The Hidden Wonders of Trolls.

by Solitar of Dusk

As a slavemaster of the Aldmeri Dominion it is my duty to capture and train various lesser beasts from all across Tamriel. I dare say that in my 300 years I have become the premier slaver in the lands, however I would always consider myself a scholar first and foremost, and my station provides me with ample time and resources to perform my experiments.

I've conducted numerous of these experiments over the years, however the most recent of these has provided some stunning insights. Upon my exploration of the frozen north of Skyrim I discovered a small island in the Sea of Ghosts, completely uninhabited by men or mer, the most threatening creature on the island was a solitary snow bear. I decided this island would be the location of my next experiment.

While in Skyrim it was my mission to capture trolls and bring them to the Solitude ports ready for transport back to Alinor. I diverted a small amount of the younger trolls I had captured onto the Island and released them, with the goal of returning to this island occasionally and seeing how these trolls matured in relative seclusion. All in all I placed about 15 frost trolls on the island. The results were unlike anything I had ever seen before.

The first several years were more or less what you would expect from trolls, lots of fighting and fornicating. Without any predators the troll population exploded, resulting in quite a few fights between the group, which produced a rather high mortality rate. I had noticed that the majority of the original generation had survived this point though.

It was in the eighth year when I noticed something strange. All of the original trolls had vanished. They weren't killed, I never found any bones that matched in size with the original batch, who by this point had become the largest Trolls I had ever seen. I did notice some large boulders scattered around the island, perhaps I just never bothered remembering them before.

I returned to the island the following year and made an astonishing find, giants! They were equally as tall as their meandering cousins on the mainland, but these giants were covered head to toe in fur and had four eyes instead of two. These giants I believe are the surviving trolls from the initial seeding.

These “Frost Giants” as I have began calling them were covered in the same type of fur as standard frost trolls, they have at least some form of limited intelligence as they created clubs for themselves though I doubt there is anything on that island that could stand against them for long in a fight. Noticeably the air around these giants was colder than average, indicative of the large magical potential I would later discover they possessed.

I thought I had made the greatest discovery of my career, little did I know that I was in store for a much bigger shock. I returned to the island every few years from that point onward (my expeditions had to stop temporarily during the great war) and on the 89th year of the experiment it happened again, the sole remaining frost giant had disappeared without a trace.

I returned every year after that and still saw no trace of it, until the 99th year of the experiment. That's when I saw it. The largest living creature I had ever seen, bigger than even the other younger frost giants. It's head was grossly misshapen and had grown yet another eye, giving it a total of five. The beast was also many times more intelligent than it was previously, as it was in the beginning stages of forming a fortress from it's own ice magic. The creatures multiple eyes seem to be more powerful than they were before as well, even though I had cast an invisibility spell the beast looked directly at me while making my observations and pointed at me, as if to dispel doubts that it was focused on me alone. I hastily retreated from the island after the encounter as a blizzard swept through the area. I don't believe I'll ever come back to the island, something tells me that if I do that I shall never leave it alive. Oh well, it's the Nord's problem now.