
Powers: CA
The Rogue and the Thief are the passive-active pair for the Stealing class. Where the Thief steals their Aspect and the results of such is applied directly to themselves, the Rogue is, as Roxy put it, a veritable Robin Hood: steal and divide amongst however allies need it. Thieves’ and Rogues’ abilities are quite similar in that manner and often have quite the same effect on the enemy from which their Aspect is stolen, but there is a far more different effect on their allies. With the Rogue, there is an increase in whatever Aspect the Rogue steals. While the only god tier Rogue is Roxy, her abilities still fit into this concept, as she steals the Nothingness from the thin air in order to create things. While this ability is far from mastery on her end, she has been able to summon completely generic objects, and completely generic objects mutated with Matriorbs. True to Void style, no one knows how she manages this.
So, a Rogue of Time would be able to steal Time and divide it up amongst their allies, and this could mean a variety of abilities. The first thing that came to mind was the ability to steal Time from enemies. This could mean something like keeping them locked in a certain place and time, stealing seconds, minutes, hours, years, who knows how much Time, until the Rogue has to let them go. All this Time that’s stolen, though, what does it do for the allies it’s given to? Well, there are potentially two effects. For a player who’s on the brink of death, these minutes or hours would be able to prolong their life- painfully, of course, as there’s a downside to everything, but staving off death all the same until something can be done about the hole in their abdomen or the twin stab marks on their chest. Another potential ability these minutes have is something akin to a cell phone plan. For the minutes, hours, or years the Rogue provides them with, the ally will be able to stop time, or perhaps execute time travel as well. Now, this could provide some problems for Time, given how Time travel tends to be a bit problematic without a bit of a guiding force. Imaginably, these minutes of time travel ought to come with some long as fuck lectures on how to use them, and the right to revoke these privileges if the minutes are used in an irresponsible manner. You cause a paradox? No more time travel for you. Bad. Sit in the corner and think about what you’ve done.
And then, of course, the Rogue would have the usual Time player time-travelling abilities to boot. Rogues of Time are truly powerful.
Another thing that’s worth noting about the Rogue class is that they have the innate tendency to reflect their Aspect before the session starts. Rufioh reflected Breath with his ability to fly and his enhanced freedom that way, Nepeta reflected Heart with her shipping walls, and Roxy reflected Void with her nigh unintelligible, drunken typing. But when the session is actually in play, however, these tendencies to reflect their Aspect disappears. Rufioh became paralyzed from the neck down, Nepeta stopped shipping until she was back on the meteor, and Roxy became sober. So a Rogue of Time might have a lot of connections to death. If they were human, their parental figure(s) might run a funeral parlor, or they might show an interest in things like autopsy. If they’re a troll, they might be keen on becoming an executioner of some sort or they have a job providing food for a lusus, like Vriska or Eridan. But as soon as the Rogue’s session starts, they’re all for creating things, and giving their allies the needed time to do it, even without their god tier powers. They would be distant until communicated with, all for completing their own quest first and foremost, but willing to stop and help their teammates when needed. The Space player for their session is lucky to have them.
Weapons: TC
Well, this is just lovely. Two of the toughest patterns to find. Rogue weapons AND Time weapons. Great. Well, I’ll start with the Rogue ones.
Well, the three Rogue weapons are a rifle, a lance, and claws. They don’t have much in common except for that their purpose is clear. These weapons, in a way similar to the Page, are meant for the purpose of killing. As for Time players, they use weapons that are symbolic of themselves, such as Dave’s sword symbolizing him growing up in his brother’s shadow, Aradia’s telekinesis, which was her special ability, along with a whip which symbolized her interests, and Damara’s needles, which were her personal fashion statement.
As such, you need to find a weapon meant only for killing that is symbolic of your character’s or your own self. Since I do not know about you very much at all, Mr./Mrs./Mx. Anon, I will simply give you Rogue weapons and you apply the rest.
Land and Quest: TC and CA
Alright, so we’re going to start off with our usual disclaimer: if you’re having trouble coming up with a good Aspect word for your land, thepageofhopes has a wonderful word list. TC and I suggest you use it.
