Conquest of the Horde

We don't have a lore section. Anyhoo, I had seen a discussion on this on a WoW board somewhere, and the concept, of course, interested me, with as many trolls as I play and how rough and tumble they can be.

The main question was raised after the trailer for the Gods of Zul'Aman patch came out, and Zul'jin was shown to be missing an eye and an arm.

The main question was: Hey, why didn't they regenerate?

I'm going to toss my wonky theories out there and see if anyone bites.

Let's start with what we do know:

-Trolls heal very quickly. They've got a racial ability for it and everything!
-The troll male /silly in which he states, "I heard if you cut off an extremity, it'll grow back a little bigger... don't believe it."
-There is a Gurubashi legend in-game (I'll have to look for it) that mentions a troll that looses his arm and has to become left-handed.
-Zul'jin hasn't grown his arm or his eye back.
-It was specifically stated that arcane magic and fire were used by the elves and humans to finally beat the trolls back, because it prevented them from regenerating.
-In the recently-published WoW comic, the troll combatant has his arm sliced cleanly off just below the shoulder. This is a similar injury to Zul'jin's. Another character states quite simply that the troll "can't regenerate that arm", but doesn't state why. The character is definitely younger-looking than Zul'jin.

My theory:

I suspect that troll regeneration has little to do with age and physical fitness, and more to do with the nature of the injury and how much of the limb is lost.

Obviously, if the wound is cauterized, it's not growing back, and the same may be said for arcane magic, possibly. Since Zul'jin lost his eye to torture in the custody of high elves, it's possible that is the reason why the eye did not regrow.

Arms, though, are another matter. The troll in the comic has his arm amputated by what we will assume is a normal sword, and Zul'jin himself states that he cut off his own arm and escaped imprisonment. The likelyhood of Zul'jin choosing to cauterize something he thought might grow back, or even taking the time to do so when he was escaping, seems a bit far-fetched to me.

I suspect that the healing factor has more to do with the amount of flesh lost. The /silly specifies an "extremity", which is the furthest reaches of a limb, like a hand or foot. It may be that growing back any more than that is more than a troll can manage. ...Of course, it is a /silly, and the word choice may mean nothing.

Er. So there's my stab in the dark. Any thoughts, addendums, corrections, zomgwtfbbqs?

I think it mostly depends on the extent of the damage, IMO.

Yeah, regenerating an arm is a different animal than regenerating a finger, even if in both cases they were caused by a clean cut. There's a huge difference in the amount of tissue and bone that needs to regrow. Trolls regenerate quickly, but that doesn't mean they can recover from fatal wounds or anything of that nature.

An interesting point about cauterized wounds. A lot of games and worlds show fire as being a primary way of countering regenerating creatures. Acid tends to join it. In this case, it's not just about how much lost, but what happens to what remains. Fire and acid don't just eat away at flesh, they mess up what's left behind.

So I suppose it depends on the nature and extensiveness of the wounds. I doubt there's a more solid answer than that.

Adding a bit from a private discussion, and sticking this thread in the articles and guides section.

Please keep in mind most, if not all of this, is theory, and not hard lore.

Regarding the time taken to regenerate missing stuff:

Actually, troll lore is kind of iffy on that. Trolls heal quickly, but it's not stated for certain how much they can regenerate (for example, Zul'jin cut off his own arm to escape imprisonment, and it is still missing). More to the point, I'd like to know how a troll with no feet is going to run away, heh.

That said, I usually go by the amount of flesh lost. A finger, toe, ear, etc. wouldn't take too long, maybe two to four weeks depending on the overall health of the troll and how well-fed they are. A whole hand or foot may take months, and multiple limbs would take even longer. Think of it this way: when a troll eats, they use those nutrients to rebuild the missing part. The more that's missing, the more those nutrients need to be split up and sent to different places, slowing down the process.

Again, that's all pretty much my theory.

I'd still love to see other people's input on this.

Forum necromancy! (Joke :P)

I haven't read the lore about this so it is a mere guess. But what about if the Trolls prayed to speed up the regeneration? Or made some formula?

I don't think it's the craziest of opinions. That's just my opinion isn't it?

