A Chart Of All The Fused Aspects

*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

The Aspect Triads

Now, first of all, before reading this I highly recommend you go watch optimisticDuelist’s videos on the aspect wheel, they are very informative and super interesting!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqRoIBNcboY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgAQLMJJrHw

On his latest video, OD talks about the aspect wheel at the view of color theory, noting how related heroes of an aspect are to their other split-complementary aspects. In the end, he notes how this means that there might be triadic, square and tetradic aspect relationships and as the classpect maniac I am I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. I got some interpretations on some of the aspect triads that I’d like to share. These might be a tad far fetched, though!

On to the first triad!

(sorry for the simplistic quality)

This triad was the easiest one to gather some meaning from, as the relations between the traits of its aspects are easy to see. I think this triad is more personal and is one to represent individualism and one’s withdrawal from society too, as well as escapism. These aspects tend to be very individualistic, as Breath has a big trait of disconnection from company and reality, Void is irrelevant to society and thus has to bring themselves their own worth, and Heart couldn’t care less about it, finding their own personas much more important.

This one’s also pretty obvious, as it might represent society and institution in a way. Clearly Blood is one to share traits of materialism and society, besides being one of a helper and an aspect of progress. Light brings the knowledge accumulated through centuries of studies that is crucial for civilization and Mind takes up the intellect that made possible the formation of civility and advancement of humankind. This theme of society is in direct contrast to the first triad’s theme of escapism.

Now come the trickier ones! A lot of people might not agree on these two, and that’s cool, because even I am still skeptical of these last ones.

In the other triads the cardinal aspects of Breath and Blood have clearly been central to their themes, so I am gonna believe it to be the same for Space and Time. For this triad I believe the theme to be creation, and possibly even the creation of the universe (or maybe just creation). The symbolysm with Space is solid, as not only does it also signify creation it can also mean form, essential to some sort of formation, as well as Life’s trait of birth and growth, to an extent. And Rage, I believe it signifies as how we can see the beginning of existence as pure confusion and meaningless, until we get our own meaning out of it, but, at the same time, it can’t be anything more than true, with no falsehoods to be created yet.

This triad is the ultimate end, death and the armageddon. The symbolysm with Time and Doom are pretty straight-forward, both represent decay in different ways. Hope shows a contrast of the incessable faith of turning your back away from death, the belief of constant medical pursuit that might grant you a long life, and the belief in an afterlife or of a higher meaning in death.

I also have some other interpretations for these last two triads but I think this can suffice.

Now, I don’t think these are definitly what the aspect triads mean in the aspect wheel, but I hope these loose thoughts can help out some of the more professional classpecters out there. Sorry if this text wasn’t very eloquent, english isn’t my best language for sure.

The heart aspect is clearly connected with lions (the trolls’ heart player being Leo the lion, and the Prince of the aspect having the lion-headed God Yaldabaoth as a denizen), but I wonder if that means anything for any of the other aspects?

Maybe it’s lions for heart and dragons for mind?

The lion is the symbol of God, and is king of the land animals, while the dragon is the devil and the king of the skies. Nepeta is a lowblood who uses her physical strength instead of psychic powers, and Dirk is Homestuck’s resident manly dudebro machofighter, and Yaldabaoth is the God of the physical realm; meanwhile dragons are capable of a whole bunch of powers associated with psychics (laser eyes, telepathic communion) and Terezi was a master manipulator.

(of course, heart is the aspect of the soul, not the body, so part of a heart hero’s quest must be rejecting some of this focus on the physical aspect and becoming more spiritual; so I wonder what the equivalent of this is for mind heroes?)

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. 

(Blood: To draw their power from the bonds between them and others, along with getting strength from leading others in the right ways.)

(Light: To seek knowledge above all else, and will venture out and stop at nothing to gain the information they want.)

The Blood-Light bound is smart and knowledge driven, so they would probably be that kind of person that you could find in a library at lunch or researching weird topics at 2 in the morning.

They’re also very social people, regardless of if they’re extroverted or introverted, and they care deeply about their friends and family.

They love to learn about things that could help somebody they care about, and if there’s a hope of helping someone dear to them, they’ll stop at nothing to achieve it.

The Blood-Light love going on adventures with their friends and family if it’ll give them more knowledge about something, and they are super good listeners if you want to talk to them.

Although they’re great listeners, they’re not too good on the empathetic half but they still love to learn niche details about you because they find it super intimate to share small details with someone you’re close to.

If Blood is the stronger aspect in the dual pair, then the Blood-Light bound person is sociable and caring, but with the tendency to be a little bit overbearing at times when you show them affection.

