Ashenvale Forest was a terrible place to live.
The humidity was practically not there at all, and the air was far, far too cold for his liking. The winds had none of the warm, playful bites of Stranglethorn or the Echo Isles, not to mention the sun was not bearing down without mercy, instead the entire landscape was covered in an almost ethereal twilight, despite the sun being high in the sky as they moved through the woods.
Here and there patches of true sunlight shone down in places where the green canopy of overgrown branches and leaves overhead did not cover completely.
It was a thoroughly unpleasant experience, and yet they moved on their journey without complaints.
They had a job after all. One that for better or worse, helped take his mind off of the fact that his best friend, Zalazane, was dead.
And not just dead. He had spoken to great Bwonsamdi, petitioning the great Loa to speak with his friend, to learn what he could of Dragon's betrayal from their victim directly… As well as a wish to just have a final talk with him.
But Bwonsamdi had revealed the truth. The horrible truth. The Dragons had not merely assassinated his friend… Using the power of some foul artifact, they had destroyed his very soul down to it's smallest embers.
Nothing remained of him.
Not a speck.
His friend, who had been with him through so much, his trusted right hand, who he had left to rule the Isles in his absence was dead and gone. Treacherously slain by those who had claimed to be their friends.
They had taken their revenge for that betrayal though.
As evident by his armor of golden scales, and a cape of the same hide.
The armor was worth more than their new home village and all in it combined.
His friend had been avenged… With great prejudice and furious wrath!
He and the rest of the Horde had also made being a Bronze Dragon inside Horde territory a death sentence. Beyond the legal response, they were also taking pains to make sure this situation would NOT happen again, though the exact details of what that entailed were something only he, Thrall, and Cairne currently knew.
He had expected that he and his 3000 men would have to trudge all the way to the entrance of their goal before they met their quarry.
As it was, however, a scout suddenly came running to him to inform him that a delegation had come to meet the small army.
Darkspawn had not been idle it would seem.
I
The meeting was arranged to take place a bit away from the army, where Vol'jin was only allowed to bring 60 men, the same as his opposite.
When he'd picked his men for the meeting he'd chosen to only choose his fellow Trolls.
There was no need to possibly antagonize a prospective ally by bringing foreigners to the meeting.
That might have been a mistake, as the Dark Trolls who walked up to them struck a powerful figure… Made even more impressive by the contrast against the smaller Darkspear tribe of Jungle Trolls.
That he and his people were small as far as Trolls went had never seemed as clear to him as it did then, as several dozen warriors swaggered up to the meeting spot without a trace of the usual, more hunched-over posture that eastern Trolls had.
It made them seem… Alien almost. Troll men shouldn't walk like that.
It just was not done.
The Chieftain was even taller, cutting an opposing figure as the purple stroll strutted in full, silvery Mithril armor, hundreds of smaller plates interwoven to form a larger whole.
Despite his enormous size, towering over Vol'jin, he was Old. A long, shagged mane of pure white cascaded about his shoulders, and all across his skin, Vol'jin saw the signs of age and time having taken their toll.
The man stopped in front of Vol'jin. He eyed the pelt the other man had placed on both sides of their meeting table and smiled.
Then, blessedly, he seated himself, as Vol'jin did the same, as custom dictated.
"Darkspear never dies… I must admit… I thought dem words were arrogant and tempting fate."
"So has all our enemies."
"Indeed. All yer former compatriots in Stranglethorn have taken great delight in telling everyone who would listen how dey drove ye into the sea, and into extinction. A premature boast it would seem."
"I am so sad to disappoint dem. I'll be even loather to tell them of our new homeland when I next come to de meetings at Zuldazar."
The old Troll raised a bushy eyebrow at that.
"So you ARE de new Darkspear chieftain den? Sen'jin has gone to de beyond?"
"Yes. I am Vol'jin, son of Sen'jin. De new chieftain of da Darkspear Tribe."
"I see… Well, then Vol'jin… I am Cris'bal, I rule de Darkspawn tribe, and I have been chieftain since before your father's father's father took over de Darkspear Tribe."
This piqued Vol'jin's curiosity.
"You are immortal then?"
The old man laughed.
"Ya… Though not by eternal youth, unfortunately."
Immortality. It wasn't something you saw every day, but you saw it from time to time. The current God King of the Zandalari was one such, as was his dynasty.
"But enough about ma age… Why are ya here Darkspear? Into dis remote, isolated part of de world, and at this time, when de Night Elven empire seem to be collapsing and demons be pouring from de sea?"
"I be here to ask ye to join in de fight against de demons."
The older Troll stroked his beard.
"De spirits tell me, that you be coming from a massive army. Much greater dan what you brought here eastwards. How large be dis host? And who makes up it's might? Not Trolls, I can tell dat much."
"Some 70 000 men, or so. As for who makes it up… Some 5 000 trolls, 10 000 Humans along with a few hundred elves, 35 000 Orcs, and de rest be Tauren from Mulgore."
As he spoke, Cris'bal's expression went from curious, to annoyed, to baffled, to skeptical.
