#classpect theory

[roxykisser]

classpect titles: identity vs. the narrative

right. here’s something i’ve been meaning to talk about for a while. the assignment of classpect titles.

before i start, i want to make something clear: i’m not here to tell anyone how to identify. i am of the opinion that everyone knows themselves best. i’m not here to tell anyone how to classpect: this is a wacky business filled to the brim with speculation. this is merely an account of my views and opinions.

the classpecting community at large, here on tumblr at least, is very concerned with one’s personality when assigning classpect titles. this approach also necessitates a focus on both class and aspect in tandem; making sense as one full concept, a one and done thing, rather than two components of a title. a title, not a name.

a prince of heart is one who destroys heart. therefore the prince must destroy heart. he cannot engage in destructive behaviour, fall into that class’ archetypal pitfalls and climb its archetypal highs, and also have an arc concerned with identity, see the world in those terms at the same time. he must always be a [destroyer of heart].

it all ends up rather stereotypical; a prince destroys, therefore the prince is bad. a knight protects, therefore the knight is good.

i find it more constructive to look at classes as archetypes, because at their origin, this is what they are. patterns of behaviour one repeats again and again, falls back on when they are at their wits’ end. this is where the narrative view of classpects comes in.

class represents the hero’s internal processes. their values. a sort of concise list of their greatest faults and greatest strengths, like horoscopes in the newspaper. made to be generic. made for the hero to grow with and past them. it makes sense then why most prefer to classpect based on personality: it is easier to look at yourself as a list of traits than it is to look at yourself as a history, a narrative path you’ve walked. actually, that brings me to a good metaphor: your class is your shoes. the trail you walk. your aspect is the scenery.

classpecting from a narrative angle requires a shift in perspective, and acknowledging one stark difference between the hero title of myself and say, the hero title of jake english. we are both hope players, yet one of us is a person. the other is a character. the title system in homestuck is made around characters. the game is deliberately set up to help its players grow, and in doing that sets them on a path loosely defined by their title. people are a bit more complicated.

seeing yourself as a character isn’t easy. it’s almost impossible. characterhood is objective; personhood is not. in a story, we see its characters’ entire arcs in one line, we can clearly identify the inflection points in their stories and which themes repeat again and again. but as people our lives are ongoing; we are not afforded the same omnipotence, the ability to see time all at once.

class is incredibly hard to determine because of this. aspect is a bit easier. it is the themes that repeat again and again in our lives, a backdrop for all else to happen. it is a lens through which we see and understand the world. a light player might see their world as a story. a heart player might see the world as a tangle of identities rubbing up against and affecting each other. the possibilities are as endless as paradox space, which is to say not at all or quite a lot, depending on how you look at things. and how big you are in the scheme of them.

of course some measure of both narrative and personality classpecting must be employed for the most accurate outcome to be produced. one cannot look at the forest’s reflection in the lake and claim to know the beasts within. one cannot build a house with only bricks. but a healthy harmony should be strived towards in order for the result to be most accurate.

if you would like to read some posts from people who know these things better than me, i recommend @classpect-navelgazing, particularly their masterpost, and @urcharactersclasspect, whose opinions i found very particularly eye-opening.

[aks-of-the-weak]

I made this cheat sheet to every Direct Mention of a class's active/passive alignment today.

In above, i've excluded everything like interpretation of characters' behaviors or of subtext, mentions of a character being active/passive and mentions of classes in ways that don't directly indicate activeness or passiveness. I do also want to keep a more general track of those subtexts and generic mentions of classes, so i'll make a list of them below and might update as i find more. I'll quote relevant parts where it's shorter and leave entire pages at the page reference. {And leave my personal comments in brackets like so}

