Zerg Genetics Engineering Retcon?

[Gradius]

In SC1, the manual tells us that the zerg gained all the knowledge of Xel'Naga protogenetics and physiology:

Through the intimate knowledge of evolution and proto-genetic physiology gained from the Xel’Naga, the Overmind was able to increase the level of sentience in many of the higher Zerg strains, while still keeping them fully under its control.

In SC2, we discover that whoever is making hybrids is far more skilled in genetic engineering than the Zerg:

Interweaving of terran and zerg matter, subtle. Spun on micro scale not possible for Swarm. Entity responsible for Stukov exceeds organism Abathur. Untenable to oppose.

Shouldn't Abathur already have all the genetic engineering knowledge of Amon, who has been "dead" ever since the xel'naga were destroyed? Or maybe I'm just not grasping what they mean by "micro scale". All genetic engineering is micro-scale. You either manipulate the nucleotides to suit your purposes, or you don't.

And of course, Abathur is quick to point out that both Amon and the Zerg pale in comparison to that magical swamp cesspool on Zerus:

Modifications of Stukov second only to modifications of Primal Queen of Blades. However, Stukov product of specific design.

[DemolitionSquid]

I was hoping by now you'd have given up on the SC2 story like the rest of us. Blizzard's abysmal writing is more traumatic than anything George R. R. Martin could put me through.

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I was hoping by now you'd have given up on the SC2 story like the rest of us. Blizzard's abysmal writing is more traumatic than anything George R. R. Martin could put me through.

[Gradius]

I'm doing research for a zerg campaign that I'm working on. :P

Blizzard's abysmal writing is more traumatic than anything George R. R. Martin could put me through.

Does that include the weener song?

[Turalyon]

Shouldn't Abathur already have all the genetic engineering knowledge of Amon, who has been "dead" ever since the xel'naga were destroyed? Or maybe I'm just not grasping what they mean by "micro scale". All genetic engineering is micro-scale. You either manipulate the nucleotides to suit your purposes, or you don't.

Amon is a special hero Xel'Naga with priveleged information (read: contrived character whose sole narrative purpose is plot device). The Zerg did get all their genetic engineering konwledge from the Xel'Naga except for the one who turns out to be a "genius amongst geniuses".

Reading back on my above comment, I just noticed how trollish my answer sounds. It's certainly ironic that it is also perhaps the best logical answer one can come up with.

And of course, Abathur is quick to point out that both Amon and the Zerg pale in comparison to that magical swamp cesspool on Zerus

Given the retcon of the Overmind's true objectives, this kind of makes some sort of twisted sense. The magic swamp being revealed as the genetic equivalent of an "I win button" would mean that the original Zerg intent to become perfect/most powerful by assimilating the Protoss is actually bunk because that would mean they wouldn't need to leave Zerus at all. It also supports the newly "modified" Zerg intent of just merely killing Protoss in their entirety because they were half-mind-controlled to do so.

[TheEconomist]

Looks like Squibb, Turalyon and I are going to switch roles for this discussion. I'm in the mood for debating StarCraft, as I am currently doing a concurrent playtrough of Wings of Liberty and the original StarCraft campaigns in the StarCraft 2 engine. So, this time, I'm not going to whine about the StarCraft 2 and then leave. Instead, I'm going to assume there's some rationality to the universe and just enough logical foundation to form coherent predictions.

Here we go.

Through the intimate knowledge of evolution and proto-genetic physiology gained from the Xel’Naga, the Overmind was able to increase the level of sentience in many of the higher Zerg strains, while still keeping them fully under its control.

I'm going to either make the assumption that the Overmind did not gain all of the knowledge of the Xel'Naga. Otherwise, it is possible that the Xel'Naga or at least the remnants of a Xel'Naga faction have advanced considerably, somehow, despite what is basically their almost complete destruction. Or, maybe, as would go along with Blizzard typical story development, there is something greater than the Xel'Naga that is will soon be revealed to be the actual puppet master of the convoluted, considerably retconned events of the series.

-- How many Xel'Naga are left? Is Amon the only one? I've put so much of the lore out of my head I need a bit of a primer. Normally, I'd just go back and play the games or read the manual ... but ... well, you know

This is what happened in WarCraft, and since WarCraft is effectively only ever a few games ahead in terms of story progression, I don't see it as all that far fetched that that will be the case in Legacy of the Void or StarCraft 3.

Shouldn't Abathur already have all the genetic engineering knowledge of Amon, who has been "dead" ever since the xel'naga were destroyed?

Amon is very much a part of the elements of StarCraft 2 I don't like so I'm not very knowledgeable about his role in things, but, if the story is to go the path that seems likely, Amon will, in fact, not be the H.X.I.C. when it is all said and done. The only alternative I can imagine would be,

1) He somehow gained knowledge while he was dead. Voice in the Darkness maybe? Their motivations seems somewhat similar and a developer comment makes the very specific comparison that the Voice in the Darkness is Cthulu invading StarCraft. An evil, corrupted entity acting against the obvious well being of himself and his species gaining some kind of mysterious knowledge through unspecified means would be very much in line with this I think.

