/r/StarcraftLore
A subreddit dedicated to discussion of Starcraft lore. Warning, posts here may contain spoilers.
/r/StarcraftLore
There is this dude making videos on youtube. He is pretty good so i wanted to tell you people about him. His name is Uanime1 and link to his channel:
Hey All, found this from an old Blizzard contest entry that I sent in a loooooooong time ago. While it's probably not lore correct even a little bit, it was still fun to reread something from my younger self. Hope you enjoy.
It was not always like this:
The rage and determination of a race comprised of thousands of broken species, from hundreds of worlds, guiding my movements and emotions. The connection terrifying, filled with the pain and merciless cruelty of the Swarm. Though underneath the horror, I find my family; my wife and child. I can swim through their memories like a cool lake, breathing in the sun kissed aroma of my wife’s hair, and I can hear the laugh of my son…
My son...
Used willingly after years of dormancy, to entice a squad of marines and firebats into a burrowed lurker ambush. My son stood motionless while the marine squad slowly circled around him. Hardened chitin spikes erupted from the ground in waves of destruction, piercing the light armor of the squads lead scout. I could see in my mind, the marines firing all around themselves, into the ground in confusion and alarm. A firebat was impaled, and a brilliant explosion erupted from inside his suit as the chemicals poured from his tanks and connected with the dual igniters he had lit on his forearms. A medic, who was injecting painkillers into a wounded comrade was caught in the fireball and was instantly disabled. She fell over the marine she was helping, dead. The remainder of the squad fell back with my son secured in the center. Chemicals inside my boy’s twisted body became alive, his skin bubbled and finally a great blast of energy erupted from deep within. The marine squad and my son became dust in a heartbeat. My son was seven when he fulfilled his oath to the Overmind that my family took so long ago
So long ago...
Our colony on the planet CX-P37 was informed by the Terran Confederacy fleet that an unidentified armada of “living ships” was approaching our system. This armada would enter our solar system within two months, and the Terran Confederacy’s main fleet would take twice that long to get into a defensible position around our planet. We were instructed to set up planet wide strongholds to fend off a possible invasion while the Terran Confederacy made for our system at their most economical speed.
Over the next month and a half, the production of military equipment tripled as planet wide preparations were made and put in place. In total, there were 25 strongholds centered on all the major colonies of P37, and countless bunkers in the more remote parts of the world that were built and used by those who wished to fend for themselves. The stronghold my family and I were placed in was located in and around the largest population center on the planet. Due to my background in mechanical engineering, I was given the opportunity to work inside the primary command center, bracing some of the super structure against direct explosive ordinances
When our long range scanners picked up a sizable wave of fast moving objects heading directly towards our location, the commander of our stronghold, an exceptionally efficient Major known as Jones by his closest subordinates, ordered all non essential personnel into their designated bunkers. Being one of the people in charge of the command center’s structural integrity, I was allowed in the nerve center, the heart of the primary command center.
I was known around the base as having an eye for sound architectural design and I believed that the command center was the most secure building on site, so I brought my family in under the noses of two guards by asking them how much they hated their sergeant. As they argued between themselves regarding whether their sergeant was the devil, or simply an agent of his, I rolled a loading cart with supply boxes past them with my wife and child inside.
After my family was safely inside an unmanned laboratory, I quickly wove my way through the concerned faces of specialists and scientists assigned to determine what communication, if any, could be established between the Terran Confederacy and the invading forces that were rushing toward our position.
The planet we colonized was used first and foremost as a resupply and communications outpost for the Terran Confederacy, so there was a significant military presence already established on the surface, it was simply a matter of splitting up the forces on the ground into coordinated groups to efficiently deal with any combination of hostile aggression. As I made it into the communications center, each squad assigned to the defense of our location was being given a final briefing before the Swarm was in range of our siege weapons.
Major Jones was just finishing up his pep talk when I walked in,
“So fight hard and fight strong. Whatever is coming, they are nothing but flesh and blood like us. The similarities stop there gentlemen. What we have is pride, courage, and the weapons each of you hold in your hands. Our enemies will crash against our fire, and melt under our arclite weapons!”
The communications satellite technician informed the major that the first visuals of the attackers were coming through.
“Main screen.”
There was a quick flicker as the connection to the satellite feed was rerouted to the giant screen at the front of the room. There was silence that slowly escalated into a collective groan, as tiny dots on the screen slowly magnified. The terror about to envelope the compound grew and came into focus; out in the front of the onslaught, elephantine quadrupeds with hooked razors as long as two full grown men, serrated and as thick as a person’s thigh, ran with a quickness that defied their size, while darting in and out from under their legs, came small lightning quick creatures that resembled insects the size of large dogs.
“We’ve got audio Major!”
Within five seconds, the cavitations of tens of thousands of creatures reverberated over the loudspeakers along with the volcanic roar of the giant armored plated monstrosities that eerily mixed with the high pitched screeches of the skittering, doglike insects. It was mesmerizing.
In the moments after seeing and listening to the oncoming rush of spines and armor, chaos could have erupted in the control room, except the Major began issuing target priorities and further instructions based on the information from the visual contact. Every person under his command knew exactly what to do, and followed the Majors orders to the letter.
“All channels!” the Major ordered. It was immediately followed by his communications team. He was now in the headset of each and every man under his command, from his platoon commanders down to the youngest private.
“Hold fast men, from the looks of these biologicals, they have to get within melee range to cause any actual damage. Science Vessel Archimedes, take a Wraith escort and do a quick flyby over that swarm of ground runners. I want radiation from your reactor focused onto their biggest creatures to see if it has any effect like it would on our biological systems. ComSat, disable that audio NOW. Comms get me my platoon sergeants”
The chaotic roars and shrieks were suddenly cut off and were replaced by the nervous, quick breathing of the platoon sergeants as they waited for their individual assignments. While information was being filtered through to each man under the Majors command, the rest of us civilians tensed and shuddered under the first shockwaves from the staggered tank lines. That initial volley was to test the maximum range of the newly implemented siege tank system. The tanks were positioned with giant stabilizers pounded into the ground to hold their chassis steady as they rained deadly fire onto their targets. Their cannons, aimed at a 45 degree angle for maximum distance, began to bellow as the new Arclite Shock Cannon technology started its deadly barrage against the oncoming enemy almost two miles away.
