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Characters / Wings of Fire: NightWings

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    In General 
  • Aliens Never Invented the Wheel: They are the most technologically and scientifically advanced tribe and know about things like desalinization, genetics and germ theory, but those facts are merely remnants of the more comprehensive knowledge their ancestors had.
  • Brought Down to Normal: After seeing how much of a risk dragons like Darkstalker could be to the world, the tribe chose to prevent their descendants from developing their natural psychic powers. It's unclear whether they deliberately concealed the importance of moon-hatching or the knowledge was just forgotten as generations passed, but present-day NightWings have no idea why they can't do what their ancestors did.
  • Crystal Spires and Togas: The NightWing city that Darkstalker remembers and later recreates with magic is all gardens and statues and marble terraces. It even had a public school, a civic accomplishment that the other tribes would not equal for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, most of it has sunk or crumbled now. The archaeologist team studying its ruins have to fly in their own supplies, because there is simply no wildland left on which they can hunt.
  • Dark Is Evil: A lot of them are villains, and the tribe in general made up the prophecy and is trying to kill all of the RainWings.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: But they also have the most protagonists and general major good characters of any tribe, to the point where in the epilogue of The Brightest Night the seven dragons talking consist of three NightWings, a NightWing hybrid, and only three dragons of other tribes. And guess which tribe the protagonist of the next book is from?
  • Diurnal Nocturnal Animal: They are obviously night-themed, but live diurnally nonetheless. Normally they would be nocturnal, but in the volcano they could never even see the sky. Foeslayer, who lived 2,000 years ago, has a hard time adjusting to the diurnal sleep schedule when she comes to the rainforest.
  • Driven to Madness: The first thing a telepathic dragonet is taught are mindfulness techniques that allow them to visualize the thoughts invading their head without focusing on them. Without this help, any but the isolated of dragonets would quickly go insane. Moon has a hard time in Jade Mountain at first because of constantly hearing everyone's thoughts, until Darkstalker teaches her how to suppress them.
  • Fatal Flaw: NightWings tend to let their fear rule them. It's why they abandoned their genetic heritage, why they kidnapped RainWings instead of asking them for help, why Darkstalker felt he needed to kill his friends, why Moonwatcher kept her telepathy secret, and so on. Pride is also one, as they believe that they should be able to overcome anything because of "superior NightWing genes", and look down on the other tribes.
  • Forced into Evil: During the volcano era, it was mandatory that NightWing dragonets attend classes teaching them how to lie.
  • Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Queen Glory tells the tribe this, upon saving them. She places emphasis on the fact that her tribe will help the NightWings who intended to massacre them not because they deserve it, but because the RainWings themselves are just that good.
  • Gone Horribly Right: Their depowerment plan meant that no future NightWings, animus or otherwise, would be able to use their psychic abilities for evil. It also meant that they couldn't use their psychic abilities for good. Which becomes really important when an animus/psychic dragon from the past comes back, and there's no one able to counter his plots.
  • Lunacy: NightWing Psychic Powers come from the moon. Hatch under one full moon, and you get either precognition or mind-reading. Hatch under two moons, and you get both. Nobody knows what hatching under a meteor shower does.
  • Mirroring Factions: They and the IceWings, despite hating one another, are fairly alike, believing in their superiority over the other tribes, and many of them being arrogant blowhards.
  • Neutral No Longer: Subverted. They appear to be this trope, but secretly they were planning on allying with Blister all along.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Their attempt to forestall another Darkstalker meant they could no longer compete effectively with rival tribes for territory and resources, or see them as equals.
  • No True Scotsman: Moonwatcher has issues with this growing up in the rainforest after the NightWings move in; many of them are jealous of her or don't think of her as a "true" NightWing because she didn't grow up on the volcano island.
  • Playing with Fire: They can breathe fire.
  • Prophetic Names: They name all their dragonets this way, like an assassin named Deathbringer or a prophet named Morrowseer.
  • Proud Scholar Race: In their heydey, they had plenty of libraries and were the most scientifically and technologically advanced tribe. While they had an expansive library at the volcano, they had forgotten much of their knowledge.
  • Psychic Powers: Some among them used to possess these, but they haven't had them in centuries.
  • Reduced to Ratburgers: The reason they eat the aforementioned rotting food in the first place, besides being actually able to eat it if they're raised in the volcano, is that the tribe is starving.
  • Schizo Tech: They could create glass 2000 years ago in Darkstalker, but knowledge of it (among many other things) was lost when they fell.
  • Seers: They can see the future if they are born on two full moons, NightWings born in one have either this or mind reading. This comes in the form of prophecies, visions, prophetic dreams, and for the more advanced and powerful ones, knowing every possible future, like Clearsight.
  • Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The NightWings know they are dying out, and they would do anything to save their tribe. This desperation drives them to follow various charismatic-but-awful leaders whose plots inevitably fail and get more NightWings killed.
  • Smug Snake: During the War of SandWing Succession, they thought of themselves as superior to all of the other tribes and attempted to come off as mysterious and powerful to manipulate the tribes into doing what they want. This resulted in them being feared for their rumored powers, but also hated by many for their cryptic ways and when it came out they couldn't read minds or see the future, and were lying to the whole continent. Many have this attitude even after they come under Glory's rule, though they seem to have been broken out of it in the aftermath of Darkness of Dragons.
  • Snark-to-Snark Combat: Tend to do this, to the point where Fierceteeth is shocked that Strongwings doesn't react to her sarcasm in this way.
  • Star Power: They have star patterns on their wings and names that often fit the theme, and they can see the future.
  • Telepathy: They can also read minds (again, by being born on two full moons or having a chance of it if they're born in one) though they can only hear surface thoughts and there are several ways to block the power.
  • Theme Naming: Like all of the other tribes. NightWings are named after various night objects like Moonwatcher and Starflight, bodily features like Mightyclaws, Strongwings, and Fierceteeth, wishful traits like Secretkeeper, Mastermind, and Morrowseer, or values like Prudence, Vengeance, Fearless, Vigilance, and Wisdom.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Only NightWing telepaths can tell that scavengers are sapient, so when they died out, scavengers fell to the level of prey in dragons' eyes.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Their goal was noble, but they didn't have to commit genocide to reach it.

