Since I Have No Book to Magically Take This All Down...
When Spyro was still just an egg, the temple where he was to hatch was attacked by the forces of Malefor, known as the Dark Master. To save it an elder dragon, Ignitus, set his egg afloat in the Silver River. It was eventually found in a swamp by a family of dragonflies as it was hatching. This family raised him as one of their own and he grew up safely along with his best friend/brother Sparx the Dragonfly, believing that he was one of them despite his size difference and inability to fly.
One day while he and Sparx were playing in the swamp, they ventured farther than they were allowed and Sparx was captured by a group of Apes who then attacked Spyro. Sparx continued to egg on and insult the group's leader and was nearly killed, but Spyro got angry and breathed his first flame. This made the leader flee, and Spyro defeated the rest of the group and freed Sparx.
After hearing about this, their parents decided that it was time they told Spyro the truth...that he was not a dragonfly and had come from a distant land torn by war. Shortly after this, Spyro decided to set out and find his home and, later joined by Sparx who had decided that best friends belonged together, left the swamp that had been his home.
Almost immediately after leaving they were scared by something flying overhead and bolted for a nearby cave. There he met an elderly dragon called Ignitus who recognized him. Having finally met another creature like himself, Spyro launched into a million questions...most importantly inquiring about what he was. Ignitus told him about who he was, where he’d come from, as well as about what had gone in the Realms over the years...and of the black dragon, Cynder.
Spyro asked to see the temple he came from, but Ignitus was reluctant to take him there because he didn't know what state it was in. At Spyro’s urging however, he agreed to take him to the dragon temple where they ran off the squatters there. Spyro was horrified to see the lands around the temple, having not expected it to look so terrible. But Ignitus convinced him that together they could restore the land and give hope back to everyone. Spyro wasn't really sure what he could do, but agreed to try.
Ignitus taught him some about using his fire, as well as how true dragons fight. He also taught him how to fly, before sending him and Sparx off to Dante’s Freezer to look for Volteer, another elder dragon. He told him to just look around, but to run if he saw Cynder because he wasn't ready to face her yet.
While traveling the frozen fortress, after a painful crash-landing, Spyro took a shot to the head from an electric canon. Immediately after that, he was able to make use of an electricity-based breath attack. They found Volteer in the deepest part of the fortress, being guarded by the Ice King. Spyro defeated the giant and rescued Volteer, but could have been stuck there for a few more hours listening to the electric dragon talk, if Sparx hadn't mentioned that the three of them leave.
Upon returning to the temple, they learned that Cynder had used Volteer to power a strange crystal...Spyro could surprisingly makes sense of Volteer's speech, despite the fact that he uses a lot of large words and speaks quickly. Volteer then provided Spyro with some training for his newly electricity powers. Ignitus then sent him and Sparx to Tall Plains in search of the ice dragon, Cyril, in hopes of rescuing him before another crystal could be made.
There they met Kane, leader of a tribe of Atlawa, who wasn’t at all enthused about their presence on Atlawa lands...despite Spyro having helped him. He left them to go save his tribe and they continued to search for Cyril.
Later, Kane nearly went over a waterfall and Spyro learned ice breath, which he used to freeze the water before the Atlawa leader went over the falls.
Eventually they somewhat impressed Kane and he directed them to the Atlawa shrine where they could save Cyril if they could calm the shrine god. Cynder flew away just before they arrived, leaving her prisoner behind in the shrine with the god. When they succeeded in defeating it and saving Cyril, Kane made them tribe members, saying that his people wished to worship them now.
Back at the temple Cyril taught Spyro to control his ice powers before he was sent off to Munitions Forge to find and rescue Terrador. Ignitus had said something about Cynder trying to open a portal that mustn't be opened, but wouldn't tell them any more about it.
While exploring the caves within active volcano, Boyzitbig, they encountered Mole-Yair, leader of the Manweersmalls that lived underground there. In exchange for their help in freeing his people, who were being forced to mine for Cynder, he directed them to his brother, Exhumor, who could point them in Terrador’s direction.
On the way there, Spyro and Sparx came across a large bell, which Sparx taunted Spyro about being afraid of until the dragon rang it...causing it to come loose and fall on him. At this point, he acquired his Earth Shot ability and shattered the bell to free himself. Further in they heard an Ape, called the Conductor, mentioning Terrador before watching him depart on a train, and tried following him on a rail cart but he ended up behind them and they had to flee or be run down.