2) Amon was somehow more advanced in his knowledge than the average Xel'Naga. Maybe he was a top genetic scientist of the time, or something of that sort. It wouldn't surprise me if Amon is just the Xel'Naga equivalent of a chemistry nerd developing an inferiority-superiority complex. Maybe he's nothing more than a mad scientist that spent too much time contemplating the perfect being and subsequently developed a very strong, very irrational desire to kill off his own kind for some misguided belief in cosmic progress. Stupid beyond words but also in line with Blizzard story telling.

3)

And of course, Abathur is quick to point out that both Amon and the Zerg pale in comparison to that magical swamp cesspool on Zerus

Has there been any argument for why this thing is so magical? Maybe there are naturally occuring phenomenon that just so happen to somehow result in logical, coherent alterations of genetic code that give the impression of advanced intelligent design. In a way, I guess it's possible that Amon has somehow harnessed these powers.

4) Or we're just giving Blizzard too much credit and its just another inconsistency in the lore.

[Telenil]

Shouldn't Abathur already have all the genetic engineering knowledge of Amon, who has been "dead" ever since the xel'naga were destroyed?

Why, yes he should. In the original story, the Xel'Naga didn't create entire species from blueprints, they picked the most promising species and slowly attempted to guide their evolution, failing a lot in the process. The Xel'Naga gave the Zerg several ability that allowed them to thrive, but they didn't plan nor expected the Zerg would be able to create their own mutations:

The Xel’Naga soon made an alarming discovery. The original races assimilated by the Zerg were hardly recognisable after only a few generations of their inception. Somehow the Zerg had developed the ability to supercharge and steer the latent evolutionary processes within their host creatures. The host creatures fell prey to the effects of gradual physical mutations that caused all of the various strains to grow armour piercing spines, razor-sharp limbs, and ultra dense carapaces. Over a surprisingly short amount of time, the strains grew to resemble a terrifyingly ravenous and unified race.

So if anything, Abathur should be better than the Xel'Naga.

This raises the question of how Duran created hybrid faster than the Overmind could, but he did have time to study Zerg genetic engineering while he stayed with Kerrigan.

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Shouldn't Abathur already have all the genetic engineering knowledge of Amon, who has been "dead" ever since the xel'naga were destroyed?

Why, yes he should. In the original story, the Xel'Naga didn't create entire species from blueprints, they picked the most promising species and slowly attempted to guide their evolution, failing a lot in the process. The Xel'Naga gave the Zerg several ability that allowed them to thrive, but they didn't plan nor expected the Zerg would be able to create their own mutations:

The Xel’Naga soon made an alarming discovery. The original races assimilated by the Zerg were hardly recognisable after only a few generations of their inception. Somehow the Zerg had developed the ability to supercharge and steer the latent evolutionary processes within their host creatures. The host creatures fell prey to the effects of gradual physical mutations that caused all of the various strains to grow armour piercing spines, razor-sharp limbs, and ultra dense carapaces. Over a surprisingly short amount of time, the strains grew to resemble a terrifyingly ravenous and unified race.

So if anything, Abathur should be better than the Xel'Naga.

This raises the question of how Duran created hybrid faster than the Overmind could, but he did have time to study Zerg genetic engineering while he stayed with Kerrigan.

[Turalyon]

Why, yes he should. In the original story

There's your trouble. In the original story there was no concept of Amon.

As Amon was created (by the writers I mean) after the fact in the form of additive retroactive continuity, it's pretty much what Eco and I said earlier about Amon having to be unique/different and therefore requiring Abathur to not have all the knowledge of all the Xel'Naga.

This raises the question of how Duran created hybrid faster than the Overmind could, but he did have time to study Zerg genetic engineering while he stayed with Kerrigan.

This assumes that the Overmind even wanted to make hybrids at all, given that some organisms assimilated into the Swarm are not necessarily hybrids. I would have to assume that hybridisation is different from Zerg assimilation, with the former being a much quicker process.

An even more alarming question is how Duran was able to seed the Hybrid on countless worlds when the Protoss and Zerg had only met each other for the first time properly in the span of a year or two. Duran must have been flitting very quickly (which is understatement in itself) between the approaching Zerg Swarm from the galaxy core and the K sector in order to abduct the "countless" specimans to seed his "countless" worlds.

[TheEconomist]

When exactly did the Protoss and the Zerg meet, in relation to the original campaign I mean.

[Robear]

When exactly did the Protoss and the Zerg meet, in relation to the original campaign I mean.

