Cinder Fall

**Cinder Fall** is one of the main antagonists of *RWBBY* and the primary antagonist of the Beacon Arc. She is a member of Salem's Inner Circle and was the leader of her own faction. She is also the current Fall Maiden. Her machinations are the driving force behind the events of the first three volumes of *RWBBY.* She made her first appearance in the Volume 1 episode "Ruby Rose".

Cinder used a special Grimm glove to steal half of the Fall Maiden's powers from Amber. During the Fall of Beacon, she gained the other half and killed Ozpin in battle.

When Beacon fell, Ruby Rose unleashed the power of her Silver Eyes, putting Cinder into a state of near death. It is later revealed that she lost her left eye and part of her left arm, causing massive scarring over that side of her face. She had incredible difficulty speaking for a time, and it is later revealed that her entire left arm had been completely replaced with a Grimm.

After narrowly surviving a defeat by Raven Branwen, Cinder allied herself with Neopolitan, one of her former associates, in order to eliminate their shared enemy against the orders of Salem. She later succeeded in getting the Relic of Knowledge thanks to Neo and returned to Salem on Monstra.

In "The Final Word", Cinder obtains the Relic of Creation and the Relic of Knowledge, as well as send Team RWBBY, Jaune Arc and Neopolitan into a void. Afterwards, she delivers both Relics to Salem.

## Characteristics

### Weapon

* Cinder's Weapons (Currently)
* Midnight (Formerly)
* Rhodes' Sword (Formerly)

### Age

* 10-Approx. 15 (Flashback)
* Early-Mid 20s (Volumes 1-3)

## Appearance

### Outfit

* Crimson, Yellow (Volumes 1-5)
* Black, Gold (Volume 6-Current)

### Accessories

Eyepatch, Cloak, Wristband, Armband, Earrings, Feather Brooch

## Professional Status

### Affiliation

* Salem's Inner Circle
* Cinder's Faction

### Previous Team

CNEM Team

* Neopolitan
* Emerald
* Mercury

## Personal Status

### Relatives

* Madame (Stepmother) †
* Unnamed Stepsisters †

## Appearance

Cinder is a fair-skinned woman with ashen-black hair that covers her left eye. She has bright amber eyes and is described to be very young.

## Original (Dustweave Vestments, Volumes 1-3)

In "Black and White", she wears lipstick and violet eyeshadow. She wears a dark-red, off-the-shoulders, v-neck mini dress with yellow designs. There is a blue feather-like accessory on her right hip, at the top of an open portion of her dress. The dress ends in an upside-down triangular tail in the back, ending just above the knees.

There is a baseball diamond-shaped keyhole on the dress' upper back at the same height as her chest. The sleeves end in a triangle shape, which are wrapped or tied around her middle finger, with the gold designs of the sleeve taking over at the wrists. Her fingernails are painted dark red.

She wears black shorts underneath her dress, as well as a black choker on her neck. She has a gold loop earring with a black gem dangling from it on her right ear. She has dark, glass, high-heeled shoes and a jeweled anklet on her right leg.

On her upper back, in the keyhole of her dress, she has a black tattoo of what appears to be a pair of high heel shoes placed sole to sole, forming a heart shape inside. Whenever she uses the Dust that is sewn into her dress, the designs on the arms, back and chest glow bright orange. Her eyes and earrings also glow.

It is possible that her appearance is influenced by East Asian culture, as the designs on her dress are styled similarly to traditional Japanese or Chinese patterns.

Her clothes throughout Volumes 1-3 are referred to as Dustweave Vestments in *RWBBY: Combat Ready*, seemingly confirming they have been woven with Dust in them.

## Haven Uniform

When undercover at Beacon, Cinder is seen wearing the uniform of Haven Academy, a more conservative dark gray outfit with a long-sleeved collared top and white armband. Unlike most female students, who wear silver knee-high socks, Cinder wears black tights.

## Infiltration Outfit

During her infiltration of the Cross Continental Transmit System Tower, Cinder is shown wearing a black infiltration outfit, which she had previously been seen sewing together in "Extracurricular". The outfit consists of a sleeveless jacket, long gloves, stiletto heel boots, a black glass mask and several straps with containers of powdered Dust lined across her pants. The gloves, boots, and pants have black mosaic designs that are infused with Dust, which glows bright orange when in use. When needed, Cinder can instantly transform her infiltration attire into a formal black evening gown that has black glass designs on it.

