Elf-Troll Wars

The Elf-Troll Wars were a series of armed conflicts between the refugee elves landing in the continent of Laudrin, led by Lord Mytnas Dawndancer (and later supported by humanity) and jungle trolls from the Sulebian Empire. The first 'war' started around -4,698 when the exiled night elves (known as 'high elves') made permanent settlements on the northern tip of Laudrin, unwittingly settling on ancient sites of the Sulebian Empire of the jungle trolls, who began conducting skirmishes against them that later led to full-on war.

Human historians tend to consider the conflict as a single war - between -4,403 and -4,400 - but dwarven historians criticise this approach, noting that this is the period in which the humans entered the war, as it had gotten to the extent that the high elves solicited their aid. The actual wars had been going on for nearly 300 years.

Background
After the War of the Ancients, the night elf leadership met up in the Temple of the Moon, the sacred site of lunacentric worship, and decided that arcane magic was at this point a liability. They'd seen the recklessness of the smurfs who had been addicted to it, and their society was mostly druidic anyway. Thus, Archdruid Evenshade and High Priestess Skyweaver released a joint statement in which they announced the new ruling, as decided by the kaldorei government.

The Twilight Order of night elf arcanists, led by Mytnas Dawndancer, disagreed with the ruling and decided to leave their conservative brethren behind in pursuit of a new life in a new land. Thus, they logged part of the Midnight Glade, using its magical duskwood to construct transport ships, and set sail for the east. The logging of the forest upset the conservative establishment, particularly Skyweaver, but Evenshade was prepared to overlook the matter as long as it only happened once.

Once the now-high elves landed in Laudrin, they set up temporary encampments in the northern tip of the continent, with Dawndancer intending on the construction of more permanent civilisation in the coming years. However, the Sulebian jungle trolls awaited them. At day, the elves set up their camps, and by night, the jungle trolls ambushed and destroyed them, spreading fires and scaring away the hapless elves. Dawndancer resolved to move his people northwest (and later further north), but each time the trolls simply followed them with the intention of driving them out of the continent. This practice of withdraw, raid, withdraw again continued until -4,690 when the elves finally decided to do something about their oppression. Taking up arms, they began to fight back against the trolls and halted the their northernly advance, eventually managing to secure a permanent civilisation for themselves. Naming the new area Quel'thalas (which means 'high home') with Quel'anore as the largest settlement, the wars seemed to be over, but in reality, the troll king Azzarin simply ordered his forces to resume the hit-and-run attacks, but this time, with no northernly advance, giving the elves no time to retreat.

In -4,429, Mytnas Dawndancer died, and his son Beuzen took over as ruler of Quel'thalas. Devastated by his father's perceived passiveness, he took the fight to the trolls themselves, conducting revenge raids that took him deep into Sulebi heartland. This impressed the humans of Anthromor, who too believed that the trolls were too powerful as of late. As a result, despite bitter difficulties facing the high elves, King Dacquan himself ordered emissaries into Quel'anore in order to propose an alliance to the high elves as part of a bilateral deal. Arathor would supply soldiers and arms, and the high elves...something in return. Thus, the deal was struck: the humans and high elves formed a common alliance with each other to defeat the trolls, and the elves, in exchange, agreed to teach the most talented thinkers among Anthromor arcane magic.

It did not take long for the trolls to be pushed back. By the end -4,403, they had lost 60% of their territory. By -4,400, everything was gone. Azzarin, unwilling to be the last Sulebi Emperor, abdicated the throne, had his son crowned in a rush-coronation, and then took his own life. The Sulebian Empire was destroyed, and the Kingdom of Quel'thalas would rise in its place.

Trivia

 * It is unknown how Mytnas Dawndancer died. Some say he perished in battle defending Silsalin Hill, and others say no such thing happened.
 * The Elf-Troll Wars part of the story is inspired by a Warcraft event of similar name. However, in Warcraft, the war was dramatically shorter, and it was the high elves who begged the humans for assistance in the war - in AoC, the humans offered their support ("the enemy of our enemy is our friend").
 * However, this was the start of a long relationship between humans and high elves neither king could predict.
 * Arcane magic had an adverse effect on humans at first. When warmages started dying off in their numbers following the end of the war, the elves concluded that, after a 10-year joint research programme, human bodies were ill-equipped to handle arcane and it would take several generations for this effect to dissipate.
 * As a result, some magi moved westwards to start wizardry schools, in order to pass down their talents to the next generation of sorcerors. Arising from this came the Magic Aptitude Test, due to concerns the elves had about the proliferation of magic.
 * Azzarin dying by suicide rather than allowing himself to be martyred by Beuzen Dawndancer may have demoralised his men more than he would have liked to believe, given that they were awaiting his instructions.