So, the Overmind gained knowledge of the Protoss before the Protoss knew about them, from when it consumed the Xel'Naga:

Through dissecting the memories of the Xel'Naga, the Overmind was made aware of the myriad races that had at one time or another been influenced by the ancient race. The Xel'Naga had kept a detailed genetic history of each race, giving the Overmind a clear understanding of their respective strengths and weaknesses. Most importantly, the Overmind learned of an exceedingly powerful race that lived near the galaxy's fringe known only as the Protoss. The Overmind knew then that the Protoss and the Zerg would eventually be caught in an inevitable, apocalyptic conflict.

The Overmind sends out its deep space probes, and finds the Terrans. It knows that the Terrans are near Protoss space, but has not yet encountered them:

The Overmind was aware that the Protoss had become a highly psionic race, able to bend and warp the very fabric of reality to their whims. It sought a way to counter the awesome might of the Protoss, but found no answers among the genetic strains it devoured.

On the verge of despair, the Overmind made an amzing discovery. One of its deep-space probes had relayed the location and vital statistics of a race that occupied a series of nondescript worlds, right under the shadow of the Protoss.

The new race, called Humanity, was mere generations away from developing into a formidable psionic power. But the Overmind also knew that Humanity was still in its infant stages, hardly capable of defending itself against the ravenous Zerg. Although a short-lived and seemingly frail species, the Overmind knew that Humanity would be the final determinant in its victory over the Protoss. If it could assimilate the psionic potential of Humanity, the Overmind would have the ability to combat the Protoss on its own terms.

This is the point at which the Protoss meet the Zerg, but it's without the Overmind's knowledge: they actually took some of the Overmind's space-probes back to Aiur for examination, before knowing about the swarm, a colossally stupid move. Thankfully for them, somehow the space probes were not able to transmit Aiur's location, or any other information to the Overmind, who does not encounter the Protoss until later. (Although you'd think he'd know Aiur's location from the Xel'Naga? Anyway, nope, he doesn't learn it until Zeratul screws up.)

The High Templar Tassadar, accompanied by his renowned Templar expeditionary force, foudn a number of small biological constructs floating near the borders of Protoss space. Upon close inspection, Tassadar deduced that the rather nondescript alien organisms were in fact deep space probes. Although Tassadar could not discern their point of origin, it was clear that they were heading towards the Koprulu sector of Terran colonies.

Tassadar brought the living probes back to Aiur for immediate study. The strange aliens were unlike anything that the Protoss had ever seen before. The respective physiologies of the probe were apparently engineered for deep space travel and reconnissance. In an attempt to discern their primary quarry, the Protoss focused the energies of the Khaydarin Crystals through the tiny minds of the probes. The Protoss were shocked to discover that the alien probes responded quickly and naturally to the powerful energies of the Crystals. Their shock was garnered from the fact that only creatures born of the Xel'Naga's proto-genetics could properly process the energies of the great Crystals. More alarming was the vague thought stream that kept repeating, over and over, through the tiny brains of the probes; 'Find Humanity'... 'Eradicate'... 'Learn'... 'Evolve'...

The Protoss speculated that the probes were the harbingers of a bold new threat to their section of the galaxy. If the creatures were engineered with Xel'Naga technologies, they would be very advanced and extremely powerful. It seemed clear to the Protoss that this new race constituted a palpable danger to all living beings, and that wherever the greater bulk of the race was, it must still be searching for the unsuspecting colonists.

The Protoss began to send out advance scouts to scour the surrounding space-ways for any sign of the alien invaders.

Now, first visual contact from a Zerg perspective comes when Tassadar's fleet shows up at Chau Sara— after the Protoss had already been looking for and observing the Zerg from a distance for some time.

Yet, from out of the cold void of space, a mighty fleet of Protoss warships emerged to combat the Zerg invasion forces. The Overmind, anxious to learn what it could about the enigmatic Protoss, decided to let them hamper the initial infestation process. Holding its ravenous warriors at bay, the Overmind watched as the Protoss razed the colony of Chau Sara. Apparently, the Protoss were aware that the Hive Spores had already despoiled the planet and seeking to prevent further infestation, incinerated the planet.

[Gradius]

This assumes that the Overmind even wanted to make hybrids at all, given that some organisms assimilated into the Swarm are not necessarily hybrids. I would have to assume that hybridisation is different from Zerg assimilation, with the former being a much quicker process.

An even more alarming question is how Duran was able to seed the Hybrid on countless worlds when the Protoss and Zerg had only met each other for the first time properly in the span of a year or two. Duran must have been flitting very quickly (which is understatement in itself) between the approaching Zerg Swarm from the galaxy core and the K sector in order to abduct the "countless" specimans to seed his "countless" worlds.

The hybrids are test-tube babies. I'm pretty sure that for a gene-splice Duran doesn't actually need to kidnap individual specimens. A protoss does not get kidnapped and then wake up as a hybrid.

If the Overmind assimilated the protoss, he'd be able to give purity of form and protoss psionics to all zerg strains, and be able to produce them en-masse from hatcheries. The result would be far more powerful and dangerous than Duran's hybrids.