#hivemind42

Oh, certainly! I imagine that micro apartments would be extremely prevalent in cities with high population densities, like Remnant’s capitals. The quality of such apartments though might be prone to varying, based on factors like the average income level, public transport, access to communal open spaces, and urban planning.

An apartment that looks like any one of these—

A micro apartment with concealed storage built into the stairs and partitions. | Source: Treehugger.

—while compact and aesthetically pleasing, might not be ideal for more than one or two people max. I remember reading somewhere that the average person requires something like 400 ft2, so a space like this would probably be ill-suited for larger families/groups.

I’m also thinking of Mantle—which experienced a massive influx of immigrants seeking work (particularly Faunus)—and how the city might have gone about housing them. The inverse of this would be micro apartments of consistently lower quality, advertised to laborers. Kind of like the back-to-back terraced houses of the UK that cropped up in factory towns. I could see exploitative scenarios emerging in which cheaply-constructed micro apartments are rented out to lower-income blue-collar families. Sanitation would rapidly become an issue, too, especially if landlords are disregarding things like building codes and occupancy limits, and packing in as many tenants as they can.

TL;DR - Micro apartments would be insanely practical and effective for Remnant’s cities, provided that the municipal government didn’t skimp on quality, and that the cities themselves are designed around that kind of architecture.

On a semi-related note, I think it’s worth pointing out that Remnant’s urban planning (and by extension, architecture) isn’t beholden to our concept of what cities “should” look like. If we’re treating space as a resource that’s both valuable and scarce, then it’s likely that building construction would be heavily influenced by a need to optimize it.

How about a city that looks something like this?

The Urban Condenser, by Yunheng Fan, Baoying Liu, Rongwei Gao, and Junliang Liu. | Source: eVolo 2022 Skyscraper Competition.

Or perhaps a coastal city adapted to storm surges?

The Tsunami Park Skyscraper, by Wang Jue, Zhang Qian, Zhang Changsheng, Li Muchun, and Xu Jing. | Source: eVolo 2022 Skyscraper Competition.

What about a city built into the side of a waterfall?

The Vertical Tidal Settlement, by Xiangyu Zhang, Jingwei Tang, Qiuyuan Yang, Linxiao Li, and Pengfei Li. | Source: eVolo 2020 Skyscraper Competition.

Or pyramid-like megacities that are highly defensible?

Pyramids: Origin Of The First Modern Cities, by Adam Fernandez. | Source: eVolo 2021 Skyscraper Competition.

Say what you will about Mistral and Atlas (I know I have), but there’s actually a lot of cool potential for their respective cities’ layouts, had the creators of the show put just a little more thought into them. Atlas being suspended in the air is actually a rather clever way to optimize space on an otherwise flat tundra. And Mistral being built across two mountains opens up a lot of possibilities for architecture that’s either built into the side of (or directly within) the cliffs. (And that's not even getting into all of the types of public transit that a mountaintop city would make use of, like gondolas or ziplines.)

These ideas aren't hypothetical, either! There are already real-world places integrated into mountains, like plenty of Greek and Turkish monasteries. The settlements of Uçhisar, Derinkuyu, and Göreme in the Cappadocia region of Turkey are literally famous for it. If there’s a point I’m trying to make, it’s that the unique constraints put on Remnant’s city planning have the potential for some really out-there architecture. You could have multi-level cities with distinct tiers connected by a network of skyways, or cities that are completely underwater. You could have a tree fort city built into the canopies of giant redwoods, or entirely-subterranean Erebor-like cities.

For the moment, SEWs are one of those topics I’m reluctant to elaborate on. Partly for spoiler reasons, partly because I’m still developing them. I have some details I need to iron out before I’m satisfied with the changes I’ve made.

That being said…

Silver eyes aren’t just tied to an ability. They’re an indicator of something. They are the fossils of footprints left behind by something long ago, its impression on the world still enduring. Seen, but not understood for what it truly is.

[one quick Google search later]

As I understand it, Kowloon’s history was largely shaped by the tug-o-war between Nationalist China and the British Empire. The inability of either entity to enforce laws within the city meant that it was largely self-governed by the refugees that inhabited it (and by the various triads, who maintained a stranglehold over the city’s gambling parlours, brothels, and opium dens between the 1950s and 1970s).

The city’s culture has been repeatedly described as “anarchic urbanism,” romanticized through the lens of a dystopic identity: unsanitary living conditions, homes that frequently lacked utilities, buildings so tall that the alleys never glimpsed sunlight…

…yet at the same time, the communities living there were uncommonly close. The vast majority of the residents had nothing to do with the crime in the city, and lived their lives in close solidarity with their neighbors and relatives. To endure various hardships, they relied on reciprocal altruism.

