Characters / Wings of Fire: IceWings

In General

• Alien Blood: Their blood is blue.
• An Ice Person: Have freezing breath instead of fire and near-immunity to cold.
• Appeal to Tradition: Many of the things that make up their society are thousands of years old, and their isolationism and racism towards the rest of the tribes have left the tribe inflexible, stuck in their ways, and ignorant of their flaws, to say nothing of how psychologically damaging it is for dragonets in the rankings like Winter, Hailstorm, Icicle, and Snowfall. It's so bad that when Snowfall destroys the ranking system, Tundra outright faints in shock.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: Their tail has spikes at its tip.
• Bishie Sparkle: They have sparkling scales.
• Break the Haughty: Enforced by Snowfall in The Dangerous Gift. She destroys the ranking system and the Great Ice Cliff, exposing the tribe to the rest of the world and breaking them out of their militant isolationism and essentially upending thousands of years of tradition after seeing how both of those "gifts" have hurt the tribe.
• City in a Bottle: The entire Ice Kingdom is this, as its borders are surrounded by the Great Ice Cliff, a massive, magical wall that shoots spears of ice at any approaching dragon that isn't an IceWing unless they're wearing a special bracelet.
• Family Honor: Enforced in universe with the official hierarchy system. Standings of one family member may affect the standings of the rest of their family.
• Fantastic Caste System: The seven circles, which determine every IceWing's rank. Aristocrats get favored and seem to be the only ones who have circles as dragonets, but it's largely meritocratic, as positions are dependent on skill, ruthlessness, protocol, strength, and deeds, with your actions, mistakes, and successes dictating where you're placed. The Dangerous Gift has Queen Snowfall dismantle it, as it has been proven to do more harm than good.
• Fantastic Racism: They believe that they are the greatest tribe in Pyrrhia, and teach their dragonets this as well. Holes start being poked in this once they get more major roles, such as Winter pondering why, if the IceWings are so superior, they were never able to win the war.
• Hufflepuff House: Have very little role in the first arc of five books, though this is changed in the next arc.
• Ice Palace: The queen and the top circle members live in one, which is enchanted by Animus magic to never melt.
• Insignia Ripoff Ritual: A variant. Failures in the various circles are punished by moving the offenders down to a lower rank, with the bottom of the seventh circle being the absolute worst spot to be in.
• Mirroring Factions: Despite their historic rivalry with the NightWings, both tribes are fairly similar, being two of the most advanced tribes on Pyrrhia and with a sense of arrogant superiority about them.
• The Proud Elite: IceWings are aristocratic and arrogant, thinking of themselves as one of the most civilized tribes in Pyrrhia and better than all of the others. A big part of the books of both Winter and Snowfall is realizing this isn't true, as despite the IceWings looking down on all of the other tribes, they still were unable to win the war themselves.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: IceWings are very dedicated to fighting, on par with SkyWings. Their whole lives revolve around following what a true IceWing soldier should be, with their rank representing how much they follow that ideal.
• Royalty Superpower: When they had animus dragons, they would always marry into royalty, leading to many IceWing royals being animus dragons.
• Serrated Blade of Pain: Their claws are serrated. They are more powerful and cause more pain than other claws, and are also useful for gripping glaciers.
• Social Darwinist: The entire tribe is heavily based on the rankings, enough that when one IceWing animus used their gift to provide free food for the needy (in the form of three holes in the ice that would always produce a seal if a dragon stuck their claws in), the gift was seen as disappointing because it was intended to help the weak rather than the tribe as a whole.
• Super-Senses: They have enhanced sight and resistance to bright light.
• Tail Slap: Their tail, besides being spiked, is thin and can be used like a whip.
• Theme Naming: IceWings normally are named after various arctic wildlife or land formations, mountains, "white" in various other languages, icy weather, certain jewels, and ice formations.

