[RWBY] White Knight Errant

[AndrewJTalon]

Robert Loxley was a college student in Vale, from a formally noble family from the town of Sherwood in Albion. He signed up for the Vale Defense Force when the Faunus Revolution broke out, and was commissioned as a captain due to his education and his experience training in the Sherwood militia. He became a popular commander with his men, many of whom were also from Sherwood, Albion. This included "Little" John Bruin, a Bear Faunus as strong as ten men and deadly with a staff cannon. Will Scarlet, a rogue and lady's man with revolver daggers he could swing so fast he could block bullets. Father Tuck, the priest and doctor of their unit. Much Miller, their logistics expert and the youngest of the band. Alan Dale, a former musician and an expert in information gathering and spycraft (and a thief). Roy Tinker, their eccentric engineer and demo man who thinks he can talk to machines (And they apparently listen). And Blinken, a blind bat faunus who is Rob's family servant and batman (Get it?). Hanna Baba, a Vacuoan immigrant and the father of Ali Baba, was also among their group and was a former assassin turned Rob's XO.

General John Prince, Supreme Commander of the VDF Ground and Air Forces, was a corrupt warmonger who had his troops commit war crimes against civilian targets during the conflict-Most of them Faunus, but many human communities.

Robert and his battalion refused to engage in these crimes. Robert was of a rich family of landed nobles, the Loxleys, who had Faunus servants but were just and fair to their subjects, human or otherwise. Indeed, after Robert's parents died, Blinkin raised him and Rob considers him a close father figure.

When Robert tried to go public, Prince had him framed for war crimes, court martialed, and sentenced to death. He escaped with the help of his troops and his fiance, Marian Maid, and they went on the run. They helped prove General Prince's crimes to the public while being outlaws, and proved their innocence.

General Prince was brought down, but with him went the VDF after the Faunus Revolution. The sheer corruption and scale of his crimes horrified the public so much that the Council abolished Vale's military almost entirely. Rather disillusioned with the Faunus War and politics, Robert, Marian and his Battalion (known as the Merry Men for their habit of singing mocking tunes at their pursuers), became a PMC to provide security and defense to various frontier towns and colonies across Remnant. Rob and Marian married.

They swelled in size to become a very successful PMC, with over 10,000 employees. They are mostly infantry but have experience with armored warfare, and have a few tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and other such hardware. They also have a few suits of powered armor. But they're still pretty much light and mobile infantry. Ali Baba provides them with close air support with his Flying Cavalry.

 

[AndrewJTalon]

At least on the Valean front, the Faunus Revolution was a complete and total clusterfuck on the military side. Major General Absolom Winchester, Cardin's grandfather, was made Supreme Commander of the Vale Defense Forces. He was a Veteran of the Great War and had risen to his rank through some acts of courage and competence-He did earn the loyalty of his men and he wasn't a terrible commander, in theory.

Main issues were that he was locked into the mindset of fighting the last war and didn't adapt well. The Great War was basically World War II, and the Faunus Revolution was more akin to Vietnam mixed with the US Civil War, happening to all four Major Kingdoms all at once.

Absolom was stuck with General John Prince to command his ground forces, which was a terrible mistake. Prince had gotten where he was thanks to politics, not experience or competence. Absolom wanted to get rid of him, but was stuck thanks to political pressures from leaders and corporate lobbyists (military industrial types and those reliant on Faunus labor). So he tried to work with Prince.

Absolom's tactics were better suited for a conventional war with a peer opponent. The Faunus Revolutionary Army used hit-and-run tactics and other unconventional methods of warfare until they got their hands on enough military material to pose a real threat. It didn't help that Prince was a corrupt asshole who massacred Faunus civilians and looted them, sold off military hardware for his own profit, and committed other heinous crimes.

When Loxley became an outlaw, Absolom threw his discreet support behind him. He aided Rob and the Merry Men in secret, and finally got Prince removed from command, arrested, tried and executed.

But by then it was too late, the war was going horribly.

Absolom did his best when he took direct command of the ground war, but his tactics were archaic and brutal. His attempts to flush out the Revolutionary Army involved massive bombing runs and artillery strikes against areas they could be hiding. This was wasteful, killed many civilians (Faunus and human alike) and turned public opinion against the war itself. It didn't help that Prince was just one of many corrupt, incompetent commanders who had all been hampering the war effort from the beginning.

The Faunus Revolution ended with an agreement between all Four Major Kingdoms to recognize Menagerie as a Faunus state, grant equal rights to Faunus citizens, and end Faunus slavery (through your mileage will vary on that one depending on what kingdom you're in). This outcome, plus the heinous crimes of Prince and other VDF officers, led to the Valean Council abolishing the VDF almost entirely in favor of Atlas taking care of military duties. Absolom Winchester would be assassinated by a White Fang terrorist some years after the war. His killer was a survivor of one of the strikes he ordered.

It is for this reason the Winchester name has so many bad connotations attached to it, especially among Faunus. Yes the Faunus Revolutionaries committed heinous war crimes as well, horrific massacres of civilians and other atrocities, but in many cases, the humans were no better.