#theorizing role

Ok so a Seer of Life seems kind of tricky to me. Life tends to concern itself with practical matters(Biology, Wealth, Physical Ability, Acquisitiveness, Agency, Creativity) which don’t immediately lend themselves to precognition the way Aspects like Light, Mind, or Time do. According to Aradia’s formulation, a Seer of Life would be one who “Knows Life Comprehensively”(with Certain Important Provisos for how that might work, and for how one might Perceive of that working, I’d argue), and combining that with the concepts above certainly suggests a wide utility, but the primary Role Seers fill is identifying incoming threats and directing their team through or around them; where’s the foresight in “Knowing Life Comprehensively”? We haven’t seen many Life-powers in action, but Life has, on top of those already mentioned, all manner of Associations; it’s a rather abstract Aspect that seems at its core to most directly be about “The Ability to Do”[1]; though “Comprehensive Knowledge of Nebulous, Open-Ended Practicality” sounds like a fun approach to it, to me, in its own way :p Agency obvsl plays an important role in ”Doing” and, as a result, in Life-Hero stories[2]. Life-Players tend to be good Problem-solvers with a particular knack for thinking outside-the-box, and in-even-MORE-particular with finding ways to continue life, in some form or another, through any trial, even death; giving them a bit of a Sleeping Beauty/Orpheus&Eurydice/Persephone vibe(and I’d argue you really shouldn’t ignore the mythic aspect of Homestuck Titles u_u). 

So, given all that, I think one clarifying way of conceiving this would be to render the Aradia-description from “Knows Life Comprehensively”  to “Knows Doing Comprehensively” thence to “Knows Solutions Comprehensively”. “Comprehensive Knowledge of Solutions”(or, for the Colloquially minded, “How Do”) probably sounds really straight-forward, so let’s complicate it :p :p

Solution/=Good. The morality of a particular “Solution” lies in what it entails and its outcomes, not in its nature AS a “Solution”. The Solutions a Seer of Life Looks for, Sees, Chooses, and Directs others towards will depend on the Life-Seer’s own moral compass, and Life-Players haven’t exactly proven themselves conscientious in the maintenance of that particular piece of personal metaphysical kit(with the exception of Feferi, who was never but a Most Excellent and Totally Righteous Dude u_u u_u But that’s 1 out of 3 which is Not Gr8 Odds :T)

Solution is Big. Most problems can be solved, conservatively, in about 16 Million way, Most of them only minorly different, yet still distinct. The answer to “How Do?” can often approach a practical infinity. This seems both Overwhelming and Monotonous to me

Solution; Then What? Terezi can see vast webs of Decision and Causality; Rose the Objective “Fortune” value of any particular chain of events; but “Solutions” end at the problems they solve. As Above, so Below: Whar Foresight; Whar?

At the same time it also sounds a bit limited, so let’s expand it :p :p

Sight Bleeds. Rose isn’t limited to just knowing how “Fortunate” a plan will be, nor Terezi to only the “Choices” involved; they both See some varying level of detail of the specific events and those leading up to them, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to advise about and intervene in relevant events. So in all likelihood, a Seer of Life WOULD see both the specifics relevant TO, and probably those events immediate(and possibly circumstantially simultaneous) Of, said events and their Solution.

Aspects are Broad. Terezi can also effectively read Minds(because, you know Mind). Rose can look through solid objects(probably because visible or optical light isn’t the only KIND of “Light” out there. Emanations be both Numerous and Numinous u_u u_u u_u). All Aspects, regardless of what sources professing to be reliable in canon have claimed as their Boundaries, have displayed a vastness of meaning, ranging from the mundanely literal to the abstract, esoteric, and even mythical(which is to say: Wildly Subjective[early HS occasionally lampshades this subjectivity with variants of the phrase “personal mythos”]). So Life-Sight would probably cover all sorts of other stuff, connectable to “Doing/Solutions” but not immediately apparent as such. Most basically, the ability to See the Lifetimes of particular individuals or groups of individuals, which would effectively allow Seers of Life to See the future of those individuals(at least until they die), and necessarily the after effects of any particular Solution upon them. Not to mention the connections to Death, Life-After-Death, and Resurrection which all Life Players have shown, and how THAT, through ideas such as History, can apply to the “Life and Death” of ideas, events, and outcomes(not to mention their connection to temporally non-linear Dream Bubbles, and how that could be used for future-seeing).

