diff --git a/Assets/Scripts/Editor/EmojiCheck.cs b/Assets/Scripts/Editor/EmojiCheck.cs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3623587ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Assets/Scripts/Editor/EmojiCheck.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,118 @@
+using System;
+using System.Collections.Generic;
+using System.IO;
+using System.Linq;
+using TMPro;
+using UnityEditor;
+using UnityEngine;
+
+// Every single-code-point emoji the pinned font set draws, and the Pirates product names, render through an
+// ordinary TMP text on the game's body font with no missing code point and with ink in the emoji atlas.
+// Run as -executeMethod EmojiCheck.Run (exit 1 on failure in batchmode, as EngineAssetCheck). Corpus:
+// tools/emoji/emoji-singles.txt; -emojiLimit N spreads N entries evenly across it for the spike.
+public static class EmojiCheck
+{
+    const string BodyFontPath = "Assets/Fonts/Ubuntu/Ubuntu-L Small SDF.asset";
+    const int Chunk = 64;
+
+    // The eight Pirates products (addenda "The Pirates record r2"), written as code points.
+    static readonly string[] PiratesNames =
+    {
+        "\U0001FAF3\U0001F52B", "\U0001FAA6\U0001F920", "\U0001F9FE\U0001F6AB", "\U0001F3A8\U0001F648",
+        "\U0001F525", "\U0001F440\U0001F3AF", "\U0001F511\U0001F3C3\U0001F4A8", "\U0001F4E6\U0001F92B",
+    };
+
+    [MenuItem("Aetheria/Text/Check Emoji Rendering")]
+    public static void Run()
+    {
+        var failures = new List<string>();
+        var summary = RunCheck(failures);
+        foreach (var failure in failures.Take(20)) Debug.LogError(failure);
+        Debug.Log($"EmojiCheck: {summary}; {failures.Count} failure(s).");
+        if (Application.isBatchMode) EditorApplication.Exit(failures.Count == 0 ? 0 : 1);
+    }
+
+    static string RunCheck(List<string> failures)
+    {
+        var emoji = AssetDatabase.LoadAssetAtPath<TMP_FontAsset>(EmojiFont.AssetPath);
+        var body = AssetDatabase.LoadAssetAtPath<TMP_FontAsset>(BodyFontPath);
+        if (emoji == null || body == null)
+        {
+            failures.Add("EmojiCheck: Emoji.asset or the body font is missing; run EmojiFont.Build first.");
+            return "nothing checked";
+        }
+
+        var corpus = LoadSingles();
+        var missing = new HashSet<int>();
+        TMP_Text.MissingCharacterEventCallback onMissing = (unicode, index, source, asset, component) => missing.Add(unicode);
+        TMP_Text.OnMissingCharacter += onMissing;
+
+        var canvas = new GameObject("EmojiCheck", typeof(Canvas));
+        var text = new GameObject("Text", typeof(RectTransform)).AddComponent<TextMeshProUGUI>();
+        text.transform.SetParent(canvas.transform, false);
+        text.font = body;
+        text.textWrappingMode = TextWrappingModes.NoWrap;
+        text.rectTransform.sizeDelta = new Vector2(100000, 100000);
+
+        int viaEmoji = 0, viaOther = 0, blank = 0;
+        try
+        {
+            void Render(string content, string label)
+            {
+                text.text = content;
+                text.ForceMeshUpdate();
+                for (var i = 0; i < text.textInfo.characterCount; i++)
+                {
+                    var info = text.textInfo.characterInfo[i];
+                    if (info.character == ' ' || info.elementType != TMP_TextElementType.Character) continue;
+                    if (info.fontAsset == emoji) viaEmoji++; else viaOther++;
+                    if (info.fontAsset == emoji && info.textElement.glyph.glyphRect.width <= 0)
+                    {
+                        blank++;
+                        failures.Add($"blank glyph U+{(int)info.character:X4} in {label}");
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+
+            for (var i = 0; i < corpus.Count; i += Chunk)
+            {
+                var slice = corpus.Skip(i).Take(Chunk).ToList();
+                Render(string.Join(" ", slice.Select(char.ConvertFromUtf32)), $"chunk {i}");
+            }
+            foreach (var name in PiratesNames) Render(name, "Pirates name");
+        }
+        finally
+        {
+            TMP_Text.OnMissingCharacter -= onMissing;
+            UnityEngine.Object.DestroyImmediate(canvas);
+        }
+
+        foreach (var cp in missing.OrderBy(c => c)) failures.Add($"missing code point U+{cp:X4}");
+
+        long ink = 0, colour = 0;
+        foreach (var page in emoji.atlasTextures)
+        {
+            var pixels = page.GetPixels32();
+            ink += pixels.LongCount(p => p.a != 0);
+            colour += pixels.LongCount(p => p.a != 0 && (p.r != p.g || p.g != p.b));
+        }
+        if (ink == 0) failures.Add("the emoji atlas holds no ink after rendering");
+        else if (colour == 0) failures.Add("the emoji atlas holds no coloured pixel: the glyphs rendered monochrome");
+
+        // Dynamic atlas content is cache: drop it so this check leaves the asset as Build wrote it.
