RWBY: Reborn With A System -3 Faunus

Author: Ya know, most of us spend a lot of time talkin' about mankind versus Grimm, but technically, there is a third party in the mix: the Faunus.

In case you're not in the know, Faunus are a species on Remnant that appear to be human in just about every way... every way but one.

Each Faunus has a single animalistic trait, some more apparent than others. Ram horns, tiger claws, cat ears... I swear, on my Huntsman's license, I once saw a guy regrow his severed lizard tail. I swear. No amount of drinking can make you forget that pretty picture.

As far as everyone's aware, Faunus have been around as long as mankind, if not a little longer. History gets a little fuzzy past a certain point, but we do know that their kind and ours are completely compatible, from a... (slight stuttering) a biological standpoint. Take two wolf Faunus, and you'll get a little wolf cub kiddo. A wolf Faunus and a human also typically means that your little bundle of joy's teething days could get a little dicey. But if you take a wolf Faunus and a bull Faunus, for example, it's a complete roll of the dice. For all you know you could be cleaning up your son's... shedded snake skin.

Scientists are still scratching their heads when it comes to... well, a lot about the Faunus. But science isn't the real problem, it's how we all get along. Or in this case, how we don't.

Early man was scared to death of the Faunus, and honestly, it's not too hard to sympathize with that. Seeing something that looks like you and acts like you walk out of the forest and reveal a pair of fangs, can be a little... upsetting.

Like most things man doesn't understand, all sorts of rumors and stories surround the Faunus. People avoided them like the plague, pus.h.i.+ng them out of settlements and sometimes even hunting them down.

Man began to outnumber the Faunus, and the Faunus began to consider man nothing more than a hostile species.

These clashes between species were unavoidable, as land that was safe from the Grimm was in constant short supply. But it was the Grimm that brought humans and Faunus together for the first time.

A village in Sa.n.u.s fell under attack, and the only reason anyone survived, was because the humans and Faunus united against their common enemy. It was a step in the right direction, but it didn't fix everything.

Once humanity learned they weren't so different from the Faunus, they still used those differences as an excuse to exploit and alienate them. The treatment of the Faunus differed around the world, and things wouldn't improve much for them until the Great War: Vale and Vacuo against Mantle and Mistral. A war unlike anyone had ever seen, and when it was over, the world was desperate to find compromises that would ensure they'd never see the likes of it again.

Faunus were awarded equal rights as citizens of Remnant, and as an apology, they were given an entire continent of their own to do with as they pleased. There were some that saw this as fair and just, but many saw it for what it really was: a slap in the face from a nation of sore losers. And so Menagerie was born.

There are still Faunus all over the world, though the fair treatment they were promised varies in quality from place to place. But Menagerie will always be their safe haven.