Summer Rose, baker of cookies and slayer of evil monsters, was essentially supermom to our first fighter and her sister. Little is known canonically about her other than she was killed during a mission without her team. But not before giving birth to Ruby Rose.
"I guess I'm not the only one having a rough first day…"
Ruby Rose
Age: 15
Second-year Beacon Academy student
Family: Summer Rose (deceased mother), Taiyang Xiao Long (father), Yang Xiao Long (step-sister)
Favorite Food: Strawberries
Raised on the island of Patch alongside/by her sister Yang Xiao Long, Ruby's history is… not often given. Up to this point in time, we know that when she and Yang were little, they received news of their mother's death. Ruby, being too incredibly young to fully understand what was going on at the time, still was torn up by Summer's passing. Her father simply shut down, leaving Yang to do the heavy lifting in raising her baby sister, which included stories of their mother and father's profession: Hunters.
After a long road learning from the Basic School of Xiao Long, Ruby was admitted into Signal Academy for Hunters and Huntresses (more commonly known as just "Signal"). Learning under her uncle, the not-unheard-of Professor Qrow, she forged her weapon Crescent Rose, and learned to wield it on the battlefield.
"No more awkward small talk or 'getting-to-know-you' stuff. Today, I get to let my sweetheart do the talking."
HCSS Crescent Rose
"High-caliber sniper-scythe"
Melee, ranged
Pros: High damage, mixed range capability
Cons: Massive recoil, projectiles in limited quantity, highly specialized and dangerous
Ruby is never without her sniper-scythe. Ever. Crescent Rose fits in among the most dangerous weapons in the RWBYverse, and comes in three modes:
By folding completely up, Crescent Rose can be easily carried on Ruby's beltline in its compact, harmless storage mode.
From there, it can unfold into a mid-range, high-power sniper rifle; this mode allows its user to fire semi-automatically, but sacrifices long range accuracy and, apparently, stopping power. Its magazines carry roughly 30 rounds of ammunition before having to reload, which is hardly a problem since she seems to pull the spare ammo out of nowhere.
Finally, Crescent Rose's most powerful mode takes the shape of a scythe almost three times as large as Ruby herself; this monster cuts through wood, stone, and Grimm like they were all made of paper; while in scythe-mode, the sniper-scythe offers Ruby its highest damage-per-bullet at the cost of intense recoil. Ruby, however, has a workaround for this: by firing the rifle in-time with her swinging, she is able to dramatically increase the force of her attacks with the scythe's business end, as well as use it to quickly dodge most foes without a scratch - by firing straight into the ground she can launch approximately ten-to-twenty meters into the air, based on certain conditions. Alternatively, she can increase her effective accuracy by driving the bladed end of her scythe into the ground in front of her, which also reduces recoil to nearly zero.
The fact that a person of Ruby's stature can even hold Crescent Rose without intense physical training - let alone wield it efficiently - states that it must be made of lightweight materials. Currently, the highest strength-to-density ratio in earth metals belongs to Al20Li20Mg10Sc20Ti30, a high-entropy alloy as strong as titanium with the approximate weight of aluminum. Being made of this material would make Crescent Rose one of the most resilient, powerful weapons on Remnant. However, as Al20Li20Mg10Sc20Ti30 would be fairly expensive for even a combat school to obtain, and this is a fantasy universe, it's probably more likely composed of a fictional metal exclusive to the RWBYverse and Remnant.
What we know, though, is that Crescent Rose is durable, powerful, and pretty fucking badass, but that's only the tip of the iceberg. Look out for the full summary when Ruby squares off against Maka Albarn in the first ever Hannibal Death Battle!
"Watch it, or I'll take your pony soul."