!!!!!
I haven’t had the chance to read any of this yet, and I’m unsure when I will, but... The long-awaited Epilogue is finally here! And ~8000 pages? That’s almost as long as Homestuck itself! (Possibly a longer read, depending on format.)
This is an awesome and fitting 10th Anniversary gift! I bet Hussie’s been purposely waiting to release it on this particular anniversary.
Happy 4/13! Here’s to 10 years of Homestuck, and happy 23rd birthday to John and Jane!
Edit: Never mind; the 8000 pages was referring to Homestuck itself, not the epilogue.
In my previous post, I posited a theory that all standard classes and aspects can describe an individual, beyond the Hero Title and subrole.
Here's a step-by-step process of how to determine a Classpect Profile, all 12 roles. I will use myself as an example.
1) Divide the aspects into 6 complementary pairs/opposites:
Space & Time
Light & Void
Hope & Rage
Heart & Mind
Breath & Blood
Life & Doom
2) Look at each individual aspect, and consider how you typically interact with it. (See Aspect Keywords post for reference. bladekindeyewear and infinitywhale go into more depth here and here.)
For interactions, here are some keywords for class types:
Manipulate/Change (Witch/Heir)
Understand (Mage/Seer)
Destroy (Prince/Bard)
Create (Maid/Sylph)
Redistribute (Thief/Rogue)
Apply (Knight/Page)
You can also use these keywords for individual classes:
Control (Witch) Influence (Heir)Experience (Mage) Study (Seer)Demolish (Prince) Deconstruct (Bard)Generate (Maid) Mend (Sylph)Take (Thief) Share (Rogue)Exploit (Knight) Empower (Page)
3) Next to each aspect, write the class keywords you think might fit. You should be able to narrow each aspect down to a few potential keywords.
(Note: I recommend starting with the 6 class type keywords instead of the 12 unique ones because it paints a larger picture of the class themes, but if you’re confident (or feel lazy), feel free to start with the 12. You can also mix and match, but just be sure to distinguish types from individual keywords, or it may become confusing down the line. For the purposes of this guide, I’ll start with the 6.)
Possibilities, in my case:
4) Eliminate any keyword that doesn’t have an inverse under an opposite aspect. Inverse keywords are Manipulate & Understand, Destroy & Create, and Redistribute & Apply.
For example, in my case, Manipulate and Redistribute Space don’t have inverses—Understand and Apply—for Time, Space’s opposite, so I can remove them as possibilities.
Narrowed results:
5) Split the class type keywords into individual class (–/+) keywords.
For example, Apply, keyword for Warrior classes, divides into keywords Exploit (Knight) and Empower (Page).
(Note: If you started with the 12 individual keywords, Steps 5 and 6 aren’t necessary.)
6) Narrow your results by removing any class keywords that don’t fit your interactions with an aspect.
7) From there, eliminate class keywords without an inverse keyword for its opposite aspect, just as before. Inverses are Control & Study, Influence & Experience, Demolish & Mend, Deconstruct & Generate, Take & Empower, Share & Exploit.
For example, in my case, Mend Space doesn’t have an opposite Demolish Time, so I eliminate Mend.
8) Use the process of elimination to figure out the rest. No duplicate keywords/classes are allowed, so remove any duplicates of those already solved.
(Note: All class keywords will be used, so if you’re missing any, you’ll have to go back and reconsider your options.)
For example, in the previous step, I narrowed Light and Void to Influence and Experience. That means I can’t use Influence or Experience for Hope and Rage, which narrows Hope and Rage to Mend and Demolish. Likewise, I narrowed Heart and Mind to Empower and Take, because those were the only instances I had of those class keywords.
Simple process of elimination narrowed my results considerably! Most of them are solved!
That just leaves two classpect pairs I’m unsure about, or 4 total.
9) For any remaining pairs left to solve, look at each class description more closely…
…And figure out which descriptions most accurately fit your interaction with each aspect.
In my case, I feel like Knight fits better than Maid for Space, which narrows Space and Time to Knight and Rogue, respectively.
I still can’t determine Breath and Blood, as Maid and Bard both seem fitting. I use dahniwitchoflight’s Aspect posts as a guide, looking at descriptions for all four. Bard of Breath sounds especially like me, and Maid of Blood more than Bard of Blood.
10) Convert the keywords back into classes, and that’s it! You’ve now determined your full Classpect Profile!
