17/11/2017 19:00:38 ¶ ●

## The circumstances of livelihood

There is a particular pattern running through the Life Aspect. A pattern of rebellion against authority. Indeed, a pattern specifically of rebellion against the Alternian Throne, against Her Imperious Condescension.

But I do not believe this to be an innate, necessary trait of those linked to the Aspect. Rather, it appears to be emergent from the particular classes of those heroes, in tandem with the properties of Life.

Life, in my view, connects to one’s circumstances of livelihood (i.e. your status, your home, your stuff, etc). Feferi, the Witch, bringer of change, wished to change these things, for herself and as a result for others, redefining the purpose of the empire itself from a cruel engine of conquest and destruction into something kinder, redefining the title of Empress from a tyrant to a caretaker.

Meenah, the Thief, destined for a throne she perceived as “a glorified slave” (Aranea’s words), chose instead to run away to the moon, to abandon her present circumstances for another, potentially more favorable set, to, well, steal her life back. Indeed, we see this tendency later, when, presented with the opportunity to steal John’s Ring of Life and regain power and glory in the world of the living, chose instead to refuse this potential course of action and advise John to keep it safe from her for her own sake.

And then there’s Jane. Poor, long-suffering Jane. Jane, who does not change, nor steal, but simply create. Jane, a Maid, member of a class that seems ever-destined to be pressed into service by outside forces without their best interests at heart. Jane does not rebel. The thought doesn’t seem to occur to her. The Condescension has done her very best to define the limits of what Jane Crocker is capable of conceptualizing, and as it seems so very difficult for her to think of things outside of her present circumstances, to break out of, to destroy, as it were, her extant frame of reference, Jane Crocker does not particularly rebel.

To her sorrow.

P.S. yes, with the help of her friends she breaks gradually out of her brainwashing, I know that, but the fierce spirit of rebellion we see manifest in the Peixes cluster seems absent from her emotional makeup, is what I’m saying. D.S.