One can hardly speak of "Trollish history," for only in recent generations
have even Trollish kings employed scribes to write down the important events
of their reigns. The rich oral tradition of the Trolls is of small help
in outlining the history of earlier days, for its purpose is religious
or moral; Trolls view life as cyclical, not as a series of related events.
Essentially, the Trolls must be known from observing them as they live
now, and from the inadequate records of foreign chroniclers.
Of all the intelligent biped races of Minaria, the Trolls diverge farthest
from the model of a human being. An adult male Troll towers up to ten feet
tall and possesses a green skin of various shades. Although Trollish muscles
are immensely strong, Trolls tend to be sluggish and bleary in the light
of day. It is due to their nocturnal habits that Trollish marches are shorter
than those of most other warrior races--nights are briefest during the
campaigning season. But perhaps the trait that sets the Trolls most apart
from other races is their uncanny ability to regenerate their bodies from
the most grievous wounds. Although the Trollish people are not many, their
rapid return to health gives their war bands the effect of much greater
numbers.
Trollish mythology remembers the Cataclysm in the myths of Mnugu, the Celestial
Chief. In the words of the Trollish storytellers, the cantors: "At one
time the people of the world indulged in so much angry shouting and insulting
that the god was annoyed at the clamour. He lifted his great warclub and
smote the land a heavy blow, so that cities fell into ruin, seas spilled
from their beaches and people died by the many millions. When Mnugu lifted
his club all lay silent and he turned over to go to sleep."
Of all the peoples of Minaria, the Trolls adapted easiest to the conditions
of the post-Cataclysm. During the years of Lloroi civilization the Trolls
had remained closest to the breast of Nature. They knew how to win their
food with the fishing net, the spear and the gathering basket. Trolls,
with their omnivorous appetites and phenomenal digestion, grew fat in wastelands
where other races starved.
Regardless, the Trollish population was never great. It never occurred
to them to settle; they built no permanent shelters, domesticated no animals,
and planted no seed. A Trollish tribe required a vast territory for its
hunting range, but the whole area might contain only a few thousand Trolls
of fighting age.
The basic unit of Trollish society was and is the patriarchal family. Trollish
families related by blood ties comprise a clan. The cohesion of families
and clans is very close, for survival in the wastelands mandates that a
group be large enough and have in it enough vigorous males to prevent its
being pushed around and to protect the individual members as necessary.
Trolls are obsessively religious. Each clan honors a totem spirit of the
animal world. They do not precisely believe that any Troll is descended
from animals, but their religion accepts lower creatures as spirit-brothers
and patrons. If a Troll does an insult or an injury to an animal, the clan
who honors it will seek reprisals against the offender. It is, of course,
almost unheard of for a Troll to offend an animal totem of his own clan.
The cantors' stories are explicit in the kind of revenge the animal-spirit
would inflict on the guilty.
For example, the Trolls of Stone Face recount the myth of the kartika fish,
a prized catch that inhabits Minaria's bays and inlets. The Trolls believe
the kartika fish comprised a race of supernatural beings who dwelt in a
great cave under the sea. They went about the undersea world in Trollish
form, feasting and dancing. When time came, the kartika-people assumed
the shape of fish to sacrifice themselves as food for the Trolls. Once
dead, the spirit of each fish returned to the sea. If the Trolls deposited
the bones back into the water, the being resumed his Trollish form with
no discomfort and could repeat the trip next year.
Alas, say the cantors, once some young Trolls of the Kartika Clan dined
on fish and burned their bones in the fire. This was tantamount to fratricide
in the eyes of the kartika-people and they swore to come no more to the
bay where the Trolls fished. Instead, they gave the bay over to their brothers,
the sea serpent-people. The sinning Trolls stood on a small raft, futilely
casting their nets for the kartika fish that were no more, when a sea serpent
capsized the raft and devoured them. To this day the kartika fish have
not returned to Serpent Bay, to the general hardship of the Trolls.
Above the clan is the tribe. Today Trolldom is represented by four major
tribes, that of the Stone Face, the Shunned Vale, the Gathering and the
Crag. When a clan wishes to make a complaint or a proposal to the whole
tribe, its representatives meet with the representatives of other clans
at their common ceremonial grounds. These same grounds are the site of
tribal rites. For example, all tribes, in some form or other, perform a
cycle of rituals with the avowed purpose of "preserving the world" from
famine, drought, flood and a new Cataclysm. So important are the gathering
places to Trollish society that scarcely any action may be taken by a tribe
until the proper dances, prayers and ceremonies have been enacted on the
ground of the gathering place.
Trolls seldom seek quarrels with other races; foreigners' precious metal,
territorial claims and females do not interest the Trolls. About the only
way to make a clan or tribe fight is to attack it; this happens with unfortunate
frequency as other races impinge upon the Trolls' hunting grounds or the
Trolls, oblivious to the boundaries and settlements of others, violate
foreign borders. The Trollish wars that have stemmed from such causes are
many and, in the main, minor. The most memorable conflicts have raged around
the holy gathering place of the Stone Face.
