classpect-reblogs

Latest Posts by classpect-reblogs

you are not alone but im curious to hear your view of how they're intertwined

a Seer of Light who can read the future and a Thief of Light who can steal "luck" are fundamentally interacting with the same force, "fortune"; one just happens to be a fortune teller while the other is a fortune stealer. and that's not just wordplay, the two meanings of fortune are literally the same! being "lucky" is just the name someone like Vriska gives to the idea of having a "good fortune"; literally just having a positive destiny or fate, which a Seer of Light would be able to read.

the synonymity of fate and luck are evident in the language we use to describe them; moira (as in moirallegience) and kismet (as kismesissitude) both mean "fate" but also "allotment" or "portion", to be lucky, or to be someone who steals fortunes, literally just means to take the good allotment for yourself and leave the people around you with the bad ones. this should be particular obvious in Homestuck, where possibilities are represented by branching timelines; if you're lucky, that just means the alpha timeline is the one where you got the best fortune, and if you're a fortune teller that means you can read these "fortuitous outcomes" into the future. this is only driven home by Aranea's plan, which does not involve "luck" or "knowledge" as we tend to think of them but rather the very literal twisting of fortune to make one timeline more fortuitous than the others.

Not an Enigma, and Certainly Not a Curse: the "Ultimate Self" in Hussie's Own Words

I've found myself, lately, in several conversations in a row where the other guy and myself weren't on the same page about what the Ultimate Self meant; and though I welcome the opportunity for discussion, explaining my position over and over again has cost me minutes of my screen life that I simply won't win back. So this post is a departure from my usual fare in that it's more for my own benefit than that of anybody else.

I've been over Davepeta's "superceding bodyless and timeless persona that crosses the boundaries of paradox space" enough already, so if you're interested in the Ultimate Self as it is in Homestuck, I recommend you read "Homestuck's Gnosticism: The Conflict", and then, if that piques your attention, you continue with the follow-up "The World/The Wheel". For the purposes of this post, though, I want to keep analysis, interpretation and hypothesising to a minimum. As the title indicates, this is the Ultimate Self not as I describe it, or as characters describe it, but - so to speak - straight from the horse's mouth.

In Andrew Hussie's commentary on Homestuck: Book 6, p. 312:

Oftentimes, when characters lose certain qualities that came to define them, there's this sense of liberation they seem to experience. They become a happier, more relieved, easier-going version of themselves. When Aradia ditches a defining quality we came to know her by (being dead), she becomes a much happier and self-actualized Aradia. Sollux also seems to be chilling out now that his defining properties (bifurcation, etc.) have been KO'd. He had a mouth full of gnarly teeth that gave him a wicked lisp (gone), eyes full of nasty laser beams (gone, along with his eyesight), and a brain full of doomsday visions and bipolar disorder (also gone—well, maybe not the bipolar thing, because that's probably not how that works, but whatever). You get more of this kind of thing in even higher degrees with some of the fusion stuff that happens later (Arquius, Davepeta), where characters become almost euphoric versions of themselves for having been completely liberated from certain self-limitations which previously defined them. The concept of an "ultimate self," which appears much later, probably has its roots way back to stuff like this, which got the ball rolling on the idea that a more complete or fulfilled self is one that becomes free from mortal limitations, or the idiosyncrasies which comprise a specific instance of one version of yourself. Hence an ultimate self is an aggregate of someone's full potential. It's not just doing away with negative traits, but summing up all iterations of yourself, including ones without those traits, allowing you to move beyond them. Or maybe more accurately, to view them as insignificant in the grand totality of what a person really is.

Importantly, what Hussie does here is draw the conceptual line from the themes of Acts 1-5 to what are often interpreted by some as radically different, even left-field themes through Act 6. Think of this as an extension of one of Homestuck's meta-themes, where the comic undergoes a series of escalations that take simple conflicts to their logical extremes: we start the story worried about a Reckoning which might destroy the Earth, then end up with the more pressing concern that a Rapture is about to end reality as we know it. The Ultimate Self is the end result of the exact same kind of escalation; where the God Tiers are a method of becoming a better version of oneself by merging with one's "ideal" dream body, the Ultimate Self is the logical conclusion that one can become the best version by unifying with every body.

To draw my own conceptual line back to Homestuck: Book 5, page 409:

This connects to the basic question of whether to embrace the regimentation of a heroic path conveniently laid out for you (the expectation), or to reject it as the shallow and rigid confinement of personal destiny (the deviation). These issues are expressed through the fundamental language of platonic idealism: perfect ideas of things, and then specific, imperfect instances of those ideas, or varied permutations, evolutions, or hacks of those ideas through alchemy. The way Sburb "should" go is an ideal (expectation), but the disastrous, chaotic way it actually goes is an imperfect instance (deviation). An "idea" of a person, such as Rose, along with her regimented heroic quest for growth, and all the great things she might imagine herself to become if she followed it, is an ideal (expectation). The messy, flawed, yet more genuinely human individual she does become resulting from her errant choices and rejection of formalism, is an imperfect instance of an ideal (deviation). What's the bottom line here? This is a lot. I know it's a lot. Homestuck is, in fact, a lot.

