What we would have done instead

[Turalyon]

Well, since we don't know what the Overmind intended for her, it's possible that she does have the ability to control the Zerg.

All we do know is that the Overmind intended her to be a weapon that could help the Zerg fight the Protoss on their terms, so controlling Zerg would be part of that. However, making the leap that she can replace the Overmind and was made specifically for that purpose (and be better at it as Sc2 wants us to believe) goes a bit too far in inflating her importance/ making her too omnipotent. The idea with the Overmind was that it was supposed to act and feel like an omnipotent god but essentially revealed to be anything but since it's ultimate defeat can be attributed to hubris and underestimation of the Protoss. Having it's slave be somehow better or "so special" in actuality kind of goes against that idea. I essentially wanted her to experience a kind of weakness (though not the same) that all Zerg experienced having lost the thing that linked them altogether and gave them their real strength since it'd be disengenuous not to.

I don't know...everything Kerrigan has done in BW is based on her emotional needs, and she was dissuaded when Raynor called her out after she killed Fenix. Kerri is the sort of person who pretends she's alright when she's not. While certainly Kerrigan may end up being a hypocrite in certain ways, her emotional core isn't going to disappear, and infesting ghosts is too literal a reference to her own past. She wouldn't do it.

How has what I explained not based on her own emotional needs? You have to remember that she is a very damaged individual and doesn't think like the well-adjusted person that you and I are. Sympathy and empathy for others is secondary to making themselves feel better functionally. For these people, doing something that they themselves experienced is not the same as doing that same thing to someone else largely because of the fact that it's not themselves that are experiencing it anymore. For example, a slave would relish the opportunity to be an overseer of other slaves since they wouldn't have to be a slave anymore. If granted such a position, anything that threatens that position in future such that it would render them back to being a slave again would not be tolerated. They would rather walk over and/or break the backs of the slaves under them (even though they were once a slave) in order to stay in that overseer position.

Besides, she's the one in control (or so she thinks). She can try to make the process less "hellish" and rationalise that it would be better for them in the end since she "liked" what she was in the end. Any of these would labelled as self-justification and mental evasions to a 3rd party observer, but to her it'd make sense. That her victims are Ghosts are irrelevant since if she did have any sense of inherent empathy at all, she wouldn't be infesting anyone let alone killing people on a whim as she does in BW. Also, one shouldn't need a morality pet or someone to call her out to think or act the corect way anway since she should already know better. That she isn't really remoseful anyway despite being called out and continues on killing and infesting says a lot about how selfish she is. Being socially isolated as she is by the time we see her in this expansion, wouldn't have helped either.

However, if she offers the "opportunity" to the spectres, let's say, then many of them might directly choose the Zerg.

This would be harder to sell. No-one sane would ever consider giving themselves up to the Swarm as being an opportunity.

While I don't mind that the perspective is primarily on Aiur 'Toss (flows well with the Zerg campaign), there needs to be some indication of what the Shakuras 'Toss are doing and what their issues are. While they would want to build up Shakuras, they aren't emotionless automatons. One of the most insulting things about the Dark Templar Saga was that it had Artanis never try to rescue the people left behind on Aiur.

It was due to convenience more than anything else. I'd considered running a parallel story that swip-swapped but then I thought one of the stories might be short-changing the other and it would dilute the effect. I couldn't think of a Shakuras story that didn't tread over old ground and wanted to give those particular Protoss a breather because they really needed it considering the battering they took in Sc1 and BW.

I had considered another civil war type scenario with the Nerazim people being resentful of Artanis and Zeratul for bringing their war onto the Nerazim's homeworld at great cost, losing their matriarch and losing yet more resources on the attack at Char Aleph (Omega in BW). Those people had left Aiur a long ago and made a home on Shakuras and would rightly want to get their own shit in order before even considering going to check on Aiur. Aratnis would've been the one who'd want to go back to Aiur and/or to continue doing his civic duty under the Dae'Uhl (something the Nerazim would not care for) and he'd be delayed because no-one would help him, especially given his failed attack I mentioned. That's why we only see those Protoss forces so late on in the Terran campaign.

My basic point here is that the Combine can't act as a "whole" based on its system of government. If one or two guilds has influence on Mengsk, it would make for interesting conflicts when lesser guilds don't have the same pull.

I know. I said "yeah, why not?" in agreement with what you said. It'd give something for Mengsk to work at when he tries to turn the tables on the KM later on in the sequel.

Yeah, that's my problem. While Mengsk having to play pretty politics with KM is fine, I don't want to see Mengsk become some puppet to the Combine, or anyone else. Mengsk naturally resists people controlling him, and he generally finds ways to get use out of situations where he's at the disadvantage. I want a sinister Mengsk who is doing insane things, not simply owing an army to the Combine.

I wanted the impression to be somewhat ambiguous. Mengsk could really be under their thumb but he could also be working toward a long-con, too. I wanted to give a sense that Mengsk may have learnt to be subservient and patient from his previous dealings with Kerrigan (in Rebel Yell and in BW) and didn't want to have everything always go in Mengsk's favour too quickly and all the time. A subdued Mengsk would be something different and make him a little more complex otherwise it's just more of the same.

When one political entity deals with another, it's because they get benefits from it. If the Combine really wanted Mengsk out of the way, they would simply allow his Dominion to decay, and possibly set up some embargoes. They would not negotiate with him or loan him money. Because you had Mengsk getting money from them, obviously the Combine gets some sort of benefit from the Dominion, whether it be goods, protection from the Zerg (the Dominion has taken the brunt of the Zerg thus far), or the potential for economic profit. If the Combine negotiated to get benefits from the Dominion, they are not going to sell out their chance to gain from those negotiations.

The benefit that the KM get from the Dominion and Mengsk is solely superficial. They intend for them to be the "face" and the eventual target for any bad shit that comes their way but reap all the benefits/profit in the background and grow stronger. They don't really want Mengsk out of the way because he is better off serving them. Doesn't mean they have to make it easy for him or that they have other interests that he could be used for (the Umojans).

Mengsk has proven to be inept in BW and is actually the weaker of the two, which is why the current situation in this expansion has been brought about. Mengsk only demeaned himself to serve the KM and be this "face" because he thinks he can overthrow them later. Everyone thinks that they're playing each other - which is very Terran like if I say so myself.

We have not seen Mengsk really and truly in power. Mengsk is just a rebel until the end of the first Terran missions, he got dominated by the UED, and then was under the thumb of Kerrigan. Let us not mention SC2. What we have not seen is a powerful emperor negotiating with outsiders, dealing with threats, and planning attacks. I want delicious dialogue, dang it! Mengsk is not the sort of person who would allow himself to serve under another, anyway. He'll negotiate, but he'll get himself into a position of power before long, and would never genuinely take orders from an outside body.

There's two ways I can interpret this. First, we have seen Mengsk truly in power and he just plain sucks at it based on what we see in BW so it justifies that he's damp rag in this one. Second, is that Mengsk hasn't had the real opportunity to show he can use that power effectively anyway and has to be taught the long way to earn it (he just swooped in after the fall of Confederacy afterall) which he seems to be doing in this one. A good leader must know how to follow, so I thought the irony of him being forced to follow would be a good thing for him in the end.

Oh no, Mengsk cannot operate under the KMC's whims, precisely for this reason. Kerrigan is his ultimate enemy. Extending their relationship through artificial means, especially when the Terran missions are going to consist of the ending of this expansion, is a weak way to go.

What makes it artificial? Without the KMC help, Mengsk would've been dead in the water and wouldn't realistically be a "player" in any sort of continuation after what he experienced in BW. Having him be under the KMC is a way to make his losses in BW mean something other than have the stuff he experienced wiped away as if it was nothing but a tap on the shoulder as Sc2 confirms it was. The thing I did to Kerrigan is more overtly gimmicky and artificial, but without that to curb her overpoweredness in BW, any future conflict would be expected to be one-sided in favour of the Zerg.

Point is the relationship isn't supposed to look like it's being extended artificially because each of them have to contend with real problems that have been established prior to the start and during the expansion such that when they do come into conflict, the conceit is that they really can't go at it right there and then because of actual reasons. Sure, they'll always be each other's arch-enemies but it doesn't mean everything has to bend toward that conflict since it kinda narrows the world a bit too much.

This is the final set of missions to complete a trilogy, which means something big has to happen. Watching Mengsk suffer under some other government, and then nothing really happening with the person he wants ultimate revenge on is anticlimactic. Kerrigan and Mengsk's conflict ultimately is what needs to spark the ending of the campaign.

I hear where you're coming from. I was kind of going for the slow-burn since we already got the (rather predictable) outcome of such a conflict in Sc2: Mengsk is curb-stomped. I wanted to build Mengsk up slowly (even though its under the KMC) such that things like scavenging Protoss tech and enlisting Duran would allow the Terrans to realistically tackle the Zerg (given how weak the Terrans are generally represented as) in future. When the confrontation does take place, Mengsk and the Terran lot is nowhere near ready to tackle the Zerg or so he thinks. He has no idea that Kerrigan has weakened since their last meeting and that now is probably the best time to attack if at all. He's still afraid of the curbstomping that he thinks Kerrigan and the Zerg are capable of, such as the one he received in Omega and that was back when he thought he had the advantage!

It's only anticlimactic if you expect things to be wrapped up in a neat package. That or you're impatient . Besides, I stipulated no "big bad" at the beginning and wasn't going to make one out of either anyway. Having it end with Mengsk coming out on top (which he kinda has to since it's the Terran campaign) makes it predictable and somewhat cheaply earned.

I'd find it unbelievable that the Terrans would be able to make such a status-quo changing win given their current position and so quickly (this was part of the issue of BW shifting the status quo so heavily toward total Zerg dominance - we only expect such huge shifts in status quo when we are encountering the end. This is part of the reason why I was fine with BW being the end if nothing else eventuated) since this would make the weakness I gave Kerrigan stick-out more as gimmick to allow the Terrans/Mengsk to win. The idea was to bring a sense of equilibrium across the 3 factions such that when a sequel comes off that, it'd be hard to tell who'd be the ultimate victor in what follows after. If I tilted it toward either Mengsk or Kerrigan winning now in this expansion, I'd sorta be mucking that up.

