Dustology

Introduction

"Dust is a source of energy in Remnant. The physical properties of Dust make it incredibly useful for a variety of purposes, particularly in the weapons of many characters in the series. It is known to make a distinctive "shimmering" sound passively and when in use.
The name "Dust" is implied to be a reference to the primordial state which mankind originally believed it was born from. As a natural resource, it is sometimes poetically referred to as "Nature's Wrath", or more prosaically as an energy propellant."
Source: https://rwby.fandom.com/wiki/Dust
Dustology is the Dust and in the Modern understanding of the field, now incorporates aura and Semblances. Dustology is about not only learning the properties of the mysterious substance but also how to best use and harness it. It has long been understood as a Scientific phenomenon under the brand of science known as "Abstract Science"
Abstract Science is the field where all "Magic " and "Miracle Phenomena" is put under, examining how seemingly impossible feats are actually done. Dustology is one of these things. Dust is a Crystal, and crystals is really the lowest energy configuration but Dust Crystals act as a form of Battery that holds within it what is known as "Mysteria" which is a form of Exotic Energy that operates strangely when compared to other forms of energy.
Dust when used in rounds can have various effects such as lighting Grimm on fire, freezing Grimm in ice, burying them in rock or cement and much, much more. Due to its highly exotic nature, it's very difficult for Rational Science to handle. In modern-day Remnant, civilization has figured out how to use Dust as an energy source which is about 24x more effective than all forms of Fossil Fuels.
Most modern-day tech uses dust, having mostly abandoned Fossil Fuels due to the fact that Dust is renewable and can regrow after harvesting it. However, its primary weakness is that it gets weaker the further from the Planet of Remnant you go, meaning that most forms of spacecraft still use Fossil Fuels but Fossil energy sources have been nearly depleted since the Great War. This effectively stalls space travel for an indeterminate amount of time, as a result, science has been focusing on other matters.

Harvesting and Use

Dust is commonly found in large veins underground, typically Veins get richer the deeper you go underground but Subterranean Grimm can make mining rich Dust very difficult. So usually Mines never go past a certain point in Remnant's crust and the deepest mines can be found in Solitas (Atlas) and Vacuo. Every Nation uses Dust and depends on it like their lifeblood, without access to dust. Hunters for example can be relegated to often Poor Quality Dust crystals on the surface that has an underwhelming impact in combat.
Mining Dust is done fairly similarly to mining for any old Ore but Dust can be really dangerous as explosions can set off explosions. A bad explosion can set off the entire Extractor or the refineries.

Refining

A good way to boost poorer quality Dust is to sap the life essence of living things and pump it into the crystals. A poor-quality surface crystal with enough life force can be turned into Rich Crystals. Recklessly managed Refineries within Extractor sites can cause the local land around these sites to dry up and die or worse freeze up and embed in a thick layer of ice.
Reckless refining is often thought to be a major contributing factor to the desertification of Vacuo and a leading cause of rapid and often damaging climate change. Devastating entire ecosystems.

Renewability

Dust was long thought as just a mysterious crystal that grew in areas but after the Great War, it was understood that Dust tends to grow in places where a lot of Non-Grimm life forms die. Meaning kilotons of Crystals can be regrown over the course of years by letting things die on the fields. The SDC does this very shadily with animals and is rumoured to purposefully kill lower-level 'employees' like Faunus to keep their Dust Veins Rich and bountiful.

Versatile

Not only is it an efficient and renewable energy source but it is also very versatile and can be used to do almost anything, it just takes the right crystal combinations to get the right effect. With the many types of Dust available, the possibilities are almost endless.

