December 2017

This just an observation, but I feel like some void bound people(ex. Roxy and Tegiri) have a connection with swords.

I mean, the Sword Roxy took was originally Bro’s.

So how exactly to passive and active classes differ. Like all I ever see is "Yep a Mage actively understands their aspect and a seer passively understands their aspect." Like yeah I get that, but nobody ever goes into real detail on what passive and active pairs really mean. (Sorry if you already have a post that explains it all)

I did do a big talk about it a while ago, and here the dichotomy, as @revolutionaryduelist has talked about in the past, comes from a Selfishness vs Selflessness point of view.

See, the idea is that we are given a reduced view of God Tier powers by Calliope, she mentions “Exploit” vs “Allow”, but she also mentions it’s by no means a rule set in stone and that it’s more complex than that. So taking it from the actual Canon, you have the Lord and the Muse, the most Active and most Passive Classes respectively. If they truly are the most Active and the most Passive, it would make sense that Lords would only ‘Exploit’ directly, and Muses would only ‘Allow’ passively- Yet, Lord English does little to Time itself, the Alpha Timeline just so happens to fall in his favor, there’s a sequence of events that must bring him into being, and that allows for him to exist and Destroy everything he wants. His control over the Timeline is extremely passive. On the other hand, Alt Callie physically and very directly takes control of the Space around her and collapses it and herself into a Black Hole to tear the entirety of Paradox Space, an action that seems incredibly active. So this means there must be something more to Activeness vs Passiveness.

And that something, as far as we’re theorizing here, is that Lord English’ control of the Timeline benefits him and only him, and Calliope suffers an eternity of Isolation to fulfill a task that will bring down Lord English and tear down the complex time loop that is Paradox Space, for the benefit of the characters of the story. Lord English is extremely Selfish, Calliope is extremely Selfless, and this is something we can see being shared across all of the characters in one way or another.

John, a Heir, Passive, is all about his Friends and helping those he loves, to the point of constantly refusing the thought of Leadership. Karkat, for all his leader banter, is actually a softie that loves his friends and is only trying to push the team through. Roxy even specifically mentions how she hates her selflessness at one point. Dave and Rose both argue about wanting to go sacrifice themselves in each other’s places, and eventually sacrifice the two of them to blow up the Tumor. On the other hand you have Jane, who suffers incredibly when she’s being repressed by Jake’s obliviousness and relationship issues and not allowing her to actually express and take care of herself. Dirk, who struggles with taking too much control and being too overbearing and centered on himself. Not to say that Passive Classes can’t be Selfish and Active Classes can’t be Selfless, but as you examine the path of each character, you start to find their ‘happiest’ times tie in to this Selfish vs Selfless division. And of course that doesn’t mean Selfish = Bad and Selfless = Good- Selfless can definitely be seen as the ‘Greater Good’ or ‘What’s good for someone evil’, as we see with Aranea and with Gamzee respectively, while Selfishness can just be being content with something else that isn’t the Big Quest To Save Paradox Space, as we see with Aradia, just wanting to live on and watch the Ending, but still interacting in a friendly manner with everyone around her.

Theoretically, if players were to scratch a session and were waiting to stop existing, would a GT Sylph of Hope be strong enough to say 'you know what Fuck this' and use their power to create hope to essentially create a space where the hope of the players and therefore the players can survive?

Yooooou could make a case for something like that, I’m not sure if Hope would be the best choice of Aspect to survive a Scratch, but I could see that being the case. Something defensive that pretty much creates an extra-Dimensional Bubble that remains unaffected by the Scratch, effectively erasing everything around them and leaving them suspended in the middle of the Furthest Ring where the Session used to be… Left floating in the middle of Eldritch Calamari Land.

If my aspect (Life) is something that I need to grow into and learn how to be more of, should my class also be that? If I'm incredibly selfless out of feelings of worthlessness and a lack of self esteem, should I have some kind of Active class to teach me how to be better balanced, or is growing into being a Life player enough?

Well, yes and no? Sometimes a Passive Player needs to still be Passive to be happy, but just learn to be less self-destructive/sacrificial. There’s degrees of Activeness and Passiveness, and what comes naturally should be what you should pursue. Trying to invert your Passive/Active Role forcefully could be rather toxic as well.

