[StarCraft] Rebooting the verse as gritty rational milscifi

[MediumGatoKatr]

Since it keeps coming up and cluttering my original fiction thread, I decided to make a thread specifically for discussing rewrites, reboots, and fixits of StarCraft. I know there's already a general idea thread for StarCraft, but I feel that this concept is specific enough to deserve its own thread. I don't know whether I should post this in creative discussion, but since it's technically fanfiction I'll post it here. I don't know if this qualifies as cookie cutter fiction or not, but let me know if it does.

Personally I think one could get some huge mileage out of the Zergs communicating both with Protoss and Terrans, all the while having their own internal scheming and politic squabbles over which evolutionary path to take. There's a lot of potential to hook into the idea of genetic-focused transhumanism for the Terrans, especially what with the "explanation" the predecessor of the UED had used for exiling the Terran's ancestors.

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What I liked about Starcraft 2 was mostly in the premises. I liked the rough-and-tumble space revolution in the first game, where you split time actually fighting the authorities, working for shady people to raise funds, and being a Big Damn Hero to the folks who need help in the middle of an alien onslaught.
In Heart of the Swarm I liked Kerrigan's character (even if it doesn't follow well from what we see in the first game). I like her struggle between humanity and the Zerg, and her grim fatalistic march towards revenge because that's all she thinks she can accomplish, and her refusal to take shit from anyone.
That being said, I liked the original Overmind quite a bit. They were unironically the best authority figure in the game, and had the best relationship with their subordinates.
I didn't like Legacy's story as much. The Protoss are pretty stiff and Artanis' journey towards being a good ruler is a bit on the nose. But I do have a soft spot for science fantasy and so the dark mysterious planets with tons of implied history, and the extradimensional megastructures were lots of fun.

I understand the temptation to do "all these species are cool, wouldn't it be great if they teamed up to fight a really big mutual threat" but I think it's a mistake in an RTS. The whole point is that they're constantly fighting each other. So while it's fine to have decent heroic individuals like Tassadar and Jim Raynor, if the cultures are all capable of playing nice with each other then why is the game about them always fighting?

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To be clear, I don't like the story execution of the StarCraft games at all. I like the premise of three wildly different interstellar civilizations fighting each other, I liked reading the StarCraft manual, I liked a lot of the background lore bits, I liked the zerg having personalities, I liked the whole "40k lite" deal. I don't like the main characters, I don't like the universe revolving around them, I don't like how the zerg were reduced to lackeys of Kerry/Amon, I don't like the human politics being reduced to Raynor/Mengsk drama, I don't like the protoss being reduced to wimpy has-beens trying desperately to stay relevant, I don't like the xel'naga being wanked into gods/demons/whatever, I don't like the poor writing and incoherent world building, I don't like a lot of things.

I don't get along with StarCraft fans either. We don't see eye-to-eye. That's why I decided to open a thread for my original fiction inspired by what little I liked in StarCraft. Prior to that I spent a few years trying fruitlessly to share my fixit fanfiction, which didn't go over well because I don't care for any of the canon characters or plots. I am so out of touch with the fandom that I pretty much have no idea why anybody likes StarCraft in the first place, because it's clearly not any of the same stuff that I like.

That said, @ngreennz seems to share some of my tastes. So I decided to open up this thread in the perhaps vain hope that there are others here with similar tastes who I can talk to. I'm sorry if it's redundant, but I've already have enough with the general ideas thread.

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To summarize the changes I'd make to the races:

• Terrans
  • I'd replace their canon situation with that taken directly from the StarCraft beta promos.
  • Confederation of nations: Instead of a single authoritarian Confederacy/Dominion/whatever, the terrans in Koprulu would be an actual confederation with a weak to nonexistent central government and strong colonial governments. Of which there are many.
  • Trade with Earth: Koprulu is in public contact with Earth and other terran sectors like Tau Ceti. The UPL/UED is deprecated/non-existent and terran sectors beyond Koprulu are assumed to be organized into similar confederations.
  • Cyborg cowboys: Terran society has cyberpunk and space western aesthetics. There are hackers, cyborgs, synthetics, mutants, psychics, moreaus, clones, you name it.
  • Humanity f**k yeah: Although they're greedy and young, the tenacity and ingenuity of terrans allows them to stand toe to toe against the engineered killers of the zerg and the advanced technology of the protoss. They don't just roll over and lose 99% of their population off-screen.
• Zerg
  • Collective Consciousness: The Overmind is no longer a physical giant brain you can kill to defeat the zerg, or replace with a Queen of Blades who pursue human vendettas. The Overmind is the collective consciousness of all zerg, produced as a natural extension of their telepathic communication with one another.
  • They're the villains, okay?: The zerg ate all the xel'naga and they aren't pawns of the space devil. They are the space devil. They have burned through countless worlds entirely of their own volition, like the borg and tyranids.
  • Advanced tech counts for something in the future: The zerg are no longer overpowered to the point where you need a dark templar deus ex machina to defeat them. They're actually at a massive disadvantage to the Protoss Empire, and invaded the terrans to study their materials sciences, transhumanism, and psychic mutants for combat utility against the protoss. (This is actually taken from the original lore that got retconned/forgotten/whatever.)
• Protoss
  • Protoss f**k yeah!: The protoss aren't dying has-beens trying desperately to stay relevant. They rule a massive interstellar empire with many other species on the galactic rim.
  • Psychic gestalt: The khala is an egalimind that allows the protoss to efficiently develop a peaceful civilization, and to use their prodigious psychic powers. It is not a mind control device created by the space devil.
  • Ancient uber protoss: the protoss' "golden age" is moved to before the aeon of strife rather than after, in order to create a more consistent timeline. This empire ended in war, not gradual decline like Tolkien's elves. For that matter, the current empire is not declining at all but undergoing growth.
• Xel'naga
  • Deader than Elvis: They're dead, Jim. The protoss and zerg killed them all countless millennia ago.
  • We've outgrown such silly superstitions: The xel'naga were not space gods and there was no infinite cycle. They were very mortal scientists that uplifted the protoss and zerg out of pure vanity, and died horribly as a result.

I can provide plenty more ideas on demand. Feel free to ask. Or suggest something.

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So this thread is basically for people who like the basic premise of StarCraft about three races fighting but aren't attached to the actual plot.

Have fun everyone. Finger crossed that this doesn't burst into flames.

 

[Arkalest]

Keeping the Sith, Not-Sith and Robot Bits Subfactions Of The Protoss In:

The best way to actually do this is to just think of them as sub-cultures. There is plenty that one could do with Amon being a Xel'Naga construct that went rogue, and I'll prolly cover that in a future post. But for now, let's go ahead and say Amon did take the Tal'Darim from Aiur. Now, instead of outright removing the Khala, the Tal'Darim'd embrace a hierarchial version of it.

What does this mean for their society as a whole?

The Tal'Darim are built on transactional, symbiotic and co-dependent relationships. If one wants to keep them as an "Evil" Protoss faction, the way to do it is to have said transactional behaviors cover psionic enslavement and exploitation of less fortunate species, such as Zergs and Terrans and perhaps a bevvy of creatures (that could act as mounts and auxiliaries for their higher ranking members.) A more BDSM-y interpretation is that the Tal'Darim engage in willing subservience to a more psionically potent member in exchange for protection. Either way, I could foresee some really strong "Mafia" vibes there.

Now, the Purifiers.

Just make them sentient robots. Not brain-scans of Protoss n' shit. Cyborgs oughta be like, a default "base" thing for their faction, not an aesthetic relegated to a whole sub-faction. Put an emphasis on them being the source of conflict, not a conflict solver.

They're ultimately very powerful war-machines from an expansionist era of the Protoss' history. They are devoted, and they make the weapons modern Protoss pack look like crap. The Tal'Darim would very much like to nab a few for their own sake. Maybe even Ulzeraj.

 

[MediumGatoKatr]

Keeping the Sith, Not-Sith and Robot Bits Subfactions Of The Protoss In:

The best way to actually do this is to just think of them as sub-cultures.

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I think the word you're looking for is "tribes". The protoss have always had tribes. Although they were forgotten in the actual games, you can still use them as organizations. Like all those sub-armies in 40k. Every tribe was given some kind of shtick, like the Shelak being librarians, the Akilae being templar high command, the Ara being the descendants of Khas' first followers, etc.