They found Exhumor at the labor camp and freed the rest of the Manweersmalls, then ventured into the deepest pits of the volcano where Terrador was being held. The Conductor and his locomotive, Steam, stood in their way, but they defeated him and saved the big earth dragon...but not before the crystal he was being used to power was charged.
Unfortunately, Cynder appeared and at Teerador’s order, and due to his own terror, Spyro fled with Cynder on his tail. Ignitus appeared and saved him, but was captured by Cynder. Terrador prevented Spyro from searching for Ignitus and they returned to the temple to finish his training.
Terrador then directed him to Cynder’s fortress, believing that to be the most likely place to find Ignitus, since her final preparations were to take place there. Unfortunately, non of the other three Guardians had the strength to go with him so only Sparx went. After fighting their way through the fortress they found Ignitus, but were blocked by Cynder who more-or-less tossed him aside easily before escaping with the crystal she’d used Ignitus to charge.
Spyro had noticed something familiar in Cynder’s eyes and brought this up to Ignitus, who revealed that Cynder was actually the only other surviving egg from the temple raid. Her egg had been stolen and she was corrupted by the Dark Master's evil magic to do his bidding, and release him from his prison...because only one born in the Year of the Dragon could do so. Ignitus also mentioned that if the Dark Master was freed, then an evil shadow would fall over the land.
Determined to stop her and prevent the Dark Master's return, Spyro followed her to the Convexity, a dimension that acted as an airlock between their world and the Dark Master’s prison. He confronted her, but apparently too late as she’d already used the final crystal needed to unlock the Dark Master’s prison. The ensuing fight was decided when Spyro unleashed a powerful energy on Cynder, removing the Dark Master’s influence from her body and allowing her to revert to her true form.
When the Convexity started to collapse moments later, Spyro refused to leave before grabbing the unconscious Cynder. He and Sparx escaped from the lock, crash-landing in the forest. They later woke in the temple, but Spyro had temporarily lost the use of all of his powers. Weeks passed, but Spyro’s powers remained locked and he started having strange nightmares about a mountain draped in shadow and an approaching evil.
One night, Sparx came to Spyro because he'd just seen Cynder sneaking out into the garden. Cynder was fleeing the temple, feeling that she didn’t belong after everything she'd done. When Spyro probably would have followed, he suddenly passed out and in a dream was contacted by a being called the Chronicler, who helped him reawaken his fire abilities, learn how to tap into Dragon Time, warned him of approaching danger, and showed him where to seek him out. When Spyro woke up, the temple was under attack.
He and and Sparx had to take a roundabout way back into the temple, but Spyro and the Guardians managed to protect it but worried that battle wasn’t the end of it. Ignitus was unable to determine where Cynder had gone, but had a vision of Spyro at the base of a giant tree. Spyro mentioned that he'd seen this tree in his dreams and was immediately questioned about what else he had been seeing in his dreams.
When Spyro finally told the others about his dreams, he learned a bit about the Chronicler and the approach of the night of Eternal Darkness in which the celestial moons would be at an eclipse. Ignitus sent him and Sparx on a quest to find the tree from his dream, in hopes that the Chronicler might help them through the dark times ahead.
While in an uninhabited, swampy forest at the end of the Silver River, Spyro and Sparx spotted some Skavengers in the area. Figuring that they must live there, Spyro decided that he was going the wrong way and made to backtrack, but fainted again and entered another dream sequence. The Chronicler helped him regain his ice powers . Shortly after he woke up they reached the place from Spyro’s first Chronicler dream and were attacked by a large monster. Spyro defeated it, but some pirates who’d been trying to catch it took them prisoner.
On the ship they met Mole-Yair who’d been captured along with several Manweersmalls and forced to serve the pirates. Spyro was forced to fight in their arena and won the first round, but fainted again. The Chronicler restored his earth power and told him to find him on the White Isle. When Spyro came to, he was made to fight in another round and afterward Mole-Yair brought him a letter of warning from another prisoner called Hunter. The Ape King had put a bounty on his head and that put the entire ship in danger.
