It’s not a bother at all.
Powers: CA and TC
The Knight and the Page are the active-passive pair for the Exploit class. Where the Page allows others to use their Aspect as a weapon, the Knight does it themselves. Similarly, where the Page requires other people to reach their full potential, the Knight relies solely on themselves, for better or for worse. Where this can lead to some (fairly prolonged) soul-searching on the part of the Knight, it generally also means that the Knight, when the Page finally reaches their potential, has already reached their potential and has since become a lot more used to their abilities and knows how to use them very well at that point. Comparisons aside, Knights are very powerful classes for weaponizing their Aspects. Karkat was able to use Blood (unity) and was able to pull his team together to pull off the perfect combo at the perfect time to kill the Black King: a monstrous amalgamation (the phrase I was thinking of was something like ‘incestuous slurry,’ but I know that’s not right) of all of their lusii.
I know I’ve probably done this point to death with other Knight posts, but for those of you who don’t know, Knights have the tendency to embody the Aspect that their session lacks. In this case, the Knight’s presence in the session has a direct impact on the other members of the session. There would be a lack of emotion in this session and perhaps a lack of self. This might mean that the Knight is in a session full of Dirks (i.e., “stone cold motherfuckers,”), or a lack of any real differentiation between the people in the session as far as personality. The entire session might even be comprised of twins or triplets, to further accentuate the lack of self, given a presumed lack of physical difference given the similar genetic material.
So a Knight of Heart would be able to exploit their Aspect as a weapon. This could mean a couple of things, the first that’s coming to mind being emotions being a weapon. You know how Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes movies with Robert Downey Jr. said something along the lines of, “My task for you was to manipulate Holmes’ feelings for you, not succumb to them.” Well, replace “manipulate,” with “exploit,” and you’ve basically got the gist of it. The Knight of Heart would have some basic intuitive understanding of their Aspect, and might have something akin to an empathetic ability (being able to feel what others can feel) in order to know exactly what emotion to exploit in their target. They would know just what to say or do to make someone do exactly what they want by exploiting that which they already feel and allowing it to either grow or shrink on its own. They could make people fall in love with them if that spark is already present, or they could make another person hate them, if they believe it would serve their purpose, but all it takes is the spark to be present. They could make themselves angry or sad or happy, they could make themselves feel anything if the spark is already there. The spark they need has to be there, because they themselves cannot Create their Aspect, as only Sylphs and Maids are capable of doing that. Knights and Pages can only Exploit that which is already there.
Similarly, the Knight should be able to weaponize the soul. They would utilize their own soul as a weapon to protect themselves and smite their foes. Like a soul shield, a shield made out of their own soul to protect their comrades. Sounds melodramatic enough to be the sort of gimmick a Knight of Heart would keep stashed inside their bag of tricks. Of course, that would almost definitely be dependent upon what type of person this Knight in question truly is. If they are a caring person, the soul shield would not be a far fetched possibility. However, if the Knight is a more barbaric, brutish type, then perhaps their soul would not take the shape of a shield, but rather a weapon, stronger than any other, in order to crush their foes like insects beneath the might of the Knight’s onslaughts. If the Knight prefers to distance themselves from conflict or emotion, this might mean that their “soul weapon,” would take the form of a long-range weapon like a bow and arrow. Or the soul weapon might actually take the form of a weapon fitting their strife specibus, who knows?
Another possibility for weaponizing Heart is the Knight making an army out of the different pieces of them. Heart players are semi-well known for having some “splintering,” issues (Dirk being the most infamous of all- his Dream self was awake every time he was!), and what this means for the Knight is that they could potentially make an army out of every facet of themselves. There might be a “happy,” Knight, there might be an “angry,” Knight, there might be a “sad,” Knight, and so on and so forth. Like that Legend of Zelda game where Link was split up into four versions of himself, green, blue, red, and violet. If the Knight could control them, they’d have the equivalent of an army at their side (really I think that this is why Knights should never be allowed to team up in SBURB- they’d be too powerful, which is why, normally, there’s only one Knight per session, the game knows and compensates for it).