Besides, we've already had Kerrigan steal his ghosts and secure the Khaydarin crystals. Mengsk is going to need to take a stand against Kerrigan whether he wants to or not. This is also a good place for Protoss/Terran negotiations, because the Protoss know what the Khaydarin crystals really mean.

All in good time. Just because Kerrigan has snagged some of the ingredients for her experiments - I can't just have magically fix her problem that quickly with a snap of her fingers. This would make the problem I initially gave her (to curb the overall OP nature of the Zerg) stand out as a worthless gimmick. I need it to have consequence. Mengsk will have a reckoning with her eventually but now is not the time (he's playing the "long game" this time) - he has other more immediate and real problems to contend with than petty vengeance and he's pragmatically aware that the Terrans are not really quite capable of facing the Zerg on their lonesome just yet since he already underestimated her in Omega and paid for it with the situation he's currently stuck in now.

Trouble is, Raynor is basically the main character of the series. It's hard to tell because of SC1's format, but when you think about it, you realize that Raynor was present in every single set of missions. Raynor is the more or less normal guy, without lofty ambitions or massively important obligations. While his story would ultimately hinge on the greater events of the Sector, he needs to be there, doing stuff.

I somewhat disagree. I kind of found Raynor more as an audience member surrogate than anything else. He's just one man and really isn't an in-universe power player in any realistically way. He's just a tag-along for the Protoss after Rebel Yell, such that one can cut his presence and the story would still move forward without him. Afterall, that Blizz ignored what happened to him at the end of True Colours of BW kinda goes on to prove my point that whilst being a main character, he doesn't really drive any of the plot. Since we know the universe by this point, I don't really need him there to guide us through it.

Also, by adding him to the Kerrigan/Mengsk conflict, we can spice up the ending missions. One of my favorite things to do as a fanfiction writer is to create dialogue between these three characters, because they all hate each other to varying degrees, and for various reasons can't take each other out.

Could work but having Raynor just pop up near the end would seem kinda gimmicky, too. It is a very interesting idea though, especially if Raynor decided to side with Mengsk in such a conflict! o.0

While I'd like to see Mengsk negotiate with the UP and make some inspiring speech that will get them to pay more attention to Zerg matters, the UP isn't well established enough to have this kind of conflict. Because this is a trilogy with SC and BW, we have to work with those games as the backstory for our plot. Thus, we have to establish Umoja now, because they were never truly established as an entity in the previous games. There's thus a limit to how much we can use them.

The idea is that the Umojans are more or less neutral until the pot was stirred by the KM. The Umojans were attacked by Mengsk, so they have reason to incite a conflict with their tormentors (the Dominion/Mengsk) and their would-be saviours (the Protoss). I agree that the UP are still somewhat underserved but I think that this would be a nice "character-establishing moment" for the UP.

Hey, I just had an idea! The point of the Terran campaign is for Mengsk, instead of using his own men so much on the Zerg, to figure out ways to get the Combine and Umoja on his side to bring Kerrigan down. So he'd be using them instead.

I'm all ears. How would this work given Mengsk's situation at the end of BW? He's potentially on the backfoot and working from a disadvantage coming from a wrecked homeworld, a wrecked fleet and most of his loyal supporters executed by the UED. I wouldn't expect the KMC and the UP combined could stand up to Kerrigan/Zerg and be expected to win, if they alone couldn't stand up to the Dominion or the Confederacy before.

Uh, if the 'Toss were amicable with Mengsk, they'd surely ask Mengsk what the deal is with an attack if the UP pretended to be the Dominion in an attack. That, and 'Toss read minds. I'm not willing to believe there isn't even a single UP soldier wouldn't have a mind weak enough to stand up to Protoss interrogation techniques. Such a deception would not work. That, and getting the 'Toss to hate Mengsk more won't necessarily make them trust the UP better. The Protoss might just go, "meh, humans are dumb" and avoid further interaction with any.

I only meant them being "amicable" to each other in the beginning as a form of etiquette than anything else. Doesn't mean the Protoss still harbor distrust of what these humans are doing on their worlds in force and that they've seemingly killed their own kind for some ungodly reason. As to mind-reading, I'm not sure if Protoss have unlimited "range" or some limitation on this ability since then the Protoss should never be able to be surprised by anyone at any time, let alone have reason to communicate at all... Also, I was assuming they'd be communicating via their ships rather than face-to-face contact. All the Protoss know is that they've received open hostillity by Terrans whilst in the midst of negotiation.

Elucidate what you mean by "tech." I don't think I'm getting your point there.

Protoss tech. Stuff that the Umojans were on the planet hoping to prospect for.

Also, as I mentioned, Kerrigan's secured Khaydarin crystals, and depending on how much Raynor has blabbed about his past, the Protoss possibly know how much Mengsk hates her. Besides, the 'Toss have worked with Mengsk before, so alliance is more likely than not.

It's hard to presume what the Protoss should and shouldn't know at any given time, let alone presume the audience knows that about the Protoss, too. And what do you mean, worked with Mengsk before? He's the one that was responsible for aggressively fighting them off at New Gettysburg.

Hm...talk a little more about Duran and the climax of what he intends. What's the penultimate moment of the Terran missions?

The climax is not the actual fight and the cathartic release you get from it but the ending after the mission is completed. Duran plans to change the universe with the Hybrids as we know, but he's doing so by coming out of the secrecy of the Umojans by openly helping Mengsk and the Terrans at large.

Besides, just because it's hard doesn't mean it doesn't have to be done. Raynor, as I said, is an important character. Zeratul, likewise, is the one remaining Protoss who was in SC. Ignoring him would be a mistake, particularly since we pretty much know he was investigating the hybrids since BW. I think it would be funny if Artanis were negotiating with Mengsk, but Zeratul, who was closer to Raynor and knows more about Senior Arcturus, is horrified at the idea. Actually, I'd like to see Zeratul and Mengsk interact. Particularly if Zeratul calls him out on having created Infested Kerrigan.

As I said, there was nothing for Raynor to do realistically and his importance is more of a narrative/plot mechanics/authorial nature than anything else. The big Z is off doing his own secret things/investigations, hence his lack of an appearance. Since I also didn't want to get into Hybrid stuff specifically (as mentioned as part of the initial brief), Z wouldn't fit into it because of that, too.

[Nissa]

All we do know is that the Overmind intended her to be a weapon that could help the Zerg fight the Protoss on their terms, so controlling Zerg would be part of that. However, making the leap that she can replace the Overmind and was made specifically for that purpose (and be better at it as Sc2 wants us to believe) goes a bit too far in inflating her importance/ making her too omnipotent. The idea with the Overmind was that it was supposed to act and feel like an omnipotent god but essentially revealed to be anything but since it's ultimate defeat can be attributed to hubris and underestimation of the Protoss. Having it's slave be somehow better or "so special" in actuality kind of goes against that idea. I essentially wanted her to experience a kind of weakness (though not the same) that all Zerg experienced having lost the thing that linked them altogether and gave them their real strength since it'd be disengenuous not to.

Eh, I was only saying it was possible, not that it was the most likely option. Your ideas for her are fine.

How has what I explained not based on her own emotional needs? You have to remember that she is a very damaged individual and doesn't think like the well-adjusted person that you and I are. Sympathy and empathy for others is secondary to making themselves feel better functionally. For these people, doing something that they themselves experienced is not the same as doing that same thing to someone else largely because of the fact that it's not themselves that are experiencing it anymore. For example, a slave would relish the opportunity to be an overseer of other slaves since they wouldn't have to be a slave anymore. If granted such a position, anything that threatens that position in future such that it would render them back to being a slave again would not be tolerated. They would rather walk over and/or break the backs of the slaves under them (even though they were once a slave) in order to stay in that overseer position.

Besides, she's the one in control (or so she thinks). She can try to make the process less "hellish" and rationalise that it would be better for them in the end since she "liked" what she was in the end. Any of these would labelled as self-justification and mental evasions to a 3rd party observer, but to her it'd make sense. That her victims are Ghosts are irrelevant since if she did have any sense of inherent empathy at all, she wouldn't be infesting anyone let alone killing people on a whim as she does in BW. Also, one shouldn't need a morality pet or someone to call her out to think or act the corect way anway since she should already know better. That she isn't really remoseful anyway despite being called out and continues on killing and infesting says a lot about how selfish she is. Being socially isolated as she is by the time we see her in this expansion, wouldn't have helped either.

The difference between Kerrigan and the archetype of the slave you presented is that Kerrigan (remember, remove SC2 from your mind when you consider this) is generally somewhat rational. While her motives are completely based in emotion, her methods are always based in the most rational means of obtaining her emotional goals. In other words, Kerrigan is going to notice that kidnapping ghosts is too on the nose for someone with her own past. She's too rational. Just because some people are directly guilty of the things they've accused others of doesn't mean Kerrigan will go to that extent.

This would be harder to sell. No-one sane would ever consider giving themselves up to the Swarm as being an opportunity.

I disagree. Starcraft is full of desperate, lonely humans, and those who have suffered long at the hands of the ghost project developers may be willing to accept the Zerg if they believe it means better lives for themselves. Come on, man, this is a realm where humans only have tyrannies for governments, they shoot up drugs while fighting, and they are under constant threat of death from vicious aliens. Despair and the ability to choose one's fate are extremely important. I can see a ghost becoming a Zerg if Kerrigan promises them that their family will be saved, or that they can get revenge, or if they can become someone so powerful that no one will ever have the chance to hurt them again.

However, if you can come up with an option that is better than both, I'm all ears.

