MM! AU: the New Path: Out of Chaos.

The revolutionary organization that history would remember as “The New Path” was born out of years of chaos and anarchy in the streets of Atlas, in the years following the “Grimm Incursion” and the final defeat of Cinder Fall.  How the group, a vocal and sworn enemy of the Huntsmen, truly came into being is something of a mystery, but it’s rise to power was the direct result of a series of traumatic events that befell the nation of Atlas.

Atlas, after their disastrous attempt to secure the Vytal Festival, came out worst-off of the four kingdoms in the chaotic years of the “Grimm Incursion” which saw such horrific events as the Siege of Mistral and the Vacuo Massacre. The nation’s fall from grace with the revelation of Penny Polendina’s existence, and from shouldering a great deal of the blame for that chaotic night, resulted in Atlas becoming something of a Pariah. Few in the other Kingdoms wanted anything to do with the northern country.  Their lack of attention may have been a crucial element in the New Path’s rise.

The First Event that led to the Rise of the New Path was, ironically, the final victory over the forces of Cinder Fall and her “Grimm Legion.” With the witch who had orchestrated the Vytal Crisis, Siege of Mistral and most infamously the Vacuo Massacre confirmed dead, her confederates killed or scattered and in hiding, the world took stock of the devastation and sought to rebuild.

Things did not look good for Atlas after the end of the war, however: with a nation geared entirely for military purposes, the absence of war meant, frankly an absence of an economy. The demobilization of the army put thousands of men and women back into society who were suffering from the nightmarish war and lacking prospects for the future (to say nothing of being forced to confront Faunus as everyday citizens after several years of fighting the White Fang tooth, nail and claw.) Combined with the increasing reliance on Automation for labor purposes in factories and mills, the Nation quickly fell into a Depression.

The Second Event was, likewise, an Irony, as an attempt to revitalize the Economy by Eisen Schnee inadvertently created greater strife.
The barrages of the war had uncovered a number of Dust veins in areas previously uninhabited by Humanity, and after the “Dust Crisis” near the end of the War the heads of Schnee Dust were attempting to increase the corporations reserves (and of course tighten its monopoly.) Eisen Schnee personally oversaw the creation of a new Dust Quarry in Northern Mistral, which was promising not only new energy sources but also a surge in jobs.
And then the newly-forged Red Fang struck.
The old head of Schnee Dust, it was said, never knew what hit him, as Adam Taurus, springing out of the shadows, bisected him from skull to groin. The old man was dead before he hit the ground.
And immediately, Schnee Dust was thrown into chaos.

With the loss of the “Iron Master” of the company, the Board of Directors were suddenly beset by previously docile partners, men whose businesses had been bought out by Schnee and were now looking to both break free and claim a bigger piece of the pie than they’d been left with after they’d been gobbled up. Technology, shipping and steel magnates suddenly declared independence, and within hours of Schnee’s death the company’s stocks were in freefall as their coffers hemorrhaged money.
Weiss Schnee, Eisen’s youngest heir, was forced to give up her chosen career of Huntressing to try and save her family’s company, not for her own sake but because she knew that the Depression would only worsen if Schnee Dust, Atlas’ largest employer, fell apart completely.

A non-stop month of deal-making, board meetings and economic wrangling followed. At the end of it Weiss, exhausted, slumped in a chair, could take some relief in the outcome: Schnee Dust was saved…or at least was in triage. Some of the smaller partners, who were concerned about surviving on their own, had agreed to stay…but only at an increased cut of the profits and more independence of operations.
Weiss had no choice but to agree to these terms: news had come down which she had, thankfully, managed to suppress: a new Dust vein, larger than any in Atlas or Mistral, had been uncovered in Vacuo, and Violette Dust, owned by the father of the head of team NDGO, had already all but run Schnee business out of Vacuo.
Some immediate good would come out of this, or at least Weiss thought so: the sheer NEED for jobs by the people allowed Weiss to implement policies that, to her mind, would end the use of Faunus Slave labor in exchange for paid workers. Her Foremen assured her that the policies would be upheld.
In the Chaotic years to come, Weiss would regret taking these men at their word…


The Final Event that led to the rise of the New Path would come five years after the fall of Beacon Academy, when it seemed Remnant itself turned against the leaders of Atlas.

While Schnee Dust had been saved, its power and influence were extremely curtailed, dumping more responsibilities on an already overtaxed government. Altercations between demobbed soldiers and Faunus refugees had the police taxed to their limit, and to reactivate the soldiers would only increase the strain on the government’s limited funds. With the Breaking up of the once unified industries of Schnee Dust, corporate corruption soon had economic recovery efforts at a standstill. It seemed things couldn’t get any worse.

and then came the Great Blight.

no one knows what caused it: Sabotage by the remnants of Cinder’s Faction, an act by the Red Fang, disgruntled servicemen or political extremists, an act of nature itself?
all anyone knows is that, just as the worst winter in recent memory closed in with an iron grip, some of the most important Crops in Atlas’ limited farmland fell victim to a strange disease that turned them all to a tar-like black sludge. Food prices skyrocketed as, still viewed with hostility by the rest of the world and trying to present an air of normalcy, the leaders of the government refused to ask the other nations for help.

