Could you explain muses and their powers? I thought a muse of time would be able to lead their friends in battle by knowing their enemies' actions ahead of time, but something you said a while ago made me think this was untrue. How do muses powers work?
It’s hard to tell because we only have one example canonically, but let’s see. We see, with Caliborn, that Time itself bows to him, he Commands it. The entirety of the Alpha Timeline is shaped by him. So, as I have mentioned before, there’s a Passive-Active dichotomy with Selfishness vs Selflessness, but not necessarily power-wise. Callie draws and her Fanfiction affects the story of Homestuck, her Creativity and her Drawings Command the Story as well, and in the very end, her God Tier self takes direct action to Conduct Space and collapse it, Commanding the End of the story. In this way, Calliope and Caliborn’s powers are actually extremely similar, channelled differently, and through their respective Aspects, but near identical in their reach and their effect on the story.
But then, much like how Sylphs seem like the ‘Healers’ and how Pages are the ones with the ‘Potential’, even sharing the same verb, Muses and Lords are very notably distinct. Caliborn rose to power, took control over the narrative and the Timeline. Conversely, Calliope became completely isolated from everything, away from everyone she loved. Much like the paths presented by Yaldabaoth, Calliope was a Martyr, Caliborn, a Conqueror. This is where the apparent tendency of the Lord and the Muse seems to show through, Muses must Endure their Aspect to rule through it, Lords take their power and hold it with very little limit. To be successful, Muses must Endure and push through, Lords must Contain themselves, lest they fall into Tyranny. At least that’s how I see it.