The 120mm arclite rounds screamed over the heads of the marines and other mechanical forces that comprised the bulk of the strongholds defense. The stabilizers held, and the ground shook with the force of the 45 tanks at the Majors disposal. The sky whistled and the cannons worked their deadly magic. Before the first rounds hit, the tanks had already loosed there next rounds into the air.
I could see from the satellite overview that the first rounds had missed their mark, landing too far in front of the advancing force. Earth erupted from where the rounds landed and dust began to fill the air. The energy expended by the siege cannons began to shake the command center in rhythmic concussive bursts.
“Targets within tested range for Arclite Cannon System Sir.”
The satellite image on the screen showed the front lines of the swarm being enveloped by the explosive rounds of the siege tanks second barrage.
“Direct hits Major. Targets are one and a half miles from our defensive perimeter.”
The smoke from the arclite rounds obscured the image from the satellite so my eyes were straining to see the carnage that was inflicted upon the enemy.
“Incoming targets have not changed course, nor reduced their speed Sir.”
As of yet, I was one of the few people in the control room that did not have a job to accomplish, so I was able to focus on several video screens with different perspectives at the same time. On the main screen, the satellite image was obscured by the barrage of shells from the siege tanks, but the thermal cameras on the squad of special operational units code named g.h.o.s.t.’s indicated that the progress of the Swarm was unhindered by our siege weapons direct hits.
“All stations, prepare to fire!” The call went out on all channels and the entire defensive perimeter locked and loaded. Marines lit their final smokes, and comrades for many years nodded to each other, acknowledging the fact they may not make it through this new horror.
“One mile from our perimeter Sir.”
I glanced up at the screen that showed the view from the front lines. A private name Yugiri, was checking his weapon, as the video feed from his visor mounted camera caught each fidgeting movement of his hands as he cycled the action and loaded a round into the chamber. I tapped into the audio feed of this man through the wireless receiver all the civilian engineers were issued.
“Can you see that Yugiri?” a voice off camera quietly muttered, presumably a fellow private assigned to the same bunker as the videographer.
“Yeah, I’ve got a bad feeling about this. That cloud is getting closer and I can feel the ground shaking real good.” Smoke passed in front of the camera indicating that the private was taking a last drag off the standard issue smokes that had been mixed with a mental enhancing drug which reduced a soldiers ability to disobey orders, as well as reducing the effectiveness of that part of the brain involved with the flight response when confronted with dangerous situations. Each soldier was issued ten of these before each battle and was required to smoke at least 3 while on the battle field.
The first official contact with what would later be classified as “Zerg” occurred when Yugiri noticed a small insect like creature, about the size of a wild boar, racing towards them far in front of the main dust cloud a half of a mile away. ”One shot one kill boys, watch this!” Yugiri aimed with practiced skill and fired a single round. The armor piercing round hit the animal square in the middle of its small head and it fell, sliding on the rough, pounded dirt of the plains in front of the marine, finally coming to a stop, lifeless.
“OoRah” was shouted from a private off camera and Yugiri turned to face his fellow marines in his bunker.
“Was nothin boys, just doing my jo…INCOMING!”
Where the creature lay dead, a dozen more had burrowed out of the ground and were fast approaching the reinforced position of the bunker. Yugiri had the luxury of not being able to hear all the other channels of the defense, because all along the line, hundreds of these small agile creatures were rising from under the earth.
“Must have burrowed down deep during the night! Here they come boys, Firebats to the front, Marines, cut a clean arc of fire for them to start roastin!” A corporal was giving orders to Yugiri and the others in his bunker as there were too few sergeants around to provide ample chain of command for each squad. “Firebats turn up the heat!”
As the perimeter braced for the advanced attack from the small creatures known later as zerglings, the siege tanks with their shock cannons continued to rain death into the middle of the Swarm pressing fast on the perimeter. As each round landed, blood was boiled, as zerglings melted under the heat and pressure of the 120mm rounds. The mammoth creatures with the blades, lovingly given the name Ultralisk by the scientists aboard the Science Vessel Archimedes, died, but not after stubbornly taking several direct hits, and shielding the smaller, more vulnerable zerglings as they continued to move closer to the defensive lines.
The Science Vessel Archimedes was one of two that was assigned to the stronghold. With its two Wraith escorts, it began a very quick, precise course over the tops of the Ultralisks and zerglings. The crew tested the Ultralisks to see if the radiation from their reactor would cause them any ill affects and found with some relish that they did indeed cause harm, but at a much slower rate than anticipated. The Wraiths took the opportunity to rain down death from above with lasers, disabling zerglings with a single shot, and taking pot shots at the giant Ultralisks.
“Archimedes to command, we have found that radiation does in fact hurt these bugs, and are preparing to remain above the swarm since there is no apparent air defenses. We recommend you scramble all available Wraiths so we can slow the advance of these buggers.”
The Major smiled a thin smile, the look on his face betraying his own nerves. A smile that said, “Finally something is swinging in my favor, we may have a shot.” The Major did what the Science Vessel suggested and released his Wraiths to take out any and all opportunistic targets in the area.
While the cannons and air units dealt death from afar, and in relative safety, the front lines of the defense were miraculously holding there own through the massive underground zergling ambush. The marines were unloading their ammunition into the masses of zerglings crawling up and around the blockades in front of the bunkers. The firebats were unleashing rivers of flame that cascaded in rolling walls as each firebats flame commingled with other flame jets on the line, creating firestorms of heat so intense, the blockades on the crests of the closest hills began to melt, running down the sides and pooling around the bodies of the zerglings not incinerated into ash.
“Major, the primary attack force is about to converge on our main defenses. 15 seconds.”
I saw on the video screen, that Yugiri was still alive and shooting with aggressive sweeps, his suit’s video screen had become gritty and unclear. I could tell by his voice, that his suits stimulant system had automatically injected a powerful mix of narcotics and stimulants into his body to heighten his senses and increase his aggression response.
