I finished up questing through my first Horde zone over on Zandalar, and had a great time! At times during the beginning the story seemed a bit slow, but started to pick up during the middle and end parts. Zandalar, the once mighty seat of power for all of Troll civilization, has had its control limited mostly to the zone of Zuldazar. King Rastakhan sits upon the throne and is fed lies by his advisers who wish to take control for themselves.
I am glad that I picked Zandalar as my first place to quest in because it explains a lot about the problems that the Zandalari Trolls have been facing, and the underlying corruption. Mainly I worked with Rastakhan’s daughter, Princess Talanji, in finding out the source of Zandalar’s problem. While her father seems to have given up hope, Talanji has been working with the player as well as the people of Zandalar to find a solution.
Along the way I learned about Troll loas and even picked a loa for my character! I picked Pa’ku, the Lord of Winds, because those pterrodax models look awesome. We also learned that Prophet Zul, who is advisor to the king and trusted because of his visions, has been researching how a loa can be drained of its power. Later it is revealed that Zul has been serving G’huun, a mysterious Old God creature, and working with other prominent Zandalari in usurping Rastakhan’s throne.
When Zul nearly kills Rastakhan, we call on the Loa of Kings to help revive him and get prepared for the upcoming battle. Along the way we are introduced to more loa, Blood Troll foreshadowing, and mutiny. In the end Zul and Yazma got away, but they did not succeed in controlling Zandalar. The price of that was great…
Rezan, the Loa of Kings, fell in what was a sad little cinematic. Unfortunately he is the second-to-last boss in the Atal’dazar dungeon, which I am not looking forward to running! However, I had a great time in Zandalar and loved learning about the political struggle as well as the different loa that are important to Trolls.
On a lighter note, I also did a side quest which involved helping some apes that were exposed to Kaja’mite and made them more intelligent. This seems to me like a nod to Planet of the Apes, and I really enjoyed it.
Overall, this was a good opening to Zandalar and helped me learn about some Troll lore and what has been happening to the Zandalari Empire. Next I am off to Nazmir, the dark swamp lands where the Blood Trolls make their home. I have been particularly excited for Nazmir because that is where I meet Bwonsamdi, who is a major character in the zone, and perhaps the game.
I’ve only seen some parts of these areas from the Alliance side, thanks for the nice write-up!