Ape

Apes
World	Dragon Realms
First appearance	The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning (2006)
Latest appearance	The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon (2008)
Notable member(s) Gaul, Ape Soldier, Ape Leader, Ape Commander

The Apes are mercenary soldiers in service of the Dark Master Malefor in The Legend of Spyro series. According to Ignitus, because of said services, they were also dubbed as the "Dark Armies". They are ruled by a king named Gaul.

Charactertistics

Physical Appearance

Apes are a race of simians with hunched backs. They have colorful facial features based on mandrillls and tails resembling a monkey's. Apes have a different fur color depending on their environment, but they are functionally still the same.

• In the Swamp and the Dragon Temple, their fur color is darkish gray in A New Beginning, and bluish gray in The Eternal Night.
• On Dante's Freezer, their fur color is vanilla white.
• On Tall Plains, their fur color is red.
• In Munitions Forge, their fur color is gold. (It should be noted that Gaul led this variety of Apes during the raid on the Dragon Temple on the night of Spyro's birth according to Ignitus's flashback as he explained the truth about Cynder to Spyro during the events of A New Beginning)
• In Concurrent Skies, their fur color is pure white.
• In the Mountain of Malefor, their fur color is darkish lavender, which appears to be their main fur color, and their skin is mutated by the corruptive properties of the mountain. In concept art, they are refered to as "Shadow Wraiths", known as fanatical followers of Gaul that mark their locations with a Dark Aether banner.

Ranks

Notable Officers

The Apes have ranks in their army, but the Ape King Gaul rules over them all. When Cynder was under the influence of Malefor, she served as the general for the Apes. Among Gaul's forces is another Ape called the Assassin. He wears a mask like his underlings who pilot the Dreadwings or man the elemental cannons, but his voice is thick and heavy through his mask, muffling his words whenever he speaks. It is possible that he is Gaul's second in command.

• Gaul (King)
• Cynder (General, formerly)
• Assassin/Advisor (Gaul's possible second-in-command)
• Conductor (Possible chief of security as well as head distributor)

Henchmen

The Ape army consists of soldiers, leaders and commanders, etc., each with their own unique methods of attack.

• Ape Soldiers
• Ape Leaders
• Ape Commanders
• Disciples (Nintendo DS version of A New Beginning)
• Super Fire Cannons
• Assault Turrets
• Wraiths

Trained Beasts

The Apes have recruited numbers of different varieties of beasts to support their brutal causes. They mainly mount the bat-like Dreadwings for aerial transport or assaults. On the ground, they rely on gigantic creatures resembling scorpions and snails. Two varieties of Death Hounds also serve as the Apes' attack dogs but, along with the snails, only appear in The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night.

• Dreadwings
• Buffalo Beetles
• Conduits
• Death Hounds
• Snail Riders
• Electric King (Cynder's personal bodyguard)

Story

Service to the Dark Master

After Malefor was cast out from dragon civilization many years ago, he built an army of Apes and taught them how to artificially harness the power of the Spirit Gems, the dragons' lifeforce. It was during this time that the Apes served as the perfect army for the Dark Master (for the time being). The ruler and king of the Apes was Gaul, a loyal servant to Malefor. The duties of his army were to fight wars against the Dragons, win battles in order to gain ground, and occupy the Realm. Years afterwards, Malefor was defeated by the ancestors, who sealed his spirit away in Convexity. Despite this setback, the Apes were still able to carry out Malefor's orders from beyond for many years to come.

Attack on the Dragon Temple

Under Malefor's orders, Gaul led the raid on the Dragon Temple to destroy the dragon eggs in order to prevent the birth of the next purple dragon. However Spyro's egg was saved by Ignitus. Despite this, Malefor also needed a dragon who was born on the Year of the Dragon to open the portal in Convexity that served as his prison, and Cynder's egg was captured while the other dragon eggs were smashed by the Apes. Cynder would later be poisoned by the Dark Master's powers, turning her into an evil dark dragon to help him spread destruction throughout the world and becoming a general to the Apes.

The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning

The Apes first appeared in this game when a group of Swamp Apes captured Sparx as means of using him as a lantern. Spyro killed the Apes and freed Sparx, but the Ape Leader escaped to alert Cynder of the young purple dragon. After leaving his home to find out who he truly was, Spyro was chased by Apes in the Swamp. The enemies later appeared, having overrun the Dragon Temple, but Spyro, along with Ignitus, wiped them all out.

From that point on, the Apes would become the main enemy Spyro encountered throughout his travels. They appeared in Dante's Freezer, Tall Plains, Munitions Forge and finally Cynder's Lair. There is one particular Ape in Munitions Forge called the Conductor, who drives a steam engine called Steam.

The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night

Apes appeared in the second part of the trilogy on several occasions, but they are not the primary enemy. Notably, they are much less comedic and more terrifying than in the first game, losing the stereotypical monkey screams and gaining instead deep grunts and roars (like that of gorillas). They first appeared when they launched another all-out attack on the Dragon Temple, this time led by an Ape called the Assassin, but Spyro and the Guardians foiled their plans. They were mentioned when a letter from Hunter of Avalar explained that the Ape King Gaul had placed a bounty on all of the Dragons, including Spyro. The Apes appeared again after attacking Fellmuth Arena, capturing Cynder in the process, and they appeared lastly in the end, on the Mountain of Malefor.

The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon

In Dawn of the Dragon, the cheetah hermit in the Valley of Avalar revealed that the shadowy skeletons that attacked Spyro and Cynder are the Apes. According to him, they only served Malefor more for their own ambitions and thirst for power, and they showed no true loyalty to their master. For those reasons, Malefor repaid the Apes for their services by turning them into Shadow Apes upon his return to the Realms. They appear as skeletons covered in mist-like shadows; mere ghosts of their former selves and are no longer the main minions of Malefor. The Apes are doomed to dwell in the darkness until Spyro and Cynder find and defeat them. The Grublins have taken their place in the battle, leaving the Shadow Apes to attack stragglers from the shadows.

Gallery

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  The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning
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  The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night
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  A glimpse of the Ape King leading his army against the Dragon race
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  Gaul clutching Cynder's egg
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  The Dark Armies enslaving the Manweersmalls
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  The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning (GBA)
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  The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night Theatrical Short
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Trivia

• Strangely, although they are known as apes, they actually bear a resemblance to mandrills and baboons.
• In the Game Boy Advance version of The Eternal Night, Dark Spyro actually vanquishes the entirety of the Shadow Wraiths faction as they attempt to avenge their king, explaining the absence of Malefor's most loyal followers in the following game. However in the console version, it's unclear what happened to that group in specific, as they're long gone when Dark Spyro returns to the throne room.
• In the conclusion of Dawn of the Dragon, it is unknown if the Apes were changed back to their original forms upon the beginning of the new age.