Trolls¶
The Trolls are a people of four kinds, from the scrawny wood troll to the mountain troll "almost double" the size of the rest, counted in the 2014 and 2015 lore beside the dwarves and orcs as a race with ethnicities of its own (S387). Only the rock trolls, "the most intelligent and civilized of their people", are more than a line in the record, and theirs is a story of enslavement (S387, S059).
Origins¶
The newest account counts the Trolls among the peoples "formed during this age by Kalar and the other younger gods" (S208). The study of Fae magic lists them among the Faeborn, "Ethereal beings with a Fae connection" whose "physical forms are tied to Fae energy, but they are NOT true Fae creatures" (S279). The compiled lists of the gods name Rakkan as "Creator of Draconians, Orcs, Ogres, Trolls" (S429, S384).
The oldest phylogeny tells it differently: "Trolls are descendants of genetically enhanced Dwarro warriors. They were engineered to have armored skin, be significantly larger, and have natural regeneration and exceptional strength and agility. Their intelligence was not intentionally reduced, but that appears to have been a side effect of some of the mutations" (S525). See Lineages of the Humanoid Races.
Ethnicities¶
The 2015 lore gives one line to each kind (S387, S498, S384).
Wood trolls "are scrawny and agile compared to their cousins, and they are renowned for being quite vicious. While intelligent, their temperament only allows them to live in small groups, dominated by a single alpha."
Rock trolls "are the most intelligent and civilized of their people."
Night trolls "are small, and only live in the underdark. They are essentially 'allergic' to sunlight, so they turn to stone with prolonged exposure. Occasionally, they have been known to raid the surface at night."
Mountain trolls "are massive in size, almost double that of other trolls. In addition, they are considerably stronger. However, they are not very intelligent."
Gap
No source describes troll appearance beyond size, their lifespan, language, gods or customs, nor the regeneration the oldest account credits them with in any later text.
History¶
The Trolls were among the races that "seemed better able to manage the transitions" after the Shattering and whose "civilizations grew" (S386). In the Fifth Age trolls are a Confederate caste within the nations of the Silek, "'friendly' non-Silek races that are part of the Silek nation" who may rise to any caste but the ruling one (S025).
Rock Trolls¶
In the Drakkani Wastes of the Age of Magic "the rock trolls keep to themselves and have resisted several attempts by the Orcs to annex their land (and them), some attempts violent. Their Elder, Maalik is over 200 years and held in high esteem both as a warrior and statesmen. Their population is about 180. Orc raids occasionally capture trolls and sell them to the Humans (they are prized in arena fights) and worth quite a lot of gold" (S469, S546).
In 704 SM the Broken Sea holds about 4,000 rock trolls, all in the wilds, grown from 500 survivors of the Dark Sun; in the Sancturi Imperium they are extinct (S326).
In the Proturan period the rock trolls of the borderlands are the beasts of burden and war of the Urok'gar Confederation, whose orcs "commonly ride Rock Trolls, Iron Drakes and Dire Lions" and whose tiered stone city of Agor'haem is "made from huge rocks (hauled by rock trolls)" (S057, S059). The trolls live in warrens in the caves at the cliff bottoms, and they are not what they seem. Their father is a Trollfather, an Aeten'Daru, the elemental earth archon Irek, who "can merge with stone at will and pass through stone. His 'children' are the Rock Trolls and their lifeforce is bound to him." He speaks of two brothers, and of a time when "there were once many Trollfathers living here in peace before the orcs came and destroyed or enslaved many of his kind." His children are held by the Urok's Sunmetal Collars of Dominion, bound to a control rod that delivers "debilitating psychic PAIN" if they stray or resist. Irek "has no love for Dwarves, which in his experience care little for others and are obsessed with possessing the mineral wealth of the earth. However, aside from their greed... they are better than Orcs who destroy and enslave his children" (S059).
Gap
Whether every rock troll is a Trollfather's child, and whether the account of the Trollfathers applies to the other kinds of troll, the sources do not say. The register also tags Trolls and Rock Trolls as creatures; this page treats them as a people because the 2014–2015 lore lists their ethnicities beside those of dwarves and orcs.