Now that I think about it, Kowloon reminds me a lot of Zaun from Arcane: League of Legends.

Digression aside, for a city like this to exist in Remnant, you’d have to replicate circumstances similar to those of its real-life counterpart. In this case, having the city be a byproduct of violent and bureaucratic colonialism, with little municipal oversight. Other driving factors might include a lack of access to important resources (clean water, healthcare), and the inhabitants of the city sharing some sort of common identity (be they displaced refugees, members of a marginalized community, and so on). The culture that the city’s inhabitants bring with them would also inform the city’s identity, as it evolved and adapted over time.

Seeing as how Vale and Mistral fought over land on Eastern Sanus, it seems reasonable that territorial disputes could lead to the same outcome.

However.

Oh, man, this is such a good ask. I’ve often wondered the same myself, in regards to Faunus traits, and whether or not some of those traits could be the source of medical breakthroughs. Let me start by addressing each question separately, since there’s a lot to unpack here; not just in regards to lore/worldbuilding, but from a meta/production perspective, too.

With how the one animal trait works with these people shouldn’t be possible for a Faunus to be born with the animal trait to literally change their biological sex since that is a legit ability that exists in the animal kingdom?

Sequential and simultaneous hermaphroditism are certainly plausible under the parameters that CRWBY established for the Faunus. Sequential hermaphroditism (changing from one sex to another) occurs primarily in teleost fish, like wrasses and groupers. Simultaneous hermaphroditism (producing two types of gametes at the same time) is fairly commonplace in terrestrial and marine gastropods, like sea slugs and land snails. We know that neither is beyond the realm of possibility, as Faunus with caudal fins exist in Menagerie. And while I’m not sure about the canonicity of the Justice League crossover comics, there is, technically, a snail Faunus with eyestalks.

Now that I’m thinking about it, there are plenty of other traits that wouldn’t be off-limits besides biological sex. There are lots of novel adaptations in the animal kingdom that RWBY’s Faunus could have under this framework:

A reticulorumen for digesting cellulose-dense food, like grasses, which humans can’t normally eat.

Antifreeze proteins which either prevent your body fluids from freezing, or allow your body to survive them freezing over.

Magnetoreception like that seen in birds, potentially due to a cryptochrome protein found in their eyes, which helps them navigate and form internal regional maps.

All of this begs a very important question—if these are all theoretically possible for Faunus to have, then why don’t we see them in the canon?

And I think the answer to that might be twofold.

Notice that all of the traits I listed aren’t overtly visible. Now, I have no proof of this beyond a shrewd suspicion, but I think the reason why RWBY gravitates toward traits like horns, tails, and the like is because they’re more “phenotypical,” so to speak. RWBY is a visual media. Huge chunks of its story are told through action. It makes sense that the writers would want their Faunus to have “flashier” traits which visibly stand out, and that can be used in a combat setting. As cool as it would be to have a Faunus based on a shorthorn sculpin with freeze-resistant properties, I doubt the show would ever implement it. More’s the pity, because I think the idea of “invisible” Faunus traits—in addition to being really fucking cool—could be used to talk about passing.

Which brings me to the second reason why RWBY might’ve omitted Faunus with non-phenotypic traits (including sex-changing): The Discourse™.

There’s no getting around the fact that Faunus with sex-changing abilities or multi-sex characteristics would be inherently coded as trans or intersex.

In media, depicting non-endosex and non-cisgender people as inhuman has been a staple for decades. It’s a well-established trope that otherizes two vulnerable marginalized communities, by representing them through the lens of something alien or robotic or monstrous. I could be here for hours deconstructing the lasting harm those tropes have caused.

On the other hand:

Reclaiming slurs and traditionally-offensive depictions of minorities is practically a pastime for us. It’s a way to take back power from an oppressor. Damn right I’m a monster, and don’t you forget it, because I bite.

RWBY has never once shied away from the fact that Faunus aren’t humans. Granted, we don’t know if they’re two different species, or if Faunus are a distinct race, or if Faunus traits represent a handful of dominant genes that can be inherited by any hominid, as demonstrated by the fact that both groups can reproduce and have fertile offspring.

(Hell, maybe Faunus aren’t some distinct entity. Maybe the gene for retractable claws is just a stigmatized trait that got arbitrarily lumped in with other stigmatized traits, and humans in this universe are individuals which don’t have those genes. Or maybe they carry a recessive genetic mutation that masks “Faunus traits.” It could be that in this setting, humans are the derivative outliers, not the Faunus.)