I like using my Classes Chart and Aspect Keywords to create a brief description of each of my 12 roles.
Example:
Seer of Life: Invites understanding of/with/through Life (life force, energy, growth, power, persistence, wealth, boldness, enthusiasm, efficacy), guiding others.
All 12 seem pretty accurate to me!
How to determine a Hero Title and subrole Look at which aspect pair has the strongest influence on your actions and perspective. Most likely, it will also match the dual class pair that most accurately describes how you naturally operate in general. Both class and aspect are important to consider, especially if you have difficulty narrowing either down to one pair.
One of those classpects will sound like you at your best; it’s your area of greatest potential and method of having a maximum impact on reality. Its opposite/inverse classpect is your primary focus when you are stressed and in an unhealthy frame of mind, yet it’s also something you can put to good use. You’re probably naturally skilled with both classpects.
Your Hero Title is your best, ideal, and healthiest state, and your subrole is the stressed-but-useful state. Sometimes it’s easier to figure out your subrole first and invert it to discover your Title.
As for me, I am a Seer of Life! My subrole is Witch of Doom.
Alternate possibilities? If you’re not fond of your Hero Title, go with the alternate roles that have the next strongest influence in your life. Most likely, these will be the classpect pairs in which you can easily distinguish a “healthy” role and an inverse “unhealthy” role.
In my case, Heir of Light Mage of Void and Sylph of Hope are strong alternate Hero Titles. (Ugh, why do my top three aspects have to be the color schemes I most dislike? Void is awesome.)
Using an alternate role won’t be as ideal as your primary role, but it’s still a useful option.
Now what? After you’ve determined your Classpect Profile and Hero Title, I highly recommend learning more about each of your 12 roles in Dahni’s Aspect posts. Then use your Classpect Profile however you like!
I hope this guide was helpful and informative!
So two-thirds of LOTAK was destroyed when Jack English’s head exploded and formed a black hole.
Dave, Terezi, and a decapitated Dirk all made it off the planet, thanks to Dave’s Time powers. But you know who almost certainly was still on LOTAK at the time?
Gamzee has not had the opportunity to go back in time and give Lil Cal to Jack to create Jack English in the first place. If Gamzee is dead, this is a paradox.
You wonder if this rain will ever let up. It's driven since the month began, perhaps long enough to forget its purpose. It no longer even knows to assuage fire. Somewhere a zealous god threads these strings between the clouds and the earth, preparing for a symphony it fears impossible to play. And so it threads on, and on, delaying the raise of the conductor's baton. How you hate this season. "April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain." -American sports legend, Charles Barkley
(Charles Barkley quotation actually from T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land.)
We know from Jaspers the gist of Rose’s quest in the Land of Light and Rain:
JASPERSPRITE: Rose im just a cat and i dont know much but i know that youre important and also you are what some people around here call the Seer of Light. JASPERSPRITE: And you dont know what that means but you will see its all tied together! JASPERSPRITE: All the life in the ocean and all the shiny rain and the songs in your head and the letters they make. JASPERSPRITE: A beam of light i think is like a drop of rain or a long piece of yarn that dances around when you play with it and make it look enticing! JASPERSPRITE: And the way that it shakes is the same as what makes notes in a song! JASPERSPRITE: And a song i think can be written down as letters. JASPERSPRITE: So if you play the right song and it makes all the right letters then those letters could be all the letters that make life possible. JASPERSPRITE: So all you have to do is wake up and learn to play the rain!
Hussie even summarizes and clarifies this information:
[Jaspersprite] explained elements of the mythos of her land, and how she'd need to learn to play the rain to produce the musical analogue of a genetic code to reintroduce life into the ocean.
Produce a genetic code? That sounds familiar. Where else have we seen a genetic code?
“MEOW” combined with Halley’s ectoslime to create Becquerel.
“t1CK t0ck 8r8k H34DS honk HONK” combined with Lil Cal and a Magic Cue Ball to create Doc Scratch.
“BARK” combined most likely with Jaspers to create God Cat.
These genetic codes are used to create First Guardians. First Guardians all have the Green Sun as their power source. So most likely, these genetic codes are related to the Green Sun itself.
So, Rose’s Quest is to play the rain, to produce a genetic code that reintroduces life into the ocean. Like the previous codes tied to the Green Sun, what if the genetic code Rose plays is tied to a different sun, a Pink Sun?
There are clues everywhere for a Pink Sun paralleling the Green Sun.