I've added some of my own emphasis there again, but that whole extract is worth reading. The reason I bolded that part is because this "Platonic idealism" is something Hussie talks about a lot in his commentary, and I think that commentary is essential reading for anyone who wants to even get their foot in the door on this topic. Again, this is something I've blogged about extensively already, so there's more than just Hussie's word to take for it if you're really interested; but for the sake of this post, I'll finish off with, again, what Hussie himself has to say on the matter, all the way back in Homestuck: Book 1, page 123:

With things like Athenums and Perfectly Generic Objects locked and loaded, Sburb architecture seems to be circling widely around a game abstraction-based systemization of Platonic idealism. Homestuck deals with what I am going to roughly characterize as THEMES.

*rubs my greasy little hands together* time to get my ip address banned through sharing possibly my most disturbing headcanon heheheh

For a while, I was thinking about the jades. Specifically how damn weird Hiveswap's lore about them is. From very young, they're condemned to the caverns to help raise grubs... But only certain, arbitrarily selected jades are picked to be cloistered? So that means there are other jades allowed to do whatever. And instead of joining the workforce like literally every other troll, SPECIFICALLY the cloistered jades are sent to be space nuns, hidden from everyone. It... Doesn't really add up if you think about the kind of place the Alternian Empire is. They're all about making as many warriors as possible, why bother with a tradition like that? Doesn't help anyone. Just seems hard to imagine Meenah coddamn Peixes tossing funds to a useless sisterhood, is all I'm saying.

So! Mothergrubs. There's the headcanon that they share an evolutionary root with trolls to explain how they can produce grubs, but what if we go one step further? Let's say the trolls are neotenies (an "adult" species that actually has another stage of life past the one they're in, like axolotls). Perhaps once upon a time, they could turn into mothergrubs naturally, but for whatever reason, they can't now.

Or so it'd seem.

Uhh yeah tired of the suspense: the cloistered jades are "special" because they actually might possess the rare gene that turns trolls into Mothergrubs. So the space sisterhood? It's actually some Bloodborne shit. Horrific cult antics that literally strip away all personhood, in all meanings of the word, turning them into nothing more than slurry-processors to be sent back, furthering the troll race. Possibly a fate worse than death to some.

Idk. Figure it makes sense the Empire would keep that under wraps from the jades, y'dig

Blocked blocked blocked blocked i hate this

but honestly that's a really really interesting perspective because I do agree that the mothergrub is a troll. Just a different type of troll (much like if you were to look at the life cycle of a fern) so I think you hit some interesting points especially with the de-trollization of the mothergrub into something to be revered but never considered a troll, an equal

also here is the lifecycle of a fern for funsies (where the mothergrub is essentially the diploid phase and normal trolls are the haploid

Hey. You've mentioned in occations Hope's connection with sexuality, and I am, sort of very puzzled about it. Can you explain why?

Sex Appeal, Charm, Attraction, idolization, they all seem to be part of Hope. For Jake, it was a constant sexualization by those around him, while Eridan and Cronus' pursuit or concupiscent relationships tend to paint them in a bad light. There's more to it and it's not the only Aspect that could be considered to have ties, but there's like, Some Stuff.

Hiveswap seems to double down on this. Diemen is constantly referencing phallic imagery, Kuprum and Lanque are both... Pretty intense and blatant about it. Elwurd uses her charms on Joey and brings the reader for a fake date to make her ex jealous and ends up hooking with another Troll in one of her routes. Chahut, Daraya and Cirava don't seem to have that much, but Cirava does have the idolization and attracting large groups of people that led to people turning on them due to their fame, and Daraya goes against the Status Quo, which in her particular case is not wanting to be sent to a cloister- Her archetype is that of a rebellious teen, punky, rebelling against society, and the very kinda religious 'christian school' vibe the Jades have, so that kinda tracks.

Chahut doesn't seem have much in regards to that explicitly though she flirts HARD with Daraya. However, her very name is also a reference- The Maenad were women followers of Dionysus, defined by frenzied and orgiastic rites.

So yeah there seems to be... Some Connection.

HEIR OF MIND

PRIMARY: PHYSICAL SECONDARY: CONCEPTUAL

Primaries and Secondaries are how a player’s powers manifest. Physical primaries mean they manifest physically and manifest conceptually as a secondary.

ABILITIES

JOSEPH JOESTAR

Heirs of Mind have an uncanny ability to follow someone's thought process easily. This can make them amazing friends or eerie people who always seem to be able to see through others.

PROFILER

In line with being able to follow someone's train of thought, Heirs of Mind are able to metaphorically step in a person's mind should they put in the effort. A more literal version of this ability can be used as a spell.

AMBIENT ABILITIES

As an Heir, this class has ambient, uncontrollable abilities as every other Heir does. This is because Heir classes are served and protected by their aspect, meaning Heirs of Mind are naturally protected by Mind.

ANGEL RADIO

Heirs of Mind may accidentally pick up stray thoughts, especially those pertaining to wishing them harm so they may avoid it.

THINK OF ME FONDLY

When in danger, enemies may suddenly find themselves thinking positively of an Heir of Mind.

CUE CARD

In battle, an Heir of Mind may pick up on opponents strategies eerily fast; a physical version of JOSEPH JOESTAR.

STARTER SPELLS

Any spell this class can use at Level One, including but not limited to:

I THINK THEREFORE I AM - the ability to actually assume the mind of someone else, EXTREMELY disorienting.

SIMON SAYS - Jedi mind trick. Yeah.

HORROR GAME TAPES - the ability to infuse memories into items, allowing Heirs of Mind to deliver vital information to party members.

