For some reason Tumblr is just Refusing to publish my gigantic response to this question, so since its an anon anyway I'm screenshotting the question and posting the response below.
Haven't had to do this shit since the tumblr days of yore lmao
The Pairings aren't entirely unrelated to the active passive system, they're deeply ingrained into it still.
all the class common pairs are pairings between an - active class and a + passive class with two very big exceptions:
the MostActive Active Class and the MostPassive Active class are paired, Witch and Sylph
and the MostActive Passive Class and the MostPassive Passive class are paired, Maid and Heir
WitchSylph and MaidHeir are essentially microcosms of the active passive scale inside the active or passive halves respectively, theyre still paired as MostActive and MostPassive pairs both.
But you could also think of them as where the two ends of the active or passive side overlap into the other side.
like for example Maid and Sylph technically existing on both scales where they overlap in the middle
Maid can be considered a Class that's so In-Active, that it flips over into the Passive side by technicality and thus is a Passive class.
Sylph likewise being considered a Class that so Im-Passive, that it flips over into the Active Side by technicality and thus is an Active class.
Maid and Sylph just kind of exist in their own space in my head like that
IF you consider the active passive scale to be similar to the PH Scale between acidic and basic, what I imagine is going on is essentially that the least acidic acid, which has acid inside it, also has enough basic inside it that it balances out to be on the basic end of the scale.
its kinda like math that says -3 and +4 = +1
I DO Believe the Pairings of WitchSylph as a common pair, share a common power, I Believe they are the Change/Manipulation/Transformation pair, regardless of the specific verb used in any case or by any character, the power overall is the umbrella of Change, I've always thought that of the powers, that it's not about coming down to a single verb.
just as i Do Believe the Pairing of MaidHeir as a common pair, also shares a common power, I believe they are the Creation umbrella pair
Essentially all the canon reveal has done for me is flip where i think of Heir and Sylph in the powers
But as terms to call them when talking about them like that
like if its Active Change and Active Change how do you differentiate, in my head instead of saying Active and Passive, I've been thinking of it like this:
Active and In-Active for WitchSylph
Im-Passive and Passive for MaidHeir
Because if Both Sylph and Maid classes are in the middle of the scale, can they really be considered either Passive or Active in that sense? when theyre barely a value above 0 in either direction etc
especially with my earlier metaphor of me thinking of them on the acidic/basic scale as being roughly equal mixes of both that lean to either side.
I'm also aware that's a tad headcanony though, because the canon answer more likely is that despite being a common pairing, the powers of a pair that share activity level are just more strongly differentiated on the power side instead, aka they're more likely to use a different specific verb to describe their powers
Consider this piece of text in canon:
"both classes in +/- pairs tend to have very similar descriptions."
and right after that Prince and Bard, as an +/- Active Passive pair is given to us with Active Destroy and Passive Destroy, essentially
What that implies is that the opposite is true for the other cases
aka:
"Both classes in +/+ or -/- pairs tend to have very different descriptions."
and this comes down to the very specific niche verbs used to represent each class in particular, like how Page's verb was revealed one time to be part of the "Fights to Preserve" as a whole, and since it's an active/passive pair with Knight, Knight is then also Active Fight to Preserve etc
So the canonical Answer is just that Despite Witch and Sylph being a common pair, because they are an active/active pair, their powers are gonna be describe with different Verbs, so they will end up being as Active X and Active Y in the simple definitions
same for Maid and Heir, despite being a common pair, they are a passive/passive pair so their specific verbs will end up being something like "Passive A and Passive B"
I will bet you dollars to dickens, that whatever verb is chosen to be X or Y for Witch and Sylph, both will be connected to the umbrella of Change/Transformation/Manipulation, the idea of one thing becoming a different thing
and the same goes for Maid and Heir, whatever verbs get chosen for A or B you could place into the Umbrella of Creation, the idea of creating something new that didn't exist previously inside a location
In this way, the regular Inversion Pairs remain mostly the same, with just Heir and Sylph flipping to each other spots
so the inversion pairs for this Theory are as follows:
Witch >< Seer
Mage >< Sylph
Prince >< Heir
Maid >< Bard
Thief >< Page
Knight >< Rogue
BUT There is an alternatively theory, which changes the inversion pairs a bit more drastically, because it changes the entire Umbrella Terms of the 6 Major Functions to being slightly different ones
If Destruction being all male and Creation being all female is no longer a major axis, no longer a major core of class theory, then is Creation/Destruction even the proper axis of classes at all?
Knights and Pages mind you are already no longer just the umbrella of Application, the idea of using what's there without knowing/moving/creating/changing/destroying, but Specifically Fighting to Preserve, its a slightly different idea of not just about using what you've got, but making sure its kept in stasis, preserved as well
Fight to Preserve is a term that is specifically opposed to Destruction in it's definition, it's fighting to preserve it against the forces of Destruction, like Defending it from an Attack.
Maids and Heirs aren't Creating something so much as they are Serving and Inheriting it literally to use specific terms, both very close to the idea of Giving and Gifts
Thieves and Rogues are to Stealā¦
So what if the opposed pairs here are not create destroy and apply move
but Preserve and Destroy and Give and Take?
Protection/Destruction, to Build Up to the Top or to Tear Down to the Bottom
versus Inherit or Theft, Serve or Rob, Give Forwards and Take Back.
Up, Down, Forwards, Back, an axis of movement in all four directions
leaving two quantum quark positions left: Strange and Charm I Mean Change and Know
That would make the inversion class pairs akin to all the opposite positions of the six Quantum Quark orientations in a way
and they would be like this:
Witch >< Seer
Mage >< Sylph
Prince >< Page
Knight >< Bard
Thief >< Heir
Maid >< Rogue
some may prefer this flavor of inversion theory since it more closely aligns to the very Literal verbs used for each of the classes
At the moment, I'm still more closely connected to the idea of the powers of the 6 classes not Just being 6 literal verbs but still 6 Umbrella Functions that just also Contain the most common used verbs as Simplified descriptions of the overall powers
but being so fr if Hussie described his class bible document as being little more than the pairing's he revealed plus the list of verbs they used
he almost definitely didn't put as much thought into this system as i have and the stuff and system that I've made I'm more and more convinced is less a describing of canon intent and more an expansion of fandom intent
and I already figured that ever since we got the Aspect Wheel of canon stuff relating to the aspects, I've been calling my work even then "Dahni Expansions"
So I mean, there's the two different answers I would give on this subject, lol
Because i just Like my own ideas better because of course I do, for now im sticking with Option A
Which is just that Sylph and Heir have just flipped positions as MostPassive Change and MostPassive Create and the system as-is remains otherwise preserved
