Trolls (Warcraft)

Trolls are a species that feature in Warcraft.

History

Trolls were a race of humanoid beings that were native to the planet Azeroth. They were said to be among the first sentient race that formed in the world in the heart of ancient Kalimdor at the Well of Eternity that was an enormous lake filled with powerful energies. It was the energy of the Well that accelerated the cycles of growth and rebirth that spawned life with the Trolls being the most prolific creatures to emerge in this time. In time, they began to gather into tribes that were overseen by the Shadow Hunters who served as leaders of these initially small groups. As Trolls gathered in great cities, the Shadow Hunters influence began to lessen though they remained a respected position in Trollkind.

In those ancient days, the continent of Kalimdor was a single large landmass where the Trolls lorded over it. In that time, the first tribal group formed with this being the Zandalari and from them came all the other tribes. They cam to ally with the empire of the Mogu though they and the Zandalari held a mutual level of contempt for the other. The Trolls believed themselves to be superior on account of their worship of the Loa and because the Zandalari did not use slaves. This contempt wold grow to polite indifference where the two allies trusted to not attack because they were confident of defeating the other. As allies, they stood back-to-back but did no constantly see the other and thus never saw if they faltered which would have been seen as a sign of weakness.

A tribe of Dark Trolls sought to be away from the fighting over resources and land as they simply wanted to live in peace. They came to settle in the region around the Well of Eternity where the arcane magical waters transformed their bodies to become the first Night Elves.

Many years later, a region of northern Lordaeron came to be settled by the High Elves where they established the kingdom of Quel'Thalas. This provoked anger from the forest trolls of Zul'Aman as the kingdom was founded over grounds sacred to trollkind as beneath it resided one of their ancient. As a result, a series of conflicts erupted between the two races though the Troll warbands were always forced away by the magic of the elves. This remained the case for them for the next 4,000 years where the Amani Empire plotted and schemed as their numbers grew. This was until a mighty Troll army had been gathered which charged from the forests and laid siege to Quel'Thalas.

Around 1,500 years ago, Trollkind came to suffer in the recent centuries with famine and death being commonplace among their broken kingdoms. Among those tribes were the Gurubashi who in desperation sought the aid of ancient mystical forces. Hearing them was the dark spirit Hakkar the Soulflayer who decided to aid them by giving them his secrets of blood. This allowed the tribe to expand their kingdom across most of Stranglethorn Vale and to some of the islands in the South Seas. In exchange, Hakker demanded souls be sacrificed to him on a daily basis where he intended to gain access to the physical world so that he could terrorise and devour mortal beings. Aiding him were a priesthood of trolls known as the Atal'ai who engaged in the sacrifice of victims to appease their god. Eventually, the Zandalari came to help the Gurubashi realise the monstrous nature of Hakkar causing them to turn against him and his loyal priests. This resulted in a devastating war whose events were not well-recorded but came to be passed down through oral tradition. As a result, the growing empire was shattered by the magic unleashed by an angry god against his followers. For a time, it looked like the tide of the war was turning against the Trolls but they came to succeed in destroying Hakkar's avatar thus banishing him from the mortal world. Eventually, his priests in the Atal'ai were driven from the capital of Zul'Gurub where they were forced to survive in the uncharted swamplands in the North. Once there, they built the great temple of Atal'Hakkar in honor of their fallen god and continued to worship and serve him. The rest of the Gurubashi tribes separated after the great civil war had left their lands in ruins. The Skullsplitter, Bloodscalp, and Darkspear tribes set off to claim their own lands within the vast jungles of Stranglethorn. Though a fragile peace had settled over the broken empire, rumors of a prophecy that Hakkar would one day be reborn into the world spread.

When the Horde first arrived on Azeroth the troll tribes initially ignored the orcs, but when the Horde destroyed Stormwind and was moving to destroy Lordaeron, the forest trolls saw the perfect chance to gain vengeance for their defeat in the Troll Wars. Led by the mighty Zul'jin the Forest Trolls proved to be a great asset to the Horde during the Second War and were able to successfully strike against the high elves of Quel'Thalas. However when Warchief Orgrim Doomhammer decided to launch an assault on the humans of Lordaeron instead of continuing the invasion of Quel'Thalas Zul'jin grew furious. The forest trolls ultimately left the Horde when the orcs were defeated and placed into internment camps, with the Revantusk tribe still having a small amount of loyalty to the Horde. The troll race would then return to the former policy of ignoring the Horde.

