Troll

An internet troll is someone who purposefully harasses other people on the internet. In Homestuck, there is a group of twelve trolls who often bother the kids on Pesterchum. They are from the planet Alternia, which exists in a separate Universe, and are the protagonists of Hivebent, the first half of Homestuck: Act 5. They are humanoid and approximately the same age as the kids. They have gray skin, yellow sunken eyes, pointed teeth and black hair. Their most noticeable features are the horns sprouting from their heads, which resemble Candy Corn.

Each troll is connected to one of the signs of the Zodiac. Each wears a shirt depicting his or her associated sign. Each troll's horns reflect their sign; for example, Terezi's (♎) horns are pointed to a tip and nearly horizontal, while Karkat's (♋) are curved and rounded, Tavros' (♉) are massive like a bull's, and Sollux has two pairs.

The Trolls have been pestering Jade Harley for years now and have even forced John to change his Pesterchum handle. One of them seems to have befriended Rose, who may even be giving them trolling tips. Some of the trolls are very bad at trolling; Tavros becomes so freaked out with Dave's sick fantasies HS 2999 (ill beats) that he blocks Dave, rather than the other way around. Eventually, the trolls inadvertently form a sort of friendship with the kids.

The trolls have names tied to the Greek Zodiac and DNA nucleotides. Adding their abbreviated trolltags to GG, GT, TG, and TT makes the 16 possible two-letter names from the letters A, C, G, and T, the four nucleotides of DNA. All twelve trolls also have first and last names with six letters each.

Hivebent
The trolls have completed their Sgrub session, originally starting as two teams of six players, which soon turned out to be both part of the same chain of 12 players. The trolls at first began to question the nature of their two-team structure when the Red Team's Prototyping began to affect the Blue Team's enemies and vice versa. Then, because of a Mobius Double Reacharound, the two chains turned out to be joined together all along; therefore, one Prospit and Derse, one Skaia, one pair of kings and queens, etc. exist in their Incipisphere. However, they have two Frog Temples for an unknown reason. But since the trolls were revealed as a twelve player session before the start of Hivebent, this was not a stunning revelation at all.

Through a combination of luck, strategy, and of course level grinding, the Trolls are able to defeat their Black King and reach the end of the game, creating our universe in the process. However, before they can leave the Incipisphere and enter our universe, thus winning the game, they are interrupted by The Rift. They are forced to abscond to The Veil, where they use their equipment to talk to the kids at any point in the timeline, even months before the story begins.

It is interesting to note that while the trolls are quick to draw attention to the kids' supposed mistakes in the game, they themselves needlessly powered up their enemies and thus their final boss, the Black King, by prototyping their Kernelsprites with exceptionally dangerous creatures - the worst of which being Gl'Bgolyb.

Troll biology and culture
Adult trolls supply their genetic material to the filial pails carried by Imperial Drones which are offered to the monstrous Mother Grub deep underground in the brooding caverns. She then combines all the genetic material into one diabolical incestuous slurry and lays hundreds of thousands of eggs at once. It is still unknown how the trolls get their last name, because is it impossible to find who their genetic parents are, assuming they even have any and aren't just a mix of random genes. The 12 trolls featured in Hivebent, however, are actually all Paradox Clones of themselves, as Karkat Vantas performed the same sort of Ectobiology as John did in the Kids' session, albeit by a different name. Because of the troll mating and reproductive process, an ordinary human household cleaning bucket is seen as something obscene, the trolls reacting as though the kids had left pornographic material lying out in the open when one is spotted.



The eggs hatch into young larval trolls, known as wigglers, which wriggle about to locate a cozy stalactite from which to spin their cocoons. After they pupate, the young troll with his or her new-found limbs undergoes a series of dangerous trials. If they survive, they are chosen by a member of the diverse and terrifying subterranean monster population native to Alternia, frightening beasts known as a Lusus Naturae. This creature becomes the troll's Custodian, behaving as a lifelong bodyguard, caretaker, and visceral sort of mentor, while the young troll must learn to function as a sort of zookeeper. Together, they surface and choose a location to build a Hive. The building process is facilitated by Carpenter Drones left on the planet to cater to the young for building. The vast majority of adult trolls are off-planet, serving some role in the forces of ongoing imperial conquest, besieging other star systems in the name of Alternian glory. The culture and civilization on the homeworld is maintained almost entirely by the young. Trolls are challenged from birth to prove their strength, having to conquer many trials before aquiring a Lusus, and ensure the race stays at its peak. They are jaded towards violence and for the most part unsentimaental about individual lives. They do not bury their dead. A number of the trolls exhibit similar behavior and characteristics to their lusus; Karkat is irritable and defensive, Tavros is sensitive and completely harmless, Nepeta is a deadly predator but happy and cute, and Vriska is a danger to everyone around her.

Trolls sleep within Recuperacoons filled with Sopor Slime. Sopor Slime is a slime that is nourishing during sleep but should not be eaten. The slime helps ease the terrible visions of blood and carnage that plague the dark subconscious of their species. The majority of Trolls have developed some mental instability because of this problem.

