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Table of Contents
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Overview
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| Let me tell you about Homestuck |
Homestuck is a popular web comic made by Andrew Hussie, which has a number of derived themelistings at Multiverse Crisis MUSH. You may find the original source material at MSPaintAdventures.com, along with a number of his other works.
While this wiki page will be explaining a number of things about Homestuck, it primarily exists as an information document for the Homestuck-1, Homestuck-2, Homestuck-3, Hivebent-1, and to a lesser extent, AlterniaBound-1 theme listings.
All of these themes follow the exploits of original characters related to the Homestuck web comic only by virtue of being set in generally the same universe.
The canon characters of Homestuck have yet to be represented at Multiverse Crisis MUSH, and most likely would require significant tweaking to work.
In summary, Homestuck is a setting that focuses on a video game called Sburb, and those who play it. Sburb itself induces an apocalypse scenario on any planet upon which it is played, and it is up to the players within to survive, overcome the challenges of the game, and make a new life for themselves.
Each session of Sburb has a number associated with it: The canon sessions are 413 and 612, while the sessions of Homestuck-1 and Hivebent-1 are Session 412 and Session 613 respectively, having launched in close temporal proximity to the canon sessions.
Sburb
Developed by Skaianet, Sburb (variably known as Sgrub on Alternia) is a sandbox-style multiplayer game that takes place superimposed over the real world. It is usually released in Alpha or Beta formats on any given world, but the direction it goes is always the same.
Two or more players begin a session by establishing a Server Player, who runs the "Sandbox" portion of the game, and a Client Player, who physically interacts with the surroundings.
A larger session may be created by means of creating a chain of Server/Client players, and there is no real upper limit as to how many individuals may play. Regardless of the number of players, the playing of the game sets off an apocalyptic chain reaction which inevitably destroys the planet upon which the players live.
This takes the form of a storm of impending asteroid strikes, which gradually bombard the player's planet into a barren wasteland. Once a session of Sburb has begun on a planet, this event is inevitable. Not playing the game will not stop it once it has begun.
In order to survive the destruction of their planet, a player must execute a series of tasks to enter The Medium, the realm in which much of the game takes place. In order for this to occur, the Server Player must deploy several items for use by the Client Player: The Alchemiter, the Totem Lathe, the Cruxtruder, and the Pre-Punched Card.
Each of these objects is a critical game abstraction required for entry into the game, and later serve as useful tools. Their purposes are as follows:
- The Alchemiter allows replicating and combining items based on patterns carved in CRUXITE DOWELS.
- The Cruxtruder produces CRUXITE DOWELS, in addition to ejecting an entity called a Kernelsprite.
- The Totem Lathe carves CRUXITE DOWELS for use in the Alchemiter.
- The Pre-Punched Card contains a copy of an object which must be either destroyed or consumed to enter The Medium. It is plugged into the Totem Lathe along with a Cruxite Dowel to produce an appropriately patterned Cruxite Dowel for the Alchemiter.
- The Kernelsprite is an important game mechanism that should be addressed before entering The Medium. It must be Prototyped (combined) with another object or creature, whereupon it will take that object (or individual's) form and traits. This influences the powers and abilities of enemies within Sburb, but is vital to a successful session.
The deployment and use of these items is always slightly different for each player, and often referred to as "The Entry Test". The object produced by using this sequence is always personalized to the player, and must be destroyed in some way to achieve entry into The Medium as stated before.
From the perspective of someone who has just entered The Medium, it is merely their prior location (usually their home)… perched upon a great rock in the middle of a black void.
From here, the Server Player must begin building the Client Player's home towards the Seven Gates that have formed over the top of their home, as enemies (primarily Imps and Ogres) begin to spawn in mass quantities and threaten to overwhelm the Client Player. The goal is for the Client Player to enter the First Gate, at which point the rapid spawning of enemies ceases and the player enters their Land.
Each Land is a personalized planet composed primarily of two traits (for example, The Land of Grit and Lamps or The Land of Spires and Frogs) populated with either friendly amphibian or reptilian entities called Consorts.
