Trolls: Stay Away From da Voodoo

Hello all!

To finish off our look at the mythologies in World of Warcraft, this week we're looking at one of the most complicated spiritual systems within the game: the worship of the loa.

The loa are known to other races, like the night elves, by the name “Wild Gods”. They are powerful, highly intelligent animals who are nigh immortal and were some of the first to wander Azeroth (the actual world of World of Warcraft). These deities each possess distinctive personalities and traits. Some are kind and nurturing; many act as guardians of the wilderness, or specific creatures within the wild; some are vengeful and bloodthirsty.

Many denizens of Azeroth worship the Wild Gods by one name or another. Druids are particularly respectful of the Wild Gods, and four of the Wild Gods are revered in Pandaria under the name of “the August Celestials”. However, their most prominent followers can be found amongst the trolls, who call the Wild Gods the loa.

Worship of the loa has been integral to the trolls since before their first civilizations dawned. “The loa came and granted trolls their very nature, bargaining in return for eternal supplication and worship.” They guided troll culture for millennium, and even granted some of their power to trolls the loa deemed worthy. Troll culture included a number of priests devoted to the loa. The highest, most honored religious devotees who undergo and pass set trials are known as Shadow Hunters. Shadow Hunters are in direct communion with the loa, able to pass into the realm of shadows to speak face-to-face with their gods. It is upon Shadow Hunters that the loa bestow their greatest gifts, and so troll societies look up to Shadow Hunters as spiritual leaders and prophets of a sort. The current leader of the trolls (and of the Horde), Vol'jin Darkspear, is a Shadow Hunter.

The loa are a very diverse bunch of gods, representing a number of animals and traits. Bwon'samdi is the guardian of the dead, who welcomes all trolls into his realm. He is a bloodthirsty god, preferring his sacrifices to be worthy opponents slain in battle. Interestingly enough, Bwon'samdi has only been seen in spiritual form, in which he resembles a troll.

Elortha no Shadra is a massive red spider whose physical form is worshiped by a tribe of trolls. She is also known as Venom Mother and Silk Dancer. All spiders are the children of Elortha no Shadra. This loa has been known to send visions of the past, present, and future to her devotees amongst the trolls.

Some members of the loa are more bloodthirsty than others. One such is Hakkar, who puts even the blood lust of Bwon'samdi to shame. Hakkar demanded sentient sacrifices in his honor. His hunger grew with every being killed in his name, until eventually a group of trolls realized that his thirst for blood would not end, even with the destruction of every living being. They killed or banished all trolls who worshiped Hakkar, and even defeated the physical avatar of the loa himself. Despite this, Hakkar's loyal followers continued their devotions to him and raised a temple they dubbed Atal'Hakkar.

The bloodthirsty nature of the god so disturbed the denizens of Azeroth that even the green dragons took note. They sank the temple deep into the surrounding swamps and set themselves up to guard it, preventing worship of Hakkar from ever resuming in his temple.

The sacrifice of sentient beings was not limited to Hakkar alone – many of the loa were pleased to receive such offerings during the height of troll power. However, as the years passed, the great troll civilizations dwindled. One tribe, the Darkspears, eventually joined up with the Horde. The other races in the Horde were disturbed by some of the troll practices, including sentient sacrifice and cannibalism. (Eating one's enemies was believed to imbue the consumer with their strength.) Such practices were termed “voodoo” by the trolls. To stay within the Horde, the Darkspear tribe adapted their religious practices. Cannibalism was done away with entirely, and the sacrifices to the loa were changed to animal sacrifices. Hence, many troll non-player characters in WoW will give the dialogue of “Stay away from da voodoo!” when clicked upon, a reminder to not return to the practices they gave up when they joined the Horde. However, this change was only amongst the Darkspear tribe – other troll tribes continue their practices without change.

If players in WoW are interested, they can interact directly with a number of the loa in a zone called Zul'Drak. A lengthy quest chain within Zul'Drak surrounds the deities. The trolls in this area have been threatened by the undead within the surrounding areas. They realize that a source of great power lies around them, contained within the gods they have long worshiped. To gain access to this power, the trolls are killing the loa. One of the loa, Har'koa, recruits the player to aid them in stopping to trolls and saving their brethren. The story, and the models, are absolutely fantastic.

It's worth noting that the religious practices – and, in fact, the entire culture – of the trolls is heavily based upon ancient Latin American civilizations. Just as there were three great empires that rose in that area (the Aztecs, the Mayans, and the Incas), the trolls had several mighty tribes who created vast empires (the Zandalari, the Gurubashi, the Drakkari, and the Amani). Below is a picture of the Zandalari capital of Zuldazar, whose architecture draws heavily from Latin American influence.

The gods in Latin America tended to have heavy ties to animals, much like the loa. Human sacrifice was not uncommon, particularly amongst the Aztec empire. In addition, as I mentioned in a previous post, the similarities between the Latin American god Quetzalcoatl and the loa Quetz'lun are great, particularly when looking at a comparison of their temples.

(The bottom is from the real-world Temple of the Feathered Serpent.)

I hope you guys enjoyed this post! What do you think of troll religion? The loa are a pretty fascinating bunch. If you'd like to see Vol'jin interact directly with them, providing a fantastic look at troll culture, I'd highly recommend the book Vol'jin: Shadows of the Horde by Michael Stackpole. (It's also a great look at the culture of the Pandaren!)

This'll be my last post about Warcraft mythology for the time being.  I hope you guys enjoyed the look at WoW lore!  There are several races whose beliefs I still haven't talked about, ranging from the playable race of Forsaken, to cultures such as the Jinyu and Kalu'ak, to the insanity-inducing Old Gods.  I definitely plan to do another series of posts at some point!

Starting next Monday I'll be taking some of the myths and folktales of Africa.  Tune in next week for my Intro!