Hi there! I just finished watching your HSE: The Waking World video (great job btw!), and I was wondering if you had any thoughts on the identities of the other Denizens? We don’t know anything about those that are usually assigned to heroes of Blood, Doom, Mind, and Rage — also, Hope and Heart, since I don’t think Yaldabaoth and Abraxas are the standard denizens for those aspects.

Given how the denizens usually factor into the characters’ arcs in various ways, I’ve come to believe its possible to sorta reverse engineer at least some of the denizens of the characters we don’t know.

The ur-example here is Gamzee, who is so heavily linked to Dionysus I can’t really see another option for him.

Unless he has Yaldabaoth, which is possible since

A) Part of Dionysus’ mythology that links to Gamzee involves becoming one with Zeus, just as Gamzee becomes part of LE, and Homestuck’s mythology generally seems to treat Yaldabaoth as a symbol Zeus, Ra, and YHWH at once depending on the roles Caliborn/Dirk (rly Bro and AR here)/LE are playing at the time.

B) It seems at least possible that Yaldabaoth “replaces” the standard Denizen a player might have, yeah. (To be honest though, I’m not sure that Denizens are precisely aspect specific–my views on Denizens generally borrow a lot from @dahniwitchoflight, her conjecture on that particular system makes the most sense to me right now.)

C) Gamzee obviously qualifies for the “natural born warrior” thing. So does Equius, but due to Gamzee’s dominance I tend to assume he’s likelier to have Yaldabaoth.
Incidentally, if Equius doesn’t have Yaldabaoth, I’ve speculated he might have Orpheus, since Orpheus is at least in some places understood as a version of Dionysus, and Equius’ story seems to have some parallels to his.

Looking at canon this way it also becomes a solid guess that Terezi’s denizen was Themis, since again she’s blatantly enmeshed in her mythology.

That gives us at least one reasonably fitting denizen for Rage and Mind–Dionysus and Themis, respectively. As for Doom, I haven’t identified a particular mythological figure Sollux or Mituna seem based off other than the obvious–the Gemini twins, Castor and Pollux. But since there’s two there, I’m not sure how that’d translate to a Denizen–a dual denizen with two names would be fitting enough, I suppose. It’s also possible I’m missing some other mythological references built into the Captors, so who knows.

Don’t have anything to go off for Blood, though. Both Kankri and Karkat are fully enmeshed in Jesus imagery, all of which ties directly into Abraxas, so they don’t have any outside mythological ties to let us speculate into their Aspect’s “corresponding Denizen” specifically, if indeed such a thing exists. I’ve thought for a long time that YHWH would be a fitting match for Blood, as a “God of the covenant”. But that’s just my long-held fan preference, not any kind of serious speculation based on canon.

In this episode, we cover the mechanics behind each Sburb player’s individualized planet, the Lands. We explore the nature of their Consorts, and dive deep into the story-spanning importance of the Denizens as both game mechanics and mythological symbols.

Don’t worry if this one’s a little overwhelming! I’m still learning how to talk about this stuff, and I’ll definitely be covering the same material in different ways over time. Next episode will have us looking over Xefros’ complex and interesting Classpect. Thanks for watching, and please feel free to leave your thoughts!

More writing on Homestuck’s lore:

More on Gnosticism, Abraxas, and Yaldabaoth:
https://medium.com/@RoseOfNobility/pa…

More on Caliborn:
https://medium.com/@RoseOfNobility/pa…

You can support this project at:
https://www.patreon.com/optimisticDue…
https://liberapay.com/optimisticDuelist/

https://ko-fi.com/U7U16EJZ

Or follow us on social media!:
https://revolutionaryduelist.tumblr.com

https://twitter.com/RoseOfNobility

https://www.facebook.com/HomestuckExp…

Find the Music on Bandcamp!

“Buy NAK Sell DOOF”, https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/…
From “Genesis Frog,” by Alexander Rosetti.
Track Art By: Marina at  http://sylladexter.tumblr.com/

“Stoke the Forge” https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/…
From “Genesis Frog,” by Alexander Rosetti.
Track Art By: Marina at http://sylladexter.tumblr.com/

“Bilious” https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/…
From “Genesis Frog,” by Alexander Rosetti.
Track Art By: Rikuru at quipster-rikuru.tumblr.com

Intro music is “Nemuro Kinenkan”, from Revolutionary Girl Utena: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8luvp

When Davesprite brings Jadesprite the Deringer during the reckoning, he mentions that Hephaestus offered to either fix the sword or something else. At the time I think we all assumed the ‘other thing’ was Davesprite’s wing, but since we later learn those grow back on their own, a big question continues to hang over what the other repair job might have been. Any thoughts?

No, I pretty much always assumed it was referring to Davesprite himself. Whether they grow back on their own or not isn’t super relevant, I don’t think–the point is Davesprite was in pain and really hurt and chose to prioritize the session over himself. There’s a lot of questions to answer about Homestuck, but I never considered this one of them, tbh.