PAGE: “Served by their aspect”

Includes: Jake, Tavros, Horuss, Grandpa Harley, Darkleer

Ah, the Page. The slow burn class. The low-powered class. The class that can’t keep up. 

There’s no one else here, so let’s tell the truth: Pages are one of the most powerful classes. They are served by their aspect with a loyalty that cannot be shaken or dogged. It has always been with them, and as they grow in power, so does the singularity of their aspect. This is a subtle process; imagine finding a dragon egg under your bed as a child and keeping it a secret from everyone. After it hatches, you feed it every night, letting it grow until suddenly you show up to see your friends riding a fucking full-sized dragon, and it loves you, and no one knows how you managed to pull that off.

Pages are the class of subtlety, of getting the things they want with soft power. They have boatloads of intuition and understanding of their circumstances, but god forbid anyone catch on. No, it’s always better to remain underestimated. Of course, the flipside of this is the guilt; Pages are plagued with guilt, as the gap between what they know and what everyone around them assumes gives them the heebie-geebies, like peering over the edge of a canyon.

The Page’s power, their connection to their aspect, is a steady hand. That aspect is very much not inside them, but something they can direct and lead. For the most part, at least. That’s the thing about big friendly dragons; they can slip your control if you’re not careful. This very much happened to Darkleer, who’s inability to break from his restraints made him largely ineffectual. But Tavros was for a time an exceptional Page, who didn’t give a damn about the objectives the game and only wanted to pursue his own freedoms, and was aided by Aradia, Kanaya, and Vriska, often despite their misgivings. And Jake? Blithe manipulation and plausible deniability were his left and right hands, held out open-palmed until he got the things he wanted.

It would be easy to say don’t underestimate the Page, but most people cannot help it. Which does become a problem when the Page gets in over their head. And when they lose grip on their aspect, everyone is going to get burned.

The Page’s greatest strength is their ability to manage situations, to keep themselves and others comfortable and avoid rocking the boat. Their intuition is unmatched.

The Page’s greatest weakness is the guilt constantly dogging their heels, that little suspicion they struggle with, the fear that deep down they might not be a good person.