Lusus naturae
, also known as custodians (though custodian just refers to the role), are the Hivebent equivalents to a Guardian. They look after the young trolls while the adults besiege other star systems in the name of Alternian glory. It is also observed that a trolls' gender matches that of their lusus.
In Latin, the plural of "lusus" is "lusūs". In English, "lusus", "lususes", "lusii" and "lusi" have all been used, with lusii being the most common (and also used in the title of a song ♫ from the Alternia album).
Trolls and their custodians have a peculiar arrangement of codependency. The lusus behaves as a lifelong bodyguard, caretaker, and visceral sort of mentor, while the young troll must learn to function as a sort of zookeeper. The death of a lusus results in the young troll getting culled. They are almost always seen in some variation of Hero Mode, especially those of the Sea Dwellers.
Lusii choose the troll they will raise. Scent plays a role in the selection process.
They are horrifying beasts found in the ceremonial brooding caverns once the young trolls have completed their many dangerous trials. A troll's lusus is dependent on their blood color, as seen here and there, and possibly by gender as well. Together the young troll and custodian surface from the subterranean vaults and build a new hive using carpenter droids.
All but one of the trolls' lusii have died (Aradia's lusus being already dead) due to either the effects of the Mobius Double Reacharound Virus or the game itself, and they were used to prototype their respective troll's Kernelsprite. They were all prototyped before entering the medium, so the troll's enemies have all their characteristics. Through these prototypings, the lusii gained the ability to talk with their charges for the first time.
Jake's bedsheets featuring various lusii.
The lususprites seem to have all died, either through the end of the game itself or because of Jack Noir. The Condesce also brought various lusii to Jake's island, and they can be seen on his bedsheets.
Openbound seems to imply that each pre-scratch troll has the same Lusus species as a caretaker as their post-scratch counterpart, with the possible exception of Meenah. The same may be true for all ancestors, as at least Mindfang and Redglare had the same type of Lusus as their descendants. There are at least two exceptions, because the Sufferer was raised by the Dolorosa and the Handmaid was raised by Doc Scratch, thus neither had a lusus.
Ram lusus
The ram lusus is a ram-like creature that Aradia, and presumably Damara Megido, had as custodians. It possess horns similar to that of the Megidos. Aradia's died well before the game of Sgrub in a chain of events stemming from a roleplaying accident, as a result it is the only lusus not prototyped into a kernelsprite in the A2 session.
It is possible that Aradia's lusus is now among the 'voices of the dead' talking to her. One implication of this, if confirmed, is that her lusus is also in control of her fetch modus.
Fairy bulls
Fairy bulls are small fairy/bull hybrids that Tavros, Rufioh, and presumably the Summoner, had as lusii.
Tavros's fairy bull's name is Tinkerbull, a portmanteau of Tinkerbell, the main fairy from Peter Pan, a movie that Tavros enjoys thoroughly (the troll version, Pupa Pan, that is) and bull, the symbol of the Taurus zodiac sign. They seem to have a very good relationship, often playing Fiduspawn together, and accompanying him on his Flarp adventures.
Tinkerbull was killed by Tavros, who had inadvertently crushed him underneath his wheelchair in a particularly cruel twist of fate for poor Tavros. Later, Tinkerbull is prototyped into Tavros' kernelsprite, seen floating outside of his transported hive here. Tavros has stated that, since Tinkerbull can now talk as a result of his prototyping, he is "really smart" and appears to consult him for advice.
Rufioh's fairy bull was crushed to death by Damara, Rufioh's statement suggests that he did not see his lusus again until encountering his memory in the dream bubbles, suggesting that unlike Tinkerbull, Rufioh's lusus was not prototyped.
Fairy bulls were one of many lusus-like fauna found on Jake's Island, one was mistaken for an enemy, and was shot in the head by Jake. A swarm of them are seen flying through the air slightly later.
Unlike other lusus-like fauna found in Jake's island, they are gentle and docile to him.
Bicyclops
Bicyclops (also referred to as a biclops) are large two-headed, horned giants that Sollux, Mituna, and presumably the Ψiioniic, had as lusii. Each head has a single eye, left is red and right is blue, and each head has a mouth with two fangs.
