Talk:Guidelines/@comment-27016982-20150925084523

The rule against Aura manipulation for Semblances confuses me. Yes, I know the reason given in the rules above: Auras are part of your soul, so to consume that is to slowly erode your soul. However, Aura has been shown since Season 1 to be an expendable but replenishable resource, first shown without question at the conclusion of the first onscreen Hunter vs. Hunter fight, Jaun vs. Cardin, in the form of a guage showing their current Aura levels, at which point Goodwitch says Juan's Aura has "dropped into the red", terminology that would only be used for an expendable resource.

Pyyrha mentions that Aura is "the manifestation of our soul". This phrasing is very specific, and so merits analysis. The definition of "manifestation" is "an event, action, or object that clearly shows or embodies something, especially a theory or an abstract idea". Note that this does not entail synonymity, i.e. that a manifestation literally IS the thing it embodies, simply that the two things are related. Pyyrha's phrasing therefore indicates that Aura is related to one's soul, but that the two are not synonymous.

In the Emerald Forest, Lie Ren uses his Aura to brute-force counter the King Taijitu attack, something none of the other characters did leading up to the fight against the Deathstalker and Nevermore. Afterwards, he is the only one to consistently get knocked around and overall underperform from what we'd seen, which would seem to indicate that Aura is also tied to physical vitality.

Semblances were first introduced in Season 1 with very little explanation as to what they were. However, the Law of Conservation of Detail leads to the conclusion that it's related to Aura, most likely as a tool through with Aura can be utilized. This view is supported by the fact that Weiss showed signs of fatigue immediately following her creating a large row of her Glyphs in the form of staggering as Ruby drags the Nevermore up the cliff. What else causes fatigue? Aura usage. Therefore, Semblances are probably fueld by Aura.

All of the above points taken into account leads to the following conclusion: much like Chakra in Naruto, Aura is a mixture of physical and spiritual energies with natures (Semblances) dependent on the individual. Completely depleting one's Aura would mean reducing one's physical and spiritual energy to zero, which would result in death. But short of that, reducing one's Aura isn't going to cause any long-term damage, which means something like Aura infused bullets or using Aura to immensly increase one's own strength, SHOULD be viable, if costly, uses of it. Now, does this mean that and OC should be able to control the Aura of another or bypass their natural Aura defenses through a Semblance? No. No it does not. But it does mean that particular rule should probably be loosened up a bit to allow for a class of abilities which, although not yet directly shown, could feasibly exist in the RWBY universe.