Hemospectrum

All trolls belong to one of 12 steps on the “hemospectrum”, a series of genetic traits that determine blood color and certain pseudophysical abilities. Troll society is a mercantilist aristocracy; blood color has near-exclusive inference in determining a troll’s place in the power structure. Furthermore, certain lineages of genetic material can be found within the hemospectrum, and one is often (socially, if not legally) expected to carry on their lineage’s legacy. The higher one’s place is in the hemospectrum, the easier it is to trace one’s lineage. Lineages that commit “unforgivable” crimes are often culled from the genetic pool. Hemospectrum hybrids are considered unwanted accidents in the hatching process, but the Hatching Ziggurt reproduces them indiscriminately, and they are simply a part of Al2rnian life now. Just as a note, there is no such thing as systematic culling on Al2rnia though there are laws in place that dictate who can legally kill who depending on a troll's position on the job heirarchy and/or strata ladder. See Al2rnian Law for more details.

Hybrids
Also called mixed-spectrum, hybrid trolls are the potential result of two trolls from different bloodcastes entering a concupiscent relationship. Usually, those castes are adjacent to each other, but that's not always the case. The surname of the hybrid troll is typically hyphenated, with the warmer-blooded ancestor's name coming first.

The farther up you go on the hemospectrum, the rarer hybrid trolls are, as coldbloods have a vested interest in keeping the established hierarchy intact. It's rare to see a coldblood start non-pale relationships with warmer castes, as preserving their genetic lineage is of great concern. Still, hybrids are frowned upon no matter the caste they come from, and have no legal protection against violence or murder — those are designed around assumptions of single-signclade, single-strata trolls.

Warmblood hybrids tend to have bigger chances of survival, as their lineage integrity isn’t that valued. Coldblood hybrids, on the other hand, are quite scandalous, but tolerated if there isn’t much blood difference from the usual. However, coldblood hybrids that are greatly outside of the norm, like a fuschia with rust-colored blood? Generally viewed as a scourge to society at least among traditionalists and hemoessentialists.

Auburn
Initially split into rust and bronze, "auburnblood" is now the proper legal designation for the caste. It consists almost entirely of wage workers, typically working undesirable and unfulfilling jobs such as customer service and janitorial work. These jobs typically require long hours with hardly any days off and pay a measly wage. It’s also not uncommon for an auburn to work multiple jobs. Auburns enter the workforce at 8 and are allowed to retire at 20, though in reality, this rarely occurs. Before the innovation of drone-based construction, rusts would use their psychokinetic abilities to lift heavy building materials. However, due to a series of warmblood strikes involving the destruction of coldblood property, the employment of most psionics-based labor has been strictly prohibited.

Global cooling has severely impacted the life expectancy of auburnbloods. Both auburn trolls and lusii are beginning to suffer from global cooling-related illnesses, forcing orphaned trolls to enter the workforce earlier and causing older auburns to die younger.

While they have historically lived on the outskirts of large cities, auburnblood communities have begun to pop up just about everywhere. As cities expanded their borders, many auburns were forced to leave their hives and relocate to either communal hivestems to keep their jobs, or relocate to the boonies and find work elsewhere. It is not uncommon for a group of auburns to share a hivestem, as the rent prices in many cities have become increasingly expensive. Some hivestems host a ludicrous number of blockmates, with some small stems housing as many as 4 trolls per respiteblock.

Many auburnbloods self-medicate due to the chronic pain of being overworked. In fact, all drugs became legal not only because they helped warmbloods get through the work day, but because some dulled the psionic powers of warmbloods as well. Most auburn hangouts are usually smoke sessions, as smoking space weed is a social activity. There’s also something of a party scene amongst auburns. These parties are the stuff of legends to some coldbloods, who are desperate to experience an Authentic Auburnblood Party.

Average lifespan: ~25 to 35 sweeps.

Gold
The Goldbloods are an extremely exploited underclass that are picked out as grubs and separated from their lusus, instead moved to power facilities where they live and die underground. Their psiionics are then siphoned to power the electrical grid of Al2rnia. Many goldbloods are raised with a ‘nanny’ type AI figure designed to keep them fed, placated and productive. As an attempt to keep goldbloods from organising, they are allowed to play video games with each other in their free time, with relationships forming under extremely hostile circumstances. Escape for goldbloods is rare, but not unheard of, though most of them struggle to adapt to normal life outside of strict rules.

Average lifespan: ~35 to 40 sweeps, though it is artificially extended in the psiihives.