+        emoji.ClearFontAssetData(true);
+        return $"checked {corpus.Count} single code points + {PiratesNames.Length} Pirates names, {missing.Count} missing, " +
+               $"{viaEmoji} glyphs via the emoji asset, {viaOther} via other fonts, {blank} blank, {ink} atlas ink pixels of which {colour} coloured";
+    }
+
+    static List<int> LoadSingles()
+    {
+        var path = Path.Combine(Directory.GetParent(Application.dataPath).FullName, "tools", "emoji", "emoji-singles.txt");
+        var all = File.ReadAllLines(path).Where(l => l.Length > 0).Select(l => Convert.ToInt32(l, 16)).ToList();
+        var args = Environment.GetCommandLineArgs();
+        var at = Array.IndexOf(args, "-emojiLimit");
+        if (at < 0 || at + 1 >= args.Length) return all;
+        var limit = int.Parse(args[at + 1]);
+        return Enumerable.Range(0, limit).Select(i => all[i * all.Count / limit]).ToList();
+    }
+}
diff --git a/Assets/Scripts/Editor/EmojiCheck.cs.meta b/Assets/Scripts/Editor/EmojiCheck.cs.meta
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..945280e85
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Assets/Scripts/Editor/EmojiCheck.cs.meta
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+fileFormatVersion: 2
+guid: c6f940add256a754daac8460fc79480d
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/Assets/Scripts/Editor/EmojiFont.cs b/Assets/Scripts/Editor/EmojiFont.cs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..855bece3a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Assets/Scripts/Editor/EmojiFont.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+using System.Collections.Generic;
+using TMPro;
+using UnityEditor;
+using UnityEngine;
+using UnityEngine.TextCore.LowLevel;
+
+// The one writer of the emoji font asset and of TMP Settings' emoji routing. The font file is the
+// output of tools/emoji/fetch_emoji_font.py; the asset is a dynamic COLOR font asset whose atlas pages
+// are cache, filled on first use at runtime and cleared here. Every TMP text reaches emoji through
+// TMP Settings' emoji fallback and global fallback list; no component names an emoji font.
+public static class EmojiFont
+{
+    public const string FontPath = "Assets/Fonts/Emoji/Twemoji.ttf";
+    public const string AssetPath = "Assets/Fonts/Emoji/Emoji.asset";
+
+    // Colour outlines (COLRv0) are rasterised at one size; 109 is the strike size a CBDT set needs.
+    const int SamplingPointSize = 64;
+    const int AtlasPadding = 4;
+    const int AtlasSize = 2048;
+
+    // Menu entry for interactive use; -executeMethod EmojiFont.Build for batchmode, exit 1 on failure.
+    [MenuItem("Aetheria/Text/Build Emoji Font")]
+    public static void Build()
+    {
+        var ok = TryBuild(out var message);
+        if (ok) Debug.Log(message); else Debug.LogError(message);
+        if (Application.isBatchMode) EditorApplication.Exit(ok ? 0 : 1);
+    }
+
+    static bool TryBuild(out string message)
+    {
+        var font = AssetDatabase.LoadAssetAtPath<Font>(FontPath);
+        if (font == null)
+        {
+            message = $"EmojiFont: {FontPath} is missing; run tools/emoji/fetch_emoji_font.py.";
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        // An existing asset keeps its GUID, so a second Build changes nothing the settings point at.
+        var asset = AssetDatabase.LoadAssetAtPath<TMP_FontAsset>(AssetPath);
+        if (asset == null)
+        {
+            asset = TMP_FontAsset.CreateFontAsset(font, SamplingPointSize, AtlasPadding, GlyphRenderMode.COLOR,
+                AtlasSize, AtlasSize, AtlasPopulationMode.Dynamic, enableMultiAtlasSupport: true);
+            if (asset == null)
+            {
+                message = $"EmojiFont: TMP could not create a font asset from {FontPath}.";
+                return false;
+            }
+            asset.name = "Emoji";
+            AssetDatabase.CreateAsset(asset, AssetPath);
+            foreach (var page in asset.atlasTextures)
+            {
+                page.name = "Emoji Atlas";
+                AssetDatabase.AddObjectToAsset(page, asset);
+            }
+            asset.material.name = "Emoji Atlas Material";
+            AssetDatabase.AddObjectToAsset(asset.material, asset);
+        }
+        else asset.ClearFontAssetData(true);
+
+        // Text-presentation emoji (U+263A without FE0F) are not routed through the emoji list, so the
+        // asset is also the global fallback.
