Guide:You come get da voodoo! - A dummy guide to Trolls!
Voodoo, cannibalism and headhunting; the Trolls aren't exactly the cuddliest bunch. Yet the playable faction, the Darkspear tribe, has made a turn for the better. While far from the most civilized beings you'd invite at a tea party, they're a far step up from their cousins back in Stranglethorn. This guide should help you figure out some pointers to making a feisty Darkspear Troll.
Contents
Physical
Describing a race that isn't your own can be rather tricky. There are some things you should always keep in mind when designing an Troll, which I'll quickly sum up in this section.
Height
Trolls are tall creatures, though not quite as tall as their orc or tauren allies. Part of this can be attributed to their bad posture, but even while standing fully upright, they're not quite as tall as an orc.
Males range at 6'3" - 7'1", with the average being towards the taller end of the spectrum, averaging around seven foot in height. Females range slightly shorter, 5'11" - 6'9", with the average laying about six and a half foot in height.
Weight
Trolls are wiry, with no access fat, though they are fairly muscular. While not quite as broad or imposing as orcs, their muscles do take the form of athletic bodies capable of doing back flips from a standstill, adding to their weight.
Males range at 184 - 324 lb., with the average being around 200 lbs. Women are slightly lighter in build generally, ranging 169 - 309 lb. with an average around 185 lbs.
Skin Color
Jungle Troll skin colors vary a lot, but tend heavily towards blue hues, commonly taking the shape of light blue to dark gray, though hints of green and violet aren't unheard of.
Eye Color
Troll eye colors tend towards the warmer end of the spectrum, ranging from a dark yellow, to orange, to a bloodshot red.
Hair Color
Like their skin color, their hair color can vary greatly, with nearly every hue in the visible spectrum being present. Yellow, orange and red tend to be the most common amongst Jungle Trolls, but blue, green and violet are also possibilities. Troll hair greys with age.
Tusks
As far as tusks are concerned, there appears to be quite a bit of sexual dimorphism. Female trolls tend to have smaller, barely even visible tusks, while male troll tusks tend to grow far larger. Unlike Orcs, their tusks are not actually part of their ordinary teeth, instead originating from their skull.
Culture
Jungle Trolls are first and foremost highly superstitious. A lot of the 'bad' habits Trolls practise, such as cannibalism, human sacrifice and the mutilation of corpses is a direct response to their religious believes. Trolls believe that every sentient creature who dies leaves behind a spirit. Even the spirits of the ancestors are generally greedy, hostile and dangerous, for they are jealous of the living and wish nothing more than to return to life. Because they can't actually do that, they instead revel in causing misfortune for the living, and only through appeasing them with bloodshed can their tempers be eased.
Cannibalism
Trolls believe that by cannibalizing a corpse, they will be able to steal a portion of the spirit's strength before it can escape, leaving it crippled and weak. This way, the spirit will not be able to return later on to assault their killer. Cannibalising their fallen enemies has little to do with actually being hungry.
Human Sacrifice
Angry spirits can also be appeased through bloodshed, and sacrificing captured enemies to the spirits will ease their anger for a while, granting the tribe safety. This is usually done when one of their own has died. To prevent the spirit of their fallen friend from being attacked the very moment they go into the spirit world, Trolls sacrifice an enemy nearby to draw the attention away from their fallen friend. By mutilating the corpse and spilling its blood, they hope to keep the spirits entertained long enough for their own friend to find a place in the spirit world.
Both these methods of dealing with angry spirits are, however, heavily frowned upon by the Horde. As the Trolls greatly respect the Orcs, and Thrall in particular, for saving them from the Darkspear Island, most have dropped their old rituals and replaced them with slightly more humane methods, although even those tend to confuse and bewilder their allies.
Headshrinking, heart burning and corpse drowning
Because cannibalism is outlawed by the Horde, and only practised in secret by Trolls unwilling to let go of their old ways, the Darkspear have turned to other ways of dealing with the spirits of their enemies. Witch doctors often place wards and blessings to ward away evil spirits, but to many, simply warding an angry spirit isn't enough.
Some methods of weakening or completely destroying the enemy spirit are drowning the corpse underwater, to 'wash the spirit away', or burning the heart of the fallen enemy, but the most common of all seems to be headshrinking. Using alchemical substances and boiling water, a Troll first removes the skull and then shrinks the skin of the head. They then sew all openings, such as the eyes, the mouth and the wound at the neck closed, believing that this will trap the spirit within for the rest of eternity. While such gruesome methods are considered disgusting by many of their allies, they are still tolerated a lot more than cannibalism.
