Cinder Fall | Vytal Festival snack

Cinder Fall is the secondary antagonist of RWBY. 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 and cemented her as the main antagonist of the Beacon Arc. She made her debut in the first episode of Volume 1, "Ruby Rose".

Cinder is a fair-skinned young woman with bright amber eyes and long, ashen-black hair that covers her left eye and rests over her left shoulder. On her upper back she has a black tattoo of her emblem.

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.

Cinder is ruthless and sadistic, as demonstrated when she delivers a killing blow to a clearly defeated Pyrrha Nikos in "End of the Beginning" 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 egomaniacal and, as such, relishes in dominance and gloating, displaying shameless pleasure in the misery she has caused others. She believes that the power she is after is owed to her, having been promised godlike abilities and the Maiden powers by Salem.

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 Neopolitan kill Ruby Rose so Cinder will not be going against Salem's orders to not kill her.

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.

When Cinder first obtained the Fall Maiden powers, she saw it similarly to a brand-new toy that made her feel like she was the best and strongest. Because of this, she became addicted to the feeling and stopped considering the strengths she had acquired before that moment.

Cinder is a highly skilled combatant in both unarmed combat and swordsmanship. She is also a capable markswoman, launching three arrows at once with great accuracy and pragmatically exploiting any advantage whenever possible.

Cinder has shown to be quite stealthy as well, having snuck around a guard at Beacon Academy 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 and 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 her battle with Ruby in "Ruby Rose" was a highly forceful blast of fiery projectiles. It was later revealed by the presence of her tattoo that Cinder had obtained half of the Fall Maiden's 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".

Cinder's physical strength is shown being well above average.