Knights really are warriors first and foremost. Being a Knight of Heart would just allow them to arm themselves with that which everyone has.
Weapons: TC
Weapons for both Heart players and Knights could simply be summed up in two words. These words in question are as follows: Sharp things. Both Knights and Heart players are generally more accustomed to wielding melee weapons, and generally bladed or sharp ones. Dave and Dirk’s swords, Nepeta and Meulin’s claws, and Karkat’s sickles are all examples of this pattern. As such, the following types of strife specibi would work well for a Knight of Heart.
Land and Quest: TC and CA
So far, we’ve seen the lands of two Heart players, Dirk Strider, the Prince, and Nepeta Leijon, the Rogue, but of those two, we can probably only use one as an example, as Dirk’s session is a Void session, which leads to some automatic differences between his world and the world of a Heart player in a normal session. For example, his entire world is covered in a noble gas, and is filled with dead, skeletal consorts…or maybe those are just monsters? And of course, time for our usual disclaimer-like quip: as with TC’s land, we suggest the use, once again, of this word list to aid you in the creation of your land, in both its quest and its aesthetic.
In any case, the unfortunate fact is that we are now limited to only using one land, the Land of Little Cubes and Tea. Nepeta’s land is an oddity in its nomenclature, given how it is made of an extra word. While this was presumably done only on Hussie’s part to make the abbreviation for the land LOLCAT, this is an interesting thing and I felt need to make a note of it.
In any case, Nepeta’s land is rather easy to deconstruct and decipher. The “Little Cubes,” part is likely a reference to the little cubes forming staircases and such all along the land, looking suspiciously like sugar cubes. This is likely the Aspect word. Heart lands tend to be sweet and soft, and these “Little Cubes” are most likely made of sugar. The “Tea,” part is quite obviously a reference to the teapots sitting on top of the mountains on the land. We aren’t entirely certain which is the quest and which is the aesthetic word given how little time there was spent focusing on the characters in the Land of Little Cubes and Tea, but that’s as much as we can learn from the name and brief glances we have gotten of the land.
As a side note, if none of the words in thepageofhopes’ list appeal to you or they don’t seem to fit the land you had pictured for your character (if you thought of a quest beforehand), it is possible that the Aspect word for a Heart land is meant to sort of reflect the nature of the player. Nepeta, despite having her underlying metal-as-all-hell nature, was a sweet, adorable individual, a personality that made her easy to like, and as such, her land reflected that. Dirk didn’t have an Aspect word, but his land reflected him, as it was a very interesting land with great levels of depth to it, like Dirk.
But as for the quest, well, that’s a bit of a difficult one. Knights of Heart would have a quest that would give them the tools they need to understand their abilities, and that means that they need a quest that would help them exploit feelings (as the whole ‘soul weapon’ and splintering things would only come after they actually reach god tier). Now: how would this work? What would they need to accomplish that would require the use of feelings? What would they need in order to arm themselves with feelings? Well, let’s say that this land’s consorts desperately needs something. I wouldn’t really know what this ‘something’ is, but perhaps it’s something that would be needed to prevent consorts from getting hurt, or something that the world itself needs, as in the environment. This ‘something,’ can be anything from a machine to a group of people to complete a task (it depends on the Knight in question’s interests and skills). The consorts want to make something, but they’ve never had the materials to do it. This is a teamwork thing. You provide the materials and then make the consorts have a more potent desire to make that something, and you’ve got yourself a quest practically done.
The quest is to make that thing, which would be, under most circumstances, impossible to do in the time the session lasts. The consorts, however, would be more than enough workers to get your quest done and over with. Their emotions exist. You have to decrease their apathy and increase their determination, or whatever it might be that would drive them to create anything from a machine that makes snow to a firefighting squad. You could potentially learn to use the basic empathy and emotional exploitation while completing this quest, similar to how Karkat created an impossible team with an odd unity, and Dave managed to learn time travel before he reached god tier.
