Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-75.47.98.242-20161005051600/@comment-10390252-20161005094854

I'm guessing that Ozpin and Salem are siblings and possibly the survivors of the last time human civilisation was seriously reduced by the Grimm (possibly all the way to hunter-gatherer barbarism). They went in different directions hoping to solve the problem for good.


 * Ozpin went into self-imposed exile, vowing to have nothing to do with the world anymore. During his decades of isolation, he discovered the force that he refers to as 'magic' and became the wizard in the Maiden origin story. The Maidens' good nature and light decided that humanity's cause was not hopeless and he dedicated himself to rebuilding civilisation to the point where it could resist the Grimm indefinitely;


 * Salem was more active in her response to the annihilation of their civilisation; she decided to find some way to permanently neutralise the Grimm as a threat. She ruthlessly experimented on her own body, using dust tattoos and even dust injections and implants to alter her physiology and aura until the Grimm no longer responded to her as a threat. However, the process also irrevocably altered her fundamental essence and she lost a lot of her humanity. Salem is convinced that her 'Grimm Hybridisation' (as she calls it - how accurate this is is up to the reader to decide) is the future of humanity but she recogises that most people wouldn't even consider it. So, she's decided to use humanity's greed and evil side as a weapon to destroy civilisation and give the survivors no other option if they want a future.

Yes, they're eternally-lived so long as they avoid fatal injury; this was one of the lost medical discoveries of their now-extinct civilisation.