Glacier

Queen Glacier

• Affably Evil: She knows all of the dragons in her kingdom by name, but she'll also send them into a war and literally rip out the wings of any dragon who tries to interfere. Unlike Blister and Burn, she wants to talk to the dragonets peacefully and only kill them if they're utterly unworkable as allies, and has a chat with Winter where she acts sympathetically to his plight of being forced to kill his brother or die, even though she let that happen to him.
• The Atoner: She is shown to feel guilt about leading her tribe into a war that was far more costly than she expected, to the point of refusing to help Blaze or join Scarlet in a war against Ruby, even to get her nephew Hailstorm back.
• Benevolent Boss: Unlike the other leaders on the war, Glacier cares about her tribe, remembering each individual by name and regretting bringing them into a war that has now lasted so long.
• The Cavalry: Shows up to save Blaze from Deathbringer.
• Cavalry Refusal: However, she refuses to help Blaze when Blister challenges her, because she does not want to extend the war any longer.
• Deus Exit Machina: Her leaving for a meeting with Glory about Icicle's punishment allows Narwhal to have temporary control of the rankings, leading to him setting up Winter to be killed by Hailstorm.
• Evil Aunt: She's Winter, Icicle, and Hailstorm's aunt, and she is one of the main players in the War of SandWing Succession, as well as letting the Diamond Trial that she knows will kill one of them go on. However, she is friendly to Winter and a good queen to the IceWings, to the point where Winter defends her constantly and, after obtaining Darkstalker's scroll, suggests using it to make her immortal. The Dangerous Gift reveals more of her personality, showing she's not evil at all, and is simply trying to do what she thinks is best for the tribe.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: She thinks it strange how Glory would not demand Icicle's execution, instead just letting Glacier decide the punishment and asking for Moon Globes, but she admires this as well.
• The High Queen: To the IceWings. She knows every single dragon's name and is liked by her subjects.
• Good Parents: She was a good and loving mother to her three daughters Crystal, Snowfall, and Mink, and had no intention of fighting any of them for the throne if it came to it. She also chose Snowfall to be queen after her because she knew Snowfall was strong enough and would fight hard enough to protect the Ice Kingdom, as the pressure would eat Crystal and Mink alive.
• Manipulative Bastard: Manipulates Blaze into joining her so she can both get territory and have a weak and completely loyal queen in the only kingdom that borders hers. However, The Dangerous Gift also reveals that she was intending to mold Blaze into a queen that could stand on her own, and intended to be a loyal ally.
• Tough Leader Façade: The Dangerous Gift explains all of her actions in her prior appearances as this, showing that despite her dignified and competent exterior she was just a normal dragon who worried just as much about what to do with the tribe, and who was worried about and dearly loved all three of her daughters. While she did want Blaze to rule the Sand Kingdom, she also intended to be as strong of an ally as possible to help Blaze become a good queen, and a large amount of her more controversial decisions were also implied to be her trying to do what was best for the IceWings that she could tell.
• War for Fun and Profit: She fights in the war in order to get some land on the border from Blaze, as well as to have her only border occupied by an easily manipulated queen who is fully loyal to her. But she did not expect the war to last this long, and regrets her decision.
• Winter Royal Lady: Comes with the territory of being queen of the IceWings.

Fjord

• Cruel and Unusual Death: He's the first victim of Glory's newly-discovered RainWing venom, and dies screaming in agony and begging for someone to make the pain stop when she spits into his eye.
• Red Shirt: He exists solely to fight Clay and then die.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: All we know about him is that he was a soldier captured by the SkyWings and forced to fight in Scarlet's arena.

Icicle

Princess Icicle

Winter's sister.