## Tournament

When attending the Vytal Festival Tournament, she wears gray pants and boots; a beige leather, sleeveless jacket with light-beige details; brown gloves, a sarashi tied around her chest and another around her hips, and a pauldron on her left shoulder. She also wears a belt around her waist, which has multiple brown pouches attached to it. Her fingernails are painted with tan nail polish.

## Flashback

During the events of "Beginning of the End", Cinder had shorter hair. Her previous attire looks similar to her original outfit except her dress has separated sleeves and the dress is held up by straps tied around her neck in a bow. Her heeled shoes are made of a more typical material, rather than glass. She did not have her characteristic tattoo until after she stole a portion of Amber's Maiden powers. Her fingernails are a dark red color.

## Post-Timeskip Outfit (Volumes 4-6)

After the timeskip following the Fall of Beacon, Cinder's appearance went through a drastic change. Her hair is much shorter, she wears a black mask that appears to be made of black glass over her missing left eye and the scarring from said injury extends into a slight x-shape over the bridge of her nose, as well as having deformed and degraded the tissue of her left ear.

She wears a long, dark red dress with one long, wide sleeve hiding her left arm. The edges of the collar and the opening for the right arm are gold-colored, and the upper chest and left sleeve are decorated with golden designs. The right side of her dress is open from the hip down with two gold-colored straps made up of interwoven ropes connecting the front half to the back half of her thigh. Under the dress, she appears to wear black pantyhose. On the right hip, the dress has a black rhombus-shaped gem set in a gold-colored metal of the same shape, with feathers of varying shades of blue extending from the bottom of it. On her right arm, she wears a long, gray glove, the top of which has a gold-colored metal ring with curvy branching extensions going up to her arm. Her right ear has a new, ring-shaped earring higher up than the dangling black gem earring.

In "Vault of the Spring Maiden", Cinder reveals that her left arm has been replaced with a Shadow Hand.

## Mistral Disguise (Volume 6)

After the Battle of Haven, Cinder kills a woman passerby and takes her cloak; a light brown robe worn over a white shirt and pants with a shawl, sash and skirt of a matching dark brown color, black socks and light brown sandals. Her left Grimm arm is wrapped in bandages, and she no longer wears her black mask. Additionally, her model lacks painted fingernails.

## Current Outfit (Volume 6-Current)

In "Our Way", Cinder wears a new left eyepatch that has straps that run both above and below her right eye. She sports a black tank top and shorts that are mostly covered with a black shoulder cape worn over her left arm, all of them having gold trimmings. Her blue feather accessory is over the right side of her chest. She also has a black and gold band over white bandages, a black band on her right wrist, a glove over her left arm, covering her Shadow Hand, black knee-high laced heeled boots and she also retains her two earrings from her previous attire. She appears to have put blush on her cheeks, as seen in "Out in the Open". Cinder's cape is capable of slinging behind her back to allow for more mobility.

The Shadow Hand replacing her left arm appears to have extended up to her left shoulder, as shown in "The Enemy of Trust". Additionally, it appears the scars in Cinder's arm have gone through change, now having a raw appearance. Following her battle with Winter and Penny, Cinder loses the glove covering her arm, exposing her Shadow Hand.

## Young

In her youth, Cinder wore her hair into two messy bunches, whose left side was left a short, dangling bang over her eyebrows. She wore a white shirt with a red apron, black pants and black shoes. Notably, her left index finger and right wrist were covered in bandages.

Cinder was also shown to be noticeably haggard and gaunt looking during her early childhood, this is seen where Cinder was shown to be noticeably thinner, her cheeks more sunken and her eyes having deep black bags underneath them and her having a a tired expression in her face. All clear indicators to her mistreatment within the Children's Home in Mistral and signs that she was being overworked and not fed properly.

## Glass Unicorn Uniform

n her late childhood and early teens, Cinder primarily wore a uniform issued to her by her "Step-Mother" as a "employee" for her hotel, The Glass Unicorn. With her wearing a white shirt with grey laces, grey pants and shoes. As seen during her time growing up in the Hotel, Cinder would usually tie her hair into a single bun on the back of her head.

After Cinder killed her abusive step-family and Rhodes, she rips off the shock collar she was wearing while she was working at the Glass Unicorn and has a noticeable scar where it was on her neck.

## Personality

Cinder is ruthless and sadistic, as demonstrated when she delivers a killing blow to a clearly defeated Pyrrha Nikos in "End of the Beginning", which Gea Belladonna intercepted, and when she throws a spear at a defenseless Weiss Schnee in "The More the Merrier." She is relentlessly driven to gain power and determined to cross any line to obtain it. Cinder demonstrates a cunning that shows in her successful manipulation of events and people throughout the first three volumes. Cinder is also arrogant and ego-maniacal, and as such, relishes in dominance and gloating, displaying shameless pleasure in the misery she has caused others.