TELEPATHY - the ability to communicate with someone through thoughts - if the creature thinks, telepathy works.

THRALL - A cross between SIMON SAYS and TELEPATHY, controlling someone's actions by beaming thoughts into their heads.

part of the universe's inherent cruelty that all the parts of being a grownup that you idolized as a kid are both the best and worst parts of adulthood

If Maids are creators, and Hope is associated with positive emotions, could a Maid of Hope have the power to summon a laugh track whenever they wanted?

Rule of Thumb: It's ALWAYS correct to use Classpect Powers for bad puns, references, and dumb jokes. 👀

I got inspired by a theory I found from this post however I disagreed with some of their choices...so I made my own version of an aspect breakdown.

Space is divided into Start and Place, which is further divided into Stir and Flux for the former and Scope and Vast for the latter. Stir was inspired by the primordial soup from which all life began and flux was honestly due to my playing overwatch too much but also has to do with gravity itself. Scope and Vast kind of go hand in hand and deal with spatial dimensions.

Time is split into Stream, for the flow of time itself. The MSPA reader saying that "time is like a river" gave me this idea. Eon is the other half of time. Stream breaks down into Hint to represent how any moment can cause an entire timeline to diverge into an offshoot, and into Trend which signifies how once a timeline becomes doomed things just get worse and worse. Eon goes into Bide since we've always had moments where we've had to bide our time, and Stop because once a timeline is over, it's done.

Light is divided into Bright and Lot. Bright is then divided into Flash and Warm which are really self explanatory. Lot (as in "casting lots") is broken into Grasp (as in grasping information) and Odds (they can be good or bad)

Void is broken down into Still (like the still puddle in the image) and Dark. Still then turns into Depth and Hide. Dark turns into Fog and Shade. I feel these are self explanatory, but if anyone wants me to go into them, I'm open to any questions.

Life is Grow and Romp. Grow becomes Sprout (who hasn't noticed tiny little green shoots out of the ground when spring comes?) and Pluck (for who but the young are so full of energy and Life?) Also good for a reference to the webcomic itself (lad/lass scamper, pluck). Romp (a word for playing or being at play) turns into Wild and Vim. Animals play all the time and life keeps going even after we try and tear it down.

Doom becomes Curb and Grind. Curb (think like how the curb keeps a car from crashing into innocent pedestrians) turns into Rule (for rules and laws keep us from running Wild-get it?) and Yield (for we all must submit to things we don't want to do for the greater good). Chose the picture of the stigmata because well tbh I am still a Christian and because it fits. Grind (like how gamers grind to get better at what they do) goes down into Sift (sifting the good from the bad) and Trim (as in trimming overgrown leaves and branches).

Breath is Move and Sound. Move then is Rush (running so fast you can feel the wind on your face) and Lift (because then you can fly). Sound becomes Din (the noise, noise, noise) and Tell (because sound and thus voices carry through air).

Blood is diluted (get it? cause it's liquid?) into Yoke ("we are equally yoked") and Trust (in order to accomplish bigger things). Yoke turns into Serve and Vow. I know that marriage vows aren't the only kind of vow, but I thought the picture fit best. Trust turns into Touch and Lead.

Heart (my own aspect!) is Pith and Whim. Pith is the core of something (for example, the pith of a fruit) and whim-because who hasn't ever done something on a whim? Pith is then divided into Self and Groove. (We all have our own self and groove) Whim becomes sway and mood, because moods can sway us to act one way or another.

With Mind I agreed with @wakraya in that it was Will and Thought. However for me, Will then becomes Seek and Delve. Thought becomes Plan and Mull. If you notice, I left a tiny reference to Terezi in way of the icons-none of them have open eyes.

Hope, to me, is Yearn and Dare. We all yearn for better things, but only some of us dare to take that first step. Yearn turns into Dream (not dreams like the space aspect pushed too far) but to dream at night and during the day when we want more, and into Grace. This is where I think the whole "physical attraction" part of Hope players comes in. Dare breaks down into Fun and Wish. Yes, this means I believe that Hope is inherently magical, or that magic itself is a part of the Hope aspect. That, or (if you believe that magic is fake like Eridan does) that advanced enough science/technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Rage is broken down into Fume and Shun. Fume (to be angry in silence) turns into Spur and Force. Since Rage is doing the opposite of just Hoping, I feel these subcategories are accurate. Shun turns into Warn (of danger) and Fear (think of the fight or flight or freeze or fawn response in nature. To fawn is when one tries to please in order to mitigate danger.)

This took me about a day to make but I had a bunch of fun doing it and figuring out how to break down each Aspect. Hit me up if you have any questions or comments! (I also want to credit the person behind the original theory, but they aren't on tumblr anymore.)

I got inspired by a theory I found from this post however I disagreed with some of their choices...so I made my own version of an aspect breakdown.

Space is divided into Start and Place, which is further divided into Stir and Flux for the former and Scope and Vast for the latter. Stir was inspired by the primordial soup from which all life began and flux was honestly due to my playing overwatch too much but also has to do with gravity itself. Scope and Vast kind of go hand in hand and deal with spatial dimensions.

Time is split into Stream, for the flow of time itself. The MSPA reader saying that "time is like a river" gave me this idea. Eon is the other half of time. Stream breaks down into Hint to represent how any moment can cause an entire timeline to diverge into an offshoot, and into Trend which signifies how once a timeline becomes doomed things just get worse and worse. Eon goes into Bide since we've always had moments where we've had to bide our time, and Stop because once a timeline is over, it's done.

