Xinyue is shockingly tall for a young woman of any caliber, standing at a grand total of 188cm (6' 2") tall. She has considerable muscle mass to her as well, weighing in at 77kg (169lbs), and sports a BWH ratio of 21-17-24 if measured in inches and 53-43-61 if measured in centimeters. Her hair has three colors to it, those being silver, black and purple, and even when tied into double buns, it's long enough to reach down to the middle of her back. Those three colors also present on her tail, with what alternating black and purple stripes. Xinyue wears a black and white china dress with detached sleeves. Xinyue makes no effort to hide her tail or prevent it from being on full display at any time; after all, she for one is proud of her faunus heritage, and no amount of shunning from any human parties can change that. The pupils of Xinyue's eyes tend to compress horizontally whenever something aggravates her; this is a genetic trait that she likely got from her birth mother.

Unsurprisingly, Xinyue is a religious individual, who views herself as a holy warrior fighting to erase evil from the world of Renmant. She takes great pride in herself as a competent Huntress with a noble goal, that being to spread peace between humanity and faunus-kind, and make bigotry a thing of the past. Xinyue's devotion to denounce all negativity in the world is certainly admirable, and while naysayers may question whether such a reform is available to be procured, she's of the opinion that substance is only impossible if it's thought to be as such.

As far as her individuality goes, that biggest thing that makes Xinyue hard to get along with is because she suffers from a certain complex about her others would describe as being "holier-than-thou". She seems to take personal offense upon witnessing an act of taboo taking place in her vicinity, and she'll confront whomever done such a deed without a moment's hesitation and speak her mind in that regard. The problem with that is that she expects people to rescind their actions too quickly, with what her attitude naturally coming across as though she's trying to coerce them into it; and the more adamantly they refrain, the more severely her patience wears thin. Xinyue also has a hard time forgiving people, and can bottle a grudge for someone who'd made themselves in the wrong for the longest of times. The thought of possibly damaging her own conscience just by forsaking the wrong person is a bitter pill for her to swallow, and can be even more bitter in comparison to her pride.

However, although it may seem hypocritical for her to pass judgment on those whose staircases of sin she may or may not have followed them up, and while her hot-blooded nature may not be ideal for a peacemaker to have, Xinyue's heart is in the right place... some of the time. She just needs to be able to rationalize and stave off her emotions, and her goal of peace all of Remnant could very well be within arm's reach.

Discarded at birth, Xinyue Cao Tang was found at the doorstep of a church that, although in the same region as the titular region that was Vacuo, had been secluded from the kingdom's capital city through sheer location alone. The teenage girl that had found Xinyue, a human nun in training by the name of Angel Celeste, had taken to look after the abandoned baby out of pity, and although she'd been trying to Xinyue's birth mother for the longest time, Angel's lack of success in the endeavor led her to raising Xinyue as her own child. Of course, the other nuns weren't too happy with Angel's decision of using the church as a roof over Xinyue's head, especially not after learning that Xinyue was a faunus. But given the situation, the head nun reluctantly gave the OK... on the condition that Xinyue would behave herself and Angel not be too distracted from her work. Angel tried her best to comfort Xinyue, who became depressed due to constant feelings of alienation.

Xinyue spent twelve years in that church's residence, until finally word of her true birth mother's existence came to light. It turned out that she had been on the run for all that time, eventually getting arrested by police after she gotten into a bar fight with a human man, who she mauled to death with her right arm that took the form of a tiger's claw. Thankfully, Angel owned a pick-up truck that she could use to take Xinyue over to the Vacuo Correctional Facility where her mother had been detained, since it would be much too far to get there by foot. The journey would be dangerous either way as well, as the outskirts of the Vacuo Correctional Facility was, unsurprisingly, heavily infested with the dark creatures of Grimm. Seeing the Grimm for the first time in her life frightened Xinyue, as she clutched a little too high and a little too tight on Angel's chest, which made her uncomfortable. But although she had to admit that she too was fearful of the prospect of encountering the Grimm, Angel managed to reassure Xinyue that, so long as they did nothing to attract the Grimm's attention, they'd be able to return home unscathed.

Supposing she'd be less afraid of the Grimm if she knew more about them, Xinyue decided that she'd look into enrolling at Mirage Academy, the preliminary combat school that the citizens of Vacuo would attend in preparation for their training as a Huntsman or Huntress at Shade Academy; much like Signal Academy was to Beacon Academy and Sanctum Academy was to Haven Academy. Xinyue was doing very well in her first year Mirage Academy and the partial amount of time she spent in the second, but unfortunately, she and several other well-achieving faunus students had been approached by known members of the White Fang. These White Fang members seemed to have researched into Mirage Academy, noting that it was severely understaffed, and aiming to exploit this weakness through means of a mass recruitment scheme. For her own safety, Xinyue was asked to transfer over to one of the other preliminary schools and, after talking to Angel about the situation, she decided that she'd move over to Signal Academy. Finally, after completing the rest of the year that she'd missed out on at Mirage Academy, Xinyue was ready to take on Beacon Academy, and continue her training as a competent Huntress.

