History Characters / HomestuckTrollsGeneral

* MonsterClown: They paint their faces with juggalo-style clown makeup and regularly murder lower-blooded trolls as a religious duty.

* AlienBlood: The troll hemospectrum contains a wide variance of colors, but they are all dull and muted. Karkat's bright red blood is an anomaly.
** FantasticRacism / FantasticCasteSystem / LawOfChromaticSuperiority: The trolls' caste system is based on blood color, with the "cool" colors (as in purple, blue, and green, known as "highbloods") at the top and warm colors (yellow, orange/brown, red, known as "lowbloods", or "rust bloods") at the bottom. Trolls ''can'' use the color gray (their skin color) as a form of blood-anonymity, but it raises a few eyebrows. Trolls in the low blood castes tend to have psychic powers, however, they're far more susceptible to psychic attacks. The high blood castes tend to be almost completely immune to psychic attacks, but far more prone to mental instability and insanity. In terms of mental stability, only the three green bloods (Terezi squeaking by as teal) are shown to be more or less normal in terms of mental problems.
** Three of the storyline trolls have special blood: There's Karkat's mutant candy-red which ''isn't even on the hemospectrum''; Feferi has the most highly-ranked shade of purple of any living troll, making her the future Empress. Kanaya's blood is pretty rare as well, and she comes with a number of exceptions to general troll rules. It's possible they and their ancestors are the ''only'' trolls of their blood colors on account of being created with ectobiology rather then being born the usual way.
** ColorCodedForYourConvenience The zodiac signs on the troll's shirts (along with their text color) match the color of their blood, with the exception of Karkat.
** ChromaticArrangement / RainbowMotif: How the trolls are arrayed in the Kids' trollslum, and how we arrange them on character pages as well. Karkat is technically below Aradia or off the spectrum entirely depending on which view you take.

* AxCrazy / HairTriggerTemper: Trolls are basically an AxCrazy species, but most of the high bloods fall into fits of rage constantly. Feferi is the only exception to this, as Gamzee goes insane later on. Even the lower blooded trolls are not beyond this, as the fits of rage from Kanaya showcase. Aradia also rages occasionally, but these occurred while she was in a robot fueled by blue blood.

* FamousAncestor: See GenerationXerox below. Much like how John created the kids' genetic parents, Karkat made infant paradox clones of these ancestors in an ectobiology lab, who then [[StableTimeLoop traveled back in time to become themselves]].

* InsectoidAliens: Externally, they simply resemble grey-skinned, horned humans, but outside of that they're much more akin to insects than to vertebrates in biology. They hatch from eggs laid by a giant, fully insect-like Mother Grub, and when newly born resemble large grubs with humanoid heads; they become more human-like as they grow up. Some of the ExpoSpeak relating to their body parts, such as "chitinous windholes", suggests arthropod body parts more than mammalian ones. Additionally, trolls who reach the God Tiers, and occasionally some regular ones, grow colorful butterfly-like wings.

* PowerGivesYouWings: Trolls grow wings if they hit their god tiers as well.

* ScaryDogmaticAliens: Specifically the Conquistadors variety.
* TheSpartanWay: Troll society. More specifically, post-Scratch troll society, due to Doc Scratch's influence.

* SupernaturalGoldEyes: With gray irises. In certain lights, they can almost appear greenish %% Going from Gamzee's insane pics mostly.

* TechnicolorEyes: Trolls have yellow sclera and black/gray irises as juveniles and eyes the same color as their blood as adults, meaning that every one of the trolls would have a different adult eye color--except Terezi, whose irises are permanently red after being damaged by the Alternian sun, and Sollux, because of his unusual red and blue eyes.

* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: All the trolls. All of them.

[[folder:The hemospectrum]]

* {{Immortality}}: Type 2, it's mentioned offhandedly by an adult troll that she's lived for centuries. The higher up a troll is on the hemospectrum, the longer their natural lifespan is, not to mention that the highest caste has the ability to extend their lifespan. Most of the trolls seem to be MadeOfIron as well; Vriska and Tavros both survived partial dismemberment with basically no problems and quickly adapted to mechanical limbs. In short, Trolls are not only long lived, but hard to kill.