Rose is a Seer of Light, and the Light symbol is a sun. It would make sense for the genetic code to be for a literal source of Light, a literal sun.
But what other significance might this code and Pink Sun have? Well, "They wait for she who would breed lilacs out of the dead land." “They” being the Nobles—the kids of the Alpha Session.
The “dead land” may very well be the Land of Crypts and Helium. Jane’s planet is filled with seed pods that seed and water the planet, yet nothing is able to grow on the surface. What her planet lacks is Light—sunlight. (Her denizen is even Hemera, goddess of daytime.) Perhaps by “playing the rain,” Rose provides the Light LOCAH needs—in the form of the Pink Sun—enabling lilacs to breed out of the dead land. Considering during Trickster Mode, half the planet sprouts flowers everywhere, it seems to be the intended transformation LOCAH will undergo.
But wait, Rose’s planetary quest is to reintroduce life to her planet, to LOLAR. More specifically, to restore ocean life that was eaten by her denizen Cetus.
JASPERSPRITE: But sadly there are no fish i think. JASPERSPRITE: They were all eaten by the Denizen! ROSE: Who? JASPERSPRITE: It ate everything in the ocean and got so full that it took a long nap. JASPERSPRITE: No there is surely not a single living thing left!
Ocean life? Hmm…
What is something heavily associated with both Rose and the ocean?
The Horrorterrors (Squiddles)!
What if, when Rose plays the rain and reintroduces life on LOLAR, she creates the Horrorterrors? The very same ones currently residing in the Furthest Ring. The same ones who likely created the Trolls’ universe.
If so, perhaps the Pink Sun has ties to both the Horrorterrors and to the flora of LOCAH. That would make the Pink Sun a Light—a symbol—of Life and Void. Just like…
…The Rings of Life and Void!
When the Draconian Dignitary puts on the Ring of Void, shades of pink and purple flash around him. Symbolic—even powered by—the Pink Sun, perhaps?
(Image made static because seizure warning.)
Compare to when the Queen’s Ring transforms Jack Noir after Bec prototypes himself, giving Jack powers of the Green Sun:
And then there are the green and pink moons of Alternia, paralleling the Green and Pink Suns.
The green moon is home to Doc Scratch, representative of the Green Sun (symbolic of Space) as a First Guardian. Yet pre-scratch, the pink moon is home to Meenah, Thief of Life, further tying the Pink Sun as a Life symbol.
LOLAR and the rain itself have symbols of Light, Life, and Void through their colors—yellow, cyan, and pink.
Yellow represents the sun emblem of Light, its Seer Rose. Cyan represents Jane, Maid of Life, whose planet lacks Light. Pink represents Roxy, Rogue of Void, whose planet’s element is Neon—that is, Neon Light.
Aside from the Pink Sun, restoring life to LOLAR, and sending Light to LOCAH, Rose may even have a role in Dave’s quest, considering the rain “no longer even knows to assuage fire”—its purpose forgotten.
Regarding Dave’s quest,
It's meant to rain this season but there ain't been a drop in sight. Even a little drizzle would help. Might help to fizzle this sizzle a little bizzle, set the record straight on this global turn-tizzle.
Perhaps the rain Rose plays—or even the Pink Sun itself—will aid in his quest. (But more on Dave’s quest in another post.)
It seems pretty clear that Rose represents the “zealous god” who “threads these strings between the clouds and the earth.” As for “delaying the raise of the conductor's baton,” perhaps the conductor is…
You wouldn't trade your dualing weapon for any other. It is lightweight, elegant and precise, like a conductor's baton with stopping power.
…Calliope!
A Seer would not charge into the fray headlong but direct it as a conductor with a baton.
…Or Terezi, or even Rose herself. Perhaps all three!
As for “mixing memory and desire,” that sounds a lot like…
…What the heroes have been doing all along!
If they are meant to create not just a new universe, but a new reality to escape Lord English, wouldn’t their new reality consist of memory and desire? A new reality conducted, inspired, and embodied by Calliope, Muse of Space; located in the currently blank canvas Void to where LOWAS, Roxy, and John escaped; its information (Light) to be supplied by Rose and the Pink Sun; and filled with the memories and desires of the heroes.
why would davesprite have to die to ensure there's only one of him of the same explicitly didn't happen to nanna or arquius?
my last ask mgiht have been confusing, so to clarify i’m referring to how you think jaspersprite’s presence means the other sprites that were on LOTAK came to the post-retcon timeline with john. though it seems like post-retcon jaspersprite is alive too, as he didn’t die when LOWAS exploded and i’m not sure what else on the battleship would have killed him.