Alright! Well, we’ll do the Page of Mind thing first, and then regroup for the team thing later on. We’re sorry this took so long to put together.
Powers: CA
The Page and the Knight are the passive-active pair for the Exploit class. The Page is notorious for being a class without many powers to start off with, even after they achieve god tier, but once they achieve their “full potential,” they become a force to be reckoned with. Many times, it has been admitted over the course of Homestuck that Pages are potentially the most powerful class known, but given their passive nature, this cannot affect themselves, and even given their power, it takes a very long time to reach, leaving many Pages never even recognizing their true potential in the end, a tragic fate, and one that may cause them to invert once they realize the tragedy in it. But thankfully, it hasn’t happened yet. Anyway, the Page requires others to help them to reach their full potential, whereas Knights are capable of reaching their potential on their own. But even if it takes longer for them to reach this full potential of theirs, it pays off immensely, as the Page is viewed as one of the most dangerous classes in the game, even if they don’t use their abilities for themselves. I mean, just look at the damage Jake did as the Page of Hope: he was able to allow “thought Dirk” to essentially threaten Aranea with destroying her soul. The only thing that stopped that from happening was that Aranea was the person who allowed Jake to reach his potential in the first place, and kept him screaming old-fashioned mannerisms while surrounded by a halo of Hope energy. Dirk was armed with Jake’s belief in him, allowing him to use that as a weapon, and without her, he lost his potential.
The thing about Pages is that their potential isn’t in the same place Knights’ is. Say that a Knight was given a sword. I’m certain they could do about twelve billion different things with that same sword until it breaks. They could level mountains, raise armies, whatever they well like. While the Page, when you give them a sword, they give it to others. I have heard it said before that where Knights are amazing, a Page can be likened to a king, leading an army of Knights. And the reason why they can do that is because they can give a Knight’s sword, a Knight’s abilities, to another person. They can create an army of Knights by giving their swords to others, and giving back their powers to the people who helped them reach their potential.
So essentially the Page of Mind’s ability is to make their allies Knights of Mind. Mind is the Aspect of thoughts and choices, so therefore, those who the Page arms with their ability would be able to arm themselves with thought and choice. The Page might be well-suited as an intelligence gatherer, now that I think of it, as they would be arm others with specific thoughts, their thoughts. They would be able to pass on their thoughts and the information that they gathered to their Knights using their abilities. In a way, a Page would be capable of telepathy, arming others with their thoughts. Those equipped with the abilities of a Knight of Mind would be able to arm themselves with the knowledge of choice and the consequences. The Knights in the Page’s army would be excellent builders of Rube Goldberg machines, capable of setting things up one after the other to harm their enemies, be this through physical harm, insanity, or another mean. They would be able to weaponize thoughts and create revolution or raise an army for themselves. It’s possible that those armed with knowledge of the Aspect of Mind might have some sort of understanding of justice through their understanding of choice and consequence. After all, as Latula Pyrope, the Knight of Mind, said that karma made some sort of intuitive sense to her. They understand that there is a balance among all things, and justice, whether or not it is fair, must be served as consequences.
So a Page of Mind would be able to bestow to others the abilities of a Knight of Mind, bestow upon their allies thoughts and information in a sort of telepathic manner. This could open up multiple roles. A spy or an intel-gatherer would work quite well. By working with the rest of the team, they could provide a communication role by passing along thoughts for others to arm themselves with. In this way, they might be able to transfer information faster than people could type it. In the case of communication failures, like all members of their team fails to keep five computers on them at all times like a sensible person, or they just happen to lose them all, the Page of Mind would be able to allow for communication between teammates. They would be at the center of a web of communication, and an invaluable teammate.
