Oodles of Embers

#2lazy4shading

What's that, there's not enough Ember in my gallery? Then here's some more!!

Jeepers, why do I do this to myself. I have so much to saaaaayyy... Because, as usual, this is just an excuse to ramble about my headcanons. I'll try to keep it as succinct as possible.

But for those who just want to look at the pretty Embers, here's a few quick answers to some questions you might have:

Yes, that pair at the top are Ember's parents. Their names are Silvus, an Artisan, and Laela, a Beast Maker. Yes, that is an attack frog and yes it's friendly. In my headcanon, Beast Makers use attack frogs like guard dogs, and they just went a little nuts when Gnasty Gnorc attacked. This attack frog, which is Ember's pet, is called Boggart. Yes, that's what Ember's egg looked like. Yes, Ember can play the harp; she is part Artisan, even though she takes more after her mother as a Beast Maker. And lastly, Ember and Flame are cousins in my headcanon. Flame is a full Artisan.

(Also, I know I keep changing how I draw Ember, but I think I've finally settled on a design I like.)

And now, headcanons!

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Ember's Parents

Silvus and Laela first met while Silvus, a freelance architect, was in the Beast-Maker Realms working on the construction of a new town hall. They hit it off immediately and had a whirlwind romance that culminated in Silvus moving to Misty Bog to be with her. In the following Year of the Dragon, they had Ember, who would be their only child.

Silvus's older brother Delbin was also gifted with a child that same Year of the Dragon—a red male he named Flame. Silvus had a good relationship with his brother, and they often brought their families together so that Ember and Flame could play, even though Delbin's family lived all the way in Stone Hill.

Meanwhile, Laela's brother and clutchmate Lyle doted over Ember and lavished her with all sorts of gifts, be it jewellery or short-lived pets he'd 'beastmade' himself. He was almost like a second father to Ember, since Silvus' job meant he was often away from his family for days at a time—at least until the Professor and his superportals arrived in the Dragon Realms.

Silvus and Laela stayed in Misty Bog until Ember was four years old, when they moved to Dragon Village.

Boggart the Miniature Attack Frog

As a young hatchling living in Misty Bog, Ember adored everything about attack frogs. Made to guard the Beast Makers' livestock—usually chickens—these frogs were both loyal and fiercely protective of their charges. Ember was quite taken with their bright colours—especially their venomous, rainbow-like tongues—and the way they moved, affectionately nicknaming them 'rainbow hoppers.' Her uncle Lyle happily fed this obsession and would often take her to visit the livestock pens, where the frogs stood guard. But she never got too close; attack frogs are not only venomous, but short-tempered and quick to attack if anything so much as threatens the livestock they're guarding.

When Ember was four, her parents decided to move to Dragon Village for a number of reasons. It was situated in the centre of the Dragon Realms and held a reputation as a sanctuary where dragons of all types could live together in harmony. It seemed the perfect place to raise a half-blood like Ember, and it made travel for Silvus, who went all over the Dragon Realms with his work as an architect, more convenient than staying in the Beast-Maker Realms. But though the move went smoothly, Ember very quickly started to miss the swamp.

Noticing her young daughter's distress, Laela decided she needed something that would remind her of the swamp—something that would make her feel more at home. In typical Beast Maker fashion, her immediate idea was to make Ember a pet. And thanks to Ember's love of attack frogs, Laela knew just what to make her.

Boggart the miniature attack frog was the result of several months of work. Created with modifications to the original attack frog design, he was half the size of a normal attack frog and lacked both their venom and their short-tempered personalities. Laela made sure to keep the rainbow tongue, though. The result was a small and mellow, but steadfastly loyal pet created with the purpose to protect and befriend Ember. He was presented to her on her fifth birthday, and Ember loved him at first glance. 

Boggart has been with her ever since and has remained her loyalist companion from the moment he was created.

Ember's Harp

Though Ember does take more after her mother than her father, both in looks and abilities, there is still a dash of Artisan creativity in her blood. This manifests itself in a love of music—also a Beast Maker trait!—and a healthy dose of musical talent. She first showed signs of this as a hatchling attending the Dragon Village nursery, where she could often be found at playtime plucking away at a toy harp. When the nanny made Ember's mother aware of this, an intrigued Laela decided to get Ember a real harp.

Ember's first harp was a hand-me-down from one of her father's relatives; it was old and battered and ever-so-slightly out of tune, but she loved it. She practised with her harp every day, to the point where her mother sent her for lessons with an old Artisan living in Dragon Village. As Ember grew, so too did her talent with the harp, and on her first Year of the Dragon, at twelve years old, her parents gave her a new harp that had been made especially for her. Plated with rose gold and embossed with a beautiful cursive letter E, her new harp was a work of art and remains to this day her most prized possession. 

She's not shy about playing around strangers, but she only sings when she plays alone—and good thing too, since her musical talent doesn't seem to extent to singing!

Childhood and Relationships

In her childhood years, Ember was quite the social butterfly. Openly friendly, bubbly and full of energy, she got along easily with anyone and everyone at Dragon Village. Most young dragons welcomed her into their friend circles easily, drawn in by her infectious optimism and zealous personality. Though she tended to be bossy, pushy and much too set on getting her own way, she avoided arguments by jumping seamlessly between friend-groups whenever things got a bit tense. The downside of this was obvious: she had countless friends, but no one she was really close to.

