Origins of the Grell

Lore Story Forum
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Truly one of the most bizarre seemingly native races out there. It was confirmed they aren’t demons, but they 100% look like Imps. It’s not a simple case of model reuse with no lore implication whatsoever, since their important similarities have been officially acknowledged in quests like this one https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Breath_of_Mist.

Back in Legion, an Imp NPC named Daglop even said :

There is a legend that some of our ancestors can be found on this world that are not part of the Legion. I bet they are boring.

They also resemble Goblins (and arguably Trolls, but especially Goblins) a lot ; the Goblins being one of the races with the most obscure ancient origins. The only canon information we have is that they are the result of the kaja’mite experiments conducted by Mimiron on a “small primitive race that roamed around the forests near Ulduar”, which is funny to me because Goblins are the last race I would associate with forests, while Grells are absolutely depicted as creatures of the foret (even as “forest spirits” occasionally).

It’s been hinted at that Aessina may have created the Grells, which sounds perfectly reasonable, but it also… doesn’t really explain why they resemble Imps and Goblins so much. At the contrary, it would imply that Grells and Imps are completely unrelated (since Demons first reached Azeroth as “late” as 10 000 years ago), which would come off as very weird.

Barring the Aessina theory, I guess it could’ve gone this way :
A long time ago, potentially before the creation of the Burning Legion, a group of Imps, that is to say a race native to the Twisting Nether, ends up accidentally crashing down on Azeroth for some reason → Over time, they adapt to their new environment and due to lack of exposure to the Fel and all the unstable energies flowing through the Twisting Nether, they lose all of their Demonic features, including the ability to be reborn in the Nether → One day, Mimiron takes a bunch of forest Grells and infuses them with kaja’mite, creating the Goblins.
Goblins being related to Pygmies (the canonicity of which is questionable, by the way) doesn’t conflict with this theory : the Pygmies would merely be descended from the Grells who didn’t undergo any of the Mimiron experiments.

Idk. Grells are just weird. Thoughts ?

(Just to make things clear, I have no doubt that the model reuse had no lore implication INITIALLY and that’s just something the devs did because why not. Now though, the matter does need retrospective lore explanation)

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I’ve always ran on the half-baked theory that Grell were a kind of imp creature/spirit that is native to Azeroth that can be influenced by certain power to change their form, almost like an elemental of sorts. We see a couple examples of imp-like creatures that have specific almost elemental? characteristics: Misty Grell being nature infused, Firekin being fire infused, Grellkin becoming corrupted by Fel Moss etc. Imps being the ‘fel-infused’ or ‘demonic’ version of this creature, similar to how Satyr are Night Elves or Eredar/Man’ari are Draenei (or vice-versa). I’m not sure that I’m articulating that the best. :sweat_smile:

Although, the introduction of imp mothers kind of threw a wrench in that for me when I was playing through Legion, so I’m not sure that entirely holds up anymore.

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They’re an early case of asset reuse that subsiquent quest authors later ran with. Sorry if that sounds boring. If it makes you feel better you could call it convergent evolution in-universe.

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You basically set it all out in the OG post, so while very well put together, there isn’t really much more I can say.

I like your theory tho.

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I think Grells are the OG where imps came from. Since we’ve seen that heavy fel use/infusion can turn any creature into a demon, and they then became what’s known as imps.

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Grells being Elemental in nature is smart, it would explain both the several Grellkin types and also the spontaneous presence of Grell-like creatures on unrelated planets, with Imps being Fel Grells native to some Twisting Nether planet.
Which also brings me back to the question of their slight resemblance to the Trolls, since Trolls also come in a variety of subraces depending their environment (Ice Trolls, Forest Trolls, Dark Trolls, Jungle Trolls, Sand Trolls, even Blood Trolls)… I’ve been speculating on the possible Elemental origins of the Trolls for a while

Trust me, I’m aware of that, hence why I said :

But the writers have been expressing their will to be the “caretakers” of the Warcraft universe, and so the old bits that are a bit shaky in terms of lore need to be given solid retrospective explanations, so that this universe becomes a solid and well thought out piece of fiction people are willing to dive into.
Recently they’ve been listening a lot more to the feedbacks related to world building, as with the Priest Orc thing where the very out of place Brother Zugzug NPCs became the Lok’osh, which are a much more lore-consistent and satisfying take on what “Orc priests” should be like.

