Caliborn

Caliborn is a cherub with HS 6862 (cherry red blood) from an unknown session of the game who HS 7020 (shares) a body with Calliope. He was HS 007163 (confirmed) to be the young. Like Calliope, his name bears reference to a certain puppet. External to MSPA, his name may also reference Shakespearean/Tolkenian/Arthurian works (see trivia at the end of this page).

Caliborn's symbol is a variant of the astrological symbol for Ophiuchus, different from Calliope's (albeit the more traditional one). Unlike all previously revealed symbols (except Calliope's), his symbol contains two colors, a dark grey "U" with a red tilde (~) across it. He is the mentioned "brother" Calliope is working with, and is generally an antithesis of her. He is very rude and ornery (which contrasts Calliope's politeness). Caliborn's typing quirk is also the opposite of Calliope's, capitalizing every letter except u. Like Karkat and Calliope, he types in a shade of grey, having abolished "hemotyping" as part of a game he has been playing with Calliope for most of his life.

He is confirmed to be a Derse dreamer, calling himself a HS 6877 ("Derse guy") when explaining to Dirk why he had to hire the archagent to kill his sister instead of doing it himself. Calliope also mentions that she is a Prospit dreamer and that her brother must enjoy his "Netherworldly affiliation."

Caliborn has been confirmed as the Lord of Time, one of two essential aspects to a session, along with Calliope as the Muse of Space. This is the male Master Class, parallel to Calliope's title. It is revealed by Calliope to be the most active class, and reserved for male players. Caliborn's reveal as the Lord of Time ties in with his adult self being the time travelling.

According to Caliborn, the cherubs have a sort of superstition involving Lil' Cal, which suggests that any person close to or even occupying the same plane of existence as Cal, or any "jujus" like it will have a nightmarish life. This superstition probably has to do with another character who has many of the same features as Lil' Cal. Alternatively, he could be afraid of someone inadvertently saying his sister's name, which will supposedly awaken her. Apparently the fear associated with this superstition isn't debilitating however. The use of the term "juju" might also imply he recognizes Cal's origin as a Subjugglator-created Chucklevoodoo.

Personality
Caliborn is perhaps the most alien of all the voiced characters. He has a terrifying obsession with playing games, so much so that Calliope claims his love for them surpasses human comprehension of what love is. Additionally, he is obsessed with superstitions and "JuJuS", which define much of the relationship and "game" with his sister. Thirdly, he shares his sister's interest in romantic relationships, but unlike Calliope, he sees them as disgusting and pornographic. He has also recently HS 6975 (taken up drawing as a hobby), although his drawings are far from intelligible at all (however his HS 7075 (later attempts) do show very slight signs of improvement, with features such as limbs and faces becoming recognizable). He also mentions that he has learning disorder.

Despite this obsession, he is apathetic towards Sburb, seeing it mostly as a means of escaping his dead home planet. He still intends to play it, but he plans to treat the game as a competition against Calliope instead of the cooperative game it is meant to be, which could make winning the session impossible.

Despite his cartoon villain spiel and bizarre hobbies, Caliborn can be quite clever. He enjoys deploying "shitty" twists to spoil his "opponent's" game (such as pretending to switch positions of two chess pieces but merely camouflaging them as each other), and could be quite threatening if he was not so obsessed with theater.

His outfit is HS 7074 (seen) to be a black short-sleeved shirt with his symbol, a red bowtie and green suspenders. This is HS 7121 (the same outfit as Calliope's) with the jacket removed.

Relationships


Caliborn has a conflicted, aggressive relationship with Calliope, and often threatened to kill her dream self – an act he HS 6875 (eventually performs) by hiring his Session's Jack Noir, who then stabbed her. In addition to the larger game between him and Calliope, the two regularly play chess, with Calliope winning all but once.

It was revealed that Calliope and Caliborn are two halves of one body, in a relationship that is perhaps somewhat akin to Jekyll and Hyde; one could say they are each the yin to the other's yang, calling to mind the shape of the cancer symbol. This had been heavily foreshadowed by several conversations and incidents. In her conversation with Jane in LOCAH, Calliope states that after a "dreadfUl nap" she "woke Up to find [her] coplayer has made a terrible mess here." This prompts a string of questions from Jane which Calliope is uncomfortable with, including whether or not she and Caliborn have actually met. It also explains why Calliope and Caliborn are incapable of simultaneously cheering/jeering one another and why they need to infer, rather than observe, one another's actions (such as Calliope suspecting that Caliborn is HS 6932 (possibly eating the chesspieces)). It is also mentioned that Caliborn would like to get his hands on Calliope's Juju (just as she would like to do with his, HS 7016 (for that matter)), this likely being the cause for their "game". A potential reason for this could be explained in an HS 6880 (awkward slip of the tongue) when he says there are only a few moves left before he "CAN MATE WITH HER" by which he could have possibly meant that they would become one; by the one obtaining the Juju of the other, said other would effectively cease to exist, leaving only the one and freeing them.