These Lands are contained within the Incipisphere. Each session has a number of Lands equal to the number of players who successfully enter The Medium, in addition to Skaia, and the planets Prospit, and Derse.
Game Concepts
There are a variety of terms and game concepts unique to and consistent across all sessions of Sburb. As many as possible will be collected here for your perusal.
Echeladder
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| A visual of the Echeladder |
The Echeladder is, in essence, an enhancement system for those playing the game. It is a leveling system, similar to those found in any RPG, and each level is a rung on the ladder.
Each additional rung on the echeladder grants the player substantial growth of their physical attributes, on top of whatever natural capabilities they had at the beginning of the game.
It also has a wide array of customized titles laid out for each player, most of which are humorous in nature. ("Boy Skylark", "Ectobiology Babysitter".)
Whereas most RPGs only award experience for engaging in physical combat, ascending the echeladder may be accomplished by overcoming any conceivable task with some measure of difficulty inherent to it. This may be as simple as solving a puzzle, or it may indeed come from defeating a powerful enemy.
In addition to making the player stronger with every rung, ascending the echeladder gives the player Boondollars (see below) and additional capacity to store Grist (see below).
God Tier
God Tier refers to an additional echeladder that players may scale under special circumstances after reaching the top of the standard echeladder. It is highly powerful, and requires exceptional circumstances to achieve. It comes with a number of stock benefits that everyone who achieves it receives.
- Conditional Immortality. In canon, the condition was a Heroic or Just Death. For Multiverse Crisis MUSH's purposes, an acceptable death for somebody who has achieved God Tier must simply not be UNINTERESTING OR ANTICLIMACTIC. If this condition is not fulfilled, the God will perish temporarily and then revive over a period of time proportionate to the severity of their death.
- The power of flight.
- A "God Tier" outfit, which may be changed to other outfits at will. Other cosmetic details may also occur, such as Trolls receiving butterfly wings. Such details are usually not "functional", and are not required (for example) for flight.
- A broad increase in personal combat ability and power over their Aspect (see classes and Aspects, below).
- An additional echeladder to scale. This is largely superfluous however, as only extremely large accomplishments advance a God Tier player, and their powers are already arbitrarily powerful.
Sylladex
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| A visual of a Sylladex, with two full and two empty cards |
A form of inventory system that allows the storage of items in Captchalogue Cards. Each Captchalogue Card has a captcha code on the back, which is used to interact with a number of other systems of Sburb.
The number of items that may be stored is dependent on the number of captchalogue cards in the sylladex, but as they are easy to create copies of past a point, this is typically not an especially limiting factor.
Storing an item in a Sylladex is "captchaloguing" that item. So for example, if VRUASA TELASH captchalogues a magazine, it means he's putting it in his sylladex for later retrieval.
In general, only relatively small items (that might be physically carried) can be stored in a sylladex, but certain forms of sylladex may bypass this limit or have a higher weight/mass limit.
Fetch Modus
The means by which an individual may retrieve items from their Sylladex. Most people have a unique form of Fetch Modus, but a wide variety of them are available. Among the most common is the STACK MODUS, from which the user may only retrieve the topmost item in the "Stack". Other Fetch Modi include the Hash Map Modus, Queue Modus, the Tree Modus, and many more.
Most Fetch Modi are at least mildly inconvenient to use in their own unique way, but tend to be well-suited to the person who is using them. There exists a small sub-set of Fetch Modi that are convenient and easy to use, and might even have expanded weight capacity. Among these extremely rare Master Fetch Modi are the Array Modus and Wallet Modus. But they are extremely rare, and prohibitively expensive on the occasion that they are found for sale.
Strife Deck
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| A visual of Kind Abstrata |
Another function of the Sylladex is to provide quick and easy access to a weapon of the user's choice.
Each Sylladex comes with a single Strife Card, which must be allocated with a particular family of weapon called a Kind Abstrata. For example, Hammerkind, Crowbarkind, etc.
