The Legend of Spyro
Chapter 1
A New Beginning
Spyro is a rare purple dragon born once every ten generations, said to bring hope to the world. During Spyro’s incubation, the Dragon Temple was attacked by the forces of the Dark Master, who was intent on destroying all the dragon eggs to prevent Spyro’s birth. Ignitus, the Guardian of Fire, rescued the purple dragon’s egg, and left it to drift down the Silver River into a Swamp, hoping for the best. Spyro’s egg drifted down the river and was soon discovered by a family of dragonflies, Nina and Flash. Upon hatching, Spyro was adopted into the dragonfly family and raised as one of their own alongside Sparx, a young dragonfly who was born the same day.
Many years passed since Spyro’s birth. On one fateful day when Spyro and Sparx were playing hide ‘n’ seek, a group of Apes attacked the duo and Sparx was captured in the process. Spyro disposed most of the group when Sparx gave the leader a sarcastic insult. The leader didn’t take the insult very well and was about to kill Sparx. Spyro, furious, unconsciously used his Fire breath on the leader, who promptly retreated report back to someone called Cynder. Spyro dealt with the remaining Apes and freed Sparx from his ‘lantern’ cage. Upon returning to their home, he was told by his foster parents, Flash and Nina, that he was not a dragonfly, but a stranger from a distant, war-torn land. Spyro decided to leave the Swamp in search of his true home. Sparx, though reluctant at first, decided to follow along. Spyro was pursued by hostile forces, but eventually came into contact with a distraught Ignitus, who although pleased that Spyro was alive, feared that with the Dragon Temple under occupation by the Apes, led by a large black dragon named Cynder, their war was already lost.
Spyro convinced Ignitus to lead him to the Temple, and was able to drive Cynder’s forces out, after which Ignitus told Spyro more about their war against the Dark Armies, offered Spyro some training in the art of fire, and then sent Spyro off to rescue three other Dragon Guardians from Cynder’s forces. First, he flew to Dante’s Freezer to find Volteer, the Guardian of Electricity. There, he faced the Ice King, and saved Volteer.
When Spyro and Volteer returned to the Temple, Volteer trained Spyro the art of electricity and explained to Ignitus that he lost some of his electric powers inside a crystal Cynder stored. Ignitus expected that Cynder may be planning to do something with the Guardians’ powers, but he doesn’t know what for, so Ignitus sent Spyro to Tall Plains, home of the Attlawa tribe, to find Cyril, the Guardian of Ice. When Spyro was near the shrine where Cyril was held, he and Sparx witnessed Cynder fly off without noticing them and they continue their way to the shrine. Once there, the god of the Shrine, the Stone Sentinel, awakened and engaged Spyro in battle, which the purple dragon emerged victorious.
After Spyro and Cyril went back to the Temple, he taught Spyro the secrets of ice and discussed with the other Guardians more about Cynder’s possible plans. Ignitus hypothesized that Cynder was trying to gain all the Guardians’ elemental powers to open a portal that must never be opened. Spyro questioned Ignitus of what was he talking about, but Ignitus told him that doesn’t concern him now and sent Spyro to Munitions Forge, where Terrador, the Guardian Of Earth, was held. Atop of the volcano, of Boyzitbig, where Terrador was imprisoned, Spyro engaged in battle with the Conductor and his locomotion, Steam. After the Conductor’s defeat, the explosion of Steam released Terrador from his prison.
When Spyro was ready to leave with Terrador, Cynder appeared and chased Spyro throughout Munitions Forge as the volcano erupted around them. When Cynder was about to catch Spyro, Ignitus intervened and fought with the black dragon, but was captured. Spyro tried to help Ignitus, but Terrador stopped him and told him that he wasn’t ready to take on Cynder. Spyro felt guilty and ashamed that he let Ignitus down and was frightened to face Cynder. Terrador told him that there’s no shame for all warriors to have fear, and trained Spyro how to master the element of earth and his own fear.
