#turned out that grimm CAN use the relics somehow brfddjhfk

[bestworstcase]

I was reading your wonderful RWBY posts and I just had a random thought: The relics attract the grimm but why? What would the grimm even do if they get the relics? Salem doesn't control every single grimm ever all over the world (even if, I think, the popular fanon interpretation is that the grimm go for the relics for Salem)

So in a hypothetical scenario of a relic "falling into" the hands of grimm, what would happen? Are the grimm attracted to the relics like they're attracted to humans? For food/Aura? Or are they attracted to the relics for a different reason? The relics potentially being a sounds of "food" for Grimm just feels interesting to me, related to Aura and Souls in some way or something. Also if the Grimm aren't attracted to the relics like they are attracted to humans/Aura, what sort of reason do they have for the relic attraction?

Of course the theory that the relic or the relic spirits are the current form of the God of Darkness after he ascended makes it so that the Grimm seem to recognize and feel that the relics have their creator's power in it, but I'm really curious about what sorts of scenarios you could come up with on this because my brain is fixated on this right now and I wonder what the Grimm would actually DO with a relic or multiple relics?

we-ell we’ve actually seen a relic fall into the hands of some grimm, albeit quite briefly. at brunswick farm, ruby startles and drops the lamp because she sees the flash of an apathy’s eyes looking up from the bottom of the well, right, and then a minute or two later the girls all jump down and there’s no grimm and no lamp.

blake suggests that the "current" may have carried the lamp away, but that obviously isn’t the case (the water is less than ankle deep and the lamp, made of metal and glass, doesn’t float; she’s just under the apathy influence which is, i imagine, degrading her ability to think clearly).

what actually happened is the apathy grabbed the lamp and BOOKED IT to rejoin the rest of its pack around the corner, and then they put the lamp down in the muck where its glow would be just visible to the humans in the main thoroughfare, and waited there.

<- the apathy, uh, used it as bait.

here’s two other facts that i chew on a lot with regard to the relics and the possibility of darkness having ascended a la the dragon divided and what the apathy do:

grimm cannot be held in captivity, because if they don’t break free, they die.

when bartleby separated two apathy from the pack and lured them into the waterway, the rest of the pack followed and crawled into the waterway to find their missing packmates rather than attack the farmers.

(the pack then also spent the night in the waterway, which contrasts their apparent behavior in the present—we see them trying to get up into the house through the wine cellar—so it seems to me that the pack just wasn’t hunting at the time it went into the waterway. otherwise they would have found their missing packmates and crawled right back out to eat the farmers in their sleep. but the waterway probably seemed pretty comfy and safe to them before they got bricked up inside of it? nice place to make a nest.)

anyways if the spirits in the relics were once the god of darkness… and the spirits are, as the chains and shackles imply, imprisoned inside the relics… and grimm die in captivity… and the grimm are also, as the apathy pack’s behavior demonstrates, intelligent social creatures who will actively follow and try to rescue captured individuals… well!

whatever the apathy intended to do with the lamp got interrupted by the girls dropping into the waterway, but their use of it as bait demonstrates intelligence—recognition that the lamp is desirable to the humans, forethought to use it as a lure—so if i’m on target with regard to what/who the spirits are (which, ozpin: "i think it has something to do with their origin, but i’m not entirely sure" <- i am of the opinion that this is a true statement and also hilarious foreshadowing), then.

prying the relics apart in an attempt to free the spirits trapped inside would be my guess. it tracks with both the behavior we see from the apathy pack and with grimm being destructive in nature and the true purpose of destruction as a catalyst for change/growth – and a grimm that doesn’t die in captivity is a grimm which destroyed its cage, yeah?

if the spirits aren’t what darkness became… i would bet anything the attraction is emotional. because the spirits inside are human in nature—they have feelings, and neither jinn nor ambrosius seem best pleased to by the rules that bind them. so it’s like. extremely possible that to a grimm, the relics are literally just searing beacons of misery and that’s what’s getting their attention. like grimm puzzle feeders