Rastakhan's straightforwardness made things much easier. After meeting his new mentor, Lal, a Troll Witch Doctor with an unexpectedly kind smile, Tian Sang began his studies abroad in Zandalar.⁶⁹ˢʰᵘˣ.ᶜᵒᵐ
Lal was a priest devoted to Pa'ku, the Pterosaur Loa. He was a remarkably charming male Troll and very popular among Zandalar's women, earning him the title "Man of the Nation." His first lesson was history. Tian Sang felt fortunate that he didn't have to start by learning to read.
The Zandalari Trolls were a people devoted to knowledge, especially historical knowledge—a quality that set them apart from other Trolls. Tian Sang thought the Forest Trolls ought to learn from them.
From his two sets of memories, Tian Sang had some general knowledge of Azeroth's history, but he didn't know the specific details. Troll history in particular was hazy, and Kal'ma hadn't taught him anything about it.
Under Lal's tutelage, Tian Sang formally began learning Troll history. The Trolls were one of the oldest races on Azeroth, with a history that reached back to before the Pantheon created the world. Some legends spoke of the Titans of the Pantheon, whom the Trolls called "Travelers." The Trolls had recorded their war against the Old Gods in song.
The Trolls had originated on Azeroth. In the most ancient times, the leaders of small Troll tribes weren't Witch Doctors or priests, but Shadow Hunters—hunters who led their people in fighting the darkness.
Later, the Trolls made contact with the Loa of the wilds on Mount Zandalar, and their tribes established a city there. Witch Doctors and priests officially became the city's leaders, and the Shadow Hunters' standing began to decline, though they continued to be respected.
Mount Zandalar lay in the south of the Ancient Kalimdor Continent. There, the first Zandalari God-King, Dazar, made a pact with the mightiest Loa of Devilsaurs, Rezan the King's Protector. Dazar offered him worship, and Rezan protected Dazar's royal bloodline. The largest pyramid in Zandalar's capital, Dazar'alor, was built in Dazar's memory.
Dazar and the priests built shrines to the Loa atop Mount Zandalar, while the other Trolls set up camp and lived at its foot. As time passed, the shrines became pyramids, and the Trolls rebuilt their camps. In this way, the Troll holy city and Zandalar's capital, Zuldazar, came into being.
Early Zandalar strictly enforced a caste system. But the oppression it caused drove some low-ranking Trolls to leave Zandalar and establish their own homes. They became the ancestors of the Jungle Trolls, Forest Trolls, Ice Trolls, and Desert Trolls.
The Jungle Trolls established the Gurubashi Empire in the southern tropical jungles, while the Forest Trolls founded the Amani Empire in the northern subtropical forests. The Ice Trolls established Zuldrak, though their nation never grew as large or prosperous as the first two empires. Though they were all Trolls, they had once clashed fiercely, and later split apart many times. The Sandfury Trolls, for instance, were Jungle Trolls who broke away from the Gurubashi and founded Zul'Farrak in Tanaris.
Troll tribes spread across the land, but they weren't the continent's only inhabitants. South of Mount Zandalar, a race called the Mogu had also founded a nation. At first, the Zandalari Trolls looked down on the Mogu because they were disorganized and had no faith.
Despite their contempt for the Mogu, the Trolls didn't fight them. A power struggle had broken out within Zandalar, forcing a Witch Doctor named Zandu to leave the holy mountain.
Guided by some mysterious presence, Zandu found a sacred mountain brimming with mysterious energy in the middle of the Ancient Kalimdor Continent. There, he awakened a monster buried by the Loa. The Zandalari Trolls who tracked him down found only fragments of Zandu and his followers' bodies. The monster had vanished.
After Zandu's death, a new creature appeared on the Ancient Kalimdor Continent: the Aqir. They were controlled by a being named Krax'is. The Zandalari Trolls uncovered in their histories that Krax'is had once been a servant of the Old Gods, fighting against the "Travelers."
The Old Gods had once established a vast Black Empire on the continent. Wherever it spread, it drove all life from the land. The deserts of Nathalis and Vol'dun were all that remained of its passage, and even thousands of years later, they still filled the Zandalari Trolls with dread.
Wary of the threat, Zandalar used its influence to stop the Amani and Gurubashi Empires from fighting, and kept watch on the Aqir. Their concern proved well-founded.
Under Krax'is's leadership, the Aqir established the Azj'Aqir Empire and expanded rapidly, wiping out every non-insect race they encountered. Zandalar would not allow this to happen.
Faced with the threat of the Azj'Aqir Empire, the two great empires of Amani and Gurubashi began to submit to Zandalar. All Trolls united as the Zandalari Empire and launched an offensive against the Azj'Aqir Empire. The war lasted more than two thousand years.
The war helped Zandalar develop further. The Zandalari absorbed aspects of the Azj'Aqir Empire's culture, refined Voodoo Magic, and learned to make voodoo golems powered by curses and driven by burning flesh or fragments of souls. They even adopted elements of Azj'Aqir architecture, incorporating them into their own buildings.
With the Warriors' fearlessness, the aid of Voodoo Magic, and the help of the Loa, the Trolls charged the Aqir again and again. At last, the Forest Trolls of Amani killed Krax'is deep in the mountains. The surviving Aqir scattered in every direction, bringing the war to an end.
To commemorate their victory, the Forest Trolls of Amani built a city atop Y'thraki's mountain-sized body and named it Zul'Aman. When Tian Sang read this, he couldn't help feeling surprised. So that was one of his ancestors' accomplishments.
After the Azj'Aqir Empire was shattered, the Zandalari Empire began to falter, though it struggled to hold together. Meanwhile, the Mogu to the south of Zandalar somehow ended their disunity. A Mogu named Lei Shen united them into a fully fledged Mogu Empire, which enslaved the Pandaren, Yaungol, Hozen, and Jinyu alike.
The rise of the Mogu Empire put pressure on the Zandalari Empire. The two became twin empires, standing back to back, and maintained some contact. The Mogu allowed their Pandaren slaves to learn Zandalar's methods for brewing medicinal wine, while the Zandalari learned some Druidic and agricultural knowledge from the Yaungol.
Beyond cultural exchanges, the Zandalari Trolls and Mogu also engaged in some deeper, unrecorded dealings. They even launched a joint expedition to some region in the southwest of the Ancient Kalimdor Continent. Not a single member of the combined force ever returned.
The failed expedition and the death of the Mogu Emperor, Lei Shen, brought down the Mogu's First Dynasty. Relations between the two empires froze, but they still didn't go to war. Zandalar needed the Mogu to keep the Amani and Gurubashi in line, while the Mogu couldn't afford to do too much, as the various slaves within their empire were beginning to grow unruly.
The two empires politely ignored each other, hoping their tacit nonaggression would keep their realms stable. But this balance was broken by a kind of nocturnal creature they had never seen before: the earliest Night Elves.
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