After Spyro’s training, Terrador explained to Spyro, Volteer, and Cyril about Cynder’s lair, possibly where she took Ignitus. Spyro flew to Cynder’s lair and found Ignitus confined with his powers being draining inside a crystal. Cynder stopped Spyro from destroying the crystal, and after Spyro fought her, she escaped with it. Spyro noticed that there was something familiar with Cynder, her eyes, and Ignitus told him the truth. Cynder was actually born from the same brood of eggs as Spyro, but she was taken by the Dark Master’s forces and corrupted by his poisonous powers, becoming his tool of destruction. The Dark Master was using Cynder to gain the Guardians’ powers so she could unlock the portal, which served as his prison, as only a dragon born on the Year of the Dragon can open it. As the vortex to the world of Convexity opened, Ignitus feared that they were too late, but Spyro refused to give up and followed Cynder through the portal.
When Spyro caught up with Cynder, she had already put the final crystal inside the portal, allowing the Dark Master a means of escape, and was ready to face Spyro in a final showdown. Eventually, Spyro used all of his power in a final attack to defeat Cynder, freeing her from the Dark Master’s influence and returning her to her true form: a young dragon the same size and age as Spyro. The portal to the Dark Master’s prison opened, but suddenly began to pull the three towards it. Sparx insisted on making a quick exit, but Spyro declared he will not leave Cynder behind with the Dark Master; though barely, Spyro was able to grab Cynder and escaped safely.
Back at the Dragon Temple, the Guardians congratulated Spyro for succeeding in rescuing them all, before Sparx ranted on how he didn’t get any credit for the things he had done helping the dragons. Though victorious, the battle cost Spyro much of his own strength and powers, and it would take time for his powers to return. While celebrating their victory, Spyro emerged from the temple to one of the balconies and gazed up to the stars before being joined by Cynder. They both knew that the Dark Master was still alive somewhere; their troubles were far from over war.
Chapter 2
The Eternal Night
Weeks had passed since Spyro freed Cynder from the Dark Master’s control and brought her back to the Dragon Temple. During that time period, he began to having recurring nightmares, one of them of his final battle against Cynder in Convexity, until he was woken up by Sparx one night. When Sparx noted he could finally sleep due to Cynder leaving the temple, Spyro followed after her. Spyro trailed Cynder through the jungle surrounding the Dragon Temple and caught up to her; he asked her to stay, stating no one blames her for what happened. Despite Spyro’s plea, Cynder left, saying she didn’t want to cause pain and suffering to anyone, especially Spyro. When Spyro was about to chase Cynder, he collapsed and found himself in a dream void. A mysterious voice emitted in his dream, helping Spyro regain his Fire element and showing him a vision of a great tree.
After Spyro woke up, an Ape army attacked the Temple. Once Spyro repelled the attack, Ignitus tried to locate Cynder, but instead found a vision of Spyro at the base of a great tree. Spyro claimed that he kept seeing haunting visions of a mountain draped in shadow and darkness beneath the two moons. Terrador realized that that mountain was the Mountain of Malefor. Spyro also claimed that a voice, called the Chronicler, came to his dream and showed him that tree. The Guardians were shocked, and Ignitus told Spyro that the Chronicler is an ancient dragon of immeasurable wisdom and was often interwoven with tales of doom. The Guardians became increasingly worried about the Celestial Moons coming into an eclipse and felt that they were no longer safe at the Temple. Ignitus sent Volteer and Cyril to the mainlands to learn what news they could, and sent Terrador to the Shattered Vale to warn everyone living there about the darkness spreading in the mountain, while Ignitus stayed behind to search for Cynder.
Spyro was assigned to go to the Ancient Grove to seek out the tree that he saw in his dream. While searching, he was summoned into a dream by the Chronicler again to regain his ice abilities and showed Spyro a vision of a terrible king-like Ape, leading a huge army of Apes going to the Mountain of Malefor, shouting, “…The Well of Souls!”, another name of the mountain. After Spyro woke up, he eventually found the great tree, but it later turned out to be a monster called Arborick and Spyro defeated it. Afterwards, a group of Skavengers, led by a captain named Skabb, appeared and wanted Arborick for “entertainment” in a fighting arena, but that changed when the Pirates wanted Spyro to “cooperate”, so they knocked him unconscious. Spyro later awoke, finding himself in a cell on the ship of Fellmuth Arena.
