To keep himself from straying further down the path of injustice, Zul'ra forced himself to study some long-range offensive spells. It was necessary, too. His victory over Mepgira had been pure luck, and who knew whether he could count on being lucky every time?
Better safe than sorry; nip trouble in the bud. Zul'ra deeply approved of Han Feizi's ideas on preventing problems before they arose. For his own safety, he decided to start developing long-range offensive spells and stop observing other things that might distract him.
Zul'ra first reviewed the various fields of knowledge and magic he had studied. Most of what he knew involved either voodoo or Druidism. Both fields had one thing in common: they studied the uses of natural plants. So he decided to focus on poison.
His specialized knowledge, combined with some unique insights, gave Zul'ra a far better understanding of medicine than other Witch Doctors. His research progressed quickly, and soon he had compiled a wealth of knowledge about poisons. But then he ran into another problem: how could he use them?
Poisons were extremely dangerous, and there were many ways to use them against an enemy. He could turn them into liquid or powder and scatter them over his foes, or coat his weapons with them. But none of these methods was safe or easy to use on a large scale, let alone for long-range attacks.
After some thought, Zul'ra changed course. Instead of studying finished poisons, he turned his attention to microorganisms. The Druidic knowledge he had learned from Talanji included a great deal of information about them.
Druids usually studied plant microorganisms. By learning their habits, they could manipulate them with the forces of nature and use them to cultivate or accelerate the growth of unusual plants.
On occasion, Druids also used microorganisms directly in combat. For example, they could transform into beasts and imbue their claws with fungi, preventing their enemies' wounds from healing and causing lacerating injuries.
Drawing on the Druids' knowledge, Zul'ra searched the natural world for plant microorganisms and observed them. He selected several harmless varieties, communed with them using the forces of nature, then placed them in a culture vessel to multiply.
Once he had learned to multiply and control them, Zul'ra searched Zandalar for social insects such as ants and bees. He put them in the culture vessel to undergo microbial modification, brought them under his control, then bred them.
Using the Gu arts he had seen on Earth as a model, Zul'ra eventually succeeded in creating two Gu Mothers: an Ant Queen and a Bee Queen. They could produce endless swarms of ants and bees under his control. The only drawback was that neither kind of Gu had much attacking power. At best, their numbers could harass someone, and a little smoke could drive away a whole swarm.
One man's loss is another's gain. Though Zul'ra had made little progress with the Gu arts, he had opened up new possibilities in his study of microorganisms. If ant Gu and bee Gu were no good, he could research other insects with greater power.
To study the Gu arts more effectively, Zul'ra took leave from the Rastali Guard and went alone to the swamps of Nazmir. The swamplands there were a paradise for microorganisms, plants, and insects—if a rather dangerous one.
Zandalar had three regions: Zuldazar, Vol'dun, and Nazmir. In addition to these, the Mujaba Mountains stretched across central Zandalar. Atop one of their peaks stood Atal'Dazar, one of the three great Zandalari pyramids and the tomb where the kings rested.
Zuldazar was the capital of Zandalar. Vol'dun was a desert left lifeless after the armies of the Aqir had ravaged it, while Nazmir was a vast swamp and the territory of the Blood Trolls.
Like the Forest Trolls and Jungle Trolls, the Blood Trolls were a branch of the Trolls. But unlike those early branches, the Blood Trolls had emerged after the Sundering, ten thousand years ago.
The Night Elves had brought the Burning Legion into this world. They had managed to drive the demons away by unleashing an explosion at the Well of Eternity, but the blast had shattered the only continent, the Ancient Kalimdor Continent. That disaster was known as the Sundering.
During the Sundering, the Zandalari Trolls followed the guidance of the Loa and raised a vast magical barrier, protecting Vol'dun, Nazmir, and Zuldazar from the catastrophe. And during that disaster—or, more precisely, during a plague that struck in its wake—
The Sundering was drawing to a close when a blood plague swept through all of Zandalar, killing tens of thousands of Trolls. To dispose of the dead properly, the Zandalari resorted to large-scale cremation. The custom had endured in Zandalar and some Troll societies to this day.
After the Sundering and the great plague, some Trolls became fixated on the diseases. They drew a form of blood energy from them and developed it into a complete system of blood magic. That was where their name came from.
Blood magic could be imbued into totems. The totems would drain blood and life from enemies, then channel them into the caster in an unusual way. The magic could also corrupt nearby creatures, twisting them into Blood Beasts.
Because of the evil nature of blood magic, the Zandalari Trolls chose to banish their increasingly cruel, pale, bluish-skinned relatives to Nazmir. They also tried to wipe them out, but for various reasons, they failed. The Blood Trolls put down roots in Nazmir.
While studying creatures in Nazmir, Zul'ra secretly observed the Blood Trolls, who adorned themselves with animal bones and still lived in a primitive matriarchal society. He discovered that these distant relatives worshipped a Loa named G'huun, whom they called the Blood God. He just had no idea what G'huun really was!
Zul'ra didn't know what G'huun really was, but he had a feeling the being was not to be trifled with. Blood magic was powerful: it could drain the life and blood of others to strengthen its caster, and it could twist the surrounding creatures and beasts into Blood Beasts. Those beasts were as hideous as they were savage.
Zul'ra secretly hunted some of the mutated Blood Ticks and tried to turn them into Gu insects using his culture vessel. Not only did he fail to get the result he wanted, but the microorganisms he had already controlled went out of contact. At the same time, he felt as if something in his mind had unexpectedly opened, granting him some kind of sixth sense. He began to experience what seemed like auditory hallucinations.
The voices seemed to drift beside his ears, yet when he tried to listen closely, he could hear nothing. Whenever that happened, Zul'ra felt an irrepressible agitation, full of frustration and anger. His ever-growing distractions eventually exposed him while he was observing the Blood Trolls, and they spotted him.
As soon as he was discovered, Zul'ra was pursued by the Blood Trolls and had to flee Nazmir in a hurry. He was still hit by a blow dart on the way, but he was lucky: those "distant relatives" seemed to prefer capturing "kin" like him alive rather than killing them, so the dart had been smeared with a sedative instead of poison.
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