Switchblocked Cultures

SWITCHBLOCKED CULTURE ANALYZATION

ALTERNIA:

His All-Seeing DualIIty was a moody, albeit cunning, troll. His moods varied between a cold, harsh calm and that of a fierce rage. As a result, his advisors were forced to keep him calm in between feeding his lusus.
In addition, his advisors often had to act out his rasher decisions, which would sometimes force Alternia into a state of chaos until he calmed down and ordered his advisors to reverse his decision, unless the Glaring Prophetess spoke positively about keeping the decision.
The only one who can keep him calm for a long time is the Rejected, his matesprit. However, due to her duty of feeding his lusus as well, the two can only see each other a few times each sweep. The result, however, is less of these mood swings and more of the cunning persona Alternia admires him for.
After Colchissa's death, his advisors found that mentioning her name was like a trigger for him, causing him to rage for perigrees at a time unless the Rejected visits him.
Rumors do arise that the DualIIty felt something for Colchissa, something pale or even black, but he is quick to personally dispel those rumors with his 2x2dentkind.

As a result, Alternia has firm rules in place, constants amongst the DualIIty's moods, although new laws get added and changed often.
Most adults are kept busy in trying to conquer other planets, he himself included, while a selected few remain behind in order to train certain trolls in their profession of choice, higherbloods often being favored to remain behind and uphold his rule.
While at one point, searching for more mutants was a priority, time and doubt have eventually ceased this search, although if any are discovered, they are brought to the Blindspeakers to pass judgment, before they are taken to the Jamplifiers and Disjockriffers to be culled.

Leonissa Reguluss, the Rejected, was given her title because of being rejected for an adviseral position; however, she doesn't seem too shaken about that, eventually rising to become Head Orphaner and maintaining that position until her death.
As a result, Orphaners usually have several weapons, and go hunting on both land and sea. They also have a respect for lusii, targeting those that are obviously suffering over perfectly healthy lusii.
Subsections of Orphaners often form little squads,  or "tribes", that live and work together for the purpose of gathering lusii to protect Alternia from Gl'golyb's Vast Glub.

The Glaring Prophetess, Zibanull, was the first High Blindspeaker, although the indigobloods' draconic religion had been around for thousands of sweeps longer than she had. Despite it, she basically became the St. Paul of the religion, hailed as a great speaker and valued just as much as the older prophets.
She had been blinded accidentally when she was a young wiggler, and eventually began seeing visions of dragons, soon becoming noticed by several trolls and being brought to the priestesses and declared to be a Blindspeaker.
She culled Acubenns, a Renegade who followed the teachings of Colchissa, and she also took Norrkhii Asclepia as her slave, finding him interesting for a male jadeblood, a rarity in and of itself.

As a result, tealbloods who are marked for culling are often culled by indigobloods themselves, rather than being culled by Disjockriffers and Jamplifiers. Tealbloods who become Jamplifiers or Disjockriffers find this to be much better than being culled by their direct comrades, although this punishment has grown rarer and rarer due to tealbloods committing less crimes and thus having less reasons to be culled.
Male jadebloods are fated to be slaves of the current High Blindspeaker, rather than do the duty of female jadebloods, which is to tend the Mother Grub, as well as being branded with Norrkhii's sign on their backs; this is to remind the male of who to emulate during their slavery, although to a rebellious group, that sign could simply remind them of Colchissa's teachings.

Medandra Typhonux, the Musician, was a very extrodinary Disjockriffer, being skilled in her music and slam poetry even from wiggler age.
She also invented Gutrdentkind, a trident that has a guitar on one end and the trident part on the other, designed with amplification and ease in mind.
As the executor of Colchissa, as well as the rumored kismesis of Acubenns the Renegade, trolls were surprised to hear that Medandra thought highly of tealbloods' potentials as partners for Disjockriffers, thus beginning the Jamplifier Uprising, where tealbloods were recruited into being Jamplifiers and trained closely with Disjockriffers.

