The Zandalari and the Horde

When the Prophet Zul convinced King Rakastahn to reunite the various Troll empires in order to save Zanadalar and restore the trolls to prominence on Azeroth, the Zandalari began to approach the leaders of the various troll factions. The Gurubashi, Amani, Drakkari, and Farakki empires all accepted the offer, gaining powerful allies and pooling their resources to become a far greater threat than they had been in tens of thousands of years.

Among the people the Zandalari approached was Vol'jin. Vol'jin was not the leader of an empire. Instead, Vol'jin was the leader of a single tribe - the Darkspear. The Darkspear Trolls had been something of a pariah tribe within the Gurubashi Empire, and they were forced to flee into exile rather than getting enslaved by the other, more powerful tribes. They settled on a group of islands in the Great Sea, but they were plagued by a powerful Naga known only as the Sea Witch. They were fending off the Naga forces when Thrall's Horde arrived on the islands. Thrall had only just led the Orcs out of Lordaeron, and in the Darkspear, Thrall saw potential allies.

Ultimately, they were unable to save Vol'jin's father Sen'jin, but the Darkspear survived, and the mantle of Chieftain passed down to Vol'jin.

Vol'jin's Darkspear were a crucial part of the Horde's military forces, allowing them to persevere at Hyjal and to create the nation of Durotar. Within the Horde, the Darkspear were right at the heart of the Horde, standing as stalwart allies of the Orcs, and Vol'jin was Thrall's most trusted lieutenant and advisor. While they certainly had trouble with their adopted Echo Isles home, the combined resources of the Horde allowed them to defeat the traitor Zalazane once and for all.

And the Horde became one of the two major superpowers of Azeroth, with the Darkspear there every step along the way.

And then Garrosh. Vol'jin was passed over for Warchief because Thrall, kinda racistly, thought that only a Orc should be Warchief. Thrall's huge blunder in elevating Garrosh is a huge topic that I won't go into, but Vol'jin became an immediate rival for Hellscream, apparently predicting exactly how his tenure would go down. Vol'jin left Orgrimmar for the relative safety of the Echo Isles while Garrosh turned Orgrimmar into a police state.

It was at this time that the Zandalari came to him. Vol'jin had proven to be a capable leader, and now he had a huge problem with the Horde that the Zandalari would easily be able to exploit. Yet Vol'jin was not so easily manipulated. He knew what the old empires had been like, and as bad as Garrosh was, he wanted no part in that. Vol'jin was Horde, through and through, and regardless of who was Warchief, he had no interest in turning his back on the Horde itself.

In fact, it was Vol'jin who really led the first resistance against the Zandalari, leading adventurers to strike into the hearts of Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub. His role in countering their alliance with the Mogu was less pronounced, but that was because he had bigger fish to fry.

Garrosh had straight-up tried to have Vol'jin assassinated, and he nearly succeeded. Vol'jin organized a resistance, inviting even the Alliance to help out (much as he had done with the Zandalari earlier.) And as we all saw at the end of Siege of Orgrimmar, Vol'jin emerged from the Horde Civil War triumphant, and has now been elevated to Warchief as he should have been four years earlier.

The Darkspear, after having gone through a period of humiliation and disempowerment under Garrosh, now find themselves more powerful than they ever had been before. That said, I think it's unlikely we'll see Trolls totally running the Horde show - they won't make the same mistake Garrosh did by favoring Orcs over everyone else - but it does mean that the Darkspear, by any stretch of the imagination, are serious movers and shakers in Azeroth.

The narrative the Zandalari used to get people to join up was that the Trolls were in danger of slipping into decline - or really, had already. They offered the chance to restore themselves to the glory days of power and influence. Yet the Zandalari have faltered. The empires don't really seem like they've recovered that much, and Zandalar itself is sinking into the ocean. Their alliance with the Mogu doesn't really look like it paid off, what with the defeat of Lei Shen.

The Zandalari falter, while the trolls in the Horde are on the rise.

Trolls might have ancient societies and empires, but most of them are in somewhat disorganized tribes and collectives. The Darkspear are not the only trolls to have joined the Horde. If anything, I'd expect desperate troll tribes to be flocking to the gates of Orgrimmar, begging to be admitted. Vol'jin might just be the greatest hope for the Trollish people, but I doubt the Zandalari will be happy to just let him be.