During the Third War, the young Warchief Thrall heeded the Prophet's words to set sail to Kalimdor. On the way his ships crashed landed on the Darkspear islands and his forces encountered the Darkspear tribe. After helping the Darkspear tribe against the attacking Alliance forces, all sides were captured by murlocs under the command of the Sea Witch Zar'jira. After being saved and following Chieftain Sen'jin's dying wishes the Darkspear tribe swore loyalty to the Horde. Following the aftermath of the Third War, the orcs sent emissaries to the Hinterlands to renew the bonds of loyalty with their former forest troll allies. While the Vilebranch and the Witherbark refused outright, the Revantusk trolls agreed and have become the Horde's ally.

The recent cataclysm has seen the Revantusk become members of the Horde who are fighting to claim the entire Hinterlands for the tribe and the Horde. The cataclysm has also seen the Shatterspear tribe end their isolationist policy and join the Horde which was now under the command of the new Warchief, Garrosh Hellscream. Meanwhile, a new adventurer who traveled through Stranglethorn would gain the friendship of a raptor chick. Through this chick and its adventurer companion, the Alliance and Horde discovered that Jin'do, now a shade, had enacted a plan to restore the Gurubashi to greatness by resurrecting their high priests and champions and summoning Hakkar. And while the resurrection of Mandokir and Venoxis was successful, the adventurer managed to throw a wrench into his plans by destroying Jeklik's body and preventing her resurrection. The Shatterspear was not the only tribe who has seen a change in their stance on the other nations, however. The chaos unleashed by the recent Cataclysm caused immense damage to Zandalar itself and has thus reshaped the Zandalari's stance about the world as well, and the dwindling remnants of their race. Around the time of the Alliance and Horde's siege on the Twilight Highlands, a meeting was then by the mysterious prophet Zul to discuss the fate of their people. Among those in attendance at the meeting are Vol'jin of the Darkspear, Jin'do of the Gurubashi, Daakara of the Amani and an unknown ice troll leader. There the tribe leaders are reminded of the falls of Zul'Farrak and Zul'Drak. Zul then says that the troll tribes must unite to form a new Troll Empire. He entices both Jin'do and Daakara with promises of restoring Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman to their former glory. As the other trolls agree to join the Zandalari, Vol'jin begins walking away and only stops when asked if he would betray his people. Vol'jin retorts that the Horde are his people and promises to stop the Zandalari should they bring war to the land.

Knowing that a new troll empire would be a grave threat to Azeroth, Vol'jin had sent Darkspear emissaries to both Orgrimmar and Stormwind, knowing that the Horde alone cannot stop the Zandalari. While Vol'jin's efforts have been able to keep the Amani contained within Zul'Aman, the Gurubashi were able to launch an attack on Stranglethorn before being pushed back to Zul'Gurub. Vol'jin's Darkspear have been able to keep themselves entrenched within both Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub, the Revantusk and Shatterspear tribes have also refused to join the Zandalari and have stayed true to the Horde. With the aid of Halduron Brightwing's Farstriders and Vereesa Windrunner's rangers, Vol'jin and the Darkspear were able to keep the Amani hold up inside Zul'Aman. After deciding an appropriate battle plan Vol'jin personally leads a strike force into Zul'Aman and with the aid of adventurers puts an end to Daakara which severely weakening the Amani even further and ends Zandalari's efforts within Zul'Aman. However, empowered by the Zandalari's offer the Gurubashi launched an all-out assault to claim Stranglethorn, though with the effort of brave adventurers they are pushed back into Zul'Gurub where Darkspear agents have claimed the entrance. These agents were then able to discover that Jin'do is wrestling Hakkar the Soulflayer into submission, holding him by spirit chains and stripping out his power into himself. With this knowledge, they recruited adventurers who ventured into Zul'Gurub and put an end to the Gurubashi leadership before freeing Hakkar who swiftly killed Jin'do. This dealt the Gurubashi a severe blow and removed the Zandalari's influence but at the cost of the Soulflayer's freedom.

When the mists hiding the southern continent Pandaria lifted, the Zandalari realized they had an opportunity to claim the land as their own by resuming their allegiance with the mogu. To cement this allegiance, and their place on Pandaria, the trolls invaded the Kun-Lai region of the continent to find and retrieve the corpse of Lei Shen, the Thunder King and the first emperor of the mogu empire. With their powerful voodoo magic, the Zandalari were successful in resurrecting him, and, shortly after the Alliance and Horde made landfall, the resurrected Thunder King began an earnest campaign to restore the Mogu Empire to glory. He was aided by the united troll forces, with the Council of Elders, a group consisting of the leaders of the Farraki, Gurubashi, Drakkari, and Amani, standing guard over the entrance to his palace. It was not long, however, before the forces of the Alliance and Horde assaulted the Thunder King's palace and eliminated the troll presence within, an act that Lei Shen was thankful for as he considered them 'filth'. Shortly afterwards, these adventurers would end Lei Shen's life as well, ending the threat of both empires on Pandaria.