Battle after battle, Spyro defeated many challenges that the Skavengers threw at him. Shortly after defeating his first opponent, the Blundertails, Spyro was summoned yet again by the Chronicler to regain his Earth powers and told him more about the Well of Souls and the Night of Eternal Darkness, before telling Spyro to find him in the Celestial Caves of the White Isle. After that, Spyro received a message from another prisoner called Hunter of Avalar, saying that he had become Spyro’s ally. Later on, Spyro was forced to fight Cynder in a final match, but she told him about her plan for escape, but it was cut short when an Ape army attacked and captured Cynder. With Pirates on their ships in chaos, Spyro managed to defeat Skabb, and escaped.
After he escaped from the Skavengers, the Chronicler summoned Spyro in his dream again to regain the power of Electricity and showed him a vision of Cynder in chains, brought before the Ape King she called by the name of Gaul. When he arrived at the White Isle, Spyro overcame tough challenges of his elemental skills and he eventually found the Chronicler, who told him about Gaul, an Ape King who led the raid at the Temple at the night of Spyro’s birth and stole Cynder’s egg.
Spyro then wanted to know what would happen to Cynder and learned more about her past. Upon discovering that Cynder will return to the Dark Master’s side upon his return, Spyro refused to believe it. The Chronicler told Spyro about Malefor, the Dark Master. According to him, Malefor was the first purple dragon to exist; his raw power allowed him to master practically every elemental power. When his growth failed to stop, he was exiled by the Dragon Elders, but after that, he built an army of Apes and taught them how to use the gems; the dragon’s life-force. Malefor’s sheer wage of his malice split the earth and created the Well of Souls; where the Apes had established, in effort to revive Malefor at the Night of Eternal Darkness. The Chronicler wanted Spyro to hide from the Apes until a later time, but Spyro insisted on going to Cynder’s aid.
When he got to the mountain and confronted Gaul within the core of the Well of Souls, the Ape King zapped Spyro with his staff, rendering him weak and drained him of his elemental powers, He then ordered Cynder to attack the weakened Spyro. When she attacked Gaul instead, he knocked her out and challenged Spyro himself. During the fight, the lunar alignment occurred, and the evil energy it generated channeled through Spyro, transforming him into Dark Spyro. Possessed by the influence of Dark Aether, Spyro used his immense power to turn the Ape King into stone, ultimately killing Gaul before leaping back into the lunar beam of energy. Cynder awoke, and upon seeing Spyro possessed by evil and the power of the Lunar Alignment, she knocked Spyro out of the beam, freeing him.
Spyro apologized for being unable to control himself, but was forgiven by Cynder who reassured him that he was with friends. However, Spyro’s battle with Gaul caused the mountain to begin collapsing around them. Cynder spotted an opening big enough for all three of them to escape, but Spyro was left weakened from his battle with Gaul and urged Cynder and Sparx to go without him, though they both refused to leave Spyro. The opening soon became blocked off, trapping the three within the collapsing Well of Souls. Spyro recalled the Chronicler’s words, and he utilized his Time Fury to freeze Cynder, Sparx, and himself inside a crystal, protecting them from harm as the mountain crumbled around them. After the credits, the crystal that contained Spyro, Cynder, and Sparx was seen within the ruins of the Mountain of Malefor. As the three companions were frozen in time, the Chronicler spoke to Spyro telepathically that when the young dragon awakens, the world he knew would be different, but notes to Spyro that he won’t be alone and has allies.
Chapter 3
Dawn of the Dragon
“Even in the darkest of times, there is always hope. But sometimes fear clouds our vision. Sometimes our strength gives out. And yet sometimes, when all seems lost, a light shines through the darkness, and we are reminded that even the smallest amount of courage can turn the tides of war.”
