Troll Empire and the War of the Three Hammers

"So."

"You've just accomplished a 'great undertaking,' successfully causing a powerful race and kingdom to fall apart in an internal war, and destroying one of its branches in the process, right?"

Inside the tent.

Modera was unconscious.

Tonatiuh was still communicating with the young lady who had temporarily yielded. This conversation let him understand why Xal'atath, the Shadow Priest artifact weapon that would only appear in the Legion version of the game, had appeared here.

"The Dark Iron Dwarves left quite a good impression on me. Modgud was very easy to manipulate. Anyone harboring deep hatred is like that. Just imagine it—I abandoned her at her lowest moment and left her alone to face the Wildhammer army..."

Xal'atath's slightly feminine voice echoed in Tonatiuh's mind.

"How sweet the sound of a dying soul is! Before Modgud was beaten to death by Kadrros's hammer, she was still calling for me, hoping I would save her, saying, 'You promised...' Hehe, I did promise her that I would let her kingdom and people win the war! But I also promised Zanza that I would grant him and the trolls who followed him the power of the loa."

"Oh, Zanza. You may have heard the legend. Zanza was an outstanding witch doctor among your troll people, and he and his followers were all excellent witch doctors. I promised them that a sacrificial ritual would grant them power."

"Haha..."

"Just thinking of Zanza's disbelief at the moment of his death still makes me want to smile, if I had the organ for it."

"Delightful!"

Listening to Xal'atath's somewhat deranged laughter and the chilling content of her words, Tonatiuh shook his head.

These Old Gods truly were the embodiment of evil.

Still, from what Xal'atath had revealed, Tonatiuh, who knew more or less about the stories behind the artifact weapons for every class's three specializations, knew what she was talking about.

The troll Zanza had been beguiled by Xal'atath and released the powerful Faceless One general, Kith'ix.

How powerful was Kith'ix? It was so powerful that even Tyr, the bravest of the Titans' creations and the original source of humanity's faith in the Holy Light, could only blow himself up to leave Kith'ix half-dead before sealing it away.

Yes, even Tyr's self-destruction had failed to kill Kith'ix. Later, a witch doctor named Zanza emerged among the Gurubashi Tribe, was beguiled by Xal'atath, and awakened Kith'ix.

Under Xal'atath's guidance, Kith'ix gathered the Aqir that had hidden underground without ever seeing daylight after the fall of the Dark Empire, and drove them to wage war.

While Kith'ix recovered its strength, the Aqir began building an underground empire called Azj'Aqir. When the time came, Kith'ix led the insect race out of their underground empire and swept across the land.

When the insect armies threatened the Zandalar mountains, the Zandalar Tribe united the independent troll tribes into a mighty force—the Zul Empire, the first Troll Empire.

With the trolls working together and the aid of the Wild Gods, the Aqir were routed and forced to retreat.

The trolls believed that to permanently eliminate the threat of the insect race, they had to reinforce every corner of the continent. Thus, Zandalar persuaded the tribes most obsessed with power to establish new strongholds throughout ancient Kalimdor, promising that once the insect race was defeated, all land defended by each tribe would belong to that tribe.

The Drakkari Tribe used brilliant strategy to defeat the Aqir of the frozen north and the corrupted Tol'vir.

The Gurubashi Tribe used raiding squad tactics to defeat the insect race near C'Thun's prison and the enslaved Anubisath giants.

The Amani Tribe tracked Kith'ix to the distant northeastern forests, and the entire tribe used suicidal attacks to destroy Kith'ix.

Kith'ix, whom even Tyr's self-destruction could not kill, had Xal'atath in its possession, yet such a powerful Faceless One was taken down by the Amani. The Amani Tribe of that era had been unimaginably strong.

Thus, because of that great campaign, the Amani Tribe became a legend among the troll tribes. They built a towering temple city—Zul'Aman.

Afterward, the trolls spent centuries crushing the vast Aqir empire and confining them to the northernmost and southernmost fringes of the continent.

After their leader died, the surviving Aqir had no will to fight. They too fractured, scattering and hiding beneath the earth or in the corners of the world. In the end, this centuries-long "world war" concluded with the trolls' victory.

From then on, the troll tribes gradually grew distant from one another. Tribes across the world developed their homelands into vast empires, but Zandalar continued to wield immense influence among them.

The Zul Troll Empire thus split apart.

After the trolls fractured, one group of Dark Trolls migrated to live near the Well of Eternity. They were the ancestors of the future elves.

In a sense, the original instigator of the war between the trolls and the insect race was the dagger currently in his hand.

Tonatiuh glanced at the dagger.

The dagger lady was still chattering away, talking about something she had done recently.

"Troll, do you know how powerful the dwarf kingdom was?! If they wished, they could have gone to war directly against those inferior Vrykul!"

Inferior Vrykul?

She probably meant the human kingdoms on Azeroth, over in the Eastern Kingdoms.

Tonatiuh raised an eyebrow.

"And yet, I merely beguiled one dwarven queen. They started slaughtering one another, hehe... The dwarf kingdom was destroyed just like that. They split apart!"

"Troll, do you want a kingdom or an empire of your own? I can help you. I can help you restore the former glory of the Zul Empire! Just a little blood and a few souls—let me recover a little more strength, and I can make it easy for you to achieve it."

"Stop right there."

Tonatiuh said.

"You can call me by my name, Tonatiuh. Or you can call me Master."

"..."

Xal'atath fell silent.

"Kill me, then. Other than the supreme Lord, I have no second master! Mortal, you do not understand the power of the masters! Everything Azeroth has experienced so far is merely fragments, afterimages, the faintest of echoes."

She actually had some backbone?

"Fine, then call me by my name. Oh, and tell me how you beguiled the dwarven queen and made them slaughter each other..."

"Hmph! Thaurissan's wife, Modgud, was a powerful mage, known by her people as the Witch Queen. Her Majesty the Witch Queen was not bad, but she wanted too badly to help her husband, and she wanted revenge far too much..."

"When I left, her husband had gone mad over her death and wanted to drag Ragnaros into reality. I found that place too boring, so through the opened Molten Core, I came here and encountered two humans."

"I never expected one of them to be a former Guardian. That was far too interesting, tsk tsk..."

As he listened to the Old God recount how it had beguiled the Witch Queen Modgud, caused the dwarves to wage the War of the Three Hammers, split the incomparably powerful dwarf kingdom into three, and then fled on its own.

He also looked at the unconscious human mage girl, whose face was pale but who was nevertheless beautiful.

Inside the tent.

Tonatiuh found this experience rather interesting.

All right, the cheat setup was complete: a system for construction and farming, magic immunity for personal power development, and a portable young lady for schemes and conspiracies... Just kidding. I played a Shadow Priest in the game, and I thought carrying around such a deranged dagger to chat with would be pretty interesting, so I wrote it in. Please spare some recommendation votes; they're very useful for a new book. Thanks!????