Canon • 
Dubiously CanonEridan Ampora, also known by his Trollian handle “caligulasAquarium”, is one of the sea dwelling Alternian trolls. His associated zodiac sign is Aquarius (♒), and his horns are wavy which represent his associated symbol.
His ancestor is Orphaner Dualscar, who he named his Flarp character after.
He was on the Blue Team.
Etymology
The name Eridan was given by Tenebrais. His name may be derived from the river Eridanos, which was poured onto the Earth by Aquarius in Greek myth, or may derived from the constellation Eridanus. Alternatively, Eridan may have been based off of the user Terin's name for Alternia, which was Eridani. This is also the name of a star in the Aquarius constellation [citation needed]. His first name read backwards is Nadire; a nadir is a lowest point, or a point of greatest adversity or despair. However, this could be a coincidence.
Ampora is likely derived from the amphora, a type of Greek vessel for carrying liquids which is often seen in depictions of Aquarius. Ampora means protection [citation needed] which could be ironic, considering he does the exact opposite. Ampora could come from ampere (the base unit of electric current in the International System of Units), since the energy he can create with his wand has a resemblence to electricity. Taking the first syllable of his first name and the last syllable of his last name gives Eri Pora which sounds somewhat like "Harry Potter", although that could be coincidence. Eridan also resembles the word eradicate, possibly referencing his genocidal tendencies. He presumably took his Trollian handle from Troll Caligula.
Biography
Hivebent
Eridan wields Ahab's Crosshairs, a lightning gun he found in a ghost ship along with Vriska's Fluorite Octet. The very first thing he was seen doing was using the gun to kill a flying whale
. He did this to feed Feferi's lusus, in order to keep its voice down.
Eridan is an especially powerful and influential member of the nautical aristocracy that wants one of Vriska's doomsday devices, apparently intended to kill all land dwellers.
Being introduced last along with Feferi, Eridan appeared the least out of the twelve trolls during Hivebent and currently has the least number of appearances for a troll character overall. He was the only troll whose planet was not properly introduced, and he was also initially not given a mythological role, an exclusion he shared only with Gamzee.
Upon arriving on his planet, the Land of Wrath and Angels, Eridan began slaughtering the inhabiting angels. He found the angels were difficult to kill, requiring at least a minute of constant fire from Ahab's Crosshairs. The angels were not intended to be his enemies, though it is unknown what purpose they were meant to serve. However, according to Doc Scratch, they had some role in granting Eridan his deadly “wwhite science” powers. Sollux, possibly prematurely showing some access to his abilities as the Mage of Doom, talks about an angel as “2ome terriible mythiical demon. wiith the2e awful feathery wiing2. paradox 2pace u2e2 them two u2her iin the end.”
Post-Hivebent
Eridan in hero mode.
Whilst hiding in the lab from with the other trolls, he comes to the conclusion that there is no hope left and informs both Feferi and Sollux of his plans to join Jack Noir. Feferi refuses an invitation to join him, and Sollux decides that he has to stop Eridan and challenges him to another duel. Sollux's eye beams are no match for Eridan's magic science wand and he is knocked out. When Feferi attacks Eridan in retaliation, he kills her.
Eridan's DEAD tag.
Kanaya looks on in horror at the murder and starts to go for her weapon, while Eridan holds his wand at the ready. When Kanaya hesitates because of the Matriorb next to her, Eridan obliterates it (destroying the hope of troll re-population, which is appropriate, given his mythological role) and then kills Kanaya when she attacks him. Eridan absconds from the room through the transportaliser as Karkat stares in disbelief at the carnage. Kanaya, after returning from the dead, finds Eridan along with Gamzee and Vriska in a 3x showdown. She promptly disables the latter two, "debunks" Eridan's wand, and pulls out her chainsaw, sawing him in half.
A ghost Eridan is later seen in the Ministrife flash lamenting his tragic situation. Cronus, his dancestor, flirts with him and asks him out, which Eridan agrees to, but not before expressing his disdain for him.
Erisolsprite
Eridan's corpse is preserved by Gamzee, and he is later revived as half of Erisolsprite to be Jake's sprite.