Homestuck Proper: Calliope on Rogues, Calliope on Princes, Aradia on Knights and Seers: p.4514, 4564, 4354 - {Mentioned above, but there's more i haven't quoted.} Scratch on Seers: p.3832-3835 - {Too long to be quoted. It's unclear exactly to what extent Doc is talking about "A Seer", "A Seer of Mind" and "Terezi", respectively. } Brain Ghost Dirk on Pages: p.4875 - "Pages have a lot of untapped potential. That's practically all there is to the class, actually. But when they eventually find it, look out." Aranea on Sylphs: p.6553 - "I am a very powerful Sylph of Light. I have had millions of sweeps to hone my abilities. As one gifted with the aspect of light, certain outcomes will be prone to breaking in my favor. And as an ancient, highly experienced sylph, I wield an unprecedented ability to heal. A doomed timeline is really just an anatomical feature of a much larger organism. Like a capillary which comes to an end, because it has withered and died. I believe I will be able to heal this offshoot. And with enough time and patience, I am confident I can restore its vitality to such a great extent, it will effectively take over as the alpha timeline, thus reducing English to a lost footnote of paradox space." - {Obviously that last thing didn't happen, but she did end up making the Game-Over timeline take over as the alpha timeline. She just didn't understand the implications of that within Paradox-Space's framework.} AH on... Clowns?: p.5484 - "It means crazy clowns just won't die for some reason. In adventures such as yours, they tend to linger long past their welcome. They linger and linger and linger, and just when you think you're totally fed up with their bullshit and you can't take another second of it, they just linger some more. And you never know what they're up to, and they're always scheming in the shadows, and it's quite possible that whatever master plan they're hatching just doesn't make the slightest bit of sense at all. But it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how stupid the clown's schemes are, or how sick of him everybody is. He just. Won't. Die." - {This is sort of my crackpot theory, but i believe this passage is a subtextual explanation of the Bard as a character archetype. Essentially a Jester staying in the shadow of its king. }

Beyond Canon: Got nothing beyond what's in the sheet

Q&A: On how Lunar Sway relates to Active/Passive Classes: p. - http://wheals.github.io/tumblr/tumblr.html#post25156009290q1 - {In the cheat sheet, but as before, there's more}

Book Commentary: On Aradia and Vriska: Book 4, p.143 - "Aradia's extremely passive nature as a ghost makes her an easy target for this kind of overbearing attention." - {Hussie is commenting on aradia, not Maids, but the language is pretty strong}

[classpector-bizzarly]

Okay I know I talked about not taking character classpecting requests and I still don’t but I do wanna make one myself

I think Junice from Prisounebound might be a Sylph I don’t know of what yet maybe Breath?? She’s definitely a meddler and cares a lot about the people she’s around and she also helped Korpus which I’d consider emotional healing but she doesn’t have the like?? Heart player passion if anyone’s the Heart player it’s probably Renity and if she’s anything it’s a Seer I’m sure anyway Junice is definitely chill and laid back which gives me a Breath vibe because of the flexibility of Breath players but I don’t know because she doesn’t really heal through Breath?? She just heals emotionally like a Heart player

Gif made by me

[visionaryparacosmos]

Hello! As someone who loves having good study materials, I made a Beginner’s Guide to Homestuck Classpecting. It’s only 5 pages!

This guide has a focus on the class side of classpecting, covering foundational information including:

What the classes represent.

How the class system is structured.

How active and passive are defined.

It includes links to where all the information comes from. Most info is from the comic itself and nearly verbatim, while some info is from archived or now-deleted tweets from Andrew Hussie.

This isn’t a comprehensive guide, mostly it’s a guide for people who either know nothing and need a good spot to jump in or for people who like having a lot of references organized in a quick to find place. Either way, I hope someone enjoys checking this out! ✨

[cationicflood]

The Jokerkind of the classpects, aka, in which I wildly speculate some more about Jake’s powers

Jokerkind is something of a broken Kind Abstratus to allocate to one’s Strife Specibus. Judging by what we’ve seen for it, it seems to allow Gamzee to wield any weapon he pleases, just as the joker in a deck of cards can stand for any card you want it to. Maybe there’s also an element of “as long as he finds it funny” that serves as a condition on what weapons he can use? I dunno, it was never really elaborated on.

But this post isn’t about Gamzee. It’s about Jake. So why am I drawing parallels between Gamzee’s abstratus and Jake’s title?

