Alternia

For the album, see Alternia (album).

Alternia
Alternia and its two moons.
Type	Planet
Inhabitants	Trolls Lusus naturae The Midnight Crew and The Felt (future)

Alternia is a dark, gray planet on which trolls originated and (most likely) the capital planet of the trolls' interstellar empire. The planet exists in a universe separate to that which contains Earth. It has two moons, one green, and the other, pink (which has a satellite of its own). In Homestuck, it is the setting of much of the first half of Hivebent, and years sweeps in the future (but not many), it is the setting of the Midnight Crew Intermission. Large segments of Hiveswap and the entirety of Hiveswap Friendship Simulator also take place on Alternia.

Chronology and history

See also: Future Alternia and Alternian Empire

The Alternia we observe is part of a post-scratch reality. Pre-scratch, the planet had the name Beforus, and possessed a caste system in which the highbloods coddled and cared for the lower bloods, a more peaceful but weaker world. It had only a pink moon. However, post-scratch they gained Doc Scratch as a first guardian and he artificially introduced the green moon, as well as Gl'bgolyb who would become the lusus of the Condesce and later Feferi. The threat of global extinction allowed the Condesce (or perhaps an even earlier Empress) to set up a system of oppression based on blood color, which was rebelled against on a large scale on at least two occasions. The second rebellion resulted in the banishment of all adult trolls into outer space, to conquer new planets. As a result Alternia is a planet populated by children. All of which was the intended outcome of Doc Scratch's minor alterations, ensuring that the trolls would excel at playing Sgrub by turning them into an aggressive race, as well as ensuring the arrival of his master. A third, smaller rebellion would occur during the advent of the royal heiress, Trizza Tethis, led in part by Dammek. The results of this rebellion are unknown.

Alternia was destroyed by meteors due to the Reckoning and eventually repopulated with exiles from the trolls' session. As such, the Intermission takes place on Alternia.

Physical characteristics

Planetary system

File:Alternia and its sun.gif

Alternia's solar system is located in an unknown galaxy in post-scratch Universe A, a continuum separate to that of Universe B, which contains Earth. Its location inside its galaxy is unknown, although Doc Scratch at one point mentions that a location at "the edge of the galaxy" visited by the Condesce is particularly far from Alternia. While this could imply that Alternia is located deep within its galaxy, it could equally be on an opposite edge.

Alternia's system appears to have a single, large, red star, which bathes Alternia in sunlight that appears far brighter than that experienced by Earth. The large, red depiction of its sun could indicate that it is a red giant, although this is difficult to determine due to its stylized depiction.

If there are any other planets or celestial bodies orbiting Alternia aside from it and its complement of moons, they are unknown.

Moons

File:Pink moon 05214.png

The pink Alternian / Beforan moon and its pink moonlet.

Alternia has two moons, one green and one pink. The green moon is home to Doc Scratch and his apartment that resembles Felt Manor. This moon first appeared in the aborted, non-canon Felt Forum Adventure created with input from Andrew, and has since appeared in canon. It appears that a whole felt city is on the green moon that looks a lot like Real City Streets in Problem Sleuth.

Little to nothing has been revealed about the pink moon thus far except that according to Aranea it was the only moon that existed in her life on Beforus (the green one being an addition after the scratch of her game session), that Meenah lived there while she was in hiding, that it may have been the location of the pre-scratch Frog Temple, and that it has a wee pink moonlet orbiting it in turn. Aranea also leads Terezi to the pink moon in a dream bubble so they may confront her session's Thief of Life.

Alternia's green moon.

Post- and pre-scratch trolls and kids meeting for the first time in a memory of Alternia's pink moon.

Slick thrown out of apartment.gif

Alternia and its pink moon seen from the green moon. Also: Spades Slick being thrown out of Scratch's apartment.

Climate

Alternian sunlight is so intense most creatures on the planet, including trolls, can't withstand it, preferring night and shady places; looking directly into the sun causes instant blindness, as experienced by Terezi. Simply dawn's rays also causes severe sunburn and blistering (Dubiously Canon). Kanaya is mentioned as being one of the few members of the species to enjoy its rays, with the entire Jadeblood caste being able to withstand them (Dubiously Canon).

Lusii, however, are fine going out in the sun for short periods of time, because "their coats reflect light, or somethin' to that effect" (Dubiously Canon).

Alternia's acid rain consumes the MSPA Reader.

It is shown in Hiveswap Friendsim that Alternia is prone to downpours of highly corrosive acid rain that is strong enough to dissolve a human down to the bone. However, presumably due to some impressive native biology, trolls seem to be little affected by this (although Stelsa Sezyat does note that acid "ruins her skin"). (Dubiously Canon)

Alternian biosphere

Inhabitants

Main article: Troll

Xefros and Dammek, two Troll inhabitants of Alternia, enjoying local cuisine.

Alternia is the homeworld of the Troll race; a species of grey-skinned orange-horned humanoid aliens who have a major role in both Homestuck and Hiveswap. While adult trolls lived on Alternia in the past, in Homestuck's time period it is inhabited almost exclusively by the young, the adults of the species being offworld conquering planets for the Alternian Empire.

In the future, Alternia is home to Carapacians in the form of the trolls' Exiles, including the Midnight Crew, as well as The Felt.