Troll Relationships are HS 4196 (really, really confusing), built around hate and pity. They're kind of like human relationships but with more official terminology. The simplest way to describe it is that, while humans only have one form of love (i.e. you can say to someone "I am in love with you"), Trolls have four distinct forms of love. And similarly to how the blanket term "love" does not describe differences in relationships, there is a wide range within the four Troll romances. These four romances are signified based on the suits in cards - ie, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades, and Hearts. The Black-suited romances are implied to be built on hatred (or the "strongly negative"), and the Red-suited romances are implied to be built on pity (or the "strongly positive"). The four quadrants of troll romance are: Kismesis (♠), or "fated nemesis"; Moirail ( ♦ ), or "fated friend"; Matesprit ( ♥ ), the closest to human romance; and Auspistice (♣), which involves three people - essentially, two rivals and their mediator.

Portions of troll anatomy include the bone bulge, nook, cartilage nub, chitinous windhole, protein chute, and others. Their functions are largely unclear. Kanaya has HS 4228 (mentioned) Feferi's "collapsing and expanding bladder based aquatic vascular system", which she uses in a cliche phrase where a human would normally say "heart". Presumably the aquatic trolls with high-caste blood have a different physiology than other trolls, which allows them to live underwater and accounts for the finned, gill-like structures seen on either side of Feferi's and Eridan's necks. It is worth noting that the troll aristocracy use terms we're familiar with for things that lower-class trolls identify with something more descriptive but less clear to us human freaks - for example, a red-blood troll's "ablution trap" is a "bathtub" to a blue-blood. As such, there's probably a similar parallel for troll anatomy - chitinous windhole and protein chute, in particular, may correspond to the windpipe and esophagus, respectively.

Blood and Caste
Each troll has a different color of blood. Aside from Karkat, the color of their blood matches the color of the symbol on their shirt (and the color of their text on Trollian). Vriska has referred to Karkat's text as HS 4196 ("lame gray anonymity,") proving that all (or most) of the other trolls wear their blood colors on their shirts and on their text. The blood of a Lusus appears to be the same color as its associated Troll.

There is a caste system on Alternia based on the color of an individual's blood. The hierarchy follows a reverse rainbow, with red being the lowest and purple being the highest. Blue blood is shown to be a high caste color in HS 3961 (a conversation) between Karkat and Terezi. Equius describes Nepeta's green blood as "ok but not great". Sollux is quite low on the hierarchy and has a hard time thinking of a color of blood lower than his own yellow.

The trolls with the highest blood color of violet (Feferi and Eridan) are Sea Dwellers who live underwater, sport fin-like protrusions on the sides of their faces, and rule over the rest of the troll species. Feferi is noted to have the highest blood color in existence, trumping even that of the Trolls' Empress, Her Imperious Condescension, and making Feferi the obvious Heir Apparent. Gamzee, with indigo blood, lives on the coast and has a sea-dwelling Lusus.

Higher blood castes seem to have more lavish hives: both Equius's and Vriska's hives resemble castles as opposed to Aradia's humble hive. Both Eridan and Feferi wear jewelry, as well.

Kanaya's Jade blood is quite rare and even warrants the protection of a Virgin Mother Grub.

When asked by Terezi what color his blood is, Karkat gets defensive; although the other Troll's colors represent their blood colors, Karkat masks his in anonymity by using a gray tone. When Karkat arrives in the Land of Pulse and Haze, he appears to be surrounded by a river of red, which he believes to be comprised of his own red blood, a mutation that places him even lower than the lowest caste on the Troll "Hemospectrum". It has yet to be revealed what significance this has.

Troll tears are apparently the same color as their blood, though more diluted in color. Trolls lower on the hemospectrum are more likely to have psychic powers, but are more psychically susceptible as a result.

Some of the Trolls may believe human blood works on a similar system, although only Equius and Eridan seem to care much about the hemospectrum. Terezi is also very curious about human blood, specifically about how it tastes and smells.

It is possible that the blood-color caste system may correspond with medieval class systems on Earth. Based on this supposition, purple blood would be high royalty, blue would be nobility of sorts, green would probably be lesser nobility, and red would be peasantry. The intermediary colors are harder to discern but may correspond to other roles in feudal society or may fall under the previously listed four groups.

Speculation
Early on, it was speculated that the trolls were connected to the kids as counterparts or 'evil twins,' as a few of them exhibit traits that are the reverse of traits the kids have. For example, Tavros, thought to be a possible counterpart to Dave, is very weak-willed and under-confident. Others have 'corrupted' versions of traits the kids have. Terezi, who looks a little like Jade, takes Jade's silliness to a manic level and has a beast-like sense of smell. Andrew himself has denied that any of the trolls are any full-on human counterparts - there are often similarities, but never anything exact.

There is some speculation about another troll, using the little-known Zodiac sign Ophiuchus, also known as Serpentarius. However, due to the DNA naming system, there are no more available trolltags. The possible Ophiuchus troll may use the initials of UU, corresponding to Uracil, or GT, John's former chumhandle that is no longer in use. This is supported by the song The Thirteenth Hour, from Toby "Radiation" Fox's album. In the PDF booklet that comes with the album Alternia download, the song The Thirteenth Hour is described as being UU's Theme. It's more likely, however, that this was misinformation and the Ophiuchus troll doesn't actually exist. However, in the most recent Flash update, the song used was revealed to have the name uU.

Andrew has said it's possible that the Empress could have survived the vast glub. 

Trivia

 * In a recent trailer for Etrian Odyssey III, the characters' names for Advanced Character Creation were named Terezi, Kanaya, Gamzee, Equius and Karkat, a blatant reference to the trolls of the same names. It's also worth noting that in the previous shot, the 'Zodiac' subclass had been chosen.