#xeno!trolls

[artbyifer]

Hello, hope you're doing well. What's that black thing at the bottom of your HS troll's feet? Is it padding or shoes?

I am indeed doing well, thank you! :)

Good question, and good guesses! I took a lot of inspiration from spider and beetle feet for my trolls.

It is particularly clear on the beetle feet (right) that the bottom of the foot has a pad of thickly packed hairs (setae). While in tiny arthropods these are largely used to stick to stuff, Trolls benefit more from the padding function.

In mammals, we've got nice big fat pads on our soles to cushion our bones from impacts. You can really see it on the elephant (right).

(forgive the quick sketch) The setae on troll feet does the same thing. They're dense, thick and springy. They also provide a barrier from sharp rocks and stuff, add surface area and friction for gripping, and give sensory feedback on what kinda stuff they're standing on, like whiskers. They've probably got a bit of movement to them too, to better adapt to different surfaces and the like by tightening or loosening the spread between hairs or changing how tense the spring is.

You may have noticed that I rarely draw Trolls with shoes on. Part of that is just I put a lot of effort into the feet to just cover them up (and I think they're cool), and part of it's that it's hard to design clothing for an alien species (shirts and neckwear is especially irritating with the way the rumblespheres are positioned in the front as opposed to humans' side shoulders, plus the sensitivity of the gillslits) but also any shoes would have to give a definite bonus over what bare feet would give them.

So you'd still want access to your toeclaws for both weaponry, grip, and mobility. And you'd want a lot more protection from the elements than the setae give you if you're going to sacrifice the sensory and movement aspects to put something with a sole on, plus you need to be able to put them on and keep them on without damaging the hairs or getting snagged on the claws, and anything that straps underneath is going to be awkward if the hairs can go on either side of the straps (though between the two toes is probably a good anchor).

I have done it a few times though! The ergonomics aren't perfect, but here the Distrait Life of Mistakes (@temporaldecay [deactivated]) crew aresacrificing that for fashion; theming their shoes for their misc/redrom, palerom, and blackrom rave gear respectively. (occurs to me the palewear shoes would be even more provocative with claw covers or softpaw nail tips; really lower your damage capacity. Oh well, too late :) )

Thank you so much for the question, anon <3!!

[veneerpossibly]

Xenogenders!! I made these :3

Velvet gender, Veneer boop boop gender, neopets idog gender, and tiktok emoji silly gender

[j8keswizzarts]

still a WIP but do yall fuck with my mother grub design?

[ggrimboy]

behold my characters for halls smp!! they both have custom models ill show off once the season officially starts >:3

nakey versions under the cut also

[bonezaw]

Seadweller skulls!! The left one (modeled after cronus/eridan) is a bit more humanoid, the right one (modeled after meenah/feferi) is a bit more alienoid. Decided to add a crossection on the right to show them gillz :D

[eldritchdraaks]

This took me over 2 months (on and off) to finish sketching all 24 versions of Viiveh. I'm so happy with it!! So many little blorbos all crowded together, hanging out and causing a scene. I really scraped to bottom of the barrel to fill this up with every version of him I could think of from the past. I really can't believe I've made 24 versions of one single character 😅

Next up is colors and lining

[maretriarch]

people used to draw cool xeno bug trolls with like carapaces and mandibles. :( USED to....

[dabantam]

Homestuck: Troll Biology Head Canon

While brainstorming some ideas for a Homestuck au I’ve been thinking about, I stumbled upon the concept of “xeno trolls”, basically portraying the trolls as being more “biologically exotic” than just “grey humans with horns and weird blood”. With that in mind, I have a few ideas for the different blood castes.

Universal: Along with the usual grey skin, orange horns, and black hair, trolls also have tails and pointed ears, as well as limbs of equal length, allowing them to sprint on all fours if the need arises.

Rust, Bronze, and Gold Bloods: Have the greatest potential for psychic powers, with each specializing in different tasks. Rust Bloods use their powers purely for telekinetic use due to being traditionally servants (and needing to do a lot of heavy lifting). Bronze Bloods tend to use their powers to communicate with animals, seeing as they’re traditionally shepherds. Gold Bloods have the strongest control over their psychic powers, able to use it as a weapon and to operate a vast psychic network (though they do sometimes suffer from a condition called “void rot” that leaves them drained of both physical and mental energy, often requiring them to take pills or be attached to energy canisters to maintain their energy levels).

