![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
princeofdoomThis took longer than I intended to write, due to just normal snags in the writing process as well as some personal things going down that I needed to focus on. But here we go:
I'm going to assume anyone reading this knows what Alternian trolls are and has the basics of their society down.
I'll also quickly say that in human societies that have caste systems, that usually involves 1) being born into 2) one's place in society 3) based on the caste of your parents, which 4) also prescribes marriage withing your own caste (or in some cases an "equal" caste) and 5) one cannot change at any point in life except by becoming "untouchable"/an outcast or similar. That's not a complete run down of caste based human societies, but it's enough to understand them generally and not overly specific to a given society, hopefully.
Humans in these cultures could take on different jobs with the right training, and it is all cultural.
On the other hand, while eusocial insects tend to be born into whatever caste they are*, it tends to be genetic. And while we can't know if ants or termites have gender identity and are likely too simple to have social constructs at all, most castes are specific to certain sexes, or sub groupings of a sex.
Additionally, just like in humans, eusocial insects can have individuals that are intersex, or not easily discernible between male or female, which can also call their caste into question; Whereas in human caste systems, being intersex would be uncommon, but would not change someone's caste.
There are counter examples to this, like how in termites there are both male and female workers and soldiers, but they are all sterile and a male worker looks about the same as a female worker and the same is true for male and female soldiers at first glance. The main differences in terms of sex among termites is between sterile workers, sterile soldiers, fertile queens and fertile kings.
But it's still true that there are sex specific traits, and caste specific traits are hormonally regulated along with those sex specific traits.
We don't know how the vast variety of trolls' blood colors are produced within one species, but we can assume that blood color is at least correlated with certain caste traits and some of those are likely to be hormonally regulated. Trolls ARE a sentient species with a concept of gender, but those genders seem to be in part based on the sex of their lusus, and in part based on self-identity. I would even go as far to say that all "trolls" are one reproductive sex, while the mothergrubs are actually the equivalent of the female of the species**, despite not even being considered trolls; drones may or may not be another sex within the species, but as they are robots or, at best for this theory, cyborgs we don't really need to consider this. Alternately, trolls used their abilities with biotech to create an artificial "female"-equivalent and altered themselves so that all trolls proper were males*** and any differences in body type based on sex/gender are hold overs from when they had a sex system more like humans.
In either case, sex in trolls is non-consequential (except in a few rare cases) and gender is what the individual troll makes it. What IS a bigger player in physical differences, on average, is blood caste. Without getting into how society has affected, pronounced or mitigated certain differences, we can see that there are certain traits that are common among each caste, to the point that there is more physically in common between two bluebloods regardless of gender or even interests, than there is between to trolls of the same gender and very similar interests, activity levels, etc.
"But Teagan," you might say, "isn't troll caste more analogous to race or ethnicity in humans?" And I have to reply that people can read it that way, but I don't think it actually maps like that. We've been shown hints at troll ethnicities like the East Alternians, and even an ethno-religion among the Subjugglinators. Even in the case that most (or all) purplebloods are Subjugs, we've been shown in canon, that not all Subjugs are purples. Aradia and Damara seem to be East Alternian, but this isn't true of all rustbloods or even common among warmer blooded trolls. I don't know if it's confirmed that any cooler blooded trolls are East Alternian, but if there are any that would prove that East Alternian trolls are not confined to one part of the spectrum like would be expected if castes mapped even partially to ethnicity like many people think.
"BUT TEAGAN!" you might also say, "TROLLS ALREADY HAVE GENDER, AND IT'S NOT LINKED TO CASTE!" That I will grant you, partially. They do have gender, but we don't know why trolls have gender at all. There's a lot of things in canon that make it moot and even then, they treat it differently than humans do. But they do have castes that are mostly or primarily one gender or the other. And in the case of jadebloods who are canonically mostly female, the only male we have is also confirmed to be trans.
So, we have gender mostly not affecting trolls nearly as much as their caste does, some castes being shown as almost exclusively one assigned sex or the other (and members of those castes that are a different gender are mostly if not exclusively trans), while there is a spectrum of castes, they tend to be simplified to a dichotomy of high- or lowblood, and caste does not seem to correlate to ethnicity in any important way. This looks like an extended variation of the system termites have mentioned above. Instead of queen, king, worker, soldier, you have the various castes of trolls being given general and sometimes overlapping jobs within a complex society.
And of course this isn't to say that, just because troll castes are more similar to sex based castes in Earth insects, that this says anything about how one's gender or sex in humans affects anything. Or even that trolls 100% fit the standard traits of their castes. There are likely "intercaste" individuals who are ambiguous in traits between two or more castes. Blood color might be the deciding factor in these situations, just like genital shape/construction is often the deciding factor when humans are born intersex. And unfortunately, trolls that are too obviously intercaste would be viewed as mutants instead just non-standard members of a standard caste or even as cuspbloods. There could be trolls who feel caste dysphoria, but because of the control the Empire has about information, might have no understanding why they feel that way. And those who do understand or realize it might not feel there's anything that can be done or that their only option is to just go anon, become depressed or reclusive or alternately act out against the Empire since does it really matter if they get culled? Some would accept things and try to make things work as well as they can and live the life the Empire gives them, whatever that is.
TL;DR: Troll caste isn't really like anything in human culture but it more closely aligns to gender and "gender" in troll culture of the type we understand is all but moot.
* This is not 100% true of queen bees, however, it is hormonally regulated through diet given to young larvae, so it counts under the "sub grouping of a sex" clause in the next sentence.
** I am using the term female here in the sense of "the members of a species that produce the larger, less mobile gametes" and nothing else.
*** and her I mean male in the sense of "the members of a species that produce the smaller, more mobile gametes". Hence why I'd be reticent to post this on tumblr, but still felt I'd like to post it somewhere.