“You getting this feed command! These insects ain’t nothing! They want some, I’ll give them some!” Yugiri was finally laughing and yelling at the top of his lungs. The barrel of his gun was white hot. I could see from the video feed that the weapon was almost to the point of jamming and becoming useless. Metal would begin to corrode, thanks to the constant firing and expending of armor piercing shells.
“12 seconds.”
“Hah, these bugs ain’t nothing Sarge!” Yugiri was still howling at the top of his lungs
“10 seconds.”
“When does the real action begin, I haven’t even broken a sweat!”
“7 seconds.”
“What I don’t understand…”
“5 seconds.”
“is how can these creatures…”
“3 seconds.”
“expect to win…”
“2 seconds.
“with marines…”
“Contact! Contact! Breach!”
“like m...”
The Ultralisks at the front of the advance were so battered and blooded, they could barely raise there heads high enough to slam down on the ceilings of the bunkers. Nevertheless, those giant creatures caused massive structural damage. Yugiri was the first official death of the conflict between the Terran Confederacy and The Swarm, his video feed cutting out as one of those giant blades entered its field of vision.
As the Ultralisks were riddled with bullets and slowly burnt in there now crispy, black shells, Zerglings swarmed through the holes and cracks left by them. The Swarm crashed like a wave, up and over the defenses; chaos ensued at the perimeter, Ultralisks and Zerglings crawling over each other, desperate to reach those still in the bunkers.
The Major, witnessing the total annihilation of his primary defense, desperately issued a new command, ordering every single man, woman and child in the base to arm themselves with whatever they could find, and if possible, to head towards the armory to get to the reserve weapons.
I immediately ran from the communications center and caught my wife as she was opening the door from inside the laboratory. She had tears in her eyes. I held her close for several seconds, and slowly lifted her head. She looked back at me. I smiled that smile of undying love and she nodded back knowingly. She returned to the lab and locked the door, held our son close and mouthed at me to go.
I ran as fast as I could out of the command center into the daylight. As I exited the building, I could see that the swarm had already destroyed our primary defensive perimeter. While I ran towards the armory, an intense heat hit my face and then a blinding flash as a shockwave knocked me off my feet. As I sat up, 3 huge mushroom clouds draped in the crimson of hellfire, spouted from a gaping hole in the Swarms mass. The g.h.o.s.t. recon squad saw no other option then to use tactical nuclear weapons to try to turn the tide of this dreadful day. The shock cannons no longer sang their deadly song. They had been quickly overrun once Zerglings got underneath their field of fire. One tank lost a stabilizer and turned over onto its side. It fired one final shot directly into a now empty barracks 100 meters from my position. The barracks expanded for a moment, its armored hull screeching in response and suddenly disappearing in a brilliant white hot flash.
The strongholds on the planet never truly had a chance; those in charge had no idea what they were up against. Even if staggered tactical nuclear weapons were used, the swarms numbers were infinite. They had covered the planet within a matter of hours, dropping from their living ships in almost exact unison. I had no idea what I was witnessing until our defenses were completely overrun. The only thought I had as I ran back towards the command center, was to be close to my son and wife when the time came for us to perish.
As I ran, I saw giant flying monstrosities envelop groups of people with a tangle of mucus. These people could not get up once they were forced down to the ground. They were trapped, and could only await their fate as the ground forces moved up through the ally ways of the stronghold. Small living capsules were screaming across the sky, I saw the Science Vessel Arcturian, the strongholds second vessel, take a direct hit from these flying banshees. It flew right into the center of the vessels hull and erupted in a hissing cloud. The Arcturian’s hull began to disintegrate and after a couple moments, fell from the sky, crushing several Zerglings as it hit the ground and erupted in flames.
I entered the command center and it was filled with the panic stricken faces of those I knew, and of those that were unfamiliar. I ran through the corridors to the room where my wife and son were sitting quietly, singing of a golden sun and clear, cool water.
I unlocked the door and calmly sat down beside my wife and picked up the song as they sang. The sounds of screaming and alien roars began to overpower our singing and we slowly sank into silence. I could hear the monsters outside the building, ripping and tearing at the plating. Entrance doors were torn open and zerglings poured in with a ferocious appetite for destruction, laying waste to anything and everything that was not of the Swarm.
People began running past the laboratories unlocked doors. I quickly ran to it and slid open the door panel. I ushered over 30 people into the enclosed room. The terror that was felt by some, soon became contagious and everyone was crying, begging the air for a way out. Some were clawing at the walls, trying to wedge themselves into a corner behind boxes in a vain attempt to stay alive.
Zerglings were crawling over each other as they ran down the halls inside the command center, tearing apart mechanical and electrical equipment as they hunted. They came to our door and began slashing at the shatterproof glass panels. Everyone was screaming, I was holding my wife tight, grasping my sons head and I felt his tears fall onto my hand. The first zerglings were breaking through the glass, screeching that now unforgettable high-pitched tone endlessly. We were all desperate, hoping for a miracle. The zerglings began to pour in through the holes they created, they were meters from us when suddenly they stopped, and simply stood facing us.
Softly at first, we felt a presence, a feeling that we could not believe existed in such a devilish place; a feeling of peace and calm that gained power each second, even though destruction was wrought all around us. I felt despair leave me and I was at once filled with the knowledge that if I agreed and followed the will of the Swarm, I would be with my wife and child, with Samantha and Jackson forever. I saw its face as it promised these things to me in the name of the Overmind. The face was that of a royal caste of the Zerg, a queen, able to bridge the gap between human and alien, speaking through emotion rather than words, and it was beautiful.
As I succumbed to the will of the Overmind, I felt my consciousness expand and understood why my wife, my son and I had been chosen. We were one of the few that survived long enough to be noticed by the Swarm, to be accepted and assimilated into it.
My wife’s body passed into the next world the same day we were accepted into the Swarm, she was given the honor of dispatching the Major in a way fitting his status. No piece of the Major or her remained, as the human sized crater filled with sand, as time slowly took back what the Zerg destroyed.