As a result, bluebloods and tealbloods are very close, sometimes even being raised close to each other in order to empathize the need for partnership between the two. They are encouraged to be creative from a very young age, taking to music at about four to six sweeps.
Disjockriffers and Jamplifiers seen with even an article of bright candy red are given several warnings; if they don't adhere to the warning, they are brought to court and culled on charge of blasphemy and treason.

Rufio Indictus, the Assassin, was a longtime member of the Shrine of the Red Beyond, hailing from a tribe of trolls with physical defects or mutations. However, he wasn't necessarily happy with it, especially with being kidnapped from the tribe by Amalenki, the leader of the religion.
He was especially skilled in flight, his wings enabling him to attack enemies from the skies. This led Aquillan to take him into his squad and send him to speak with Astraene. Rufio humbly convinced Astraene to join them, lending her one of his knives before returning to Aquillan.
During the rest of the war, Rufio was used as a messenger in between his time as an assassin, until Astraene killed Iuroidea on the battlefield and joined Aquillan. The three continued to fight for equality, until Rufio discovered Amalenki's secret of being an immortal demon, when he was then killed in order to prevent word from getting out.
The murder was explained away by Amalenki claiming that Rufio had been attacked midflight by the Emperor's squads, and Rufio became elevated to the position of martyr and saint in the Shrine of the Red Beyond.

As a result, azurebloods tend to be recruited into the Shrine of the Red Beyond whenever they are found, although some will refuse and turn their eyes onto other, less-likely-to-be-cullable-offense careers. Those who do take the offer will be branded with Rufioh's sign on their chests as a reminder of their duty.
Despite this, Amalenki will often refuse to speak to azurebloods directly, unless there is a troll of a lower blood with them as well; this is to prevent any tricks, as well as enforce the need for reliance on himself.
Whether or not they are in the Shrine, azurebloods and olivebloods tend to make good squad companions, although some azurebloods manage to make it to paths aligned higher, some even becoming advisers for the Emperor himself.

Acubenns, the Renegade, was one of Colchissa's close followers, matesprits with Norrkhii and ever-attentive to Colchissa's teachings.
However, he was eventually forced to watch Colchissa die before his eyes and Norrkhii taken away to slavery, and it was only on the insistence of Amalenki that he gave up his notes recording Colchissa's teachings, perigrees before he was culled as well.

Because of how unknown he is, he hasn't had much of an influence on culture, other than having written down the teachings of Colchissa that lies in the Shrine of the Red Beyond, which led to Acubenns later becoming a saint and martyr himself.
However, thanks to Medandra and Zibanull's influence, tealbloods are forced to be submissive to them, even working with bluebloods; the only other alternative would be to join the Shrine of the Red Beyond and their rebellion.

Norrkhii Asclepia was known as the Cadaceus Healer due to his knowledge of herbs, and with good reason. During Colchissa's life, he healed many trolls and gave them aid, even as she spoke to trolls and told them of her visions. He memorized Colchissa's teachings by heart, even warming to the idea that trolls could raise and help each other wonderfully. He was also happily matesprits with Acubenns, and it was said that the two were happy with each other.
During his time in slavery, however, her teachings kept him comforted, even as he watched the world fall apart around him. He was branded with his own sign, and was present to hear the fate of all male jadebloods and all tealbloods. He attempted to plead with Zibanull, but eventually submitted to her entirely, hiding his secrets in the cathedrals of the very religion that had attempted to supress Colchissa.

Because of this, all male jadebloods are forced to emulate Norrkhii, specifically later in his life: silent, submissive, and secretive.
However, he had also hidden secrets within the cathedrals of the Blindspeakers and Vision Prophetesses, which Amalenki began to notice and research. These secrets include those of healing, as well as coded teachings of Colchissa. Nobody has found key to decode them yet, although Acubenns has a similar form of code in some of his entries as well.
In addition, the jadebloods have begun to take Norrkhii's healing arts and put them to good use, studying herbs and learning how to make medicines and potions using those herbs. As a result, jadebloods, especially male ones, are of great value to the Shrine.