This failure did not stop the Zandalari. In Dun Morogh, an emissary of Zandalar arrived to aid the Frostmane tribe in building an army to assault Ironforge. Using enslaved elementals, the Frostmane summoned a mighty blizzard around their home and kidnapped a number of dwarven scouts. While the Bronzebeard and Wildhammer clans refused to take action out of distrust for the Dark Iron clans, Moira chose to lead her people to defend Ironforge herself; aided by King Varian Wrynn and a trio of adventurers. Their combined forces rescued the prisoners, stopped the blizzard, and killed Hekima the Wise, ending the Frostmane threat.

The trolls of the Darkspear tribe accompanied the Horde on their campaign across the alternate Draenor with strong presence in Frostfire Ridge and Nagrand.

When the Burning Legion invaded Azeroth for the third time, the Darkspear tribe participated in the defense of Azeroth and offensive against the demons, joining various class orders. Warchief Vol'jin also died during the Battle for Broken Shore. The Frostmane tribe in Dun Morogh was attacked by the demons as well.

After the Horde rescued the daughter of Rastakhan, Talanji and Prophet Zul from Stormwind City, the Zandalari trolls of the Zandalari Empire on Zandalar started operating with the Horde, becoming allies.

Overview

In appearance, the Trolls were a humanoid race who possessed fierce tusks and long ears alongside long arms as well as strong legs. Their limbs possessed three digits on their hands and feet with them being notable for their incredible agility as well as strength that made them adept hunters. Males and females had a variety of tusk styles ranging from small to large and also featured a wide range of wild hairstyles. The greatest trait of the Trolls with their ability to regenerate from injuries at an astonishing rate. Certain Trolls were shown to be capable of conscious control over this ability as some could prevent a damaged portion from healing.

The forest trolls' bodies can support plant life to a limited extent due to a mutation that took place many millennia ago. A thin layer of moss will inevitably grow on the skin of a forest troll shortly after they are born, giving them their characteristic green coloring. Their moss-like skin color ranges from light green to blue and purple. However, the jungle trolls' bodies are covered in a short, soft fur which cause the trolls to appear purple or gray.

Known tribes of Trolls included:

• Amani tribe :
• Drakkari tribe :
• Zandalari troll :
• Nazmani tribe :
• Zulian tribe :
• Razzashi tribe:
• Farraki tribe :
• Gurubashi tribe :

Long ago, the most dedicated of troll war-drummers were noted to allow themselves to be flayed alive in order to provide the hide for their instruments. It was their incredible natural regeneration that allowed them to survive this gruelling ordeal though the process was still long and excruciating that it drove many man with pain. Troll custom held that if these war drummers were slain whilst playing their instrument then their spirit would pass into it.

Within their society, they worshipped Wild Gods who they knew as the Loa. Troll children were taught about those cursed by the Loa and being unable to heal even flesh wounds with this being used to instil the proper respect for their patron spirits.

Among the Loa worshipped by the Trolls included:

• Bwonsamdi :
• Dambala :
• Hakkar :
• Zanza : the Restless

Once a generation, the greatest Trolls from all over Azeroth come to the Gurubashi Arena in order to challenge one another in combat. This was an ancient rite that was fought for the glory of the Loa. To win was considered to be one of the greatest honors that could be given to a Troll.

A tradition amongst the Troll was the position of the Witch Doctors who were tied to their knowledge of voodoo. Witch Doctors were known to build an animate voodoo figurines that assisted them in minor everyday tasks such as washing loincloths or scrubbing blood off the floor. These creations were often powered by flasks of mojo, troll sweat, the flesh of tribal enemies or by devouring tiny portions of their owners soul.

A respected position amongst the tribes was that of the Shadow Hunters who were masters of voodoo and shadow magic. They were the highest authority amongst the Troll where their spirit powers could be used to heal or curse others. It was said that they walked a fine line between darkness and light in the hope of saving the future of Trollkind. Another position was that of the Berserkers who were members of bloodthirsty sects in the various tribes who wielded axes or spears where these hunters able to channel their rage by alchemical means.

A group amongst the Trolls were the Hakkari who were worshipers of the Blood God Hakkar.

They possessed a native language called Zandali that had many accents divided by region.

The mojo in their voodoo magic was also used as part of a revolutionary process to animate golems.

Members

• Zul'jin :
• Vol'jin :
• Sen'jin :
• Zalazane :
• Rastakhan :

Notes

• Trolls was created by Blizzard Entertainment and featured in the setting of the Warcraft universe.

Appearances

• Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness:
• Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos:
• Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne:
• World of Warcraft:

External Links

• WoWpedia Entry
• WoW Wiki Entry

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