Light is divided into Bright and Lot. Bright is then divided into Flash and Warm which are really self explanatory. Lot (as in "casting lots") is broken into Grasp (as in grasping information) and Odds (they can be good or bad)

Void is broken down into Still (like the still puddle in the image) and Dark. Still then turns into Depth and Hide. Dark turns into Fog and Shade. I feel these are self explanatory, but if anyone wants me to go into them, I'm open to any questions.

Life is Grow and Romp. Grow becomes Sprout (who hasn't noticed tiny little green shoots out of the ground when spring comes?) and Pluck (for who but the young are so full of energy and Life?) Also good for a reference to the webcomic itself (lad/lass scamper, pluck). Romp (a word for playing or being at play) turns into Wild and Vim. Animals play all the time and life keeps going even after we try and tear it down.

Doom becomes Curb and Grind. Curb (think like how the curb keeps a car from crashing into innocent pedestrians) turns into Rule (for rules and laws keep us from running Wild-get it?) and Yield (for we all must submit to things we don't want to do for the greater good). Chose the picture of the stigmata because well tbh I am still a Christian and because it fits. Grind (like how gamers grind to get better at what they do) goes down into Sift (sifting the good from the bad) and Trim (as in trimming overgrown leaves and branches).

Breath is Move and Sound. Move then is Rush (running so fast you can feel the wind on your face) and Lift (because then you can fly). Sound becomes Din (the noise, noise, noise) and Tell (because sound and thus voices carry through air).

Blood is diluted (get it? cause it's liquid?) into Yoke ("we are equally yoked") and Trust (in order to accomplish bigger things). Yoke turns into Serve and Vow. I know that marriage vows aren't the only kind of vow, but I thought the picture fit best. Trust turns into Touch and Lead.

Heart (my own aspect!) is Pith and Whim. Pith is the core of something (for example, the pith of a fruit) and whim-because who hasn't ever done something on a whim? Pith is then divided into Self and Groove. (We all have our own self and groove) Whim becomes sway and mood, because moods can sway us to act one way or another.

With Mind I agreed with @wakraya in that it was Will and Thought. However for me, Will then becomes Seek and Delve. Thought becomes Plan and Mull. If you notice, I left a tiny reference to Terezi in way of the icons-none of them have open eyes.

Hope, to me, is Yearn and Dare. We all yearn for better things, but only some of us dare to take that first step. Yearn turns into Dream (not dreams like the space aspect pushed too far) but to dream at night and during the day when we want more, and into Grace. This is where I think the whole "physical attraction" part of Hope players comes in. Dare breaks down into Fun and Wish. Yes, this means I believe that Hope is inherently magical, or that magic itself is a part of the Hope aspect. That, or (if you believe that magic is fake like Eridan does) that advanced enough science/technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Rage is broken down into Fume and Shun. Fume (to be angry in silence) turns into Spur and Force. Since Rage is doing the opposite of just Hoping, I feel these subcategories are accurate. Shun turns into Warn (of danger) and Fear (think of the fight or flight or freeze or fawn response in nature. To fawn is when one tries to please in order to mitigate danger.)

This took me about a day to make but I had a bunch of fun doing it and figuring out how to break down each Aspect. Hit me up if you have any questions or comments! (I also want to credit the person behind the original theory, but they aren't on tumblr anymore.)

Can you pls elaborate on those tags about the Derse kids feeling more like siblings than the Prospit kids?

I mean

hang on. /flips down mic. TED Talk Time.

The lawnrings are empty. Blood skims the voids in your porous cranial plates, as if grazing the hollow of a threshed stem, or say, an abandoned cocoon.

The streets are empty. Wind skims the voids keeping neighbors apart, as if grazing the hollow of a cut reed, or say, a plundered mailbox.

lawnrings are presumably the closest thing trolls have to streets, and the setting of Karkat's rant takes place in his own brain rather than in his neighbourhood so that the line about wind can be replaced with one about blood (though it probably has some implications regarding the interconnectedness of the characters' homes and their inner worlds); but after using 'threshed stem' as a synonym for 'cut reed', it feels particularly pregnant that a cocoon is compared to a mailbox? particularly because we know by now that a cocoon is a bed, so that's not just their name for a mailbox. the very next page tells us trolls won't even have a word for mailboxes because they don't have mail full stop, so maybe those are just two parts to a joke, but trolls not having mail could be a part of this analogy too...

to read a more traditionalist classpect interpretation into the streets/lawnrings parallel construction, wind (read: breath) skimming the streets implies freedom of movement, wherewas blood would imply restriction; maybe the word ‘lawnring’ is used in place of ‘street’ in much the same way ‘cocoon’ replaces ‘mailbox’; because trolls don’t have streets, and the lawnrings are representative of a more oppressive culture with an interest in keeping its people where they are

Either I need more sleep, or "patching your transhuman RPG’s mechanics by positing the existence of an immortal soul is rather missing the point" is some Zen koan shit, because it gave me a goddamn brainblast: of course a tabletop RPG is going to posit an immortal soul, it's in your hands at the table, it's the goddamn character sheet.

