Claymore/WMG

Claymore is a D&D or Pathfinder campaign setting. Claymores are artificially created Abberant Sorcerers who Multiclass to a sort of pseudo-Paladin.

By using Graft Flesh. "Awakening" is reaching Level 20 in Abberant Sorcerer (which, due to a screwup of abberancy in this setting, like the way necromancy is fucked up in Ravenloft, can happen spontaniously if their Abberant powers are overused). Since they weren't born abberant they don't get Acid Ray. The ability to detect Youma and each other is similar to "Detect Evil / Good" with the "Permanent" enhancement spell.

Claymore is a prequel to Guyver

"The Organisation" is Cronos, who are still working out the kinks in their prototype Zoanoids (such as a strange preference for human guts over other food). Supporting this is the presence of yoma and Awakened Beings (the strongest of whom resemble Zoalords without Zoacrystals), as well as the suspicious absence of female Zoanoids.

Claymores are Slayers

Female warriors created by a shadowy organisation by infusing girls with demonic/yoma power. Does this seem familiar?

Demonic powers are stronger in the Claymore-verse, making the Claymores more powerful, but at the risk of succumbing to their demonic nature themselves.

Also note that in the Buffyverse there are no known male Slayers; in the Claymore universe, attempts at creating male warriors were abandoned because they fell to their demonic nature too easily. Perhaps the same thing happened when the watchers tried to infuse a male with Slayer power in the Buffyverse?

Slayers are refined Claymores

That is, the Watchers fixed the problem that turned Claymores into demons. Slayers don't become devils because they were infused with the demonic power as kids and then had it kept dormant until their teens.

Claymore is an alternate history of Berserk.

In this alternate timeline, Guts died during the Eclipse. As a result, there is no one to oppose Griffith after he's reincarnated except for Ganishka.

The Dragon-Kin mentioned by Miria are Apostles, who are able to defeat the Kushan armies with ease and are a superweapon for the Vatican army opposing Ganishka. None of Ganishka's artificially created demons were able to match Apostles in combat, so he refined the process used for creating his demon-soldiers. Originally he just had demonic spirits possess pregnant women; now he takes a shortcut and infuses them with Yoma flesh. Things work out better than expected, as the new demon-soldiers are able to take on a demon form similar to Apostles; but they are uncontrollable in that form and so are useless to Ganishka.

So Ganishka takes a random island (possibly conquering Elfhelm) and uses it as a laboratory for testing the new demon-soldiers, now called Claymores, so that he can make them controllable when in their demon forms, now called Awakened Ones, and use the mass-produced Awakened Ones to overwhelm Griffith's Apostle army.

The disturbing thing on the Claymores' bodies is the head or face of a Yoma

Specifically, the Yoma used to create them. Clare may have used the head or face of her mentor instead.

Hmm, you know, that's not a huge stretch. There is definitely something on their upper chest/lower neck covered by the cloth that has their symbol. Ophelia touches Claire there, under that cloth, and brings back something, perhaps blood or some other kind of fluid, which she licks off her fingers.
There's a hint that this might be true in the manga. After Teresa died, Clare was carrying around her head; she had it when she met with the man from the Organization. While they theoretically could have retrieved the body, they had the head on hand when she first showed up.

Clarice (new #47) is another experimental

Clarice is not just a failed attempt at a Claymore; she's a deliberate experiment. Perhaps she, like Claire, is only one-quarter yoma, rather than half; or perhaps she's something new.

Claire and Agent 47 from the Hitman series are related

They share a code number, they both look vaguely Nordic, and they both have jobs that involve traveling around the world killing things. Surely there are shakier theories out there...

Raki will eventually be turned into a male Claymore somehow, with Priscilla as his material.

Probably by some Deus Ex Machina on Priscilla's part when she finally gets to where she can't take the hunger anymore. She's desperately in love with Raki and wants to protect him any way she can. What's that? She has to sacrifice herself before she kills him? Sure, why not?

It only makes sense, given Clare's merging with the combined Awakened Ones in Riful's basement. It will also provide the biggest opportunity for Clare to have some Wangst: She really, really wants to kill Priscilla and she really, really wants to be reunited with Raki. Depending on how long it's delayed, this will go two ways:

Raki will become the series Big Bad as Clare refuses to accept him, destroying most of The Organization in the process. Males always have poor impulse control and become either regular Youma or Awakened Beings. Priscilla is the strongest Awakened Being in existence. He'll have controlled her impulses up until Clare's rejection gives him a Heroic BSOD, and then pow, he's gone. Then just to show what a Badass he is, he'll kill off the Alicia and Beth with ease as his first act... right after paralleling the scene where Priscilla left Clare alone, walking past her as if she didn't exist.