She also seems to be ambitious and demanding in the role of a leader, expecting her subordinates to execute exactly as she wishes with what little she gives them. She does not seem to tolerate failure, preferring for her goals to be successful regardless of the situation. Cinder prefers that such problems be solved quickly, is seen to give very direct orders and keeps her subordinates on a strictly need-to-know basis, sharing a similar leadership style to Salem. However, she does display a cunning streak as her allegiance revolves around having Neo kill Ruby so Cinder will not be going against Salem's orders to not kill her. She believes that the power she is after is owed to her, having been promised god-like abilities and the Maidens' powers by Salem.

Usually, she maintains a calm and collected demeanor and is willing to take over a fight if necessary. In the rare occurrence in which she is caught off guard, Cinder's monumental temper surfaces, showing her immense shock and outrage. This is most notable when Jaune Arc nicks the edge of her mask during the battle at Haven Academy. The explosive response to even the slightest attack on her shows Cinder's intolerance of fear, leading her to react poorly when others see her feel it. Cinder seeks to be feared and therefore detests being made to feel fear by both her enemies and her superiors alike. Additionally, Cinder is stated to be jealous of those with natural talents.

After the Fall of Beacon, Cinder is humiliated from her defeat and injury with Ruby atop Beacon Tower. She no longer displays her usual confidence, instead appearing sullen and taking insults from the other members of Salem's Inner Circle without reply due to her inability to speak, thus relying on heavily her subordinates. Because of this, Cinder is shown to have developed a deep desire for vengeance against Ruby. Arthur Watts notes that this desire affects her judgment, proven when she negotiates a deal with Raven Branwen that allows the latter to betray her by stealing the Relic from Haven Academy.

However, Cinder's thirst and desperation for power stems from a life of powerlessness and having nothing.This desperation has led to a fear of failure and a hatred towards the elite class, who have held power from others forever. She apparently detests being called out on her actions, as shown when Raven cites Cinder's choice to take the arm of a Grimm. Cinder retorts angrily, showing she sees herself as being beyond judgment or the moral codes of others. She is incapable of accepting any sort of criticism from others. However in "Taking Control", she is visibly horrified watching Tyrian Callows maniacally massacres a Beowolf in grief of having displeased Salem, showing that even she has limits with absolute violence. It's implied Cinder herself only enjoys the psychological torture she inflicts and dislikes the bloodier brutality of her associates.

Later the full extent of Cinder's desperation for power is shown in her reaction of again being denied the power of a Maiden, as seen in "The Enemy of Trust". During her battle with Penny Polendina and Winter Schnee and upon being overpowered by Fria, Cinder's anger and frustration began to reach its boiling point as she began viciously lashing out at Winter, injuring her badly and nearly killing her, for again deterring her quest for power.

As seen during Lil' Miss Malachite's advice for finding potential allies instead of just killing them and later Arthur Watts's angry rant regarding her arrogance and short sightedness, Cinder has shown to have a few traits of humility that allows her to not be completely blinded by her arrogance and narcissism that she is blind to her faults and mistakes. This is seen where Cinder herself was capable of admitting to her mistakes and reevaluate herself in order to improve herself in order to better accomplish her goals.

However despite supposedly learning her "lesson", as seen in "The Final Word", Cinder will still not hesitate to betray and kill her allies without a second thought in order to cover her tracks and satiate her own ego. This is best seen when she betrays and pushes Neo into the void of the dimension created by Ambrosius to get back at her for threatening her and her later trapping Arthur Watts in Atlas Command Center and setting it on fire to kill him. As revealed by her having "taken" Watts's angry rant towards her to heart, Cinder has now shown to become patient enough to wait for a convenient opportunity to kill anyone who crosses her instead of immediately killing them on the spot in order to better take advantage of them, as seen where she set up both Neo and Watt in order to be able to get away with lying to Salem and covering up her actions to avoid punishment.

Based on her upbringing shown in "Midnight", Cinder's current personality and desperation for power stems from the abuse she suffered as a child. Where she faced constant bullying, starvation and abuse from the other children from the home she was raised in and her later being abused even further after being adopted by her step-family, who treated her as nothing more than a servant and abused her even further regularly.

Despite no longer being under them, Cinder still retains several psychological scars from their abuse. This is seen in Cinder's behavior, where she had apparently unconsciously adopted the cruel traits of her past abusers into her own personality. Though the electrocution she got from the collar also had an affect on her, making Cinder disdainful of physical torture and being very efficient in killing.

