#maha is a lil weird but that's how spirits be

[frutavel]

About Mahamba (in game, real life and headcanons)

Because I like to blab!

1. In game Mahamba is a rare crocolisk mob in Stranglethorn. You can find him near the Venture Co. Oil rig, near the river. He's the only non aggressive crocolisk mob in the zone if I'm not mistaken.

2. An Alliance quest has you collect a totem and icons from the Bloodscalp trolls. The totem has Pogeyan (lynx) as the fire spirit, Tsul'kalu (gorilla) as the earth spirit and Mahamba (crocolisk) as the water spirit. The same quest says the three of them are worshipped by the Bloodscalp

3. Pogeyan and Tsul'kalu are also rare mobs you can find in Stranglethorn. They have nothing to do with the quests mentioned above, they're just there for the sake of being there I think. Pogeyan is the only one of the three who is aggressive.

4. Mahamba's icon is a leather doll shaped like a crocolisk. Tari has one of those.

5. The real life Mahamba is a crocodile said to have been found in Africa who was just. Huge. An absolute unit. Motherfucker unlimited. There were numerous sightings from different sources who had different size estimates, but they all agree he was Large tm

6. Entering headcanon territory, and following the logic above. Mahamba's in game model is already way bigger than the other crocolisks, I headcanon he's even bigger than that. I don't have exact numbers but he's big enough to swallow a troll whole.

7. His troll form is smaller, but even as small as he can make it he's still way taller than your average Zandalari. Him Big tm

8. In game the only tribe said to worship him is the Bloodscalp, but I think it's safe to assume the other trolls in Stranglethorn do too. I'm 90% sure some of the Skullsplitter follow him, the Gurubashi at least know about him if nothing else (there's a lot of crocolisks in Zul'gurub and like half of them use the same model as him, I'm using that as a footing), and I think there's also some Darkspear who are likely to follow him. Like Tari!

9. This might be a bit of a stretch, but there's also a bunch of crocolisks in Zul'aman (I ran the dungeon just yesterday :D) and some of the Amani beast handlers have crocolisks with them. I will use that as footing to say some forest trolls might worship him too.

10. Another headcanon that might be a bit of a stretch, and this one has nothing to do with Mahamba, but I think it's possible for Pogeyan and Halazzi (the Amani lynx loa) might be related somehow. They've both lynxes and we know the Amani love their lynxes, so they might worship Pogeyan too

11. Following that logic I see no reason for them to not at least know Mahamba exists

12. And that means at least some of the Amani might want to worship him

13. And that might have spread to other forest troll tribes

14. It's my adopted deity and I get to decide who worships him

15. Gral is the loa of the ocean and Mahamba is the spirit of water. That includes the ocean, so technically Mahamba should have power over Gral. The way I settled this is by having Mahamba be the guardian of fresh water like rivers and ponds and lakes, and also the ocean shallows, while Gral's domain is the deeper ocean.

16. This is backed by the existence of saltwater crocodiles irl, they can survive just fine on the ocean but as far as I know they never swim too far from the shore. Same logic applies to Mahamba, he has a little bit of reign on the shallows but everything else is Gral's territory and he stays away from it.

17. He prefers fresh water anyway. It's easier on his skin.

18. Best way to gain his favor is with food. He'll eat anything you offer, meat, fish, fruit, people, anything goes. He didn't get that horrendously big by being a pick eater. Feed him.

19. He's easy to please but his boon is hard to get. Only Tari and a handful of others ever got access to the boss croc's power. You have to make a deal for it and he might mot always accept your offers.

20. He's considered a loa, because as we know trolls consider everything a loa, but his in game title is spirit. I think he works a little differently from your "standard" loa, but I don't know how much different or what the difference is. We will consider him a normal loa for now.

21. Disrespect the waters and you will get eaten. The Venture Co. is number one on his hit list and he has eaten many of them over the years.

22. He gets along fine with his fellow animal spirits, and with most other loa, but he is a little wary of Krag'wa and has called Bwonsamdi a bitch in the past. Big respect for Gral and Torcali on the other hand.

23. If you know how to call to him, he will answer almost every time. You have to learn first, and that takes a while. Tari knows.

24. He is a really chill guy, it's hard to upset him and he doesn't hold grudges unless you really mess up. Don't piss off the boss croc. Please. You're gonna die.

25. You know Tari's blind eye? He ate that. Not literally, the physical thing is still there in Tari's skull, but when he made his deal Mahamba ate the life force and energy that was still in there to seal it. If it weren't for that Tari might still have vision in both eyes today.