Trollhunter

Not to be confused with the TV series.

“The mantle of Trollhunter is a sacred responsibility, one which has never been passed to a human before.”

―Blinky to Jim about his new mantle

Kanjigar the Courageous (top left), Jim Lake Jr. (top right), Maddrux the Many (bottom left), and Spar the Spiteful (bottom right)

A Trollhunter is a powerful warrior chosen by the Amulet of Daylight to be the protector of the worlds of trolls and humans from evil creatures and trolls, like the Gumm-Gumms.

The current Trollhunter is Jim Lake Jr., the first human (later human-troll hybrid) to be chosen.

The Trollhunters are often referred to as "Merlin's champions/creations", due to their affiliation with him, as well as their amulet being created by the wizard himself. Their main goal is to keep the balance of both worlds (and, by extension, the universe as well). Their line of heroism began during the millennia War for the Surface Lands.

System

The title of Trollhunters began during the Age of Merlin, who created the Amulet to choose a champion capable of being the protector of the trolls until the day of his/her death. Once a Trollhunter perishes, the Amulet of Daylight chooses a new warrior to wield the mantle. The title has been passed down to Troll to Troll for centuries, until the Amulet choose its very first human to be its master: Jim Lake Jr.

As implied many times, once the warrior is chosen to wield the mantle, they cannot refuse it. If they ever try to reject the amulet, it will instantly return to its master, as it is permanently bonded with them.

A Trollhunter also lives and dies with honor by following the Three Rules of Trollhunting:

1. Always be afraid– Fear helps keep the Trollhunter alive. It heightens their senses, keeps them alert, on-guard, and remain vigilant when facing battle.
2. Always finish the fight– The Trollhunter's opponent must be given no mercy and their fights are always to the death, including murdering, to keep their foes from returning for vengeance. Jim (being the first human chosen and all) prefers to follow this rule in his own way: killing only in self-defense and when it's absolutely necessary.
3. When in doubt, always kick them in the gronk-nuks– A perfect way for the Trollhunter to identify/observe their opponent for weaknesses, as well as gain the upper-hand.

Known Trollhunters

• Spar, "The Spiteful"

Spar was one of the first Trollhunters chosen. He is also the very first Troll to meet an Akiridion, he helped the visitor get back her planet by pushing her ship off the edge of a cliff to gain velocity and leave the planet. This brief encounter with an alien taught him how to bring balance his own, it also gained him the respect of the humans and learned to respect the primitive cave people.

• Boraz, "The Bold"

Boraz was the Trollhunter after Spar. He got his name because he took out a thousand Gumm-Gumms. During a fight, Bular came up behind him and stabbed him in the back.

• Maddrux, "The Many"

Maddrux was the Trollhunter way before Kanjigar, even before the Days of Gogun, who protected Trollkind as one of its most celebrated heroes. She cultivated a reputation as a capable and confident champion. Her story was farther expanded up in the graphic novel The Felled. She battled Orlagk the Oppressor with her clones, but he escaped that day.

• Grimbald, "The Grave"

Grimbald trained with Kanjigar and Deya. Once, when he went on look out, a group of Gumm-Gumms attacked while he was fighting Bular. They went up behind him and he cut his head into two pieces.

• Araknak, "The Agile"

Araknak was one of Blinky's relatives. He had overprotective parents who watched him fight a pair of gruesomes while they were staking him during one of his trollhunts. He chose to pursue the path of a warrior not of an academic like his parents.

• Gorgus, "The Gorgeous"

Gorgus was one of the youngest Trollhunters, being chosen at the young age of 24. When he turned 56, he started to train with Kanjigar the Courageous. During the training, a group of Gumm-Gumms attacked and an arrow went flying and hit Gorgus in the head, which killed him.

• Unkar, "The Unfortunate"

Unkar was the Trollhunter for six hours under the training of Blinky Galadrigal. On his first (and only) night, he battled several Jungle Gumm-Gumms on the stairs of a temple, while fighting he was shouting some very egocentric things liked how he always wanted to wear the armor. When Unkar reached the top of the temple, he tripped and felled into a hole of spikes. Bular pulled his body from the spikes and discovered that he was still alive then he tore Unkar apart limb from limb.

• Tellad-Urr, "The Terrible"

Tellad-Urr was one of the fiercest Trollhunters to ever be chosen, as well as the first to ever become evil and ally himself with Gunmar.

• Gogun, "The Gentle"

Gogun was the successor of Tellad-Urr. He was known for his kindness, compassion, and was sort of against violence, especially towards the Gumm-Gumms. He is the only known Trollhunter to have not fallen in battle, but rather died from very old age.

• Voltar, "The Voracious"

Voltar was chosen in 1578, and was apparently born with two minds. On one of his Trollhunting missions, he fought Angor Rot, but ended up losing head (literally), as well as his own soul.

• Deya, "The Deliverer"

Deya was the great Trollhunter that trapped Gunmar and the Gumm-Gumms in the Darklands. In 1620, while on the docks of the Mayflower, before they set foot on the ship, Bular came rushing at Deya with his swords. Deya told the trolls to get onto the ship while she went to fight Bular, Draal tried to help Deya but Kanjigar stopped Draal and told him that Deya has given them the chance to escape Bular. The Mayflower set sail with the Trolls and a few Gnomes hid in the ship, Vendel and Blinky hope they done the right thing by leaving Deya behind. Bular and Deya tumble off the dock and into the water where they fight until Bular blinds Deya with sunlight reflected off his sword, the amulet somehow gave Deya sight but the sun came up and turned Deya to stone and Bular ran to keep himself from turning to stone. 

• Kanjigar, "The Courageous"

Kanjigar was the greatest Trollhunter to have ever been chosen, even more so than his predecessors before him, even Deya. Before the creation of Arcadia, two royal Akiridions, Fialkov and Coranda, entrusted Kanjigar to look after Gaylen's Core and protect it from the wrong hands. He creates an enchanted chamber within Trollmarket called the Deep, to protect the core so that anyone who falls into the Deep would confront their deepest fears. In the present, he sacrificed his life by petrifying himself in the sunlight to keep Bular from getting the amulet.

• Jim Lake Jr. (current)

Jim is Kanjigar's successor who was chosen to be the first human to ever wield the mantle of Trollhunter, but he was never meant to remain that way. To defeat Gunmar, Merlin turned Jim into a half-troll to give him a fair chance of defeating him.

• Draal, "The Deadly" (alternate reality)

In an alternate reality, where Jim was never chosen to be the next Trollhunter, Draal inherited the amulet from his father when he fell during his battle with Bular.

Trivia

• According to Aaron Waltke on his Twitter page, the Trollhunter works as a kind of "wandering knight errant", like the famed knight Lancelot, given how one Trollhunter had to protect multiple troll caverns around the world, especially the likely chance that two or more worlds would need him at the same time. Aaron even agrees that this kind of job can be rather hard.