Their species is a reference to a line from the film Yellow Submarine, further cemented by the Captors' yellow blood color.
Sollux chains his lusus to the roof of his communal hive stem (the troll equivalent of an apartment building). He is fed mind honey, harvested from Sollux's beehouse mainframes, to "keep him from being an idiot all the time". He was killed by a catastrophic release of Sollux's psionic energy that demolished the upper levels of his hive, as a result of inadvertently consuming mind honey. Later, Bicyclopsprite is seen staring at Sollux's bloody corpse.
The relation between Mituna Captor and his biclops dad seems to be an inversion of Sollux's relation to his lusus with the bicyclops being the caretaker due to Mituna's mental disability. The biclops apparently feeds Mituna mind honey to treat him, possibly suggesting that Sollux's biclops has a mental disability due to it also being treated with mind honey.
Crab lusus
Karkat's lusus is a towering, bipedal crab monster with a taste for chilled roe cubes. He is very crabby and Karkat is often forced to fight him to calm him down. It seems Karkat cares very much for his lusus, at least enough to draw a picture of him and pin it to his fridge.
He was killed when Karkat's computer exploded as a result of running Sollux Captor's Mobius Double Reacharound Virus, thereby implementing the curse that possibly leads to the death of the other trolls' lusii as well.
He was the first lusus ever seen at the end of the Midnight Crew Intermission. Some members of the community have affectionately named Karkat's Lusus "Crabdad".
Curiously, a much larger version of its kind (Which has a tail, a trait Karkat's lusus lacked) can be seen roaming the forest on post-scratch Jade's Island near Jake's house. He and Jake engage in a Strife, in which Jake fires at him with two pistols while flying through the air dramatically. After a few shots, the lusus staggers away with visible candy red bullet wounds, confirming its until then unknown blood color. Interestingly, during this Strife it was referred to as a "crabdad", possibly indicating that this has become the official name for its species.
He was apparently created by the followers of The Sufferer, so that future mutantbloods would have a lusus to tend to them.
Cat Lusus
Nepeta's lusus, Pounce de Leon, is a feline creature with two mouths, roughly the size of an earth Panther. It is “pawssibly the cutest and purrhaps the bestest kitty you have ever s33n!”. Her name is an obvious reference to Ponce de Leon, a famous explorer who according to legend sought the Fountain of Youth: she and Nepeta often went on adventures together to search for the "fountain of cute". Nepeta would ride on Pounce's back until Pounce got tired, at which point Pounce would ride Nepeta.
Pounce de Leon was crushed when Nepeta's hive caved in for unknown reasons, probably due to a meteor.
Another of its kind (potentially Meulin's Lusus as she is seen in the same area) is seen in Openbound and referred to as "cat mom".
Mother Grubs
- Main article: Mother Grub
Kanaya's lusus is a Virgin Mother Grub that abdicated from her responsibility of producing eggs. It is an honor to have one become your lusus.
She has a skull-like face, lips, and two horns, one of them bent like Kanaya's. Her design is possibly based on the Grammia virgo, or Virgin Tiger Moth.
Kanaya was chosen by her lusus on account of her rare jade green blood, and is protected by her from the various threats of the desert that her hive occupies. Kanaya's hive was built underneath the sand, the seed planted through use of her lusus' remarkable burrowing skills.
Kanaya's lusus apparently died of natural causes, as a Mother Grub who renounces brooding has a more limited lifespan. Kanaya believes her death, and by extension the deaths of the other lusii, are not an effect of the Mobius Double Reacharound Virus (as Karkat and Sollux believe), but instead are a consequence of playing Sgrub. After she dies, Kanaya saws open the abdomen of her lusus, removing a mysterious sphere called a Matriorb, which can be used to create a new Mother Grub. Doing this is part of Kanaya fulfilling "her end of the bargain" by providing her lusus with progeny.
Mothersprite is the first troll Kernelsprite we see communicating with her charge, comforting her after she discovered that Vriska Serket had flushed feelings for Tavros. It is possible that she is the only lusus capable of audible speech before being added to a kernelsprite.
