Equius Zahhak

Equius Zahhak, also known by his Trollian handle centaursTesticle, is one of the Trolls. His associated zodiac sign is Sagittarius (♐). He has broken glasses, broken teeth, one broken horn, and one pointed horn, matching his zodiac sign. He is a member of the Blue Team.

The name Equius takes its root from the Latin Equus, or "horse". Zahhak is a figure in Iranian mythology, who was strong and clever, but was easily manipulated by his evil counselors into world domination. Zahhak was also known as Bēvar-Asp, which translates into "[he who has] 10,000 horses" (100²). The use of "centaur" in the chumhandle is a reference to Greek mythology, in which a Sagittarius was identified as a centaur. CT's typing quirk includes adding a bow and arrow (D -->) before speaking. He also uses 100 and 001 to replace words that have "loo" and "ool" sounds in them such as look, fool, and pollute. He also replaces the letter 'x' and the word "cross" with a % (with two % next to each other meaning "doublecross"). He also often references mythical beasts, and speaks with a certain tinge of superiority &mdash; becoming angry when Nepeta uses foul language (hell) and tells her that her "fraternization with the base classes" has "loosened her morals".

Biography
Equius is a highfalutin troll who considers the members of the red team to be lowbrow trash, and his blood color, Royal Blue, is very high in troll society as far as colors go. His lusus, Aurthour, is a humanimal, and the posters on HS 4079 (his wall) are actually part of a old and respected Alternian tradition, despite their outwardly disturbing appearance. The posters themselves are taken from ironic art reviews made earlier by Andrew Hussie. Some have also appeared in the Jandrew Edits he co-creates.

Equius is extremely strong. So strong, that every time he tries using a bow and arrow, he ends up breaking the bow. As a result, he has never successfully fired a single arrow. Broken bows and arrows litter the floor of his room. He has acquired a near-festishitic obsession with breaking them, similar to Vriska's obsession with cracking 8-balls. His friends misconstrue this as simply sucking at archery.

He likes to build robots, and builds a pair of robotic legs for Tavros, as well as a robotic arm for Vriska. However, he is also referred to as being "misanthrobopic", finding pleasure in dueling the robots he builds. Broken robot parts are piled on his floor. There is some speculation about Equius possibly having a hand in creating Jade's Dreambot.

So far, Sburb proves to be no challenge for his incredible strength. Rather than building, Equius simply jumps to the first gate. He beheads a massive enemy with a single punch and makes it to the second gate in very little time. He then gives Aradia her robot, he asks her if she feels any odd feelings or desires, she then flips the fuck out after learning that he put a chip in her heart so that she would have romantic feelings for him. She then proceeds to rip her heart out, beat it into a pulp, smack the shit out of Equius, and then kiss him.

Personality
Equius is a complicated and disturbing fellow. He is a firm believer in the blood-caste system and believes you should respect those higher than you and hate those who are lower. He believes you are not only allowed, but obligated to boss around anyone who is lower-ranked than you and to accept and obey orders from anyone who is higher-ranked. He believes "highbloods" should act with elegance and authority and "gutterbloods" should act with crass and submission. Any deviation from this pattern (such as Gamzee and Aradia's actions) flusters him greatly.

He is brilliant enough to build his own robots, just to destroy them in bouts of rage. Plus, he likes pictures of horses with gigantic dongs what is up with that. Though apparently this is because they are considered "high art" on Alternia.

Equius had a tendency to become furious and enraged about practically everything. He is only able to express his rage by building robots, setting them to "Kill Mode", and defeating them with staggering quantities of violence. In a pinch, other acts of violence will do, such as when Aradia threw a bath tub through his wall.

Equius is extremely strong, and has trouble controlling his strength; under his touch, bows snap, glasses break, and his lusus bruises from little more than a gentle pat. This enrages him further.

He seems to enjoy the concept of domination, admiring his own strength, as well as the clout that his blue blood gives him over the lesser blood colors. However, it would seem that he would prefer to be dominated by the few trolls that occupy a caste higher than his own - or by pretty much anyone he can get to do so, especially if they are on a lower blood caste.

He likes games, but only if they are serious important games with high stakes. He has no interest in Flarp, and forbade Nepeta from playing as well.

Relationships
Most of Equius' qualms with the other trolls concern acting above or below one's rank. He questions how a troll like Gamzee, whose purple blood - a color historically associated with royalty - is a tier above Equius' blue blood, could act so crassly, while Aradia, who is "of the most abject, verminous bloodline of all," can conduct herself with (to him) poise and grace, casting doubts upon the practicality of the system. Equius becomes flustered and apologetic when a so called "highb100d" like Gamzee accepts an order from him without question. Judging from this conversation, Equius seems to have a fantastically creepy fetish for being "whipped into a state of contrition" for his "impudence".

Equius seems to care deeply for Nepeta Leijon, so much that he insists that she be on his team regardless of what Nepeta wants. He has an affectionate but possessive attitude towards her. Karkat disagrees, calling Equius the "only biggest asshole than him", but Tavros doesn't mind, given Nepeta avoided the string of accidents because of Equius role-blocking her. Interestingly enough, Nepeta seems to reciprocate the feelings, telling Equius that he is lucky that she is watching out for him.

Equius has the biggest crush on Aradia and created a robotic chassis for her upon request (complete with artificial passion for him), fantasizing that in that way she could be considered a blue-blood and he could be with her romantically. Later on, he was upset about how Aradia had become his superior (being his server player) but then took perverse pleasure in being dominated by her, even ceding the leadership title to her. Really, what doesn't get this guy's bone-bulge all up in arms?

It may be worthy to note that these relationships seem to be in following Astrological Compatibility. In modern Astrology, the sign of Sagittarius is considered compatible with both Aries and Leo, as well as Sagittarius itself.

Lusus/Kernelsprite
Equius's Lusus, Aurthour, looks like a centaur, but with an udder and a mustache, often referred to as a "musclebeast". He appears to also act as a butler for Equius, giving him nutritious lusus milk, presumably among other things. He resembles a creature from one of the author's older works, Humanimals. Equius considers him to be one of the strongest lusus species in existence, the only one suitable for raising him and his absurd strength. Even though Equius tries to be as gentle as possible with him, his strength causes Aurthour to bruise incredibly easily, leading to a prominent black eye. Aurthour is also, according to Equius, the best at HS 4113 (butlering).

Aurthour dies after an explosion caused a piece of Equius' house containing Aurthour to plummet into the rocks and spiderwebs below.