Because there’s a nonzero possibility Jake might have it in him to copy the classpect powers of others for his own use, just as jokerkind allows Gamzee to wield the weapons that rightfully belong to other kind abstrata. It’s only slightly baseless a thought, instead of being complete bullshit, only because we have (debatably) seen him do it before.

Remember Brain Ghost Dirk? That wonderful, strange, confusing Dirk-but-not-really, conscience and imaginary friend all at once? His status as a splinter of Dirk may be up for debate, but what isn’t is the fact that when Jake fully materialized him in the Game Over timeline, the guy had exactly the same soul-ripping powers one would expect from the real Dirk — without Jake ever having seen them, without any reference for what they would look like.

Granted, an argument can be made that Brain Ghost Dirk being able to do that is a consequence of him being a Dirk splinter, though his ontological status is kind of… complicated. It is known that in the comic proper, Derse Dirk is able to materialize in Brain Ghost Dirk’s place in the dream bubbles which definitely suggests some tangible connection between Dirk proper and the incorporeal version of him spawned (Athena-like) from Jake’s perception of him.

But even granted that, the real Dirk was nowhere near the scene at the time Jake manifested Brain Ghost Dirk with all the power of a Prince of Heart at his disposal. How in the heck does Jake know how those powers are supposed to be like? Is it because he knows Dirk so well as to be able to recreate him (albeit parsed through a Jake filter) in his mind’s eye? What then of getting to know his other chums well enough to duplicate their powers eventually?

I’d have to file this under “plausible but unlikely”, with a dash of “it would be so flipping neat to see him do something like this though”. Fun stuff to explore in fanwork, to brew up ideas about how it might look for him to wield the powers of other classpects when he’s not straight up creating hoped-up doppelgangers of all his friends with theirs.

Heck maybe he could even combine it with his actual kind abstratus — firearm magazines loaded with aspect-charged ammunition? A pair of revolvers like Calliope’s white magnum — six-shooters with one round for each aspect in the chamber?

Perhaps when his hope-white aura manifests, it changes to that of a different aspect depending on which one he’s jonesing to copy for the occasion?

Once again, his is a title that lends itself nicely to boundless speculation and possibilities to play around with.

[systemconstellation]

CLASSPECT THEORIES

So classpects are still, for the most part, kind of vague. The only confirmed pairs we have are the Master Classes of Lord/Muse, the Taker classes of Thief/Rogue, and the Destroyer classes of Prince/Bard.

Aside from that, we know Seer, Maid, and Heir are passive, and Witch and Knight are active. I've been thinking on the rest, and I'd like to propose my theory. Long post under the break.

First of all, I think we've got Seer figured wrong. It's not just "To Know". It's *To Guide/Instruct/Advise*. Seers are advisors, confidants, prognosticators. They accrue and distribute information to assist their fellow players. They've often been paired with Mages but I'd contend that their active equivalent is actually the Sylph, exemplified in the tendency of the class to *actively* Instruct others; the famous meddling of Kanaya and Aranea. In particular, I think Aranea exemplifies the actively meddlesome nature contrasting to a Seers passive advice. The Sylph seeks to enact their preferred vision.

So, where does that leave the Mage? I think it's the passive equivalent of the Witch. They have semantic similarity as magicians, and I think they're a pair built on the verb Change/Manipulate/Influence; my main evidence for this is how Sollux codes the virus Karkat runs which dooms the trolls.

Knight/Heir is my next suggested pairing. We know from dialogue in HS^2, commentary from Calliope, that the Knight is an active class; the verb Wield keeps popping up. I think Knights & Heirs both Wield, or Exploit, their Aspect, with John's retcon powers being the ultimate Wielding of Breath.

