WARNING: Patch 12.1 Spoilers in this post!
Zul'jan's Motives
While Zul'jan features most prominently as an antagonist in patch 12.1, his motivations have been on display since his first appearance in the Eversong Woods leveling campaign. First encountered in the Watha'nan Crypts, we find him and his Amani cohort in the wake of their collection of Eversong's lightwood resources. Speaking to a captured Twilight cultist, Zul'jan explains in plain words his disdain for the Twilight's Blade.
Zul'jan: You invaded our land.
Zul'jan: You killed my people.
Zul'jan: For what?
Zul'jan: To conquer?
Zul'jan: To claim what was never yours?
That motivation extends not just to the Twilight cultists, but to the elves of Quel'thalas as well. Having suffered at the hands of the historic settlement and expansion into forest troll territory by the high elves, it is quite common to find hatred for Quel'thalas among the trolls - a sentiment that has led to numerous attempts to reclaim their former lands, including the events of the Zul'Aman raid back in The Burning Crusade.
While it is scarcely reflected in the zone's modern iteration, Eversong Woods was once the site of numerous troll settlements, all of which have been either destroyed or entirely removed in Midnight. Even beyond historic conflicts, Midnight makes it quite clear that the Amani continue to suffer from high elven expansion, and the fear of further suffering and loss for his people is one of Zul'jan's core motivations.
Arator says: I'd heard this land belonged to the Amani, long ago. I hadn't really thought about it beyond recorded history.
Arator says: But these ancient bones-there must be generations of Amani buried here. Resting where no one can reach them.
Arator says: We elves do not revere our ancestors as the orcs do, but we still honor our dead.
Arator says: The Amani cannot even do that much. We've taken it away from them. Little wonder they hold such hatred for elvenkind.
That fear was put on full display during patch 12.0.7, where the haranir invited all types of elves and trolls together to reveal to them their shared heritage. Despite the attempt to bridge the divide between these related groups, the gathering served only to inflame tensions further, with Zul'jan - present as the emissary of the Amani - being particularly unwilling to accept the idea of blood ties to the elves.
In an attempt to assuage Zul'jan's doubts, Orweyna showed us a vision of Zul'Aman's past, but in the process, she triggered a chain of events centered around Zul'jan's belief that the Amani need reliable power to defend themselves. In his view, the Amani have spent centuries reliant on their loa, a course that has resulted in the collapse of their empire and the suffering of their people.
Zul'jan says: De loa? If we can harness Ula'tek's power, we will not need de loa.
Loa Speaker Kinduru says: How can you say dat? De loa made your sister hash'ey! Dey helped us defeat de Twilight's Blade!
Zul'jan says: What about when de elves invaded our lands? When de Trollbanes hunted our people? When my grandfather was tortured?
Zul'jan says: And still, we had to beg them to aid us against the Twilight's Blade.
Zul'jan says: No, Uncle. We must take the power we need to protect the Amani, like my grandfather did.
Loa Speaker Kinduru says: Your grandfather led de Amani to catastrophe, Zul'jan!
Zul'jan says: My grandfather did what was needed. The Amani stand alone. And the Amani never die.
When looking at the whole picture, much of that suffering came as a result of his own family's actions. Zul'jin's choice to force the loa into servitude caused the Amani to be cut off from them as a result, causing issues not only outside of their borders from further elven expansion, but within them as well from hostile tribes like the Vilebranch.
To someone like Zul'jan, however, that justification only goes so far. He was a young child when the loa chose to abandon his people for the actions of their leaders, and he has witnessed the suffering of innocent Amani firsthand as a result his entire life. Likewise, Zul'jin's crimes do not explain the seeming inaction of the loa in the face of elven expansion during the previous three centuries following the Troll Wars.
Zul'jan says: We were young when our mother died. My sister held de tribes together with de force of her will - without de loa.
Zul'jan says: I could never be de warrior that Zul'jarra is. I talk my way through problems. She plows through them head-on.
Zul'jan says: We have different goals for de Amani. Zul'jarra focuses on growing and preserving de Amani tribes within Zul'Aman.