So, Time lands. As of this moment, there have been five sessions that we have seen in Homestuck, only four of which had a Time player, one of which whose land we never saw, and one of which whose session only had one player, and therefore provides no evidence of a Time land to which we might be able to provide any commentary. Thankfully, though, we still have two lands, and with those, we can take note of patterns. Aradia Megido’s land as the Maid of Time was the Land of Quartz and Melody, and Dave Strider’s land as the Knight of Time was the Land of Heat and Clockwork. There are few obvious connections between the two lands. The Scratch Device is a given, as all Time players’ lands house one, but other than that, there isn’t much there at all. But a possible connection between all Time lands is the references to music in the designs of the buildings and/or the Scratch Device. In Dave’s land, the Scratch Device looks like a giant record sitting on a turntable. In Aradia’s land, all of the buildings look like music boxes. Hell, even with the glance we saw of Damara’s world, her Scratch Device looked like a music box as well! And while this might give some evidence towards the idea that the beta trolls and their dancestors having similar, if not the same, lands (which would make our jobs here so much easier), the more important thing is that this proves that music references in the design of a Time land is very much a thing.
So, putting the arpeggios and treble clefs aside, what would be a good quest for a Rogue of Time? Well, it would obviously let them begin to learn how to use their abilities, hand out Time by slowing down someone or something else. So TC and I were thinking something along the lines of some sort of disaster would come along and it’s the Rogue’s job to try and slow it down to give their consorts more time. This ‘disaster,’ would most likely be something alive, a monster, perhaps the Rogue’s denizen, as it would be very hard for the Rogue to stop something like a volcano or a huge blizzard without their god tier powers, and a quest is meant to be possible to complete even without the Rogue of Time having reached god tier yet. The Rogue would give their consorts as much time as possible to evacuate their habitat before the monster arrived to destroy both it and them by placing obstacles in the creature’s path, or setting up traps for it in the hopes of tiring it out. The Rogue’s time travelling abilities would give them the ability to keep on altering things that need to be altered before the monster arrives, and if they mess up, they pass on the fruits of their research and efforts on to the new Alpha timeline. This isn’t to say they have unlimited chances, but at the very least, the Rogue can know what they’re doing.
Thank you for the compliment. It was quite exciting for us to receive an ask, and we’re glad to have helped you out. Happy Halloween.
Powers: CA
The Muse and the Lord are the two Master Classes, the most passive and most active (respectively) out of all the classes, and are extremely rare titles (only one character has ever had the title of Muse in the webcomic, and sadly, she’s dead. Her brother might still be alive, but the Lord of Time doesn’t talk much about his abilities). As such, there is very little known about the Master Classes. But I will, all the same, try to relate to you what I can.
They are hypothesized to Embody their Aspects, and, as such, are hypothesized to have all the abilities of the classes that fit their descriptions as passive or active. For the Muse, that would mean they would have the Seer’s ability to Know, the Heir’s ability to Manipulate, the Sylph’s ability to Create, the Bard’s ability to Destroy, the Page’s ability to Exploit, and the Rogue’s ability to Steal. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, most of these classes have to do with other people and their ability to use their Aspect in conjunction to others. The Muse would Know their Aspect and generally give that knowledge to others to work out amongst themselves. They would be able to Manipulate their Aspect, but be controlled by its whims, and perhaps, in a way, inherit their Aspect. They would be able to Create their Aspect for others, and perhaps heal them using their Aspect. Just as similarly, they would be able to Destroy their Aspect by giving others the tools to do it for them (or something similar). They would be able to allow their teammates (or just other people in general) to Exploit their Aspect as a weapon, and, to reach higher levels of power, would be forced to depend on others (not a bad thing, perhaps a little time-consuming, but not bad). And finally, they would be able to Steal their Aspect and give the spoils of their efforts to their teammates or allies.Furthermore, even better, is that it may very well be impossible for either the Muse or the Lord to invert their Class and Aspect. They would suffer no risk for inversion, meaning that they would have no need for balance between the use of their abilities and the lack of use of their abilities.
So, now that we’ve figured all that out, how would a Muse of Time function? What would their powers be? This is going to be a very long post here on abilities.
Well, to start out with, in working as a Seer of Time, they are unbelievably useful. The abilities of a Seer of Time (to put it simply because this is going to be a long enough post already) are to find what they’re looking for information on throughout all of time. If they wanted to know what the future would hold and if there were any way to avoid it if necessary, they would be able to look for that information, and if it exists, they would be able to find it. As such, their abilities would allow the Muse to guide their teammates towards the best possible Alpha timeline.
