An Abridged History of the Drakkari Empire & the Grizzlemaw Nation ​ (Patreon)

The imperious Furbolg guardian's tone was rough and weighty, the age of history, heavy on her broad shoulders.

"You, your traders and guests may pass, but let them speak no word of the Drakkari in our lands or suffer the consequences."

Only some hours later, well away from the towering totem poles as camp was made in the deep woods, did it seem wise to ask.

"Given only Wolvar are allowed to travel and trade in the Grizzly Hills, I assume there is some tension between the Furbolg and your Trollish fellows?"

A sharp keening laugh, akin to a deeper Gnolls echoes, though it is not unfriendly.

"Yes, yes much 'tension' between Troll and the Jalgar, which is what the bear-folk call themselves."

"Would you be able tp provide me some context for this rivalry?"

"This one can, told by Lore Speakers, conferred with Drakkari codex. There is more, always more, but this one knows much, so listen well."

An Abridged History of the Drakkari Empire & the Grizzlemaw Nation ​

What must first be known is that there was not always strife.

In days most ancient, when evil gods ruled and the world was but churning chaos, all thinking being stood as one against them, trolls and Jalgar no exception.

Then the evils were defeated, slain, sealed, slinking away into shadows and forgotten as peace reigned for the first time in the world.

The era that followed was, to the Jalgar, a golden age of prosperity.

They gathered in the North to revere their divine sires and roam the lands, many troll were among their number.

Wars with the Vyrkul posed challenges it is true, and legends speak of great evils rising again that needed to be be felled, but it was good.

Drakkari tell it much differently, it was an age of transition and strife.

Ancient codex's and almanacs say they were sent North to do war on wicked things, and fought well, but were consigned to mountains, hunting and herding.

A hard life but not miserable, still, much less than their cousins it was felt, backwards and weak, not an empire but a loose federation of tribes.

The Jalgar's golden age of peace and honey ended when the Kal'Dorei grew arrogant and proud, taking much land of both people's who fought as one against them.

When the demons came, they fought still, the fall of the Jalgar's divine patrons not stilling their claws or their fury, but instead blessing the lands to ward against demonic corruption.

Drakkari records of the war are more precise, though many were apocalyptical in nature, tinged with dread and terror.

Speaking of how the elves spread death and subjugation, and the demons spread flames that neither Loa nor Spirit could quell, yet still they fought, intent to battle to the bitter end.

Then, the world broke.

The Sundering, Kal'Dorei called it.

Thus, began an era of strife & terror, the world in turmoil.

Enshrined in holy land the Jalgar were protected from the worst of it, but their legend tell of many Shamans broken by the horror and refugees from lands now hateful and hostile straining them.

Troll records grow more precise, they tell of the spirits being twisted into wrathful elementals; talk of desperate bids to escape South being sabotaged, be it by neighbors, elements or chaos.

This is when the strife began to flourish, with the Jalgar unable or unwilling to welcome so many refugees and forced to defend against many-a foe, jealous of their safety from natures wrath. But eventually, they brought peace and secured the lands for the clans and those who followed them.

Drakkari meanwhile found the South closed to them & so traveled deeper into the mountains, warring against the Elements & building Gundrak to secure themselves. So pleased they say the Loa were that they blessed them with beasts & birds for food, hoping for more temples.

This one must add, that not all trolls took to the mountains, some founded the coastal city of Tethys and grew strong in the early days of Northrend, but would be wiped out by a terrible flood 8000 years ago. ​

The survivors dispersed among the Jalgar ruled tribes who were already dwindling, sought to travel to Gundrak or went Westward, where some still live. Most have now faded, their blood too thin to survive the cold, while the Jalgar clans grew in prominence born of peace with the spirits.

As this was happening, Zul'Drak grew with the discovery of Saronite and the birthing if spirits, growing from Gundrak, to the top most tier and travelling West. A great stairwell, Drak'atal Passage was built, first to commune with their Southern cousins, and then to trade with the Jalgar Clans. Though in truth, this often devolved into poaching Southern lands for beast and timber.

The Jalgar disliked this, but did not yet rally as one, there was no need, as neither people's could marshal armies into the others lands and saw little need too. Sometimes they would aid one another against the Nerubians, but just as often the clans would join paw with pincer and fight the trolls. If ever they had chosen a side between Nerubian and Drakkari, they may well have tipped the scales, fortunately for both empires they regarded each side with equal disdain.

However, to much of the Southern stretches, the true power was the Magnataur.

Mighty beasts who ruled over humans and Snobolds as masters, while extracting tribute from the settled people's by spreading woe and terror.

They did this for a thousand years, growing ever bolder, until a union of their foes stood against them, even the insulated Drakkari & Nerubians offered aid. With that, their slaves rose up and the Magnataur power was broken,.

