#Bard of Void

[dwoodledip]

The group chat has Homestuck brainrot and I am not immune.

So did some quick God Tier designs for Ophelia and Dusty. Opehlia was assigned Bard of Void and Dusty was assigned Thief of Heart by a friend because I was too lazy to research it myself.

Had fun designing the God Tier fits and taking the canon outfits and interpreting in my way and my style.

[doogieverse]

Sonic Classpects <3

I designed them to be a twelve player session because I thought that was more fun :-) I didn't necessarily keep gender specific classes/aspects in mind. Do, however, keep in mind that classpects aren't always a one-to-one with characters' personalities. Sometimes, they're roles that they have to come into, or accept.

Also, if anyone draws them in their godtier outfits I will be eternally grateful. Sonic: Heir of Hope Sonic is a symbol of hope; whether he realizes it or not, his actions carry weight. That means that although overall he inspires a positive change— bringing hope to others— if he makes a mistake, it brings despair instead. In this regard, Sonic is hope personified.

Tails: Mage of Light Tails uses knowledge as a weapon, sometimes to his detriment. He's often given seemingly impossible quests, with not much time to complete them. You could argue that he's cursed to be the brains in a team full of brawns. That being said, he seeks out knowledge like a moth drawn to a flame; he lives off of it.

Knuckles: Knight of Rage Knuckles's entire purpose is to protect and serve, both his friends and Angel Island. However, rather than being a level-headed knight archetype, Knuckles is a hot-headed warrior, thinking with his fists, rather than his brain. This leads him to have a bit of an anger problem, which can also bring rage to those around him.

Amy: Sylph of Heart Amy is self-absorbed, only in the sense that she believes that what is in her heart is always right. Apart from that, she looks to heal the heavy hearts of those around her, even animals, and complete strangers. She is caring and giving at her best, and volatile and clingy at her worst.

Metal Sonic: Page of Doom Metal Sonic was built to be a harbinger of doom, and continues to do so of his own volition. He has great potential, but is held back by his own insecurities— which can mean he was programmed with limitations, or that he has a more human side that conflicts with his programming. Because of this, he becomes doomed himself, in an infinite cycle of being destroyed and rebuilt.

Shadow: Prince of Blood Shadow is driven by his bonds, whether it's to his friends or enemies, and those in the past or those in the future. He uses these relationships as excuses to wreak havoc. Therefore, he can be seen as selfish, whether his cause is noble or not. In truth, Shadow is more stubborn than anything. Though he defines himself by his relationships, he is often misunderstood.

Rouge: Thief of Space Rouge is incredibly patient and adaptable, traits that are imparative for a jewel thief. Her passion is taking things for herself, which may be egocentric by nature, she is known to have good intentions. She is naturally confident when it comes to her abilities, and isn't above using her feminine charm to accomplish her goals.

Blaze: Maid of Mind Blaze is calm and collected, weighing the multitude of options before acting. She also has this effect on others as well, getting them to see her reasoning. She is often rigid, as she's used to making the tough decisions, and carries that burden with responsibility. However, hardships can cause her to act out of character, being paralyzed by choice, or leaving her fiery temper to take over.

Silver: Witch of Time. Silver has been known to manipulate time, both figuratively and literally. While he can time travel with ease, he also has an unwillingness to take things as they are. That being said, he also has a tendency to end up in difficult and dreary situations. He's constantly stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Vector: Rogue of Breath Vector may be a detective, but he doesn't play by the book. He lives as he pleases, being able to slip into the role of leader, bodyguard, comedic relief, etc. However, this can make him hard to pin down. As a detective, he takes others' autonomy by bringing them to justice. This not only helps feed him and his partners, but it also keeps the streets clean.

Espio: Bard of Void Espio is a stealthy character, at first glance, Able to become invisible, he's able to stealthily gain the upper hand on his opponent. However, he also has the innate desire to show off; he's cool and he wants others to know it, even if he acts nonchalant about it. In both ways he destroys void: either by filling it or filling its role.

Charmy: Seer of Life Charmy is the charisma and joy of Team Chaotix. He wants to bring life to his friends be being upbeat and having fun. Though he may be a naïve child, he's still attuned to others' feelings, and desires to empower them best he can. He isn't always great at it, sometimes coming off as annoying and overeager instead.