Basically, my question for you is this: How does Kerrigan justify to herself that she has the right to steal ghosts and force them to serve her? Raynor has already called her out on how horrible of a person she's become as a Zerg. She's already had the chance to realize how circular her story has become. Given her rationality, she's not going to be able to deny that she's become the sort of person that Mengsk has always been.

It was due to convenience more than anything else. I'd considered running a parallel story that swip-swapped but then I thought one of the stories might be short-changing the other and it would dilute the effect. I couldn't think of a Shakuras story that didn't tread over old ground and wanted to give those particular Protoss a breather because they really needed it considering the battering they took in Sc1 and BW.

I had considered another civil war type scenario with the Nerazim people being resentful of Artanis and Zeratul for bringing their war onto the Nerazim's homeworld at great cost, losing their matriarch and losing yet more resources on the attack at Char Aleph (Omega in BW). Those people had left Aiur a long ago and made a home on Shakuras and would rightly want to get their own shit in order before even considering going to check on Aiur. Aratnis would've been the one who'd want to go back to Aiur and/or to continue doing his civic duty under the Dae'Uhl (something the Nerazim would not care for) and he'd be delayed because no-one would help him, especially given his failed attack I mentioned. That's why we only see those Protoss forces so late on in the Terran campaign.

Ugh, no, I don't want a civil war plot. That's way too obvious. Good dodge. But also, I don't think you've quite got what I meant. Even if Artanis never sent back any large scale reinforcements or conquerors to Aiur, there's still going to be small scale attempts to rescue, aid, or join the remainder on Aiur. The people on Aiur are beloved family members and friends, and I refuse to believe that there isn't one single Protoss on Shakuras who wants to go back and help them. It's not a matter of armadas, but a matter of people departing from the main body of Protoss to go do what they feel they need to do. Like South Koreans wanting to be reunited with families trapped in the North, just because the separation exists and the government doesn't appear to do much doesn't mean that people won't try to reunite with those they love.

My basic idea was just that a few ships get sent over from Shakuras with supplies and the ability to rescue anyone who wishes to leave Aiur -- not every single person left behind would have been a soldier, of course. Then a few people who feel that they have no life on Shakuras, or lost everyone they loved to the Zerg, or those who just want to be helpful to survivors would pilot a few ships and see what they could do. They would bring some news of Shakuras with them, of course, and that would be the sum total of what we learn about Shakuras in these missions.

Come on, now. People groups aren't large entities that all choose the same thing. They're a collection of individuals capable of making as many different choices.

I wanted the impression to be somewhat ambiguous. Mengsk could really be under their thumb but he could also be working toward a long-con, too. I wanted to give a sense that Mengsk may have learnt to be subservient and patient from his previous dealings with Kerrigan (in Rebel Yell and in BW) and didn't want to have everything always go in Mengsk's favour too quickly and all the time. A subdued Mengsk would be something different and make him a little more complex otherwise it's just more of the same.

I am fine with him owing them a lot of money. I am not fine with him being, to any degree, "under their thumb." That, and subdued is the entirely wrong direction to go with his character. Mengsk isn't the sort of person to be humbled by his bad choices, he's the sort of person who will appear humbled but really be mad as hell. That, and I don't know what you mean by "more of the same." We only get to see Mengsk in true, mad order when (1) Raynor leaves him at the end of the first Terran missions, and (2) when Mengsk is drooling over Korhal when Kerrigan is helping him get it back. This is the Mengsk we need to see. The player needs to be right by his side when he makes crazy choices, anticipating whatever crazy choices Mengsk makes next.

The only real "more of the same" would be seeing Mengsk's activities from an outside perspective, as we did in both sets of Terran missions and in his manipulation by Kerrigan. I love Mengsk the way he is, and by subduing him, we only water down his magnificent character. If I were to write Mengsk in any sort of situation, writing his "I'm pretending I'm nice" side and then his "I am going to crush everyone" side when the other party disappears would be the most appealing part.

The benefit that the KM get from the Dominion and Mengsk is solely superficial. They intend for them to be the "face" and the eventual target for any bad shit that comes their way but reap all the benefits/profit in the background and grow stronger. They don't really want Mengsk out of the way because he is better off serving them. Doesn't mean they have to make it easy for him or that they have other interests that he could be used for (the Umojans).

Mengsk has proven to be inept in BW and is actually the weaker of the two, which is why the current situation in this expansion has been brought about. Mengsk only demeaned himself to serve the KM and be this "face" because he thinks he can overthrow them later. Everyone thinks that they're playing each other - which is very Terran like if I say so myself.

But that's the thing. Mengsk being a face is not superficial. There's no point in inciting the Umojans against him, not unless the Umojans already had it out for the Combine and the Combine had to distract them. Mengsk as a meatshield is wasted if he is used against an enemy that isn't threatening the Combine at this present time. They should leave Mengsk alone to let him distract the Zerg, not get into some convoluted silliness with the Umojans. Otherwise it's just a waste of negotiations.

That, and Moria is a desert world, so they have to use the stuff they mine to pay for what they need. I imagine that Korhal is a prime producer of luxury goods which they use to trade with Morians and such. There's more to alliances than simple battle connections.

There's two ways I can interpret this. First, we have seen Mengsk truly in power and he just plain sucks at it based on what we see in BW so it justifies that he's damp rag in this one. Second, is that Mengsk hasn't had the real opportunity to show he can use that power effectively anyway and has to be taught the long way to earn it (he just swooped in after the fall of Confederacy afterall) which he seems to be doing in this one. A good leader must know how to follow, so I thought the irony of him being forced to follow would be a good thing for him in the end.

What, you think Mengsk will ever be a good leader? And no, we did not see him in power during BW. We saw him briefly in the Terran missions, and then later puttering around with Kerrigan. We did not get to follow along with him and see his choices at any point while he was a leader.

A better option would be to let this mission set represent Mengsk's last ditch effort to create a real empire, and we get to see his desperate acts as he tries to hold it all together.

What makes it artificial? Without the KMC help, Mengsk would've been dead in the water and wouldn't realistically be a "player" in any sort of continuation after what he experienced in BW. Having him be under the KMC is a way to make his losses in BW mean something other than have the stuff he experienced wiped away as if it was nothing but a tap on the shoulder as Sc2 confirms it was. The thing I did to Kerrigan is more overtly gimmicky and artificial, but without that to curb her overpoweredness in BW, any future conflict would be expected to be one-sided in favour of the Zerg.

That's what I meant -- the Kerrigan side of things was artificial, not the KMC side. Like I said, there's a difference between economic dependence and true subservience. I don't mind Mengsk having to pay more respect to the KMC and Umojans, but it would be like, oh, France and Spain today. Neither is particularly more powerful than the other, and trade between the two is more valuable than fighting. Thus, Mengsk has to accept the fact that he's more level with the KMC instead of more powerful, and he needs them to make Korhal an economic powerhouse again.

As for what I meant by the Kerrigan thing being artificial, it would be silly of them to come to an understanding. Any ending or delay in the climax of their ultimate fates should be a raw, bleeding gap leaving everything unresolved. There should be no "understanding", implied or otherwise.

I also disagree with your statement that Kerrigan was overpowered in BW. Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. the Zerg in BW were not all Kerrigan's.
2. Kerrigan was forced to use the Protoss and their crystals/temple in order to destroy the cerebrates on Shakuras. Her presence there may indeed have been a way to ensure that more Zerg than the cerebrates had planned to send.
3. The UED doesn't directly fight Kerrigan in the Terran missions, unless you want to count the Zerg on the Aiur mission (which are never confirmed to be Kerrigan's specifically)
4. Kerrigan used Duran to get what she wanted from the UED.
5. Kerrigan had to use psi emitters to get her broods under control
6. Kerrigan used Raynor, Fenix, and Mengsk to defeat the UED, and she had to send them on a supply run before she could even do that.

In fact, Kerrigan's rest after the battle of the three fleets is a probable indication that she didn't have the reach to do much more after surviving that battle.

I hear where you're coming from. I was kind of going for the slow-burn since we already got the (rather predictable) outcome of such a conflict in Sc2: Mengsk is curb-stomped. I wanted to build Mengsk up slowly (even though its under the KMC) such that things like scavenging Protoss tech and enlisting Duran would allow the Terrans to realistically tackle the Zerg (given how weak the Terrans are generally represented as) in future. When the confrontation does take place, Mengsk and the Terran lot is nowhere near ready to tackle the Zerg or so he thinks. He has no idea that Kerrigan has weakened since their last meeting and that now is probably the best time to attack if at all. He's still afraid of the curbstomping that he thinks Kerrigan and the Zerg are capable of, such as the one he received in Omega and that was back when he thought he had the advantage!

It's only anticlimactic if you expect things to be wrapped up in a neat package. That or you're impatient . Besides, I stipulated no "big bad" at the beginning and wasn't going to make one out of either anyway. Having it end with Mengsk coming out on top (which he kinda has to since it's the Terran campaign) makes it predictable and somewhat cheaply earned.

It doesn't necessarily need to end with Mengsk on top. I'd be fine if he died, provided he died in a cool way.

I'd find it unbelievable that the Terrans would be able to make such a status-quo changing win given their current position and so quickly (this was part of the issue of BW shifting the status quo so heavily toward total Zerg dominance - we only expect such huge shifts in status quo when we are encountering the end. This is part of the reason why I was fine with BW being the end if nothing else eventuated) since this would make the weakness I gave Kerrigan stick-out more as gimmick to allow the Terrans/Mengsk to win. The idea was to bring a sense of equilibrium across the 3 factions such that when a sequel comes off that, it'd be hard to tell who'd be the ultimate victor in what follows after. If I tilted it toward either Mengsk or Kerrigan winning now in this expansion, I'd sorta be mucking that up.

It depends on how they win and who they win against. Kerrigan doesn't necessarily have to be the climax, she should just be a part of it. My idea was that the hybrids come in and start doing things that require attention, or that somehow Terrans settle things in the universe, whether Dominion, Umojan, KMC, or with the help of the Protoss.