Though my son and wife are gone, their memories are still with me, with the Swarm. They are felt and remembered by billions, but understood only by me. I realize that the only way that I can remain with my wife and child, is to surrender completely to the will of that which keeps her memories forever. I live for the Swarm, and die for the Overmind, I will burrow into the earth and remain there for days, only to rise up and bring destruction onto my enemies. Because I give my life, because my wife and child gave their lives…
we will live forever…
Verbatim transcription from deep hypnosis memory recall of Lieutenant Kerrigan, recon mission of baron planet on the outskirts of Confederacy space. Transcribed by Science Vessel Odysseus Medical Officer Liems
At the beginning of the story of StarCraft, the Zerg are basically unknown to most of humanity and are called "aliens" or "unidentified organisms", two or three missions into the Terran campaign the Adjutant mentioned that they are now identified as "Zerg". By whom? It's not like General Duke came forward to explain the situation. Now while Zerg could very well be a made-up name, we learn in the second campaign that the creatures from outer space actually use that term to refer to themselves which raises the question: How would any Terran know? Who told them that? Did they come up with by themselves?
To me, the philosophical impact of the End War on Amon by the unified Protoss race seems profound. It was a struggle over the very soul of the Protoss people. For two and a half millennia, they had kept alive in their consciousness their history, their deeds, their heroes. Acknowledging the Khala's corruption was a grandiose revolution, although necessary for their survival.
This whole break from the past, the theme of "[never truly] being alone" seem to me also to reflect the perennial questions of the afterlife. In a way, the Protoss had the question of mortality relatively "easy" - they could totally believe their memory, as the Preservers could delve into the very emotions lived through at the various times of the past.
Abandoning it meant plunging into the void of individualism - which the "Alone" cinematic encapsulates beautifully. The voice of Zeratul that Artanis hears is in truth neither a Void apparition nor a spectre from the Khala - it is an individual's memory of a comrade calling upon him to do his duty before the generations of his race.
Here comes my pondering - would it be so far-fetched and implausible from a philological point of view for the word "Khala" to be retained in the Khalani language, taking upon a new meaning? From what I can see, their new religion is supposed to shit the afterlife inward, into the spirit of every separated individual. This way, the new "Khala" could be understood along the lines of "the heart of the race", or dignity, or custom (although not necessarily, for traditions come and go).
This could be viewed as a sort of spiritual growth, as the original Khala itself was a machine, an artificial and corruptible link, whereas the future ought to be based on the development of mutual trust and understanding.
Watching the new starwars movies made me cringe because I feel Starcraft universe has more meaningful story lines to offer. The books do the lore expansion justice and could be really explored. I would love a blizzard team up with HBO or netflix to make a series happen. Any thoughts on this? Any writers want to explore this with me?
Hey guys! I just wanted to get something off my chest. I don't know if it can even be understood or followed but I'll try. It reads like a modification patch, I know. At the end I gave some explanation.
Here's my headcanon to how Protoss shields should really work. The shields no longer give +3 damage reduction on the surface at maxed level shield upgrade. The original Protoss shields points as we know are now part of a Protoss unit's Health - a Protoss unit mechanical or not now truly self repairs. E.g. a Reaver has 180 Health not 100. But of that only 80 self repairs, not the 100. Base armor now immediately applies on the surface. E.g. a Zealot's base 1 armor behaves like former shield reduction and works on 60 points, in fact all the Zealot's 160 points. An armor upgrade immediately applies on the surface like former shield reduction but also on the "core Health". E.g. per armor upgrade, a Zealot would gain 1 reduction on the surface, and when the 100 core Health is damaged, this would turn into 2 reduction. Meaning each armor upgrade behaves as 1 old armor upgrade plus 1 old shield upgrade. Protoss shields now grant innate damage reduction for every 50 shield points, rounded down. An Archon has innate 7 damage reduction from his 350 shield points. But once he gets down to 110 shield points this becomes only 2 damage reduction. This gives buildings a shit ton of damage reduction at full shield points, which I believe is how Protoss shields truly work in lore and real life. At high damage reduction, most attacks deal a minimum 1 damage. Each shield upgrade is now made redundant - level 1 increases innate damage reduction to 1 damage reduction per 40 points. Level 2 gives 1 damage reduction per 30 points. Level 3 gives 1 damage reduction per 20 points. To make each shield upgrade further redundant the cost was amped up to something like 2000 minerals and 2000 gas just for level 1.
The issue with the old broodwar lore on shields is several-fold. Hypocrisy - that Zealots only charge into battle knowing they are invulnerable as long as their 60 shields are not depleted. Weakness - that a Dragoon has really only 100 Health which is lower than a Siege Tank or Goliath or Lurker, when he could have 180 Health in my headcanon. Cowardice - that Protoss units retreat when receiving the slightest amount of scratch once shields have been depleted, so that the shields can regenerate and they can return to battle.
Why I came up with this headcanon is because I found that the Protoss in-game are not as strong as they should be in lore or real-life. I couldn't get my head around how shields are so penetrable by mere human technology and biological claws. I think at best Zerglings should cause the minimum 1 damage to a majority of Protoss buildings on full shields. Recall that at damage reductions greater than attack number, the minimum an attack can deal is 1.
I found the story of starcraft convoluted and unbelievable, so I decided to go in and prune things to see what the trajectory would have been otherwise. What follows are a few ideas I had for the points of divergence:
Amon's plan to control the overmind backfires, and it ends up eating him and his followers along with all the other xel'naga. The zerg take control of the infinite cycle, replacing the role of the evil xel'nagas as the main villains. The zerg incorporate the xel'naga essence in preparation for them becoming the next generation of xel'naga, although they can't become xel'naga until they assimilate purity of form from the protoss.
Having consumed the xel'naga, the zerg know where aiur is all along. They don't invade immediately because the protoss are too powerful for the zerg to win a war against the protoss' galactic empire. The zerg go on a galactic eating spree for millennia to prepare an army capable of fighting the protoss. They discover terrans, who have potential for purity of form, so the zerg invade koprulu to assimilate the terrans and engineer new weapons against the protoss.
The protoss intercepted zerg probes and followed them back to koprulu, so the protoss become involved in the conflict long before the zerg were ready to fight them. This turns out badly for the dominion of confederate states, as the protoss glass several inhabited planets to halt the zerg and only stop when some protoss sympathetic to the terran rebel against the conclave's orders and decide to help the terrans. Now the terrans hate the protoss for the genocide.