[starlit1daydream]

Princes & Bards: Instability and Destruction

I want you all to picture me with an incredibly evil grin on my face right now. That is me. I am a supervillain and you are about to fall for my evil plans. I have been waiting for this.

The Princes & Bards, the most contentious classes in Homestuck; consistently lumped in with the nebulous 'bad guys' and given little thought beyond the absolute ugliest manifestations of their powers and personalities.

The Prince:Bard dichotomy embodies instability, destruction and deconstruction. They shatter their Aspect, break it down to its constituent parts, tear it into a million pieces; it is their scourge, and they terminate it however they see fit.

Similarly to the Knights & Pages symbolising deficiency, the Princes & Bards signify instability; their presence usually means their Aspect is in flux, and often it's due to their presence too in a roundabout way.

Canonical Prince players are Dirk Strider (Prince of Heart), Eridan Ampora (Prince of Hope) and Kurloz Makara (Prince of Rage).

Canonical Bard players are Gamzee Makara (Bard of Rage) and Cronus Ampora (Bard of Hope).

Point A - the narrative function of the Prince.

The word I'd use to describe the Princes is... obsessive. Obsessed, in particular, with eradicating their Aspect. They tend to hold a deep-seated dislike for their Aspect in their lives, and so they seek to purge it in whatever way they can - and yet it still haunts them in every way they can think. If anything, tearing it apart only means it haunts them more.

This destruction often leads to a superficial manifestation of their opposing Aspect; but not nearly to the degree that most people would suggest. It's there, but not the be-all-end-all.

Dirk, for all of his self-loathing and obsession with appearing methodical & disingenous, can't help letting his emotions get the better of him when the going gets tough - and he surrounds himself with echoes and splinters of his 'godawful personality' despite his efforts to destroy himself completely.

Dirk projects outwardly as cold & calculating, like a player of Mind may be.

Eridan is a hopeless romantic at his core, and yet hope & aspiration still form the basis of his character. He's a man constantly hung up on destiny, constantly thinking about his fantasies of genocide & eternal love from Feferi; trying to live up to the image of a tyrannical ancestor he barely knows. And yet, he's utterly without Hope at his core and seeks to eradicate it.

Eridan projects outwardly as a skeptic who believes in science over fantasy, as a Rage player may do.

Kurloz (speculation time!) is a man defined by his own negativity. Appearing calm, collected & rageless; he conceals a deep-seated devotion and a desire to eradicate Rage in the form of removing skepticism & rebellion from his session. He has a hand in puppeteering Meulin and injuring Mituna, all to remove their potential presence as a spanner in the works for his nebulously defined plans.

Kurloz projects outwardly as an exuberant preacher obsessed with spreading the belief in his gods, as a Hope player would do.

And oftentimes, this destruction spreads to their session mates.

The Alpha kids' romantic prospects and emotional stability erodes the more time they spend in the Medium 'til they all reach boiling point.

The Beta trolls lose all hope of rescue and turn to pulling teeth & murdering one another in a desperate attempt to turn their situation around.

The Alpha trolls are too caught up in their echo chamber of gossip & teenage delusion to understand the gravitas of what they're all dealing with, and it shows.

What the Prince needs to do should they aim to be successful is learn to live with their Aspect. Their frayed & fractured relationship with their Aspect can be healed, and once they've done that healing and moved away from obsessive and mindless destruction, they turn their head to the unhealthy manifestations of their Aspect in their session.

They destroy their Aspect where it needs to be destroyed, and destroy through it when necessary.

And this segues quite nicely into...

Point B - The practical function of the Prince.

The Prince's powers of destruction are nothing to be scoffed at.

Dirk Strider showed the ability to tear out a woman's soul.

Eridan Ampora channels Hope as a weapon of mass murder and destruction.

Kurloz Makara erodes the agency of his peers and robs them of the capacity to rebel through his mind control (I'M NOT CALLING IT THAT) and mental manipulation.

The Prince's power to destroy translates physically into immense physical capability, and in any way their Aspect can be manifested; the Prince can tear it down.

Their role becomes that almost of a really weird healer; because in a sense, what they're doing is mending their Aspect by breaking it where it can't be fixed, and allowing it to continue in a healthier fashion.

It's strange, but the Princes are a strange bunch.

Point C - the narrative function of the Bard.

This is where things get fun.

The Bards are best described as representing decay. Their Aspect passively rots away in their presence, they use it both as a tool to erode it and as something to be slowly degraded in itself. This destruction is often unconscious, and subsequently the Bard has little control over this destructive force; it's like a miasma, surrounding them.

