#summoner classes

Witch and Void have a really high degree of synergy together; a class that excels at exploiting deception and tight control over one’s own affairs combined with the aspect that literally argues that our inherent inscrutability to each other forces us to be forever free to do whatever we please? That was a mouthful, but basically it’s very straightforward to write, or be, someone who is able to mature as a Witch by learning the philosophy of Void.

On the other hand, traits that hurt Witches or Void players in particular can easily double up to lengthen a Witch of Void’s maturation. Void players tend to have deflated senses of self-worth from the beginning, which often leads them to willingly surrender their agency to the expectations of dumb things like society. Combine that with an immature Witch’s over-reliance on the good graces of others, and you can get someone who’s a real stickler for the rules, not to mention boring.

The dimension of doing a very specific set of things in order to achieve an outcome that originates from outside the Witch’s own head– going through the steps of somebody else’s dance– resonates with me chiefly as the kind of problem you get with the children of overbearing parents who want their kids to become doctors, the kid’s aspirations be damned. Often, the expectations of their parents or society or whatever become internalised, until the kid in question isn’t consciously aware of the falseness of their “choice”.

Choosing to open your eyes and understand that you matter regardless of how much money you make or what skills you have might sound like a no-brainer, but with this authenticity comes the need to make sense of your own actions as a person– and that means all of them, especially the things that you would rather not consider. It means questioning the bedrock of your own essence, and wondering if who you think you are is at all who you really are. And, fundamentally, this is a rejection of the Other, that class of metaphysical entity that happens to include everything that isn’t you. It means not playing the game that everybody else is.

Unlike many other Doom players, a Witch of Doom is best favoured by not disclosing anything at all about the “other side” to the people around her, or at least by withholding the details of whatever supernatural armageddon she may foresee. She wants to keep the unknown the way it is, because the less that anybody knows about whatever conspiracy or magic she has access to, the more inexplicable miracles she can work with it, and the more mileage she gets out of knowing anything about it in the first place.

Doom players have an enduring sense that there’s something large and dangerous out there– a less potent Witch of Doom might be content to follow the status quo and stay away from it, but more mature ones actively seek out the many roads that others fear to tread, looking to plumb their secrets and exploit them to make her ambitions a reality. What are her ambitions, you ask? Well, with the Doom aspect in particular, the possibilities range from summoning the literal apocalypse to averting it, but rarely have much to do with anything that doesn’t involve the threat of massive-scale upheaval at all. The Doom aspect is all about the epic and otherworldly, after all, even if sometimes the world at the brink of destruction exists in another universe entirely.

Rogues see it in terms of greed; they don’t want to impose on others or make themselves look bad, so they give up on things in order to appease the palates of those others, so to speak. However, they often don’t understand how much greed is actually encoded into these “sacrifices”, and can end up failing at their true goal-- inspiring as much resolute greed in their friends as is humanly possible.

Witches are more pragmatic about the situation when they’re unwilling to lead; they often see themselves as reliant on certain allies or tools, and powerless unless they keep those allies co-operative. This makes them significantly less self-directed in their actions and goals than they should be, which in affords external forces more power over them and reduces their own agency-- making a self-fulfilling prophecy out of their fears that they’re too weak on their own.

Basically: a Witch makes herself by drawing on her own power and exerting enough force of will that others are cowed into following her or leaving, while a Rogue does it by exploiting the short-sightedness and desires of others. The latter is reliant on the impulses of others in a way that a Witch isn’t.

A Sylph is a competent, capable individual, kind at heart and generally eager to help other people. This desire to aid and fix the woes of others can sometimes lead to frustration, especially when people partake in behavior that the Sylph has already cautioned against.

Generally, a Sylph is relegated to the role of the ultimate secretary. If somebody wants to acquire something, they can call upon a Sylph— she’ll either produce the desired result herself, or ring up a third party and have them do it. This is where the Sylph is at her most effective, dialing up favors and letting others work miracles.

In living out this role, Sylphs are generally loathe to let others struggle alone. Unlike an Heir or a Witch, they do not generally underestimate their own capacity to act; but what they may underestimate is the helplessness of other parties. A less mature Sylph might perceive people as unable to make the correct choices, and take it upon herself to choose for them.

A helpful source of guidance and power, then, becomes a meddling busybody who reduces the agency of others “for their own good”.

