Adam Taurus

Adam Taurus is a high-ranking member of the White Fang and made his first appearance in the "Black" Trailer. He wears a Grimm Mask over his eyes and his weapons of choice are Wilt and Blush, a sword and rifle that doubles as the sword's sheath.

Described both as a mentor and former romantic partner, Adam worked together with Blake Belladonna to attack a train carrying a Dust shipment, but was abandoned by her at the end of the trailer. He later makes his first proper appearance in the show at the end of "Breach".

During the RWBY panel at 2016's London Comic Con, Arryn Zech and Barbara Dunkelman put Adam's age as early-to-mid 20s, with a guess of about 23.

Appearance
Adam is a tall man with red and brown hair that spikes backwards in a windswept way. While most of his hair is red, a portion of it in the back and several streaks are brown. A noticeable trait of his appearance is the mask he wears, which obscures his eyes and upper face. His Faunus heritage appears to be that of a bull, as two horns can be seen on either side of his head.

His mask is whitish-tan with red, Japanese style, flame-like symbols decorating the front, and two slits on each side, presumably to allow for vision. This may be a redesigned version of the Grimm masks typically worn by most members of the White Fang.

Adam wears a long-sleeved black trench coat with slit sleeves and more red designs and a white symbol on the left side. His trench coat is red on the inside with red flame-like accents at the bottom and a large emblem on the back, with a white tulip covered by a wilting red rose design. His trench coat is half-buttoned, exposing a red shirt with a black line running parallel to his collar under it.

He wears long black pants, black shoes with red soles, and black gloves with more red emblems on their forehand, appearing to be a variant of the Greek letter Ω (Omega), the last letter in the Greek alphabet.

He wears a black belt with white domino marks on it. His appearance generally consists of black and red, similar to the color scheme used by Ruby Rose.

Personality
Blake describes him as feeling completely justified in how he went about making the world a better place. However, his vision for a perfect future did not include everyone, and Blake began to believe that Adam himself was becoming a monster in the process of trying to obtain it. Unlike Blake, he is shown to have little regard for the lives of innocent people, as he planned to blow up the train with everyone on board.

In "Beginning of the End", he takes his cause, and the lives of his underlings seriously, rejecting Cinder Fall's initial offer of an alliance, citing the unnecessary risk of dying for a human cause. It is also hinted that he dislikes Huntsmen, sardonically stating she could have gone to one who strayed from their "righteous path". However, after Cinder arrives a second time, this time with an offer of Dust and Lien as well as a death threat, Adam agrees to ally with her, albeit grudgingly. Furthermore, in "The Next Step", Salem states that Adam has proven to be loyal to her cause.

In "Heroes and Monsters", Adam's ruthless personality comes to light. He is revealed to be an embittered, sadistic and vengeful man, willing to cut down anyone or anything stopping him from dispensing his twisted idea of justice upon humanity and the world. He takes great pleasure in tormenting Blake, taunting her by calling her "darling" or "my love" and ultimately promising to destroy everything she loves as punishment for her betrayal of the White Fang and, by extension, him. He exhibits extremely possessive, violent behavior.

He is also merciless towards his enemies, slicing off Yang Xiao Long's arm with ease when she rushes him and even attempting to decapitate Blake when she appeared to stand between him and a crippled Yang. This characteristic is implied once more in "Of Runaways and Stowaways", when Lisa Lavender reports that all attempts to apprehend him are met with brutal force.

Powers and Abilities
Adam's abilities and skills seem to be on par with that of a highly skilled Huntsman. He is adept in swordsmanship, quickly cutting through Atlesian Knight-130s with ease. He has a preference towards the usage of "Iaido", a method in Japanese sword fighting that involves quickly unsheathing for a rapid attack and then sheathing again.

He has been shown in the trailer to be able to slash at enemies that are seemingly out of his blade's range, implying that he either moved there and back quickly or somehow extended the range of his blade. When he used Wilt to open the train car roof hatch, he moved so quickly that his strike was almost invisible to the human eye.

He will also occasionally use Blush for ranged attacks in conjunction with Wilt. Furthermore, Adam's speed is shown to enable him to deflect numerous bullets in rapid succession with Wilt and Blush. Like Blake, Adam appears to have advanced endurance, showing no signs of fatigue during an extended battle.



Adam is able to absorb or block the energy from an enemy attack and re-emit it again, usually with his sword. When absorbing attacks or shortly before striking back, the details on his body appear to glow red. When he attacks, the color appears to drain from the world and everything turns red and black. This move apparently requires some preparation, as he tells Blake to buy him some time before he is able to perform it.

When he uses this ability, red rose petals are shown floating in the air, symbolizing his theme of "wilt". In "Heroes and Monsters", his first strike against Yang is so powerful that it both breaks through her Aura and completely severs her arm, all in a single hit. However, the power of this technique may depend on how much energy he absorbs with his sword. Adam had taken two hits fired by Blake before attacking Yang, while he had absorbed a continuous beam of energy from the spider robot in the "Black Trailer" before disintegrating it.

Trivia

 * In Hebrew, Adam (אדם) means "Man" and Adom (אדום) means "Red". It is likely that Adam's name is a play on these two words. Adam is also known in Abrahamic religions as the first man created, possibly referencing the fact that he is the first male character to appear.
 * Adam's last name, Taurus, is a Latin word meaning bull.
 * His mask has two red horn-shaped markings similar to that of a bull.
 * In the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast, the Beast/Prince's name is often thought by fans to be Adam (although he is not referred to as such officially). Further similarities between Adam and the Beast are their respective roses. The Beast was transformed by a cursed, wilting rose, wilting being the operating connection, since Adam's emblem slightly resembles the Beast's rose.
 * Adam underwent a character re-design sometime during the development of the "Black" Trailer. In behind-the-scenes footage released by RWBY animator Shane Newville on his Vine account, Adam's original model can be seen. Adam's original model lacks his signature longcoat, instead having a black short-sleeved top with combat vest, cargo pants and combat boots. His sword, Wilt, originally had a black blade that glowed orange when making strikes, and was carried diagonally across his back rather than at his side.
 * In a picture Monty Oum posted on Twitter, the term "Moonslice" can be seen on a notes sheet regarding the Black Trailer, coinciding with the appearance of Adam's finishing move.
 * Adam and Ruby have some traits in common, mostly their color scheme and the heavy use of red imagery in their debut trailers.
 * Despite this resemblance to Ruby, Monty stated that the two are not related, the difference between them being "scatter and wilt".
 * Adam's sword is based on Kagura's sword from Ga-Rei: Zero.
 * Adam's mask appears beside Blake for a short while in the Volume 1 Opening.
 * Adam appeared alongside Junior Xiong, Melanie Malachite, and Miltia Malachite in a video Monty made as an alternate version of the JNPR dance scene in "Dance Dance Infiltration".
 * In the RWBY Volume 3 Marathon livestream, the RWBY crew note that Adam's behavior toward Blake in "Heroes and Monsters" is abusive and express that they are uncomfortable with it.