Speculation aside, this presents us with a dilemma: Do we risk coding Faunus (a canonically non-human group) as trans or intersex, and further reinforce the damage done by those tropes? Or do we have Faunus that can switch between sperm and ova production, or Faunus with two sets of genitalia, and reclaim those depictions on our own terms?

In an ideal world, you would do both. You would have human characters that are intersex or trans, alongside Faunus with non-endosex traits. You could even go a step further and have a Faunus whose trait is wings who also happens to be trans.

But here’s the kicker: The show has a precedent of mishandling real-world issues, like racism and disability. Even though plenty of the VAs and animators are queer (like Josh Grelle and Kdin Jenzen), the writing has been primarily handled by a pair of cishet white guys.

Given Rooster Teeth’s track record, I wouldn’t want them going anywhere near this topic.

So, is it possible that we could see a Faunus trait pertaining to their biological sex? Absolutely. But given the format of the show, and the history of the people writing the show, I doubt we ever will.

I also couldn't help but think how the faunus could be a potential source of medical miracles and that some expert literally studied the hypothetical person I mentioned and made a means to make sex change easy.

I would extend this question to not just biological sex, but other Faunus traits, too.

Maybe a Faunus with antifreeze proteins could hold the potential to improving cryosurgery, or lengthening the shelf life of perishable goods. Maybe a Faunus with venom (like the Gila monster) mimics hormones that could be used in treating diabetes. Maybe a Faunus with crocodilian-like white blood cells could lead to an entirely new class of infection-fighting drugs.

Of course, that means discussing the downside to this revelation: the medical exploitation of Faunus.

In 1951, cervical cancer cells were taken from thirty-one-year-old Henrietta Lacks, a black woman admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital. At the time, it was routine for doctors to take tissue samples without their patient’s consent. The hospital was the only one in the Baltimore area where POC could receive free healthcare. This created a scenario in which non-white patients could be turned into research subjects without their permission.

The cells that were extracted from Henrietta Lacks were cultured into the first immortal cell line, known today as HeLa, which has since been sold to labs for virology, cancer research, genetics research, and space microbiology.

Given the fairly obvious parallels between Faunus and other minority groups (particularly in the United States), it stands to reason that a lack of regulatory oversight—combined with systematic racism and profit-motivated labs—could lead to near-identical scenarios.

If RWBY’s worldbuilding wanted to explore these ideas, it would have an obligation to talk about the intersectionality of racism, autonomy and consent, and medical exploitation.

Hiya! I think I found the video you’re referring to. This one, right?

For those who aren’t familiar with this idea, it’s called the feasting hypothesis, proposed by archeologist Brian Hayden. It’s a pretty sound explanation for why cereal-domestication would’ve driven Neolithic hunter-gatherers away from a nomadic lifestyle.

See, grain production is extremely labor-intensive. The work involved (gathering, winnowing, husking, and grinding) relative to the number of edible products derived from it would have needed to be worth the hassle to those early agrarian societies. Otherwise, why bother with switching over to a sedentary lifestyle that depended on a diet with decreased food diversity?

Alcohol as an explanation justifies that shift. The early consumption of fermented drinks is strongly correlated with festivals, holidays, celebrations, and feasts the world over. Today, it’s one of the most-widely used recreational drugs because of just how good it is at inducing euphoria and reducing anxiety. And it’s addictive, too. It’s no wonder that our ancestors went through all that effort to farm grain.

There’s a biological basis for this hypothesis, too. A random genetic mutation in a digestive enzyme (ADH4), acquired in our recent primate ancestors, made it 40 times better at digesting ethanol. It allowed early primates to scavenge fruits from the forest floor without becoming sick from the adverse effects of fermentation. Our sense of taste might have also contributed to our love of alcohol. Hominids lost the ability to produce their own vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, so it’s thought that our perception of sour evolved to compensate. Foods that are rich in vitamin C are often sour-tasting—including alcohol. The sour flavor of fermented drinks might have predisposed us to enjoying alcohol by virtue of it signaling to early hominids that it was an important source of an essential nutrient. Fermentation can also be thought of as a form of pre-digestion—as in, microbes begin breaking down organic matter, and thus reduce the metabolic cost of digesting food in our guts. The existence of fermented dishes around the world (kimchi, yogurt, pickled cucumbers, hákarl) reinforces its importance.

Once people made the jump from foraging to farming, civilization as we know it began to exist.

Agriculture requires land usage, which in turn means having to manage the land. Crops need to be watered, which means inventing irrigation. Excess production of grains means building architecture for storing them, like silos. Surplus product can then be used for trade. Commerce requires having a system in place for regulating the market, which leads to the development of government. Protecting those resources (and the people who make them) requires a military. And so on.

