Cinder Fall (Vol 4-6)

Mistral 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 and she wears a 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 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.

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" 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.[16] 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.

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.

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 the entirety of Team RWBY 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 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".​​​​ 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. In "Midnight", Cinder showcased that even as a young teenager, she was already physically strong enough to carry a fully grown woman and lift her off her feet by her throat using only one hand and break her neck by simply squeezing her throat and tightening her grip.

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

Weapon 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.

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 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.

Shadow Hand During the Fall of Beacon, Cinder is severely injured by Ruby's Silver Eyes. Following this, her left arm is replaced with a Grimm limb known as a "Shadow Hand". It is 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 a long distance and has been shown to be capable of extracting the Maiden powers as seen in her fight with Amber.

The arm is capable of regrowing after being cut off with no permanent damage, as seen during "The Enemy of Trust" when it was cut off by Winter Schnee. However, the process itself is exceptionally painful, with Cinder screaming in agony as it regenerated 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 at 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 In order to acquire the Fall Maiden powers, Cinder used a special glove to steal it from Amber. However, she only took half of it when the process was interrupted, which she described as an emptiness. Upon obtaining the remaining portion in "Heroes and Monsters", Cinder gained the ability to use fire-based attacks without the need of Dust or her Semblance.

Cinder later displayed power over other elements she has not used before, such as 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. As the Fall Maiden, she is the only one that can access the chamber of the Relic of Choice, although has yet to do so.

Additionally, she also displayed the power to affect the behavior of Grimm, having been able to somewhat influence the actions of a gigantic Wyvern through her Maiden Powers.

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. 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 palms 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, wherein she was able to outmaneuver the both 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 and infuse lightning with her flames when hitting Ruby in "The Final Word".

Weaknesses

Following Cinder's 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.

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

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