#background post

Dungeons.

As the group kept travelling, collecting new materials, and discovering new parts of their world, they heard from the mouths of merchants and other travelers, stories of battles that had occurred across the sea; the defeat of The Lord of fire, and the eradication of the Army of a black dragon and his cruel experiments. There were also stories of smaller feats, like how a group of Horde adventures had rescued the Druids trapped in the wailing caverns, or how they had stopped a demonic cult hidden in Dire Maul. The three of them liked listening to these tales, and admired these heroic feats, particularly Anuka, but they didn’t seek a way to participate in such fights. People liked to talk about the treasures and the glory, but both Crisas and Tah were acutely aware of the lives that were lost too. And, as much riches as they could be promised, what would happen to their family if they failed? How would their sisters survive if they died?

However, this perception would soon change; as their journey came closer to Silithus, so did the time for hard choices.

Okush.

When Crisas and Tah heard stories of a place covered in lush vegetation, inhabited by Raptors, Demosaurs, and other variants of huge lizards, they immediately wanted to go. Dinosaurs, in abundance, meant hides, fangs, talons, things they could work with, things they could sell. But it was a hard choice. Their destination was further down South, almost too far from Orgrimmar... still, they wanted to see something that could resemble the home they knew and had grown up in, if only just a little.

Convincing Anuka of visiting an unexplored place wasn’t too hard, the problem was reaching the Un’goro Crater.

First they travelled to Gadjetzan, looking for someone that could guide them across the desert of Tanaris, but there were some problems: Crisas and Tah wouldn’t go near any Human or Dwarf, the Goblins asked for more than what they could pay, and going into the desert without knowing the way was a guaranteed death. It was too easy to get lost, and there wasn’t any shortage of enemies.

Luckily, they came across a grumpy old orc, a Shaman named Okush. Apparently he had come back from Silithus recently, looking to buy a specific set of materials in the trading city. After a small negotiation, he agreed to guide them through the desert in exchange of specific materials from the Steamwheedle port.The trio managed to get him the ingredients he needed, and thus, they parted to Un’goro.

During their journey, the orc took a particular interest in Tah. He found it worrisome, and dangerous, that the young shaman only ever called on fire and didn’t know how to establish a connection with the other elements. Okush tried to teach him how to do so in their short time together and even offered to help him further his instruction if he accompanied him to Silithus. In the end, Tah declined the offer, not wanting to separate from Crisas or their family for an unknown amount of time. The old Orc accepted his answer, but as they parted ways, he informed the Troll that, should he ever change his mind, they could always find him at the Cenarion Bastion, in Silithus.

The Gates of Ahn’Quiraj.

The trio had spent barely a month in Un’goro, exploring and collecting minerals, hides, and herbs, before something strange happened. They started seeing more and more people from different factions and races, traveling by mount or using nearby encampment flight paths, heading west. Of the few they dared to ask, they only got the sense that something was going on in Silithus. Something bad enough that the Horde and Alliance were banding together against it. Something that had the Cenarion Circle and even the Dragons involved.

It wasn’t until an older Darkspear, a mage named Ka’jin, passed through their outpost that they got a definitive answer. He explained to them how groups of Silithid and Qiraji had gone through the barrier that sealed the city of An’quiraj, rushing the Bronze Dragonflight into sending a call to anyone that could aid in containing the threat and prepare for a war.

The three youngsters were in equal parts surprised and unsettled; the notion of a war, of the scale Ka’jin was implying, terrified them, specially Tah and Crisas. No troll had grown up without hearing the stories of their ancestors, of the war against the insectoids that lasted decades and nearly extinguished their kind, and if this was the same thing… what could they do?

Anuka chose to stay, and followed Ka’jin into Silithus while Crisas and Tah went back to Orgrimmar through a portal the mage insisted on making for them. The Capital City was brimming with activity in preparation for the incoming campaign, and the materials they had gathered quickly found use. Their family was helping in small ways with the management of potion and herbs, thanks to Kuji’s job. They did as well for a while, until there was another call for more combatants to aid on the fighting.

This time, they answered. This wasn’t about uselessly risking their lives for gold or glory, but rather, a matter of survival. And survival of the tribe, of their people, was everything. No matter the risk.

During the War Effort, they battled beside members of both Horde and Alliance. People they knew, like Anuka, Ka’jin or Okush... and people they feared, or hated, like Forsaken, Night Elves and pink skins. But, despite everything, they fought beside them. They learned to accept that they weren’t always going to fight in the best conditions, and they weren’t always going to be fighting besides friends. Who they feared, or what they hated, didn’t matter, not when the safety of their people was at stake.

This thought was what kept them going during the extenuating, and seemingly unending journey, that was the fight against the Silithid. Many lives were lost before, during, and after, the opening of the gates of An’Quiraj, and of the numerous combatants they watched go into the Ruins, barely half came back to tell the story. But for everyone, what truly mattered was that the threat has been vanquished, the Old One defeated. The war campaign was over.

They could go home.