The survivors were sent fleeing West with their few loyal retainers.

From this, many human dispersed into the South and East, joining with the few villages that already survived in this lands and latching onto greater powers than they for protection against the hostile elements of the land and sea.

This was six thousand years or so ago.

Things continued like this for a long time.

Drakkari empires formed and broke while clans grew and dispersed. Trading, raiding, occasional flare ups of war, usually caused by Drakkari or Nerubians. All while Taunka nation of Oneqwah and their human subjects grew in the Southern Mountains.

Before asking, no, Wolvar never made a nation, none known. Even our gods & ancestors not remembered.​

This is when war truly comes between Drakkari and Jalgar.

This is the birth of Drak'Tharon; the era of Bloody Paw.

Drakkari records remember this inception very well.

Some 4,515 years ago, poachers saw a great tree rising in the South, the Loa spoke of death and war, the reality to the Priest Kings of ZulDrak was obvious. The Kal'dorei of the West, spoken on by Shadowglen and Farraki again seek to make the world their own and they begin in Grizzly Hills.

To prepare for the coming war, they ordered a mighty keep built in the low mountains, where the herds are many and travel is easier, ensuring great legions could be marched South swiftly. Drak'Tharon it was called, carved first as a single giant tunnel, with caverns for supplies and ambushes if forced to fall back, it was not grand, but it was something.

Snow Flurry, long residences of the Western Woods that border the DragonGraveyards, with totems to match were the first respond. Their Lore Speakers claim they heard the mountains weep and scream, and so made war on the Drakkari. Mighty hunters and skilled Shaman marshalling a host of spirit beasts and battle bears to raid their foe.

Drakkari claim their motives as a lie, for they offer blood and tears to the earth which remained steadfast while other spirits grew wicked and cruel.

The truth, harder to say, the Priest Kings were not know to respect spirits well, but such traditions are not new in Zul'Drak. But in the end, truth mattered little. Skirmishing took place in the Grizzly Hills, many Drakkari seeking to build forts and secure territory.

Even when the tree fell and the elves left, they remained. The Priest Kings of the Four Tiers, loath to let things waste and continued to build, continued to fight with the Snow Flurry for a generation, victories mounting as Drak'Tharon grew and with it, the keeps legions.

Memories diverge here.

You see, Jalgar love their lore, but cared not for details.

Drakkari love their details but cared not for lore.

Both of them seek a pleasing narrative.

The Lore Speakers say that living in Grizzlemaw, their people were able to organize like the Drakkari and drive them off, sealing them within their mountains.

Drakkari say the Snowflurry asked, Frostpaw & Redfang, who had claimed the fallen tree as a home and grown mighty in their city while this war was happening.

Whatever happened, the Clans rose up as one and with sprits at their back, stormed Drak'Tharon, now nearly finished and forced the Legions out.

Scholars say only the promise of all Zul'Drak's Legions stopped the Jalgar from crushing the temple, and instead a treaty was struck, Drakkari could keep their fortress, but never leave it for the South.

This treaty held... For a time...

But generations pass and treaties fade.

Grizzlemaw grew in power, more tribes and families flock to it and like the Snow Flurry before them the Snowspring and Winterpaw bowed their heads.

In these early days the true foe of the Jalgar was Oneqwah nation, who made war upon them and were felled over generation long battles. These Taunka splintered and reduced to mere camps while the humans swore fealty to the Grizzlemaw, paying for the lands with farms and furs or serving at trade posts.

Time passed, the twin clans of Grizzlemaw built their city out, which came to be dubbed the Luminous City for the glowing bees and their shining hives that filled the holy heart of the great tree.

Frostpaw & Redfang secured the heartland, while the three out clans, controlled territories, or states as Drakkari call it, for themselves. Each one marked out with the clans distinct totems, when people pass they must announce themselves at these check points.

Zul'Drak remained as it was, the Priest Kings losing interest in the South and taking focus North and West, for a time, before splintering and rising again and again.

Drak'Tharon remained a point of contention, poachers and sometimes raiders sneaking out to skulk in the woods to claim beasts, lumber or even raid trade caravans, be it of their own people or the Jalgar.

The Snowflurry remained as ever their most heated rival, having recovered much and grown strong as generations passed and no armies made war on their lands.

Only when the Last Dominion rose did true war again come.

Centuries ago now, it was a terrible thing.

A mighty emperor broke the spirits of his people and marched them to war for generations, intent on remaking all Northrend to be like Zul'Drak, one endless city.

Jalgar call this the war of Broken Earth, for the Drakkari sought to bend the world to their whims as they did the people.

Cities and even a royal tomb were made to secure their hold on the South, if the people wished to keep their homes, they would pay their tax or be forced out.

In this war, Drak'Tharon became a place of evil, where prisoners were taken and punished, where raiders took loot and armies reveled in conquest.

