I’ll try to keep this as comprehensive and ordered as possible.
First of all, before I start, let me state what I based a bit of this headcanon off of. Since I am a huge fan of the Xenomorph from the Alien series, I do like to base it slightly off of how they work, as well as some general things about insects because, after all, Trolls do have the insect aspect to them. Anyway, let’s start off with the Mother Grub.
The Mother Grub is massive. You know the virgin Mother Grub Kanaya has? It’s bigger than that. It’s absolutely massive to the point that in the caverns, it takes up the biggest cave. Also, it looks different than Kanaya’s lusus, due to the fact that it is not virgin. It has huge horns, bigger than the Condesce’s even. Taking more inspiration from the Queen Xenomorph from the Alien movies, the Mother Grub is suspended in its cave with a huge detachable egg sack hanging down from it. From that egg sac comes the eggs of the trolls. The eggs themselves are not hard, like some people like to portray them as, but they have a very soft sac like covering to them, perhaps something stiff, but it’s nothing like an eggshell.
Grubs themselves, when they hatch, use their horns to break through their covering. Due to the incestious slurry that they come out of, there are actually a surprisingly large amount of grubs that are born with mutations and disorders. Some are mentally retarded. Some have physical deformities. Some just aren’t strong enough to live. Because of this, the cavern trials and the jadebloods are used to weed out these ‘unfit’ trolls. Mutants of a blood color, however, are a bit harder to weed out and it takes careful observation from the jadebloods to make sure that none of them survive. The caverns and the jadebloods are used to filter out the trolls, really.
Before I move onto jadebloods, let me tell you a little bit about lusii. If an animal out there has the same blood color as a grub, then the grub can technically survive. However, the empire has a set scale as to what kind of blood colors are allowed, so it doesn’t matter if there’s a dog/cat/bird right outside that has bright neon lime blood, you’re not going to surivive if a jadeblood gets to you. But moving on, most lusii, with the exception of dragons and the Condesce’s lusus, most of them do not live longer than their charges. That is, if their charges live to old age and are not killed before then. Like I said before, the only exceptions are dragons (just due to a personal preference that they live very, very long lives) and Gl’yblyob, who is in all actually not quite natural to the troll ecosystem, since it was a gift of sorts from scratch. However, one other exception is out there: Jadebloods and the Mother Grub. Unlike other trolls and lusii, Jadebloods and the Mother Grub live to the same exact age. This is due to the fact that only Mother Grubs and jadebloods share the same color and it is impossible to find an animal with the same blood color.
Some more notes about lusii: Just because an animal raises a blueblood, for example, does not mean that their entire species has the same blood color. This is supported by the fact that in canon, it is stated that it was rare for a teal blood like Terezi to get a lusus like a dragon, since they usually have bloods more suitable for highbloods. So there could be, theoretically, a two tiger lusii, one of which has redblood and the other of which having blue blood.
Moving on from lusii, let’s talk a little bit more about jadebloods. Jadebloods, as a rule, are kept in the caverns not only just so they can take care of the Mother Grub, but also because the Condesce does not want adult trolls to mingle with the younger trolls on the planet. They are also not allowed to leave because the Condesce does not want a repeat of what happened with the Dolorosa and the Sufferer. Back then, the rules for jadebloods and their jobs were not as strict as they are now and they could freely come and go as they pleased. However, after the Condesce found out about the Dolorosa sneaking out with a mutant, she made the rules much more strict as to allowing the jadebloods out of the caverns. Most of the time, they were only allowed to leave to visit their quadrant mates, but after the Summoner’s revolution and all adult trolls were kicked off planet, the rule was changed even further so that even they couldn’t do that, mostly out of the fact that their quadrant mates are off planet. As such, jadebloods are encouraged, but not required to fill their quadrants, due to the fact that most adult trolls would like to bucket fully grown trolls. Age means nothing to them, just as long as they have reached adulthood.