    Battlewinner 

Queen Battlewinner

  • The Chessmaster: Came up with the plan to manipulate all of Pyrrhia with a false prophecy.
  • The Blofeld Ploy: After questioning Deathbringer for betraying the NightWings for Glory, she has Vengeance killed instead as a warning.
  • Dark Lord on Life Support: If she doesn't bathe in lava, she'll freeze from the inside out due to having had frostbreath shot down her throat.
  • Delayed Time Death: When she leaves her cauldron full of lava, she doesn't die immediately, but she doesn't last long outside of it.
  • Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Tells Starflight not to pity her because she will get her revenge.
  • Fighting for a Homeland: She and Morrowseer's plans to involve their NightWings in the SandWing war and attack the RainWings are designed to find the NightWings an acceptable home, since the tribe is dying out due to the volcano.
  • God Save Us from the Queen!: As queen of the NightWings, she and Morrowseer plan the extension of the war for the NightWings' own purposes, set up a genocide of the RainWings, and make up the prophecy.
  • Large and in Charge: She's as large as Morrowseer.
  • The Man Behind the Curtain: Never leaves her chambers, in order to hide the fact that she has to live within a volcano so she doesn't die from her frostbreath injuries.
  • No Place for Me There: Starflight notes that she must know that she'll never be able to go to the new home that she has dedicated her life to and planned to commit genocide for - she was just doing so for her tribe.
  • Walking Spoiler: As she's behind a huge amount of stuff in the first arc, naturally she'd be this.

    Deathbringer 

Deathbringer

Narrates Assassin.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Shows up in time to protect Glory and Kinkajou from the NightWings.
  • Bodyguarding a Badass: He is Glory's bodyguard, and he can easily figure out and stop assassination attempts on her thanks to being a former assassin himself. But he does realize that Glory is quite capable of handling herself and would beat him in a fight.
  • Day in the Limelight: In Assassin, which he narrates.
  • Deadly Disc: His weapon for assassinations.
  • Deathbringer the Adorable: It's literally his name. Despite his name and profession, though, he's not without a sense of morality, and he has a rather flippant and comical personality.
  • Defecting for Love: Why he betrays the NightWings, though he was already having second thoughts and being disobedient ever since eight years ago.
  • Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: While his mother Quickstrike was never motherly to him, he still cared about her.
  • Failure Knight: Is protective of Glory due to not wanting to let her down like he did to Quickstrike.
  • Hitman with a Heart: Seems to be the case with Glory as of The Hidden Kingdom'. He was even this beforehand, vowing to think of other ways to influence the war other than killing after his first mission.
  • In Love with the Mark: To Glory.
  • Let's You and Him Fight: Does this to the Mud Wings and Sea Wings by killing Commander Tempest.
  • Like Parent, Like Spouse: He sees Glory as a replacement for his mother Quickstrike, wanting to protect her so she won't die like Quickstrike did.
  • Love Redeems: Him meeting Glory saved his life, giving him meaning beyond simply killing and letting him see himself as more than just an assassin.
  • Minion with an F in Evil: He's a NightWing assassin intended to kill dragons who are too close to end the war or who might discover the tribe's secrets, but despite being very good at his job also has a conscience, and once he realizes the implications of what he does, refuses to kill for them any longer.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Seeing the results of his assassination of Commander Tempest shakes his faith in the NightWing cause (not that he had much to begin with) and he essentially swears off of killing except in certain circumstances.
  • Professional Killer: A NightWing assassin sent to dispose of the Dragonets and to kill other dragons from each side of the war who might be making it end too fast..
  • Please Wake Up: He attempts to wake up his mother after she's struck by lightning.