Was it ever explained if a player needs to be at the top of their echeladder to be viable for god tiering when they die on their quest bed?

I believe Vriska mentioned it to John, explaining God Tiers as a means of going beyond the limits of the Echeladder once you reach the top. Given the God Tiers have new actual Tiers and rungs, too, I’d say it’s fair to think you need to level up to the max before God Tiering.

Here's a question: If there's multiple sessions at one given time originating from the same universe, what happens to the rest when one of them decides to scratch?

They’re erased in the exact same way- What is being reset is the Universe, Session included, so since the Sessions originated from the same iteration of the Planet that is being reset, they would’ve never started playing, and as such, would have their entire existences erased. Except these Sessions wouldn’t even have the ability to predict when the Scratch is happening and prepare for it, or perhaps even know why the Sky suddenly started to Glitch.

Sorry if you already covered this, but I was wondering: Karma has Mind connections, right? What's the Heart counterpoint? Maybe fate? Karma is affected by your choices and actions, where fate was always going to happen to you. I'm just not sure the connection is strong enough. They also might not be separate enough concepts, at least as the comic uses them. It kinda makes sense though. What do you think? And if fate doesn't fit, what might be better?

Hmmm, Karma, it’s not something I had thought much about but it’s a thing that definitely happens in Homestuck, to the point of spilling from the Ancestors to the Beta Trolls. That’s incredibly hard to analyse properly though- Sure, Mind is Choices, and Karma derivates from what you choose, but the nature of the Alpha Timeline is rather deterministic to start with, and thus Choice and Fate are kind of linked together. And whichever case, I don’t quite think Heart has a complementary anything to Karma, huh… It’s a bit of a nebulous thing, I can’t come up with anything right now but if something pops up I’ll reblog this with new thoughts on the issue!

how do you think the trolls get clothes with their signs on them? because i really don't think a burgundy blood has custom-tailored hoodies in their closet

It’s actually possible the Jadebloods hand over Shirts with Signs to the Lusii so they can dress the Trolls once they pupate from their Grub state. Otherwise there would be a period of time between pupating and acquiring clothes where every young Troll would just be around, designing their house with the help of the Drones, while also naked. We really don’t even know how the signs are given in the first place, so maybe we’ll get this answered in the next Act of Hiveswap.

Okay, it seems thar heirs can shapeshift into their aspect (at least if we look at John). But would, say, a Fairy class be able to pull off something similar? Like Maid of Void turning into literal gates into Void or some sort of tiny Voidy Creature. Or Maid of Hope into angel. Or do fairies simply go thru metamorphosis?

Well, the question here would be, do Heirs need to Shapeshift, and do all Fairies go through a metamorphosis? Aranea is a bit of an outlier when it comes to metamorphosis, unless you count her going Pirate-y and kind of evil a Metamorphosis on the level of Rainbowdrinkerism or Robotification + God Tier Ascension. It seems to be a trend, and a fitting one at that, but it may not be a required step. That being said? Maids have the ‘Made of’ thing, so, Made of Hope, Made of Void, I believe making themselves into an embodiment of their Aspect most definitely fits their powersets.

Okay but. A session that is a result of bunch of different sessions colliding which eventualy results in Chimera frog (with chimeras as biological phenomenon where two embryos merge at early stages of development)

Oooh, an interesting concept, and technically plausible since Sessions are kind of suspended in the Furthest Ring and I bet Paradox Space could pull something dumb like smashing a bunch of them together for funsies.

But wait, weren't Alpha kids able to interact with Betas despite being separated by scratch? So would it be safe to assume that scratch won't erase other sessions in universe - after all, scratches don't seem to be a linear event? Like, the prerequisite for players in other sessions is already existing - pre-scratch universe "was" a thing.