Raki will reunite with Clare, who'll decide that being happy with Raki is more important than her revenge on Priscilla. Alicia and Beth go haywire during their fight with the Raki/Clare combo, become Awakened Beings themselves, then merge successfully where their predecessors failed. The newly merged being will ignore Raki/Clare, paralleling the scene where Priscilla left Clare alone, before going on to destroy The Organization. The Seven Ghosts + Raki will then have to contend with Bethicia, who starts to recruit more Awakened Beings along with Riful and Douph.

Calling I Knew It! rights on this, right now.

Wait,wait, wait, you mean he isn't already a "Claymore"? His hair color is colored white in the manga indicating whatever it is/was, it was very light and/or pale. If it turned completely white, being there are no male claymores, how would anyone except Claire suspect other than natural hair color change? He can sense youki now. Took a major level in badass. He's almost certainly already either a Claymore or Half-Claymore with power from Priscilla while leaving her alive somehow.
- Raki can't sense youki, he needed Priscilla to point out the yoma for him.
- Yup. Raki's just a Badass Normal right now. While he can fight normal youma with ease, he can't sense or use youki, so techniques like the Quickblade which use Youki are beyond his grasp. He likewise doesn't have the healing factor of a Claymore or their durability. An Awakened Being would probably kill him in two seconds flat.
Check out Chapter 96. Raki has a bit of Rafaela and Luciela's youki in his body now.
Go check Chapter 125 about interesting and different effect of tiny bits of Priscilla. I don't know, the last pages don't look so casual.

Clare is actually potentially more powerful than alicia.

think about it. in Extra material 1 Teresa Kills an awakened one parallel in power to an abyssal one with utter ease and only a moderate release of her power. Admittedly clare won't possess quite that degree of power if it does release because of dilution, but it would certainly cement her status as an Almighty Janitor. Why it wouldn't have realeased yet? i don't know, help me out here?

Clare is shown to have some pretty powerful willpower. This Troper can't help but think this is partially due to the infusion of Teresa's head (presumably) within her own body. Think about it... Teresa was really well known for staying in control of her youki during battle. Unlike the other Claymores, she never succumbed to the old great power/ugly face thing. The willpower thing is backed up multiple times throughout the story, too. For one, she's gone Awakened more than any other Claymore and yet still come back. For two, she forced the Quickblade to become accurate (instead of simply being an indiscriminate attack), through sheer willpower. At the least horrible of concepts, this is just going to be a general "inheritance" deal where it's Teresa's willpower and nothing more. Given the general level of Body Horror and Nightmare Fuel the series actively pursues, Teresa has been a silent passenger in Clare's mind ever since Clare brought her severed head back to the Organization and she's the reason Clare's been able to pull herself back from the brink so often.
- Alternatively, Clare's notorious ability to withstand Awakening comes from the simple fact that she is only quarter Yoma. But come think of it, Clare is becoming a more and more extreme example of Weak but Skilled trope: she has picked up combat techniques from Claymores who are way above her in raw power and lived long enough to perfect them. Irene's (#2) Quicksword, Flora's (#8) Windcutter, and most recently, any combat knowledge Rafaela (originally #2, second only to Luciela) may have had. So in a way, Clare may well be the single most dangerous non-Awakened Claymore at the moment.
- Are all youma made equal? Are the differences in strength and ability between Claymores entirely due to their human halves, or is there variation in power in the youma halves they are merged with? If there is variation between youma, then it must not be forgotten that even if Claire is just 1/4 youma, she is 1/4 the youma that was part of Theresa, and given how strong Theresa was, it is possible that that particular youma is incredibly strong, and 1/4 of the power of Theresa's youma could well be stronger than 1/2 of some other youma.

Clare's Awakened form is really Theresa's Awakened form.

Except for that one arm, since it comes from a different Claymore.

This one's VERY likely, if not already confirmed, to be truth. Think of it, Awakened tend to have regular forms in which the right and left sides are identical. When Clare awakened her legs, they were boths identical, but when she awakened her arms, OH! They were different!
- The different arms are prrobably so that she can still hold a sword.
Doesn't that mean that hers is also Irene's awakened form?

Yoma are created by "combining" two people into one.

We know Yoma are created by the Organization, and they feed exclusively on humans. The Organization managed to create something greater than a human by adding two people together, but as a result they need to eat humans to survive. This is why hybrids and awakened beings are stronger than than Yoma, because another person has been "added" to the mix. Unfortunately, more people equals greater mental problems, which is why Yoma are capable of hiding among people and acting normal, Awakened beings are all sociopaths and some are kind of insane, and the Abyss Feeders have all lost their minds.