So the status quo is essentially the same as the games. The terrans, zerg, and protoss fight for domination of koprulu, and all the various other factions are involved too. The ihan-rii are angry at the conclave for destroying their planets, the cerberus zerg and mecha zerg are deployed by the terrans against their enemies, the feral zerg get in the way of the non-feral zerg, the united earth directorate attacks protoss colonies in revenge for them glassing terran worlds, etc.
What do you think of these changes? Does it inspire you to think of any stories?
https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Second_Overmind
Would the enslavement of the overmind work? I mean, the experiment interrupted because the second overmind was killed. But would it have succeeded?
Hello there. I know this sub isn't very active, but I couldn't think of anywhere else to put this that wouldn't get obscured by non-lore related topics.
Starcraft lore, like Warcraft lore, has been subject to a tumultuous development full of rewrites, retcons, mistakes and other inconsistencies. I have identified roughly three periods or drafts in the development of starcraft lore: the Starcraft alpha/beta lore, the SC1/BW lore, and the SC2 lore. Each draft is unrecognizable from the rest, as though they take place in different universes that superficially resemble each other. This phenomenon happens in many works of fiction and tvtropes calls it "continuity drift."
My division of the continuity drafts into these three periods is arbitrary, as even within a single draft there may be numerous rewrites and inconsistencies. I refer to these as drafts because, as history shows, Blizzard constantly suffers from continuity drift to the point where a decade from now I fully expect that the SC2 draft will be unrecognizable from the status quo. What follows is my attempt to reconstruct and critique these drafts to satisfy my own curiosity and perhaps enlighten others. This isn't an academic paper with citations, but a very rough draft intended simply to pitch my current thoughts. I apologize if it reads as rambling.
The following will include noticeable and perhaps obnoxious criticism of the story, particularly from SC/BW onward. I understand that the plots of SC and BW are remembered quite fondly, but I do not feel that way. Looking back at it now, the writing feels questionable and that annoys me precisely because I like the premise of Starcraft. I definitely display a bias in favor of the alpha/beta draft, despite it being barebones and lacking an actual plot to compare.
The alpha/beta draft is perhaps the most mysterious. We know very little about the development of SC1 besides what we can glean from interviews, the wayback machine's archive of the Starcraft 1 website, the classic battle net strategy compendium, and the SC1 manual. Remnants of this draft survived in some of the subsequent supplemental fiction, and fiction from the subsequent SC/BW draft may still be useful in gleaning insight into the alpha/beta draft.
It changed dramatically in aesthetics between its start and finish. Apparently the oldest idea for Starcraft consisted of pitching "space vampires."
Starcraft was first developed in a version of the WC2 engine, which was planned to take place in space with spaceborne units rather than on planetary surfaces. The three races had very different aesthetics during this period. After E3, Blizzard decided to scrap this and create what would become the final SC1 engine.
The premise of the game appeared to have changed a few times. It always involved a three way war between the terrans, zerg, and protoss, though the exact justification for this changed. Judging by the oldest website archives, Koprulu was always intended to be a border sector where the majority of fighting would take place. Initially it seemed that Blizzard planned a cold war between the sub-galactic civilizations of the protoss and terrans that was interrupted by the sudden invasion of the zerg, but then Koprulu was altered to be isolated from Earth. The SC1 manual further posited that the zerg invaded Koprulu to consume the terrans because they were perceived as providing an edge in a planned galactic war against the protoss. That was the furthest that this iteration of the backstory went as far as I could find. Compared to the plots of the games, this premise is notably more faction-oriented, larger scale, and depersonalized compared to the more cinematic and myopic character focus of the games.
I couldn't get a precise explanation of the scales for the setting during this draft, as it seems the writers were still actively brainstorming up the final release and didn't proofread the manual for consistency. Koprulu is used to refer to both a sector as well as a system. Some passages describe the terrans as all living as a single system consisting of over a dozen planets, while others suggest that terran civilization is spread across multiple star systems. The Protoss Empire is described in some passages as having colonized many hundreds of worlds and interacting with many alien civilizations similar to the Federation in Star Trek, whereas other passages suggest they only live on their homeworld of Aiur. Only the zerg were consistently described as consuming countless worlds across the galaxy in preparation for their invasion of the Protoss Empire.
The terrans seem to have originally been imagined as somewhere between a space western and a cyberpunk dystopia, although these elements seemed to have been severely watered down in the final game aside from remnants like Southern accents, cybernetic implants, and the backstory of Earth involving mutants and cyborgs.
The protoss were originally envisioned as a wholly robotic race before being changed to a biological race, although remnants of this survived in their robotic units (and were revived for the purifier faction in SC2). The protoss were initially conceptualized as serpentine centaurs before being changed to bipedal, although this designed seemed to survive in a doodad for the jungle tileset in StarEdit and may have inspired the design of the xel'naga in SC2.
The zerg underwent many changes in aesthetic design, such as bio-mechanical a la Giger or structures composed of giant rib cages, but their general concept as a horde of space locusts appears to have remained consistent. The old website suggested they were genetically engineered by another race, but the manual downplayed this by explaining they were uplifted by the xel'naga but their subsequent evolution was of their own accord. In contrast to the games, their hive mind was depicted as an actual group mind rather than a master/slave relationship. According to the website, zerg behavior became smarter as their numbers increased. Passages in the manual describe the Overmind as being literally composed of the minds of the zerg networked by telepathy, and only one passage ever suggests that the Overmind was a physical entity in contradiction of the others.
Speaking of the xel'naga, they were only a footnote in the lore at this period from what I could find. They only served to explain the origins, relationship, and motivations of the protoss and zerg in a typical usage of the scifi precursors trope. The website briefly mentioned them as race who predated the protoss, and the manual confirms that they were exterminated by the zerg.
While the alpha/beta draft lacked an actual plot, in my estimation the plot it setup seemed very different from how the SC/BW draft ultimately played out.