Prior to the art direction in SC2, it was stated that the tribal bloodlines had distinct skin colors. ("The most distinguishable aspect of the Tribes is that each sect of Protoss has its own unique skin shades ranging from mottled grey to a dark, aphotic blue." SC1 Manual p89) This wasn't depicted consistently in the lore (e.g. Zekrath has white skin, but the Shelak in the dark templar novels have purple skin), but we can use the game colors from SC1 as a base.

I toyed with the idea of suggesting that the Shelak and Tal'darim tribes descended from a common ancestor due to their white skin, but that seems kind of racist?

There is plenty that one could do with Amon being a Xel'Naga construct that went rogue, and I'll prolly cover that in a future post.

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You do you.

I prefer not to salvage Amon/Duran/whoever in any way because I feel that takes away agency from the three races who are supposed to be the main focus on the setting. The Overmind is already a xel'naga construct that went rogue who wants to hybridize the protoss with the zerg. I don't think we need more than one xel'naga construct villain running around.

I'm not really a fan of keeping something in-name-only unless absolutely necessary. Amon was the space devil, Duran was his lackey, they were trying to create hybrids to break/complete/corrupt/whatever the xel'naga cycle (which was, redundantly, the same goal as the Overmind before it was retconned to being "good"). If they aren't doing that and aren't even xel'naga, then I don't see a point in keeping them. Unless, I don't know, you make Amon and the Overmind the same character? Even then, it feels like a needless complication to me. The Overmind ate all the xel'naga, so it doesn't matter if they had names or an internal schism prior to dying out.

Sometimes I get so frustrated by this obsession with the xel'naga being a fourth race that I consider outright replacing them with protoss ancestors. I mean, prior to LotV everybody imagined xel'naga as looking like protoss, so making them the direct genetic ancestors seems like a logical next step. But from an objective perspective that isn't all too different from the pre-deity xel'naga anyway, since their lore states they uplifted the protoss and were ultimately surpassed by them.

I'd much rather see Ulrezaj brought to the fore and playing the rule of a messiah/prophet for the Tal'darim. His backstory is inherently sympathetic (his ancestors were victims of ethnic cleansing) even though his current tactics are terrorism and intended genocide of the Khalanim.

But again, it's all fanfiction and I won't begrudge you your plots. You do you. I mean, you're obviously putting way more thought into this than Blizzard ever did and that's always a plus.

But for now, let's go ahead and say Amon did take the Tal'Darim from Aiur. Now, instead of outright removing the Khala, the Tal'Darim'd embrace a hierarchial version of it.

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This runs into the in-name-only thing I mentioned. The tal'darim have always been religious fanatics who eschewed the Khala. They originally appeared in the Dark Templar novels as a cult led by Ulrezaj who took drugs to prevent the development of Khala, and made a cameo in Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm without explanation. It was only in Legacy of the Void that they were retconned to a splinter tribe from the aeon of strife.

I think they make more thematic sense to stay the same as their canonical versions. Remember how the judicators kept saying the khala was necessary and the heretics were to dangerous? Well, the tal'darim are the case in point. They're vicious space pirates who can barely maintain a semblance of civilization in the absence of khala. They act like, well, the terrans do. (We'll explain how the nerazim are so peaceful later.)

On a related note, their behavior doesn't make sense with a khala. The khala is an egalimind. It promotes peace and understanding between members to a degree that real life humans are incapable of experiencing. It doesn't make a lot of sense for members to act like Star Wars' sith or 40k's drukhari. (Speaking of which, I had some ideas on making the tal'darim psychic vampires, but more on that later.)

exploitation of less fortunate species

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Great idea. You can do that without giving them a khala, too. Ulrezaj already does that in the Enslavers bonus missions. The story isn't what you would call well-thought out since it's apparently just meant to be an example for mappers, but the gist is that Ulrezaj's cult manipulates Schezar's pirate band to experiment on zerg as bioweapons.

Möbius works great as a front group secretly working for Ulrezaj.

let's go ahead and say Amon did take the Tal'Darim from Aiur.

Click to shrink...

I had some ideas of my own for explaining where they came from and cleaning up the timeline.

In an earlier draft of lore, the protoss already had stories of the zerg destroying the xel'naga and an executor went to Koprulu on an archaeological expedition to learn more about the zerg and how to stop them. Elements of this may have been recycled for the tal'darim and Zeratul's subplot, but raised more questions than they answered (e.g. why weren't the tal'darim turned into hybrid on Zerus?).

So I had some ideas for salvaging this stuff. The tal'darim's ancestors would simply be attendants of the xel'naga on Aiur, perhaps members of the ancient Shelak tribe (as the Shelak stories proclaim themselves "chosen ones," and tal'darim translates to "chosen"). When the First Age protoss attacked the xel'naga, the tal'darim helped them escape and traveled with them to Zerus.

When the Overmind rebelled and attacked the xel'naga, it also attacked the tal'darim with them. The tal'darim of this time were simple librarians and knew nothing of war, so they weren't able to stop the zerg. The process of exterminating the xel'naga didn't occur solely in orbit of Zerus, either. Some xel'naga and tal'darim fled the slaughter through their existing warp network, but the zerg had learned enough to follow them. Much like the prothean/reaper conflict in Mass Effect, the zerg traveled through the xel'naga warp network and laid waste to every enclave of xel'naga they found such as Ulnar.

While the xel'naga were unable to prevent their own extinction, they were able to sabotage the warp network and prevent the zerg from immediately traveling across the galaxy and attacking the protoss while they were too weak to fight back. The surviving tal'darim fled back to protoss space, where they carried stories of the zerg destroying the xel'naga. Also, they become embroiled in the Aeon of Strife and suffered horribly. Anyway, these stories later faded into myths, given little credence until the First Contact War. (This explains why any information on the zerg, in xel'naga ruins or myths, is present outside of the galactic core/theta quadrant prior to the zerg's invasion of the galactic rim.)

The horrors the tal'darim ancestors witnessed may have been what led them down the dark path that led to their present tribal existence. It was so long ago that they no longer remember the origins of their traditions or the truth nature of the xel'naga, so now they venerate the xel'naga as literal gods who will usher them to a higher state of existence if they are faithful enough. And by "faithful," they're basically sith lords and drukhari. They exemplify the worst excesses of the protoss' warrior cultures.

This is where the dark prophet Ulrezaj comes in. Prior to the First Contact War he is among those who discover the zerg probes on the borders of protoss space, which leads him to discover the zerg hives. Where the Conclave see the zerg as a pestilence to be exterminated like other xenomorphic threats before them, Ulrezaj sees an opportunity. He'd long ago joined the tal'darim tribe as a honorary member due to his experience as a librarian and a mystic, and had become something of a seer among them. By comparing the tal'darim's myths and archaeological evidence and zerg physiology, he is able to deduce that the zerg are the same as the mythical demons that expelled the tal'darim's ancestors from paradise. From there, he gets the idea to enslave and modify zerg as weapons, even create zerg/protoss hybrids (an idea probably stolen from the zerg) to destroy the Khalanim. Ulrezaj is obsessed with vengeance and considers his fellow tal'darim tools. So he concocts a story where the tal'darim's prophecized ascension is the zerg/protoss hybrid, which in truth is just bunk used to convince them to help him further.

And that's an idea I came up with to salvage the tal'darim history to fit with the pre-retcon xel'naga that weren't gods and didn't have an infinite cycle. It could still work with those elements, but I don't like the gods thing or the infinite cycle since they're extraneous and raise more questions than they answer. The xel'naga being space gods doesn't explain why they were easily bested by both the protoss and the zerg (unless that was retconned again), so they might as well not be. The infinite cycle is just utterly unnecessary (was it ripped off from Mass Effect?) and really takes the winds out of the Overmind's sails (it made a big speech about turning its children into hybrids/xel'naga/adostra/whatever to become "perfect," but those are about as far from perfect as everyone else).

I can't wait to try making sense of the ihan-rii tribe. They're basically off-brand tal'darim. More on that later.

Now, the Purifiers.

Just make them sentient robots. Not brain-scans of Protoss n' shit. Cyborgs oughta be like, a default "base" thing for their faction, not an aesthetic relegated to a whole sub-faction. Put an emphasis on them being the source of conflict, not a conflict solver.