Counter arguement: Clare. If that theory is valid Clare is a hybrid of five individuals (two making the original youma, Theresa, Irene and Clare herself) yet she's no crazier than anyone else. Certainly saner that... Ophelia or Miata say.
- It depends. The arm wouldn't affect things I think, because it was a replacement for the one she lost, not an addition to Clare, so she would just have four individuals inside her, and a regular claymores arm. It's shown that claymores don't start off as monsters, but become that way after time passes and they awaken, which would be them completely fusing with the people inside them, and becoming more powerful as a result. Because Clare hasn't fully fused with the people inside her, and her 'donor' also hadn't fully fused with the people inside her, Clare starts off as really weak, but becomes way more powerful as time goes on. As for the mental thing, she seems to be normal at first because of the low level of fusion, but when ever she gets mad she draws out a lot of power and falls into a berserker state where she single mindedly attacks her opponent, kind of like the Abyss Feeders.
- Wait, that would be four to make the original youma, (two as Theresa's youma and two as Irene) and THEN plus Theresa and Irene themselves. So that's... 7? But Clare also had a really hard time controlling Irenes arm in the beginning.

The current events of the manga (Ch 95) are going to attract the other side of the war that the Organisation is fighting

Seriously. The top ranks of opponents are thinning out rather drastically and it looks as if the current battle might take out Alicia, Beth, Riful and Dauf, leaving only Priscilla. What comes after that? If they were just for back story Rubel wouldn't have needed to be revealed as The Mole.

Teresa was the Abyssal One of the East

The reason why nobody ever saw Teresa release more than 10% of her yoki was because she has been an Abyssal One all along, secretly working for the Organization for whatever personal reasons. Think about it: she was massively overpowered, even for a #1. Her origins are Shrouded in Myth and contain no indication as to why she is so immensely strong. Basically, she was an Abyssal One who maintained her human guise much like Isley and Riful to avoid detection. That would be the reason why Priscilla is scared shitless of her. And that would also explain why the Organization "broke" its own rule and allowed Clare to be made into warrior using the flesh of "another Claymore". Also, that explains the discrepancy between Clare's official rank (#47) and her powers that partially matched single-digits' even in her own time (let alone after the Time Skip): the Organization had to maintain the illusion that she is a weakling quarter-Yoma in order to conceal the fact that they've been letting an Abyssal One run unchecked across their territory.

Unlikely. I noticed that awakened ones in their human forms regained their natural hair- and eyecolour from before they where claymore'd and Teresa was explicitely stated to have had black hair. If she had been an awakened, she'd have had regained that hair colour.
Completely Jossed with the introduction of the Abyssal Feeders. They are made from the flesh of Awakened Beings rather than yoma; if Clare had been made with the flesh of an Awakened Being -- even an Abyssal One is just a very powerful Awakened Being -- she would be a Feeder, not a Claymore.

Teresa was another experiment

Likely quickly jossed, but as of Chapter 100 Pricsilla states "Weren't you supposed to not be able to awaken?" with vague memories/feelings of Teresea being sensed from Clair. Rafeal and her twin were attempt 1 at an awaken being you could control. Alicia and Beth attempt 2. Awakened Claymores are meant to be weapons against the worse demons on the continent. If Teresa already awakened, see Abyssal WMG above, then the other possibility is likely. Teresa was designed to be a Claymore incapable of awakening thus having a limited upper threshold, but having near/above Abyssal One power in base form.

Raki is going to be the Final Boss

He's super strong now, and he has a bit of the twins inside of him. The Organization has some... plans for him, and it doesn't sound good.

Refining the experiments on the Claymores resulted in the Grey Wardens.

The Darkspawn are evolved Yoma, and the process that was originally used to create Claymores has been greatly improved with the Grey Wardens. Incidentally, this means Flemeth was probably the last survivor of the Claymores...

The Reason Claire can go so far in her Awakened State is because Teresa is inside her

Think about it. Since Teresa is inside Claire, she could allow a lot of the dark energy to flow out of her, but be able to bring her back from the brink. This will not work with anyone else because all the other Claymores have ACTUAL yoma in them, not Claymores.

The Organization is related and/or is a branch of the OmniTech corporation from Dr. Brinner Ghost Psychiatrist

If OmniTech put the DNA of Jesus Christ into a robot and the Organization can put the flesh of Yoma into a female human, could they be using the same technology?

