The Mystery of the Zau Brulk Trolls

do we know if anyone has ever tried the "surround your city with occupying armies" thing before, or is that something original to this latest push?

In the "Don't get eaten" thread, Alcie documented what happened when the tentacles escaped, how they were contained and if they ate units or not. This is how we know that we have to surround cities. 

Edited by Freyja. - 05 Oct 2023 at 00:31

Long live trolls

Yeah, that's what they do. They travel north from Tallimar into Arran. In Arran, they either go northwest to Tor Carrock/Keppen OR they go northeast to Mal Motsha/Keshalia. And there are usually 2-4 armies (or more) moving at the same time. 

They don't go in a straight line, and seem to wander a bit, and they camp often. However, on the way home, I have not seen them stop to camp and it takes a few days to get back home. Maybe they wander around, looking for something or trying to complete a mission, and once it's done/found, they go straight home, non stop. 

This is a graphical map of their movements, which anyone can get to on the Zau Brulk wiki page (link in 1st post of this thread):

 Thank you so much, Jejune. I appreciate the feedback.

I have noticed the expanded inter-faction standings. On paper, so to speak, the inter-faction standings make sense, but looking at the map and considering each faction's behaviors, many of them are likely to never come into contact with each other. Many of the standings don't make a lot sense in the Illy world, geographically. If the expanded standings are necessary for what's planned for factions, then I'd understand the need to expand them more.

A good example are the Zau Brulk and Drangu Mundas. It's not likely they will ever interact with each other. Zau Brulk doesn't travel that far north, and Drangu Mundas doesn't travel outside of their action radius. Zau Brulk interacts with many factions along the way when they travel around central Elgea, and the other factions react to them, but they've never come into contact with Drangu Mundas. I think it's far more likely for Drangu Mundas to battle with the Guardians of Zera, who do travel into ogre territory and they have a strong hatred of each other (-70). Plus, the Guardians of Zera are one faction that I have caught attacking another faction (Crimson Dawn). Like I said above, I don't know what's coming with the AI update, and things could change in unexpected ways.

The Parvacones-Pax Orcana-Zau Brulk thing is a story that crosses several pages of the lore, and they were all probably involved in the greenskin takeover of Caer Arodd (now known as Great Mountain Home), which the dwarven clans still want back. The lore hints that the trolls were arms dealers between the orcs and greenskins. Great Mountain Home is a hot spot for inter-faction action and drama.


 "I wonder what would happen if the right person caught the right Fey at the right time?"

Us too! We've been wondering that for years. The time is 1900, but we haven't figured out what to do yet. Thank you for confirming what many of us have always believed. It's nice to know we weren't chasing a false clue. This deserves a separate thread.

"It will be interesting to see if one will be able to someday curry favor with the Fey by contesting Zau Brulk."

"Another consideration is to what degree being an orc could factor into partnering with Zau Brulk."

Those are both interesting ideas and 2 different perspectives. Make friends or don't make friends. Attack their enemies or make friends with their enemies. There will be choices to make and we are thinking and talking about these kinds of things. I encourage people to look at the factions around their towns and the ones who own the hubs where they do trade. Those 2 things are the most important factors when deciding which side to pick and where to put towns.