The Brother Gods were actually Forerunners who abducted (or cloned) ancient humans from Earth to Remnant over 100 millennia ago and essentially did whatever genetic modifications to them to give them Aura and Semblances; also they may have altered their memories to make them think the Brothers created them.
- In the Action Prologue, it is stated that Remnant is a Forerunner Shield World, implying that the Forerunners had some very heavy involvement in Remnant's history over 100,000 years ago (and for whatever reason Ozpin and Salem have no idea or memory of this).
- One of Master Chief's more disturbing theories as to why there are humans on Remnant is, quote, "At some point in humanity’s history, individuals were taken from Earth and transferred onto this planet. Do it early enough, they could go on a completely different trajectory than our own, thus making them alien in all but name", end quote.
- The Forerunner Cartographer on Peponi had not only Remnant marked on it but it also showed it had many Forerunner artifacts on it, making this theory have a lot of weight on it.
Aura and Semblances work through the same application of "neural physics" seen by Precursor technology
- Precursor tech in Halo is probably the closest thing that franchise has to actual magic thanks to Clarke's Third Law, and so it seems at least somewhat sensible to guess that Aura and Semblances (magical Soul Powers in RWBY) have their roots in the Precursors' neural physics. Heck, going by the assumption that the Remnantian humans and Faunus were created by the Forerunners, it's possible Remnant was a research lab bent on the analysis of neural physics and trying to figure out how to apply it against the Flood.
Remnant is a Lost Colony of the ancient interstellar human empire from during the waning years of the Forerunner Ecumene.
- More specifically, the Faunus were actually one of the naturally-occurring subspecies of humanity from during the reign of ancient humanity, and as the ancient humans' empire fell apart under the Forerunners' onslaught, they & their "normal" human brethren attempted to hide out on Remnant before the Forerunners found them out. Instead of wiping them out, though, the Forerunners instead just experimented on them and set themselves up as the "Brother Gods".
- Combining this with the above theory, Remnantian humans and Faunus are able to have access to Aura & Semblances since they are the last remnants of the "original" iteration of humanity who the Precursors had designated as their successors, granting them a greater linkage to neural physics. In contrast, "normal" modern humans don't have access to Aura & Semblances since they were forcibly (d)evolved into what was a functionally different species by the Forerunners.
The Brother Gods were powerful Forerunners who gained their power through applications of Precursor neural physics.
- Additionally, the Great Tree of the Ever After might actually be a Precursor in this version of RWBY canon, and their supposed creation of the Brother Gods might actually just be them teaching neural physics to two Forerunner scientists investigating said tree.
The Covenant will find Remnant during the doubles-round of the Vytal Festival.
- It wouldn't be a Trestwho RWBY crossover fic without an alien invasion interrupting the Festival before all of the cruel fates or ends of many of the main cast have occurred.
Samples of the Flood may be resting dormant within the Forerunner shield world/Remnant.
- Given how the Covenant’s initial glassing revealed Remnant to be a Forerunner shield world, it is very likely like in the other installations, that there are samples of the flood that the Forerunners or “Brother Gods” researched and experimented upon to try and find a weakness to change the tide of the war against the eldritch abominations. Yet if the following theories are correct, then it is likely this was through trying to use neural physics against them and see if the humans empowered with it could be immune to them. Which might’ve ended in failure or backfired in some capacity.
Yet this means when the Covenant and Salem enter the Remnant Shield World for the Forerunner relics and data; may unfortunately open a pandora’s box and unleash a horror far worse than even the Grimm on Remnant…
What follows after the Covenant invasion will cause a mass exodus of Remnant’s natives.
- Depending on what happens, it is safe to say Remnant is royally screwed given how this isn’t just some Covenant scouting force that has found Remnant in the prologue. No, the entirety of the Covenant, including the Prophets know of its location. Normally this would spell its doom, but thanks to learning Remnant is a Forerunner Shield World as they were initially glassing the planet; is what may have saved the planet from becoming a molten rock. But for Remnant’s inhabitants…not so much.
It is likely the Prophets will simply change their plans to annexing the planet and eradicating the Remnant humans "desecrating its sacred grounds with their presence". And with the Grimm likely to become the Covenant’s allies as Salem is persuading for an alliance to achieve her goals; may actually succeed in this endeavor. Thus leading to an evacuation of all of Remnant’s inhabitants and escape any Covenant forces trying to eradicate them both on the planet and in space before initiating the Cole Protocol. Leaving Remnants surviving inhabitants as refugees that may have to be moved somewhere within the UNSC’s remaining inner colonies and creating an internal conflict of interests and necessities between the UNSC and Remnant’s surviving leadership. With the likely conflict arising being those within the UNSC wanting to take advantage of this situation to annex Remnant’s populace; and the internal strife that may occur as those like Ironwood and Ozpin or as Oscar will have to try holding Remnant’s people together in their darkest hour.
The Relics are simply Forerunner artifacts that utilize Neural Physics.
- Going by the logic the previous theories have cemented on Remnant being where the two Forerunners(later to be known as the Brother Gods) were researching Neural Physics and experimenting with the Ancient humans and Faunus that were on Remnant; it’s likely the relics were the culmination of their research. That being several pieces of incredibly advanced technology that use Clarke's Third Law that makes it indistinguishable from legitimate magic. With for example the “spirits” of some of the relics such as Jinn being simply the Precursor equivalent of a Smart A.I.