Finally, we come to my favorite, and most contentious pair. Page/Maid, the Servant classes. I think these exist in parallel to the Master classes, on the other end of the spectrum. Why do I say this, and why do I put Page as the active class? It starts with some strange similarities I noticed between Tavros and Caliborn's sessions. Namely, while Caliborn must acquire the Felt to navigate his null session, Tavros communes with the imps to assemble an army of his own. And then I thought, well, isn't it interesting that Jake created Brain Ghost Dirk to assist him? Could there be some connection there? They also all have a singular Helper essential to their development. Caliborn has Gamzee, Tavros has Vriska, Jake has Dirk. The interesting thing is that, with pages specifically, this helper seems to *hinder* them, while still genuinely wanting their success. My contention is that a Pages journey is about overcoming the aspirations of this Other to assert their own desires; and that the class is primarily concerned with a verb of creation, or becoming; that they begin to assert their will upon the world. I've paired them with the Maid as they're thematically related as words referring to Servants. I think there are likely interesting parallels between how maids in a sense become their Aspect and Aradia's existence being Weird in a way similar to Alt!Calliope, but I haven't looked into Maids as much yet so I don't have a lot of meat there.

[derseprinceoftbd]

[thewertsearch]

Damn, I never noticed these parallels!

It's honestly hard to tell whether they're due to the character's Title, though. Most of these characteristics aren't really unique to the Class they're assigned to here, with one exception.

Yes, the two Knights grew up vigilant - but Vriska's childhood made her jumpy, too, and Jade was explicitly encouraged by her grandfather to be on guard. Plus, all Alternian trolls need to be ready to fight - their planet has a million ways to kill them, from highbloods to FLARPers to cullings to undead.

It's true that Rose never understood her mother, but her peers aren't any better. Dave's still half-convinced the puppet porn is ironic, and John spent his entire life believing his father was a circus clown. Evidently, there's not a lot of straightforward communication going on in any of these families.

Both Witches have a duty they've long been aware of - but so have Kanaya and Aradia. However, there might indeed be something to what you said about their Guardians.

It's hard to dispute that Jade and Feferi have the strangest custodians in their respective parties - two eldritch monsters with unclear motivations and world-ending capabilities.

I've never had much luck analyzing the Witches, but maybe I should start with their unusual familiars. Perhaps the Witch is Sburb's answer to a Druid or Ranger - a class designed to interface with the natural environment and its inhabitants.

You run your whole palace as a sort of WILDLIFE ADOPTION FACILITY, even if the wildlife's need for care is dubious at best, and the practice really just amounts to an elaborate ROLE PLAYING SCENARIO.

If you squint, it certainly seems to fit. Jade's furaffinity for nature is well-documented, and Feferi's most valuable contribution to the party is the alliance she's formed with an alien species.

The main issue is that, again, these aren't the only characters with an affinity for the natural world, so I'd need to see a lot more evidence before I'm 100% sold on this take. We'll see if it holds up, going forward.

[k3agn]

I…find myself thinking about Homestuck again.

…a lot. I’m going to have to exercise this demon and I think that’s going to have to be either fan art or theory posts. Maybe both.

For now, I leave you with this clusterfuck:

[ceitruss]

I’m so confident about these class pairings.

Alright here’s my go at it I’m really happy with how these fit together. Im going to keep this as short as possible but I want to be convincing so I might ramble a bit. First off the classics

Active Thief and passive rogue. Steal

Active prince and passive bard. Destroy

Active mage and passive seer. Know

Active knight and passive page. Apply.

First sticking point. I put knights as active and pages as passive because..

Active classes are focused and direct. They are narrow fully realized have full control over their abilities. This is true for every cannon active class. Princes and thieves especially are driven and in control of their powers. They aren’t asking or allowing x, they are telling and directing, and this is complimented by the other active trait of doing things for oneself, and therefore not needing to worry about the needs of others when factoring how one uses their abilities. Passive classes are less controlled but more potent. Bards barely do anything on purpose, but they erode they erode things just as well as princes. Rogues have to worry about the needs of their compatriots, but that allows them to equip everyone around them as opposed to just themself. Actives are snipers, passives are grenades.

Knights are direct. They know their job and they do it. It benefits others but so do other active classes. Their job is to apply their aspect where it is lacking, and protect it in times of scarcity.