Post-Retcon
Eridan was shown waking up after dying to Kanaya, and seeing Sollux, Aradia, and Feferi.
Alternate Selves
As the trolls' session had many doomed timelines, Eridan had many alternate selves. However, out of all these alternate selves only one has been seen (outside of brief cameos in flashes). This alternate self had ascended to the god tiers before dying and was seen in a dream bubble with an alternate Feferi .
Many more alternate Eridans were seen during the Ministrife, featuring various different outfits, most notably "March Eridan"[citation needed].
Personality and Traits
Eridan's passion for extravagant stories of conquest and glory lends itself to his overly theatrical mannerisms and his massive ego. As a result, people tend to see him as a “BIT OF A TOOL” . He is described by Kanaya as overbearing, to the point where he has been blocked on Trollian by Vriska, of all trolls. He also likes magic and wizards, even though he knows that magic obviously doesn't exist.
Eridan is a sea dweller and a member of a very high caste. He loathes Land Dwellers and the litter they produce . His hate for Land Dwellers extends to such a level that he has devoted himself to killing them all, as a result of an overpowering genocide complex. He aims to achieve this goal through the collection of deadly weaponry, such as the absurdly overpowered rifle that he wields, and the pursuit of a functional doomsday device, one of which he solicits from Vriska. Despite allegedly hating all terrestrial life and being extremely dramatic about it, Eridan's tough facade crumbles when faced by his friend(s?) in distress. When told by Gamzee that Sollux is dead, Eridan immediately stated that he felt “like an asshole” for seeking relationship advice from Karkat at such an inopportune time. He was unhappy with Gamzee for giving poor advice and not being able to help with Karkat's problems, which he seemed to consider more immediately important than his own.
Much of his weaponry and resources were amassed through sweeps of extreme roleplaying, making him one of five trolls known to partake in that particular sort of game. His character's name is Orphaner Dualscar, a fellow seagrift like Vriska's Marquise Spinneret Mindfang. The two were an unmatched alliance and brutal competitors , just like their ancestors. Typically trading and sharing the prizes of victory, Vriska would feed the victims of their conquests to her lusus, while their lusii would be fed to Feferi's gargantuan lusus to keep her happy.
Kanaya says that he has a “Silly Accent” , but what kind of accent this is is indeterminate. Hussie has said that he pronounces his "vv"s (double v's) as "w"s. This is likely because "v" is pronounced with a "w" sound in Latin. It is also similar to how the Finnish speak English, possibly turning it into a fish pun. The typing quirk he uses (doubling v and w) is a reference to the Aquarius symbol, both forming a zig-zag shape representing waves. Eridan also has a tendency to swear frequently - though not as much as Gamzee - and thus appears to not fully appreciate the moral guidelines that are lent through his royal heritage.
Eridan snaps
Eridan, though firmly stating his disbelief in it, has a fascination with magic, going so far as to pester Rose for the purpose of learning her secrets . Later, he managed to pester Kanaya into creating a wand and training him in the ways of “wwhite science” . This interest in magic may be a reason for his vaguely Harry Potter-esque appearance. Unfortunately, this stops being a joke when Eridan uses the wand to kill Kanaya and Feferi. Killing two of his closest friends may not have much of a positive effect on his sanity or his longevity, since by killing her, he turned Kanaya into a rainbow drinker.
You're a wizard, Eridan.
Eridan dresses very flamboyantly for a troll, wearing a large quantity of rings, an extravagant, high-collared cape, and a billowing scarf. He has a purple highlight in his hair, making him the only A2 troll to have hair that isn't entirely black, and has crooked horns reminiscent of the Aquarius symbol. Eridan's fashion sense could be likened to a combination of supervillain (the cape and jewelry) and hipster (the pants, shoes, glasses, and hair). The cape and scarf, along with the rotated bolt shapes of his zodiac symbol, horns, and hair highlight, also evoke a reference to Harry Potter.
