Castor

Castors are a humanoid race descended from the A2 Universe's Trolls in the Homestuck canon. They reside on the Castor Colony, often simply called "Castor" for short. They were created by shrimp-sprites/Mr. Shrimp.

## Anatomy & Physiology

Castors are very much like trolls in that they have grey skin, black hair, orange horns, various types of psychic powers, and different kinds of blood colors. However, they are very different in some ways. Their hemospectrum of twelve colors has become six colors, they have greatly increased capacity for psychic abilities, they have much more grey-melanin to protect from their suns, etc, etc.

### Hemospectrum

Castors have a six-color hemospectrum, with pronouns associated with each blood color.

Mutant scarlet blood exists and is less rare than it is on Alternia. However, no signs exist for it and their sign will have to be pulled from the sign list for a random caste.

Blood colors from the Troll race that they are descended from can show up in modern Castors, but this is about as rare as mutant scarlet blood. This is referred to as being "old-blooded". It is purely cosmetic in nature. However, there may be a bit of trouble getting the Castor a sign, and it may also be troublesome for the Castor to choose what pronouns they want to use.

These colors, and their pronouns, are:

* Burgundy (#A0370E) Ver/Vem/Vemself
* Honey (#9F7D1A) Eol/Eow/Eowself
* New Lime (#607814) Viri/Vire/Vireself
* New Jade (#1A794B) Eme/Eir/Eirself
* Blue (#094F90) Blu/Blu/Bluself
* New Tyrian (#731B60) Cyr/Tyr/Tyrself

She/Her, He/Him, and They/Them are all considered neutral pronouns.

Seadwellers are functionally extinct due to poor conditions in the seas. Therefore, any and all fins in the New Tyrian caste are vestigial.

### Psychic Abilities

Castors have a variety of potential psychic abilities. These are most often found in Burgundy, Honey, and New Lime blooded individuals. However, on rare occasions, Blue blooded Castors can have mind control abilities, or New Jades and Tyrians can have certain other psychic abilities.

Common psychic abilities include:

* Telekinesis
* Psionics (Akin to those in Trolls)
* Terrakinesis
* Ferrokinesis
* UV manipulation
* Non mind-control telepathy

Rarer psychic abilities include:

* Mind control
* Necropathy
* Foresight
* Beast communing
* Petrification

It is possible for Castors to come down with voidrot. However, Castors are able to cure voidrot via a process similar to blood transfusion. Castors with psionics can donate their psychic energy to hospitals. The full amount of psychic energy needed for one Castor is then pumped into the patient all at once. This procedure is incredibly painful, and typically done under anesthesia because of it. Unfortunately, it is possible for voidrot to also be either unresponsive to treatment or only responsive enough for the cure to be a temporary solution (i.e. it keeps returning).

If a Castor is not psychic, their horns will always curve outwards. If a Castor has psychic abilities, their horns will always curve inwards.

### Life Cycle and Reproduction

Castors reproduce via sending buckets full of their genetic material (at will, not via drones) to the nearest brooding center, where it will be given to an Eggmother (one of many descendants of a single Mother Grub). The Eggmothers are much smaller in comparison to their Mother Grub ancestors and are intended to take in a single slurry bucket at a time. They are plentiful and spread out across the planet in brooding centers, negating the need for drones and a single mixture of all the slurry for one drone season. This process also allows the familial lineage of grubs to be traced back to a certain point, which by extension lets any medical history or other genetic oddities be known by the child.

A Castor can have as many as four biological parents, though they typically only have two or three. One-Castor reproduction is not possible with Eggmothers.

Like trolls, Castors begin as eggs. They will hatch into a grub, then pupate into a vaguely toddler like shape. Castor grubs have almost-black bodies instead of blood-colored bodies.

### Mutations

Mutations are *only* considered cull worthy if the mutation is extremely severe and the grub is not expected to survive long past its hatching. Thus, a lot of things that would get a troll culled are not all that uncommon in Castors. Common mutations are:

* Extra eyes or pupils
* Extra mouths
* Multiple sets of horns
* Wings
* Vestigial fins
* Pigment disorders such as albinism, leucism, melanism, or vitiligo
* Unusually sharp teeth

## Society & Culture

### Hemospectrum

There is no caste system regarding the Hemospectrum. Rather, only signs are grouped by blood color, a holdover from Alternia. Castors are a lot more peaceful than their ancestors and "culling" is illegal in most circumstances. Being bigoted towards other blood colors is heavily frowned upon, especially if it is directed at warmer colors.

