Troll Love

So Everyone should know I love trolls, in fact warcraft trolls are one of my favorite races in all fantasy literature. They're a good shift from more common trolls which are huge lumbering creatures. Instead they seem to be a fusion of the two kinds of troll, but that's not what this article is about (Wikipedia trolls if your curious) this is about Troll's or lack there of in world of warcraft lore. Off the top of my head i can name five prominent troll character's who are not villians Zabra Hexx, Sen'jin, Vol'jin, and Rokhan. Aside from those 4, well 3 since Zabra hasn't completely vanished after Ashbringer, there's really no troll representation in WoW for the good guys. On the other hand, Zul'Aman, Zul'Gurub, Zul'Farrak, Gundrak, Drak'Theron Keep, Temple of Atal'Hakkar (Sunken Temple), and Jintha'alor (which used to be all elites) are all troll themed zones. There is no shortage of troll villains to go around. But trolls are the said to be the oldest race on Azeroth predating even the night elves yet the only trolls in the entire War of the Ancients trilogy is a small group controlled by Deathwing with what seemed like mind control gems on their heads. Trolls are the ancient enemies of all elves yet from a lore perspective we get none of that. Trolls have been with the Horde since the second war and are the right hand race to the orcs, so why don't we ever see them? Part of the reason is because they get overshadowed by their greenskinned brother's in arms. The lore for the Darkspear tribe in game pretty much ceases to exist after level ten and you kill Zalazane, but don't recover the echo isles. We don't even get to see Vol'jin's awesome Shadow hunter skills in the battle for the Undercity, he has to wait outside. He's not even part of the achievement Black War Bear Achievement like some kind of gnome, even if they outnumber us (just barely) Vol'jin is right there with Thrall, you can skip the gnome. But the game started as Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. So the emphasis on those two race is obvious. With the introduction of the night elves and their rich lore in Warcraft III trolls became sort of an after thought. Still there are only three troll tribes considered "good" Darkspear, Raventusk, and Shatterspear, and one neutral the Zandalar, we still don't see much more than a few random bands of trolls in the Warcraft lore. But there's a little more to it than that. Since most of the novel occur before the Third War in some way "good" trolls don't exist yet, however i don't believe there were no trolls who fought against the demons in the War of the Ancients, especially if Dark Trolls really exist, and may have been the ancient ancestors of night elves. The major troll events that could be novelized are the Troll Wars which would be a largely elven story, The Twin Empires which would be Trolls vs Qiraj, and the Soulflayer which would be the history of the sunken temple. The first two of which reach back farther than the war of the ancients. With Cataclysm coming Twin Empires might be a good one, as the Qiraj report directly to the old god C'thun, which could give some interesting info on the old gods. Now with Cataclysm coming we will see a new surge of post Third War stories. Aside from Manga stories, Night of the Dragon, and comic stories most wow stories take place before the third war, thus before the formation of the new horde. However Christie Golden's Cataclysm Novel and Stormrage by Richard A. Knaak provide a new chance at some troll lore and with Troll Druids and the Coming of Cataclysm giving us our own home city, but stepping away from that Horde conflicts with the Amani in Ghostlands, Gurubashi in Stranglethorn, and the Drakari in Northrend would all make potent stories, and just who do Vol'jin and Thrall entrust Trol'kalar too? A troll warrior carrying a legendary troll killing sword, then give him a team (I'm thinking Tauren Priest/Shaman, Blood Elf Warrior who thinks he should carry the sword, a Dark Ranger/Mage, and a maybe another troll druid/shaman to commune with the loa spirits) and send him into Zul'Gurub to face Hakar, and finally let us meet King Rastakhan. As more story are revealed of the post third war world we have a better chance to see some troll stories come to light, and may they be as awesome as that troll rogue in the 3.2 wallpaper.