• The Ace: Like her brother, succeeds at everything an IceWing is required to do. Until Winter Turning.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Winter notes that she never gets dirty after a battle, she might look a little scratched but she's always the most polished, sparkling pure white dragon. It comes as a shock to him when he finds her on the old Night Kingdom, disheveled, exhausted, and half-mad.
• Big Ego, Hidden Depths: Winter Turning shows how pathetic and vulnerable she is compared to Scarlet, despite her ego and placement in the Circles.
• Break the Haughty: By Winter Turning, she is purposefully depriving herself of sleep by rubbing her scales against lava just so she won't have to go to sleep and have Scarlet tell her that she has failed and Hailstorm is dead. Then she gets captured by the RainWings and placed at the bottom of the seventh circle.
• Child Soldiers: She fought in the War of SandWing succession, and is a five-year old dragonet. If her boasts are true, she's killed a lot of dragons.
• Dark Action Girl: As an IceWing aristocrat, she's trained to be an unstoppable warrior.
• Fantastic Racism: Was raised, as all members of her tribe are, to believe IceWings are superior to all other tribes, especially NightWings.
• Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb: Her parents trained her from birth to kill Queen Glacier so she could become queen herself, letting them control her and live the good life.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Was defeating dragons three times her size in battle when she was one year old.
• Royal Brat: Like Winter, but worse, she is very disdainful of the other dragons, and she's Queen Glacier's niece.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Like Winter, she likes to aim for privileges like being a in a separate cave on the ground that she's Queen Glacier's niece.
• The Sociopath: Cares nothing at all for the lives of others besides Hailstorm.
• Talking in Your Sleep: Her talking in her sleep about murder is part of what drives Sora to try to kill her. It turns out that she was talking to Scarlet via dreamvisitor.
• Virtue Is Weakness: Believes this.

Hailstorm

Prince Hailstorm

Winter's brother, who was killed by the NightWings in Scarlet's arena before the series.

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• The Ace: Was a talented dragon who was continually in the top of the First Circle and succeeded at everything.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: As per IceWing tradition, his seventh birthday coincides with his Diamond Trial.
• Brainwash Residue: After being freed from his enchantment, he's shown to have some difficulty with shaking off his Pyrite persona and readjusting to life as an IceWing.
• Break His Heart to Save Him: Tells Winter that he's always been pathetic and useless, so that he'll run away instead of trying to fight the SkyWings that have captured them.
• Broken Ace: After being turned back into himself from Pyrite.
• Cool Big Bro: He is a loving brother to Winter and one of the only members of their family that in his youth treated him as anything other than a failure. He was captured while taking Winter to see a scavenger den in SkyWing territory because he knew how much Winter liked them.
• Desperate Plea for Home: After one too many upsetting incidents involving his memories of Pyrite, Hailstorm tearfully tells Winter he wants to go home.
• Forced Transformation: He was cursed. Said cursed amulet turns him - and anyone who wears it - into a pathetically weak SkyWing called Pyrite.
• Gender Bender: When he is transformed into Pyrite.
• Hot-Blooded: A warrior who is energetic and unstoppable in everything.
• Intro-Only Point of View: In Winter Turning.
• Kill the Ones You Love: Almost kills Winter during the Diamond Trial when he is forced to either kill him or die, to earn his place after being trapped in Pyrite's body.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Thinks a tribe-wide version of this in the epilogue of Talons of Power as he stares at the circle rankings, wondering if the plague currently hitting the tribe is punishment for what the tribe did to Winter.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He could kill a whale as a one-year old dragonet.
• Posthumous Character: Until we find out he's actually alive.
• Reforged into a Minion: It turns out that Chameleon enchanted him to turn into a SkyWing who would always be loyal to Scarlet. However, Chameleon also makes him purposefully weak because he only needs Hailstorm for his value as a prisoner.
• Shoo the Dog: Does this to Winter, telling the SkyWings and him that he is pathetic and won't last any time in the arena, in order to save his life.
• Walking Spoiler: A large amount of Winter Turning's plot revolves around him, so this is natural.
• Warrior Prince: He's an IceWing prince who is also their most successful warrior and in training to lead the IceWing army.
• Weak-Willed: He didn't have nearly as much success transcending the personality Chameleon gave him as Peril and Ruby/Tourmaline did.