* NoPronunciationGuide: Averted, for their first names, at least. Hussie gave pronunciations on his old Formspring account, though he says that he doesn't care if other people pronounce them differently.
--> "When in doubt, be sure to pronounce everything in the least affected manner possible, from an American perspective. [[note]]CAR-cat, tuh-REH-zee, GAM-zee, TA-vros (rhymes with HAVE and GROSS), neh-PEH-tuh, eh-QUEE-us, eh-RI-dan (combine names Erin - n + Dan), uh-RAD-ia, fuh-FERRY, SAW-lux, VRISS-kuh, kuh-NIGH-uh[[/note]]"

* LongLived: Hive-caste trolls live for quite a long time. Mindfang, a cerulean-blood (the lowest caste of true nobility) [[https://www.homestuck.com/story/3757 mentions in her journals]] that she has a far longer lifespan than that of low-caste bronze-bloods, as she was already an adult centuries before her eventual bronze-blooded lover was even born. The troll empress, at the very top of the pecking order, is fully [[TheAgeless ageless]]. While that's about it insofar as hard numbers are given in the comic, Q&A sessions with the author mention that green-bloods are the first to hit a century-long lifespan.

* FiveTokenBand : Actually more of a 12 token band. The group includes trolls from every caste on the haemospectrum, who have a wide variance in cultural backgrounds, social classes, et cetera. Heck, it even has the obligatory "plucky kid in a wheelchair" role. They're pretty much based on internet stereotypes for that matter as well.
** [[color:#a10000:Aradia]]: TheStoic -> PluckyGirl
** [[color:#a15000:Tavros]]: TheLoad
** [[color:#a1a100:Sollux]]: TheSmartGuy -> TheLancer
** [[color:gray:Karkat]]: TheHero -> FailureHero
** [[color:#5f8101:Nepeta]]: TheHeart
** [[color:#008141:Kanaya]]: TheChick -> TeamMom
** [[color:teal:Terezi]]: TheLancer -> ActionGirl
** [[color:#004183:Vriska]]: AntiVillain -> [[WellIntentionedExtremist Well Intentioned]] DarkActionGirl
** [[color:#000056:Equius]]: TheBigGuy
** [[color:indigo:Gamzee]]: TheFool -> MonsterClown
** [[color:#6a006a:Eridan]]: EmoTeen -> RivalTurnedEvil
** [[color:#77003c:Feferi]]: PluckyGirl -> MissionControl (post death)

--> CG: IT'S REALLY WEIRD.
--> CG: THIS HUMAN EMOTION YOU CALL FRIENDSHIP.
--> EB: friendship isn't an emotion fucknuts.

* LetterMotif: Every indigoblood except Amisia has the letter "k" somewhere in their name.

* AnimalMotifs: Quite a bit, seeing as they're partially inspired by the Western Zodiac. Most of these are represented through their horns (Tavros = Bull, Aradia = Ram etc) while others show it through their actions (Karkat = Crab = [[GrumpyBear Crabby]], Vriska = Spider/Scorpion = [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Unpleasantness]] etc).

* CrypticBackgroundReference: They were apparently hunted to extinction some time before the main events of ''Homestuck'', though it is not known how or why. There is some evidence that Limebloods are still around during the era of ''Hiveswap'' (mainly in the form of lime-colored blood splatters), but no Limeblood troll has been introduced.

** Doc Scratch is to blame for that after Alternia was Scratched.

* TheEmpire
* EveryoneIsBi: Trolls lack words to describe monosexuality, and don't seem to take gender in to account when it comes to any of the 4 quadrants. According to WordOfGod, gender is largely completely irrelevant in their society.
** Monosexuality [[http://www.formspring.me/mspadventures/q/163272621666887208 does exist among trolls]], but it's rare and isn't considered a big deal, and carries about as much significance as having a preference for a certain hair color does in humans.

* GenerationXerox: Each troll has an "[[http://mspaintadventures.wikia.com/wiki/Ancestors ancestor]]" -- a troll from the past with the same zodiacal symbol and blood color as them, whose appearance, favored weapon and role in Alternian society mirrors theirs. The trolls don't ''have'' to follow in their ancestors footsteps, but having someone to live up to gives their life structure, and the trope definitely applies to the ancestors we've seen so far (Marquise Mindfang for Vriska, Orphaner Dualscar for Eridan, Neophyte Redglare for Terezi and the Grand Highblood for Gamzee).
** It's revealed that there was a previous universe in which the Ancestors were the Sgrub players and the main trolls were their ancestors.
*** Also applies in the direction you ''wouldn't'' expect; the Ancestors are the genetic children of the trolls, not the other way around.

* {{Griefer}}: A StealthPun - their analogue for Strife is Grief.

