The Running of the Trolls

A yearly Pride event in World of Warcraft to benefit the Trevor Project

FAQ:

When:

US-SATURDAY-June 27th
at 6pm PST/9pm EST
EU-SUNDAY-June 28th
at 6pm CEST/9am PDT

Run will LEAVE Echo Isles at 6pm!

Keep in mind that this is the time that we are leaving the starting zone, so show up early to enjoy our yearly beach parties, get guild invites, and more!

NEW THIS YEAR! You will also want to show up early pick up the quest for the Darkspear Dash!

What:

The Running of the Trolls is an annual community organized charity event to benefit the Trevor Project that starts out as a beach party on Echo Isles, turns into a Pride March and ends as a pool party in the Silvermoon Fountain!The yearly event is so popular that it inspired the Darkspear Dash, a new Microholiday in Warcraft! More information coming about the features of the Dash and how it will add to the Run with the 12.0.7 patch and the day of the holiday itself!

Where:

The Running of the Trolls will be held exclusively on the following two realms beginning in the Troll Run Starting Zone aka Echo Isles! Players who are not on those two realms will have to roll a Troll to join us!

- Feathermoon-US on Saturday
- Argent Dawn-EU on Sunday!

How To Join:

Simply log in on the specified day, before the run start time and join us for a run! We’ll have invites, and you just need bring yourself!There will be absolutely no Cross Realm invites for this. Cross Realm people will be unable to join our guilds.You must be on Feathermoon/ or it’s connected realm Scarlet Crusade-US. (Or for the EU event on Argent Dawn) I’m unable to facilitate people who are off realm. Simply roll a new character on the specified server and join in the fun that way!

Is this the Holiday?

Yes but no! This is the community fundraising event that inspired the holiday!The holiday is available on all realms, meanwhile the annual community event, is only held on one single realm. We are adding a second community event run for our EU friends!

Trial Accounts/Vet Accounts

If you do not play World of Warcraft, or play in the EU/Asia regions and are joining our US event, you can download and use a US trial account (or reverse for US accounts joining EU). If your account is currently not active, you can also do the same! Trial accounts cannot join guilds, but you can run along with us, and we do have some ways to count you all. You can also join our discord still!Important: If your Trial Account Troll was not made before Exile’s Reach was created or a character on your Veteran Account has not reached level 80, you may need to go through Exile’s Reach upon making a new Character, which takes 10-40 minutes player depending! Please plan accordingly time wise!

Darkspear Dash Information

The Darkspear Dash will bring an very vibrant update to the event! The Micro Holiday is featured on the in game calendar, and is similar in nature to the holiday that inspired the Running of the Gnomes The Great Gnomergan Run! Players will be able to obtain fun in game items, and even a tabard!You can preview Darkspear Dash in the Midnight Revelations Content Update Trailer at the timestamp linked here!There is also a trading post activity that includes running the Darkspear Dash on an under level 15 character, and doing so wearing a Tabard. A lot more information coming soon!

Can I be a Zandalari instead?

Troll is a Troll and all Trolls are welcome! Do remember that you will have to make your way to the starting point, but the game even accounts for Zandalari Trolls with the Trading Post tasks for the event this year!

What about [Lists other races here]?

We can’t stop you really, but the fun of the event is doing something together from all over in a unifying sense with a lot of other people rather than being “that one person”.

What Hair Color Should I Pick?:

Unlike our Gnome runs, we feel that you should have a say in what hair color you decide to give to your Troll! Please pick whatever color makes you most happy! Pick something from the Pride flag that means something to you, pick a color you love, pick a color that makes your Troll look great! In the end, we’ll wind up with a rainbow!

Are Toys, Mounts and Other Items Allowed?

Rainbow toys and other fun items are absolutely encouraged!We think that running on foot is best especially with the Darkspear Dash! However, we understand that there may be times where you may be tempted to do something else! We ask that players respect each other’s choices regarding this while playing and don’t nanny one another!We also ask that players limit toys, trinkets and other items that cause zonewide disruption or visual lag outside of those appropriate for the event!