As for the jadeblood’s jobs, well they take care of the Mother Grub. Other trolls can do this job, but it is normally not the same as when a jadeblood does it, since the jadebloods then to have a deeper link to the Mother Grub than other trolls and the Mother Grub is a bit more accepting to them. Jadebloods also have a lifespan that is longer than what would be predicted for where they are on the hemospectrum, since they are so unique, and I would place the average lifespan to be somewhere between a dark blue blood, such as Equius and somewhere up as high as a purple blood, such as Eridan. But because Jadebloods are so rare and unique, most of the time the Condesce herself does tend to prolong their lives as much as she can. (Another completely different headcanon is that the Condesce’s life touch does not make one immortal, it only gives them the lifespan that the Condesce herself would enjoy. She also has the ability to choose how long to keep a troll alive past their usual age, so instead of giving them her millennia long lifespan, she could give them a couple hundred more sweeps of life.) In all actualities, there are probably, at most, one jadeblood working for a period of time for the Mother Grub. However, due to a personal RP preference, I do like to imagine that there are at least five or six jadebloods in the caverns, however that is a completely different thing than this headcanon and is likely to be the only thing that you would see that I RP that is not true.
Jadebloods, of course, are raised from birth to become workers for the Mother Grub. They know from early on that that is their job and it is unavoidable. Most jadebloods, being born with trollish version of motherly sense, are completely okay with this and really don’t mind. Most jadebloods are very work oriented as well, and while one would perhaps in the past have a friendship with a mutant or one with a physical handicap, it would not deter them at all from doing their jobs. However, some jadebloods do tend to vary in how fanatical they are in their job. Some of the more laidback trolls might not care that they person they just messaged is a mutant, however there are others that would probably have a huge freak out about them.
Before I go on to mutants and how they are received, let me just shoehorn in another little thing. Jadebloods are in fact the only bloodcolor that is not naturally, genetically selected. What I mean by that is that all the other blood colors, including mutant ones, do not need the one who donated their genetic material to be of the same blood color. For example, it is entirely possible for the ‘parents’ of a magenta troll to be a red and a green blood. This is all due to genetics. However, jadebloods are the only exception as in the fact that the only way for another jadeblood to be born is for one of the ‘parents’ is a jadeblood.
Alright so let’s talk about mutants. Due to the problems in the past with the Sufferer, the Condesce is really harsh about mutants. She does not like to have them live and if one is found living, they are immediately tracked down and culled. That is why it is of utmost importance to have a mutant blooded troll hide their blood color at all costs. Trolls who are dedicated to the cause of the empire always report any mutant they find.
Now let’s move on to the good stuff, BUCKETS.
Or rather, sex related things.
One thing that I have always noticed about troll biology discussions is that due to the fact that even though the Mother Grub is the only one who can provide children, there is still a difference in sex and it has not blurred itself over. This is explained easily.
The two sexes are needed because the women carry the egg cells and the males carry the semen needed to fertilize the eggs. Troll women, however, do not have a working womb or even a womb at all to hold or help fertilize these eggs, and that is where the Mother Grub comes in. The Mother Grub, in fact, serves as a massive womb so that the fertilized eggs can be grown and hatched. Of course, due to the fact that all of the genetic materiel that is collected and thrown together, just because you’re a guy and you pail another guy, or you pail a woman, or if you’re a woman and pail another woman or such and such, it does not mean that your genetic material will mix with your partner’s material and thus, it really doesn’t matter who you pail with, as long as you donate your material. It’s all going in the great slurry anyway.
Now let’s discuss drones. Drones are, in fact, a cousin of trolls. Why? Because they are the offspring of the Mother Grub that is not made with Troll genetic material. They are, in fact, the drone part of the species that the Mother Grub is part of. That’s why they’re called drones, of course. They’re smart, but only to a degree and the only thoughts they have really is to serve their Mother Grub as much as possible.
……Now, I believe that’s it! There you go, my absolutely hugely long headcanon about Mother Grubs, Jadebloods and buckets!