Huh...it's a thought, but maybe we should consider a perspective other than Mengsk's for the Terran missions. Mengsk is the obvious choice, but if we went the way of the KMC, we could tell a new angle and introduce the KMC as a real entity at the same time.

All in good time. Just because Kerrigan has snagged some of the ingredients for her experiments - I can't just have magically fix her problem that quickly with a snap of her fingers. This would make the problem I initially gave her (to curb the overall OP nature of the Zerg) stand out as a worthless gimmick. I need it to have consequence. Mengsk will have a reckoning with her eventually but now is not the time (he's playing the "long game" this time) - he has other more immediate and real problems to contend with than petty vengeance and he's pragmatically aware that the Terrans are not really quite capable of facing the Zerg on their lonesome just yet since he already underestimated her in Omega and paid for it with the situation he's currently stuck in now.

"Long game" isn't the point. It's not even really possible. Mengsk has no way of knowing that Kerrigan is gathering ingredients for her experiments. All he knows is that she's attacking his ghost facilities, and that she's got something up her sleeve. He'll only know about the Khaydarins if the Protoss feel like telling him. Going long term while one's enemy is up to no good is a good way to get killed, and a good way to allow them to have the advantage. Mengsk would be forced to take measures to either find out what she's up to, or stop her from getting important resources.

I somewhat disagree. I kind of found Raynor more as an audience member surrogate than anything else. He's just one man and really isn't an in-universe power player in any realistically way. He's just a tag-along for the Protoss after Rebel Yell, such that one can cut his presence and the story would still move forward without him. Afterall, that Blizz ignored what happened to him at the end of True Colours of BW kinda goes on to prove my point that whilst being a main character, he doesn't really drive any of the plot. Since we know the universe by this point, I don't really need him there to guide us through it.

That's the fault of natural storytelling. BW, as the darkest part of our imaginary trilogy, needed to focus the most on Kerrigan and those that got in her way. To her, Raynor was a resource, and just another victim of hers. Raynor did exactly what he needed to plotwise, and was by no means a guide in BW. In SC he tagged along because he had no home, no hope, and nothing better to do. It's a great story because even though we don't get to directly see it play out (Starcraft's story being told primarily through missions and mission briefings, after all) Raynor is being lifted out of ordinary K-Sector human experience and rising into events of the universe that are larger than he understands. SC was setup for who he is, BW was setup for Kerrigan and the darker elements coming into play, and this would be the part where Raynor must start making choices.

Though I do sympathize if it's the WoL-style Raynor worship that's making you reluctant. That was way too much, right there. Basically I just want Starcraft to be a character fruit salad again, where while there's technically a main character, the story belongs to everyone rather than just one or two people.

Could work but having Raynor just pop up near the end would seem kinda gimmicky, too. It is a very interesting idea though, especially if Raynor decided to side with Mengsk in such a conflict! o.0

Hm, I'd probably mix Raynor into various events. Zeratul was more of a "pop up at the end" sort of character, in my mind.

The idea is that the Umojans are more or less neutral until the pot was stirred by the KM. The Umojans were attacked by Mengsk, so they have reason to incite a conflict with their tormentors (the Dominion/Mengsk) and their would-be saviours (the Protoss). I agree that the UP are still somewhat underserved but I think that this would be a nice "character-establishing moment" for the UP.

I'm just underwhelmed with the UP. No offense, but this whole convoluted Umojan thing isn't interesting enough. It's just political playtime. The Umojans would be better introduced if they weren't bad guys for complex and out of nowhere reasons. Your idea would work better if the Umojans were already introduced. We don't know what their deal is, and they lack the major gimmick of the KMC's guild system and mining ambitions. And I don't want the climax of a trilogy to be political nonsense that has nothing to do with the major events of the universe.

I'm all ears. How would this work given Mengsk's situation at the end of BW? He's potentially on the backfoot and working from a disadvantage coming from a wrecked homeworld, a wrecked fleet and most of his loyal supporters executed by the UED. I wouldn't expect the KMC and the UP combined could stand up to Kerrigan/Zerg and be expected to win, if they alone couldn't stand up to the Dominion or the Confederacy before.

That's exactly why the three need to work together. Mengsk, as the faux beloved emperor, is the best voice of the three to inspire and encourage them to work together. KMC has resources, Mengsk has tech, and Umoja has...something...which together can make a force that can stand up to the Zerg.

Now, while Mengsk is the fiercely anti-Kerrigan one, a leader from one of the other factions can have more of your perspective, thinking they need to play the long term game. Mengsk has to convince them that Kerrigan's actions against the ghost facilities means she's got bad stuff planned, and that they'd better listen to him if they want to not be overrun. At that point, the Protoss start coming into the picture -- either Artanis feels like getting in on the attack, or he's just discussing with Mengsk economic things, or they find Zeratul.

What I want more than anything else is for Mengsk to find out about the hybrids and have a mind blown moment, realizing that he's a piss ant in the realm of magnifying glasses.

I only meant them being "amicable" to each other in the beginning as a form of etiquette than anything else. Doesn't mean the Protoss still harbor distrust of what these humans are doing on their worlds in force and that they've seemingly killed their own kind for some ungodly reason. As to mind-reading, I'm not sure if Protoss have unlimited "range" or some limitation on this ability since then the Protoss should never be able to be surprised by anyone at any time, let alone have reason to communicate at all... Also, I was assuming they'd be communicating via their ships rather than face-to-face contact. All the Protoss know is that they've received open hostillity by Terrans whilst in the midst of negotiation.

If the Protoos been attacked, they can capture prisoners. If they can capture prisoners, they can find out where they come from.

Protoss tech. Stuff that the Umojans were on the planet hoping to prospect for.

So you didn't have anything specific in mind? Hm. I guess it would be interesting if Mengsk is trying to make peace with the Umojans and Protoss, but those two factions are having issues.

It's hard to presume what the Protoss should and shouldn't know at any given time, let alone presume the audience knows that about the Protoss, too. And what do you mean, worked with Mengsk before? He's the one that was responsible for aggressively fighting them off at New Gettysburg.

Keep in mind that Raynor was with the Protoss a long time, and it's not likely he hung out that long with Tassadar/Zeratul/Fenix without talking about Mengsk, Duke, and Kerrigan. The Protoss know at least a little something on the matter. Also, Artanis worked with Mengsk in the battle of the three fleets. Y'know, last mission of BW.

The climax is not the actual fight and the cathartic release you get from it but the ending after the mission is completed. Duran plans to change the universe with the Hybrids as we know, but he's doing so by coming out of the secrecy of the Umojans by openly helping Mengsk and the Terrans at large.

Oooooooh, now I get it. You're having Duran associate with the Umojans. Now things make more sense. Define, "the mission." You don't mean the last mission, do you?

As I said, there was nothing for Raynor to do realistically and his importance is more of a narrative/plot mechanics/authorial nature than anything else. The big Z is off doing his own secret things/investigations, hence his lack of an appearance. Since I also didn't want to get into Hybrid stuff specifically (as mentioned as part of the initial brief), Z wouldn't fit into it because of that, too.

Nah, Zeratul needs in. He's too aware of the hybrids not to at least warn his people about their general existence, especially if the hybrids take action. There's no way to logically exclude him from the rise of the hybrids unless you sequester him somewhere. Like, the hybrids have locked him up somewhere.

An idea I once had was for him to meet a member of the Xel'Naga. She, calling herself "Cassandra," was one of the primary designers of the Protoss, and she loved them like children. She, however, was blamed for the Protoss' "failure", and thus exiled by means of a temple that teleported her across the universe. She then lived in a city of her own making, calling it a hiding place for Protoss in danger. She slowly lost her sanity over time, but always retained her love for her creations. Zeratul then encountered her temple when looking for more hybrids, and found her. Even though she was mad, Zeratul believed that the city she built genuinely would be a place where his people could escape to safety.

Not that that's a good idea, necessarily. It's just something I came up with as a teen.

That, and you're wrong about Raynor. If his importance was merely mechanical/authorial, then Blizzard would never have made him the focus of WoL. Raynor is a man whose past is tied up with the fate of the K Sector, and he's going to do whatever he feels is morally appropriate in the face of a crumbling sector, even if it kills him. Honestly, I'd like him to have a moment like that, either in this game or another. Like, he's about to sacrifice himself somehow in a really noble way to stop the hybrids, but Kerrigan, shaking her head at his desperate, "heroic" suicide attempt, stops him. Not sure how that would fit in the bigger picture, but the point is that Raynor can't be ignored.

Actually, let me rephrase that. Absent of whatever game it appears in, what do you feel is the most appropriate fate for Raynor?

[Turalyon]

The difference between Kerrigan and the archetype of the slave you presented is that Kerrigan is generally somewhat rational. While her motives are completely based in emotion, her methods are always based in the most rational means of obtaining her emotional goals. In other words, Kerrigan is going to notice that kidnapping ghosts is too on the nose for someone with her own past. She's too rational. Just because some people are directly guilty of the things they've accused others of doesn't mean Kerrigan will go to that extent.

This is highly debatable. What makes the slave (in the example I gave) less rational? Or for that matter, what makes Kerrigan more rational than the slave? How can we say that the slave's motives are/are not based on emotion, too? From on objective perspective, "emotional rationality" is an oxymoron. Sure, emotions do go into all decision making we ever make but for Kerrigan, I can make the case that because she is an unbalanced/traumatised individual, her emotional goals would be mixed up anyway. As I mentioned, her strong emotional need (created due to the trauma she experienced) to maintain power as to avoid feeling vulnerable and risk being dominated again would override compassion for others no matter where they came from.

Starcraft is full of desperate, lonely humans, and those who have suffered long at the hands of the ghost project developers may be willing to accept the Zerg if they believe it means better lives for themselves. Come on, man, this is a realm where humans only have tyrannies for governments, they shoot up drugs while fighting, and they are under constant threat of death from vicious aliens. Despair and the ability to choose one's fate are extremely important. I can see a ghost becoming a Zerg if Kerrigan promises them that their family will be saved, or that they can get revenge, or if they can become someone so powerful that no one will ever have the chance to hurt them again.

