I would have answered this in the post, but I have serious anxiety about answering things on the internet, so I’m on anon. Sorry.

But to answer your question about worldbuilding in RWBY, I’d firstly look into the Maidens. Why not have each Maiden use different elemental powers instead of whatever mishmash the writers thought were cool? Why not have the Maidens related to the trait the Relics stand for in some way, such as already having whatever trait as a prerequisite for gaining the powers (like being a nerd for Spring/knowledge, being an artsy type for Winter/creation, etc), or gaining the trait later (the real-world equivalent of having higher than average Offense stats for Summer/destruction, or faster reflexes (maybe?) for Fall/Choice)? I had always assumed that the Maidens were Ozma’s daughters and they had inherited his ability to reincarnate in some cruel twist of fate, so finding out they were inadvertently made just to be barrier maidens is a little disappointing to me, but it still would have been interesting if it was explored more. Like, the idea of your life being entirely uprooted because of powers most people don’t even know exist, and being mostly at the mercy of two different forces, well-intentioned or otherwise, could work so well. As it is, they are just Macguffin Carriers who open the relic doors and have about a 50% chance of being murdered by Cinder.

Secondly, the SEWs. Where do they come from, the God of Light or one of Ozma’s reincarnations? Can you be a SEW and a Maiden? Or a SEW and an Oz? Can you be all three? I know there is genocide involved, but are there really no other SEWs besides Ruby, Summer, Maria and Snuffles the Hound? Were they always Salem’s target, or did she take a while to realize that they were a threat to the Grimm? Do the powers always manifest as torches for eyes or can you do other stuff with Silver Eyes? Can the glow in the dark? Can they augment your Semblance? Are there short- and long-term effects of using the Silver Eyes? What is a typical childhood like with these eyes? What is an adulthood with them? Do they camouflage themselves by being a different color until first use? Is there a general distrust with people with these traits, or do people just flat out not know unless they’re in Oz’s or Salem’s circles? There is so little information about the Silver Eyes and it’s confusing.

Lastly, the Faunus (designs, the concept itself is already a whole different kettle of fish). It was already kind of uncomfortable making them stand ins for racial minorities, but why is it such a binary with Faunus traits? Why only make it one trait? Why not go all out with designs? The writers clearly don’t have an answer for how the Faunus came about after Humanity 1.0 was wiped out, so why not just include them in the beginning, drive home the point about how irrational and unrealistic racism is? And the heroic Faunus tend to have “cute” or “non-threatening” traits like tails and ears, but the villainous Faunus tend to have horns and stingers and such, even in the Fables, which is…something I would change. I also want more variety in traits. I want Faunus with rectangular pupils like goats. I want to know if fur/wool counts as a trait, or if it would be classified as hypertrichosis. I want to see hinged fangs, fins, gills, insect legs, hooves, chelicerae, all that neat weird stuff. If you’re going to have a half animal race, you might as well go all out.

No need to apologize, anon! I've been on tumblr for years and it wasn't until I got into rwby that I got over my own posting anxiety lol. And with that one shithead harassing rwdesters on anon rn, I understand completely why you'd want to protect yourself

The maidens absolutely need to be revamped, and I highkey agree abt giving them specific elemental powers that relate to their actual seasons. It's so weird how crwby said all the maidens have the exact same powers but Cinder only uses fire for weapons and flight, Raven only ever used ice for weapons, Fria just used ice, Penny... didn't do anything w the powers iirc, and Amber only got enough time to do some lightning and flight (seemed to be Wind powered tho so she's the most diverse in just 3 minutes lmao)

I've always loved the idea of the relics being linked to the maidens! For a while I legit thought that was the case bc Raven knew things she couldn't possibly have known (Yang being in trouble on the train, all her ominous ramblings abt Ozpin) that I thought passive aquiring of knowledge was a side affect of being the spring maiden. (I am boo boo the fool.) But having to have some specific traits or gaining boosts to already existing stats would be a cool thing to explore!

Ngl I really love the idea of incredible powers getting dropped on some random guy and the Everything that would stem from that, but I don't think it should've been in rwby's lore. If Ozcarnations need to keep track of the maidens bc they're a) very powerful and therefore dangerous, and b) keys to his magic doors (that his cane isn't a skeleton key for wtf Oz), then why the fuck would he gift his magic so that the powers would be passed on in such a messy, chaotic way? It don't add up, bruv

The show heavily implied that SEWs are a God of Light creation, but... how? Did he come back specifically to create them? Were they a throwaway to Oz in an effort to give him allies? Was it a petty project to piss off Salem? We just don't know (and probably never will). There are wayyyyy too many questions surrounding their entire existence, and their current endangered status, and I doubt crwby will answer any of them satisfactorily

I don't think there's anything stating that a person can't be a combination of SEW, maiden, and Ozcarnation. There'd be some problematic aspects regarding the fact that a woman would be forced to lug around an old man's soul in her head, so maybe it's best to leave the men to themselves on that front. Not to mention being all three would be far too much going on for a single character

Yknow, I've never thought abt the eyelights being anything but big beams of deus ex, but considering eyes are the windows to the soul, there should be smth a little... more. In their first appearance they start out looking like angel wings (rad as FUCK), so maybe they could manifest as some Soul Symbolism before going nova on grimm ass

As for consequences, yes. Absolutely. Hands down there needs to be more than a happy thoughts montage to use the damn thing (fucking patronus knock off) and there needs to be a drawback for using such an incredibly OP ability

I saw someone suggest that using the Silver Eyes would slowly deteriorate your vision, which I think would be a way more interesting thing to explore for Maria's character. Maybe she thought exposure to grimm was the real cause behind her onset blindness and wanted some distance. Maybe she knew the truth and felt guilty abt choosing herself over her duty, thus her decision to go MIA. Maybe she lost someone so dear she couldn't feel strongly enough to activate the power. Anything over the "i got scared after losing my eyes so i hid" thing that... doesn't really go anywhere

I'm def a fan of redesigning the faunus. The one animal trait thing came as a fault bc that's all Poser would allow, but good writers could've found a way to explain that while adding more traits in Maya (like Sten's lack of horns in DA:O). It might still have to be limited to a humanoid frame a la Mass Effect, but it could still work. It'd be really cool to see more animal features (fucking YES to animal eyes) and maybe even behaviors from faunus. I mean, the entire concept could basically be the wolfman variant of werewolves but w a variety of animals (or omegaverse traits if you're into that lol)

Crwby may not have an answer for how faunus came around, but I noticed they arrived at the same time as Dust, so in my (maybe someday) rewrite they're linked