to read a more traditionalist classpect interpretation into the streets/lawnrings parallel construction, wind (read: breath) skimming the streets implies freedom of movement, wherewas blood would imply restriction; maybe the word ‘lawnring’ is used in place of ‘street’ in much the same way ‘cocoon’ replaces ‘mailbox’; because trolls don’t have streets, and the lawnrings are representative of a more oppressive culture with an interest in keeping its people where they are
obviously Hiveswap flies in the face of such an interpretation of Alternia by very much putting an emphasis on the existence of streets in Alternian neighbourhoods and, perhaps more importantly, putting the entire second act of the game on a train; but this only speaks to the difference between the two stories, Hiveswap being an adventure game about a character travelling from one place to the next, while Hivebent stars a troll who is very much hive bent, living in a culture designed in every single way to make sure he stays in his house until his purpose has been well and truly fulfilled. very plausibly this could represent an actual change in the Alternian culture between the two depicted time periods