### Government

Castors are ruled by a democratic system, in which one councilor of each blood color is elected to a council that decides how to run things. The "one of each" thing is mostly symbolic, but some issues such as voidrot or certain blood color linked traditions or mutations need to have someone of that blood color overseeing things.

Space travel is illegal due to the unwanted attention from the Empire it might draw.

### Tradition

Some blood colors have traditions linked to their Alternian equivalents. New Jades tend to be found in brooding center jobs more often, and New Tyrians often wear elaborate makeup.

### Upbringing of Young Castors

Due to the lack of lusii on the planet, Castor grubs are raised by brooding center workers until they are adults. Things like their name and sign are chosen by these workers. The brooding centers are government-funded.

Signs are NEVER from the Extended Zodiac. Only signs from the original twelve Zodiac signs as well as other "traditional fantroll symbols" such as alchemical or astronomical symbols are assigned to Castors.

## History

### Prehistory

Eons before The Condesce was hatched and rose to power, a previous Empress mistakenly had a colony created on a planet with an incredibly unstable orbit. This is also well before the standardization of the Alternian Extended Zodiac. The colony was completed successfully, and all was well until a single gravitational perturbation ejected the planet from its system entirely.

The trolls on the planet had to rely on the stuff they had, because the Empire wasn't willing to risk their ships to help rescue those stuck on the colony. Eventually, after many many sweeps, the colony entered an octuple star system. Not wanting to be stuck in the void of space for another eternity, a collective of powerful lowblooded psychics began to work in shifts to keep the planet in the system. The planet's now barely stable orbit has been working as a deterrent for Empire colonization and scouting ships ever since.

None of the highblooded leaders wanted to rule anymore in the chaos. So began the downfall of the blood caste system.

### Evolutionary Divergence Begins

The so-called "Grubs of Castor" began to diverge from trolls soon after they entered the new star system. Any sort of cull order on lowbloods or mutants was destroyed, as psychics were desperately needed to keep the planet in check. Grubs with much more grey-melanin than their ancestors began popping out of the single Mother Grub they had. The caste system around blood broke down even further when the "lowbloods" remained crucial to keeping the planet from being ejected once again. Seadwellers died out around this time due to a limited supply of usable water.

### Modern Castor Species

Powerful psychics and high resistance to UV radiation became the default for Castors. They are to modern trolls as sand cats are to African wild cats. They'd be in the same genus, just as different species.

Keeping the planet in its orbit is now a background process for psychic Castors. It is unknown what would happen if a Castor were to leave the planet.

## Naming Conventions

Castors have six letter first and last names like Trolls do. However, it is possible for some Castors to be mononyms or have names that are off by 1 or 2 letters due to clerical errors.

## Etymology & Inspiration

Castors are named for the sextuple star system Castor, in the Gemini constellation. They were primarily inspired by Homestuck trolls, and a little bit by the Repitonian trolls from Vast Error.

## Gallery

Here are some examples of Castors.

Danlia Penope, a burgundy blooded Castor with telekinesis. Bases by DeepSeaHorror.Cereri Kaspii, a honey blooded Castor with psionics. Bases by DeepSeaHorror.Izarii Arctus, a leucistic honey blooded Castor with no psychic abilities. Bases by DeepSeaHorror, sprite by shrimp-sprites.Ilioki Teucci, a New Lime blooded Castor with psionics. Bases by DeepSeaHorror, sprite by shrimp-sprites.Sijier Viktwa, a New Lime blooded Castor with chronic voidrot. Bases by DeepSeaHorror, sprite by shrimp-sprites.Fawari Cygnys, a New Jade blooded Castor. Bases by DeepSeaHorror, sprite by shrimp-sprites.Cozama Ylberi, a blue blooded Castor with vision sixfold. Bases by DeepSeaHorror, sprite by shrimp-sprites.Fommal Piscis, a New Tyrian blooded Castor with a mutation that has duplicated tyr eyes. Bases by DeepSeaHorror, sprite by shrimp-sprites.