The embers and package are listed separately though and I've not had anything else drop when I get the embers. Does it just not do anything until you've unlocked the armor?

Ooooooo. I was confused myself. Couldn’t find the packages.

[quote]The reason is simple, the solstice package immediately opens upon acquiring it and depending on the bounty it'll give you embers for that specific piece of armor that the bounty was for and you can't get the only way to get the new solstice armor is to collect 100 embers for the specific armor slot and use the forge to craft it.[/quote]