Once the Kind Abstrata has been allocated to a particular <something>kind, the decision is permanent. On the upside, it appears to grant the Sylladex's owner the ability to use any form of the <something>kind with great skill, escalating in proportion to how far they have ascended on the Echeladder (see above).
It also allows instant retrieval of weapons of the chosen kind that the user owns, without needing to muck about with the fetch modus.
It is possible to have a variable Kind Abstrata, or even multiple Kind Abstrata if the user finds new Strife Cards, but variable Kind Abstrata are rare, as are loose Strife Cards.
It is also possible to have a Kind Abstrata such as "Fistkind", which requires no weapon to be used. Exceptional circumstances may also lead to someone's Kind Abstrata changing.
For example, having a favored sword break might change the wielder's Kind Abstrata to 1/2 Bladekind where it was once Bladekind. This obviously leads to unusual weapon choices, wherein the wielder must break all of their would-be weapons before using them.
Boondollars
Boondollars are the currency used in Sburb. It can be found scattered around the game session, and may also be acquired by scaling the echeladder. Every rung places a number of boondollars in the player's Porkhollow, which is a virtual piggy bank. It may be spent in shops in a session of Sburb, and is required to purchase Fraymotifs, a form of special combat moves unique to each player.
Grist
Grist is the currency used by Server Players to build on to the Client Player's surroundings, and in particular to build his or her home up to the First Gate. It is also used with the Alchemiter to perform alchemy and produce new items for players.
It is dropped by enemies in quantities proportionate to the difficulty of the enemy. Rather than leaving behind a body, enemies that have been "killed" explode into a variety of types of Grist. Some types of Grist used in the creation of especially powerful items are not available until late game.
Phernalia Registry
The Phernalia Registry is a menu of deployable items available to a Server Player. Many of these items are free, and necessary for successful entry into the game. All of the items nested underneath the Phernalia Registry are deployables from this menu. A few of these items cost substantial amounts of grist, but the Alchemiter, Totem Lathe, and Cruxtruder are free.
Alchemiter
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| A basic Alchemiter |
A large device that is used in the creation of items from CRUXITE DOWELS, which are produced by the CRUXTRUDER (see below) and carved by the TOTEM LATHE (see below). If an unaltered CRUXITE DOWEL is placed upon it, it produces Perfectly Generic Objects, which are not of much active use.
In order to create items of use for an Alchemiter, one must use the PUNCH DESIGNIX (see below) combined with the Captcha Code of an item (see Sylladex, above) and a card from a Sylladex to make a PUNCHED CARD. The PUNCHED CARD is then inserted along with a CRUXITE DOWEL into the TOTEM LATHE, which carves a CRUXITE DOWEL into a shape that the ALCHEMITER may use to produce the desired item.
In order to combine two items, two PUNCHED CARDS are required to be overlaid across one another. Theoretically a copy of any item could be produced in this way, but very powerful items are incredibly expensive, possibly to the point of being unaffordable even in the event of indefinite grinding.
Using the Jumper Block Extension (see below) the process of alchemizing items may be streamlined considerably, and the separate items that have been deployed (see the list below) become increasingly obsolete.
Jumper Block Extension
An add-on for the alchemiter. It must be used in conjunction with the Punch Card Shunt, but provides many possibly upgrades for the alchemiter.
Punch Card Shunt
An add-on for the Jumper Block Extension. Attaching one to a Jumper Block which is plugged into an Alchemiter, and inserting a Punched Card in it, will produce a modified alchemiter. It can dramatically upgrade the alchemiter, or it can turn it into a worthless pile of crap. Results vary based on what kind of card is used on it.
Holopad
An add-on for the Alchemiter. When attached to the Alchemiter, it allows players to preview the items that will result from their item combinations.
Totem Lathe
A piece of machinery used for carving CRUXITE DOWELS using PUNCHED CARDS. By inserting a PUNCHED CARD or combination thereof, along with a single Cruxite Dowel from the Crux Truder. It must be used to create the Cruxite Artifact by which someone must enter The Medium as a part of the "Entry Test".