I'm going to assume anyone reading this knows what Alternian trolls are and has the basics of their society down.
I'll also quickly say that in human societies that have caste systems, that usually involves 1) being born into 2) one's place in society 3) based on the caste of your parents, which 4) also prescribes marriage withing your own caste (or in some cases an "equal" caste) and 5) one cannot change at any point in life except by becoming "untouchable"/an outcast or similar. That's not a complete run down of caste based human societies, but it's enough to understand them generally and not overly specific to a given society, hopefully.
Humans in these cultures could take on different jobs with the right training, and it is all cultural.
On the other hand, while eusocial insects tend to be born into whatever caste they are*, it tends to be genetic. And while we can't know if ants or termites have gender identity and are likely too simple to have social constructs at all, most castes are specific to certain sexes, or sub groupings of a sex.
Additionally, just like in humans, eusocial insects can have individuals that are intersex, or not easily discernible between male or female, which can also call their caste into question; Whereas in human caste systems, being intersex would be uncommon, but would not change someone's caste.
There are counter examples to this, like how in termites there are both male and female workers and soldiers, but they are all sterile and a male worker looks about the same as a female worker and the same is true for male and female soldiers at first glance. The main differences in terms of sex among termites is between sterile workers, sterile soldiers, fertile queens and fertile kings.
But it's still true that there are sex specific traits, and caste specific traits are hormonally regulated along with those sex specific traits.
We don't know how the vast variety of trolls' blood colors are produced within one species, but we can assume that blood color is at least correlated with certain caste traits and some of those are likely to be hormonally regulated. Trolls ARE a sentient species with a concept of gender, but those genders seem to be in part based on the sex of their lusus, and in part based on self-identity. I would even go as far to say that all "trolls" are one reproductive sex, while the mothergrubs are actually the equivalent of the female of the species**, despite not even being considered trolls; drones may or may not be another sex within the species, but as they are robots or, at best for this theory, cyborgs we don't really need to consider this. Alternately, trolls used their abilities with biotech to create an artificial "female"-equivalent and altered themselves so that all trolls proper were males*** and any differences in body type based on sex/gender are hold overs from when they had a sex system more like humans.
In either case, sex in trolls is non-consequential (except in a few rare cases) and gender is what the individual troll makes it. What IS a bigger player in physical differences, on average, is blood caste. Without getting into how society has affected, pronounced or mitigated certain differences, we can see that there are certain traits that are common among each caste, to the point that there is more physically in common between two bluebloods regardless of gender or even interests, than there is between to trolls of the same gender and very similar interests, activity levels, etc.
"But Teagan," you might say, "isn't troll caste more analogous to race or ethnicity in humans?" And I have to reply that people can read it that way, but I don't think it actually maps like that. We've been shown hints at troll ethnicities like the East Alternians, and even an ethno-religion among the Subjugglinators. Even in the case that most (or all) purplebloods are Subjugs, we've been shown in canon, that not all Subjugs are purples. Aradia and Damara seem to be East Alternian, but this isn't true of all rustbloods or even common among warmer blooded trolls. I don't know if it's confirmed that any cooler blooded trolls are East Alternian, but if there are any that would prove that East Alternian trolls are not confined to one part of the spectrum like would be expected if castes mapped even partially to ethnicity like many people think.
"BUT TEAGAN!" you might also say, "TROLLS ALREADY HAVE GENDER, AND IT'S NOT LINKED TO CASTE!" That I will grant you, partially. They do have gender, but we don't know why trolls have gender at all. There's a lot of things in canon that make it moot and even then, they treat it differently than humans do. But they do have castes that are mostly or primarily one gender or the other. And in the case of jadebloods who are canonically mostly female, the only male we have is also confirmed to be trans.
So, we have gender mostly not affecting trolls nearly as much as their caste does, some castes being shown as almost exclusively one assigned sex or the other (and members of those castes that are a different gender are mostly if not exclusively trans), while there is a spectrum of castes, they tend to be simplified to a dichotomy of high- or lowblood, and caste does not seem to correlate to ethnicity in any important way. This looks like an extended variation of the system termites have mentioned above. Instead of queen, king, worker, soldier, you have the various castes of trolls being given general and sometimes overlapping jobs within a complex society.
And of course this isn't to say that, just because troll castes are more similar to sex based castes in Earth insects, that this says anything about how one's gender or sex in humans affects anything. Or even that trolls 100% fit the standard traits of their castes. There are likely "intercaste" individuals who are ambiguous in traits between two or more castes. Blood color might be the deciding factor in these situations, just like genital shape/construction is often the deciding factor when humans are born intersex. And unfortunately, trolls that are too obviously intercaste would be viewed as mutants instead just non-standard members of a standard caste or even as cuspbloods. There could be trolls who feel caste dysphoria, but because of the control the Empire has about information, might have no understanding why they feel that way. And those who do understand or realize it might not feel there's anything that can be done or that their only option is to just go anon, become depressed or reclusive or alternately act out against the Empire since does it really matter if they get culled? Some would accept things and try to make things work as well as they can and live the life the Empire gives them, whatever that is.
TL;DR: Troll caste isn't really like anything in human culture but it more closely aligns to gender and "gender" in troll culture of the type we understand is all but moot.
* This is not 100% true of queen bees, however, it is hormonally regulated through diet given to young larvae, so it counts under the "sub grouping of a sex" clause in the next sentence.
** I am using the term female here in the sense of "the members of a species that produce the larger, less mobile gametes" and nothing else.
*** and her I mean male in the sense of "the members of a species that produce the smaller, more mobile gametes". Hence why I'd be reticent to post this on tumblr, but still felt I'd like to post it somewhere.