Dietrich has just single-handedly solved the yoma spike creature problem for good

If what she says is true, the Abyssal Feeders that have been temporarily infected by the parasites (which is quite a bunch--all that were sent after Riful, probably) will from now on only target the yoma spike creatures (and possibly Luciela-Rafaela, but that's a long shot), meaning that the area will be crawling with indestructible predators who destroy all yoma spikes that Luciela-Rafaela spawns, preventing their spread. It couldn't have gone better for the humans on the island (and by extension, the Organization).

Louvre belongs to the dragon clan

He was stated to be a spy working for the opposite side of the war, meaning that side who doesn't develop Super-Warriors because they got a dragon-like race on their side. Yoma can easily take human shape, so why shouldn't dragons? He's the only representation of that nation we got at the moment and there's a chance that he's going to get into a fight sooner or later, so making him a dragon seems like a logical conclusion to raise his fighting capabilities.

Clare will awaken into Teresa

Not a lot of base for this one other than that she has Teresa inside her and no one really knows for sure what a fully awakened 1/4 yoma Claymore will be. With most recent events from chapter 104 it's almost impossible to tell what will happen to Clare with all the strange new things happening all at once. If this happens it might be Teresa in her entirety but with all of Clare's memories after becoming a part of her.

Clare will merge with the Destroyer

It's not the first time she does, but this instance would be an Emergency Transformation.

Confirmed. She actually took the thing over in 105 and is currently sealing Priscilla away in it. Time will tell if she ever escapes.

Raki is the Organization's trump card.

(From chapter 106) Seems to be one of those "why didn't I see it coming" twists.

Aw. THAT is gonna hurt.
Jossed, thankfully, in chapter 107.
- Yeah, the only way to make chapter 107 worse was to have Raki in it...

The awakened "Priscilla" is actually Teresa.

This would require that Teresa regenerate instantly from what looked like having her head cut in half by Awakening, then murder Priscilla, having lost her memory from losing most of her head in the moment before she Awakened. Clare got the part that was cut off and regenerated implanted into her, of course. This would explain why 'Priscilla' is so fixated on Clare (Priscilla had no real reason to care about a random girl, unlike Teresa) as well as, narratively, why Priscilla lost her memory.
- The reason Priscilla is so fixated on Claire as you put it is because she's sensing Teresa inside of Claire.

Claymore is set in the modern world.

Or at least, everything outside of the continent they're on is. I mean, think about it, where the hell did they get the ability created genetically mutating people that turn into monster if over stimulated in the middle ages? We know the organization is working OFF the island, so it would make sense. Unless I'm forgetting a key plot point, here.

The Organization in Claymore is the same Organization that Albert Wesker worked for once upon a time.

It makes sense. They're both just known as the "organization" and they both develop bio-weapons. They've been dumping Wesker's experiments on the island and using the Claymores as lab rats.

Roxanne of Love and Hate is an epic Yandere who had Cassandra the Dust Eater as her target.

Let's see, possible Les Yay between her and Cassandra the Dust Eater, thinking/gloating about being the one to actually kill Cassandra, being amused that Cassandra didn't remember how she died, plus how exactly could one earn the title "Of Love and Hate"?

I think she somehow has Mind Control powers.
There is an awful lot of Les Yay between Roxanne and the various Claymores that "died mysteriously" after she'd mastered their techniques...given that some of Roxanne's dialogue sounds like she's honestly attracted to her targets until their strength is no longer beautiful to her (after she's surpassed them, basically), interpreting her as a Psycho Lesbian Yandere doesn't seem too hard.

Yoma are/are created from an actual species.

The presence of non-humans (presumably not created by humans) is confirmed with the dragons used by the Dragon's Descendants. Now, it seems sort of unlikely that, with the Claymore-verse's apparent medieval level of technology (given the fantasy elements, some sort of magic might explain this), that the Organization could simply create a bioweapon from scratch, without using some kind of natural material already at hand. Given that, with the presence of such a species (possibly extinct and preserved somewhere), all that the Organization would need to do is implant that flesh in humans in various ways to create Claymores and Yoma. The "Yoma" flesh has displayed qualities that would make this possible and also explain where the Organization got the ability to do something that their level of technology indicates would be impossible for them to do. Priscilla, by simply shoving her arm into Raki, was able to prevent another Yoma-derived object (the Destroyer) from taking control of his body. The Destroyer also was able to take over other life-forms, and it is likely that a less potent version of a similar type of flesh could "easily" be used to make Claymores.

- In chapter 126 this is confirmed. Yoma are humans implanted with the flesh of the Dragon's Descendants.

Claymore is set in Thedas.

