Writing a New Starcraft 2 storyline

[GnaReffotsirk]

I'm liking some of your ideas so far, but how do you address Duran's statement, "I am a servant of a far greater power. A power that has slept for countless ages"?

That's what their Dormancy meant. Duran is a misguided fool in the end. A fanatic serving this Xel'Naga. His race was also once created by the Xel'Naga to serve them.
This would be argued by the good Xel'Naga who tries to open his mind to the fact. But his refusal to change only shows the error of their ways for one group, while the other see their awesomeness.

A sub-plot for duran would be explored in a way which shows this sorry creature, where a greater power changes the course of their destiny as a race, and turned them into these servant beings, always trying to please their makers, eventually creating an abomination himself.

Clearly the Xel'Naga got a good nights' sleep with their melatonin sleep aids.

Hm, this Harvest sounds a lot like the Reapers.

The harvest in Mass Effect, I'm not quite sure what it is for. I felt that it was about collecting species at every cycle, and add that to the group.

What the Xel'Naga wanted in Starcraft was to create this perfect beings, right? But I'm not quite sure what was their purpose really prior to retcons.

I don't have the manual with me, so..


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edit: I'm making this stuff up as I go.

Say, Duran is once originally named Aratheron. Their race worshipped gods called the Watchers (i'm taking this from the ancient aliens thing), who later came and manipulated their dna. Aratheron/Duran was the first experiment. His body was destroyed, tinkered with, and recreated (cloned), then released into their planet.

This manipulations of the Watchers was unsanctioned by their ruling council. In reality, this action was an attempt by the Watchers to prove that they can be like the Shining Ones. The Xel'Naga who create races.

The Watchers are still Xel'Naga, but are eons apart in knowledge. They serve as observers. Much like the Dae'Uhl. To watch the Shining One's children, or creations.

A war broke out between the Watchers and the Shining Ones for the first time in galactic history. A war that tore the Xel'Naga apart. A war that will continue throughout the ages.

The Watchers want to become like the Shining Ones, or prove that they are better than the Shining Ones. The Shining Ones are growing unsure if their act of creation and tinkering of the species is right.

At some point, they abandoned this pursuit of creation. The Protoss made proof that they must, but they had to do one more. One last try: the Zerg.

The Overmind kills the group tasked to create it. All their local knowledge was absorbed by the Overmind.

The Shining Ones seeing all this, abandons it all, and goes missing. Some Shining Ones remained to keep watch over everything.

These who remain wages a final war with the Watchers. Odds are 3:1.

Eventually, the Shining Ones wins. The Watchers, defeated, and stripped of their technology, goes into hiding.


Aratheron/Duran, blind to all these, swore to his gods, he would glorify their name.

He waged a war to purge the abominations that plagued his world. The handiwork of the Watchers. Monstrous beasts that devoured everything in their path.

He thinks the Watchers are God. No Shining Ones, none of that.

As Duran's war in his world tracks along, the Shining Ones who were tasked to keep watch, burned his planet. This after ages of war have been waged on duran's planet.

Duran survives, in an Ark. Some kind of vessel that kept him in some kind of stasis for generations.

He then wakes up in a barren planet, possessing knowledge he could only dream of. He considers this a sign, a gift from his god.

[Visions of Khas]

The harvest in Mass Effect, I'm not quite sure what it is for. I felt that it was about collecting species at every cycle, and add that to the group.

[Mass Effect Spoilers] The Reapers were originally intended to counter the self-destructive tendencies of advanced technological species (specifically, mass destructive internecine that follows technological singularity). Reapers harvest these civilizations and incorporate them into themselves: their culture, intelligence, genetic material, and technology. Each species is preserved within an individual Reaper. Shepard and the current space-faring civilization are convinced they can live in harmony, but the Reapers naturally think otherwise. (No, I'm not having the Indoctrination debate with you again, Demolition Squid!)

What the Xel'Naga wanted in Starcraft was to create this perfect beings, right? But I'm not quite sure what was their purpose really prior to retcons.

Yeah, it's never explicitly stated what the Xel'Naga were originally pursuing beyond "perfection."

I don't have the manual with me, so..

Now you do.

[Turalyon]

Yeah, it's never explicitly stated what the Xel'Naga were originally pursuing beyond "perfection."

See Abathur. Perfection is an impossible ideal. Once "perfection" is reached, it's not actually perfect anymore because it has become a static quantity, a limitation. The Xel'Naga would probably have shifted their goalposts (like they did with the Protoss) had they survived the Zerg onslaught and would've probably deemed them a failure, too, eventually for some reason or another. It's their fatal flaw.