Lime Bloods: The transitional point between the low bloods and high bloods, the Lime Bloods lacked more advanced psychic powers (though having the ability to sense the emotional state of those around them). While hunted down to extinction in the main universe (though existing on in the form of their “candy blood” mutant variants), an alternate universe shows an Alternia where they continue to thrive, serving as mediators between the low and high bloods.

Olive Bloods: The closest to ancestral trolls, Olive Bloods tend to have more bestial mannerisms and serve primarily as hunters. These same mannerisms also lead to them developing hyper fixations, with many of them becoming avid collectors of various odds and ends.

Jade Bloods: The caretakers of the Mother Grub and the ones responsible for caring for the wrigglers. Jade Bloods are typically an all female caste (though gender is more of a vestigial concept from back before trolls relied on the Mother Grub for reproduction). Also, being a rainbow drinker is a condition that mainly affects Jade Bloods (similar to void rot in Gold Bloods), and while it’s often romanticized in books and movies, it’s often more of a hassle in reall life, requiring at least one feeding of blood a day to prevent them from devolving into feral, bloodthirsty beasts.

Teal Bloods: More or less the same as canon, though acting as litigators between the high bloods (especially the land dwellers and sea dwellers).

Blue Bloods: This is where things start to get weirder. Along with possessing psychic powers to induce limited mind control, they also possess eight eyes, though usually in different variations (like Vriska having seven pupils in one eye in canon).

Indigo Bloods: The second strongest of the land dwellers, Indigo Bloods tend to be a head taller than most humans and possess chitinous plating on their arms, legs, chest, and back.

Purple Bloods: The strongest of the land dwellers, Purple Bloods tend to serve as intermediaries between land dwellers and sea dwellers. Being partially amphibious, they possess slight webbing between their fingers and toes, flattened tails, and eyes and nostrils that are usually higher up on their faces than normal (kind of resembling a weird, fucked up otter overall). As designated leaders of the land dwellers, they’re also leaders of the new worlds’ religion, worshipping the holy trinity: the Grand High Blood, the Sufferer, and the Mirthful Messiah.

Violet Bloods: Second highest rank in the hemospectrum, Violet Bloods tend are much taller than most land dwellers and humans (Eridan being the exception, which is another sore spot for him). Along with having gills, webbed hands and feet, and finned tails, they also possess a secondary set of smaller arms mainly used for grooming.

Fuchsia Bloods: A caste containing a singular member, the Fuschia Blood is the strongest of the trolls (supposedly). Along with the usual sea dweller traits, the Fuchsia Blood also possesses four arms total, as well as being incredibly jacked. While the Fuchsia Blood is the designated leader in the main universe, on an alternative Alternia, they actually serve as the second in command to a higher blood caste known as the Prism Blood, who possesses both powerful psychic powers and physical strength as well as ruling from a floating sky fortress.

[fictofaggot]

a xeno troll karkat from memory!

[arthropoid]

the drones filed her fangs down

[paragonrobits]

so one xenodesign idea I’ve had for Homestuck trolls and have been mulling over for a while is thusly summarized: “What if trolls had a skull structure or head design clearly adapted for ramming into things and using their horns as weapons?”

This presents a broad potential for design influences. You might have very heavy bone structure around the skull, shielded with fatty deposits and the kind of impact shielding you see in the heads of rams and other animals that treat their heads as bludgeoning weapons. You might also see bulky hair-like forms that act as shock absorbers, which would work well as a nonhuman interpretation of their hair designs.

Though ultimately this is based on a more fundamental, simple question. Do trolls actually use their horns for combat, or not?

Their horns DO get really, really big; we see this most especially in the Condesce, and the Grand Highblood. This might also suggest that extremely long or large horns are something specific to highbloods, or a status symbol. Potentially any troll could grow horns to this length, but doing so is a statement of power or confidence specific to highbloods and doing so is dangerous. If you take this interpretation, it would also suggest that the Signless’ nubby horns were deliberately kept short as a gesture of humility or defying the showboating of the highblood ruling classes.