There’s no definitive rule as to how much meddling is too much, but I think part of the criteria involves relative agency. If the Sylph boasts more control over the situation or plan than the person that she’s assisting, I would argue that this is a case of excessive control; Sylphs are concerned with providing raw material (whether that material is physical or not) rather than actively shaping it like a Lord would.

The conflict that faces Heart players is basically between universal justice— “if you shouldn’t do x here, nobody else should either”— and personal justice. An advanced Heart player will always err on the side of personal morality, since everybody’s souls are fundamentally equipped to handle different tasks. Staying true to oneself is another form of this kind of balance, and I think another valid reading of the Heart player’s struggle is between the deceptive material world and the self-evident world of spirit and soul.

So, what would a Sylph of Heart in failure mode look like? One possible route might run off of this idea of universal justice, where she forces everybody to live to the rules and laws that she deems appropriate. She might enforce her own particular brand of justice, and keep everything “fair” by keeping people from using or abusing personal advantages against each other. Most prominently, she’ll keep an extremely tight handle over herself and her own emotions, potentially in the interests of setting an example for her subjects. Inverted Sylphs almost always look like misguided tyrants; inverted Heart players are obsessed with forgetting about (and in some cases outright replacing) their true selves.

To a Mind player, there is very little that is more important than being in the right. But, from their perspective, justice has practically nothing to do with the actual outcome of their actions; they are solely concerned with the projected outcome.

Understanding the rationale behind this decision, in addition to being very Mind-y, is an excellent way to leap into the wonderful world of Kantian philosophy.

Thinking along similar lines to Void’s insistence that you cannot truly know anything about the physical world around us— our senses filter literally everything that we see, smell, touch, taste and hear— Kant (and the Mind aspect in general) rejected philosophy as a way to learn about the “truth” of the universe. Rather than speculating on metaphysics, he said, we should use critical thinking to analyze the nature of the mind.

Justice, under this system, is simply that which is justified; if you want to do something, you must first consider why you want it. Then imagine a universe where everybody is forced to operate with the same logic that you used in that situation. If that universe is not paradoxical or otherwise undesirable, then your reasoning is just— nothing else need rest upon your brow.

(An example: someone says, “I want to punch somebody.” Why? “I don’t like him.” What about a universe where everyone goes around hurting people just because they don’t like them? ”That would kinda suck.” Then don’t punch him.)

(Oh: and when you're doing this, making stuff up is a big no-no. With my punching example, I absolutely can not lie to myself and say, "I want to punch him because he was a jerk to my dog." Honesty is key here, or else the whole thing falls apart.)

One final thing that needs to be taken into account are the projected consequences of your actions-- this is really just another instance of the intended outcome thing that I just mentioned, only with a greater bent towards "side-effects".

Do you believe that the thing you are about to do will cause _____ to happen? Is making ____ happen worth your intended outcome? (Naturally, you'll also want to apply that self-analyzing trick that I covered in the brackets above.)

If all that stuff has been sorted, and you believe that you are proceeding logically and in a justified manner, you can safely execute your plans without fearing regret. As long as you accounted for all the possibilities that you could see, you're in the clear as far as Mind is concerned; leave outside interference up to karma.

Now-- Witches. I'm going to keep this short and sweet, seeing as I've covered Seers twice already.

Just like Seers, Witches are highly intelligent individuals who often feel pressure to behave as something of a solo act; unlike Seers, this is exactly how they should be, and their challenge is to stop letting others do things in their stead. A Witch who meekly dispenses knowledge to all who ask for it has an extremely limited sphere of influence! They need to maintain secrecy and keep themselves distant from the rest of the cast in order to exert as much control as is humanly possible over their plans and goals. Then, when the going gets tough for everyone else, they can leap from the middle of nowhere and do something absolutely earth-shaking.

A big part of their character arc is the existence of a "familiar", some kind of representation of their aspect-- usually sentient or alive-- that lends the Witch immense power. To prove themselves, a Witch has to lose this familiar... only to discover that she didn't really need it anyway, and that the powers it wielded (or at least something comparable) were inside her all along.

Applied to the ideals of justice I outlined above, the Witch of Mind's familiar could be something kind of Avatar of Law that basically amounts to a walking, talking field guide to Kantian justice. (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you?) Here, part of her arc would involve losing the Avatar's form of justice, only to learn that she can make her own justice.