User blog:Zolnir/Dust, The Ultimate Theory (Refined)



Since some of you decided that my theory was too long and you can’t be bothered to refute it, I’ll be doing it myself! Vote me for president.



 

Is Dust Natural or Man-Made?

Before, I was talking about all Dust was the creation of mankind. Today, I’ll be travelling down the other route instead and talk about Dust is a natural resource, and that mankind discovery of it helped turned the tide against the Grim. This common belief shared by most of the RWBY community is of course, most likely correct despite the walls of texts I just threw at you guys yesterday.

While I have provided compelling explanation before how the Dust crystals may be man-made because of how they looked and sized identical to each other, there was a controversial evidence that I did not reveal. If you would recall that scene again, right after the goon had said, “Crystals. Pure, uncut,” the shopkeeper had looked down at his merchandise, briefly hesitated, before handing over a single red crystal to them.

That is unnatural. Why? Let’s look carefully at the counter at which the shop keeper took the red crystal. There were four color types of crystal there: Red, blue, yellow and green. With the exception of the red crystal, the other crystals had come in pairs (1 full, 1 cut) instead. This meant that out of all these crystals, only that single, red-colored crystal was uncut. Otherwise the shopkeeper would’ve grabbed at least more than one crystal before passing it; he wouldn’t have wanted to anger them by very obviously delaying the handover. After all, the old man was quick to submit when Roman and his goons threatened him.

What does this mean? This meant that my previous assumptions were wrong. The fact was most of the Dust crystals on display were cut, and that there were only very few of them are uncut crystals. We can see this as strong evidence that there are natural depositories of Dust crystals out there, and that these crystals were mined, purified, and sold by energy corporations to Dust stores such as the Schnee. You’ll forgive me if I miss a few links in between, but I would absolutely have to decline speculating the entire supply chain from the top until the end. The working man should understand exactly what I mean.

There’s another strong evidence presented by a good reviewer Sorairo about Weiss’ line in Episode 2, “mined and purified from the Schnee Quarry”. I could explain all I want like how I did in the reply saying that ‘mined’ meant mining power from people, but honestly, the obvious answer is usually the right answer. The Schnee had quarries. Quarries are used to extract or mine stone or minerals. Stone or minerals are considered as natural resources. Hence, Dust crystals can also be considered as a natural resource, period.







Dust Technology

This is mostly unrelated to my previous theory, but it’s a nice addition to the mix.

<p class="MsoNormal">The most basic form of Dust is a crystal; no question to that. Somehow, the energies of nature became concentrated and solidified naturally into this form, and whoever wielded it literally commanded the power of nature itself.

<p class="MsoNormal">There are three primary colors of Dust (following the primary colors of light): Red, Blue, and Yellow. They represented Fire, Ice, and Thunder, and crystals with any other colors could be considered as impure crystals (Fire mixed with Thunder = Powerful Explosion etc). The more pure it is, the more energy it contained.

<p class="MsoNormal">White-colored Dust is a special, super concentrated form of Dust that combines all three primary Dust together to unleash an extremely powerful elemental energy containing all three forms of nature’s power. On the other hand, grey-colored Dust are drained Dusts that has very little energy left, and when it’s loses all of its color I will assume that the Dust simply disintegrates. This form of Dust is most likely used in the normal bullets Ruby and Yang uses for their weapons, and as you can see the Dust in one bullet contained just enough energy to propel a person forwards once.

<p class="MsoNormal">During the Grim war, when discovery and research of Dust was at its infancy, one can speculate that they only had enough time to learn how to use the crystal form Dusts and crushed Dusts. It is possible that by simply holding a crystal form Dust close to their body, a normal person would be able to channel and use that energy, thereby giving enhanced speed, strength, or just pure energy. Another more conservative method would be to attach pieces of Dust onto a weapon so that it became charged with elemental properties (Jaune’s weapons origin maybe?).

<p class="MsoNormal">The last one would be crushed Dusts, although I believe these Dust are used more like grenades (because maybe guns don’t exist yet). They crushed the crystal form Dust, lumped one small pouch of the powder/splinters together, then just throw it at the enemy and watch beautiful fireworks happen. Crude and wasteful, but still very effective against hordes of enemies.