Types of Dust

Fire
Fire is used to create fires, heating and warding off certain types of Grimm. This most commonly gets used in Combat as extreme temperatures can debilitate Grimm and give a Hunter or a Soldier a massive advantage. Fire Powder is also the replacement of Gunpower as it is not only smokeless but also about 8x more effective than gun power. This makes the average gun far more effective than what is possible with standard Gunpowder.
Ice
This can be used as a quick and easy way to produce drinkable water, entire water distribution facilities have whole tanks full of Ice dust to be used and then melted down into drinkable water. This is extremely useful as not every kingdom has easy access to drinking water, like Atlas or Vacuo. Ice is also very effective against most Grimm as it slows them down and can stop them completely if frozen solid.
Wind / Gas
Wind Dust normally produces Hydrogen and Oxygen currents of air but when fused with another form of gas, can be used to vent a large number of gases cheaply. This is mostly USD in power generation but wind can and does get used combatively, whether it is to collapse lungs, kill with air pressure, or displace people, there are a lot of uses for Wind Dust.
Earth / Rock
This can be used to create materials otherwise impossible to acquire, various types of Earth crystals can be used to create certain ores and materials. This is exceptionally useful in cutting production costs. Of course, it's still cheaper to find and mine those ores and materials but it's a good substitute. It's also very handy in contracting speedy barriers to stop Grimm or tank extreme impacts. It's also used to embed Grimm into rocks and kill them with the sheer pressure of the rocks.
Another handy thing about Earth dust is that it can be used to create things like silicone or Cobalt which is often used to create electronics, which si handy as both of those are fairly rare on Remnant, with Vacuo being the best source and Vale being the second best.
Magicka
This form of Dust is more broadly speaking 'arcane' and can be used to double up on aura-infused strikes and create magical spectacles in fights. Magicka is also an extremely useful alternative for lighting as it's known to glow brightly on its own. Though it's usually fairly pricey due to the demand for it. Meaning it's not viable for poorer families to buy.
Gravity
One of the stranger types of Dust, it can be used to make things float and are actually one of the leading things that help ships in the world of Remnant soar through the sky. It's extremely abundant in Mistral and is one of the fastest-growing Crystals in the world. They're very cheap due to the sheer number of them available. Gravity rounds are famous for making bullets hit like Battleship gun shells. Lovingly referred to as 'Thumpers' which create a unique and basey Thumping sound when fired.
They increase their hit by rapidly increasing their gravity and mass when penetrating their target, this can make people go flying even if they're using 9x19 Parabellum.
Thumpers are the go-to round for larger types of Grimm, Thumpers normally being 50. Cal HE rounds to produce that extra bit of damage. It's used as fairly common ammo with variants existing in lower calibres for those who prefer lower recoil.
Spice
A powdery form of Dust that can be chemically treated to create new and unique drugs, it's also used in medical science to promote growth and increase a person's health. This is what we call a Dust Essence, allowing combatants to replenish their aura and their vigour in the heat of battle. It can also be used recreationally. Depending on the treatment, it can be used to elicit extreme highs, increase Sex drive, Mellow you out and induce extreme hallucinations.
Spice abuse can lead to mental instability, damaged Nostrils, digestive issues, Brain Damage, Vision Loss, hearing loss, heart attacks, increase risk of Cancer, cause brain tumours, destroy fertility, destroy the sense of balance, Impair semblance use, the damaged bone and muscle tissue and cause Life decay, aka rapid ageing of internal organs thus causing organ failure.
A very rare form of spice can actually rapidly change the physical attributes of the User, for instance, it can reliably change a Man into a Woman and Vice versa given the proper dosage over a long period of time. As well as make users stronger, faster and more durable than before. Of course, misuse of this can result in all of the damages listed above, so it does require courage to use.
Plasma
A deeper crust form of Dust Crystal can be used as a form of ultra-cheap nuclear fusion. Dust Plasma Cells can be used to power insanely large and complex machines however it's not as commonly used due to the difficulty of acquiring them. If Plasma could be properly harnessed then it could dramatically improve power production and help Remnant invent proper Nuclear Fusion.
Nuclear
This is not ordinarily found but made by Combining Electric Dust and Uranium together in order to use for FIssion Power Generation, it is hyperreactive and radioactive. This is the commonly used Dust in terms of Nuclear power Generation.
Lumina
A hyper rare Crystal normally only found in Mistral, it creates purifying light that scorches Grimm that get near it. It's famously used in Haven Academy and is one of the primary reasons a Grimm could never step foot inside Academy grounds. Atlas has limited use of it and uses it to help ward Grimm away from the city of Atlas. However, the Lumina Crystal can be overwhelmed if too many Grimm tries to get past it. Meaning larger armies require greater numbers of Lumina crystals to defeat.
When used as ammo, it's been known to instantly one-shot almost any form of Grimm it's used against, Atlas and Whitecliffe special forces have a small stockpile of Lumina to use on the field for special operations in high-risk environments against the Grimm. Interestingly, Lumina dust only heals people it's shot at, but the sheer pressure of the shots and the impact of it hitting can still stun an opponent.
Hard Light
Science says Light has no mass, thus you can't use it as a Shield...Hard Light Dust says screw you, imma do it anyway. Hard Light Dust is one of the confusing ones that creates a field of light that can actually stop projectiles and physical impacts extremely reliably. The light acts in a Plasma-like form but it's not at all like a liquid. It operates as a form of "Exotic Light"
It's very useful for shields and is very temperature resistant, meaning it can be used to weather extreme environmental conditions.
Shade
An odd Dust that acts as a cloaking field, using it you can obscure yourself. Causing you to Dissolve in and out with a odd Pixelated effect. It acts as if it bounces back light, making seeing a target impossible but if it were like that then the users could not see outside the field as our eyes require light coming in to see things. Yet users of this dust can see perfectly fine.
No one is quite sure how it works, it's possible that it could somehow filter out your light from other light sources. It does work however and is used by most special forces to obscure their movements. You can still be spotted via thermals but the use of Ice Dust infused uniforms can mute Thermal Vision's ability to detect you. The problem with Shade is that it's a deep crust Dust meaning it's difficult to acquire.
Carbon
By Combining Rock Dust and Carbon, can be used to release Carbon Dioxide which can be helpful in melt Smelting, allowing greater amounts of metal to be smelt for a far smaller Carbon Footprint. It's also handy for the creation of graphite for pencils and when fused with Ice dust, can create cheap blocks of Carbon Ice. It can also be used to feed plants Carbon directly in order to create oxygen, this is commonly done to Alge in order to use up excess Carbon.
In terms of combat, the biggest use is poison, as Dense Carbon Dust can be activated and flood a badly ventilated area with Carbon and give victims carbon Dioxide Poisoning, this also works on Grimm and makes them delusional and ineffective in combat.

