Troll

Long before the Great Sundering shattered ancient Kalimdor, the primal energies of the Well of Eternity nurtured the rise of trollkind. Emerging as savage, highly agile hunter-gatherers, the early trolls possessed a unique physiology that granted them astonishing regenerative powers, allowing them to recover rapidly from grievous wounds and even regrow severed limbs over time. Settling around the sacred mountains of Zandalar, they directed their reverence toward primal spirits they called loa. Under the spiritual guidance of shadow hunters and witch doctors, these rituals coalesced into the practice of voodoo.

In ancient times, the trolls waged a long war against the insectoid aqir, whose swarms threatened to overrun the continent. The Amani and Gurubashi empires led the fight and eventually drove the aqir to the far corners of the land: north into what became Azjol-Nerub and south into the deserts where Ahn'Qiraj would rise.

With the insect swarms broken and contained, the trolls' common cause dissolved. Each great faction withdrew into its own sovereign empire, developing distinct cultures, physical traits, and tribal hierarchies adapted to forests, jungles, and frozen wastes. Over millennia of separation, rivalry, and territorial wars against younger races, troll dominion slowly decayed into ruin and insularity. Most remaining troll kingdoms view all other races with fierce, unyielding hostility, clinging bitterly to the ruins of their former greatness. Only the exile jungle trolls of the Darkspear tribe have chosen a new path, joining the Horde alongside orcs and tauren.