In the dark age of the early post-Cataclysm, a large band of Trolls wandered
into the rough lands of what is now called Trollwood. They were dozing
under the midday sun when suddenly a raven lighted on the slopes of a towering
crag and said: "Go no farther, noble Trolls, but receive you these woods
and mountains as Mnugu's gift to his children. No more must the Trolls
be scattered to the winds without a guiding hand. Under this crag you are
charged to anoint a king who will hold sway over all Trolls everywhere!"
The amazed Trolls looked at one another, but none knew whom Mnugu meant
to be king. "Let us appeal to Mnugu to choose his agent on earth," proposed
Ijebu, a wise Troll priest. The elders agreed and began to dance a dance
of query to the Celestial Chief. Lightning flashed approvingly in the eastern
sky as they danced. Then suddenly the earth trembled mightily and threw
the Trolls off their feet. Gazing up at the rocky crag, they observed the
alteration the quake had made. What had been a formless mass had taken
on the outlines of a Trollish face.
"Seek that face among our people!" cried the inspired Ijebu. "Surely he
is meant to be king of the Trolls!"
And search the faces of their people they did, finding a young Troll of
craggy feature whose face mirrored the portrait on the crag. His name was
Apashag, of the Raven Clan.
Hardly had his own tribe accepted his preeminence before clan leaders from
all the distant tribes arrived at what was already called Stone Face. "The
ravens have spread the message," said the clan leaders, "that we must journey
to the great Stone Face and do obeisance to him who shall be king of the
Trolls."
Mnugu had chosen wisely, for Apashag was a wise and strong leader who codified
the customs of the different Troll groups, earning the epithet of "The
Law-giver." In actuality, he accepted and reinforced what had long been
the best practices of his people. For instance, the law of Apashag forbade
the tribes to war one upon the other. This fell in line with Trollish psychology
that recognized the "Trollness" of every member of their far-flung race
and made inter-tribal contacts friendly. Almost any Troll could count upon
the hospitality of those foreign clans which honored his own clan's totem
animal, although that fact might be only coincidental.
But on the personal level a Troll could be passionate and violent. Trolls
were especially possessive of their mates and the hint of adultery often
drove the wronged Troll to sudden murder. And murder had to be avenged
by the kin of the murdered, beginning the cycle of "blood vengeance." Apashag
realized that blood avengers were too intimately involved in a crime to
achieve justice. Therefore, he allowed a murderer who managed to reach
one of the ceremonial grounds to be judged by the priests on service there.
If found justified in his crime, he became immune from reprisal after dwelling
on the neutral ceremonial ground for ten years. If found guilty, he was
turned over to the axes of the blood avengers.
In the reign of Apashag's grandson, Ogun, true history begins. In the four
hundred and fifty-second year after the Cataclysm, Miviorian settlers arrived
on the mainland and built the fort called Boran on the Moor. The Trolls
felt that their god-granted land was polluted by the invasion and insisted
that the humans leave. Misunderstanding and war followed--a centuries-long
struggle in which neither side could vanquish the other. But the Trollish
position turned decidedly defensive when other human tribes arrived in
Soraskier, to the east. Before long, the Trolls were driven north of the
Bad Axe Forest.
Although the warfare went on for generations. human contact did not change
Trollish culture to any great degree. This backwardness finally brought
the Trolls to disaster in the late ninth century, when Mivior, having achieved
wealth and greatness, launched an imperialistic war against its primitive
neighbors. Their forces seized Serpent Bay and captured Stone Face, in
whose defense thousands of Trolls perished.
The guerrilla war that ensued became a nightmare for the Miviorian army.
Fighting for the liberation of their holy place, the Trolls underwent a
significant change. They learned to fight with human-like discipline and
weapons, coming out of the deep forests to assail garrisons and ambush
patrols, then vanishing into the wild. The Trolls took casualties, but
their wounds regenerated; the humans who were maimed stayed maimed. That
was the Trolls' advantage in wars of attrition. Eventually a forward position
became untenable for the Miviorians and the archon Chalybes brought the
long war to a close, signing a ten-year truce with the Troll king Yemojagg.
Hardly had the fighting stopped when Mivior was devastated by the invasion
of "the abominations of the land and the horrors of the air." Even so,
Yemojagg observed the terms of his agreement to the last day of its duration
before he renewed the war.
The Trolls avenged the fall of Stone Face by the massacre at Boran. Afterwards
they ranged widely over the Shaker Mountains, slaying and burning. Eventually
Mivior recovered its power and went on the offensive. By the mid-thirteenth
century the frontier had quieted. The Trolls knew little peace, however,
for now Hothiorians were advancing their claims dangerously close to Stone
Face. This eastern front remained active until the Elven uprising in Boewenn's
War made it part of a greater conflict.