Pages are all over the place. They have much less control both in how they access their powers, which needs a journey of self discovery, and how they utilize their powers, which as we saw with Jake can be all over the place, but extremely potent. These two are textbook passive and active pair. They apply their aspect as a blanket so everyone can get it as needed.

Active Witch and Passive Sylph. Manipulate.

Alright so here we go.

So there’s the obvious quotes of Kanaya telling Jade that Sylphs are more magical witches. That points in the right direction but there’s abstract connections as well.

Sylphs don’t really create and they don’t exclusively heal. They manipulate for the benefit their team members. Witches are active. They have a relationship with their aspect that is all about bending the rules, going around what’s natural. Sylphs are the same way. Aranea healing Terezi’s blindness can be seen as manipulating light outside of what it was supposed to be. Kanaya’s most prominent reputation is as ‘’meddlesome’ and yet she’s not a witch, she’s a Sylph.

Lastly, prince and bard goes together because they’re royal court members. Thieves and rogues are bandits. Mages and seers are magical academics.

Witches and sylphs are both magical denizens of a forest, known for being both good or bad, but dealing with trickery and existing outside of societal rules.

If you were creating a class system for your comic, why would you make 4 class pairings with connected names, and two whose names connect to each other and not their respective pairs.

Active Maid and Passive Heir. Serve

Again, the names are match well here. Maids and heirs are both at the bottom of a power dynamic but still have some status.

Heirs and maids have by far the strongest connection to their aspect. Whenever I see classpecting in the wild I always see people disprove maids as creator classes who happen to have tendency to serve stuff, and heirs as manipulator classes who happen to have a tendency to become their aspect metaphorically or otherwise. There’s no connection between those proposed class roles and those tendencies.

But maids aren’t a creator class. The maids we see don’t create, but further the goals of their aspects, with Aradia preserving the alpha timeline and Jane protecting the life within her team.

Heirs aren’t a manipulator class. Seriously we said that heirs “allow their aspect to be manipulated?” Manipulation takes force, and heirs are the most ‘go with the flow of their aspect’ class there is. They don’t manipulate, they work with and eventually become.

Maids are active because they are more direct and more forceful, and they often rebel against that which they’re serving. They have more control, less power. Heirs are passive as they have more connection to their aspect, and therefore more power, but as a consequence have less control as they have to work with their aspect to gain anything from it.

[prism-forgone]

So how long till you drop the Deltarune Classpect expansion featuring the secret bosses? Haha just kidding. Unless... But anyway having not thought about classpects in like half a decade that post was a fun read.

i'm so glad you enjoyed it! ^^ it's nice to know there's a demographic for stuff like that still sksjsjk

the post in question for those out of loop here : x

and now.....

It appears my work is not yet done.

Jevil // Bard of Breath

So this is a bit irregular.

Since classpects are not only an allegory for a place in the narrative but also for character growth and progression, it can sometimes be hard to pin down a title of a character who had already gone through their arc. Jevil is someone like that - he's just hanging out. He fights you because it's fun and he's bored and won't you come outside? Let yourself be free?

Jevil screams Bard from miles away and his theme of freedom couldn't be more blatant but the problem I encountered was pinning down which aspect he was ghosting and which was his own. Bards usually experience a psychic break of sorts - we call it a crisis of aspect - that causes them to stop acting aggressively like they're bound to the opposite aspect. But the problem is - I would describe his encounter with 'a strange someone' as something exactly like that. So is he a Bard of Blood that is still in a way ghosting his opposite aspect, destroying the concept of imprisonment by calling being locked up as being truly free? Or is he a Bard of Breath that destroys through Breath by getting himself imprisoned and twisting the definition of freedom?

I decided to go with the latter because not only do I see his encounter with that strange someone being his aspect crisis as non-negotiable, this is not the only clue we have (even if it's the most crucial one). The way Bards operate before their aspect crisis is destroying their aspect through embracing the opposite one. Being a court jester is a very social role that I would say fits someone who is Bloodbound or ghosting the hell out of Blood well. Blood heroes are leaders, confidants and advisors and I think this fits well pre-crisis of Breath. He realized he's not truly free and never will be so he simply smashed his definition of freedom and remade it.

