Grist
A Foreword
For those of you that have read my previous stab at a RWBY tale, Keeper, you will find a few familiar faces in what follows. This new attempt at the idea incorporates much of what I meant for Keeper to be, although admittedly I plotted that story out as I was writing it – a trap I feel like RWBY's own writers have fallen into. It also incorporates plans and characters I built for Seeker, Keeper's sequel and the second of three stories I wanted to write before RWBY faded from my interest and I moved on to other things. Grist is therefore a total rebuild of Keeper, and in some ways a re-tooling of RWBY itself. More on that in a minute.
So what drew me back here?
Something about RWBY's character designs really sticks. There are beautiful, vibrant characters in this tale that are really appealing, at least to me, though for the moment I will spare you any lists of my personal favorites — that's not the point. Grist is meant as much as a way to enhance and honor the quality of the work done by those designers by making those characters really mean something, as it is a challenge to myself from a consistency and planning standpoint.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your own tastes?) this means changes. In the process of planning this story, I've had to cut characters and concepts out. Many of those characters you probably liked. I know for certain that at least two that I had to ditch are really going to piss most of you off, but I'm fine with it — because the characters I kept will have increased purpose. If I do my job properly, we will end up with a story that will be much better framed and deployed than Keeper was, with a meaningful plot and genuine stakes – and perhaps even a larger story overall than the three-part series I originally envisioned.
I admit that this type of story will not be for everyone. Not every fan of the show wants to read a tweaking of it, even if they agree with the concept, because a lot of people have their favorite characters (as I do!) and their absence here will be off-putting. Don't feel bad! I have my own favorites too, people I just couldn't bear to leave out, but I had to find roles for them. I refused to let myself keep a character just because they look cool. A lot of them had to fall by the wayside in view of this requirement. In some cases I built new characters to take their places. In others I left their roles empty. Such is the price of storytelling.
These facts are why I chose to write a separate foreword instead of adding a titanic author's note to a chapter that's already going to be long enough. I'm not here to bait you into a story for clicks. I want you to know up front that there are characters and concepts in this version of Remnant that work slightly (or incredibly) different, but you will not feel lost. You will still see Dust, and Grimm, and Aura, and Semblances. The Four Kingdoms are still standing. Ruby will still have her silver eyes. I do not view this as a complete ground-up rebuild; instead, Grist is a look into what I think Remnant might have been with a little more pre-planning, even if that planning is carried out by a lackluster author.
Not that I am averse to author's notes. Many chapters will end with one where I feel them necessary, such as after the introduction of characters I had planned for earlier work but never used, and so on. The total canon for this story, the world, character, and plot handbook I wrote before I began writing, is itself longer than most actual stories. When Grist comes to its close, I intend to publish it somewhere online with notations so you can see my complete thought process in its purest form.
We are sometime away from that date, though. In the interim, I'll leave Keeper where it is. Know that the plot of that work and the plot of this one, while maintaining some key points, is not the same. Do not read Keeper thinking that you'll have a leg up on the story here. The endings, especially, are not even in the same solar system. I may take that story down when I have more of this published; I may not. I'm still undecided.
Speaking of decisions, I will now bring this foreword to a close and let you decide whether or not you want to proceed. For those that read on, thank you. For those that don't, thank you anyway.
Let us begin.