Zen'draj

## Background

### Youth

Zen'draj was born to a family of nomadic Frost Troll hunters, part of a larger band which migrated across the hills of southern Dun Morogh. Sharing in the ancient patrimony known well as belonging to Trolls which dwelt there, knowledge of the cold became the first experience with which Zen'draj became accustomed to. The winters were harsh, and the summers were often their equal.

Under these conditions, the survival of the band was often dependent upon whether or not the Dwarves were in a mood to feast upon the boars that inhabited their favored hunting grounds. It was to this world that Zen'draj was born, and in it he was taught skills that had been passed down millennia.

Trapping, foraging, archery, and camp logistics became his daily life as soon as he could walk. In addition to this, the rich cultural life and traditions which are shared as a near universal fact of life among all Trollkind were taught to him, and they were stressed as being of utmost importance. Trolls, he was taught, must never forget their ways, lest they risk losing their soul as a people.

### Adulthood

Upon coming to the age of adulthood, it was expected that Zen'draj would lead his first hunting party. Given command of a few Frostmane youths, and an elder which knew well the ways of medicine, the group set forth on their journey. It would be the last time that he would set eyes upon the snow-filled land that he called home. Set upon nearly immediately by a group of Dwarven riflemen, the group had been forced to flee eastwards a great distance.

Alarmed by the bells which had been rung in the local town of Kharanos, it soon became clear to them that they could not return lest they risk capture, or death. The bells, the elder had explained, were a rallying call for the local militias. It had been rung only once before in his lifetime, when the band from which he originated had been exterminated. Facing this dire situation, it was decided that they would continue east in the hope of encountering another band.

They had walked for days before encountering another troll, from whom they discovered that many of the return paths were recently snowed over by a powerful blizzard. Divided as to whether or not to continue east or await the melting of the snows, the party disbanded.

Zen'draj, knowing that his family had likely been slain in the attack, turned his back on the world that he had known before, and set forth to discover a new destiny elsewhere. Filled with all the ambition and fervor that is common to youth, he fancied himself having a belly full of ale and meat, sleeping in a warm bed every night, and dwelling in one of the great cities which were described to him as belonging to the Gurubashi Empire.

Luckily, it would not be a journey that he needed to make alone, as he was joined by the elder of their party, a man he knew as Sultrax. And so they traveled south, surviving off of the land, exploiting new environments, and discovering a world which had once seemed so small. The elder often grew weary, forcing them to stop and set up camp early in the evening. It was during these times of waiting that the elder imparted what knowledge that he retained upon the boy, among those being the ability to speak Orcish, the language which had been used to trade with the Dragonmaw at times; the geography of the South; and the story of the Horde which had once swept upon these lands.