Her status as a Virgin Mother Grub connects to Kanaya's symbol: Virgo, i.e. the virgin.
Dragon lusus
Terezi's lusus is a large, sightless dragon. The species is blind until maturity and must learn to survive without the benefit of sight.
Terezi was not directly raised by her lusus, as the hatching of her egg would tip the Doomsday Scale on which it sits, causing the end of the world. However, her Lusus would communicate with her telepathically during her sleep. After the accident in which Terezi lost her sight, it was her lusus that helped teach her the skills to function without vision - through smelling and tasting her surroundings, much like a dragon. By doing so, Terezi was able to connect with her awakened dream self.
Later, the heat of a meteor-sparked forest fire causes the lusus' egg to hatch as Terezi arrives. She dies shortly thereafter, struck by a meteor; presumably due to an inability to see them raining down at the time of her hatching. Her corpse was later picked up and deposited into Terezi's kernelsprite by Gamzee, allowing the two to have audible conversations.
Dragonsprite was later seen around Terezi's hive on her planet. She seems to take a very friendly and excited tone when communicating with her. Prior to playing Sgrub, Terezi mentions babies ("“MYTH1C4L L1TTL3 P1NK MONK3Y”"s) as being something her lusus has dreamed about. The exact nature of this dreaming is unclear.
In the post-scratch session, a mature member of her kind can be seen flying above Jake's island. Mature members apparently have burning eyes that can cause 'glaresplosions'.
Due to its late hatching, her lusus would have no means of naming Terezi through noises, as other lusii do. Thusly, how exactly Terezi was named is unknown, although it could ostensibly have been achieved by the Lusus's telepathic communication with Terezi.
It's also unknown how Terezi was assigned to her dragon lusus, as lusii usually choose wigglers based on their smell.
Spider lusus
Vriska's lusus resembles a gargantuan spider. Her face bears a striking resemblance to someone else. One of her fangs is bent downwards, like one of Vriska's horns. Vriska refers to her as Spidermom.
This spider's anatomy is distinctly different from the anatomy of Earth spiders, as it appears to have a head, thorax, and abdomen. In the body of an Earth spider, the head and thorax are merged into one body segment, the cephalothorax, in contrast with Earth insects' three-segmented bodies.
Her lusus eats young trolls, and is constantly hungry. Vriska uses her Flarp sessions to procure more food for her lusus. Spidermom dwells in webs woven between the canyons surrounding Vriska's castle-like hive, below her chain-suspended doomsday device.
She was killed after the Catenative Doomsday Dice Cascader malfunctioned and exploded, causing the rockface that supported part of Equius' hive to collapse and crush her. Vriska, having arrived shortly beforehand, put her lusus out of her misery by rolling her set of enchanted dice. It unleashed one of its most powerful attacks, summoning a massive guillotine to behead the Lusus. Presumably, the decapitated part was used to prototype her kernelsprite.
Vriska doesn't exactly like her lusus, saying that she sucks to Kanaya and that feeding her is a huge pain. Thus, after creating her sprite, they tend to avoid each other.
Vriska's lusus has no official name, but a sentence "au revoir, spidermom" has led many fans to adopting that name, which is similar to Karkat's lusus' naming.
Centaur lusus
Equius' lusus, Aurthour, looks like a centaur, but with an udder and a mustache. He resembles a creature from one of Andrew Hussie's older works, Humanimals. In addition to being a guardian, Aurthour is Equius' butler, providing him with his own Lusus Milk.
It is plausible that the name for Aurthour is derived from the milk brand 'McArthur'.
Equius cares for and/or respects Aurthour on a certain level, and refers to him as "simply the best [butler] there is."
Aurthour's species is said to be one of the strongest kinds of lusus, which is why he became Equius' custodian; no other lusus could handle Equius' ridiculous strength. However, Aurthour bruises incredibly often, even as a result of a grateful pat on the head. His frequent bruising is most likely because Equius is too strong even for monsters.
He was killed when the Catenative Doomsday Dice Cascader malfunctioned and blew up part of the rockface that supported a section of Equius' hive. He was in the part of the house that crumbled, and he plummeted to the ground below.