He seems to have a "liking" for Dirk, as far as he is capable of such emotions, calling him the most tolerable out of the B2 kids. It should be noted that, so far, we have yet to see Caliborn interact with any of the kids but Dirk. He also played a game with Dirk in which he threatened to kill Calliope's dream self unless Dirk drew him pictures of the B2 kids in various romantic pairings. When Dirk won by making him too uncomfortable to keep playing, Caliborn revealed that he had already killed Calliope's dream self before he started the game with Dirk. Dirk also assisted him in building his robotic leg.

Caliborn is the antithesis of Calliope, who, in turn, characterwise, is an antithesis of Karkat. This implies association with Karkat (except while Karkat hates mostly himself, Caliborn hates everything else). His ornery nature, tendency to ramble, his typing quirk, and their shared blood color all support a possible connection to Karkat, or, as suggested by the cancer symbol displayed on Calliope's sleeves, merely with cancer itself. He has also been HS 6880 (shown) to have HS 6972 (slips of tongue) much like Karkat when using HS 5771 (figures of speech). While originally speculated to have some concrete connection to Karkat or his ancestor this became unlikely once revealed as cherub and is now likely only one of many parallels between situations and chracters.

When Calliope checked Rose's tome she discovered Karkat's attempted relationship timetable which resembled Caliborn's drawing, causing her to speculate that Caliborn did have some connection and that maybe he was "already there", a phrase associated with. This could be a joke Hussie played on the fandom for connecting those two (or four) characters in the first place (fitting, since Calliope is "the obnoxious fandom avatar character", making up theories about the story).

Biography
Caliborn spent most of his life in a single room "together" with his other half Calliope. It is not until the dawn of their Sburb session that he breaks out of this situation.

By having Calliope's dream self assasinated by Jack Noir he prematurely takes full control of their shared body. This dominance is visualized by his cheek marks turning into full red circles, as seen in his future self. He then chews off his still shackled leg, as only Calliope would have been able to open said shackle. This marks another two physical changes that are seen later in Lord Enlish, the loss of a leg and HS 6583 (one tooth). He replaces his lost leg with a robotic leg he prepared.

After entering the medium he begins to explore his planet, meeting Gamzee Makara along the way. He HS 7372 (politely declines) Gamzee's offer to be his guide. He also finds a weird tower that lets him communicate with Andrew Hussie. He deciedes to go through with his HS 007007 (plan to paint his words with Calliope's blood) and changes his text color to #2ed73a. This combined with the caps lock on the towers key board results in the typing style he would continue to use as Lord English (when he isn't using the flashing color text). He begrudingly starts to accept Gamzee's presents and guidance, due to Hussie's

Calmasis
Continued revelations concerning the Complacency of the Learned books foreshadowed that Calliope and Caliborn are two parts of the same being. In Dirk's conversation with Jake in 2008, the discussion of the books brings up an image of Calmasis bound by two shackles, the right foot's shackle bearing Calliope's Caduceus sign standing on red ground and the left foot's shackle bearing the lesser-known Ophiuchus symbol of Caliborn on green ground. The right foot standing on red ground could symbolize that the left brain, which controls the right side of the body, is Caliborn's domain. Meanwhile the right brain belongs to Calliope. The theory of right/left brain separation between Caliborn and Calliope holds up fairly well when looking at drawing skill, but falls apart when looking at chess, where the left brain (Caliborn) should have consistently dominated the right brain (Calliope). It should be noted that the more common Ophiuchus symbol is often confused with the Caduceus symbol. Andrew Hussie may have been using this to imply that they are represented by the same astrological sign, which happens to be the 13th sign of the Zodiac in some cultures, which foreshadowed that the two cherubs are one. In this picture he/she appears to have a particular deudly firearm, leading to speculation that Caliborn/Calliope may be Lord English's ultimate downfall.