The Grimm are bioweapons created by the Forerunner’s via Neural Physics
- With the Action Prologue confirming Remnant is a Forerunner Shield World, and the previous theories establishing the hypothesis that the Forerunner’s were determined to understand Neurophysics to use it against the Flood given they were the ones who originally created and utilized it as the Precursors. Yet perhaps besides experimenting on the ancient human/faunus colony; they tried creating a weapon from scratch to counteract the Flood. That being the Grimm. These unnatural monstrosities being created through Neural Physic technology that can match their abominable foe’s ability to infect and create massive armies, not capable of being infected due to their immaterial nature; nor corrupted like Mendicant Bias due to being near mindless. Yet something might’ve gone wrong, as they may have been difficult to control and hunting through negative emotions may have backfired and would be completely indiscriminate in their pursuit. That and the Grimm were incapable of producing themselves at a rate they can counteract The Flood’s converted hordes by that point. Thus the Grimm were simply seen as incapable of being a suitable weapon against The Flood.
- This might even connect to the Silver Eyes, it might've been a unique Neural Physic based genetic modification implemented into a small cluster of Remnant humans to act as a kill-switch to the Grimm, but maybe because that came late before the Forerunners disappeared it was never spread between Remnantians enough and only considered a rare trait.
Remnant’s ancestors were meant to be used as an army against The Flood, yet when it became too late to stop them, decided to choose them as the ones to inherit The Mantel.
- If the Grimm couldn’t be fully utilized to eradicate The Flood, then the Forerunners may have gone to experimenting with the possibly lost colony of Ancient Humans and Faunus to make them interface with Neural Physics(to eventually become Aura and Semblence’s) and create an army that can be controlled and "manufactured" to fight against The Flood and not be affected by the monstrosities due to their Aura. With the “Silver Eyes" meant to act as a control agent for the Grimm to be used alongside the Remnant ancient humans. But when Salem had tried tricking “The God of Darkness" and later turned the planet’s populace against them; they were deemed as unusable. But later when the other Forerunners had deemed humanity to be successors of the Mantel(most likely Remnants humanity in particular instead of Earth humanity) and the Halo Rings were soon to be activated, saw an opportunity to start from scratch as the rings wiped out The Flood and the current generation on Remnant. All while they may have hid away in Ever After until the fallout had ceased.
Once the dust settled, the Forerunners may have begun to clone the inhabitants of Remnant to start over and resurrect the ones meant to succeed them, yet Salem who had been "cursed" with immortality entered the Grimm pool and took control of the Grimm hordes made the twin Forerunner’s begin truly doubting if they should resurrect Remnant humanity/Faunus when seeing the threat Salem posed now having mutated and taken control of the Grimm. Thus they resurrected Ozma (via cloning him) and through Neural Physics made his consciousness capable of endlessly transferring itself into different vessels and tasked him with uniting humanity. Once accomplished through the relics, they could generate a signal to summon the two Forerunners(from most likely in stasis or in Ever After) and judge if they are worthy of inheriting the Mantel of Responsibility.
Salem and her faction are the one’s who tipped off the Covenant and gave Remnants location to them.
- Given how Salem is attempting to forge an alliance with the Covenant as they are invading Remnant; it is quite possible she and Cinder may have been the ones to give the Covenant Remnant’s location. And knowing Trestwho if the prologue took place during the Vytal Festival then it would be when Remnant was at their most vulnerable moment. Especially since Cinder and Watts may have been spies who had seeded themselves into the UNSC far enough to send a signal to the nearest Covenant forces once the time was right.
The Insurrectionist’s will find out about Remnant and align with Salem and replace the White Fang’s role in the Grimm Queen’s plans.
- It’s likely this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the Insurrectionist’s and when the UNSC finally reveals the existence of Remnant to the UEG, the Insurrection will also know and like Parangosky feared may incite them further to achieve independence when learning of a planet full of alien humans that are unconnected from the UNSC and her colonies. Salem once gaining intel on the UNSC that becomes public, will see them as an opportunity and reach out to them for the promise of achieving their goals of “independence". This is even more possible since after what Sienna saw on Vyraj and Gron’s behavior before he died, seems to be absolutely determined to prevent the White Fang from becoming violent terrorists like the Insurrectionist’s became. And given how zealous the remaining Insurrectionist’s are in their goal even with the genocidal Covenant on the horizon will be the perfect substitute as pawns for Salem’s future machinations. Especially since they have more knowledge on the UNSC given some served under them before defecting.
The next major story arcs
This isn't a specific guess. Just a space for people to put down their thoughts on where the story could go next. It can be funny, wholesome, awesome, or nightmare fuel.- Integration arc:
- Beacon arc: This arc will essentially be the D&E versions of volumes 1 & 2.
- Also likely the start of the Rebels & Bandits arc: The Insurrection somehow makes their way to Remnant and teams up with the Adam Taurus-led White Fang and Roman Torchwick (if he somehow still joins Cinder Fall's plan despite the number of changes the UNSC brings) to overthrow Vale's government and try to ruin the UNSC's relations, this could very much be the plot of this story's Volume 1 & 2
- Battle of Remnant arc:
- Will likely take place around the D&E version of Volume 3, therefore the Vytal Festival.
- The Covenant attack will result in a History Repeats example by the author as Remnant is left uninhabitable due to an alien invasion, just like in trestwho's other RWBY crossover fic Hunters of Justice.
- Ever After arc: While this might happen later in the story, the heroes come across this world when trying to find deeper secrets of Remnant and go on their own adventure through it and find the way to defeat the Covenant once and for all.
- Halo arc: Bascially the events of the first Halo game, as they play out in this AU. Has the long-term effect of adding the Flood to the mix.
