Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-226878-20140920054701

Given that Dust is the primary (if not sole) source of energy throughout the world of Remnant, I think it's safe to assume that all phenomena found in nature (i.e. lightning, fire, air, clouds, water, plants, minerals, and alloys) are in-world explainable as being attributed to the nature of Dust. This being that while Dust may not have been discovered until long after these other things already existed in nature, that science has shown that all things are inherently connected to them (possibly even made up of them if only in part). This would extend the influence of Dust to such intangible concepts as gravity, polarity, luminescence (light lacking heat), etc.

If Dust as arguably the sole source of technology in the world of Remnant allows people to create such simple things as magnets and glow sticks (still waiting to see), then people having similar Semblances seems redundant as has been repeatedly stated. But at the same time, if Dust reacts to Aura, to souls, then perhaps it is indeed linked to life on Remnant and even Remnant itself. So then, in turn, it wouldn't make sense for Dust to not be able to do whatever a person's own semblance can do which would then make any and all semblances redundant. Yet still, they are likely a natural result of man's early experiments with Dust, going so far as to infuse it into their clothes or bodies.

If Semblance is a direct result of humans using Dust, then it makes sense that inevitably, people would exist whose own semblances allowed them to manipulate the elements originally associated with this mineral. Off-topic (sort of) in Final Fantasy VII, whose manipulation of magic via crystal-like spheres is similar to Remnant's use of Dust, the main characters have LIMIT Breaks, many of which are strongly connected to the materia they would normally use yet are not necessary (i.e. may not be equipped or even acquired) in order to perform said attack (i.e. Blade Beam and Finishing Touch are comparable to wind materia which does not even seem to exist in the game, Meteorain is seemingly a less powerful version of the Black "Meteor" materia which cannot even be used in the game, Water Kick, Dolphin Blow, all of Aeristh's limit breaks, Earth Rave, Stardust Ray, Cosmo Memory, Landscaper, Gauntlet, Cait Sith's summons from Slots, Beast Flare, Livewire, and Dragon which is uncannily similar to a summon). Point being, it's possible for people to exist whose abilities are inherently related to elements without granting them some OP ability or making Dust somehow redundant.

Of course, unlike Dust, Semblance was likely not "discovered" in quite the same way. Rather than initially using it as a means to an end, it was probably seen as a mutation. Jaune, at the least, goes to show that not everyone is versed in Aura and Semblance, so it's possible that not everyone has a semblance skill. So it's not as if semblance was created to bring balance to the world to forge an army of individuals who could combat those who were expert Dust-users. It's not as if Semblance and Dust have to be on par.

Glynda's semblance is obviously telekinesis as she can manipulate objects of any material (even Dust from the fight between her and Cinder). Pyrrha's allows her to levitate metals. Sun's allows him to create spectral clones. I would advocate those as being inherently related to Dust elements. Ren's symbol is a lotus and people have speculated his semblance may have something to do with plants (despite that Ruby's symbol is a scattering rose and her semblance is "speed" which may be related to wind Dust). I would argue that manipulating plants would be inherently connected to Dust-use. Nora's symbol has a lightning bolt in it, (obviously just a shoutout to Thor, but) without an in-show reference to lightning users especially those in Nora's family line, the symbol wouldn't make much sense if at the very least her semblance didn't have something to do with lightning.

It's doubtful that fire-Dust will grant ANYONE the ability to create weapons from thin air, so this, in turn, must be Cinder's semblance. Meanwhile, I think there are those whose semblances inherently augment their ability to use Dust (i.e. Weiss' glyphs). This further supports that people of Remnant could likely have semblances that are elemental in nature.

Stepping into plot territory, it's possible that Cinder's goal is to annihilate man's reliance on Dust as we step into a new era where more and more people are making regular and advanced use of their semblances. So far, Dust in the show has really only been used offensively in about three episodes. Meanwhile, it is still the world's primary source of energy for all of Remnant technology. So if the world is not using it in its natural state (thus for its original purpose one may say), then it makes some sort of sense to just be rid of it altogether. 