#rwby sanus

[bobauthorman]

Nationaliteam

I'm choosing to believe that Yang was actually born somewhere in West Sanus / Vacuo before the Xiao Long family settled down on Patch Island.

I'm also choosing to believe that Blake was born in Mistral or Mistral-adjacent.

This way, we can say each member of Team RWBY represents a different major nation on Remnant.

Ruby - Vale

Weiss - Atlas

Blake - Mistral

Yang - Vacuo

[bestworstcase]

Your thoughts about Remnant's kingdoms having imperialistic and expansionist tendencies that don't have anything to do with Salem or Ozma makes me wonder, at least based on what I vaguely remember of the game RWBY Arrowfell:

In Arrowfell, we learn about the existence of ruins outside of Atlas and Mantle with ancient historical artifacts, and that makes me question if Solitas really as empty as it seemed, or was there already indigenous people living there before the displaced settlers of whatever regions of Sanus showed up on their doorstep? Did THEY get destroyed by those settlers?

Did those people live alongside Solitas' Grimm with no issue, and shit only went down AFTER the emotionally repressed imperialists of Sanus came in and wiped out whatever culture they had, imposing their own "Grimm evil emotions bad must repress and subjugate" nonsense onto a culture that might have already figured out a better solution?

I keep thinking about this because of how the settlers of the local settlements there within the game have vastly different appearances, and strongly implied different cultures compared to the likes of Mantle and Atlas.

tumak!

i rotate those ruins in my mind a lot, because the only thing we really know about them is that they predate the great war and they’re a formally-designated “heritage site.” vine talks about artifacts taken from the site as though they’re very ancient, but his statements are framed pretty overtly as bullshit—he comes across more as a new age mumbo jumbo type of hobbyist than someone serious about history. older than the great war just means that the ruins are at least a century old.

so there’s definitely a layer here of atlas—which has probably not been around much longer than a century or two—culturally not having a very accurate sense of historical scale (a la US americans thinking anything older than a century or two is ‘ancient’) and exoticizing The Past. whereas beacon’s professor of history teaches teaches the great war and its aftermath as recent history, because vale is much older.

that said, tumak does look like it’s a few centuries old, because it’s all built of stone. in any other story i’d take it as a given that the people living there were conquered or displaced by mantelian settlers for… the same reasons i take it as a given that mistral being called an “empire” and having “territories” means what it sounds like.

what gives me pause with regard to tumak and mantle is—well, two things:

there were no grimm in western solitas when mantle’s first settlers arrived.

it’s heavily implied that the global industrial revolution began in mantle following the discovery of large dust deposits under the tundra.

now, the one thing we know for certain about grimm is that they eat people and they die in captivity, meaning that they do need to eat. the simplest explanation for there being no grimm in western solitas when the mantelian settlers turned up is that there weren’t any people there for grimm to eat.

the second point matters matters because the industrial revolution is a prerequisite for building anything with steel: before this confluence between practical necessity and a great abundance of underground dust deposits, every large structure on remnant would have been built with timber or stone or clay, or whatever material happened to be abundant in a given region.

(i am making a drastic oversimplification here but, in essence, the main reason we had our industrial revolution when and where we did is england ran out of trees and started digging for coal. coal mines have a lot of coal on site, making coal-powered machines a more cost-effective way to pump water out of deep shafts than manual labor, and then after a certain point these pumps become very efficient and it becomes cost-effective to employ mechanized rotational movement further away from the coal mines, and then you get automated spinning jennies and trains and it all snowballs from there. whether it’s on purpose or not, remnant’s industrial revolution occurred under precisely similar conditions and i think that’s neat.)

one presumes that mantelian settlers didn’t go from living in natural caves or snow shelters to steel-frame construction overnight. the technological innovation needed to build with steel in subzero temperatures would have been a long, iterative process. both tumak and the “ancient monument” built in the same architectural style are also situated on the continent’s western coast, while mantle is at least a few hundred miles inland (although it’s difficult to get an accurate sense of scale from the game map). if i’m right that these settlers were displaced from northeast sanus by valean expansion, the west coast of solitas is where they would have landed.

we also know that mantle itself is built on top of what seems to be an enormous dust mine.

in the WOR episode, the early settlement is represented like this, with people keeping watch over coastal cliffs and grimm being frozen solid by the cold:

the amity arena ice sabyr card indicates that the ice-encrusted solitan grimm adapted to the cold fairly quickly:

These Sabyrs seem to have somehow adapted to Mantle's environment. Gone are the days when the cold kept the Grimm at bay, and now we deal with the ice crusted versions of the Sabyr. Still, there is a burning question in our minds. Didn't these Sabyr… adjust a little too quickly?

(which, lol. it’s dust. solitan grimm incorporate dust into their bodies to give themselves a protective coating against the cold; we’ve seen the geist in the mine use dust to armor itself against attack. a lot of the amity arena grimm cards are fun; the one for seers is literally like “they’re super weird, we have no idea what they do because we’ve only ever found broken husks, but they’re floating crystal balls with tentacles so we assume they must be able to control people. probably.” grimm studies is pseudoscience!)

and then back to the WOR episode, the depicted distance between mantle and alsius is wildly exaggerated:

with mantle located on the southwestern peninsula and alsius being where mantle stands—or stood—in the present day. before playing arrowfell, i always took that to be just a stylistic choice to emphasize the economic separation between mantle and alsius, but:

again, nothing is to scale here, but mantle and the atlesian crater are in the right place, there’s an abandoned dust mine on that southwest peninsula, an outpost with a train on the western island, and tumak and the other ruin along the west coast. so the relocation depicted in the WOR episode—a migration inward from the coastal region to where mantle is today—actually seems to have been literal.

what makes the most sense to me is that these coastal ruins were built by the original settlers a few hundred years ago. both tumak and the “monument” are mainly underground, with these barrow-like stone caps over the entrances: this strikes me as a solidly defensible layout for fending off weakened, scattered packs of grimm, but not one that could withstand the increasing numbers of cold-hardy grimm as time went on.

in the SDC WOR episode, it’s noted that mantle’s existing dust mines were nearly depleted before nicholas schnee discovered new deposits in the mountains to the north. and in arrowfell, if memory serves, the old southwest mine was exhausted and abandoned long ago. taking this to its logical conclusion, the people living in tumak and other coastal settlements had to deal with a relatively fast spike in grimm populations at a time when dust was already becoming scarce, so they abandoned these sites and migrated to a more defensible area—the plain flanked by mountains—where they serendipitously found much larger and deeper dust deposits. and that became mantle and alsius/atlas.

meanwhile, over on the eastern side of the continent…

the geographic separation here is pretty striking! in between mantle and the free towns to the east we have a large inland sea and mountains. these towns are explicitly not part of the kingdom and, as you noted, have a pretty different culture. (including cultural attitudes toward the grimm: a huge megoliath wanders into essen early in the game and the townspeople just… clear out of the immediate area and keep an eye on it from afar, which is probably also how the unnamed village in v4 dealt with that geist. there is also a lady from dormir who goes into GRIMM-INFESTED CAVES, alone, to dig up dust. nothing bad happens to her.)

tellingly, bram thornmane seems to view these free towns as independent polities for the purpose of fueling his persecution complex by treating his residence in essen like a quasi-exile from atlas, but when it’s politically expedient to do so he acts as though these are satellite communities dependent on atlesian protection, hence his use of the grimm lures to attack them as well as atlas and mantle. i imagine that this is a common atlesian attitude.

one of the villagers—cerise claire, who fled from crossed to essen when the former was overwhelmed as a consequence of thornmane’s scheme—mentions having ancestors who fought during the great war; specifically she implies that her ancestors were involved in resistance to the mantelian regime’s prohibition against art and self-expression. the free towns don’t seem to be particularly young—wood and stone, again suggesting pre-industrial construction—so they must have existed before the war.

cerise is also a faunus (i think; it’s hard to tell if the wolfish ears are attached to her head or just to her hood and they’re not the same color as her hair, but they’re a prominent feature of her design and why do that if she’s not meant to be faunus) which certainly. carries a lot of unspoken weight in the remarks she makes about her ancestor bravely keeping a journal of their years fighting in the great war… and if her family lived in crossed back then, well.

gestures at vacuo’s side of the great war being a desperate bid for independence. gestures at the implication that the vytal accords were in large part a decolonial project; vacuo and menagerie became sovereign states, and a huge swath of eastern anima seems to have been freed from mistrali rule.

mantle and mistral formed an alliance during the conquest of northern anima; if if the towns in eastern solitas are older than the great war—which is quite plausible!—then they likely existed during this period of time and it seems reasonable to think that they might have been occupied as well, if not by mantle then by mistral. eastern solitas being under occupation prior to the war and liberated by the accords thanks in part to the efforts of a local rebellion tracks.

but an interesting thought occurs to me: this means the quasi-scientific modern narrative that the grimm “adapted” to the cold unnaturally fast might be baseless. there would have been cold-hardy grimm living east of the mountains already. perhaps the intense hardship and struggle of those early years simply drew an existing population of grimm over the mountains?

[fullbattleregalia]

WIP Game

Rules: You will be given a word. Share one sentence/excerpt from your wip(s) that start with each letter of that word.

