Tred’ova
The Gorm have been chewing at the edges or Ardenweald in a desperate search for anima, but the beast called Tred’ova found something else. Lakali, loa of knowledge, is cocooned in Tirna Scithe. Now that Tred’ova has tasted the loa’s power and knowledge, she craves more than survival.
~https://www.wowhead.com/news=316048/shadowlands-alpha-encounter-journal-for-build-34365#mists-of-tirna-scithebosses-tredova
Lakali if I remember right is the loa of mages, and the reason why Darkspear could be mages back in vanilla. Ardenveald is looking to be big for troll fans. and after a whole expansion of troll stuff too.
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If any of you are wondering what the Gorm are they are the Bunny Caterpillars, Bunny Maggots and G’huun Rip-offs(those are the Gorm Queens/Matriarchs) in Ardenweald.
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I’ve…never, ever heard of Lakali before. If I recall right, the only reason why trolls could be mages was because Blizzard wanted the horde to have a second racial option instead of forcing them all to be undead. Warlock was cut to make room, since races had a cap of 6 available classes back then.
Edit: Googling’s giving me absolutely nothing about Lakali but a single wowhead datamine page, and this forum thread. It sounds like Blizzard just pulled this one out of their rear.
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yeah I thought that each troll class was tied to different loa but that might be leftover horde rp headcannon from back in the day. I get confused pretty often when it comes to horde lore due to role-playing horde so extensively in vanilla to wrath.
it also might be that its a misspelling of Akali who is canonically dead and we never learned what he was the loa of.
~https://wow.gamepedia.com/Akali
This is what I first though as well - but Akali and his friends were meant to have been permakilled. The fact that we are seeing Shadra in SL pretty much confirms that the Drakkari’s loa’s gigasucc doesn’t actually permakill, but just makes their rebirth harder/longer?
It’s either that, or its a case of ‘oops used too similar a name’ and they’ll have to just rename. If that is the case, however, it would be very odd indeed to just introduce a new dead loa in the process of rezzing. Odd.
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sudden theory popped into my head but what if Lakali is one of the loas in the fetid devourer, many similar creatures are shown to have souls fused together alongside their bodies.
~https://wow.gamepedia.com/Amalgam_of_Souls
~https://wow.gamepedia.com/Reliquary_of_Souls
~https://wow.gamepedia.com/Thaddius
maybe after players killed the creature its fused souls were finally allowed to be reborn in Ardenveald.
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I have often thought about Fetid Devourer. He is an amalgamation of several Loa. Kinda sad. I was hoping we laid them to rest, at least.
The idea of them possibly going to Ardenweald is neat. I did wonder what they could be. It kind of looks like a lion is up in there. I wonder what a Lion Loa would have been like? Would he have any connections to Humans? Would be funny if Stormwind Humans trace their Lion fandom to a Lion Loa who helped them in the distant past. I know the timeline is not right, since Uldir is pretty old.
Anyway, I am glad that maybe they had a place to go instead of just having their souls consumed.
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(Sarcasm): But wait, isn’t this a Night Elf zone? Why is there Troll stuff in a Night Elf zone? NIGHT ELF STUFF ONLY!
(Commentary): On a more serious note, I find that very interesting! I do hope there is a relatively even spread between Loa and Ancients though. Loa feel pretty well developed thanks to BFA, but the Night Elves’ ancients just don’t feel that way at all. Hopefully both get even screen-time and can be fleshed out equally.
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I like the prospect that we’re not confined solely to the Loa or Wild Gods we’ve been given, and there are more to be uncovered. They did it in Legion (like with Ashamane), they did it in BFA (like with Sethraliss), don’t see why we can’t see them do it with Shadowlands.
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Eh no, the lore of the Darkspear mages is very obscure with few details other than “they adopted new magics to face this new era”
Aside of that I’m glad in this ocassion we save a Loa from some evil creatures and more lore from them is welcome. However I’m still a bit sad to not hear anything from the Loa of Northrend and this expansion could give them a nice spotlight to redeem the disaster it was Wotlk with Troll Lore
When is Troll lore ever in a good place though lol always get the villain bat or ignored outside of a patch and a half (half because conquering Dazaralor isn’t Good), even when presumably they’re a selling point to the expansion
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Even if it is a Loa we do not know much of them right now having a Loa of “Mages/Scholars” is NEAT. It adds flavor and fleshes out the class for trolls.
