Quick Overview
The Atal’ai fled to the Swamp of Sorrows after their devotion to Hakkar helped tear apart the Gurubashi Empire. They raised a temple to summon the blood god, but the green dragonflight sank the sanctuary beneath the swamp. The Pool of Tears became part of a centuries-long struggle to contain a forbidden cult that refused to die.
Full History
The Pool of Tears became entangled with the exile of the Atal'ai priests, who fled the Gurubashi after their worship of Hakkar divided the great troll empire. In the swamps far from Zul'Gurub, the cult sought a secluded place to continue the summoning rites that its own people had rejected. The temple they raised was dedicated to the Soulflayer and to the hope that his arrival would restore their authority.
That ambition brought them into conflict with powers older than the surviving troll kingdoms. The green dragonflight sought to contain the danger and cast the temple into the waters of the Swamp of Sorrows. The punishment did not end the cult. Isolated beneath the swamp, its followers continued their work, turning the drowned sanctuary into a hidden center of forbidden worship.
The pool's historical importance follows from this failure of containment. The Atal'ai had been driven from their home and buried beneath the marsh, yet neither defeat prevented their devotion from surviving. Their attempt to restore a blood god's rule connected the old Gurubashi civil war to a distant temple, preserving the consequences of the empire's division long after its political power had collapsed.
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