I got tagged by @greentrickster and my word is LIFE. So here are some snippets of Wild Card, a RWBY fic I’ve been working on where Roman Torchwick never got sprung from prison during the season three finale and has joined up with the protagonists in an attempt to find out what has happened to Neo (because things would have had to gone very wrong for her to leave him in Atlesian custody).

L

“Looks more like a coverup to me,” commented Uncle Qrow, taking a shot from his flask.

“Cover up? Covering up what?” Ruby frowned. Didn’t tattoos... already cover up your skin? Wasn’t that the point?

“Another tattoo. It’s not like they come off again if you change your mind a few years down the line. So what was it, Torchwick? Old flame? You lose a bet?”

Torchwick just smirked.

“I’ll just say that you should never bet against Neo when laundry duty is on the line. She hates ironing her own clothes.”

I

It only took Qrow six matches to get the campfire started, and he was counting that as a win.

Qrow had had a lot of bad ideas in his time. A lot of bad ideas. A looooot of-

The point was that taking five teenagers and a known criminal on a hike through the Grimm infested forests of Sanus to the nearest town with an airship that could get them to Mistral wasn’t his worst idea ever, but it was an unfortunately low bar. Tai must never know.

F

“Face it,” Torchwick smirked, “I’m your best bet for stopping Cinder. We both get what we want – I get my revenge, and you get to take that bitch out before any more of your precious ‘innocents’ die. Think about it.”

Uncle Qrow’s expression had gone blank.

“Close the cell door.” Torchwick offered a mocking salute as the door slid shut. Uncle Qrow’s shoulders slumped slightly as the final lock clicked into place. Then he turned to the guards. “I need to talk to General Ironwood.”

E

Evidently, Qrow had been wanting for more theatrical snark in his life. He loved his niece, but naively optimistic teenagers weren’t his first choice for conversation partners. Torchwick was also completely capable of having an entire conversation with himself. The only thing Qrow really had to do once Torchwick got going was exist.

[deadbeatbirdmom]

Hello, a question about the artbook. I remember seeing one of your posts about a map of remnant and their concept names, is it alright to know them? And where can I buy the artbook? Thank you.

Hi! Thanks for the ask.

I'll answer the second question first. I got my copy of the art book from the Crunchyroll store, and it looks like it's still available there:

RWBY art book on the Crunchyroll store

Just in case you haven't seen one of the posts where I mention it: the majority of the book's text is in Japanese, including the interviews with CRWBY.

The concept map of Remnant with the place names on it is interesting, it's just definitely not entirely accurate with where places turned out to be in RWBY.

But with that caveat out of the way, sure, I'm happy to share them. Some are tricky to make out because the map's text is tiny (bonus pic of the napkin with sauce stains that inspired the map):

Detailed pics and transcribed place names under a read more cut:

In alphabetical order by kingdom/country:

Anima, containing the Kingdom of Mistral

Roughly from north to south within Anima: SoulCrest Phantom Break Crystal Forest Crystal Chasm Glass Heart Serpent's Cove Mistral Haven (with teams CRBN, NMEZ) Stile Isle Turtle Bay White Mountain Overlook Harlot's Cove Jagged Bluff Sand Flow Burning Coast Obsidian Sea Tale's End

Far to the east of Anima: Sea Fan

Dragon shaped continent, unnamed and presumably uninhabited in canon RWBY.

North to south: Dragon's Eye Thorne Nest Diamon Drop Signal (this is different in canon RWBY, because Signal is the combat school on Patch where Ruby and Yang went before Beacon)

Menagerie, again north to south:

Nora (prototype name for Kuo Kuana?) Menagerie Shallow Sea Siren's Walk

Solitas, with the Kingdom of Atlas, formerly Mantle.

North to south: Deep Frost Atlas (with team name PSCY) Heaven's Spiral Mantle The Ice Crawl

Vacuo, on the west side of the continent of Sanus.

North to south:

Shade (with teams SSSN and WTCH) Sea Bolt Vacuo Fiery Landing White Sand Hatch Mountains Wolf's Den (possibly in the kingdom of Vale) Skull Cliffs (possibly in the kingdom of Vale) Pygmy Reef

Vale, on the east side of the continent of Sanus.

North to south: Watch Point ArrowPort Forever Fall Vale Beacon (with teams RWBY and JNPR) Garden Vale Cliffs Starlight Mist Lake Mermaid Isle

Patch isn't marked on this map, but it's the island west of Vale.

[citadelofmythoughts]

I’ve always LOVED that RWBY characters and places are coded/inspired by from around the world and not just one country.

Like, this is an America produced animation, but the main group is German, French (with some Japanese influences), Chinese/Japanese, (idk how I’d classify Ruby) and are friends with French, Greek, Norwegian, and Chinese.

Eastern Sanus is Europe based

Western Sanus is African (North African mainly) based

Mistral is Asia based

And Menagerie is Australian based

Not too sure about Solitas

I hesitate to consider any of their ethnic backgrounds to be carved in stone but there are undeniable influences.

I've always had a theory that the names and locations being a bit of a hodgepodge is due to multiple diasporas due to wars and Grimm.

But yeah, I do love the fact that CRWBY borrowed from so many traditions.

[darksaiyangoku]

RWBY/Swords of Fate: Arc Kingdom

Chapter 3: New World, New Beacon

Inside a small shack, Jaune sat down, shivering. Ozpin took off his cloak and wrapped it around the young man.

Ozpin: It would seem that you were prepared for everything, except the weather

Jaune: i-I sort of acted on instinct as soon as I heard the cries for help. *nervous chuckle*

Ozpin; Some things never change. Now tell me about why you've come here to this universe.

Jaune: Well it's kind of a long story. Um, we met this, uh, scientist? He's called Dr. Merlin and he said he had a vision about your death.

Ozpin: Hmm. I see.

Jaune: Huh? *blinks twice* That doesn't freak you out?

Ozpin; Not at all. You see, I too had the same vision. Everything around me burning, Salem standing over triumphantly and the Knight of Treachery getting his sword ready to kill me.

Jaune: Oh...

Ozpin: It's a lot to take in, I understand.

Jaune: A bit of an understatement. That's why Merlin sent us here. Me and my team. Merlin said that your death had something to do with the Holy Grail or something? And that we need to destroy it? Agh, this is all so confusing! *buries face in his hands*

Ozpin: It's okay, Jaune. I don't blame you. Merlin didn't exactly give you much to go on besides finding the Holy Grail and destroying it. But I'm afraid you're much too early.

Jaune: *raises his head* ...wait what?

Ozpin: The Holy Grail hasn't materialised yet.

Jaune stared open mouthed. The whole reason that he was sent here was to save Ozpin's life and here he was told that the mission wouldn't even happen until much later.

Jaune: So I came here... for nothing?

Ozpin: *circles rhe top of his emerald* Oh I wouldn't say that. I believe Merlin did the right thing sending you here early. You aren't familiar with this universe. Listen to me, Jaune. *taps fingers on the table* Despite the fact that you'll meet your friends and family here, you can't treat them like they're the same from back home. They all have different histories, sometimes even different personalities.

Jaune: Really?

Ozpin: Yes. The multiverse works in mysterious ways. The more you learn about this world, the better prepared you'll be for the materialisation of the Holy Grail.

Jaune: I guess that makes sense.

Ozpin: However, I would still advise caution. Just because there's no Holy Grail, that doesn't mean that there aren't any threats here. When you saw the village being attacked, did you notice something unusual?

Jaune thought for a moment. During the attack, he was fighting alongside Ruby. The fact that grimm were present didn't seem that out of of the ordinary from his perspective.

Jaune: I'm not sure, Ozpin.

Ozpin: Do you recall seeing anyone else who looked a huntsman or huntress?

Jaune: *shakes head* No. No one else except Ruby.

Ozpin: Exactly. Unfortunately, aside from the Kingdom of Vale, the regions of North Sanus doesn't have any huntsmen or huntresses to protect them. Not anymore anyway.

Jaune: What? No huntsmen or huntresses? But how are people supposed to be protected from the grimm?

Ozpin: *sighs* That's the thing; they're not. The current King of Vale saw to it that any huntsmen or huntress would be drafted into the White Wyrm Army, his personal soldiers.. With no one to protect the regions, North Sanus has become a hostile wasteland where the grimm are free to feast on the civilians.

Jaune: Are you serious? He's just letting innocent people die like this? How can anyone like that call himself a King?

Ozpin: Jaune, please remain calm.

Jaune: Why should I? *clenches fist* My home is being ruled by a tyrant!

Ozpin: *raises his hand* Calm down, son. Listen, things look bad now. But I assure you that the King won't remain in power for long. I've seen to that personally.

Jaune: So... you have a plan then?

Ozpin: I do. But I can't tell you now. You aren't ready.

Jaune: But Ozpin, I-

Ozpin: Do you trust me?

Jaune: I- well... *sighs* Of course I do.

Ozpin: I will explain everything in due time. Throughout this journey of yours, I will guide you and your team. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask me.

Jaune: Yes sir. *nods*

Ozpin; You'd better head back to your siblings. I'd imagine they'rs worried about you.

Jaune: Yeah, I'm sure they are. Well, thank you Ozpin. *gets up from his chair*

Ozpin: Oh wait. Before you leave, is there anything else you wanted to ask me? Anything at all?

Jaune: Well.... earlier, after the fight with the beowolves, I got this splitting headache and these images kept flashing. They were of this man with spiky black hair and dark eyes. What does that mean?