“Know Comprehensively” is Big. What does it mean to “Know”? What does it mean to be “Comprehensive”? Early on Seers struggle to answer these questions without really realizing it, and plenty of others, as they struggle to master their Title, but successful Seers, unlike displacer beasts, don’t deal in approximate knowledge. If a Seer of Life’s Knowledge of How Do(and Life, and Wealth, and Agency, etc etc)can be said to be “Comprehensive”, then it seems very unlikely to me that their Sight, when mastered, wouldn’t given them some sense of(and thus control over) the ultimate outcome of the Solutions they choose. And as an aside, I’d bet they’d also be absurdly skillful in general(since Comprehensively Knowing a Solution means knowing how to carry it out), and just absolute Gangbusters at figuring out Alchemiter recipes.

On top of Title-development every Player faces personal challenges, of course, and these tend to share similarities between Classes and Aspect. Seers often struggle with self-confidence and self-worth, with maintaining Perspective on themselves, and issues of achievement(failed perfectionism in Rose and Terezi, and perhaps over-estimation[in response to fears of not fitting in or being excluded] with Kankri? It’s difficult to say given the limited material) often simultaneous to significant personal losses(Mom Lalonde’s murder; feeling compelled to kill Vriska for Terezi; again it’s difficult for Kankri, but how he pushes away Porrim may be his example). Aspect is frequently tied to all of this(I discuss how in This Post on Seers of Heart). So something tied to Life(perhaps the Seer’s own privileged position or, in a more Feferi-like take, the restrictive cloistering it brings) would cloud the Seer’s Perspective on events, and promote a crisis of confidence(most likely self-doubt, but given Kankri it’s possible OVER-confidence could also be a problem, particularly given the natural gifts and material condition Life-Players tend to possess), at a time when, due to the loss of relationships and people, they would be in a stressful and emotionally vulnerable place. And always, as mentioned above, there would be the temptation of taking the “easy” way; of putting themselves First, dismissing the equal being of others, and manipulating their friends into circumstances the Seer prefers, without consideration for their consent or well-being.

So Seers of Life would face a tough row to hoe. They’d have to learn how to sift through a staggering number of options to find the 8est(as they define it) Solution, with limited knowledge of where it could lead, all while being aware of how their own desires and moral flexibility can undermine the whole project while seeming to advance it and bring harm to the people they care for. But this isn’t really new. Perspective, Judgement, and Self-Awareness are vital to ALL Seers using their Sight effectively. While these challenges may be more vast and immediate for Seers of Life, they wouldn’t be fundamentally different from what all Seers struggle with. With time and focus and the patience to consider others instead of taking the quickest and shiniest roads, a successful Seer of Life would learn how to achieve clarity of purpose, and refine and focus their Sight with Knowledge of other facets of their Aspect. I think a Seer of Life is no less likely to be useful, and even game-breaking, than any of the more obviously Oraclely Aspects.

Ok that’s my general ideas about a Seer of Life; what about some specifics?

Aggrieving Anatomist

Let’s Take This Early Discussion on Seers of Life as inspiration(h/t to deliverusfromsburb and thegrimsqueaker ^v^ these are mostly their ideas). You could have a Seer of Life interested in Anatomy and Biology/BioChem, who likes martial arts movies and who, as a Life-Hero, is both preternaturally strong, and headstrong(and, tbf, given the 3 canon Seers, “Headstrong” could very well be a Seer trait as well :T). Based on their interests, they’d have a tendency to envision Solutions that involve the body and biological or chemical processes, and their personality would tend to bend this towards combat; either by seeking out combat theirself, leading others IN combat, or trying to teach others their ridiculous, biomantic fighting techniques(which, given how alchemiters allow Players to lend and merge their powers with those of their Friends, ought to be possible). I DO NOT think this would necessarily be a bad thing, both Rose and Terezi mix it up in HS, but this sort of Seer might have trouble letting themselves(or learning how to) delegate to others, and direct them along their own quests. Given the tendencies of Life Players, they may even go so far as to have a hard time conceiving of their Session as being bigger than their own Quests, and thus struggle with tunnel-visioning(though, given how The Game’s very structure interweaves Players’ quests together, there’d be plenty of stuff working to counteract that). 