Weapons: TC
Well, pages are interesting in terms of weapons, since there is no real set pattern to them. I mean, what can you think of that a lance (Tavros), a bow and arrow (Horrus), and a pair of pistols (Jake) have in common? Then I realized that all of these are all weapons in the conventional sense. Mind players, also have a potential pattern, as I mentioned earlier, assuming that Latula and Terezi use the same weapon. Even if they do not, the other theorized weapon that Latula used was her skateboard, meaning that at the very least, Mind players gravitate towards melee weapons. So, as such, the following strife specibi would fit both of these patterns.
Land and Quest: TC and CA
We have discussed this before, with our Bard of Mind post, so a lot of this is repetition, but let’s go about it once more.
Of the Mind players we have known in Homestuck (Terezi, the Seer, and Latula, the Knight), we have only seen the former’s land, The Land of Thought and Flow, so all ideas we have about a Mind land comes from inferences we have drawn from Terezi’s. As with TC’s land, we suggest the use, once again, of this word list to aid you in the creation of your land, in both its quest and its aesthetic.
So, dissecting Terezi’s land. We don’t know what her quest was, but we know that both words can relate to Mind in some way or another. Thought is the obvious one, as Mind is the Aspect of thought, but what about Flow? Well, flow is a reference to either the rivers all over her land, or the lights flashing and flowing through the sky (the lights that look suspiciously like the Mind symbol). Either way, we can probably imagine that “Flow,” might have been the aesthetic word for her land, leaving “thought,” to have been both the word related to her Aspect. Although we don’t know which word was her quest word, we can at least dissect that much into her land.
Now, the word relating to the Mind Aspect is easy to make. But the quest, that is the harder bit. As we had said before, Mind is the Aspect of thought and choices, of consequences and possibility. This, as such, could lead to a variety of potential quests for a Mind land and Mind player, but to help a Page of Mind understand their abilities once they reach their full potential, might I suggest a quest in which they have to solve a puzzle but using their whole land. It’s timed, in a way. Like there’s only a certain window of time during which the Page may reach a treasure or something, and the Page needs the help of their consorts or other players to reach it. You know how in video games there are those puzzles where once you press a button, you have a limited amount of time to cross ten platforms, juggle some lemons and blitz a few enemies? Yeah, it’s a bit like that, except there are twelve buttons that need to be pressed at the same time and they’re all on different parts of the Page’s world. Under normal circumstances? Impossible. But if they use their allies (consorts, teammates or otherwise), and give them the information that they need in order to help them, they should be able to complete it.
This would help them in learning to use their abilities to transfer information. They would be able to learn the basics of their abilities, even if they haven’t reached the god tier yet. They could just use a computer and IM system to give their allies the go-ahead. They just need to use their ability to arm others with information in order to finish their quest.
Well, I think I just came up with your quest word and Aspect word. Puzzles. Or maybe Trials. It’s up to you.
Team Analysis: CA and TC
Knight of Breath, Page of Mind, Muse of Time, Sylph of Space
First time to do this. Okay, well, you reached the first checkpoint, i.e., the Time and the Space player. The Time player helps with giving enough time to the creation of the Genesis Frog, and help others with finishing their quests as well, this ringing especially true given this Time player is the Muse. The Time player is also in charge of Scratching the session, should it be necessary. And although we aren’t sure if it’s necessary, the fact that this session has an even number is pretty helpful, especially when getting the planets aligned. The ring has always been surrounded by an even number, so, if it does happen to be a necessary factor to the game, you’re good there.