Ghosts are mind-wiped and indoctrinated. They wouldn't want to risk becoming Zerg food/playthings (which would honestly be the first thing people will think of if ever offered the proposition to join the Zerg) in exchange. Besides, even a renegade Ghost/Spectre would rather prefer being free-willed and human rather than becoming enslaved to a hive-mind and used as cannon fodder forevermore. Kerrigan can sell it as much as she wants, no-one will buy it unless they are insane. I mean, would you seriously consider that offer and believe it?

Basically, my question for you is this: How does Kerrigan justify to herself that she has the right to steal ghosts and force them to serve her? Raynor has already called her out on how horrible of a person she's become as a Zerg. She's already had the chance to realize how circular her story has become. Given her rationality, she's not going to be able to deny that she's become the sort of person that Mengsk has always been.

I provided Kerrigan's self-justification from the start (to never be a victim ever again). You're free to disagree, but kidnapping Ghosts to fend off the threat of being vulnerable again is a "rational method of obtaining this emotional goal", too. To her, the Ghosts only other options would be eventual death or continued enslavement since Ghosts are nothing more than disposable military assets anyway. It'd be a very simple mental evasion (or delusion) for her to "rationalise" that what she's doing to them instead is a better alternative. She's the one in control, afterall. She can make it (or so she'd like to believe/delude herself) so that they don't have to suffer. Even then, despite being "put through hell" to get there, she likes what she is now.

The "not kidnapping Ghosts because she'd feel bad about it having gone through it herself" would suggest she'd be capable of using her own empathy and compassion for others to guide her actions but it's quite clear that Kerrigan felt neither of these in BW because otherwise she wouldn't have been so continuously cruel thoughout it. Raynor calling her out did nothing to change her thinking nor make her regret her actions nor lessen her cruelty to others. She's selfish, she knows it and doesn't really care what others think.

But also, I don't think you've quite got what I meant. Even if Artanis never sent back any large scale reinforcements or conquerors to Aiur, there's still going to be small scale attempts to rescue, aid, or join the remainder on Aiur. The people on Aiur are beloved family members and friends, and I refuse to believe that there isn't one single Protoss on Shakuras who wants to go back and help them.

It's not so much lack of motivation but lack of capability and assurances (any venture into Aiur is just pure risk with no guarantees). Shakuras is in ruins and they only managed to save it at great cost. They'd be too busy trying to fix things at home before considering going back to the lost cause that is Aiur anytime soon. There is also an inherent risk of allowing more Zerg to come through if they reopen the Warpgate to go back to Aiur - the thing that initially brought Shakuras to ruin.

Besides, the Nerazim have no family members or friends on Aiur because they're exiles. It was not that long ago that they were vilified, hunted and executed by the Protoss on Aiur. This is not even counting the recent animosity that flared up between them when Aldaris led the Aiur survivors against them and that the Zerg only came to Shakuras because of the exodus of Protoss from Aiur. Given all that recent history, I wouldn't expect the Nerazim to go out of their way to help Artanis and I doubt Artanis could do that much good with his own little band which would practically be better off helping to secure/build up Shakuras instead.

My basic idea was just that a few ships get sent over from Shakuras with supplies and the ability to rescue anyone who wishes to leave Aiur -- not every single person left behind would have been a soldier, of course. Then a few people who feel that they have no life on Shakuras, or lost everyone they loved to the Zerg, or those who just want to be helpful to survivors would pilot a few ships and see what they could do. They would bring some news of Shakuras with them, of course, and that would be the sum total of what we learn about Shakuras in these missions.

My campaign doesn't deny this as a possibility. I could've added it in but it's just a mere detail that one can take it or leave it. It's just that it won't make much for a sustained or interesting campaign.

I am not fine with him being, to any degree, "under their thumb." That, and subdued is the entirely wrong direction to go with his character.

Unless you want to advocate that Mengsk and the Dominion suffered no significant damage at all in BW, the reality of the situation he's in is such that in order for him to survive, Mengsk has to make some compromises/concessions to even have his current position because otherwise he'd be in a worse position and I'd have to resort to gimmicks to explain why Mengsk is still even relevant. Mengks is learning to "play possum" when dealing with the KMC, doesn't mean that he doesn't have plans and designs of his own.

That, and I don't know what you mean by "more of the same." We only get to see Mengsk in true, mad order when (1) Raynor leaves him at the end of the first Terran missions, and (2) when Mengsk is drooling over Korhal when Kerrigan is helping him get it back. This is the Mengsk we need to see.

Only a idiot would keep doing the same thing continuously and expect a different result. Mengsk displays ineptitude because he let his impatience and rashness overcome him. He got smarted a few times from such displays and so this is his way of showing that he's learned something. The question is why you would expect "more of the same" crazy choices but with a beneficial outcome this time when all it has led him to is his own ruin? Mengsk doesn't seem to be a man that would rely on the "law of averages".

If I were to write Mengsk in any sort of situation, writing his "I'm pretending I'm nice" side and then his "I am going to crush everyone" side when the other party disappears would be the most appealing part.

Didn't make it clear the first time but this is what's happening inside his head.

There's no point in inciting the Umojans against him, not unless the Umojans already had it out for the Combine and the Combine had to distract them.

All the Terran factions don't really like each other. That's motive enough to stir each others shit up.

Mengsk as a meatshield is wasted if he is used against an enemy that isn't threatening the Combine at this present time. They should leave Mengsk alone to let him distract the Zerg, not get into some convoluted silliness with the Umojans. Otherwise it's just a waste of negotiations.

Mengsk can't attack the Zerg anymore because Kerrigan showed up and he's (secretly) a little scared if she decides to focus her attention on him straight away. Mengsk goes to Protoss territory instead becaues Kerrigan has weakened them for him (which is what he gathers when Kerrigan "informs" him of the lack of Protoss presence lately - the implication being that she's responsible for that) and would be easier pickings. The KM don't want to risk Mengsk amassing too much public browny points by annexing free (former Protoss/abandoned) worlds uncontested when they can try to manipulate the situation by involving the Umojan subtly. The effect being to weaken a potential rival in the Umojans and to have ammunition against Mengsk for causing a political incident by attacking Umojans.

What, you think Mengsk will ever be a good leader? And no, we did not see him in power during BW. We saw him briefly in the Terran missions, and then later puttering around with Kerrigan. We did not get to follow along with him and see his choices at any point while he was a leader.

Going from Sc1 alone, yes, Mengsk could've been made to be a good leader, but then BW happened. Even though we don't see him directly in power, we get a lot of indirect glimpses. One could begin to trace his ineptitude by sending Duke to Char in Sc1. We then see his failed attempts at defending against the UED and his attack in Omega. I can categorically say that by the end of BW, Mengsk is not a good leader. Having him suddenly be a good leader straight off the bat and constantly winning going on from this ending would be hard to believe, hence the slow (re)build-up of his credibility in this one.

A better option would be to let this mission set represent Mengsk's last ditch effort to create a real empire, and we get to see his desperate acts as he tries to hold it all together.

We have the beginnings of one here. In the sequel, Mengsk intends to show the KMC that he's not one to be messed with and that they should have killed him/let his Dominion die at the end of BW instead of trying to use him.

That's what I meant -- the Kerrigan side of things was artificial, not the KMC side.

Can't be helped. BW tilted the status quo so heavily toward the Zerg that the only real ending one should expect from BW is eventual total Zerg victory. Anything less than that (which includes weakening the Zerg, building up the others races in any way, ignoring or retconning to even things out) would be gimmicky and artificial. My decision for Kerrigan is not exempted but is far less egregious than having her conveniently sit there doing nothing for no good reason only for the Zerg to be suddenly weak by a blatant and undisguised plot device.

Thus, Mengsk has to accept the fact that he's more level with the KMC instead of more powerful, and he needs them to make Korhal an economic powerhouse again.

But the issue remains that at the end of BW, Mengsk/the Dominion is not an invincible powerhouse (unless one claim this exact reason to explain Mengsks continued presence) and is therefore not equal to the KMC

As for what I meant by the Kerrigan thing being artificial, it would be silly of them to come to an understanding. Any ending or delay in the climax of their ultimate fates should be a raw, bleeding gap leaving everything unresolved. There should be no "understanding", implied or otherwise.

"Silly" would be them going at it half-cocked and potentially screwing themselves over. Mengsk doesn't know Kerri's Swarm is not working efficiently and effectively before, he's definitely aware that his military acumen alone may not be enough (see Omega) and his forces could abandon him on KMC orders at any time. Kerrigan is unsure how long she can maintain control over the Zerg and potentially taxing her capabilities further by waging war, strained as they are already, would not only make her lose control completely (before she a solution to her dilemma is in efefct) but makes her vulnerable to Mengsk again.

They're not "understanding" each other because they each don't know their current problems holding them back. They want to go at it each other but they each also want to win. Given that each has their own undisclosed and inconvenient problems that would affect possible outright victory over the other, they're not going to go at it just for the sake of it/chance it.

the Zerg in BW were not all Kerrigan's.

That clarification makes it even worse. Kerrigan still came out being top-dog with only a fraction of the Zerg Swarm. Seems overpowered to me.

Kerrigan was forced to use the Protoss and their crystals/temple in order to destroy the cerebrates on Shakuras. Her presence there may indeed have been a way to ensure that more Zerg than the cerebrates had planned to send.

It's debatable she was "forced" to use the Protoss. The Protoss were always going to kill the Zerg that were on Shakuras anyway. She is "overpowered" in regards to her dealings with the Protoss because she is let off scot free for openly admitting nefarious intent and interfering with their matters by murdering a major Protoss individual in front of everyone else.

Kerrigan used Duran to get what she wanted from the UED.

Why Duran is even helping her gain power at all is a mystery especially when she's the one thing that somehow stops Amon from ruling the galaxy. He could have just drained her with the artifact, awoken Amon and set the Hybrids loose then and there.