Diamond

Queen Diamond

• Control Freak: A significant part of why Arctic decided to try and run away with Foeslayer was because she was this to him, forcing him into an Arranged Marriage and also telling him what his animus gift to the tribe would be rather than letting him make the decision for himself. She was so much of one that she took out her revenge on Foeslayer when she finally was able to enchant her to come to the Ice Kingdom.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Kidnapped Foeslayer with animus magic and gave her a Fate Worse than Death for 2,000 years because she was angry that Arctic had run away with her instead of staying in the Ice Kingdom. She also made it so the feud that began between the IceWings and NightWings would never go away by enchanting her crown.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Why Clearsight won't let Darkstalker kill her. Despite her enmity for NightWings she would not commit genocide, but the same can't be said of her niece Snowfox.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Was the queen of the IceWings in Darkstalker's time. She gave Foeslayer a Fate Worse than Death, and probably went insane due to overusing her powers.
• Medical Monarch: She used her animus gift to heal IceWings from frostbreath injuries. Arctic notes that she probably regrets that decision and would of rather used her gift to heal all injuries instead.
• Posthumous Character: She is presumably dead by the time the books start, given that she lived 2000 years ago.
• Sssssnake Talk: Lapses into this at one point when talking aggressively.
• Villainous Legacy: Secretly enchanted the royal IceWing crown to imbue Irrational Hatred of NightWings on her successors, ensuring that the grudge with NightWings will never be subside over time. It was finally discovered when Mink suddenly declared hatred of Nightwings for no reason when wearing it and the crown was immediately disposed of.
• Villain with Good Publicity: The IceWings once thought of her as a great queen, but more and more information has recently come to light about the sort of things she did in her reign, which include breaking the "Animus dragons may only use their magic once for the good of the tribe" rule, along with deliberately kidnapping Foeslayer specifically to torture for running away with Arctic and killing her many times before making her into the focal point of the Diamond Trial, and enchanting her crown which would then be passed down to many other IceWing queens in order to have constant fear and paranoia of NightWings so that the feud between the two tribes would never end.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: She used her animus power more than once against IceWing law, so Winter suspects she is the IceWing queen that Qibli mentioned to have gone insane from her animus powers.