Dust Fusion

In order to create new types of Dust, it isn't as simple as mashing Fire and rock and getting magma. Dustology is a complicated field of Science that works with the Strange and unorthodox which means in order to master it, Humanity must harness Strange and unorthodox methods of their own. Above you may have read about the Magicka Dust. In Fusion Work Stations, a worker feeds two types of dust or a type of dust and a component like uranium or Carbon Gas and then feeds both into a Fuser. 
The Fuser uses Magicka Dust and manipulates said dust to alter the properties, through the use of Computer Calculation and prediction, the Worker is able to manage the fusion process and create a new crystal. Now, normally this is done in bulk with a fair few people and very large machines. The Process can either be cheap or expensive depending on what it is that you are creating. 
You may be thinking, could you just mix two components together and use the Fuser to mix them together? Yes but normally the fuser is used on dust-related products as that it is what it is designed to work with.

Dust Refining

Most Dust when it is found or mined is highly impure meaning that first, a worker must use a Silicone Carbide Wheel or Diamond Impregnated wheels to first cut and clean the surface of a gem. Once cleaned a Dust Crystal must then be melted down into liquid at temperatures of 26,000 Degrees before being quickly cooled and poured through a filtration system normally up to 8 times before finally being put back into a mould and then rapidly cooled to -144 Degrees Celcius and kept in that state for 20 days before being removed from its mould else the crystal will be brittle and improperly reformed.
At the end of the Process, you have a clean rebuilt and finely cut Crystal. If you wish to make Dust fuel, then simply leaving the Dust in its liquid state will do. Refining is highly useful in turning normally useless Dust into high-performing stuff, it's not as good as the Depp Mining pure crystals you can find in the deep dark and dangerous caverns but it's enough to keep the lights on and the guns firing away.

Aura

After the Great War, it was found that the energy inside Dust Crystals is the same energy that radiates from every person, Mysteria. Aura has quite a few applications that is more subtle than outright magic. Aura can act like a healing force and a protective shield that tanks impacts and forms of damage. This lets those with Aura tank blows that'd normally kill someone else.
It doesn't make you invincible though. Well-trained users can use their aura to empower their strikes, delivering blows and attacks normally impossible. Lie Ren when facing a Grimm during his Trial, struck the head of a massive Snake Grimm, causing its head to expand and then explode for example. This helps humans and Faunus overcome the massive strength and speed gap between Humans and Faunus against the Tireless and extremely strong Grimm.
It can also help detect Grimm and incoming attacks, giving some superhuman equilibriums and reaction timing. Predictively blocking bullets before they're fired. Though it's often best to dodge these rather than trying to block all of the rounds. These senses can be heightened to extreme levels, where Huntresses like Cinder can sense a lot of Grim from 1 kilometre away.
To replenish it, a combatant can use Dust Essence or if they want to do it more slowly. Eat a lot of food. It's very common for combatants to eat insane amounts of food as Aura usage cuts into your usage of biological energy. This is why during the Vytal Festival, Team Rwby was seen ordering impossibly sized bowls and eating the whole thing without gaining a stupid amount of weight.
People not properly conditioned physically can nearly kill themselves from Exhaustion, meaning those with Aura must spend years of rigorous training to adapt their bodies to extreme physical toil. This is also why people can use stupidly fantastic fighting styles and not seem drop-dead exhausted after a physically intense combo. The biggest issue with Aura however is that it must be engaged, let's say if Cinder Fall were to be ambushed unexpectedly, even though she's a near-god-tier fighter, she can be hastily killed by a Dirty, Starved Bandit with a poorly maintained firearm in less then one second if he gets the drop on her. For Aura's to protect you, you have to put them up and it requires extreme focus. Lapses in focus can also cause your shielding to go down and for you to die very quickly.
This is why it's important to go to academies as they train their students to handle enormous amounts of pain so they can stay focused during a fight and be less likely to die.