His corpse was then later retrieved from the rubble to be deposited into Equius' kernelsprite. Aurthoursprite was later seen floating around Equius's hive. In Alterniabound Equius states that Aurthour's "ghost" is dead, suggesting that the sprite was destroyed.
Several members of this species roam Jake's Island, appearing in a variety of sizes. Some are several stories tall, dropping manure and milk onto those unfortunate enough to stand below.
Aurthour or an identical musclebeast was spotted at Andrew Hussie's study, having supplied the milk for Spades Slick while Hussie nursed him back to health. There is no plausible reason why he would be there, besides the fact that Hussie wills it.
He is apparently part of a "butler genus", if Arquiusprite's statement can be taken seriously.
Goat lusus
Gamzee's, and likely Kurloz's, lusus is a giant goat-like sea creature. He had apparently often been out to sea instead of caring for Gamzee as a custodian is supposed to. Despite this, Gamzee appears to care enough about him to go keep a look out for him, suggesting that he trusts him.
He is based on Capricornus, the mythical aquatic-goat creature represented in Capricorn's constellation.
He was speared by what appears to be a harpoon or something similar, possibly even by Eridan, and died while Gamzee comforted him.
The community has taken to affectionately referring to him as Goatdad.
Like other lusii, a member of Gamzee's lusus' species has been seen on Jake English's Island, in the lake surrounding the Frog Temple. Jake says that the creature "doesn't back down", and its wild, angry eyes suggest that its own nature reflects that of Gamzee's darker sides.
Seahorse lusus
Eridan's, and apparently Cronus's, lusus appears to be a large flying seahorse, perhaps known as a "skyhorse". Eridan rides upon his lusus' back, as he floats or glides through the air. He is also seen hunting with his Lusus serving as a noble steed.
He is the only troll to accessorize his Lusus, equipping him with a violet saddle and reins. Within the privacy of Eridan's hive, his lusus does not wear riding gear. The fanbase has taken to calling him Seahorsedad, much like Crabdad and Spidermom. The term "seahorse dad" was also used in Openbound.
Gl'bgolyb
Gl'bgolyb, otherwise known as "The Rift's Carbuncle", "Emissary to the Horrorterrors", or in more hushed tones, "Speaker of the Vast Glub", is a colossal, squid-like abomination that serves as the shared lusus of Feferi, the Condesce, and other fuchsia bloods on Alternia. It is implied that her existence was brought about by Doc Scratch and Lord English. Given this information, it is unknown what variety of lusus raised Meenah, only that it may not have been Gl'Bgolyb.
Gl'bgolyb dwarfs all other lusii (as well as most architecture) by a massive degree – Karkat describes her as “AN OUTER FUCKING GOD THE SIZE OF A CITY”. Upon close examination, it can be seen that she has two mouths, one on each end of her body, similar to Fluthlu.
Being the only fuchsia blood troll on Alternia, Feferi was automatically assigned to her, however Gl'bgolyb continued to serve as the lusus of Feferi's ancestor, who was Empress during the events of Hivebent. When heiresses came of age they were expected to challenge the current Empress for the throne due to the demands of Gl'bgolyb and troll society. However, by the time of the events of Hivebent, Her Imperious Condescension had piloted her flagship to such a distance as to weaken her bond to Gl'bgolyb, causing its allegiance to sway to Feferi who was protected from any assassination attempts by the Condesce.
According to Feferi, Gl'bgolyb frequently whispers to her. Some of what she says are prophecies, including that of the "world's end" and of uniting the two races. She loves her lusus very much, although she has expressed that "keeping her voice down" is a burden to her. She does this by feeding her the dead lusii of other trolls with Eridan's help. This is necessary due to the fact that if Gl'bgolyb's voice is ever raised above a whisper, trolls would start dying. The psychically susceptible lower castes would die first, and if the horrorterror raised her voice to a shout, every troll on the planet (other than Feferi) would perish. Worst of all, if she were to ever get "really upset", she might release "the Vast Glub", a psychic shockwave that would exterminate every single troll in the galaxy, again excepting the fuchsiablooded Condesce and Feferi.
