In homestuck, seemingly everything has an explanation. One example is the reasoning behind where the players themselves are from - the players are actually born in ectobiology labs IN THE MEDIUM. They are then sent to their planet at various times throughout history, and even that can be changed through the scratch.
But that's not the only Self in a game of sburb. Dreamselves are actually real physical vessels that exist in the medium. By the end of homestuck, every human (except Jake lol) IS a dream self, just one ascended to godtier. These aren't constructs of the mind or metaphsical concepts these are actual real physical people. If paradox space willed it one's dream self could go and visit (and in Dirk's case, physically interact with) their waking self! But I don't think it's actually ever explained where they come from? Obviously we know that some things just come into existence when paradox space creates the medium, and it's implied (through each player coming in one by one and graphics of their planet just,,, appearing, and also from Act 6 Act 3 where I'm pretty sure there's some hints/jokes that the consorts writing on the tablets never actually existed due to the planet only coming into existence when Jane enters the medium) that each planet is created when the respective player enters the medium, so there's precedent that the dreamselves can just spawn in, but we have proof of the dreamselves existing before the players enter the medium, what with dream Jade's stuffed corpse existing before Jade enters the medium. But then that begs the question, when WAS dream Jade created? Was it when Jade was born entered the world through the skaia gate? We obviously know that time acts weirdly when comparing the medium and the real world, as people can communicate seemingly linearly, but things like Grandpa Harley being alive in the medium while being dead in the real world, and Dirk and Roxy having dreamselves at seemingly the same time as Jane and Jake, even though they don't exist in the real world for hundreds more years. Maybe they just came into existence at some point. But that's boring! But I can honestly see no other way, which is unlike homestuck's usual specificity.
Anyway, maybe I'm forgetting something. Let me know if I am. Or if you even read all this LMAO
It's a weird one. I was thinking yesterday about how weird it is that Caliborn and Calliope have two different dream selves too - this single body with multiple personalities is actually legitimized as two distinct people in Sburb (maybe... I have conspiracy theories about whether this is really the case but they don't 100% add up. But that's a tangent). There is stuff like that, the game powers we discussed in the other thread, and even the First Guardians that don't fully fit Homestuck's usual complex elegance when you look at all the evidence.
I suppose it's entirely possible that the same ectobiology used to make the players is used as some kind of data for Prospit and Derse to create extra stock bodies, but this necessitates even more offscreen unexplained time travel, and runs into some of the same problems as the players' powers do when it comes to non-ectobiological players like the cherubs.
I would like to bring up what I think are two relevant points—
1) there are known instances where the dreamself disappears when the real self wakes up, such as when John is on the Battlefield. obviously this wouldn’t affect people like Dirk who are simultaneously awake, and only applies once the dreamself gains consciousness for the first time. This points to their insubstantial nature—like our mental states, they can influence the physical world and our perceptions thereof, but they don’t necessarily exist physically in the same way bodies do. It should also be noted that this stops happening when the dreamself dies, as we see from jade’s dreamself and basically all the other ones once they’re murdered. this means that while the player is able to be conscious while asleep, the two bodies are effectively one (again, excluding Dirk).
2) the other point is that other thing are known to just pop into existence, such as the results of chucklevoodoos, which exist in the same realm as the dreamself. this means that the dreamself could be just as it seems, a purely mental projection that happens to have some influence over physical events.
I think that asking where the dream selves come from is the same as asking who built the towers on the moons of Prospit and Derse. they weren’t created in the same way things within a universe were, they simply start existing when necessary, and once they start it’s as if they’ve always been there. I think the dreamselves are included in that.
This is some straight up delirious biznasty, Dawg!!
Ahhh I see. I think I just forgot that John disappears in the battlefield, since we see so much of the dreamselves being asleep, I just assumed that's what happened. Good point! They must just pop into existence then.