Nepeta Leijon (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
whoseesbynight) wrote2013-02-09 03:23 pm
whoseesbynight) wrote2013-02-09 03:23 pm
Entry tags:
Troll biology
Despite all appearances to the contrary, a troll's life cycle begins as an egg laid by the Mother Grub (a figure that serves approximately the same purpose as a queen bee). This egg then hatches into a young troll, or, as they are more commonly referred to, a wiggler. In this stage of life, a troll looks like nothing so much as terrestrial grub. In addition, a wiggler's body and eyes are the same color at its blood. At this stage of life, a young troll's primary biological urge is to eat, and a great deal.
Eventually, the wiggler is driven to find a suitable looking stalactite to hang their cocoon from. Once the young troll emerges from the cocoon, they have not only traded their wiggler color for the uniform gray skin of an adult troll, but they also appear a good deal more humanoid, having shed their wiggler legs somewhere in the process. The young trolls eyes have similar traded in bright color for a rather uninteresting gray. In this case, however, the change is only temporary - as a troll reaches full adulthood the color in its eyes fills back in.
However, it is not guaranteed that a troll while even reach the age of maturity. Once a young troll has hatched from its cocoon, it must first undergo a series a grueling trials. Only if it manages to survive this will it be chosen by lusus and be allowed to make the first steps towards maturity.
As one might expect from a race that seems to be largely insectile in origin, there are more than a few differences between trolls and humans. The most immediately noticeable of these, aside from the gray skin and horns, is the fact that any given troll has one of twelve different colors of blood. This both defines a troll social standing as well as the length of that troll's life. (As a green blood, Nepeta can expect to enjoy a life that at least reaches the century mark, if not beyond.) In addition to this, all trolls have pointed teeth, as well as skin that is somewhat tougher than human-average.
Female trolls do also have breasts, or structures that are visibly similar to breasts. However, given that nothing in their biological make up is particularly mammalian, they lack nipples. In a similar vein, trolls also lack a belly button, largely due to the fact that they pupate.
Below the waist, all trolls look exactly the same, which is to say they are equipped with we might consider both a male and female set of reproductive organs. These are commonly referred to as a bulge and a nook, respectively. This means that any two trolls are capable of engaging in reproductive acts, and as such most trolls don't really seem to care much about the gender of their reproductive partners (there are trolls that prefer one gender over another, but from what we see this is mostly treated as a strong sexual preference). The precise details of troll reproductive acts are something that I won't go into detail here (who wants to read that), but every pair of adult trolls are expected to donate genetic material to the filial pails. This material is then brought to the Mother Grub, and the life cycle begins anew.
Should, for any reason, a troll fail to have a donation to the pails, they are immediately culled adding a certain amount of pressure to the process for young trolls. In addition, due to their role in the troll reproductive cycle, pails and bucket have acquired an associated stigma in troll culture and are generally treated as something one doesn't display in polite company.