The Alphas managed to interact with the Betas only in two occasions, one when they actually got past their respective Pocket Dimensions and reach the new Session, and prior to that, sending and taking stuff through Sendificating and Appearifying Technology. The items Jake sent made it into the Session through the Frog Temple machine, but when they were interacting, their iterations of Earth were running parallel and interacting with each other- Earth, not the Session. Similarly, Roxy’s snatching Jaspers from the other Iteration of Earth is a thing linking both Planets, but not Sessions. This is because, in the eyes of the Universe, the Scratch has always happened and the new iteration of Earth sort of happens at the same time as the previous one. It’s unknown if the energy of the Scratch would ALSO affect the future of Alpha Earth, however, since the Red Miles is a way more pressing concern for the people living in Sea Hitler’s Water Apocalypse.

What would be ways for SBURB places to escape into the first ring without telekinesis or throwing meteors? Could they take a battleship like Jade did and sail out that way? More importantly, could it go fast enough to outrun the scratch?

Honestly, Roxy kind of just. Sleepwalks into the Furthest Ring, it seems the border of the Incipisphere isn’t too far away from Derse itself. If it’s anything like Prospit having Skaian Eclipses, it’s likely Derse’s Moon actually passes through the Furthest Ring whenever the moon turns just right. So all you would kind of have to do is drift into Space and hover for a little bit.

That being said, this would also put you in the middle of an uncharted, tentacle-filled nightmare afterlife- And that’s even if the Horrorterrors allowed you to even interact with the Bubbles (Remember they were made by Feferi’s Request). 

GTT: A Muse of Blood inspiring people to care about them just by existing. They could be going about their day and they're somehow so endearing one can't help but look out for them.

Okay, I get what you mean and yeah it fits the Muse of Blood role, but also like, half of the Homestuck Cast has this exact same power and they all only deserve the best.

Thinking about it, a chimeric session might be a way for many normal (non ectobiologised) kids to win a game - arrange a collision of couple of session until all victory prerecquisites (like vulcano or space/time player duo) are present.

I mean, this is pretty much what happens with the Beta and Alpha Kids but less Dramatically and with Ectobiology. Being Ectobiologized isn’t even like, a requirement to win the game, rather it’s the Universe’s Means of actually ensuring the Session exists in the first place- If there’s people who were Made in the Session, it means that those Kids must play SBURB eventually and make themselves, otherwise the Timeline wouldn’t exist in the first place. Once those Kids are in the Game though? There’s no written rule that says any other Session couldn’t win the game. Of course the Kids get everything they need because, they’re the ‘protagonists’ in the eyes of the Timeline. But everyone else, yeah, as long as their Sessions get what they need and they don’t die and the Reckoning isn’t too fast and the Game doesn’t Glitch somehow-

You know what every time I talk about how hard SBURB is I realize, no wonder this god damn thing was a Beta and an Alpha in the Earth Universe, talk about a messy piece of shit.

If a player was floating around the furthest ring long enough, would they stumble upon a new session at some point?

Depends? The Furthest Ring is weird. There’s no such a thing as Time and Space. They could move forwards for millennia and not bump into anything, or they could stay in the same spot and watch as creation itself unfolds around them.

What could a Lord of Life do?

This is kind of a nasty one, Commanding Life means having a control over Nature. Life itself bends to the Lord’s will, to start with Regeneration Capabilities and Enhanced Bodily Functions are most likely a thing, but on top of that, just anything living would act for their benefit in one way or another. Animals, Plants, Microorganisms, Sickness- Oh hey look they’d never get ill, that’s kind of nice. But on top of that? Agency. Commanding Agency makes me think they would be able to pretty much erase Free Will from people and get them to do whatever they want.

I mean, for non-ecto kids to have a "complete" session is a matter of luck - prerequisites aren't many but you still need space, time, and possibly a damn vulcano. And final frog (you can find it anyway tho). So such players would have to pull off stunts to be able to win, really. Our kids tho, were limited by having to make LE happen - which is why they were doomed to "lose" at first.

Oh god I forgot that you need the fucking Last Frog to make a non-cancerous Universe. Sure you can win without it as we saw with Karkat and Kanaya, but you literally cannot make a healthy Universe if you’re not Jade- She saw the Frog. Not anyone else. In Hindsight we do know where it would be, but in-Universe? No one would think to look back into Earth, years in the past, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, for a few seconds.

