#specific semblance article

With training and effort, a Schnee learns how to use their glyphs to manifest familiar-type constructs. Each kind of familiar results in a unique form of summoning glyph, which could give away which beast a Schnee is about to call forth.

The familiar may have almost any form, but the Schnee is limited to the shapes of past enemies defeated only by pushing themselves to their limits, and thus far, Schnee have only displayed the ability to manifest the forms of fallen foes. The reasons why are not yet (and may never be) clear, and might be purely psychological. Weiss Schnee summons the form of the Arma Gigas she defeated rather than the Geist which possessed the armor.

No Schnee has yet been witnessed summoning a familiar based on a robot, natural beast, or other human being; only Grimm.

The Schnee is easily able to summon their familiars at much smaller-than-life sizes, even producing toy-sized manifestations of giant Grimm. Winter Schnee once weaponized a swarm of small Nevermores, which might have been an application of this ability together with a skill to summon many copies of the same beast.

No Schnee has been observed to conjure a familiar larger than the original foe, and summoning the shades of giant enemies at their full size takes much longer than summoning smaller or miniaturized servants. Presumably, larger familiars require more effort to summon and maintain than smaller ones.

The Schnee must maintain at least some level of effort to keep a familiar from fading away, and a sufficient shock can interrupt a summoning or dispel a manifested familiar. Winter needed to remain still and focused on nothing else to conjure her swarm of familiars, and being forced to dodge also forced her to stop summoning, as well as costing her the Nevermores already present. The farther Weiss sent her Lancer Queen from her position, the more she seemed to need to concentrate on keeping it extant under Ruby’s feet.

Further, the more a Schnee focuses on their familiar, the easier they find it to assist the familiar with the other applications of the Schnee Semblance. With almost no practice using a successful summon, Weiss not only provide glyphs for it to use as platforms and catapults, she could make her Arma Gigas simply teleport between glyphs, apparently using the same method of sympathetic transfer which allows a Schnee to channel the effects of Dust through one glyph and out another. Perhaps a Schnee could even use a familiar as a sympathetic medium for distant Dust casting.

It is unclear where Schnee familiars fall on the scale of dependence on or independence from their master’s control. At the Battle of Beacon, Weiss seemed surprised when her Arma Gigas’s glyph appeared, as if it was responding to her desires all on its own rather than answering a conscious summons, and she did not expect it to block the Paladin’s strike. At her father’s charity event, in response to her father’s manhandling, Weiss accidentally summoned a Boarbatusk that attempted to kill a woman Weiss found distasteful.

Winter’s Beowolf acts like a pet dog that seeks out her caress, and Weiss’s Arma Gigas displays mannerisms benefiting a fairy tale knight which are totally unlike the behaviors of a true Grimm. Clearly, even if Schnee familiars are completely independent of their master’s control, their natures are influenced by the desires of their summoners.

It is unclear whether a Schnee can see through a familiar’s eyes or read their minds, or whether a familiar can read its master’s mind or else operates on a limited understanding of what its master wanted when summoning it.

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onward to my sub-index on canonical Semblances

onward to my sub-index on familiar-type Semblances

onward to my Semblance super-index

Coco's Semblance is the power to achieve greater output from Dust than possible for anyone else.

She primarily uses this ability to enhance the muzzle velocity of her gun's bullets by super-charging the Dust propellant of the rounds, creating such a powerful recoil that she needs to exert even greater strength in her arms to control her rotary cannon, Gianduja.

When the propellant of her rounds is Gravity Dust, as it was during her Initiation into Beacon, she can enhance its power to the point that she could generate a zero-gravity effect on herself to briefly arrest and then slow her fall, and the Dust still had enough power left over to expel the bullets hard enough to shred the landscape below her.

Furthermore, she can make unique use of rounds with Dust-tipped bullets which are customized to contain too little Dust to explode upon impact. After the bullets penetrate her targets, she ignites them at a distance with her Aura, using her Semblance to uniquely magnify the power of the internal explosions. (If the bullets fail to penetrate, she can at least cause them to explode upon her target’s hide to inflict more surface damage.)