As an Heir of Time, the Muse would be able to manipulate Time, while still being constrained by its rules. Imagine Time as a parental figure. You cannot stop this thing from happening, they say. You try it. It keeps you from doing it by creating another problem somewhere else that you need to fix. The Muse would inherit Time in a sense, but really, in this context, as soon as they “receive,” Time, they’d likely just give it away to someone else. Which leads us on to our next role.
As a Sylph of Time, the Muse would be able to create Time for others, and, speculatively, heal using Time (or just heal Time). To create Time for others, I think that the Muse would be able to impart a sort of time travel gift to her teammates and allies (likely by collecting the minutes that they receive as the Heir). That would buy them time. It would allow them to become stronger, more skilled. It would relate back to the Page ability that I’ll mention later: the Muse, by giving their allies Time, would allow them to weaponize it to make themselves stronger. It would give all of their teammates Time to exploit. The Muse would basically be able to make all of their teammates Knights of Time, if only for a short while. Again, incredibly useful, and unbelievably powerful. And to heal Time or heal using Time is similar to the ability mentioned not long ago in the Sylph of Space post. Time would be the one deciding what needs to be healed if the Sylph means to heal others. If Time doesn’t miss it (or, rather, won’t miss it), then a person can’t be healed. But if the idea of healing Time is what the Muse is after, they would know who or what needs to be in when and where in order to, say, undo a paradox and set a timeline right again, and therefore heal Time.
As a Bard of Time, the Muse would be able to destroy Time using others, and invite destruction through Time. Destroying through Time is fairly simple to imagine. It’s like how aging can destroy anything. But to be honest, if things were just that easy, that would make them a Prince. Say that a teammate is about to do something incredibly stupid, and the Muse doesn’t want them to do it. The Muse would be able to convince them (again, the voice is the most powerful weapon a Bard has) to either stop doing the thing, or, if that fails, convince them to do something else first, and have them waste their minutes as the Knight of Time (read: have someone else destroy Time), and then not give them that ability again until they can convince them that what they were doing was stupid.
As a Page of Time, the Muse would rely on others to learn to reach their full potential, and in doing so, become incredibly powerful, and allow others to exploit Time as a weapon. This relates back to the Sylph abilities. They would be able to allow their teammates to exploit Time more actively than they ever could. The Muse would be able to give them the abilities of a Knight of Time, making time their weapon and their tool.
And finally, as a Rogue of Time, the Muse would be able to steal Time from others, and give their teammates the power-ups that come as a result. They could easily steal Time from beings that are around them, perhaps steal minutes from their lives, and give them to their allies. They would be able to prolong someone’s life as long as there are beings from which they could steal Time from. Of course, this could mean more than just minutes of life. It could mean that they could use those minutes for time travel. Almost like a cell phone plan, in hindsight.
This all seems really, REALLY awesome, right? Well, it is. The Muse isn’t a Master class for nothing. But a Muse will be really busy during the session, and furthermore, the Muse will have to keep all of these Time-related shenanigans straight. It’s possible that the Muse might cause a lot of problems if they accidentally (or otherwise) create a problematic paradox. Will they know how to avoid it? Yes, they would. Would they be able to undo it if the need arises? Yes, they would. But not all damage can be undone, and its negative repercussions might harm a lot of people, including the Muse themselves.
Another facet of the Muse was explained by Yaldaboath. When meeting with Yaldaboath, there are two choices that are presented to the player. Lords presumably always pick the choice that would grant them the power to “destroy anything they want for as long as they want,” while Muses assumably always take the other choice that was offered: “to give up all ambition and accept one’s death in exchange for the promise that their sacrifice will benefit all who ever lived by ending a force of unfathomable evil and destruction.” In other words, they are promised that their sacrifice will stop the person who made the first choice. Although this power may only be relevant in one-person (or maybe two-person) sessions, this does have a huge link to the Muse’s rating as the most passive of classes. After all, if everything works out okay, Calliope’s sacrifice as the Muse of Space would work out to everyone’s advantage, as it means that she would stop Caliborn’s rampage, and the only thing she had to do was die.
