The Sylph is a Knowledge Class - [Classpecting Essay]

INTRODUCTION

This week, Andrew Hussie unveiled the first half of the Beforan Ancestors. Among them, one caught my eye, The Gardener.

Kanaya - The Gardener

Tends to the gardens of the higher castes, and sculpts topiary into shapes which foreshadow unfathomable future events in other universes. Nobody has any idea what she's doing with these bushes, but think she's cooking anyway.

This, is really weird! Why can Kanaya see the future? You'd expect the knowledge classes - Mage and Seer, IE Sollux and Terezi - to be doing something like this. Not Kanaya. So what gives?

This led me down a rabbithole of classpecting. I am proposing only one change: Seer/Sylph rather than Seer/Mage as the knowledge pair.

So - let's get to Kanayaing.

PART 1 - Kanaya Knows A Lot

Kanaya knows quite a lot pre-hivebend - she is awake on Prospit and can see its clouds, is contacted by Doc Scratch and - most importantly here - regularly reads Rose's GameFaqs. She's the troll with the most amount of Sburb sources, even more than Terezi or Sollux.

Even more interestingly, Rose's walkthrough is indirectly Kanaya's creation. Kanaya would breed the frog that would contain Rose and her creation of the GameFaqs. If you consider a Sylph as a knowledge class, then a Sylph of Space would gain insigt from what she creates - and her reading of Rose's guide does count as her learning from her creation. We can see this theme also within Beforan Kanaya - she sculpts hedges as her form of prophecy. In the creation of art, she gains insight and creates prophecies of future timelines that are yet to be created.

Also notably - Kanaya also helped Rose with writing the book compiling information during the meteor trip (the same that would later get to be on Calliope's hands). If a Sylph is also a knowledge class, then her involvement makes more sense than beyond merely helping her girlfriend out.

PART 2 - Aranea's A Sylph Too Guys Remember That

This is where things get weird.

Aranea cannot stop talking and with it, delivering information everywhere. She's the Beforan troll that gives most exposition and information, even more than Kankri the Seer or Meulin the Mage.

The traditional reason for that is that she's a Light player, and Light is associated with Knowledge. But is that true? Let's refer to the text.

When it comes to things like this, I like to refer to this document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N9KSmsibqZXDmWCdWQN1Uvvv7gzT6vy7dhWlGmjfgAU/edit?usp=drivesdk

It features everything we de-facto know about the aspects and classes, with sources to boot. It's a lot less than you'd imagine.

About the Light aspect, it has not much to say:

-> It has the Extended Zodiac, which is all about Light = Knowledge

-> Hussie's formspring, where he explains a Thief of Light steals luck while a Seer of Light reads fortunes

-> Floral's author commentary, saying "Light empowers it’s players, makes them believe they have the tools to control outcomes"

-> Aradiabot in BC page 666 - "light players define themselves by their direct acti0ns and understanding"

This is weird.

The only explicit source we have of Light being tied with knowledge is the ever-criticised Extended Zodiac quiz. Everything else ties Light to be more connected to narrative relevance, narrative agency and how they see the world rather than objective knowledge of the facts. Aradiabot's phrase about how they define themselves by their understandings also is weird - it's not about how they understand the world, but about what they do with the information they have, like Hope.

So why did the fandom latch so hard onto Light = Knowledge?

One, the Extended Zodiac, But also, in the text, both Aranea and Rose are extremely knowledge-oriented. I am here to provide a counter-theory - Aranea knows so much not because she's a Light player, but because she's a Sylph.

Think of Vriska. Has she ever been particularly knowledge-focused? She is definitely about the narrative spotlight, and definitely about luck, but not about information. Her Beforan design - the Lamplady - also has nothing to do with information, only with luck.

Vriska does gain a powerful information artifact - the Magic Cue Ball. However, she does so by inheriting it from her ancestor: Mindfang, who is a Sylph! She also has used it extensively as well - page 005657 (not yet on the website as the rerelease hasn't catched up yet). She uses her knowledge of the fortune to gain advantages - much like Rose, the other person who used the cue balls the most, did. Vriska would later inherit the cue ball and use it, but in a way that is more reminiscent of her attempts at imitating her ancestor than of her actual classpecting.

