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Baby Karkat in a traditional Tet'kem outfit. It's called a Bell coat and it's meant to alert parents to the location of their children (as tet’kem babies are capable of walking and subsiquently eating anything they can get their hands on right after pupation) and later in life it's a piece of ceremonial clothing, worn to celebrate growing older. Tet'kem also wear them at weddings :)
Spicy new troll worldbuilding, not connected to Homeverse really, but the wider Empire: They have a concept called tithe brides, basically an extra-marital partner who's more of a status symbol than anything else. Usually it's a Tet'kem that is particularly beautiful or has some unusual feature or is otherwise commodified in some way. Anyway, here's Karkat in a traditional tithe bride costume. Yes he's topless, trolls are a worker sex and they don't have breasts.
So, talking last night, and Berd came up with the idea that lusii are genetically constructed animals made by implanting the brain and partial nervous system of nymph Mothergrubs and drones into the empty constructed bodies.
These are all of the beta troll’s lusii! Minus Glb’golyb, of course. Also, Biclopse is actually two people!
The only two armored drones are Rhikaa (goatdad) and Isikaa (seahorsedad). The only pupated mothergrubs are Pranie (Kanaya’s, previously labotomized and neotenic virgin mothergrub) and Moksan, Nepeta’s good old ‘Pounce’.
After the gang arrives on Earth C, they set about resurecting the lusii. This...is not what they were expecting to pop out of the ectogoo.
As a final upload for today, some images of three very good dads.
While Astraa is Karkat’s genetic child, Dave tends to take the role of ‘active’ parent or a ‘mat’ and Karkat the role of provider parent or ‘dau’. Gamzee is the third tertiary parent, something a human might call an aunt or an uncle though it’s especially emotionally close, called ‘saweh’.
They love their girl lots and lots.
gentle gamdave
The Empire spans across large parts of the milky way galaxy, with Earth currently on the very edge of its reach.
There are several ways a conquered planet is used by the Imperial government. First, the planet, if inhospitable to Alternian life, must be terraformed. This includes planting Alternian species of plants and animals, and changing the composition of the atmosphere, sometimes installing one wholesale. After the planet is hospitable, citizens are shipped to colonies and the planet is officially declared part of the Empire. Generally, a planet will only have one major export, which will fall into one of three categories.
These are Brood Planets, which export trolls - bodies to go to the other forms of planets, Farming Planets, which export food and material goods, and Scholar* planets, which export knowledge and technology.
Scholar and plantation planets are often the largest in terms of land actually livable, but have the lowest density of populations. Brood planets, much like Alternia itself, have something of a catch-call society, with minor industry and agricultural cultures only to support the local caverns and whatever companies choose to place down roots there.
Alternia is in the center of the Empire l, but the planet holds very little importance in the politics of the Empire. Instead, it's considered a very minor Brood planet, with its main export being live bodies for the Army and Navy.
Trolls from Alternia are generally considered to be weird or odd, as their upbringing is very different from the norm of the rest of the Empire. Alternians are both considered incredibly martially adept, but lacking in some social graces. Sort of like that person you may know who didn’t graduate highschool, but is insanely good at mechanics and practical knowledge. A bit of a ‘sure, you got that fancy degree, but I graduated from the school of hard knocks’. You don’t really argue with it.
*’Scholar’ comes more from the fact that these on-soil cities hold a large amount of material collected over the millennia from artists and scholars, usually mostly highbloods. These planets however, are also host to most of the factory and industry in the Empire, with a great deal of the higher learning based on the ground there going into engineering and construction.
Astraa Vantas (she/her)
Astraa is the only child of Karkat, Gamzee, and Dave - which makes sense, considering she is only genetically related to one of them. Astraa is the result of a genetics program early on in Jolverhive's establishment, when the ability of trolls to have children on Earth was an impossibility. She is lime, just like Karkat would be if the mutation wasn't present. She was given to Karkat and Dave as a grub, and has spent much of her childhood being observed by scientists and doctors.
Astraa is a rambunctious girl, and enjoys playing with her numerous friends. Being as trolls are still excluded from most human sports that involve some form of contact, Astraa has attempted to start a troll league in school with..varying degrees of success.
Some Homeverse art! A domestic scene from like, the mid to late part of the story. The little kid looking over Gamzee's shoulder is Astraa, all three of theirs kid.
