Xel'naga worldship spotted?-wildly speculative

Disclaimer: This whole thread should be read in a "Could it be?" voice, so just pretend your in Lost while you read it. Taken from SC2 armory. You may want to look at that thread so I don't have to repeat myself. Please keep the following quote in mind as well.

"When all other possibilities have been removed, whatever remains, however improbable, is the truth."


I am very hesitant to post this, because I make a genuine effort not to see thing that aren't there, by which I mean, many big lore fans such as myself will jump to conclusions about what they're seeing in a screenshot or a piece of art and make wild conclusions based on it. That being said, I think I noticed possibly a very significant detail in on of the art pieces by the newest member of Sons of the Storm

Here's the gallery, the individual image wasn't loading right, so you'll have to load it yourself, it's the first image under his SC pictures.

It's not a new picture, but I never paid much attention to the 2 giant sphere's in the top left before. They look like two Deathstars hovering over a battlefield, at first I though it might be the night side of another planet, and the light's were simple city light's, but there are several huge flaws with that theory, first you'll notice there are two of them, appearing very similar to each other, plus the planet on which the actual battle seen is taking place, that would make it 3 planets in very close proximity to each to each other, such a planetary system is incredibly rare and we've never heard of anything like it at all in the SC Universe. Another significant issue is that they appear to be a part of the battle, you can see they are either being fired upon, or are firing what must be huge weapons to be visible at this distance, if they were planets then they would just be too far to hit with anything, and I don't think there's any ships at all that could set off an explosion that large from orbit, point being they must be closer than trianary planets are too each other for that kind of firepower to be interchanged, therefore, they are not planets, but space ships or moons of some kind.

I don't believe they're moons for two reasons, the first is simply that it seems highly unlikely that two moons would be lining up like that, which isn't a very good reason, the second is that in the bottom left of the image you can see the sun setting behind the sphere's meaning that they're dark side would be facing us, so unless they're in the atmosphere they'd be invisible.

The Terran do not have anything close to that large, even if it is close enough for to be fired upon they are huge, and as far as we know there aren't any spherical Terran ships at all, certainly not military. I really don't think they're Protoss either, if only because they don't look Protoss, they are far more industrial, not all gold and blue like the Khalai, or Dark and green/purple like the Dark Templar. There's only one other race with this kind of technology, and as it so happens, they have a kind of ship that would probably look like that, although we've never seen one or heard a description, except that they are huge. The Xel'naga Worldships. They used them to literally travel across Dark Space to our galaxy and lived out of them for thousands (millions?) of years. All we know is that they were huge, and it's a very easy leap that they were called "worldships" because, to the primitive Protoss, they resembled entire worlds. I'd guess that they look just like those giant sphere's in the artwork, and that when the Xel'naga wake up, they may just reactivate their worldships again, as seen here.

I'm posting this because I'd like as much feedback as possible, if those are worldships, it's a huge deal, thoughts?

I think someone replaced the powdered sugar on your jelly donuts with crack.

Comon man, as first poster you have a responsibility, now everyone in this thread will dismiss it. Troglodytes. You should really look at the original thread on SC2armory, I actually convinced a couple people, on the internet, you no how hard it is to convince people online, where they can just stop talking if they realize they're wrong?

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I don't believe they're moons for two reasons, the first is simply that it seems highly unlikely that two moons would be lining up like that, which isn't a very good reason, the second is that in the bottom left of the image you can see the sun setting behind the sphere's meaning that they're dark side would be facing us, so unless they're in the atmosphere they'd be invisible.

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Or its just simply an art screw up.

Alright sorry, I was a dick there.
I'm pretty sure those are just moons and or other planets, they dont look remotely mechanical or living. tho we dont know much about how a world ship would look like it could be a entire planet converted into a ship tho I'm pretty sure at that point they would look less like a planet and more like a actual mechanical object we as these look more like a planet.

as for the bit about them being fired on or firing I dont believe that to be true I think what you are seeing is debris from the nuke going off.

I would think that a Xel'Naga ship would be a lot like a protoss ship. Not some boring old circle, but a highly decorated ship.