Cruxtruder
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| The Cruxtruder |
The first item that many Sburb players have deployed. Upon opening it, the Kernelsprite is ejected and a countdown begins on a display on the side.
This countdown signals the approach of the asteroid apocalypse which inevitably destroys the player's planet.
The player must enter The Medium before the timer reaches 0.
The Cruxtruder also produces an infinite amount of CRUXITE DOWELS, cylindrical objects that are used in the process of alchemy.
They must be carved using the TOTEM LATHE to be useful, however.
Sprite
The Kernelsprite appears upon activation of the CRUXTRUDER. Initially it is little more than a glowing sphere with a spirograph in the middle, with a color that is variable based upon the player.
This entity is largely useless but attempts to communicate (poorly) with the player, who is intended to combine an object or entity with it. This is called Prototyping, and it is vital that it be done at least once prior to entry into The Medium.
Prototyping can be done twice, but it is inadvisable to do more than once before entering The Medium. Upon entering The Medium, the Kernel portion of the Sprite departs and incorporates itself into information towers on Derse and Prospit, customizing the many enemies of Sburb with the form and abilities of whatever happened to be prototyped.
This is done at least once for every player who prototypes a kernelsprite before entering The Medium, and can result in incredibly difficult enemies appearing in the game. Prototyping a second time is optional.
Following entry into The Medium, and sometimes for a short while before that, the Sprite begins to act in a mentor capacity.
It is compelled to deliver advice in the form of riddles, but all the same at least tries to be helpful, unless it is prototyped with something inherently unhelpful.
In the event that a Sprite is prototyped with a deceased love one (or someone who ignores the sprite functions that try to force them to be cagey), it often has more helpful impulses than is ordinary, and may even help players more than usual. Such a sprite is extremely potent, as sprites have significant combat power when forced to engage.
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| The Punch Designix |
Punch Designix
Ordinarily deployed only after entering The Medium, the Punch Designix is the primary means by which a player creates new equipment.
By entering the captcha code on the back of a captchalogue card into the Punch Designix and placing the card in the machine, a Punched Card is produced.
This allows the card to be used in the Totem Lathe, individually or stacked with another Punched Card. In this way it is possible to combine two items together, and this can result in incredibly powerful equipment.
It can also result in absolutely worthless equipment, depending on what is combined with what. It is possible to create negative-cost items that are of such low quality no one ever would want to use them by combining an item with a corrupting factor of incredibly low quality. For example, a Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff Comic.
Some items have Captcha Codes that are unreadable, which can only be read using the incredibly expensive Intellibeam Laserstation.
This item, much like the individual Cruxtruder and Totem Lathe, may be rendered obsolete through fully upgrading an Alchemiter to have all of these features itself.
GristTorrent CD
A CD in the Phernalia Registry that may be deployed for a small amount of build grist. It contains a program that, when installed on a computer, allows the player that installed it to steal Grist from other players. It displays the amount of grist available to each player. It also contains a feature called "Grist Gutter", which collects all overflow grist (each player can only carry so much depending on how far they've advanced) and re-distributes it over time.
Advanced Concepts
The concepts explained in "Game Concepts" are the more simple and straightforward concepts of Homestuck. What is found here is less so, though for the most part is still reasonably easy to keep up with. All the same, some of what is discussed here relates to the endgame of a session of Sburb.
Since many of the players of the TP here do not know how Sburb works, and a part of the fun is discovering it, this article will not be explaining some of the endgame concepts until they have been discovered on the MUSH itself.
The Incipisphere
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| A Visual of an Incipisphere |
For most practical purposes, an Incipisphere is the "universe" in which a Session of Sburb takes place.
While each session technically maintains some connection to the universe of the planet from which it was launched, from the perspective of the players this is the only universe that matters, since it is where they exist.
The "space" between locations in the Incipisphere is called The Medium, and at the center of the Incipisphere is Skaia (see below). Skaia is immediately orbited by the Light Kingdom of Prospit (see below), and the Dark Kingdom of Derse (see below) exists just outside of the Veil.
Each player that enters a session also has a planet called a Land generated for them, which constitutes the early stages of a session of Sburb.