These abilities would not place the Muse in the front lines. They would likely be behind the scenes, far out of reach of the enemy, where they can orchestrate a battle as it goes along. They would give pretty much everything to their teammates, give them a clear path to victory and try to clear out any brush that might accidentally get in their way. A leadership role might be a good one for a Muse of Time, given their propensity for directing their teammates towards the ultimate goal. If not a leader, then at the very least a tactician.
Altogether, the abilities of a Muse of Time can be summed up pretty easily:
With great power comes great responsibility.
Weapons: TC
Well, my guess as to what weapons someone that belongs to either of the master classes would wield some of the more powerful weapons, but with Muses having more unassuming weapons than Lords. The main evidence for this would be Calliope’s wand/pistol being less threatening looking than Caliborn’s scepter/assault rifle. However, despite the unassuming appearance of Calliope’s weapon, it is assumed to be more powerful than Caliborn’s, as he abandoned his own weapon in favor of his sister’s, which he used to double kill some ghosts (and which Hussie tried to use to presumably kill him).
As such, these seem to be the type of weapons that a Muse of Time would use:
The top four out of these weapon types are Artkind, Bookkind, Cardkind, and Penkind.
Land and Quest: TC and CA
Okay. Last bit. And possibly the most challenging.
See, the Muse, as one of the Master Classes, might have a land that is different from the other classes. The only problem is none of us know. The only Master Class player whose session we’ve seen is Caliborn, and his session was a one-player session, which we already know to be automatically different from that of any other kind of session. So we have no clue what type of world the Muse or the Lord, when found in another type of session (one with other people), would have. But personally, TC and I tend to agree on a sort of headcanon world for the Lord or Muse of anything in any session that has other people:
It would be completely barren. Almost like the worlds in Jane’s, Jake’s, Dirk’s, and Roxy’s Void session, but with fewer enemies, and possibly with no life on it in the first place. There would be no consorts in the land for the Muse to investigate. There would be no puzzles to solve. Nothing, save for the Muse’s quest bed and the Scratch Device, a necessary component to all Time lands. We imagine that the Muse’s denizen would be Yaldaboath, but there’s no certainty for Muses. It would allow them to make the choice that all Muses are expected to make.
But what, then, is their quest? If they have no definition to their land, no consorts, and practically the only monster in their land being the Denizen whose only act would be to offer them to choice all Muses must face, what quest could there possibly be for them? Well, the only possible quest that I can think of is the one that reflects their abilities: everyone else’s.
That’s right. Their quest is to make sure that everyone else’s quests happen while the session is still ongoing. Before the Black King is defeated, their quest is to give everyone else enough time, to give them enough ability to complete their own quests, all the while preparing for the final battle with the Black King. They have to use their abilities to the fullest here. They have to be able to see what needs to be done to defeat the Black King, to secure their session, they have to be able to give both themselves and their teammates enough time, and they have to make sure nothing gets messed up along the way, and then simultaneously try to set things up so that their teammates can finish their quests, so that they can finish their own, and so they all may better from it.
So how, then, would one design the land of a Muse of Time? Well, you could use the parts of this land that we hypothesize to actually exist. A word to describe the world’s aesthetic could be something related to the barrenness of the land. The other word could be a word that relates to both the Aspect of the Muse and the aesthetic of the world. For example, the Muse of Time could have words like Endings, Termination, or Death in their Land’s full name, given how Time is viewed as an Aspect connected to endings (as compared to Space, which has connections to beginnings). They might just even have their own Aspect as their Aspect word. Again, Muses and Lords take what we know of the rules of creating things like lands and quests and turn them on their heads. Which is entirely why we imagine that Muses and Lords wouldn’t have a quest word for their lands. They’re in charge of managing others’ quests, and, if the time should come, making the choice to sacrifice their lives to stop a force of great evil.
Mage of Time
Starting off, TC and I have decided to do our own titles. We thought it would prove a useful exercise to start off with, and might help people who share our titles.
For the first post, we've decided to do TC’s title. And with nothing better to do, we’re doing the whole shebang: power(s), a good weapon, and a land and quest. So with no further ado, let’s begin!
