How Tyrian Callows Can Work as a Personal Enemy for Team RWBY
Tyrian is actually one of the easiest Salem agents to turn into a genuine, burning arch-enemy for every single member of the team. He’s already halfway there in canon.
Ruby This one is already canon and extremely personal. Tyrian was sent specifically to capture or kill her on Salem’s direct orders. They fought one-on-one in Volume 4, he poisoned Qrow (her uncle and father figure) right in front of her, and she’s the one who cut off his scorpion tail. From Ruby’s side: he almost murdered the person who raised her. From Tyrian’s side: she humiliated him, permanently maimed him, and caused him to fail Salem (who then brutalized him as punishment). Tyrian is completely unhinged and obsessive; Ruby is 100% his white whale. He wants her screaming, broken, or dead, in that order.
Weiss Weiss herself never met him in canon, but Winter clearly has, and she was visibly terrified at the mere prospect of fighting Tyrian again. That alone tells us he’s left trauma on the Schnee family. Possibilities that require almost zero retcon:
Tyrian was the one who carried out several high-profile political assassinations in Atlas that got quietly blamed on the Schnee family (or that he deliberately made look like Jacques ordered them).
He stalked or fought Winter off-screen during the Atlas years, leaving her with scars (physical or mental) she never talks about.
During the fall of Atlas he targets the remaining Schnees on purpose, maybe even corners Whitley or Klein just to send Weiss a message. Tyrian has zero morals about killing entire families for fun; the Schnees are just another prestigious bloodline to paint the walls with.
Blake Extremely easy and already heavily implied. Tyrian is a Faunus who became one of the most sadistic, genocidal monsters on Remnant, the exact kind of traitor the White Fang radical wing claimed all Faunus would become if they didn’t follow them. He’s Adam Taurus cranked to eleven: a Faunus who revels in violence and serves a human witch who wants to exterminate humanity (including Faunus). His “plastic soldiers and pawns” line is almost certainly a direct dig at the White Fang. Blake hears a Faunus call her people disposable cannon fodder while laughing about murder, and it’s not hard to see why she’d take that personally. Bonus: Tyrian would find Blake’s idealism hilarious and love breaking her spirit before he kills her.
Yang Also very straightforward. Tyrian nearly murdered Qrow (the closest thing she and Ruby have to a dad), poisoned him in front of her, laughed about it, and has been actively trying to kill or capture her little sister for years. On the flip side, Tyrian sees Yang as the loud, angry obstacle that keeps getting in the way of Ruby. He’d take great pleasure in taunting her about her lost arm, her abandonment issues, or how easy it would be to finish what Adam started. Their fighting styles are also perfect mirrors: raw power vs unhinged agility. Yang would love nothing more than to punch that grin off his face permanently.
Conclusion Tyrian doesn’t need any major retcons to be the single most personal Salem lieutenant to all four members of RWBY at once. He’s already maimed or traumatized their family, mocked their causes, and has a canonical obsession with Ruby that can easily spread to obsessive hatred of anyone protecting her.