Connections to Saw
Many aspects of Caliborn appear to be related to the Jigsaw Killer from the movie series Saw. Both force people into playing their games (with Caliborn's greeting "I want to play a game" reminiscent of how Jigsaw greets his victims), use a black and red color scheme, and unveil twists that undo any progress or reward a "player" might achieve at the end. Caliborn also bears a resemblance to Jigsaw's puppet Billy, as he was revealed to be a cherub like Calliope. This race was HS 6997 (shown) to have blood-colored spirals on their cheeks and have a puppet-like appearance. In addition, Calliope's outfit is remarkably similar to Billy's, color notwithstanding. Billy was a puppet with red spirals on his cheeks, and the red-blooded Caliborn bears the same markings. In addition, Caliborn HS 7161 (chewed off his leg), which is reminiscent of the victims having to saw off their legs in the first Saw movie.

While not actually part of the Saw movies, Caliborn's requests for pornography do have a connection to them; in a famous MSPA Forums thread entitled "Cheerfulbear - PLAY ME", a user adopting the identity of Jigsaw demanded that Andrew Hussie draw him Muppet Babies porn.

Symbolism of cheeks and Sarswapagus
In HS 007020 (Calliope: Remove Cover), the Sarswapagus has 2 swirling patterns, one green and one red – in fact, each spiral occupies precisely the negative space of the other, forming a perfect circle when the two are overlaid. In HS 7161 (Caliborn: Enter), Caliborn's cheeks turn to red swirls and then, after a moment, his cheeks AND both symbols on the sarswapagus all change to pure red circles. This may be interpreted as both "halves" of their shared body becoming red, so to speak, indicating Caliborn taking full control. This may suggest that he has actually found a way to fullfill his threat of killing her in her sleep "more than once." Additionally, Caliborn's sarswapagus bed evokes obvious images of the sarcophagus that utilizes.

Trivia

 * Caliborn's hex code is #323232, 32 being the atomic number of element Germanium, a brittle grey crystalline element used as a semiconductor and anemia treatment. 3 is the difference of 9 and 6 (Karkat's hex code is #626262; Calliope's is #929292). In addition, 6 and 9 are both multiples of 3.
 * The word Umbrage can mean an offense or an annoyance. It can also refer to a shadow, likely a nod to the Umbra portion of uranianUmbra.
 * Caliborn's symbol is the symbol for Ophiuchus proposed by British astrologer Walter Berg in 1995, which gained widespread popularity in Japan, whereas Calliope's symbol is a hybrid of Caduceus and the rod of Asclepius.
 * The red in said symbol matches his blood color which is the same as Karkat's blood color. The shade of grey in the symbol is the shade he types in.
 * Caliborn "jeers" instead of "cheers", opposite to Calliope.
 * Caliborn seems to represent different aspects of the Homestuck consumer community from Calliope, particularly his impatience with the speed at which things unfold. As many less fanatic readers do, he complains about long pesterlogs formatted strangely in unusual colors. Calliope's relationship with him mirrors the fans who keep pestering their friends to read Homestuck, even though they're not interested or don't "get" the story.
 * His title, Lord of Time, may be in reference to Doctor Who, in which the Doctor's race are called Timelords. It is also possible his outfit is a reference to Doctor Who as the eleventh incarnation of the Doctor is well known for wearing bowties and suspenders. Doctor Who is a British show and actor, making him an English Timelord, which may further reference Caliborn turning into Lord English.
 * Caliborn's "tumut" emote is one letter from "tumult", which means chaos or disorder, possibly a reference to his rather aggressive personality as well as his handle.
 * Caliborn is the only character in Homestuck to have lowercase for the initials of his screen name.
 * The name "Caliborn" is also highly reminiscent to "Caliban", the name of a monstrous supporting character in Shakespeare's The Tempest, who is often depicted as green, and shares Caliborn's misanthropy. Although no obvious connections aside from the name present themselves, his name is only two letters away from and nearly phonetically identical to the elf character Celeborn from Lord of the Rings, husband to Galadriel and grandfather to Arwen.
 * Another reference to Shakespeare is seen in the title of the song Eternity's Shylock, which plays during the HS 7161 (Caliborn: Enter) flash. Shylock is a cruel moneylender in the play 'The Merchant of Venice'.
 * This may also be related to Caliborn's supposed obsession with HS 6931 (playing by the rules.) Shylock is a character who insists on the exact adherence to the law, and uses the law as a way to get what he wants.
 * Caliborn's name also bears resemblance to "Caliburn", one of the original names for King Arthur's sword Excalibur.
 * Dave's sword Caledfwlch also holds relation to the Arthurnian legend as the Welsh name for Arthur's sword is Caledfwlch.
 * The closeup of Caliborn's and Calliope's eyes are the same image as the closeup of Lil' Cal's eyes, albeit different colors.
 * Even though they share a body, Caliborn's tongue is black while Calliope's is white.