Xefros Tritoh, the Page of Rage

With the Human Characters off the picture, we can move to the meat of Hiveswap- The Trolls. I will not be analysing Dammek just yet, although he seems like a Thief of Blood so far, we haven’t even officially met him, so I will refrain from actually looking too deep into his character. Xefros, though, does have a lot more direct screentime, hell we even control him for a good chunk of the Act! And his Page-y-ness definitely comes through.

He has a very… Mild and soft attitude, mellow to the point of concern, kicked and pushed and battered by society, and somewhat taken advantage of by his Moirail, while he casually goes like “haha guess that’s just how it is :)”. This sweet and almost helpless attitude seems to be a staple of Pages- They wrap themselves in their own worlds, and seem to kind of push reality away from them. Tavros daydreams a lot, Jake tries to believe what’s most convenient to not face the many romantic issues he’s facing, Horuss straight-up is as oblivious as they get to similarly push away the reality that Rufioh is trying to break up with him, and uses his inability to understand Damara to parry her obscene advances. Xefros, similarly, wraps himself up in Dammek’s rebellious little schemes and follows his orders to a T trying to make himself useful, escaping the reality of the unfairness he faces for being a Rustblood.

This is where things get a little bit more complex. Because through the entirety of Xefros’ route, the Aspect he seems most attuned to is Time, not Rage- But we know for a fact it is Rage thanks to the Extended Zodiac! If it wasn’t for his Sign, we would’ve likely kept thinking of Xefros as a Page of Time for a long, long time. And this is because every single Troll, regardless of what their Classpect may be, seems socially bound to the stereotypes and ideals of the True Sign of their Caste. You can see this with most Trolls in Friendsim, with both their own Aspect and their Caste’s Aspect becoming quite prevalent in their ways of being and their roles in society.

As such, Xefros, a Rustblood, is predisposed towards Time. And not just him, every Rustblood seems to be pushed towards the concept of Time- And with Time’s ties to Decay and the End, it definitely fits they are the caste with the shortest time to spend alive and the constant threat of death and slavery. But Hiveswap doesn’t just show us Xefros’ ties to Time, and forget about the Rage, oh no. Even if we would have seen him as a Time Player for a while, we would’ve eventually guessed his ties to Rage, because they are definitely there.

Society may want Xefros to be an obedient Rustblood and push aside his own ideals in favor of the state-issued Timebound Role, but beyond the superficial, lies a Ragebound through and through. Not only is him being Moirails to one of the Tetrarchs of the Rebellion definitely something that ties him to the themes of Anarchy and tearing down the falsehoods and unfairnesses of Trizza’s regime, from having Dammek make him follow training regimes meant to make him more resilient to Chucklevoodoos, which are heavily Rage coded, to the fact Joey becomes his friend through Rage- First directed at his obliviousness of the situation and the confusion of what is even going on, and then at Dammek and the unfair system set in Alternia.

Of course, though, Xefros has just come into the picture. While we don’t know all there is to know about Dammek, he has been holding back Xefros in a similar manner to how Alternia itself has been holding him down. But now, the Tetrarch is gone, and he has an Alien helping him get through whatever adventures they’re going to go on for the rest of the story. He’s cast the shackles of Time behind, and with any luck, he will be developing into a more confident and powerful member of the Resistance.