As the Witherbark Trolls voluntarily returned to the Amani and the thirteenth year after the Dark Portal approached, the troll tribes north of the Thandol Span on the Eastern continent had largely been pacified. Sunra had been preparing to carry out broader reforms in Jintha'Alor, but an unexpected incident forced him to stop: Haimuxi had been seized on Zul'jin's orders in Zul'Aman.
Although Sunra had remained in Jintha'Alor, he had never cut off contact with Zul'Aman. Their ties had actually remained quite close. His followers, Haimuxi and Maki among them, had continued working in Zul'Aman. It was precisely because they kept sending over technical personnel in agriculture and industry that Jintha'Alor had been able to develop so quickly.
Over the past two-plus years, Sunra had the Vilebranch Trolls assist the Smolderthorn tribe in turning Smolderthorn Village into a port and shipyard. They had also established an outpost in the forests atop Sea-Watch Cliff, logging and building ships while opening up canals and farmland to grow melons, fruit, wheat, and rice.
The forests and mountains of the Hinterlands were far more fertile and level than Zul'Aman. Their crops not only fed the nearly sixty thousand trolls living there, but could also be shipped back to Zul'Aman by sea, forging a connection between the two places. Yet it was this very connection that further widened the rift between Sunra and Zul'jin.
The population kept growing, especially among trolls transitioning into an agricultural society. Over the past two years, many young trolls had been born in Zul'Aman, while the previous generation of children was also growing up. Those growing bodies consumed enormous amounts of food, and the harvest from the mountain terraces had already become scarce, requiring food aid from the Hinterlands.
The Hinterlands and Zul'Aman were the same—at least, they were the