GTT: A Page of Light being the reluctant Main Character who constantly gets plot relevance shoved in their face but try to deny/avoid it

Yes, and they only actually take their role as the Protagonist during a climatic moment. Wasn’t there an Anime Idea going around Tumblr once, where someone was born as an Anime Protagonist but heavily tried to avoid getting involved into any mess?

how did The Condesce enter SBURB again?

Entering the Kids’ Session is literally as easy as going to the Frog Temple and stepping into the Derse Transportalizer. The bigger Question is how she went from the Alternian Universe to the Earth Universe, although I think Hiveswap/Hauntswitch will answer this.

Grubs pupate before going through the trials and getting a lusus.

Do they? Thanks for the reminder, I forget the details of the Brooding Caverns things a lot honestly. I’m really looking forward to get a more in-depth explanation from Act 2 or 3 of Hiveswap.

hey, sorry if you've already gone in depth on this, could you tell me about the sylph class? I got it on your test twice now, but recently I've been doubting I have the right personality for a passive class: I'm hotheaded, stubborn, and when I try to think of how to use my powers, my default is having myself in mind, I feel more like a person that'd be in the fray than to the side, if it changes anything my aspect is light, part of the problem might be me just not understanding a sylph's purpose

If that’s the case have you thought of a Maid rather than a Sylph? Given they’re the same Verb but opposite on the Passive/Active Spectrum, a Maid of Light may fit you better then? Sadly though I don’t think I can explain the Classes by themselves better than I have in the past? If it maybe helps tip the balance though, here’s what I said about the Sylph and the Maid of Light.

What do you think would happen if two people were to play Sburb in the same house?

Now this is an interesting question, because this is essentially what Calliope wanted her Session with Caliborn to be. It’s actually quite possible that it would be split in half perfectly to allow entry to both Players separately, while sharing a single countdown.

How are you feeling

I’m doing fine, thanks! Why the concern though, did I seem otherwise? :o

What would happen if you were playing sburb in like a McDonald's or something and you just bring like two dozen people into the medium

I mean let’s be fair, how many people would be in McDonald’s during a meteor rain- Actually don’t answer that.

You got anything for a Muse of Heart?

The U L T I M A T E  S H I P P E R. No but really, they’d likely work as something of a Cupid making Feelings for others blossom in people and bending romantic attachment to their will. However with the ‘Soul’ part of Heart, it’s also likely they’d command the Afterlife itself, perhaps bringing Souls back from the Afterlife or something like that.

When ascending to god tier, can a player have a vision/dream of what their asspect can do? (ex. Space player sees themselves at diffrent point being both big and small, near and far, light and heavy, everywhere and nowhere)

I mean, there’s no precedent for something like that, and I feel that would be extremely limiting of Classpect stuff. A big part of your Classpect is that… It tailors to what you think it may be able to do, as long as it fits the Class and Aspect guidelines. By having a premonitory vision of what you will be doing, you pretty much lock your choices right from the get go.

Knight of Rage turning into the Human Torch

Rage and Fire, I’m not quite sure how related they may be but I kind of like the idea of being so angry they literally combust into flames.

Can someone use some of their aspects powers before going god tier? I think john did something like that to stop his land from burning.

Yep, God Tier powers are sort of inherent to everyone in Homestuck, even if not to their full potential or to the degree of control God Tiering allows, some characters seem to have God Tier abilities before God Tiering. Seers are specially notorious about this. Even non-players show these tendencies too- Condy for example definitely seems to have Thief of Life-y abilities even though she never even played the Game until she hijacked the Black Queen’s throne.

What are the main differences between a Muse and Mage of Heart? I'm having a mini-crisis

Mage, Muse. Sometimes people ask me for differences between some Classes and I’m honestly not quite sure where they come from, Muse and Mage are rather different.

No you seemed ok! I was just asking though 😊

Well thank you! :D

What do you think a knight of life could do with the whole weapon using life thing??