I do hope we see more Wild Gods for sure. there are a TON which we know exist and answered Cenarious’ call to arms during the WotA but never got any details of outside a basic description in one book.
I have a really close eye on Lord Renard, who is a giant fox that seems like he might be a wild god given he is a member of an important Ardenweald faction. Given his name is a play on Reynard the Fox I have high hopes he is a trickster figure.
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It was good when Vol’jin organized a rebellion against Garrosh and took the warchief position and 8.0
However the villain bat or ignored part is something a lot of races unfortunately (except Human potential in general) even the blood elf lore in this expansion was just to forgive Jaina and help her murder survivors from her purge in Dalaran while Theron praised the ground she walked and then were ignored again
Dazar’alor was never conquered and just suffered a cause of sack(Horde always suffer this), which is a big difference from being conquered 
Even being a main feature of an expansion is not a safe net for any race, back in BC we have to quell a blood elf civil war and kill Kael’thas twice and the Draeneis were just a few in numbers after a genocide with only Velen having some role even to this day.
Still considering of all the current horde hate from the current writers, I’m seeing some positive changes happening with the smack the whole team of Blizzard got after sinking this expansion with their atrocity plot that can only be compared to the work of Matt Ward from GW
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While true, I want to point out that the name Renard (and its variations) literally translates to “fox”. So it could be a reference to that specifically or it could be just yet another iteration of using that name for a fox character.
Bot foxes being tricksters is like dwarves being beer-brewing vaguely Scottish miners. Very few settings change these winning formulas.
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That is fair, but given they also have made a reference to Herne the Hunter in the form of the (likely) leader of the Wild Hunt, Lord Herne I suspect an intentional literary call there. They seem to be strongly pulling from mythology from the same rough time period and era as inspiration for Ardenweald. Even most the place names are very Irish/Gaelic themed. It seems Ardenweald is basically literally supposed be the Realm of Faerie.
Also! Fun fact! The literary figure became so popular during the Medieval period that Renard replaced the original French word for Fox over time by association, which in turn spread. The original obsolete word originally was Goupil.
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Troll mages also have Zanza the Restless, who can be seen in various points in the game, even in Classic. One place you can see him is in Zul’gurub, and other when Talanji is being crowned by the loa.
Though he seems more of a Zandalari Loa, he does seem to play an important role in Zul’gurub as well so perhaps the Darkspear might consider him as well.
Edit: I find it interesting that there’s another loa with this association, but the more the merrier. Also I guess Torga might be another one, since the Tortollans also seem to have their strange scroll based magic derived from him.
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“See guys? In a realm centered and themed on Night Elven aesthetics, the inclusion of a loa literally no one has ever heard of before proves that this night forest for night elves that holds night elf wisps is not night elf themed! Right guys?
R-right?”
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＊Looks at Ardenweald and sees only Botani, Galadhrim and Kokiri aesthetics with no Night Elven aesthetics to speak of… Also notices that the music was added in by the Video Maker…＊
Ardenweald does not seem Night Elf to my mind! It seems more like a cross between Lothlorien, Kokiri Forest and Blademoon Bloom. Blizzard stated they were going for a Fairy Forest feel they did not say they were going for a Night Elf feel!
Ardenweald is a Fairy Forest Zone(based entirely on a reference picture they favored) not a Night Elf Zone like Val’Sharah was!
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Dark night-lit forests with faeries, waterfalls, and World Trees are not night elven aesthetics, huh?
And neither are night elven wisps, right?
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Blizzard called them Dream Trees but regardless large trees(like the Great Trees planted by Staghelm) aside from the Mantid’s Kypari are Night Elven yes…
??? Fairies?.. When did Night Elven Zones have Fairies outside the Faerie Dragons(which also appear in the Draenei owned Shimmer Moor in Shadowmoon Valley)?..
Surely you mean Sprites yes? Sprites are seen in Val’Sharah and all over Pandaria for that matter… I’m quite certain we don’t see those Ocarina of Time-esque Fairies anywhere in WoW but Ardenweald!
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