Due to her abusive childhood, Cinder has shown to possess a docile, fearful and submissive side to her personality when dealing with someone who is superior to her. This side of her was most pronounced in her childhood and later after returning to Salem's side after redeeming herself of her past failures. Despite this ultimately, Cinder's lust for power caused her to disobey Salem's order regardless of the consequences when she decided to go to Amity Communications Tower. In "Amity", Cinder is shown to be a hypocrite, claiming to Penny she serves no one, yet still serves Salem despite not always following her orders, psychologically projecting herself onto Penny.

As seen during her childhood, Cinder had a more positive and vulnerable side to her personality. This is was partially due to the positive influence of her mentor Rhodes, who attempted to guide Cinder to a better path in life as a Huntress. This is seen where after being talked down by Rhodes about her wanting revenge at her step-family, Cinder backed down from hurting them and expressed her true desire of simply wanting to be free and be strong enough to look after herself without relying on them any longer. With Rhodes's influence, Cinder instead choose to focus on becoming a Huntress instead and become old enough to leave. This would later not come to pass after she kills her step-family due to them finally taking their abuse too far.

This showed that initially, Cinder herself had hesitation at the prospect of killing and she herself was only resorting to it due to seeing it as her only way out. This was seen after Cinder had killed her step-family, where Cinder herself was noticeably broken and repulsed by her own actions and did not actively enjoy or take pleasure in having taken their lives.

Cinder was also shown to have developed a genuine friendship and bond with Rhodes, as seen where she truly cared for him due to being the first person in her life to treat her with kindness instead of cruelty, with Cinder and Rhodes having developed a mutual trust in each other. She later felt deeply betrayed after Rhodes made his stance clear that he would take her in for killing her step-family, causing her to enter into a rage for him betraying her trust. Later after Cinder successfully killed him, she would shed a single tear of sadness for her mentor.

## Powers and Abilities

Cinder is a highly skilled combatant in both unarmed combat and swordsmanship, being able to out-duel both Winter Schnee and Penny Polendina simultaneously in their battle, and later fend off 4 out of the 5 members of Team RWBBY with casual ease in "Worthy".

She is also a capable markswoman, launching three arrows at once with great accuracy and pragmatically exploiting any advantage whenever possible, such as launching an arrow in Amber's back just as the latter was about to kill Emerald. Cinder has shown to be quite stealthy as well, having sneaked around a guard to easily knock him out and escaping Ruby when the latter encounters her on her mission and fights her. She is also quite adept at piloting, able to fly a Bullhead during one of Glynda's attacks.

Cinder is adept at Aura-based blocking techniques, easily capable of blocking bullets from Crescent Rose.

She can make extensive use of raw Dust without difficulty. Her primary technique at the time of their battle was a highly forceful blast of fiery projectiles. It was later revealed by the presence of her tattoo that Cinder had obtained half the Fall Maiden power prior to this confrontation, although the Maidens were not added as a story element until after Volume 2 and thus were not a canon aspect of the show at the time. Cinder is capable of weaving Dust into her clothes, as shown in "Extracurricular".​​​​ Additionally, the arrows used when firing Midnight are made using Dust.

Cinder's physical strength is shown being well above average in "End of the Beginning" and "The Enemy of Trust", where she knocks Pyrrha away by jabbing her in the stomach with her elbow and physically overpowering both Penny and Winter with ease.

As shown in "Midnight" she has a high pain-tolerance, due to her years in the Glass Unicorn.

### Weapon

During the first three Volumes, Cinder's weapon of choice was **Midnight**. She showcased immense swordsmanship skill in using a dual bladed fighting style and was shown to be skilled enough to overpower the previous Fall Maiden, Amber and fight off Ruby Rose, a prodigy scythe wielder, with ease.

Midnight itself can combine together to form into a bow, allowing Cinder to make long range attacks by firing arrows at her target. With Cinder having showcased to be a highly skilled archer, as seen where she showcased enough skill in being able to aim and fire three arrows simultaneously with precision.

Later after becoming the Fall Maiden, Cinder chose to no longer use Midnight.

Currently, Cinder is able to use her Maiden powers to conjure **Magical Weapons** at will. Usually, she prefers using blades, and has shown to wield a variety of differently shaped ones with ease. However, she has also conjured bows, arrows and spears as well.

Cinder has also shown some skill in using polearm weapons, with her having used at least two different spears as projectiles.

As seen with her arrows and blades, Cinder can make her projectile weapons explode at will, with them being shown to possess considerable power in order to bombard her targets.

