WMG / Rivals of Aether

The eighth and final character will be affiliated with ice.

• Think about the roster so far. There's four tribes with two characters apiece. Four of the eight straight up represent their tribe's element while the other three (since the eighth character hasn't been shown) seem to have a divergent on said element, like so:
  • Fire: Zetterburn
  • Smoke: Forsburn
  • Earth: Kragg
  • Nature: Maypul
  • Air: Wrastor
  • Thunder: Absa
  • Water: Orcane
  • So it'd only be natural that the second member of the Water tribe represents ice in some way, right?
    • Confirmed, with Etalus, the Glacier's Might.

For the story mode, each character's rival will be from their own kingdom/tribe.

• The characters have some sort of conflict or potential for conflict between them whether it be for personal or political reasons. This could fuel the rivalries that have been stated to be present in the story mode once it is released.
  • Zetterburn and Forsburn: Zetterburn sees Forsburn as a traitor, and Forsburn sees Zetterburn as an unwitting pawn to a corrupt nation.
  • Wrastor and Absa: Both were part of an alliance that fell apart due to disputes over how to handle aggression from another nation, and both seem to embody the spirit of their part of the alliance. Wrastor is aggressive and impulsive, while Absa is a Technical Pacifist.
  • Kragg and Maypul: Kragg is supposedly very loyal to his home, while Maypul is a bit more rebelleous. It's not much to go on but could result in disagreements.
  • Orcane now has Etalus, but we don't know just what his motives are.
    • Etalus could either be one of two things: a Knight Templar within the Water tribe who opposes Orcane's mischevious nature, stating that even if the tribe does call on him for help, he's still a criminal, or maybe a childhood friend of his, and their rival battle is a friendly sparring match.
  • Jossed as of the 1.0 update, where Absa and Etalus are completely absent from the story mode.

There will be a third set of characters

And they will fight with convection, metal, vapor, and sound.

• Clairen and Ranno represent the first two Fire and Water DLC fighters, respectively: Clairen can control fire and plasma, but is a plasma-sword duelist; while Ranno is a martial arts pacifist who uses poison and bubbles for combos and damage over time. Time will tell who will step up to fill the roles of Air and Earth.
• Sylvanos and Elliana are the Earth and Air DLC fighters, respectively. Sylvanos is the heart of the Aetherian forest run rampant, with control over plant life like Maypul, albeit with a more long-range playstyle. Elliana pilots a flying machine that can hover, and is prone to overheating. Her strong attacks can be used both in the air and on the ground and will cool off her mech. Normally, they vent off steam that lingers on the stage and deals continuous damage to opponents caught in it, but while the mech is overheating, they instead take the form of explosions with high knockback.

Hollow Knight will be the next Guest Character.

As a character who's associated with the Dark, he'd be the perfect foil to Ori. His gimmick could be utilizing his SOUL to pull off powerful Spells, including healing off damage. SOUL can be rebuilt by attacking with his Nail and hitting with Spells. His stage would be the "Colosseum of Fools", and feature the changing platforms from the game.

Alternatively, Hornet would be a good fit as well, and they could do some interesting things with her Needle.

Clairen is the descendant, if not offspring, of Forsburn and Claiyen

• After he is framed and escapes the Fire Empire, Forsburn is captured by, then inducted into the Smoke Clan; their leader is a black panther named Claiyen. The similarities in name and the fact that Clairen is a blank panther as well is a strong hint that she's probably related; and her control over fire and plasma, as well as her cloak, might be a connection to Forsburn.
  • Partially confirmed: in a recent podcast, Dan confirmed that Clairen is the granddaughter of Claiyen. Still no word on her grandfather, though.
  • Fully confirmed as of the first issue of Tales of Aether: Clarien is canonically the granddaughter of Forsburn and Claiyen.

Loxodont will eventually be the Final Boss.

• And he'll be an SNK Boss to make Tabuu, Galeem, and Dharkon proud (and a bit jealous).
  • Seemingly jossed in terms of the original game. No Story Mode updates have been released since its initial release, and as of the Definitive Edition, production of additional content seems to be over. Though it might subverted with 4 of workshop characters being playable later.

Zetterburn and Forsburn will be the deuteragonists of the upcoming comic series.

• Given how it's heavily implied that Clairen will be the main focus of it.
  • Jossed. The "Future Imperfect" arc focuses only on Clairen and her time period.

Future!Loxodont or one of his minions will travel back in time to stop Clairen's attempts to save the future.

• Beyond how the budding Rivals of Aether series is putting more of an emphasis on story, and with how Clairen is likely to be the focus of the four-issue mini-seeies, it would give any games a potential new fighter.

The Abyss Clones and Gatekeepers are of extraterrestrial origin.

More specifically, they crash-landed on Aether millennia prior a la Jenova, which is backed up by how the Aetherial Gates are in the middle of a bay— which could actually be a crater for all we know.

In Rivals 2, Hodan is either dead or Put on a Bus and Ranno has inherited his practices.

Rivals 2 promotional material has heavily associated Ranno with the "Hodojo" stage, implying it is his new home stage. The two characters are fairly similar in backstory—a monk and a sage respectively, both trained in martial arts and associated with water—so it's reasonable to think they know each other and Ranno took over Hodan's duties upon his disappearance.