Trolls


After having created the wild orcs, Zarach was dissatisfied with his creation and angered by his failure. He had hoped to create kings of the battlefield, but had only succeeded in fabricating simple warriors. And so he began anew, distorting the bodies of captured creatures to monstrous size and burning out any part of them that was not useful for battle and killing.
And thus he created the trolls. He made them stronger than any other race, more enduring and almost immune to pain, but in his eagerness to create a race of ultimate warriors, he took too much of their spirit, rendering them simpleminded and emotionless.
While the trolls are the undisputed rulers on the battlefield, they live as paupers in simple housings of stone and wood. Their limited skills and intellect only allow them to roughly trim rock and fashion simple clubs from treetrunks. They are as poor in mind as they are art, without legends, songs, living only for the now, for food and to kill.
This is the price they pay for the incomparable strength and wildness that makes them raging beasts on the battlefield, whom neither spears nor arrows can stop. They know neither pain nor fatigue, and their insatiable lust for blood drives them like a storm through the ranks of their enemies, their tree-like clubs killing and maiming wherever they land. What trolls lack in dexterity and cunning, they compensate with strength and power of resistance, and their ability to fight even after having sustained mortal wounds. Pain does not weaken them, it only makes them angry. And despite their primitive weapons and armour, and their lack of tactical thinking, an army of trolls is like a wave of destruction that can, with the right guidance, win battles by brute force alone.


Worker
Grumbling, the troll sets out for work, as he would rather be on the battlefield, sowing destruction. But even the trolls know that the settlements need reinforcements and the armies need food. So the weak and the inapt are forced to stay behind, build houses, gather food or work stone, so the troll armies may march to another victory.


Rowdy
No sooner than a troll learns to walk, he starts to fight. He fights for food, for territory, for acceptance. Or just to have fun. Rowdies are simple trolls that have taken a piece of wood, called it a weapon, and set out to have fun. Any opportunity is good enough to crush a few skulls or pillage and destroy. Their requirements are not high, and they are undisciplined and quarrelsome. Once their appetite for destruction has been awakened, however, Rowdies cause unimaginable destruction until no enemy is left breathing.


Smasher
Smashers are particularly strong, stronger than an Rowdy. Rowdies are by no means weak, but can hardly move the massive clubs Smashers use to plow through enemy lines. Yet while they may be stronger, their mind is as simple as that of their comrades. A Smasher is content as long as he has something to pound until the lifeforce is gone. Their enemies fear them, and rightly so, for a single soldier stands hardly a chance against such a brute.


Thrower
The mobile and deadly elven archers taught the trolls a lesson in the War of Six Races. They would retreat quickly from an advancing horde and clear their rows with a hail of arrows. And while the art of using bows, strings and catapults still remains a mystery to the trolls, their raw strength gives them an alternative. With their long arms, Throwers hurl massive, specially carved stones at their enemies, whereby the stones by their weight alone cause massive damage. Initially, the people of the light made fun of this primitive art of war, but when the first stones began to rain down upon them, the mockery soon stopped.


Devastator
With their two-handed clubs, Devastators can almost annihilate entire buildings in a single blow. Once they have started taking an enemy settlement apart, almost nothing can stop them. Devastators are slightly more cunning than their relatives, but still far from being considered intelligent. Undeviating, they swing their clubs with arms like trees, destroying anything they hit.


Bouncer
Bouncers are able to withstand considerable damage – perhaps even more than they can dish out. In battle, their iron-clad armour gives them an advantage over other trolls, who are usually equipped with only simple leather protection. They also have only simple clubs at their disposal, but Bouncers understand only too well how to utilise them to cause the maximum destruction in enemy ranks. Patience and many strong units are required to stop a Bouncer.


Hurler
Like the Throwers, Hurlers are equipped only with stones – but while Throwers rain these stones down upon an enemy army, Hurlers produce a veritable hailstorm, for they can throw stronger and farther than their comrades. Only a well protected and suitably prepared army can withstand the such an onslaught. Because Hurlers wear stronger armour than their brothers, they are not easy to defeat in close combat. Hurlers have quick reactions and are particularly effective –anyone wanting to defeat them will need all their strength.