Gamzee Makara erodes his own capacity to question, openly preferring the quiet uncertainty of blind faith; he tells Karkat he'd rather believe in miracles than know the science behind them. He's a boy that thinks pretty lies are better than ugly truths, and by drugging himself up with sopor slime he only compounds that lack of capacity to question. This, of course, then leads to him having his own capacity for skepticism repeatedly taken by the narrative agents that use him as a walking plot device later in the story.

Cronus Ampora is beyond hope, beyond all redemption, designed in every way to be disgusting and hated in every facet. He's an awful, awful man who embodies the worst entitlement and delusion imaginable, falsifying minority identities for attention and using his position of privelege to prey upon those he sees as beneath him; he doesn't believe a word of what he says, and yet he's terrified of being 'exposed' for what he is.

Gamzee is more complex in this regard since he has far more screen-time, and we get to see directly his transition from destroying Rage to destroying through Rage as he goes sober and starts believing himself a God. It's hard to definitively pin down anything about Gamzee since he's... a walking plot device with far too much baked-in bigotry, but there's something to be scraped out of him for sure if you're willing to wade through how really uncomfortable he gets.

Cronus is easier to analyse as a Bard of Hope despite his limited screentime; and there's some really interesting analysis to be found in him being crafted by the narrative to be awful.

Point D - the practical function of the Bard.

Here's where it gets interesting. The Bards erode and decay their Aspect in some very interesting narrative ways.

Gamzee uses Rage as a force for destruction by allowing other people's negativity & overwhelming rage to destroy them. He aggravates everyone he targets into striking him first, before hitting back with three times as much force; we see it with Equius, Nepeta & Terezi very clearly.

Cronus uses Hope as a force for destruction through lies and shit-stirring. He sabotages the image of anybody he wants to victimise, lies and spreads rumours until they're disbelieved and shunned; and he does this very openly to Mituna. It's disgusting, but it's interesting to look at. He's both destroying Hope in Mituna, and destroying Mituna through Hope.

...This got very Cronus-centric, didn't it? I guess he has the distinction of not being written in a way that hurts my brain to think about for too long.

I've been excited for this one for a while; I'm sorry that it was pretty late, but I at least managed to get it out on the right day.

Next week is gonna be another interesting one because it's another group that tend to be villainised quite a bit! Thieves & Rogues are up next.

Enjoy the impending Vriscourse. I'm going to go and nurse the Makara-induced headache I now have.

[the-troll-book-of-mormon]

ok i finally finished watching the first season of gravity falls! here's my hc for soos's god tier so far :} i love him so much. and i refuse to draw a codpiece on him lmao

[our-fav-hs-char]

Which is the cooler classpect?

[seldomdrawncherubs]

if its not to much trouble could u tell me a lil about a bard of void please :-)

uu: DESTROYER. OF NOTHING.

uu: VOID IS A SHITTY ASPECT. IF I WAS EVER INVOLVED WITH IT. I FORGOT ABOuT IT. WHICH IS A SIGN THAT IT IS FORGETTABLE.

uu: YOuR POWER. LITERALLY DESTROYS NOTHING. WHAT THE FuCK DOES THAT EVEN MEAN? NOTHING AT ALL, THAT'S RIGHT. COMPLETE. uTTER. NONSENSE.

uu: uNLESS YOu GOD TIER. MAYBE YOu COuLD DESTROY WITH VOID INSTEAD. THAT WOuLD AT LEAST MAKE SENSE. AND MAYBE YOu COuLD MAKE MY ANNOYING SISTER. CEASE TO BE.

uu: FINE, MAYBE YOu ARE COOL.

uu: BuT DON'T BE AN IDIOT OR A CLOWN. I HATE THOSE.

***

UU: the bard of void is fascinating!

UU: yoU destroy chaos, and that makes order! or perhaps yoU destroy nothingness and qUiet by being loUd. either way, yoU make room for light in yoUr session.

UU: the bard is often mascUline, bUt it doesn't need to be.

UU: jUst becaUse yoUr power may be difficUlt and Uncontrolled, does not mean yoU yoUrself are UntrUstworthy.

UU: between the bard of rage and bard of hope, i can Understand why yoU might be wary of yoUr own class.

UU: bUt i believe yoU are not defined by yoUr classpect. jane is not only a bUilder, and dirk is not only a destroyer.