Zul'jan says: I see de strength of the Amani - our tribe. We should conquer those around us! Zul'jarra doesn't understand.
Zul'jan says: When Mor'duun came, I saw my vision of de Amani coming to life. With de lightwood, we would conquer de Twilight's Blade and then Eversong.
Zul'jan says: Zul'jarra could not see my vision, but I saw no other way. De loa? Feh.
Zul'jan says: De loa say our grandfather, de great Zul'jin, betrayed them. But why believe them? Or my dotterin' uncle. Or any gokinye?
Zul'jan says: They abandoned us. They. Abandoned. Us. How do we know they won't do it again?
Zul'jan says: I see your eyes are widening, "hash'ura." You're right. Forget what I have said. We have won. Zul'jarra has won.
To Zul'jan, the Amani were held together not by the loa, but by their own strength. When the elves were at their weakest, it was his grandfather Zul'jin who attempted to take action and reclaim their lands, only to be rebuked by the loa. When their mother Zarama was challenged for leadership, the loa failed to answer Zul'jarra's prayers, resulting in their mother's death. In the aftermath, it was not the loa's strength that won the fight and led their people, but Zul'jarra herself, by her own force of will.
Impossibly, Zarama turned as if she’d heard that desperate cry. Her eyes found Zul’jarra. She saw her daughter. She saw the axe. The fear in her gave way to peace. She smiled, bloodstained lips moving around words that would never reach Zul’jarra’s ears.
Then she fell still.
The sight of her mother lying there, the red pooling beneath her, belted something inside Zul’jarra like a mallet striking steel. The molten cold of grief that had seized her limbs thawed beneath the rage pouring through her. It bubbled and frothed, scorching her insides, filling her until it had nowhere else to go.
Then it burst free.
There would be stories told and songs sung of Zul’jarra’s first true war cry. How it erupted from her like fire from a volcano, hot and scorching. How it shook the ancient stones of the Broken Throne and beyond. Any who heard would liken it to the shriek of a great eagle, and for days afterward those who weren’t there but still heard believed Akil’zon had returned.
But it was not so.
The loa had not returned.
All of those figures in his life to look up to -- a grandfather who united their people, an uncle who never lost faith in their loa, a mother who held their tribes together, a sister who rose to the challenge to lead in their stead -- certainly lent themselves towards developing an inferiority complex within Zul'jan, on top of his other motivations. When all of his other family members stand so tall as exemplars of the Amani, Zul'jan has the understandable push to prove himself just as worthy.
After the events of Zul'Aman's leveling story, Zul'jarra manages to reconcile her relationship with the loa, making up for their grandfather's mistakes and uniting the tribes as their loa-blessed hash'ey. Zul'jan certainly reels at his own failure to defend his people against the Twilight threat, only furthering his sense of inferiority, but he also still thinks that Zul'jarra's path of harmony with the loa is an ineffective way of defending their people. It may be a noble and honorable path, but he believes it is one that will result in the extinction of their people, and the swift erasure of their legacy.
At his core, Zul'jan believes that the Amani need to rely on their own strength to defend themselves, rather than be reliant on Wild Gods with conditional access to their boons, and much of that belief is rooted in the idea that the Amani Empire of old was founded on such principles - a belief that is shaken by Orweyna's actions.
In her vision, she shows him that the Amani did not rely on troll strength alone to defeat the C'thraxxi general Kith'ix and found their empire, but on the strength of a snake creature named Ula'tek. Zul'jan struggles to believe this, and sets out to discover the truth of Ula'tek... and to see if it could be wielded as a weapon to defend their people in lieu of the loa.
Zul'jan says: I know dis battle! Dis is our great victory I heard stories of when I was a child!
Zul'jan says: We Amani stood alone, no gokinye, no loa, and we defeated de greatest enemy de trolls had ever known.
Orweyna says: The trolls would have lost but a few took a desperate risk.
Orweyna says: They sought the most powerful presence they could find... and pulled.
Orweyna says: And summoned a creature from a place none should disturb: the Rift of Aln.
Orweyna says: The Rift of Aln is a place of madness and pain, but the Amani found something greater.