Their powers could start as an encyclopedic and precise knowledge of anatomy, eventually developing(ala Rose and the 8-ball) into an x-ray-vision like ability to See anatomy directly, allowing for improbably devastating(and cinematic) blows in combat. Terezi’s Sight takes the form of interconnected Neurons stretching into infinity; Rose’s, what little we see of it, of and bursts of Revelation, Enlightenment, and Emanation; This Seer’s might eventually manifest as a vast system of Temporal Veins and Causal Nerves, as if they were Seeing the body of the Universe Frog itself from the Inside. They could trace each Vein to see where it blocks and withers(what events Doom that TL) then, working back from the Event-Clot, develop a Solution to clear or bypass it. By tracing the Nerves they could see how events outside the timelines interact with and direct the shape, direction, and operation of each Vein, and work out ways sever, limit, counteract, or manipulate that influence in what they consider a useful or “Healthy” direction. Through this Awareness of how those around them relate to the inner-workings of the Vast Croaker, they could identify which actors in their story play the role of “Antigens”, harming the Body-Realistic, using that knowledge to direct and counsel teammates, and plan their strategies. 

Chess Doctor

A Seer of Life interested in Medicine could share that sort of Life-Sight while having a totally different personality and approach. Meenah, Feferi, and Jane saw their cloistered lives as oppressive, but maybe this Seer isn’t really all that social or adventurous to begin with, and so doesn’t mind. So long as they have any book they want, the best tutors to teach them, and immediate easy authority, they’re perfectly fine with taking on the restrictions and responsibilities that go with them. This sort of Seer of Life would take naturally to the Role of strategist, observer, and advisor, focused less on personal combat than understanding the challenges facing them and developing solutions, but along with that could come a casual, condescending arrogance, and tendency for viewing others as instruments for their plans rather than people in their own right, which could cause just as many problems. Whereas the last Seer struggled with seeing the larger picture, this one would struggle most with understanding that THEIR views aren’t the only ones out there, nor necessarily the most important, nor the “right” ones.

Endless Observer

Another approach might be a more literal one; a People-Watcher. This Seer’s main interest would just be People, as a subject; the things they do, how they think, how they go about their Lives. While somewhat detached by their station and socially awkward as a result, they’d be filled with an infectious ------Enthusiasm for everything even vaguely anthropological: history books and films, documentaries, works of psychology, How-To Shows, ~Reality Television~, National Geographic; you name it. Maybe they’d have an EXHAUSTIVE LIBRARY, exhaustively read, of these SEMINAL TEXTS ensconced safely within the heart of their TASTEFULLY HUMBLE SUBURBAN MEGAPALACE 0u0 Whenever a problem comes up, they’d immediately have the know-how to solve it(and the best tools to solve it with, cost irrelevant). As an expression of this maybe they’d start with a maxed-out strifedeck and Robust, easily navigable Sylladex, or maybe they’d have a special Debit Card Sylladex Mode which stores only currency, but allows it to be converted to any item on request :p :p Or maybe(!) rather than a Sylladex Mode, they’re Strife Abstrata would be Cardkind and, like a suped-up version of Kanaya’s lipstick, their Card could be converted to a whole host of items on command.

This Seer’s powers might start off manifesting as having “coincidentally” just looked up a relevant subject right before the problem it could help solve arises. Rose’s viewing orbs expressed her interest in the occult so maybe this Seer would alchemize a Book or card-catalogue or How To Video which could provide information on any topic(or possibly a FLASH CARD TAROT, filled with detailed solutions). Perhaps the visualization of their Sight would be different, too; rather than Seeing through an anatomical model, they’d See a chattering ocean of flashing images or monitors containing every possible “life” branching from that point, which they could resolve, through concentration, into a picture of the problem they’re trying to solve, and the solution to it they like best. Maybe the very volume of their knowledge would begin to make it difficult for them to choose a solution, causing bouts of indecision(or physical pain). A fun branch from this idea could be having the Seer create a clone of themselves, or maybe some animate agent, to attempt alternate solutions or do the Seeing while they do the Doing, who eventually gets out of hand ala The Sorcerer's Apprentice. I could also see a Seer like this, so used to dealing with people as objects to be watched rather than equal people, developing problems with listening to and considering the needs of others, despite a friendly and positive demeanor.

