Make Zul'Jin Great Again

[DrvalR]

Hi guys!

First of all - I love your work. I've already spent dozens of hours playing the mod. Yet there are few lore issues that I had to write about and one of them is Amani trolls and their leader - Zul'jin.

Every Warcraft fan heard Zul'Jin's name at least once - it is very important character after all! Not only he was the very first one, who united Amani trolls in thousands of years (after their terrible defeat at the Troll Wars, long before the Dark Portal), he also left a huge mark on the events of Second War and Third War aftermatch - during The Burning Crusade expansion in WoW.

Yeah, this guy was a legend. Yet he definatelly isn't one in the mod...both lorewise and gameplaywise.

Here are few things which IMO should be fixed:

1. Zul'Jin as a character There is more than one inconsistency with his mod character according to the lore and first is his set of skills and traits. In the mod he is Honest, Brave, Ambitious and Calm which is not entirely correct. This guy was literally fuelled by vengance and hate towards the elfs. This - and his commanding and leader skills - helped him to achieve what he achieved. In the books we also have seen him torturing some elfs. That is why I see him much more like this:

Traits: Ambitious, Vengeful, Brave, Sadistic is IMO the best example of who Zul'Jin really was. However these are 3 Virtuos traits for his religion, to not make him "too" exalted we can always change Brave for Zealous.

He also lacks of the commander trait iun the mod, even when he's got the martial education. Actually this is the issue of many other martial characters too (and should be fixed for real, most of martial guys are kinda useless without their caommander traits).

Talking about Zul'Jin - in his case commander trait Forest Fighter would be the most lore-friendly. Other options is Aggresive Attacker or Organizer. Having him a random commander trait wouldn't be so bad too.

I have also made him both Herculean AND strong. Why? Well, here is my version of his characted in the Third War and the Frozen Throne timestamp:

In the lore the Horde's defeat in the Second War also meant defeat for the Amani trolls. Zul'jin himself was captured and and mutilated by the elfs. He escaped, yet he lost both his eye and his arm, which never grew back (as is usually does because of the trolls regeneration). That is why I gave him many "veteran" traits, as One-eyed, Scarred and Crippled (One-Legged). To be 100% lore accurate we should make him maimed, yet it lowers his fertility to 0%, making him a lost cause for everyone who would like to play him as a ruler, thats why I think Crippled (One-Legged) would be much better choice.

By the way - I also changed his appearance - to make it more like he looked lorewise, with white hair. Red eyes and tatoos would be great too. I would also consider changing his dynasty name fo simply - Amani or Jin.

And WHY should he be the ruler? Well, we're going to the next point:

2. Zul'jin as a ruler of Zul'Aman In mod he is the ruler of Zul'Aman Kingdom only in the first timestamp - The Invasion from Draenor. Which is correct - at this time period he was an actual "king" of Amani and it stayed that way all way down to the end of the Second War - loss of the Horde meant also loss for the Amani trolls. At this time Zul'Jin was captured and mutilated by the elfs. However - as I mentioned earlier - he escaped and returned to the Amani tribe, becoming it's leader once again. That's why he appeared later as the Warlord of Zul'Aman, during WoW: The Burning Crusade Era.

More about his lore here: https://youtu.be/Xqy2sTU-r0w

And here's next time when mod isn't so lore-accurate. In the mod during both "Third War" and "Frozen Throne" era we have a king of Zul'Aman, which is...Daakara. And while he was a leader of Amani, that happened much, much later - during the Cataclysm expansion in WoW. He actually became their leader because Zul'Jin was killed by the players before. More: https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Daakara?so=search

At the same time in mod, during those timestamps Zul'Jin is not even a ruler - he's just a court member in one of the vassals..For such an important lore character that is more than wrong.

How to fix this? Well, the easiest way would be...just switch their places! Daakara can be courtier (or count) of Zul'Aman, and Zul'Jin will be the leader of Amani. To be honest we can even switch their traits too - Daakara's traits are similar in many ways to those I proposed for Zul'Jin. He also has both Herculean and Strong trait. Here's the screenshot comparing Daakara and my version of Zul'Jin

Daakara is in game also during the First War era - as a baby, having the Herculean skill. I personally think that it would be more lore-friendly and fan-friendly to put Zul'Jin as a ruler of Zul'Aman in all 3 timestamps. Who would like to play as just some warlord guy, when we can play as the legendary Zul'Jin himself! Daakara can be a ruler of one of the duchies/counties, which would be great for those who would like to play as a smaller ruler in the Amani realm.

Also it would be nice to add Hexx Lord Malacrass to the court of Zul'Aman kingdom as he was quite important in later Zul'Aman lore: https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Hex_Lord_Malacrass

That post seems to be much longer than I planned...let me know what you think. I'm also at your discord server as DrwalRębajło#7728

Cheers!

[Grekopithikos]

Lorewise, he could also have had cyan hair(at least when he's younger), as he did in Warcraft 2(and Warcraft adventures)