Orweyna says: They called it...
Orweyna says: Ula'tek.
Zul'jan says: No! This must be lies! De Amani alone won this victory!
On that path, Zul'jan explains much of his motivations to his uncle Kinduru, who contrasts his nephew as someone who has immense faith in their loa and Zul'jarra's status as their hash'ey. Zul'jan, meanwhile, wants to be certain that if the loa ever decide to rescind their power again, his people will not be left powerless and suffering yet again.
Loa Speaker Kinduru:
Dis talk of a weapon has sparked Zul'jan's imagination. Dangerously so.
He may seem callous at times, but Jan loves his people. He sees their plight and wants to help.
He grew up in a time when we had no loa. When de other tribes abandoned us. When we had to stand alone.
All he had was family. He was inspired by de tales of his grandfather. Yes, Zul'jin was a hero to de Amani, but he also made mistakes.
Let us hope Jan does not follow in his footsteps.
Zul'jan:
We Amani can only ever rely on ourselves. We cannot trust de loa or de gokinye to be there when we need dem.
If de loa withdraw their blessing. Zul'jarra will be powerless. Without power of our own, we are at their mercy.
De lightwood was a promising start. It helped us defeat de Twilight's Blade and push back Xal'atath's minions.
But we need something more: a weapon de Amani can wield to protect our people and use as leverage against our rivals.
<Zul'jan glances at his uncle and scowis.>
My uncle doesn't understand. Neither does Zul'jarra. But Grandfather would. He'd understand what I'm trying to do.
Loa Speaker Kinduru says: Vilebranch? Malacrass? We must tell Zul'jarra.
Zul'jan says: She will try to stop me from finding Ula'tek, just like with de lightwood. But we needed de lightwood, and we will need Ula'tek.
Loa Speaker Kinduru says: If de ancient Amani sealed Ula'tek away, it may be too dangerous to unleash.
Zul'jan says: Or it may be de weapon we need. For when de elves make war on us. For when de loa abandon us.
Loa Speaker Kinduru says: De loa will not abandon us!
Zul'jan says: How can you be sure? They have done it before, ah? Why not put some of that faith in me, Uncle?
His search for information about Ula'tek results in Zul'jan being manipulated by a strange mask, which would later be revealed as Malacrass, the troll who originally convinced Zul'jin to subjugate the loa. Malacrass guides Zul'jan down the path of unearthing the dagger that will unlock Ula'tek's prison on the nearby Coiled Isle - a process that results in the death of Kinduru.
With such an important figure to both him and his sister now dead as a result of his search, Zul'jan is motivated by another factor: sunk-cost fallacy. At this point, he has now put too much into his belief that the Amani need to stand alone, and with Malacrass' whispers in his ear that Zul'jarra will understand once he has succeeded, he sees no other choice but to unleash Ula'tek.
Zul'jan's Actions
Zul'jan's first action in 12.1 is to truly set off the events of the patch by using the dagger to break the seal on the Vault of Atal'Utek on the Coiled Isle on the advice of Malacrass. This unleashes the Children of Ula'tek, an army of snake creatures that begin spreading across the island and into Zul'Aman, kidnapping Amani civilians for Malacrass' goals.
Zul'jan makes it very clear to Malacrass that this is not his goal: he intends to help the Amani with Ula'tek's power, not sacrifice them to fuel it. Malacrass, on the other hand, appeals to Zul'jan's increasing sunk-cost fallacy, and insists that such sacrifices are necessary to restore the Amani Empire of old that they both revere.
Enchanted Amani Mask says: You do not share your uncle's faith in de loa?
Zul'jan says: I have lived my entire life without dem. Why should I?
Enchanted Amani Mask says: True. Dey were here for generations, yet our empire has crumbled.
Zul'jan says: What did Malacrass do to de loa?
Enchanted Amani Mask says: Your grandfather ask asked de loa to help fight de elves and other gokinye. Dey refused.
Enchanted Amani Mask says: So Zul'jin and Malacrass decided to take de power dey needed, instead of begging for it.