They're ultimately very powerful war-machines from an expansionist era of the Protoss' history. They are devoted, and they make the weapons modern Protoss pack look like crap. The Tal'Darim would very much like to nab a few for their own sake. Maybe even Ulzeraj.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, the purifiers raise a lot of questions about protoss tech capabilities in general. As well as intelligence, because the ethics of uploading minds to robots is already well-tread in our real world fiction.

The protoss were originally imagined as a wholly robotic race, but this was changed during development. The purifiers recycle the idea, though I haven't a clue if the callback was intentional.

The protoss khala allows them to commune with the spirits with their dead ancestors at the templar archives. It already has passive scanning capability, unless that was retconned again. So it should be a simple matter for the protoss to download their dead ancestors into robot shells, like the aeldari wraithknights in Warhammer 40,000. Or, for that matter, download into cloned bodies.

The existence of dragoons doesn't make a lot of sense if the protoss should logically be able to replace limbs with cybernetics or cloned organs, unless they're being downloaded after death or something. They're way more advanced than terrans and the terrans have stereotypical cyberpunk capabilities including limb replacement. The dragoons make more sense as a warrior order of their own who specialize in piloting robot walkers, perhaps actual dead souls downloaded into cyborg shells.

In fact, why can't the protoss regenerate nerve cords to bring dark protoss into the khala, or cybernetically modify other species to bring them into the khala and show how great it is, or upload other species into robot bodies that can access the khala?

This stuff doesn't even involve the purifiers! But I digress.

Yeah, moving the purifiers to the pre-aeon age would explain why the modern protoss don't mostly consist of robots and you could give them more planets to be hidden on than just Cybros. That said, I think SC2 has a big problem with adding extraneous factions that distract from the original premise. But I guess we're stuck with them?

Those are just my ideas. Feel free to invent your own.

 

[MediumGatoKatr]

Millions of years ago an alien race known as the xel'naga, "wanderers from afar" or "first ones," entered the Milky Way. They observed and manipulated the evolution of species across the galaxy. They were driven to create a species that would be defined by a distinct purity of form, to embody a great psionic potential.

The xel'naga were advanced for their time. They experimented with genetic engineering, psionics, and stargate networks. However, they were not omnipotent.

On the planet Aiur they found their most promising experiment. This was a species of tribal hunter-gatherers descended from psychic carnivorous plants. These used their psychic abilities to drain the life force from their prey, to coordinate through an efficient empathic link ("khala"), and to augment their physical attributes to impossible levels.

The xel'naga believed they had found the species that would exhibit purity of form. As they watched, the hunter-gatherers went on to build a planetary civilization united by their psychic link. At this point, the xel'naga presented themselves to their charges and christened them protoss, "firstborn."

Under the xel'naga tutelage, the protoss developed a flourishing interstellar empire across the galactic rim. They advanced quickly in their studies, their reality-warping powers eventually coming to surpass their xel'naga teachers.

Then something changed. The protoss empire started to fracture. A tide of nationalism overcame the protoss. Ancient tribal allegiances took precedence over a unified protoss identity. Worst of all, the protoss withdrew from the khala that previously united them beyond tribal boundaries. In their paranoia, they even came to suspect their creators of ulterior motives.

The xel'naga despaired at this. They concluded that the uplift advanced the protoss too quickly and sullied their purity of form. So the xel'naga made plans to leave the protoss empire and continue their experiments elsewhere.

The protoss caught wind of these plans and attacked the xel'naga. The xel'naga were not proficient in warfare, so they simply tried to flee as best they could. In this they were assisted by tribes still loyal to them, the tal'darim. Many xel'naga and tal'darim alike were killed. The majority were able to escape aboard their world-ships through the stargate network, destroying the path behind them so they would not be followed.

Shocked at this perceived betrayal and lacking the mediating influence of the psychic link, the tribes turned on one another. The golden age was over. The countless worlds of the protoss empire collapsed into the worst conflict the galaxy had ever seen, an aeon of strife.

 

[MediumGatoKatr]

The aeon of strife lasted for an aeon, but it eventually ended.

A young protoss scholar/philosopher who would later be christened Khas studied the technology leftover from the first age and reactivated the khala. He founded the Path of Ascension: a strict religion, philosophy, and social structure that would unite the protoss and prevent them from falling once again into civil strife. The Path called for the protoss to set aside their tribal differences and embrace a caste system: the judicators would be administrators and statesmen, the templars would be warriors and explorers, and the khalai would be artisans and inventors.

Khas and his followers traveled across the former worlds of the empire, uniting the disparate tribes wherever they were found. This was by no means easy, and a number of rogue tribes rejected the khala. This was not helped by the Conclave banning all other religions, including the worship of the xel'naga.

The executor Adun was sent to persuade and convert those peaceful tribes who refused to join on philosophical grounds, rather than arbitrarily exterminate them. In violation of the Path of Ascension, Adun engaged with the rogue tribes and studied their psychic abilities in the absence of khala. He believed that they would be awed and seek to join the khala to learn more. Much to his surprise, his students developed their own understanding of their capabilities. Unfortunately, they learned too late the dangers forgotten in the Aeon of Strife. Without the discipline afforded by the khala, they lost control of their powers and were killed when they released devastating psionic storms. These storms devastated their homeworlds and alerted the khalanim, who wasted no time preparing themselves for war. Adun helped the rogues to escape, but lost his life to keep their survival a secret.

Rather than admit the truth, the Conclave hid all knowledge of Adun's betrayal and claimed that he stopped the rogue tribes from destroying the empire. Even so, legends persisted that the rogue tribes survived in secret and were forced to draw their powers from the cold dark void of outer space. Meanwhile, the rogue tribes venerated Adun as their twilight messiah and kept the dream alive that one day another twilight messiah would appear to end the discord.

As the new protoss empire expanded once again, they encountered other species. Some of them became allies and clients, while others presented xenomorphic threats. More than a few missteps were made. The protoss legislated the Great Stewardship: unlike the xel'naga before them, the protoss would not manipulate the evolution of lesser civilizations but secretly watch over them. They would be watchers and defenders against Chaos in the name and spirit of Order.

The protoss observed as humanity colonized the Koprulu sector on the border of their space, and were perturbed by the greedy and destructive nature of the terrans' mobile industrial complex. Nonetheless, they considered it unnecessary to intervene in terran affairs. While no overt contact was made, the terran governments overheard protoss transmissions and kept an eye on their activities beyond the border. As the mobile industrial complexes advanced, it was inevitable that the terrans would invade worlds already claimed by the protoss.

 

[MediumGatoKatr]

The xel'naga and their tal'darim attendants fled to the Theta quadrant in the galactic core. The xel'naga discarded purity of form as a failure. This time they decided to focus on cultivating a species with a distinct purity of essence, to embody great evolutionary potential.

On the ash-world Zerus, the xel'naga continued another experiment. The most insignificant organism on the planet was a species of burrowing insectoids. What attracted the xel'naga attention were two qualities: these insectoids possessed singing organelles that allowed them to both incorporate foreign genetic material into their own and to interact with psychic waves. If one acquired useful genetic material, then they could share it telepathically.

The xel'naga tweaked the genomes of the insectoids, granting them increased size and durability. This was intended to increase their survivability in the torrential firestorms of Zerus. To the scientists' surprise, the insectoids not only survived but thrived. Completely unplanned, they evolved a parasitic lifestyle. The parasites entered the bodies of hosts, using their singing organelles to alter the hosts over generations. The hosts grew hardy armor and sharp claws, eventually becoming unrecognizable from their ancestors and indistinguishable from the parasites inhabiting them. These creatures grew to dominate their environment, selectively hunting prey for any mutations they found useful and eradicating the rest. They hunted each other with the same wild abandon.

The xel'naga named them zerg, "unstoppable, all-consuming." Fearing that the zerg would fall prey to the same egoism that ruined the protoss, the xel'naga altered their neurology. The zerg now had a psychic link modeled after that of the protoss, but vastly strengthened. The new generations of zerg did not simply share empathy for one another, they shared a single collective consciousness. This psychic construct was named Overmind, for it was the amalgamated minds of the zerg. Not only that, but the xel'naga implanted their own psychic link and commands within the Overmind in order to maintain control over the experiment.

At first the Overmind was bestial, representing only the basic drives of the zerg that composed it. It evolved. It developed introspection. It grew to care for the zerg like a parent cares for children. It planned for the future. It intended for the zerg to dominate all life and to quest for perfection.