Destroyer
The sight of a Destroyer, with his two iron-clad clubs, has caused many a brave soldier to flee in terror. Destroyers are an imposing sight, even when just standing, in battle, they can swing the clubs faster than the eye can blink. Destroyers know neither fear nor mercy. They will unblinkingly attack any foe or army, for they are well aware of their strength and the effective protection their armour provides. They are more than dumb brutes with clubs – Destroyers wield their weapons as if they had done little else in their lives. Which is not far from the truth…


Champion
As mercilessly as trolls deal with their enemies, so their behaviour amongst each other is also not particularly ginger. Those wanting to climb to a position of power in the horde will do so over many a dead body. Only the strongest and most unscrupulous trolls stand a chance of becoming a Champion. With a war hammer forged of iron they go into battle, crushing enemies and buildings alike. Their war-cry alone has a paralytic effect on an enemy army. When a soldier hears the roar of a Champion, he knows that his end is near. And if he summons all his courage to stand his ground and face this deadly challenge, he knows that he has hardly a chance against a Champion.


Cyclops
That the jungles of are home to a great many unusual creatures is widely known. But the story of the creatures called the Cyclops has remained a mystery for many centuries, because they dwelled remote from all the things that took place in the wider world around them. Their roots are a puzzle to the sages. There is something of the troll race in them, but if they really descend from these hulking brutes, perhaps being their grotesquely grown brothers, it is not recorded. Another theory casts them as being creatures of Zarach. One day they broke forth from the jungle, laying waste to the labyrinthine deeps of Urgath, destroying all life with their gigantic mauls - until, finally, they faced the Trolls. Soon they bound themselves to the trolls, not as willing servants, but as wanton giants, following with curious, unblinking stares, what these Trolls did, how they made their weapons and worked stone. The lumbering giants imitated the trolls and thus the bond that bound these two races was soon apparent. The race of the cyclops began to enter the battle side by side against the troll's enemies and it has been thus ever since. Like his troll allies, the Cyclops is able to withstand large amounts of damage. Very few armors exist that can withstand the mighty bash of his club and with his leathery skin he is almost immune to fire. However, the mindless brute falls prey to mentalist magic quickly. For all his strength the Titan's lumbering gait makes him an easy target for fast attackers and he at times has trouble hitting fast moving targets. His bellowing roar strikes fear into the heart of the enemies around him, weakening them severely.


Walking Fortress
The armored trolls from the mountains of Urgath could be the kings of the battlefield if they weren’t so dumb and slow. In order to benefit from their size and strength despite this, wooden towers are chained onto their backs in the troll siege workshops, from which massive boulders are launched onto the enemies buildings. The dumb armored troll thus also have their role in the trolls ranks as the enemies’ buildings cannot get away from them.


Ironbeak
Wherever trolls roam, death and its companions the carrion ironbeaks follow. These birds are everywhere where rancid meat can be found and are therefore a continuous danger to the trolls' food supplies. This is no consolation for the trolls but the grim ironbeaks are the only creatures who enjoy being in their company. Nowadays the troll tame the ironbeaks and send them out to scout or train them to ram their beaks into living light worshippers’ flesh.



Die Clans


After the dark ones had been defeated in the War of the Six Races, their armies dissipated and the survivors founded their settlements all across Fiara. With the dark elves founding their new empire of Lar and the Sharok orcs occupying the north of the great glacier, the southern orcs and trolls had less luck. Their existence had become that of small marauding war troops roaming the country which always had been wary of the armies of light.
When the Iron Lord came, he reunited the wild orc clans under his rule with his words and the slashes of his axe. He led them from the Blackwater Coast through the grasslands of the green lake until the Gate of Swords. Among the former bulwarks of the elves, he and his companions found shelter.
There they met with the barbarians of the middle mountains who were driven out of their former home and who were roaming the country without any lead or direction. The Iron Lord brought to them the belief in Zarach and included them under his banner.
And thus, the Iron Lord founded a new place for all clans devoted to the blooddrinker Zarach. All of the clans kept their names and their leaders but ever since the Iron Lord's insignia shone above all as the greatest clan ever seen in the south.


Hurler
A heavy boulder is almost tradition when it comes to the choice of a proper projectile for a pair of strong Troll arms. But under the command of the Iron Lord huge wooden portable catapults were built for the Troll Hurlers of the Iron Storm. They intensify the power of their arms, so they can hurl their lethal projectiles farther and more exactly than many an arrow will fly.


Devastator
With the mighty swings of his trunk this huge Troll warrior blows down several opponents in one go. He might be quite clumsy, but that is exactly why in a dense battle he becomes a lethal threat. At least the Troll knows that much: Hardly anybody can keep up with him when it comes to height and strength, so why should he hurry?


Fire Catapult
From a large distance these heavy catapults hurl burning boulders into the legions and against the enemy defence lines, where they explode with devastating splash damage. The Fire Catapult is slow and a cleverly used close combat unit can easily take it out. But as long as it attacks from the distance, it seals the fate of every enemy tower.