when i read the page for maids i sort of got the vibe of- and i mean this in the KINDEST way possible- disney princess, specifically like cinderella. someone who in theory has what they need to be content, who does the work asked of them, but yearns for something more because what they Have is actually making them Miserable. and thats very interesting to me. that's all, thank you for this theory it RIPS. i was making a spreadsheet as classpect sparknotes and your essays made me retool half of it

My original blueprint for my understanding of classes came from an old friend who pitched all of them as specific character archetypes. I wonder if I can still find that……

yep, here:

maid: the survivor, the character who’s been through hell at the start of their arc and then rises above it
page: the secretly clever ingenue
mage: the mad scientist
knight: the jerk with the heart of gold
rogue: the upbeat team player, the robin hood, all about the team
sylph: the fixers, they see a situation that is broken and immediately think they can improve it either with their knowledge or they can get the necessary knowledge
seer: the wizard, deals knowledge out, tends to kickstart the story
thief: the devilish, mercurial trickster with depths of vulnerability
heir: the fool, the eccentric hero with strange charisma
bard: the dangerous, changeable wild card
prince: the emotionally distant damaged one longing for closeness, either rises above or shatters
witch: the sweetheart with the iron core

now as you may be able to tell I don’t completely agree with all of these anymore and have iterated on them a lot, but they were a starting point on how i thought about classes. there is a reason the write-ups continously frame the world as Game Or Stage, because class to me is entirely your character arc in a story.

I’m glad my take worked out for you!