    Fatespeaker 

Fatespeaker

The energetic, plucky, and optimistic alternate Night Wing dragonet, who Starflight befriends, and who believes herself to have foresight powers.

  • Because You Were Nice to Me: Starflight is the first person who ever treats her with any kind of kindness or decency and as such, she's stuck like glue to him.
  • Broken Pedestal: Like Starflight, she has only heard stories treating the NightWings positively, so it is a shock for her to see their island. She also has this reaction to the other alternate dragonets, who she thought were her friends, when Viper seriously tried to kill her.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Not to Peril's extent, but she still expresses jealousy over Starflight's infatuation with Sunny.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Her fervent belief in her psychic powers comes across as this when it's revealed the NightWings haven't had psychic powers in generations.
  • Commonality Connection: With Sunny. They were both raised outside their tribe and find they have similar views of the world.
  • The Cuckoolander Was Right: At one point she predicts that a gigantic comet will crash into the ground and kill them all. While the comet doesn't crash, it still arrives and ends up waking up Darkstalker.
  • Dramatic Irony: She claims that the comet will fall on them, which everyone else dismisses (not without reason) as hysterical. In the next book, it turns out that the comet('s shards) did fall on someone- Palm, Onyx's mother- though none of the people she said it would.
  • Determinator: She is incredibly brave and persistent.
  • Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Has absolutely no problem sassing Morrowseer, despite the fact that he hates her, is either going to kill her or her love interest depending on who proves themselves the most useful, and is generally, much bigger and stronger than her, and very bad-tempered.
  • Handy Helper: Becomes this for Starflight after he loses his sight.
  • Horrible Judgeof Character: She genuinely thought that the rest of the alternate Dragonets were her friends.
  • Genki Girl: She is compared to Sunny numerous times, and the two quickly become friends.
  • Mark of the Supernatural: Downplayed. The silver scales under her eyes would mark Psychic Powers in most NightWings, but she may or may not have those powers, and if she does, they are weak and unreliable.
  • Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's never made clear whether she has visions of the future, or is she's just imagining things. Darkstalker theorizes she may have very weak psychic powers, or was supposed to have been born with them but wasn't.
  • Plucky Girl: Despite having the kind of life that would render most people hopeless, Fatespeaker has an incredible amount of optimism, energy and tenacity.
  • The Pollyanna: Even more so than Sunny.
  • Psychic Powers: She claims to have visions of the future, though it turns out no Nightwing has had those powers in over a century.
  • Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: The energetic girl to Starflight's savvy guy.
  • You Shall Not Pass!: Does this to Morrowseer, taking the place of Sunny when she runs away from the volcano.

    Greatness 

The daughter of Queen Battlewinner, who speaks on her mother's behalf.


  • Abdicate the Throne: Chooses to give her position to Glory, and begs Battlewinner to do the same. She still abdicates after Battlewinner dies, leaving her the natural choice for queen.
  • Decoy Leader: She presides over councils and issues decrees from Battlewinner, who communicates to her through a vent in the cave wall.
  • Heel–Face Turn: She betrays Battlewinner and supports Glory's bid to rule the NightWings because she thinks it will give her tribe a better future than killing another tribe.
  • Ironic Name: Her name is Greatness, but that doesn't exactly describe her.
  • The Man Behind the Man: Starflight and Fatespeaker suspect that Greatness is this for Queen Battlewinner, since the Queen never appears in front of her subjects, and gives all orders through Greatness. In reality, Battlewinner is the one pulling the strings, and is merely using Greatness to avoid revealing her injuries to her subjects.
  • Mouth of Sauron: Her role is to speak for Queen Battlewinner, who barely any dragons have seen in years.
  • Unfit for Greatness: She's a much kinder dragon than her mother, but she just isn't fit to be queen, no matter what her name implies.