Semblance

Semblances are often thought to be the remnants of a Bygone Era. Everyone has a Semblance but not every semblance is combative. There's a very vague categorization system such as Speed, Support, Attack and Defence types of semblances though some even exist outside of those categories. Semblances are like superpowers and every person has at least one with a few people being exceptions having up to 3 semblances.
Some have genetic ones that are inherited like the Schnee Family, who were once without a Semblance but I'll get into that later. A semblance can be used in more than one way sometimes and thus creating the façade of multiple powers when really it's the same one used in different ways. A Semblance is very important for fighting Grimm, usually.
One example of multiple uses for one power is Ruby Rose, she can use Rose burst to quickly approach targets and then use crescent strike which is a hastened normal strike--sometimes improved by a discharge (Firing blank thumpers to increase the velocity of strikes) to deliver devastating blows. She can also use Rose burst to speed up her typing, her read and lock picking just to name a few applications.
Jaune Arc can not only heal others' wounds but also drastically empower others and also empower his own strikes. His blade can be empowered so much that if he were to strike an Ursa Major with a Superpowered slash, he could cleave that Ursa Major in half with a singular strike. he can also empower his shield bashing and blocking to become an immovable wall.

Unique Exceptions

Schnee Glyphs
Not only is the Glyphs a Genetic Semblance but also come with proper variants, such as speed glyphs, suspension glyphs, Catapult Glyphs, Summoning Glyphs and Dust Infused Glyphs. This is because it was one of the first artificial semblances ever made and is one of the closest examples to real magic in the world. It's very well known as well and interestingly, up until Jacque and Whitley Schnee. Males were able to use the semblance as well.
Cinder's Flame
Cinder has an interesting flame semblance that can come in various forms through dust infusions and what appears to be spell casting. This is actually because of her training with Salem, enabling the use of long-forgotten techniques and unique uses of dust and aura. When she took the Maiden's power, Cinder was able to perfectly synergize with the powers and become the most powerful Fall Maiden ever, thanks to the combination of her fighting style and her semblance with her Maiden powers.
Flynt Coal's Semblance
Flynt has a unique semblance with a wide array of uses, not only can he duplicate himself but he can duplicate anything. He can duplicate weapons, attacks, and sound waves. Anything this is unique because of the sheer array of possibilities. If he focuses hard enough and expends enough aura, he can even permanently duplicate items which are not something that's all too common.
His fashion sense may as well be semblance as well, considering how cool it is.

A Fire Crystal, they can come in a perfect shape like this or clump out as very jagged and weird looking clumps. They tend to glow in the dark and are hyper toxic to Biological life forms when ingested or introduced into the body. Most dying or suffering excruciating pain which usually leads to death in most cases. Except of course Dust Essences, which is used to regenerate Aura.

Reckless and Unsustainable Extraction and Refinery of Dust Crystals can lead to horrific effects on the environment, including desertification or a significant increase in cold temperatures and Winter seasons. It is like you're actually sucking the life out of the land around you, to fuel your economy.

Here are some examples of Dust Crystals, these are all Refined Crystals which is why they're all so clean cut and pure. Dust is normally impure and very rocky, it needs to be purified before use or else it won't be effective. All forms of Dust can either be found but mostly made by combining other forms of Dust together. Plant Dust is a common Surface Dust type and mostly has Agricultural purposes.

Dust is highly toxic to you when it enters your bloodstream, when a user injects a crystal into their veins in order to flow dust through their system they're poisoning their internal Organs. In the case of hazel, he had a Super Regenative ability which enabled him to endure incredible amounts of pain and strain but lack the ability to feel pain in the process only by pumping himself full of Dust, can he feel something but at the risk of organ failure, specifically the heart.
Not only does dust taint your blood but the little grains of the dust actually wear down your veins and if it gets into your heart can cause significant amounts of damage to its internals and stop it from pumping altogether.

Dust Spice can be used in Cigarettes and similar products and added with just about any substance and normally is. it can be both medicinal, Recreational and extremely deadly. Spice Powder goes really nicely with Pure Meth Crystals and can be used to get an out-of-the-world high and possibly a one-way ticket to the grave. This means that some Dust mining Operations are actually just Drug Cartels trying to get more material for their black market dealings. 