Arctic

Prince Arctic

• Abusive Parents: To Darkstalker and Whiteout.
• Accidental Murder: He accidentally kills six IceWing guards sent to capture him and Foeslayer while only intending to slow them down.
• Arranged Marriage: He was supposed to be married to Snowflake. It didn't happen that way.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: He's killed by Darkstalker who uses his powers to make him do whatever his son says, then makes him fly to the Night Kingdom, confess his crimes in front of everyone, then cut off his tongue and disembowel himself with his own claws.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Darkstalker's mind reading reveals that he's done something horrible in the past, though it's not known what it was. Runaway clarifies what happened.
• Defiant to the End: Darkstalker tries to make him apologize for being a horrible father using his scroll-created Compelling Voice. He replies by saying by force, that he should have been a better father, but then says that if he was a better father, he would have killed Darkstalker when he was born.
• Gold Digger: A variant where he accuses Foeslayer of being this in Darkstalker. During their final argument, he accuses her of never loving him and only wanting him due to his animus powers. While this was Foeslayer's mother's plan (along with Queen Vigilance), Foeslayer really did love him, but was so offended by the accusation that she took off his earring and threw it away...leaving her vulnerable to the enchantments Queen Diamond put on her and causing her to be compelled to take off to the Ice Kingdom and 2,000 years of torture.
• Hidden Depths: While Darkstalker shows him for the most part as a cruel, abusive father and husband, his interactions with people other than his family, his deeper thoughts, and the events of Runaways show that he still has a softer side to him that's been buried deep under bitterness and anger.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: In-Universe, the IceWings remember him as being kidnapped to steal his animus powers and killed before he could return, and as an innocent victim. In truth he broke the Ice Wing laws to run away with Foeslayer and was killed for brainwashing his daughter and making her go to the Ice kingdom where he planned to help kill his own tribe.
• Intro-Only Point of View: He narrates the prologue of Darkstalker.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Darkstalker's mind reading shows that, despite his grumpy demeanor, extremely dark thoughts, and emotional and potential physical abuse of Foeslayer, he does have some bit of love towards her in his mind.
• Love Ruins the Realm: His relationship with Foeslayer ended up causing the ruination of two realms, in various ways. The IceWings lost the animus gene for the next 2000 years, and a massive war with the NightWings resulted from their escape. He and Foeslayer would later give birth to Darkstalker, who would terrify the NightWings so much that they abandoned the old Night Kingdom to hide from him in case he ever returned, giving up most of their civilization and knowledge along with it.
• Maligned Mixed Marriage: The reason that everyone assumed that his relationship with Foeslayer was not consensual.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When Foeslayer throws off his earring during a fight between them, leading to her capture, his thoughts and shocked reaction clearly show his guilt.
  • Earlier in Runaway, when he kills six guards with his powers. He desperately tries to reverse his command to the spears, but it is too late.
• Offing the Offspring: In some futures, he kills Whiteout to get Diamond's forgiveness.
• Parental Favoritism: He likes Whiteout better than Darkstalker, but he still treats her like an object rather than truly loving her.
• Posthumous Character: He died 2000 years before the story starts but still plays a large role.
• Properly Paranoid: He enchants the earring he gives Foeslayer to make her immune to all of Queen Diamond's enchantments aimed at her. When she gets angry enough at him to remove the earring, she's immediately enchanted to fly to the Ice Kingdom, making the enchantment entirely justified.
• Psychic-Assisted Suicide: How Darkstalker kills him.
• Rebel Prince: He runs off with Foeslayer against his mother's wishes.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: With Foeslayer. Unlike most other examples in the series, however, this is Deconstructed in Runaway. His forbidden love with her causes a massive rivalry between the NightWings and IceWings due to being told that Foeslayer "stole" Arctic with the intention of introducing the animus gene to the NightWings. This rivalry caused a war with thousands of casualties on both sides and a deep-rooted hatred between the two tribes that would still be present 2,000 years later. All because of a forbidden relationship.
• Tragic Villain: Is protrayed as one of Darkstalker's antagonists. Originally, however, he was a handsome, smart, and kind IceWing who was willing to abandon his tribe and his duties as its prince because he was in love with Foeslayer. Due to the manipulations of Snowflake, Snowfox, and Prudence, the escape went horribly wrong, leaving him unable to return to the Ice Kingdom, trapped in the Night Kingdom, bitter, jaded, and cruel, which ended up having horrific effects on his family and Pyrrhia in the long run.
• Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: Gender Flipped - he and Foeslayer spend the prologue of Darkstalker and much of Runaways snarking at each other, with Arctic taking note of his higher status, as well as falling in love.

Narwhal

Narwhal

• Abusive Parents: He is very cruel to his dragonets if they don't do well enough, though Winter considers it normal thanks to Deliberate Values Dissonance.
• Ambition Is Evil: He and his wife Tundra intended to be at the top of IceWing society forever so that they could influence and control Glacier's successor, and were willing to do whatever it took to achieve that goal, including killing their children. He and Tundra were also forging Icicle into a Tyke Bomb they could use to overthrow Queen Glacier and rule through their daughter.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: He's a nasty, ruthless, ambitious piece of work, much like his wife.
• Karmic Death: His ambitions and terrible actions to his children ended up getting him killed by NightWings at the Battle of Jade Mountain, though Winter and Hailstorm still mourn his death as he's their father.
• Offing the Offspring: Tries to get Winter killed by putting him at the top of the first circle, thus forcing him to fight in the Diamond Trial with the much more skilled Hailstorm.

