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Seer of Blood (Wyatt) and Witch of Void (fractal)


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A hivemind is, in simplest terms, an inversion of a plural system.

That is not to say that hiveminds are mutually exclusive with plurality, far from it, but in the way that a plural system is a mapping of one body to many identities, a hivemind is a mapping of many bodies to one identity.

(The prospect of a many-to-many mapping is, when fully explored, so deconstructive of how we think of identity to be out of scope for a post titled "Introductory")

This is, of course, a very broad definition, and intentionally extremely inclusive. A Brandā„¢ Account, for example, falls under the idea of a hivemind, but is this really that absurd? Multiple people stepping into the role of embodying the idea of the Brandā„¢ (or, to borrow a term from chaos magic, the egregore of it) and sharing its Identity, acting as vessels of its concept so it may act on the world (in this case, to make the Brandā„¢ map closer to humanity to sell products to you).

Not all hiveminds need be as negative as the Brandā„¢ Account, but it is a very clear example that gets across the concept - an identity acted upon by many internal forces, and also gets across that is a concept that is real in some way. Sure, it may in many cases be an identity that is very easy to step into or out of, but that does not make it less of a hivemind than the sci-fi concepts the basic term evokes.

And in this space, in the stepping into and out, is where the power of hiveminds truly lies. The ability to step into or out of a Self, in a game of Masks, a dance of Identity, where that presentation blurs the arbitrary lines we draw between us. It's a beautiful thing, really, to toy with the boundaries of something our society considers inviolable. Plus, it can be truly enjoyable, truly fun to explore the nature of Self like that. In short,

worship and magic is best as a form of play

play is not unimportant or trivial

Quote of an old @junestrings tweet.

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