Ozpin: Hmmmm. It would seem that your counterpart's memories are being merged with yours. More of these will start to happen the longer you remain here. They can be useful in helping you adapt to the world, but it will be painful. Try not to fight it. Make sure you get some rest. You do have school tomorrow, after all.

Jaune: Yes sir. *opens the door and leaves*

[Jaune's Room]

Jaune felt drowsy as soon as he returned home. He stripped out of his clothes and flopped onto the bed. It had been less than a day and Jaune was already feeling homesick. The mission wasn't supposed to happen until much later and his counterpart's home was being ruled by a King who cared more about feeding his own ego than to protect the people. This was going to be harder fhan he thought. His eyes fluttered several times before he finally slept. Tossing and turning, Jaune was bombarded by several images. He could barely make out what they were as they all seemed to go by in a flash. When they finally stopped, the scenery had changed.

Jaune found himself outside a stone courtyard. Standing next to him was the version of Adam Taurus he saw in his head back at Vin Village. He was quite tall and was shirtless, aside from a red sleeve on his left arm and wore a black hakama with charcoal grey kyahan and black sandals. He backed away slightly and took the Kenka Yotsu stance of Judo. Jaune raised his fists, his left hand near his face while his right hand near his chest.

Adam: Show me what you got, kid.

Jaune dashed forward and raised his right hand to punch Adam. Immidiately, he grabbed Jaune's arm and threw him onto the stone floor. The impact made Jaune scream in agony. Even with Aura, he could still feel the pain.

Adam: Hmph. Again.

Jaune: *groans and winces* God damn, that hurt...

Adam: That's the point. Cardin and his team aren't gonna hold back during Combat Class and neither should you.

Jaune: *stands up* But this is supposed to be training and here you are kicking my ass!

Adam: *flicks Jaune's forehead*

Jaune: Ow! What was that for?

Adam: To give you some perspective. I am aware of how brutal these training sessions have been. But if I take it easy on you now, you'll underestimate the next opponent when a real fight happens, whether human or grimm. Now come on. Again.

Jaune charged with a haymaker from his right hand. However, Adam spotted an opening and punched him in the chest.

Jaune: Ack!

Adam: Again.

Jaune tried to punch his stomach, but had his fist deflected and ended up getting kicked in his ribs.

Jaune: Agggh!!!

Adam: *smirks* Again.

Jaune was starting to get angrier. He started to punch the air wildly. Adam simply dodged all of them, dancing through the punches with fierce elegance. Witnessing another opening, Adam sent three punches in Jaune's way. One hit the stomach, another hit the chsst and the final one hit him square in the nose. Jaune yelped and fell to the floor.

Jaune: *coughs* Damn it.

Adam: Again.

Jaune: *pants* Screw... you... *stands up*

As Jaune walked up to leave, he felt a sharp pain strike his back. He turned around and saw that the Adam was holding a wooden sword.

Adam: You're not leaving here until you land at least one hit.

Before Jaune could object, he was struck again by the wooden sword. Jaune kept fighfing back, but was met by a more focused hit each time. Jaune was on his knees, panting and gasping. Adam raised the wooden sword high in the hair and hurled it back down.

CLAP!!!

Unexpectedly, Jaune caught the blade in his hands and tried to wrestle it out of Adam. The bull-faunus kept his grip tight, refusing to yield. Blue met bronze as their eyes were locked together, filled with determination.

Jaune: AAAAAAAGH!!!! *disarms the Stranger* HAAAAAAAAH!!! *hits the Stranger's leg*

Adam: Hm.

Jaune: *grips sword, gasping*

—7th January 212 Second Age, Fateverse Remnant - Kingdom of Vale, Charlemagne—

Jaune stirred awake with a small, but nagging headache. He remembered vividly about Adam in his dream. Or was it a memory?

Jaune: *groans* I can't believe that was really Adam. Damn, he's brutal. *looks at the window* Welp, no time like the present. Other-Beacon, here I come.

Jaune looked in the mirror as he tried on his clothes. He wore a plain yellow shirt, black trousers, brown boots and hung his sword around his waist. He put on his grey chest plate and headed downstairs and out of the door. He was about to leave for Beacon, thanks to the map he found in his room, when he was tugged on the shoulder by Noir.

Jaune: Agh! *turns around* Huh? What are you doing here, Noir?

Noir: You don't seriously plan on going all the way to all the way to Beacon on an empty stomach, right? I just made toast and eggs.

Jaune: Oh? Well I appreciate the thought, but I can't. I really gotta-

Noir: *grabs Jaune's tunic* Come onnnnnn!!! Pleeeeeeease? *gives puppy eyes*

Jaune: Agh! Fine! You and your puppy eyes. *walks back to the house*

Jaune took a seat in the kitchen as Noir served thw breakfast. He quickly wolfed it down before heading back outside. Jaune thought back to the dream he had last night and remembered an image of a white mare with a blonde mane. He walked to the back of the house and found a stable of horses. In the center was the white mare. He slowly approached her and reached out his hand to gently touch her neck. The horse nodded in approval.

Jaune: So you're my horse? The one in my dreams? *reada name sign below* Andrea. Nice to meet you. Okay, now where's the saddle?

Jaune looked around the outside until he spotted a small, saddle rack near the stable. Picking out the one that was a light-brown, he slowly opened the gate and let Andrea come out. He placed the saddle onto her back and mounted on her. He wobbled a little before finding his grip.

Jaune: Woah... okay then. *gulps* I guess it's time to ride to Beacon. A horse ride should be smooth sailing compared to an airship, right?

[Malbec Town]

Throughout the ride, Jaune screamed so loud that his throat was burning. Andrea was much faster than he originally thought. He tried to grip on as tight as he could and closed his eyes.

Jaune: Woah! Woah there, Andrea!

Finally, Andrea stopped, but Jaune ended up falling off the saddle anyway. While he wasn't hurt, he did feel woozy.

Jaune: Uhhhh.... maybe having that breakfast was a bad idea.

He looked over at Andrea and noticed her eyes were sticky. She was quite thirsty.

Jaune: Don't worry, girl. I'll go fetch some water for you.

Jaune wandered through the streets and searched through the market stalls for a pouch of water. The further the more sad he became. He was expected the town to be filled with crowds of people clamouring adound, the air willed with chattering and laughter. However, Malbec was almost bare and the market stalls didn't have much to offer either. At the the very end, he managed to find a stall that was selling water pouches. He dashed over as quick as he could.

Jaune: *gasps* C-Can I get a-a pouch of water please?

Vendor: Certainly, young man. *hands pouch* That'll cost you 5 lien.

Jaune: Okay, so my money pouch is here. *takes pouch and gives 5 bronze coins* Here you go.

Vendor: Thank you, young man. Now you best get going, I'm closing now.

Jaune: Hold on a minute, mister. What happened to Malbec? There's hardly anyone here and most of the markets have low stock.

Vendor: *sighs* It's the same with the shops as well, son. The King's White Wyrms have been robbing us. Nearly all of our products go towards Vale City, where all the Lords and Ladies gather. Drinking, parties and tournaments. Meanwhile, we're left with nothing.

Jaune: Oh...

Vendor: Hey, don't you worry about me. I've been around long enough to see prosperity emerge from hardship. Things will get better soon. *small smile*

Jaune: ...you sure?

Vendor: Positive. Now run along, lad.

Jaune thanked the vendor and headed back to Andrea, feeding her the water. After a short rest, Jaune climbed back on the saddle and rode towards Beacon Academy.

[Beacon Academy - City of Arcadia]

Andrea trotted near the entrance and Jaune dismounted.

Jaune: Good girl, Andrea. *pats her head*

His jaw almost dropped as he saw Beacon. Jaune couldn't believe his eyes. It was a magnificent grey castle, smooth as marble. The windows were all stained glass, with a variety of pictures from knights to bards and archers. Jaune took a few steps to the entrance gate and inside the courtyard. At the center was a knight mounted on top of a lion. Was this really Beacon?

Jaune: Wow... oh my go- gah!

Jaune yelped as someone hugged him from behind. He glanced back and saw a golden-blonde wave of hair. His face went red he could feel soft breasts pushed up against him.

Jaune: Y-Yang??

Yang: *laughs* Hey Jaune! *hugs tighter* Great to see you again!

Jaune: Y-Yeah. *blushes*

Jaune couldn't help but admire Yang's new look. She wore a red headband, black fingerless gloves with golden-yellow bracers, a firey-orange yukata and black-kyahan.

Jaune: *blinks*

Yang: Jaune? Hey Jaune! *snaps fingers*

Jaune: Huh! Oh, *ahem* sorry, I zoned out there for a second.

Yang: *giggles* I'll say. So, how was your Christmas?

Jaune: Uh... it was pretty good. W-What about yours?

Yang: *smiles* Amazing! Check this out.

From her bracers appeared two short blades, making Jaune jump back in surprise.

Jaune: Woah! That is seriously cool!

Yang: I know! Mom managed to get these bad boys hand-crafted herself from a blacksmith in Xion.

Jaune: Well if you know the name of the blacksmith, can you send my sword over there? I think it's overdue for an upgrade.

Yang: You got it, Vomit Boy.

Jaune: *groans* Not this again.

Yang: Sorry, but that nickname's never going away anytime soon. *squeezes Jaune's cheek* Anyway, I gotta run. My team is inside. See ya. *runs off and waves*

Jaune shook his head in amusement. No matter what world he was in, the name 'Vomit Boy' would always haunt him.

