For those unaware, Andrew Hussie has designed, drawn and developed some lore tidbits for the Beforus ancestors! 6 have been revealed so far, with the remaining 6 to come soon.
Aradia - The Rankmaid
Her title is synonymous with "rotten girl" which means fujoshi, because thats what she is. She's the original author of the "How To Draw Manga" book Caliborn uses to become a great artist. She is a member of the "Lost Weeaboos" and hangs out in the tree forts with Tavros doing weeaboo stuff.
Nepeta - The Muckrake
She's a journalist who specializes in celebrity gossip, especially the romantic kind. She pens a column about which well known troll is in which quadrant with who. Receives much gossip from certain highbloods.
Kanaya - The Gardener
Tends to the gardens of the higher castes, and sculpts topiary into shapes which foreshadow unfathomable future events in other universes. Nobody has any idea what she's doing with these bushes, but think she's cooking anyway.
Vriska - Lamplady Swansong
She was blinded in a horrible accident involving a karmic chain of events. Lamplady is a Nightingale reference, but she also carries a lamp because shes on night shift as a nurse. She doesnt need the light to see, it's for her patients. On Beforus, cerulean bloods used their psychic powers more empathically than on Alternia, and were prone to being healers. She got the nickname Swansong because her patients tend to die due to her terrible luck.
Equius - E%emplar Danklook
As an indigo blood he has to set a good example for his lessers. He's exemplary, a sexy model citizen, but has a secret life in the voids of society. Nobody knows what this means, and nobody wants to.
Feferi - Shepherd Constern
Called Shepherd Constern, or just The Constern for short, but is more formally known as Her Imperilous Consternation. Consternation is a title due to the great worry and concern she has for her lessers, which she and all her ruling predecessors must take great responsibility for. Her hair is shaped like Gl'bgolyb and random trolls get stuck in it but she doesn't notice. Shepherd is her formal title, which is 8 letters per the ancestor convention on both Beforus and Alternia. However the corresponding title for the Condesce was never revealed. It was actually Winnower Condesce, which means someone who thins the herd, as opposed to taking care of it. But the Condesce viewed this title as cringe, and made it illegal to call her that.
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SO. What are we thinking. I need to digest my thoughts before locking in on the analysis train but I AM having thoughts about Humanstuck!Condesce's name being Winona.
Ok, the purple on Kanaya's gloves is obviously something to do with Rose, right? Do you think her and adult Rose from Earth B were somehow penpals in a similar way to Jade and Jake? I mean, they would be talking across 2 scratches and a genesis frog, but, ya know, maybe??
This is basically pure headcannon tho.
re; pat
sigh I hope, rosemary my life,,, If not some point of Rose that its probably something with B!Gamzee but I have no idea what that would be
rails b4 pails!!
:O3
In the discord Hussie has confirmed that yeah, Alpha rose and The Gardener are e-dating through their visions, Rosemary stays winning
HOLY MAMA I WIN!!!!! ROSEMARY!!!
rails b4 pails!!
:O3
im back because this picture fits perfectly
rails b4 pails!!
:O3
i'm excited about the new troll lore, but honestly as a japanese fan it's really disappointing to see we haven't dropped the stupid racist lost weebs bit, and it's even more annoying that it feels like people only even pretend to care about that if they have an existing problem with hussie.
i know tee hee fujoshi joke is in vogue right now, but it would be nice if we'd just left that whole weird east alternia pile of microaggressions in homestucks sordid past instead of doubling down.
lowkey like most of them except the rackmaid the whole fujoshi thing with her just feels like hussie being weird and stereotypey again except slightly less bad than it was with og damara
i think they're all so cool!! it's especially neat that beforan vriska has terrible luck parallel to alternian vriska, and i'm generally excited thinking about how the different culture on beforus caused them to turn out differently :D plus their designs are all awesome. i will fight someone for the rankmaid's outfit fr
(also equius is hot)
All of the designs were so good, especially vriska. The moment I saw them I went, "Oh we're going to be insufferable about this. I also hope, though don't ever expect, that perhaps the ancestors of both groups of trolls will somehow be important in the plot of homestuck 2. Or at least we'll get some kinda story with them
@meowzers
Psst, peep her pen :3
@rebornhagiomaniac
As cool as it is getting Beforus lore I really hope that they don't end up being relevant to Homestuck too. If they do get their own thing I hope it's like a Side Story or anything cuz we do not need any more returning characters.