You can see it in higher resolution here: http://www.starcraft2.com/images/wal...-1920x1200.jpg

Those could be moons. The one at the top has a huge crater-impact (and looks too big to be a moon, but it's just a drawing). They seem to have explosions on their surface, but it wouldn't be unlikely for a sci-fi conflict to escalate to the moons, specially because the Zerg could have used them to build their stuff.

They could be Xel'Naga worldships, or not.

About the dark side of the Moon, we call it like that, because our Moon have synchronized movement with the Earth, and we never see that side, but it's as frequently lit (and unlit) by the Sun as the side we see all nights.

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IIRC, this are the two moons of Mar Sara.

The fact that we know them as moons, doesn't ensures that there is any spacecraft within.

I know this is highly, highly unlikely, but does anyone else hope that the Xel'Naga's 'world ship' will be something like this? You've got to admit, when it comes to epically awesome sci-fi, no one does it quite like Gene Roddenberry. :D

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/an...worldship1.jpg

I have a Deja-vu

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Originally Posted by mr. peasant

I know this is highly, highly unlikely, but does anyone else hope that the Xel'Naga's 'world ship' will be something like this? You've got to admit, when it comes to epically awesome sci-fi, no one does it quite like Gene Roddenberry. :D

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/an...worldship1.jpg

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That looks like a stylized Dyson Sphere, or web, or grid, or net. I always hoped Xel'naga world ships would be like miniature Dyson Sphere, which I won't rule out until I've seen the inside of one.

FYI: A dyson sphere is a conceptual artificial utopia conceived by a guy named Dyson, it would be like if you built a giant metal sphere around the orbit of the Earth, so we could harness 100% of the sun's energy, and live on the inside of the sphere, which would be so huge overpopulation would be a non-issue, infinite power and space, sounds like something the Xel'naga would build.

It would have to be way smaller though, as they could land on Aiur.

In fact, you can see that the sun is on the lower left of the picture. It's setting on the planet.

@Norfindel

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Originally Posted by Roland

in the bottom left of the image you can see the sun setting behind the sphere's meaning that they're dark side would be facing us, so unless they're in the atmosphere they'd be invisible.

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Correct, I'm assuming it's close enough that the nuke is illuminating it enough to see.

That whole Magog system looks like it was lifted from Larry Niven's sci-fi, where they have several worlds and their sun linked together traveling through the galaxy. Cool nonetheless, though.

I'm of the opinion that the X'N worldships are biomechanical in nature. I have some sketches for speculative worldships. I should post those sometime...


Anyways, I'm pretty sure those are just moons.

Please explain, why biomechanical, and why moons?

Everything else about the Xel'Naga was biomechanical or engineered, if the Protoss and Zerg are any indication. Zerg fit the definition of biomech to a T. Crystals thrum with a life of their own. Protoss are designed to interface with all of the above. The only nonliving component of Xel'Naga technology I can remember is the Shakuras temple, and it was mentioned that was crystal in the DT Saga, so it was probably grown rather than constructed.

(It's also my theory that the Protoss got the idea for Dragoons and Immortals from the X'N.)

The Xel'naga actually taught many things to the Protoss. But this was before the protoss started to fight over the idea of being abandonded by their creators (gods).

nah, they're just moons, you're right about the lights and the explosions and all that... but in the end i think the artist probably just put them there because they look cool, he wasnt trying to be realistic, he was trying that the picture look badass and cool and fucking awesome.

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Originally Posted by Visions of Khas

. The only nonliving component of Xel'Naga technology I can remember is the Shakuras temple, and it was mentioned that was crystal in the DT Saga, so it was probably grown rather than constructed.

(It's also my theory that the Protoss got the idea for Dragoons and Immortals from the X'N.)

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Uhh, was there not still a living creature trapped inside said crystals/temple if my memory serves me correctly...so said temple is still technically a living component.

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Originally Posted by SpikeVorador

nah, they're just moons, you're right about the lights and the explosions and all that... but in the end i think the artist probably just put them there because they look cool, he wasnt trying to be realistic, he was trying that the picture look badass and cool and fucking awesome.