The alpha/beta draft setup the invasion of terran space by the zerg with further intervention by the protoss. While the zerg ultimately intended to invade the protoss in a galactic war, the setup suggested that for the foreseeable future the plot would be limited to koprulu and explore how the terrans respond to the two alien invasions, how the protoss deal with a philosophical schism regarding whether or not to callously exterminate the terrans while dealing with the zerg, and how the zerg would respond to the protoss becoming prematurely involved.
While the website and manual teased that Aiur would be a battlefield in the conflict, this didn't seem like it would happen in the foreseeable future. The scales involved suggested that the koprulu first contact war would last for many years, and that an invasion of Aiur would be concurrent with a galactic war waged by the zerg against the protoss. Obviously these conflicts are far too large to explore satisfactorily in a single RTS game, especially not with the technical limitations of the late 90s.
You would be right, but that didn't stop Blizzard.
In conclusion, the alpha/beta draft is an interesting hint at what Starcraft could have been had its setup been followed upon, but now it is irrelevant to and unrecognizable from the current status quo.
Many others might not distinguish between the alpha/beta draft and the SC/BW draft, but I do. The Starcraft game and its expansion Brood War diverged in subtle but dramatic ways from the lore as established in the alpha/beta draft. Additionally, development of the games' story appears to have been quite tumultuous and rushed. The cinematics were created separately from the script, which in some cases had to be rewritten to fit the cinematics into the story although I couldn't find any explanation of how much was rewritten. The missions themselves were designed to fit studio mandates intended to showcase aspects of the engine, such as tilesets and versus battles. This caused the resulting plot to meander and interrupt the tonal flow of the narrative, so we're already off to a rough start.
While the first contact war and protoss/zerg galactic war teased by the alpha/beta draft sounded like it would last for years or decades or more, the first game breezed through all of it in just thirty relatively short missions across three campaigns. Numerous plot hooks from the alpha/beta draft were either dramatically simplified or dropped entirely as a result.
Perhaps the most obvious divergence is the scale. The alpha/beta draft teased a gritty quasi-realistic interstellar war that could last many years with numerous characters involved. The SC1 game depicted a conflict that involved about a dozen characters in a more cinematic or Hollywood-esque fashion. While both had a dark tone, I did not really give the impression from the game that the conflict was particularly large or realistic.
Because it compresses many years worth of interstellar war into what the official timeline claims is no more than a few months in total, the plot of SC1 feels unbelievably plot-driven. Events happen not because logistics make them plausible, and characters behave not because of motivations and opportunities to act, but because the plot demands it. Key plot developments feel very clumsy or plot contrivances due to the rushed and meandering nature of the plot.
For example, during Episode 1 the Sons of Korhal rescue the Magistrate and Raynor from their predicaments and then promote them to lieutenants serving directly under Mengsk himself. While it makes sense for the SoK to behave heroically because they are rebels fighting heroically against a corrupt government, it doesn't make sense for Magistrate and Raynor to be immediately promoted except to keep them relevant to the plot when they otherwise would vanish from it. This plot point would make sense if they had years to climb the ranks, but it makes no sense if the events take place over the month or so according to the canon timeline.
I can name other examples like the entirety of Alpha Squadron defecting along with Duke, the zerg following the psi-emitter and crushing terran worlds with little resistance being way too convenient to Mengsk, Mengsk suddenly turning evil when his backstory firmly established he was the victim of the Confederacy, the zerg conveniently leaving terran space after the fall of Tarsonis rather than continuing to attack the terrans, etc. But that's beside my overall point, though I will happily explain my thoughts to anyone who asks.
At this point, I have to criticize the linear structure of the three campaigns relative to one another. Episode 2 and Episode 3 feel disjointed from Episode 1 due to their excessive focus on the protoss and zerg. The terran cameos don't feel like they genuinely belong to the story, but more like hamfisted attempts to make them feel like part of the same story. I feel this attempt to tie the three campaigns into a single linear narrative did more harm than good to their writing. I feel that if the campaigns had been independent that the writers could have dedicated more time to exploring the characterization and motivation of the zerg and protoss characters, who I feel suffered immensely from being forcibly tied into the story of the terran characters.
The zerg and protoss specific plot hooks from the manual were downplayed or discarded as a result. Where the manual made a big deal about humanity being the "determinant" in the zerg's planned galactic war with the protoss, in the final game the same amount of importance is placed on QoB but imo her story feels underwhelming and disjointed when analyzed critically. The manual teased that the protoss expedition to Koprulu would experience a schism between two sides regarding whether or not to genocide the terrans, but this is never explored because Episode 1 neatly closes the first contact war with the terrans so we never get to see how the protoss characters acted during this time. Episode 3 places its moral focus on the schism between the khalai and dark templar, with the humans relegated to a very minor role at most.
The dark templar being uniquely able to kill the otherwise immortal zerg leaders feels like a very lazy plot contrivance that was only added because the writer had previously written themself into a corner by making the zerg invincible otherwise. The manual explained that the zerg couldn't survive a galactic war against the protoss at the time of the koprulu conflict, so the game's plot points come out of left field. Furthermore, this is used to justify the presence of the dark templar and the resolution of their schism with the khalai, but it still feels very forced to me since the manual took great pains to make the Conclave's fear look justified whereas the game depicts them as acting very foolishly. As I said before, this is all probably the result of the writer compressing decades worth of war into a few months.
The ending of SC1 leaves very few loose ends, few opportunities for sequels, and felt to me like it wasted a lot of its premise. The Confederacy was barely explored before being replaced by the Dominion, but their worlds were devastated so that further conflict wasn't feasible. The Overmind was killed off, but since it was essentially synonymous with the zerg this essentially destroyed the culture of the zerg before we had much time to explore it. The protoss were devastated and wouldn't be able to survive another conflict.
But of course that didn't stop Blizzard from releasing a sequel the very next year.
Brood War's old website teased a premise for the game that doesn't match the final product. The website mentioned that the zerg leaders, in the absence of the overmind, would fight a brood war and QoB wasn't mentioned as a candidate here. Instead of the UED, the Dominion would face a conspiracy from within. The protoss were concerned with rebuilding. This clearly reflects an earlier draft of the story.
