Borza[]
Name: Borza Zandalarai
Title: Trollbane
Vitals[]
Race: Troll
Class: Mage
Age: 30 (approximately)
Sex: Male
Skin: Blue
Eyes: Purple
Hair: Flame Orange
Weight: 250 lbs. (approximately)
Height: 7'1"
Appearance[]
Borza is a classical example of Darkspear genetics: tall, lanky, flame-orange hair and blue skin providing a direct contrast to the pure white of the impressive tusks jutting from both sides of his mouth. The one major difference is not immediately apparent, that being the deep purple of his eyes which is a direct result of his mastery of elemental cold. The overall effect is a gaze that seems to pierce through whatever he looks at in order to scrutinize what lies beneath...
Personality[]
Quick with a smile, a joke, a kind word. Even quicker to anger and unleash his wrath upon anything or anyone who dares threaten those who he loves and honors... especially a certain female Troll shadow priest.
History[]
"My early years were marked by hunger. No, not physical hunger, as you can see that I lack nothing in the way of stature, but rather a hunger for knowledge. My sire knew early that the life of a fisherman in Sen'jin Village would not do for me, or so he told me upon my passage into adulthood. Rather than force me into a life of bitter drudgery, he made the personal sacrifice to send me away from my family to the city of Orgrimmar, where I soon wound up under the tutelage of the Undead mage Forester. Over the course of my early apprenticeship, I found that Forester was far from the picture of the reclusive scholar I had assumed would fit one of his advanced learning, but he was rather an advocate of something I came to know as 'applied knowledge'. He believed strongly that the most effective search for enlightenment could only be done by immersing oneself in the world, not existing in isolation from it. Indeed, the harder the lesson learned (especially if it involved some degree of physical pain), the more valuable it became. That was one of the first lessons I took to heart, and it has served me well ever since. It was this premise that allowed me to discover my true calling, for in my travels I discovered that while I managed to obtain basic proficiency over all three main schools of the arcane, I became virtuoso in the control and usage of elemental cold. This skill has served me well, and has kept me alive through many a tight situation throughout my travels.
"However, I did not limit my studies to the elemental arts, but also found fascination within the realm of natural science and healing, earning a title of doctor after a particularly difficult night of triage in the Arathi Highlands. I have also dabbled moderately in metallurgy and experimented extensively with the ability of physical matter to contain and display properties of the arcane. My studies along these lines are ever continuing.
"I have also discovered within myself a deep love of history (especially the distinct racial histories), and it was in that study that I discovered a crisis of identity. Indeed, after years of research, both in the field and among the written word, I have come to the only logical conclusion I could fully justify:
"I am not a Troll.
A brief respite while serving as advance scout beyond the walls of Thrallmar
"Allow me to explain. The designation 'Troll' as a race carries with it certain connotations. To our enemies (and even to a lesser extent, our allies), the word 'Troll' brings to mind a degree of barbarism, savagery, primordialism, evil, bloodthirstiness, lack of honor, selfishness, etc. Believe me, I did not want to accept this fact at face value either, but after studying the history, I found that this association was absolutely valid. The Troll race has a history of self-destructive blind individualism that spans back about 16,000 years, all the way to the Gurabashi and Amani empires! Between our blind tribal infighting, civil wars, demonic dabblings, promotion of race traitors, and sense of self-preservation that ignores the good of the whole, it is shameful how far the Trolls have fallen as a race. Certain names such as the Hakkari, the Atal'ai, the Firetree, the Smolderthorn, Zalazane, Zanzil... all roll off my tongue as a curse on behalf of what might have been. Despite my obvious blood connection with the Darkspear trolls of the Echo Isles and their direct descent from the Gurubashi empire of ages past, I feel no direct kinship with a race bound and determined to destroy itself and everything around it. I do acknowledge at least that the influence of the Orcs seems to have had a positive influence on the Darkspears, for they are the only tribe I have found in all of my travels that are actively seeking to distance themselves from their corrupt past. However, they still have a long way to go before they can truly call themselves redeemed.
"My personal salvation came when I discovered the Zandalar. This race is generally not classified by scholars as Troll, but it is apparently the ancient tribe from which all Trolls descended. However, they display none of the barbarism so pervasive in the resultant bloodlines. They seek knowledge for knowledge's sake, they isolate themselves from the infighting and power struggles of the tribes, they do not dabble with demonic forces, and most importantly, they use their knowledge and power to assist others while taking into consideration the well-being and elemental balance of the world. I have spent long years on their isles and spoken extensively with their elders, and while the taint of my bloodline will not allow them to accept me as one of their own, they have consented to have me at least take their name as a constant reminder of the high goals to which I constantly strive, and the base nature which I have rejected in name and dedicated my life to eradicating."
--Borza Zandalarai, quoted from a letter written to the Tears of Draenor.