Aquillan Menegyan was a Ninjalificate who was trained by Amalenki himself, being the demon's most devoted student and soldier even until his own death. He was also known for being true to both himself and to Colchissa's teachings, wanting an Alternia where discrimination was no longer welcome.
He fought a long war with General Iuroidea, using his palecrush Rufioh Indictus to sway Astraene to his side. There are rumors that he wooed Astraene after the war was over, but rumors are rumors, after all.
Despite everything, Aquillan was eventually culled by the Rejected in his fight against the Emperor.

As a result, olivebloods training to be Ninjalificates are often forced to live in forests, and black romances are encouraged over red ones. They are also monitored despite their locations, mostly by the Shrine in the hopes of finding a moment to approach the oliveblood.
Other olivebloods may be recruited as hunters of land lusii, working closely with Orphaners to track lusii that are or may become sick.
Ninjalificates that grow up to be ten sweeps are immediately evaluated by the Emperor, who would decide if the Ninjalificate stays on Alternia or goes on a ship to another planet. Rebellious sorts are sent on ships that have indigobloods, in order to "rub off their allegiance on them", while faithful ones are kept on Alternia or shipped off with other faithful olivebloods.

Astraene was known as the Ever-Denying, for she refused to use her powers even around those she trusted; she was an especially powerful psionic, which would have surely caught the eye of the Emperor. She was Colchissa's moirail, and thus privy to most of Colchissa's personal thoughts and desires, save for Amalenki's identity. After Colchissa's death, she wandered Alternia as her moirail once had.
This led to Astraene meeting General Iuroidea, who begged Astraene to join her--reluctantly and warily, Astraene did so, only to find the general was driven by selfishness and greed. However, she didn't feel as though leaving was the best option--instead, she decided to wait and prey on the general like a serpent.
Rufio Indictus began to speak with the Ever-Denying, bringing her messages from Aquillan. She was hesitant, but asked questions to her heart's content as the war blazed on. She soon decided to stop denying her urges and to kill the General once and for all.
After the war, it was said that Aquillan and Astraene became matesprits--though that is all rumor. However, what is known is that she fought on after Aquillan's death, eventually catching the eye of the Emperor and leading to a confrontation in which Astraene let out a large burst of power.
However, with that blast, she couldn't kill the Emperor. Some say she missed. Some say he was lucky. Either way, the incident caused the Emperor to laugh, the attempted murder bringing great amusement to him. Due to lack of practice, she couldn't replicate the blast there and then--so he took her as his servant until she eventually died.

As a result, at a certain age, yellowbloods would be pampered and groomed in preparation for a large ceremony in which the Emperor would select a new maid to live out her life with him. Some would be culled in these beauty pageants, but it isn't the Emperor who does it, but the other contestants. Some say the Emperor searches for someone who would be just as powerful as Astraene, just so he could drive them to anger and exhaustion.
The Shrine of the Red Beyond considered Astraene a saint and martyr, and she is considered a model for all, to strike "swiftly, like the Ever-Denying".

General Iuroidea Venommon was a young, foolish general, responsible for one of the most well-known wars in Alternian history due to the fact that it was a brownblood leading it. She never reached the Emperor, but fought against her desired kismesis, Aquillan, despite being on the same side. Aquillan taught her troops about the Shrine before sending them back uninjured, which angered her.
She managed to recruit Astraene, in the hopes of improving her cause with Colchissa's former moirail, but unfortunately, her troops began to leave her until she stormed out to fight Aquillan herself.
She was stabbed in the back by Astraene, who had grown tired of the General's selfishness.
As a result, the Shrine of the Red Beyond tells this story as a cautionary tale to avoid using Colchissa's teachings for personal gain; however, Amalenki's hypocrisy prevented them from seeing that he was the one gaining the most from the Shrine.