However, there may be a couple of problems, and those problems come in the form of the Knight and the Muse in the session. Admittedly, they are very awesome classes, but the Knight’s Aspect is exactly what the session lacks, and a session without Breath (a.k.a., freedom), is almost immediately crippled. As I mentioned in the post about the Knight of Breath, some possible ways the session could lack freedom include the portals that the players need to get around their might be too far away to reach, there might not be enough building materials to reach them in the first place, or the portals might not even exist. This lack of mobility can take many forms, but no matter what form it takes, the session will be crippled by it, and to keep the session from dying, the Knight will have to get in gear as fast as possible as far as mastering their abilities. The Knight will have to be willing to fly everyone around through the portals, get people where they need to be and when they need to be there (as per the Muse’s specifications), and not get too tired out from doing it. It’s an immense challenge.
Speaking of the Muse, the problem with that is that the Muse’s existence in the session may throw things out of whack: a powerful class has a fair amount of problems to balance things. For example? The Muse may learn that they have to leave their session partway through the make The Choice to save gods know how many people from the person who chose to destroy things. The Muse’s planet is dead, which means that they had to oversee everyone else’s quests, but without the Muse to do that, the session may fail. Their sacrifice has consequences, consequences that the Page in this session may be able to help understand, or, rather, help the Muse themselves understand. In any case, Muses are powerful, and their existences in a session tend to mean that something major is going to happen. Caution is advised.
Alright, now let’s talk about their cooperation:
The Knight of Breath is an interesting person to look at, because Knights are infamous for hiding behind a sort of shell or mask. Dave hides behind a “cool,” exterior, Karkat hides behind a mask of anger, and Latula, behind the guise of a “gamer girl.” This hiding is done entirely to protect a sort of insecurity, or perhaps a problem they see with themselves that they don’t want to face. Dave hides behind the entirely unflappable cool person exterior because he believes that he can’t amount to the same thing as his brother or John (at least he believes as much in the game, especially once John reaches god tier, hence his, “I’m not a hero, I won’t die a Heroic death, etc., etc., etc.” shpeal). So, depending on what the mask of this Knight of Breath is, the Knight might cause a problem very early, especially so given the team’s dependence on them! Just imagine the problem an aloof Knight of Breath may hold (e.g., shows up 15 minutes late with Starbucks just to give the impression that they don’t care too much). The Page of Mind will likely be needed to help them if their mask turns out to be problematic and the Sylph will be there to help with any problems their mask may cause with the other teammates. The Muse will likely take on a different role for the Knight: one of the coach. They will have to help train them to use their powers, devote and give time to them, be this Time they stole from their enemies, Time they inherited, or Time they created for them, because without this Knight knowing how to use their abilities, the session may fail. So this Knight’s role? Integral.
The Page of Mind would be a protege of sorts for the entire team. Not necessarily someone they would feel like pushing around, per se, but Pages have a tendency to be fairly mild-mannered, I suppose. The Page would have to allow others to understand their mistakes before allowing someone else to step in to correct them (if the people themselves don’t correct them themselves, that is). Whereas the Sylph would likely mediate using the pathos (emotional appeal), the Page would likely use logos (logical appeal) and really just show them that they made a mistake objectively. They, like the Knight of Breath, would likely be a major devotion of the Muse’s Time and resources (i.e., Time), especially so if the Knight has a “mask,” that’s causing problems for others. By allowing the Knight of Breath to know the abilities of a Knight of Mind, they would be able to know the consequences of the persona they’re hiding behind, and the problems it’s causing for others. They would know that they have to modify their behavior in order to bring the session to a successful close. So the Page is an important part of this session, as they would be able to allow their teammates to weaponize their thoughts and choices, and also understand the consequences that occur as a result of their actions.
The Muse of Time would likely serve as mission control and teacher for the group. Practically everything would be their job, as per their quest, and they would be able to decide what the next best course of action would be. They would teach the Page to reach their full potential, and they would help the Knight understand and use their newfound abilities, not to mention helping the Sylph with creating the Genesis Frog. Given how barren their world is and how good they’ll end up at Time shenanigans once they reach god tier (or possibly even before), they ought to have little standing in their way of reaching god tier. Their biggest problem would be learning how to use them all in time to get their new universe created. But with a little help from their innate Knowing and their teammates, especially the Sylph, they should be fine, and they should be able to tell whether The Choice needs to be made at all.