----

Crisas and Tah during Classic wow Pt 1 

When Zalazane seized control of the Echo Isles however, Crisas decided that instead of staying in Sen’jin village, they should move to Orgrimmar; one, because she thought they would have more chances in the city, and two, because after loosing her youngest sister to the Witchdoctor’s uprising, she just couldn’t bear staying close to the isles.

Once they arrived to Orgrimmar, they kept doing similar small jobs to sustent the family, and as they traveled and did more dangerous errands, the pay got considerably better, pulling them farther and farther from the capital city, first into Durotar, and, later, into the Barrens.

Anuka.

When the second older sister of the family, Kuji’ta, managed to get a job as an apprentice and assistant of a local Alchemist (thanks to Tah teaching her how to differenciate, carefully pick appart, and preserve the Herbs), and the remaining 3 sisters knew how to manage the money and the house with her help, Crisas and Tah decided that they could journey further into Kalimdor.

Sending their earnings by mail, they could stay more time away, and gather much more than before. It was during this time in the Crossroads that they met a Tauren named Anuka, a young and enthusiastic hunter set on the acomplishment of taming the legendary beast named Echeyakee. In echange of helping her track and tame the lion, she offered to guide the pair across the Barrens, and while doing so, formed a strong friendship with the duo. Even after a long month of attempts and frustrating failures, Anuka didn’t acomplish her goal of taming the white Lion, but the three agreed to meet up  once more in the Crossroads to continue traveling together. After the Trolls had decided to go back to Orgrimmar to sell what they had gathered,

She was also the first time Crisas and Tah came across Tauren Sign Language, or Handspeak, as Anuka called it, and she had no problem in teaching them along the journey.

Ashenvale.

Following at first the call of the Horde, the trio went north to assist on the fight against the Night Elves, but soon they realized it had been a mistake.

The money they earned was not that much better, gathering herbs or pelts was much harder because of the ruthless Sentinels, and more often than not, the wounds they suffered in combat would need days to heal (even in Crisas’s and Tah’s case). There was also a sense of wrongness for them in many of their assigments; Tah and Anuka specially, did not like the little to no respect most of those orcs had for the nature that surrounded them, and both Trolls, while not liking Elfs one bit, recognized the signs of people defending what they knew as home, which would make the uneasiness grow in their stomach.

Sometimes they talked about leaving, but it wasn’t after Crisas’s first encounter with a particular elf, and an attack where Tah nearly lost an arm and Anuka nearly lost an eye, that the Troll huntress decided that she would not risk it any longer. Before a neccesary a trip to Orgrimmar, the group decided to travel South instead, to the Thousand Needles.

Perhaps the weather would be harsher, the jobs harder, or they would be much farther from… home, but she knew she could make herself and Tah survive through those, and the three agreed that, while understanding why the Warsong Gulch’s labor was needed, they wouldn’t take part on it.

——-

Sign Language and Troll culture

Crisas and Tah during Classic wow Pt 2

Resuming their background this way and adding small short comics is much more efficient than making a lot of uneventful stories just to explain their past.

so the others were not really thinking about that, because they were all raised the same, and are varying levels of poorly-adjusted/oblivious about it. vesemir, though, was - and is - very aware of the ways he's failed his boys, how he and all of his fellows failed them when the school was functioning. he's also aware of how he was failed, and how much of his regrets likely echo the generations of witchers before him - that the elder have been hurting the younger for hundreds of years.

that is part of the reason that he takes jaskier to the dungeons, shows him the "memorial" of dead boys' names, explains that generational trauma and how it lives in all of them, and how much he hates himself for it. vesemir was upset, at the reminder of kaer seren's fall, and he knows that one day, kaer morhen will finally fall the same - it's just a matter of time. he could have just shown jaskier the memorial tree, the medallions and the names on that stone. but he didn't; he chose to admit to his wrongs, to how viciously he failed geralt, because he is viciously aware of that failure.

he didn't make the choice to give geralt that sort of ultimatum lightly. he did not want to punish geralt for a lack that was vesemir's and other witchers' fault. however, he recognized that geralt was in a cycle of self-destruction and self-sabotage that wasn't going to be moved without force. so he gives him a wake-up call.

however, note that vesemir does not make himself the arbiter of this ultimatum - he tells geralt that until jaskier forgives him, until jaskier says he's repaired the damage he did, that he won't be welcome back. that, specifically? that's not just vesemir recognizing that the person geralt hurt should be a part of this - it's him saying that jaskier is the only one of them who can say.

because none of the witchers are well-adjusted. all of them are broken and traumatized and have coping mechanisms that border on self-destruction. jaskier isn't some kind of all-knowing benevlont judge of rightness, but he's much better adjusted than his witchers, and they all know that. he has the emotional intelligence to handle this in a way none of them can. vesemir knows that the clearest, with the benefit of having been one to raise a new generation of witchers that he knows he damaged, and the reflecting realization that his elders damaged him.

vesemir didn't want to give geralt an ultimatum, to punish him - but like the story he tells about geralt and eskel as children, he needed to impress the importance of what he was saying, and he doesn't really know any other way to do it.