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Now, before I actually start working on my* ideas of troll queerness. We should props laydown some groundwork for what later chapters to extrapolate on: troll reproduction.

Now in canon; trolls reproduce via having sex with other trolls (either their matesprit or kissmesis) (gender doesn't matter, or as the comic puts it "trolls reproduce bisexually"), this produces "genetic slurry" which gets collected by robot-drones. Those androids then pool it into the Mothergrub, who mix the genetic slurry in such a way that all trolls are "unrelated to eachother" [another valid way of viewing this is that all trolls are just as related to eachother as they are to strangers].

Now. There's many ways this can be argued to be highly unrealistic. But I've personally made many headcanons explaining much of this, some relevant, some less so. Here's some notes which likely is dubious canon at best & will come up here and there across this meta.

Trolls are indead a bisexed, but not alongside the worker trolls. The Mothergrub is the birthing sex while worker trolls are oddly analogous to ferns (in the sense that they're having sex for the Mothergrub away from the Mothergrub herself). This would mean that worker trolls aren't sexually dimorphic like humans are. Traits they've said to have in the comic (or technically fanon) would logistically apply to all in some degree [including rumblesheres, buldges, nooks, etc]. Trolls also care about about if the partner is matesprit or kissmesis cause it literally changes the genetic material. Due to the nature of the empire (both Alternia & Beforus), its likely that the actual mechanic of why genetic material changes based on the feelings of the trolls, is also a mystery to them (or at least the general public).

Mothergrubs originally also weren't a singular indiviual (as it is on Alternia) at first. There were several mothergrubs untill the Alternian empire came about and kept doing genetic experimentation on the mothergrubs untill a singular one could sustain the population of a planet of children. This fake-history will come up I promise.

I have many other headcanons of troll biology, but that for today isn't relevant.

The quadrants' origin will likely remain a mystery as well. Simply known to me (told to me via bullshittry) that quadrants emerged seperatly across troll groups and got more strict/normative/codified as socties merged into the Alternian/Beforan empire. For a less-biased explanation of the quadrants, check out Fanlore. But since you're here I'll explain my understanding of the quadrants to clariy the biases I have towards them.

The quadrants are grided out via two axises in canon: "love/hate (also known as red/black)" & "concupiscent (sexual)/conciliatory (designed to pacify)". But for this work I'll explain it instead as "postive feelings focused/negative feelings focused" & "exciment inducing focused/stability inducing focus". I use these defintions instead cause I think they better work for explaining this romance system & its appeal, at least to me & my headcanon version of trolls. I also think this would be a more inclusive terminolgy that in-universe queer trolls would use in private spaces.

Matespritship (postive/excitment) is often explained as "human romance", which I'll agree to. But I also think that its less emotionally intimate then human romance is expected to be, since other quadrants are expected to be filled & serve other emotional needs.

Moirallegiance (positive/stability) is to humans more easily understood as "QPR, but its more standerized". Though this leaves out some nuace that this quadrant has. Moirallegiance is meant to keep you stable, its meant to have its duo to be emtionally vunerable to each other so that the other can sooth the hurt & help realize the solution. Because of the later, this quadrant has an odd amount in common with the next quadrant.

Kismesissitude (negative/excitment) is best explained as "arch-rivalry as romantic". To form a healthy kismesissitude, you need to respect the person you hate. You need to be able to see something good in them you wanna bring out. Out of this mutual begrudging respect is born a rivalry which main goal is to better each other via competition. Whatever that means to the romantic haters.

Auspisticism (negative/stabilty) is the most alien of the romances. Mainly in the sense that its type is not considered romantic in our culture. Unlike the other three quadrants which are assumed to be a duo. The way auspistices come about is that an indiviual (the auspistice) realizes a romantic relationship is going to be destructive (to the people within it or outside of it or both). The auspistice then intervenes to prevent this detructive force from realizing or getting worse. This can be explained as "mediation as romance".

Now that I've explained the biases & assumptions I'm currently aware of having. I can work out the next portion: gender.

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Trolls originally didn’t have gender as we envision them cause, why would they? Even ignoring that their bi-sexed species isn’t like with human (with the mother-grub rarely if ever being sapient), trolls are compared to humans are quite a(nti)social. Division of labour was a lot easier to enforce by hemo-type when they did work together in pre-history.

This changed with the jades.

Now gender wasn’t created in one day, nor did trolls across the planet all agree on the same ideas. Many historians (legal & otherwise), disagree on the exact origins of gender. But gender as an idea came about once the jades were made to care for grubs & the mother-grub.

Many groups of trolls have in their prehistory put their mother-grubs on islands. This is theorized to maximize the grubs that would survive into juveniles as they were less likely to get eaten by predators. Jades at various points were sent to care for the mother-grub & the grubs/younger trolls. Reason for it often believed to be their relatively smaller groups + resistance to their planet’s sun. Regardless of the truth, jades at the those times became a social regiment of their own, often respected and feared by the trolls who knew them.

At various points, trolls would consider the jades to usually have a personality archetype different from most trolls. Though since it was less stratified, this idea of this personality archetype, later has become known as “female”, began spreading to other trolls who exhibited similar personality, modes of dress & behavior of the jades.

The male gender often (though not always) evolved later on. Often conceptualized as a “companion & shadow-gender” to female, males ended up often characterized as soft-spoken, weaker, less competent & followers. But even then gender tended to not be binary: when ideas of gender spread among different troll groups, other genders were often conceived and shared between trade and migration. Other common genders pre-empire were neutrois (often understood to be a gender between male & female), flora-genders & lusus-genders.

Even to this day gender isn’t binary in either Beforus or Alternia. What genders are popular are in flux and ever-changing, and even genders that aren’t at their beginning considered “real genders”, they often become accepted depending on how many adopt then afterwards & other factors. Though the most common genders across both Alternia & Beforus are: female, male, neutrois & lusus-genders.

When/if in contact with humans, trolls have to them a strange definition of transgender. Within the modern day, cisgender is simply whatever gender you were assigned by your lusus (which can be any gender your lusus is aware of). Once a troll changes, adds, or removes part of their gender, they’re considered trans. Even transitioning back to your original gender is considered trans to trolls, making it that to them, there’s no difference between transitioning, de-transitioning & re-transitioning. As trolls would say “you are still changing your gender”.

While this system of gender seems more fluid, and it can be, its in some ways more rigid. Trolls very much subscribe to the idea that you preform your gender. If you claim to be a specific gender, you are expected to dress like it, talk like it, behave like it, etc etc etc.

Because of this, as said by my friend Swamp, nonbinary-hood & Gender Non Conformity (GNC) are the same thing to trolls (because it causes confusion in the current system of gender of trolls). Swamp has coined this gender to be “quantum-gender”, as trolls who are this are viewed to be in between states of gender, and thus are performing gender “incorrectly”.