EmberFrost characters: who lives in Tamarisk Village

The EmberFrost characters are the people of Tamarisk Village: you, the Ember Keeper (Ash or Wren), Granny Maud the healer, Lily the mapmaker and Bram the smith, plus the woodcutters, fisher, stonecutter, carrier and families who move in as you rebuild. Each of them changes how the village works, not only how the story reads.

This spoiler-light guide introduces the people of EmberFrost in the order you meet them, and what each one does for the village.

Who are the main characters in EmberFrost?

EmberFrost has four named characters and a village full of helpers. You play the Ember Keeper, Ash or Wren, who arrives alone at a snowed-in village carrying the Last Ember. Granny Maud, the village healer, is the first to walk out of the forest when you light the fire. She teaches you to keep it fed, explains each new thing once, warns you before storms and later runs the infirmary, where sick villagers recover. Lily, a young mapmaker, arrives when the village has grown to twelve people, carrying a torn piece of an old map, and comes back with more of it as you build. Bram, the smith, arrives with the forge and turns stone into better tools, bigger crates and a stronger sled. Around them, workers take over the daily jobs: two woodcutters, a fisher, a stonecutter and a carrier. Nobody in EmberFrost dies. The worst that can happen is that a cold, unhappy villager leaves.

Who do you play as in EmberFrost?

You choose your character when you start a new game: Ash or Wren. Both are the Ember Keeper, the one who carries the Last Ember into Tamarisk. The choice is about how you look. It does not change the story or the rules.

The village calls you by name: "A fire is hungry, Ash. It must be fed." EmberFrost has three save slots, so you can keep an Ash village and a Wren village side by side.

Granny Maud: the healer who keeps everyone going

Granny Maud is the first person you meet. When the Last Ember catches, two villagers step out of the trees, and one of them is Maud. "A fire! We saw the glow from the forest."

From then on, she is your guide. She shows you around the village the first time, one place at a time. The first time something new happens, such as a customer at the stall, a cold night or a brazier that needs wood, she explains it in one short line. If you would rather find things out yourself, you can turn her tips off under Hints in the settings. Her warnings about a low fire or a freezing villager, and the story itself, always play.

She also looks ahead. Before you build a worker's hut, she tells you a helper comes with it, and when the sky darkens before a storm, she tells you to build up the fire.

Her most important job starts when you rebuild the infirmary. "I'll set up in the infirmary. Come if you fall ill." Villagers who get too cold and fall ill recover there. Without it, a sick villager may give up and leave. Maud also remembers older days in the valley, when something called the Sun Forge kept it warm.

On Hard, the cold can make you ill too, and Maud's infirmary is the quickest place to rest. More on that in our Normal vs Hard guide.

Lily: the mapmaker with a torn map

Lily arrives once twelve people live around the fire. "Hello! I'm Lily. I draw maps." She carries a torn piece of an old map and asks you to build a lookout, so the village can see farther.

After that, Lily keeps coming back. Each visit, she has found a little more of the map, and she shares what it shows about the valley and the old road.

She is also the first to sense that the winter is not finished with Tamarisk. When you raise the wind screens, she says it plainly: "Something big is coming from the north." The lookout she asked for is the last building in the village, and finishing it starts the Great Blizzard. What she finds on the map, we will leave for you to see.

Bram: the smith who makes everyone better at their job

Bram arrives with his workplace. Once the stone quarry is built, the forge is offered, and the moment you build it Bram is standing at the anvil. "I'm Bram, a smith. Your fire's good to work by."

Bram works in stone. Drop stone at the forge, the way you drop wood at the fire, and he forges in a fixed order:

• Tools in three levels: iron, steel and master. Each level makes gathering faster for you and for every worker, at every source.
• Bigger crates for wood, fish and stone, so the market holds more between your visits.
• Two sled upgrades: first a sled that carries twice the load with no slowdown, then a great sled that carries three times as much.

He tells you when he starts each job and when it is done, in his own voiced lines, and forging never stops you from playing. When there is nothing left to forge, he walks home to warm up.

The workers: who does what?

Workers are villagers who take over a job you have been doing by hand. Each one comes with the building you put up for them.

• Woodcutters (there are two huts) chop trees and stack the logs on the wood pile by the fire. On Normal, when the pile is full, they also carry wood to the braziers.
• The fisher works the ice hole and the pier and fills the fish crate at the market stall.
• The stonecutter digs at the quarry and fills the stone crate at the stall.
• The carrier feeds the main fire first whenever it drops below half, then tops up the braziers, then carries goods to the stall.

Workers feel the cold like everyone else, and braziers at the forest edge and by the lake help them stay out longer. When the Great Blizzard comes, they leave their posts and shelter with the village at the fire. That night, feeding the fire is up to you.

The villagers: why the people matter

Every cabin you rebuild brings new families, and Tamarisk can grow to 20 villagers. Villagers come to the market stall and ask for wood, fish or stone. Serve them and they pay. Keep them waiting too long and they leave empty-handed, and the village's morale drops.

Morale is how the village feels: when it is high, workers move faster and new people arrive sooner; when it is very low, nobody new comes.

The cold is the other thing to watch. When the fire runs low or a storm hits, villagers get cold, then freezing, and eventually ill. That is why Maud's infirmary matters: without it, a sick villager may pack up and leave. Nobody dies in EmberFrost. We wrote about that choice in what makes a survival game cozy.

Is the EmberFrost story voiced?

Yes. Every line of the story is voiced, in all 21 of the game's languages. Most lines appear as short speech bubbles while you keep playing; when one introduces a new place or helper, the camera briefly glides over to show it.

Which characters can you meet for free?

In the free start you light the fire and meet Granny Maud. Lily, Bram and the workers arrive with places from the Full Story, the one-time purchase that unlocks the rest of the game. Our guide to what is free in EmberFrost explains exactly where the line is.

FAQ

Who is the main character in EmberFrost?

You are: the Ember Keeper, played as Ash or Wren. You choose at the start of a new game, and the choice only changes how you look.

Who is Granny Maud in EmberFrost?

The village healer. She arrives when you light the fire, teaches you how the village works, warns you before storms and runs the infirmary.

How do you meet Bram the smith?

Build the stone quarry. The forge is offered after it, and Bram arrives the moment the forge is built.

Does anyone die in EmberFrost?

No. Villagers can fall ill and, without an infirmary, leave the village, but nobody dies, on Normal or Hard.

Meet them yourself

EmberFrost: Survival Tycoon is free to start on the App Store. Find out more on the EmberFrost game page, get ready with our beginner's guide, or browse every EmberFrost post.