Tundra

Tundra

• Abusive Parents: She is very cruel to her dragonets if they don't do well enough, though Winter considers it normal thanks to Deliberate Values Dissonance.
• Ambition Is Evil: She and her husband Narwhal always intended to stay at the top of IceWing society and were willing to do whatever it took to get there. She and Narwhal raised their daughter Icicle specifically to one day challenge and kill Queen Glacier. Even after Narwhal dies, she's still doing this in The Dangerous Gift, trying to crown Mink as Queen of the IceWings while Snowfall was away so that she could control her.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: She's a nasty piece of work, and during Snowfall's absence from the kingdom in The Dangerous Gift she attempts to usurp her authority and crown Mink as queen, justifying it to a returning Snowfall by saying they couldn't leave the kingdom's fate in the hands of the "common soldier" (a general) that Snowfall had given authority to before her departure.
• Battle Trophy: She wears the teeth of SkyWings, one of the tribes fighting the IceWings in the war, as a necklace.
• Faint in Shock: Undergoes this when Queen Snowfall destroys the circle system, as she is more of a traditionalist.

Lynx

Lynx

• The Chosen Many: She's picked to go to Pantala as the IceWing representative.
• Defector from Decadence: Despite her skill and being in the First Circle alongside the other noble-born dragonets, Lynx hates the ranking system and is one of the dragons to first show her approval when Snowfall destroys it.
• Nice Girl: Especially compared to Snowfall, at first.
• Only Friend: One of the few dragons in the Ice Kingdom who tries to be a friend to Snowfall after she becomes queen.
• Ship Tease: With Winter, as among the IceWings she's essentially his best friend.
• Token Good Teammate: One of the only high-circle IceWings who's actually a nice dragon.

Snowflake

Snowflake

• Arranged Marriage: To Arctic. He's not very happy about it. She isn't either.
• Ascended Extra: She has a much larger role in Runaway than in her brief appearance in Darkstalker.
• The Bore: Arctic can't stand being with her because of this. Though it turns out that this is largely a facade.
• Deadpan Snarker: Averted. Diamond wants her to be one and Snowflake herself does as well, but she tends to only come up with snarky comebacks the night after they would have been useful.
• Hidden Depths: She's not exactly the boring dragon she pretends to be. Snowfox takes notice.
• Manipulative Bastard: She and Snowfox manipulate Arctic and Foeslayer into running away with each other, on Snowflake's part because she doesn't want to marry such an arrogant dragon and watch her future daughters killed vying for the throne.
• Psycho Lesbian: Decides to ruin Arctic's life out of spite because she doesn't want to marry him.
• The Stoic: She tries to show no emotion so she can be a proper IceWing.
• Unholy Matrimony: With Snowfox.

Snowfox

Snowfox

• In-Series Nickname: She asks Snowflake to call her "Fox" so their similar names don't get confusing.
• Tragic Bigot: Her hatred for NightWings is caused by Foeslayer and Arctic horribly injuring her girlfriend Snowflake when they escaped.
• Manipulative Bastard: She and Snowflake manipulate Arctic and Foeslayer into running away with each other, on Snowfox's part so she can ensure Arctic won't have any daughters who can rival her for the throne.
• Psycho Lesbian: Decides to help Snowflake with ruining Arctic's life out of spite.
• Unholy Matrimony: With Snowflake.

Mink

Mink

• All-Loving Hero: Everyone in the Ice Kingdom's palace loves Mink and she loves them in return.
• Children Are Innocent: She's the youngest of the three IceWing princesses at only two years old, and just wants to make everyone around her happy.
• Out-of-Character Alert: Due to how she loves pretty much everyone, her suddenly declaring her hatred and fear of NightWings while wearing Queen Diamond's crown clues everyone in to there being something wrong with it, leading to the crown being disposed of.
• Puppet Queen: During Snowfall's absence in The Dangerous Gift, Tundra and Permafrost attempt to crown her Queen of the Ice Kingdom, likely because she would be far easier to control than the nearly fully-grown and much more willful Snowfall.

Crystal

Crystal

• Aloof Big Sister: She's Snowfall's big sister by three years. Snowfall often had trouble figuring out what she was thinking due to her aloof expressions.
• Defector from Decadence: As soon as Queen Glacier died and Snowfall became queen, Crystal left the Ice Kingdom to live in Sanctuary.
• Maligned Mixed Marriage: Loves a MudWing named Gharial that she met during the war, and left the Ice Kingdom to be with him specifically because she knew that Snowfall wouldn't approve or allow their marriage.