Powers: CA
The Mage and the Seer are the active-passive Knowing pair. What that means is the Mage and the Seer have their use of knowledge in common. But while they both use it, they generally use it in drastically different ways. A Seer would gather the knowledge they need of their Aspect in general and then give it to their teammates to allow them to use that knowledge to their advantage for them (i.e., Rose, as Seer of Light, would gather knowledge of the most fortuitous path and pass it on to her teammates for them to follow to the letter). A Mage, however, would use the knowledge to their own advantage. The average Mage would gather knowledge of the rules of their Aspect, and use those rules to their own advantage as they manipulate their Aspect themselves. Their intimate knowledge of their Aspect would allow them to use the rules, whatever loopholes there are, to their advantage. Or maybe the rules suit them just perfectly and the parameters there are work just fine for the Mage in question. Either way, despite what similarities there are between a Witch and a Mage as far as powers, there is one key difference: where a Mage may bend the rules of their Aspect, they never outright break them, like a Witch easily would.
But consider this a warning: the Mages tend to get a little bit of backlash from their Aspect, and although there are only two canon Mages, both seem to have gotten at least slightly bitten in the butt by their Aspect (i.e., Meulin’s luck with her romantic partner (Heart) and being deafened by him in the end, and Sollux’s, well…dying 2.5 times), and where two may be a coincidence, I would still advise caution to those Mages out there in the case that it may be a pattern.
So, as far as powers, there’s the obvious time travel imparted to all Time players. In addition to that, a Mage of Time would be very good at making as little damage as possible as far as dooming timelines. They would make as few doomed timelines as necessary to keep the Alpha timeline afloat, and their intimate knowledge of the rules of Time would allow the most daring Mages of Time to dance the line keeping the parameters of their Aspect in check. Finally, there’s a fascinating ability to escape paradoxes they may have created. Given their knowledge of the rules, Mages of Time would likely be able to undo any damage they may have caused to the timelines.
As far as militarizing their abilities, Mages of Time, have at least one major unique ability that I can see: using their manipulation of Time to create time loops for their enemies. What this would entail is keeping certain enemies in place doing a certain action as though it was the first time repeatedly. It would be like a skipping record, over and over, and over. While this would not kill enemies under most circumstances, the Mage can either be creative with where they place the time loop for the enemy, or keep the enemy in place long enough for them to be killed by the Mage themselves or perhaps a teammate. As far as somewhat regular abilities for a Time player to be able to militarize, there’s always the clone thing: summoning your non-Alpha selves from doomed timelines to have an enemy face not just one you, but as many as you know to be necessary.
So, in conclusion? Mages of Time are very powerful. But a team is necessary for them to be protected from a near inevitable backlash.
Weapon(s): CA and TC
As I previously stated, a Mage would use knowledge to their advantage. And not just any knowledge: knowledge of Time itself. Paired with an ability to put any of their enemies in a time loop, you can imagine Time is no object. Projectile weapons are probably the best choice for a Mage of Time, so that they may continue to evaluate their situation from a distance. And given how Time is no problem to them, Time spent aiming, reloading, recharging, or retrieving isn’t a problem. Therefore, depending on the Mage of Time specifically, the following strife specibi are up for consideration:
TC’s weapon falls into the bowkind specibus group.
Land and Quest: TC
The land for a Time player is very important. Its importance is only dwarfed by that of the Space player, who has the duty of breeding the Genesis Frog. After all, the Time player’s world is where the Scratch device is. But as for what the Mage of Time’s quest is, well, that depends on the Mage themselves. The land’s name is, as most of you already know, formatted as “Land of x and y”, with x and y being the quest word and a word relating to the Aspect, which is, in this case, Time. For instance, my land is, “The Land of Pendulums and Dragons.” As for the description of the land, it is covered in golden pendulums of various shapes and sizes, like the kind you would find on old clocks. The pendulums have attracted dragons who are attempting to take the pendulums for their own and destroy the rest of the land with their fire. My quest, as you probably have guessed, is to be the hero and slay the dragons. It’s almost… storybook.
I used this word list to help create my Land, courtesy of thepageofhopes. It gives a list of words related to each Aspect, which can help you create your Land. But that’s only half of it. You have to come up with a quest to suit your character. My quest is my quest because I’m so experienced with storybook endings. Time is the Aspect of experience, and my experience will aid me in my quest. My ability to be a hero, however, is a little questionable. However, if you should need any help with finding a specific quest to suit you or your character, you need only ask.