If Light is the stronger aspect in the dual pair, then the Blood-Light bound person is knowledgeable about a lot of different things, is a great listener, and is very ambitious and drawn to a learning adventure.

Fancytiers! Kind of. I was mainly just trying to make the sillouhette’s more distinct, & add more apparent themes :P

i forgot to label some of them but I think u can still tell what they are! first unlabeled pic has the mage and the seer, & the last pic has the maid and the sylph

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. 

soooo, with the new aspects descriptions and the traits they are focusing on and putting in the spotlight as major defining traits of those aspects, do you think you'll reconsider Joey as Life now instead of Light? (and Jude as Light instead?)

I hadn’t really gotten to Jude yet at all–he still seems like a Doom player, but now I’m more uncertain about all of them.

I have been reconsidering Joey as a Life player pretty heartily, actually, BUT…I think in the end, at least so far, it’s only left me more sure she’s a Light player. 

But the reason why, I think, suggests some new infomation relevant to how the Classpect system works. I’m curious to know what you’ll think about it! And since I’m about to record this in video form and it’s pretty overwhelming and difficult to talk about, I think it’ll help to get my thoughts in order somewhat, so I think I’ll do some prep here. 

My logic goes something like this: 

Keep reading

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."

“For the very essence of a troll becomes sallow when devoid of love and of truth, which are often the same spiritual element,” Exodus said, gesturing emphatically with one hand as his other trembled against the podium upon which he leaned, projecting his rich voice to the very back of the slim and somewhat stuffy room he had managed to transform into some approximation of a church. The air was made stuffier by the excited breaths of his followers, gathered en masse on benches and below his feet, and he felt sweat or condensation cling to his brow and seep under the bridge of his glasses. “It may not seem readily apparent, but love is the pursuit of truth. Truth is the expression of love. While not inextricably linked, it is improper- or, rather, inadvisable to deny that in the absence these two gleaming facets, life loses its meaning and its justification. One must recognize the relation between truth and love, and their pertinence to life itself.” 

Exodus’s sermons were improvised nearly every time he gave them. While he was finding it harder and harder to sift through the dichotomy between what he truly believed and what beliefs he had fabricated for the sake of others, he did find it somewhat amusing that when he stood in front of the slick wooden podium, it truly felt as though a spirit compelled him to speak. The words were delivered to him, and with surprising competency - they had to come from some outside source, he thought, because rarely what he said he agreed with. That, or he agreed, but he could never realistically apply his tenants to himself. He was utterly contradictory, but of course this needed to be kept under wraps to stave off his doomsday, when it all would come crashing down. 

What strange things he was saying today. Utter drivel. He was making himself sick, describing some hypothetical state that was his direct opposite. Truth and love - he wanted to scoff, to spit at himself, as he lacked both in equal measure: untruthful, loveless, a contradiction of all he claimed to stand for. No more than a living lie. 

“It… ah.” He faltered. That wasn’t good, he wasn’t supposed to falter. He lowered his hand and clung to the structure before him, looking down. Long, heavy seconds passed. 

“Why are you crying, my Lord?” Someone said. Similar inquisitive, adoring murmurs rose from the crowd he had assembled. It sounded like birdsong to him: “Why? Why? Why?” 

Quickly now. Make something up; truth isn’t an option, it never has been.

“Fear not,” he said, trying to keep the thickness in his voice at bay. “I have simply thought of a troll I intimately know, an unfortunate soul, who I have known to lack the virtues I just described. I have become emotional, thinking of his life and the consequences of his deficiencies, and I… I weep for him.” He performatively wiped away a tear, though his anguish was real. 

He did something he knew the crowd would appreciate, and stepped out from behind the podium. Wide eyes searched his entire body. 

“Will you join me in prayer?” He asked them. 

“Yes, Lord,” was the resounding response. He continued to walk forwards, down the few stairs of the stage, into the thrum of his following. They crept closer to him with a shy reverence. 

“Together we must tell him, and all trolls like him, that we forgive him. Through this we will deliver him peace. Please join me.” He took a deep breath, and the collective did the same. 

“I forgive you.” He heard their parroted response echo, amplified by the high ceiling, and he felt the sound hum in his chest. He willed himself to glow, tears spilling onto his uniform, and the open faces that surrounded him were alight with a rose wash, petal-tender and hushed. The Heart symbol appeared, shimmering close to the rapid thumping of his own blood-pump adrenaline, and tentative hands ran over him, pressing palms to the pink curved sign, shaping themselves to his warm body. His shaking legs gave out, and, taking this as yet another sign, his collective supported his weight, lifting him above their heads, safe in their arms. 

“Say it with me,” Exodus whispered to their eager ears. 

“I forgive you. I forgive you. I forgive you,” they said. It was all he had ever wished to hear.