Gl'bgolyb eventually unleashed the Vast Glub while Karkat was attempting to get Sollux into The Medium, killing him (though Feferi would shortly after revive him as his Dersite dream self). Doc Scratch stated that the Vast Glub was Gl'bgolyb's "swan song", implying that after releasing the Vast Glub it would die, and the implied cause of death was a meteor.
Feferi states that her lusus “fell into” the kernelsprite, and the effects of this prototyping can be seen on one of the underlings here. Prototyping Feferi's kernelsprite with Gl'bgolyb gave the Black King the ability to also release the Vast Glub. Aradia was able to counter this ability with the assistance of an army of alternate future selves from doomed timelines.
Though only one existed on Alternia, it appears that at least somewhere there is another, similar creature. The pronunciation of Gl'bgolyb's name is a pun on "glub glub".
Other lusii
Dead miscellaneous lusii, fed to Gl'bgolyb by Eridan and Feferi.
The lusii of other trolls have been seen, all of which had been killed by Eridan to feed Feferi's gargantuan lusus. Among these lusii have been a flying, cloud-dwelling whale with purple blood which the fanbase often calls the "Sky Whale" (it has also been seen around Jake's Island), and various other reptilian or serpentine lusii with varying blood colors. These lusii are shown briefly, and don't have much relevance in the overall plotline – although, interestingly, one of them appears to have the same blood color as Gl'Bgolyb.
Pyralspite
Redglare had a dragon lusus named Pyralspite. It is most likely a fully matured member of the same species as Terezi's lusus. Pyralspite was larger than a ship; when it flew over the cove where Mindfang kept her fleet of ships, its shadow was cast over the whole area. It blocked out the entire moon with its silhouette, and was able to swallow Mindfang's lusus whole. Its red eyes were bright enough to damage troll vision and, in the post-scratch version of Earth, another member of Pyralspite's race was able to cause an explosion with its glare when it encountered Jake and Lil Seb flying through the sky. Redglare and Pyralspite continued to work together well into Redglare's adult life, with Pyralspite serving as Redglare's mount; this indicates that this may be the normal procedure in troll-lusus relationships after the troll reaches maturity.
Although technically not one, Jade Harley's first guardian dog Becquerel is considered her lusus by the trolls. In all practical sense, he does essentially serve the same purpose as one, being a white beast raising Jade.
Mindfang's journal mentions “sluggish choler8ear”s and “8rainless squawking spleenfowl” as examples of typical tealblood lusus species.
Of the Beforan trolls, Rufioh, Mituna, Meulin and Cronus are confirmed to have lusii of the same species as their Alternian dancestors. Since Gl'bgolyb was exclusive to post-scratch Alternia, Meenah was probably raised by a member of some other fuchsia-blooded lusus species, like the one seen in Hivebent.
The horrorterror-like lusus surrounding the flooded Frog Temple.
Many species of lusii exist on Jake's island, most notably a Horrorterror-like lusus that appears in [S] Jane: Enter which likely serves as the Condesce's replacement for Gl'bgolyb. Dirk stated that this creature is “As much in her service as it is calling the shots”, and also that “Every time she tried to resurrect her race, it would slaughter them all psychically. As if it was keeping her ambition in check.” It is unknown where she obtained it from, as the Gl'bgolyb in her universe died and was prototyped into a sprite, but it is possible that the creature is one of multiple members of a subspecies of Horrorterrors, possibly given as a second "gift" from Lord English or cloned in a similar manner to the trolls that it kept killing.
Hiveswap lusii
Hiveswap introduced two addtional types of lusii: the Cuspidated Grimalkin (colloquially known as a deercat) and the Glacial Treetrudger (a giant sloth-like creature).
Cuspidated Grimalkins are known to take on bronze-blooded trolls with apparent skills for leadership (such as Dammek). In addition the cuspidated grimalkin has a tendency to outlive their wards and will seek out trolls of similar temperments in such an occasion. This process is, however mysterious, due to the relative illegality of the species and the desired traits of their troll wards.
Glacial Treetrudgers appear to favor burgundy-blooded trolls (such as Xefros Tritoh). Similar to real-life sloths, they are slow-moving and sleep regularly, typically in trees. They also appear to be picky eaters.
Lusus Gallery
