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All the World's a Stage: Trolls and timelines in roleplay
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. In World of Warcraft, that player is you! Each week, Anne Stickney brings you All the World's a Stage with helpful hints, tips and tricks on the art of roleplay in WoW. Have questions about roleplaying, or roleplaying issues? Email me -- I'm always open to suggestions! Short-lived -- it's the best way to describe the life of a troll in Warcraft. Despite being arguably the most prolific race in Azeroth's history, the trolls of Azeroth don't tend to live particularly long or fruitful lives. This is largely due to the fact that most troll tribes spend their time warring and fighting amongst themselves, or with those that dare encroach upon their lands. Yet despite the short-lived nature of the average Azerothian troll, troll history stretches back farther than any other race on Azeroth. Like the tauren, the trolls of Azeroth were one of the original races -- not of Titan origin, simply present on Azeroth since the dawn of life on the little planet. Troll society is an amazingly complex jumble of lore, loa, ancestral rites and dubious practices like voodoo and cannibalism. Fortunately, the playable race of troll in Warcraft is limited to one tribe; the jungle trolls of the Darkspear. Though the known tribal history of the Darkspear is relatively short, recent events give troll roleplayers much to work with.
Know Your Lore: Zul'jin
If you may recall, back in the ancient days of yore two weeks ago, Know Your Lore did a report on the history of the trolls and promised to get to Zul'jin the following week. Then Know Your Lore got strep throat, which is a ridiculous thing to get at the age of 24. So I broke my promise and humbly apologize. Here is a monkey befriending a kitten. Who: Zul'jin. What: Leader of the Forest Trolls. History: As stated in the previous article, all trolls came from one original species, but divided into several sub-groups based on their values. After they fought and lost a war with the night elves and the world got Sundered, they were tossed around to all different places. The forest trolls of the Amani Empire were sent back to northern Lordaeron, where they managed to rebuild a pretty extensive empire. Then the silly night elves showed up again, in the form of the arcane-addicted high elves, who put up magical runestones and built their city on sacred troll land. The trolls attacked a couple of times, but were scared off by the arcane magic. There was an uneasy stalemate for several thousand years, but one day, the trolls launched their full forces at the elves. The elves called upon the humans of Arathor for help and agreed to teach them the secrets of magic. The humans and the elves routed the trolls in the Alterac Mountains, and the Amani Empire was beaten into submission. (Yes, I know I'm repeating myself but it's important, because ...) This is where Zul'jin comes in.