UU: yoU have great power potential! making things vanish is not to be sneezed at!

UU: maybe i shoUld form my own army. i think yoU woUld do very well!

[tavtiers]

the Bard of Void: one who passively destroys the unknown

sources: x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x

[mageofmercy]

bard of void? ::3c

But this I can certainly do. Hello Seer-Void, welcome to our parlor. Si'down, relax. and Enjoy.

This should be fun.

Well, Bard of Void? You came to the right place, this won't be your typical bard post with gnarly horns, jagged teeth, cod-pieces and shoosh paps.

In fact none of my bard posts will be that way.

My posts are raw. As I give you my honest take to the true uniqueness of whoever is out there reading this. Theres very little structure. But, I hope you like it like that.

I am the Mage of Heart, and here is my review!

~~~~~

Bard of Void

In order to remove Aspect, it has to go somewhere. But where do secrets go? Well, there's truth.

But what is truth in the face of a black hole? The true embodiment of mystery, the enigma of a black hole is at it's very core? -We know basically nothing about them-

And this Bard is no different. You'll see what I mean.

As many of us know many bards start their lives defacing their aspect, and ripping it to shreds. (This is often times needed.)

At this point they are destroying void, which means they will not keep secrets, I didn't say cannot, I said will not. They refuse to be apart of anything enigmatic, shady, hidden, secretive, and the like. They probably have a deep fear of the deep blue sea that's relative to the situation. But If they were swimming, and they couldn't see beneath them/it's just a bottomless void? They would royally flip the fuck out.

When I mentioned they refuse to be apart of anything shady, that isn't entirely true. Because they've got a bloodhound nose for anything people want kept secret. This Bard at this stage will have no regard for that. They suck that shit up and spit it back out. The Wildcard class, will act the part when unnecessary. But that doesn't mean they will be like this forever, no. This is just the beginning.

People will begin to catch on, and scold the Bard of Void for being too nosy, and telling. They shall be exiled as that one person who upset the delicate order of truth and lie.

So? They eventually will begin to, shoosh pap themselves. They won't tell a soul what which where how or why. Because they got shamed for the grief they set upon people. and now they feel it too. They are now destroying through void.

If any bard remains in either one of these stages for long... two very different contrasts of black and white moral immoral, me-amano...

There will be dire consequences to what will be.

Because the true word for Bards, is finding BALANCE within themselves. Mind body and spirit. In order to grasp just what it takes to be the master of both worlds of light and void, as a void player.

They will need to understand. that for their own sake and everyone around them. That they are important in their own way, That their secrets, sucking everything in for it to stay there forever? Isnt healthy. I recommend an effective moirail to help vent out all the horrible shit you see and witness so you don't internalize it - You need to stay healthy. Try not to destroy with void as to suck it all up and spit it out. But also don't keep it all hidden neither. Prune, don't eviscerate. Deep breaths. Because you've got this. You absolutely do matter, despite what some might say. YOU ARE IMPORTANT. As well as you being a shy, sensitive, knowledgeable person. Keep in mind that the things you share do affect people, and can lead some down some sticky roads. Pay heed to TACT, Keep BALANCE, and remember. You're IMPORTANT to the world. Why? Because I say so. :)

[rogue-of-heart-classpecting]

ayo im kinda trying to assign a classpect to myself and im stuck between Bard of Void and Prince of Time can u please tell me more bout it?

Ok!!!

BARD OF VOID

The bard is someone who basically thinks, feels, acts, or IS one way for most of their life up until a point where they change fundamentally and become the exact opposite. In a destructive way. For a bard of void, this might look like encouraging people to look things up, explaining things to others, Passively Destroying Void. By encouraging light. They would value knowledge and enjoy learning. OR luck or like water or actual light or whatever. At some point the bard would suddenly realize like… mysticism and not knowing some things is actually the correct… way. To be. Like they change their mind. And then they start destroying shit. Perhaps literally. Burning libraries, shooting out lights, maybe they could even manipulate the heroic/just clock to cause people to die or not die (luck can influence the outcome as seen by aranea and I think maybe vriska I can’t remember). This time they would be Passively Destroying USING Void. Ok? And like let’s not forget they can still passively destroy void as well. And they could destroy using void before. Maybe now they tell people misinformation… they… hmm… using void to destroy… they could thanos snap people out of existence? Into the negative space? That’s destructive. They could perhaps send basically ANYTHING into the shadow realm. And before….. they would have been able to destroy using void… that might look likeeee…. I’m trying to think about gamzee pre-sober. Destroying using rage. I’m thinking about when he tries to pray his computer out of his sylladex and then it doesn’t work so he just grabs it? That’s sort of destroying by debunking… since rage is about the truth. You see what I’m saying? So before, the bard of void could have been like trying to look something up and then just given up and decided it’s best that they don’t know? Something like that. THE MOST IMPORTANT thing for a bard is determining when and where they would snap. Please keep that in mind. They have unpredictable personalities and are very capricious.