Each of these Lands orbits Skaia at a distance. The boundaries of the Incipisphere end a short distance "out" from the planets, just beyond a ring of asteroids called The Veil, which mark the border of the Incipisphere.
Beyond The Veil lies the Furthest Ring, a span of infinite space that occupies the cracks between universes and is best avoided. It is occupied primarily by cosmic horrors, and the breakdown of physics there renders it almost impossible to navigate.
The Lands
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| LOWAS, an example of a Land |
A Land is a planet generated by Sburb. Every Incipisphere has a number of Lands equivalent to the number of players in the session, all of which orbit Skaia at the edge of the Incipisphere.
Each Land is primarily composed of two landscape features or themes, which define the title of the Land. For example, the Land of Wind and Shade, the Land of Grit and Lamps, the Land of Mirrors and Portraits, the Land of Fashion and Frogs. Every session of Sburb has at least one Land that involves Frogs, overriding any other secondary features that the Land might otherwise have had.
Typically, the features of the Lands are determined by the overall personality of the player to which they belong. Occasionally they also hint at the Mythological Role (see below) the player belongs to. All Lands are populated by a race of amphibian or reptilian Consorts, which are friendly to the player and often have legends heralding their arrival. More details on Consorts may be found below.
The purpose of each Land is an early introduction to the game for each player, which typically also encourages great personal growth in the process. It is comparable to the first disc of a video game, complete with a final boss known as a Denizen (see below for more details). Each Land is also plagued by a wide variety of problems that the player associated with that Land is expected to correct over the course of their journey.
This inevitably leads them to confronting their Denizen at the end of their Land Quests.
Consorts
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| Several different species of Consort |
Consorts are a race of quest-giving amphibians and/or reptiles that populate each Land. Each Land in a Session is assigned only a single variety of Consort, but they all share a number of similarities.
- Firstly, they are dumber than a box of rocks.
- Secondly, they are friendly NPCs meant to help the player along on their journey.
- Thirdly, they typically have legends of the player as a mythical hero, who will one day come to save the Land.
- Fourthly, they have annoying speech patterns interspersed with, "Thip thip!", or "Nak nak!" or, "Glubglub!", etc.
- Fifth and finally, they run most of the shops in Sburb's various Lands.
They are extremely impressionable and will follow the leads of players and, in the context of Multiverse Crisis MUSH, the external influence of non-players assisting in the progress of Sessions.
In general they are usually not combatants, but have an extremely high health value, and so are almost impossible to kill without unreasonable levels of effort in the doing. Exceptions may apply in Lands with mechanics focused on warfare of some kind.
In some sessions, it is possible for a Land to be without Consorts, or for the Consorts to have all died out long ago. This is unusual and ordinarily only happens when it is a major theme of the land, or in a session that is exceptionally doomed.
Denizens
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| Denizen Browser Icons |
Each Land (see above) is engaged in a conflict against a powerful entity called a Denizen. They begin each Session of Sburb dormant, awakening (officially) only when the Denizen Palace of the relevant Land is intruded upon.
Unofficially, Denizens only pretend to sleep. They cannot be taken by surprise in their sleep, or any such nonsense.
In addition, they are responsible for the activities of the Underlings of each Land, the hostile NPCs (such as Imps) that are scattered throughout the Land causing trouble and impeding the progress of players.
While there are a wide variety of Denizens, they are not particularly variable on the whole. For the most part, there is only a single Denizen associated with every elemental Aspect (see mythological roles, below). Though they typically follow Greek mythological figures, there are rare Denizens that violate both the theme of greek mythology, and the connection to player Aspects.
One such Denizen is Yaldabaoth, who only appears in a session to oppose extremely exceptional warriors. Other unusual Denizens also exist, and occasionally a Denizen will be assigned to a player of a different Aspect that is usual.
As an example, Hephaestus is the Denizen usually associated with Time Aspect players, and Echidna is the Denizen usually associated with Space Aspect players.