Enchanted Amani Mask says: Malacrass infused avatars with de loa's power - avatars like your grandfather.
Zul'jan says: So he researched Ula'tek. If Grandfather could wield de power of our greatest weapon, then...
Enchanted Amani Mask says: He could reclaim stolen lands. Rebuild de empire. Realize his dream.
Malacrass takes advantage of that to wield the Children of Ula'tek against the Amani, kidnapping the citizens of Witherbark Bluffs to the Coiled Isle to be used as sacrifices. Insistent that Zul'jan is merely being manipulated by Malacrass, Zul'jarra sets out to the Coiled Isle - without the aid of the loa - to turn him from his current path and bring him home. Following along with the armies of Amani under her command, she finds Zul'jan in the midst of empowering the dagger.
As much as Zul'jan clearly wants to build a new Amani Empire, he also clearly fears that the loa will abandon Zul'jarra in the future, and he is motivated to protect his sister from that. Despite Zul'jarra's appeal that the loa have helped them in recent times against the Twilight's Blade attacks, Zul'jan is convinced that he needs to harness Ula'tek's power to supplant the need for loa that might fail his people and his sister at any moment.
Whatever the truth of their relationship with the loa is, it is clear that Zul'jan will not be swayed by an appeal to his ideology. When Zul'jarra tries to stop him, he shrugs her off before escaping, nicking her with the dagger without even noticing.
Over the course of the rest of the campaign, as we endeavor to learn the truth about Ula'tek, that small nick turns into a festering wound, draining Zul'jarra's life and leaving her near death. This was certainly not the intent of Zul'jan's actions, but it is a consequence he fails to recognize in his tunnel-visioned pursuit of his idea of strength and security for his people - and it is hardly the first time.
When Zul'jan led his incursion into Eversong Woods to harvest lightwood to use against the Twilights, he unwittingly set loose the Lightbloom on the civilians of Suncrown Village. When Zul'jan led his followers to retrieve their lightwood weapons from the Twilights, they paid the price with their lives. When Zul'jan refused to wait for Zul'jarra to reconnect with the loa, he led the Amani forces against the Twilights that nearly resulted in their decimation.
Zul'jan says: Sister, you return! While you were prostrating yourself before de loa, I secured real power!
Zul'jarra says: And how many warriors did you sacrifice to take this lightwood back from de cult?
Zul'jan says: Sacrifice? They are heroes. Heroes that fell as true Amani, reclaiming de lightwood at Atal'Aman.
Zul'jarra says: And they are dead just de same, Jan!
Zul'jarra says: Warriors, ya are relieved. Go be with ya families. We will care for de dead.
Zul'jarra says: An' I swear if ya do somethin' stupid while I go to Nalorakk, I'll cut off ya head myself.
Zul'jan scowls at Zul'jarra.
There is a clear pattern with Zul'jan's actions: he has good intentions in defending his people, but he seldom thinks beyond what could be long enough to consider the people in front of him. It is far from malicious on his part, with his knowledge of each situation ranging from willful ignorance to a downright lack of knowledge of the consequences, but it results in harm done to others regardless.
Zul'jan's Ending
After learning about Ula'tek's original summoning and the sacrifices inherent to her nature - a nature Zul'jan was not made privy to by Malacrass - we discover that the only cure to Zul'jarra's quickly advancing wound is the dagger itself. While Zul'jan delves deeper into the Vaults of Atal'Utek in an attempt to empower the dagger enough to let him directly control the Children of Ula'tek, we follow him into the Altar of Fangs dungeon in an attempt to convince him to give us the dagger instead.
By the end of the dungeon, we are forced to fight him before we can tell him the truth of how he wounded Zul'jarra, but as he attempts to flee, Liadrin and Orweyna are able to make their case to him.
In that moment, Zul'jan has a choice: does he pursue the power he has been searching for this entire time, one rooted so deep in his own beliefs that has already cost him his uncle? Or does he throw that all aside to save his sister?
