Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-3146930-20140523234620

So just an idea about the origins of the Grimm and why they attack humanity. When Pyrrha is describing Aura to Jaune, she mentions that every living thing has a soul, including animals. This also means that every living thing at least has the ability to use Aura to protect themselves from harm; this we all know.

However she goes on to say that Grimm lack a soul and are the manifestation of anonymity. So I did some digging and looked up what exactly this could mean by picking the definitions that are the strongest to my case.


 * Manifestation: the action or fact of showing an abstract idea.
 * Anonymity: lack of outstanding, individual, or unusual features; impersonality.

So going by how Pyrrha described them, Grimm are the living embodiment of being being an identical group. In a way this alone describes what the Grimm are and why when humanity first came into being, the Grimm attacked them.

As we have seen, the Grimm all look the same (for the most part). Individual species of Grimm look exactly like each other, like how the twin Ursa that attacked Yang looked exactly alike. The Beowolves also appear almost exactly the same, with the exception of the Alpha-Beowolf and the Ursa Major; but I'll get to those later. Basically, Grimm share all the same features, they probably think alike, have the same knowledge, tactics, and powers as the Grimm to the right and left to them. They are a big group of nameless, faceless, and single-minded creatures.

Now getting to my point of why they would attack humanity. In the opening narration, the describe mankind as passionate, resourceful, and ingenious. These traits alone make each person different from each other. Then bring in physical traits and you end up with a species that think for themselves and none of them look like each other. Just look at the weapons students designed and you can probably get a glimpse of how creative humans are, especially desperate humans fighting a losing war until the discovery of Dust.

So Grimm, being the manifestation of anonymity, would see the very existence of such beings that think for themselves and look different as being against their very nature. So Grimm, being the physical form of the concept of being completely identical or being faceless, attacked humans and everything they made.

This also brings up the point I had said earlier about some Grimm being different. As we have seen, when a Grimm dies it begins to smoke, but as stated by Peter Port and later Nora, apparently Grimm don't just dissolve away when killed as was originally thought. However if the Grimm are the manifestation of a concept, then they aren't really alive to begin with. So in a way, they can never really die. The power that brings them into existence may leave the physical shell and reform into another Grimm, thus continuing the cycle. Another possibility is that if another Grimm is close by, it can absorb this power to become stronger. This makes sense if all Grimm are the same with nothing being different between them. So if one Grimm in a pack of Beowolves is killed, its essence may travel to another nearby Beowolf, making an Alpha-Beowolf. If one Ursa in a tag team dies, it makes an Ursa Major.

Short Version
Grimm are the manifestation of anonymity, meaning they are the physical form of being faceless and identical. They hate humanity because they are individuals, with their own thoughts, goals, dreams, creativity, and desires, often contradicting with the goals of other individuals. The Grimm on the other hand all think the same way and see individuality as a sin, thus the reason they hate people.

However because Grimm are the physical form of a concept, they can't really die and the smoke that appears when they are killed is their essence, which will eventually reform into a new Grimm or another Grimm will absorb it, making them stronger (ex. Alpha-Beowolf and the Ursa Major). 