To this end the Overmind bred cerebrates, brain bugs, to manage broods on its behalf. The cerebrates shared the general form of larvae, but greatly enlarged and their bodies devoted largely to brain matter. This increased mental capacity allowed them to develop more advanced applications of their innate biological telepathy.

The cerebrates in turn came to rely on secondary agents of their own, such as overlords, queens, and infestors. Each cerebrate and their brood was appointed a directive around which it would develop a personality. These included harvesting resources, spawning warriors, hunting for new species, and eradicating life.

Within centuries the zerg consumed all life on Zerus. Realizing they would stagnate, they turned their attention to the stars. They detected the travels of psychic space whales, and produced a psychic beacon to lure the creatures. Once the leviathans were assimilated, the zerg gained the ability to survive and travel in space.

The xel'naga celebrated, believing their experiments had finally succeeded.

But they were deceived. Without warning, hordes of zerg launched themselves against the world-ships in orbit. When the xel'naga tried to reassert control, they discovered that the zerg had already severed the protocols used to control them. Many xel'naga and tal'darim were captured or killed outright, and those who survived fled through the stargate network. But the zerg followed them, having previously extracted the necessary knowledge by spying upon the xel'naga and rending the minds of their victims. The zerg invaded enclave after enclave and slaughtered all they found.

Fortunately for the galaxy, the few remaining xel'naga and tal'darim were able to sabotage the stargate network and prevent the zerg from spreading immediately across an unsuspecting and helpless galaxy. Unfortunately, the xel'naga were unable to prevent their own extinction. They all died, either to the zerg or awaiting rescue that never came.

Meanwhile, the zerg used the knowledge they pilfered from the xel'naga to further advance their evolution. They amplified the intelligence of their control beasts, while keeping them entirely devoted to the Overmind. They studied the genetic libraries and learned about the species the xel'naga encountered, sending broods to consume the worlds listed in the records.

The zerg learned of the protoss, of their reality warping powers, and deduced that the two species were destined for apocalyptic conflict. The zerg burned a path toward Aiur, using the xel'naga star charts to navigate and the emanations of the psi matrix to light their way. They consumed countless worlds over countless millennia, but they grew to despair.

Their prognosticators made dire pronouncements. The capabilities of the protoss easily eclipsed those of the zerg. No matter how many species the zerg consumed, none of them had traits that could equalize the field. Perhaps the zerg would be able to delay the protoss for decades, even centuries, but any conflict would eventually destroy the zerg.

Then they found hope. In one sector of the galactic rim, on the frontier of protoss space, the zerg's deep space probes discovered another species that had potential to rival the protoss. This species was humanity.

 

[MediumGatoKatr]

When the xel'naga revealed themselves to the protoss, they were initially worshiped as gods. While the xel'naga tried to dispel such superstitions, the faith persisted nonetheless.

A number of scholarly tribes devoted themselves extensively to the xel'naga, including the Shelak ("bards"), Tal'darim ("chosen", "forged"), and Ihan-rii ("great teachers"). These tribes were among the few who still trusted their tutors even as the khala fractured.

When the xel'naga fled protoss space after the breaking of the khala, the tal'darim helped and escorted them. When the xel'naga were exterminated by the zerg, the tal'darim were the only ones left to mourn them.

The tal'darim survived the slaughter and managed to flee back to the galactic rim, scarred by the brutal efficiency of the zerg's assault. Unfortunately for them, they were pulled into the violence of the Aeon of Strife and their surviving culture was further twisted by the new horrors. After countless millennia of strife, their tribe would be left unrecognizable to the wide-eyed idealists that followed the xel'naga to Zerus.

 

[MediumGatoKatr]

During the first age, the ihan-rii tribe administered the sector of space that would later be named Koprulu. They built an elaborate civilization, studying the teachings of the xel'naga and spinning off into discoveries of their own. The ihan-rii tribe was one of the tribes who maintained their faith in the xel'naga as the first protoss empire disintegrated into the aeon of strife.

Although deeply scarred by the aeon of strife, the ihan-rii were able to survive relatively intact by waiting within stasis cells hidden across their former territories. Unfortunately, they slept long past the end of the aeon and remained unaware of the rebuilding of the second protoss empire or the arrival of humanity to Koprulu.

The ihan-rii consider themselves the true inheritors of the xel'naga legacy. They believe they can achieve godhood by valorous deeds and… experimentation. Where the second protoss empire outlawed experimenting on the evolution of other species, the ihan-rii have only continued to refine the biological sciences they inherited from their lost tutors.

When the First Contact War broke and the protoss fleets released distress signals during the course of battles, the ihan-rii stasis fleets detected them and awakened their charges. When archaeologists plumbed the depths of the ihan-rii's stasis vaults, they awakened.

 

[MediumGatoKatr]

The primary setting of StarCraft is Koprulu sector. It was settled by terran immigrants/refugees and is on the border of protoss space in the galactic rim.

The nightmarish cyberpunk future we all dreamed about arrived in the 21st century. There were cyborgs, hackers, robots, synthetics, augments, moreaus, psychics, etc. As humanity started to explore other nearby planets and star systems they would discover the remnants of the xel'naga/protoss stargate network, as well as miscellaneous xel'naga/protoss ruins, and use it to bootstrap their tech level and expansion across space a la Mass Effect. They developed a mobile industrial complex designed to rapidly strip-mine the worlds they encountered, heedless of the environmental consequences, having learned absolutely nothing from the climate change rendering Earth barely habitable.

Then, well, the nazis took over. They called themselves the United Powers League, but they were basically nazis. They hated the transhumans and tried to hunt them all down in a grand pogrom named Project Purification, preaching about the innate divinity of mankind. They ran their own cultural revolution that, like the communists before them, exterminated the cultural diversity of humanity with extreme prejudice.

A rich industrialist named Doran Routhe managed to buy the lives of numerous cybernetically-enhanced mutant "criminals" slated to be executed, and sent them on four colony ships managed by the supercomputer ATLAS. Originally they were planned to visit and colonize the planet Gantris IV, which Routhe had calculated was rich in unspecific "minerals" that would give him a headstart over his rivals.

The ATLAS' maiden voyage immediately ended in disaster. From Routhe's perspective, the ships vanished into the stargate network and were never seen again. His reputation was destroyed. He fled to the Centauri system, and eventually Tau Ceti, ultimately dying in disgrace and obscurity.

However, unbeknownst to Earth, ATLAS exited the stargate network 60,000 light-years away in the Koprulu sector. All of the ships crashed, and only three of the original four survived. The stranded colonists survived and eked out an existence using the supplies they brought with them. After some decades, they would re-establish contact with Earth.

While the Koprulu colonies built themselves up, Earth underwent another cultural revolution. The populace chafed under the fascist cruelty and socialist incompetence of the UPL. Ultimately the people revolted, fracturing back into the mess of nation-states and corporations and ideologies that had defined them for centuries beforehand. Unable to compete with the transhumans and synthetic life, and fearful of the potential danger posed by xenomorphic threats, the faith in the divinity of mankind was pushed into the margins or inverted to exalt the transhuman.

When contact was re-established between the Koprulu colonies and the Earthling colonies, many immigrants and refugees flooded into Koprulu. While the colonies of Tarsonis, Umoja, and Moria had been the pre-eminent powers after the initial arrival, they could no longer maintain control under the influx. As more and more colonies were settled, Koprulu became a loose confederation with an illusion of unity concealing an uneasy peace. Space pirate militias ran rampant. At best, richer colonies oppress poorer colonies through military might, espionage, and deceit. At worst, the sector is a powder keg waiting to explode.

And then the aliens attacked.

---

To quote the old StarCraft website:

Starcraft

Scattered and disunited, the many human worlds encompass a diverse range of cultures, but the majority of the ruling worlds may be identified with equal accuracy as either vigorous and expansionist principalities or as the refuges of vainglorious pirates and ruthless scavengers. Generally wasteful, short-sighted, and quarrelsome, humans nevertheless continue to thrive, pillaging world after world and moving ever closer to more and more powerful neighbors.

Click to shrink...

