Homestuck Hemospectrum 101: Troll Blood Castes in Order

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Learn the social status, abilities, and traits of each blood color

Co-authored by Elaine Heredia, BA

Last Updated: July 21, 2026 Fact Checked

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Hemospectrum Overview

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Blood Colors & Castes

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Blood Mutations

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What is Homestuck?

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More Homestuck Content

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Curious how the troll blood caste system works in the viral webcomic Homestuck? Whether you're brushing up on troll lore ahead of the Homestuck animated series or just now getting into the webcomic, it's important you know about the hemosectrum. This article will give you the background information you're looking for by helping you understand the hemospectrum, the 12 troll blood colors and castes, and how mutants with other blood colors fit into the system. Let's go!

What is the order of the hemospectrum?

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A chart depicting each blood color in the Homestuck hemospectrum.

The lowest castes in the hemospectrum are Rust, Bronze, and Gold. The trolls in these castes are called lowbloods. Next comes Lime, which is an extinct caste, followed by Olive, Jade, and Teal—the midbloods. The remaining castes are Cobalt, Indigo, Purple, Violet, and Fuchsia, which make up the highbloods.

Section 1 of 5:

Understanding the Hemospectrum from Homestuck

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The hemospectrum is the troll blood caste system in the webcomic Homestuck. In the long-running webcomic Homestuck (2009-2016), the primary race besides humans is trolls from the planet Alternia. Troll society is divided into a strict caste system, in which each troll is assigned a permanent social status based on their blood color. This system is called the hemospectrum. There are 12 blood colors, and each comes with specific abilities and personality traits, such as telekinesis and mind control.^{[1]
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- Social status is determined by lifespan, which ranges from thousands of years to less than 100 years. Trolls who are higher on the hemospectrum have longer lifespans than those lower on the spectrum.
- Most of the castes consist of male and female trolls, though some castes are almost exclusively one or the other.
- We explain more about the traits and abilities of each caste below.

Section 2 of 5:

Hemospectrum Blood Colors & Castes

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Rust (12th caste, lowblood) The Rust or Burgundy caste occupies the bottom of the hemospectrum. Trolls with this deep-red blood color are called rustbloods, and they typically only live for a maximum of 40 years. They're also considered disposable by trolls with higher prestige blood types.^{[2]
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Research source} Despite their lowly status, they have incredible psychic powers.^{[3]
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- Abilities: Telekinesis
- Personality traits: Confident, energetic, and resilient^{[4]
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Bronze (11th caste, lowblood) The Bronze or Orange caste is only a slight step above the Rust class. They're often bullied and looked down upon by the upper castes.^{[5]
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Research source} However, bronzebloods aren't completely powerless! They have an ability known as animal communion, which lets them read the thoughts of any animal they come across.^{[6]
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- Abilities: Animal communion
- Personality traits: Withdrawn, generous, and needy^{[7]
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Gold (10th caste, lowblood) The Gold or Yellow caste is the most respected of the lowblood colors in the hemospectrum, but they're still exploited and seen as lesser than mid or highblood colors. They have a variety of abilities, such as destructive eye beams and telekinesis, and they're also able to manipulate electronics. The Alternian Empire commonly uses them to power their ships on their voyages through space (like living batteries similar to The Matrix).^{[8]
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- Abilities: Eye beams, telekinesis, electronic manipulation, and shipboard power
- Personality traits: Witty, preachy, and anxious^{[9]
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Lime (9th caste, extinct) Lime is the most mysterious and tragic caste in the hemospectrum. Not much is known about limeblood trolls because they simply don't exist. Rumor has it that the Alternian Empire hunted every one of them down and killed them until the entire caste went extinct. Regardless of why limebloods no longer exist, the Alternian Empire refuses to acknowledge this caste and threatens those who do. They were said to have been able to control fire with their mind, and some say they were also highly emotional. But that's only speculation, and Homestuck fans may never learn the truth.^{[10]
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- Abilities: Pyrokinesis (possibly)
- Personality traits: Unknown
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Olive (8th caste, midblood) Trolls in the Olive caste are generally well-liked, but not very powerful. They tend not to develop any special abilities, but they make up for that in their loyalty and faithfulness toward their friends.^{[11]
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- Abilities: None
- Personality traits: Loyal, faithful, and unforgiving when betrayed
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Jade (7th caste, midblood) Jadeblood trolls are in the exact middle of the caste, and they have several unique characteristics. Firstly, they're the rarest blood color after the mighty Fuchsia caste. Secondly, a handful of them possess the ability to turn into a Luminous Rainbow Drinker when they're killed, which is sort of like becoming a vampire. Lastly, they're almost all female, and their primary function is to help increase the troll population.^{[12]
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- Abilities: Luminous Rainbow Drinker transformation (rare)
- Personality traits: Nurturing
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Teal (6th caste, midblood) Trolls in the Teal caste are known for their high levels of charisma and can often get away with socializing in higher blood circles (although they're still looked down upon). They're also great public speakers, which lands them in positions like legislator and law prosecutor. They're generally well-liked by everyone, regardless of caste.^{[13]
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- Abilities: Public speaking
- Personality traits: Charismatic and sociable
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Cobalt (5th caste, highblood) The Cobalt caste (AKA Blue or Cerulean) is the lowest of the highblood castes in the hemospectrum. They're described as obsessively dedicated to whatever they put their mind to, especially work. Their abilities are extremely unpredictable and can swing from simple mind-reading to powerful mind control.^{[14]
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Research source} Some people also call them spoiled and cruel to the middle and lower castes. They're highblood enough to enjoy all the benefits of the higher castes, but not so important that they have to shoulder a lot of responsibilities.^{[15]
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- Abilities: Mind-reading and mind control
- Personality traits: Dedicated, hardworking, spoiled, and cruel
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Indigo (4th caste, highblood) Indigoblood trolls are typically perceived as being more down-to-earth than the other highblood castes. They don't have any psychic abilities like the Cobaltbloods, but a few among them are born with incredible strength.^{[16]
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Research source} They tend to take on prestigious roles in the Troll Imperial Army, such as the elite Ruffiannihiliator or the noble Archeradicator. Their biggest flaw is their uncontrollable anger.
- Abilities: Super strength
- Personality traits: Grounded, noble, and angry
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Purple (3rd caste, highblood) Trolls in the Purple caste are known for being ambitious and driven. They're the highest blooded trolls that live on land, so for many people, they are the highbloods. Most of them emulate a purpleblooded troll named the Subjugglator, who preaches that you have to become mad to understand the madness of the universe. As a result, a majority of Purple trolls are insane. Despite that, they're considered leaders of the land-dwelling castes, and they will stop at nothing to increase their political and religious power.^{[17]
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- Abilities: The power to amplify a person's fear and give them nightmares
- Personality traits: Ambitious but insane
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Violet (2nd caste, highblood) Violetblooded trolls are seadwellers, having evolved to develop fishlike gills to help them breathe underwater. The lower castes perceive them as royalty, but not the good, benevolent kind. Though they're artistic and sometimes even whimsical, they tend to stray too far into the crazy side of genius, which makes them tyrannical and perverse.^{[18]
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- Abilities: None
- Personality traits: Intelligent, whimsical, eccentric, perverse, and maniacal
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Fuchsia (1st caste, highblood) Fuchsiablooded trolls are at the top of the hemospectrum and the top amphibious leaders of Alternian society. There are usually only 2 Fuchsiabloods in existence at a time, and one of them is the Empress of Alternia, whose lifespan is hundreds of thousands of years. Anytime another female troll is born in the Fuchsia caste, she's supposed to challenge the Empress and kill her to take her place.^{[19]
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- The challenge revolves around a being called Gl'bgolyb, which serves as the shared lusus (guardian) for all fuchsia-blooded trolls, and who is powerful enough to destroy all troll life with its scream. The Empress (or challenger) must be able to calm the Gl'bgolyb and prevent the destruction of life as trolls know it, using that as leverage to keep the hemospectrum system intact.^{[20]
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- Abilities: Psychic powers
- Personality traits: Intelligent and ruthless

Section 3 of 5:

What are mutants in the hemospectrum?

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Anytime a troll is discovered with a blood color that falls outside the hemospectrum, the Alternian Empire hunts them down and executes them. One of the main characters in the webcomic is a mutant troll named Karkat, whose blood is candy apple-red like human blood. He hides his blood color as much as possible to avoid being killed.^{[21]
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Section 4 of 5:

What is Homestuck?

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Homestuck is an 8000+ page webcomic about 4 friends playing a video game. The 4 main characters in Homestuck are human kids named John, Rose, Dave, and Jade. One by one, they start playing a video game called Sburb, in which their decisions and actions have real-life impacts on the world around them. Trolls are depicted as an alien species, and they're significant because they play their own version of Sburb called Sgrub. The webcomic follows the kids' adventures as they play the game, causing mass destruction along the way.^{[22]
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- Spoiler alert! In Acts 6 and 7 of Homestuck, the kids defeat the maniacal villain Lord English and win the game. For their reward, they receive a brand-new universe, in which they (presumably) live out the rest of their lives in peace and harmony.^{[23]
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- Homestuck ran from April 13, 2009, to April 13, 2016.