Dust can be directly activated to create what's called a Raw Reaction, this requires masterful levels of Aura manipulation. use of dust in this way is the only way to use magic in any way that's in line with fantasy. With beautiful hand movements, you can bend the elements through the use of Dust and unleash devastating amounts of firepower. You can also weave dust into your clothes, Cinder had fire dust lined into her Dress which allowed her to quickly cast fire spells at will. 
When she got maiden powers she got the ability to recharge this fire dust, thus creating an infinite loop of fiery magic output. Many Specialist-type Hunters use Raw reactions to pull off amazing feats where as Operators prefer tool-orientated use of dust. 

In order for a gun to fire, you need gunpowder. Then you need a spark to ignite it, this is done by fire dust which ignites the gunpowder to propel a round out of the barrel and into the air. The tip of every round has Dust laced into it. You can tell which type of Dust is in the round based on the colour strip around the head over the bullet and the symbol on its magazine. The most popular choice for Fire Arms is Thumpers, which si bullets laced with Grav Dust that increases the weight of the round.
In order to get speed back, Thumper rounds have a small booster at the butt, after blasting into the air, the booster fires off which launches the bullet like a rocket into its target, rapidly increasing impact and speed. Thumper Rounds tend to have a shorter range but when it comes to Grimm, most calibres Below 45. aren't gonna cut it without an extra boost. 

Tri-Hard is a Lance Energy Weapon, using Hard-Light Dust it fires a beam of energy that skewers targets and explodes inside of them. Energy Lances are popular in the Modern day because of their high impact and extreme heat. Grimm Flesh still heats up like other Organic flesh, meaning when it is superheated it expands and then explodes. Weapons like Tri Hard are excellent for large targets which is why Neptune attempted to use it on the Atlas Paladin.
Unfortunately, Hard Light is really bad at defeating Hard Light Shielding. That said despite its shortcomings, Tri-Hard is an example of an effective lance weapon. Most Lance Weapons prefer Electric Dust however as it is cheaper and faster but not as devastating. But sometimes when you're shooting a massive high-powered energy lance with arching electricity, maybe impact isn't the one that's gonna kill you. 

Vehicles in order to run require Fuel, rather than fossil fuels most cars now work on Dust Fuel, specifically power packs. Power Packs are large packs hooked into vehicles that vent liquified Dust fuel through the vehicle to make it run. After being used the used-up Dust Fuel turns into vapour which gets vented out the exhausts. The Vapour hangs around in the air for a while before eventually re-crystalizing on the ground.
This means that in the current era, most vehicles are Carbon Neutral, and no longer require Oil or Gas in order to run, instead those resources get used for other things. Dust Recrystallization can be a problem though as untended roads tend to spawn pockets of dust growing out of Asphalt or concrete meaning it'll have to be cleared and repaired. This is why you still find many Dirt roads because it is simply too expensive to run huge roads you have to repair every few months.

Dust Mining can be really dangerous, from the explosive materials to the underground Grimm and finally the very unsavoury working conditions as the SDC undervalues the typical mine worker completely. Because of the many hazards, Accidents are common which is why it is easy to find empty mines all over the place. The SDC hollowing out and buying out competitors also left giant mining complexes completely unmanned and eventually overrun with Grimm.
Lots of Hunters have died fighting Grimm in the mines and then accidentally shooting a Crystal, setting off a daisy chain explosion which resulted in their deaths. 

Daisy Chain Explosions can be very pretty but often very deadly, when a Dust Vein goes off, it can reach a point where a serious Earth Quake occurs and nearby settlements can be seriously damaged. Dust veins go down for many, many, many miles and setting them off can unleash all sorts of hell and often bring lots of underground Grimm to the surface resulting in giant outbreaks and series of long and hard battles against the Grimm. 
This is why when bombing a Dust Facility, you always ensure to cut the flow of dust from the ground otherwise you risk causing a daisy chain and blowing up a much wider radius than you originally bargained for. It is also why Dust Facilities are often captured and not destroyed. Dust explosions are so dangerous that the Vytal International Forum agreed to declare the purposeful detonation of Dust Veins during Wartime to be a war crime.
A War Crime that is often ignored by the Victors.

Dust Mega Bombs are WMDs that are loaded with Hyper Violatile Dust that when it explodes, it flattens everything in its radius and sets off every inch of Dust nearby to extend the explosion and damage. Mega Bombs were mostly used during the Great War with many of the lost settlements being lost due to their use of them. Some Mega Bombs these days now have nuclear reactions through the use of Nuclear dust and nuclear components mixed in with the Dust explosives.