    Mastermind 

Mastermind

A NightWing scientist, and Starflight's father.
  • Absent-Minded Professor: He loves going on and on about his work and usually isn't organized, to the point where a lot of NightWings like Fierceteeth wonder if he really is the genius he is supposed to be.
  • And I Must Scream: The RainWings never had need for a prison until him, so their makeshift prison involves him slowly being sucked in by quicksand and fished out every few hours when he is about to die, only to be placed back into it.
  • Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Starflight notes that his science could accomplish a lot for the NightWings if they weren't busy experimenting on RainWings. This isn't fully accurate since he does undertake projects like desalinization and vulcanology when he's not working with RainWings.
  • For Science!: One of his justifications for what he has done.
  • Heel–Face Door-Slam: At the end of The Dark Secret, he is noted to show an expression of genuine guilt when he realized how the RainWings have been harmed, and talks to Starflight about how he will be hated by the now ruling RainWings, asking for forgiveness, but Starflight says that he should be hated for what he has done, and Glory decides to imprison him until a trial can be held.
  • Ignored Expert: The other NightWings refuse to listen to him when he points out that Battlewinner's armor is not complete and his venom protections are still prototypes, choosing to attack the RainWings anyway.
  • Just Following Orders: Claims that his experimentation on captured RainWings was this, although considering his love for experimentation in general, it's disputable whether this is true or not.
  • Lean and Mean: He's malnourished thanks to living in the volcano.
  • Mad Scientist: He's a scientist experimenting on other dragons.
  • Prophetic Name: His name is Mastermind, and he ends up being a Mad Scientist.
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Tends to use this, especially when describing his work. Just like his son.
  • Smart Dragons Wear Glasses: Not exactly glasses, but he wears eyewear that is as close as he can get to goggles without access to any transparent material, in order to protect his eyes from RainWing venom.
  • "Well Done, Dad!" Guy: He desperately wants Starflight's approval, but because of his experiments on innocent RainWings he's not willing to give it to him.

    Morrowseer 

Morrowseer

"I've been trying to make it happen for ten years."

  • Breaking Speech: In an attempt to destroy the Dragonets' resolve, he reveals that he made up the prophecy as part of an elaborate plan to secure the NightWings a new home in the RainWings jungle just before being killed.
  • Cavalry Refusal: He appears with the NightWings just when it seems like Scarlet is going to execute all of the dragonets except Glory, starting with Tsunami and Starflight. However, he just rescues Starflight, kills the IceWings about to be unleashed on them, and leaves without the other dragonets.
  • Dragon-in-Chief: A quite literal example. He is Battlewinner's subordinate (given she is the queen), but has a larger role in interacting with the dragonets and putting their plan to action thanks to her having to live in a volcano so she won't die from her frostbreath injuries.
  • Dramatic Irony: He is obsessed with the idea that all other dragons are gullible pawns easily manipulated by his brilliance... and yet, all history will remember him for is his relation to Moonwatcher, the first NightWing prophet in centuries and one of Jade Mountain's saviors, and nothing else, if even that. None of his schemes or entitlement made him anything more than a footnote.
  • Evil All Along: He is allied with Blister, but his true goal was to use the war to steal a new home for the NightWings.
  • Evil Is Bigger: He's noted to be a huge dragon, dwarfing the main characters and even Kestrel.
  • Evil Is Petty: Once the dragonets foil the NightWings' plan to invade the rainforest, he tells them that the prophecy is fake and there's no need to stop the war, leaving all of Pyrrhia to continue suffering endlessly for a false prophecy wondering where their heroes went, for no reason other than to break the group's resolve.
  • Evil Mentor: To the dragonets.
  • Fair-Weather Mentor: Since the dragonets have replacements, he's perfectly happy to be cavalier about their lives, put them through Training from Hell, or outright try to have one killed if they aren't fulfilling the prophecy the way he wants them to.
  • Fantastic Racism: Everyone assumes he wanted to have Glory killed because she didn't fit the prophecy. His actual reasoning is more pragmatic: He wants Glory dead so that she can't warn the RainWings about the NightWings' planned invasion in case the Dragonets put two and two together.
  • Fighting for a Homeland: Morrowseer's plans to involve the NightWings in the SandWing war and attack the RainWings are designed to find the NightWings an acceptable home.
  • It's Personal with the Dragon: The dragonets barely meet his ally, Blister, or his queen, Battlewinner, his role being mostly to interfere in their and the alternates' lives, so they have a particularly personal hatred for him even more so after his death, when he reveals that he'd made up the prophecy all along.
  • The Long Game: As the page quote shows, he has been motioning the prophecy for ten years and made up the prophecy specifically to invoke this.
  • Meaningful Name: Glory lampshades it in ''The Hidden Kingdom''.
  • Seers: Was the one who made the Dragonet prophecy. Even if is was fake.
  • Training from Hell: For Morrowseer, training Starflight and the alternates means ordering the alternates to try to kill Starflight, making them fly a very long distance over water to the border of the Sky kingdom, and then making them all fight each other in a volcano, leading to Viper being killed and Flame being seriously injured.
  • Vertical Kidnapping: Does this to Starflight in The Dragonet Prophecy. Right after killing eight IceWing prisoners.
  • Visionary Villain: He's literally a seer supposedly trying to fulfill a prophecy, and his ultimate plan is to launch a genocidal attack on the RainWings to save his tribe and give them a new home, and then use the tunnels and the prophecy to aid Blister in ending the war with her as victor, thus ensuring protection from their ancient enemies the IceWings now that their location has been revealed.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: All he did was to save his tribe.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Does this to Kestrel, letting Queen Blister kill her.