The exception to this was Flame, her rambunctious Artisan cousin. Though he lived all the way in Stone Hill, in the Artisan Realms, Ember saw him at least three times a year, when their families brought them together. They got along quite well for two very different young dragons. Fierce, competitive and full of the spark of adventure, Flame wanted nothing more than to test his skills and prove himself the best of the best, whether in the speedways, on supercharge tracks, or in firebreathing competitions with his fellow young Artisans. Ember—who, for all her zealous optimism, preferred calmer, less competitive activities—was often dragged along on Flame's various exploits, no matter how she protested. Though their arguments were many, Ember usually ended up enjoying herself, and for a long time Flame was the only one who ever challenged her bossy tendencies and won.

Ember had always had an obsessive personality, even as a hatchling, but it wasn't until Spyro came along that it proved itself a problem. She was ten when she first heard of him, in the wake of Gnasty Gnorc's attack, which left all the adults in Dragon Village frozen in crystal. After the spell was broken, rumours soon spread of the young purple dragon that had defeated the gnorc all on his own, and Ember's imagination went wild. She didn't meet him, however, until about a year later, following Spyro's adventure in Avalar.

Around this time, the mole Professor from Avalar paid a visit to the Dragon Realms and decided in due course to build a secondary laboratory there, so that he might study dragon magic and integrate it into his technology. His choice of location was, naturally, Dragon Village: the centre of the Dragon Realms. Ember, like most young dragons her age, had no interest in the weird building being constructed in her town, but she was very interested in what came with it. As construction began, Spyro started to pay frequent visits to Dragon Village, sometimes accompanied by his newfound Avalarian friends. Ember was ecstatic. She took to hanging around the construction site, hoping to catch a glimpse of Spyro or maybe even talk to him. Her friends were less interested, and she started to spend less and less time with them—and when she did, all she talked about was Spyro.

When she finally did get her chance to talk to him, Spyro was surprisingly forthcoming. The novelty of having his first ever fangirl was not lost on him. He humoured her for a while and, as a result, Ember's interest in him went through the roof. She didn't just have a crush. She was obsessed. Every spare moment she had she spent lurking around the half-built laboratory, hoping he'd show up. When he did, she started following him around, hoping he'd notice her and invite her into his circle of friends. Her actions, however, had quite the opposite effect. 

As the novelty of having a fan started to wear off, Spyro began to avoid her. It took a while for Ember to notice, but when she did, she convinced herself he was doing it because he had a crush on her and was too embarrassed to admit it. This, naturally, only fed her obsession.

In due time, the laboratory was finished, but Spyro didn't stop coming to Dragon Village. He and his friends started to use the Professor's lab as a sort of base of operations, much to the old mole's chagrin, and that activity increased tenfold after the Year of the Dragon and Spyro's exploits in the Forgotten Realms. Now with friends from all over the world, Spyro was almost constantly at Dragon Village, meeting with friends who warped in using the professor's newly-designed superportals (an invention that would change the lives of everyone in the Dragon Realms, Ember's family included). Ember revelled in this, but Spyro was trying to avoid her more than ever.

As she spent so much time hanging around the lab, waiting for Spyro, Ember struck up an odd sort of friendship with Elora, the professor's faun assistant, who often visited from Avalar. They didn't have much in common, but Elora was at least patient enough to listen to Ember's gushing about Spyro. She did, however, suggest that Ember was trying too hard to get Spyro to notice her and that she should back off a little if she wanted Spyro to like her. Unfortunately, Ember just brushed this criticism aside.

Over the next several months, Spyro's presence in Dragon Village began to dwindle. One of the last times Ember got to speak to him was during the banished Elder Red's attack on the Dragon Realms. Following Red's defeat, Spyro hardly came to Dragon Village at all. The Professor's superportals were spreading all over the realms, which meant he and his friends could gather wherever they wanted. And Spyro had no great desire to frequent the place where his insufferable, unavoidable fangirl was waiting for him. Ember spent many months wondering why Spyro had stopped coming to the village, her hopes dwindling with every passing day he didn't come, and it took her a long time to get over him.

A few years later, once she'd grown up a little and matured, Ember would think back on those years of her childhood and think that maybe, just maybe, she was the reason Spyro had stopped coming.

Other Stuff

Ember's mother Laela is largely a stay-at-home mum. She spends most of her time in the basement, which she converted into an office-come-laboratory for Beast Making purposes, where she designs and creates new beasts to introduce into the Dragon Realms.

There are no other female Beast Makers Ember's age in Dragon Village. This played at least a part in Ember's lack of close friends. All of her friends thought Boggart was weird and creepy and usually made an effort to stay away from the miniature attack frog. Boggart was Ember's closest companion, and the reactions of her friends hurt her more than she let on.

While on holiday, Ember usually leaves Boggart behind with Elder Magnus, the Beast Maker elder who lives in Crocovile Swamp.

Ember still meets up with Elora from time to time, sometimes at the professor's lab but usually during the Midsummer festival that's held at Dragon Village. They have a much more balanced friendship now that Ember has matured and is no longer fawning over Spyro.

Flame and Ember still get together several times a year, and their parents tend to take them on holiday together. Flame's mother, a busy and high-ranking Artisan, very rarely joins them on these trips. As a result, the only time Ember ever sees her aunt is when she visits them in Stone Hill. Flame was raised mostly by his father.

After Cynder literally drops into the Dragon Realms, it takes a while for her and Ember to get along. But they do...eventually.

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If you read all of that, well done! You must be very bored.

All this stuff pertains to that elusive fanfiction I'm trying to write, Stranger, Stranger. And I'm well aware that these headcanon-y things aren't going to mesh with everyone's ideas about Ember! But this is how she and her backstory took form in my head, so there you go.

It took me several weeks to write this description, jeez. Mostly because I kept putting it off. And I don't know why I did, because I don't think anyone's going to read it, but whatev.

Ember for president!