Starcraft: The Terrans

The Terrans are a small group of humans exiled from Earth generations ago for long-forgotten crimes. They have desecrated and pillaged the barren worlds they inhabit on the galactic rim in their struggle for survival. Their search for resources and fuel leads to constant fighting with each other over territorial disputes and technology, and the violence has began to spill over into the region claimed by the neighboring Protoss. As the Terrans' mobile industrial bases encroach on the Protoss, conflict between the two species is inevitable. Although the Protoss possess superior technology, Terran tenacity and ingenuity may close the gap.
Each major planet within the Terran Confederacy maintains its own military, and rampant espionage and outright theft of equipment has left most worlds with a fairly equal level of technology. The backbone of any militia is the lowly foot soldier. Men are cheaper than machines, and thanks to neural resocialization and drug therapy, they can be made just as reliable. Richer governments are rumoured to genetically "grow" elite soldiers for espionage and assassination, but most armies are made up of conscripted criminals and outcasts. Expensive vehicles, like the Wraith attack fighter and the powerful Battlecruiser, are piloted by only the best personnel available.

Click to shrink...

Blizzard Entertainment - StarCraft

In the distant future a small group of human exiles have been doomed to fight for survival on the edge of the galaxy. Through military strength, espionage and deceit, a unified Terran government has maintained an uneasy peace. As resources run short, however, these Confederate nations find themselves looking towards the rich worlds of their alien neighbors, the enigmatic Protoss. To further complicate matters, it seems that a previously unknown and deadly species known only as the Zerg has entered Protoss space and is destroying everything in its path. The time for war has come...

Click to shrink...

 

[MediumGatoKatr]

Made by Shadow Archon

 

[MediumGatoKatr]

The zerg discovered the terran colonies in Koprulu sector. The deep space probes observed the terrans from afar, initially uninterested. Then two things happened which drew their attention. Firstly, the terrans captured some of the probes and studied them, and the probes fed their experiences back to the hivemind. Secondly, the terrans experimented with psychotronic devices that broadcast psychic wavelengths over interstellar distances that the probes detected.

When it was ascertained that the terrans could potentially rival the protoss in a matter of generations, the zerg sent scouting broods to study the terrans and prepare them for assimilation. Over a period of more than a decade, creep spores were released across frontier colonies in anticipation of the planting of zerg bio-structures. Infestors scouted terran settlements, planting virophages that extended creeps and released spores that infected those who inhaled them. Isolated hatcheries spawned larvae in preparation for further experiments and pacifying resistance.

Unfortunately, the zerg did not yet have encyclopedic knowledge of human physiology. Rather than the desired infestation, plagues broke out across the frontier and caused a massive humanitarian crisis. Although the terran governments publicly claimed it was "cholera" or some other culprit, in truth they were observing and studying the zerg.

Less scrupulous governments believed they could tame the zerg as weapons to unleash against their political enemies, or increase their prestige through false flag operations. The xenomorphs seemed to be attracted to the emanations of terran psychics, so it was hypothesized that they could be lured to isolated colonies in order to terrorize the populace and then send in marines to "save" the colonists. The scientists hypothesized that this attraction was because human psychic signals resembled those of the alpha zergs, but unbeknownst to the terrans the truth was that the zerg were actively hunting for human psychics to capture and experiment on.

Some governments hoped that they could enslave the xenomorphs by reproducing their psychic signals. These experiments left a lot of test subjects dead or deranged, but accomplished little else. It seemed that the zerg psychic link had a biological authentication signature that prevented human psychics from simply ordering them around. Those who did manage to penetrate the hivemind started losing their sanity as their thought patterns synchronized with the alien urges of the hive. On the bright side, the test subjects were able to telepathically interrogate the more intelligent zerg breeds in order to learn bits and pieces about what they were doing in Koprulu, although this proved quite difficult and apparently quite painful owing to the zergs' alien thought patterns.

Then the scientists decided to use a combination of lobotomies, psychotropics, nanomachines, and cybernetic implants. While costly and inefficient compared to the holy grail of easily mind controlling the damn things, the results were quite impressive. These twisted wretches responded readily to the hive mind emulators and psi-emitters designed by the scientists, just as hoped for. Initial generations of cyber-zerg had to be modified after being bred from laboratory hatcheries, but later generations were produced with self-replicating blueprints directly by cyber-hatcheries that could be remotely operated.

This development disturbed the zerg. Previously they had believed that the humans would be helpless against them, but instead the humans were accomplishing feats even the xel'naga had failed at. On the other hand, that sort of ingenuity made them even more attractive prey. If this is what the terrans had accomplished in the short years they had studied the zerg, then what could they accomplish after studying the protoss?

Now that the terrans were able to delay the scouting forces, the zerg were forced to make a choice. They reactivated a series of dormant stargates they had mapped during their initial scouting, and warped in more broods to Koprulu from their holdings in the Theta quadrant. The zerg swarms attacked human worlds openly, and the governments could no longer keep their existence a secret. Panic ran rampant through the colonies.

Then the protoss arrived.

 

[Takareer]

Since it keeps coming up and cluttering my original fiction thread, I decided to make a thread specifically for discussing rewrites, reboots, and fixits of StarCraft.

Click to shrink...

So is this a thread for discussing things, or a thread where you post things and then we discuss that? The execution seems much more the latter than the former.

 

[MediumGatoKatr]

So is this a thread for discussing things, or a thread where you post things and then we discuss that? The execution seems much more the latter than the former.

Click to shrink...

I'm game for either. The software doesn't lend itself to easily organizing multiple tangents within the same general topic. How many people want to go in a totally unorganized direction versus following from the visions of particular posters?

 

[MediumGatoKatr]

When the zerg left their homeworld of Zerus, it was a lifeless rock. They had stripped away the scalding atmosphere, the sulfuric oceans, and all the soil down to the bedrock. The planet would never be able to support life again. Some zerg spores might have been left behind, but without nourishment they would remain in suspended animation for eternity.

The original zerg insectoids were extinct, although their direct descendants lived on as the humble zerg larvae. Where its parasitic ancestors had taken over the bodies of hosts, the larva pupated and hatched into adult forms drawn from its genetic libraries.

The primal zerg that existed after the augmentation of the original zerg insectoids but before the advent of the hivemind were effectively extinct. Under the Overmind, the zerg swarms formed a harmonious whole that worked together to pursue their quest for perfection.

As the zerg traveled the stars, it was inevitable that some would be lost in the vast expanse of space without long-range communication. Provided they have the proper bio-infrastructure present these lost children might be able to one day find their way back home or patiently await rediscovery by passing probes, but they now have new dangers to contend with. Losing contact with the greater zerg swarms would mean they could no longer synchronize their genetic libraries, to share their discoveries or benefit from far-off acquisitions. Their collective intelligence would no longer benefit from the Overmind's all-seeing eye, like a portion of brain tissue extracted from the rest of the brain. Without this mediating influence, deleterious mutations would accrue much more easily.

The zerg have a slightly different view of deleterious mutations than Charles Darwin. Whenever a breeder mutates to a degree that it no longer devotes itself to the Overmind and escapes to form its own miniature overmind, this is considered deleterious. Hunter swarms specifically bred for this purpose are dispatched to reclaim such mutants, dead or alive.

An even more deleterious mutation would be the complete loss of the psychic link entirely. Such mutants would be devoid of any hivemind to unite them. They would see each other as prey, not family. Such beasts would be throwbacks to the primal zerg of Zerus, but obviously with a much larger genetic repertoire than their pre-spaceflight ancestors. Since they would no longer be bred for specific purposes by the Overmind, they would be free to pursue individual paths of evolution without regard for long-term planning.

In the chaos of the First Contact War, and considering the various anti-zerg weapons devised by the terrans and protoss, it is far more likely for such creatures to escape notice and establish themselves across the sector. Without connection and devotion to the Overmind, these beasts cannot coordinate to build a civilization and plan for grand scale warfare. They're the zerg's equivalent of space pirates. Of course, even space pirates can pose a grave threat to the smaller colonies.

 

[MediumGatoKatr]

It took roughly six decades for the zerg's scouts to migrate to Koprulu sector in preparation for the invasion after the initial discovery of human colonies, accounting for all the logistical barriers the zerg needed to overcome in order to raise and move forces from the galactic core to the galactic rim.

The zerg had been widely observing the borders of protoss space for centuries, their deep space probes able to see the bright emanations of the psionic matrix from many light years away. When the terrans were targeted, many probes and scouts across the galactic rim were recalled. Both alone and in schools these organisms migrated across space.