No mages in a clear fantasy setting with at least some magic (physics-defying changes for Awakened Beings), and some otherwise-"human" characters have Pointy Ears. I figure the mages get sequestered like in Ferelden (or conscripted by the Organization), and pointy-eared people are Quickened elves. There are also many similarities between Youma and Darkspawn. Grey Wardens seem like a Gender Flip of Claymore rules (bad idea to have male claymores, bad idea to have female Grey Wardens), but with a few Nerfs on the former. It may not be supported by evidence, but maybe the Taventr Imperium placed an order for the Super Soldiers the Organization are making, and they're using Quinari as the base, possibly by using Lyrium infusion/overdose and Darkspawn blood.

Teresa saved young Clare from Priscilla.

The wish of Priscilla not to kill the small girls artificial.Not a single Awakened being show similar selectivity.I think that Teresa even after chopping off the head has haved time to go in consciousness Priscilla and has done so that Priscilla does not see the small girls.So Clare remained live, in the same way either as Ophelia as side effect.As proof possible to remember an instance north Awakened being, which after chopping off the head can to manipulate the yoki claymores.

Priscilla will destroy HQ Organization on mainland.

I have the mad theory about moving the action on mainland.We shall be noted tht claymores after victory on Organization does not need the continent.Their purpose will be completely destroy all yoma and awakened being on island.The sole reason of the march on mainland this will be Priscilla.After escape from cocoon Clare must leave to kill three new Abyssal One but Priscilla has decided abandon the island.Her wings is that necessary for flight on mainland.As reasons I can think the mental influence happened as a result of absorptions in cocoon.Priscilla could after mental relationship with Clare to recall about past, as yoma killed her parents and want the revenge for them.The main object of the revenge - creators of yoma.The Organization without her will be destroyed by Clare, but here is mainland ideal purpose for revenge.Clare must stop her after destruction Organization and seven warriors, will go on mainland.The mainland will be in chaos after flight there Priscilla.This will be fairness for experiments on island!

The Seven Ghosts represent the three theological virtues and the four cardinal virtues to some degree.

Clare is Fortitude obviously.
Miria is Prudence, being the only one who really knew what the hell the Organization was really up to.
Deneve is Temperance since she seems to be good at holding it together and will keep the others from going to pieces. Sometimes violently.
Helen is Hope. This group desperately needs someone who can genuinely laugh and Helen can definitely lighten a mood.
Tabitha is Faith, choosing to devote her life to helping Miria.
Cynthia and Uma are, by process of elimination, Love and Justice, but I haven't quite worked out which is which or why yet.

Ilena is alive and kicking - literally.

Ilena said to Raphaela that she wasn't a match for her even with both of her arms, but Clare did say that she was going to return her arm when they meet again. So Ilena did survive her encounter with Raphaela - by utilizing her legs in a quick-foot technique that totally caught her opponent off guard.

Considering this series, that's actually not implausible.

Clare is a female descendent of Guts in an alternate timeline

It makes sense with how much the two characters have in common. Guts succeeded in taking out the Godhand, but now the remnants of the apostles are wandering the mainland (which are the countries of Midland, Kushan, Tudor, etc.), as well as all of the other supernatural creatures. They are being utilized by both sides of the feuding countries - they are called yoma on the side that the organization is familiar with. The organization are also making apostle-human hybrids, and that's where we get the claymores, who are all secluded on an island that was not majorly affected by the World-Wrecking Wave that Femto cast on the world. Clare, who was entirely human in the beginning as her ancestor Guts was, has been subjected to the experimentation of the organization, making her into the super human entity that her ancestor fought so hard to eliminate. Basically, the world was first fucked up by magic; now, the world is being screwed over by science.

Helen's father is the Bandit Leader

The leader of the bandits that menaced Teresa and young Clare bears a great resemblance to Helen. Perhaps, given his apparent propensity for rapaciousness, it would stand to reason that he forced himself on the would be mother, and the resulting child being abandoned to the Organization. Also, Helen's attack extends out, just like her father's sword.

I have to hand it to you: I have a vague memory that the bandit leader had a smile that held an uncanny resemblance to Helen's.

Miria is gonna form a Claymore sovereign state in the Eastern Lands

Because what else is she gonna do with a good hundred of warriors now that their rebellion is over. Of course, they will help the local humanity sweep the remaining yoma and the Organization stragglers, but then what? The Claymores wanted to be free and left alone, however, most of them don't know any life other than one directed by the Organization, so they obviously will look for a new strong leader (read: Miria). Plus, there are still some threats that can't be dealt with on her own: Cassandra (with whom I really, really hope she can make a mutual alliance) and the Destroyer/Priscilla/Clare.

The Gecko Ending of the anime is actually a dream Clare is having.

It is a What If/For Want of a Nail for the Northern Campaign, explaining the differences in the anime with the original manga story line.