Hime Yamiko

Hime Yamiko (闇子・ヒメ) is a young human woman and self-proclaimed princess of the dragons, who lives in by herself in her castle in The Land of the Dragon Princess. She is a very important character, being the only antagonist of Tales of Embie with the exception of Yukari Hoshizora, who is a minor background character.

Appearance
Hime is a young, fair-skinned woman with wavy black hair that reaches down to her lower back, as well as bangs parted in the centre and two thick strands that frame her face. She has amber coloured eyes, and always wears a golden crown with dragon horns on her head. Hime normally wears a grey chest-piece and gloves with gold trim, leather shorts and boots with a gold sole, a purple dress and a gold corset.

Personality
Due to her upbringing, Hime is loud, spoiled, not that bright, and believes that she's related to the long lost Dragon Princesses. Her main talent is that she can tame dragons with ease, (something only the extinct Dragon Princesses could do) practically having an army of them wrapped around her finger. Hime believes that she's special and deserves everything because of this, and uses her intimidating stature as well as her favourite dragon Oleander to make people do whatever she wants. But Hime is not lazy, instead she is quite impulsive; if she wants something, she will not hesitate to go out and get it, no matter how difficult or morally wrong it may be.

Hime has little experience with friendships, her only two "friends" being twins Hiyashi Miyuki and Yukari Hoshizora, and has even less experience with love, easily getting flustered at even the tiniest mention of it and ordering the person who brought the topic up to leave.

Early Life
It is unknown who Hime's mother is, although it is suspected to be Kaneko. Whoever her mother is, they abandoned Hime and her father Sage almost immediatly after Hime's birth. Sage was heartbroken, and used money from his father, Nyx Yamiko, to build himself and Hime a castle far away to live in. Sage spoiled Hime as much as he could to try to make up the fact that her mother left, and soon gifted Hime a dragon egg. This dragon egg hatched a little purple dragon, Hime's best friend and companion, Oleander. Once Hime got older, she started to want freedom and the castle to herself, and suddenly kicked Sage out. Hime doesn't regret doing this, even though she hasn't seen her father since.

Relationships
Sage Yamiko - Hime and Sage are very detached. Sage wasn't ready to be a parent, let alone a single parent, which lead to him using the easy tactic of giving his daughter materialistic things to keep her happy instead of nurturing and satisfying her emotional needs. Hime thinks of Sage as less of a person, and more like and object that exists to be annoying and get her things.

Hiyashi Miyuki - Due to her lack of interaction with other people during her life, Hime doesn't understand the concept of friendship. She likes Hiyashi and her company, and wants to have her around, but she doesn't know what this feeling is or how to describe it. The only other thing she can compare it to is her friendship with Oleander. Hime tries to ignore this feeling (and therfore Hiyashi) because of her fear of the unknown, which stemed from Hime never straying too far away from her castle during her life.

Yukari Hoshizora - Much like her relationship with Hiyashi, Hime is very unfamiliar with the concept of friendship and liking someone, and therfore distances herself from Yukari, even though she does like her (even if it is less than Hiyashi). During the story, Hime becomes closer to Yukari, gradually getting used to and enjoying her company. This leads to Hime bursting out laughing during her death, as she finds the fact that Yukari betrayed her, and the realisation that Yukari only wanted to get close to her was to steal her power, "an extremely funny plot twist" that made her death interesting and memorable in her eyes.

Akane Katane - In the Modern AU, it is canon that Hime and Akane start dating after Hanako's death. At first they're very awkward around each other, but become very close, Hime slowly binging Akane out of her shell and Akane helping Hime discover what love is. They raise Ember (and later Tatsuo) together with help from Hiyashi and Yukari.

Oleander - Hime and Oleander are incredibly close. Oleander will do anything Hime says, but unlike the other dragons who do it because of Hime's dragon taming talent, Olender does it because of the immense level of trust and friendship they've formed from spending almost their entire lives together. Hime's biggest fear is losing Oleander, and she doesn't know what she'd do without him.

Entymology
Hime (ヒメ) means princess

Yamiko (闇子) Yami (闇) means darkness and Ko (子) means child

Fun Facts

 * Hime is one of two infertile characters, the other being Lilitu Kitamaru
 * In the very earliest drafts of Tales of Embynn, Hime was originally a fox girl named Kizuna
 * Hime is right-handed
 * Hime's outlook on life is very unique, going as follows: "You only live once, and you won't remember anything after you die, so do whatever you want to do and have as much fun as possible! You think dying will be funny? Just do it! Play with life and death! You won't regret not doing things when you're dead, so why not!?"