Once a player has reached the end of their Land quests and passed through the Seventh Gate, they confront their Denizen. Details of encounters with Denizens are sparse and irregular. In some circumstances it is a boss fight that concludes the early game for the player in question, and nothing more.
In other cases, the Denizen challenge is different, and may not even involve slaying the Denizen. Usually this only occurs in the case of players with special roles in a session, like players of Time and Space. It may also occur when a session becomes unwinnable, in which case any Denizen may offer their player The Choice.
The Choice is direct help or extremely good advice that will aid the players in fixing their session, but typically comes at a high price… though that high price may aid the players in some way, as well.
Physically, Denizens are enormous beyond description, and those that must be fought are indescribably powerful.
Derse & Prospit
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| Derse Left, Prospit Right |
Derse and Prospit are a pair of planets chained to their moons, and represent the only other planetary bodies in any Incipisphere apart from the Lands and Skaia itself.
They are separated into Light and Dark Kingdoms, with Derse representing the Dark, and Prospit representing the Light.
Their inhabitants are humanoid creatures with black or white carapaces, and each of the twin Kingdoms have a unique role in every Session.
The Kingdom of Derse is an obsidian planet that resides just outside of The Veil.
It is not quite within the Furthest Ring, but is close enough that those who dwell within may occasionally gaze into the skies of Derse and behold the prophecies of the Noble Circle of Horrorterrors. Although they are Eldritch Horrors, they are usually inclined towards some measure of manipulative helpfulness.
Derse is an enemy of Skaia (see below), and stands in opposition to Prospit, which stands as its defender. But Derse is destined to win the battle between Light and Darkness, and to claim the power to destroy Skaia.
It is this very apocalyptic event that players are meant to stop.
The Kingdom of Prospit is a golden planet that orbits close to Skaia, the heart of every Incipisphere. On occasion it passes close enough to Skaia that the clouds of Skaia may be viewed, in which future events may be seen.
They are defenders of Skaia, but are predestined to be defeated by Derse.
Several broadcasting towers exist, divided between Derse and Prospit, which receive the information transmitted by the Kernelsprite at the beginning of the game.
It is also here where each player's Dream Self (see below) resides, at least initially.
King, Queen, and Agents
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| The Black King |
Both Prospit and Derse are ruled and managed by a race of humanoid entities, informally known as Carapacians. They are easily identified by the black or white carapace that constitutes their skin.
Typically, white carapacians are Prospitians, and black carapacians are Dersites. Their general appearance lends the notion of Chess Pieces, and there is always a specific set of influential Carapacians in each Session.
The highest of these are the Queens, who oversee and rule their respective Kingdoms from their palaces. The next step down are the Kings, who do battle on The Battlefield (see below).
Beneath that are the Agents, who are headed by the Archagent. Rumors suggest that agents of Prospit are bugged and spend most of their time dancing in Prospitian clubs.
The Agents of Derse often play the role of antagonists in Sburb, headed by the Archagent, a carapacian by the name of Jack Noir. His fellow agents, and high-end adversaries within the game, are usually the Draconian Dignitary, the Courtyard Droll, and the Hegemonic Brute.
Their equivalents within Prospit are unknown, and they may be talked into allying themselves with the players under certain circumstances. It might even be their idea, in some sessions.
There are other constants in the session, including the Warweary Veteran, and a number of other, lesser Agents who sometimes do not become relevant to the session at large.
The Parcel Mistress of Prospit occasionally becomes a great force of change within the session, depending on how much interaction she has with the players, but may also remain a largely irrelevant background entity.
Players be warned, antagonizing the Parcel Mistress or impeding the delivery of the mail is incredibly inadvisable. She is deceptively powerful for a game abstraction devoted to parcel delivery, and has been known to defeat much more powerful agents in the pursuit of her duties.
Dream Selves
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| A Derse Dreamer |
Dream Selves are secondary bodies, which each player of a Session has at least one of. Players occupy the body of their dream self when they go to sleep in their original body, but ordinarily the Dream Self is asleep at the beginning of a session.
