Troll Wars The Troll Wars were a series of conflicts between the forest troll s of the Amani Empire and an alliance of the human s of Arathor and high elves of Quel ' Thalas , ending approximately 2 , 800 years before the coming of the orc s to Azeroth . Prelude and the Early War . Following the War of the Ancients , the night elves outlawed the use of all arcane magic in their forests , with execution as the penalty for use of the arcane arts . However many spellcasters did not agree with this and wanted to use their magics . Led by Dath ' Remar Sunstrider these sorcerers decided to unleash a magical storm upon the tranquil forests . The Arch - Druid Malfurion did not want to execute so many of his own people and decided instead to banish them all from their homelands , and Dath ' Remar led them across the sea to the east . These elves shrunk in height and their skin lost the dark violet hue common among their kin , and thus the Quel ' Dorei , commonly known as the high elves , were born . The elves travelled for years across the world that had been shattered by the wars with the Burning Legion , but in the end they arrived in the lands now known as Lordaeron . Settling in the Tirisfal Glades they quickly encountered the locals , and while contact with the human tribes was sparse , the local trolls had built a great empire and attacked them on sight , quickly fueling a hateful feud between the two races . Shortly after their settling , something evil beneath the earth started to drive some of the elves insane , so they decided to press on into troll territory . It didn ' t take long before the high elves founded the kingdom of Quel ' Thalas in the northern forests , not knowing it was an area sacred to the trolls . The forest trolls attacked the fledgling nation in ever increasing numbers , forcing the elves to use their strong magic . The superstitious troll war bands were frightened away and it was 4 , 000 years before they truly retaliated . The Founding of Strom . The human tribes also suffered at the hands of the trolls . At the time the humans were a factional people , scattered and leaderless . Chieftain Thoradin of the Arathi saw the threat to his race and decided to unite the humans . Along with his trusted friend and greatest general Ignaeus , later to be known as Trollbane , he devised a cunning strategy : fight the nearby human tribes , and after each victory offer them peace and equality . With this tactic he united the tribes and founded the first of the human kingdoms , Arathor . Situated in what is now known as the Hillsbrad Foothills and Arathi Highlands , his growing empire ruled from the capital city of Strom . Up to this time , the human empire had rarely had contact with the reclusive , magic - wielding elves , and all contact with the trolls was through border skirmishes . After years of continual besiegement by the trolls , the high elves , with defeat nearing , finally decided to seek the aid of the now - powerful humans of Arathor . The elven king Anasterian Sunstrider , descendant of Dath ' Remar , sent out their diplomats to try and negotiate the primitive humans into aiding them . Even though the elves had at times treated the humans no better than they had the trolls , Thoradin saw the danger in allowing the elf civilization to fall , and agreed to an alliance . The elves would teach one hundred humans how to wield the arcane arts of magic , while the massive armies of Strom would mobilize and join the war against the trolls . The Battle of the Alterac Mountains . The armies of Quel ' thalas and Arathor engaged the trolls in a great battle at the foot of the Alterac Mountains . The battle lasted for many days , but the knights of Arathor refused to give any ground , and finally the elven masters agreed that it was time to unleash the elven and human mages upon the trolls . Magical fires from the sky hindered the trolls ' regeneration , and their morale suffered . After some hours of the magical bombardment the remaining human and elven warriors charged the trolls , broke their lines , and forced them into a terrible rout . Even as they fled , the trolls were pursued and butchered by the merciless allied forces . The trolls ' power was broken and their population decimated , the last Troll empire lay in ruins . Aftermath . The trolls would never recover from this defeat . The Gurubashi Empire had been shattered by a deadly civil war , and now the Amani Empire of the forest trolls was broken . What remained of the trolls of the northern lands was forced into the wilderness . However , the war was not completely unsuccessful for the trolls , thousand of elves and humans had been slain and the remaining left completely weakened . Thoradin did initially not want his people to use magic , but he was forced to accept it so it could be utilized against the incredible troll armies arrayed against him . This led to the foundation of Dalaran , and later many other city - states . Following Thoradin ' s death his empire was split up , thus removing any hope for a truly united humanity . The elves owed the humans a debt of gratitude for saving their people and ending the first major war since the Sundering and The War of the Ancients , and probably the longest in the History of Warcraft . This debt laid the groundwork for the Alliance and was honored during the Second War when Anduin Lothar , last descendant of the King Thoradin of Arathor , led the Alliance of Lordaeron to war against the Horde for the second time in his life . The humans had the largest gains of the war : they were united and they gained a debt of gratitude from the only force able to threaten them . They were initiated into the arts of magic , their technology was greatly improved and inspired by the elves ( some claim the elves taught them the art of metalsmithing , though it is more likely they knew of that before the war ) . They also became the greatest power on the continent and were able to spread in every direction with almost nothing in their way . The human mage Meryl Felstorm was forced into undeath after being mortally wounded during the war . He would later become one of the founders of the Council of Tirisfal and its sole remaining member after Medivh ' s betrayal .