Amalenki was raised by Doc Scratch, and as a demon, he was immortal, and so he was sent to Alternia in order to influence the world and prepare the troll race for their game of SGRUB. However, he saw the fate of Colchissa, and fell in complete pity for her, deciding to at least influence history more in her favor. He painted his face to look like that of a skull's and embedded a ruby in his forehead, before joining her little group.
The two eventually fell into a romance beyond the quadrants, and only Colchissa knew of his true identity as a demon. However, she was soon killed, although Amalenki had managed to escape. He wandered Alternia, speaking Colchissa's teachings, before he found that he had amassed a large group of followers, mostly Colchissa's but some from his own merit. He made a religion after Colchissa, the Shrine of the Red Beyond, and began to influence history using his followers.
Why hadn't the Emperor tried to shut this religion down? Because Amalenki sent distractions the Emperor's way. The General, Aquillan, Rufio, Astraene, Norrkhii...without Colchissa, they were useless to him, and so he used them to unintentionally shape Alternia's culture even as he discarded them.

Colchissa, the Wanderer, had influenced Alternia with her words, as well as influencing those close to her. As a result, she became the pillar on which the Shrine of the Red Beyond stood, ruled by a demon and controlling a good portion of Alternia. She is worshipped by many trolls, mostly unknowingly.

BEFORUS:

Sollux grew up to be His Twofold MajestII, a cold and obsessive ruler who was strict about everything. He was obsessed with order, most specifically, and so enforced culling as a way to raise warriors and scholars, in which "culling" was more of "raising" trolls rather than killing them.
Although this made society much less violent than Alternia's, it also raised the higher-blooded trolls in putting their missions over the lives of their team, which may have influenced Mituna into destroying his team to keep them in dream bubbles.

Nepeta grew up to be a fierce huntress, Orphaner Triclaw, who hunted lusii for His MajestII's horrorterror lusus. She still had a fondness for shipping, although she had to drain blood from lusii in order to do so.
This gave hunters better weapons, as well as forcing violetbloods to undergo strict physical training. While Meulin wears casual clothing, she has a muscular body that was trained for the purpose of fighting and hunting lusii. Shipping is considered an honorable tradition for seadwellers, and shipping wars were very bloody.
Meulin herself is in the Rubyskull Alliance, but her position requires her to keep very quiet about this, only deigning to sign to Kurloz about anything important. As most trolls can't understand them with their hands flying, they can communicate like this in peace.

Terezi grew up to be a High Blindspeaker, the Forteller, who incorporated royal decree into the religion and advised His MajestII in his ways; she was extremely clever, and foretold the future and the fate of Beforus.
Despite this, Latula hints that she never liked the schtick, preferring to do "rad tricks" on her skateboard. She still has the ability to tell the future, but she reserves this ability for Mituna, the heir.

Feferi grew up to be one of the most powerful teachers of Disjockriffer arts, the Skriexle, known for her great ways of dropping the bass and mixing genres into finer weapons against invaders. Meenah was her student before SGRUB, and as a result, Meenah has some pretty good bass-dropping to go with it.
Jamplifiers, rather than conquering planets or enforcing laws, were instead guardians of Beforus, protecting the trolls from invaders and wannabe conquerers. Their techniques were designed to restrain and distract, rather than kill.

Tavros grew up and willingly became a member of the Rubyskull Alliance, an alliance dedicated to planning to take down His MajestII and set up a rule dedicated to making trolls equal. Rufioh is also a member, although preferring to stay away from Kurloz due to their post-Scratch histories.
Trolls in the Rubyskull Alliance have to speak in code, to prevent being found out. Rufioh and Horuss's code revolves around talking about herbs, as they both are very well-educated in herbs due to training. Trolls in the Alliance are familiar with this and sign language.