Awakening a dream self usually requires experiencing a significant revelation of some sort, and is particularly likely to be triggered by facing something unpleasant that the player had been avoiding. It is possible to awaken a Dream Self before the beginning of a Session, in which case the player will have lived a dual existence for a significant portion of their life.
Certain elements within the Mythological Roles (see below) that a player is assigned will have special abilities concerning their Dream Self. Of particular note is Heroes of Heart, who are simultaneously awake in both their bodies and their dream selves.
The default location of a player's dream self is their bedroom on the moon of Derse or Prospit. Usually the players of a session are divided roughly evenly between the two planets, though it is possible for there to be an imbalance of dream selves between the planets.
Dream Selves are notable for having a number of traits that their player's main body usually does not. They typically take the form of an idealized version of the player, with physical deformities and maladies corrected.
As such, someone with a spinal injury would most likely regain the ability to walk while occupying their Dream Self. Note however that an exceptionally realistic individual, or someone who likes being physically impaired in some way, will retain those traits even in idealized form.
They are also capable of flying, and have other slightly nebulous powers akin to the strange and arbitrary things that one may do while dreaming. Dream Selves are generally clad in either Gold or Purple pajamas depending on whether they come from Derse or Prospit.
In unusual circumstances it is possible for a player to have multiple Dream Selves, though exactly what causes this is unknown.
Usually, Dream Selves behave in a very flighty, irrational manner similar to someone who is asleep, which is fitting given what they are.
In an emergency, Dream Selves may act as a sort of Extra Life for a player whose main body has died, and dream selves are themselves capable of dying as well. Reaching the God Tiers (see above) typically required a living dream self.
Skaia & The Battlefield
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| Skaia |
Skaia is the planetary body that sits at the middle of every Incipisphere, orbited by the Lands, Prospit, and just outside of The Veil, even Derse.
The surface of the planet, prior to the game's beginning, is a large chessboard with Black and White locked in eternal stalemate.
When the game begins, each Prototyping brings it one step closer to becoming fully evolved into a planet of its own.
The surface of Skaia is known as The Battlefield, and it is the chief location of the Derse-Prospit War between Light and Darkness.
This is where the Black King and White King are typically found, engaged in battle with their opposite number.
Each Land's journey culminates in an arrival on The Battlefield, given enough time. Typically The Battlefield has a landscape very much like a massive chess board planet.
Because its significance is primarily in the end-game of a session of Sburb, this article will not be speaking of it much more for the time being.
Suffice to say though, that Skaia and The Battlefield both serve as more than the Incipisphere's sun.
Mythological Roles
A Mythological Role is a title that is comprised of two factors.
- Class, which defines the way in which the player interacts with the second factor.
- Aspect, which determines the overall theme of the player's abilities. It could be called an Elemental association of sorts.
There are twelve known Aspects, and twelve known Classes. The formal title of each player is Class of Aspect.
There are also two Master Classes known as Lord and Muse, which are more powerful than standard classes but incredibly rare. The circumstances in which they are assigned is murky.
Each player's Class and Aspect are determined long before a Session of Sburb begins, and influences their capabilities to varying extents during their lives leading up to the game. So for example, a Knight of Time might be very prone to quickness even prior to the game.
Certain Classes and Aspects do not have immediately obvious associations with their titles. For example, the Bard and Prince are highly destructive classes. The Prince class in particular means "Destroyer of Aspect", so a Prince of Hope would be a Destroyer of Hope. Correspondingly, the Light and Heart Aspects are associated with Luck and Soul/Identity.
This can make for some deceptively powerful Class/Aspect combinations that, at a cursory glance, appear to be harmless.
There is also some confusion as to the difference between certain classes, such as the Rogue and the Thief.
These differences are subtle, but provide entirely different experiences. A Rogue steals their Aspect for the benefit of others, in essence robbing from the rich to give to the poor. A Thief steals their Aspect for the benefit of themselves.
There is a certain level of overlap between certain Classes and certain Aspects. A Time player is, regardless of Class, highly likely to be possessed of certain qualities that are only found otherwise in a Seer. Likewise, though not all Void players are Rogues or Thieves, their very nature makes it highly likely that they will be able to go unnoticed if they so desire.
