Lowbloods

These castes range from rust to gold with two added chromas in between: copper and brass.

Lowbloods are the most populated caste and live the shortest lives. Lowbloods also have the most dominant genes of any caste, they will always overpower the genes of higher castes. They tend to have a range of powers which have evolved over generations, psionics, telekinesis, animal commune, and all sorts of interesting powers. However these abilities tend to cut most livespans short despite one's body and brain being used to the abilities. Because of these factors they are most likely to be taken advantage of by the higher castes and that is exactly what happens.

Lowbloods have the least amount of rights, that being little to none. They can’t own their own housing or vehicles which is a bigger part of the AU, the housing is owned by the landlord and they usually have apartments that vary in size (aka hivestems). Because they can not own or drive their own vehicles most end up using public transport. There is a way you can get around this, but barely, people like mechanics or lowblood sports players are able to drive the vehicles they are using or working on since that is part of their job, other than that its pretty much illegal. When using public transport it is expected that you give up your seat if a higher blood wants it. Freedom of speech in a public setting is prohibited as well as having the right to assemble, it’s considered a riot offense. If you are a lowblood and causing any sort of disturbance you can and will be removed or broken up with force and some are arrested for doing as little as speaking out against a higher blood. There is no laws protecting you from any sort of violence and usually the side of the higher blood is taken because of social stigmas.

A notable thing you may see are items with an olive stripe. This needs to be addressed because it means that anyone below that cast may not enter or they may not buy that item. It’s sort of like how we can’t buy alcohol until we are 21 (using American standards). How this is enforced is with your ID card. Adults have the ID cards they receive when they come of age. Whenever buying something you need to show your card and pay for the items. Stuff like prescription drugs and medicine is hard to come by as a lowblood, not because it isn’t on the market but because 90% of it has a stripe on it. You can also be kicked out of stores unless you're with someone of a higher blood, because “gold and below need not enter”. It is very Jim Crow in that respect, but with any social divide stuff like this always follows.

This ends up not having the best effect though since there is an illegal trade between mid and lowbloods for things lowbloods can not get. This sadly tends to give law enforcement an excuse to paint lowbloods as more of a problem and keep the stigma going to fit their agenda. If you are suspected of having contraband of any sort like illegal drugs or unauthorized weapons then you can be forced to go through checks without warning. There is no protection from unreasonable searches and seizures and law enforcement doesn’t need any type of search warrant if you are a lowblood. because of this law enforcement is prone to be corrupt and have been known to set up lower class members causing

problems. This usually results in planting known items a lowblood legally can't have when searching their hives. You can generally be put down for a multitude of reasons, so it’s best to just keep your head down and not try to do anything illegal.

Hives and Living situations

As stated before lowbloods are not permitted to own their own properties. However this does have a single exception, some gold and brass bloods (usually getting good graces from someone higher in the spectrum) are able to own their own small shops which are usually manned by themselves and employed by a few other lowbloods. Most lowbloods aren't found on the best sides of towns or cities. This is mostly because of the crime and poverty that runs rampant among these castes. Some find their way out into more suburban areas or cleaner sides of the cities but a lot don't make it. Cities themselves are almost traps for most since there is a lot of stacked living space and an abundance of people and jobs. This is the same as lowblood slums which seem to gather around the lower parts of the cities. A lot of these places are old and not as well kept as others, covered in graffiti and wires. There are a lot of gated hivestems and hiveless shelters like hostels that are provided by the government. As a lowbloods you’re lucky if you get to be on the side of the city without barred windows and still have enough money for a couch. To avoid this, it's normal for lowerbloods to share apartments both to save on money and as a sort of defense mechanism (you're less likely to get robbed if you live with multiple trolls).

Lowbloods usually take the subway or busses or any type of transit around where they live, a lot of lowbloods tend to live closer to metros because of an ease of access. That also goes for being outside the city. You do however get more freedom when you live farther away from the city but you will have less resources and ease of access for jobs usually. The farther from the city you get the more lowbloods that are likely to be servants that live on plots of land owned by highbloods or in small town communities around factories. For the farther out jobs you’d usually be working for whoever owns the land you’re on or the hive you’re living in. This usually consists of working as the help or as laborers for agriculture if the person who owns the land is in the industry. This goes the same for mining towns, the vast majority of lowbloods that live in those towns also work manual labor for the mines.

Some environmental concepts.

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Types of jobs and opportunities

Most lowblood don't really get the best jobs, obviously when you are on the bottom and with the way the schooling system is set up you aren't going to have the easiest time. Golds and brass however have the nice advantage of being one of the lower caste chromas able to own their own small businesses or be the managers of small companies that cater to the lower class. However these are usually nothing bigger than hole in the wall shops/restaurants/ bars or clubs in the lower ends of town. For anyone below gold or brass they can't legally have their name on property, especially the closer you get to the higher spectrum ends of the city. Lowbloods are more likely to become servers or cashiers, people who restock shelves in convenience stores or domestic workers. They are also the most likely caste to work in the assembly lines, in factories and sweatshops to build parts for anything the empire needs. They work in shipping, loading and unloading cargo or being janitorial staff for restaurants or midblood malls, so on and so forth. Lowbloods fill all minimum wage jobs and most blue collar work.