That’s why I’ll keep making threads like this one. Weird and cranky old stuff needs to be addressed so that it fits into modern Warcraft and thus can be expanded upon afterwards, instead of just being left behind and never mentioned again. That’s how a fictional universe stops being a mere background excuse for gameplay and starts to turn into a proper mythology of its own. Continuity ftw

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With stuff like this being said:

I highly doubt Blizzard is interested in exploring more of Azeroth’s biology.

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Yeah that’s a shame imho. I really hope they have a real shift in their writing philosophy in favor of continuity

Not that EVERYTHING needs to be explained, I’m opposed to that, however they have to give the impression that every race and everything in their universe matters

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I think Trolls being the progenitors of an Elemental race makes the most sense for sure. It could even be possible that Trolls and Grell share a common ancestor seeing as how they have similar features. If we assume Grells are Elemental as well, that aligns with the same characteristics that you highlighted of them changing with their environment like Trolls do. It’s definitely a interesting theory!

I think your theory with Goblins could be a likely scenario as well. Grell share a lot of common visual characteristics with Goblins and their personality traits could definitely be seen as similar. I think both are interesting takes!

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Their creature type in the game is clearly Demon. Presumably they were brought across by Teldrassil’s corruption.

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Now, ordinarily, I’d say that in-game classifications are not the definite arboiter of a creature’s actual type (for example, Voidwalkers are erroneously classified as Demons when they aren’t), but in this case Grell are also referred to as Demons somewhere in Cycle of Hatred, according to Wowpedia. That’s incredibly weird.

Some Imps appeared during the War of the Ancients, so it’s unlikely Imps were created after Teldrassil was planted.

https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Plague_Imp

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Creature type in WoW is highly inconsistent. Grells were mostly confirmed not to be Demons, both by the questline I mentioned and the fact that Brann suspects they were created by Aessina. But yeah there are conflicting sources on this

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Which did feature a massive invasion by demons of all sizes. WOTA isn’t the only time that demons entered Azeroth from the Twisting Nether. The activities of Dalaran’s mages weakened the dimensional barriers around it, and who knows what Satyrs might have been up to in Kalimdor or the Tree itself.

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Everything you said is 100% correct. However, unless I misunderstood you, which I apologize if I did, you were speculating that Imps were created from Grell by Teldrassil’s corruption? I linked an artcile aboht Plague Imps from the Hulm Highmountain quest chain in Legion. I believe that since the Imps appeared in a War of the Ancients flashback, this shows that they are much older than Teldrassil.

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No I’m saying the corruption opened up small doors for small demons to enter the material plane. Both interpretations would lead to the same result.

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Several sources tend to indicate that the Grell really are part of the native natural landscape of Azeroth, and that they can be corrupted just like Furbolg or Treants :

https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Grell_Moss

The grell are the embodiment of the wild side of nature.

https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/The_Woodland_Protector_(2)

Only the corruption of wicked Fel Moss could cause such a transformation. The grells and grellkin have infested the area and are threatening the residents of Shadowglen
Engage these grells and grellkin, , and see if they are indeed caught under the enchantment of the wicked Fel Moss.
…
Your service to the creatures of Shadowglen is worthy of reward.

You confirmed my fears, however. If the grells have become tainted by the Fel Moss, one can only imagine what has become of the Gnarlpine tribe of furbolgs who once lived here.
Should you find yourself in Dolanaar, seek out the knowledgeable druid, Athridas Bearmantle. He shares our concern for the well being of the forest.

I don’t think Demons would need to be “corrupted”

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Okay, that makes sense.

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I felt they were like traditional forest spirits
The night elves have all this faerie stuff like the satyrs in the cursed woods. grells were like these and friends of satyrs and bad fairys
Fairy race when :man_fairy:

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WoW Grells are confusing.

Petition to replace them with D&D Grells?

They’re also confusing, but in an ‘Unspeakable Abomination’ kinda way.

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I always just took them as a nod to some irish myths and left it at that.