Cinder Fall

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 primary antagonist of the Beacon Arc. She made her debut in the first episode of Volume 1, "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 and causing her to lose her left eye and part of her left arm. She had incredible difficulty speaking for a time, and her entire left arm was eventually replaced with a Shadow Hand.

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.

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

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 quarter-circle 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.

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. This is most notable when Jaune Arc just barely nicks the edge of her mask during the Battle of Haven resulting in Cinder flying into a childish rage and start to yell and make threats. This 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.

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. Because of this, she was humiliated from her defeat and injury by Ruby atop Beacon Tower. As shown in Volume 4, she did not display 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 her subordinates.

Even after recovering in Volume 5, her deep desire for vengeance against Ruby clouds her judgement, shown when she negotiates a deal with Raven Branwen to stage an ambush in Haven Academy, despite protest from Arthur Watts. In the end, this results in Raven betraying Cinder, leaving her for dead and taking the Relic of Knowledge. Because of her actions, Salem was forced to change her plans, focusing on attacking Atlas instead of Vacuo due to the Lamp being taken there.

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 as Tyrian Callows maniacally massacres a Beowolf in grief of having displeased Salem, showing that even she has limits with absolute violence. It is implied that Cinder 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, her anger and frustration reached its boiling point as she began viciously lashing out at Winter, injuring her badly and nearly killing her for deterring Cinder's quest for power.

The World of RWBY: The Official Companion states that Cinder chose to hasten Pyrrha's demise by incinerating her body, sparing her a slow death after being shot in the ribcage. This hints that Cinder might possess a small sense of mercy.

Although Watts' angry rant regarding her arrogance and short-sightedness hinted at Cinder having a change of heart, in reality she does not change at all, merely doubling down on said qualities. In "Worthy", she murders tons of civilians in the central location during the evacuation to Vacuo, and in "The Final Word", betrays and murders her allies without a second thought such as pushing Neo into the void and trapping Watts in the Atlas Command Center before setting it on fire to kill him.

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

During the first three volumes, Cinder's weapons of choice were 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, a prodigy scythe wielder, with ease.

Midnight can combine together at the bottoms of the swords' hilts to form into a bow, allowing Cinder to make long range attacks by firing arrows at her target.

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.

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

The most notable instance of Cinder's Semblance is during her fight with Pyrrha Nikos, during which she disintegrates her opponent with Scorching Caress.

Her main usage of it in battle is both launching projectiles created by superheating dirt, as seen during her battle against Amber, as well as manipulating her weapon Midnight which is formed through Dust. She can also produce heat from any part of her skin, such as when she burnt Penny using her thighs.

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