After Party?

We're doing an update on our Afterparty this year! We're hosting a pop up runway at the finish line so people can show off their amazing Troll Run Tabards, transmogs, and adorable names! We even got someone to do commentary at the end who's never been to the Troll Run before! We know you will absolutely wow him!Some people may still do the traditional one as well! It is more challenging than the Gnome Run, but some people like to go kiss as many Alliance Leaders as possible between Silvermoon and the Stormwind Throne!

Hashtags?

#TrollRun2026, #TrollRun, #DarkspearDash

Can I Stream/Post Videos/Share Other Content of the Run?

Please share the run with your audience in whatever way you’d like! We love sharing your stuff!Tag us if you post on socials so we can share!We just have to ask: if you want to stream or make a video, we just ask that you share a link to the fundraising page or this year’s QR code, and make clear where personal/fundraiser donations are going and that you behave with respect to participants.

Why Trolls?

During the first few years we did the Running of the Gnomes, we got asked a lot of really silly, Trollish questions about when we would do a run for another cause, or for the Horde. It’s fun to turn things around and do such an amazing event that will raise funds as well as awareness for a charity we truly love, The Trevor Project.Plus if any race is going to throw an amazing party of this scale Horde side and take it across the continents, it’s definitely going to be the Trolls! They get stuff done in style!

“It’s Men’s Mental Health Month You know!”

Yeah! Men’s mental health is a really important and under discussed topic! You’re absolutely right! Thank you for reminding people to be kind to one another and reach out to each other too.June being Men’s Mental Health month and finding an appropriate charity, and realizing that Queer Men are at an extra high risk of losing their lives due to ideation, was part of our original discussions while forming the Troll Run.Considering this helped the OG Race Crew helped pick a charity based on experiences the race crew had as teenagers seeing classmates struggle with depression and ideation, especially people like myself who lived in a very rural area where young people felt especially pressured to conform or else.The statistics on this are less represented than it should be due to the AIDs crisis impacting the number of older Queer men alive today, but it’s something that we see represented more often in younger generations.

Fundraiser:

What is the Trevor Project and how can I donate to this year’s fundraiser?

The Trevor Project is a non profit focused on suicide prevention for LGBTQA+ youth.In the simplest of terms, we believe that the youngest members of our community deserve a chance to start and truly enjoy all living has to offer and and that cannot happen if they are not here to appreciate that life and what it has to offer them.Here is our Tiltify Fundraiser! You can donate directly OR fundraise with us by joining our Team for Pride 2026! If you think a QR code is easier we have that too!

Running of the Trolls 2026 Tiltify

Why Trolls?

During the first few years we did the Running of the Gnomes, we got asked a lot of really silly, Trollish questions about when we would do a run for another cause, or for the Horde. It’s fun to turn things around and do such an amazing event that will raise funds as well as awareness for a charity we truly love, The Trevor Project.Plus if any race is going to throw an amazing party of this scale Horde side and take it across the continents, it’s definitely going to be the Trolls! They get stuff done in style!

Merch?

Yes! We’ll have some new art items and more where the proceeds will go directly to this years fundraiser! Keep an eye out for this year’s art and the items before the runs!

Racing Guilds:

Whispering those of us spamming chat with instructions to do so the word INVITE will auto trigger our addon to get you a guild invite unless you have a trial account.We use guilds to allow as many players as possible to receive clear directions, communicate and as a substitution for raids since under level 10s cannot join raids! Every guild has a matching tabard design as well!A note about Racing Guilds:
We ask that even while it’s hectic, that you join only the guilds we’ve confirmed below so we can ensure that you get valid information, links to donation sites and have the best possible experience!IF we add any new guilds they will be added on our sites and social media/discord.