EDIT: And I agree with Qaza about how much flesh is lost.

Infection should be taken into account. The bigger the wound from the cut, the higher chance of it getting infected and I think if it was infected, it would stop the healing process. I'd also imagine bloodflow would have to stop. Shattered bone could be lodged into layers of flesh which would probably slow it down. And the last thing that should be taken into account is adrenaline. I'd see something like adrenaline stunting, stopping, or speeding up the healing process. But I'm no surgeon/biochemist/biologist/scientist/troll loremaster. Thanks for reading!

Well, do we know how Zul'jin got his "afflictions"? I am guessing that he had been in contact with fire(or acid), therefore no eye or arm growing back.. Maybe some kind enchanted blade? Well, that's my two cents.

Well Zul'Jins arm was only cut off by a simple spear and was able to escape before anyone could get to him.

MAYBE It's age aswell? If you're young it's faster, maybe when you're older it's quite slow, if not that probably so slow you can't even call it regenerating.

EDIT: Who knows, maybe the elves put a spell on him or something when they tortured him.

I think I have the answer.

From what I heard, Zul'jin had his arm cut off with a flaming sword, and lost his eye to a red-hot poker. Cauterization. I know WoW and DnD lore are different, but in DnD lore, a troll that loses it's arm will grow the arm back, and the arm will grow a whole nother troll (Of course unless cauterization or acid burns occur, in DnD that is a troll's main weakness.). I believe an extremity WILL grow back, I think the /silly refers to uh. Below the belt for males.

Thats just my input from DnD, not sure if it applies though.

*chuckles* I'm pretty sure WoW-wise, troll limbs don't beget new trolls. I'm pretty sure that would be significant enough to mention in the official lore.

I'm curious where it's stated that Zul'jin cut the arm with a flaming sword. I think the only weapon I saw in the cinematic was some sort of spear that looked pretty mundane, but they didn't show the actual event. If that's accurate, it would explain a lot!

Yeah, I thought it was a spear too, but I don't know!

But just remember, regeneration isn't death-cheating.
If you cut off several limbs (Like Zalashi did) without being taken into proper care, you will die. Quite quickly, due to the fact that blood will be leaking quickly from a large wound, and one with quite alot of blood flowing through it.

Woah. I like this topic.

*Ahem* I'll add my two cents to this theory, taking from my experience with a roleplaying game called "Werewolf the Appocolypse".

If I remember correctly, the game had three types of damage; bashing, lethal, and aggravated.

Bashing: This was the lowest type of damage. Basically, any damage done by bare fists, or blunt weapons. Obviously, in certain cases, it could do more damage than a sword, but, for the most case, not.

Lethal: Caused by anything that could cut, and make ya bleed. Pretty standard damage.

Aggravated: Here is were I beleive Trolls would come in. This type of damage makes the healing ability for werewolves NOT WORK. This is caused by wounds done by magic, magic weapons, organic weapons (claws, teeth, ect), and so on. Oh, and fire. However, the part that gets cloudy when it comes to translating this to WoW is of course, magical weapons. It could be argued that all weapons are magical, or that none are.

Basically, I'd go with it'd have to be one powerful arse weapon that none of us players could get that'd lob off a Trolls arm and not have it grow back. So, stick to magic, and fire. Heh. (Teeth and such may apply due to infections and such. But I'll leave that up to you.)

Half on topic:

Would the Strong Troll's blood potion, made through alchemy, have the same regeneration effect? Or just to a lesser extent?

I'm assuming it's named as such because of it's effects being similar to troll regeneration. However, it's a consumed item and not something that is constantly ongoing.

Trolls will regenerate any wound that hasn't been caused by acid or fire, EVENTUALLY. Please not that it would take about a month to regrow your whole arm.
Any wound caused by acid or fire can be healed once again if the say, stump of the arm was sliced off, then the cells would begin to regenerate the arm once more.

Additionally, weapons with Vorpal qualities can cut off a body part the troll will never regerate util healed properly.

A troll's blood potion will not regenerate a lost body part on anyone it is used by though.

It's already been shown in multiple sources that whole limbs won't regenerate.

And why the sudden necromancy?