Hello! We wanted to share a quick plural guide for anyone that is confused about plurality.
(This guide mentions dissociation quite a few times, so you may also want to check out our dissociation guide. We also recommend you read our alterhuman guide, to understand experiences that non-humans & introjects within systems may have.)
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Plurality/Systems is an umbrella term for anybody that has more than one person/entity controlling a singular body. Each member can have their own name, pronouns/titles, sex, gender, appearance, race/species, orientation, etc. Anyone that isn't plural is a Singlet.
Being in-control of the shared-body is known as Fronting. Fronting can be optional or forced by the brain. Co-fronting is when multiple people are fronting at the same time. If a fronter/co-fronter cannot retreat, it is known as being Frontstuck. When a system is swapping who is fronting, it is known as Switching.
System members are called sysmates, headmates, alters, parts, or facets. Every system has their own preference of what to call their members. In some cases, sysmates are temporary, and may go inactive/fade over time, or exit through a gateway (more on that later.)
Sysmates can have individual memories, or they may share all their memories as a collective. They may or may not get the choice of what to share. If a certain memory is not accessible to all of the system, it is known as having Amnesia Barriers.
An Innerworld/Headspace is a dreamscape that many systems have, where members can live and interact when they are not in charge of the shared-body. They could have one set appearance (ie; a planet, a spaceship, a house, etc), or they could shift/change, either randomly, following a schedule, or at the will of sysmates (either specific sysmates or all sysmates.) The opposite of the innerworld (the physical space that the shared-body interacts with) is known as the Outerworld/Meat Space.
Many innerworlds have fronting rooms, which are areas that sysmates go in order to watch what is happening in the outerworld.
Not all systems have a innerworld. They may simply go into a "coma" when they are not fronting, or may "float" in an empty void. Innerworlds could be any size.
Some systems have NPCs (people who are incapable of fronting & engaging in shared memories). NPCs can be simple (repeating lines, repeating tasks, limited behaviors, etc) or complex (capable of new dialogue, capable of coming up with new tasks, a variety of behavior, etc). For complex NPCs, the only way to tell them apart from sysmates is by the fact that they have no special abilities (like fronting, sharing memories, or set-roles.)
Fragments are sysmates that are not fully developed. They are sort of in-between simple NPCs and sysmates. They have some system capabilities, but are not fully autonomous, and often to not have a full grasp over their personal identity.
Sometimes NPCs and fragments develop into full-sysmates.
Fusing/Merging/Integration describes when two or more sysmates merge together, either temporarily or permanently. If it is a temporary fuse, it is known as Blending. Their physical appearances may combine, or they may take on only one of the sysmates appearances, or a whole new appearance unrelated to either of their previous ones. Their identities may be merged as well, or they may be autonomous within their innerworld body; a system within a system.
Subsystems are systems within systems. They might be a result of fusion, or they may have formed as subsystems from the start, or developed their own sysmates unrelated to fusing.
Some systems have groups that live separately within the headspace (usually on different layers of a headspace). These are known as Side Systems. There may be a Main System (which consists of the people with the most control over the shared-body), or the system may be made up fully of side systems that have equal control over the shared-body.
Here are a few terms for sysmates:
Little/Syskid: A sysmate who is a child, typically under the age of 13.
Middle/Systeen: A sysmate who is a teenager, typically 13-17, however sometimes 18-19 is included.
Big/Biggin/Sysadult: A sysmate who is an adult, typically 18+.
Ageless: A sysmate with no age. They might look like a kid, teen, or child, or they may have an ambiguous appearance.
Age-Slider: A sysmate whose age is fluid/fluctuating. How frequently their age changes depends on the individual.
Lost Adult/Disadult: A sysmate that is physically an adult, but mentally a child or teenager.
Claudia/Paradult: A sysmate that is physically a child, but mentally an adult.
Exomemories: Memories that did not occur within the shared body or innerworld; memories from a life outside of the system. This can apply to introjects & walk-ins.
Exotrauma: Trauma that did not occur to the shared body or within the innerworld; trauma from exomemories. This can apply to introjects & walk-ins.
Introject/Introtive: A sysmate who has a specific "source." For example, a sysmate who forms with the appearance and/or experiences of a fictional character or family member. They may or may not share the personal identity (name, gender, etc) of their source, and may have exomemories/exotrauma of their source.
Fictives are introjects with fictional sources, and Factives are introjects with real-life sources.
Core(s): The first/original sysmate(s) to exist within the system.
