Zandalari druids or dinomancers?

Lore Role-playing
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Heya folk so I have been wondering, I recently decided to give troll rp a try with the addition(yet to be added with 8.1.5) zandalari trolls. Though we had a small debate with a friend regarding their druids(by that I mean the raptari druids). He kept saying that they aren’t like normal druids and are more so dinomancers–Given I could be wrong(as troll lore isn’t my…strongest part of the lore) I came here to the forums asking, here is why I am thinking them as druids(althugh I could be wrong and feel free to fix meh up)

All of the information bellow is from in game text and quests:

First one being an in game text from Zen’tabra from the Echo Isles;

" What was the vision?

lt;Zen’tabra’s head snaps back to you, her eyes bright and her smile wide around her tusks.

'Twas a jungle bigger and wilder dan I ever seen! And before me, de ancient raptor loa only talked about in Zandalari tales-[Gonk], de Great Hunter!

De raptor spirit spoke ta me, told me he had brought me spirit to a place called de Emerald Dreem. De spirit had been trapped, like de other loa on de Echo Isles, by Zalazane’s magic. But Gonk, bein’ an ancient spirit, was able ta reach across and bring me spirit ta him, even through Zalazane’s voodoo.

What did the spirit want?

Zalazane’s mindless servants were killin’ all de beasts o’ de isles, burnin’ up de trees and plants too. Gonk needed us ta save de life on de isles. But since we not be able ta draw upon de power o’ de loa wit Zalazane in power, Gonk be showin’ us a new way ta connect wit ALL de spirits o’ nature, ta work WIT de spirits, not just be servin’ a single loa at a time.

It be difficult at first, ya, mon, but Gonk be showin’ us how ta also reach inta de Emerald Dream wit de spirits and learn from dem directly!"

And second one being from an npc from Zuldazar(Raptari Druid) it follows as;

“Have you spoken with Gonk? He is de lord of de pack. He spoke to some of de Darkspear, guiding dem to be druids.”

“But for us, he is more than a voice. We can listen to him in person. Not some fragment or piece of him, but de real thing.”

To me it feels like they learnt the ways of the druidism from the same source as the darkspear although I could be wrong, I am still digging around for extra proof/disproof, but what do you guys think?

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This is correct, The Zandalari druids also follow Gonk like the Darkspear druids do.

It almost seems like the Zandalari have a closer relationship with Gonk seeing how he’s hanging around in the Garden of the Loa, it also explains why the Zandalari forms are more dinosaur than their Darkspear cousins.

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But would you still call them druids? it is stated that gonk showed them how to tap in to all spirits and taught them about the dream, would you call them as druids? Can they cast druid spells icly, like mending and roots–Or would they be restricted to their dino forms?

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As much as I’d call a Darkspear druid a druid, yeah.

Also the followers are listed in the game as raptari druids.

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Ah fair enough, I always thought is as them turning in to dino’s due to their loas–Like how elves ‘loa’s’ or well wild gods seem to determen their taught wild shapes.
Given it is supposed to be a harmonical bond with a wild spirit.

Fun given trolls were actually naming the wisps of the Moonglades as Loa. That was from a Q&A I believe.

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They probably learn to be druids the same way that Night Elves and tauren do, except the “wild gods” that the Zandalari worship instead is Gonk-- who technically is a wild god anyway.

This reminds me of that thing when the Darkspear joined the Cenarion Circle and started calling all the wild gods loa, but i don’t remember where the souce for that was.

EDIT: Also, there’s the whole luna’lai (SP?) druids that are hinted at worshiping Elune, they’re all in the zandalari moonkin form.

EDIT2: Lun’alai druids.

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Oh the same thing I stated-I cannot post links sadly but it is from Ask CDev round2–You can simply find it by googling “wow pedia ask cdev”

" What is the relationship between the Ancients of the Emerald Dream and the loa?

Troll druids visiting the Moonglade have been overheard calling the wisps who reside there loa, just as they refer to Goldrinn, Aviana, and the other returned Ancients as loa. Night elves and tauren have tried to counsel these trolls on “correct” druidic nomenclature, but the trolls thus far have been stuck in their ways."

Not to mention the part about Gonk lettimg them revere multiple Loa and all the mumbo jumbo about the emerald dream and spirits.

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Yeah, that.

the best way i have found to quote links is to use the Preformatted text command

So;

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=127029/raptari-druid

as an example, it doesn’t make it clickable, but at least it can be copied and pasted.

1 Like
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And with that off topic comment out of the way, here is a quote from Jin’alun (The lun’alai druid’s leader)

"We prefer de groves of nature to de cold stone of de city. Many of de Zandalari believe us to be heretics. Dey claim our matron is no loa.

Dey are welcome to their opinions. We of de Lun’alai have long possessed de gifts of nature, to take de forms of de wild. Ours is de way of balance, not bargains."

So he is a druid by conventional means rather than bargaining with the loa.

https://www.wowhead.com/npc=135399/jinalun#comments

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Ah that s lovely! Thanks for adding that—I do not know if it has anything to do but Gonk is called as the loa of shapes as well X’D

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Interesting topic, I was thinking of exactly the same concept when Zandalari are released, a Dinomancer. I suppose one way of looking at it is the precedent of the Gilneans, who I believed referred to many of their Druids as ‘Harvest Witches’ instead. Its a cultural slant on something ‘similar but different’ in much the same way (Until they butchered them to make them fit ‘The Light’) that a Tauren Sunwalker is not the same as a Human Paladin.

Sure, ‘Class-wise’ as in pure game mechanics they are Paladins, but culturally they are very different. Perhaps Zandalari Druids are the same, but then counter to that, they do refer to themselves as ‘Raptari Druids’. Perhaps ‘Dinomancer’ is just another term for a Raptari, a ‘slang’ version if you will, I mean depending on culture we have varying terms for ‘Paladins’, it may be as simple as Dinomancer is just another word for a Raptari druid, in the same way that in English a ‘Flier’, ‘Pilot’, ‘Aviator (Or Aviatrix)’ can all mean the same thing. Someone who flies an aeroplane. Its just a different word for it.

Interestingly on the Wisps as Loa front, given we know that Night Elves can become Wisps in death, would it therefore follow that Trolls believe that Night Elves, as well as Trolls, can become Loa upon their death…

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I am aware of that–Though main reason why I talked over such a topic is that dinomancers also seems to be using magics to control the beasts rather than tapping in the spiritual part of the ‘art’.

Of course that is not to say that there is a culture difference though I think, and this is my personal opinion of course, the difference between a sunwalker and a human paladin, and difference between a raptari and a night elven one are a bit different.

While both paladins use the light they channel it through different…‘deities’ (I know that sun isn’t a deity or An’she just naming it as such to not to type…something too long), while for the troll druids, they openly admit and speak of the emerald dream and the other spirits, even acknowledging Aviana and Goldrinn.

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