Nora: JAUNE!!!!!!!!

Jaune was knocked over by the full force of Nora's bear hug. His face was turning blue as she squeezed tighter.

Jaune: Nora.... I can't breathe!!!

Nora: Oop! Sorry Jaune! *lets go* I got so caught up in the moment. Oh, the rest of the team is here too.

Jaune looked up and saw Pyrrha and Ren as well. Like himself, they also had new looks to them. Nora had a pink-coloured leather chestplate, white-furred skirt with matching boots and red bracers. Pyrrha wore a gold-coloured leather vest, red-armoured fingerless gloves, light-red pteruges and brown boots. Ren wore a green tunic, with black-coloured pauldrons, magenta fingerless gloves, white trousers and black shoes. Jaune stood up and gave them all a big hug.

Jaune: It's so good to see you guys, again!

Pyrrha: You too! I hope the journey wasn't too rough, Jaune.

Jaune: Well, kind of. It's a long story. I ended up meeting Ruby again. We saved a village near my hometown. All the villagers managed to get out of there okay.

Pyrrha: That's wonderful news, Jaune. I found out that my counterpart's pretty well known in this world as well. *nervous laughter* Argus City have even erected a statue.

Jaune: Some things never change. *chuckles*

Nora: Man, this is so cool!!!! *bounces* Look at us in our fancy outfits, slaying monsters! It's like we're in a video game! *squee*

Ren: *stifles laughter* Aside from the aesthetic change to Old Remnant, it's not much different from back home.

Nora: You always have to be a killjoy. *pouts*

Ren: *shakes head* Let's go inside. We don't want to keep everyone waiting.

[Beacon Grand Hall]

Team JNPR were amazed at the Grand Hall. Hanging from the walls were green banners of Vale's Coat of Arms; an two battle axes surrounded by a wreath. The stained glass windows were more beautiful fhan the ones outside and more elaborate, each one depicting a different event in history. The tables were pushed near the end to allow everyone to stand to attention. Jaune looked around at all the Beacon Students. Next to his Team were the new Team RWBY. He already met up with Ruby and Yang again, but took notice of Weiss and Blake's new looks. Blake was wearing a dark purple hood and mask, black shirt, trousers and boots and a purple corset. Weiss had her hair down and wore an elegant, dark blue battle dress, with white pauldrons and long, brown boots. He could see Blake take a small glance at him before nervously looking away.

Jaune: Huh. That was weird.

Sitting at the podium were the staff at Beacon; Bartholomew Oobleck (History), Peter Port (Grimm Studies), Ann Gable (Weapons Maintenance), Thumbelina Peach (Dust Studies), the new teacher, Adam Taurus (Combat Training) and Glynda Goodwitch (Assistant Headmistress). Standing at the center was Ozpin, staff in hand. He smiled and cleared his throat to speak.

Ozpin: Welcome back, my students. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas break. A new year has begun and so has a new semester, you will receive your new timetables with your new classes after this assembly has concluded. For the second year students, you will be undergoing a new kind of mission in 3 weeks: two teams will be required to work together by splitting off into 4 pairs. These will be assigned to you on the day of the missions.

Jaune looked over at Team RWBY and smiled. He hoped that he would be paired up with Ruby for the future mission. Working with her in Vin Village was remarkable. She might not be his Ruby, but she was still Ruby all the same.

Ozpin: Finally, this bit of news doesn't just concern you but all the regions of North Sanus; in the Forests of Forever Fall, I have placed a sacred treasure inside. On the first day of Spring, all students, teachers and other citizens shall gather to forest to find this treasure. I ask that you do not take this lightly, for the very future of Vale shall depend on it. Thank you.

Ren: Well... that sounded ominous.

Pyrrha: What kind of treasure would determine the future of an entire Kingdom?

Nora: I bet it's the Grail! This makes our mission all the more easy to complete.

Jaune said nothing. He thought back to the conversation he had with Ozpin about a so-called plan. Could this treasure have something to do with it?

Jaune: *whispers* Ozpin, what are you up to?

[marcmarcmomarc]

RWBY Audio Description notes

Think of the Disney+ DVS track for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and the emotion of the one for Monsters, Inc. For more instructions, be sure to read the Ultimate Guide to Audio Description on u3playmedia.com.

Narrator: Leilani Jones-Wilmore (The Nightmare Before Christmas, the Monsters, Inc. duology, the Finding Nemo duology, Shrek 2, the Cars trilogy, the High School Musical trilogy, Ratatouille, Cars Toons: Mater’s Tall Tales, Up, The Princess and the Frog, Alice in Wonderland (2010), Toy Story 3, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, The Social Network, Gnomeo and Juliet, Brave, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, The Radiator Springs 500 1/2, Annie (2014), Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur, Despicable Me 3, The Boss Baby: Family Business, Sing 2, Hotel Transylvania 4: Transformania, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Trolls Band Together)

Locations

Disclaimer: incomplete

Celestial Bodies

Remnant (name revealed:)

TBA

Kingdoms

Atlas (name revealed:)

TBA

Mistral (name revealed:)

TBA

Vacuo (name revealed:)

TBA

Vale (name revealed:)

TBA

Landmasses

Menagerie (name revealed:)

TBA

Patch (name revealed:)

TBA

Vytal (name revealed:)

TBA

Sanus (name revealed:)

TBA

Anima (name revealed:)

TBA

Solitas (name revealed:)

TBA

Acadamies

Beacon Academy (name revealed:)

TBA

Haven Academy (name revealed:)

TBA

Shade Academy (name revealed:)

TBA

Atlas Academy (name revealed:)

TBA

Cities

Vale (name revealed:)

TBA

Mistral (name revealed:)

TBA

Vacuo (name revealed:)

TBA

Atlas (name revealed:)

TBA

Mantle (name revealed:)

TBA

Mountain Glenn (name revealed:)

TBA

Argus (name revealed:)

TBA

Kuo Kuana (name revealed: 4x5)

TBA

Settlements

Shion (name revealed:)

TBA

Higanbana (name revealed:)

TBA

Oniyuri (name revealed:)

TBA

Kuroyuri (name revealed:)

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Brunswick Farms (name revealed:)

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Buildings

A Simple Wok (name revealed:)

TBA

From Dust Till Dawn (name revealed:)

TBA

Junior’s (name revealed:)

TBA

Tukson’s Book Trade (name revealed:)

TBA

Crow Bar (name revealed:)

TBA

Vytal Festival Pavilion (name revealed:)

TBA

Mistral Central Station (name revealed:)

TBA

White Fang Throne Room (name revealed:)

TBA

Torchwick’s Warehouse (name revealed:)

TBA

White Fang Warehouse (name revealed:)

TBA

Mistral Train Station (name revealed:)

TBA

Just Rite (name revealed:)

TBA

White Fang Hangout (name revealed:)

TBA

Lil’ Miss Malachite’s Bar (name revealed:)

TBA

Pietro’s Pharmacy (name revealed:)

TBA

Atlas Medical Facility (name revealed:)

TBA

Mistral Apartment (name revealed:)

TBA

Mantle Warehouse (name revealed:)

TBA

Pietro’s Lab (name revealed:)

TBA

Atlas Command Center (name revealed:)

TBA

Snow Shoe Shipping Facility (name revealed:)

TBA

Glass Unicorn (name revealed:)

TBA

Schnee Training Room (name revealed:)

TBA

Argus Military Base (name revealed:)

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Ozpin’s Office (name revealed:)

TBA

Homes

Schnee Manor (name revealed:)

TBA

Xiao Long Cabin (name revealed:)

TBA

Belladonna Family Home (name revealed:)

TBA

Arc House (name revealed:)

TBA

Mistral House (name revealed:)

TBA

Oscar’s Farm (name revealed:)

TBA

Natural Areas

Emerald Forest (name revealed:)

TBA

Forever Fall (name revealed:)

TBA

Cliffside Forest (name revealed:)

TBA

Lake Matsu (name revealed:)

TBA

Beacon Cliff (name revealed:)

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Schnee Dust Company Mine 2 (name revealed:)

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Nuckelavee’s Den (name revealed:)

TBA

Dimensions

Ever After (name revealed:)

TBA

Vault of the Spring Maiden (name revealed:)

TBA

Vault of the Winter Maiden (name revealed:)

TBA

Evacuation Central Location (name revealed:)

TBA

Ever After

Great Tree (name revealed:)

TBA

Jungle Acre (name revealed:)

TBA

King’s Acre (name revealed:)

TBA

Crimson Castle (name revealed:)

TBA

Garden’s Acre (name revealed:)

TBA

Garden (name revealed:)

TBA

Field Acre (name revealed:)

TBA

Punderstorm (name revealed:)

TBA

Origami Acre (name revealed:)

TBA

Abandoned Acre (name revealed:)

TBA

Gods’ Domains

Domain of Light (name revealed:)

TBA

Land of Darkness (name revealed:)

TBA

Evernight Castle (name revealed:)

TBA

Ancient Past

Salem and Ozma’s Castle (name revealed:)

TBA

Salem and Ozma’s House (name revealed:)

TBA

Salem and Ozma’s Kingdom (name revealed:)

TBA

Salem’s Cottage (name revealed:)

TBA

Salem’s Tower (name revealed:)

TBA

Other

Amity Colosseum (name revealed:)

TBA

Summer’s Gravestone (name revealed:)

TBA

Abandoned Temple (name revealed:)

TBA

Vale Port (name revealed:)

TBA

[blade-liger-4ever]

RWBY X Transformers Partnerships 3: Yang Xiao Long and Sideswipe - War Dragon

"How do you do it? How do you move forward when you lose so much, and have to let your little sister grow up? Okay yeah, she's technically my cousin, but I'll never stop thinking of her as the little baby I've been caring for my whole life."