Ok; I think that’s all I’ve got in me for a Seer of Life right now. I Hope it helps ^u^

[1]all the Life Heroes we’ve seen have been physically quite gifted, Convincing speakers, and born into Influence and Wealth

EXPRESSION

Well, you could go really literally with it and have a Thief of Mind who is basically an old B-Movie mad scientist who steals brains :| Maybe they’re a cybernetics genius who’s found a way to successfully graft bio brains into robotic bodies, or a brain-switcher swapping them from one bio-body to the next, or you could go full Universal and make them a pastiche/parody of Frankensteinian Fiction. You could also take the same idea in a more cyberpunk direction and have them uploading people’s Minds to a digital medium. I don’t know how particularly useful this extremely literal take on the Title would be; their primary interactions would be with other players and people usually can’t do much when you remove their brains so it’d kinda derail the story but then again; both Vriska and Meenah were bullies whose plans seriously derailed their Sessions and the plans of their Teammates, multiple times, so, it’s not like it’d be out of character for the Class. A more sensible(though still pretty invasive) Thief of Mind might just copy Minds rather than uploading them, allowing their owners to go about their business unaware, or take a more Altered Carbon route by clandestinely installing little Mind-USBs(or modems) in their friends’ brainstems(or equivalent). Just, you know; for Safety. And to keep a few eyes on things :::;) I tend to read Thieves as people who tend to steamroll and instrumentalize others in pursuit of their desires, so this sort of Mad Scientist character, who’s really Quite Sure that they know What’s Best for everybody else, would definitely fit into that dynamic.

There are plenty of other facets of Mind, of course.

In Homestuck, we mostly see Mind as Choice – what people do, and will potentially do – so a Thief of Mind could also steal Choice from others. This could be expressed in really mundane ways; they might shout out answers or courses of action right before their friends do, or have a habit of taking the last soda, ice cream, whatever favorite thing their Friend was patiently waiting their turn to get. It could also be expressed in huge, narratively/cosmically important ones; maybe they trick or browbeat their Friends into playing The Game or try to structure/present events in a way that makes the options available seem much more limited than they really are. Depending on the Thief, the working of this as a Power might be subtle and non-obvious(of course the Ogre fell down those stairs; it’s feet were way too big for them. Should have jumped!) or glaring(mind-controlling the Ogre into jumping off the tower to its death, with head-haloing spiky purple brain-beams and everything). Perhaps such a Thief of Mind with an interest in Biology(or Star Trek :p) would “Steal Choice” from others through alchemized parasites who have the effect of rendering their victims extremely susceptible to, uh... Suggestion. Or maybe they prefer Slimes(or Futurama :p :p); given the inexplicable affection The Game’s underlings seem to have for headwear this could be a particularly effective approach >:]

Both Mind players display some form of sensory-impairment so, if we take that to mean Mind touches on Perception, a Thief of Mind could also be something closer to a conventional fantasy Thief or Illusionist. They might “steal” the ability of others to detect them, or disguise themselves so as to use the Perception of others to steal. They could fight in a similar way; rendering foes vulnerable(or dead) through deception and stealth. Blinding or Deafening an opponent, poisoning their food(or their hat), and attacking them from stealth would all be ways they could fight by “Stealing” Perception, or “Steal life”(kill) through Perception.

They could steal through Logic, Planning, and Psychology, just as Terezi uses these to lead and manipulate others. The Thief could be a Mastermind excellent at planning heists and cons, or someone skilled at using Rhetoric to talk people into doing what they want them to do, whether they realize it or not. Maybe they have a knack for taking others’ arguments and turning them around so they become arguments for the Thief’s pov instead. Perhaps a Thief of Mind like this would develop Powers of Hypnotic Voice or Gaze, allowing them to “Steal” the Choices of others through their Perceptions, and make them do what they want them to(like, for instance, hand over that glintzy swag >::::) ).