Inhabitants of Alternia are known as Alternians.

Fauna

File:Cuspidated Grimalkin.png

A custodial Lusus.

Aside from trolls and mother grubs, the lusus population shows us that Alternia is home to a greatly diverse population of terrifying creatures, including dragons; giant spiders; hermaphrodite cow-centaurs; sea-goats; fairy-winged miniature bulls; rams, multi-mouthed felines; bicyclopes; crabstrosities; giant flying whales; giant flying seahorses; and eldritch abominations such as Gl'Bgolyb. Two other lusii include the cuspidated grimalkin (colloquially known as a deercat) and the glacial treetrudger (a giant sloth-like creature).

Many types of Alternian wildlife are used in the Fiduspawn game, including fidusuckers and horsaronis.

Feferi, who is quite fond of aquatic life, cares for a great number of cuttlefish and a few aquatic hoofbeasts, who have fishlike hindquarters and tails, but otherwise are anatomically identical to Earth horses such as Maplehoof from the withers forward, including the forelegs.

Terezi accused Senator Lemonsnout of embezzling beetles, and then produced a sack of beetles as evidence.

Other creatures mentioned include hoofbeasts and musclebeasts, mentioned to roam the planet at night. Both are used interchangeably with the Earth concept of a horse, in phrases such as “GET OFF YOUR HIIGH HOOFBEA2T” and “fuck [his] dou8ledealing and the stupid muscle8east he rode in on”, although generally musclebeasts are depicted as more centaurian. Based on the appearance of their aquatic variety, hoofbeasts appear to be roughly identical to Earth horses. Musclebeasts are so strong you don't even know. Also, Kanaya once alludes to muscular “Erect Livestock” when talking to Jade, and she also describes them as hermaphroditic - this may be a more detailed description of musclebeasts. Another phrase used by Alternians is "the lion's share", but it is unclear whether they have lions.

The blue Frog Temple, surrounded by green prehistoric serpent bones.

Ancient serpent bones.

Terezi and Nepeta mention cholerbears in their roleplaying, and Karkat refers to one while trolling Jade. Cholerbears are probably similar to the panserbjørne, or armored bears, in that they have thick forearms and may wear armor. When roleplaying, Terezi refers to herself as a dragonyy'yd; however, Terezi's unhatched lusus is referred to merely as a dragon, and it is pointedly made clear that dragons are real. This suggests that the "dragonyy'yd" race is an alternate term only used in roleplaying, or a fabrication of Terezi's entirely, the details of which may not necessarily match up with real dragons. Dragonyy'yds may be reminiscent of Drakonids commonly present in Earth roleplaying games, and thus they may be half-troll, half-dragon creatures, just as Drakonids are half-human and half-dragon creatures to us.

According to Kanaya's introduction page, undead beings rise from the sands at sunrise, stalking the land and feeding on light and the living. Those who hunt the undead use chainsaws as their weapons of choice, although such activity is said to be as dangerous as hunting the nightly musclebeasts.

Alternia was once home to prehistoric serpents, which play a major role in Alternian (and Beforan) mythology. Their green bones can be seen in the area around the blue Frog Temple, and a set of ancient serpent bones can be found near Aradia in part 1 of Openbound.

Gallery

An Alternian map of meteor impacts by Sgrub sessions.

A newscaster in front of an Alternian map.

The Alternian city of Thrashthrust and its subgrub Outglut, as seen in Hiveswap.

Scene in Outglut showing the pink moon from Hiveswap Friendsim.

Hiveswap concept art showing Joey and Xefros travelling across an Alternian landscape.

Trivia

• During the "name entry" screen the planet was first named "Turdodor Fuckball" using the Daedric Alphabet from the Elder Scrolls series of computer games rotated 180 degrees. However, this name was promptly rejected. Next, "Trollplanet" was entered and accepted, although it is translated as Alternia.
• Alternia's musclebeasts are based on works from Andrew's time as an art critic depicting incredibly buff centaurs and other absurd animal hybrids.
• Alternia has 48 horoscope signs, implying that the session that created their universe consisted of 48 players. This suggests a series of cascading powers of four (4 [4¹] players in the kids' session, 16 [4²] players in both the kids' and the trolls' sessions, 64 [4³] implied players in the kids', trolls' and unknown group's sessions). The cherubs' session can be considered to have only a single player, as Calliope's personality has been completely subsumed into Caliborn's, which fits this pattern as 4⁰ is 1. Another pattern is found if you divide the number of players in the session by decreasing numbers, as followed: 48(created trolls' universe)/4=12, 12(trolls)/3=4, 4(kids)/2=2(cherubs).
• The image used for Alternia is a stock image of Russia's northern coastline. The continent in the southern part of the planet would then be Novaja Zemlja ("Newland"). Images of Mars are used for the pink moon and its smaller pink moonlet.
• Alternia was named by Radiation.
  • The planet's name "Alternia" was actually from the companion album for the trolls, and not the other way around.
  • Its name seems a play on "alternate," seeing as how it's an alternate version of Beforus. Beforus can be read as "befor-us", a reference to how it came "before" Alternia, if scratching is viewed as putting a session in the past. Both references are noted by Karkat in Openbound.
• The angle formed between the pink and green moons in Intermission 2, if placed on a clock face with the pink moon at 10, would make the time 10:25.