The Arcus Splinters are a pair of weapons that normally take the form of crossbows that are small enough they can each be wielded in a single hand. However, if an enemy draws within melee range of Xinyue, they automatically begin to transform in order to resemble power drills, which she can use to pulverize her enemies' bones in a pinch. When using the Arcus Splinters this way, Xinyue will usually target the arms in order to disarm someone, or the legs to cripple their movement, allowing her to effortlessly maneuver herself back out of range. Whilst in their main form, the Arcus Splinters can fire wooden bolts, metal bolts and three different types of crystallized Dust bolts: Fire, Water and Earth. All of these types of bolts are stored in magazines that can hold up to 10 at a time. This greatly improves the Arcus Splinters' firing rate, as Xinyue had fitted the magazines so that the bolts loaded into the bow as it strung up without any mechanical complications.

While the wooden bolts are the least time-consuming to forge, their damage output is lackluster, only being truly effective against the Grimm with lessened endurance such as Beowulfs and Boarbatusks, and enemy Huntsmen or Huntresses whose auras have already been depleted. The Fire Dust bolts yield explosive results, especially when targeting weak spots. The Water Dust bolts splash onto enemies on contact, which may look to deal little damage, but can fry exposed electronics, and can make stricken enemies prime targets for allied Lightning Dust users. The Earth Dust bolts are the heaviest bolts that can be fired by the Arcus Splinters, which makes them wildly inaccurate, but they can partially petrify anything they hit, transforming the entirety of stricken body parts to stone. The metal bolts have the most penetrative power of the five types of bolts, able to pierce through one enemy and hurt any that are directly behind, and chunk up to 9% of an enemy's Aura at a time.

Xinyue can charge Arcus Splinter shots by holding the trigger for a short amount of time before releasing it. Use of this feature isn't recommended when one has been assigned to a stealth mission, as the grinding sound that can be heard when shots are being charged will give away the wielder's position, and the sheer recoil will not only throw off one's aim, but also cause moderate discomfort in the arms at best and severe damage to them at worst. This depends on the wielder's arm strength as well as the type of bolts being used. It should also be noted that not all types of bolts can be used safely for charged shots. This is primarily true for all three elements of Dust bolts, as they will "cook" when being charged, which can lead to disastrous results. Fire Dust bolts will explode in one's face, Water Dust bolts will disperse uselessly and Earth Dust bolts will petrify the entire chamber upon detonation, jamming the weapon and preventing further use until it is repaired. However, charging the shots for wooden bolts can provide much needed impact force, and charging metal bolts will greatly amplify their already impressive penetrative power; so much so they can cleave straight through any lesser Grimm and keep going...

Here, Xinyue summons an animal spirit that takes the form of a tiger, which she can use to combat enemies and distract them while Xinyue is re-positioning or reloading her Arcus Splinters. The tiger spirit responds entirely to Xinyue's will, which allows her to manipulate its actions as she sees fit. She can even unsummon the tiger spirit if its combat prowess is no longer needed. The tiger spirit's strikes deal heavy damage to Grimm, as its ethereal body is made entirely of Aura. The spirit is also fast enough to pursue enemies should Xinyue need them eliminated, and can intercept light attacks with ease. Strong concussive blows will cause the tiger spirit to disperse immediately however. When the tiger spirit is defeated in combat, its body emits a blinding light that greatly bolsters the Auras of any allies that are enveloped in it before dispersing.

While her Aura is at its full strength, Xinyue can conjure up to 3 tiger spirits in a single instance. Summoning all 3 spirits at once would be a reckless endeavor on her end, however, as since each one consumes a significant portion of her own Aura to bring forth, it would mean that she'd have less than half her Aura to take hits thrown her way, in exchange for her and her tiger spirits applying as much offensive pressure as possible. Having a tiger spirit(s) out in combat also seems to "cap" Xinyue's Aura level at a certain percentage of its full strength (depending on the number of spirits that had been summoned) and it can only replenish past that percentage if a spirit had died, or if she had unsummoned one at any point of time. Further more, each additional tiger spirit means that much more micro-management is necessary of Xinyue, which maybe taxing and can potentially distract her. As such, Xinyue will usually only summon 1 tiger spirit at a time.