Another Facet of Mind seems to be Causation or Justice. A Thief of Mind interested in and expressed through these ideas might be someone who never seems to get their comeuppance, while their more moral acquaintances always seem to catch a raw deal. This Expression of the Title could look something like a Thief of Light focused on Fortune and Luck except, where Vriska caused bad things to happen by stealing the “Luck” from her targets, the Thief of Mind might “Steal Causation”, leading to wildly improbably events, or “Steal through Justice”, turning a foe’s misdeeds back on them(or moving their own misdeeds to the foe, so Cosmic Retribution falls on them instead). This sort of Thief of Mind could be slightly more meta than the other ideas above, but they could also seriously Gronk Up a Session, really fast, and in really surprising, inconceivable ways |:T |:T

ARC

My read of Thieves is that they “need to learn when to listen, when to concede judgment, and when to let others take the lead”. Basically, Thieves(or at least the Thieves we’ve seen) are really headstrong, shortsighted, and egotistical people, who tend to be pretty destructive to those around them because of their overweening(and totally performative) Confidence and refusal(or inability) to listen to other people and take a back seat. Once they make a decision they put so much on and in it that slowing down or turning back becomes almost inconceivable for them. An immature inability to face the discomfort and regret they feel over hurting others, expressed in Meenah through an obsession with Action and Moving Forward and in Vriska through angry, sarcastic meltdowns whenever someone tries to talk about those moments, exacerbates this.

They grow up in a situation where their Aspect places great stress upon them, but doesn’t entirely saturate every aspect of their life. Maybe a Thief of Mind would be the child of academics, pushed to follow in their path and “meet their potential”. Or, their Guardian could be abusive, constantly placing their Perceptions, Choices, and Thoughts in question. Or they could, like Meenah, have what most other people would consider a perfectly normal, even wonderful, home life but rankle personalityways under the “Mindfulness” their Guardians teach.

Thieves are often blinded by their Aspect and Aspect-related ambitions; so caught-up in their ability or their goals, so convinced of their own effectiveness, that they don’t see, and refuse to consider seriously, how their actions will impact others. A Thief of Mind who overrides, undermines, and erases the decisions of their Friends, or who full-on takes control of them to make sure they do things their way would obvsl alienate those friends in a pretty extreme way. A less extreme Thief of Mind could end up doing something similar simply by always going their own way, putting theirself in danger and ruining their Friends’ plans, rather than seriously respecting and working with others.

While charismatic, Thieves also tend to be difficult to deal with too and, given the nature of Mind(or my read of it at least), this could easily take the form of a rather condescending manner. Both of Homestuck’s Thieves are pretty high in their social order and reinforce it, consciously or not, in their behavior and ambitions. Given Mind’s involvement with ideas like Order, this tendency might be strongest in Mind Thieves which, I’d imagine, would make them only more so. Possibly they’d be even more difficult to get through to than Meenah and Vriska were.

So I kinda feel like a Thief of Mind would have a harder time doing what they need to do not to be a Huge Jerk than the two canon Thieves did, which doesn’t bode well considering that neither of them manage to pull that off before dying, and one version of Vriska only managed it after a long time in the Dream Bubbles, after making all the same mistakes AGAIN, seriously damaging her friendship with John through her plans to once again become “relevant”, and then spending even longer considering all  her mistakes in a positive, if not entirely healthy or balanced, relationship with Meenah. Then again, maybe their potentially close attachment to Choice, Causation, Karma, Justice, and Thought would help push against these trends. So it’s a bit of a crapshoot entirely metaphorical shrug.

So what might this stuff look like in a Lord of Void? A Lord of Void would embody certain Aspects of Void to an extreme degree. They could be essentially unknowable. This “Embodiment” could be a liability[1] -people might have a difficult time remembering they exist, or remembering their obligations and promises to the Lord, or even finding them(maybe they always get lost when trying to visit them :p :p)- but it would also carry with it some significant, subtle and “passive”, benefits. Void is heavily associated with Strength, so a Lord of Void would probably be one of the most physically powerful classes available. People would probably have a hard time reading them, or seeing through their deceptions, or completely understanding what they’re trying to say, particularly when their obfuscating. Void is heavily associated with both Nurturing(or, well, a Desire and calling to Nurture would probably be more accurate) and Smothering behavior, so a Lord of Void might be a very difficult person to hold onto your own sense of self and will, and very difficult to want to, around; someone very difficult to turn down or refuse, and naturally talented at getting what they want. Of course, the flipside of that is also STRONGLY correlated; Void Players tend to shoot themselves in their own foot by pursuing their goals too STRONGLY and without enough regard for the Pursued’s Self, Interests, and Desires, so a Lord of Void could also drive certain people away and thwart their own goals with an equal facility.

