Plurality 101
You have encountered a system! They have chosen to provide you with resources to better understand who you are talking to. These are real people who you are talking to.
what is a plural system?
A system, or plural people, are two or more different people (or spirits, or creatures!) living in the same body. This can happen in a variety of ways. It can be caused by trauma, it can be intentional through tulpamancy, or it can happen from birth naturally, just to name a few.
Here's a baseline for the structure of a system.
Most systems will consist of one or more people who are considered the host, or the co-hosts. These are usually the members who front (take control of the body) most often, although another common method of determining the host is who is the "original" or the core who everyone else split from. From there, there can be many types of members. Protectors, companions, gatekeepers, and caretakers, to name a few common ones. We'll elaborate on this later.
Is it like the horror movies?
Horror movies are very inaccurate and harmful to the image of plural people. System members are capable of causing intentional harm, but it is not a defining trait of being a system. You will very infrequently meet a system member who means to harm the system or those around it.
System members can have roles.
Here is where the types of members we mentioned earlier comes into play. Like you and me, system members have skills and jobs they perform best. Some members protect the system physically or emotionally. Some members care for others or care for the body they inhabit. There are system members who control access to the front and to certain areas and information in the mind, these are called gatekeepers. Companions do as their name suggest, act as a friend to the system members around them. There are many more roles for members to take than we can list here. They come in all shapes.
Not every system member chooses to fill a role, however. They can live their lives and help the system however they wish without labeling themselves with a single role. Do not apply these labels to them without permission.
Two system members said something conflicting.
Every system member is different and, unless they directly claim to, they do not speak for the system as a whole. Every member holds different opinions and moral values. However, if they say something hurtful or harmful to another person, their system should still, when possible, take responsibility for and contain a member who is causing harm or distress to others.
What can I do to make my space system friendly?
Adding bots to your Discord server like PluralKit (more common) or Tupperbox will allow systems to talk and show their individual members will make them feel accepted. Moderating this will not be difficult, as long as you enforce a system tag and systems taking responsibility for their actions.
Promoting system positivity and acceptance on your social media helps, too, as well as sharing and speaking out for the treatment of systems, but do your research for this. Misinformation can be just as harmful.
Now you know what a system is.
This carrd is just a basic rundown. There are plenty more resources you can use to understand plurality more.
We will continue to update this carrd with more and better resources as they become available to us. This is not an all encompassing resource, and some systems may have differing experiences. Listen to them and treat them with respect.
Thank you for reading and giving us a chance.
Made by Kaede, of the Cat TIme System