+        TMP_Settings.emojiFallbackTextAssets = new List<TMP_Asset> { asset };
+        TMP_Settings.fallbackFontAssets = new List<TMP_FontAsset> { asset };
+        TMP_Settings.defaultSpriteAsset = null;
+
+        EditorUtility.SetDirty(asset);
+        EditorUtility.SetDirty(TMP_Settings.instance);
+        AssetDatabase.SaveAssets();
+        message = "EmojiFont: built " + AssetPath + " and routed TMP Settings' emoji fallback to it.";
+        return true;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/Assets/Scripts/Editor/EmojiFont.cs.meta b/Assets/Scripts/Editor/EmojiFont.cs.meta
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5888665c0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Assets/Scripts/Editor/EmojiFont.cs.meta
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+fileFormatVersion: 2
+guid: bd3a902defe23f14fbe821ca9fb26a08
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tools/emoji/fetch_emoji_font.py b/tools/emoji/fetch_emoji_font.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..77e03e6f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/emoji/fetch_emoji_font.py
@@ -0,0 +1,122 @@
+"""Build Assets/Fonts/Emoji/Twemoji.ttf from the pinned Twemoji release.
+
+Run with the venv that has tools/emoji/requirements.txt installed:
+    py -3 tools/emoji/fetch_emoji_font.py [--cache DIR] [--jobs N]
+
+Downloads the jdecked/twemoji release source archive (sha256 pinned below), runs nanoemoji
+(glyf_colr_0) over its SVGs, and writes the font, the licence text, the single-code-point corpus
+the editor smoke reads, and emoji-font.lock. The font is the only artifact Unity consumes; nothing
+here is hand-made art. A second run with the same pins must reproduce the font's sha256.
+"""
+import argparse, hashlib, os, re, shutil, subprocess, sys, tarfile, tempfile, urllib.request
+from importlib import metadata
+from pathlib import Path
+
+TWEMOJI_VERSION = "v17.0.3"
+TWEMOJI_URL = "https://github.com/jdecked/twemoji/archive/refs/tags/v17.0.3.tar.gz"
+TWEMOJI_SHA256 = "a0855654b633045ae2337537e77f1bb4361162f7fcd910e613eaab1d6d9c5fca"
+# 2026-06-01T22:21:37Z, the release's publication time: fixes head.created/modified for reproducibility.
+SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH = "1780352497"
+FAMILY = "Twemoji"
+
+ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[2]
+FONT_DIR = ROOT / "Assets" / "Fonts" / "Emoji"
+SINGLES = ROOT / "tools" / "emoji" / "emoji-singles.txt"
+
+
+def sha256(path):
+    h = hashlib.sha256()
+    with open(path, "rb") as f:
+        for block in iter(lambda: f.read(1 << 20), b""):
+            h.update(block)
+    return h.hexdigest()
+
+
+def download(cache):
+    archive = cache / f"twemoji-{TWEMOJI_VERSION}.tar.gz"
+    if not archive.exists():
+        cache.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+        urllib.request.urlretrieve(TWEMOJI_URL, archive)
+    got = sha256(archive)
+    if got != TWEMOJI_SHA256:
+        archive.unlink()
+        sys.exit(f"archive sha256 {got} != pinned {TWEMOJI_SHA256}")
+    return archive
+
+
+def licence_text(root):
+    readme = (root / "README.md").read_text(encoding="utf-8")
+    attribution = re.search(r"## Attribution Requirements\n\n(.*?)\n\n## ", readme, re.S).group(1)
+    graphics = re.search(r"Graphics licensed under CC-BY 4.0: \S+", readme).group(0)
+    copyright_lines = [l for l in (root / "LICENSE").read_text(encoding="utf-8").splitlines() if l.startswith("Copyright")]
+    return (
+        f"Twemoji {TWEMOJI_VERSION}: {TWEMOJI_URL}\n"
+        + "\n".join(copyright_lines) + "\n" + graphics + "\n\n"
+        "Change notice (CC BY 4.0 section 3(a)(1)(B)): the SVG graphics are converted to a COLRv0 colour\n"
+        "font (Twemoji.ttf) by tools/emoji/fetch_emoji_font.py using nanoemoji. No artwork is edited.\n\n"
+        "Attribution Requirements (upstream README)\n\n" + attribution + "\n\n"
+        "LICENSE-GRAPHICS (upstream, verbatim)\n"
+        "=======================================================================\n\n"
+        + (root / "LICENSE-GRAPHICS").read_text(encoding="utf-8")
+    )
+
+
+def main():
+    ap = argparse.ArgumentParser()
+    ap.add_argument("--cache", type=Path, default=Path(tempfile.gettempdir()) / "aetheria-emoji-cache")
+    ap.add_argument("--jobs", type=int, default=max(1, min(4, (os.cpu_count() or 2) // 2)))
+    args = ap.parse_args()
+
+    archive = download(args.cache)
+    work = args.cache / f"build-{TWEMOJI_VERSION}"
+    if work.exists():
+        shutil.rmtree(work)
+    work.mkdir(parents=True)
+    with tarfile.open(archive) as tar:
+        tar.extractall(work / "src", filter="data")
+    src = next((work / "src").iterdir())
+    svgs = sorted((src / "assets" / "svg").glob("*.svg"))
+
+    env = dict(os.environ, SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH)
+    # nanoemoji shells out to ninja and picosvg by name; they live beside this interpreter.
