Was thinking about roleplaying a Troll shaman or maybe even a Zandalari, when they come out. While doing my research I’ve seen a couple of conflicting messages when it comes to where they get there power from. Some say loas some say elementals. If it’s the los, what are the loas that gift these shamanistic powers? If it’s the elementals, would the loas look down upon a Troll for seeking power from elsewhere? Also how long does it take to become a shaman? Could a Troll pick it up in a few years? Or is it more of a life long thing?
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The Elements are what grant Elemental powers (water, earth, air, fire), and then there’s a particular fifth element called “Life” or “Spirit” depending on the source you’re looking at. This is essentially the same power source that a druid or a monk might draw from, except for shamans it’s said to be a living entity that encompasses all life, and it’s how other shamans connect with the Elements in the first place.
That said, a Zandalari shaman could definitely have a chosen deity much like any other troll, and intertwine their shamanistic practice with their worship of said Loa, given the Loa are also part of “Spirit”.
These pages are all pretty good primers, one for shamans (read the RPG parts of it at your peril, it’s not considered canon), one for the “Spirit” element in particular and one for loa worship:
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Shamanism_and_nature_worship
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Spirit_(lore)
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Loa
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It’s both the loas and the elements imo. Appeasing the loas may make it easier for the troll to communicate with the elements or make it more powerful but essentially to use the elements you need to commune with them.
Rogmasha summed it up nicely!
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IIRC I believe Talanji called upon Akunda to summon some lightening, for others shamanistic powers could fall under other loa’s domains. I personally like the idea of appeasing multiple loa over the elements, but thats just me.
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Shango the Loa of Storms is another to throw in - he’s most known from the RPG!
There’s a small bit about him on the wow-pedia ![:zap:](https://d1bg94bbsh66ji.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/zap.png?v=6" ":zap:")
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Troll shamans will most likely pray to the Loa for power over the elements, but praying and appeasing the elements directly is certainly not out of the question, since the Darkspear would be in contact with the orcs for more than thirty years at this point and they may have figured it out themselves thousands of years ago.
These are the Loa that are often associated with shamanism and it’s powers:
Water and lightning:
Lukou - Loa of healing, the best Loa for a restoration Shaman. It’s arguable she could lend her power to destroy and kill the undead for example, since they’re abominations in her eyes.
Shango - Loa of the storm, could lend lightning as well as the destructive part of weaving water
Akunda - Loa of the Storm
Gral - Shark Loa of the sea, he is the patron of fishermen and sailors, and is said to have been protecting Zandalar from outside invasions. He’s all about the deep ocean and knowledge, so him giving the power over water is not that far-fetched, but you’re better off with going with Lukou or Shango.
Fire:
Jan’alai - Dragonhawk Loa of the flames. This is the best choice when going with a Fire Weaver, because he’s the only Loa who we directly know is worshipped by Fire Mages and most likely to give the power over the element to his followers. “You mess with the Bird, you get the Firelord.”
Shirvallah - Tiger Loa of the day, hunt, power, often associated with fire and it’s possible he could give it to his shaman followers
Kimbul - Tiger Loa of the warriors, Farraki and Zandalari version of Shirvallah, so it’s agruable he could also lend the power over fire to his worshippers, but this is a stretch
Wind/Air:
Akil’zon - Eagle Loa of the wind and skies, the best choice if you want to go for an air shaman
Earth:
Torcali - Direhorn Loa of the harvest. This is a real stretch. But some things said about her in her Tales of the Loa hint that she could be associated with the element of Earth. I’m only putting it here because there seems to be no other Loa centered around it. However, the Drakkari Shaman NPCs in Drak’tharon Keep do cast Earth Shield, so shrugs maybe other Loa could give some spells to their followers that are associated with healing but not their own element, for example Lukou and the earth shield.
Enhancement:
Zanza the Restless - Zandalari Loa of wisdom and spells. He used to be a very powerful and wise witch doctor in life and helped the Amani during the Troll Wars thousands of years ago. He’s often associated with studying and voodoo, so an ‘enhancement’ troll shaman would most definitely pick this Loa, but probably another one on top if he wanted to control the elements as well as voodoo.
By the way, these troll shaman would probably be either called Weavers (Fire Weaver, Water Weaver) if they prayed to the Loa and only trained on mastering their power over the elements, or Witch Doctors, should they study the art of voodoo, such as hexxing, communing with spirits, etc.
By the way by the way, the plural of Loa is Loa, not Loas.
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One thing people seem to be forgetting is that loa is a cultural term and not necessarily a racial classification. Just look at Bwonsamdi, who’s an entity entirely different from someone like Rezan, a wild god. And let’s not forget all the loa who are ancestral spirits. An elemental could therefore easily be considered a loa. So worrying about that is really the last thing you have to do.
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I was thinking about making my troll a Mossflayer who worships Jan’alai and Akil’zon seeing as they are both forest troll loas and would give him access to fire and lightning. Do you think a Mossflayer could of picked up some shamanism back when the forest trolls were with the Horde? I also wanted him to have some knowledge of the earth elementals, he’s basically going to look for a way to try and heal the plaguelands.
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Yes! That is definitely more than possible! Go for it!
What if were thinking about making him a shadow hunter, would that be acceptable? If so got any good advice for that? Thanks for all the posts.
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Shadow hunters straddle the line between a priest (wielding both shadow-like and Light-like powers granted by the Loa) and some kind of shaman/druid, embodying the powers of voodoo and shadow magic both. They’re canonically a particularly powerful class, and one that almost all troll societies will recognise as worthy of respect. Unlike a loa priest, they’ll follow several loa, rather than committing to just the one.
For additional reading on their lore, and what voodoo in particular does, have a few primers!
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Shadow_hunter
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Voodoo
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Hey, great reply. How many would they worship and would a forest troll shadow hunter look to the drakkari loa? This seems abit odd o me. Coul they perhaps have one primary loa which they draw from, sporadically looking to the others? Or is it more of a general thing?
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Shadow Hunters will in all probability draw on the Loa from their cultural perspective over others. Remember that the worship of Loa involves cultivating some kind of relationship with them and interacting with them, so unless said Forest Troll has spent a significant amount of time hanging around Zul’drak, it’s unlikely they’ll have had many interactions with Drakkari Loa, and subsequently such Loa wouldn’t be granting them boons. Remember Loas work on principles of deals, with worshippers acting as their agents in exchange for boons. It’s worth remembering as well that as Loa are active creatures, you can use your Troll’s worship of a Loa as some great character development as Loa can rightfully be fussy about whom they grant boons to. So you could write a character who has curried a particular Loa’s favour, but failed to win it for example. Rezan generally would not be interested in the types of Trolls Jani tends to deal with for example, due to the kind of Loa Rezan is/was. That and Rezan is naturally quite powerfully whereas weaker Loa need as many followers as they can get to increase their powers.
As to amounts, typically Loa don’t dedicate to Trolls whom worship another Loa due to their jealousy (Gonk is an exception to this rule), that said Shadow Hunters are remarkable Trolls with inherent power, so they do petition many Loa because they are a particularly worthy agent to have working on your behalf, so Loa may not mind “sharing them” so to speak.
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