In the end, he chooses Zul'jarra over everything else. At every step, no matter how rooted in his reverence for his grandfather or the Amani Empire of old or his hatred of the elves, everything he does is ultimately to prove his worth to his sister. The loss of his soldiers, his people, and even his uncle were not enough to deter him from his pursuit of an idealized Amani, but the potential loss of his sister is enough to make him realize the importance of what he has now, and surrender the dagger to Liadrin.
Unfortunately for Zul'jan, all of his actions with the dagger seemed to be as much of a test by Malacrass as it was a pursuit of power - a test that he failed. Disappointed that Zul'jan was not willing to sacrifice everything in pursuit of power like his grandfather was, he takes Zul'jan as a hostage to be used for further experiments.
After using (and destroying) the dagger to cleanse Zul'jarra of her affliction, she leads us into the Venomous Abyss raid in pursuit of Zul'jan. She hopes that in saving her brother and stopping Malacrass, we can prevent Ula'tek's return and set things right.
Sadly, things are not quite that simple. After fighting our way through the raid, we come across Malacrass in the midst of a ritual involving Zul'jan and the remaining Amani captives. Using the Amani captives as one last sacrifice, Malacrass transforms Zul'jan into a snake creature that is fully under his control, with Zul'jan only barely having the ability to plead for Zul'jarra to stop him.
Hex Lord Malacrass yells: You're too late, Zul'jarra. Zul'jan will spread Ula'tek's influence across all of Azeroth! And I will reign supreme.
Zul'jarra says: Zul'jan! What have you done?
Zul'jan yells: I was wrong, Zul'jarra... And now you must stop me - no matter de cost.
Hex Lord Malacrass yells: After we deal with the rest of these pests, you're next, Zul'jarra.
Hex Lord Malacrass yells: The empire... will endure...
Zul'jarra says: Zul'jan...
Zul'jan says: I'm sorry, Zul'jarra. I have failed the Amani.
With a rather definitive admonishment for his actions now that he has realized the cost of them, Zul'jan is defeated in his fight, and Malacrass is eliminated properly this time. While Zul'jarra stays with her brother, we work with Orweyna to defeat the awakened Ula'tek and put an end to the heretical origins of the Amani Empire.
In the wake of Ula'tek's death, the transformation inflicted upon Zul'jan reverts, leaving him a desiccated troll on the verge of death. With one last moment alone with Zul'jarra, he is able to reminisce on childhood memories as a way to affirm his admiration of his sister.
Zul'jan: I'm so sorry, sister.
Zul'jan: Do you remember... our childhood home? The towering trees. The scent of the moss.
Zul'jan: Our laughter as we chased the summer winds.
Zul'jarra: Through the valley to the edge of the sea. I remember.
Zul'jan: I was always chasing after you. I wanted to stand beside you.
Zul'jan: Because I saw then, just as I see now, that you are the true strength of the Amani.
Zul'jan: Zul'jarra. You... my... sister.
Zul'jarra: Go with the wind, little brother.
The moment Zul'jan is referencing comes from 12.1's prelude comic, where we see a young Zul'jarra and Zul'jan racing towards the ocean. In those flashback parts of the comic, we see much of their modern ideologies reflected, and Zul'jarra's seems to be the ideology that has ultimately won out.
In his last moments, Zul'jan affirms that the true strength of the Amani is not power from beings like Ula'tek, or even the loa, but Zul'jarra herself. Pulling himself up with his final motes of strength before he dies, he finally stands neither above or below Zul'jarra, but beside her as an equal.
Was Zul'jan Right?
Ever since his introduction in Eversong Woods, players have had one prominent question: is Zul'jan actually right?
On the surface, by the results of his actions, the obvious and intended answer by Blizzard is a resounding no. The direct results of his escapades have resulted in the needless deaths of many Amani, whereas the alternative path under Zul'jarra has resulted in a ceasefire with the neighboring elves and the defeat of the Twilight cultists in their lands.
...and yet, many people still question if his motivations were entirely wrong. Much of the story of Zul'Aman frames Zul'jarra's route of harmony with the loa and coexistence with the elves as the unanimously correct path, but is that entirely true?
