Zul’jin initially rebuffs Doomhammer’s proposed alliance

Full History

Zul'jin initially rejected Orgrim Doomhammer's effort to recruit the forest trolls into the Horde. His people had their own war with Quel'Thalas and no automatic reason to submit their cause to an orcish warchief. As the conflict widened, however, the possibility of striking the elves with Horde assistance became increasingly attractive.

The Amani's hostility toward the high elves reached back long before humans learned of the Dark Portal. The founding of Quel'Thalas had displaced troll power in the northern forests, and later battles against elves and humans inflicted further defeats. Zul'jin's leadership was shaped by those ancestral grievances. Doomhammer's proposal could be judged in terms of what it offered the trolls against their traditional enemies rather than as loyalty to the Horde itself.

The eventual cooperation was an alliance of circumstance, not a permanent merger of interests. The defeat of the Horde would later cause many forest trolls to withdraw from their orcish partners. Zul'jin's initial refusal is important because it shows that even when trolls and orcs fought together, they did so from different histories, ambitions, and calculations about the future of their lands.