The Sylph of Space’s role would most likely be as a fairly good mediator, as shown by Kanaya being a prime auspistice. The whole “creating Space for others,” schtick of their powers would likely reflect in their ability to know how to get conflicts resolved most of the time: separate the parties involved. If they’re given some time on their own, they will likely realize what it is they want to say to one another, and why things went wrong. Sylphs are fairly helpful and calm people on their own, but between trying to make sure any disputes end up finished and making a universe, they, like everyone else in this session, have a lot on their plate. The Sylph would serve as a grounding force for their team. While the Knight is messing around with all their fancy new powers or whatever, the Sylph would likely be the one to tell them that they need to help out other teammates move around their world. Where the Page would be too harsh in trying to tell the Knight to get to work, the Sylph knows exactly what to say to get their teammate to help. Where the Muse is likely working themselves to death, the Sylph would be willing to get them to rest a bit, knowing that they would be able to work just as hard, if not harder, later, with the Time they have accumulated.
Other potential problems include the abundance of passive players, players who can’t use their powers for themselves. If they have an agenda they have to accomplish, and their teammates either can’t or won’t help them with it, they wouldn’t be able to accomplish it, no matter how important it is that it be completed. Cooperation is key for a session with a lot of passive players outnumbering active players.
But looking on the bright side, we have people whose abilities should compensate for each other’s, and if they have enough bite to support their bark, then the team should be fine and the Genesis Frog should look splendid on the other side of that door.
Prognosis? As long as they’re already willing to put up with each other’s shit, they should be good. It’ll be a hard session, but with the right strings pulled, everyone should come out of it alive.
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.
Sylph of Space
Alrighty, then. With TC’s god tier posted, I guess it’s time for mine (CA’s). Once again, we’re going to do powers, weapons, and the land and quest. Let’s go.
Powers: CA
The Sylph and the Maid are the passive-active pair for the Creating class. Both classes are hypothesized to be female-exclusive classes, but given Hussie’s response regarding the possibility of a female Prince (which was a yes), it is fully possible that any gender restrictions on the classes are null (male Sylphs, rejoice!). In any case, both Maids and Sylphs create, but generally do it for different people. Where the Maid does for themselves, the Sylph generally does for others. There aren’t many examples to illustrate this contrast, as there is only one Maid and Sylph each who have reached god tier and use their powers in the way they are supposed to (Aradia, Maid of Time, and Aranea, Sylph of Light). I did not include Jane in that list because nearly as soon as she reached god tier, she was forced into inversion by Her Imperious Condescension, and she was never able to use her abilities as the Maid of Life in the way they were meant to be used.
In any case, another speculated additional ability of any Sylph is to heal using their Aspect or to simply heal their Aspect. One example of this is Aranea Serket healing Terezi’s eyes, allowing her to see again (a more literal interpretation of the Light Aspect, but an interpretation of it all the same), therefore healing her with Light, and at the same time, passively creating light in her eyes. A less fortuitous example of this would be Kanaya trying to use the Matriorb to recreate her race, or, in other words, perhaps, heal it. Or just heal Space of its absence.
The Sylph of Space creates for others using Space, but the funny thing about Space is that it is a very science-y aspect. It is hypothesized to have ties to creation, similar to how its countering Aspect, Time, is related to death, but its major ties are to the velocity, size, shape, and position of various things. So a Sylph of Space would basically be a cleric from an RPG: they would provide buffs to their teammates. This would generally mean that they would be no where near the front lines, opening up a potential tactician position, which is only augmented by their abilities. They could give speed to a teammate, making them able to go around like a certain Marvel mutant and screw shit over. They can change the position of their allies, allowing them to get away from enemies quickly or, perhaps, if the advantage would be theirs, let them go straight to the front lines in preparation for a massacre. They can make their allies large as life, giving them brute strength, or make them small so that they can easily dodge enemy attacks. They could also create Space for their enemies as well: they could slow down their Space, or make them small or insignificant. They could alter the position of their enemies, pushing back a horde to leave just one to fight. It would be like conducting an orchestra, altering what needs to be altered of their allies or enemies with merely the flick of a hand.