After he won his next fight he was set up to face Cynder, who had also been captured, but the ship was attacked and Cynder kidnapped. Spyro was able to help Mole-Yair and the other Manweersmalls escape, then went to the Captain’s cabin to look for a map that might show the White Isle, but was attacked by the pirate captain, Skabb. When Spyro outdid him, Skabb fled and Spyro followed and defeated him once and for all before continuing on. He passed out mid-flight though and fell into the sea.
The Chronicler unlocked his electric power and Spyro had a vision of Cynder being brought before the Ape King to await the Dark Master’s return on the night of eternal darkness. He awoke on the White Isle, having been saved by a friendly sea monster. Before he could meet the Chronicler, he had to pass a test facing his worst fear and was pitted against an elemental apparition of what Cynder used to be. He was able to defeat it and the Chronicler finally approached him.
He’d called Spyro to him to keep him safe during the Night of Eternal Darkness and while the Dark Master revived, so that he could someday challenge and defeat him. He reveal that the Dark Master had been the first purple dragon and was the reason the Apes could harness the magic from the same crystals the dragon used. He’d also want to keep him safe because the Dark Master would probably escape his prison through the Well of Souls on the night of eternal darkness. Upon finding out that Cynder would likely become his servant again and Ignitus and the others might die, Spyro refused to stay put. Reluctantly the Chronicler guided him and Sparx to the Well of Souls.
Spyro confronted Gaul the Ape King and had all of his powers sealed except his control of Dragon Time. Cynder pretended to fight him and attacked Gaul but was knocked out. While he and Spyro fought, they fell to the deepest part of the mountain just as the night of eternal darkness began. Spyro was caught in a beam of dark energy at the same time and became Dark Spyro. He wiped out Gaul, but had to be stopped by Cynder when he couldn’t stop himself.
While trying to get Spyro to come on the three of them were trapped in the collapsing mountain and, whether by the Chronicler’s power or Spyro’s, sealed in a crystal to save their lives.
Spyro has the potential to master just about any element he wishes, as is stated to be his destiny. His element mastery consists of four elements thusfar…and ever in canon: fire, ice, electricity, and earth/wind, all of which develop into different abilities throughout the series that will be listed below.
Fire
Default is fire breath in all games. A New Beginning also lets him spit an explosive ball of flames.
Comet Dash: Spyro rams his way through enemies while sort of cloaked in flame. It’s not a long range charge.
Ice
Ice Stream: Breathes ice maic in a stream the freezes enemies. Some enemies may be encased in giant snowballs.
Ice Needle: Spits icy needles that both damages and slowly freezes the opponent.
Ice Bomb: Spits an icy rock that cracks open on impact, releasing a chilling mist that makes movement slow. Can also freeze small patches of water into platforms.
Ice Tail: Strikes enemies with his tail while channeling ice magic.
Ice Tornado: Spins in midair surrounded by a small tornado of icy air.
Electricity
Electric Stream: Breathes a stream of electricity that can shock enemies. Moving while using this ability results in enemies being thrown around.
Electric Cage: Releases a burst of electricity from the mouth that traps an enemy in midair.
Electric Tail: Spins like a top channeling electricity through the entire body while balancing on his tail. Umps into enemies to damage.
Electric Shot: Generates an electric orb that can be launched. It shocks on impact, but can also explode in an electrical discharge that damages.
Electrical Discharge: Rapidly discharges high amounts of electricity from his body to damages nearby enemies.
Earth
Earth Shot: A blast of earth energy shot from the mouth, can blow back nearby enemies or break some obstacles.
Earth Bomb: Launches a shot of earth energy that becomes a small twister to draw in and trap enemies.
Earth Flail: Emits a flail made of earth energy from the mouth. Can be used to damage enemies or break obstacles.
Earth Pound: Slams the ground to knock nearby enemies into the air.
Earth Missile: Shoots a bullet of earth energy to damage an enemy.
Earth Boulder: Spyro surrounds himself in earth and rolls around to damage enemies. When hitting the ground from the air it has the same effect as Earth Pound. Can be used to break obstacles.
Spyro can also at times emit a strong, widespread burst of energy from these elements that does massive damage. This is known as a fury. For a few moments after, his body naturally channels the energy from the fury.