For as much as Zul'jarra's story centers around making up for her grandfather's mistakes and restoring the loa, she never manages to actually answer Zul'jan's core question: why should the Amani rely on the loa?
While their modern choice to completely abandon the Amani stems from Zul'jin's actions, it is easy to look at the long history of the Amani and question if the loa are truly vital to their culture. At their founding, the modern loa were not a part of their culture at all, and Nek'zali made a number of choices quite similar to Zul'jan's. She had a choice between the honorable deaths of her people at her brother's side, or their survival at any cost.
In the end, Nek'zali chose to create a loa of her own -- one that was clearly not a positive force for their Empire despite saving them from Kith'ix. Ula'tek saved them from annihilation, but she also killed numerous Amani in the process, and the Amani chose to bury her rather than center their newfound empire on such a blind faith.
In the same way Ula'tek saving the Amani tribe from Kith'ix did not mean she inherently deserved to be worshipped, one could say the same of the modern loa: they may have saved the Amani from the Twilight's Blade recently, but does that make up for their neglect of other Amani problems?
When the elves first arrived in the Eastern Kingdoms, the loa seemingly did not wield their immense power to stave off the colonization of Amani lands, neither then nor over the four thousand years that followed prior to the Troll Wars. Likewise, they did not help in the next three thousand years after that preceded the modern era, resulting in the shrinkage of the Amani Empire from a continent-spanning region to a small corner at the edge of Quel'thalas.
One could argue that the immense failure that occurred during the Troll Wars justifies their choice not to aid in attacks against the elves, but that begs the question asked by Zul'jan: if they do not aid the Amani when their lands and lives are lost, should they be relied upon so heavily?
Likewise, the time since Zul'jin has not seen an abatement in attempts at colonization by the elves. Villages once inhabited by trolls in The Burning Crusade are either left in ruins or entirely removed from the world in Midnight, and the catacombs they once had access to have now been cut off.
Even in patch 12.1 itself, the loa do not prove themselves to be a force that the Amani can fully rely upon. When Malacrass flees to the Coiled Isle, the loa are unable to follow, leaving Zul'jarra and the Amani tribes to take the fight to Ula'tek on their own.
In some ways, this serves to show their symbiotic relationship with each other - the loa relying on the Amani to quell threats, just as the Amani relied on the loa in Zul'Aman's leveling story - but it also makes one wonder: is Zul'jan wrong to want a reliable source of power should another situation like that arise with the loa?
By the end of Zul'jan's story, he declares Zul'jarra as the true strength of the Amani, and he is certainly correct to say that in many regards. Her ideology since childhood has been to preserve the Amani as they are, which has resulted in far fewer deaths than Zul'jan's pursuit of a stronger, idealized Amani.
...but what does that actually mean for the Amani beyond the current threats? Zul'jarra may have harmony with the loa as hash'ey now, but will the next generation do the same? Zul'jarra may have formed a ceasefire with the elves thanks to her relationship with Liadrin now, but will the nigh-immortal elves let go of those hatreds when the next generation comes into power?
Much of the reasons for why Zul'jan's path was misguided was that his pursuit of power for the Amani came at the cost of what made the Amani themselves... but if the Amani continue to decay, to cede land to the elves, to lose their lives in conflicts that might arise in the future, is the honor of being "still themselves" worth anything to them in their graves?
In the end, Zul'jarra and Zul'jan both have the interests of the Amani at heart, but where one seeks to preserve the Amani in the present, the other fears for what they might become in the future. Are either of them wrong to think so?
The game certainly seems to have a rather definitive opinion on that, with Zul'jarra being very blatantly declared as correct... but Zul'jan's fears still exist. The elves have continued to colonize their lands since The Burning Crusade, and despite Liadrin's amicability, they are still led by elves like Lor'themar with immense hatred for the Amani.
Ultimately, Zul'jan's intended story focus seems to have been more about the insecurity of living in the shadow of his more successful sister than a true examination of these ideologies, and 12.1 seems to bring the tragic story of these two Amani leaders to a close with his death. Regardless of the intent of Blizzard's story, fans of all stripes will certainly spend the next years debating if Zul'jan was truly right or wrong.
