- “Long ago, trolls lived underground, blissfully unaware of humankind above. Inevitably, our worlds collided. Trolls and humans each wanted the world as their own and fought for it. Blood was shed, and our first Heartstone rotted from within. And from it... Gunmar was born.”
- ―Blinky to Team Trollhunters about the human-troll war[src]
The War for the Surface Lands[1][2] was the human-troll war that resulted in the birth of Gunmar.[3][4]
It was during the dark times when the humans and trolls worlds collided and each fought for control of the surface lands as their own. The war lasted for millennia up until the great Battle of Killahead Bridge.
After said battle, where the good trolls triumphed over the evil Gumm-Gumms, the war finally ended and both worlds were finally allowed to live separately in peace and harmony.[5]
History[]
Backstory[]
Millennia ago[6], the trolls lived underground (or more preferably the Darklands, which was the trolls' original homeworld before Gunmar's existence[7]), blissfully unaware of humans who lived above their world within the surface lands.[3]
However, the worlds inevitably came together, causing conflict and bloodshed planted within the two worlds who each wanted the surface lands as their own. Also, a civil war has broken out with magics for the protection of humanity and dominion over them. As a result of the growing conflict, the first Heartstone rotted and corrupted from within, and from it, Gunmar was born, who then proceeded to shatter the Quagawumps' beloved king as his first kill ever.[3][4][8]
A group of ancient sorcerers called the Arcane Order used the conflict as an opportunity to aid magics dominion until they reset the world in response, invading the affairs of man as their long-term nemesis, Merlin Ambrosious, kept their tyranny at bay for over a millennium. They sought out a champion that would carry out their orders and ensure their superiority on the world.
At some point, Gunmar betrayed his former warlord, Orlagk, in hopes of taking his army as his own. After weeks, Gunmar managed to decapitate Orlagk, losing his right eye in the process.[9][10] After this, Gunmar raided countless villages in search of new potential recruits for his army. He ended up in the Krubera Caverns, where he formed an alliance with the tyrannical Queen Usurna, who willingly traded her Krubera younglings and enlisted them in the Gumm-Gumm horde, one of them being AAARRRGGHH!!!, who eventually became Gunmar's top general.
Age of Camelot[]
In the 12th century during the Dark Ages, King Arthur, the rightful ruler of Camelot, sought to end Gunmar's reign of terror for good with the aid of his blessed weapon, Excalibur, and end magics once and for all. However, Arthur's half-sister and Merlin's finest student, Morgana, believed that magics should be free to roam the surface lands. Because of her brother's unjust and prejudicial methods, she turned against Camelot and engaged in a tense battle with her brother. Arthur, in pure instinct, sliced off Morgana's left hand and sent her falling to her death. Unknowingly to Arthur and Merlin, Morgana was founded and resurrected by the Arcane Order, who seek to destroy humanity, viewing them as corrupt. They recognized Morgana, who was born in the human world, but fights for magics' freedom, and chose her to become their champion, the Eldritch Queen. In actuality, Bellroc (the leader of the Order) intended to use Morgana to inflict chaos into both worlds, disregarding the balance.
Arthur, remorseful for his actions, chose to make amends for his ruthless actions and end this brutal conflict once and for all. Arthur's court wizard, Merlin, resolved a way to end the human-troll war by creating a champion who would forever be a bane to the Gumm-Gumms and protect both worlds (as well as the universe) from the forces of darkness. He used Morgana's left hand to craft the Amulet of Daylight (with some help from his second apprentice, Hisirdoux[11]), beginning the line of powerful champions called the Trollhunters. This caused Morgana to develop intense hatred for her former master, as well as his Trollhunters, and she made it her life's work to not just conquer the world, but to also erase Merlin's name and all of his creations.
At some point, Morgana realized that Gunmar and the Gumm-Gumms couldn't conquer the surface so long as their vulnerability to the sun remained in play. Deciding to remove that weakness, Morgana began devising a dark ritual called the Eternal Night which would permanently block out the sun, ensuring that the Gumm-Gumms could conquer the world without fear of turning to stone.[4] Morgana also prophesied to Gunmar that he would usher in the Eternal Night, promising it would be the time when trollkind would reclaim the surface from humanity, which he used to rally sympathetic trolls to his cause. She later took several youngling trolls and altered them into Changelings, who can maintain human appearances and spy on the human world. She sends her first changeling, Janus, to assassinate her brother. Although the changeling failed to kill the king, he managed to weaken Camelot's defenses and left several knights injured or dead. This left Arthur with no choice but to seek aid from the good trolls of Dwoza. Unfortunately, even though they made a mutual agreement, the trolls instantly shun Arthur when Merlin's amulet chooses a troll outsider named Callista to be the first Trollhunter. Meanwhile, to help Gunmar rally more trolls into his cause, willingly or not, Morgana cursed his Decimaar Blade to enable him to control anyone to do his every whim.[12]
Nevertheless, Arthur rallied what Knights of the Round Table he had and faced Gunmar and the Gumm-Gumms in the famous Battle of Killahead Bridge. While Morgana battled Merlin for the fate of the world, the Arcane Order intervened the battle and killed Arthur to weaken his knights, until the trolls of Dwoza arrive, led by Callista, who is actually Deya the Deliverer. Deya manages to blind Bellroc and force the Arcane Order to retreat before she faces off against Gunmar. After a clashing battle between the two trolls, Deya exiled Gunmar and his army into the Darklands through the Killahead Bridge and used the amulet to seal it away. Meanwhile, Merlin uses most of his magic to imprison Morgana in a Heartstone underneath what would later be called Arcadia Oaks. Merlin was retreated to his tomb where he slept for a millennium. Unaware to him, however, Morgana's mind remain awake, despite her body's imprisonment, and plotted revenge against her former master and finish what she started.