It's an object that the (metatextual) gods can mold and rewrite, but there's guaranteed continuity of "the character I play as is the one written on this particular piece of paper." It's only natural that porting that concept back into the universe it's used to describe fixes at least some of the ludonarrative dissonance.

I don't know if any of that's news to you, but if you want to totally deny the concept of soul in your erstwhile magical girl RPG, I think you need to throw out the character sheet, or at least transform it beyond what could be recognized as such. Which would be t h e m a t i c.

(With reference to this post here.)

If you've been following my recent projects, it shouldn't surprise you to learn that considering the character sheet as a form of user interface for the underlying mechanics is a particular area of interest of mine. Useful points of reference for this particular design conundrum might include Danger Patrol's two-part character sheets, Ironsworn's asset cards, Fireborn's stats-as-resource-pools conceit, and whatever the fuck Mythender thinks it's doing.

(I'd also like to make a small but significant correction to your wording there: "denying the concept of [the] soul" is not identical with merely avoiding game mechanics which explicitly posit the existence of an immutable foundation of identity that's separate from a player character's body and mind. You'd make very different game design decisions if your goal was the former rather than the latter!)

The recent discussion of the-character-sheet-as-a-soul led me down a very strange mental rabbit hole which ended with “could the character sheet be a piece of origami?”

I do not know nearly enough about origami to continue

(With reference to this post here.)

There's probably some design space to be explored in using flexagons as character sheets.

To illustrate, imagine a martial arts RPG where a character's stats vary depending on what stance they're in, with each of their stances' traits being written on one particular face of a flexagon, and some cost – probably an action economy cost – associated with changing stances (i.e., reconfiguring the flexagon).

Consider the traversal network of a hexatetraflexagon, for example:

Presuming a character's initial stance is represented by face 1, at the start it would be possible to transition to the stances contained on faces 2, 3 and 5, while the stances contained on faces 4 and 6 would be inaccessible.

Lots of fun tactical possibilities there, assuming you could find a way to express a sufficiently rich set of mechanical traits in such limited writing space!

of course it could just be that Lord English is using his vast network of recooperacomputers to mine for calcoins

looking over Calliope's dialogue exploring her bias about passive and active classes essentially being "selfless" and "selfish", respectively, the fact that she calls herself selfish on multiple occasions jumped out at me; seemingly betraying some kind of hypocrisy that Calliope is aware of herself, deep down?

UU: i really thoUght i was going to be someone special. UU: that i coUld Use my abilities do something no one had ever done.

and when Calliope does prove herself to be special with an ultimate expression of the Muse's power, it's by actively inserting herself into Caliborn's time loop, forcing her way into the infrastructure of reality; meanwhile, despite all his own selfishness, Caliborn's greatest strength is that he passively bends reality around him merely by existing.

I was fiddling with that Calliope post for a few days in my drafts, but combined with what I've been repeating recently about "Caliborn's paradigm" I wonder if the point of classpect is to be interpreted?

obviously the aspects are symbols for fundamental concepts, and the point of a fundamental concept is whittling it down into something more real via interpretation (which is something we see in the comic, with Vriska thinking of Light as luck versus Rose thinking of fortune more in terms of fate)...

I suppose it could be argued that classes are the interpretations of the aspects, i.e. a Seer of Light inherently interprets "Light" differently to how a Thief of Light interprets it, but I think there's a level of fundamentality to a class as well. they represent fictional archetypes moreso than RPG classes (RPG classes themselves tend to represent archetypes of folkloric hero, but Sburb's classes take that a step or two further and, as such, a step or two more abstract); it's something I've only lightly touched upon before, but essentially, like the aspects, the classes are ideas that are open to interpretation by their very nature; while the platonically ideal concept of a "Prince" does exist out there, each individual Prince from each individual story is a totally different iteration, a different "interpretation" of the idea of a Prince.

I guess this is roundaboutly similar to the popular existing theory that each class is defined by a kind of keyword; the Prince and Bard are "destroyers", but it's up to interpretation what exactly that entails (as Calliope puts it, a destroyer of x is "one who destroys x, or caUses destrUction throUgh x"). in the same vein, Thieves and Rogues are "stealers", and so on; one major discipline of classpecting seems to be the scholarship of figuring out what the "keyword" is for every class pair.

but even that I find to be a bit too specific. because while Calliope certainly might interpret a Prince as a destroyer based on her observations of various Princes, in Caliborn's paradigm Prince is likely to mean something completely different. to Caliborn, there are "LOWLY PAGE[S]" and Lords whose "NOBILITY IS MANIFEST". he interprets classes as their literal meanings, the way Dirk thinks of a Prince as someone who "rule[s] over [their aspect] in a pompous, regal manner"; a way of thinking made manifest in the position of Princes in relation to Maids and Pages in Alternian society. because of course the opposite side of the "Homestuck characters are the audience" coin is that "Homestuck characters are the author". in the same way Calliope's interpretations of the classes are "true" because they line up with observable fact, Caliborn's interpretation of the classes is made true when he gains control over the narrative and is able to skew the reader's very ability to observe the facts. in Caliborn's own words, "IF I BELIEVE HARD ENOUGH [...] THEN THAT FACT BECOMES ABSOLUTELY INDISPUTABLE AS A PERMANENT MAN REALITY."

on the page right after talking about lowly Pages and noble Lords, Caliborn does drop this line pretty clearly in support of keyword theory:

uu: WHEN I SAID "MEANT TO SERVE". SERVE MEANT MORE THAN ONE THING. YOU KNOW. LIKE KICK MY ASS??

