This is an AU so there is no SBURB or SGRUB, no prototyping, no ectobiology, and so on. The notion of game does not exist, nor does the planet Earth. All the characters were born in this universe named Skaia. Humans are born either on Derse or Prospit. Alternia does exist but it’s located in Skaia. It’s the home planet of the Trolls. The planet in the center of Skaia was unnamed until war started between Prospit and Derse. It was then named the “Battlefield”. All the inhabitants are dressed with their planet’s color, even the carapaces and the agents.


Q: Where do babies come from?
Since there’s no ectobiology, the kids and troll were born naturally. The kids have parents who are generic humans, really. They are not relevant to the story! Also, the kids are not related in the same way they are in canon (they are not clones). The humans are all part of the aristocracy. Over time, pretty much all the families mixed together. So they are related in a kind of vague cousin-way! Also, some kids have closer family bond. This is the case of the Lalondes and Striders since they share the same name. Their fathers were probably brothers... making Rose-Roxy and Dave-Dirk cousins!

As for the troll, they keep their quadrants system for romance. As for their birth, it’s the canon system. Trolls hatch from eggs laid by the Mother Grub.... as wrigglers, they pupate into young troll who have to undergo a series of tests. Their survival means they will be chosen by a monster, which becomes their lusus. If you’re not sure about troll romance/reproduction, see here:

x x x x (under “Troll biology and culture”)

After searching the wikia thoroughly, we didn’t find an answer about how long it takes for a wiggler to pupate and for the young troll to go through the tests and get their lusus. For the sake of the AU, we established that the whole process (from hatching to being chosen by a lusus) takes around one human year (roughly half a Solar Sweep). By 1 year old (or a little less than ½ Solar Sweep), Trolls resemble human babies.


Q: What about the guardians/ancestors?
The human guardians (Mom, Nanna, Grandpa and Bro) don’t exist in this universe. They exist as their Alpha form. Dad doesn’t exist. The Ancestors existed on Alternia. Most of them died during the war (see the section about the trolls below!). The only one still alive is the Condesce.


Q: Ok I get it! Is the Hemospectrum still valid?
Of course, but it has a different signification. The troll civilisation is really undeveloped compared to the canon one. However, blood casts are important in a way: trolls live in tribes determined by the color of their blood. Like it’s the case in the canon, the kind of lusus young trolls will get is determined by their blood color. Lusus are integral parts of the tribes.

High bloods are stronger and healthier and have a longer life span. The lower the blood color is on the Hemospectrum, the easier the tribe is to overpower. Even in that archaic society, some high bloods think of themselves as Alternia’s rightful masters. The tribes are scattered around Alternia in a random fashion: low blood tribes may be surrounded by high bloods, etc.


Q: What about the planets? How does it work if it’s not SBURB/SGRUB?
The planet’s arrangement is pretty much the same as in the canon.

Skaia is at the center of the universe (that’s why we use the adjective “skaian” to talk about the territory). Pretty much as it is in the canon, Skaia is an entity on its own. Since there is no game, the Battlefield will be called Skaia as well. This entity/planet overflows with pure energy. Its creative power is virtually limitless. In fact, the ancient Prospitians used to think Skaia was the source of all life. They might have been right.

Skaia’s ground still looks like a checkerboard but vegetation grows everywhere. Water courses are plentiful, too. Natural resources are regenerating themselves endlessly.
Prospit has always been near of Skaia and considered it theirs. Derse is located outside of the Veil. When Derse started exploring space, they found Skaia. Of course, with the endless power streaming from the planet, Derse wanted to take control of it. Prospit tried to defend it. After a series of victor-less wars, a consensus was made: each kingdom had the right to go on Skaia and use the resources. It was considered as neutral ground.

Carapaces from both kingdoms are sent to live on Skaia; they work there to harvest the resources and send them to their respective planet. After a few generations, the isolation made these carapaces unaware of what life was out of Skaia. They knew that they had a king and queen but that was pretty much it. Most of them have never seen humans or trolls in their whole life. If a war was to happen, they wouldn’t know it, except if the fights spread to Skaia.

Alternia, formerly the Trolls’ planet, was located outside of the Veil as well, but on the opposite side of where Derse is. Way beyond the Furthest Ring, the Green Sun exists on its own. It is still unclear as of how, but it is influencing life all over Skaia.

For more details, see the map:




Q: So Prospit is good and Derse is evil?
It’s not so simple. Take the two planets as two different kingdoms.

Each planet had its own evolution, pretty much like Europe did (starting from prehistory and going all the way to Renaissance. Our story takes place around two centuries after Renaissance).

During the equivalence of Europe’s Renaissance, Derse started exploring Skaian territory with spaceships. When they discovered Skaia, they wanted their share of it. A territory war began between the two planets. Like mentioned before, when no winner was found, Prospit and Derse decided Skaia was neutral ground. After that, the relations between Prospit and Derse remained tense but they were not officially at war. They had diplomatic relations for a long time, sending their royalty and aristocracy to visit the other planet.

The AU is not located in a specific era. Based on what we know of the canon war on the battlefield, the carapaces fight with swords, spears and crossbows. However, they have flying battleship and planes. Since it’s kind of anachronistic, we decided to make our own era!