<p class="MsoNormal">Fast-forward a little. Mankind has defeated Grim, and over the years the research and application of Dust have improved significantly.

<p class="MsoNormal">First, Dust is no longer limited just to its inherent attribute. People have managed to create hybrid Dust crystals, and while it may be weaker than pure-colored crystals in terms of pure energy (but still stronger than naturally impure crystals, because they have pinpointed the magic ratio), it provided with new and different forms of power.

<p class="MsoNormal">Second, Dust attacks are no longer limited to just one form. For example, in the past a blue-colored Dust crystal could produce a shower of ice, and only that. Now people have managed to research ways to focus and shape the energy at will, so now not only they could fire a shower of ice, depending on the technology they use they could also create pillars, extend it as a shield, create an ice sword etc.

<p class="MsoNormal">Examples of this technology that controls the Dust are the magic circles we see in the White Trailer (the Schnee Symbol by Weiss) and Episode 1 (Glynda Goodwitch). The runes on Crimson’s body were also a type of Dust manipulation technology. By the way, T=the magic circles are extremely advanced Dust manipulation technologies, and they contain pre-programmed, complicated calculations that would manipulate the Dust energy into its desired shape. Obviously, you will need different coding and computation (forgive me, but I only remember programming jargons) to produce different Dust effects, even if the magic circles might look the same on the outside.

<p class="MsoNormal">The programming may be inside the Dust itself (could explain why Weiss carried around so many vials of Dusts) or the external tools used to apply Dust. I have no idea.

<p class="MsoNormal">Here’s another example. In the White Trailer, Weiss had sprinkled Dusts on her shoes (not the ground) and with proper timing and movements she was able to create kinetic platforms at will. The Schnee symbol is the proof of the technology.

<p class="MsoNormal">Dusts have also been crushed (properly with ratio distribution this time) to create bullets for weapons. These Dusts, as mentioned before, should be grey-colored and contained only one charge of burst energy. Higher quality bullets would bright-colored like what Yang swapped for in Yellow Trailer.

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<p class="MsoNormal">Hierarchy between Humans and Faunas

<p class="MsoNormal">Previously I have agreed to that all faunas are superhuman, but not all superhuman are faunas. That still holds true (until one random, powerless fauna pops into the episode and blew this logic into pieces), although this entire section would need to new explanation, since we’re no longer relying on the superhuman power -> Dust theory.

<p class="MsoNormal">The faunas are a race of humans that has extraordinary powers. This powers may or may not be the same as Dust (Nature’s Wrath), but that cannot be confirmed at the moment so let’s set it aside. In the past, they have fought alongside the normal humans against Grim – though perhaps not willingly especially before the war, as they might view themselves as a higher entity – but were steadily being pushed back by sheer numbers. However, during the time of despair they discovered Dust, and with this miraculous gift mankind managed to defeat Grim.

<p class="MsoNormal">Before we continue, I’d like to say that we do not know whether the faunas could use Dust, and it is possible that they can’t. In the Black Trailer, Adam had opted to destroy the entire train of Dust supplies instead for the more profitable (though certainly harder) way of robbing it. Also, during the fight against the spider droid, not once did he try to grab some Dusts and empower himself. This could possibly be a hint that faunas could not use Dust, but they do have extraordinary powers. After all, if the fauna truly could use Dust, then they’re ultimately much stronger (even if we assume that they’re outnumbered, and they might not be) and really shouldn’t be discriminated to the point of being seen as animals.

<p class="MsoNormal">Of course, the above assumption was based entirely from our only fauna sample, Adam, and he may be an extreme or outcast even amongst his own community. Adam is a very prideful person (as seen when he plainly refuses to back out from the spider droid fight despite Blake’s persuasions), and that could translate to his choice not to empower himself with a Dust crystal. Also, note that Adam was there to destroy Dust, so it made sense that he hated the item and would not ever think to use it. Therefore, Adam is not an accurate estimate in deducing a fauna’s life.

<p class="MsoNormal">Now then. After the war, it was said that four brilliant countries/civilizations/lights/something was formed, and as mentioned in my previous theory, I deduced that each country was based on the primary colors of Dust (as remembrance of their greatest miracle) Red, Blue, and Yellow. I’m going to change my opinion on Black however (since we’ve never seen Black Dust), and switched it to the fauna community instead. This would make far more sense since now the faunas and humans now existed in harmony.

