Eridan Ampora

Eridan Ampora, also known by his Trollian handle caligulasAquarium, is one of the Sea Dwelling Trolls. His associated zodiac sign is Aquarius (♒), and his horns are wavy.

His name is derived from the river Eridanos, which was poured onto the Earth by Aquarius in Greek myth, and the amphora, a type of Greek vessel for carrying liquids which is often seen in depictions of Aquarius. Read backwards, it also spells out "Nadire" (A nadir is "the lowest point; point of greatest adversity or despair"), though this could be coincidence. His Trollian handle is presumably taken from Troll Caligula.

His Team affiliation is Blue.

Hivebent
Eridan is a sea dweller and a member of a very high caste. The typing quirk he uses (doubling v and w) is a reference to the Aquarius symbol, both forming a zig-zag shape representing waves.

Eridan dresses very flamboyantly for a troll, wearing a large quantity of rings, an extravagant, high-collared cape, and a billowing scarf. He has a purple highlight in his hair, making him the only troll to have hair that isn't entirely black, and has crooked horns reminiscent of the Aquarius symbol. Eridan's fashion sense, in as much as the term can be used to describe how a troll dresses, could be likened to a combination of supervillain (the cape and jewelry) and hipster (the pants, shoes, glasses, and hair). The cape and scarf, along with the rotated bolt shapes of his zodiac symbol, horns, and hair highlight, also evoke a reference to Harry Potter, also implied by Eridan's obsession with wizards and wands.

Eridan wields Ahab's Crosshairs, a weapon he found in a ghost ship along with Vriska's Fluorite Octet. The very first thing he was seen doing was using it to kill HS 4314 (a flying whale). He did this to feed Feferi's Lusus, in order to keep its voice down.

According to Terezi, Eridan was part of a "conspiracy" that had foreknowledge of Sburb, although he has never demonstrated any. He is the member of the Nautical Aristocracy that wants one of Vriska's HS 4106 (doomsday devices), apparently intended to kill all land dwellers. He was Feferi's former moirail and claims that he and Vriska would become kismesis without Kanaya's intervention. The biological differences between aquatic and land-dwelling trolls are unclear as of now, but both Eridan and Feferi are unique among the other trolls in that they have fin-like protrusions on the sides of their heads.

Eridan's hive appears to be the ruins of an antiquated ship, lodged upon black rocks on a small island. This shows that Eridan is comfortable with breathing air, despite his fin or gill-like facial protrusions. In fact, Eridan spends the vast majority of his time above water, although he claimed this is only so he can more effectively wipe out the land dwellers.

Being introduced last along with Feferi, Eridan appeared the least of the twelve trolls during Hivebent and currently has the least number of appearances for a Troll character overall. He was the only troll whose Planet was not seen during those introductions, and he was also not given a Mythological role at the time, an exclusion he shared only with Gamzee.

Upon arriving on his planet, the Land of Wrath and Angels, Eridan began slaughtering the inhabiting angels. He found the angels were difficult to kill, requiring at least a minute of constant fire from his powerful weapon, Ahab's Crosshairs. The angels were not intended to be his enemies, though it is unknown what purpose they were meant to serve. However, according to Doc Scratch, they had some role in granting Eridan his deadly "wwhite science" powers.

Post-Hivebent
Whilst hiding in the lab from with the other trolls, he comes to the conclusion that there is no hope left and informs both Feferi and Sollux of his plans to join Jack Noir. Feferi refuses an invitation to join him, and Sollux decides that he has to stop Eridan and challenges him to another duel. Sollux's eye beams are no match for Eridan's magic science wand and he is knocked out, and when Feferi attacks Eridan in retaliation, he kills her, leaving him more than a little unhinged.

Kanaya looks on in horror at the murder and starts to go for her weapon, while Eridan holds his wand at the ready. When Kanaya hesitates because of the Matriorb next to her, Eridan obliterates it (destroying the hope of troll re-population, in stark contrast to his mythological role) and then kills Kanaya when she attacks him. It wwas fuckin unconscionable. Eridan absconds from the room through the transportaliser as Karkat stares in disbelief at the carnage, vowing to kill him. However, Kanaya, after returning from the dead, takes care of this herself. Once she finds him along with Gamzee and Vriska in a HS 005420 (3x showdown), she promptly disables the latter two, "HS 005432 (debunks)" Eridan's wand, and pulls out her chainsaw for some vengeance, sawing him in half.

His ancestor is Orphaner Dualscar, who he named his Flarp character after. Dualscar was the kismesis of Vriska's ancestor, and the former owner of Ahab's Crosshairs.

Personality
Eridan has an affection for tales of historical leaders, conquerors, and military history. His passion for these extravagant stories of conquest and glory lends itself to his overly theatrical mannerisms and his massive ego. As a result, people tend to see him as a "bit of a tool". He also likes magic and wizards, even though he knows that magic obviously doesn't exist. This may be a contributing factor in his vaguely Harry Potter-esque appearance.

