Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-173.200.7.205-20160209221724

Here's my theory about the maiden's powers:

The theory entails the mechanisms of Dust, and how this fits in to the Maiden's powers. However, in order to go foward, we must retrace our steps in order to go foward.

In the RWBY universe, there are various "power sources" that the characters use in order to fight: physical strength, aura, and dust. In addition, Ozpin mentioned "magic"Which one is the maiden's powers?

Physical strength is the easiest to understand, as it is similar or possibly identical to the way we use physical strength. Physical strength entails the use of muscles, and how much power they can output. The maiden's powers are unlikely to be based off of this.

My theory on aura is that it is a usage of one's pure spiritual power in order to impact the physical world around the user. What does that mean? It means that a person/faunus can use their soul to create physical barriers/forces around them. A basic and widespread use of aura is to create physical barriers to block bullets/blades. We have seen aura used offensively, as when Ren used his aura to generate a physical force strong enough to rupture a snake's head.

The key here is PHYSICAL. Never have we seen aura used in an elemental way (heat, cold, light). Even semblances, which are prefered methods of utilizing aura, are never elemental. (Ruby's speed, Weiss' glyphs [w/o dust], Blake's shadows, all physical.) In addition, we have never seen semblance being used to LEVITATE objects, only push/block them (Pyrrah being able to move metal might be the reason she was chosen to be the next maiden, and Glynda moving objects might be because of extreme mastery. However, we have seen Amber, a former maiden, use her maiden's powers to manipulate temperature, move air molecules (wind), and start fires. Aura is likely not to be the source of the maiden's powers.

How about dust then? We don't know alot about dust, other than that it can be used to power devices, and generate ELEMENTAL effects. This is a likely candidate for the maiden's powers, as the powers are very similar to dust. However, in order to replicate the maiden's powers, literally gallons of dust must burned a second in order to keep up. Dust =/= maiden.

However, we have seen dust work in conjunction with semblance, showing that the two are interconnected. This is when the lines get fuzzy. We have absolutely no idea where dust comes from (the moon, dead souls, harvested grimm, condensed earth spirit, whatever), nor do we know what a "soul" really is. This next theory, however, just fits together the puzzle pieces we already have:

When dust is used, it just evaporates or disappears, then some sort of elemental effect takes place. My theory is that the dust evaporates into some sort of substance (aether, some sort of gaseous substance, idk). It is the AETHER produced by the dust, rather than the dust itself, that produces the elemental effects.

What is the maiden's power? The ability to turn your soul not just into aura, but into aether as well, providing near unlimited power for use.

Sorry if it has been long, that's just my theory. 