PART 3 - Tying Loose Ends

This paints a more complete picture of everything. Let's look at all 4 Sylphs we have:

-> Beforus Kanaya: Uses creation (Space) to learn of the future (Knowledge)

-> Beforus Aranea: Knows the most of the big picture than anyone else in her session, even more than the Seer and Mage

-> Alternia Aranea: Wields the Magic Cue Ball to outsmart and outmanouver everyone else, eventually passes it down to Vriska

-> Alternia Kanaya: Has the most sources of information than any other post-scratch troll, even those that are directly of her creation (information from the frog, Rose's Gamefaq)

All 4 of them are deeply tied to information in ways that other adjacent characters - Vriska and Porrim - simply aren't. Both Kanayas are associated with information, but her dancestor isnt. Vriska's ties to knowledge extends only to her tie to her ancestor, who is a Sylph.

However, we have some loose ends to tie first.

PART 3.1 - Sylph Healing

Sylphs are commonly associated with healing, entirely due to Aranea.

Let's return to the text - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N9KSmsibqZXDmWCdWQN1Uvvv7gzT6vy7dhWlGmjfgAU/edit?usp=drivesdk

Notice how every comment about Sylph healing comes from Aranea herself. This, too, connects to the Beforan Ancestors. Notice how Beforan Vriska was a healer - a nurse, in fact. Aranea's fixation on healing can be seen as comparable to Terezi's fixation on the law, Tavros' fixation on flight or Vriska's fixation on Mindfang. They're all reflections of their ancestors, things they did - Redglare was a Legislacerator, the Summoner could fly and Mindfang influenced all of Vriska's early characterization.

We could say the same about Aranea - her ancestor, Vriska, influences how she views herself and her powers, rather than her class making her do so. Think of it this way: If healing is a Sylph thing rather than an Aranea thing, do we ever see any of the other Sylphs heal?

Does Mindfang ever heal anyone? Certainly not. Does Kanaya heal anything? Calling the recreation of the troll race healing is a bit of a stretch. And pre-scratch Kanaya's profile has no mention about healing, only about botany (which is tied to creation and Space) and visions of the future (which I am linking to sylphs).

PART 3.2 - What about Mages?

That's an excellent question.

I have no idea.

We have only one Mage that is relevant - Sollux, that spends most of his time off-screen and we learn little about. We then have Meulin, who is even more narratively irrelevant than Sollux, and Beforan Sollux, whose design we also have not gotten yet.

I don't think I have nearly enough information to give an explanation on who Mage is coupled with after Sylph takes it off the Seer pairing. Maybe after we get Beforan Sollux we could take a look at it, but for now - not enough info. Sorry.

PART 3.3 - Is Sylph active, then?

Honestly? Yeah. Yeah, a sylph is an active class.

Beyond Canon, page 153: https://beyondcanon.com/story/153

JADE: what about kanaya?

JADE: hey

what about her, jade? she is a space player, it is true, but her powers are nothing compared to yours. for one, she isn't god tier, and for two, she is dead. a living dead, but dead nonetheless. and a sylph's specializations lie on a different end of the spectrum from my own. a witch is a far closer match.

Here, Alt!Calliope calls a Sylph to be on the other end of the spectrum from a Muse. We know a Muse is the most passive class, which would imply a Sylph to be active.

Furthermore, Kanaya is a very active player through the story - she fights Eridan twice, she figthts Gamzee in Game Over, she fights in Collide, and pre-Game Over she is urging Rose to get ready to fight, being proactive towards the fight. A similar thing can be said about Aranea - she, alongside Meenah, are one of the few dancestors who aren't content just hanging around the dream bubbles and takes the initiative to become plot relevant again. They are very active characters.

Part 3.4 - What about Witches?

This is in reference to page 005205 (also not on the rerelease) - it is really recontextualized by this theory.