It can also produce exceedingly specialized classes, such as the Seer of Void, which would specialize in ferreting out information that has been hidden or destroyed.
Of particular note is that most successful sessions of Sburb have both a Time player and a Space player, and that certain classes are gender-specific. There are also two Master classes, the Lord and the Muse, which only rarely occur and incorporate many if not most of the features of any other hero of their Aspect.
Misc. Setting Concepts
Trolls
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| Trolls (Left to Right: Sollux, Kanaya, Terezi, Gamzee, Karkat) |
Trolls are a race of aliens from the planet Alternia, which exists in a universe chronologically preceding the creation of Earth and the universe in which it exists. They are humanoid, and very similar in appearance to humans, though there are distinct differences.
Trolls have gray skin, yellow sclera, with grey or black irises that fill in with the pigment of their blood as they age. Their teeth tend to be pointed and fang-like, growing in a variety of patterns that are sometimes inconvenient for speaking. They also have horns with a candy corn coloration, that come in a variety of shapes and sizes, black hair, black or grey lips, and yellow fingernails.
They are a nocturnal species, as Alternia's sun is so bright that it burns and blinds most Trolls who go out during daytime, and a variety of other lethal hazards roam the planet during the day. Their culture is highly violent and barbaric, focusing on a "Survival of the Fittest" mindset, and those who are unwilling or unable to be productive members of society are culled at an early age as weaklings.
Only the strongest make it to adolescence or adulthood, and even then random culling for trivial reasons does occur just to keep everyone on their toes.
Trolls are divided into blood castes which determine their social standing and abilities. This is called the "hemospectrum", and the closer one's blood color is to Fuschia on the scale, the closer a Troll is to royalty.
This influences a Troll's physical and psychic abilities, lifespan, as well as their mental stability — or lack thereof.
Instant Messaging
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| Pesterchum, an IM Client |
While not derived from Sburb, a number of instant messenger clients appear throughout Homestuck, two of which are heavily used in Multiverse Crisis MUSH's Homestuck theme listings.
The first of these, and also the only one publicly available, is Pesterchum. Screen names are called Chumhandles and are usually composed of two words, with only one uppercase letter in them. For example, profoundBadness. They also have color assigned to them, which is usually a color associated with the user in some significant way. (Dominant clothing color, favorite color, etc.)
This forms a shorthand version of the handle used in most interactions, derived from the first letter and the only uppercase letter permitted.
In profoundBadness's case, that is PB. The +group called Session 412 does not use radio, but instead uses a Memo, a sort of permanent forum chat room for its +gradio. Each user has a title that is their pesterchum handle.
Other clients exist, but the other one used at MCM is Trollian, which was used by internet users on Alternia.
It also has the ability to contact people in different timeframes than the present, allowing for considerable Time Shenanigans. Because of this, Trollian is a specific +power entry and may not be used freely like pesterchum.
Chat Quirks
Chat quirks are the unique way in which characters in Homestuck communicate. These are primarily conveyed through the aforementioned IM services. While these are typically represented only in limited doses in text-based chat on the MUSH, such as through specialized +gradio, they do usually represent the way the character speaks in person as well. Note that simply typing normally can also be a text quirk! Most characters in Homestuck don't.
Examples of on-MUSH chat quirks:
- Arthur Lowell emphasizes words for no particular reason. For example: <J-IC-Moderated> Arthur Lowell says, "Talkin' about ALCHEMY. BELATEDLY, VRU, I'm gonna do some RECYCLING, yeah, it's just a HASSLE. A lot easier back during GRISTMAS when it was literally SNOWING GRIST."
- Vruasa Telash stresses the letter A and AT, represented as @. For example (excerpt from a bbpost): The post reads: Bitch used mind powers to fuck with @rthur's br@in, so we extern@lized her inn@rds. This whole mess h@s something to do with the Confeder@cy so we b@iled @fter resolving @rthur's grudge. Some other god-like l@dy finished this "C@rl@" off @fter we left her to rot.
