Two things about Trolls that confuse me

#1) Are Troll women chattel, or equals?

The information about their status on WoWpedia’s sexuality page, which is drawn from the paper RPG source books, is conflicting. One manual says that either gender of jungle Trolls may battle to the death over a prospective mate, and that a fight with blunt weapons to establish which partner will be dominant is part of the jungle troll marriage ceremony. This implies that Troll women are considered equals. Another says that Troll women are considered entirely as property and have no status other than that which they give to their father, brothers, or husband. According to this book, Darkspear Troll women have only just begun to seek out greater equality after having seen the honor and respect granted to Orc and Tauren women.

In the game world, however, Troll women seem to have more equality than these sources suggest. There are both female and male Frostmane, Sandfury, Witherbark, Vilebranch, and Atal’ai Troll mooks in Dun Morogh, Tanaris, Arathi Highlands, the Hinterlands, and the Sunken Temple. Revantusk Village and pre-Shattering Jintha’Alor both had powerful female leaders in Primal Torntusk and Vile Priestess Hexx & Hitah’ya the Keeper. In Zul’Farrak, Hydromancer Velratha has a prominent role. Three of the original bosses of Zul’Gurub were female: High Priestess Jeklik channeled the Bat loa, High Priestess Mar’li channeled the Spider loa, and High Priestess Arlokk channeled the Panther loa. While the Bat and Spider bosses are gone, High Priestess Kilnara has succeeded her sister as the chosen of the Panther loa. Outside of Zul’Gurub, however, all of the Bloodscalp and Skullsplitter Trolls in Stranglethorn Vale are male, as are the various Amani-aligned Trolls near Zul’Aman. Zul’Aman itself has no female Trolls. In Zul’Drak, we find a number of Zandalari Trolls who seem to be about 2/3 male and 1/3 female. The Drakkari Trolls themselves are mostly male, except for High Priestess Tua-Tua, one of the disciples of the loa Quetz’lun, and the wife and daughter of Warlord Zol’Maz. The wife is a mage and the daughter is a warrior. The loa priests and priestesses in Zul’Gurub also originally came from Zandalar, but were subverted by Hakkar instead of defeating him.

Perhaps this shows that female Trolls have greater equality in Zandalari society than in other Troll societies. This may be a development since the Sundering, or the loss of female power and equality in the tribes of Stranglethorn Vale may be a marker of the decline of those civilizations. The appearance of female Trolls elsewhere in the world may indicate that each Troll tribe has its own subculture and customs regarding the degree of respect and equality accorded to women — certainly a more realistic scenario. Troll women who are innkeepers and shopkeepers are not inconsistent with a culture of repressing female independence. It would also not be improbable for a male Troll to want his wife (or wives) and daughters to be strong warriors and hunters and still consider them as chattel, with their prowess contributing entirely to his own prestige. Troll women who are leaders and scholars, however, seem to me to be more inconsistent with that idea. The Darkspear have many such women and their society does not seem to be in the kind of turmoil that would result from a cultural revolution instigated by something as recent as their joining the Horde. Although the Darkspear originally derive from the Gurubashi tribes of Stranglethorn, perhaps their culture evolved during their generations of exile on the South Seas islands such that even before meeting Thrall and becoming part of the Horde, it was more accepting of female independence and power.

#2) Do Troll tusks come from the upper jaw, or the lower?

Male Troll tusk styles, both in-game and in official Blizzard art of Trolls, look very much like elephant tusks, which come from the upper jaw. The tusks of forest/Amani Trolls, however, look more like they could be coming from the lower jaw, but they could be coming from the upper jaw, just with more extreme curvature. The female Troll tusk styles, again both in-game and in official Blizzard art of Trolls, appear more like Orc tusks, arising from the lower jaw. The “straight” female tusk style, however, looks more like the male Troll styles, like it probably comes from the upper jaw. The tusks of Troll Druids in Bear Form look more likely to come from the upper jaw, whereas the tusks in Cat Form look more likely to come from the lower jaw.

Overall, though, it seems that this is a case of sexual dimorphism, with the male tusks arising from the upper jaw and the female tusks arising from the lower.

The large carvings of troll heads found in and around Troll ruins, however, seem to show the tusks coming from the lower jaw.

If Troll culture was really so very male-dominated, however, wouldn’t these carvings reflect the male skull, rather than the female?