Shattered Tomorrow | Weiss Schnee

My try at a RWBY AU. Take a look at my take on Ruby here. The pictures here are ordered as: Weiss Final - Weiss sketches - Weiss Black Top Version - Weiss White Gloves Version.

Keep Reading for more info! Quite a bit of it so watch out.

About

After Cinder took control of the CCT and infected General James Ironwood’s Scroll with the Black Queen virus, all of the Atlesian Knight troopers are now under her control. Using them, Cinder coordinated a coup on Atlas using their own defenders. With most of their technology now her toys, the small pockets of the remains of the Atlesian army that weren’t wiped out had to use their ships and Paladins manually - without guided sensors and radar - putting them at a severe disadvantage.

Not only that, but in an event called the Schnee Dust Crisis, Cinder’s forces - with help from the White Fang and led by Roman Torchwick - took over the Schnee Corporation and control the largest pipeline of Dust in all of Remnant. The entire Schnee household save for the sisters are held hostage and forced to work the Dust mines - the White fang’s idea of “turning the hierarchy on its head.”

In this pivotal disaster, the enemy forces are now loaded with more than enough Dust to overpower the Kingdoms, Huntsmen and Huntresses who now have their supplies cut off. This change in the balance has forced many of the Huntsmen/Huntresses to focus more on their martial skill/melee combat and use of Aura and Semblances, saving all the Dust they can. Private Dust traders become more important than ever and our heroes desperately need to find and protect them, before the villains get to them.

Add that to Cinder gaining control of their top-secret Aura transference tech, and who knows what’ll happen.

After the disaster started at Vale, Ruby gathered her team to discuss their plan of action. Hearing about what had happened in Atlas from Ironwood, and driven by concern for her sister and family back home, Weiss chooses to return to her place up north, reuniting with Winter and finding out how to disable the virus, oust the White Fang and Torchwick, and bring the CCTS back online. No pressure!

Weiss’ operations in Atlas mainly consist of working more covert missions as a Huntress with her allies while Winter, as an Atlas-bound Special Operative, mobilises the few remaining troops with Ironwood. Together, this resistance group is called ATLAST, short for the Atlas Temporary Liberation Arrangement SomeThing Strike Team. There’s no time for nitpicking name choices – the world’s in danger! It was a rushed name discussed between her, Jaune and Neptune for 5 seconds anyway,and nobody was really bothered to suggest something better.

Character: Weiss Schnee

“I’ll be fine on my own! It’s just that frost Beowolves don’t make for very good company…”



Weiss, now 19 going on 20, has vastly improved as a Huntress during her (incomplete) time at Beacon. She’s finally unlocked the Schnee summoning ability, removing all previous doubt and imagined obligations that tied her down. Unsurprisingly, once she overcame the initial barrier, she’s proved to be incredibly gifted with the ability and can maintain control of numerous complex summons even while fighting at the same time, greatly enhancing her power and tactics with the added numbers and strength of her summons.

Her Myrtenaster remains the same, though now at the pommel is a trinket that is her most cherished memento: a set of metal pendants with cutouts of their emblems which she made together with her team. The rest of her team all agreed she should be the one to keep it because she was the one gushing over them the most. At first, the trinket sometimes got in the way of her swordsmanship, but Weiss largely ignores it out of stubbornness – but there’s also the practical reason that it places more weight on Myrtenaster’s back end, balancing the blade more.

Along the way, she meets some comrades also headed for or trapped in Atlas besides Winter, getting them together to fight alongside her: Jaune Arc, Neptune Vasilias and Ciel Soleil. And maybe Penny too if she survived getting hacked by the virus. I haven’t decided that yet.

Design Process

As you can see from the early sketches, I had intended a more knight-like design for Weiss, with a little more ornate designs on her jacket. It was because I saw this really cool fantrailer by JAC OneManBand and I was like “I gotta make a White Wolf Weiss!” She was supposed to wield a spear alongside Myrtenaster as well, but I couldn’t really work with it. She has summons to do most of the work anyway.

Initially I was going for a spaghetti strap top for her, but as you can see the sleeveless sweater won out. I had Rin Tohsaka in the brain while designing her, so I think that did something. Otherwise, her final design is basically just a fusion between her normal outfit and her Snowpea outfit in Volume 2. Her hairstyle remains the same because I find it hard to find different hairstyles for Weiss in particular. =p

Below you can see some alternate colours for Weiss: one in a black top and another with white gloves instead of black (it’s the little things that bother you most, amirite). The black was the original colour of her top actually but I found out sticking with all white still works the best for Weiss, as she relies the most heavily among the girls on just small hotspots of colour on a clean white canvas.

Next is Blake! Oh boy.