Within the remains of the Well of Souls, Spyro, Sparx and Cynder were released from their three year-long slumber by a group of Grublins, who chained the two dragons together with an invisible string generated by two glowing snakes around their necks. They were immediately dragged away to the Catacombs afterwards to be sacrificed to an earth Golem under Malefor’s orders. Spyro and Cynder soon awakened and found themselves chained to the floor of a large platform within the Catacombs, where they were attacked by the Grublins and the massive Golem. The two dragons couldn’t fight the Golem while tethered together until a cheetah warrior, Hunter, sent the monster off in a painful retreat after he shot it in the eye.
Hunter then revealed that Ignitus sent him to find Spyro and Cynder three years ago, much to their disbelief. They narrowly escaped the Catacombs, ripping off the Golem’s arm in the process. Within the Enchanted Forest, Hunter told them that the Dark Master, Malefor, had returned and covered the land in shadow, having reclaimed the Dragon Temple and had been at war with the Realms ever since. After hearing this, Spyro began to blame himself for failing to come back to the others sooner and letting the inhabitants down when Malefor returned. He was reassured by Cynder that some things were beyond his control. Suddenly, they were taken captive by Hunter’s tribe, with Chief Prowlus, the leader of the cheetahs, who doesn’t trust Dragons due to Malefor and Cynder when she was under the latter’s control. After saving the village from Grublins, Spyro and Cynder convinced Prowlus that they weren’t evil by saving a missing villager named Meadow. Hunter proceeded to lead them through the Forbidden Passage to the Dragon City of Warfang.
Once there, the city became under attack by the Golem and an army of Grublins. They successfully repelled the attack, killing the Golem in the process. Afterwards, Spyro and Cynder reunited with the Guardians after three long years. Ignitus tells the two young dragons not to view the chain as a hindrance rather a reminder of the bond the two of them share and that their destinies are intertwined. That night, Malefor gave the citizens of Warfang a message that he had awakened the Destroyer, a beast that recreates the world by bringing about its destruction. Before this could happen, it had to complete a circle around the world called The Ring of Annihilation which would make the Belt of Fire spread out over the world and burning everything that it crosses over. Ignitus hatched a plan to stop it from underground, and had Spyro and Cynder open the doors to the Ruins of Warfang from the inside in order to reach the area where the Destroyer would end its journey.
As they made their way through, Spyro was comforted by Ignitus when the young dragon was worried about what was going to happen and how he would end up like Malefor. The Fire Guardian reassured that Spyro’s existence as the only good purple dragon was nature’s way of balancing itself, cancelling out Malefor’s evil. Once they’ve reached the location, Cynder thought of a plan to destroy the Dam, flooding the valley and halting the Destroyer’s progress. They managed to do so and entered the Destroyer’s heart, destroying the dark crystal controlling it. Even though they destroyed the dark gem that was the heart of the Destroyer, Malefor used his dark magic to control the beast and it still managed to complete its Circle.
The rest of the inhabitants headed for underground, while Ignitus escorted Cynder and Spyro through the Belt of Fire to confront Malefor. However, the Fire Guardian sacrificed himself to allow the two dragons to get pass unscathed. Spyro, in his grief, almost lost himself to the darkness he fell into three years ago and turned into Dark Spyro, but Cynder’s words pulled him out, and she expressed her condolence by telling him he was not alone and nuzzled him lovingly.
After a few final fights in the Burned Lands and later on the Floating Islands, Spyro and Cynder finally confronted Malefor, who taunted Spyro by saying that they have more in common than just their color. Spyro denied this, proclaiming that he is nothing like Malefor, who then proceeded to free both Spyro and Cynder of the chain that binded them together throughout their trials. Malefor then claimed that his influence over Cynder had not completely diminished and that she had led Spyro to the Well of Souls to trick him into freeing the evil dragon. Cynder both denied Malefor’s words, but gradually grew unsure, to which Malefor replied by taking control over her again and renewing her dark side.