The biggest Dancestor fan in the Incipisphere.
I kind of thought for years that part of the joke about Damara was that she was not actually "troll japanese" if such a thing even existed (and therefore Aradia wouldn't be either) but the wiki seems to say otherwise so idk anymore...
Ok yes Andrew says so in the comic like i thought. Pointless post but no edit button lol. You could argue he's only talking in the context of her language use, but I'll leave that to another thread/discussion/whatever
OH MY GOD HER PEN!!!???????
rails b4 pails!!
:O3
i love the designs so muchh especially nepeta shes so cute !!! and the fucking meowrails crumbs I STAY WINNING
feferis design is another favorite its so awesome,, the shoulder things keep throwing me off because they look like basketballs BUT STILL awesome. vriska looks like a persona and i love that. kanayas roses. the only one i dont really like is equius, only design wise i dont Dislike him but hes a little bit boring compared to the others lol
and its so interesting seeing their occupations in this different peaceful society, like nepeta being a gossip colomnist is so perfect. i never would have predicted vriska being a nurse, given its very funny that shes just kind of a shit nurse because she has terrible luck but ykw it works
what who said that
must agree with clownenjoyer in regards to the rankmaid. as an asian homestuck fan im just tired of seeing these racist stereotypes being played up time and time again. doesnt really matter if the megidos arent ""actually"" japanese or whatever, i still just find it strange. i like all the other designs so far though. lamplady swansong is fucking awesome
BEFORUS ANCESTORS... TWO!!!
Tavros - The Treeaboo
A member of the Lost Weeaboos, who dwells in the trees. Another term for these trolls is Treeaboo, which he has claimed as his title. A common misconception about the Nitram legacy is they're based on Peter Pan, or the troll equivalent, Pupa Pan. But this is not true. Actually the Treeboo styled his themes and persona after Troll Robin Hood, who similarly dwelt in tree villages. But at some point there was a mixup, when Rufioh had a vision of his ancestor and thought he was LARPing as Pupa Pan, so he ran with the idea, and conflated "Lost Weeaboos" with the "Lost Boys" of the Pan myth. Actually the Lost Weeaboos had nothing to do with that, they're just weeaboos who live in trees.
Sollux - The Helpsman
A key part of Beforan society is emphasis on voluntary service, by using special abilities to assist with public works and infrastructure, like healthcare, energy production and such. Certain members of this force of volunteers are called "helpsmen", so that's his title. He's extremely enthusiastic about putting time in the power plant, using his telekinesis powers to boost the electric grid. He spends hours or sometimes days on end clutching the terminals with a huge smile on his face, thinking about the joy he is bringing to every troll enjoying his electricity. At some point due to a karmic chain of events, there is an accident that affected him quite negatively, but we don't need to talk about that.
Karkat - The Imposter
Because he has mutant red blood, he spent his life posing as a lime blood, because that's the caste he would have naturally fit into with his friend group growing up, but no one ever found out, even his friends. The lime bloods, a class that was hunted to extinction on Alternia because of their dangerous pyrokinetic powers, were not similarly hunted on Beforus. Instead they were put to work on public infrastructure, like other helpsmen. Very powerful pyrokinetics got tough jobs like melting huge amounts of ore to make steel, but extremely weak ones like the Imposter got stuck with menial jobs, like burning off trace amounts of excess gas in coal mines so it doesn't build up and explode. But because he didn't have any powers, he couldn't burn off the gas, so such a buildup did happen which led to a massive explosion, setting off the karmic chain of mishaps affecting this group. He was uninjured from the blast, because he left the mine long before the blast, ashamed of his lack of powers. He was arrested for negligence, was discovered to be an impostor, and was jailed for life. No one ever found out about his mutant blood because the government covered it up. He believed he should be a tragic martyr figure for being forced to live a lie, leading to deadly consequences, but his story was forgotten by time. Kankri learned of his ancestor in a vision, and tried to redeem the Vantas legacy by proudly wearing his blood color on his red sweater, and spent his life preaching perfect morality to everyone to bring honor back to his name.
