I had a number of double-takes when reading the backstory and the research suggestions for The Smoking Ruins, so I went and had a look at the sources that I remembered.
Beware of background spoilers!
The most canonical source of all is the Guide, but while it gives the names Kajak-ab Braineater and Vamargic Eye-Necklace as examples for troll names, it doesn't tell their story during the Inhuman Occupation.
It does offer a very short local history of the setting (p.188):
Smoking Ruins: These ruins within an ancient Vingkotling hill fort are permanently thick with smoke. The smoke comes from a smoldering heap of troll corpses that has been burning for the last four centuries.
The best source for researching troll history is Uz Lore from RuneQuest Troll Pak. The text of this booklet doesn't change significantly between the second and third edition version, and some dating which doesn't quite agree with other sources (like a premature arrival of Belintar or an apparent confusion about the date of the arrival of the Closing), Uz Lore is the single most consistent telling of the history of Glorantha outside of the text in the Guide.
The Smoking Ruins inherits the relevant section from Uz Lore quite verbatim to begin with.
Uz Lore has two paragraphs omitted from the text in TSR, above and below the (slightly expanded and mildly rephrased) description of the two leaders of the southern (wood, i.e. Kethaelan) and eastern (mountain, i.e. Dagori Inkarth) troll factions.
Before presenting the two uz leaders, Uz Lore tells us
When the dragons slew all humans in the land of the trolls, other non-humans quickly moved in, fighting each other as usual. Many expeditions went out from there to raid human holdings.
However, the unity of trolldom was an illusion which was dispelled by their strength. The Dragon Pass region became a battleground for trolls fighting trolls.
Uz Lore remains silent about the conflicts between the eastern and the southern trolls, but mentions the third Darkness faction in the pass, essentially the Tusk Riders and their "half-troll" nobility:
Troll unity returned when the despised half-trolls of the Ivory Plinth attempted to seize all power with the help of non-troll allies. He was killed, and the trolls then began a campaign against all others.
This paragraph appears to be a bit jumbled, and fails to mention Karastand Half-Troll, the leader of the Ivory Plinth darkness tribe of whichever species they may have been.
In 1222, trolls met the enemy forces in battle and slaughtered them. Their victory seemed so complete that a great revel began, gorging on the foes and drinking intoxicating drinks This continued in a great victory debauch which was so intense that no one seemed to notice the small enemy force of beastmen who assembled and launched a surprise attack. The trolls were unable to respond, and thousands of them were killed. The corpses were heaped up in nearby ruins and set afire as an insult to their beliefs. Ever since that time the ruins have kept smoking, and are called the Smoking Ruins. Also, no troll has been able to contact their ancestors who were burnt there.
The Smoking Ruins as a land mark in southeastern Dragon Pass have been with us since the publication of Dragon Pass with the Wilms Church-based gameboard. (Not sure about the earlier WBRM map.)
My other main source for these events is an in-world document written by a Vendref living close to the place and probably fairly well informed about the Beastman version of events there. I am talking about Densesros the Scribe's collection of sources on the Third Age history of the region, aka the Composite History of Dragon Pass, in King of Sartar. (p.89 hardcover edition pdf:)
Troll Wars
During the peace enforced by the dragonewts the Uz streamed in from Dagori Inkarth. The two biggest swarms were led by Kajakab the Brain-eater, an Uz who came from the Castle of Lead in Shadows Dance; and Karastand Halftroll, who claimed human ancestry and imperial rights over Dragon Pass as heir to the Wyrms Minds Collective. Halftroll was also commander of the giant boar-trolls of the Ivory Plinth, who formed the nobility of the Uz in the Stinking Forest, and whose persistent war with the Newbloom Aldryami gave the pleasant woods their unpleasant name.
Probably about 1180 the two Uz races began their fighting, and at first the dragonewts were content to let them raze the ruins of the Wyrms Minds Collective. But when the Uz began raiding outside of Dragon Pass, threatening possible human intervention into the closed sacred grounds, the dragonewts were forced to react.
The two Uz armies united to fight the dragonewts, who were joined by the Aldryami and the Beastfolk. The battle is called “Uz Eat Dragonewts,” and was a great Uz victory followed by a typically grotesque and prodigious feast in troll style devouring the many dragonewt corpses. The dragonewts who had been killed, however, were only the Ralian dragonewts allies who had been sent ahead. The real Dragon Pass dragonewts fell upon the gorged and disgusting creatures and slew them all. This was probably around 1220 or so.
After that, the trolls remained in the shadows and hidden places, only rarely coming out in force again, but always remaining a menace.
Now this sounds pretty straightforward. A joint force of uz and tusk riders battles against the joint forces of dragonewts, aldryami and beastfolk. Triumphant win for the army of Darkness, debauchery, followed by torpor and being slaughtered themselves.