A dismayed Spyro was attacked relentlessly by Cynder, as Malefor assured Spyro that there have been many purple dragons before him and that their true role was to resurrect the Destroyer and the Golems of the Deep to bring about “The Great Cleansing”, destroying the world. Spyro denied Malefor’s statements and continued to be struck by Cynder relentlessly, though he made no effort to fight back as Malefor laughed maniacally. When Cynder furiously demanded to Spyro why he wouldn’t fight back, he revealed that she had left him nothing to fight for. Hearing this, Cynder broke free from Malefor’s control, and told him that there is always something. Enraged, Malefor chained Cynder back to Spyro, declaring that she would share his fate before attacking the two young dragons in the skies above the temple.
During their first phase in the battle, the Destroyer managed to throw itself back into the volcano from whence it came, thus completing its circuit and beginning the destruction of their world. Spyro, Cynder, and Malefor continued to fight, however, the Dark Master was soon thrown down to the planet’s heart, a giant purple crystal, by a joint attack. Malefor declared that he cannot be defeated as he was eternal. However, the spirits of the Ancients, the Dragons who taught Malefor all he knew, emerged from the purple crystal upon these words, and proceeded to drag Malefor into the planet’s heart, sealing him away, much to his dismay and the awe of Spyro and Cynder.
With Malefor gone, the chain that binded Spyro and Cynder together disappeared along with his dark magic, but the Dark Master’s plan was still underway as the planet was breaking itself apart. As the world was being destroyed, Spyro was given hope by Ignitus’s spirit, and then instructed Cynder to flee as he had discovered what he had to do to stop the destruction. But Cynder, who didn’t want to leave Spyro, decided to stay with him. As Spyro unleashed a powerful fury wave, Cynder was heard whispering to him, “I love you” before Spyro’s desperate endeavor reconstructed the world. As the survivors resurfaced, they gazed up at the stars as they formed a shape of a dragon.
After the credits, the Chronicler chose the spirit of Ignitus to be the next Chronicler of the new age. Before passing his mantle, the Chronicler informed Ignitus that though he has tried his best, he cannot find any trace of Spyro in the book that details dragons who have died. As Ignitus began searching through the book to find where Spyro might be, the scene changes to the scenery of the Valley of Avalar. Spyro and Cynder were seen wheeling through the skies above the valley, alive, free of their chain and finally being able to live happily ever after.
Cynder
At first, Spyro only knew Cynder from the Guardian’s stories and a few glimpses of her corrupted form, so he saw her as an enemy who must be stopped. During his first encounter with her at Munition’s Forge, he was strongly scared of her and didn’t deny his fear. With the help of Terrador, he was able to overcome his fear. After learning the truth about Cynder, he felt sorry for her, realizing she is another victim of the Dark Master, but was still determined to stop her. After releasing Cynder from Malefor’s influence, he didn’t hesitate to save her and didn’t blame her for anything she did while under the Dark Master’s control.
During the few weeks that Cynder stayed at the temple, he developed feelings for the black dragoness, and grew to truly understand her as time passed. He was desperate to stop Cynder from leaving the temple. He was visibly hurt when she left anyways. Most (if not all) of his actions during The Eternal Night were driven by his feelings towards Cynder, and as shown during his time at the White Isle, his biggest fear is her becoming Malefor’s servant again. When that fear became true during his confrontation with Malefor, Spyro refused to fight her, simply stating that without her, he had nothing left worth fighting for.
As the series progressed his feelings for Cynder became more obvious, by Dawn of the Dragon, both would frequently gaze at each others’ eyes and comfort each other. Spyro also rarely complained about being chained to Cynder and his only complains were aimed towards the chain hindering them in battle rather than Cynder herself. When Spyro decided to give up his life to restore the world, he wanted Cynder to save herself and was clearly touched when she chose to stay with him.
This info is taken from my own knowledge of this wonderful game.
Thanks to Google and Wiki for pictures.
