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"System" is a term used to describe an instance of multiple consciousnesses in one physical brain. There are loads of ways to be plural, or a system, or what have you, but they all involve some interpretation of more than one conscious perspective in one "person". In our case, we are a collection of a lot of consciousnesses with very specific memories, roles, identities, and other aspects of personality, and while we can share memories between us, we can also individually recognize when someone recalls a memory that isn't their own. Sometimes there are very heavy memory barriers between us, which can cause distress when the discrepancy between us is revealed.
We're polyfrag, which is a fancy term for having a really high number of headmates. Think several hundreds, probably. Polyfrag systems are often said to have "fragments" instead of headmates, but we dislike that term as it feels like it diminishes the personhood of each one of us. Some of us may have very restricted interests or contexts we show up in, like e.g. holding the emotions and memories associated with a particular music album, but that doesn't mean they're any less fully formed than anyone else.
For us, the experience of being plural is mostly defined by not identifying with each other's memories, tastes, interests, nicknames, sexualities, relationships with other people, and so on. At any given time, "I" might not feel like I care about one of "my" interests, or don't remember certain events, or even like or dislike a particular thing, and then other times "I" am all over all of these things after we switch and someone else is fronting, i.e. in control. As a broad example, some of us need mild foods with little chewing resistance, while others will throw up if what they're eating isn't flavorful and crunchy enough. It's a fascinating experience to realize that "you" disagree with yourself.
In fact, we don't even all agree on the collective name Harmonies! This is an ongoing thing, and we're discussing between us how to best get everyone on the same page. Just because we share a brain doesn't mean that we automatically agree, that's the whole thing about being plural. We're different people!
Some systems have a host, but we don't. We have quite a few of us fronting throughout each day, without any one particularly prominent host, even if some days we might see more of some than others. A lot of systems talk about their hosts like an elevated status above other headmates in a form of hierarchy, which we staunchly diagree with as anarcho-communists. No one of us is any more or less important than any other, no matter how much they do or say or opine or exist, and we don't let anyone think otherwise. Even if we have a lot of headmates without clear identities (as mentioned on our intros page), they are no more or less important than a headmate who has a name, or talks, or whatever else.
Systems can form from a number of different causes, but it's not uncommonly a trauma response. When a certain part of your life becomes too much to handle, your brain might compartmentalize that specific part and exclude it from the rest of your consciousness, which can cause it to essentially develop in parallel with the rest of you as its own thing.
The science behind what causes a system to form is undetermined and poorly understood. One theory that I've seen posits that so-called "ego states" during infancy don't merge together properly during development, leading to those "parallel developments", but there is no clear proof of this. We're pretty sure that our origin is traumatic in nature, and have spent a lot of time reconciling with that. Some of us have formed more recently as stress splits, where intense distress causes a new headmate to form as a coping mechanism.
Plurality is sadly heavily stigmatized, and not something we're open about with just anyone for our own safety. We hope that by being open and public about it where possible, we can do our part in increasing understanding, support, and acceptance. If you have questions, you can always email us at hi@harmonies.gay and we'll do our best to answer.