"I used to be a gladiator. Fought and, sometimes, killed to make a living. But when the war started...all I could think about was how much was at stake. And then I remembered that I had a means of fighting the Decepticons, and I realized that if I could use that, I'd be able to stop the war faster. Heh, granted I got pretty full of myself early on..."

*both chuckle, then become silent* "So, that's one question answered. What about the other?"

"Speaking as the younger sibling, the best thing you can do for Ruby is to stand by at the ready in case something goes wrong. Breathing down her neck and watching her all the time will only upset her and drive her to prove herself. Sunny and I had to learn that the hard way - which is actually how I got my first battle scar."

"Really? Do - do you mind sharing that story?"

"Sure! I mean, I gotta let others know how awesome I am, don't I?"

"Haha! I'm starting to think you were always full of yourself, Sideswipe!"

"You know me so well, Yang!"

Sideswipe hates grass. And trees. And endless hills and mountains that drive him fragging nuts with how expansive they are, and seem to never end...!

So he's naturally beyond relieved to get the signal from Ironhide, and hears pretty much everyone chattering through the line immediately afterward. After a short eternity of 'Bots asking "where are you?", "are you damaged?", "how do we get this Dust Wheeljack spouted seventy different yet oddly specific facts about?" (and Sidewipe's own enthusiastic, "THANK THE PRIMES, SUNSTREAKER, YOU'RE ALIVE!!"), Optimus agrees with Ironhide's suggestion that all Autobots on the continent of Sanus (slag, the planet's internet is better than Earth's!) converge on the island of Patch. If they are too far away or on another continent, the Autobots are to make contact with Qrow Branwen and Taiyang Xiao Long's allies in the City of Vale or the main cities of the other continents for a means of temporary shelter and Dust supplies.

Though annoyed that Optimus and his nephew Smokescreen are already on the Vale island, Sideswipe manages to double time it to the City of Vale before hopping a transport to Patch. Having gotten the contact information from Qrow and the necessary Dust Wheeljack recommended (the Wrecker-scientist is gonna have to explain the side effects of that Lightning subtype), Sideswipe managed to convince/annoy that Glynda lady into a transport to where his allies are. It hurts like the Pit that Sunstreaker is on Solitas, but if Sideswipe wants to join his older brother and make sure his dumb aft survives on Remnant, then he needs to be with his leader for that to happen without hot-dogging it himself and risking his own death.

He's not sure what he expected the Xiao Long residence to look like, but a simple log cabin like the old Westerns with modern tech isn't it - nor the attempts of Wheeljack to build a GroundBridge a few yards away from the place.

Introductions to the inhabitants are memorable: the blue-haired boy who is somewhere below Miko's level of excited when she first met the 'Bots is Neptune Vasilias. Funny name, but the kid's got talent considering the weapon he has. The quiet, silver-haired guy who hangs around the apparently-unconscious girl's bedroom is Mercury Black. A more straightforward name for sure, though Sideswipe's noticing the boy is not one to socialize. The blond man is Taiyang - or Tai, as he insists on being called - and the one-armed blond girl is his daughter, Yang Xiao Long.

Maybe it's the clear vulnerability she radiates, or the spark of fire he sees in her when she's being pushed by Ironhide to reintegrate into society. Regardless, Sideswipe likes Yang, and decides to get to know her between his time helping Wheeljack with the GroundBridge and reporting to Optimus for scans of Autobot and Decepticon activity on Remnant.

It doesn't take much work for the ex-gladiator to strike up a conversation with Yang. The girl's got spunk, even if she is in shock over her losses. Neptune's there most of the time too, and after one particular session involving both Ironhide and Tai when Yang is trying out her new arm, Sideswipe has a talk with Neptune about encouraging Yang. Taking her out for a drive, the two help Yang reignite her love of adventure and brawls. Through their efforts and Ironhide's experience in training kids, Yang becomes more like her old self and learns to embrace her new prosthetic limb.

Sideswipe and Yang are a nigh perfect match for battle. While they each love a good brawl, are jokers, and some of their teammates' heavy hitters, Sideswipe provides the necessary experience to help temper Yang's impulsiveness. Neptune is her calm center, but Sideswipe is the voice of reason she needs to figure out her new approach to life. Although she still loves to drive her bike Bumblebee (as well as the confusion it causes the Cybertronians) with Neptune, sometimes she'll ask Sideswipe if she and her boyfriend can ride with him for some fun. The younger of the Lambo twins enjoys taking them up on this offer, and the three normally get up to mischief together in their off-time.

In spite of their fun antics, Sideswipe finds himself thrown into a new dynamic when Ruby is revealed to be Yang's cousin and not her sister. He gives her space, letting Neptune help her in this time before she can face Tai or Qrow again. Despite that, Sideswipe's suspicions of her emotional state are confirmed when Neptune asks him to talk to her, since she needs an outsider's perspective for this. Taking her through Patch, Sideswipe and Yang talk about the family drama that's unfolded, and listens as she explains she doesn't know how to accept both that Ruby's not her sister and that Ruby is growing in a way that requires her to step away from Yang's protection. After some thought, Sideswipe encourages her to keep contact with Ruby, but to also focus more on herself, since she's defined herself by being Ruby's protector. Yes, Ruby still needs guidance, but Yang has to break out of the maternal mindset she's imposed on herself for her entire life.

"Let me and Neptune be there for you, okay? You can go back to Tai whenever you want, but you can rely on us to let you be yourself. You're my friend, and Neptune's girlfriend. You can fight alongside us, goof around with us, or blow off steam, and we won't judge you. You're Yang Xiao Long, and we'll help you find your path in life."

Not only does this help Yang in her journey of growing up, but it brings her closer to Neptune, Sideswipe, and her family.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Phew, this took a while to figure out! Honestly, their team name didn't take too long to discover: Yang's the dragon of the two, and Sideswipe's got the experience of war under his belt to help guide her. Maybe I've just been out of it, but I thought for sure I'd have my two favorites done sooner than this.

Oh well, I hope you enjoyed them, folks! I've got another duo in mind, but time will tell when I post them. I will say this, however - it's not a pair you'll expect. Until next time...

"Autobots, transform and roll out!"

[ryuto12]

One thing I’ll never let go in RWBY is like, the world has these insane ATLA level animals that are just simply outshined by Grimm so much we forget they don’t have the same faunua as we do

This is most obvious in Vacuo where they have giant fucking lion turtles like what do you mean lion turtles????

Vacuo and Menagerie specifically have some absolutely wild animals just roaming around sometimes in the same danger category as Grimm

It’s a good thing Grimm don’t attack animals because holy shit that’d be terrifying cause one day you walk out your tent into the desert to catch the sunrise before everyone else and and what the hell is that???? Yooooo there’s a sand worm boxing a king taijitu

Also willing to bet outside the city Vale catches some strays from Vacuo since they’re both part of Sanus and can you imagine what goes on in Mistral?

Anima is the only continent where it supports basically all weather types, not overly perfect weather like Vale, not overly hot in Vacuo or freezing cold in Atlas but just kinda all over the place depending where you are in the kingdom.

And Solitas? Anything that can survive the freezing temperatures like that deserves to have respect put on its name

[zerm2v0hg]

TToaCMC Remnant Timeline - Part 4

PART 4 – SEVEN TO TWELVE MONTHS AFTER THE FALL:

(Anima)

The party in Anima attempt to gain an audience with Mistral’s council: although Mistral's huntsman-huntress population is depleted, the kingdom still has the most resources out of any kingdom on Remnant, with Vale and Atlas-Mantle gone. Due to the terms of Salem's "gift," Mistral rejects the heroes' request.

Raven retakes leadership of the Branwen Tribe for use against Salem.

The Anima party encounter a White Fang contingent from Menagerie and discover what's become of the island: the schism on Menagerie caused by the Belladonnas' call to aid the kingdoms was somewhat resolved when shadier elements among the local Faunus decided they could use the reformed White Fang's mobilisation to quietly claim new territory for Menagerie that Mistral and Vale have lost due to their weakened and destroyed states. The heroes attempt to persuade the White Fang to help them. The White Fang are won over by the promise of a new world where Menagerie has a higher standing and things for the Faunus are better (which doesn't seem so far-fetched anymore with the current apocalyptic state of Remnant, not least the destruction of half the kingdoms including Atlas, making it clear that Remnant will never be the same again whatever happens going forward); and by recognising that Salem needs to go before Faunus can have that better world.

In Mistral, the heroes eventually make contact with the council and try to win their support, informing them what Ruby's broadcast failed to mention about the planet being physically destroyed if Salem wins. The Mistral council agree to aid the heroes only if the heroes sending a portion of their forces away from the strike on Salem and towards physically protecting Mistral from Salem's Grimm's reprisals. To the heroes' surprise, Mistral and the White Fang presence seriously consider an alliance between them where the White Fang will spare forces to protect Mistral's people in exchange for Mistral not going back on treating Faunus better. (ADDENDUM: I'm not sure if that particular alliance goes through, but it's there and the offer's enough to lay the groundwork for improved Mistral-Menagerie relations in the future.)

