Battlewinner had black scales that gleamed like polished ebony and seemed to emit white steam.[1] Her eyes were dark with a glint of icy blue in their depths, and two of her teeth were also pale blue, appearing more like icicles than regular teeth.[1] Her throat and black tongue[2] were lined with pale blue frost, in patterns that glinted and swirled and were feathery or sharp.[2] She had heavy shoulders,[2] a thickset neck, a battle-scarred snout,[1] glistening claws, and a thick head.[3] She was massive, as big as Morrowseer,[3] and had a creaky, quiet, rough, and eerie voice, like claws scraping on ice several caves away,[1] as well as a barking laugh.[4] Whenever she emerged from her cauldron, she glowed horribly, with lava dripping between her scales and claws.[3]
Personality[]
Battlewinner could be considered cunning and manipulative, as she helped create the Dragonet Prophecy in order to find a new home for the NightWings.[5] She was also shown as cruel when she ordered Vengeance to be thrown into lava for upsetting her. She would have done anything to save the tribe, even if it meant killing all the RainWings and meddling with the prophecy.[4] She was possessive over her throne as she did not want to hand over the NightWings over to Glory, despite it being the only way for the tribe to survive.[6] Battlewinner does not like her orders questioned.[7] She was wrathful, and her punishments were consistently swift and severe.[8]
Biography[]
Pre-Series
At one time, possibly after the initial eruption of the NightWing Volcano that destroyed part of the fortress, Battlewinner led expeditions to find a new home for her tribe. During one such venture, she was attacked by an IceWing, possibly due to the two tribes' bitter rivalry. She escaped alive, but the IceWing blasted her in the mouth with frostbreath, which should have frozen Battlewinner from the inside out. The only reason that she did not die immediately was her ability to breathe fire: her internal fire reservoir counteracted the ice long enough for her to fly back to the island. In desperation, she dove into a lava pool, hoping to die quickly, but instead, it created a balance where the external heat prevented the ice from killing her. However, this left her unable to ever leave the lava without the ice completely encasing her body and becoming an ice statue, and then dying.
To prevent other dragons from learning of her weakness, Battlewinner had a hidden room created behind the NightWings' council chamber and lived in a cauldron filled with lava as big as two Morrowseer's. This way, she could watch her tribe and make her image more mysterious and powerful. When she "spoke," she used her daughter, Princess Greatness, as a voice.
She had only been mentioned, not by name, when Scarlet spoke to Morrowseer, suggesting that the NightWing queen should come to discuss the matter of Starflight with her. Morrowseer then hissed and told her not to anger the NightWings. Morrowseer and Battlewinner, the authors of the prophecy, had written the prophecy so that the NightWings could join the war. The part saying "Darkness will rise to bring the light" refers to the NightWings winning the war and taking over, which they personally see as the only meaningful line.
Battlewinner was indirectly mentioned by Morrowseer when he talked to Blister and Nautilus about how "they didn't often kill off NightWing dragonets", refering to him and Battlewinner.
Starflight and Fatespeaker crept into Battlewinner's private chamber from behind a map in the NightWing Fortress and found that she lived in a cauldron of lava. After Starflight burst out about the scientific impossibility of surviving these conditions, the queen explained more about her reasons for keeping herself hidden. Starflight said that he could hear the ice breaking as she tried to talk. She was planning to wage war on the RainWings in lava-filled armor designed by Mastermind so she could lead the battle. When she left her lava cauldron to attack Starflight and Glory, the balance between fire and ice in her body tipped. Despite Mastermind's efforts to save her using the special armor, Battlewinner froze to death within a matter of seconds.
Battlewinner was mentioned, though not by name, when Winter thought of how Moonwatcher was raised. He compared the NightWing queen to Glacier, noting that compared to the IceWing queen, Battlewinner could not have cared for her subjects to have allowed them to remain there, a somewhat inaccurate observation.
Battlewinner was mentioned much by Deathbringer as the dragon actually in charge of making the decisions instead of Morrowseer. She eventually agreed that Deathbringer could be included into Quickstrike's assassination mission only if he successfully murders either Vengeance or Slaughter.
Battlewinner was depicted in her lava cauldron in a portrait at the beginning of the NightWing chapter of the guide. Later in the chapter, she was mentioned several times by Mastermind when he explained how life was on the NightWing island.
Greatness was Battlewinner's only daughter and heir to the NightWing throne. Battlewinner was not impressed by Greatness, calling her cowardly and a terrible queen. This was true, however, as Greatness was one of the first who fled into the tunnel, ahead of the rest of her tribe.