Troll Wars

The Troll Wars were a series of conflicts between the Forest Trolls of the Amani Empire and an alliance of the Humans of Arathor and High Elves of Quel'Thalas, ending approximately 2,800 years before the coming of the Orcs to Azeroth.

Elven ranger and a forest troll berserker, from the Second War

Prelude and the Early War

Following the War of the Ancients, the Night Elves outlawed the use of all arcane magic in their forests, with execution as the penalty for use of the arcane arts. However many spellcasters did not agree with this and wanted to use their magics. Led by Dath'remar Sunstrider these sorcerers decided to unleash a magical storm upon the tranquil forests. The Arch-Druid Malfurion did not want to execute so many of his own people and decided instead to banish them all from their homelands, and Dath'remar led them across the sea to the east. These elves shrunk in height and their skin lost the dark violet hue common among their kin, and thus the Quel'Dorei, commonly known as the High Elves, was born.

The elves travelled for years across the world that had been shattered by the wars with the Burning Legion, but in the end they landed in the lands now known as Lordaeron. Settling in the Tirisfal Glades they quickly encountered the locals, and while contact with the human tribes were sparse, the local Trolls had built an magnifient Empire and attacked them on sight, a hateful feud quickly grew between the two races.

The High Elves founded the kingdom of Quel'Thalas in the northern forests, not knowing it was a sacred area to the trolls. As the Forest Trolls started attaking the fledling nation in bigger numbers, the elves used their strong magic to frighten away the superstitious Troll war bands and it was 4,000 years before the Trolls truly retaliated.

The Founding of Strom

A Forest Troll Warlord ordering a charge

The Human tribes also suffered at the hands of the Trolls. At the time the Humans were a factional people, scattered and leaderless. Chieftain Thoradin of the Arathi saw the threat to his race and decided to unite the Humans. Along with his trusted friend and greatest general Ignaeus, later to be known as Trollbane, he devised a cunning strategy: fight the nearby human tribes, and after each victory offer them peace and equality. With this tactic he united the tribes and founded the first of the human kingdoms, Arathor. Situated in what is now known as the Hillsbrad Foothills and Arathi Highlands, his growing empire ruled from the capital city of Strom. Up to this time, the Human empire had rarely had contact with the reclusive, magic-wielding elves, and all contact with the trolls was through border skirmishes.

After years of continual besiegement by the Trolls, the High Elves, with a defeat nearing, finally decided to seek the aid of the now-powerful Humans of Arathor. The elven king Anasterian Sunstrider, son of Dath'Remar send out their diplomats to try and negotiate the primitive humans into aiding them. Even though the elves had at times treated the humans no better than they had the trolls, Thoradin saw the danger in allowing the Elf civilization to fall, and agreed to an alliance. The Elves would teach one hundred Humans how to wield the arcane arts of magic, while the massive armies of Strom would mobilize and join the war against the trolls.

The Battle of the Alterac Mountains

A High Elven War Mage casting a spell

The armies of High Elves and Humans engaged the Trolls in a great battle at the foot of the Alterac Mountains. The battle lasted for many days, but the armies of Arathor refused to give any ground, and finally the Elven masters agreed that it was time to unleash the Elven and Human mages upon the Trolls. Magical fires from the sky hindered the Trolls' regeneration, and their morale suffered. After some hours of the magical bombardment the remaining Elves and Humans charged the Trolls, broke their lines, and forced them into a terrible rout. Even as they fled, the Trolls were pursued and butchered by the merciless allied forces. The Trolls' power was broken, their population decimated, and the last Troll empire lay in ruins.

Aftermath

The Trolls would never recover from this defeat, The Gurubashi Empire had been shattered by a deadly civil war, and now the Amani Empire of the forest trolls was broken and what remained of the trolls of the northern lands was forced into the wilderness. However, the war was not completely unsuccesful for the trolls, Thousand of elves and humans had been slain, and the remaining left completely weakened. Thoradin did initially not want his people to use magic, but he was forced to accept it so it could be utilized agaisnt the incredibble troll armies arrayed against them. This led to the foundation of Dalaran, and later many other city-states, and following Thoradins death his empire split up, thus removing any hopes for a truly united humanity.

The Elves owed the humans a debt of gratitude for saving their people and ending the first major war since the Sundering and The War of the Ancients, and probably the longest in the History of Warcraft. This debt laid the base ground of the Alliance and was honored during the Second War when Anduin Lothar, last descendant of the King Thoradin of Arathor, led the Alliance of Lordaeron to war against the Horde for the second time in his life.

The Humans had the largest gains of the war: They was united, They gained a debt of gratitude from the only force able to threaten them, They were inititated into the arts of magic, Their technology was greatly improved and inspired by the elves(some claims the elves taught them of metalsmithing, though it is more likely they knew of that before the war), They became the greatest power on the continent, and they were able to spread in every direction with almost nothing in their way.

See Also

•  [Arathor and the Troll Wars] (part of the History of Warcraft)