Eridan's hive appears to be the ruins of an antiquated ship, lodged upon black rocks on a small island. This shows that Eridan is comfortable with breathing air, despite his fin or gill-like facial protrusions. In fact, Eridan spends the vast majority of his time above water, although he claimed this is only so he can more effectively wipe out the land dwellers .
- [“What would you say if I said a vengeful boy on a path of nihilism was taken under the wings of fearsome angels, and learned to destroy hope with their light?”]
- - Doc Scratch
- - Doc Scratch
Relationships
Feferi Peixes
Eridan had a flushed crush on Feferi but didn't “play [his] cards right” (as he implied in a conversation with Kanaya and then later admitted to Feferi), leading to a moirallegiance between them in lieu of the romantic relationship he would have preferred. During their relationship, Feferi spent all of her time worrying about him and trying to keep him from committing genocide or hurting himself and expressed frustration at his reluctance to talk about his feelings or listen to her own. Eridan, for his part, helped her feed her lusus and didn't kill all of the land dwellers because he knew it would upset her.
After Feferi's entry into the Medium, she terminates her moirallegiance with Eridan as a result of Eridan's overbearing and taxing nature. This devastates Eridan, although he takes the chance to ask Feferi about them becoming Matesprits instead, which she promptly refuses as well. He is later seen attacking Sollux (whom Feferi was in a matespritship with) during the game, presumably in jealous rage. Later on the meteor, Feferi attacks him after he knocks out Sollux. He fires at Feferi with his wand, killing her.
Later on, as Erisolsprite, he apologises to Feferi for killing her. In the dream bubbles, seemingly right after his death, one of his ghosts is greeted by Feferi, Aradia and Sollux.
Vriska Serket
Eridan and Vriska roleplaying.
He appears to have been Vriska's kismesis, but has been completely shut down by her shortly prior to the events of Hivebent. He asks Kanaya to mediate and become their auspistice, but she has no interest in his ashen advances. Later on in the comic, far after he and Vriska have both died, she makes remarks about Eridan indicating that she would enjoy his company on their dream bubble pirate ship.
Sollux Captor
Eridan dislikes Sollux, and frequently picks fights with him. He once attempted to solicit Terezi to be their auspistice, but she rejected him as Sollux wasn't interested. Feferi interprets his fights with Sollux as attempting to get her to do the same, in order to pull her and Sollux out of their matespritship [citation needed].
Nepeta Leijon
Eridan seems to have flirted with Nepeta at some point, hoping that he could win her heart after he got her into the game. He complained that she rejected him, but that is largely because she is still obsessed with Karkat, according to Karkat himself. He referred to her as the “kittycat shipper cavve girl” , implying that he may not even know her name.
Rose Lalonde
After attempting to tell Rose that magic was not real, he asked her to be his kismesis, claiming that they both hated each other . She responded by destroying his computer, which probably did not help his feelings. Judging by Kanaya's conversations with Rose , Eridan continued to be interested in a rivalry with her; he asked Kanaya to make him a wand of science, supposedly to try to counteract Rose's magic.
Kanaya Maryam
Eridan seems to have a strange friendship with Kanaya, valuing her for her apparent mediation skills, and he goes so far as to claim that he wouldn't kill her along with all the other land-dwellers . Despite his more sinister intentions, he seems somewhat petulant and relies on the support of Kanaya and Feferi to get by. However, later he ends up killing Feferi and Kanaya.
Karkat Vantas
Before they began playing Sgrub, Karkat and Eridan seemed to be good friends. Eridan was more open with his “nubby )(orned bro” than he had been to Feferi when they were moirails, and Karkat in return at least attempted to help him with his problems, albeit exasperatedly. Like many of the trolls, Eridan seemed to regularly seek romantic advice from him and they would frequently gossip about the other trolls' romantic relationships. However, it was implied that they had many conversations in which Karkat gave Eridan advice that Eridan ignored.
After Feferi "broke up" with him, Eridan sought advice from Karkat, attempting to use both a memo and Gamzee to contact him. Karkat in that particular time was too preoccupied to answer (as Sollux had just died), and Eridan expressed irritation at Gamzee's reliance on blind belief saying “this is a lot a pointless fuckin rubbish and isnt no emotional help to him or me either for that matter”.