Some wonder why the Nerubians seemed to care so little.

Maybe they knew what was coming, maybe they made it happen, we do not know.

For one day, the emperor died, three heirs and no succession made ready; naturally, the Empire tore itself apart.

The people of Zul'Drak rising up against cruel monarchs and the people of the South rising up against the wicked Drakkari.

Blood coated forest floors, streets of stone burned in wrath, the only survival of the royals fled to Jintha'kalar, ruling there until the time of the Frost King.

But nowhere was vengence greater than in Drak'Tharon. For great evils were done in that temple city by the Drakkari and these crimes were answered a hundred fold by the rebels.

Citizen and soldiers chased up the stairs, the chaos stalling any resistance. Taunka Shamans had spent weeks scaling great mountains to unleashed enraged Storm Spirits on the Zul'Drak side of the gates, trapping the trolls for slaughter.

How did Drak'Tharon survive?

Through the cunning of Quetz'lun, Psychopomp of the Drakkari Pantheon.

The souls within, bound by horror, or by fear of their possible punishment lingered in secret within the walls. And though the mighty Loa could have removed them and sent them on their way, as is their compact, she did not.

Instead she offered them redemption through rebirth, as the divine protectors of Drak'Tharon.

Well pleased by the offer, most of the ghosts agreed, but found their memories cooked down, their essence woven together and a new soul born from many, or more, the egg of one.

For Drak'Tharon would be the womb, the souls the egg and to it, Quetz'lun would gift her divine seed.

When at last the occupiers could not hold the Keep any longer, they struck low the last prisoners and catalyzed the birth of a new Loa.

Tharon'ja, born of a deathly divine and souls of the slain.

A great skeleton of spiritual spite rose , each wing beat unleashing the graves chill, its roars echoing across the lands. Only the newborns confusion spared the occupiers who fled, deeming the city cursed.

No mortals know why Quetz'lun did these things, maybe she sought power through a child loyal to her, maybe she wanted to protect the empire, or was lonely and sought something like herself to love?

But the Pantheons keep to their own council, and we ours.​

Drak'Tharon stood, and would eventually come again to be host of an army and a prophet who worshipped the great cities patron. They honored it by warring, more raids really, with the South to find offerings and through holy rituals. Where much the rest of Zul'Drak grew insular and fraught, Drak'Tharon, like Jintha'Kalar remained somewhat engaged, though in the former case, only to continue their rapscallion ways.

These acts were most unwelcome but well within the nation of Grizzlemaw's power to handle, the North-Most Clans growing wise in the ways of Drakkari invaders. All the while, Grizzelemaw's influence over the roads and trade routes expanded ever wider until none would dare challenge them in their own lands.

I must also be said, that the raids ebbed and flowed.

Warlord Zim'bo, even before Malakk rose to power, was seen as unusually passive for a ruler of the city; even letting Rageclaw traders pass through to visit the lands of the South. Generations of good will from good trade, forgoing the Wolvar blame for the crimes of their troll hosts.

With the rise of Frost King Malakk, he again enshrined the ancient treaty of times past into law, forbidding invasion or war with the South, seeking instead peace. Even transferring many of Drak'Tharon elsewhere in the empire to weaken resistance against the idea and to ensure they shared their skills as trained forest fighters and explorers.

Thus, we are at peace, though no Drakkari Troll may yet walk this land without special permission and they would be little welcome even then. For the people of Grizzlemaw have long memories and the power to stand on their own, a mighty nation to this day.
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NOTES:
OK, and that is that, I hope it proved engaging!

I'd hinted at the client state situation of humans to the Grizzlemaw before now, indicating at their power, but I ended up wanting to expand on it and the general history of the place and people.

I speak truly when I say that I did not care for Grizzlemaw's portrayal in the games, a collection of bee hives in the fallen trunk and otherwise just a slightly bigger village seemed ill suited for such a place.

I much rathered the RPG, which established stuff like the other clans exerting influence over large territories via totems and had Grizzlemaw as a large and respected city.

In terms of aesthetic, I'd say its still heavily wooden and tree centric, with a somewhat 'rustic' feel, but that belies the power of the place and their people. I'd say its basically a fusion of this concept art, as well as taking some cues from these aesthetics too and having a layout and general look somewhat akin to this place.

Also I am happy to report the Grizzlemaw won't fall in this timeline!

I was reflecting on how much I didn't want that to happen and then looked up the source of their corruption and it was apparently born of trying to ressurect their Wild God. The thing is, the reason wasn't exactly clear, so I can only assume it was to fight the Scourge, and as the Scourge is gone, Grizzlemaw won't have cause to risk such an act. Thus, they will avoid corruption by trying to utilize the fallen World Tree in their ritual and inadvertently re-igniting Yogg'Saron's influence over the land, wooh!