<p class="MsoNormal">But it did not last long. As time passed the world slowly reformed into one big and ‘free’ world, with capitalism acting as the spearhead as people slowly forgot their history. It was bad when mankind has turned to commercializing Dust and wasting the resource unnecessarily, but what’s even worse was that the humans have reignited the racial tension with faunas.

<p class="MsoNormal">It was not hard to imagine that before, when Dust was not yet discovered, the humans were the one who were being oppressed by the faunas (or at least discriminated even if we imagine the faunas as proud beings who can’t be bothered by pettiness). With the emergence of Dusts however, the once superior faunas were now completely outclassed instead, because even the weakest of normal human could best them as long as they have Dust. In short, not only Dust evened the odds between mankind and Grim, it also overturned the odds between normal humans and faunas.

<p class="MsoNormal">I’ve already made the comparison before, but let’s go through it again. Glynda Goodwitch had managed to cast an ice storm in barely a second with Dust. Adam however took far longer to charge up his spell, and he had to take the great risk of absorbing the droid’s energy blast before finally having enough power to unleash the killing blow. This suggested that Dust has now made humans far more efficient in combat in comparison to a fauna with their inherent abilities, and this is very likely the reason why Adam and Blake had went to destroy the supply train of Dust (it’s not too farfetched to think that this is a mission, and Adam and Blake are White Fang members eh? I got the feeling that Adam couldn’t care less about destroying trains and would rather fight the humans head on instead).

<p class="MsoNormal">We shall now analyze the faunas shown in the news report in Episode 1. To be honest, the information yielded here are too little and extremely misleading, but let’s try and cover all the bases.

<p class="MsoNormal">First, the Fauna Civil Rights Protests was called a ceremony and not a gathering, so we can assume that this event was not a one-time thing, and has been continued for quite some time. Next, while the illustrations had portrayed them as a snarling, angry community, the fact that the protests were allowed to be continued meant that the faunas may actually be quite peaceful (no protestor ever look good honestly).

<p class="MsoNormal">Finally, about the allegiance of White Fang. The logo suggested that it was an organization on the fauna’s side, but the report sounded like they were at opposition with the faunas. On the other hand, since ‘the once peaceful organization had disrupted the ceremony’, we can also deduce that the White Fang have decided themselves that peaceful protests are no longer enough, and that it was time to see violence as an option.

<p class="MsoNormal">This speaks a lot about the tension between the humans and the faunas. The White Fang may have turned into a terrorist group since their requests were not answered, and it’s absolutely possible that they aimed to destroy Dust so they could shave away at the human’s strength.

<p class="MsoNormal">Also, remember what I said before about some members of the fauna community went missing? The answer I gave before was honestly laughable – it would’ve required thousands of faunas just to generate enough Dusts, and currently the RWBY world showed no sign that it was that depraved yet. I’ve overstated the discriminatory treatment on faunas – but a few quiet kidnappings may yet be true.

<p class="MsoNormal">This was mainly because of Dust. It is likely that the seemingly infinite Dust supply was finally being exhausted (OH THE IRONY; I WORKED AT AN OIL COMPANY YOU KNOW?), and the energy corporations had a hard time finding new depositories. Therefore their attention finally fell onto the lowly faunas: Beings who could empower themselves with mysterious powers not too unlike Dust. Therefore they quietly kidnapped a few unfortunate faunas and performed experiments to see if they could extract or convert their power into… merchandise.

<p class="MsoNormal">As a closure to this (I’m sowwy!) long ass theory, I’d like to direct the focus one last time onto the Schnee Corporation. Normally that would be no reason to tie the faunas together with their ‘controversial labor issues’, but the fact that one, in Black Trailer Blake and Adam had went to destroy Schnee cargo, and two, Blake stating the sentence right at Weiss’ face hinted strongly that the faunas are deep in the knees here. We may assume safely that the Schnee Corporation has some fauna workers, and that the humans – whether their co-workers or the management itself, or both – had not been treating them well. However, this was most likely just padding to the fauna news report mentioned in the first episode.

<p class="MsoNormal">With this, I end my theory. I hope you enjoy that massive headache of yours. *snicker snort*