    Fierceteeth 

Fierceteeth

Narrates Prisoners.
  • Brains and Brawn: The Brains to Strongwings' Brawn.
  • Cain and Abel: Would very much like to kill Starflight for being the prophecized NightWing dragonet, being weak, and for conspiring with the other tribes, all of which she takes as unforgivable crimes.
  • The Chosen Wannabe: She wishes that she was the NightWing dragonet in the prophecy instead of Starflight.
  • Conveniently Cellmates: She and her co-conspirator Strongwings are cellmates when Thorn imprisons them.
  • Day in the Limelight: In Prisoners.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She genuinely cares about Strongwings and refuses to leave the prison without him.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: She is jealous of Starflight for being in the prophecy when she is not.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The Tiny Girl to Strongwings' Huge Guy.
  • It's All About Me: Her attitude. Her letters to her guard in Prisoners are full of her talking herself up and thinking she'd be a much better queen of the NightWings than Glory.
  • Lean and Mean: She's malnourished thanks to living in the volcano.
  • The Napoleon: She's small for her age and not at all a friendly dragon.
  • Odd Couple: With Strongwings.
  • Parental Abandonment: By the time Starflight meets her, both of her parents are dead; her father died a few years before she hatched, and Farsight died several years later.
  • Parental Neglect: Her mother Farsight ignored her in order to spend time with Starflight's egg, knowing it would soon be taken for the prophecy.
  • Promotion, Not Punishment: After being captured by Glory and Darkstalker for trying to kill Glory, the latter decides to promote her to his lieutenant rather than punish her. Of course, this doesn't prove to be such a good thing for her, as Darkstalker barely pays attention to her and even uses her body as a guinea pig to try and bring back Clearsight.
  • Terrible Trio: With Strongwings and Preyhunter.
  • Tiny Tyrannical Girl: She loves ordering around Strongwings, who's twice as big as her.
  • Villain Protagonist: Of Prisoners.

    Strongwings 

Strongwings

    Preyhunter 

Preyhunter

    Quickstrike 

Quickstrike

  • Mentor Occupational Hazard: Is Deathbringer's mentor as well as his mother. She is executed by Blister after being knocked unconscious by lightning and discovered during a search for the assassin of Tempest.
  • Professional Killer

    Farsight 

Farsight

  • Deceased Parents Are the Best: She is Starflight's mother, but died a few years before the start of the series. Flashbacks in Moon Rising and Prisoners show her to be a very kind dragon.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: She dies protecting a SeaWing from two SkyWings.

    Stonemover 

Stonemover

  • Amicable Exes: With Thorn.
  • Butt-Monkey: A lot of the dragons in Jade Mountain Academy spend their time making fun of him for his consistently poor lot in life and the whole "turning himself to stone" thing, especially Anemone.
  • Freak Out: Has one after Darkstalker tries to heal the parts of his body turned into stone. It turns out it may have been because Darkstalker might have been trying to control him at the same time.
  • I Never Got Any Letters: He thought that Thorn had abandoned them because she never sent him letters. It turns out that they were all in Burn's palace, as Smolder later revealed.
  • Meaningful Name: His name is Stonemover, and not only is he an animus, but he turned half of his body into stone to avoid the normal negative effects of his power.
  • Taken for Granite: Much of his body is turned into stone as a result of a curse he placed on himself to avoid going insane from his powers.

