The Drakkari ice trolls are an old race, one of the first in Northrend. They were building homes in Zul’Drak before the Great Sundering and never left their home, though some of them may have migrated south to became the Frostmane tribe and the Winterax tribe. The furbolgs of Grizzlemaw have fought the Drakkari for many years.
Drakkari are tribal, and early in their history each tribe established its own territory and fought off any trespassers. Then one tribe conquered another and enslaved its warriors. These slaves were forced to build the victors a new and larger home, and their children became part of the dominant tribe. This tribe continued to conquer its neighbors, each time absorbing them, until finally it was powerful enough to claim all of Zul’Drak as its kingdom. Any tribe that resisted was destroyed. Those tribes that accepted the powerful tribe’s dominance were allowed to keep their own territories, provided they accepted any orders from the ruling tribe. Thus, the Drakkari nation truly began. The central tribe’s home became Gundrak, the capital city. The tribes still war among themselves, and the Frost King allows this because it keeps his people strong and aggressive. He coordinates border patrols and establishes protocols for calling all the tribes together should an army attack them in force. Many tribe chieftains thought these efforts foolish until they encountered the walking dead. Then the Frost King organized the other Drakkari and drove the dead from their lands. Thus far, the Scourge has not penetrated into Zul’Drak to any degree, though it claims Drak'Tharon Keep, an old Drakkari stronghold in the Grizzly Hills just beyond Zul’Drak’s southwest edge.