PRINCE OF TIME

This is a powerful and scary guy. The bard is kind of goofy and in your face, but the prince is angry and brooding and cold. The prince’s job is to destroy an aspect that…. Hmm…. It seems like the prince’s aspect is a bit of a nuisance in their sessions. I always wonder how hussie could have carefully planned each and every character to represent their class and aspect in every way correctly. The prince’s aspect is maybe a threat to the successful continuation of the session. I think it’s kind of up to them to not get carried away but to sort of clean up the excess aspect. Dirk sort of nuked everyone’s interest in Jake by proving how shit a boyfriend he is. Which was holding everyone back a bit. Eridan… went way overboard with everything. Dirk could have definitely broken everyone’s spirit and destroyed the souls of all players if he was an antagonist. Like eridan. Eridan’s session was like a bunch of naive teenagers expecting to beat this game like a challenge instead of like a journey. And he got rid of that naive optimism right away. Honestly in feferi alone there was hope for a brighter future like beforus which is definitely less bloodthirsty and colonial. And he nipped that in the bud along with every other positive future aspiration the team had. As far as he could, at least. We don’t have a lot of information about the alpha trolls session, but there is a lot of discord and ill will going on in there. I think there’s also much more disillusionment among the players. Granted they are all dead already so that kind of makes it more obvious that this isn’t going to go well. A prince of time might be a really bad sign for the session. Or it could be everyone is lollygagging around and there’s an excess of time and things are taking forever. The prince could like move through time I assume and maybe skip forward. They could perhaps fast forward the session for everyone? Jade was able to manipulate space to affect everyone. Unlike how Dave mostly affected his own timeline. This fast forwarding thing could really screw up everyone’s day. Maybe even like making people too old and decrepit to work like with osteoporosis and shit. Or skipping to the end of the game. That could be misguided and everyone isn’t ready yet or it could be vengeful and vindictive. They could even maybe age the frog (again, misguided or on purpose) and accidentally kill it or something. The time player is supposed to breed the frog. It is NOT the knights job, karkat just did it bc he’s the leader and since he’s not the time player he caused The Tumor. Anyway. Are you more of a fighter or a wildcard?

[techtakesoff]

have you done bard of void?

Now I have.

The Bard of Void

Almost done, boys.

Bard - passive destruction class, one who allows destruction of aspect, or invites destruction through aspect.

Void - control over literal nothingness and secrets.

The Bard of Void is one who allows destruction of Void, or invites destruction through Void.

The opposite of a Bard of Void is a Maid of Light.

The Bard of Void is a gossiper at heart. I can see them not being one in the spotlight, but often hanging around those who do, and picking up a lot of secrets about the ones they hang around.

Bards and Princes are known for the destruction of/through their aspect, and I think that the Bard of Void wouldn't outright expose someone's secrets... just maybe leave a few hints here and there to start painting a picture, and when the puzzle pieces fall together, they can easily pass it off as someone else.

They like to know obscure things, but they have a habit of oversharing their obscure things, to the point where they might even become mainstream, if the Bard has a big enough following.

They feel like the type of person to talk about how they love 'obscure' music, when most of that happens to be semi-popular bands that the average person may have heard of. Not to bash but I just feel like it'd be true.

Bards typically need a push to accept their aspect, and it typically needs to be a hard one. The only way I can really see it happening to a Bard of Void is that they get their secrets leaked at some point. They destroy their own Void, and I can see this fall from grace being partially self made.

Not to forget, but Void is also about 'nothingness' and the concept of it. A Bard of Void would destroy nothing, meaning that they create where they destroy the absence of something.

Where they see a blank canvas, they might be filled with the urge to create on it, and so I see the Bard of Void to be the one to create graffiti on walls. To fill out Wikipedia articles of concepts nobody's ever heard of.