* IAmAHumanitarian: ''Maybe.'' Trolls and presumably the more insect-like lusii start out as grubs.
** There are also a few references to grubs being used to make paints, and grubloaf among other things. They also might be used to make CD analogs.
*** Larval trolls are generally referred to as wigglers, Vriska's lusus is explicitly stated to eat trolls, and Nepeta's paint set is explicitly stated to by made using pigments from culled wigglers. It's not clear if "grub" specifically refers to non-troll larvae or to larvae in general.

* InsectoidAliens: At first, it was only their insectoid sgrub OrganicTechnology and their ExpospeakGag "chitinous windholes", but it has emerged that they start out as grubs. Since their God Tiers (and Tavros' ancestor) have butterfly wings, it seems they're insectoid in their ultimate stage too.

* StubbornMule: "If a Bronze Sign decides to dig their heels in, it can be like talking to a wall."

** This trope is taken to UpToEleven levels when it's revealed that there was a previous universe in which the Ancestors were the Sgrub players and the main trolls were their ancestors.

* MamaBear: One of their duties is to protect wigglers until they leave the brooding caverns.

* WeAreAsMayflies: The typical lifespan of a Rustblood is a dozen or two sweeps, which translates to 26-52 human years. All other castes (bronze and higher) have at least the same lifespan as an average human does, if not longer.

!!Rustbloods
* FantasticSlur: According to Kankri, "rustblood" is actually a slur, and the proper term is "burgundy."

* BrownNoteBeing: Due to a quirk of their genetics, two Fuchsiabloods cannot be in the same room without immediately having the urge to kill each other to maintain their hold over Alternia's throne.

* OutOfFocus: Unusually, Violetbloods are the only caste to feature no significant members in ''Hiveswap''.

* FictionalDisability: Some goldbloods suffer from a condition called "voidrot" where their body cannot retain energy normally, forcing them to stay alive by sapping the energy of another troll.

* OneGenderRace: All known Jadebloods are female, except for Lanque, who is female-to-male transgender.

* CharacterDevelopment: All the trolls sans Nepeta go through this for better or for worse. Either they grow kinder, become more confident, or become more violent than before. In some troll's cases, it's a mix of the former two.

* VerbalTic: As detailed on their individual entries, the trolls all have unique typing quirks. These also seem to [[FunetikAksent reflect how they actually speak]], such as Kanaya Carefully Enunciating Every Word or 2ollux 2peakiing wiith a lii2p, but it also seems like they use the tics on purpose, as evidenced by Eridan and Feferi typing normally when they have a serious conversation.
** These also change to reflect the troll's emotional state, as s0llux begins to type like aradia 0nce he is blinded by eridan and kn0cked t00thless by karkat, AND GAMZEE begins alternating caps WITH EVERY OTHER LINE once he runs out of sopor slime AND GOES ALL {{AX CRAZY}}.

* BizarreAlienReproduction: Trolls reproduce by donating two samples of genetic material to the Mother Grub, with one sample coming from a loving pair and the other coming from arch-enemies. This works just as well between same-gender couples as it does between mixed-gender couples, rendering sexual preference meaningless to the entire species. They also have 4 types of romance and all of them must be fulfilled, or they will be killed. Among other things, this also means buckets are sex toys to trolls.
** Exactly how bizarre is unclear due to RuleOfFunny, CallARabbitASmeerp and TeasingCreator.

* {{Metamorphosis}}: They start out as very non-humanoid larval grubs known as wigglers (though they still have [[UglyCute humanoid heads]]), then early in their life go from that stage to their more familiar humanoid stage. Under certain circumstances, they also gain wings.

* ARealManIsAKiller: [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=005368 Vriska states]] that killing each other is normal by troll standards and speculates that working together was what doomed them (for instance, if they were more bloodthirsty more of them might have ascended to god-tier instead of just Vriska and Aradia). On Alternia, murder is pretty routine and not punished in the slightest. [[FridgeBrilliance It makes sense in context]], because the trolls are being raised for a life of galactic conquest.

** TechnicolorEyes: When trolls reach adulthood their eyes match their blood.

* YourNormalIsOurTaboo: Buckets, which is what the trolls' society used to [[{{Squick}} put their genetic material in]]. Also, it's considered pretty bizarre for a troll to be raised by a member of his or her own species instead of a lusus. Inverted with the trolls wondering why incest and sexual orientation matter to humans.

* CharacterDevelopment: All the trolls sans [[StaticCharacter Nepeta]] go through this for better or for worse. Either they grow kinder, become more confident, or become more violent than before. In some troll's cases, it's a mix of the former two.