it's, ironically, a very literalist permutation of keyword theory - in Calliope's paradigm a Page serves their aspect, while to Caliborn a Page merely serves, full stop - but it certainly seems to put a big roadblock in the way of the many interpretations theory of classpect.

but the fact that Alternia's entire society is built on this idea of pompous, regal Princes and servile Pages and Maids still feels quite explicit in its implications about Caliborn's perception of class, i.e. that he sees "class" in literal terms, as a synonym for "caste". I guess it's possible Calliope and Caliborn merely have different headcanon "keywords" for each caste, but it'd be hard to believe unless we had a case where they openly disagreed with each other on the interpretation of a class...

i guess it's also worth keeping in mind that Calliope and Caliborn's interpretative modes are still different: Calliope observes while Caliborn authors (the fact that this is sort of the inverse of what one would instinctively assume about the twins is worth thinking about). so when Calliope "observes" the Prince as a destroyer class, she's actually re-interpreting the vision of the Prince imposed on reality by Caliborn. as long as we're still tentatively comparing class and gender I'll be annoying and pull out the quote for the millionth time:

oUr view of hUman cUlture indirectly inflUenced alternia’s development, which in tUrn affected yoUrs [...] it’s all so very circUitoUs and arbitrary.

Heir of Doom

PRIMARY: CONCEPTUAL

SECONDARY: PHYSICAL

Primaries and Secondaries are how a player’s powers manifest. Conceptual primaries mean they manifest conceptually and manifest physically as a secondary.

ABILITIES

INJURY SINK

Not so much an ability but a physical feature (or a bug, depending on who you’re talking to) - Heirs of Doom, due to their nature of inheriting demise, often have frail health. They bruise easier than most and break bones faster, but because of a lifetime of having to deal with constant pain, they have a ridiculously high pain tolerance which cancels out their injurious nature.

CHEMICALBLOOD

Also due to the inheritor nature of the Heir of Doom, they often have a high tolerance of drugs, alcohol or other substances that may dampen or enhance their senses. Their body immediately begins to break down the substances in alarmingly fast speeds, which means that while they’re not immune to these things, they have to consume/be dealt with large amounts of them. 

IMAGINE DRAGONS

When in danger, or when afraid, an Heir of Doom can go radioactive in order to eliminate surrounding threats. As such, they themselves are immune to radiation. It is still not recommended for Heirs of Doom to go around eating glowing radioactive rocks despite the fact that it will do nothing to them.

RACCOON

If the Heir has to resort to physical violence and feels as if they are in danger, they can go rabid and infect someone if they bite them. At any other moment, however, they will show negative in rabies tests.

AMBIENT ABILITIES

As an Heir, this class has ambient, uncontrollable abilities as every other Heir does. This is because Heir classes are served and protected by their aspect, meaning Heirs of Doom are naturally protected by Doom.

MISFORTUNATE

As Heirs of Doom inherit Doom, they have unnaturally bad luck and tend to attract danger, both in the form of people and coincidence. Their high pain tolerance helps them get through their accidents / physical injuries, while their Cosmic Monster helps ward off their physical threats. Their Danger Sense helps them minimize and survive their bad luck.

DANGER SENSE

As Heirs of Doom are naturally protected by Doom, they often have hunches of where and when something bad will happen. It doesn’t always work - often only coming up when the danger will result in their death - but it is always right. The specificity of this sense gets more precise the closer and worse the danger, and the higher the Heir’s level is. Their Danger Sense is the conceptual manifestation of their ‘protected by Doom’ clause.

COSMIC MONSTER

Due to the fact that Heirs of Doom are protected by Doom, the most dangerous person in their session is often metaphysically linked to them and forced to protect them, drawn in by hunches and an emotional attachment manufactured by the cosmic bond. If there is no person dangerous enough, then their classpect will attempt to find something else, like an adversary. If this is also unavailable (especially while the Heir is still progressing through the ranks and hasn’t encountered anything sufficiently dangerous), their aspect will generate its own Cosmic Monster creature, often reflective of the Heir’s personality. The sentience of this Monster depends on the Heir’s personality. 

If an Heir’s protector is eliminated, Cosmic Monster will immediately look for a replacement. If the Heir is continuously exposed to danger and cycles through protectors too quickly, a creature will be generated for their own safety. This creature is linked intrinsically to their magic.

KINETICS

When taking physical blows, Heirs of Doom have the natural ability to convert damage into strength. The stronger the hits, the stronger the Heir gets.

STARTER SPELLS

Any spell this class can use at Level One, including but not limited to:

NULLIFY - the ability to nullify magic. At level one, the range of this nullification is localized to the Heir, but at higher levels, they can expand their nullification field.

TECHNOKINESIS - since Doom governs processes, technology and systems, Heirs of Doom have technokinesis. At low levels, this technokinesis manifests as being able to manipulate software or machines without touching them, but at higher levels it allows them to fully link themselves with the machine or software, similar to being Drift Compatible with it.

DECAY - the easiest spell in the Heir of Doom’s repertoire. If the Heir touches an object, it rots and decays, making it an effective combat spell, with the downside of needing close contact.