Void would be “pulled” in their favor, as Time(via “Alpha” Timelines which perpetuated his existence) “favored” and protected Caliborn. That could mean a lot of things. Void through “Magic”, and per Rose’s drunken dissertation on symbolism, could favor them by just making really, really improbable stuff happen to their benefit. More directly, Void can pretty much do anything, including making things exist or not exist, spontaneously. Like, people trying to attack them might experience sudden, inescapable, and fatal meetings with falling anvils(or perhaps falling frozen turkeys :p :p :p). Their weapons could catastrophically fail. Attackers might plot out a sure-fire ambush, only for the Lord of Void to never arrive. And then a Meteor falls on them. A Foe could be moving to attack the Lord unawares, only for a hole to suddenly be where one wasn’t before, leading to the Foe’s precipitous demise(or severe inconvenience). Timelines which conflict with the Lord of Void’s existence could naturally be “Void Sessions”(or maybe their Session would be a Void Session, seemingly impossible to win due to incompleteness but, through the workings of Void, easily overcome by the Lord). The Lord could be protected by simply being overlooked, or misidentified; people looking to cause harm to them might be unable to find them, or honestly see them as some other, innocuous, person and pass them by. The Horrorterrors are associated with Void through the Furthest Ring and Derse, so a Lord of Void might find the HTs actively helping them to “win” their Session, whatever that would mean. Obstacles might simply vanish; complex locks could, on being used, prove to be broken and easily bypassed; a Lord of Void, faced with a Puzzle, might dig around in their pockets only to “coincidentally” find the missing piece, or correctly guess the answer when joking around.

Lords also influence, and work through, other People(most often those associated with their Aspect, and in ways which grant them “powers” regarding that Aspect), often times through some manifestation of their Aspect. Caliborn does this through questionably mutual “Contracts”(as with Damara’s iterations and Snowman) and religion(the Makaras). The “Contract” part can be treated as common to the Class, or some Facet of Time. All of Caliborn’s Contracts seem to be moderated by Death in some way, so if a Lord of Void used Contracts(which they might not, as Contracts are Concrete where Void is Nebulous, THOOUUGH, on the flipside, Contracts can be obfuscating and hide secret clauses and meanings, which is right up Void’s alley >:]) it would probably be moderated by some form of Void. Void is, in part, Lack and Loss, so perhaps those would be the activating terms or, in keeping with Void’s tie to the Improbable, their terms could SEEM Impossible, only to turn up with incredible ease. Its activating terms might also be difficult to find and/or parse; if that were the case, what seemed at first glance to be unlikely could, in fact, be self-fulfilling with the Contract’s signing. Given Void’s connection to repression and suppression of others, a Void Lord’s contracts might be even less mutual and more coerced than Caliborn’s. Or they might forgo formal contracts entirely, instead striking verbal agreements that counterparty’s feel sure they can back out of, only to learn how truly ironclad they are(and how serious the Lord is about enforcing them) later.

Caliborn shared some of the interests of the other Time Players, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a Lord of Void shared potential “Void” interests as well. They might feel drawn to mammals(even though they have an unfortunate habit of killing them), or they may enjoy engineering and creating things(eve though they have an unfortunate habit of breaking them). They might, like Horrus, display a general talent for almost any sort of skill imaginable, but always feel a bit “empty” about their accomplishments. They would likely feel both drawn to people(as a way of alleviating the loneliness of their lives) and uneasy with relationships. Like I say above, Personality-wise a Lord of Void would probably be difficult to really pen down completely, and likely rather frustrating sometimes. Even simple, mundane and everyday, interactions could be made difficult or infuriating by their tendency to deceive, disguise, imply, and also just be plain difficult to find or pay attention to. But, at the same time, they could be super-engaging, fun, and exciting to be around; someone who always seems to be falling into some, eventually, beneficial adventure, with a seemingly endless trove of knowledge and skills at their disposal, and a funny, teasing, testing, AWARE, perhaps a mite overly-sexual, sense of humor and style of engagement.

Ok, I think that’s all I have to say on it at the moment :] I hope you enjoyed it, dear Anon Reader, and Here’s a Lord of Space post I did awhile back which might also give you some inspiration. Have fun Titlecrafting!