(Sanus)

The party headed to Vale aim to avoid being detected by the Grimm, and by extension Salem, until they’re close to Vale. They get sighted by and fight a group of Grimm, and during the fight, they “accidentally” let some of the Grimm catch a glimpse of the fake Sword of Destruction on their person and get away.

Salem moves out towards Vale, calling legions of Grimm to converge on the ruined city.

The party navigate across Vale. They take refuge for the night in the ruins of Beacon Academy. Ren and Nora visit Teams JNPR and RWBY's old dorms.

Ozpin-Oscar leads the Vale party to the true Fall Maiden vault, which the Fall Maiden opens. The group activate the Crown of Choice, and its spirit gives them a glimpse of a future choice relating to Remnant's fate.

Salem arrives with a legion of Grimm, besieging the party at the vault. The heroes initiate their plan - thanks to at least one member of both the Vale and Anima parties respectively being bonded to Raven, Raven’s portals begin teleporting other heroes and allies and their Mistral-provided ammunitions from both Vacuo and Anima to the vault’s location, to fight Salem.

(ADDENDUM: Mistral at this part's end-point is heavily fortified, due to Raven having previously offscreen teleported the heroes' assets that they promised the Mistral council in from Vacuo the same way. I also imagine many heroes not actively guarding Mistral are all on standby to join the final battle, but the heroes are only sending them in through Raven's portals in waves rather than sending all of them in at once. Lastly, I imagine that if Tyrian doesn’t die at the previous Vacuo battle for the Sword of Destruction, then he'll die at the Vale battle that's just begun.)

[bobauthorman]

Recording done by May Marigold:

"Journal entry...1, I guess. I don't normally do this. Anyway, I suppose it all started with Atlas. A technologically-advanced city that was supposed 'encompass the true potential of humanity's progress', or something like that. What the brochures didn't mention was that the city was also designed siphon money and resources from the common people. The leaders were greedy and self-righteous, and their servants were naive and shortsighted. And when the borders closed, Atlas' culture of exploitation was turned inward, slowly destroying whatever facade of perfection the kingdom hid behind. Fittingly, the final blow would come from those most hurt from Atlas' selfishness.

"As it turned out, Atlas was merely the latest battlefield for an ancient war, fought between beings that saw the whole of humanity- and faunus- as their tools and weapons. Can you imagine what it's like? To realize that everything you've worked for, your blood, sweat and tears, was only a moment in time for some 'higher life-form'? Not a good feeling.

"But, just when things looked at their bleakest, we were given a way out. Teams RWBY and JNPR. They too were being manipulated by the war. But rather than remain puppets, they fought to alert the world, and found a way to save the people of Atlas from total destruction.

"Unfortunately, things didn't go smoothly. Thanks to enemy's infiltrators, the people are now stranded in Vacuo, the Kingdom of the Sanus Desert. And Team RWBY- Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long- and the leader of Team JNPR, Jaune Arc, vanished in the confusion. Most think they died. Some insist they're alive, just...lost. I can't say for certain who is right. But one thing is certain;

"They've given us a chance to make things right in the world, and we can't throw that away."

[zoeyslayter]

Remaking my RWBY OCs: Team KYNT

IDC if this is cringe I made these almost 4 years ago and I'm probably going to write the fanfiction soon if I can get the motivation.

Team KYNT (Kyanite) consists of Kelly Greene, Yale Taivas, Noire Deces, and Tawny Erimos. They attend Beacon Academy in their second year, one year ahead of team RWBY and JNPR.

I'm not an artist so I made the pictures here

Kelly Greene

Name meaning: Kelly is a shade of green and also means warrior and bright-minded in Gaelic. Greene is a different spelling of the word green, while also meaning at the green, a grassy plot used by the village common.

Semblance: Banshee's Cry; she can let out a supersonic screech. This takes up a lot of aura, so in battle she only uses it in a dire emergency. One scream and she's out, two on maybe a really good day.

Weapon: Mandolin; a musical instrument with a different type of dust ingrained into each string. The colors are always changing, implying that she regularly changed the strings on her instrument before and after battle.

Background: Kelly was born in Sanus, but traveled around Remnant for most of her life. Her parents were famous musicians who would preform from big cities like Atlas to small villages outside of the protection of guarding huntsmen. It was at one of these shows where a Grimm attack took place and she got separated from her parents in the chaos. Faced with an Elk-like Grimm, she screamed for help and out came a piercing shriek that knocked the Grimm back, destroying it. This left her weak, confused, and stranded until her parents found her and packed her up along with their belongings. This traumatic experience drove Kelly to want to attend Beacon academy.

Personality: Kelly is a soft-spoken woman, avoiding large crowds when she can and keeping to herself. If you wish to find her you usually can by looking for her in an empty lecture room practicing her music or in the library reading. She values her solitude, which is challenging when met with the responsibility of being team leader. Her performance background has helped in being able to mask this, however even this can only help her so much.

Additional notes: Dating Coco Adel of Team CVFY. I don't remember if I added this before or after her sexuality was made canon but I've loved Coco ever since her debut in Volume 2. Also she absolutely has an Irish accent, North Dublin to be exact

I didn't expect this to be this long so I guess I'll put the other three in their own separate posts too.

[imjusthereforironwood]

I am curious: how would you use cardin?

Makes me think of the post: How I would use Jaune Arc

Is cardin only good as bully turn redemption path?

Is it better to remove the bully aspect completely?

Is he a rich family or tough street guy that is why he is in canon?

To talk about how I would use Cardin Winchester if I was writing RWBY, we must first look at how he was used. Simply put, he was a high school bully, meant to serve as a temporary antagonist to Jaune. The only things we really get to see of his personality is his arrogance, his pride, and his aggressive behavior. Other personality traits can only really be gathered if you overanalyze him. So, it's up to us as the audience to determine why he acts the way he acts.

After Jaundice Arc, Cardin kinda...disappears? Sky Lark and Russel Thrush appear in a doubles match against Penny and Ceil, so apparently, CRDL won a match. Then we see Cardin for a few seconds during the Fall of Beacon getting saved by Ironwood. And that's it. We never see him in any following volumes. He's never mentioned, even in passing.

This gives the fanfic writer ample blank space to work with. Everyone has their own tastes and ways they like to write Cardin, and if you write him differently then me, that's perfectly fine.

Me personally, I like to write Cardin Winchester as a troubled young man. His father, Caleb Winchester, was a Huntsman who died defending a village on the outskirts of Sanus. His mother had to work twice as hard to support him and his older sister, Carrie, who is about 5 years older than Cardin. When Cardin was 11 years old, Vale was facing some pretty severe racial tensions, after a human supremacist group hung several Faunas. There were clashes in the streets between human supremacists and Faunas eugenics groups. Around this time, the White Fang had begun employing stronger methods to free slaves from the Dust mines and fighting back against human supremacists. A group of Faunas thugs, putting on the disguise of White Fang members, decided to attack a Dust shop and rob it. They figured they could make a quick buck and pin it on the White Fang as well. A Dust shop that Cardin's mother worked at. She was hurt, badly, and to this day, her scars have not fully healed. This memory forever left an impact on Cardin.

Cardin went to Beacon, primarily because he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father. He's agressive and cocky, but Ozpin saw something in him. A chance to be more than just a racist bully.

All of that to say, when I write Cardin, I like to keep some of that pride and arrogance, but I like to show how he grows up. Have him redirect his aggression away from other people, and towards the Grimm. Have him mature into an adult.

So, yeah, that's how I like to use Cardin Winchester.

[supersaiyanjedi14]

RWBY COMBAT ANALYSIS: ROMAN TORCHWICK

“You got spirit, Red, but this is the real world! The real world is cold! The real world doesn't care about spirit! You want to be a hero? Then play the part and die like every other Huntsman in history! As for me, I'll do what I do best: lie, steal, cheat and survive!”

PHYSICAL

In a Q&A on Reddit in November of 2021, RWBY: Roman Holiday author E. C. Meyers stated the difference in age between Neopolitan and Roman Torchwick to be approximately ten years, making the latter at around 33 years of age at the time of his death during the Fall of Beacon.  A human male hailing from the Mistrali city of Wind Path, Torchwick’s criminal enterprises began as a mere pickpocket before being taken under the wing of Lil’ Miss Malachite, serving as the crime lord’s enforcer for ten years before going rouge with the up and coming assassin Neopolitan.  Forming an incredibly close bond, the pair would directly contribute to the destruction of Lady Browning’s Preparatory Academy For Girls, thwarting Malachite’s attempts to expand into Sanus, and weakening the Xiong family’s hold in Vale, before striking out to stake a claim in the city’s criminal underworld.  While initially content to keep to himself and his private operations, Torchwick would eventually find himself strong-armed into the machinations of Cinder Fall, using his connections and strategic intellect to facilitate the circumstances needed for the Fall of Beacon.  Beyond his henchwoman Neopolitan, Torchwick had no loyalty or meaningful connections to anyone but himself.  Though not especially cruel or violent, he was a cynical misanthrope who would take whatever steps best benefitted him, his service in Salem’s plans amounting to self-preservation and fear on his part.