Spamton G. Spamton // Mage of Life (Kind of.)

So, hear me out. I promise it adds up.

Spamton has clear marks of someone Lifebound. This clingy attitude towards success, recognition and money is a very clear mark of that. Another one is how Life heroes are laughably susceptible to contact or persuasion by some kind of dark forces. His separation from other Addisons to become a big deal on his own has connections to a theme of rebellion, and his subsequent rise to the top of the social ladder is emblematic of the theme of authority, both of which being something that very up Life's alley. ...Also, he can literally heal. There's that.

Mages, as I've discussed in Noelle's case, experience the good and the bad of their aspect and can even experience harm because of it. And the cycle of Life says what rises up must fall down. In fact, I believe that what we're dealing with is Spamton's experience with the one who stopped calling him pulling him to the bottom and straight through, leading to him inverting to being the opposite of his title.

Spamton G. Spamton // ↺ Heir of Doom

Sometimes characters can experience a switch to the opposite title. That is called an inversion. It won't make sense for those who are reading this just for character deconstruction and have no knowledge of HS but think of how Rose acted like a Witch of Void, the inverse or her Seer of Light title, when she went grimdark. This isn't ghosting - it happens when a character actively rejects not only their aspect but their whole title.

This leaves Spamton acting in a way that is contrary to his nature - something isn't quite right. We get a feeling this isn't how he should operate but something happened and left him like this. For all intents and purposes, the narrative treats him like an Heir of Doom now, bringing about all things that have to do with being Doombound - this means he attracts the worst parts of the narrative, acts bitter and resentful, even fatalistic, is prone to visions of an awful end or unfortunate fate (this one I'm bringing up specifically because of his phone) and has a connection with nihilism and fatalism.

The inverse of his class being an Heir is also significant. Heirs inherit and embody their aspect, and Spamton does this two-fold - he serves as a cautionary tale of what happens when you hit rock bottom after trying to climb too high up, and, after the fight in the basement, becomes an omen to Kris that leaves a significant impact on them.

[starkeaton]

i feel like theres a stigma surrounding dewdrop's classpecting brochure for multiple reasons, and i was turned off from it at first, but holy shit it's actually the best classpecting resource out there by a country milk.

*mile

my advice to anyone who wants to get really fucking good at classpecting, and wants to actually take it seriously. read the brochure. hear them out. even if you disagree on the controversial bits, there is so much good class/aspect analysis in there

specifically draft 18 is the latest one at time of writing

[snowtimeisbesttime]

all classpect interpretations are equally canon- and this is why:

sburb/sgrub/sname is many things, but the first of those things we see is a computer game. said game's source code can be found in carvings in the frog temple, which comes from a Reckoning meteor; so each sthing version's code comes specifically from itself!

and considering every session we've seen has had an unique frog temple (beta kids: 4 land spires; beta trolls: two separate temples with 6 land spires each; alpha kids: 8 land spires, alpha trolls: at least one temple (with 12 land spires??), possibly located on beforus' moon), there's no reason to assume each and every temple's carvings are exactly the same…

therefore, two swhatever instances can have drastically different classpect definitions because they're running different versions of the game! for example, my own mirrorbent's sgame was compiled in a way where i won't have to go into too many specifics from their own, separate, 12 land spires temple (as opposed to being widely distributed like the beta kids' sburb), and classwise features active knights and passive pages, to pick an example that was recentlyish polled about.

of course, this mini theory thingy would be most applicable to fanventures, while most classpecting theory revolves about homestuck proper for obvious reasons. luckily, i've got some Key Insights about the canon classpects, just beyond this readmore:

get mutie'd lmao!!!!

413 zillion kitys attack!!!!

[purified-zone]

Idea: Relating your Classpect Crafting to Classpecting Itself

Classpecting is a fun exercise, somewhere in between D&D building and Tarot reading, based on the 12 universal elements in Homestuck.