He loathes Land Dwellers and the litter they produce. His hate for Land Dwellers extends to such a level that he has devoted himself to killing them all, as a result of an overpowering genocide complex. He aims to achieve this goal through the collection of deadly weaponry, such as the absurdly overpowered rifle that he wields, and the pursuit of a functional doomsday device, one of which he solicits from Vriska. Much of his weaponry and resources were amassed through sweeps of extreme roleplaying, making him one of five trolls known to partake in that particular sort of game. His character's name is Orphaner Dualscar, a fellow Seagrift like Vriska's Marquise Spinneret Mindfang. The two were an unmatched alliance and brutal competitors, just like their ancestors. Typically trading and sharing the prizes of victory, Vriska would feed the victims of their conquests to her Lusus, while their lusus would be fed to Feferi's gargantuan lusus to keep her happy. Kanaya says that he has a ridiculous accent, but what kind of accent this is is indeterminate, although Andrew has said that he pronounces his "vv"s (double v's) as "w"s. This is likely because "v" is pronounced with a "w" sound in Latin. Eridan also has a tendency to swear rather a lot - though not as much as Gamzee - and thus appears to not fully appreciate the moral guidelines that are lent through his royal heritage.

Despite allegedly hating all terrestrial life and being extremely dramatic about it, Eridan's tough facade crumbles when faced by, well, pretty much anything, which is an excuse for even more theatrics. When told by Gamzee that Sollux is dead, Eridan immediately felt guilty and stated that he felt like an asshole- which he kind of is sometimes.

Eridan, though firmly stating his disbelief in it, has a fascination with magic, going so far as to pester Rose for the purpose of "HS 4705 (learning her secrets)". Later, he managed to pester Kanaya into creating HS 4946 (a wand) and training him in the ways of "white magic science".

Unfortunately, this stops being a joke when he uses the wand to kill Kanaya and Feferi. Killing two of his closest friends may not have much of a positive effect on his sanity...or his longevity, since by killing her, he turned Kanaya into a rainbow drinker.

"What would you say if I said a vengeful boy on a path of nihilism was taken under the wings of fearsome angels, and learned to destroy hope with their light?" -

Relationships
Eridan is the kind of person troll who tries to have a romance with every other troll bipedal sapient being, regardless of that bipedal sapient being's opinion of him, and he has four times as many romance options to pick from. He has a mating fondness for Feferi but didn't "play his cards right" (as he implied in a conversation with Kanaya and then later admitted to Feferi), leading to a moirallegiance between them in lieu of one more concupiscently-inclined, which he would have preferred. He also appears to be seeking kismesissitude with Vriska, but he has been completely shut down by her. After Feferi's entry into The Medium, she terminates her moirallegiance with Eridan as a result of Eridan's overbearing and taxing nature. This devastates Eridan. He is later seen attacking Sollux (with whom Feferi may have developed a matespritship), presumably in jealous rage. Eridan has also been seeking a Auspictice with Sollux, with possibly Terezi or Feferi as the auspice. He also apparently had feelings for Nepeta, and complains that she would not visit his planet even after saving her life by getting her into the game. After attempting to tell Rose that magic was not real, he asked her to be his kismesis, claiming that they both hated each other. She responded by destroying his computer, which probably did not help his feelings. He has even done some red flirting with future (and possibly past) Karkat who, seeing as how future Eridan had just killed Feferi and Kanaya, hates his guts and wants to kill him.

He does seem to have a strange friendship with Kanaya, valuing her for her apparent mediation skills, and he goes so far as to claim that he wouldn't kill her along with all the other land-dwellers. Despite his more sinister intentions, he seems somewhat petulant and relies on the support of Kanaya and Feferi to get by. However, later he ends up killing both Kanaya and Feferi. He is described by Kanaya as overbearing, to the point where he has been blocked on Trollian by Vriska, of all trolls.

Like many of the trolls, Eridan seems to regularly seek romantic advice from Karkat. Before they began playing Sgrub, Eridan and Karkat shared gossip with each other. After Feferi "broke up" with him, Eridan sought advice from Karkat, attempting to use both Gamzee and a memo to contact him when Karkat in that particular time was too preoccupied to answer (as Sollux had just died). It's implied that they had many conversations between then and Eridan killing Feferi and Kanaya in which Karkat gave him advice that Eridan ignored. Eridan is very open with Karkat, moreso than he had been to Feferi when they were moirails, and Karkat in return at least attempts to be nice (though sometimes in an exasperated way). It shouldn't escape notice that they've even made a pact. They're more or less friends... until Eridan kills Feferi and Kanaya, anyway.

Lusus/Kernelsprite
Eridan's Lusus appears to be a large sea horse probably known as a "Skyhorse", complete with saddle, which he rides into battle. He rides his Lusus while hunting for food for Feferi's gargantuan Lusus, supposedly out of obligation to Feferi.