Each planet has royalty, aristocracy and common people (carapaces). Therefore, the AU is inspired by the absolute monarchy in France (i.e. Louis XIV during the seventeenth century). It’s an original universe but keep in mind they don’t have computer or other kind of technology, except communication devices mostly used between people on the same planet (i.e. agents have screens in their HQ). They also have space machinery! (See “weapons” for more details!)


The planets
Like in the canon, royalty and the aristocracy live on the moons and the carapaces (and eventually trolls) live on the planet itself. To access the moons, there are shuttles (elevator-like) going up and down next to the chain.


Clothing
Carapaces wear pretty much the same thing they wear in the canon, except they are not influenced by prototyping: they wear purple or gold tunics and hats.

Humans, on the other hand, wear clothes inspired by their Prospit or Derse pajamas... but since they are aristocracy, they wear something close to the fancy dreamers outfits you can see everywhere on tumblr. In fact, they wear purple or gold fancy clothes! (If you’re not familiar with fancy dreamers, please check this.

Trolls wear different kind of clothes. The poorest of them wear basic tunics and shoes. Those higher in the hierarchy can wear fancier clothes.


Weapons
Commonly used weapons are swords and spears. The biggest part of the soldiers uses these to fight. Each army has flying battleships and planes. To travel between planets, they have spaceships.

Firearms are quite rare and expensive and require someone highly skilled in technology to make them. In theory, only a few (high ranked) individuals would be lucky enough to have one in their possession (i.e. Jake, for John’s protection).


Communication
The traditional form of communication is to send letters. Prospitians and Dersites alike write letters and send them to their friends. Both planets have their internal postal system. Each of them has special units taking care of delivering mail between Prospit and Derse.


Education
On both planets, citizens have access to elementary schools were they can learn how to write, read and calculate. Most carapaces stop studying when their level is good enough for them to start working.


Language and culture
The two kingdoms followed a fairly parallel evolution; they share the same kind of aristocratic organisation, only with a few variations. Both planets are divided in four sectors: the slums, the low and high district, and the moon.

Despite speaking the same language, the skaian, each civilisation speaks it with a different accent. The variation sometimes comes out as a rivalry; both kingdoms claim to be the one who speaks skaian properly.

Alternia is the Trolls’ home planet. They lived on Alternia for centuries, not aware of the other skaian planets from which they were separated by the Veil. Their culture was primitive compared to those of Prospit and Derse. In fact, you could compare them to the Native Americans before colonisation.

Alternian monsters adopted young troll and acted as their guardians. Trolls of all age and their lusus lived in tribes, scattered around the planet on different territories. Some of them are sedentary and others are nomadic. Trolls with the same blood color, accompanied by their lusus, would often regroup together.

The differences created by the Hemospectrum made inevitable power struggles between the tribes. For example, a famous high blood tribe was known to travel on Alternia and hunt low blood tribes, killing trolls and lusus alike. Even with that kind of discrimination and regardless of the tribe rivalry, one part of the planet was considered sacred: the caverns in which the Mother Grub laid eggs. Lusus would go there without fear of the other tribes to collect young trolls, after their trials.

To communicate, trolls had their own language (Alternian). They also had a set of ancient symbols they used to write.

With Prospit and Derse trying to expand their territory, it wasn’t long before they found Alternia. They went on Alternia and fought each other, heartlessly destroying the environment and killing countless Trolls and lusus.

Older trolls and lusus of all blood casts put their differences aside and fought to protect their homeland. However, they weren’t strong enough. The number of dead was astronomical and was composed of warriors and children alike. At the peak of the war, bombing destroyed the Mother Grub’s caverns, killing her in the process.

When it became obvious the war had destroyed the planet beyond repair, prospitian and dersite royalty called for a cease fire. The remaining troll population was salvaged by either prospitian or dersite ships and brought back to be assimilated. The few surviving lusus were let there to die: the two kingdoms saved only humanoid beings. Lusus, with their monster-like body, weren’t welcome on either planet.

Back on Derse and Prospit, a problem occurred to the rulers: troll civilisation was organised differently and it wasn’t natural for trolls to take care of youngsters. In fact, none of them were either qualified or interested into raising children. By choosing to let the Lusus die, the rulers had orphaned an entire generation of young trolls. To fix their mistake, they found carapaces willing to raise the orphans. Therefore, trolls younger than thirteen human years at that time were assigned a carapace guardian (who received monetary compensation in exchange).

Alternia is now a dead planet. Trolls live either on Derse or Prospit. Most of them found a peaceful life and work as merchants. Some highbloods, however, were not satisfied with the new life they were given. Older Trolls remember their life on Alternia and resent their conqueror deeply.
Since the Mother Grub was killed during the war, no grub was born. This tragedy threatens the race’s survival. The youngest troll living on Prospit and Derse are 16 years old in human standards (7 Solar Sweeps). None of them remember what it was like to live on Alternia: they were taken away from their planet when they were still young trolls.

Both government organised classes where the grownup trolls would be able to learn Skaian. It would take time but every new citizen was expected to learn how to speak, write and read Skaian. Alternia’s writing system was dismissed as archaic. Some trolls would still use it between themselves in a sign of rebellion.

Young trolls were raised as any carapace and never learned Alternian, except in the case where an older troll would teach them.

NOTE: Older trolls tend to stick to the alternian calendar and measure their age in Solar Sweeps. However, younger trolls who grew up on Prospit or Derse usually measure their age like human and carapaces do (in years).