But somehow the third troll force from the south and its commander is absent from this story.
But let's take these texts apart, and rearrange them.
The Greylands region of Dragon Pass was the greatest troll stronghold. It lay between the Argan Argar Shadowlands and the Queendom of Dagori Inkarth. When the dragons slew all humans in the land of the trolls, other non-humans quickly moved in, fighting each other as usual. Many expeditions went out from there to raid human holdings.
During the peace enforced by the dragonewts the Uz streamed in from Dagori Inkarth. The two biggest swarms were led by Kajakab the Brain-eater, an Uz who came from the Castle of Lead in Shadows Dance; and Karastand Halftroll, who claimed human ancestry and imperial rights over Dragon Pass as heir to the Wyrms Minds Collective. Halftroll was also commander of the giant boar-trolls of the Ivory Plinth, who formed the nobility of the Uz in the Stinking Forest, and whose persistent war with the Newbloom Aldryami gave the pleasant woods their unpleasant name.
Kajak-ab Braineater was a Mistress Race troll who worshipped Kyger Litor and led the trolls from Dagori Inkarth. The other inhabitants of the pass often call her tribe the Mountain trolls. Her major opponent was Vamargic Eye-necklace who led the wood trolls from the south. He was most unusual, first because he was a great troll (who are almost always of low intelligence) and second, because his parents were both cave trolls. He worshipped Zorak Zoran.
Probably about 1180 the two Uz races began their fighting, and at first the dragonewts were content to let them raze the ruins of the Wyrms Minds Collective. But when the Uz began raiding outside of Dragon Pass, threatening possible human intervention into the closed sacred grounds, the dragonewts were forced to react.
Troll unity returned when the despised half-trolls of the Ivory Plinth attempted to seize all power with the help of non-troll allies. He [Karastand Half-troll] was killed, and the trolls then began a campaign against all others.
The two Uz armies united to fight the dragonewts, who were joined by the Aldryami and the Beastfolk.
In 1222, trolls met the enemy forces in battle and slaughtered them.
The battle is called “Uz Eat Dragonewts,” and was a great Uz victory followed by a typically grotesque and prodigious feast in troll style devouring the many dragonewt corpses. The dragonewts who had been killed, however, were only the Ralian dragonewts allies who had been sent ahead.
Their victory seemed so complete that a great revel began, gorging on the foes and drinking intoxicating drinks This continued in a great victory debauch which was so intense that no one seemed to notice the small enemy force of beastmen who assembled and launched a surprise attack. The trolls were unable to respond, and thousands of them were killed. The corpses were heaped up in nearby ruins and set afire as an insult to their beliefs. Ever since that time the ruins have kept smoking, and are called the Smoking Ruins. Also, no troll has been able to contact their ancestors who were burnt there.
The real Dragon Pass dragonewts fell upon the gorged and disgusting creatures and slew them all. This was probably around 1220 or so.
Following that, humans from the Shadowlands in the south rose against their leaders. Although the trolls kept most of their political power at first ,they were forced to include more and more humans from nearby regions in their councils, and this ultimately proved their undoing.
After that, the trolls remained in the shadows and hidden places, only rarely coming out in force again, but always remaining a menace.
[Uz Lore continues with Gerak Kag’s capture of Old Pavis]
About 1350, the troll legion was a regular part of the army of the kingdom of Tarsh. This was a mercenary unit, used mainly in guerilla operations but occasionally mustered en masse for battle.
This combination of the two texts appears to give a pretty concise picture, right?
At least this is where I came from when I read the historical background information in The Smoking Ruins.
The history as presented in the scenario makes yet another insertion into the story above.
Now entering heavy spoiler territory, discussing GM Info only:
Hence a little white space...
While the scenario makes use of the Tusk Riders as a rumor and goes with the "small force of beastmen" version of Uz Lore (amending it to "Beastman cavalry", which I can only interprete as centaur forces - and apparently the author of the scenario too), it has a different premise.
Braineater’s trolls had been taking refuge inside the abandoned buildings after escaping from marauding Tusk Riders.
This doesn't sound like a convincing victory of the real trolls over the Half-troll at all. Rather the opposite. This sentence is the one that makes a synthesis of the TSR version with the previous synthesis quite problematic.
Vamargic ambushed Braineater’s forces while they were sleeping, exhausted.
Apparently the southern trolls had no trouble with Tusk Riders? I changed the sequence of these two sentences because the statement about Kajak--ab and her trolls changes the synthesized story above.
But then, there is a possibility that the surviving Tusk Riders, after losing their leader Karastrand, entered the service of the Dragonewts as mercenaries. I aim to make a synthesis of these three sources. The text in TSR is fine as far as local events are described (and surprisingly re-defined, but that's no worse than a HeroQuest Surprise, really). It only doesn't mesh with the greater picture of this periof of history.