Karkat became a Dubcoriate, basically a teacher in the arts of griefing and partnership; in addition, he wrote many, many novels, mostly centered around romance, as well as being a spy of His MajestII and exposing criminals. His title is Dubcoriate Aselluss.
As a result, the Rubyskull Alliance has to keep low influence, for fear that they would be exposed as well. In addition, Kankri is more developed in his Seer of Void powers, albeit hiding that fact behind a social justice blogger persona. Kankri implies that he knows exactly who is in the Alliance, but because they are the only twelve Beforans left, he won't disclose them because being dead and all would prevent further agendas by them, so he thinks.

Equius became a great healer, the Cyumener, who worked side-by-side with several trolls in the Rubyskull Alliance in order to escape being a tender for the Mother Grub. However, he had written down everything he knew just in case His MajestII found him, and eventually he did due to being exposed by Aselluss, and then he spent the rest of his life tending to the Mother Grub, while secretly giving grubs to the Alliance to raise.
Horuss is assigned to take his place, and thus has a grand knowledge of herbs and plants, as well as the animals that the plants benefit. While he does find musclebeasts majestic still, he more often talks about horticulture and its importance. He is also well-versed in the code the Alliance gave the herbs, more so than the sign-language half of it.

Eridan grew up to be a warrior in the Rubyskull Alliance, Ninjalificate Gamnyede, who takes the identity of Land Orphaner Liyukuin in order to conceal his identity more. His duties in the Alliance are to be a bodyguard for post-Scratch Gamzee, while those for the Emperor are to hunt lusii on land for both the Emperor's lusus and for lusus-eating lusii.
Cronus was being trained to be a Ninjalificate before SGRUB was started, although he implies that the training was very tough on a "wvery sensitiwve soul" such as himself. He states that his rank is more of a Neophyte, although he does hint that Kurloz knows just about everything about the Alliance.

Kanaya grew up learning how to use her psionic powers for the empire, eventually becoming so powerful that the Emperor had to force a controlled collar onto her in order to control her. She was known as Lady Deltaich, famed for both her beauty and wild psionics, and His MajestII kept her as his pet, his "witch", for he admired her power so.
This caused Porrim to grow resentful towards the Empire, although it's implied that she has a grudging admiration for Deltaich more than her own post-Scratch counterpart, saying that it is better to know one's power rather than let it languish. However, she is not a stated member of the Rubyskull Alliance, and Kankri refuses to reveal whether or not she's in it.

Vriska grew up to be the attempted assassin of post-Scratch Gamzee, Huntress Siimetra, a brownblood ordered by the Emperor to slaughter the Rubyskull Alliance. However, her assassination attempt failed, leading to her being taken as a slave by His MajestII as well, being collared to control her mental powers and taunted for her failure for the rest of her life.
Aranea, being a brownblood, has been culled most of her life, and states that she holds no bitterness towards either incarnation of Vriska; she does, however, state that her own post-Scratch counterpart wasn't exactly how she wanted to see herself.

Gamzee's pre-Scratch counterpart was also a "demon", although he willingly came down to Beforus due to anger at the culture and decided to influence it to be doomed in SGRUB. He was known as Rheaphon the Grudging, and it's implied that he raised Kurloz on his own, influencing Kurloz to become moirails with Mituna and thus influence the game to being doomed.
Kurloz's nightmare forced Meulin to be deaf like in canon, although due to his training, he found ways to live on very little food and drink, more so after he learned to alchemize drinks that fill up like food. It's implied that the Rubyskull Alliance made the skull-and-ruby makeup combination reserved for those very high in the ranks, who wouldn't interact with the outside world very much anyway.

Aradia grew up to be Vespapis the Sunnrise, coddled by society but helping Rheaphon build the Alliance because she could see that Beforus society wouldn't be able to last, not under the corruption that His MajestII had built. It's unknown of her relationship with the two, but it's implied that the Emperor eventually forced her to be his matesprit, which Kurloz hints (via signing) was planned from the very start.
Damara implies that she was coddled from her birth, and that the Alliance had moved her to East Beforan in order to help prevent her from becoming another servant of the Emperor. Because Rufioh understands East Beforan, he is able to translate her speaking into herb code, which would allow Horuss to communicate with Kurloz and Meulin via sign language.