As shown in "Midnight", Cinder's sword skills were taught to her by Rhodes, because of this, her fighting style greatly resembles his own.

### Semblance

Cinder's Semblance, **Scorching Caress**, allows Cinder to super-heat objects and manipulate their shape. She can use it to generate explosions by super-heating the ground, as well as melt dirt and dust into glass.

The most notable instance of Cinder's Semblance is during her fight with Pyrrha Nikos.

So far Cinder has been seen using her Semblance to create various glass-based weapons from dirt during combat, as seen during her battles against Ozpin and Amber, where she formed glass projectiles by kicking and melting dirt and particles into the air to reshape into spikes.

It is revealed in "Midnight", that Cinder's Semblance was awakened due to the abuse from her step-family.

### Shadow Hand

During the Fall of Beacon, Cinder becomes injured by Ruby's Silver Eyes. Her left arm is replaced with a Grimm limb known as a "**Shadow Hand**". It's implied that the arm itself possesses some sort of sentience, as Salem instructed her to make her new limb respect and fear her. The arm is capable of stretching out somewhat of a long distance, and has been shown to be capable of extracting the Maiden powers as seen in her fight with Raven.

The arm is capable of regrowing after being cut out with no permanent damage, as seen during "The Enemy of Trust", after it was cut off by Winter Schnee. However, it can be noted that the process itself is exceptionally painful, as seen when it caused Cinder to scream in agony as it regenerates itself.

As of Volume 7, Cinder's Shadow Arm seems to have slowly begun progressing in covering her entire body, as the Grimm flesh has now reached all the way to Cinder's shoulder while previously the arm only halted in her elbow.

Despite being attached to Cinder, the Shadow Hand possesses a connection to Salem. This is seen in "Midnight", where she uses it to induce pain on Cinder for her disobedience. It is also seen in "The Final Word". Upon reforming, the Shadow Hand acted up, signaling Cinder of her master's return.

### Maiden Powers

After initially acquiring only half of the **Fall Maiden**'s powers, Cinder had only displayed fire-based magic. Whether this was due to her own preference for this element, familiarity with it due to her Semblance, or due to only obtaining half of the power is unknown. But upon obtaining the remaining portion from Amber, Cinder's powers were magnified, now being able to display even greater fire-based magic than before without the need of Dust or her Semblance and creating gigantic fire blasts with ease.

Cinder has also displayed power over other elements she has not used before she acquired the full Fall Maiden powers. Examples include conjuring a small blast of ice to freeze Raven Branwen solid and the power of wind to levitate herself and fly at high speeds. Furthermore, Cinder also used the power of earth to create a giant flaming molten rock sword out of thin air. Her skill over fire allows her to conjure her glass based weapons without the need of Dust or her Semblance.

She also has displayed the power to manipulate and affect the behavior of Grimm, having been able to influence the actions of a gigantic Wyvern through her Maiden Powers. As the Fall Maiden, she is the only one that can access the chamber of the Relic of Choice.

Since her arrival in Atlas, Cinder is shown to have improved in her capabilities, being able to summon weapons that explode at will. She is also capable of breathing fire. However, she is not a fully realized Maiden yet, as she could not face Fria in a fight, and she was eventually overpowered in her duel with Raven as well.

During her battles in Atlas, Cinder demonstrated the ability to use fire to fly by creating blasts underneath her feet and in the palm of her hands to act as thrusters. Cinder's mobility and maneuverability in flight was shown during her aerial battles against Winter Schnee and Penny Polendina, where she was able to out maneuver the both of them and defeat them.

In "Worthy", she creates a vortex of fire similar to the one Fria made out of ice. She also showcased her ability to breathe a long jet of fire in "The Final Word".

### Weaknesses

Following an unexpected defeat during the Fall of Beacon at the hands of Ruby, Salem reveals that upon acquiring the powers of a Maiden, Cinder gained a crippling weakness to the powers of the Silver Eyes, most likely due to her usage of a Grimm glove. After getting a Shadow Hand grafted into her body, its innately soulless status prevents Cinder from protecting it with her Aura, leaving it vulnerable to other weapons and Silver Eyes. Upon her first exposure to the Silver Eyes, Cinder was greatly weakened and significantly injured.

Cinder is also easily defeated by Gea on numerous occasions and there are few dialogue exchanges that give the appearance that Cinder is scared of her. Gea is often able to overpower Cinder by outwitting her and being as unpredictable as possible.

Other than this, Cinder has also shown that she could also be defeated by far more experienced Maidens, as was the case with both Raven and Fria.