Despite favoring large-scale planning and being a habitual cigar smoker, Torchwick still boasted excellent physical fitness, his rough upbringing and various scuffles fostering the need to be prepared to fight.  More than willing to get his hands dirty if need be, Torchwick stood at 6’3” and was distinguished by his auburn hair, green eyes, fair skin, and slender build.  His most developed trait was his refined manual dexterity, demonstrated by his skillful handling of his cane both as a melee tool and as a single-handed firearm.  His reflexes were sufficient to defend against both Blake Belladonna’s dual blade assault and later Sun Wukong’s gunchuck blitzkrieg, blocking the attacks while slipping in counters when he could.  Though he favored simple direct strikes, Roman could execute his attacks with great precision and finesse when confronting classically trained opponents.  Notably, during his final battle with Ruby Rose, he was precise enough to swing his weapon to strike his projectile after he had fired it.  Despite almost never employing acrobatics, favoring grounded upright stances, Torchwick was still quick on his feet, regularly escaping pursuit on foot and evading attacks with quick sidesteps.  While it would be fair to say that Blake, Sun, and especially Ruby were all faster than them, they were certainly not speedblitzing him either, making it clear that only speedsters of this degree or higher could reasonably threaten him.  In the realm of physical strength, Torchwick was something of a middle weight.  His might was sufficient to contend with the brutish Roch Szalt and briefly staggered Blake Belladonna during their duel on the docks, but he was unable to free his cane from Blake’s ice double on the train and typically relied on armed combat rather than fisticuffs.

While Torchwick demonstrated a respectable degree of athletic output, more than sufficient to contend with trained Huntsmen, he was not a particularly overbearing combatant.  Instead of overcoming his adversaries directly with speed and strength, Roman relied more on his physical hardiness to soak up punishment, his equation of his early life to being a punching bag indicating his familiarity with pain and injury.  When attacked by the Malachite twins at the Harmony Club, he was thrown through a glass window yet regained his feet without difficulty, only retreating when reinforcements arrived.  He was incapacitated by Honey Wine’s Alluring Song and beaten into submission by a pair of Spiders, yet was able to engage the remaining escort in combat shortly after regaining consciousness when Neo came to his rescue.  Though most of his fights were brief affairs, his performance in the Xiong-Spider gang war indicates his well-developed stamina.  At the Vale docks, he endured both a flying kick from Sun and a heavy cleave from Blake, but recovered from both none the worse for wear.  Several weeks later, he survived the destruction of his Atlesian Paladin by a Burn-charged Yang Xiao Long and quickly regained his feet and escaped, only complaining about his damaged clothing.  Torchwick has only been subdued by catastrophic hits, Blake only defeating him on the Mountain Glenn train by nailing him with power blows and kicking him in the head.  However, while typically cautious and calm, Torchwick was prone to let success go to his head and gloat, underestimating the situation and leading to carelessness.  This trait ultimately led to his death when a Griffon swallowed him whole then crashed into an Atlesian warship’s hull while he was distracted berating Ruby Rose.

Roman Torchwick’s personal code was to “lie, steal, cheat, and survive”, a testament to his willingness to do whatever it took to get through a situation, even allying himself with a living force of destruction just to keep his own skin safe.  Despite this survivalist mentality, Torchwick was also afflicted by his own vanity, seen in his choice of fashionable clothing instead of armor.  As a Vale crimelord, he wore a red-lined white suit gifted to him by Neo, with black dress pants and shoes, accessorized with a gray scarf, black gloves, and his signature bowler hat.  His right wrist initially was marked with the emblem of the Spiders, though after encountering Hei Xiong, he had it remade into his own pumpkin sigil.

RANKING: Tier 3, Advanced Human Fitness

While Roman is extremely tough, his athletic output is not truly exceptional in any way. Torchwick’s effectiveness in battle is tied almost wholly to his combat skill, his traits merely developed to enable his fighting style rather than jockey for dominance. To be fair, Roman’s ability to contend with the likes of Blake, Sun and Ruby proves that he can hold his own and match their performance where it counts, and his resiliency, even without armor, means that overcoming him is going to be a challenge regardless. He has simply never overcome anyone on the back of raw physicality, and his ego has allowed him to get in over his head.

MARTIAL

Roman Torchwick’s signature weapon was the Melodic Cudgel, a walking cane with a flare gun and grappling hook installed into its ends. The cane itself was about three feet long and made out of an extremely durable yet flexible material, demonstrated when Torchwick bent the shaft in frustration yet caused no lasting damage. The red tip of the cane functioned as the barrel of the firearm, with a small reticle extending to aid in aiming the weapon. Though this is pure speculation, I believe that Torchwick’s ammunition was fitted with low-grade fire Dust to give it its explosive properties, turning normal bullets into sparking grenades. The cable for the grappling hook was coiled in the top half of the cane and was both long and strong enough to catch Ruby Rose as she attempted to flee the Mountain Glenn caverns.

Growing up among Remnant’s criminal element, Roman Torchwick’s lot in life necessitated strong familiarity with combat, though his poverty denied him the chance for formal training.  Instead, Torchwick was forced to learn strictly from experience, building his skill set according to his aptitudes and practical tricks and skills.  Street fighting as a youth fostered his growth as an unarmed fighter, able to subdue hardened gangsters when he was only eighteen, while his talent with bludgeons and improvised weapons helped him as a mugger.  Torchwick’s development was tempered and refined during his time with Spider, rising to become Lil Miss Malachite’s top enforcer and bodyguard after only four years of service.  Roman truly came into his own after going rouge and during the subsequent turf war with the Xiong family, overcoming his former partner Chameleon, humiliating the amateur Huntsmen Roch Szalt and Kandi Floss, and fended off the combined efforts of the Malachite twins.  By the time he was recruited by Cinder Fall, Roman Torchwick had been operating in the criminal underworld for well over a decade, having eluded the police for a considerable span of time and racking up plenty of experience in various illegal activities.  While he favored operating as a schemer and mastermind, Torchwick could not afford to let his fighting skills atrophy, and he always acquitted himself well when he did fight.  Appropriately for someone of his history, Roman Torchwick’s core technique emphasized practical skills and methods for maximum flexibility and reliability.  Despite the additional features of his weapon, Torchwick overwhelmingly favored simple cane fighting to best his opponents in a melee, leveraging his flares and cable for tactical support.  However, Torchwick’s choice of portraying himself as a suave criminal kingpin also motivated him to emphasize elegance and refinement.  This paradox of rough street criminal and sophisticated gentleman thief manifested as a utilitarian yet measured duelist.  His technique consisted of whipping sweeps and bludgeons, static blocks, probing thrusts, and tight deflection parries.  When he stepped up to take the offensive, he could be much more aggressive, using running charges and heavy power blows to stagger the opponent, though he typically restricted this to targets of opportunity, such as when he laid into Ruby Rose after she was disarmed.  By keeping his technique simple and efficient, Torchwick could accommodate virtually any combat situation or opponent, balancing his options and tweaking accordingly.  Torchwick reinforced this conservative yet ruthless style with integrated gunfire and unarmed combat, his trigger speed enough to force Blake into a retreat and later staggering her with a well-placed punch.

As a tactician and strategist, Roman was a grand scale schemer first and foremost, at his best when keeping his distance and executing large criminal operations.  An experienced pickpocket and thief, he preferred to assess his target before moving in, tailoring his approach to suit the situation and opponent.  He managed to manipulate his way out of bodyguard duty for the Malachite sisters by intentionally leading them into danger, achieving a larger goal by manipulating Lil Miss’s protective nature.  Already proving his talent for smaller heists in his successful vandalism at the Magic Beans Coffee Company, Torchwick later became adept at orchestrating larger-scale operations.  Under his direction, the White Fang was able to steal vast quantities of weapons and Dust ammunition across Vale while leaving only minor evidence of foul play, their activities only exposed by Team RWBY’s active investigation on him, and later stealing high grade Atlesian military equipment, obtaining a prototype Atlesian Paladin-290 to arm the White Fang.  Though primarily focused on robberies and racketeering, Torchwick proved to be a capable military commander as well.  Though Cinder Fall and Adam Taurus were the bigger fish in the Mountain Glenn train attack, the project was ultimately Roman’s brainchild, capably organizing the White Fang to unleash explosive train cars to create openings for a Grimm influx in Vale.  A consummate showman, Roman emphasized his silver tongue to manipulate his audience and provoke responses, successfully riling up a White Fang rally despite their initial animosity towards him by playing on their frustrations.  He had no trouble applying his flair to combat, goading people into lowering their guard and exposing them to his sucker punch.  In personable combat, Roman was again measured and cautious, but also more straightforward.  As seen multiple times, his first response was usually to set his followers against his assailants while he held back, be it Junior Xiong’s henchmen in Vale, the White Fang at the docks, or Neopolitan and the White Fang Lieutenant on the Mountain Glenn train.  Torchwick clearly emphasized preplanning and stacking the deck, but he was still capable of being dropped into a fight cold, either to fight directly or to stall for time to facilitate his retreat.  Like Neopolitan, his fighting tactics emphasized defense and counter, fending off the opponent’s attacks before catching them off guard with retaliation.  However, Roman was much more proactive, forcibly targeting their flanks while also wearing them down with verbal taunts, provoking frustration to make them overextend.  For Torchwick, words were just as good a weapon as his cane, undermining his opponent before striking where they are weakest.  Subvert and overpower.

