User blog comment:Zathronas/Speculative author: Where are the Grimm?/@comment-5217560-20140915000437/@comment-24891101-20140917071540

Oh, I'm not denying that it's a light/dark issue, I'm merely pointing out that it is also construable, as I have since the first, as a man/nature conflict, and I contend that both schema should inform our understanding. We are not truly in disagreement save over one point: whether they live. To that, I argue that given that the Creatures of Grimm lack souls, but Man and beast possess them, as does an artificial lifeform, and that there exists technology which can quantify Aura, and therefore the soul, Grimm definitively lack souls, and are therefore sufficiently distinct from conventional life to warrant being referred to differently. To top it off, they are too persistent in attack, appear to be immortal, and disintegrate on death.

But to my larger point: Yes, the Grimm seek to destroy their opposites. Why? They lack souls, and thus seek to snuff them. They are indeed foreign entities, whether naturally arising or not, and it is their nature to do so. I do not argue that the Great Dichotomy is inapplicable to them, I readily and gladly admit that it is, and they are of the Dark, and are as much force of nature as the volcano, and Man itself, from the perception of other things. Whereas Man are capricious gods who reshape the land and kill at a whim, the Grimm are singular in purpose, not driven by a single will, or even many, but all in alignment because it is a simple fact of their existence, in the way a volcano is destructive, but in a more targeted way.

I do, however, deny that they are malevolent, at least in and of themselves, because as I have previously articulated, to be thus requires agency, which I believe they lack. This is so because the notion of agency bound tightly with the notion of free will, which is supplied by the soul, a thing they lack. Even animals have agency, to some extent. It is also closely linked with self-awareness, and introspection, which are also fundamentally animaferous traits, which I would contend are also required to be evil. I do believe they have some degree of intelligence, and cunning, and strategy.

My principal theory, which I have held since the beginning, is that they are indeed forces of nature, manifestations of a universe actively hostile to the existence of souls. Souls, and especially Man's souls, are anathema to the universe, and thus twisted parodies of nature exist to remove this. My other theory ties into the mysteries presented in the opening narration, as well as the name of the planet and the state of the moon, which involves a scifi backstory reveal, with the Grimm being a weapon system devised by long-departed alien intelligences. I readily admit there are flaws in my theories. I am also open to other well-presented theories, but shall naturally prefer my own.