In the game, the overarching plot is that Earth has sent a fleet to conquer Koprulu and deal with the threat posed by the aliens. The brood war itself is between QoB and the other zerg who are somehow united despite the lack of overmind (who is somehow resurrected, trivializing its death in SC1), and seems to take over the plot to the exclusion of the other subplots. The protoss do not rebuild at all, but flee their homeworld because the Conclave was killed and the zerg are still wreaking havoc even without the overmind.
Compared to SC1, the plot of BW feels even more rushed to the point of seeming lazy and disrespectful. Characters constantly make decisions that seem blatantly idiotic to drive the plot forward, such as any time that anyone trusts QoB or Duran despite having no reason to. Plot devices like the new overmind and the temple on Shakuras appear out of nowhere with little explanation to drive the plot forward.
BW introduces a notable retcon in the form of Duran. In SC1 the Overmind stated that it intended to assimilate the protoss. In BW, Duran explains he is creating protoss/zerg hybrids as part of an evil plot that he was plotting centuries in advance. In other words, Duran has essentially the same motivation as the Overmind yet we are expected to believe these are two completely different things. Zeratul, who previously learned that the Overmind intended to assimilate the protoss, does not make any connection despite the obvious similarities. It feels like the writer either forgot what they wrote before or changed their minds about the plot trajectory and hoped nobody would notice the discrepancy. While this is a fairly small discrepancy between SC1 and BW because SC1 only vaguely alluded to the zerg's backstory, Duran's revelations do not fit with the alpha/beta draft's explanation of the zerg backstory at all.
Beyond Duran not fitting into the story, his addition suggests that the franchise would add a fourth race for hybrids or xel'naga or an original race as the new antagonist. I feel that from an aesthetic and RTS perspective that this is a bad fit for Starcraft, which was already plenty sufficient with only the three races of terran, zerg and protoss. A 4th race that mixes elements of protoss and zerg doesn't feel like it would be distinct enough to justify including. (Blizzard ultimately scrapped plans for a 4th race anyway.)
I didn't mention it before, but there's also a consistent trend across the games to demote the zerg. In the alpha/beta draft, the zerg were presented as the ultimate villains of the franchise. They started the first contact war and intended to consume the terrans, protoss, and potentially the universe! In the SC/BW draft they became essentially slaves to QoB (who behaved more human than zerg) and Duran, while the hybrids (or returning xel'naga?) became the overarching villains. I feel like this was unnecessary and destroyed what made the zerg unique and interesting in the first place.
There are only a few of the issues I noticed in the story of SC/BW, and there are plenty others I either haven't brought up or didn't notice/remember.
In conclusion, the SC/BW is a 90s video game story with great presentation that coincides with amazing gameplay, but from a literary perspective the plotting is severely hampered by its questionable writing.
I won't criticize the SC2 draft's writing very much because many others have already done so at length. What I will note is that the SC2 draft's continuity drift is merely an extension of what started in the SC/BW draft and that it is relatively more consistent with the SC/BW draft than either are with the alpha/beta draft.
SC2 was created roughly a decade after SC/BW, in a very different market, with much more advanced computers, a much larger budget, a different writing team, and its expansions were released years apart. As Blizzard games in general are prone to continuity drift, the longer time between installments means for SC2 it is relatively worse than that suffered between SC and BW.
I believe this draft continues into the present, as no material has yet come out with dramatically alters the context of this draft. However, as I said before, I fully expect that after some years I will be able to identify a fourth draft of the lore if the continuity drift continues as expected.
The SC2 draft continued the SC/BW draft's steady changes to the zerg, ultimately rendering them unrecognizable. In the alpha/beta draft and in the SC/BW draft prior to QoB's introduction, the zerg were presented as a "devouring swarm" archetype. They engaged in the genocide of other species as a matter of course, without any concept of diplomacy. By the end of SC2, they have lost this aspect and now more closely resemble the formics from Ender's Game. Not only are they capable of diplomacy, the narrative treats them as unambiguous heroes.
I haven't mentioned the terran and protoss governments as much as the zerg's, but I feel they suffered a similar mistreatment. The SC/BW draft introduced major governments only to kill and/or replace them. SC/BW introduced the Confederacy, Overmind, Conclave, and UED, then killed them off in favor of new governments. In SC2, these new governments were Dominion, Daelaam, and Overqueen. While the specifics changed over the course of the story, with Valerian replacing Mengsk and Zagara replacing QoB, the institutions themselves were not utterly destroyed like those initially introduced in SC/BW.
I feel this difference is important to note because it means that Blizzard considers this the status quo and is resistant to changing it. I suspect that, had the first Starcraft game been released today rather than two decades ago, Blizzard would have considered the Confederacy, Overmind and Conclave the status quo and been resistant to casually discarding them as happened in reality.
This status quo also ties into why I distinguish the SC2 draft from the SC/BW draft. The SC2 draft continues from the events of SC/BW without completely changing their context, as SC/BW does compared to the alpha/beta draft (e.g. replacing the determinant with just QoB). This status quo is so ingrained that, during the promotion of the Kerrigan skin for Overwatch, Kerrigan was mistakenly described as a Dominion ghost. While this could be brushed off as a mistake, I would not be surprised if Blizzard actually did go so far as to retcon the Confederacy out of existence, along with most of the events of the SC/BW draft.
While in terms of events the SC2 draft does technically continue directly from the SC/BW draft, so much of the events of the SC/BW draft are irrelevant to the status quo of the SC2 draft. I think this may be loosely comparable to how, say, World of Warcraft completely changes the events of WC1 and WC2 and retains only a vague idea of them. Without something like a StarCraft Chroncle to explain it, it is impossible to predict with any certainly what Blizzard's current conception of the StarCraft lore is supposed to be.
In conclusion, SC2 is a pretty amazing modern game with great gameplay and cool skins and what not, but the story is not going to win any awards.
