#something about how humanity’s revival is narratively intertwined with salem’s transformation

[bestworstcase]

the more i think about it the more convinced i am that dust is a grimm thing

first: dust predates the moonfall.

in a setting where it’s been very firmly established that a) dust is a naturally-occurring magical crystal that grows on the surface in formations like this, and b) the present-day land of darkness is still very rich in dust, the most plausible explanation for what these luminous crystalline structures in dark’s domain are is dust. it’s identical to the stuff salem used to make monstra fly, too.

second: grimm can and DO use dust.

our most notable example here is the geist in V7, which is a) overtly shown to incorporate dust ore into its armor body, and b) not under salem’s control [ergo this is natural behavior]. and of course there’s monstra, which uses dust to fly—salem’s handiwork, yes, but it means that the magical properties of dust can be activated by grimm.

bearing that in mind, consider the ice-encrusted grimm of solitas. grimm aren’t cold-resistant by nature, but they’ve adapted to the harsh polar conditions… somehow. the mechanism of this adaptation is, in-universe, unknown; we can infer that it is probably not an evolutionary process because grimm do not breed. but: solitas is rich in dust, and—well

when hazel slams raw dust crystals into his body, it sort of—fuses with his flesh in some way; in particular note the pebbles sprouting around his right shoulder. so when the mysteriously cold-hardy grimm of solitas are encrusted with frost… you see what i’m getting at? i think their resistance to the cold derives from dust.

we have several examples of grimm (the feilong, the sphinx, the leviathan) breathing blasts of energy which happen to be identical to the energy blasts fired by cordovin’s mech’s dust canon. which might be a budget-conscious design choice, sure, but it’s also a similarity that can be explained quite simply by concluding that it looks the same because it is the same, that these grimm swallow dust and weaponize it just as people do.

third: you can’t walk ten steps in the land of darkness without hitting a massive formation of natural gravity dust. the lancers in V5 appear to be nesting around the huge gravity dust formations keeping those islands afloat over lake matsu (note the queen lancer seemingly in a dormant state before she’s woken up by the jostling). the mine in V7 is crawling with grimm who, like the queen lancer, appear to have been in a dormant state until they were roused by the geist scuffle.

so there is an apparent correlation between places where the grimm live—not hunting territories, but places where they just are—and the presence of enormous quantities of naturally-occurring dust. and we know, thanks to the lost fable, that dust grew around the pool of grimm in an era when humans did not need dust to perform magic. and of course, dark identifies magic as his gift to humanity.

(although i will point out that dust is described as an energy propellant and in modern practice people do magic with it by channeling aura through it; thus while ancient humans had innate magical ability, i don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that they might also have used dust, not as a power source but as an amplifier. that ozma topped his staff with some sort of crystal and seems to have done all his magic through the staff in contrast to salem [<- presumably self-taught] slinging magic around with her hands is interesting.)

so…

if dust existed before the moonfall, the questions of where it came from, what it is, and how it came to be are moot; one of the brothers had to have created it and because it’s growing in dark’s domain we can be certain that it’s his thing, especially because he’s also the brother who gave ancient humans innate magic and dust is thus obviously in his wheelhouse.

but: why?

ancient humans didn’t need dust, because he gave them magic.

what happens to the grimm in a world where every single person has magical power akin to the maidens? they die. humans, not grimm, were the dominant form of life on the planet during this era, because humans had magic. “kings and their kingdoms were plentiful.” in a contest between a human with maiden-level magical power and an ordinary grimm, the grimm is going to lose. we’ve seen cinder blast through four layers of reinforced steel with a single fireball effortlessly! you can kill a grimm by hitting it really hard with a stick!!

the grimm were, at least according to myth, dark’s first creations and he cared for them. in ‘the two brothers’ his staunch refusal to eliminate the grimm is the central point of contention that brings him into conflict with his brother, and the history laid out in V9 supports that characterization; he refused to unmake the jabberwalker, too. it follows that dark would have wanted the grimm to have a fighting chance against ancient, magically-powerful humans.

hence, dust.

it wouldn’t give the grimm an overpowering advantage, but it would be enough to balance the scales… and of course any grimm who did survive long enough to grow to massive size, empowered by dust, would pose a serious threat to ancient humans, magic or no. it grows in grimm territory because it was meant for them, originally.

dust is a grimm thing that humans adopted.