Gateway System: A system with a gateway (either physical or metaphorical) that leads to other spaces, such as other layers of the innerworld, or into a different universe. This gateway may be a one-way walk (as in once someone enters, they cannot leave; or vice-versa) or it may be free range both directions. If a new sysmate enters a system through a gateway, they are known as Walk-Ins.
Median System: A system where sysmates are not as distinct from one another, and are "blurred" or are simply "different versions" of one main identity.
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Origins
Next up, system origins.
Adaptive System: A system that was formed in order to cope with something. This includes traumagenic, stressgenic, isolgenic, neurogenic, and physiogenic systems.
Traumagenic: A system that was formed due to trauma.
Stressgenic: A system that was formed due to stress.
Isolgenic: A system that was formed due to loneliness or social isolation. Depending on how strongly the loneliness affected the person, it may also count as traumagenic.
Neurogenic: A system that was formed due to pre-existing neurodivergence. For example, an autistic person who developed sysmates of characters from their special interest. Another example would be a person with substance abuse disorder who developed a sysmate to help them overcome their addiction.
Physiogenic: A system that was formed due to physical disability. This is typically related to stress (stressgenic) or trauma (traumagenic) that either the disability itself caused, or ableism caused.
Endogenic: A system that was not formed due to trauma; a system that is not traumagenic. This includes adaptive systems that are not trauma-related, created systems, protogenic systems, spontagenic systems, & unknown systems.
Created System: A system that was willingly created. This includes willogenic, tulpagenic, spirigenic, & metagenic systems.
Willogenic: A system that was willed into existence for non-adaptive reasons. They may refer to themselves as Willomancers,
and might call their sysmates Willomates. If this creation was done subconsciously/unintentionally, it is known as being Catharigenic. If this was done through meditation, self-induced dissociation, and prolonged attempts at summoning, it is known as Tulpamancy. A Tulplagenic system might refer to their sysmates as Tulpas.
Spirigenic: A system that was created through spiritual methods, typically connected to religious practices.
Metagenic: A system that was created through metaphysical/spiritual methods, unrelated to religious practices/beliefs.
Protogenic: A system that has existed since birth, or has existed for as long as the brain can remember.
Spontagenic: A system that spontaneously appeared, with no identifiable cause.
Unknown System/Quoigenic: A system that formed from unknown/uncertain causes. This includes cryptogenic & congenic systems.
Cryptogenic: A system that does not know their origin. This is not the same as a spontagenic system, as spontagenic systems are certain that their system has no cause, meanwhile cryptogenic systems are uncertain of their origins, and may have amnesia or confusion relating to their origins.
Congenic: A system with a complicated origin. Their origin may be so complicated that they are incapable of labeling it further, or finding a suitable category.
Multigenic/Mixed-Origin: A system that has multiple causes, or a system that has different causes for different sysmates. For example, a system where some sysmates were formed from trauma (traumagenic), meanwhile others were willed into existence (willogenic.)
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Roles
Now, lets dive into system roles. System roles are jobs/duties assigned to sysmates, typically pre-assigned by the brain as the sysmates are forming into existence (however for some people, roles are chosen after formation.) Roles might shift/change over time, or a person may have multiple different roles. Not every system has roles, however a majority of systems do.
There are hundreds of possible roles a system may have, far too many to list, so instead we shall be going over the most common ones:
Caretaker: A sysmate who formed to tend to somebody. They may have a parental/grandparental, older-sibling, or mentor relationship with whoever they formed to tend to.
Protector: A sysmate who formed to protect someone/something. They could be protecting their sysmates, the shared-body, the shared-body's relatives, friends/partners, or even physical objects.
Holder: A sysmate who formed to deal with a specific thing, for the sake of the rest of the system. For example, a Trauma-Holder is a sysmate who holds a large portion of the traumatic memories/symptoms, so that the rest of the sysmates don't have to deal with it. A Symptom-Holder is a sysmate who holds a large portion of neurodivergent or disability symptoms. Their holding may be voluntary (in which case, they could be classified as a protector), or the brain may be forcing them to hold these things.
Manager: A sysmate who makes sure that everybody is fulfilling their duties, and that things are being maintained.
Persecutor: A sysmate who causes harm (intentional or otherwise) to someone/something. This is often a misguided protector or manager who is intending to help through harmful methods (such as alcoholism, self-harm of the shared-body, intense criticism, physical punishment of other sysmates, etc). It could also describe a sysmate who is a trauma-holder or symptom-holder, and lashes out as a result of stress, guilt, shame, etc. Alternatively, an abusive sysmate (for example, an introject of an abuser) can also be labelled a persecutor.
