White Fang

The White Fang is a radical political and terrorist organization in Remnant, and is present as an antagonistic faction on RWBY. It is first mentioned in "Ruby Rose". Described as being a "once peaceful organization", the White Fang is reported in a newscast to have disrupted a Faunus civil rights protest.

Further comments in "Jaunedice, Pt.2" and "The Stray" confirm that the White Fang is a Faunus organization that uses violent means to counter the perceived and actual discrimination that Faunus receive from Humans.

It is described as having been in a bloody conflict with the Schnee Dust Company that has included theft, disappearances, murders, and sabotage of SDC activities.

Weiss Schnee claimed that the White Fang wants to wipe out humanity. Roman Torchwick reveals in the episode "Painting the Town..." that this is indeed the case, saying that their goals are to completely eliminate or subjugate humankind and establish a reign of Faunus supremacy, overthrowing human rule by destroying their government, military, and schools, collapsing the pillars of human society.

History


After the Faunus Rights Revolution, the White Fang was founded as a symbol of peace and unity between the Faunus and Humans. However, Humankind continued to discriminate the Faunus, prompting the White Fang to become the voice of the Faunus.

Initially, they took the classical forms of nonviolent political protest with such tactics as mass rallies and boycotts of organizations that discriminated against Faunus in any way.

Then, approximately five years before the present day, after fruitless attempts to be accepted by the Humans as equals, the leader of the White Fang stepped down and was replaced by a new leadership who didn't share the same belief in nonviolent protest. Under this new leadership, the White Fang adopted its current violent and more aggressive behavior. Among the direct actions organized were the firebombing of stores that refused to serve Faunus and the theft or sabotage of cargo trains originating from organizations that used Faunus labor. Most of the time, these cargo trains carried dust from the Schnee Dust Company.

Under its new leadership, the White Fang retaliated against the people and organizations who once treated them as lesser beings and slaves. Ironically, in an attempt to gain equality and make the Faunus race free from fear, the White Fang itself has become a cause of fear and hatred amongst Humans and Faunus alike. Sun Wukong reveals in "Black and White" that the White Fang's barbaric actions have made them unpopular even among Faunus, with the more moderate and open-minded members of the species seeing them as insane obstacles to true peace between the races. If some Humans now treat Faunus as equals, it is not out of any true respect, but only from their fear of the actions of the White Fang.

The Schnee Dust Company is a particular recent target of White Fang. In "The Shining Beacon", Blake Belladonna criticized the company, claiming it was notorious for its "controversial labor forces" and "questionable business partners". Weiss confirms in "Mountain Glenn" that her father's company is now morally gray.

In a speech to the Vale cell of the White Fang, the human criminal Roman Torchwick identified the current aims of the organization to be the complete destruction of human-dominated society with humans either 'locked away' (an obvious reference to the attempted exile of all Faunus to Menagerie that triggered the Faunus Rights Revolution) or exterminated. This would be achieved by destroying the three pillars of human society - the governments, the military, and the schools that train Huntsmen.

Activities


Prior to the leadership change, the White Fang was a peaceful organization, organizing and participating in peaceful protests. After the change, the group became a terrorist organization. Among the known crimes committed by the White Fang has been the murder of several SDC executives and the theft of an entire train car full of Dust. Additionally, White Fang is stated to have "disrupted" more peaceful Faunus rights activities, causing them to turn violent. The organization has committed arson, targeting shops that refuse to serve Faunus, stolen cargo from companies that use Faunus labor, and orchestrated other organized attacks.

As seen in the episode "Beginning of the End", Cinder Fall approached the organization in order to gain their support for her cause. Adam Taurus, a prominent leader of the group, declined her offer on the grounds that it was not in his interests to fight for a human cause. However, Cinder and her allies returned shortly thereafter, attacking the camp and forcing Adam to cooperate.

During the events of "Black and White", it is revealed that the White Fang and Roman have what Roman calls a "joint business venture". Despite Roman's and White Fang's prejudices against each other's species, they have decided to work together by providing each other with manpower and weapons. However, knowingly or unknowingly, the organization is, in fact, following the agenda of the mysterious Cinder Fall and her associates. When Roman's association with the group was formally revealed to their general membership during a rally, he is initially met with skepticism and outright anger, but he manages to win them over by pointing out their mutual enemies among the hierarchies of power within the Kingdoms and his associates' ability to provide them with the weapons they need to further their cause.