After future Karkat contacts him after his future self kills Feferi and Kanaya, Eridan first misinterprets this as black flirting, then tries to get Karkat to talk about his problems, not understanding that he's talking to a Karkat from the future. Future Karkat then insults his intelligence, declares that he (platonically) hates him, and blocks him. In the same conversation Karkat mentions a pact that they had in the past (from his perspective).
Lusus/Kernelsprite
Eridan's seahorse-lusus and battle companion.
Eridan's Lusus appears to be a large sea horse probably known as a "Skyhorse", complete with saddle, which he rides into battle. He rides his Lusus while hunting for food for Feferi's gargantuan Lusus, supposedly out of obligation to Feferi. It's notable that his Lusus is the only one that wears any sort of clothes, for it has a saddle.
Gallery
Trivia
- Eridan seems to be affiliated with the number 311, just as Gamzee is affiliated with the number 420. Several examples through the comic seems to point to this:
- Eridan answered Karkat's memos two times and both of them display these numbers (3:11 hours for the first and 311 hours for the second).
- The updates posted on the website around 3/11 all involved Eridan, somehow. The first one, published in 2011, showed Doc Scratch implying him in one of his fables as [“a vengeful boy on a path of nihilism”]. The second one took place during Act 6 Intermission 2, where a doomed Eridan showed up with a Doomed Feferi and healed Wayward Vagabond's wounds.
- According to Hussie's formspring, 311 is supposed to represent an emoticon. Since 11 is the position number of Aquarius in the zodiac, but can also be written XI, the number would give something like 3XI, which may be a DEAD face. The 3 in the DEAD face may be a reference to Feferi's death, caused by Eridan. An alternate interpretation is that it is a disgruntled face.
- It could be read as three times eleven, which could be expressed as 11 11 11, the arc number of the B2 session. Dirk even mentions that the news had referred to 2X3PRONG DAY as “3-11”.
- Eridan answered Karkat's memos two
- Also according to Hussie's Formspring, Eridan's handle, caligulasAquarium, refers to his romantic obsessions, and his need for a black romance in particular. It also was used to show Eridan was a character with more sinister intentions than his personality might suggest, covered by romantic failures. Notice also that Caligula begins with Cal, the first three letters from three other characters we know, not to mention the two first syllables have the same pronunciation as the Cherubs' names. In the same ask, Hussie also mentions that Gamzee and Eridan had the same development as joke characters who have gone darker post-Hivebent.
- Hussie also confirms Eridan belongs to the category of Homestuck's antagonists. He and Gamzee are the only trolls to be officially classified as villains.
- As the Prince of Hope, Eridan was prophesized by the angels to use the power of hope to defeat a great evil. This destiny was passed down to him by his dancestor Cronus, who ultimately failed in his destiny by abandoning it and allowing hope to be destroyed. Eridan also abandoned this destiny and replaced it with the desire to destroy hope, ultimately achieving his dreams of genocide by destroying the matriorb and fulfilling his class role of Prince by destroying his aspect, which was hope. The destiny of being the one to fight the great evil (who is likely to be Lord English) was then passed on to some other hero of hope (Jake English).
- Eridan did not seem to be aware that "Prince" means "Destroyer", as he kept referring to himself in the context of royalty, as if to mean he was an authority on anything involving hope. Just as he also wasn't aware that he wasn't supposed to kill his consorts, the angels. (They weren't dropping grist, and they only started fighting back after he started slaughtering them.)
- Eridan is depicted riding his lusus on the "VII: The Chariot" card and stabbing through a purple heart on the "Three of Swords" card in the Homestuck tarot deck. He is being impaled with several swords on the "Ten of Swords" card. He can also be seen with most of the pre-act six cast on the "Five of Wands" card.
- Eridan is erroneously referred to as "Erican" in the author notes of Homestuck Book 4.
- Him living in a sunk ship wreck can refer to the practice of 'ship sinking', when a relationship between fictional characters the fandom sees together breaks up in canon.