Kerrigan had to use psi emitters to get her broods under control.

Which Mengsk just gives under the naive assumption that she won't do anything against him. How conveniently in her favour.

Kerrigan used Raynor, Fenix, and Mengsk to defeat the UED, and she had to send them on a supply run before she could even do that.

So what? She was able to trash the UED forces and those of her "allies" with her own forces in the end.

...the battle of the three fleets...

She defeated three fleets that outmatched her (the majority of her forces still being on the planets surface) and still one.

I'd be fine if he died, provided he died in a cool way.

He was a chump in BW and probably deserves to die like one, too.

My idea...

You should make one up using your ideas. That way I can stop justifying my one.

It's not even really possible.

Not until he discovers some Protoss tech he can integrate into his forces and Duran joins him. Turns out that patience was a virtue and discretion being the better part of valour afterall.

Raynor is being lifted out of ordinary K-Sector human experience and rising into events of the universe that are larger than he understands. SC was setup for who he is, BW was setup for Kerrigan and the darker elements coming into play, and this would be the part where Raynor must start making choices.

But what can he realistically do in this greater universe? His force is trashed and he doesn't have the influence or power to get back up. I can understand that Raynor's decision to kill Kerrigan are strong words backed up with conviction, but how far can he realistically go in doing that, let alone doing more than that? It'd make a great personal story to watch him try and fail - but we didn't even get that and if we did, it wouldn't work being told in a campaign game format. Worse still, people don't seem to care how he changed from his mindset in BW to WoL because it'd be boring. I just figured it was too difficult to use him effectively and left him out - people can use their imagination to make up whatever fanciful adventures he had on his lonesome.

It's just political playtime.

Which the Terrans are partly about when dealing with each other.

The Umojans would be better introduced if they weren't bad guys for complex and out of nowhere reasons. Your idea would work better if the Umojans were already introduced. We don't know what their deal is, and they lack the major gimmick of the KMC's guild system and mining ambitions. And I don't want the climax of a trilogy to be political nonsense that has nothing to do with the major events of the universe.

The Umojans are doing there own thing and are largely victims to the game the KM (the only real villains if we consider Mengsk to be a "hero") are playing, so I don't know where you're getting the impression they're bad guys. Besides, the Umojans are not about gimmicks - they're "boring" because they just inherently are.

As to "major event of the universe" thing, it's a major thing happening to the character at hand and that's all I really intended it to be. I also intended this to be a continuation rather than a tie-things up/ conclusive ending of some sort or a "Ohmigod, yet another huge galactic catastrophe to overcome in a never-ending parade of catastrophes"-scenario so yeah, in comparison to such things, it's going to be somewhat muted. Part of this is because I neglected to have a common big-bad - whereas you seem to want either Mengsk or Kerrigan as being one to finish things off. I don't mind that either - would like to see your spin on such a thing.

That's exactly why the three need to work together. Mengsk, as the faux beloved emperor, is the best voice of the three to inspire and encourage them to work together. KMC has resources, Mengsk has tech, and Umoja has...something...which together can make a force that can stand up to the Zerg.

I'm kind of blinded by the inherent Terran weakness to Zerg and Protoss and prodigious infighting that they were initially saddled to see any Terran union as being effective or lasting for any appreicable amount of time. If Mengsk is still the same old Mengsk, I can't buy that he could lead the Terrans to any victory or even consider him being an "inspiration" to others considering his display in BW. The Terrans were united at the end of Sc1 (apparently), but were then shattered by the UED. I can't see how unified Terrans would fare much better against Zerg or Protoss without gimmick.

Now, while Mengsk is the fiercely anti-Kerrigan one, a leader from one of the other factions can have more of your perspective, thinking they need to play the long term game. Mengsk has to convince them that Kerrigan's actions against the ghost facilities means she's got bad stuff planned, and that they'd better listen to him if they want to not be overrun. At that point, the Protoss start coming into the picture -- either Artanis feels like getting in on the attack, or he's just discussing with Mengsk economic things, or they find Zeratul.

What I want more than anything else is for Mengsk to find out about the hybrids and have a mind blown moment, realizing that he's a piss ant in the realm of magnifying glasses.

I like it.

If the Protoos been attacked, they can capture prisoners. If they can capture prisoners, they can find out where they come from.

Why would the Protoss have doubts about where they came from? To them, it just seems to them that the Terrans are trying to attack them by surprise/using underhanded tactics and that they'll have to respond in kind. One does not respond to open acts of hostility by doing nothing in return and go looking for the real culprit on the assumption that there is indeed a culprit to look for.

Also, Artanis worked with Mengsk in the battle of the three fleets. Y'know, last mission of BW.

So it's safe to assume they were talking to each other, coordinating their efforts against Kerrigan and becoming BFFs then? They had a common enemy in that scenario. Here, there are no Zerg or Kerrigan around and the intent of the Terrans is therefore, unknown.

Oooooooh, now I get it. You're having Duran associate with the Umojans. Now things make more sense. Define, "the mission." You don't mean the last mission, do you?

Oh, I thought it was clear that Duran was associated with the Umojans in my initial work-up...

When I said "mission", I just meant the gameplay part/ "the level" and nothing more.

Nah, Zeratul needs in. He's too aware of the hybrids not to at least warn his people about their general existence, especially if the hybrids take action. There's no way to logically exclude him from the rise of the hybrids unless you sequester him somewhere. Like, the hybrids have locked him up somewhere.

Didn't want the focus to be on Hybrids - a limitation I imposed on myself from the start, remember? Since Z's continued presence is tied so heavily toward that, I'd have to include more Hybrid stuff which goes againt the rule I made. Not saying we can't include him just that I wouldn't be able to do it justice or make it relate to what the current focus was. Because of that, it was right for me to not include him in this particular treatment since it would be a "cameo for cameo sake". It was enough just to include Duran (given his relationship to Hybrids) at the end.

An idea I once had was for him to meet a member of the Xel'Naga.

Well, the name of the game is to make some stuff up for something you'd think would happen. I wouldn't mind someone trying to tackle that in their own version.

That, and you're wrong about Raynor. If his importance was merely mechanical/authorial, then Blizzard would never have made him the focus of WoL.

That's the precise reason why Raynor was used. He's supposed to be the "everyman" that people can latch onto and is an "in" for those new to the franchise. And as WoL turns out, he makes for a pretty boring character to "focus" the majority of WoL on. I use the term "focus" loosely considering the meandering middle part and the hackneyed sudden turn the story takes to get to it's finale.

Not sure how that would fit in the bigger picture, but the point is that Raynor can't be ignored.

That's part of the problem of this specific type of character - he is small-fry (purposefully and most effective;y presented as) in comparison to the bigger picture.

Actually, let me rephrase that. Absent of whatever game it appears in, what do you feel is the most appropriate fate for Raynor?

I've always thought of Raynor being somewhat aimless and overwhelmed by his experiences. If I had to guess at what really drives him forward, it'd have to be that he is unwittingly seeking death (you'll probably noticing a trend in how I'm using mental illness to explain every characters motivation....). His sense of justice, goodness and helping damsels in distress is just him desperately finding a justification to keep on living and to reduce his cognitive dissonance. Because of that, I quite like your idea that Raynor attempts a "suicidal" attack on the Hybrids only to be saved but especially before that he comes to the realisation that he's harboured a secret death-wish all this time. The twisted irony alone would be quite interesting (yeah, I'm a sick puppy). Apart from that, I can see any number of fates being appropriate for Raynor given he's the "everyman". I actually don't have any real preference.

[Nissa]

Sorry for taking so long to reply. I had graduation related stuff to deal with.

In any case, wow, these posts are getting too long. I'd meant this thread as a way for everyone to discuss ideas, and long debate posts repel people. So, sorry ahead of time for not addressing some of your specific concerns, but let's focus particularly on the core issues here.

Okay, so issue 1, Kerrigan's actions. While you're right it's debatable, please just trust my literary intuition that it's too on the nose for Kerrigan to kidnap ghosts. It's an amateurish way of calling back to her past. However, a tweaking will make the idea work: instead of going directly for ghosts (which Mengsk would probably have better tabs on, anyway), she should go for the general populace of a planet that is closer to her territory and easier to get at. She then finds psychics on her own, people who haven't already had their minds affected by Mengsk's ghost training. That way it's a subtler reference to her past.

From on objective perspective, "emotional rationality" is an oxymoron.

People are not objective. People are oxymorons.

even a renegade Ghost/Spectre would rather prefer being free-willed and human rather than becoming enslaved to a hive-mind and used as cannon fodder forevermore. Kerrigan can sell it as much as she wants, no-one will buy it unless they are insane. I mean, would you seriously consider that offer and believe it?

My opinion is irrelevant. For that matter, so is yours. For example, if someone asked us if we would use the psi emitters to lure the Zerg to destroy our enemies, we would both say no. That doesn't change the fact that Mengsk did it, because he is the sort of person who would do that.

What would spice things up is a person or two who would consider the offer. We, you and I, are not the standards of what is rational or normal, because we live in an entirely different culture and don't have horrible pasts. If someone has been victimized by Mengsk's government, a local authority, or others enough, they could give themselves over to the Zerg.

So I'm not saying necessarily that all of them have to be asked, but it would be a delicious, demented aspect of the campaign if Kerrigan did ask people (perhaps opting to kill them if they said no), and then someone steps up and volunteers, both for his own sake and to keep Kerrigan from killing those that rejected her. Or Kerrigan inadvertently rescues someone from a torment, and that person wishes to become Zerg so they never have to be put in that place of pain ever again.

Come on, man, this is a great chance to bring in new characters with fun perspectives. Sometimes the most interesting people are those who do things we never in our lives would consider.