Like anyone spending too much time with it, I learned early on that anyone could be described by literally any combination of the classes and aspects... in some way.

People are too complex, and don't have narrative arcs to really drive these things in a specific direction.

I could see Breath in my impulsive, wayward patterns. I could see Time in my lifelong obsessions with nostalgic past and struggles with reality. Doom dominated my mentality almost as much as Hope did, in those existential adolescent years trying to make sense of life. Bound between too many people I saw Blood in myself, and a self in which to reflect Heart through acting. And a great Void, in that great abyss in which I couldn't really know myself with any clarity.

In the end, "Mage of Space" was something I got randomly rolled from a random number generator during an ARG.

Ironically, with my take that Space relates directly to the idea of fiction and stories itself—it ironically became the most fitting thing I arbitrarily slapped on myself. By being about fiction itself, my struggle to assign myself elements of this fictional setting was itself tied to the mythological title.

Tonight this entered my mind, and I thought—

What if a basis for assigning oneself a Classpect would come from thinking "What Class and Aspect ties most closely to my relationship to Classpecting myself to begin with?" What's the goal?

Somewhat filling in the shoes of a narrative arc in a meta-textual way.

Loving metanarrative stories about neverending stories, and wanting to connect with them and make them, is how Mage of Space is mine.

[mwezina]

The Sylph/Witch and Character Arcs

The defining question for the Sylph/Witch is, “What is my purpose?” 

You may have noticed at this point that I did not do the usual pairs of Heir/Witch and Sylph/Maid. The reason for that may seem silly, but I noticed that there are essentially three sections to all the classes (with the exception of the master classes). Classes that can be found outside of castle walls on a campaign or within the cities (rogues, thieves, knights, and pages). Classes that can be found within a castle either working or by birthright (heirs, maids, princes, and bards). And classes that are found far away from civilization and are only sought out in times of great distress (sylphs, witches, mages, and seers). 

The other reason is the emotional journey that these classes go through. Sylphs and Witches must both travel through a point of extreme hopelessness --the dark night of the soul-- and are deeply affected by it, to the point that it changes their entire outlook. This in turn changes the trajectory of the story. 

Setting

The Sylph/Witch lives in an untamed world that faces the possible annihilation of everything that they care about. Their world may be untamed wilderness with the Sylph/Witch encouraging the growth of civilization, or their world may be untamed because they chose the wild over civilization. But there is something threatening both the wild and the morals of the Sylph/Witch. 

These classes live on the outskirts of other people’s lives. Centred and in tune with the world, but not with its people. When the horror first knocks upon their door, the Sylph/Witch may wonder if this has anything to do with them. They may believe more active classes will solve it with a little guidance, or that the problem isn’t such a big deal. However, only the Sylph/Witch has the power to protect their world from the oncoming threat. And only the Sylph/Witch has the wisdom to see the truth of the horror and accept it. 

Internal Conflict

The Sylph/Witch must see that they still have value to the world. Even though all has been lost before the story even began, they must find their way back into the people’s hearts. 

Once the Sylph/Witch embraces the world, they will see their own purpose and be able to keep moving forward. 

External Conflict

The Sylph/Witch must face the forces of evil with the help of others. We will see that the horror is usually not a concrete antagonist, but a problem that appears to have no solution. 

This horror is especially terrifying to the Sylph/Witch because it mirrors their deepest fears. Whether it is a nemesis long-past or a glimpse of their own future, the external conflict is something that the Sylph/Witch is convinced they cannot face. And it’s precisely because of this belief that this journey through the dark night of the soul will achieve the most amount of growth within them. 

The Sylph

The Sylph answers their defining question with a shrug of the shoulders. “I have no purpose, and I intend to keep it that way.” Sylphs see themselves as outsiders, and merely an old fool, fetching the main characters and tagging along for the ride. They undervalue what they have to offer, and foist the responsibility onto other, more capable players. 

They can fall into the hermit archetype, as they wander around in the wilderness focused on their own goals, unwilling to connect with others. 