Olive
Olivebloods are the philosophers of Al2rnia. Many olivebloods are inclined to work in rural areas due to their general genetic immunity to the toxic atmosphere on some parts of the planet. As a result the olivebloods living outside of cities usually do so in isolation, blitzed out of their minds and hunting bears. They are, for better or worse, some of the most interesting minds on Alt2rnia. Notable olivebloods are; Troll Foucault, Troll Marx, and Troll Richard Dawkins.

Average lifespan: ~50 to 55 sweeps.

Lime
Limebloods were typically the therapists of Al2rnia. Emphasis on “were”. Over the years, their traditional job has strangely morphed into a kind of law enforcement with a flimsy veil of rehabilitation called Subdugation.

Limebloods have a turbulent genetic make-up. They are, by far, the most variably hybridized caste, their hybridization ranging from all across the hemospectrum. Therefore, it’s incredibly rare to find a limeblood that one, isn’t a hybrid of some kind, and two, has “pure” lime blood. In fact, it’s rare to find limebloods in general since usually when hybridization occurs, the lime blood color and abilities are lost in favor of the other strata. Out of the limebloods that do retain blood color and ability, one out of three aren’t able to trace back their ancestry well enough to associate with an official signclade. Many limeblood signclades have been lost to time due to this.

In order to preserve some semblance of cultural identity and heritage among limebloods, there are common signclades that a limeblood troll is assigned to when their ancestry isn't able to get traced back. When a troll is assigned a common signclade, that troll is then further assigned to inherit the belongings of a dead troll in that same sign. Usually, the dead troll is random, but occasionally, a “stable” genetic lineage would pop up. In this case, trolls are paired up to their respective genetic ancestor (like with Bettah and Galtro). The five general signclades are Meflis, Hepruu, Jalius, Booizy, and Dorvan which are derived from the earliest extinct limeblood signclades on record. These limebloods are just Barely recognized as trolls with ancestries.

As far as notable features of limebloods, they tend to vary greatly in abilities and looks due to coupling with other stratas. A few have the psionics of warmbloods, others have the physical capabilities of coldbloods, but most of them have inherited a weaker variance of Auras from purplebloods. Limebloods are known for emotion-based Auras that either Induce, Amplify, or Reduce certain emotions. Of these types of auras, Amplify is by far the most common followed by Reduce and Induce though these are far from the only types limebloods could have. Auras can vary as much as purples. These are just the most common. Unlike purplebloods, limebloods can learn to reel in their area of effect though this takes ample amounts of dedicated sweeps to master.

Average lifespan: ~65 to 75 sweeps though it varies due to hybridization.

Jade
The latest addition to the hemospectrum, the Jade caste was engineered by the Hatching Ziggurat in response to the ever growing threat of noble-sponsored sabotage and aggressive (in more ways than one) takeover. The "prime specimen" of a novel Jade brood is handpicked by Nagini, the Lusus-of-Lusii, and trained from childhood to defend the Ziggurat from outside interference. The rest have had a hard time integrating into the socioeconomic ladder: resented by lower castes for their arbitrarily high assignment in the spectrum, yet not high enough to control the means of production. Many have settled into the fashion industry, which they've revolutionized by implementing previously discarded byproducts from the Ziggurat's hatching process. Notable jadebloods: Troll Coco Chanel.

Average lifespan: ~80 to 90 sweeps.

Teal
Tealbloods are a mix of 'librarian' and 'secretary', focusing on the handling and processing of depressingly bureaucratic bullshit, most of which is divided in a 200-step 200-signature plan that is nigh impenetrable unless you have similar training. They also do a lot of grunt work in accounting, record-keeping, etc. If it’s a crushingly useless low-level white-collar job, a teal is probably doing it.

Despite requiring a very time-consuming and debt-driven education to be employed, they aren't generally credited for work that has been done in favour of any given company - the end goal for most of them is to be an useful asset that contributes to the success of the whole. Not too low or not too high on the ranks, 'finding comfort in a cubicle and spending 30 years providing continued service as the bronze ranking employee of the month' seems to be the best case scenario for a fulfilled and successful tealblood.

Given the fact tealbloods are usually employed to deal with other tealbloods, internal rivalry and loyalty to given employers keeps them from breaking formation and asking the hard questions, such as, "why aren't we running this place?" or "Have you ever stopped to think about how this incomprehensible gibberish only makes our lives more difficult?" which only benefits the higher castes and nobility. An ‘unsuccessful’ tealblood is likely to fail out of school or get fired from work and get sent to work in a lower-caste designated job, which makes competition between younger teals particularly bitter.

This starts as early as their educational years, in which every detail of what teals do is evaluated by those around them and framed as crucial for the #tealboss #advancement they will definitely encounter if they just work hard enough. When it comes to achieving ‘important’ positions, ancestry helps a little (sometimes you inherit a cubicle!), but it almost entirely depends on luck, prior connections to slightly higher-up teals, or even better, indigos or purples. Everything you do is framed to yourself as revolving around your responsibility to improve.