Some were found and captured by protoss explorers, and considered mere curiosities. Then it was noticed that their migratory behavior was highly unusual, if the prior records were anything to go by. Some templar suspected that these organisms were in fact deep space probes, and tried to figure out their purpose in the galactic rim. Where did they come from? Where were they going?

Since the probes were biological in nature, figuring this out wouldn't be the same as hacking a computer system. So the templar decided to extract the information from the probes using psi-crystals. (Trying to read the minds of the probes with their personal telepathy was apparently too good for the disgusting beasts.) For most species this would have been a painful and generally unpleasant process. To the templar's surprise, the probes took to the crystals' telepathic signature like fish to water.

More alarming was the thought stream repeating through the brains of the probes: "Find Humanity… Eradicate… Learn… Evolve..."

So the templar now knew two important things about the probes. Firstly, they had been designed by an intelligent and socially Darwinist species who planned to invade terran space. Secondly, they knew this species was fluent in the usage of psi-crystal technology. Either they had independently discovered the technology and reverse-engineered it for their own purposes... or they had been engineered using the crystals by the xel'naga. Either way, they were clearly quite advanced and posed a xenomorphic threat.

Advanced scouts were sent to scour the surrounding space-ways for signs of the invaders. They would not be disappointed: swarms of bio-ships suddenly streamed into protoss space and attacked the worlds in their path. The templar mobilized for war against this mysterious invasion.

Soon it was discovered that the bio-ships were of the same origin as the probes. The xenomorphs were telepathic and, if the few successful interrogations of their more intelligent bio-constructs were to be believed, they were a race of voracious predators that had consumed numerous worlds already.

Some templar compared these observations to ancient tal'darim stories of similarly voracious demons that had supposedly attacked the xel'naga in the distant mythical past. Curious to learn more, explorers were dispatched to various regions of space believed to contain undisturbed ruins that may shed further light on the xenomorphs. Following the Great Stewardship, others fleets were sent to reinforce the protections for other civilizations at risk of destruction.

One of these sectors was Koprulu.

 

[MediumGatoKatr]

Here are some ideas I had for further historical topics to touch upon, in no particular order:

• The Fist of Redemption. They're zerg worshippers. They originally appeared in a "licensed expansion" for starcraft 1.
• The Imperial Front. After the unprovoked glassing of several terran planets by the protoss, the terrans send warships into protoss space. Because it really should've happened a long time ago.
• The Xava'kai. A religious movement founded by the "prophet" Ulrezaj to destroy the Protoss Empire, taking advantage of the distractions provided by the terran and zerg invasions.

I don't have any idea what to do with the purifiers and mecha zerg, since they don't really interact with the premise in an interesting manner. They were made to market buyable skins, not make thematic sense. (I had enough trouble with the primal zerg, who I merged into the feral zerg because neither really have much going for them as it is.)

If anybody wants to chime in with suggestions or critique, then feel free. I'm really only using this stuff as a testing bed for my original fiction anyway. So say whatever you want. Anything.

 

[Fraktal]

When I was at the start of the thread, I was going to point out the scenario of flipping around the order in which the xel'naga messed with the protoss and the zerg. That is, they created the zerg first and when the zerg turned against them and hunted them to the brink of extinction, the xel'naga realized the enormity of what they had just unleashed upon the galaxy. With not enough of their race left to maintain a viable population (you mentioned Mass Effect, so refer to the Ilos bunch of protheans to know what I'm thinking of), they hastily uplifted the protoss as a final fuck you to the zerg, utilizing copious amounts of stasis to stay alive long enough for their meddling to bear fruit.

Problem is, the uplifting wasn't finished before the protoss found out about the xel'naga only aiding them to turn them into glorified attack dogs cleaning up their mess for them and being the prideful kindred they are, the protoss reacted violently. Whether the protoss finished off the xel'naga or merely chased them away and they died on their own is irrelevant and a matter of religious/scholarly dispute among the present-day protoss: the commonly accepted stance is the former, while the tal'darim opted for the latter and broke away to scour the galaxy in the hopes of finding xel'naga who are still alive (they won't succeed, before you say anything, because the xel'naga really are gone) and developed their brutal and repressive social customs as fanatic self-flagellation for the Great Transgression of their forefathers raising arms against the Gods.

Of course, this is incompatible with what you've already planned out, so feel tree to disregard it. I just thought that if you wanted to knock the xel'naga down a peg or two, maybe you could portray them as someone who dabbled in something they shouldn't have (playing God) and not only did it bite them in the ass but everyone is paying the price for their colossal fuckup and the protoss are unwilling to pick up the torch, being more than willing to fight the zerg to protect their own domain but refusing to join forces with their neighbors and take the lead as the xel'naga intended them to because they're justifiably pissed at the xel'naga for fucking them over and want nothing to do with their supposed quote-unquote purpose.

Because what a surprise, some people don't like being used! Who could've thought?!

----

Also, what you said about being unsure of what to do with Duran. Have you considered simply making him an agent of the Overmind?

What I'm thinking of is that just as the terrans studied and experimented on the zerg, so did the zerg experiment on terrans. Duran is essentially the zerg equivalent of an XCOM Thin Man: externally he looks like an adult terran male, but beneath the skin he's anything but. Using sequences extracted from a number of captured and dissected terrans, the Overmind bio-engineered a strain of zerg from the ground up to act as infiltrators visually indistinguishable from a terran at a casual glance, infiltrating terran society to be the eyes and ears of the Overmind, like wolves among sheep. Duran is not an infested terran, he was born from a hatchery like any other zerg, he's as subordinate to the Overmind as any other zerg from larva to cerebrate and there are actually several dozen Durans operating all over terran space as spies and sleeper agents.

Optionally, the Durans are also capable of limited shapeshifting via taking on some physical characteristics of random male terrans they sampled the DNA of, essentially using zerg mutation to perform biological plastic surgery on themselves in order to preempt the possibility of the terrans catching one and ratting out the rest by simply sending around a photo of it. It's not perfect, though: it takes a Duran a couple of weeks/months of biologically processing the assimilated DNA until its body can mutate its external appearance finely enough to make it look natural and as more and more DNA samples are assimilated, the Duran's DNA eventually becomes so jumbled that it can no longer maintain a convincingly terran appearance and is forced to return back to a hatchery/evolution chamber/etc. to have its DNA debugged and factory-reset, so to speak.

Cue the freakiness of a Ghost trying to infiltrate a hatchery getting cornered by a dozen completely identical black guys speaking with the Overmind's voice in unison, Cylon-style, and the paranoia when the terrans find out and start wondering: just how long have the zerg been watching them from within?! And yes, the Durans are physically stronger than a terran, though not quite as deadly as, say, a hydralisk, since they don't have any external biological weaponry that could give them away as zerg. They can still punch through a Marine's visor and rip their heart out through the mouth, though.

 

[MediumGatoKatr]

Of course, this is incompatible with what you've already planned out, so feel tree to disregard it. I just thought that if you wanted to knock the xel'naga down a peg or two, maybe you could portray them as someone who dabbled in something they shouldn't have (playing God) and not only did it bite them in the ass but everyone is paying the price for their colossal fuckup and the protoss are unwilling to pick up the torch, being more than willing to fight the zerg to protect their own domain but refusing to join forces with their neighbors and take the lead as the xel'naga intended them to because they're justifiably pissed at the xel'naga for fucking them over and want nothing to do with their supposed quote-unquote purpose.

Click to shrink...

Ultimately, I'm not interested in the xel'naga as characters or anything about their legacy beyond the fact that they uplifted the protoss and zerg before their own creations killed them. I'd be happy if they'd never existed.

Also, what you said about being unsure of what to do with Duran. Have you considered simply making him an agent of the Overmind?

Click to shrink...

Duran's shtick has always been "evil xel'naga (or some other fourth race) trying to combine protoss and zerg to bring about the apocalypse." Change that and it's not the same character anymore.

 

[Fraktal]

Right, was just tossing thoughts around.

That being said, I highly approve the decision of making the terrans not united behind a single dominant government and maybe a few fringe powers. Science fiction's obsession with "one race = one nation so that we can pretend our racial stereotypes are just national stereotypes and have metaphors for real-world history and politics too" is a really big pet peeve for me and the reason why I don't participate in Mass Effect discussions despite sorta being a fan.

