Troll

An internet troll is someone who willingly harasses other people on the internet. They are often times hackers, breaking into someones profile and defacing it.

In Homestuck, there is a group of twelve trolls who often bother the kids on Pesterchum. They live on another planet at an unknown point in the future. They are humanoid, and are the same age as the protagonists. They have grey skin, yellow sunken eyes, pointed teeth and black hair. Each one wears a shirt depicting his or her associated zodiac sign. Their most noticeable features are the horns sprouting from their heads, which resemble Candy Corn. Each troll’s horns appear to reflect that trolls’ zodiac sign; for example, Terezi’s (♎) horns are pointed to a tip and nearly horizontal, while Karkat’s (♋) are curved and rounded, AT's (♉) are massive like a bull's, and Sollux has two pairs.

They have completed their Sburb session as two chains of 6 players each, and now reside in The Veil, where they use their equipment to talk to the kids at any point in the timeline, even months before the story began. They appear to be trolling the kids out of anger. According to this conversation between John and Karkat, in Karkat's timeline the Homestuck kids have already lost, and not only that... they have 'screwed up' the game so badly that apparantly all the trolls are going to die (at least, according to twinArmageddons). There is speculation that this 'screw up' begins with Jade's present to John ending up on the desk of one Jack Noir, who consequently uses it to slay the Black Queen. It was given to the Parcel Mistress when she gave Jack Noir the white king and queen's crowns after "deposing" both. (He uses the sword from his chest when he murders the Black King in-between).

According to Act 5, Karkat will "play a game" (presumably Sburb or their analogue) with five friends, not the full eleven one would expect given their count in the current day. This turns out to be because twinArmageddons decided for them to play in two teams of six: a red team and a blue team. Precisely who is in which team is unknown as of yet.

Homestuck has introduced six of them. They've 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. Two of the five trolls we have seen are very bad at trolling, with adiosToreador becoming so freaked out with Dave's sick fantasies ill beats that he blocks Dave, rather than the other way around. Karkat tells John that the trolls will, in the kids' future, inadvertently form a sort of friendship with the kids.

The trolls have names tied to the Greek Zodiac. 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.

Troll Biology/Culture
Adult trolls supply their genetic material to the filial pails carried by imperial drones and 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.

The eggs hatch into young larval trolls which wriggle about to locate a cozy stalactite from which to spin their cocoons. After they pupate, the young troll with his or her newfound 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 Droids 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 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. Trolls have many of the same outfit as they (are supposed to) care nothing for fashion.

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 (i.e. adiosToreador, thought to be a possible counterpart to Dave, is very weak-willed and under-confident). Others have 'corrupted' versions of traits the kids have. For example, gallowsCalibrator, who looks a lot like Jade, takes Jade's silliness to a manic level and has a beast-like sense of smell. However, Andrew himself has debunked this theory.

Unencountered Trolls
Several of the trolls not yet seen on screen have been described by the active trolls. GC refers to these other trolls as "not that enthusaistic about trolling" the cast. It is possible that these characters will remain off screen and off Pesterchum for as long as possible so that Andrew can save himself the trouble of drawing them and coming up with individual new ways to abuse the English language. The traits of these semi-known trolls are listed below.
 * A female troll that is "in charge of the timeline management".
 * A troll whose only shown feature thus far is his/her pincer-like horn. This is possibly ArachnidsGrip, as his/her sign is Scorpio (or cuttlefishCuller, as the symbol for Pisces strongly resembles the horns).
 * 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.
 * Three yet-unassigned troll Titles have been revealed, which may or may not correspond to trolls we have actually encountered: Seer of Mind, Maid of Time and Page of Breath.
 * It's possible that the Maid of Time is the one responsible for timeline management.