He also can, in truly serious circumstances, use a powerful purple energy, but this is very taxing on his magical reserves.
He can also master Dragon Time, which slows time to a near standstill for under a minute real time. Others will likely only see this as him suddenly moving much faster than before.
One day while he and Sparx were playing in the swamp, they ventured farther than they were allowed and Sparx was captured by a group of Apes who then attacked Spyro. Sparx continued to egg on and insult the group's leader and was nearly killed, but Spyro got angry and breathed his first flame. This made the leader flee, and Spyro defeated the rest of the group and freed Sparx.
After hearing about this, their parents decided that it was time they told Spyro the truth...that he was not a dragonfly and had come from a distant land torn by war. Shortly after this, Spyro decided to set out and find his home and, later joined by Sparx who had decided that best friends belonged together, left the swamp that had been his home.
Almost immediately after leaving they were scared by something flying overhead and bolted for a nearby cave. There he met an elderly dragon called Ignitus who recognized him. Having finally met another creature like himself, Spyro launched into a million questions...most importantly inquiring about what he was. Ignitus told him about who he was, where he’d come from, as well as about what had gone in the Realms over the years...and of the black dragon, Cynder.
Spyro asked to see the temple he came from, but Ignitus was reluctant to take him there because he didn't know what state it was in. At Spyro’s urging however, he agreed to take him to the dragon temple where they ran off the squatters there. Spyro was horrified to see the lands around the temple, having not expected it to look so terrible. But Ignitus convinced him that together they could restore the land and give hope back to everyone. Spyro wasn't really sure what he could do, but agreed to try.
Ignitus taught him some about using his fire, as well as how true dragons fight. He also taught him how to fly, before sending him and Sparx off to Dante’s Freezer to look for Volteer, another elder dragon. He told him to just look around, but to run if he saw Cynder because he wasn't ready to face her yet.
While traveling the frozen fortress, after a painful crash-landing, Spyro took a shot to the head from an electric canon. Immediately after that, he was able to make use of an electricity-based breath attack. They found Volteer in the deepest part of the fortress, being guarded by the Ice King. Spyro defeated the giant and rescued Volteer, but could have been stuck there for a few more hours listening to the electric dragon talk, if Sparx hadn't mentioned that the three of them leave.
Upon returning to the temple, they learned that Cynder had used Volteer to power a strange crystal...Spyro could surprisingly makes sense of Volteer's speech, despite the fact that he uses a lot of large words and speaks quickly. Volteer then provided Spyro with some training for his newly electricity powers. Ignitus then sent him and Sparx to Tall Plains in search of the ice dragon, Cyril, in hopes of rescuing him before another crystal could be made.
There they met Kane, leader of a tribe of Atlawa, who wasn’t at all enthused about their presence on Atlawa lands...despite Spyro having helped him. He left them to go save his tribe and they continued to search for Cyril.
Later, Kane nearly went over a waterfall and Spyro learned ice breath, which he used to freeze the water before the Atlawa leader went over the falls.
Eventually they somewhat impressed Kane and he directed them to the Atlawa shrine where they could save Cyril if they could calm the shrine god. Cynder flew away just before they arrived, leaving her prisoner behind in the shrine with the god. When they succeeded in defeating it and saving Cyril, Kane made them tribe members, saying that his people wished to worship them now.
Back at the temple Cyril taught Spyro to control his ice powers before he was sent off to Munitions Forge to find and rescue Terrador. Ignitus had said something about Cynder trying to open a portal that mustn't be opened, but wouldn't tell them any more about it.
While exploring the caves within active volcano, Boyzitbig, they encountered Mole-Yair, leader of the Manweersmalls that lived underground there. In exchange for their help in freeing his people, who were being forced to mine for Cynder, he directed them to his brother, Exhumor, who could point them in Terrador’s direction.
On the way there, Spyro and Sparx came across a large bell, which Sparx taunted Spyro about being afraid of until the dragon rang it...causing it to come loose and fall on him. At this point, he acquired his Earth Shot ability and shattered the bell to free himself. Further in they heard an Ape, called the Conductor, mentioning Terrador before watching him depart on a train, and tried following him on a rail cart but he ended up behind them and they had to flee or be run down.
