Please tell us more about your fantrolls! Especially that already mentioned angsty backstory for The Retainer!
asidufads happy to. This’ll be largely focused on the Retainer (given that their story is complete as opposed to Duneyr and Sairif, who’s stories take a variety of turns depending on the timeline I’m feeling) and also to answer this anon question I got: Why does the retainer wear a purple robe?
So. Goldblood psiionics are a mutation, a very common one. The Cervus brand, however, is a particular mutation of a mutation. Rather than telekinesis and eyebeams, they have empathic psiionics. Intuitively they act as an emotive thermostat for the room around them, and can even reduce or increase the strength of the emotion by siphoning it into themselves or pushing it forcefully outward (e.g., someone has a panic attack? They can take on some of that anxiety themselves in an effort to level it into something more manageable).
This mutation is relatively rare but not necessarily unheard of, and the common denominator for every empathicpsii is they struggle to maintain a strong sense of self. When you’re constantly participating in the feelings of whoever happens to be around it can be easy to let their motives and desires become your own. Like Mirror Touch Synthesia for emotions.
Now, on Beforus this wasn’t necessarily a problem. My dancestor troll, Duneyr, was taught how to put up walls around herself when she needed to. Frankly, her manipulating others was more of a concern than them manipulating her. But the Scratch changed things.
This brings us to The Retainer.
So, clowns, right? You’ve got a lot of extremely powerful, extremely driven, deeply unstable warriors running around. And, if you’re Her Imperial Condescension, that’s usually fine. Let them run around and take it out on the lowbloods, who gives a shit. However, sometimes there are people you wanna keep alive, whether or on a whim or because they need to be saved as an example, or hell, maybe they’re still a more valuable resource alive. Not to mention, you can’t get away from the nagging anxiety that one of these days they’re going to try and overthrow you. Fuschias and Violets can hold their own in a fight, but their numbers are few and clowns don’t think anything of dying for their cause.
Likewise, you have a group of psiionics who aren’t useful as batteries and not meaningfully better than the average Bronze at manual labor. Empathy is also a dangerous thing to an empire. Empathy builds bonds. It encourages unification, identification, instead of fighting to just keep yourself alive.
Solution? Partner them up. Empathic psiionics make great leashes for purples, restraining the worst of their madness. Additionally, those mustardbloods are now too preoccupied with not losing it themselves (or dying at the hands of their owners) that they don’t have time to foster revolutionary thoughts.
The Retainer was the leash for the GHB (hence the purple coat, befitting their station and indicating possession). Its not an enviable position. Taking on that level of anger, that hatred, that overbearing awful mirth, begins to wear and tear on you almost immediately. In addition to that the GHB is known for culling his retainers on whims. The constant terror in which they live only adds to the breakdown.
They have two great hopes: 1. their closet belief in the words of the Signless, which they keep under wraps they’re entire life, and 2. their moirail, Neophyte Redglare.
Ultimately, though, even these two thoughts aren’t enough to keep them aloft. Absorbing that much anger, directionless and burning, and spiteful....it gets to you after a while. And when a violet Dualscar comes to demand they chase the pirate Mindfang, and they feels their master’s anger at his presumption spike dangerously......for once they do nothing to stop it. Because it feels good to see them be the ones to squirm.
Orphaner Dualscar is executed for failing to tell a joke. And as the death of a seadweller isn’t something the court takes lightly, questions are asked. The control of a retainer isn’t always absolute, but even if they had been doing their best to restrain him, chances were good they would have been blamed anyways. Nice to have a lowblood scapegoat living in your house. They decide to go down fighting at least. When the GHB comes to enact their most righteous atonement, they unleash a wave of psychic furor previously unexpected of them, knocking him out and beating him to death with his own juggling clubs.
Retribution is swift, of course, and painful once the other subjuggulators find out what’s happened to his Motherfucking Holiness. The stories that are spread afterwards say they were laughing as they went.
....Anyways they’re reborn as a homeless shifty goldblood teen with agoraphobia