Aftermath[]
In the aftermath of the battle, the war finally came to a standstill and Camelot was sent to the sky, thanks to Merlin's Heart of Avalon and became lost in legends. The trolls proceeded to tear Killahead apart, stone by stone, and scattered the pieces around the world. The Night Eternal plot was halted indefinitely for a millennium.
However, the Arcane Order is displeased that the humans and good trolls triumphed over evil and believe that the balance is lost. Nari, however, felt so much pain and believed that their violent actions were not worth it, so she defected the Order and sought refuge in Camelot to hide from them. Bellroc and their right-hand, Skrael, came to the conclusion that all life in the universe must be destroyed and began their search for the Genesis Seals, which contain raw essence of magic that can awaken their Titans, unite with the last surviving primordial Heartstone, and rebirth the world into their own image. However, they must also find Nari in order to break the seals. Before beginning their search, they visit Arthur's Tomb, where they resurrected him into the Green Knight, an undead being of anti-magic, who he took Morgana's place as their new champion/enforcer.
Although the war ended with the Killahead Battle, Gunmar's raid to recruit more trolls by force left Angor Rot, a warrior troll's, home was ravished in his wake, left in ruins and virtually defenseless. In 1297 A.D., to gain the strength he needed to defend it from raiders in the war’s aftermath, Angor returned to the sea cave he’d once brought a drowned girl (Morgana) to, hoping that perhaps he could find strength for himself, too. Offering his flesh for power, Angor tried to barter with the spirit of the cave. Little did Angor know that within the cave, Morgana, the very person he had brought there years prior, lie waiting, driven mad with vengeance after being defeated and sealed away in the Heartstone across the world by Merlin and his traitorous apprentices. Though her physical body remained trapped, she had found a way to project her spectral form into this place of power. Embittered and agonized by her loss and imprisonment, Morgana saw Angor’s arrival for what it was— an opportunity. She would use Angor as her pawn, a trial run at stealing another’s power — an ability she might eventually be able to use on Merlin himself while he slumbered. She took Angor’s soul, transferring it into the Inferna Copula, a ring with which she could control Angor Rot, and used him to erase Merlin’s legacy and kill his Trollhunters. Soulless and desperate to fill his empty void, he killed countless Trollhunters, until he was eventually incapacitated within Aysa-Thoon in Ranthambore for his crimes.
Bular, Gunmar's son, managed to avoid exile and plotted to rebuild Killahead and set his father free. Due to Morgana's imprisonment, the Gumm-Gumms were forced to find a way to create more changelings without her, in hopes of using them as spies to slip through the fetch and attempt to reopen Killahead Bridge. Over their centuries in exile, Gunmar and his forces eventually found a means of replicating the process (albeit in a ramshackle, inferior way) by harnessing the energy of the Darklands itself, and binding them to human spirits at infancy as a shortcut by using small portals called Fetches. Without the Darklands, there's no magic to sustain the changeling's familiar link to the babies — and the spell is broken. As such, no harm must come to the changelings' familiars so they could maintain their human forms. As such, the changeling organized a secret organization called the Janus Order (in honor of the first changeling Morgana created). As such, the changelings allied with Bular in their attempt to find the pieces of Killahead scattered across the world and free their master from the Darklands. Gunmar wished to carry out his promise to carry out Night Eternal.
Sometime ago, troll scholar named the Dishonorable Bodus, discovered that Merlin hid Gunmar's Bane in the Amulet of Daylight, by finding and combining the lost Triumbric Stones, three gemstones tied to Gunmar's lifeblood, consisting with the Birthstone (a fragment of Gunmar's birth when he came to be from the Heartstone which was corrupted during the human-troll war, located in the "mountain's peak" of the Volcanic Trolls), the Killstone (a remnant of Gunmar's first kill when he murdered the Shattered King, located in the "marshlands" of the Quagawumps), and the Eye of Gunmar (a commemoration of Gunmar's vulnerability when he battled Orlagk for control of the Gumm-Gumms, located in the "caverns deep" of the Kruberas). The Trollhunter can unlock a powerful weapon capable of mortally wounding Gunmar himself: the Eclipse Blade. Discovering this, Bodus uncovered the locations of the stones' whereabout, until he and his scholars were hunted down by Gunmar's assassins and burnt most of his books. Unaware to Gunmar and knowing that he had to keep his discovery a secret, Bodus hid the whereabouts of the Triumbric Stones within his last surviving copy, The Final Testament of Bodus.[13]
Eventually, the good trolls relocated to the New World and settled underneath California, where Arcadia will one day be built and created Heartstone Trollmarket, a safe haven for trollkind... unaware that their home also housed the vengeful Morgana herself inside the Heartstone.
Participants[]
Trivia[]
References[]
- ↑ Name of the Human/Troll War. Twitter (February 15, 2017). Retrieved March 10, 2020.
- ↑ It's About Time
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Roaming Fees May Apply
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 For the Glory of Merlin
- ↑ The Secret History of Trollkind
- ↑ Wherefore Art Thou, Trollhunter?
- ↑ The Art of Trollhunters
- ↑ The Shattered King
- ↑ Angor Management
- ↑ Age of the Amulet
- ↑ The Oath
- ↑ Night Patroll
- ↑ Mudslinging