Hey Angie, do you have more headcanons about Ilah or her relationship with Azulon?? Have a great day
Ilah is a waterbender and from the Northern Water Tribe. This means a) she runs on a moon-based day cycle, and b) she is Not Prepared for the heat of the Fire Nation.
Fire Nation timekeeping is as such: sunrise is the start of the day and each subsequent hour after is entitled 1st Hour, 2nd Hour, etc. Sunset occurs and then it switches to 1st Hour After, 2nd Hour After, until sunrise again. Water Tribe timekeeping is instead based off of the moon and the tides. Ilah is late to a lot of meetings in her first few years as Fire Lady.
She also has a tendency to sleep very late into the night and wake up in the late morning. This is hell for Fire Nation nobility and government officials, who tend to schedule meetings for the early morning and take afternoons off since it's hotter. She suggests evening and night meetings and they balk
She can't heal worth shit. Not just "can only do simple healing", she can't heal at all. For a female waterbender from the North Pole, this means she had a very rough time in her childhood. I like to think benders need to bend and if they don't their emotional regulation deteriorates. As a woman and a princess she absolutely couldn't do combative waterbending. At least, not publicly. In the end, her waterbending brother started teaching her and her temper mellowed significantly.
She also dresses very scantily, especially for a Fire Lady, because she can't handle the heat. This, of course, leads to new fashion trends and makes it acceptable for even the nobility to wear a little bit less.
She visits the Northern Water Tribe every year before Iroh is born, spending time with her family. She loves her tribe a lot and in many ways wishes the Fire Nation was more like it (more emphasis on family and community as opposed to individual ambition). As Fire Lady, she tries to push the Fire Nation in that direction, while also preserving a lot of the aspects she has learnt to love about her nation.
After Iroh is born, she takes him to the NWT every few years as he grows up. She teaches him her language and culture, showing him waterbending moves even after he turns out to be a firebender. She's the waterbender he took inspiration from for lightning redirection. She would've done the same for Ozai, had she lived past his birth.
She hates sitting for portraits and there is only one portrait of her hanging in the palace-- most of the FN citizens don't know what she looks like, unlike other Fire Ladies. Iroh and Azulon have personal portraits of her, but the only one Ozai had growing up was the one in the Hall of Royal Consorts
It's really a wonder that Azulon and Ilah didn't have more children. They used birth control up until they decided to have Iroh, but after that point it was pure chance that they didn't have more. Ozai was a surprise and Ilah was recommended not to go through with the pregnancy due to her age, but she decided she wanted to. She was really excited to have another child in the palace and Azulon, though worried for her health, was as well.
Sunsets were their time. They would watch the sunset together as often as they could, often with Azulon falling asleep with his head on Ilah's lap, Fire Lord headpiece on a desk in his office.
Ilah, instead of having the customary gold detailing on her robes and sun motifs, chose to go with silver and moon motifs. It was just one of the ways she represented the Northern Water Tribe while being Fire Lady.
Don't think she was some kind, perfect person though. While Ilah supported her husband in making peace in the Earth Kingdom, believing it to be the best choice, she was of the belief that the Southern Water Tribes should be fully under the thumb of a greater nation like the Northern Water Tribe or the Fire Nation. She personally created and led the Southern Raiders, believing that the best person to fight and subjugate waterbenders was another waterbender. She was the one who made sure that the prisons for waterbenders were as foolproof as possible.
Both her and Azulon were rather religious. Azulon was partially raised by his older sister, who had a vested interest in spirits, and Ilah was able to see the mortal forms of Tui and La as often as she liked. It was one of the things their relationship formed around, and one of the reasons the peace talks in the North went so smoothly. They have shrines in their bedroom to Agni, Tui, and La.
Azulon made a betrothal necklace for Ilah. He used his firebending to make the pendant out of gold, and used his hair ribbon from the day he killed his older brother as the necklace itself. She wore it for the three years they were betrothed but hadn't yet married. She kept it in a box of her belongings that were given to Iroh when she died (a box he had never had the courage to open).
Ilah was like... 90% of Azulon's impulse control and humanity. Which is astonishing considering she herself had next to no impulse control and would regularly insult ministers and officials she thought were idiots, while Azulon actually had political skill.
In the end, things would've been a lot better if Ilah had lived. But she didn't, she died giving birth to Ozai and things just went downhill from there. She is incredibly mad in the spirit world.