They found Exhumor at the labor camp and freed the rest of the Manweersmalls, then ventured into the deepest pits of the volcano where Terrador was being held. The Conductor and his locomotive, Steam, stood in their way, but they defeated him and saved the big earth dragon...but not before the crystal he was being used to power was charged.
Unfortunately, Cynder appeared and at Teerador’s order, and due to his own terror, Spyro fled with Cynder on his tail. Ignitus appeared and saved him, but was captured by Cynder. Terrador prevented Spyro from searching for Ignitus and they returned to the temple to finish his training.
Terrador then directed him to Cynder’s fortress, believing that to be the most likely place to find Ignitus, since her final preparations were to take place there. Unfortunately, non of the other three Guardians had the strength to go with him so only Sparx went. After fighting their way through the fortress they found Ignitus, but were blocked by Cynder who more-or-less tossed him aside easily before escaping with the crystal she’d used Ignitus to charge.
Spyro had noticed something familiar in Cynder’s eyes and brought this up to Ignitus, who revealed that Cynder was actually the only other surviving egg from the temple raid. Her egg had been stolen and she was corrupted by the Dark Master's evil magic to do his bidding, and release him from his prison...because only one born in the Year of the Dragon could do so. Ignitus also mentioned that if the Dark Master was freed, then an evil shadow would fall over the land.
Determined to stop her and prevent the Dark Master's return, Spyro followed her to the Convexity, a dimension that acted as an airlock between their world and the Dark Master’s prison. He confronted her, but apparently too late as she’d already used the final crystal needed to unlock the Dark Master’s prison. The ensuing fight was decided when Spyro unleashed a powerful energy on Cynder, removing the Dark Master’s influence from her body and allowing her to revert to her true form.
When the Convexity started to collapse moments later, Spyro refused to leave before grabbing the unconscious Cynder. He and Sparx escaped from the lock, crash-landing in the forest. They later woke in the temple, but Spyro had temporarily lost the use of all of his powers. Weeks passed, but Spyro’s powers remained locked and he started having strange nightmares about a mountain draped in shadow and an approaching evil.
One night, Sparx came to Spyro because he'd just seen Cynder sneaking out into the garden. Cynder was fleeing the temple, feeling that she didn’t belong after everything she'd done. When Spyro probably would have followed, he suddenly passed out and in a dream was contacted by a being called the Chronicler, who helped him reawaken his fire abilities, learn how to tap into Dragon Time, warned him of approaching danger, and showed him where to seek him out. When Spyro woke up, the temple was under attack.
He and and Sparx had to take a roundabout way back into the temple, but Spyro and the Guardians managed to protect it but worried that battle wasn’t the end of it. Ignitus was unable to determine where Cynder had gone, but had a vision of Spyro at the base of a giant tree. Spyro mentioned that he'd seen this tree in his dreams and was immediately questioned about what else he had been seeing in his dreams.
When Spyro finally told the others about his dreams, he learned a bit about the Chronicler and the approach of the night of Eternal Darkness in which the celestial moons would be at an eclipse. Ignitus sent him and Sparx on a quest to find the tree from his dream, in hopes that the Chronicler might help them through the dark times ahead.
While in an uninhabited, swampy forest at the end of the Silver River, Spyro and Sparx spotted some Skavengers in the area. Figuring that they must live there, Spyro decided that he was going the wrong way and made to backtrack, but fainted again and entered another dream sequence. The Chronicler helped him regain his ice powers . Shortly after he woke up they reached the place from Spyro’s first Chronicler dream and were attacked by a large monster. Spyro defeated it, but some pirates who’d been trying to catch it took them prisoner.
On the ship they met Mole-Yair who’d been captured along with several Manweersmalls and forced to serve the pirates. Spyro was forced to fight in their arena and won the first round, but fainted again. The Chronicler restored his earth power and told him to find him on the White Isle. When Spyro came to, he was made to fight in another round and afterward Mole-Yair brought him a letter of warning from another prisoner called Hunter. The Ape King had put a bounty on his head and that put the entire ship in danger.
After he won his next fight he was set up to face Cynder, who had also been captured, but the ship was attacked and Cynder kidnapped. Spyro was able to help Mole-Yair and the other Manweersmalls escape, then went to the Captain’s cabin to look for a map that might show the White Isle, but was attacked by the pirate captain, Skabb. When Spyro outdid him, Skabb fled and Spyro followed and defeated him once and for all before continuing on. He passed out mid-flight though and fell into the sea.
