Rogue of Light

A fundamental truth of being a person is that we're more or less all the same. We just have different mixes of the same base elements. Different amounts of ego, pride, self-esteem, self-loathing, that all coallese to form a cohesive identity. This is, essentially, what a class is. 14 different mixes of these primordial elements, that inform a person's most base behaviors.

The idea of a set of personality archetypes isn't original to classpecting. Carl Yung, and many other psychologists had similar theories, but none ever attempted to create a complete list of every variation, except for MBTI, which is terrible and everyone knows it. Now, classpecting isn't complete - I theorize there are at least 2 more classes that went unnamed in Homestuck - but there's enough here for it to be useful. Before learning what each class is like individually, it's important to provide a framework for how they relate to each other.

Class Diagram

First, we have our set of 7 paired verbs - Create, Serve, Change, Know, Steal, Destroy, and Command. Each one of these informs what each class does with their aspect. They (verb) their aspect, or (verb) through their aspect. For example, a prophet of time would be described as Knowing time, or knowing through time.

Next, we split off each core verb into two classes, each with an alignment - passive (+) or active (-), giving us our 14 classes. Passive classes (verb) their aspect for the benefit of others, while active classes are working to benefit themselves. For example, a prince of hope would destroy hope, or destroy through hope to benefit themself, while a bard of hope would destroy hope, or destroy through hope to benefit others. Think of passive classes like support characters in an RPG, providing buffs to help their allies accomplish things.

After that, we can establish intensity. Essentially, we create a spiral that goes out from the center to the edges, creating 4 levels with a different group of classes in each. Starting with the lowest level of intensity in the middle, and growing out until the highest, containing only Lord and Muse.

Intensity describes how self-driven each class is. How much energy they put into exerting their will on the world around them, how invested they get in persuing their goals. This is a tricky concept to grasp in the abstract, but it makes more sense when learning more about the classes. Basically, a maid is more likely than a witch to have a full schedule.

Now that we have our pairings, and established rules, we can set about explaing how they all connect. Each class shares some main characteristics with their paired class, for instance. Thieves and rogues have a propensity for breaking the rules, seers and mages are both professional and wordy, etc.

Their positon in relation to each other is also very deliberate. Each class is essentially a more or less intense version than it's neighbor. Bards are a more intense version of rogues, witches are a less intense version of a page, etc. Their key characteristics are strengthened, as they go up, or diluted, as they go down. This principle is especially useful for leveraging understanding of one class into understanding of another. Understanding a prince as a more intense thief, or an heir as a less intense knight.

Inversion Theory

As established, yin-yang is a key part of classpecting, the idea that inside everything, there exists a small amount of the opposite. This is true of classes as well. By making pairs across the axies (Sylph -> Prince, Heir -> Mage, etc.) you have a class, and the inversion of that class.

Both classes will share some characteristics, but that's not all there is to it. Under extreme stress, or when the situation calls for it, an indivdual will take on the characteristics of that class. This is known as inversion. Of course, the inversion won't be permenant, or complete. It's more of a band-aid temporary fix. It's not as if the indivual is completely becoming a different class, but they're acting like how they think the opposite class would act, in order to get through whatever stressful situation they're under.

Note: class and aspect invert, but not lunar sway.

This will become easier to understand with more examples, but think about how the opposite classpect would have a similar definition. Isn't destruction of hope just the creation of rage? Does serving life not involve stealing away doom? Understand the coin.

Now, astute readers will notice that muse and lord do not have classes they invert too. A few possible explainations would be that either classes of such high intensity do not invert, or that the list of classes is incomplete. I'm inclined to support the latter. I don't have a complete idea of what these two mystery classes might be, just that they likely exist.

To close us out, a reminder - there are no good classes, or bad classes. We're all people, trying our best. The inclinations for good and evil exist in all of us, and we get to choose our reality. I think the biggest advantage of classpecting yourself is that it comes with the realization that your experiences are not only yours. You come from a long lineage of mages, of bards or of witches. Other people like you exist, and have shared your problems. Which makes it all the easier to overcome them. It's still not simple, but it's something. Every journey starts with a single step.