They care a lot about the obscure, but sometimes trip up in that.

[en8y]

[IMAGE ID: three horizontal flags with nine stripes; each flag has the void aspect symbol in the center; a dark blue shape made of six curved lines, none of which are touching or connected. it is outlined in medium blue. the middle stripe is twice as large as the rest of them, which are equally sized. the first flag has these top three colors: dark blue, warm medium green, and teal. the second flag has these top three colors: forest green, medium purple, and white. the third flag has these top three colors: dull orange, warm light purple, and deep blue-purple. each flag has these bottom six stripes: medium blue, off-white, medium blue, dull blue, deep blue, and dark blue. END ID.]

voidasithief: a gender connected to being a thief of void; this gender is connected to the void aspect, void aspect aesthetics, thief aesthetics, and thievery!

voidasiheir: a gender connected to being an heir of void; this gender is connected to the void aspect, void aspect aesthetics, heir aesthetics, and being genderqueer!

voidasibard: a gender connected to being a bard of void; this gender is connected to the void aspect, void aspect aesthetics, bard aesthetics, music and musical aesthetics, being silly or goofy, and MUSiN genders!

@radiomogai @liom-archive @obscurian @drowntowns @electrosaccharine

[ask-the-witch-of-mind]

what would the compatibility of a page of blood and a bard of void maybe :-?

thx 4 the ask! 8P

here are my personal thoughts on bard of void and page of blood interactions:

an example of a bard and page relationship in cannon (and the most popular) are tavros (a page) and gamzee (a bard) they are both shown to have a background attraction to eachother. bards and pages are already a bit similar in what they do, pages learn their aspect/learn through their aspect, bards "fuck around and find out" with their aspect/ "fuck around and find out" through their aspect. so already straight off the bat we know they learn and find out about their aspect.

about the aspects (void and blood) void is about nothingness, secrecy and lack of things, blood is about bonds, leadership and relationships. a void player at their best can be wise, intuitive, and vibrant. a void player at their worst can be dismissive, indecisive, and apathetic. a blood at their best can be charismatic, uplifting, and magnetic. a blood player at their worst can be sullen, unkind, and set in their ways.

from the words of the extended zodiac, blood players inspire people to keep going, void players see potential in everything, even when everyone else would see just a blank canvas. a page of blood and a bard of void would be a pretty good duo to have! 8D

[giftofclasspects]

and the void playlists are done! here are a few of my favorites,

witch

rogue

maid

[starlit1daydream]

Gordon Freeman's classpect: and why you're all wrong about it

well forgive me for the hostile-sounding title there, but as it stands i'm yet to see a single other person with this take.

the unanimous agreement for gordon's title seems to be heir of hope - which i will give credence to as making a lot of sense at face value. the heir is the class of the typical 'hero' and hope is the aspect of belief, faith, deficiation, angelic symbolism. on paper, it works perfectly for a man held in such high regard as a saviour and liberator.

but what of gordon's personality? what little of it we see, of course.

the heir of hope argument applies a classpect to gordon not as a person, but as a concept.

gordon freeman the concept is an heir of hope, for sure.

but gordon freeman, the man?

gordon freeman, the scientist who was late to his first day on the job? whose brief glimpses into his personality include blowing up a man's casserole for no clear reason and solving every problem with a crowbar?

the gordon freeman who has been jumping from trauma to trauma for twenty years under the machinations of a sinister interdimensional bureaucrat?

hear me out here.

gordon freeman is a bard of void.

now, i should probably explain my thoughts on the bard class and the void aspect before going any further, since this entire take hinges on my very specific take on both things.

in my eyes, the bard (the passive destroyer) is somebody who initially ghosts adherence to their opposing aspect, until a traumatic incident or dire crisis suddenly pushes them into an influx of their real aspect. they change their tune from passively destroying their aspect in themselves to passively destroying through their aspect. bards are capricious, unpredictable people who are often cowardly, avoidant or lazy in their ways.

the aspect of void, the antithesis of light, deals with the eldritch and the unknown. void is shadow, void is doubt and obsfucation, it is by its very nature unknowable and exists in the dark corners of one's mind. void is narrative irrelevance given (a lack of) form.

so, how does this fit into gordon freeman's narrative?

let's get into his head.

gordon freeman is a man who, prior to the black mesa incident, has lived his life adhering to knowledge and science. he's studied, got a degree, probably quite passionate about science. the statistics, the thirst for knowledge and understanding, all of this paints a picture of light.