On the other hand, the Xel'Naga were happy with how the Zerg turned out. The Zerg were perfect enough for the Xel'Naga to be usurped and being devoured by them, afterall. Then, the Overmind felt it wasn't perfect and so decided to look elsewhere.

[GnaReffotsirk]

(Cont'd from post #21)

The Shining Ones that were left, created a device that would hold their brain patterns into this one collection. The purpose of this device is to keep their watch alive, through robots. Some kind of organic machines, that drift through the Xel'Naga creations, keeping records.

They were dying off.

The Watchers took it upon themselves to make a final ditch effort to prove their point. They took this device from the Shining Ones, and put themselves into it before the Shining Ones could use it for themselves.

Commanding synthetic life, they kill the Shining Ones who defeat them. The ones who chose to remain. One of the shining ones says, "You will become servants of those you wish to rule. You will suffer shame for all eternity."

As time went on, the device does what it was designed to do. To mix all their thoughts and thought processes into one.

The device then continue to execute safety protocols, and created this soft of black hole space, where no one could escape, nor get to it. Time seems to halt, but information can go through in and out.

The robots were undone, and a new phase begins.

Certain control devices were ejected from the artificial black hole. With these a creature can access the knowledge of the device. This cube, the diachephalon.

It seems the real purpose of the Cube is to become not only a knowledge container (some kind of cloud where all information exist and is spread throughout the galaxy, accessible to everyone who are able to, and everyone adds information into it), but also an engine to aid the greatest of what the Xel'Naga have created to fulfill their true potential.

It can also serve to show the Xel'Naga's mistakes, etc. but the problem is, what's contained in it is the collection of the Watcher's thoughts and knowledge, and intentions.

At one point, one of the devices, a crystal was used, and a great devastation had occured. The crystal was destroyed, and seven pieces were the result. These pieces were eventually gathered by a Protoss, who wanted to use it, but never completed his quest.

Another device is a set of rings, what allowed the wielder to command inanimate objects. He can in some way, create copies of the data in the cube, and temporarily have them control the objects. Golems can be created for a period of time. The purpose of this device is for construction.

The other devices and their purposes have yet to be pulled from somewhere.


The Rise of the Nameless One
---------------------------------

Duran/Aratheron, eventually loses his identity. Seeing identity as some kind of error. Primitive. Irrelevant.

He begins to realize his God created him immortal, but that he lacked something. He always felt barren, empty.

Encountering one of the devices, some kind of mind interface, allowed him to access huge amount of information. But this information is of the Watchers.

Eventually, this drives him insane, and that he was wrong. That to be truly alive, one must be given a name. A name that will echo throughout eternity. A purpose. A reason for being.

He realizes/decides that his purpose is to create vessels for his god(s). So that they can have a name. A glory that will shine for all to see.



Where the Campaign Begins:
---------------------------------

Duran has been creating his Hybrids. He sees them awesome. A mix of the greatest of races: The Protoss, and the Zerg who have consumed countless others.

But he could not give life unto them. They just die.

Looking at the devices, he decides to use them all. Accessing the cube's knowledge through the head piece, the crystal shards, and the rings, he unleashes such great energy that all his hybrids begin to awaken.

From many worlds they wake, each one with their own sentience. The Watchers have been set free.

The leader of the Watchers awakens from the one closest to duran. "You dare stand before your maker? For I have given thee my strength. Am I not god who is near, or am I not a god who is far away? As lightning I come. And creation shall tremble."

Duran falls in worship. "I am nothing."

Creature: "You are mine servant. And I shall give you a name."

The ripples of the energy reaches to the distant stars, awakening the Shining Ones themselves from stasis. This eternal sleep they condemned themselves into. Not all of them awakens. Only a few.

Initially, they believe the energy was a sign that one of their creations have reached a high level of evolution. That they have discovered technology that could rival their own.

But then, upon investigation, they find out the watchers are back. Now with hybrid bodies for vessels. They trace their origin from the artificial black hole. The diachephalon. None of their technology can disable it. It would take the sum of all energy existing in this galaxy to nullify this device. A perfect balance is now in place, with this device at the heart of it all.

They cannot possibly destroy it, but perhaps they can defeat the Watchers for good.


Assault on Creation
----------------------

Duran is tasked to bring creation to their knees.

Watcher Leader: "Relinquish not yourself. Render true service, and subdue their pride."

Duran attacks with the might of Hybrids. He feels the glory. Being one of the gods himself. It is glorious.

But as death rages in the Terran sector, Duran begins to remember the fate of his world. How he tried to lead his people against the abominations that plagued their planet. For centuries he tried to purge them, and he recalls the fire that destroyed everything, except himself.

He begins to be torn inside. Is he now a plague unto these terrans? Will fire consume them all in the end like it did before to his world?

