#grimdark analysis

So from my understanding, there's three main popular theories on how one goes about being Grimdark.

-Influenced by the Horrorterrors -Being consumed by their classpect - Rejecting their classpect

I wanted to just write about how I think a Mage of Mind would go about the last two points, since I just think it would be interesting and we already know how one gets influenced by the horrorterrors. You don't have to read if you don't like class inversion since I'm pretty sure they go together with grimdark(i don't care if class inversion is 'wrong', I think its cool anyways). These are just my thoughts but feel free to correct or add anything since this is pretty far from anything canon.

-Being consumed by their classpect

I don't think we've seen in canon anyone getting consumed or overwhelmed with their classpect, so this isn't really based on anything. Maybe a Mage of Mind being consumed by their classpect ending up grimdark would do whatever it takes to get their desired result, obsessive even, if it means being violent/and or controlling, then so be it. There's too many actions to take and the amount of knowledge hurts the Mage, knowing how one little action can completely doom a session. Maybe they don't trust their teammates to not fuck everything up and accidentally doom the session, since there's so many wrong actions they could take. Or maybe they were hurt from an action someone else took, lack of knowledge ending up hurting the Mage in the end. Either way, i think they try to take things into their own hands as a safety measure or just being selfish, forcefully making or threatening others to take certain actions, just so they could see the outcomes or get the desired results. And from what we know, going grimdark is going off the deep end in every which way possible and I would think this counts.

- Rejecting their classpect

As grimdarkness inverts the player's class on its head, the Knight classing would turn into something more of a Thief.

Thieves of Light are pretty versatile, and motivations for how horrorterror possession can occur can be nearly anything. Given your Knight loves to research until boredom, I could see them figuring out about the horrorterrors and trying to make some sort of arrangement to give them knowledge, similar to how Rose did.

Maybe going around, turning their land and perhaps even others lands inside out, searching for anything they can know and keep to themselves.

They would attempt [keyword there being such as an attempt] to communicate with others to steal as much knowledge as they can for themself, consumed by greed and the rage of the horrorterrors.

I'm not too sure about a Land name, but I will give a piece of advice in making it. Knights can have a common theme of a major part of it containing something like a worst fear, trauma, or otherwise.

Hm... grimdark. An interesting hypothetical.

I will say, it is difficult to gauge any exactness in this case, as I only have a hero title to go off of, but I can give it my best nontheless. Take anything I might say with a grain of salt. Or maybe a whole shaker... The grimdarkness we see in the comic is a result of horrorterror intervention, combined with a great deal of pent up emotion.

It causes the player to act more aggressively than they usually might, taking less time to think things through. In terms of the hero title system, it inverts a player's class. In this case, a Rogue would invert into a Knight, meaning the RoS would begin to act adjacently to that class.

Don't take this to be some sort of magical personality swapper though. The grimdark state is an artificial one, a forceful display of the player's flip side. It can be freeing, of course, but not healthy in the long term, just as any denial of the player's true self. In the case of Homestuck, where denial of the Hero's Call is basically synonymous with doom, it may as well be a death sentence.

The grimdark Rogue's behaviour might be reminiscent of a Knight, but it would be, at best, a cheap parody. They might become uncooperative, unwilling to compromise and work together on tasks. I imagine they would become fiercely protective of their role, and since they are a Space player, frogbreeding.

"I can do this by myself. I am the only one fit to do this." As I'm sure you can imagine, this behaviour, if left unchecked, could very well result in the dooming of the entire session.

I hope you have a Seer or Sylph at hand, because unless there is someone present when the Rogue is turned, they very well might not even let anyone know. Knights are known for hiding their problems, and a grimdark Rogue may very well be the same.

They would carry on in their task with a grim determination, set on proving their capability, moving past what hurt them, being valuable. All the same, they might also choose to abandon their task altogether. They're not good at this anyway, right?

Might as well give up trying and do something they can be truly effective in, priority be damned. Time be damned. Needless to say, a grimdark player of a cardinal aspect would be fucking terrifying.

Rose seemed to have an aura of Void surrounding her when she was grimdark, her form obscured by a dark mass and her speech unitelligeble.

Perhaps a Space player might have an aura of Time, then. They might repeat sentences or skip forward in the conversation when talking to someone, objects around them might jump back and forth in their existential timeline. Or perhaps entropy might be more befitting? I'll leave the cosmetic details to you, dear anon.

— mushuse

Well, an inversion grimdark for the Mage would be an Heir of Space and for the Heir would be a Mage of Rage, neither of which are particularly offensive classes. If they don’t invert, however, the Mage could use his deep understanding of Time for disastrous results and the Heir could drain the Hope out of those trying to stop him out of some twisted sense of self-preservation.

As for quadrants, I would see these two working best in the Black Quadrant. They have very similar personalities, tending to push others away. The Heir would be skeptical of everything the Mage would say, and the Mage would try to even it out by saying something equally as cutting. Being around them would mean hearing a lot of griping and snippy comments.

Considering they steal laws and death, there is a pretty high chance of it due to the emotional turmoil that would follow. 

The way I see it, there are two types of grimdarkness. There’s the one that causes a complete inversion, such as we saw with Rose. Then, there’s one that simply causes them to become violent and dangerous, as some suspect Eridan was. Should they invert, they would become a Page of Life and would essentially provide Life to everything around them. Should they go with the second one, however, they would attack anyone who comes near them, using their Doom powers.