Who cares? Every troll who has an ancestor burning away in those ruins. Or possibly a sibling - troll matriarchs can have very long lives.
Vamargic killed many of them in their sleep, and his victory was so complete that a huge revel began, gorging on Braineater’s remains and drinking intoxicating drinks. This revel continued in a great victory debauch that was so intense, no one noticed the small enemy cavalry force of Beast Men who, while tracking Vamargic to exact revenge, had assembled upon Orlanth’s Hill and the Valley floor.
Beastmen assembling on the Hill - fine.
But what would these Beastmen have to exact revenge for from Vamargic? The revenge motivation only makes sense if Vamargic (whether allied with Kajak-ab or not) had destroyed an allied force of dragonewts, aldryami and beastmen earlier on, as described in Uz Lore.
Let's conclude the slaughter:
From both sides they rode down into the settlement to launch their attack. Vamargic’s trolls were taken by surprise. It was a complete rout and Vamargic’s forces were slaughtered. The Beast Men left the corpses to rot, but before they left, they hired a nearby Grazer clan to help them erect a memorial to those Beast Men who died in the fight. Vamargic died with the rest of his band.
Trolls die in their sleep, or rudely awakened from it. Again, this time the other half.
The Beastmen don't set the troll bodies on fire, though. Dragonewts do, as per CHDP, but I won't discuss this interesting additional twist in detail.
By picking apart these text passages and inserting them into the previous text, I arrive at the following synthesis:
The Greylands region of Dragon Pass was the greatest troll stronghold. It lay between the Argan Argar Shadowlands and the Queendom of Dagori Inkarth. When the dragons slew all humans in the land of the trolls, other non-humans quickly moved in, fighting each other as usual. Many expeditions went out from there to raid human holdings.
One such target settlement was the abandoned Korolstead, later known as the Smoking Ruin.
During the peace enforced by the dragonewts the Uz streamed in from Dagori Inkarth. The two biggest swarms were led by Kajakab the Brain-eater, an Uz who came from the Castle of Lead in Shadows Dance; and Karastand Halftroll, who claimed human ancestry and imperial rights over Dragon Pass as heir to the Wyrms Minds Collective. Halftroll was also commander of the giant boar-trolls of the Ivory Plinth, who formed the nobility of the Uz in the Stinking Forest, and whose persistent war with the Newbloom Aldryami gave the pleasant woods their unpleasant name.
Kajak-ab Braineater was a Mistress Race troll who worshipped Kyger Litor and led the trolls from Dagori Inkarth. The other inhabitants of the pass often call her tribe the Mountain trolls. Her major rival was Vamargic Eye-necklace who led the dark trolls from the south. He was most unusual, first because he was a great troll (who are almost always of low intelligence) and second, because his parents were both cave trolls. He worshipped Zorak Zoran, and his eye necklace was a sacred ritual object in his worship of Zorak Zoran.
Probably about 1180 the two Uz races began their fighting, and at first the dragonewts were content to let them raze the ruins of the Wyrms Minds Collective. But when the Uz began raiding outside of Dragon Pass, threatening possible human intervention into the closed sacred grounds, the dragonewts were forced to react.
Troll unity returned when the despised half-trolls of the Ivory Plinth attempted to seize all power with the help of non-troll allies. He [Karastand Half-troll] was killed, and the trolls then began a campaign against all others.
The two Uz armies united to fight the dragonewts, who were joined by the Aldryami and the Beastfolk.
In 1222, trolls met the enemy forces in battle and slaughtered them.
The battle is called “Uz Eat Dragonewts,” and was a great Uz victory followed by a typically grotesque and prodigious feast in troll style devouring the many dragonewt corpses. The dragonewts who had been killed, however, were only the Ralian dragonewts allies who had been sent ahead.
There is a possibility that the surviving Tusk Riders, after losing their leader Karastrand, entered the service of the Dragonewts as mercenaries, and that these mercenaries had somehow escaped destruction in the battle.
Braineater’s trolls had been taking refuge inside the abandoned buildings after escaping from marauding Tusk Riders.
In an astonishing move of treachery, and against a female Mistress Race troll, Vamargic ambushed Braineater’s forces while they were sleeping, exhausted.
Vamargic killed many of them in their sleep, and his victory was so complete that a huge revel began, gorging on Braineater’s remains and drinking intoxicating drinks.
Their victory seemed so complete that a great revel began, gorging on the foes and drinking intoxicating drinks
Uz Lore's "the foes" doesn't exclude this reading of the events. The version in the scenario doesn't change the Uz Lore text, it only introduces a fact that was somehow omitted from the Uz Lore text (because unknown at the time of writing it, I suppose).