GA: What Are You Doing
GG: im doing what you told me to do!
GG: im getting dave to set up that expensive equipment
GG: so i can start doing all that witch of spacey stuff you were telling me about
GG: which i appreciate, since my sprite turned out to be sad and useless, and not very wise at all :(
GA: I See
GA: Well I Didnt Actually Tell You To I Was Just Being Informative
GA: Also It Isnt Technically Witch Of Spacey Stuff
GA: I Was A Sylph Not A Witch
GG: oh
GG: what is a sylph?
GA: I Think Its Sort Of Like A Witch
GA: But More Magical
GG: a magical witch???
GA: Yes Im Completely Certain Of That Suddenly
GG: thats awesome
GA: But Regardless I Think Our Roles Are Approximately The Same Since We Are Both Stokers Of The Forge
GA: As Well As Holders Of Breeding Duties
GA: However I Should Clarify That My Earlier Counsel Was Mostly Academic

There are quite a few things to notice here.

1) Kanaya was once again giving information to others - that's another point for Sylph as an information class

2) You could interpret the similarity between them not as them being paired, but as them being both highly active - in an old formspring Q&A, Andrew Hussie says a Witch is "said to be a highly active class"(https://mspaintadventureswiki.tumblr.com/post/63822840770/reddit-or-not-here-we-dumb-archive <- archive).

2.1) However, this contracts Alt!Calliope's saying about how a Sylph is on the other end of the spectrum from a Muse, and how a Witch is more suitable.

2.2) This can either mean a Witch is not as active as a Sylph, and thus is more suitable (while still being active), or the previous Q&A answer was retconned. This isn't a post about Witches so I'm not going too in-depth on them here, sorry.

3) Much later on, in page 008181, Kanaya has the following conversation:

TG: what were you again
GA: Im A Sylph!!!
TG: what the dick is a sylph
GA: I Am On Record As Once Having Facetiously Likened It To A Magical Witch
TG: but witches are already magical arent they
TG: like by definition
TG: oh wait thats the joke i guess

She calls her earlier reference as "facetiously", which means a joke or unserious comparison. Dave further confirms that it's a joke comparison, further decrediting this link. Also - notably, this is a conversation where Kanaya informs Dave of the status of the session, once again reinforcing her role as knowledge-giver.

Also interestingly from this conversation:

TG: do they remember what happened
GA: No
GA: But It Seems Theyve Both Surmised The Missing Events Since We Arrived
TG: what
TG: how
GA: Well They Are Seers After All
TG: friggin seers
TG: all makin us knights look bad
TG: and whatever you are
TG: what were you again
GA: Im A Sylph!!!
TG: what the dick is a sylph

Kanaya isn't a character that adds "!!!" to the end of her messages lightly; it strikes me as particularly odd that she would be upset at Dave for not knowing she's a Sylph. However, if a Sylph is a knowledge class and the pair of the Seer, then this conversation makes more sense - Dave just insulted the knowledge classes, and Kanaya reacted with annoyance as she's also one of them.

https://mspa.chadthundercock.com/homestuck/6281

Here's the online mirror of the entire conversation - you can see the full context both for Kanaya's indignation and for her role as an information class.

CONCLUSION

Kanaya knows a lot, and is always at the front lines of whatever conflict or well of information that is most relevant.

Aranea also is heavily tied with knowledge, as we all sadly have to contend with hearing.

Pre-Scratch Kanaya has visions of future universes that she hasn't created yet.

Post-Scratch Mindfang wields information as a weapon, using the cueball to get ahead.

All four are highly active characters that use information to their advantage. For this reason, I am pitching that the Sylph is the active counterpart to the Seer. I have combed through every Sylph character and every mention of the word through the text and supplementary material, and everything seems to line up towards it.

I don't know what this means for Mages or Witches or the rest of the class pairings - I haven't studied them as in-depth as I studied Sylphs. That's off-topic, tho; this is a post about Sylphes, after all.

What do y'all think?