She used a variation of this technique as a later part of her landing strategy during Beacon’s Initiation, creating an explosion on the ground beneath her so that the shockwave would further arrest her gravity-reduced fall.

Curiously for such a clothes-loving character, Coco does not employ this Semblance with Dust-woven apparel, nor does she attempt to work with any variety of raw Dust in any form. She relies almost entirely on her ammunition to define the effects she is capable of conjuring.

Given how her weapon seems to feature only one ammo drum, and how unwise it would be to mix a variety of different rounds into the same drum, it would seem wise for her to eventually invest in some kind of back-up option: Perhaps an article of clothing or at least a side-arm handgun, either one loaded with Dust radically different from the rounds of her cannon.

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Fox expanded his Semblance beyond the intelligence-type when he learned how to establish psychic connections with others, through which he can convey his thoughts like speech, and through which others can reply in kind. Others cannot communicate with him through this method until he establishes such a connection, and he cannot sense their desire for a connection.

But Fox can establish a network between multiple individuals so that each can directly communicate with everyone else in the network, without Fox needing to speak for them.

In some ways, this ability is redundant with the use of radio-sets, except for its vulnerability to total failure if Fox dies or his Aura breaks. However, it is also invulnerable to eavesdropping, electromagnetic interference, and hardware damage or loss, and spies can be fooled into thinking the lack of headsets and verbal speech means Team CFVY aren't in the middle of furious battle-planning.

It is precisely to preserve this advantage that Team CFVY keeps Fox’s Semblance a secret from anyone outside of their small circle of friends, and Fox tries to be circumspect about using it in public.

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Fox's intelligence-type Semblance allows him to sense the minds of other living creatures, whether man or beast. Grimm don't even register as beasts to his sixth sense, but instead as voids even emptier of thought than inanimate matter. Fox has incredible range with this Semblance, being able to recognize the presence of humans miles away from his location, and recognizing any individuals even at that range if he's sufficiently familiar with them.

Though totally blind since birth, Fox perceives minds as lights. People's lights seem dim to him when they're barely conscious, flickering when they struggle to remain alert, blotted with darkness when afraid for themselves, and burning brightest apparently when the person is most focused on protecting others. (If he knew what colors looked like, would he perceive this light as silver?)

This sixth sense is separate from his ability to sense and measure the Auras of others, as Coco recognizes that as an advanced technique universally available to any huntsman. Though it stands to reason that Fox's Semblance might make it easier for him to practice such a technique.

Fox can't read minds except for the surface thoughts of people consumed by overwhelming emotions, when their mouths are already shouting what is on their minds anyway. But he can offer others a way to silently speak their minds to him.

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Edward's Semblance allows him to hinder or completely block anyone in his immediate area from using their own Semblances, for as long as he puts in the effort. There is no warning that he is using his Semblance until someone notices their Semblance is failing, and even then there is no sign that he is the one responsible.

Edward’s Semblance is completely unavoidable within his range, and suppressing multiple people requires no more effort than suppressing just one. Sadly, his allies are affected as well, but fortunately no one suffers any lasting affliction after he stops suppressing them.

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Based purely on this Semblance, I believe Edward earned his fortune by being highly-demanded for hunting rogue huntsmen and super-criminals. He must have taken his fair share of Grimm-extermination contracts, but the Kingdom of Vale surely went to him first when the authorities needed help capturing any figures like Raven Branwen and Marcus Black.

Indeed, I enjoy imagining him going after Marcus Black. How would Marcus have felt to have his “bring others down to my level” Semblance taken away, thus bringing him down to someone else's level? Someone who has just as much experience fighting murderers as the murderer had experience murdering huntsmen. Warms my heart.

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My headcanon:

Marcus Black’s Semblance offered him no power except for the ability to deny others the ability to use their own Semblances. The exact mechanism is unclear, save that it is clearly not an effect that Marcus needed any effort to maintain, since it apparently did not end when he slept, and which definitely persists even after he died. This suggests the effect mutilated a part of someone else’s soul, like cutting off an arm or leg. Or perhaps the wound might prove less permanent.