But, if we’re talking about the Sylph’s infamous other ability, i.e., that of healing, then we’re speaking of two things. To heal Space might mean replacing something that was destroyed, something that was meant to be, meant to exist, and simply doesn’t. I imagine this as opening Rifts, taking something that doesn’t need to exist in one universe to fill in for something missing from our universe. You can’t open them when you want to, but rather, when it is needed (much like Kanaya’s Chastity Fetch Modus). And to heal using Space may mean stealing a little bit of something from Space’s “creation” theme, in other words, healing by recreating what is missing in a person’s Space. Again, infinitely powerful, but with two drawbacks: A Sylph can’t use this ability on themselves, and even if they are using it on others, they can only use it if Space is missing it (and Space is one finicky son of a bitch to negotiate with).
Weapons: CA and TC
As I mentioned earlier, the Sylph of Space has no powers that they can use explicitly for themselves. The buffs that they have, they can’t use on themselves, which means they need a hella powerful weapon to back up their claims.
One possible theory concerning the weapons of a Sylph is that they are generally items that would not be considered very threatening, but can change into a different weapon. For instance, Kanaya’s lipstick could change into a chainsaw. Another possible example would be if, like most of the other Beforus trolls, Aranea used the same weapon as her dancestor, which in her case would be the Fluorite Octet, which does a different thing for each different roll. However, it is unknown what weapon Aranea used. So there are two ways a weapon can be made for a Sylph: start out with something very powerful and just add more stuff to it as you go along, or start off with a weapon that allows for a bit of subtlety, that comes off as something that isn’t really a weapon, and then allow it to become uber-powerful by buffing it up like a Sylph would their teammates.
In any case, the following strife specibi come to mind for the Sylph of Space:
CA’s weapon falls into the umbrellakind strife specibus.
Land and Quest: CA
I decided to hijack this part of the post to explain my land, and the land of Space players in general, although TC is, as always, a part of the editing process.
In any case, the Space player’s land is simultaneously both the easiest to design and the most important of the entire session, given how the Space player is responsible for the creation of the Genesis Frog, which, in turn, creates the new universe that the winners subsequently play god in. This means that the Space player’s quest is ultimately to create the Genesis Frog, although there may be a quest that leads up to this (i.e., that lights the forge or gathers the frogs or keeps them from getting eaten, etc.). In any case, the land itself with be created following the formula: “The Land of X and Frogs.” Frogs is the quest word, so you don’t have to worry about that, but you do have to worry about planning out what the world is like. If you have a secondary quest already in mind for you or your character, then put a word describing it, and there you go, you have your land.
My land is The Land of Music and Frogs. There are large marble structures as far as the eye can see, which create tones when the wind blows through them. There’s also the necessary volcano for Space lands (well, I use “necessary,” as a way to describe that it’s a pattern between Space Players’ lands), and the ocean and a beach not too far away from the volcano below. In order to start up the forge, I have to learn to use the marble structures to alter the tones on the breeze. It’s a puzzle that uses my ability to detect patterns and my creativity to my advantage. My problem? Music itself isn’t specifically my forte as far as theoretical application. Not to mention, I wouldn’t have much in the way of the slightest idea on what pattern I would have to use in order to get the desired results of lighting the Forge. And then there’s the whole “creating a new universe in the belly of a Frog” thing, so I’ll need all the help I can get from my teammates.
Again, if you want our help to try and design a specific Land and quest to play up the strengths of your character or to try and challenge them, by all means, send us an ask.
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.