@griseousaconite

Damara was put in the role of a servant because witches tend to get caught up with powerful forces with power over their aspect, but maids specifically gain more control over their aspect the more powerful they get. They serve their aspect but eventually realize the power that they have over it to keep it functional, sort've like how if a rich person's maid suddenly quit their house would just fall to shambles. Handmaid never had any potential to gain power over time the way Aradia did.

I'm not really sure dependency is a term that makes more sense because it kind've has different implications, like the maid feels like they rely on whatever represents their aspect, rather than obeying or being bound by it's will for some reason or another.

Aradia was serving the will of the dead voices around her because their whispers of an impending apocalypse led her to believe nothing else mattered other than doing what they told her. The fact she's obeying them is what's significant to the story and her character in the beginning. Jane was kinda technically dependent on HIC just because her family worked for her, but the fact she was raised and groomed into acting out HIC's will has a lot more narrative significance and is the reason that she was dependent on her in the first place.

So the new blurb I'll be using for maids is "Maid: Someone who mainly repairs and maintains their aspect. It’s also a pun, as they are made of their aspect, which lets them lend (or “serve” to fit in with the maid theming) it to others when they need help. They start out in servitude towards their aspect in some way or another, either willingly obeying a force that represents it or forcibly bound by that force, but will gain more and more complete control over it the more powerful they become, serving their aspect on their own terms."