Weaponizing Nature. Either by making animals or plants attack something, or by having a sword made of thorny vines or something to that effect.

for the Knight of Life anon, something like the lich killing sword Caladbolg from Guild Wars 2 might work, since it is a giant thorn from a really, /really/, big tree

It would doubly work, you know why? Because Caladbolg is another name for Caledfwlch, which is, in turn, an equivalent to Excalibur.

What if all Knights have like.

An Excalibur-sounding weapon.

About knight life anon, knights of life seem like they would pull of stunts like a superhero just in the nick of time and stuff if it comes to saving lives of their teammates or something? Idk

Rather, they seem like they’d take more of a frontline support role, able to attack and use Life to empower themselves and their mates and attack, but also staying back to heal up those that need it by Serving them Life, healing their bodies.

yo, I just had a thought about classes turning into, like, specialized master classes if people ended up replaying SBURB once or twice, and was thinking of making a post about it, would you want me to @ you and/or anyone else?

No need to @ me, but feel free to @ anyone you want I guess? Technically speaking you could play SBURB more than once but, really, would you really want to? SBURB is kind of brutal and bad for you. Not sure about a Double Ascension though, although I could see non-God Tiers being given a second chance to Ascend maybe.

Sylph of Breath as a rebel, a leader of revolutionary movement who is trying to overthrow a Lord of Life who cares not for needs of the Empire or their people - only for conquest, power and their warped philosophy. Prince of Rage is the younger child of said Emperor who, despite having doubts about their parent's politics, is still appointed as one in charge of suppressing said rebelion. Drama ensues.

Sounds like a solid cast, really. 

Witches are know for curses. I think, Witch of Life would be able to lay a curse of Lycanthropy or some other curse of this kind. Maybe Heart or Blood would also be able to pull this off. Witch of Dood or Blood can curse someone to have their loved ones die. While Witch of Void, Time or Breath can lay something like "being forced to roam the world forever without being able to settle anywhere, without ever being a part of history". Not sure about others. Mind might make someone overthink tho

I mean, ‘Curses’ could work in the sense that they fall under the Witch’s ‘Changing’ realm, like, a spell that alters the nature of something Aspect-based on a person. I could see Space being more the Lycanthropy one though, but I see how Life would fit into it, it just feels a bit stretching it too far to change someone’s entire Biology like that? Although explained like that it does fall into the Life Witch’s realm.

Does a seer of time see all possible effects from a cause or do they see only the one future that leads to finishing the session?

Depends on what their Aspect is, for all we know not even all Seers see the Future, the Seer of Space could just have Omniscience instead of Time-Based foresight.

Why is a Lord of Void so dangerous? also what would their personality be like?

Hard to tell about their Personality just like that. Issue with the Lord of Void is the sheer range of powers Void awards, and the immense power behind the Command action of a Lord. Commanding Void, first of all, means the Horrorterrors would definitely do the Lord of Void’s bidding. Then you have the meaning of Irrelevance, and Nonexistance- Both things the Lord would Command, choosing and dictating what is actually Relevant and what doesn’t Exist, this power would pretty much allow the Lord of Void to erase someone’s existence entirely just by willing it. Lies, Misinformation and Obscurity, the Lord of Void would also likely be able to obfuscate any kind of information they don’t want to become public or well known. It’s a fearsome Classpect combo.

which Muse would be most likely to be afraid of themselves deep down on the inside?

Maybe the Muse of Heart? Given the Heart’s connotations with the Self and the potential Emotional Manipulation, I could see them struggling with the amount of power they’re given and their own nature? Otherwise, though, I feel most Muses could fit that role under certain circumstances.

i have no idea how this fight would go: Muse of Heart vs Lord of Rage?

Neither do I, specially when it comes to Master Classes vs Master Classes, things get messy. There’s way too many factors to have in mind for it to just go a single way without any more context than the Classpects.

wwhat can you say about a Muse of Void though?

Well, Eridan, power-wise, they’d be about on par with the Lord of Void. However, while the Lord of Void would directly Command Void and have the Horrorterrors follow their will, it’s likely the Muse of Void would struggle with their irrelevancy and lack of importance until they find their strength, fading away from everyone, isolated, but with the potential to erase everything they deem unfair and bend the Eldritch just the same as a Lord would.