It's not so much lack of motivation but lack of capability and assurances (any venture into Aiur is just pure risk with no guarantees). Shakuras is in ruins and they only managed to save it at great cost. They'd be too busy trying to fix things at home before considering going back to the lost cause that is Aiur anytime soon. There is also an inherent risk of allowing more Zerg to come through if they reopen the Warpgate to go back to Aiur - the thing that initially brought Shakuras to ruin.

Sometimes I wonder if you're trying very hard to misunderstand me. :P

I'm not talking about Artanis or any other officials. I'm talking about individual people who decide they're going to get on a ship and go to Aiur. The warp gate itself is entirely irrelevant. If Zeratul knew about the location of Aiur without having access to the warp gate in SC, then it's perfectly possible to go to Aiur without its use.

That, and if Artanis didn't at least secure a pittance to support the survivors on Aiur, then he's not only a horrible person, but entirely different from the overly idealistic puppy dog we saw in BW. Sure, his main focus will be Shakuras, but he's running a government, not an entity that can only spend money on one thing. It's like abandoning soldiers in Vietnam, except worse because there's bound to be civilians left behind too.

Also, given that the Nerazim allowed the Khalai shelter on their planet, I doubt they'd put up much of a fuss when it comes to helping their people. The complexity of their relationship to Aiur and the Khalai would make their involvement extra interesting.

Only a idiot would keep doing the same thing continuously and expect a different result. Mengsk displays ineptitude because he let his impatience and rashness overcome him. He got smarted a few times from such displays and so this is his way of showing that he's learned something. The question is why you would expect "more of the same" crazy choices but with a beneficial outcome this time when all it has led him to is his own ruin? Mengsk doesn't seem to be a man that would rely on the "law of averages".

Who says I expect Mengsk to win? Sure, the Terrans have to overall "win" the Terran missions because of the way the game is formatted, but there's no reason it can't be a pyrric victory, like the end of the first Protoss missions or the second Terran missions.

That, and you're approaching this from the wrong angle. It's not what's the smartest thing that Mengsk should do, but what he as an individual will do, smart or not.

He was a chump in BW and probably deserves to die like one, too.

But...but I WUBS him!

Lol. All I want is for him to be interesting.

You should make one up using your ideas. That way I can stop justifying my one.

Fair enough. I like some of your ideas, though, I just don't think I really get the core of them. I'm sort of a "big picture" person when it comes to writing, and the emotive effectiveness of the Terran missions is really important when it's the last set of missions in a Starcraft game. Give me a while, and I'll come up with some base ideas for that.

But what can he realistically do in this greater universe? His force is trashed and he doesn't have the influence or power to get back up. I can understand that Raynor's decision to kill Kerrigan are strong words backed up with conviction, but how far can he realistically go in doing that, let alone doing more than that? It'd make a great personal story to watch him try and fail - but we didn't even get that and if we did, it wouldn't work being told in a campaign game format. Worse still, people don't seem to care how he changed from his mindset in BW to WoL because it'd be boring. I just figured it was too difficult to use him effectively and left him out - people can use their imagination to make up whatever fanciful adventures he had on his lonesome.

It sounds like you're giving up on Raynor. Granted, I can't blame you, but technically he has to be used somehow. I still disagree that he's the "everyman," but debating that isn't important.

The Umojans are doing there own thing and are largely victims to the game the KM (the only real villains if we consider Mengsk to be a "hero") are playing, so I don't know where you're getting the impression they're bad guys. Besides, the Umojans are not about gimmicks - they're "boring" because they just inherently are.

I don't really want KM to be villains. For that matter, I don't particularly want the Umojans to be, either. I'd prefer them to just be side nations with their own conflicts and desires. They're the reasonable ones, while Mengsk himself is the (demi) bad guy -- and the player is stuck on the bad guy's side as he manipulates nations not at war with him.

But I definitely agree that the Umojans are boring. That's why I don't want them doing too much in a campaign. We need to understand who they are before they go all doing things important to the plot. It kinda makes me wonder why Blizz made them up in the first place, besides just set dressing.

As to "major event of the universe" thing, it's a major thing happening to the character at hand and that's all I really intended it to be. I also intended this to be a continuation rather than a tie-things up/ conclusive ending of some sort or a "Ohmigod, yet another huge galactic catastrophe to overcome in a never-ending parade of catastrophes"-scenario so yeah, in comparison to such things, it's going to be somewhat muted. Part of this is because I neglected to have a common big-bad - whereas you seem to want either Mengsk or Kerrigan as being one to finish things off. I don't mind that either - would like to see your spin on such a thing.

Okay, I get you. It's cool to have a more personal wish for a Starcraft game, and I would agree with you if we were talking about redoing WoL. Actually, all your human conflict ideas would be far better for fixing WoL. That game was in dire need of Terran factions not associated with Raynor and Mengsk, particularly since the Protoss were practically non-entities, and Kerrigan's actions were kept mostly out of sight.

Thing is, we're talking about the end of a trilogy. In that context, we'd really better round out the story we've got, so that a potential SC2 could be mostly fresh in story. Your statement about huge galactic catastrophes is a reflection of how SC and BW were -- they needed to end on less than optimal notes because they were the first and second parts of an unfinished trilogy. In other words, they're a setup of tension that needs to be dealt with at the end of a trilogy. It would be bad to add too much more tension, so we don't really need another catastrophe. What we need is to wrap up as much as possible so SC2 can focus a little more on what exactly the hybrids are and what they mean for the universe. That is, even if neither Mengsk nor Kerrigan die, their conflict has to change based on what the hybrids mean for the universe. That, and Kerrigan has to somehow face what she has done/become.

Actually, I have another idea. Perhaps Mengsk somehow comes to the conclusion that he can use Kerrigan as a shield against the Zerg, and then decides to allow her to live. Except then Raynor shoots her in the head, delivering on his promise in BW. Then the hybrids come, and the game doesn't show if Kerrigan survives or not.

Eh, it's an idea.

I'm kind of blinded by the inherent Terran weakness to Zerg and Protoss and prodigious infighting that they were initially saddled to see any Terran union as being effective or lasting for any appreicable amount of time. If Mengsk is still the same old Mengsk, I can't buy that he could lead the Terrans to any victory or even consider him being an "inspiration" to others considering his display in BW. The Terrans were united at the end of Sc1 (apparently), but were then shattered by the UED. I can't see how unified Terrans would fare much better against Zerg or Protoss without gimmick.

Where in the world did you get the idea that all the humans were united? Mengsk's speech at the end of the Terran missions is at best hyperbole, and not that much of a reflection of how much territory he had. He's basically calling for a cease fire between human nations, not an all out alliance where the three fight together.

I like it.

Good, that's a nice starting point.

So it's safe to assume they were talking to each other, coordinating their efforts against Kerrigan and becoming BFFs then? They had a common enemy in that scenario. Here, there are no Zerg or Kerrigan around and the intent of the Terrans is therefore, unknown.

It's a logical inference that they'd have open channels through which to talk, and that they wouldn't be particularly interested in shooting each other after the battle. "Unknown" is a bit of a strong word, here.

Didn't want the focus to be on Hybrids - a limitation I imposed on myself from the start, remember? Since Z's continued presence is tied so heavily toward that, I'd have to include more Hybrid stuff which goes againt the rule I made. Not saying we can't include him just that I wouldn't be able to do it justice or make it relate to what the current focus was. Because of that, it was right for me to not include him in this particular treatment since it would be a "cameo for cameo sake". It was enough just to include Duran (given his relationship to Hybrids) at the end.

It's fine, I just meant that this set of missions would wrap up stuff so that the hybrids could come into focus in a sequel. Here, the hybrids aren't too important. I was thinking, though, they might show up in the last mission or two and wreck stuff. Or suddenly contact Mengsk and very politically/politely insist on his immediate submission to their supremacy.

That, of course, would depend on what the hybrids are supposed to be as an entity. I just don't want them to be generic monsters that want to kill everybody. That would be lame.

I've always thought of Raynor being somewhat aimless and overwhelmed by his experiences. If I had to guess at what really drives him forward, it'd have to be that he is unwittingly seeking death (you'll probably noticing a trend in how I'm using mental illness to explain every characters motivation....). His sense of justice, goodness and helping damsels in distress is just him desperately finding a justification to keep on living and to reduce his cognitive dissonance. Because of that, I quite like your idea that Raynor attempts a "suicidal" attack on the Hybrids only to be saved but especially before that he comes to the realisation that he's harboured a secret death-wish all this time. The twisted irony alone would be quite interesting (yeah, I'm a sick puppy). Apart from that, I can see any number of fates being appropriate for Raynor given he's the "everyman". I actually don't have any real preference.

Feel free to list those options. One or more of them is bound to be interesting. But yeah, the dude has been so beaten down by life that the only thing keeping him going is his desire to help people, and that's running out of gas. I'd love a moment where Mengsk calls him out on how pathetic he's become.

In any case, I really want some good Mengsk/Kerrigan/Raynor conversations. Those are absolutely delicious.

[Turalyon]

Note: The following is a reponse to Nissa's queries. Feel free to ignore. Instead, put your own fanon down so I can stop talking about my own one.

Sorry for taking so long to reply. I had graduation related stuff to deal with.

Don't worry, I'm in no rush. Congrats by the way.

In any case, wow, these posts are getting too long. I'd meant this thread as a way for everyone to discuss ideas, and long debate posts repel people.

Yeah, my bad. I'm not expecting you to agree with me, was just trying to explain my thought process for the way I did certain things that you happened to find questionable.

While you're right it's debatable, please just trust my literary intuition that it's too on the nose for Kerrigan to kidnap ghosts. It's an amateurish way of calling back to her past. However, a tweaking will make the idea work: instead of going directly for ghosts (which Mengsk would probably have better tabs on, anyway), she should go for the general populace of a planet that is closer to her territory and easier to get at. She then finds psychics on her own, people who haven't already had their minds affected by Mengsk's ghost training. That way it's a subtler reference to her past.