"Quite de host… and such variety too… Tauren from Mulgore? Does not de Centaurs hold Mulgore?"
"De Centaurs are dead and gone… At least In de Barrens, Mulgore, and Durotar. We killed dem all, so dat the Tauren might retake their homeland, and in exchange, de Bullmen joined themselves to de Horde!"
Vol'jin had hoped bringing up the Horde's name would pique the Dark Troll's interest. And that did.
"De Horde eh? De same Horde that ravaged the east, slaughtered de Humans, Dwarves, Elves, and Gnomes like Pigs, and came within a hair's breadth of destroying deir Kingdoms forever? Dat would be interesting… Given dat said Horde was destroyed."
"It was." Vol'jin had to agree.
"Dis be a new Horde. Under a new Orc Warchief. Trall he be called. He be the Bossman of de Darkspear now, as well as all de Tauren."
"And de Humans? Ya did say there was a large host of Humans as well, did you not? Curious to see dem fighting alongside Orcs and Trolls."
Vol'jin shifted uncomfortably. He wondered exactly how old the Dark Troll was. Was he old enough to have seen Humanity's rise? The fall of the ancient Troll empires to the invaders?
"If de Demons succeed and reach de World Tree, they gonna be summonin' deir master Sargeras… And he'll cleave the world in two. Compared to dat, old grudges has to be put aside. Else we all die."
The old Troll stroked his chin.
"I see… That would explain their fervor. They have employed suicide tactics on a massive scale. If this is about total destruction… That would make sense… Hmmm… Tell me young Darkspear… Do you intend to seek out the Dark Troll tribes?"
"Yes, we do. We'll take on any an all hands willing te fight."
"Ah… dat is good. However… dere is a problem with that plan. One ye don't know unless ye know the political landscape here. Tell me… Have ye and your Bossman been curious about why we haven't left in face of de invasion?"
"Yes. We have actually. Dat, or why yer not fighting along with the Night Elves."
"Therein lies the problem ye see. De Night Elves… Be Cunts. Our relationship be bad, even at de best of times, but they allow us to exist here… On a condition. Namely dat we stay inside our own territories. If we leave in strength… For ANY reason… The entire Tribe be wiped out. No questions asked."
"Dat… Be happening even when de Elf men be awake?"
"Oh, so ye know about dat? No, not if dere be a legitimate reason. But de men don't stay awake forever. And de women have long memories. Dey always find some excuse to provoke a new fight after de men go back to sleep, and den they wipe out de tribe anyway."
Vol'jin considered that.
He knew full well how vicious and brutal Elves were of nature. It was in their blood to kill and butcher, and destroy.
However, he saw what Cris'bal was saying, even without him coming out and spelling it.
"What ye mean… Is dat yer only willing to join us if we protect ye from de Elven woman's wrath ya?"
"Ya, dat be it mon. So tell me… Would dis Bossman of yours be willing to protect us? Even against the full Might of the Kaldorei?"
"Well… Dat would depend. On whether yer willing to join de Horde or not. If ye are… Then ya. De Horde will protect you. Even from the elves."
"And how would it do that? Our Valley is separated from your barrens by the mountains. Would you station an army here at all times to protect us?"
A good question. There was a problem here. The fact was that if he got the other tribes on board with joining the Horde, it would be a nightmare to defend them, deep inside Night Elven territory. They would be enclaves in a sea of hostile elves.
Unless… Maybe they could offer them some lands in the south? There might be some places in the Stonetalon mountains that could work to settle them. A problem for later.
This time though, he did have an answer.
"Oh, dat shouldn't be too hard. We can make a passageway at de eastern edge of yer valleys, dat would connect it to de spot where Horde Capital is to be built. Dat would make it easy to defend. Not to mention allow direct trade and travel between
Silence.
"A passageway… Through the mountain. And what sorcery do ye intend to use to make such a passage?"
"Oh, a newer kind of magic. One we call science. Tell me… Have you ever heard of the Miracle of… Gunpowder?"
I
As the Horde and their Human allies marched north, they made a much, much quicker speed than they had in the original timeline that this current model had used as a base. The miracle of having a proper map.
And along the way, they were joined by several tribes of Forest Trolls. Not just fighting for survival, but also for the promise of getting out from the Shadow of Night Elven dominance.
Darkspawn, Shadowball, and Nightfall all joined their meager numbers to the Horde, upping it's fighting men by 3000 total, and a lot of civilians, as other than Darkspawn, the only evacuation the Trolls had was the marching army.
However, the two strongest Dark Troll tribes were so far not among them.
Shatterspear and Shadowtooth.
However, it was decided to leave contact with the two of them, for after they had awakened the great Archdruid Malfurion Stormrage.
Their movements straight through Night Elven territory were not unseen, however.
The vast majority of the Elven army was in the east, but they got wind of the "Invaders" soon enough. The same greenskins who had seen Noble Cenarius dead and his soul destroyed!
The monsters had come to finish the job and kill them all. And so, with their front against the demons, and an "invading enemy" behind them, the Night Elves chose a course of action that would turn out to have devastating consequences for the War as a whole.