So are Muses EXCLUSIVELY female or can there be males? also what do you think a Muse of Life would be like?

There are no Gender-Restricted Classes, anyone can be any Class. As for the Muse of Life, I cannot tell if they’d have quite a lot of freedom to do things or if they’d be heavily restricted in what they can and can’t do, and there’s no in-betweens here. Commanding Life would put them at the level of a Deity of Nature, or a Disney Princess, or both, with animals following them and plants blossoming under their touch. Powerful Healing Capabilities for sure as well.

Except also not necessarily, the initial image that comes to me when it comes to ‘Life’ it’s Living Things, Plants, Animals… But they could also have an army of bugs. And technically, microorganisms and sickness are biological and may fall under the Life realm, as well as potential bodily Mutations or Transformations. I’m warming up to the more broad ‘Biology’ meaning of Life thanks to a previous anon.

Muse of Mind powers please? it's just Muse-ask after Muse-ask huh XD

They would likely bring the best- Or well, the most convenient facets of others with their mere presences, and yet at the same time they may feel forced to showing their best 24/7, which could be draining. A powerful Combo, Commanding Mind straight away implies some sort of Telepathy, if not straight up Mind Control, and I could see them allowing others’ to make Choices they would otherwise not be able to as easily as taking said Choices away and Choosing for them what they believe is most Convenient. And while I would see this more as a Lord of Mind thing, the Muse of Mind may also be able to pull off a Hivemind-like power.

Eridan is back: howw wwould one distinguish themselves betwween a Muse of Mind and Muse of Heart and Muse of Space?

The Aspect. As much overlap as there’s with some, a Space and a Heart Players are related to drastically different things, and not just power-wise. Souls and Inner Self vs Creativity, Space and Isolation, I’d say they’re quite distinct!

About the Muse of Mind and Hivemind... Wouldn't the Muse be more likely than the Lord to pull it off? Hiveminds doesn't opperate for the benefit of any one individual, not even the Queen, being always oriented for the good and spread of the group as a whole. One would have to be pretty selfless to go ahead with this, no?

It heavily depends. If that is your thinking as a Muse, a Muse of Mind would definitely pull it off, but making a Hivemind inherently kind of destroys people’s agencies and ability to choose and think for themselves, which to me personally seems rather selfish.

Could someone actually be one of the master classes, or are they reserved for people who complete a dead session? Because a master class in the normal game, I feel, would really mess up the balance of power or whatever because of how strong they are.

We only know they only happen under special circumstances, but we don’t really know what triggers them. Yaldabaoth seems to just pop up in random 4-Player Sessions no problem so I can’t see why a Lord or Muse couldn’t be in a normal Session because of something specific.

Is dual aspect (a player that has a single classpect and aspect but gains an additional aspect later on, most likely the opposite of their current aspect ie. space<~>time) possible and if so would it result in the player becoming glitched out as it is something that normally does not happen in a session?

Players tend to stick to a single Aspect at a time, however they’ve been shown to be able to adopt other Aspects other than their own through outside forces- Corruption in the case of the Horrorterrors, but definitely possibly, if perhaps unhealthy for them.

Lord of Light: the biggest fucking know it all you will ever meet

And God Damn Smug about it as well.

Sylph of Life being extremely doting. They would absolutely like to help all their teammates with their health and lifestyle with their helpful advice. Sometimes taking it to fanatical degree or being ignorant of certain things. At best very caring, grandma level cookies. At worst being forceful and pushy and rather abusive, like ignoring actual needs of a person because they don't fit an idea of healthy lifestyle a Sylph has and insisting that they know "best".

Yes, also reinforced by the idea Jane, Nanna, actual Grandma Level Cookies, is a Maid of Life, which is certainly not a Sylph but like, still a Make Class. This idea is Canon Approved.

A Heir or Witch of Breath using their wind powers to manipulate the way sound travels through it, making a sound much louder or essentially muffling it. I think Aang (Avatar: The Last Airbender) did that at one point.

That’s a thing I’ve thought John would be able to do in the past indeed! Convenient to play loud pranks without using a megaphone.