Cyrus Ember cuts quite the figure, with reading glasses, a well-trimmed beard, and long white hair that he keeps in a ponytail, all worn over a series of expensive and custom-tailored suits. He does his best to project a grandfatherly air, and is widely seen by staff and students alike as having their best interests at heart in the constant struggle against parents and the board of trustees. This cultivated image is, however, a total farce.

In reality, Cyrus Ember is very much the son of his father Ehud Ember, and his father’s father Slias Ember: a cold, calculating man who uses his ability to seem warm, friendly, and caring as a ruse to make his enemies lower their guard. By utilizing Officer LQC Sparks as the hate sink for all his most unpopular actions, Ember is able to run Magnolian Academy his own way while remaining blameless and absolved. He is also heavily involved with the wand factory co-founded by his great-great grandfather, though he leaves most day to day decisions to his co-owners.

Ember is quite aware that the factory is essentially a charade designed to drain its workers of their life forces and use it to charge wands, but is committed to it as preserving the only way of life he has ever known. He was willing to kill Isaac Wright to keep the secret, and he is willing to do the same to his sister Isis, but he remains convinced that both Isaac and Isis were put up to their actions by a third party, a competitor or industrial spy or bleeding heart organization. He cannot conceive of someone doing it simply out of revenge for a loved one, as there is no one save himself that he would ever do that for.