The attempted Dust heist in "Black and White" also demonstrates the degree to which White Fang has developed as a powerful paramilitary organization in the five years since it has begun openly espousing a military solution to the issue of Faunus discrimination. Even the organization's Vale cell has at least five Bullheads available, enough to transport numerous troops and several heavy containers of Dust.

Unlike the normal civilian models, at least three of these aircraft were equipped with a fast-firing cannon under the nose. Additionally, each aircraft carried a dismount squad of at least five fighters, trained in airborne assault tactics and equipped with rifle-like weapons and swords. These demonstrate the organization's significant non-governmental military power.

Their first big move was a massive attack on Vale, which started with a slew of Dust robberies happening over several months. Cinder Fall uploaded a program to the Cross Continental Transmit System in Vale to help with the plan. In "No Brakes", the stolen Dust was revealed to have been loaded onto a train, which would be purposely blown up in the tunnels of Mountain Glenn to provide openings for the Grimm to enter Vale, ending in the train destroying the barricade to the city and the Grimm hordes infesting the city. Though the plot was not executed completely due to team RWBY having the train leave a few days before Cinder's program activates, Roman's behavior suggests that he allowed himself to fail on purpose to salvage the plan, and that it is still underway.

The second big move was a massive attack on Beacon Academy.

Members


Blake is known to be a former member of White Fang. Adam Taurus is a high ranking member of the organization. Adam himself states that the White Fang will listen to his directives even if they may be apprehensive on further cooperation with Cinder and her associates.

Blake was clearly disturbed at the thought of murdering the train's crew, but she still fought to prevent the shipment from reaching its destination. She cut it loose from its locomotive so that the cargo could be stolen, but she left the train soon after.

Blake later tells Weiss that she regards the White Fang's members as "misguided". Although she clearly still espouses the movement's core beliefs, it is also clear that she no longer agrees with the methods it is using to achieve its ends, and she would prefer to gain equality through other means that do not require violence.

It is revealed that the White Fang's former leader advocated peaceful protests and rallies, but the new leader has a new way of thinking and replaced the protests with organized attacks, earning organization's reputation as a terrorist faction. Blake cites this as the main reason she left.

In "Best Day Ever", Emerald Sustrai reveals that the White Fang is disappointed in Tukson's abandoning of the organization, suggesting that leaving the organization is punishable by death.

As a symbol of how humanity has chosen to make monsters out of the Faunus, members of the White Fang chose to don the faces of actual monsters in the form of Grimm Masks.

Weaponry and Abilities


Certain members such as the likes of Adam Taurus and Blake Belladonna are shown to be extremely skilled operatives with unique weaponry. The movement's ordinary fighters are armed with pistols, rifles and swords and do not seem to be a match for a skilled Huntsman or Huntress.

However, they are seen to be able to acrobatically deploy from Bullhead VTOLs and land on their feet, suggesting that they are quite agile and are trained in low-altitude airborne deployment. They also have acquired access to Atlesian Paladin-290 mech-suits prototypes, captured from an Atlas cargo shipment by Roman Torchwick and his associates at some point, and large-scale electronic bombs.

Trivia

 * The White Fang shares its name with a novel written by Jack London, as well as the character the novel is named after. The novel follows the perspective of White Fang, a wolfdog, as he sees the world of Humans and endures the hardships it brings, which turn him savage. By the end of the novel, White Fang is tamed by a man named Weedon Scott, and his savage nature turns into a more peaceful one, until he eventually saves Scott's life.
 * Although the general attitude of the organization appears to show that they think very little of Human life, they still appear to have a strong loyalty to Faunus. This is demonstrated in "Black and White" when Blake interrupts their robbery and threatens Roman. Despite his obvious authority over them, when Blake shows them that she is a Faunus and refers to them as "brothers of the White Fang", they lowered their weapons and were reluctant to attack. This is likely due to the fact their movement is intended to benefit Faunus, despite the group being unpopular even among them.