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Well, if he wanted to be realistic, he won't draw a nuke so close to anything that has to survive the explosion :p There are even ships flying there, that can feel a little turbulence :rolleyes:

Taken from SC2armory.

I think 90% of the explosions on the sphere's are just sparks from the nukes and whatnot, but there are a couple which look legit to me.

Here's a slightly photo shopped image of it, points of interest have a number, and are blown up in the left margin, corresponding comments below

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/3704/spheres2.jpg

I didn't use image tags because it would be overwhelming large if I had, just copy past URL.

1) I think this is n impact on the sphere, notice how it seems to be rising out of it, it's not just a spark, it stops right at the edge of the sphere.

2) See above, this blast also stops at the sphere.

3) This is the sunset, clearly behind the sphere's

4) This isn't too significant, it appears to be a second sphere further away from the view-point than the more imposing one in the foreground.

5) This is the only thing I haven't mentioned before, it seems like very good evidence that the artist had in mind that the sun was behind the spheres, it's the light from the other side of the sphere just visible behind the horizon, you can see it whenever the moon is distinctly in front of the sun on Earth, which is usually only visible during an eclipse, when the artist was doing this he had to have had the idea that the spheres were in in front of the sun, and so he probably would have realized that if they were moons the dark side would be facing us, forcing him to put the sun behind the view-point if he wanted that side illuminated by it, but he didn't really care if the sun was lighting up the side facing us because, the sphere's being in atmosphere, the nuke is perfectly sufficient for the job. Keep in mind that if you were looking at this scene from an astronomical view the sun really would be only minutely lower than the sphere's so light from behind and that angle is perfectly reasonable.

Man, they're moons, it's just that there is shit going on there too. Not difficult to happend when you can travel among different systems.

The sphere up there has a crater hole on it, much like our moon.

Drawings aren't scientifically correct. Look at the Battlecruisers and Wraiths, the Wraiths won't even fit into the Battlecruisers. You can hudge the distance by how fogged they look.

For the record I'm really playing Devil's advocate here, I genuinely am not at all convinced they're worldships, but I think your not giving it enough of a chance at all, open mindedness is a positive attribute.

BTW, on the armory people have mentioned that worldships could be deactivated, and set in orbit around various planets all the time the Xel'ngag were "sleeping" and be taken for small moons by other races such as Protoss and Terran.

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Originally Posted by Roland

BTW, on the armory people have mentioned that worldships could be deactivated, and set in orbit around various planets all the time the Xel'ngag were "sleeping" and be taken for small moons by other races such as Protoss and Terran.

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If so, then you would have to wait until one of them activates before they are proven to be worldships.

I'm wondering how big the worldships could have possibly been if the Overmind, within mere hours, destroyed the entire XL fleet with just the infested creatures from a single ashworld planet?

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Originally Posted by Gradius

I'm wondering how big the worldships could have possibly been if the Overmind, within mere hours, destroyed the entire XL fleet with just the infested creatures from a single ashworld planet?

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Its my believe that the Xel'naga let themselves get beaten, so we don't know the entire situation. Im sure if the Xel'naga Worldship had anything like the Temple technology from Shakuras, it should of had the power to rip the Zerg apart.

Please, those are two moons up close, they have nothing to do with the sun.

@Hamshack, please re-read the first post, namely the last line.

"I'm posting this because I'd like as much feedback as possible"

Dismissing it without stating any reasoning is not feedback.

Essentially what the debate boils down to is whether or not you think the artist was taking things like light source and size into account, or was he trying to make it just look cool. There's no way either side of that debate can convince the other, as they're tugging on different ropes, if you have something constructive to say on the assumption the artist is taking realistic lighting etc. into account, by all means, say it, otherwise your just repeating everyone else.

Assuming the art is supposed to be realistic, they can't be moons, and are probably worldships. Assuming the art is just for coolness, then it's in all probability just a moon.

There's something else that is worth taking into consideration... Would Blizzard allow an artist to so prematurely unveil the Xel'Naga? They are at the moment akin to a God-like race in terms of SC's lore, are a total mystery to players in terms of who they are and what they look like as well as likely to play a major role in the overarching story. The Xel'Naga are unlikely to make an appearance in WoL except at the very end as some sort of cliffhanger.