Animal Sacrifice and Self Mutilation
To draw the spirits away from fallen friends without sacrificing a human life, Trolls have turned to sacrificing animals. If no animals are nearby, they will usually turn to mutilating their own body, slashing their arms and wounding themselves to draw the spirits to themselves instead of their friend. While Orcs and Tauren tend to frown upon such behaviour, most consider it a large step up from human sacrifice.
Voodoo and Shamanism
Up until recently, Darkspear trolls practised voodoo exclusively. Those troll tribes in Stranglethorn who do have shamans are generally not so much mediators of the spirits as they are simply voodoo doctors who draw upon the Loa spirits. Yet due to the influence of the Tauren and Orcs, the Darkspear trolls have been slowly finding their way to 'true shamanism', mediating between the spirits and asking the elements for their power, rather than calling upon the power of ancient spirits through ritual dances and voodoo magic. (See Divine Magic Guide - Shamanism / Spirits for more information on shamanism and the Loa spirits.)
Women
Women in most Jungle Troll tribes have no rights of their own. They are the property of their father, their oldest brother or their husband and exist only to reproduce. They are often 'given away' to other tribes in an attempt to keep the peace between tribes, and the woman has no actual say in it. Only those women who made incredible warriors were given any real respect as a person.
This changed when they joined the Horde. Thrall has outlawed the sexual division between men and women, which for many female orcs and trolls meant that they could finally pick up arms and fight for their own honour, an attribute important to both races.
Language
Trolls speak Zandali (in game known as 'Troll), the language used by the first tribe of trolls, the Zandalar. While some tribes have forgotten how to speak their ancestral language, the majority of the Troll tribes still speaks this ancient tongue, for every six years every Troll tribe sends a representative to the isle of Zandalar, where the Trolls speak of things that concern the Troll race as a whole, usually with little success.
Some common phrases you might want to know: Mojo - Mojo is a magical spell, a hex or even a charm. It can also be used to describe magical or spiritual power as a whole. Zufli - 'Baby witch', a term generally used to insult female witch doctors, though they have taken to using the term themselves to show their independence.
Names
Troll names are incredibly short, and rely on adding extra syllables to denote titles. For this quick tutorial to troll naming, we'll be using a troll named Gal, but it'll work for just about any troll name.
Example Male names: Vol, Ros, Mig, Gal. Example Female names: Shi, Mith, Hai, So.
- ...'jin
- - A suffix used to describe a powerful leader. Had our example Gal been a powerful leader, he'd have been known as Gal'jin.
- Zul'...
- - A prefix used to describe powerful voodoo masters. Had our example been a powerful voodoo master, he'd have been known as Zul'gal.
- ....'fon
- - A suffix used to describe a loner who abandoned their tribe. These people are generally considered pariahs and worth no notion. Had our example been exiled from his tribe, he'd have been known as Gal'fon.
Sadly enough, the majority of the possible pre and suffixes are unknown and undocumented by official lore, leaving troll names in general a bit of a guesswork. On top of that, Trolls do not use surnames which makes it even harder to come up with a proper name for a Troll. I personally find that using the name of a random, non-lore significant NPC and altering it slightly works best.
History
Somewhere else where a lot of people new to Troll role-playing go wrong is their history. For example, a common mistake is having your Troll being born in Kalimdor before the Darkspear ever arrived there, or having fought in a war despite being too young to fight at that time. This quick Jungle Troll timeline should help decide where your character has been, where they were raised and what they have seen. Note that the year '0' in Warcraft is when the first Orc crossed into Azeroth through the Dark Portal.
Roughly -16,000: Trolls are the dominant species in Azeroth in two massive empires. The Amani empire owns the central forests, while the Gurubashi empire owns the southern jungles. They fight a war with the Aqir, intelligent insects who try to take over Azeroth. The Trolls prevail and drive the insects into exile, which split into two different colonies; Azjol-Nerub in the northern wastes and Ahn'Qiraj in the southern desert.
Roughly -11,000: A splinter faction of the Amani empire finds the well of eternity and mutate into the Kaldorei. (According to Troll legends, that is. It is unproven that Night Elves are mutated trolls, though most trolls are convinced they are.) Wielding the powerful arcane magics of the Well of Eternity, these Kaldorei quickly manage to do what the Aqir failed to do. They shattered the troll empires and sent them into disarray as they started forging their own empire.