But even if the horns get big, that doesn’t mean we really see them used as weapons, or if they are SEEN as weapons. Equius notably has a broken horn (and him never fixing it or trying to make some sort of prosthetic extension might ALSO say something about him), and of all the troll kids that we first see that give us our introduction to Alternian culture, Tavros has the largest horns that could most easily be used as vicious weaponry, and he is a passive person that doesn’t have much interest in fighting except in the context of doing it as a job.

So, if the horns AREN’T a weapon, and weren’t designed that way or evolved as such, it remains less likely trolls would have a skull structure that would minimize the damage of headbutting. It would still be a cool design, all the same, but less likely. And of course, the risk of severe injury would NOT stop Alternian trolls from considering it, given that injuring yourself while in the grips of insatiable bloodlust seems to generally be seen as cool factor.

So then what do horns actually do?

My personal speculation on what they do follows two broad theories: the first is that ALL trolls have psionic powers, naturally generating psionic energies and using them to power the abilities associated with each caste, and this is also why highbloods are known for being stronger than the lowbloods and having a rarer amount of psionic abilities; their innate energies are already spent towards this immense strength, rendering other psionic abilities weaker, unreliable, and generally not as consistent as the powers of lowbloods.

The second theory is that horns play a vital role in regulating this psionic energy; they may act as grounding rods, produce substances or specialized bodily fluids that store excess psionic energy, or simply direct it more efficiently. Larger horns may not necessarily play any kind of role in this (though it is possible that more energy causes horns to grow bigger at a faster rate, which may also influence Condy’s appearance, especially after she modified herself to have all caste powers), but trolls might BELIEVE it does, which again lends itself towards bigger horns as a symbol of status and personal power.

Equius is my main suggestion for this theory having validity, as he has a broken horn and his immense strength is, uniquely among all the characters, completely uncontrollable. He physically cannot control it at all; an attempt to give a gentle pay leaves a bruise behind, and this suggests a lot about the peculiarities of his character in that he struggles for ANY kind of control, or regards the control he fundamentally cannot have as the highest of dignities.

We know the spiritual reason for this; Equius’ lack of control is a direct consequence of his ancestor, Darkleer, being unable to execute the Disciple, and shortly afterwards leaving as an exile, perpetually ashamed and in ever-increasing personal conflict over his loyalty towards the empire and his inability to kill the Disciple in that moment when he had choice over life and death. As he could not exercise his power in that moment (and its interesting to speculate on whether this was a sudden attack of conscience he was never able to fully reconcile, or not), his descendant physically CANNOT control his strength at all. Equius can only strike to kill, or not at all, and it is interesting that despite his loyalty towards the Alternian Empire and its cruel ways, he actively chooses restraint in a lot of ways that makes him stand out against the more kill-happy denizens of Alternia.

But what of the physical reasons?

This is where my theory comes in. Why Equius’ power cannot be controlled as a reflection of the deeds of his ancestor coming back upon him, physically my proposal is that his broken horn has sent his psionic energy system completely out of control. Imagine electricity constantly coursing unpredictably across a circuitboard and things will get fucked up, really fast. That broken horn prevents him from controlling his strength, since his psionic energy is constantly expending itself and bleeding off too unpredictably to allow him to have any of the fine control he might otherwise have if he DID have his horns intact.

[artbyifer]

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[veneerpossibly]

I made these Xenogender flags in june i think, idk i thought i should post them. (should i make more?)

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[you-hate-time-travel]

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[birchbow]

quite a few trolls have physical characteristics reminiscent of their lusii, like gamzee's pupils. how does that happen? do lusii pick grubs that look like them, or are grubs influenced physically by their lusus? is my mental image of tiny baby slitherbeast verato accurate?

This is one of those things that I'll often go back and forth on depending on what seems most fun for the things I'm writing lol.

I think I tend to settle on a combination! it makes sense to me that if part of your life cycle is having a huge semi-feral animal thing adopt you and raise you as its own, it would be good for your species, kind of cuckoo-like, to have a certain amount of mimicry for creatures of their color, to make them more appealing and familiar to potential lusii. 🤔

It's also very fun to me, as a slightly out there xeno aspect, if having a specific type of lusus around when you go through first pupation from grub to something more independent could influence some of the traits of your new body!

....the concept that despite all the societal and species differences between humans and trolls, you could still look at a troll and go "...you look like your dad, lol" is incredibly charming to me in a way I don't know that I can articulate. :D