I still think that Salem caused the Great War, through someone working for her.

“To this day, no one knows who shot first, but what began as a riot between two bands of settlers… would suddenly become the first battle of the Great War.”



No one knows who shot first. That seems like an important detail to the story, like Salem had someone set that off in a way where the Vale settlers and Mistral settlers would blame each other.

The Great War caused so many negative emotions that Grimm attacks increased worldwide.

In A Much Needed Talk, Qrow said “Salem’s smart. She works from the shadows, using others to get what she wants, so that when it comes time to place the blame, we can only point at each other. She’s trying to divide us, humanity, and so far she’s done a pretty damn good job.”

That pretty much makes it sound like she could definitely have been responsible for the spark that set off the powder keg. It actually kinda reminds me of Fullmetal Alchemist (the manga and the Brotherhood anime), where (FMA spoilers) the Ishvalan war was caused by Envy taking on the appearance of an Amestrian soldier and shooting an Ishvalan child. The powder keg was there, Father just needed a spark to set it off. (/end FMA spoilers) So, much like that situation, the powder keg for the Great War was there, and Salem just needed a spark to set that off.

Side note: I don’t think Vale’s king was the only one doing heavy lifting for that last battle. Yeah, he kicked a lot of ass (possibly using at least one Relic), but Qrow said that one of the things that historians explain it with is the fact that there was “unusually violent weather”, key word being “unusually”. Need I remind y’all that we have seen someone control the weather before?

And which of the four leaders was female?

So there yah go, the King of Vale had help from the leader of Vacuo. Though, the King of Vale gets all the credit in Remnant’s history books because the Maidens are secret and there was no way for historians to attribute the “unusually violent weather” to her. I hope she’s still an incredibly important figure in Vacuo’s history books.