This Time We Dig Into Gamzee’s Recurring Links To The Masks Of Comedy And Tragedy, Historical Worship

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?)

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...

offensive vs defensive

my mage of life friend mentioned something off handedly that i had never noticed before, and i’m pretty sure it puts a hole in the “but passive classes fight stuff!” rebuttal i usually get when talking about -/+ classes.

they DO fight… just not using their powers!

how does john egbert attack?

with a hammer!

but what happens when HE’S attacked?

he uses breath! or rather, he’s supplied with breath. you get the idea though.

when compared against vriska, an active class, john primarily uses his powers for defense.

while vriska’s specibus itself depends on her using her powers primarily for offense!

like everything involving the passive/active dichotomy, this will be based on inclination/preference rather than an absolute rule. and there are definitely things that go against these guidelines, like roxy mostly using her void powers during [s] collide and rose continuing to use her wands after god tiering (though they’re echidna’s quills, so they might be different? i’m pretty sure they channel light though?). but it mostly holds up i think.

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.

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!)

Can we get a cross aspect master post?

The dualspects have been completed! Here’s a list, along with the still in-progress Trispects and quadrispects!

Breath + Mind = Thought

Doom + Heart = Fate

Void + Light = Chance

Void + Life = Death

Hope + Heart = Dreams

Rage + Heart = Zeal (monochromerose)

Heart + Blood = Bond

Time + Space = All

Rage + Breath = Storm

Life + Time = Growth

Mind + Heart = Will

Hope + Void = Faith

Time + Heart = Love

Blood + Doom = Strife (thanks quarktrinity!)

Space + Heart = Core

Breath + Time = Sand

Time + Doom = Chains

Hope + Doom = Fear

Void + Heart = Drive

Time + Mind = Past

Blood + Space = Links

Breath + Light = Cloud

Light + Space = Star (megaderpypotato)

Breath + Space = Force

Space + Void = Hole (megaderpypotato)

Rage + Doom = End

Void + Mind = Hush

Life + Doom = Rot (megaderpypotato)

Breath + Hope = Flight (megaderpypotato)

Breath + Blood = Point

Rage + Mind = Angst

Rage + Blood = War

Hope + Life = Joy

Rage + Life = Pain

Void + Blood = Loss

Life + Breath = Peace

Life + Space = World

Light + Doom = Dark

Rage + Time = Cold

Heart + Life = Cheer

Hope + Time = Soon

Light + Blood = Chrome

Rage + Space = Art

Heart + Breath = Air

Heart + Light = Blithe (megaderpypotato)

Life + Blood = Root

Mind + Light = Truth (megaderpypotato)

Mind + Blood = Trust (megaderpypotato)

Mind + Hope = Creed (megaderpypotato)

Mind + Doom = Bane (monochromerose)

Void + Time = Warp

Void + Breath = Choke (megaderpypotato)

Void + Rage = Calm (megaderpypotato)

Doom + Breath = Rale

Doom + Void = Rift

Mind + Space = Search

Time + Blood = Plan

Life + Mind = Soul

Hope + Space = Forge

Light + Hope = Sun

Rage + Hope = Cult

Rage + Light = Burn (megaderpypotato)

Blood + Hope = Pact (anon)

Life + Light = Ra (monochromerose)

Doom + Space = Work (caelholdt)

Time + Light = Lore (anon)

Some Trispects too!

Life + Time + Mind = Birth

Void + Rage + Doom = Null

Heart + Hope + Life = Bliss

Breath + Time + Light = Tide

Time + Space + Heart = Need

Rage + Time + Breath = Hail

Rage + Mind + Void = Crux

Void + Rage + Doom = Threat (megaderpypotato)

Time + Space + Breath = Path

Hope + Rage + Heart = Flame

Void + Rage + Light = Nyx (monochromerose)

Doom + Mind + Rage = Poine (monochromerose)

Life + Rage + Time = Shirk

Life + Void + Doom = Dry

Light + Space + Void = Moon

Space + Time + Life = Bang

Time + Doom + Breath = Rack

Space + Doom + Rage = Pit

Time + Void + Mind = Mad

Breath + Doom + Rage = Scream

Breath + Rage + Mind = Pent

Blood + Time + Mind = Fade

Heart + Rage + Blood = Hate

Void + Time + Heart = Scorn

Heart + Blood + Hope = Care (asrielmememurr413)

Life + Hope + Light = Ray (asrielmemeurr413)

Time + Doom + Life = Wear (asrielmemeurr413)

Blood + Heart + Space = Wed

Void + Heart + Rage = Blank

Mind + Rage + Hope = Pun

Rage + Time + Heart = String

Light + Life + Rage = Spark

Space + Time + Mind = Have

Mind + Heart + Life = Ghost

Heart + Rage + Doom = Blind (possessed-keyboard)

Hope + Mind + Life = Myth (possessed-keyboard)

Light + Space + Hope = Wish

Rage + Heart + Time = Knell

Void + Blood + Mind = Grief

Mind + Blood + Doom = Court

Light + Mind + Blood = Eye

Life + Breath + Rage = Strength

Void + Blood + Heart = Numb (monochromerose… sorta)

Breath + Hope + Light = Rise

And the Quadrispects!

Breath + Light + Rage + Time = Fog (possessed-keyboard)

Rage + Life + Void + Blood = Woe (monochromerose)

Light + Breath + Rage + Void = Blot (monochromerose)

Void + Life + Doom + Space = Styx (megaderpypotato)

Void + Mind + Rage + Doom = Lethe (monochromerose)

Breath + Light + Time + Space = Rapt (megaderpypotato)

Blood + Life + Space + Doom = Mars

Mind + Light + Blood + Doom = Wyrd

Hope + Light + Void + Rage = Song

Hope + Void + Heart + Life = Drain

Blood + Void + Space + Mind = Flay

Void + Life + Space + Light = Dust

Light + Blood + Space + Doom = Couatl

Heart + Hope + Time + Breath = Pluck

Rage + Mind + Light + Time = Brain

Void + Blood + Space + Heart = Sex

Light + Void + Heart + Mind = Being

Blood + Mind + Doom + Rage = Tron

Blood + Space + Time + Void = Loom

Light + Breath + Space + Void = Sky

Mind + Heart + Breath + Blood = Self

Breath + Time + Blood + Doom = Free (megaderpypotato)

Void + Rage + Mind + Doom = Blues (megaderpypotato)

Breath + Light + Blood + Time = Rules

Breath + Void + Heart + Life = Drone

Void + Doom + Space + Rage = Yamm

Light + Time + Heart + Life = Care

I just had an epiphany on the Breath aspect, and how intricately it connects to the concept of ghosts/the afterlife

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. 

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.

I drew these in 2020 and completely forgot to post them. They were gonna be for a little infographic thingie around my thoughts on Classpects, but I never found a way to host it somewhere lol. They’re not really fankids or anything, just random designs to represent their Classes.