It was the final straw. That a loaf of Bread could cost half a month’s wages was the match that ignited the trembling, surging powder keg of public opinion.
And that opinion was: enough was enough.

Approximately 6 years to the day after the Fall of Beacon, the Government of Atlas awoke to find a riotous mob battering against the walls of the government command center and the Huntsman Academy. A crowd of thousands of civilians, Faunus, and Demobilized soldiers was actively picketing for the removal of Atlas’ three-part military government, calling for public reform.
For a brief period of several hours, the radical elements of the citizens, be they Liberal reformers, Right-wing militants, Fang Sympathizers or Anti-Faunus extremists, all united in a common cause.

General Winter Schnee, appointed to Headmistress of Atlas Academy after General Ironwood was forced into retirement after the Vytal Crisis, earned the early support of the crowd by taking the initiative in declaring Atlas Huntsman Academy independent of the Government, personally stripping off her only recently pinned rank badges in a sign of solidarity with the public. Weiss Schnee, after a long discussion with her friends in the other Kingdoms, likewise made a statement declaring the cancellation of all Government Contracts, though this was more for show, as few Government contracts remained after the breakup of the company.
An emergency meeting of the Government High Council was called to order, even as the mob tore at the walls outside: even still-active units of the army were refusing to take orders from them.

No one knows quite what went on in the meeting, as no minutes were kept, but when they emerged, ashen-faced, they stepped forth to face the mobs.

Turning to Winter, they asked her to reclaim her commission in order to command the armed forces and the military branch of the Academy: the Huntsman Branch would now operate as an independent entity with government oversight, as Beacon had.
As for the Government itself, it would surrender it’s power to an elected Congress of the people, who would have command over the armed forces. This was done “for the good of the nation” but any further words were drowned out by the cheers of the crowd.

Those cheers would be short-lived.

Within a few days, a Congressional “Center Party” was elected, consisting of chosen representatives of each of the major political factions in Atlas. It was decided to keep the nation’s name, rather than revert to the old Kingdom of Mantle: no good would come from living in the past.

However, putting such disparate groups into a single government and asking them to cooperate went down like putting two starving Lions in a pen with a slab of beef and asking them to share: within MINUTES of the first committee meeting commencing, infighting and backbiting had begun as alliances were formed, changed, reformed, broken, and negotiated, all without any actual progress being made: each faction simply had too many members to break the deadlock. Under the regime of Bureaucratic red tape and voting, reform efforts moved at snails paces, if they moved at all. Chancellor Adler, a moderate Liberal and staunch Anti-Faunus-rights lobbyist (making him popular with both sides) ended the meeting after only one motion had been passed: a request to Vale for emergency food shipments.

The public enthusiasm for the new government quickly waned as little in the way of change occurred, and before long the different groups in the congress were vocally speaking out against the other factions: Divided up among no less than 7 Political Parties, the Atlas Congress was in a shambles.

The disparate groups included:

the Centrist Democrats, liberals who espoused full equality but lacked a strong figurehead, and harbored secret anti-Faunus attributes. Popular among the Upper class and the Faunus moderates, who couldn’t see what the real attitude was.

the Leftist Unionists: Industrial agitators who lobbied against the rich upper class, who were able to feed themselves while the poor starved. Popular among the working class, but a series of assassinations orchestrated by the Industrial heads left them disorganized and without leadership.

the Humanity First party: who, in a roundabout way, lobbied for an end to Faunus enslavement in various industries…but only so humans could take those jobs. popular among the shrinking Middle-class.

The Hooked Claw party: Faunus extremists who many believed were a front for the Red Fang, lobbied for increased Faunus civil rights and an end to human preferential treatment in the job market. Popular among extremist Faunus who sought more freedoms.

The Iron League: Demobilized Soldiers who called for a return to some form of Military Government, citing the infighting as a perfect example of the inefficiency of councils. Popular among the jobless and destitute soldiers.

The Purity Union: Humanist extremists who called for a stripping of Faunus Civil Rights and a return to their status as “chattel.” Especially strong among the dispossessed poor and refugees from the recent War, who blamed the Faunus for causing the disaster at Beacon.

and Finally, growing almost out of the shadows…a group that called itself The New Path.


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this is part one of a series of data sheets about "The New path" in my "Mother Maiden" RWBY AU.