REAPER

Similar to how Heart Players have Stands, and Rage Players have Berserkers, Doom Players have a magical state unique to them called Reaper, which is essentially a power-up state that physically changes a Doom player’s appearance alongside the massive rise in magical power. Reapers differ from player to player, and though  some classifications share names, they often look different due to player personalities and magical level.

Some Reapers are class-locked due to their nature.

AZRAEL Archangel of Death

In this state, an Heir of Doom can curse / condemn targets to death, which will result in misfortune after misfortune until death catches up to them. They can attempt to outrun it, but it will keep hounding them Final Destination style, and eventually catch up to them. The danger of this ability is that it is not only limited to the current fight but will last until the end of the targets’ life. This state also opens the Heir’s senses to Death, which makes them sense if someone is injured or ailing, who’s dead or who is close to death. 

Please do not touch the Azrael reaper mode, as their body is made of pure death and touching them would either make your limbs decay or kill you on the spot. In this state, any spell or object that hits the Azrael reaper mode automatically decays said spell or object.

Please note that Azrael is a classification, not the name of a person’s Reaper. Players often name their Reaper based on personal preference.

Clownhood is masculine -> rage aspect is respresented by clowns -> rage aspect is masculine -> rage aspect is contrasted to hope aspect -> hope is feminine as rage is masculine -> hope is represented by cherub/angel wings -> cherubhood is feminine -> Caliborn overcoming cherub nature and transitioning to clownhood can be taken as a transition from feminine/female to masculine/male

it feels counterproductive to label cherubs as one particular gender, and counterintuitive to say that transitioning is overcoming cherub nature when it is in fact the very core of their nature... I'm also hesitant to say any aspect has a sexual sway outside of the fundamentally feminine space and masculine time, though I can concede that clowns being men in Caliborn's paradigm would lend itself toward Caliborn associating rage with masculinity (the same way Calliope genders certain classes based on her preconceptions?), and therefore making attempts to feminise the hope bloodline?

Thinking back on the idea that sprites represent the Platonic “geists” of their associated heroes, when we consider that both Roxy and Calliope contain “Nepeta-ness”, it starts to look a lot like the theory put forth in Plato’s Symposium that humans, having been created with two heads and then split into two, search for a romantic partner who literally completes them; Roxy and Calliope both contain different parts of Nepeta, and they attract each other because these different aspects of Nepeta-ness want to join together into a whole Nepeta.

Which makes complete sense in Homestuck, because that’s exactly what the cherubs are: “two-headed” beings who split in two upon reaching maturity, and spend their lives seeking out a mate who matches their missing half!

this is gonna sound stupid but Doc Scratch is a dirk splinter?

yep!

The Distinction Between Light and Rage (With Some Gushers)

One of the things I’ve seen come up in discussion about the aspects is some overlaps between them to varying degrees. One good example of this Light and Rage.  I think it’s pretty much consensus at this point that Rage = Truth or Revelations. But it gets really interesting when talking about Light because Light also presides over the concept of truth. Some people have tried to smooth over the similarities by saying that Rage is “emotional truths” or truths that make you feel bad, but I think it’s a bit more complex than that. I think the distinction between the two is as follows: Ragebounds are “correct” and Lightbounds are “right”. Generally speaking? What do I mean by this?  Well, for the sake of this post, I am defining “correct” as presenting facts or evidence, and being “Right” is possessing an understanding of the facts in such a way that allows one to provide new insights, or form new arguments. Ragebounds are a deconstructive aspect, as the Extended Zodiac states. 

The “true” objective reality that Ragebounds seeks is noted to be covered up by “lies” (something Hope would preside over as Hope is an aspect of illusions, and beliefs). For the rage bound, the truth is something that must already exist and is being covered up, and their primary goal is to rip and tear things to find their irreducibles. The cold hard facts.  The Extended Zodiac paints Lightbounds as the exact opposite in this regard: 

Where Ragebound pursue the facts to destroy faulty arguments, Lightbounds pursue facts to form new arguments. The EZ funnily describes them as “alchemists” linking them to the Sburb Mechanics of Alchemy, which utilizes a resource called “Grist” (which is substance used to back up an argument). 

The limitation of Lightbound’s relationship with Truth and a Ragebound’s is that a Lightbound constructs new perspectives, arguments, and grants themselves more options while eliminating the bad or unwise ones. Ragebounds use their evidence to deconstruct arguments and systems and get to the heart of the matter. But don’t ask them for solutions any fallouts or results of radical behavior. The end result being anarchy/confusion. “What the heck are we supposed to believe now?” everyone shouts. This dynamic may be in part influenced by their neighboring aspects Mind and Doom.  Light sits across from Mind on the EZ potentially indicating that some elements of Mind’s options, and lack of bias are carried over. Conversely, Doom is across from Rage indicating the limitation and narrowing down of options that Ragebounds experience as they discover and move towards the truth. 

i think that all stories are about consumption, performance, and/or narrative, and the best combine elements of all three

Cut content

The following content was cut from the essay DOOM for purposes of thematic consistency (that is, it didn’t add much to the reader’s understanding of the Doom Aspect’s symbolism) but is preserved here for posterity.

Mental illness

It takes a certain kind of person to bear up under all this pressure. Sollux’s visions, at one point likened to a chronic pain condition, leave him fatalistic and irritable, with a temperament that can change from calm to angry, from proud to self-recriminating, in an instant. Accordingly, the narration dubs him bipolar. This is precisely backwards. While Sollux’s fatalism is reminiscent of depression, the key characteristic of depression is listlessness, a lack of feeling and motivation, and Sollux is anything but unmotivated. Similarly, though mania (and the less well known hypomania) can take many forms, it is most commonly associated with a feeling of euphoric joy, another trait largely absent from Sollux’s emotional makeup.