+    env["PATH"] = str(Path(sys.executable).parent) + os.pathsep + env["PATH"]
+    build = work / "build"
+    # 4000 paths overflow the Windows command line, so the inputs travel in an absl flagfile.
+    flagfile = work / "inputs.flags"
+    flagfile.write_text("".join(f"{p.as_posix()}\n" for p in svgs), encoding="utf-8")
+    run = [sys.executable, "-c", "from nanoemoji.nanoemoji import main; main()", "--color_format", "glyf_colr_0",
+           "--family", FAMILY, "--output_file", f"{FAMILY}.ttf", "--build_dir", str(build), "--noexec_ninja",
+           f"--flagfile={flagfile}"]
+    subprocess.run(run, check=True, env=env, cwd=work)
+    subprocess.run(["ninja", "-j", str(args.jobs), "-C", str(build)], check=True, env=env)
+
+    FONT_DIR.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+    out = FONT_DIR / f"{FAMILY}.ttf"
+    shutil.copyfile(build / f"{FAMILY}.ttf", out)
+    (FONT_DIR / "LICENSE.txt").write_text(licence_text(src), encoding="utf-8", newline="\n")
+
+    # The smoke's corpus: every single-code-point glyph the pinned release draws.
+    singles = sorted(p.stem for p in svgs if re.fullmatch(r"[0-9a-f]{4,6}", p.stem))
+    SINGLES.write_text("".join(f"{s}\n" for s in singles), encoding="utf-8", newline="\n")
+
+    tools = {n: metadata.version(n) for n in ("nanoemoji", "fonttools", "picosvg", "ninja")}
+    lock = [
+        f"source_url={TWEMOJI_URL}", f"source_version={TWEMOJI_VERSION}", f"source_sha256={TWEMOJI_SHA256}",
+        f"svg_count={len(svgs)}", f"single_codepoint_count={len(singles)}",
+        *(f"tool_{n}={v}" for n, v in tools.items()),
+        f"source_date_epoch={SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH}", "color_format=glyf_colr_0",
+        f"font_file={out.name}", f"font_sha256={sha256(out)}", f"singles_sha256={sha256(SINGLES)}",
+    ]
+    previous = (FONT_DIR / "emoji-font.lock")
+    if previous.exists():
+        old = dict(l.split("=", 1) for l in previous.read_text().splitlines() if "=" in l)
+        if old.get("font_sha256") != sha256(out):
+            print(f"NOT REPRODUCED: font_sha256 {sha256(out)} != lock {old.get('font_sha256')}")
+        else:
+            print("reproduced: font_sha256 equals the lock")
+    previous.write_text("\n".join(lock) + "\n", encoding="utf-8", newline="\n")
+    print("\n".join(lock))
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()
diff --git a/tools/emoji/requirements.txt b/tools/emoji/requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..955d3e31b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/emoji/requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+# Pinned toolchain for fetch_emoji_font.py (py -3 -m venv, then pip install -r this file).
+# nanoemoji is the spec's tool; the rest is its resolved dependency set at 0.16.0.
+absl-py==2.5.0
+attrs==26.1.0
+booleanOperations==0.10.0
+cffsubr==0.4.0
+fontMath==0.10.0
+fonttools==4.66.1
+lxml==6.1.3
+nanoemoji==0.16.0
+ninja==1.13.2
+picosvg==0.23.0
+pillow==12.3.0
+pngquant-cli==3.0.3
+pyclipper==1.4.0
+regex==2026.9.29
+resvg-cli==0.44.0
+skia-pathops==0.9.2
+toml==0.10.2
+typing_extensions==4.16.0
+ufo2ft==3.9.1
+ufoLib2==0.19.0
+zopfli==0.4.3