Anticipating some kind of firey judgement/retribution/cleansing, he redoubles his efforts. Trying to convince the terrans to kneel before the true gods.

The terrans mocks him, naturally. "You crazy sonnovabitch!" The terrans have no notion of gods and such. They find it bullshit. Nonesense. And they're right.


They fight duran, duran is immortal. As the fight went on, duran finally just stood there. Being torn by bullets, but still reconstituting. "I am a god." he says. "Submit!"

Some cleaver one liner from the Terrans, and they surrender.

The watchers decend with their ships and begin rebuilding Korhal with alien buildings. The player will lead Terrans to fight other terrans, with hybrids in their control.

At some point, the player will turn his back against the hybrid escort. Killing them. "Nope. Don't look like gods to me." They head for shakuras.



Shining One's
---------------

The Shining Ones arrive in the sector. With their white silvery ships. Semi-transparent.

They attack the Watchers/Hybrid main stronghold, but they lose. One of them escapes, and the terran rebel gets him onboard his ship. "Take me to the first born."

The protoss campaign will then be about finding a way to reawaken the other Shining ones.

[Nissa]

G-Reff, can I make a suggestion?

One of the things that annoyed me about SCII is they turned Duran from...whatever he was, into a generic shape shifter type. He wasn't unique, but simply a thing that can change its shape whenever. He turned into a common sci fi trope.

I suggest that you make sure he's not a plain shapeshifter, but rather something more limited. I would suggest that Duran is either really a human, a being created with human DNA, or a creature that has more or less permanently given up its own form to become human-like in appearance. All of those things have more weight than the common shapeshifter.

[GnaReffotsirk]

Okay. What about this:


Duran never changes face like he did in WoL and HotS. He retains this form that the Watchers made him.

Let's say with the use of technology, he can "fake" things. His body is immune, as it is immortal.

Kerrigan's infestation on him seems real to kerrigan, but in reality, his body can control the infestation. Can keep it at bay so as to appear infested, yet his mind is his own.

His body is artificially created by the watchers. Which they themselves did not need to have back when they created Duran.

Okay, maybe not immortal, but something really durable and can reconstitute fast. He could be the best creation of the Watchers yet.

[ragnarok]

I, for one, feel Liberty's Crusade was exactly what an extended universe novel should be. It managed to clarify what the Confederate did and knew about the Zerg, with only minor inconsistencies. Liberty himself manages to play a role in these events without stealing the show.
Heaven's Devil was also a good story. I read it a month after playing WoL and started with a strong prejudice against it, but in the end I would have liked it even if it hadn't been Starcraft. It was more believable than most Blizzard novels, and I feel it dramatically improved Tychus as a character.
These two novels definitely made the lore better.

I liked Devil's Due. It showed Tychus had a better moral code than what people thought. It's not just about the booze and money.

[Nissa]

I, for one, feel Liberty's Crusade was exactly what an extended universe novel should be. It managed to clarify what the Confederate did and knew about the Zerg, with only minor inconsistencies. Liberty himself manages to play a role in these events without stealing the show.
Heaven's Devil was also a good story. I read it a month after playing WoL and started with a strong prejudice against it, but in the end I would have liked it even if it hadn't been Starcraft. It was more believable than most Blizzard novels, and I feel it dramatically improved Tychus as a character.
These two novels definitely made the lore better.

...Please excuse me while I judge you.

Um, whatever benefit may have come from Heaven's Devils is completely spoiled by the fact that it's horribly written. The narrative is terrible, and William Dietz is all the time trying to come up with overly elaborate metaphors, like "he fell into a black hole" when someone passes out. That, and it shows Raynor suddenly joining the military just because some guy in a mech told him to. How lazy is that?

I stand by my statement that Liberty's Crusade is bad. A lot of people seemed to disagree, but besides being boring, none of the characters felt like themselves, and the writer crammed his OC into canon dialogues. That's a sign of fanfiction right there if there ever was one.


And G-Reff, I dunno. It could use some more detail.

[ragnarok]

...Please excuse me while I judge you.

Um, whatever benefit may have come from Heaven's Devils is completely spoiled by the fact that it's horribly written. The narrative is terrible, and William Dietz is all the time trying to come up with overly elaborate metaphors, like "he fell into a black hole" when someone passes out. That, and it shows Raynor suddenly joining the military just because some guy in a mech told him to. How lazy is that?

Back then for joining, Raynor was too young to know any better.

[Nissa]

Back then for joining, Raynor was too young to know any better.

I'm sure, but that's not what Dietz wrote. He didn't write much at all. He just wrote that Raynor met a goliath pilot and then joined up. There's no descriptor of emotion, debating, or stating that he just didn't know any better. It just happened.