More importantly, bipolar mood swings are measured in days, not instants. Because of this, it is actually impossible for a story that packs nearly all of its action into discrete segments of no more than 24 hours to convey the full experience of bipolarity in any meaningful way. Ultimately, Homestuck is a work designed to challenge both reader and author, and with that challenge unfortunately comes the possibility of failure.

Mituna continues this theme of authorial challenge. Like most of the dancestors, he is presented first as a joke, a mockery of the psychologically disabled, the full weight of his story and sacrifice only reluctantly hinted at by Aranea after the fact. He is part of the Hussnasty Hell (medium link), a complex, artistically lofty experiment that by design can be very difficult to properly digest after enduring the bitter, unpleasant first bite.

DOOM

All Hail Shadow / Good Riddance

https://medium.com/@Arrghus/doom-7f99a8b4c4a4

The Aspect of Finding Out.

And another one. This one’s a doozy, and a double feature! The first is what I’m calling Genesis, Light || Space && Time. The second is my first 4-way fusion, Light || Space && Time || Void. It’s reminiscent of the Green Sun, and for good reason…

Thanks to anon and @deadlox890. 

And actually, thinking about what to name these gave me an idea…stay tuned, folks. 

Now THAT’s what I call a fusion aspect!

I got a request for one of my first fusion aspects, so I decided to redo it with new colors, and fix those pesky stray pixels. Here it is! Denial Remastered.

Request courtesy of @whimsicalpaws

Musing on Pages and Thieves

One interesting connection between Pages and Thieves I think is poverty. Both experience a form of poverty, though there is subtle differences.  A thief experiences a poverty of their aspect in themselves (a form of spiritual poverty), and this desire to “fill in the gap” motivates them to acquire material wealth. For example, Vriska pursues treasure heavily and Meenah is interested in large quantities of money. Even Tagora is interested heavily in money which he uses to buy rainbow drinker skincare products and decorate his hive (space coded). From their perspective, their aspect is a material that they can buy or acquire. And while this provides temporary relief, it ultimately leads to them being terrified of being backstabbed or betrayed (having their aspect stolen from them as they do to others), or endlessly attempting to pursue more, even at the expense of others. The Page, in contrast, is not remotely poor in spirit. They embrace their aspects quite wholeheartedly and as a result are contented in themselves. While they are blessed to be free from the curse of “incompleteness”  and instead with spiritual wisdom, they are initially cursed with powerlessness in the form of material poverty or the poverty of others of their aspect. The Page is objectified as their aspect. Jake is seen as desire incarnate to his band of friends (though is only truly respected by Dirk). Tavros too is objectified as “detachment” and “freedom” by Vriska though is resisted by her as she drives forward with her attempts to be relevant (materially important). Vriska’s suppression of Tavros is a suppression of “enlightenment” (the part of her aspect which she perceives will make her weak). While the Thief compensates for their weakness and insecurity through things, Pages compensate for it through love and consideration from others. 

Musing on Rogues and Knights

While the Thief is inspired to take what’s around them for themselves, the rogue is inspired to share themselves with others. This selflessness affords them a veneer of morality and care from others, no doubt. I mean, who doesn’t love Roxy? Or Nepeta?  Of the two “stealer” classes the Rogue appears to be the most well adjusted. Yet, like their counterpart they are infected by a feeling of incompleteness. As though their aspect is an unrequited lover they are constantly pursuing in the form of the people around them. Nepeta desires the pure heart of Karkat, but her feelings are largely ignored. Roxy idealizes the physical reality of Dirk and his “manliness”, but his identity prevents him from being in a relationship with her. it as though the rogue is invisible to their own aspect at times. This is the fatal flaw of the Rogue. Like the thief they have locked their powers outside of themselves. Except, their power is not just outside of themselves but inside the hearts of others in the form of ideals. And so they relentlessly attempt to pick the locks of the hearts of those around them. They are in a constant battle with their greed for love which results in them doing amoral things in the pursuit of it. Whether that be enabling a facist dictator to rise to power, or unwanted romantic advances. However, this is balanced by their innate sense of empathy and responsibility to those they love. Transgressions lead to guilt and their guilt ultimately leads to them growing as a person and doing the right thing. The Knight, like the page, is complete in and of themselves. They perceive a lack in themselves because society tells them that their uniqueness, their eccentricities, their empathy (the part of their aspect which humanizes them) makes them deeply flawed. Seeking comfort in others they remove the parts of their aspect that are ridiculed and criticized at worst and obscure them at best. Of course this is false knowledge acquired by being caught up in the lies (void) of society. Dave’s empathy and giving nature is not any more of a weakness than Karkat’s ability to deeply connect with those around him. But this feels like reality to them. Karkat and Dave both ignore the empathetic components of their own aspects in favor of the “powerful” elements. They see themselves as tools that need to be refined. Beings somehow broken. And so the Knight pursues an ideal just as the Rogue does and live in a perpetual state of dissatisfaction until they learn that they are whole and it is society that is incomplete. Like the thief, they are pushed for more, but rather than acquiring more they seek to become more than what they are.