Gatekeeper: A sysmate in a gateway system that keeps watch over who enters or exits through the gateway.
Architect: A sysmate that has the ability to create/edit/destroy the appearance/structure of the innerworld.
Beastmaster: A sysmate that has the ability to create/edit/destroy and/or control non-sentient beings (simple NPCs, animals, plantlife, etc) within the innerworld.
Host/Outernaut: A sysmate who is in-charge of the shared-body, and fronts most often. Some systems have multiple hosts.
Co-Host/Perinaut: A sysmate who takes over when the host(s) are unavailable, or who otherwise helps out the host.
Disordered Plurality (DID & OSDD)
Plurality is neurodivergent in nature, however it is not inherently a disorder. Disordered plurality describes people whose plurality is linked to a disorder of some kind. This includes most traumagenic systems and many neurogenic systems, however there are also a few dissociative disorders that overlap with plurality as well.
Dissociative Identity Disorder/DID (formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder/MPD) describes plurality where the system has distinct sysmates (possibly fragments as well), dissociative episodes, sysmates often (or always) dissociate between switches, and sysmates have amnesia barriers between them. This often (but not always) leads to sysmates being unaware of each others existence, and having difficulty with communication. Access to the innerworld is frequently also limited. Dissociation and amnesia can be worked-out through therapy or communication, however it is usually quite difficult.
OSDD-1/Otherwise Specified Dissociative Disorder Type 1 describes plurality where the system experiences dissociative episodes, however it doesn't quite fit the DID diagnosis.
OSDD-1a is where dissociative episodes occur, however unlike DID, there are not distinct sysmates. Instead, the system is median, or made up completely of fragments. Sysmates are "blurry" and similar to one another, but amnesia barriers still exist despite that.
OSDD-1b is where dissociative episodes occur, possibly even dissociation between switches, however amnesia barriers do not exist. Trauma may still cause general system-wide amnesia, but not amnesia that is seperated between sysmates.
DID and OSDD-1 forms from trauma (typically childhood trauma, however older people can develop DID/OSDD-1 as well.) DID/OSDD-1 might cause the plurality, or the plurality may be pre-existing, and the dissociative disorder comes from trauma experienced later. (For example, a protogenic system that had trauma later in life and developed DID, turning them into a multigenic system.)
[ID: Two images of a seven stripe flag. The first flag has a simple off white lighting bolt symbol on it the second does not. Both flags have the same color stripes of the following colors starting from the top: dark grey, blueish grey, light blue, purplish blue grey, light purple, purplish grey, dark grey. Both dark grey stripes are the same color.]
Stripe Meanings: The grey stripes at the top and bottom were taken from the disability pride flag and represent the disability community. The light blue stripe third from the top is from the chronic illness ribbon and the purple stripe fifth from the top is from the chronic pain ribbon. Starting from the top, the 2nd, 4th and 6th stripes are a mix between the stripes next to them to show the connections between each. The lighting bolt is simply because some pain is sharp and we thought it would be fitting.
“Physiogenic refers to a system formed from chronic pain and/or a physical disability.
A physiogenic system may have additional origins related to their chronic pain and/or disability. For example, if a physiogenic system viewed trauma due to their disability or experiences stress due to it, they may also be traumagenic or stressgenic.” -Pluralpedia
Physiogenic refers to a system formed from chronic pain and/or a physical disability.
A physiogenic system may have additional origins related to their chronic pain and/or disability. For example, if a physiogenic system viewed trauma due to their disability or experiences stress due to it, they may also be traumagenic or stressgenic.
We are The Cloud Complex, a traumagenic system formed due to chronic pain(physiogenic). We collectively answer to Cloud or Codex. The body is an adult and physically disabled.
We don’t use a dni. If we don’t wish to interact with someone for any reason, we will block immediately. If someone does not wish to interact with us, we invite you to unfollow or block us at any time /genuine. That said, we are pro-endo, pro-nontraumagenic and against the medicalization of all plurality.
More info about the folks who will likely be talking under the cut.
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Eren- closest thing we’ve got to a host, they/he/e
Cap- he/him
Helios- may be overly formal or blunt, he/they
Bot- inhuman little, no pronouns
Artemis- she/they/he
Davey- little, he/they
Calipso- she/her
Crescendo- 🎵/he
Amber- she/they
Ash- he/they
Cam- Any
Notes:
Nimbus is our shell identity/personality and isn’t a person.
The pronoun “e” denotes the pronoun set e/em/es/eir/emself.
Sign offs will now be formatted as headmate.soc, with soc standing for our username