1) There is a protoss mini-campaign in Wings of Liberty, most people think it will deal with Zeratul's discoveries, in large part because of the amount of art/cinematic footage released which deals with it, there is also a screenshot in-game of Zeratul at what looks like a xel'naga alter in the caverns.

2) This is a good topic discussing the appearance of Xel'naga

3) The most recent SC book pretty much describes in very reasonable detail the Xel'naga's agenda. You can look it up on the Wiki.

But why would the Xel'Naga involve in a TvZ battle, anyways?

At BlizzCon 2009 they said that there is no art for Xel'Naga (now they were probably talking about the actual beings, because we already have art for temples and such).

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Q: How much different are the Protoss from the Xel'Naga?

A: They're different because they don't have any art.

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http://sclegacy.com/feature/102-bc-09/488-blizzcon-2009-starcraft-ii-art-panel

@Norfindel Because they're a bunch of little INTPs and INTJs who plan and manipulate everything to achieve a predetermined outcome. As a species that's what they've done for aeons, manipulate tiny subtle details to achieve an inevitable and required conclusion, maybe they happen know that this battle will affect blank and through a chain of events affect the Cycle, or maybe the Terran and Zerg are fighting over a xel'naga temple or artifact (which we've seen a lot of) which the Xel'naga want to reclaim.

@Gradius I think they were just referring to actual art, like painting and architecture, which could have significance in that all they pyramids and whatnot are shaped that way for a purpose. The fll quote makes that seem pretty clear.

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Originally Posted by Blizzard

A: They're different because they don't have any art. We haven't really gone too far into defining Xel'Naga other than defining a few temples and things. We on purpose don't really want to showcase what exactly a Xel'Naga is, because who knows what the future brings and we may decide we want to do something more with them. The Xel'Naga, artwise, they don't have lots of art. Now, Dark Templar and Protoss, their schemes are sort of the same i.e. curving and arcing armor, but dark templar are a little more archaic. Their metals are platinum, silver and blue hue where the Protoss are more warmful, bronze even some ivories and things like that.

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Originally Posted by Roland

1) There is a protoss mini-campaign in Wings of Liberty, most people think it will deal with Zeratul's discoveries, in large part because of the amount of art/cinematic footage released which deals with it, there is also a screenshot in-game of Zeratul at what looks like a xel'naga alter in the caverns.

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It's only speculation that it's a Xel'Naga altar. It could just as likely be a Protoss one. More importantly, even if it is Xel'Naga in origin, it's just an ancient relic (like the temple on Shakuras, etc), which is quite different from revealing active Xel'Naga. The return of the Xel'Naga would potentially be a major crowning moment of awesome. Blizzard would certainly not discard such an opportunity by spoiling it with a throwaway appearance in a random piece of art all those months ago.

Hypothetically assuming those spheres are worldships then they're still not throwing the opportunity away, they're dropping an extremely subtle hint in an innocent enough image that 98% of the SC community will dismiss as moons. That's hypothetical, point being that even if those sphere's are worldships they're really not throwing away anything.

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Originally Posted by Roland

Hypothetically assuming those spheres are worldships then they're still not throwing the opportunity away, they're dropping an extremely subtle hint in an innocent enough image that 98% of the SC community will dismiss as moons. That's hypothetical, point being that even if those sphere's are worldships they're really not throwing away anything.

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The problem is that such a blatant depiction of a world ship will cheapen any unveiling of said world ship (the concept of which is our sole idea of what the Xel'Naga are like). It would be like, "Hey, that looks cool. Wait, haven't I already seen this before in Random Artwork #47?"

That's like saying cliffhangers make the culmination boring because they already gave you something of an inkling of what it would be like. It's really much more impressive, when you've been working at it, like when you see a big statue's general shape just pricking out from under the cloth it's under, it's much more impressive when you finally see it, as all the little hints you got from the shape of the cloth suddenly make sense. It makes it a revelation where you realize how intertwined it all was instead of just a surprise.