I talked about this briefly on twitter but a handful of the characters in friendsim have “canon” music that we don’t use because it doesn’t fit the mood of the route. A great example is Konyll’s music.
In Hiveswap Act 2 there is a significant interaction with her that I won’t spoil, but it involves Azdaja as well. When you overlap their two songs, it becomes a full melody. (kind of like their trollcall card, two sides of one coin etc)
With characters like Remele, who have tracks made for them for Friendsim, it follows what I’ve been referring to as the established “Musical Canon” in that the instrumentation choices are largely based on blood caste. Homestuck has a tradition of doing this whether it wanted to or not a lot of the time and I spent a great deal of time reverse engineering the existing canon to make hiveswap feel like it fit. A good example of this is something like Tagora’s and other tealbloods tracks being the only ones allowed to use harpsichord. “But what about Tri-” shh!
anyway the established musical canon in hiveswap is something like: Burgundy: Synths/Percussion Brown: Trumpet/Horns/Brass Yellow: Chiptune ???: ???? Olive: Mallets Jade: Harps/Bells + Airy/Ethereal Sounds Teal: Harpsichord Cerulean: they just… steal other castes instruments so its complicated to explain. Indigo: Overwrought and Orchestral Purple: Honks lmao Violet: At this point they are so individual that each one has its own musical motif Fuchsia: Whatever they want.
none of these are hard rules so those of you out there doing fantroll stuff can just do whatever you want, this is just what we came up with.
Named after two flightless things with wings, but he’s Derse and Mind. What’s this guy’s deal..?
The desire for flight parses to me as a Breath motif, which would be the Aspect all bronzebloods are drawn to by their caste if @wakraya ‘s Troll Sign Caste theory is correct.
Dammek himself exhibits some strong Breath imagery despite being Bloodbound–the hoverpad he steals from Xefros has a breath blue beam, for example.
So with the reveal of the Expanded Zodiac and the explanations of the Aspect Players, people have been wondering how come Xefros is a Rage Player apparently. There’s things fitting his Character Arc and his possible Growth that indicate he could definitely lean towards Rage, however, the references to Time are still there.
Then it dawned on me.
These two symbols? The first is Ariborn, the second, Libries. Now why is this important? Because the names are, obviously, combinations of the names of the True Symbols.
Within every Caste, individuals may be Prospit or Derse and any Aspect as needed, however, there are True symbols. The Human Zodiac Symbols, the Symbols of the Beta Trolls and their Ancestors, of the Dancestors. These specifically match their Prospit Moon and Aspect as expected. And they are ‘True’ symbols, that is to say, there’s some significance to them.
This is because everything that shares any part of the Symbols’ Root is Bound to its Aspect as well. With Libries, it’s evident- -RIES at the end comes from Aries, making it a combination of ‘Libra’ and ‘Aries’. And… That’s exactly the thing. Libra is within the symbol’s root as well. In Xefros’ case? -IBORN at the end states Derse and Rage, but AR- at the beginning denotes its connection to Aries.
The castes are not limited to the Aspect of their True Symbol, however, they still seem to be partially Bound to this Aspect. That is to say, while each specific individual will have their own leanings and convictions and Aspect, their Caste will also determine either a facet of them or what Society expects from them. Not all Rustbloods are Time Players- But by being Rustbloods, they’re tied to Aries inseparably, and thus, tied to Time in some way.
This is why Xefros seemed like a Time Player but is actually a Rage Player- At the beginning of Hiveswap he’s being contained, oppressed by Dammek’s attitude and the Society around him, not letting him grow. And thus the only thing that showed through was the natural Time leaning all Rustbloods have. Now though, Joey is giving him more confidence and making him believe in himself, and you better believe this Rust boy isn’t going to be Time-Bound anymore, and it’s going to start Serving some Rage.
I could have sworn I reblogged this ages ago when it was posted but it seems…not???
Anyway, consider this the basis for all my Classpect speculation going into Hiveswap: Act 2. I’m currently of the opinion Wak hit it out of the park, and the reading seems to hold well with both Xefros and Dammek in Hiveswap Act 1.
Not sure at all that it’s true, but I am very sure it’s interesting. I expect we’ll know for sure once we get a chance to meet all these dang new troll kids :B
Flying through Storytelling 