The Chronicler unlocked his electric power and Spyro had a vision of Cynder being brought before the Ape King to await the Dark Master’s return on the night of eternal darkness. He awoke on the White Isle, having been saved by a friendly sea monster. Before he could meet the Chronicler, he had to pass a test facing his worst fear and was pitted against an elemental apparition of what Cynder used to be. He was able to defeat it and the Chronicler finally approached him.
He’d called Spyro to him to keep him safe during the Night of Eternal Darkness and while the Dark Master revived, so that he could someday challenge and defeat him. He reveal that the Dark Master had been the first purple dragon and was the reason the Apes could harness the magic from the same crystals the dragon used. He’d also want to keep him safe because the Dark Master would probably escape his prison through the Well of Souls on the night of eternal darkness. Upon finding out that Cynder would likely become his servant again and Ignitus and the others might die, Spyro refused to stay put. Reluctantly the Chronicler guided him and Sparx to the Well of Souls.
Spyro confronted Gaul the Ape King and had all of his powers sealed except his control of Dragon Time. Cynder pretended to fight him and attacked Gaul but was knocked out. While he and Spyro fought, they fell to the deepest part of the mountain just as the night of eternal darkness began. Spyro was caught in a beam of dark energy at the same time and became Dark Spyro. He wiped out Gaul, but had to be stopped by Cynder when he couldn’t stop himself.
While trying to get Spyro to come on the three of them were trapped in the collapsing mountain and, whether by the Chronicler’s power or Spyro’s, sealed in a crystal to save their lives.
Spyro has the potential to master just about any element he wishes, as is stated to be his destiny. His element mastery consists of four elements thusfar…and ever in canon: fire, ice, electricity, and earth/wind, all of which develop into different abilities throughout the series that will be listed below.
Fire
Default is fire breath in all games. A New Beginning also lets him spit an explosive ball of flames.
Comet Dash: Spyro rams his way through enemies while sort of cloaked in flame. It’s not a long range charge.
Ice
Ice Stream: Breathes ice maic in a stream the freezes enemies. Some enemies may be encased in giant snowballs.
Ice Needle: Spits icy needles that both damages and slowly freezes the opponent.
Ice Bomb: Spits an icy rock that cracks open on impact, releasing a chilling mist that makes movement slow. Can also freeze small patches of water into platforms.
Ice Tail: Strikes enemies with his tail while channeling ice magic.
Ice Tornado: Spins in midair surrounded by a small tornado of icy air.
Electricity
Electric Stream: Breathes a stream of electricity that can shock enemies. Moving while using this ability results in enemies being thrown around.
Electric Cage: Releases a burst of electricity from the mouth that traps an enemy in midair.
Electric Tail: Spins like a top channeling electricity through the entire body while balancing on his tail. Umps into enemies to damage.
Electric Shot: Generates an electric orb that can be launched. It shocks on impact, but can also explode in an electrical discharge that damages.
Electrical Discharge: Rapidly discharges high amounts of electricity from his body to damages nearby enemies.
Earth
Earth Shot: A blast of earth energy shot from the mouth, can blow back nearby enemies or break some obstacles.
Earth Bomb: Launches a shot of earth energy that becomes a small twister to draw in and trap enemies.
Earth Flail: Emits a flail made of earth energy from the mouth. Can be used to damage enemies or break obstacles.
Earth Pound: Slams the ground to knock nearby enemies into the air.
Earth Missile: Shoots a bullet of earth energy to damage an enemy.
Earth Boulder: Spyro surrounds himself in earth and rolls around to damage enemies. When hitting the ground from the air it has the same effect as Earth Pound. Can be used to break obstacles.
Spyro can also at times emit a strong, widespread burst of energy from these elements that does massive damage. This is known as a fury. For a few moments after, his body naturally channels the energy from the fury.
He also can, in truly serious circumstances, use a powerful purple energy, but this is very taxing on his magical reserves.
He can also master Dragon Time, which slows time to a near standstill for under a minute real time. Others will likely only see this as him suddenly moving much faster than before.