Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-4141313-20181110034633/@comment-4010415-20181114202441

BlizzardDragon wrote:

Its also not unreasonable to think Salem is the direct cause of the war. From the short again, it was said:

''Eventually, Mistral made the jump across the sea to the eastern coast of Sanus. The small islands and peninsulas in the area were perfect to establish a settlement. They were so perfect, in fact, that Vale had just begun settling the area themselves. I think we can all guess what happened next. The king of Vale did everything he could to avoid armed conflict. Despite cries from his people, he insisted on sharing the land with the settlers from Mistral. But... (sigh) To this day, no one knows who shot first, but what began as a riot between two bands of settlers... would suddenly become the first battle of the Great War.''

We've already seen Salem was a skilled orator when it came to amassing her army against the gods, it isn't unreasonable to think she, or one of her agents, was sent to either the Emperor of Mistral, or one of the Mistralian Generals, and influenced them into starting the War. The fact that Qrow said no one knows who shot first led me to believe that Salem and her lackies didn't even convince anyone to start the war, they just shot someone and then let Vale and Mistral blame each other.