers seems to have come out of left field to most, but there are actually many pieces of evidence that support this idea.

When you finish 3.7 you gain access to three memory bubbles on the Express that tackle some parts from the aftermath of the Irontomb fight. One being a conversation between Sparkle and Boothill.

In that conversation, Sparkle mentions that the Galaxy Rangers seem to hope that the battle between the gods would be the key to "freeing that Broken-Legged Wolf", which has Boothill later tell her to stay away from the "Boss".

It's very normal for Sparkle to give nicknames that reflect the person visually, like "Gray Hair", "Chicken Wing Boy" and "little peacock", so the "Boss" having wolf related stuff going on with his appearance is a high possibility.

And calling Ashveil a "wolf" certainly fits and doesn't need much explaining considering his many wolf motifs and even having a literal wolf surround him in promotional materials like his splash art or the Anti-Destruction Alliance trailer.

I would also like to point towards Sparxie's voice line about Ashveil, where she directly refers to him as a wolf, so we now have both Ashveil and the "Boss" be referred to as a wolf by the Sparkles.

The "Broken-Legged" part is a bit more... loose, since we don't know of any leg injuries Ashveil might have so far, but what we do know is that he has a cane, something someone with a leg injury would use.

Knowing Sparkle this line could also just be a metaphor for some kind of limitation and not an actual injury. 

(I'll get back to this point later if the 4.1 story doesn't cover it, but it basically has to do with why the Rangers went so off the grid to the point people believed Dr. Primitive got to them.)

I would also like to note that this memory bubble, upon viewing it, gives you an achievement that basically confirms that this memory bubble is related to our next destination, Planarcadia, where Ashveil currently is. It could just be because of what Sparkle said about the Express, but then why include them also discussing the Leader of the Rangers in that specific memory bubble if it had no relevance?

Another piece of evidence comes from the Anti-Destruction Alliance trailer. In the scene where the Galaxy Rangers appear, Rappa says that the place where they are headed to (her, Boothill and that third Ranger), is "where the Lead Hunter will appear".

What's to note about this, aside from the fact that those 3 Rangers are headed towards their boss, is that the scenery in the background sure looks a lot like Dovebrook, where the Ashen Detective Agency is located.

There are other pieces of evidence like at the end of 4.0 Ashveil's talk about Justice fitting the mentality of a Ranger, or how in the card game event when you meet Rappa, who Ashveil seems to know her quite well, which further supports the previous evidence on why she is there, even him having a victim of Dr. Primitive, the main enemy of the Rangers, as his assistant, plus other such small points but I won't go through all of them.

But, wait, you might ask, if Ashveil is the "Broken-Legged Wolf" that Sparkle talked about, what did she mean when she mentioned that the Rangers want to "free" him? Ashveil certainly doesn't look like he needs freeing now does he?

Before I give my thoughts about that, I want to tackle that second point I mentioned; 

Ashveil's possible Voracity connections.

This is not the first time a character has been hit with the Voracity allegations, anyone who has been around before 3.5 can tell you that Evernight was faced with a lot of those allegations because of her appearance (mouths in her design) and because the trailer had her "eating" Amphoreus, and it ended up having essentially nothing to do with Voracity itself and more about her being like an Apex Predator to Memokeepers.

Ashveil similarly has many Voracity visuals; from the many mouths/teeth in his design to the Voracity coloring in his splash art. But unlike Evernight, he has other things going for him that support the Voracity allegations.

For example, while Evernight had those slight traces, her main design motifs were undeniably gearing more towards the Enigmata and the Remembrance, which is what her actual connection was, while Ashveil only has Voracity and wolf motifs going on.

Even his wolf and moon motifs in his design point more towards a werewolf then a normal wolf, and werewolves back in the day were known more as ravenous monsters who ate people, which is very Voracity coded.

His description in his drip marketing also supports this;

"As for the detective sleeping in the fridge... he's just waiting for a willing bite.

Under the Phantasmoon, the vile beast howls. How will his game of Hounding Pursuit draw to a close?”

Using words like "waiting for a willing bite" and "the vile beast howls", to me, very much give the vibe of "this man is a werewolf", (which was my actual first thought when it dropped and I read this), and a rather ravenous one at that.

Ashveil is also constantly surrounded by the imagery of either the full moon or a blood moon. In his design, in his marketing and even in the story, though that one is also because the Full Moon is a big deal in general on Planarcadia, but would also work very well if you had a werewolf in the cast.

There are other more smaller details like how he spends most of his money on food, how he sleeps all the time, which is what most animals, especially predators, do to conserve their energy and help with their hunger whenever not on the Hunt, and even him sleeping in a fridge may be to simulate hibernation (which wolves do not do but whatever), heck, even his mask covering only his mouth could fit into this.

What's another thing I want to mention that Ashveil has in his favor compared to the other Voracity allegation characters, is that in the Anti-Destruction Alliance trailer, Oroboros actually appears.

This is the first time we actually see THEM outside the Simulated Universe, and why would hoyo put THEM specifically in the trailer regarding 4.x if the Voracity had nothing to do with the current story? They could have put any other Aeon there like Lan or even Xipe but no, they chose Oroboros, the Aeon who so far had nothing to do with the main story.

So the Ashveil Voracity allegations have more of a leg up to stand on then the others we had so far.

But whether or not they are true, something that we do know for certain;

Is that there is something very wrong with Ashveil.

The game goes out of its way to hammer this in too. 

From the werewolf stuff I mentioned, the lines I quoted from his drip marketing as well as this one line: "✧ 1st Place for "There's Definitely Something Wrong With the Detective I Hired" ✧", to how the Furbos talk about him in game, to how Silver Wolf, the girl who sees fighting with the Antimatter Legion as a game, who sees all danger as a game, was genuinely TERRIFIED when Ashveil first rose out of the fridge, as though all her instincts went haywire upon seeing him.

(Or maybe it was just the result of seeing an older wolf scold her for interrupting his nap lmao).

Ashveil also has these pins and sigils on his right hand and wrist that look like they are meant to keep something locked away.

(Could not get a clearer pic rip)

Be it a curse, some secret power, something from the Voracity or even him being an actual Emanator of Voracity, it is undoubtable that Ashveil has some less than pleasant stuff going on.

Hence the werewolf motifs, and it's what Sparkle meant when she said the Rangers wish to free him. Not free him as in he is held prisoner, but free him from his "curse".

And with Ashveil taking the spotlight in 4.1, it's a definite possibility that we will get to see said curse, and even maybe fight him while he is under its effects.

Yup, I personally believe Ashveil will be the boss of the 4.1 patch, but unlike Sparxie this fight will be less about beating him up to teach him a lesson and more about snapping him back to himself with the power of violence and probably those 3 Rangers before their boss accidentally eats someone.

And it could mean that THIS is what Yao Guang actually forsaw, and has nothing to do with Blade...