light players are the ultimate students, as the extended zodiac says, they are the knowledge-seekers who wish to understand the world around them and comprehend the most fortuitous path better than any other.

the guy shows up late to his first day on the job. a man with more degrees than should be feasible and he can't even show up to work on time. this is the first hint of gordon being a bard, it's an incredibly lazy and capricious action that also hints at his passive destruction of light through his lack of fortune.

and it's that fateful test that changes everything - you all know the one i mean.

the one that suddenly inundates him with void. suddenly, gordon's world is unknowable, incomprehensible, he is a slave to the plot and forced to keep driving forward a narrative to which he ultimately has no say in. it's another example of the traits of a bard, who generally do seem to be reduced to narrative devices. (we see this a lot with gamzee.)

gordon is consumed among the alien and eldritch, and emerges from black mesa's ruins anew. a man whose existence is defined by contradiction, doubt, obfuscation, and everything that void stands for.

we see it again and again throughout the series. his very existence within the combine's rigidly defined, meticulous and mechanical empire defies principle. he is the anticitizen, his presence within their world is a contradiction just by his very being. he is undocumented, an anomaly that shouldn't be. and that scares the shit out of them.

and it should! because, as a bard of void should, gordon destroys their empire through void. his very existence is enough to spark the revolution (which in itself is tied to the aspects of hope and rage) and the destruction he brings about is through his nature as the anticitizen. the contradiction, the hole in their logic. he casts doubt upon the system that they've forced into place and he does so while continually being surrounded by the eldritch and the unknown.

he does so while in servitude to the eldritch, actually. i think that g-man himself is a player of space (to be more specific, i think he is a lord) but i think that there is also a lot of void symbolism within the g-man's character and his 'employers' more specifically.

and you know what really cinches my argument?

gordon freeman, player of void, embodiment of the unknown and the obsfucation, of the silence and emptiness, of the doubt and darkness?

he never utters a single word.

i will revise this entire thing once i wake up tomorrow because it's currently 10pm for me and this is going to look incredibly lazily worded/formatted when i get up in the morning

but for now i suppose you can all take this rambling mess of uncoordinated madness and tell me how wrong i am

[emperor-of-blood]

Do you think you could find a classpect for the immortal snail? Also hi, been a while since your last post, how are you?

Hello! I've been good! Very busy with life. Got my first big kid job after grad school, got a girlfriend, life is going well! Just very busy lol. How're you doing? It's also been a while since I've gotten an ask from you lol.

So. The Immortal Snail. This has got to be about the hypothetical Snail that is immortal, out to get you, and instantly kills you if it touches you, right? I think there's a few different variations of this scenario but they all involve that + some instant reward in exchange for taking on this assassin, right? I feel like I've heard one version that includes the snail periodically teleporting too.

But anyways this is a pretty simple character to analyze, which always makes me lean towards an Heir. Not to say that Heirs can't have nuance of course, but more that if you boiled each class down as much as possible, I think Heir is probably the most intact at that final stage. If that makes any sense. I'd also consider a Bard here, or maybe a Prince.

Light is a pretty obvious aspect here, but I'd also consider Void. Bard of Void is pretty interesting. I think I like that!

So Bard of Void:

One who invites destruction through [Void]/one who lacks [Void]

Popping into existence from nowhere, and as a snail of all things. It brings along with it great wealth, which ties into the absence of Void part. You suddenly live a very wealthy life! How exciting. But then one day, it suddenly ends. No warning. It's just over. Because a snail touched you! You really thought you sealed that jar well but apparently, something happened. Or maybe nothing happened. Nothing you could notice anyways.

[baroquepopcorn]

Bard of void things:

Your pockets always filling up with random junk

Always having everything but the one thing you do need at any given time

Being thrust into the spotlight even after trying to avoid being noticed

Being constantly praised for something you did on accident

Clumsily tripping on the curtain only to reveal the wizard behind it

Solving mysteries by making a half-serious guess and it turning out to be right

Always having both the best and worst luck, never in between

You’re always easy to find, even when you don’t want to be

Knowing so many little “unimportant” details — somehow they always end up being relevant

Your friends finding that things they lost when you’re around

Remembering things everyone else has forgotten, then they suddenly remember too

The shadows fear you — you don’t know why

You close your eyes and see everything