2024-05-03 17:10:25 ¶ ●

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Since we’ve been told that the cobalt / cerulean caste is predominantly male , and Mindfang is a female pirate that exists in opposition to the Alternian “rule of law”, i assume she’s a deviation from the standard of her caste’s expectations. what do you think the predominantly male law abiding cobalts do in Alternian society?

lately my assessment has been kind of leaning towards the idea that, in the sense that all of the castes were designed specifically to produce the 12 homestuck trolls; maybe the grand cosmic role of the cobalt caste is that they deviate?

beyond the fact that Vriska’s job aspiration is seemingly to be a “gamblignant” (which unlike any of the other trolls’ aspirations is very clearly not a real occupation), basically the one suggestion of a cerulean culture Hussie gives us is this line of commentary from Homestuck: Book 4, page 192:

> The fact that [Vriska and Equius are] neighbors suggests there isn’t that big a divide between blue and indigo in terms of status and daily life. Both classes probably cluster together somewhat in a kind of snobby symbiosis, since they’re one notch below purple-blooded clown hell […and] one notch above the jade and teal middling classes…

i’ve interpreted this symbiosis before as “man and wife” castes, as the cobalt caste having become vestigial or ornamental out of a lack of any other purpose of its own. and if Caliborn separated the trolls out into twelve classes in a mirror image of Sburb’s twelve classes, it makes sense that the caste designated as the “Thief class” would be peculiar in this kind of way. Hiveswap’s bluebloods being jobless malignants described as “vriskas” of varying kinds seems to play with that kind of idea.

but the blueblood symbiosis manifests itself in different configurations, and for a while it’s Serket who harbours Zahhak; because Mindfang isn’t merely a malignant outlaw. she’s a Marquise, she’s royalty! at least for a time, it seems that the gamblignants were allowed to operate as a nation of their own. so there’s a historical precedent for at least some cobaltbloods operating as free agents while still filling a niche within the broader troll social paradigm.

presumably with the decimation of the gamblignants and the establishment of the modern Alternia, a lot of this potential for freedom disappeared; hence Vriska’s shrinking into Equius’ cultural shadow. but as Hussie suggests in his commentary, while the middling castes “revolve around more functional, municipal services”, the bluebloods are true nobility, so there’s probably still a lot of freedom available to them in terms of what roles they can fill as law-abiding citizens. if the primary role of the indigo caste is to uphold the regime of the purple bloods above, there’s surely plenty of jobs that need doing in that sector, and so far as we know a troll of cerulean blood has the same opportunities to take these jobs; just with perhaps a little bit more ridicule and a little bit less social cachet.