    Mightyclaws 

Mightyclaws

  • Conditioned to Accept Horror: While attending Jade Mountain, he fears that other dragons will think he's greedy if they know he eats three meals at the day. This is perfectly normal for a dragon, but Mightyclaws doesn't know that because he grew up in a society where nobody ever had enough to eat.
  • Deal with the Devil: He accepted Darkstalker's offer of magic so he could easily bring his architectural sketches to life. It turns out better for him than most of Darkstalker's followers, because his wish was selfless (so he isn't too dismayed when Darkstalker is overthrown). After the battle, he lives a peaceful life building houses for the displaced NightWing tribe.
  • Mutual Envy: He's jealous of Moonwatcher because she didn't grow up desperate and malnourished. She is jealous of him because he didn't grow up alone.
  • Nice Guy: He's the most friendly and open of the NightWing dragonets, so Starflight quickly accepts him as a guide.
  • Noble Bigot: He never lets on how deeply he resents Moon, because he knows that it's irrational; she did absolutely nothing wrong other than have the "perfect life" he wishes he could have had. But he is still human and he still has feelings.
  • No True Scotsman: Internally, he defines 'NightWing' as 'someone who suffered living under the volcano'. Dragons who grew up elsewhere aren't the same tribe, even though they're the same species.

    Mindreader 
  • Evil Counterpart: Though not necessarily evil, when Darkstalker gives her mind-reading powers she proceeds to act entirely unlike Moonwatcher, meaning that she reads the minds of everyone around her and blurts out their thoughts with no regards to their own privacy, which Moon never does.
  • Ironic Name: Despite entirely lacking mind-reading powers. Later is not an ironic name as Darkstalker grants them to her, then becomes ironic again when those powers are taken away.

    Vengeance 

  • Cruel and Unusual Death: He's pushed into lava and kept under with spears until he doesn't come up again.
  • You Have Failed Me: He's executed by Battlewinner's orders for jeopardizing the NightWings' plan.
  • Verbal Tic: He punctuates nearly everything he says with "yeah".

    Slaughter 
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: He exists in Assassins specifically to provide a test for Deathbringer, who kills him.

    Secretkeeper 

Secretkeeper (Secret)

Moon's mother, and Morrowseer's wife, who raised Moon outside the tribe.
  • Affectionate Nickname: She refers to Moon as 'my weird little diamond'.
  • Intro-Only Point of View: In Moon Rising.
  • Parental Neglect: She does love Moon, but is poor at showing it. Exacerbating this trope is the fact that she had to keep Moon a secret, and could only occasionally sneak away to see her.
  • Prophetic Name: Lampshaded in Secret's own narration. She kept her own child secret for months, and is the only other dragon who knows that Moon has telepathy.
  • Race Traitor: Is branded as one by other NightWings for not raising her daughter on the island.

    Foeslayer 

Foeslayer

Darkstalker's mother, and a hated villain of IceWing legend.
  • Ambadassador A NightWing diplomat and also one of the best fighters in the tribe.
  • "Ass" in Ambassador: She came as an ambassador for the IceWings only to kidnap their prince. Unbeknownst to modern IceWings, she didn't actually kidnap him.
    • Played straight, as of Runaway. Foeslayer herself had no nefarious plans, but... her mother certainly did, bringing her along in the hope of her getting pregnant by Arctic and hatching dragonets with animus powers.
  • Good Parents: To Darkstalker and Whiteout.
  • Deus Exit Machina: In "Escaping Peril", she leaves to find help when Peril accidentally burns Winter, leaving the dragonets with no one to find the Lost City of Night and stop the destruction of Jade Mountain Academy only halfway through the series.
  • Human Popsicle: Thanks to Diamond's curse, she was trapped in the diamond caves to be killed and frozen over and over again, remaining in this.
  • Historical Villain Upgrade: May have been a victim of this In-Universe like her son. As it turns out, far more of a victim than her son, given that while Darkstalker was more complicated than the legends suggested he really did most of the evil things he was feared for, Foeslayer's only crime was loving a dragon from another tribe.
  • Maligned Mixed Marriage: The reason that everyone assumed that her relationship with Arctic was not consensual.
  • Really 700 Years Old: About 2000 years old, to be exact.
  • Stalker with a Test Tube: She kidnapped Arctic for his animus genes. At least according to the IceWing histories.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: With Arctic. The IceWings just assumed she must have kidnapped him.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Her mother, Prudence, specifically brought her along to the Ice Kingdom in the hope and she and Arctic would have a fling and bear eggs, giving the NightWings their own animus dragons.
  • Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: Gender Flipped - she and Arctic spend the prologue of Darkstalker snarking at each other, with Arctic taking note of his higher status, as well as falling in love.
  • What Did You Expect When You Named It ____?: Lampshades this when regards to Darkstalker, though she justified the name before by saying he would stalk the darkness to protect dragons from it.