Marcus made sure his victims never found out, since he murdered them immediately after targeting them. They died, ambushed and alone, in a time and place they would not expect to fight, confused and panicked by the loss of their Semblance, unaccustomed to fighting without it, and faced with an opponent whose entire fighting style revolved entirely around killing disoriented human victims more accustomed to fighting Grimm than other humans.

Thus Marcus made a professional career of hunting and killing other human beings, even mighty huntsmen. Perhaps especially huntsmen, as a way of reinforcing a superiority complex against those who relied upon Semblances to fight as powerful warriors, as well as to ignore an inferiority complex for lacking his own wondrous and heroic power.

Backed by the pride of a lifetime spent dragging huntsmen down to his level and killing them with experience, it’s no wonder that Marcus might convince himself that his son’s Semblance would only become a crutch that would prevent Mercury from attaining true skill. Because that would be easier to think than admitting he envied his son for having a Semblance like the hero Marcus believed he never could have been.

Certainly easier to admit than the fact that neutralizing his son’s Semblance would deprive Mercury of the ability to defend himself from beatings disguised as training sessions, or the power to flee to freedom. Also the fact that Marcus could lie about having the power to return his son’s Semblance at any time, thus giving his abuse victim a reason to stay rather than run away, and obey rather than rebel.

I admit that there is another possibility for Marcus’s Semblance, but it doesn’t seem very consistent with the facts.

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My headcanon:

Mercury’s Semblance gave him wings on his ankles, which allowed him to take to the skies like a bird.

For Marcus Black, whose Semblance could do nothing but cripple the Semblances of others, his son’s new Semblance presented a threat to his ability to maintain dominance and a way for Mercury to escape. So he cut off Mercury’s wings and claimed that he could give them back at any time so long as Mercury remained, obeyed, and did not try to kill his father.

In the very hour of Mercury’s greatest self-actualization, empowerment, freedom, and unfettered joy, his father violated him worse than ever before, pulling him from the skies into the deepest abyss of pain, fear, despair, and slavery.

But Mercury persevered and found a way to rebel. Denied his wings, he responded by using his gun-boots and Wind Rounds to return to the sky as best he could. When his finally got his Semblance back, these skills could only improve his aerial mobility and dominance of the skies.

This filled Marcus with fear, together with one other thing: Marcus knew he could not give his son’s Semblance back, but he had never maimed the soul of someone and allowed them to live. Would his son’s soul heal and recover on its own? His son might reclaim his wings and fly away while he slept, and even if not, Mercury would be prepared to avoid a second attack from Marcus’s Semblance.

But would Mercury’s Semblance work if he no longer had his own legs? Marcus decided to see.

After having his legs amputated and replaced against his will, and then killing his father with no resulting return of his Semblance, Mercury refuses to hope for recovery. Or at least fears to admit it.

Perhaps that miracle finally occurring might finally inspire him to fly away from the cycle of abuse that traps him.

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This extremely passive Semblance does nothing but improve the Aura’s ability to heal injuries.

This offers only a minor benefit in combat, since anyone with competent skill at armoring themselves with Aura will almost never suffer any real injury until their Aura breaks, and this is not one of the rare Semblances which can work without Aura.

However, while they still have enough Aura, they will effortlessly heal all of the minor aches and pains that combatants normally suffer even after their Auras reduce damage. Normally, fighters continue to lose Aura after taking hits as their souls work to repair that damage, and until it finishes the pain clouds their concentration, hindering the rate at which they can focus and recover their Aura in battle. Someone with this Semblance has no such concerns, as they can effortlessly and instantly heal such minor distractions while costing them practically nothing.

Additionally, recuperating major injuries is more successful than what should otherwise be possible. Given enough time, scars disappear, broken bones pull themselves back into alignment, and even lost limbs and organs will regenerate.

But the full power of this Semblance didn’t become clear until the subject was pushing 80 years of age and still didn’t look a day over 30. This Semblance makes healing the body so easy, it slows or even completely arrests the decaying process of old age.

This extended lifespan would allow one with this Semblance to acquire levels of experience and skill known only to the Wizard.

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