The Fate of Dazar

The Zandalari Empire was the first true Troll civilization on Azeroth, making it, most likely, the first humanoid civilization on the planet. It was founded by a troll named Dazar, and we see his name pop up a lot in Zandalari. Zuldazar follows the conventions of other imperial capitals like Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman, and the actual urban center of Zuldazar is Dazar'alor, similar to Jintha'alor in the Hinterlands, another stepped settlement. Finally, Atal'dazar is a hidden city of gold in which Dazar's tomb, known as King's Rest, sits. Atal as a prefix appears to denote some sort of high status, like the Atal'ai priests who infamously summoned the evil Loa Hakkar to Zul'Gurub.

In a lot of ways, Zandalar, which was once not an island but a mountain, prior to the flooding that followed the Sundering, is sort of a parallel with Mount Hyjal. Whereas Hyjal is a place where the Night Elves' Ancients gathered, Zandalar is a central meeting point for many Troll Loa.

And given that the Night Elves are descended from Trolls and the Ancients and most Loa are under the umbrella term of "Wild Gods," the two might actually be functionally identical.

Dazar apparently was a great reformer amongst the Trolls. Prior to his intervention, it seems as if the Trolls were largely dominated by the kind of depravity that exists now amongst the Blood Trolls of Nazmir. This culture of barbarism is all a result of the corruption of G'huun, an Old God or Old God-like entity that the Titans had trapped within Uldir for study.

In Battle for Azeroth, the Prophet Zul is revealed to be a servant of G'huun, coordinating the assault by the Blood Trolls, the releasing of Mythrax, and a plot to overthrow King Rastakhan.

After stabbing the King nearly to death and then falling to him in a battle that nevertheless ends in the successful destruction of the Grand Seal - the last piece of Titan equipment that was keeping Uldir running, and around which the urban center of Dazar'alor had been built, Zul seems to be plenty active for a dead guy.

See, a lot of the Troll plots we've had in prior expansions have all been paying off in Zandalar. Not only were Shadra and Rezan sacrificed for power in the same manner that the Drakkari had done to their Loa, but Zul also retained the rituals that his lieutenants had used to raise Lei Shen, the Thunder King, from the dead back in Mists of Pandaria.

Using this ritual, Zul raised Dazar, the First King of Zandalar, as his minion.

We fight him as the final boss in King's Rest.

But here's what's interesting: Dazar is not dead at the end of it. We fight him enough to break him out of his mind-control, at which point he ceases his attacks and becomes friendly. He thanks us for freeing him from Zul's influence and of course offers us a nice box of loot for out troubles.

But that means that the profoundly ancient King Dazar is now... well, not alive exactly, but he's around.

What does that mean for Zandalar? I imagine they're not going to just hand him the crown back, and Rastakhan won't just go back to being a prince. But this is a guy who existed long before the Sundering and probably before the Night Elves even existed.

What might we learn from Dazar? And what might he think about the world he has been awakened into?

Furthermore, what relationship might he have with Bwonsamdi? He's undead, but also, does Rastakhan's deal with the Loa of Death go in both directions? He's bound his line to Bwonsamdi, which seems to force Talanji into the deal. But what of Dazar? Is Rastakhan his direct descendant?

Basically, I want to know if we just leave Dazar to go back to dead-sleep after we leave or if he'll play a part in the future (or perhaps another expansion that, I don't know, maybe has a bit of a "death and undeath" theme?)

King's Rest could have easily ended with us just killing Dazar. Maybe he even thanks us in his dying breaths. But it doesn't. It specifically leaves him kneeling, winded from the fight but not dead.