Examples

The first example is Kanaya Maryam from Homestuck. She faces the extinction of her species because there is no longer a Matriorb. She stays on the periphery of relationship dramas, mediating instead of playing an active role. 

The other example is Gandalf the Grey from The Fellowship of the Ring. Gandalf senses evil in the ring that Bilbo found and intuits it will bring great devastation. He sets the hero onto the journey, but steps out of it, focused on his own goals. He thinks he cannot offer anything to the heroes except by running around in the background, handling logistics and behind-the-scenes. But Gandalf must face his fears and learn to fight on the front-lines protecting those he cares about. 

End Goal

The Sylph’s goal is to find their purpose and face the horror for the greater good of the world. Whether that means seeing with clear vision what it means for the horror to triumph and rallying their comrades, or stepping up themselves and filling a role they are unaccustomed to, the Sylph must face their dark night of the soul in order to save their world. 

Kanaya uses the powers of a Rogue of Void to spawn another Matriorb. She guides Roxy to find it, seeing with clear vision that the mother grub must be recovered. She also puts aside her own fears around romance by starting one with Rose. 

(You may also notice that Kanaya is the only Homestuck character that I talk about in the “end goal” section. And that’s because she’s the only one that completes her class’ character arc.) 

Gandalf faces the Balrog of Moria alone in service of Frodo's journey to destroy The One Ring. He faces his fears and grows from the experience, maturing into Gandalf the White and facing the forces of evil head-on, with renewed confidence. 

The Witch

The Witch answers the defining question by insisting that they already know their purpose. There is nothing to learn, nothing to protect. They live for themself alone. 

They can fall into the sorceress archetype (as though “witch” wasn’t already an “evil archetype”!). They will connive and steal and manipulate to get everyone else out of their way. 

Examples

Jade Harley from Homestuck is a prime example. She is playful by nature and doesn’t take the threat of either Jack Noir nor Lord English seriously. She uses her magic for her own entertainment and her forceful personality often prioritises her needs above those of others. 

Carl Fredricksen from Up is another example. He chases the dreams of his late wife, leaving everything he knows behind. He wants to ignore all the problems and people he meets along the way, focusing only on the goals he made with Ellie. 

End Goal

The end goal of the Witch is to find a purpose in service of others and to face their fears with honesty. Just like the Sylph, the Witch shies away from the horror because they are afraid, but they mask that fear with a preoccupation on the self. 

Carl stands up to Charles to stop him from killing Kevin the Himalayan Monal Pheasant. He faces the fear of death whether in body or in legacy with bravery. He accepts Ellie’s death and the end of Charle’s (as well as his own) era of adventure. The horrors of death, loss, and end of eras are just a natural part of life, and Carl accepts them with grace. Then, he goes on to pursue further adventures with new people he cares about, adding them to the repertoire of people he loves, never replacing. 

Conclusion

The Sylph/Witch may live in an untamed world. But through their actions, they can find meaning and relationships within it. By the end of their story, the world will no longer be untamed, and they will no longer reside on the outskirts. The Sylph/Maid has found a way into the heart of their world, and they intend to stay there. They will find their own value, and finally face the horror that threatens their world. Through facing this horror, they realise it is not pure horror, but a wonderful opportunity. An opportunity to not only accept what has passed, but also grow from it. 

[landoffreaksandfrogs]

okay but consider. hope being such a powerful aspect but simultaneously being so easy to destroy. eridan being killed really easily despite all he did. jake only being able to fully use his aspect when he's otherwise completely emotionally [or sometimes somewhat physically] destroyed. does this make sense.

NO SEE I LOVE THIS CONCEPT.

i love the aspects also literally being gameplay aspects as well, with hope players being like glass cannons.

i think it adds a cool new dimension to sburb and the classpects in general, and i think hope being the aspect that hits really hard but is really frail is not only symbolically cool, but also, just makes for good gameplay.

so the inversion for rage players being almost IMPOSSIBLE to kill is also a fun and interesting contrast.