The Roles and Aspects of Homestuck

The Maid of Doom, unfortunately, is about a tragic a class as one can get. The joke is that Maids seem to be Made of their aspect, but that joke loses it’s appeal when that means you’re Made of Doom. This isn’t to say that they aren’t useful- you’re just going to have a hard time getting them to believe that they are. Regardless of whether their title is a good fit or a challenge, they’re going to face a good deal of conflict, both internal and external. 

They’re not a knowledge or exploitation based-class, so they don’t have an inherent understanding of the restraints of the game, meaning that they can’t game the system. They also aren’t really meant to rid themselves of their restraints, or alter them to their benefit like destruction or modification-based classes. Hell, even the Sylph brings some more immediate good from Doom than the Maid does. The Maids are a fountain of their aspect, and given how constraining and maddening Doom is, they’re likely to be frustrated at nearly every corner.

All that said however, should they come into their title, they will be quite the interesting character. They are the enforcers of the game. They may be the police. They may be the night vigilante. Should they go rogue, your session (or at the very least, your timeline,) will certainly be Doomed. At God Tier, they can effectively function as a massive, debilitating debuff field, weakening if not outright nullifying the others’ powers. They’ll force any fights to be ones based on physicality, leveling the field against anyone who could plan on getting in their way. Not to mention, they will probably close any loopholes in the game that can be exploited in anyone’s favor. They will bring about your greatest weakness, then use it against you. Their job isn’t done until everyone is neutralized. The only way to take them down will be to use their own rules against them, and even then it will take most of your session united.

These Maids most likely will see themselves as doing sBurb’s work, cleansing the session of cheaters, the people who don’t know how to really play, who use shortcuts, who don’t work as hard as them. They won’t team up with anyone else. There is no “with us or against us,” when they’ve gone of the deep end. There is only them.

A team-aligned Maid of Doom however, can often be the key player in preventing a session from failing from human (or troll or cherub or etc,) error/corruption. They still have all the gifts of a rogue Maid of Doom, but they will be more restrained, careful in how they dispense them. If anyone becomes a risk or starts trying to sabotage the session, they’re the ones to go to. They’re neutralize the threat, but nothing they do will end up risking the stability of the session. What they lack in “powers,” they will often make up in other skills. Expect them to be extremely proficient with their specibus. They have to be if they’re planning on surviving in this session.

One of the biggest problems the Maid of Doom will face is simply progressing. Their trials will be too hard to face alone, and their powers too difficult to comprehend by themselves. Yet at the same time, the nature of their powers means they will work best alone, not exposing their teammates and simply taking down their enemies. Everything for them is a catch-22, and they only seem to have a better handle on their powers when they stop focusing on the powers themselves and work on developing their other skills.