However, while clearly cunning and skillful, Torchwick’s pride and self-preservation were his greatest blindspots.  His taunts and posturing often went to the point of pointless aggravation, giving his opponents a chance to fight back, while his short-sighted focus on his immediate objectives led to oversights and tunnel vison.  The strengths and weaknesses of Roman’s skills and tactics are clearly seen in his various conflicts with Team RWBY.  His first encounter with Ruby Rose saw her casually dispatch his backup, prompting Roman to cut his loses, shoot her with a flare, and run for the rooftops where he was retrieved by Cinder Fall.  At the Vale docks, Roman turned Blake Belladonna’s ambush around by shooting into the ground and staggering her before forcing her to retreat with more gunfire.  Their one on one clash shortly afterward had him capably fend off her energetic sword assault before using his cane to manipulate her weapons and leaver her open to a staggering punch.  However, Roman had less success with Sun Wukong, who blindsided him with a flying kick and then sent him into a scrambling retreat from his gunchucks.  Fortunately, Roman recovered quickly and distracted his assailants by shooting off a cargo crate, leaving Sun at gunpoint.  In his rematch with Blake, Roman was able to fence evenly with the Faunus, but her infusion of Dust into her shadow clones trapped up and subverted him, and his survival was wholly due to Blake’s mercy.  This particular engagement saw Torchwick’s psychological warfare tactics backfire, simply provoking Blake’s anger rather than undermining her focus.  Though arrested by James Ironwood shortly thereafter, Roman escaped during the Fall of Beacon with Neo’s aid, infecting the Atlas fleet with Arthur Watts’s computer virus and turning the Atlesian Knights rogue.  When he and Neo were confronted by Ruby Rose, the pair were able to disarm and blindside her.  However, Torchwick’s self-aggrandizement proved to be his undoing, quickly getting too caught up in rationalizing his submission to Cinder to pay attention to other threats.  Ruby was able to forcibly remove Neo from the battle and presumably kill her, causing Roman to lose his composure and fall into a vicious rage against her.  Sadly, he was so caught up in berating the optimistic girl that he failed to notice the Griffon behind him, and Roman Torchwick died in the stomach of a beast.

RANKING: Tier 3, Standard Mastery

Despite his barebones training and limited direct combative focus, Roman Torchwick proved himself a very capable martial artist, posing a serious threat to many of the premier Huntsmen students of his day.  His treacherous tactics expertly undercut his opponents while his flexible fighting style gave him parody with more aggressive opponents. However, Roman clearly owed his greatest successes to having more power behind him at the right times, and he himself was vulnerable to more subversive fighters, his difficulties fighting Sun and Blake proving that he could be blindsided and caught off guard.  Roman Torchwick operates best when he has the numbers and firepower on his side, and at his worst when someone can answer all his tricks and hit him right where it hurts in return.  Torchwick is not above cutting and running and can be overpowered, but putting him under that kind of pressure is no easy feat.

SPECIAL

Unlike the vast majority of his peers, Roman Torchwick never discovered his Semblance, and his ethereal talents were restricted to only his baseline Aura.  Obviously having never attended a proper combat school, Torchwick’s inability to access his special powers left him at a major disadvantage against more highly trained adepts.  In fact, Roman is on record deeming Semblances overrated, preferring to best his enemies with his own wit and charm.  Making matters worse was Roman’s relatively irreverent behavior and preoccupation with the mundane all but crippling the spiritual awareness needed to unconsciously manifest his powers.

That said though, Roman was quite familiar with these manifestations, both from his regular encounters with Huntsmen and from how heavily his subordinate Neo relied on hers in battle.  As such, Torchwick did learn to develop adaptive countermeasures to deal with a wide variety of tricks and talents.  A keen observer, Torchwick was able to adapt quickly to an opponent’s Semblance by assessing their mechanics and applications.  Against Chameleon, Torchwick sussed out her location by looking for disturbances in the air while psychological warfare to exploit her emotional unbalance, hindering her already spotty use of her camouflage even with her supportive equipment.  Against Blake Belladonna’s baseline shadow clones, he maintained his defensive stance to avoid overextending, waiting for Blake to let up before catching her off guard.  When Ruby Rose attempted to blitz him with her Petal Burst, Roman shot a flare at her and immediately struck the projectile with his cane, turning a single shot into an arcing wave that caught Ruby right in the chest.  Furthermore, his use of psychological warfare likely had the ulterior motive of provoking his opponent into engaging him in physical combat rather than using their powers, preventing them from bringing their full might to bear. However, these counters were not without limits, as sufficient power or subversions on the enemy’s part could still catch him in a bind.  Blake was able to trap up Roman’s weapon by infusing her clone with ice Dust and ignore his taunts during their rematch on the train, and he was completely helpless against Honey Wine’s Alluring Song.

Additionally, Roman was highly knowledgeable about the qualities of Dust, the elemental gunpowder being the primary object of his robberies in Vale. Though he rarely carried the crystals into battle, he was perfectly willing to use them if need be, using a fire gem as an improvised grenade during his first encounter with Ruby Rose.

RANKING: Tier 6, No Combat

However intelligent Roman Torchwick’s countermeasures may be, they are ultimately mundane tricks rather than stemming from any special powers or equipment.  Roman’s lack of a Semblance is still a major weakness in his corner, and his counters merely allow him to lessen the disadvantage rather than provide an advantage of his own, made all the worse by his arrogant eschewing. While his knowledge of Dust would no doubt make his particularly dangerous with it, he did not carry any of the substance in his usual loadout, making his tricks even more limited.  He relies on clever strategy to undermine his opponents and prevent them from brining their full might to bear, and if that fails, he is left scrambling.

OVERALL RANKING: TIER 4, EXPERT HUNTSMAN

Roman Torchwick is a very interesting combatant in that his role as a criminal mastermind means that he does not have a particularly heavy combative focus, yet he still proved to be a serious threat.  This proves that a non-combative focus is not an automatic indication of inferiority if one keeps up on their training.  Roman’s robust physique leaves him well prepared for the scuffles he is destined to get himself into, and as a martial artist is precise, ruthless, and sketchy as all hell.  However, Roman is severely held back by certain practical weaknesses, most notably his lack of combative special abilities.  Due to never discovering his Semblance, Torchwick’s viability in combat is reliant on his skill as a fighter, to the point where he was contending with formally trained Huntsmen students.  Even then, his success was often predicated on undercutting his enemies rather than outwitting them, and he had serious problems dealing with his own sneak attacks. In many ways, Roman Torchwick represents the best that can be achieved through pure combat experience with minimal training.  His honed skills certainly qualify him as a master martial artist, but his lack of true dedication means that he is little more than that.  For Roman Torchwick, fighting is a tedious necessity at worst and a hobby at best, mastering his skills out of practicality and not true dedication.

Underscoring all of this is the fact that Roman Torchwick was ultimately a self-serving criminal above all else, his greatest strength and weakness being his cynical need to fight dirty.  His goals were always about his own profit and preservation, throwing in his lot with Salem due to his own pessimistic view of the world.  He thinks the world is cold, so he got cold back, and anything that challenges him is either a naïve fool or the next boot to lick.  He put on a good show and presented himself as a survivor and pragmatist, but his posturing merely concealed the opportunistic street rat he truly was.  While not nearly as cowardly as Leo Lionheart, Roman Torchwick’s mantra of “lie, steal, cheat and survive” meant that protecting his own skin was his top priority, and if the tables turn, he consistently chose to cut his losses and flee.  The sheer irony is that Torchwick himself was a victim of the very chaos he nihilistically helped create, such is the fate of all of Salem’s pawns.

*originally posted on RoosterTeeth Community page on 02-21-21*

*all images taken from RWBY Wiki*

RWBY Combat Analysis

[nottoxicfr]

Actually, weird animals do exist in RWBY. After the fall novel reveals that there are fantastical creatures such as giant crabs along with a giant mobile turtle that's big enough to carry a whole settlement of people. We probably just don't see them (or animals in general for the most part) in the show due to the budget. Heck, volume 9 is the most amount of animals we've ever seen in the show I think.

I really need to get to reading the rest of the RWBY literary collection! How can say anything about RWBY with any authority if I don’t finish those… Honestly right now I’m only reliable on RWBY collaborations and the singular series.

Back on topic though, that’s so cool!! I feel like giant turtles are something that would be neat to show around Volume 4 or something. That was when those probably would have come in handy in terms of crossing Sanus or Anima. Apparently, or at least according to an angry Reddit post on r/RWBYCritics about the Ruby V-Tuber, rabbits don’t exist on Remnant anymore so that’s another creature that sort of exist(ed). You likely know how I feel about the canonicity about that source though, and it just generally didn’t seem credible. Still, it makes you wonder if they recognize Velvet as a rabbit Faunus or if they think she’s like a…long eared squirrel Faunus.

My idea for a Creature of Remnant that brought on that post was a canine type animal that lives around Dust sources like mines. It crushes dust to a powder, probably because it requires minerals that surround Dust crystals. Then they roll in the Dust and it gets caught in their specially adapted fur strands which allows them to use rudimentary bursts of elemental energy until the dust loses its charge and crumbles out. Essentially they’d be Dust Wolves, and their elemental affinity would depend on where they live.

My ideal thing to do for RWBY is to compile an Ultimania of stuff like that.