This revel continued in a great victory debauch that was so intense, no one noticed the small enemy cavalry force of Beast Men who, while tracking Vamargic to exact revenge, had assembled upon Orlanth’s Hill and the Valley floor.
This continued in a great victory debauch which was so intense that no one seemed to notice the small enemy force of beastmen who assembled and launched a surprise attack.
Again the modified text in the scenario is nearly identical to the Uz Lore version. The revenge bit and the local detail are additions.
The trolls were unable to respond, and thousands of them were killed.
From both sides they rode down into the settlement to launch their attack. Vamargic’s trolls were taken by surprise. It was a complete rout and Vamargic’s forces were slaughtered. Vamargic died with the rest of his band. The Beast Men left the corpses to rot, but before they left, they hired a nearby Grazer clan to help them erect a memorial to those Beast Men who died in the fight. Vamargic died with the rest of his band.
The text in the scenario adds a lot of detail, including the detail that the Beast Men did not start the fire, or even pile up the corpses.
And this was the Inhuman Occupation, no Grazers in Dragon Pass, yet - they entered 28 years after this battle, and Uz Lore gives a causal connection to the outcome of this battle for Gerak Kag's conquest Pavis. Without the Smoking Ruins incident, there would have been no disastrous battle of the Pure Horse Folk against the Uz, and no subsequent Battle of Alavan Argay.
Unbeknownst to the Beast Men, a small clutch of full priest dragonewts had been tracking the Beast Men, curious what had brought them out of Beast Valley. They observed Vamargic’s slaughter from Orlanth’s hilltop shrine and had been aware of the violation of Braineater’s forces enacted by Vamargic. Once the Beast Men left, these priests clambered down the hill and gathered most of the troll corpses, built pyres, and set them ablaze, enacting a ritual so the bodies would forever burn, the spirits trapped there
The corpses were heaped up in nearby ruins and set afire as an insult to their beliefs. Ever since that time the ruins have kept smoking, and are called the Smoking Ruins. Also, no troll has been able to contact their ancestors who were burnt there.
The real Dragon Pass dragonewts fell upon the gorged and disgusting creatures and slew them all. This was probably around 1220 or so.
This last sentence from CHDP can even be returned from being struck out as a very vague summary of the TSR and in that light also the Uz Lore text.
The big question that remains to be answered is: Why would the dragonewts (or the beastmen) care what Vamargic and his band had done to Kajak-ab and her band? Why would they regard that as evil? Good riddance of the first half of the foes of the dragonewts, so only the second half needed to be eliminated.
The favor of setting the corpses aflame doesn't really need to be understood by either troll or human, and other than GMsplaining the stuff after having played the scenario, I see no realistic possibility other than a few years' worth of Lhankor Mhy Reconstruction for the player characters to find out about this. Other than an incredulous "THIS is how dragonewts repay a favor?", I am happy to keep guessing at dragonewt motivations.
Having written a scenario with dragonewt agency myself, I can attest that having a logical reason for the dragonewt antagonists to do what they did makes writing the scenario easier, even when the logic only makes sense to the dragonewts.
But let's take a look at the claim that the non-humans made expeditions outside of the Inhuman Occupation.
Tusk Rider raids north of the Deathline into Holay and beyond must have been a common experience, no different from what they had done prior to the advance of the Invincible Golden Horde in the year of the Dragonkill. We don't have any information at all about the fate of the Orlanthi who lived north of the Crossline before Arim flees from Hwarin Dalthippa's expansion about a century after the Battle(s) of Korolstead. But judging from the description of the rites at the Ivory Plinth, the Tusk Riders would have wanted a steady flow of sacrifices, and trollkin sacrifices just don't signal respect to a deity. Elves and dark trolls would be acceptable, but hunting humans north of the Death Line and massacring them at the Plinth wouldn't have counted as a violation of the Death Line. They died reliably, after all, or possibly became Tusk Riders themselves.
South of the Crossline we have a strong resurgence of the Hendriki Kingdom, despite (or possibly because) of the loss of the territory north of the Crossline and a distinct population pressure in their lands. This leads to the Adjustment Wars against the Esrolian Grandmothers, which weakens the troll influence in Esrolia. With the abolishment of Arkat's Command by the Tax Slaughter, the Hendriki and their subject tribes had joined the tribes of Orlanthland in refusing the Shadow Tribute. It isn't clear whether the Dragonkill re-instituted that, or whether only the Volsaxi rebels against Belintar's governor king Andrin agreed to pay it again to gain Kitori support for their independence a century later. With the southern trolls weakened by the loss of Vamargic's army and its reputation, I don't see much incentive for King Finelvanth to bother paying the Shadow Tribute.