US Guilds:

- Running of the Trolls
- Troll For Initiative
- Trollkyo Drift
- Trolladega Nights
- They See Me Trolling
- Trollin in da Deep

EU Guilds:

COMING SOON

If you whisper one of us that are spamming chat with instructions the word "INVITE", it will (hopefully) auto trigger our addon to get you a guild invite.If we miss you, please re-whisper us as we can get swamped with whispers!We will get you! Asking to get friends invited to chat is more likely to get overlooked than a whisper directly from someone to one of us, we hate making you feel overlooked!

NEW Darkspear Dash Tabard!

Check out the Darkspear Dash Tabard!One of the most requested item we had while discussing making the Running of the Trolls a holiday was ensuring that anyone who ran the race got a Tabard, since Trial Accounts, and people who would run the event on their own wouldn’t have access to anything we had created! Years ago passing out and sharing tabards at our runs was a huge part of the culture, and we feel like the Dev team knocked it out of the park while creating a special tabard for the Darkspear Dash Holiday!Players who complete the quest associated with the microholiday will be awarded with this gorgeous tabard!

Guild tabards

Since we're making a rainbow with our hair, the tabards are as close to the Trans Pride flags as we can get, and we've had them that way since creation of the event in honor of Leelah Alcorn.As a reminder, because of changes to how tabards work in Retail from Legion's pre-patch going forward, we can't trade you a tabard because they're now Bind on Pickup. You can, however, mail yourself a tabard from the guild vendor from your main. There's a mailbox right in the starting area that's super easy to get to. You can also use the Warband Banks to pass them character to character!

Route:

There are a few changes to the run this year, so please pay attention and be sure to follow the lovely rainbow gates if there are any questions!It’s super easy to follow where we are going if you have the quest as well as there are 42 gates marked clearly on your map!

The gates look like this!

The run will start at Echo Isles, and after crossing the bridge and the lake reach Seijin Village. From there we will all head north through Durotar until we reach the gates of Orgrimmar. There's a shiny new port there to the left of the gates, which we will take to be transported to the start of the Western Plaguelands.You should be between portal 14 and 15 when you cross this portal.

Follow the road (and the gates!) east all the way through the Eastern Plaguelands; yes that does mean we're going through Corrin's Crossing now! Be sure to keep up the pace so the local Scourge don't get too friendly!You should keep an eye out for Image of Lukou the Loa of Regeneration before running into a few key dangerous areas with those super tough mobs!

Continue along the road when it curves north until you reach the edge of Eversong Woods, where the run is going to take a bit of a detour.We didn't know ahead of time, and the dev team didn't know ahead of time how many trial accounts ran with us. So we're going to be a bit creative here just this year! There will be a fix next year!

IF YOU DO NOT HAVE MIDNIGHT:Take the portal next to Zidormi to go into the TBC version of Eversong. Continue following the gates all the way down through Silvermoon. The run will end at the fountain there; BE SURE TO STICK AROUND THE FOUNTAIN FOR THE AFTER PARTY.There is an equal number of gates and a finish line do not worry!IF YOU DO HAVE MIDNIGHT: Follow the gates through new Eversong up through Silvermoon. Be sure to stick together when the void invasions are active; there is safety in numbers. Once you reach the finish line DO NOT LEAVE. The afterparty is in TBC Silvermoon so we can all party together, so you will need to either run back and take the TBC portal or else look for one of our volunteer mages for a portal.FOR EVERYONE: The after party is in TBC Silvermoon. If your run ended there just stick around! If your run ended in Midnight Silvermoon please make your way on over so we can all play in the fountain together! We will also have a Transmog Fashion Show thanks to Visage and Hosted by RoboftheRealm! See you there!!

Holiday Notes:

Updating when the Holiday Goes Live!

Merch

Visit our 2026 collection

Visit our other Troll Run Merch

We have a new design from Eggu alongside several of our Old Designs! Because we are launching the new design so close to the Holiday if you don't see an item you want, feel free to ask us in the Warcraft Cares discord to make it for you!