    Clearsight 

Clearsight

  • A Birthday, Not a Break: Her fifth birthday party happens right before she has a vision revealing that Foeslayer is heading into IceWing territory and something horrible is about to happen to her.
  • The Cassandra: Few dragons believe her about the horrible futures she has visions of until she finally shows up Allknowing in predicting an IceWing invasion.
  • Child Prodigy: Even as a three-year-old dragonet she was a much better seer than the most respected adults.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Gets a POV in Darkstalker.
  • Babies Ever After: Her best visions have her living happily with Darkstalker in a cliff house, having six dragonets, and maybe being able to save the tribe as well.
    • After saving Pyrrhia from the threat of Darkstalker, she flies away to Pantala and mates with a BeetleWing named Sunstreak, as well as others. Their offspring eventually evolved into modern SilkWings and HiveWings.
  • Dreaming of Things to Come: Some of her visions of the future come in dreams, which usually end up as horrible nightmares. She tries to ignore them, because she doesn't much like vague prophecies and prefers well-organized visions.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: After all she goes through, she finds happiness in Pantala, where she mates with several dragons and has lots of offspring, saves Pantala from disaster with her powers, and gets revered as a goddess for future generations.
  • Establishing Character Moment: Her first POV chapter in Darkstalker has her feverishly recording her visions of every possible timeline and obsessively recording them onto tables and graphs. At age two. It's implied (and friends and family speculate) that this might be the reason why the worst of her visions keep coming true, despite her constant attempts to avert them. She's so caught up in what might be that she often misses what is until the event has already passed. Character Development eventually helps her grow past this.
  • Fond Memories That Could Have Been: While she didn't kill Darkstalker, for the rest of her life she mourns about the six dragonets they could have had together, the friendship they could have had with Fathom, and the life they could have lived together if the future had turned out well. She'd seen all of this in her visions, as well, making it hurt all the more.
  • Free the Frogs: She joins up with Listener to help free the scavengers used for research.
  • Hard Work Hardly Works: Averted. She was born under one moon like every NightWing, but still is better at seeing the future than the Superpower Lottery winning Darkstalker because of how much time she spends improving her powers.
  • Her Heart Will Go On: Darkstalker isn't technically dead, but the end of the book has her deciding to fly away to a new life despite her grief, with visions of how she can find happiness again on a new continent.
  • Heroic Team Revolt: Her and Fathom plot to betray Darkstalker after he kills Arctic and tries to kill Vigilance, to avert the worse futures.
  • Historical Villain Upgrade: While she's revered and worshipped on Pantala, many LeafWings and some SilkWings hate her due to her prophecies supposedly allowing the HiveWings to dominate everyone else. Luna and Sundew at least start to grow out of this once they learn that the HiveWings are making up prophecies from her to justify their dominance of Pantala and that Clearsight wanted her descendants to all work together.
  • I Thought Everyone Could Do That: As a young dragonet, she assumes that every future-telling NightWing has powers that work like hers.
  • Kid Hero: She's the youngest of the Darkstalker narrators, at only five years old by the end of the book.
  • Love-Interest Traitor: To Darkstalker.
  • One True Love: Of Darkstalker. They even have visions of each other meeting.
  • Posthumous Character: Presumably died 2000 years ago.
  • Power Trio: With Fathom and Darkstalker, who made the dreamvisitors for them so they could always contact each other.
  • Red String of Fate: She and Darkstalker realize they're destined to be together, and while he could end up with someone else that would lead to the worst possible futures.
  • Satellite Love Interest: Averted. She knows that she's destined to be in love with Darkstalker and devotes herself to him, including controlling him and stopping him from the best futures. But she also doesn't want to get credit for what Darkstalker does and his fame instead of what she does on her own, goes out of her way to be a hero herself without his help, and calls him out constantly. She notes that a character who was like this with Darkstalker would likely lead to a horrible future for him. And after she betrays him, she notes that despite her sadness, she sees the freedom that having a life and future all of her own can give her.
  • Scry vs. Scry: She uses her knowledge of the future to outwit Darkstalker's own visions of the future, with all of the mind games that ensues. Fortunately, she's better at it than Darkstalker because she has more practice, even if Darkstalker was born under three moons.
  • Shipper on Deck: She helps get Whiteout and Thoughtful together.
  • Together in Death: She thinks about letting the collapsing Agate Mountain bury her along with Darkstalker, but ultimately decides against it because she sees futures where she can be happy again.
  • You Can't Go Home Again: She never returns to the Night Kingdom after Darkstalker's fall because her powers let her know that she will be seen as a collaborator with Darkstalker even if she tells them what she did to stop him.