In the workplace, it's not that dissent is impossible, just usually regarded as ineffective due to “Article X Part X regarding the spineless strike of XXXX” in which a band of tealbloods got demoted when they proposed better wages, but couldn't find a leader amongst themselves, still trying to suss out who that should be using a certified Al2rnian executive system that was lost in processing.

Average lifespan: ~150 to 200 sweeps.

Cerulean
Nowadays, they have been relegated to the role of inspectors, corporate engineers and upper managers. In the wake of the Population Pacification Partnerships, all cerulean signclades with traces of psionic powers have been systematically culled from the gene pool. That, coupled with the fact that ceruleans are subjected to the "caste ceiling", means that it's uncommon for a cerulean line to have a formal, unique title — though not impossible. It's also fairly common to find ceruleans in mid-range positions in the navy and holding non-signclade specific civic titles. They are, effectively, a single step above teals in terms of social power, peering into the upper echelons but almost never reach them.

Average lifespan: ~250 to 350 sweeps.

Indigo
Indigos are the casino owners, the investors, the landlords, the art collectors. Basically, they ride off of money, and contribute almost nothing to society outside of it. There are different spheres of Indigos littered all over the planet, most of them living in clear, “utopian” rural areas reminiscent of the 1800s southern countryside. These spheres stick tightly together, and tend to make deals with/kill each other the most. Every once and awhile, spheres would host an Extravagant Gala which is just an excuse for everybody to discreetly hire assassins and try to kill their competitors. Subterfuge is a big part of indigo tradition.

Average lifespan: ~450 to 650 sweeps.

Purple
Purples are the entertainers of Al2rnia. They’re also the ones employed to spread propaganda of all kinds whether it be religious, corporate, political, or otherwise. Not all of them are clowns, some of them are regular. This is to be nice to the capricorns.

Many Al2rnian purples have fairly low-grade socio-psychic abilities, in some way related to social compulsion or understanding, called Auras. These auras can affect either the purple in question or people in their immediate vicinity, sometimes both at the same time, to differing effects or not. PPPs have ensured that only the most non-lethal, relatively "safe" singclade auras have endured, though purples have proved harder to pacify than other castes (like the ceruleans). They are very much Terrestrial Apex Predators, and they run colder-blooded than violets.

Non-purples are welcome to join many of these cults, though they're not able to advance very far. In general, purples are not as blood oriented as other castes, more about creating a family and order and their own hierarchy.

Average lifespan: ~700 to 1000 sweeps. Possibly longer.

Some of the established cult sects include:

The Brotherhood
An evangelical clownreligion of Dignified Religious Maleness, existing in opposition to the fuchsia rule. All Male, Male Aestheticized, Highly Inclusive And Highly Religious. Notable members: Pariis France

The Panachiers
An Entertainment Sect that is technically secular, but also Not. Semi-violent Hollywood people. They are, themselves, performers, and performance is an act of fidelity — no more Face Paint, the "Mask" is the Role.

The Inevitability Of The Metamorphosis
A fairly chill and secular but High Class apocalypse-worshipping cult. Notable members: Keltoc Imaldi

The Knights of Annihilation
A violent extremist semi-religious sect out for Revenge against seadwellers over the PPPs having wiped out several Important OP Purple Lineages.

Violet
Fuchsia hands don’t get dirty; that’s the job of Violetbloods, and it pays handsomely, too. From naval service to limited terrestrial law enforcement to boardroom proxies to intelligence collection and special ops, Violets do work slightly too distasteful for the highest echelon of property owners. Over a few centuries, one must assume they learn to enjoy it. Collectively, despite having far greater numbers, Violets own less property than Fuchsias, and tend to be board members rather than CEOs, but an ambitious Violet can do well for themself rising through the ranks of the military or management strata in a Fuchsia’s company. Given the rampant privatization of the defense industry, they can essentially do both at once! Titles are rigidly inherited to the point of insensibility, and if you’re unfortunate, your admiral may still be basically a grub. Tough luck!

Average lifespan: ~700 to 1000 sweeps.

Fuschia
The few Fuchsias that survive to adulthood inherit a sprawling corporatized hellscape. Five successful and long-lived Fuchsias with good names and well-regarded ancestries effectively trade off the formal leadership of Al2rnia every few hundred sweeps, when one gets bored or murdered. In essence, though, they rule the planet as an oligopoly, jostling periodically for control of prized contracts involving the military, schoolfeeding, and the hatching ziggurat.

Fuchsias are effectively immortal, though their mental state starts decaying at around the 8000 sweep mark.