 

[MediumGatoKatr]

That being said, I highly approve the decision of making the terrans not united behind a single dominant government and maybe a few fringe powers. Science fiction's obsession with "one race = one nation so that we can pretend our racial stereotypes are just national stereotypes and have metaphors for real-world history and politics too" is a really big pet peeve for me and the reason why I don't participate in Mass Effect discussions despite sorta being a fan.

Click to shrink...

I think it's unbelievable because Koprulu is written like a poorly-run third world country even though it's composed of dozens or hundreds of interstellar colonies.

 

[MediumGatoKatr]

The Protoss Empire observed as the Terrans expanded across Koprulu, using their mobile industrial complex to greedily strip planets of useful minerals and leaving ecological catastrophe in their wake. The protoss were alarmed by this, but the Great Stewardship prevented them from intervening. They did not want another repeat of mistakes like the Kalath Intercession.

The Terrans learned about the protoss mainly through archaeological discovery. Koprulu was littered with ruins of the First Age empire, principally artifacts of Ihan-rii manufacture. While the populace at large believed that the aliens were extinct, the governments were secretly monitoring the transmissions of the protoss watching them. This was initially difficult, as the protoss utilized psychotronic tech. Trying to detect and decrypt protoss transmissions is what spurred the development of the Terrans' own psychotronic tech, which is precisely what led to them attracting the zerg's probes.

While the Protoss Empire watched in secret, the dark protoss wasted no time in acclimating to Terran space. "Shadow Pirates" would find themselves making common cause with Terran space pirates, using their advanced cloaking skills to benefit their motley human crews. The Terrans would have a violent first contact of sorts: a band of Tal'darim would attack Tau Ceti, massacring civilians for unknown reasons.

As the mobile industrial complex marched tireless across Koprulu, it was only a matter of time before the Terran consortiums invaded protoss space for its rich mineral resources. The governments couldn't keep the presence of the Empire secret forever, and most humans wouldn't distinguish between the pirates that attacked Tau Ceti and the mostly peaceful expedition fleets of the Empire.

But the Empire would, ironically, make the first move. Following the zerg invasions of terran and protoss space, an expedition fleet would be dispatched to Koprulu to ascertain the dangers and movements of the zerg. Upon the discovery of several heavily infested colonies, the Ara-led judicators glassed the planets from orbit against the reservations of the Akilae-led templars.

The effect was immediate and predictable. The Terran nations far beyond Koprulu's borders understandably declared war on the Protoss Empire and dispatched fleets to invade their space. The propaganda machines told elaborate lies about fleets of a "United Earth Directorate" who would defend humanity against the depredations of the evil filthy alien scum. They made no mention of the consortiums that took advantage of the distractions to mine worlds that already hosted protoss settlements, nor the privately-hired mercenary companies that massacred protoss civilians in the path of the mobile industrial complexes.

What the propaganda machines did mention were the other aliens who claimed to also be victims of the protoss. Tagal, Kalathi, Nerazim, Moopies, Xel'Arin, Yautja, and other names were bandied about. It seemed that this "Protoss Empire" was an imperialistic dystopian power that imposed their vision of perfection on a resisting galaxy, destroying or enslaving anything that failed to meet their exacting standards.

In the twilight of the 25th century and the dawn of the 26th, there was galactic war.

 

[Leila Hann]

I read the first few posts, and I have problems. You've clarified some details and scaled things up, but you also copied a lot of the "Wait, what?" bits from the original manual, and you've got a lot of dead weight for the story I think you want to tell.


First things first: why are you even keeping the Xel'Naga? You said you have no interest in them as characters, so that's out. You said you want this to be all about the conflict between these three alien races, so there's no room for a fourth faction. I didn't like the direction Blizzard went with the Xel'Naga either, but I also disliked them to begin with because "generic progenitor race who went around uplifting and/or creating other intelligent species for no given reason" is boring, illogical, and contrived, so I was glad they at least tried to do *something* else with them even if it was stupid.

So why keep them? Why can't the zerg and protoss just be natural species who developed incredible powers either through normal evolution or self-augmentation? Or, if you want to keep the "evil runaway bioweapon" archetype with the zerg strong, just say that they were made by someone, somewhen, and imply that their original creators have since been so far surpassed that they're just a footnote in galactic history?


Next, you're keeping the poorly defined and poorly scaled "epic fantasy" traits of protoss history that you've always claimed to dislike. What caused the khala to just randomly break down? If the protoss spent their entire recent evolutionary history linked by a super-empathy field, how they hell did they turn into paranoid warring tribes just because "they grew too fast?" You need to explain exactly what went wrong, and HOW it went wrong, or else there's no context for understanding how Kas supposedly fixed it.

Then the thing with the dissident tribes and Adun just...Okay. So, if the ability to draw on the combined power of their entire race is what gives the protoss their psionic abilities, how were these disconnected protoss able to have new and powerful psionic abilities of their own? How the heck did they cause "psionic storms" that randomly raged out of control and wrecked their homeworlds? What even does that? What even IS that? The reaction the Conclave makes in your version also makes far less sense than in the original manual. In the manual, the dissidents created their inexplicable mystery storms on Aiur, which harmed a lot of other protoss and made the Conclave decide they were too dangerous to tolerate. In your version, these tribes just fucked up their own planets with the mystery storms, so why would the Conclave even care? If anything, I'd think they'd be happy about this, because they can now point at those storm-ravaged planets and say "See? See what happens when you don't do things the Right Way?" to talk other fence-sitter tribes back into the fold.

Then you have the proto-dark templar learning to draw power from the cold energy of space or whatever just like in the original, which um...what the fuck does that mean? Unless you ARE planning to go the same mystic route as the original and have a space spirit world full of space ghosts and space demons as per the original, what could that even mean? Do you mean they tapped into some bigger psionic network of some other aliens without knowing it, maybe? Did they invent brain-implants that let them use zero point energy as a substitute battery for the Khala? This shit requires explanation.


You do have some cool ideas in the posts that I read. The protoss being carnivorous plants is a cool and very alien detail that lends itself to all sorts of possible cultural and biological quirks. Likewise, I like the idea of actually naming and characterizing some of these other species the protoss allegedly watch over. The Tal'darim backstory of them being long-lost Xel'Naga groupies is also compelling, but not enough to justify the Xel'Naga's inclusion unless you plan to do more with them than that.

 

[MediumGatoKatr]

I read the first few posts, and I have problems. You've clarified some details and scaled things up, but you also copied a lot of the "Wait, what?" bits from the original manual, and you've got a lot of dead weight for the story I think you want to tell.


First things first: why are you even keeping the Xel'Naga? You said you have no interest in them as characters, so that's out. You said you want this to be all about the conflict between these three alien races, so there's no room for a fourth faction. I didn't like the direction Blizzard went with the Xel'Naga either, but I also disliked them to begin with because "generic progenitor race who went around uplifting and/or creating other intelligent species for no given reason" is boring, illogical, and contrived, so I was glad they at least tried to do *something* else with them even if it was stupid.

So why keep them? Why can't the zerg and protoss just be natural species who developed incredible powers either through normal evolution or self-augmentation? Or, if you want to keep the "evil runaway bioweapon" archetype with the zerg strong, just say that they were made by someone, somewhen, and imply that their original creators have since been so far surpassed that they're just a footnote in galactic history?


Next, you're keeping the poorly defined and poorly scaled "epic fantasy" traits of protoss history that you've always claimed to dislike. What caused the khala to just randomly break down? If the protoss spent their entire recent evolutionary history linked by a super-empathy field, how they hell did they turn into paranoid warring tribes just because "they grew too fast?" You need to explain exactly what went wrong, and HOW it went wrong, or else there's no context for understanding how Kas supposedly fixed it.

Then the thing with the dissident tribes and Adun just...Okay. So, if the ability to draw on the combined power of their entire race is what gives the protoss their psionic abilities, how were these disconnected protoss able to have new and powerful psionic abilities of their own? How the heck did they cause "psionic storms" that randomly raged out of control and wrecked their homeworlds? What even does that? What even IS that? The reaction the Conclave makes in your version also makes far less sense than in the original manual. In the manual, the dissidents created their inexplicable mystery storms on Aiur, which harmed a lot of other protoss and made the Conclave decide they were too dangerous to tolerate. In your version, these tribes just fucked up their own planets with the mystery storms, so why would the Conclave even care? If anything, I'd think they'd be happy about this, because they can now point at those storm-ravaged planets and say "See? See what happens when you don't do things the Right Way?" to talk other fence-sitter tribes back into the fold.