Granted, the production of grains (and by extension, alcohol) isn't the sole driving factor for complex societies, but it is undoubtedly an important one. As Hayden puts it, “It's not that drinking and brewing by itself helped start cultivation, it's this context of feasts that links beer and the emergence of complex societies.” Alcohol wasn’t just valued for its psychological effects—the energy, resources, and time that went into making it would have made it a status symbol. Its inclusion in cultural events, like holidays, would have helped build and reinforce social bonds and support networks.

With all of that in mind, it begs the question—how would cultivation of grains, and production of alcohol, have affected Remnant? Would it have the same measurable impact as it did in our world?

Well, assuming that humans in RWBY are similar to IRL humans, and not a race of convergently-derived squid-people, it’s safe to assume that alcohol benefits them the same way it benefits us. It’s a feel-good drink that helps you relax and conveniently forget about the monsters hunting you on a 24/7 basis. Ancient societies on Remnant would have probably gravitated toward alcohol consumption just for this reason alone.

But—and this is an important but—grain production requires arable land; abundant, fertile soil. People on Remnant are limited in where they can live because the Grimm restrict their expansion to a handful of defensible places. Canonically, those places are either mountain ranges (Vale, Mistral), tundra (Atlas), or deserts (Vacuo). None of which are terribly convenient for growing cereal crops.

It’s not unreasonable to assume that, based on RWBY’s worldbuilding premise, people on Remnant might not always have access to the climates or geography conducive to grain-farming.

This leaves us with a few interesting questions:

Would people on Remnant have farmed alternative crops that don’t require the same amount of land usage?

Would alcohols derived from grains be disproportionately uncommon, compared to beverages like cider, mead, and pulque, which come from different sources?

Would terraced farming, paddies, and andenes be more common than open fields, due to many of Remnant’s societies being concentrated around mountains?

What if people found ways to integrate Dust into their agriculture, in order to optimize space? Like using Gravity Dust to create levitating gardens, which would allow people to farm vertically, and free up land for other purposes?

Because nomadic groups still exist on Remnant (like Kenyte and the Branwen Tribe), is it possible that these groups didn’t develop agriculture? In which case, perhaps they acquire alcoholic beverages through trade with sedentary populations, or they steal them from their neighbors.

Given the existence of Faunus with traits like caudal fins, maybe people developed technology for farming underwater?

Sorry to say that for now, silver-eyed warriors are strictly off-limits. They're one of the few spoiler topics that I refuse to clarify.

Oh, no worries. I’m not bothered. A comparison to A:TLA was always inevitable, no matter what I did to try and differentiate Ozma and his hosts.

I knew from the onset that I wasn’t going to do the “soul merge,” in no small part due to how vague it is in the canon. That, and I was never a fan of the whole “host’s personality gets devoured until the only thing that remains is Ozma.” Great for a story that deals with existential dread and consciousness, but that’s not this story.

If I wanted to be pedantic, I’d argue that Ozma’s soul doesn’t technically reincarnate so much as it goes couch surfing between hosts. It’s why I used the Yugi Moto/Pharaoh comparison instead of the Avatar; Ozma isn’t the person doing the actual living and dying. He just anchors himself to a new “vessel” each time his host’s body expires.

His hosts becoming bound to him once they die has to do with the specific nature of his curse. Basically, it turns Ozma’s soul into a phylactery.

I haven’t seen it yet, actually! I’ll blame that partly on the 23K word fic I’ve been writing for the last two weeks (which I finally finished, thank goodness).

As for the other reason…

I’m sorry, but I can’t get past how creepy the animation looks. What’s up with those weird rings in her eyes? Why are her pupils so tiny?

Was this the look they were going for?

If that was the intention, then I’m sorry to tell you this, RWBY, but Hellsing Ultimate did it better. And just for context, this anime aired between 2006 and 2012.

Aesthetic quibbles aside, I’m still not entirely sure what to make of Ice Queendom. Is it a spin-off? A reboot? Like, why does it exist? If its sole purpose is to retell the major story beats of the original show (with a few characters and subplots added/subtracted to the story), then what, exactly, is the point?

I’ll have to check it out eventually, if only so I can give an opinion that isn’t just me ranting about how ugly it looks. Truth be told, I’m not excited by the prospect. (To say nothing of the recent V9 trailer, and the sheer dread I felt when I realized I’d have to watch it for the purpose of this blog.) I’m sorry to say that I haven’t heard anything about this new Grimm, so I can’t answer your question just yet. If this really is a case of Grimm being able to pass along illnesses, though, it kinda feels too little, too late. I would have genuinely loved the show exploring a concept like this—but from the onset, not as an afterthought shoehorned into some weird hybrid off-shoot series.