    Whiteout 

Whiteout

  • Foreshadowing: She's basically Foreshadowing: The Dragon. A lot of things that come out her mouth reference things that will transpire later in the book, albeit, in a confusing cryptic way. For example, at one point while Darkstalker is discussing his animus magic with his parents she says he's "not going to snow for a while." Later on Darkstalker creates a Soul Reader which is a device that uses Black sand (like Nightwings) for good and White sand (like Icewings) for bad. While the reader is never used on him after he goes off the deep end (a Foregone Conclusion in and of itself) this could technically be considered him "snowing".
    • It's a widely-accepted headcanon that she has weaker versions of moon-based Nightwing powers (mind-reading and prophecy) that she expresses peculiarly due to her synesthesia, although the actual canonity of this stands as being a bit more ambiguous.
  • Heroic BSoD: When Foeslayer is captured.
  • One True Love: To Thoughtful, which is why Clearsight introduces them instead of letting him marry Listener.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: One time when Darkstalker talks to her, she seems to be talking normally. It turns out that Arctic made her that way so she'd be more acceptable to the IceWings and would forget about Thoughtful.
    • Strange Minds Think Alike: The reason she and Thoughtful click so well is that they have a somewhat similar thought process, and that Thoughtful is one of the few dragons who actually understands what she says.
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: In-Universe, she accidentally knocks over some dragons' marbles and says that she thought the marbles symbolized chaos theory when it was actually just a game.

    Vigilance 

Queen Vigilance

  • The Paranoiac: She's very paranoid and kills anyone who she thinks might be a threat.
  • Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: She's told about a future where Darkstalker kills her by Allknowing, causing her to try and have Darkstalker killed. This upsets Darkstalker enough that he does decide to kill her and take over the Night Kingdom for himself, something Clearsight calls her out on.
  • Seemingly Profound Fool: She has a reputation as one of the most astute, skilled and threatening queens, but she's actually just very paranoid and looks intimidating because she doesn't talk a lot.
  • The Stoic: She rarely shows emotions or says much.

    Listener 

Listener

  • Free the Frogs: She comes up with the idea of freeing the scavengers used in research projects and joins up with Clearsight to do it for real.
  • Mark of the Supernatural: She's a mind reader and has silver scales to show it.

    Allknowing 

Allknowing

  • Humble Pie: She gets dramatically humiliated in front of Vigilance when Clearsight shows her up in her Seer abilities and Clearsight replaces her as the queen's top seer.
  • Ironic Name: She's less omniscient than something else entirely.
  • Know-Nothing Know-It-All: She's respected as the greatest seer of the NightWings but really, to Clearsight's annoyance, just gives unnecessarily cryptic and/or rather obvious-sounding prophecies.
  • The Mentor: She teaches a special seer class. She doesn't get a chance to be Clearsight's mentor, because Clearsight quits the class in a day.
  • The Rival: To Clearsight.

    Prudence 

Prudence

  • "Ass" in Ambassador: Besides not being the best mother to Foeslayer, she uses her position as a diplomat in the Ice Kingdom to try to set up her daughter to fall in love with Arctic so she could leave and have potential animus dragonets, and the IceWings would never have to know. She didn't account for Arctic wanting to run away with her.
  • I Want Grandkids: Particularly animus grandchildren.
  • Manipulative Bitch: She specifically brought Foeslayer along to the Ice Kingdom in the hopes that she and Prince Arctic would end up bonding and have sex, letting Foeslayer conceive eggs that they could then take back to the Night Kingdom to get their own animus dragons. While the plan didn't exactly work out the way she'd intended, it still got them Arctic and an animus dragon...who turned out to be too powerful.

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