Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-14138255-20140815002519/@comment-209421-20140822065621

MetallicArcher wrote: Well, while in series, faunus and humans have been referred as different species, the last livestream confirmed they can interbreed so it's possible their genetic differences are a more extreme version of the genetic markers you can find in different ethnicities of our world as a result of the isolation of different population groups.

I have only seen the x-men movies, not read the comics, but mutants would technically be a different species from humans. Like homo sapiens is a different species from homo erectus, right. Yet, mutants abd humans could reproduce, and, if I remember my secondary school biology right, during human evolution, it happened that members of consecutive links of the evolutionary chain of the human species interbreed, right?

Maybe the reason we have seen so little amount of faunus is because they are the equivalent to the x-men mutants and are a species who is only recently emerging into the world of Remnant. Though, one would think thaty would have mentioned if a human couple could randomly produce an faunus offspring.

The other maybe, which I find more likely, is that faunus and humans share one common immediate evolutionary ancestor, making them close enough as species to interbreed. It appears that the faunus population is less in number than the human either because their numbers effectively suffered a significant decrease as result of the Faunus War or most of them live outside of the kingdoms/not so rich areas we haven't seen.

The term coined by Magneto is Homo Superior. And yes, I would presume that there would be major traits of the X-men mutation theory involved in the Faunus. Why? Well, let's break down the X-gene mutant levels.

Omega-, Alpha- and Beta-level Mutants are all feared, and the hatred stems from fear. These levels are all typically humanoid, with very few, if any, external signs of their mutation. In the case of RWBY, these would be the human Hunters with unlocked Semblances - respected and highly skilled fighters with powers beyond the comprehension of those who see them in use.

HOWEVER, Delta- and Gamma-level mutants have more drastic, inhuman mutations, although they typically are no less powerful than the Alpha- and Beta-level mutants. In fact, some are marked as Omega level. In RWBY terms, these are your Faunus. Mistrusted and treated with suspicion, no matter what, even without their semblance.