Then you have the proto-dark templar learning to draw power from the cold energy of space or whatever just like in the original, which um...what the fuck does that mean? Unless you ARE planning to go the same mystic route as the original and have a space spirit world full of space ghosts and space demons as per the original, what could that even mean? Do you mean they tapped into some bigger psionic network of some other aliens without knowing it, maybe? Did they invent brain-implants that let them use zero point energy as a substitute battery for the Khala? This shit requires explanation.


You do have some cool ideas in the posts that I read. The protoss being carnivorous plants is a cool and very alien detail that lends itself to all sorts of possible cultural and biological quirks. Likewise, I like the idea of actually naming and characterizing some of these other species the protoss allegedly watch over. The Tal'darim backstory of them being long-lost Xel'Naga groupies is also compelling, but not enough to justify the Xel'Naga's inclusion unless you plan to do more with them than that.

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Thank you for your reply. Your concern is very touching.

I don't currently have the time to touch every point you made, so I'll keep this brief.

Firstly, you're criticizing the original manual in a way that I have never ever seen anybody else in StarCraft fandom ever do since I played the first game twenty years ago. StarCraft fans pretty much treat the canon as sacrosanct. While most fans seem to treat SC2 story as shit, almost nobody criticizes the plot of SC1 much less the manual. The manual is vague as all heck, especially regarding protoss history since how their powers, psychology, logistics, and general everything is glossed over. Explaining how the tribes broke with the first khala before the xel'naga left is something you could write a whole series of books about. Textbooks.

So, kudos to that. You put more thought into the protoss within a few hundred words than Christie Golden did across three novels.

Secondly, I actually had many of the same misgivings for a while now. The protoss are jedi/sith rip-offs and I had no clue how to handle space magic because everything else is already torturous enough. That's why I originally wanted to write an original scifi setting. With StarCraft fanfiction, there's only so many changes I can make before completely alienating any StarCraft fans who might be remotely interested in reading it. In fact, I already alienated probably 99.99999% of fans by erasing Duran, Raynor and Kerry because I hate them and wish they were never born.

If you want to, then you can head over to my thread about my original setting that would be loosely based on StarCraft/Halo's premise of space marines vs aggressive assimilating bugs vs space elf roman robot things. I'm like super butthurt that Blizzard dropped the ball on... everything except the art direction and game design, so I'm always open to discussing serious takes on the premise.

Good night!

 

[Leila Hann]

Thank you for your reply. Your concern is very touching.

I don't currently have the time to touch every point you made, so I'll keep this brief.

Firstly, you're criticizing the original manual in a way that I have never ever seen anybody else in StarCraft fandom ever do since I played the first game twenty years ago. StarCraft fans pretty much treat the canon as sacrosanct. While most fans seem to treat SC2 story as shit, almost nobody criticizes the plot of SC1 much less the manual. The manual is vague as all heck, especially regarding protoss history since how their powers, psychology, logistics, and general everything is glossed over. Explaining how the tribes broke with the first khala before the xel'naga left is something you could write a whole series of books about. Textbooks.

So, kudos to that. You put more thought into the protoss within a few hundred words than Christie Golden did across three novels.

Secondly, I actually had many of the same misgivings for a while now. The protoss are jedi/sith rip-offs and I had no clue how to handle space magic because everything else is already torturous enough. That's why I originally wanted to write an original scifi setting. With StarCraft fanfiction, there's only so many changes I can make before completely alienating any StarCraft fans who might be remotely interested in reading it. In fact, I already alienated probably 99.99999% of fans by erasing Duran, Raynor and Kerry because I hate them and wish they were never born.

If you want to, then you can head over to my thread about my original setting that would be loosely based on StarCraft/Halo's premise of space marines vs aggressive assimilating bugs vs space elf roman robot things. I'm like super butthurt that Blizzard dropped the ball on... everything except the art direction and game design, so I'm always open to discussing serious takes on the premise.

Good night!

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No, stop trying to pass the buck.

Starcraft is a science fantasy setting that wears its 40K influences on its sleeve. If you're going for fluffy new age-y mysticism and characters who are more like archetypes than people, then the stuff I pointed out isn't that big of a deal.

You're allegedly trying to reimagine it as "gritty rational milscifi." I've seen three different definitions of "rational fiction," and they are as follows:

• Stories in which the characters solve their problems using deductive reasoning and scientific thought, and the thought process they use is clearly narrated to the reader.
• Stories in which genre conventions restrain character agency and prop up worldbuilding as little as possible.
• Stories that are ideological in trying to promote the philosophy of rationalism.

Which of those do you think you're shooting for? If it's the first one, then you need to define all the metaphysics and scifi or fantasy concepts and decide what they can and can't do, because your characters can't apply scientific thought to a world with fuzzy rules. If it's the second one...well, I've already pointed out some issues on that front in your protoss history. If it's the third one then you're really barking up the wrong tree from beginning to end.

Moving on, I'm skipping the zerg stuff for now until you can answer my questions about the Xel'Naga and why they're even in this story, since the zerg background is pretty XN-centric. So, terrans.

First of all, you're having the Koprulu terrans reestablish contact with Earth and its nearer colonies with people able to immigrate back and forth between them. If you're getting rid of the "lost colony cut off from Earth" aspect of the Koprulu sector, then why aren't you getting rid of the "lost colony cut off from Earth" aspect of the Koprulu sector? What's the point of the transhuman purge and the ATLAS mishap and all that if you're effectively undoing the impact of them before we even get to the "present" time?

Then there's this:

Unfortunately, the zerg did not yet have encyclopedic knowledge of human physiology. Rather than the desired infestation, plagues broke out across the frontier and caused a massive humanitarian crisis. Although the terran governments publicly claimed it was "cholera" or some other culprit, in truth they were observing and studying the zerg.

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First: The zerg have devoured how many biospheres now, and human physiology is so alien to anything they've encountered before that they would fuck it up this badly? Granted, I'm coming at this from the perspective of a No Biochemical Barriers scifi setting a la the original, where humans can breathe the same air and eat the same foods etc as a lot of alien fauna. If that's not how it is anymore, then this is more possible. But the bigger problem here is Second: how you're having the terrans behave.

The Koprulu sector is divided into mostly independent polities, and the space between them is chaotic enough that piracy etc are rampant. And you're telling me that the zerg started poking at multiple colonies around the sector and ALL of their governments reacted in the SAME inane, nonsensical manner? Why would they all decide to keep this a secret from their peoples? How could such a secret even start to be kept in a chaotic region full of powerful nonstate actors who can observe things on their own?

In the original, it was only one of the Koprulu governments who had this initial run-in with the zerg, and it happened to be on their outer colonies that were already on the brink of rebellion. In that situation, the Confederacy not realizing how dangerous the zerg actually were and letting them wreak some havoc on the colonies before sending in the troops to heroically save them (while also using the time in between to do some extra science on the zerg to have a head start over anyone else who might do so later) is something a mundanely stupid and evil tinpot dictatorship might do. MULTIPLE governments all acting in the same way in response to the zerg, all making the same mistakes, and without the 'this will teach the yokels what's good for them' motive? Dude, what?

 

[Fraktal]

because I hate them and wish they were never born.

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I'm like super butthurt that Blizzard dropped the ball

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And that right there is your cue to STOP, take a deep breath and consider very carefully whether you want to go ahead with this project.

Writing a fanfic primarily motivated by hatred of the source material and "I'll show them how it's done" NEVER turns out a quality work. You dislike characters and plot points because of how the setting warped around them, fine. No problem with that. But the second that dislike causes you to consciously take effort to warp the setting away from what you don't like and call it superior to the original is the second where you sink into hypocrisy. Because no matter whether you're warping the setting in favor of or against those characters, you're still warping the setting because of those characters in the exact same way you called out the original authors on having done.

What I'm trying to say is that I understand where you're coming from and you're not in any way obligated to pander to the fanbase, but you should think very carefully whether you want to write something you're going to regret 10-20 years down the line. I myself nearly went down that path with a fic idea I ultimately ended up not writing, something I realized in hindsight was a good decision because it would've made me come off exactly the same as the rabidly toxic foaming-at-the-mouth haters I disliked in the fandom.