So the pale quadrant is described to being the closest to a human soulmate, and it’s heavily implied that you address personal issues with moirails. If that’s the case, then what fuels the want to be matesprits with people if the go-to personal consultant is a moirail? Is the flushed quadrant fueled by pure lust?? In the comic, when trolls reproduce the couples with the strongest bond (whether flushed or ashen) produce grubs. What determines the strongness of the bond??

It’s not best described to a Soulmate, it’s best described as a Soulmate, in a Platonic sense! Moirails (and Auspistices) are roles meant to stabilize Trolls, their world sucks and emotions suck when you’re a Teen so with everything sucking so badly, they’re quick to flip the lid back and forth with how they feel for others. Moirails are complementary stabilizers and pacifiers, ensuring that neither party is going too far or not going far enough, so in a way they support each other like crutches so that they can be Functional elsewhere. Matespritship is often tied to actual, normal Romance, so the feelings that preside over Matespritship ARE the ones that also preside over normal Relationship. BUT, they ARE very Reproduction-based, even if not necessarily driven by Lust, Matespritship and Kismesissitude are in fact meant for Troll Reproduction.

Matesprits are all about love, enjoying each other, being happy together, and at least until Alternia Died and there stopped being Drones to cull people, about wanting to do it with someone else, while Moiraillegance doesn’t necessarily tackle ‘love’ in the same way Matespritship does, but still creates a close bond of co-dependency and venting. You certainly can do that with your Red partner as well, but given the climate of anxiety and badness Trolls live in, it feels as though needing a Quadrant specifically made for Venting and not Going Too Far makes sense. Even for Beforan Trolls, they are not involved in a climate of death and hostility, the social disparities and lifespan differences and the coddling and excessive babying of lower castes definitely creates a climate of unease.