The Trolls made no formal alliance with the human-hating Boewenn, but spilled
over the frontier upon the Hothiorians' early defeat. But Boewenn's successes
were short-lived and the resurgent Hothiorians trapped the overextended
Trolls at the Battle of Copper Pond in Bad Axe Forest. Few Troll warriors
survived, and only the recall of the Hothiorians for the invasion of Elfland
saved Stone Face from capture. Later, an unfavorable peace treaty gave
Hothior all the disputed land. Another peace was signed with Mivior, which
made no territorial claims. The government at Colist was more interested
in opening a trade for the Trolls' fine leatherwork, metalwork and handicrafts.
Peace made possible many more contacts than previously. For a long time
Trolls had been sought as mercenaries, for their bravery and strength.
As more Trolls ventured into foreign countries, they became increasingly
popular for jobs requiring strength, especially construction work. Too,
many more outsiders now visited Troll tribes.
The Hothiorian geographer Porsenn lived amid the Trolls of Stone Face for
two years and wrote The Curious Habits and Unique Customs of The Trollish
People. Says Posenn: "Amid the Trolls, the most esteemed members of society
are not the nobles (for social distinctions of this kind may hardly be
said to exist among the Trolls), but the smiths who work metal and leather,
and the cantors who tell the stories of Trollish lore.
"Except for the military arts, which the Trolls study of necessity, they
do not share the interests of non-Trollish peoples. Their conversations
and pastimes are so little comprehensible to human beings that idle visits
to Troll camps for recreational purposes may not be recommended. A man
will find little to do except stare at the Trolls--which he may do at his
leisure, for the Trolls do not resent it. Should a visitor master their
difficult language, however, he is well advised to sit in among the Trolls
at the ceremonial fires. There the cantors tell the most marvelous stories
of the bloody doings and dark passions of their heroes."
Intrigued by Porsenn's account, the Miviorian scholar Mosinon encamped
at Stone Face for many months, writing down the stories that had impressed
the Hothiorian geographer. These he published under the title Traditional
Ballads of Stone Face. A popular success, many poets and dramatists borrowed
themes from Mosinon's book. The genre known as the "Troll play" came to
be acclaimed on the Miviorian stage. These plays, performed by husky actors
in varnished Troll masks, presented to human audiences dramas that once
had lived only in the fire lit recitals of venerable cantors.
One of the most popular plays was Hagayu and If as by Lorbash. Its hero
is Hagayu, the strongest Troll in the world. He is tragically tricked by
a schemer into slaying his wife, Ifas, on a false charge of adultery. Finding
out his mistake too late, he is overcome by grief and flees into the wilderness
to mourn and subject his body to cruel penances. Finally, as he lies in
delirium, his totem animal, a falcon, alights on a nearby cactus and says:
"You are the strongest and the most foolish of Trolls. As you are foolish,
you have brought your house to grief. As you are strong by Mnugu's favor,
you may yet undo your cruel mistake." The falcon explains that his great
deeds have so impressed Death that Death longs to add him to the Dark Kingdom
before his time. It is Death who now holds Ifas; should , Hagayu challenge
Death to a fight with his own life staked against If as, Death might accept.
So Hagayu agrees to follow the falcon to Death's realm. There, as advised,
he challenges the horrid master of that domain for the return of If as,
his wife. As they wrestle, Death sings:
Hagayu's mother
will have no child
Hagayu's servants
will have no master
Hagayu's sons
will not be born
Foolish, foolish
Hagayu!
Where are the
comrades of Hagayu?
Who will lay
his body under stones?
Who will sing
his death song
And sit with
the body until it cools?
Foolish, foolish
Hagayu!
But Death sings better than he fights. Hagayu breaks all his limbs and
holds him helpless. "Peace!" cries Death. "You cannot slay me, but I am
in great distress! I grant you have won. Take your wife and go!"
"Not so fast," says Hagayu. "You have taken many worthy souls from the
Trolls! You must release them too!"
Death moans and appeals to the falcon: "He has no sense! I cannot talk
to him!"
So the falcon counsels Hagayu: "The Trolls live a hard life when the hunting
is bad, few as they are. Would you summon alive again all the millions
of dead and have all the Trolls starve? I pray you, make some better terms
with vanquished Death!"
"Hear me," says Death. "Hereafter the Trolls shall be blessed above all
races. They shall come but slowly to my domain, for from this day forth
they will heal with wonderful completeness. Yea, they shall grow back even
limbs and lungs and eyes that have been lost. ..
This I will grant your people if you release me." I Hagayu releases Death
and the dark specter is good to his word. Hagayu and If as lived together
happily for many years afterward.
Since Boewenn's War, the Trollish kings have worked hard to unite their
people and deal with the pressures other races put upon them. Their traditions
inhibit rapid change, but the Trolls have developed commendably in the
areas of war and politics. The late Troll King Geshu had a reputation for
cunning diplomacy and it was said that though his kingdom had no borders,
he could raise up armies over the length and breath of Minaria.
By the time his son Skoagg ascended his ancestral chair at Stone Face,
foreign peoples were beginning to misunderstand the Trolls as noble savages,
as they had misunderstood them as wild beasts in earlier days. It may be
that a race so different from its neighbors will never be appreciated for
what it really is. The Trolls are simply the Trolls, unique unto themselves,
since the dawn of history.