If you have psionics however you have the opportunity to get a higher salary. This is mostly because you are able to power a lot of machinery from subway trains to transit busses or heavy duty machinery and transit ships. It is also likely for psionics to be employed at power plants and are able to just hook up to servers with other working psionics and power the whole city they are living in. That usually takes over a hundred psionics or more. It is however one of the highest paying jobs for a lowblood, though it is the most brutal for any troll with psionics. The less stronger psionics usually end up employed in assembly lines to charge portable batteries.

Because these jobs are low salary it is quite normal for lowbloods to hold two jobs at once or one full time and a side job. If you are really ambitious you'd take 3 but it's up to the troll. At least with that you are able to support yourself and probably get a decent apartment, still have money left for food and transportation and necessities while probably saving some for yourself. That however does not count illegal jobs like contract killing, prostitution, theft, the drug trade or grey hat hackers/programmers which sadly tend to make more money then actual jobs but can be considerably more dangerous. Other then that becoming part of a sports team or a prominent figure online are other options but that usually takes time to make enough credit.

LOWBLOOD AGRICULTURE WORK

Most agriculture is narrowed down to protein farms which generally found in the mid and outter rim. They are currently the main sources of most meat and meat substitute products in the empire. Currently the most popular, albeit cost-indenture form of production is based on protein-rich crickets, which allow producers to achieve the highest- quality big based protein. Other alternatives like worms or Witchetty Grubs are also available but not many trolls now a nights are that keen on being told to “go eat grubs” considering that has grown to be pretty looked down upon. No grub sauce is not made of grubs- is baby good made of babies- is a hot dog made of a dog? This is really just an alien stereotype.

Unknown outter ring troll's journal entry:

It’s hard to imagine now- a world where things used to grow out of the ground without our help, without bioengineering, where an apple was something normal- a fruit who’s shape and taste every troll knew by instinct. Where a normal troll, like you or me could have more than they ever needed.

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Lowblood abilities

Psionics & Helmsman: Psionics can range from rust to gold on the spectrum but it is more likely to get the psionic gene as a rust brass or gold blood. Psionic eyes or the “full color eyes” are a secondary gene that show up in gold bloods 95% of the time, it can however show up in any other lowblood castes with multiple different iterations. What psionics are at the base level is the excess electrical energy created by neurons firing in a trolls brain. Psionic trolls can build up so much energy to create an electromagnetic current from those neurons firing. They have the output centers that are designed to take that energy and put it out into the physical world. Also, yes electromagnetic currents can move things. If you were to look at the scan of a psionics brain activity when they use their psionics their entire brain would light up with activity because they are generating so much energy, all those neurons firing at once

As a power psionics have a wide range of control and power. For some trolls they can have an imbalance in both. While gold bloods are known to have the most powerful genetically inherited psionics any other caste can build up to the same level. Most bronze and copper blood trolls who have psionic abilities either have good control but are less powerful or have powerful psionics but little to no actual control. A psionic troll can land anywhere on the spectrum. The power can come in multiple different colors and have multiple different and unique energy patterns. Sky is the limit here, its all energy.

A Helmsman is psionic troll of any blood color who provides energy for machinery. This goes for anything, from subway cars to Alternian battleships. Literally anything that requires any form of energy requires a Helmsman unless it is powered by a battery or other means. Because of this Alternia actually uses very clean energy.

Voidrot for Psionics: Voidrot is caused when output centers get damaged, which can either be around helms jacks (helmsman cybernetics designed to help psionics power machinery) your eyes, or in your actual brain. The bridge between neurons can be damaged causing internal voidrot and the more you try to use your psionics the more damage your gonna do to yourself. That energy a damaged psionic makes has nowhere to go but in a loop, it can’t disburse anywhere. Another aspect of voidrot damaged is if you keep using your own powers they get progressively more difficult to control, less powerful or as stated before you can be doing internal damage to yourself. It’s almost like working with a faulty engine. Rusts, copper and bronze bloods who have psionics and get void rot usually do not receive psion repair. Of course you won't receive psion repair if you don't have enough credit either.

This also makes the highbloods who have psionic cybernetics unable to get voidrot. If the tech gets damaged it doesn’t affect the user, you can just get a new piece of tech. Speaking of tech damaged cybernetic jacks for a helmsman is the most common form of voidrot but also the easiest to fix.

Telepathy and animal commune: Usually this gene shows up in copper and bronze bloods but it isn’t unheard of to show up in other lowblood castes. You can have multiple different types of varying abilities, some being as simple as hearing the thoughts of other trolls or understanding what animals are thinking /feeling what others are feeling.

Animal commune: The more powerful animal commune abilities can manipulate most creatures into doing what you want, however it is nearly impossible to control a creature with a high intelligence level. The weakest ability is to vaguely understand animals. Animal commune powers can range anywhere in between.

Telepathy/ Mind reading: For those who have the ability to read minds they can do so in multiple ways by either hearing others consciousness or seeing what they are thinking in their mind's eye. The most powerful category is being able to easily hear or see what another troll has hidden or has forgotten about, locked away in their heads. They can know secrets that people want to keep hidden. However as stated this is the strongest form of the ability and it’s also the rarest. The weakest ability in this category is having other peoples vague memories show up in your own thoughts without context.