Roughly -10,000: The Kaldorei mess up and summon the Burning Legion during the War of the Ancients. The world is destroyed and turned into three different continents. The Zandalar tribe manages to cast protective spells to save their own island from sinking to the bottom of the sea, but their attempts to save the rest of the continent go in vain, and the majority of the once gigantic continent disappears under the ocean.
Time unknown, most likely around -5000: The shattered Gurubashi empire, driven desperate from famine and terror, seek mystical aid for their problems. Hakkar the Soulflayer answers their prayers and assists the Atal'ai, his most faithful priests, in taking over the whole of what is these days known as the Stranglethorn Vale.
The greedy blood god demands sacrifice after sacrifice and grew impatient, insisting that the Atal'ai physically summoned him into their world. The other tribes rose up and attacked the Atal'ai before they could finish summoning Hakkar, but the Gurabashi empire falls into disarray. The Atal'ai build a new temple for Hakkar in the Swamp of Sorrows, where they are joined by the exiled Hakkari tribe, but their efforts are thwarted as the green dragon aspect Ysera sinks their temple to the bottom of the swamp and has her green dragons stand watch over the imprisoned tribes.
The rest of the Gurubashi empire turns against eachother and a gigantic civil war breaks out, that would last to this very day. The Darkspear, lacking the numbers of their opponents, are forced to call a retreat from Stranglethorn Vale and exile themselves into the southern seas, where they settle down on the Darkspear Island.
24: The once docile Murlocs start worshipping a naga called the Sea Witch. Demanding constant sacrifices, the Murlocs started attacking the Darkspear trolls to take hostages. Characters older than 18 will remember the Murlocs becoming hostile, characters older than 25 could have been fighting back.
25: Sen'jin receives a visage from the spirits that Thrall would arrive on his island and save his tribe. Indeed, Thrall and his orcs were forced to dock on the island after a vicious storm nearly destroyed their ships, and Sen'jin quickly befriended the young Farseer. Thrall and his orcs attempt to save him when he gets captured by Murlocs, but they do not make it in time to save the dying man.
The troll reveals his vision to Thrall and Thrall accepts the Trolls into the Horde. Sen'jin's son Vol'jin takes over leadership of the tribe and accepts Thrall's offer to come with them to Kalimdor. Thrall and his orcs continue their journey to Kalimdor, followed by a large group of Darkspear, and they fight in the third war.
Characters who are older than 17 years old will remember the orcs coming to their island. Characters older than 24 would have been adults at this time, and can have fought in the Third War. Note that only characters younger than 7 years old could have been born in Kalimdor.
26: Vol'jin and the rest of the Darkspear tribe finish their preparations to evacuate their entire tribe from the island, and also set sail for Kalimdor. They take the echo islands as their home, and Vol'jin becomes an advisor at Thrall's side.
29: Admiral Proudmoore arrives and forces the Darkspear to flee to Orgrimmar. Thrall manages to beat back and kill the admiral. Not much later, the insane witchdoctor Zalazane starts mind controlling trolls and forces the tribe to relocate once more, to the mainland of Durotar where they form Sen'jin village.
Characters who are older than 15 years old will remember Proudmoore's arrival and Zalazane's betrayal. Characters older than 22 would have been adults at this time, and can have joined the fights to take back their island.
Quick Age Summary
In the same style as for the Orcish guide, I've compiled a quick age chart to see where your character would have been at certain ages.
- Younger than seven years old
- Born in Kalimdor.
- Older than seven years old
- Born on the Darkspear Island.
- Older than 17 years old
- Raised as a child to believe that women are inferior and little more than slaves.
- 22 years old
- Were old enough to fight against Admiral Proudmoore and Zalzane.
- 24 years old
- Were old enough to participate in the Third War, or the wars against the Murlocs on their home island.
- Shamans older than 24 years old
- Likely started their career gaining their powers from the Loa spirits, rather than the elemental spirits.
Other things to remember
Accent: The troll accent of 'da' instead of 'the', 'mon' after every sentence and such (Example: 'You come get da voodoo, mon') can be great for adding flavour to a RP. Remember that you shouldn't use this accent while talking in Troll however, it'll look slightly silly to have an accent in your own native tongue.