At this point, we really don’t know what the deal is with the sprites. The only one we know for sure made it to LOWAS is Jaspersprite. But considering Jaspers was able to tag along, it seems reasonable that Davesprite would, as well.
As for any duplicate sprites (we at least know Jaspers is one), one instance is probably doomed, even if they’re still around for now. We haven’t heard anything about Alone!Jade’s Jaspersprite, but it’s probably safe to say Nannasprite kept Jade company. So if Nanna made it to LOWAS, there would be two of her, too. Again, if so, one is probably doomed.
As for ARquiusprite, if there are two of him, there may be an important reason for that. At least one is needed to be trapped in Lil Cal and become part of Lord English. A duplicate may serve another purpose.
It’d be interesting if Erisolsprite survived, though. If in the current timeline, Feferi and Nepeta each end up being prototyped individually, then all 12 trolls will be “alive” in some way. Of the 12, only Equius and Eridan would be…fusions.
Anyway, bottom line is, if Jaspersprite could survive, Davesprite could, as well. Exactly why one of him LOWASploded, we don’t know for sure; we can only speculate. But even if he’s dead in this timeline, some other version of him will be around. His story isn’t finished. He’ll be back.
Just noticed something. The platform the characters are on...
Trolls’ platform, too...
Is shaped like a lily pad!
I struggled with the same concept while formulating this theory, because Calmasis from CoTL sounds more like Caliborn than anything else. Basically I’m thinking the actual Calmasis will be the true union of Caliborn and Calliope, possibly even the Caliborn who made “HOMOSUCK” and is about to face Yaldabaoth.
Consider what Art!Caliborn says:
THE ATROCIOUS HATERS AND WEAK CHILDREN WILL SAY THAT I AM A MONSTER. THAT I AM THE BIGGEST BAD GUY. AND THAT MY EVIL CRIMES NEED TO BE STOPPED USING TANTRUM PUNCHES. BUT NO. I AM JUST A SIMPLE ARTIST.
I HUGELY INSIST. THAT I WALK THE PATH. NOT OF A VILLAIN. BUT OF AN ARTIST!!!
I mean, I think it’s pretty clear Art!Caliborn is not the one whose soul is trapped in Lil Cal and eventually becomes LE. And Calmasis’ description of “antihero and chief antagonist” indeed easily describes Art!Caliborn. So maybe he ends up fusing somehow with some form of Calliope, and that union forms Calmasis.
Regardless, tons of evidence supports an Alt!Calliope + Gamzee + Davepeta fusion, and I really think I’m on to something here. Whether or not they’re actually Calmasis (or form part of them) doesn’t really matter. I mostly chose to call them Calmasis as a placeholder name, for lack of anything better to name them. (Notice how I said, “For now, let’s call this fusion Calmasis.” Emphasis on “for now.”)
I mean, hey, maybe their fusion ends up being Zazzerpan? Or maybe they end up fusing with Art!Caliborn, too. We don’t really know. But for now, they need a name, and Calmasis seemed like the best one.
We already know Lord English is a fusion of the souls of Caliborn, Arquiusprite, and ½ Gamzee.
But what if there’s a Calliope counterpart? A fusion consisting of Alt!Calliope, Davepetasprite^2, and ½ Gamzee.
Keep reading
This is relevant again with the Meat and Candy Epilogues. Just replace the Mayor with Jade as the auspistice.
Everyone keeps debating what quadrant Dave and Karkat’s relationship is. Each has valid and supporting arguments, and they all make sense in their own ways.
But why limit it to just one? What if it’s actually ALL the quadrants?
It was said their love went beyond the four quadrants, transcending the grid entirely. Whatever that nonsense actually means.
Perhaps Karkat is following in the footsteps of his ancestor?
This is not the first time a Jack has lost an arm to a caliginous queen.
Do you do sessions analysis? If so, could you tell me how a session with a Page of Hope, Knight of Heart, Rogue of Space and Mage of Time woule go?
I don’t really do that; sorry. There are way too many variables and not enough information for me to be able to analyze sessions, especially if I’m going by player titles alone.
All I can really tell is that this session is theoretically viable, since it has a Space and Time player.
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