For those of you who don't know, Starcraft: Evolution is an official book that takes place a few years after the ending of Starcraft II. The basic idea is that Zagara is trying to make the Swarm into a more peaceful group, but Abathur believes the swarm must keep fighting to evolve so he tries to reignite the war. Abathur makes creatures called Psyolisks by Splicing Zerg and Xel'Naga DNA, and a small research team made up of a Reaper, a Marine, a Xenobiologist, a Pyrokinetic Ghost, and a Protoss Researcher who turns out to be a Dark Templar. its a great book, snd helps to tie up some loose ends from the LotV epilogue. its a great read, but i think it would make an even better mission pack. Similarly to the level in LotV where the protoss leaders attack Aiur, you could control five hero units who you utilize throughout the mission. I also think it might be cool to have some of them as Co-Op Commanders; Ulavu the dark Templar has a unique throwable warp blade that could be interesting, and a Hero Unit of Queen Mukav that summons Psyolisks* would also be cool.
tl;dr make an expansion pack of the Starcraft Evolution book.
(*Because Abathur cannot manipulate troops effectively due to his lack of skill, he modfied a Broodmother named Mukav to help him with commanding his troops.)
People seem to have pretty mixed feelings about it. Some people don't like how vague it is, but others think it needed to be vague.
I'm in the "too vague" camp. I don't even care about the Sarah/Jim part, I thought the other characters deserved more. I would have loved more than a couple sentences about what everyone got up to, and I feel like there were some character arcs they didn't wrap up completely.
(I have not played Nova Covert Ops, so forgive me if it provides more than the epilogue did)
I've always loved the Starcraft lore and didn't care for the competitive aspect. So I'd love to have somewhere to discuss it.
So basically Ouros kills Amon with his fellow xel'naga "millenia ago", but Amon's "essence" goes to the void and gets resurrected in SC2 HotS...
In LotV, Kerrigan kills Amon. But is his essence actually also taken care of? It doesn't feel that way.
On top of that, the void is mysterious, someone or something must have bound Amon to the Void, not all xel'naga were bound to it. Something tells me Amon is just another pawn of something greater, just like Narud was a pawn of Amon.
Posting this here because the main Starcraft SubReddit seems like even less of a fit for this.
Seeing as how the overarching story of the Starcraft universe is pretty much done, it seems fitting that the next installment be a departure from the normal formula. Also I like how the Campaign (and to a lesser extent the Co-Op) allows you to customize your army to suit you, as opposed to the incredibly sterile and formulaic Multiplayer.
The idea is simple: you get to create a highly customizable Hero Unit who acts as the Commander of your Army, which contains multiple redundant versions of all the Units you get to pick and choose from in order to create a force that reflects you and is suited toward your playstyle. Even after choosing which Units you want to use, you'll be able to unlock upgrades and customization options for them down the line.
Playing a Terran Hero:
It's the Dawn of a New Age for the Dominion. Emperor Valerian Mengsk and Admiral Matthew Horner have turned the corrupt government around and made it a shining beacon of Freedom and Justice in the Koprulu Sector. The Galaxy is at peace.
BORRRRRRRRR-ING
Fortunately for you, the sudden rise in habitable planets has caused the Interstellar Prospecting Market to explode, and you want in on it. You've blown the last of your money on the cheapest FTL-capable ship you were able to find, hired some yokels not too inbred to operate an SCV, and 'acquired' the Service Contracts of some of the resocialized convicts the new, respectable Dominion Military wanted to get rid of. So head out to the Fringe and find your fortune! Or die horribly. One of the two.
Playing a Protoss Hero:
Amon's dead, Aiur has been retaken from the Zerg, and the entire Protoss race is (mostly) unified for the first time ever! Smooth sailing from here, right?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA NO
Auir's on the brink of ecological collapse, almost all of your species got melted down to make Amon's host body, and most of your advanced technology has either been smashed to pieces or no longer works without the existence of the Psi-Matrix.
There's also the whole 'inventing an entirely new culture from scratch' thing, that's definitely not making things easier.
It falls to you, young Executor of the new Daelaam Protoss, to take an Expeditionary Force into the depths of space to find the resources needed to rebuild Aiur, be it Minerals, Vespene Gas, lost Protoss technology, or a new threat we can use to get the more hardline Khalai and Nerazim to stop bickering with each other.
Playing a Zerg Hero:
OK, I got no goddamn clue. I'm thinking playing as the Zerg would have to wait for an expansion due to it being so different from playing as a Terran or a Protoss.
One thing I'd like to see explored is what happened to Stukov after Kerrigan achieved apotheosis and Zagara took over the Swarm. Maybe Abathur fully integrated him into the Swarm and created a new kind of Leader Strain, a 'Frontline Commander' to serve as a counterpart to the Queens and Broodmothers. Not sure what you'd call it, Zerg Overlords and Zerg Brood Lords already exist, and 'Swarm Lord' is a Warhammer 40k unit.
Enemy factions:
Terran: Pirates, mercenaries, rogue elements of the Old Dominion...
Protoss: Tal'Darim, reactionary Khalai and Nerazim renegades...
Zerg: Feral Broods, ambitious Broodmothers, corrupt Zerg...
Hybrid: So it turns out that not every Hybrid was destroyed before Amon bit it. Since the tech needed to clone more of themselves is gone, the remaining Hybrids have effectively 're-hybridized' themselves with the Zerg of Amon's Brood. This new race of Hybrids is more 'fleshy' than the last one; imagine a Protoss crossed with a Xenomorph. Now that they can't wipe the Galaxy clean of all life, they've decided to 'settle' for spitefully ruining the other races' happy endings.
Title, not neural parasite though.
so in the original starcraft manual. its stated that the zerg were basically a larval species with a load of DNA potential or something like that. the xelnaga came along after giving up on the protoss and changed them, giving them the ability to assimilate other species into their genetic make up. then they are supposed to have swarmed across the universe assimilating different species as they went. hydralisks being formerly a sloth like creature and the other units similarly varied from different planets picked up as the swarm moved through the universe towards aiur. then in heart of the swarm all the varients of zerg are represented in the "zerg homeworld" of zerus which was supposed to be on the other side of the universe not a quick jump away as it feels in hots. Has anyone else noticed this change and what are your thoughts on it
Hey, I created /r/starcraftlore since I really like starcraft lore and want to spread discussion of it. Feel free to post stuff here to discuss with others and I will try to participate whenever possible.