Terezi - Songbird Sootnose
The Songbird is also a sort of helpsman, using her abilities to help with coal mining. Due to her great sense of smell, she played the role of a mine's "songbird", which is similar to the way canaries are used on Earth. A canary is brought deep in the mine, and if it stops singing and dies, that means there's too much gas and people need to evacuate. She uses her nose to detect gas, but an injury which started this karmic chain of events left her without a sense of smell, but she tried to keep songbirding anyway. When the Imposter allowed a massive buildup of gas, she couldn't detect it, and a huge explosion followed, rocking the neighborhood above, affecting a nearby powerplant manned by the Helpsman, a tree village housing the Rankmaid and Treeboo, and a hospital where the Lamplady was on her shift. The Songbird lost an arm and an eye in the blast, with the damage to her eye being done by a very specific piece of shrapnel... a stray coin in the mine. She decided to use it as an eyepatch so she could never forget her deadly mistake.
On Beforus, clowns weren't invented yet, so most of the purple bloods were mimes, and delighted the other classes with their mute street performances. They considered it a sacred duty as members of the highest land dwelling class to entertain their lessers and bring joy to their lives. Kurloz resisted the tradition of swearing a vow of silence to honor this solemn duty, but terrible events conspired to finally make him honor it by sewing his mouth shut and becoming a freaky juggalo. The Highblood is an unusual designation because it's the only one that isn't 8 letters, it's 9. But that's because it isn't actually a formal title, more like a nickname that is commonly used. His title is Mummerer, which is just an old fashioned sort of mime. But this raises the question, did the Grand Highblood have such a title? Which of course he did, it was Murderer. But this was rarely used when describing him, because it was considered too... on the nose :o) ... Ok but seriously, it was sometimes, but got lost in the sauce due to what is referred to in clowny nomenclature as the "Abbott and Costello Effect" named after two confusing Earth clowns. Their humorous dialogue confuses words and names, like "Who's on first" means either asking who is on first, or stating a guy named Who is on first, so stupid shit like this would happen with purple bloods all the time, and people often thought "Murderer" was a literal descriptor, not a title. Also the Mummerer's name was Marcmarc, after the famous mime Marcel Marceau, which wasn't that confusing so people remembered his name. But the Grand Highblood's full title and name was Murderer Honkhonk, which REALLY tripped the Abbott and Costello effect, because any time a bunch of clowns get together, all they do is honk, so nobody can tell if they're talking about the Highblood. This led to a lot of stupid situations, and he has had literally thousands of people killed over such buffoonery involving his name.
Widely recognized as the kindest and most wonderful troll of this group. Dedicates life to rescuing stray, childless lusus, or ones which have been injured or are unfit for parenting in some way. There really isn't much else to say about Coolscar except they are hands down, the best character in Homestuck, bar none.
I love that Andrew in their infinite wisdom has decided the Beforan ancestors are mostly coal miners and influencers. Truly inspired worldbuilding, never saw it coming
As the fandom's self-appointed number one transfem Eridan truther. coolscar was everything i wanted and more
Read Cold, Cold Flood on AO3!
Eridan is referred to as they. NB Eridan (or fem, i ain't knocking anyone's hcs) apparently has footing now.
Also, is Gamzee a Starlight Calliope reference? It doesn't matter, the whole fucking blurb just talks about nomenclature.
The scourge sisters obviously have swapped around injuries, right? Do you think the same is true for Sollux, Tavros, and Aradia? My guess is that The Helpsman died, The Rankmaid was paralyzed, and The Treeaboo was blinded, but that's just my theory.
Holy fucking shit, that's Shrek in the background. Fuck me.