I had initially considered that Kerrigan wanted to just find generic psionic potential and that's perhaps how she starts out before latching onto the idea of going for Ghosts due to her desperation and their greater potential (given that their optimisied psionic individuals) for success in relieving her problem. I don't see how attacking/kidnapping Ghosts cannot be used as a "rational goal to obtain a strong emotional need (which i've provided the rationale for)" nor that it should be considered less probable than her rational goal being not attacking/kidnapping Ghosts for another emotional need. I don't mind the fact that she targets Ghosts because it speaks to her her descent into a monster (a true Zerg) and furthers her moral decay. She's made heinous decisions in BW without that affecting her conscience too greatly that it's hard to believe that she even has a line that can't be crossed anymore.

People are not objective. People are oxymorons.

Then don't use "emotional rationality" as a basis for you to dismiss offhandedly/claim superiority of your own intrepretation of Kerrigan over mine.

If someone has been victimized by Mengsk's government, a local authority, or others enough, they could give themselves over to the Zerg.

I never stated it was impossible, just that someone really needs to have a screw loose to do so. Yeah, it's a judgement from on high but I think every reasonable, well-adjusted person would say the same.

I'm also not wholly against the idea. Back in the day (back when my Zerg bias was very strong), I had the fanon idea of a cult of Terrans (or a sect of Umojan intellectuals maybe?) who wished to be part of the Zerg.

So I'm not saying necessarily that all of them have to be asked, but it would be a delicious, demented aspect of the campaign if Kerrigan did ask people (perhaps opting to kill them if they said no), and then someone steps up and volunteers, both for his own sake and to keep Kerrigan from killing those that rejected her. Or Kerrigan inadvertently rescues someone from a torment, and that person wishes to become Zerg so they never have to be put in that place of pain ever again.

I like the latter aspect better since we can make Kerrigan more ambiguous - did she really "rescue" or intend it as such? The former is a little odd because you want to have Kerrigan feel some pang of conscience/responsibility over the Ghosts and yet she will murder them if they so no to her request. Why bother even asking at all, if not just to screw them over anyway? One also has to question why would she want to potentially screw with them since this would be perilously close to her personal past - the one line she won't cross/muddy (according to your interpretation).

I'm not talking about Artanis or any other officials. I'm talking about individual people who decide they're going to get on a ship and go to Aiur.

Fair enough, but such a force would be too small to make a campaign around. It's hard enough to fathom that there's still some Protoss left on Aiur and who banded together to survive in the campaign I had for them.

That, and if Artanis didn't at least secure a pittance to support the survivors on Aiur, then he's not only a horrible person, but entirely different from the overly idealistic puppy dog we saw in BW.

It's not about being intentionally horrible it's about working the current greater good. As far as Artanis knows, there maybe still surviviors on Aiur but there are definite survivors on Shakuras that need his help in securing themselves after the blows they've taken (Shakuras is ruined and they no longer have a leader). What do you think is the greater priority for him at that very moment? Can he "no longer afford to be so naive"?

Sure, his main focus will be Shakuras, but he's running a government, not an entity that can only spend money on one thing. It's like abandoning soldiers in Vietnam, except worse because there's bound to be civilians left behind too.

He's not just merely running a government, he's trying to re-build their civilisation up from rubble (Shakuras was in utter ruins by the end of the The Stand and then they had their power grid knocked out as a further kick in the guts) and has to fill a leadership void (no Raszagal and Zeratul anymore) whilst being potentially hated for bringing this mess upon them in the first place and being seen as a bigoted Protoss from Aiur (due to Aldaris' insurrection). The Vietnam parralel is not even close.

Also, given that the Nerazim allowed the Khalai shelter on their planet, I doubt they'd put up much of a fuss when it comes to helping their people.

Which, from a Nerazim point of view, could be seen as being taken advantage of since Aldaris led his ungrateful insurrection against them without informing anyone of his real motivation and that the exodus of Khalai Protoss brought with them the Zerg and Kerrigan.

Who says I expect Mengsk to win? Sure, the Terrans have to overall "win" the Terran missions because of the way the game is formatted, but there's no reason it can't be a pyrric victory

You're being somewhat disengenuous. You want Mengsk to remain the same in personality and win in some nebulous way but without being so obvious/big and can't seem to accept that losses should have significance. Mengsk suffered greatly in BW because his personality was the same "madcap" one and yet you want him to be the same but still somehow win from a more disadvantageous position than he was before he suffered. It's that or he doesn't win which begs the question of why focus on him at all. If he's still the same personality and loses again, it's retreading BW. Do you want Mengsk to be represented as one of those inflatable punching bag clowns? The Terrans and the Dominion have had such calamities brought upon them that it's hard enough to believe they can be outright victors let alone be able to afford a pyhrric victory.

It's not what's the smartest thing that Mengsk should do, but what he as an individual will do, smart or not.

And how does my treatment of him in this campaign not pay heed to that? He's doing what he can under the circumstances. You're the one that's saying it's "not smart of him" or "not like him".

It sounds like you're giving up on Raynor. Granted, I can't blame you, but technically he has to be used somehow.

Gotta know when to cut your losses. Raynor and "big picture" don't mesh together. I can make a Raynor story, but not justify it properly in a campaign about warring armies with big stakes. He'd be forced to be a cameo otherwise and I was too aware of that and the greater potential disservice to his character by just doing that to him.

I don't really want KM to be villains. For that matter, I don't particularly want the Umojans to be, either. I'd prefer them to just be side nations with their own conflicts and desires.

Was only waxing lyrical. A protagonist is often erroneously attributed as being the "hero" such that any form an antagonist takes has to be erroneously the "villain". I don't want the KM (or anyone/anything else for that matter) to be considered villains (or heroes) either but that doesn't stop people from seeing things in certain ways: like you did by saying the the Umojan were bad guys (they are not).

But I definitely agree that the Umojans are boring. That's why I don't want them doing too much in a campaign. We need to understand who they are before they go all doing things important to the plot. It kinda makes me wonder why Blizz made them up in the first place, besides just set dressing.

I understand the sentiment. The reason I wanted to include them was to give a bigger sense of the Terrans not just being the Dominion. It's hard to do when the protagonist (Mengsk) is not Umojan hence they just have to appear as they are without proper introduction. I could've done a Umojan campaign instead but I'd have to make it small-fry given their relative lack of importance and stature in general. They be a poor choice to make the Terrans more relevent and powerful (being the purpose of the last campaign focusing on Terrans) and I'd have to use more gimmicky shenanigans to justify the significance of their role in making Terrans more powerful in general.

It's cool to have a more personal wish for a Starcraft game, and I would agree with you if we were talking about redoing WoL.

Well, in some respects, WoL did come after BW and we are continuing on from BW so I don't get how the idea is only good for fixing WoL and yet not work as an expansion story. I would expect an expansion story to be somewhat smaller and internal so looking at the Terran faction isn't such a bad way to go. As to WoL, its intended scope is all over the shop. The majority of it is small scale and it actually does seem like more of an expansion story than the proper introduction of a sequel with new ideas.

Thing is, we're talking about the end of a trilogy. In that context, we'd really better round out the story we've got, so that a potential SC2 could be mostly fresh in story. Your statement about huge galactic catastrophes is a reflection of how SC and BW were -- they needed to end on less than optimal notes because they were the first and second parts of an unfinished trilogy. In other words, they're a setup of tension that needs to be dealt with at the end of a trilogy. It would be bad to add too much more tension, so we don't really need another catastrophe. What we need is to wrap up as much as possible so SC2 can focus a little more on what exactly the hybrids are and what they mean for the universe. That is, even if neither Mengsk nor Kerrigan die, their conflict has to change based on what the hybrids mean for the universe. That, and Kerrigan has to somehow face what she has done/become.

This is why I want to see a treatment of your own devising. If I were inclined to make a more prosaic ending to the trilogy started by Sc1 and BW, it'd be pretty grim and no-one would have satisfactory conclusions because Kerrigan will eventually come out and kill everyone because no-one else can really stop her. At that point, the relevance of the coming Hybrids would be moot. That and the Hybrids have limited narrative scope anyway - what more are they really than just extremely powerful adversaries that need unity of all 3 races to be overcome?

Actually, I have another idea. Perhaps Mengsk somehow comes to the conclusion that he can use Kerrigan as a shield against the Zerg, and then decides to allow her to live. Except then Raynor shoots her in the head, delivering on his promise in BW. Then the hybrids come, and the game doesn't show if Kerrigan survives or not.

Sorry if it sounds like I'm ridiculing but how does Raynor fulfill his promise of killing Kerrigan if she's not actually dead? o.0

Where in the world did you get the idea that all the humans were united?

Other people who know the "lore"/canon better than I do who told me so. I did say "apparent" in parenthesis as I was somewhat dubious too for the very same reasons you put forward. Course, then again, this would've been a convenient way to boost Terran significance in the 3-way war especially in consideration of the Zerg and Protoss weakening each other at the end of Sc1 as FanaticTemplar once suggested

It's a logical inference that they'd have open channels through which to talk, and that they wouldn't be particularly interested in shooting each other after the battle. "Unknown" is a bit of a strong word, here.

So we are to assume then that the Protoss, in turn, assume the Terrans are above treachery? Also, the battle between Protoss and Terran hasn't commenced yet. The Protoss have arrived investigating why the Umojan signals have dropped down and discover the Dominion having seemingly slaughtered them. Just because these Dominion Terrans deign to open channels, doesn't mean the Protoss are not suspicious for their reasons in doing so or will not react in kind when openly threatened.

It's fine, I just meant that this set of missions would wrap up stuff so that the hybrids could come into focus in a sequel. Here, the hybrids aren't too important. I was thinking, though, they might show up in the last mission or two and wreck stuff. Or suddenly contact Mengsk and very politically/politely insist on his immediate submission to their supremacy.

That, of course, would depend on what the hybrids are supposed to be as an entity. I just don't want them to be generic monsters that want to kill everybody. That would be lame.

The Hybrids are difficult to implement since they're not very "characterful" if you catch my drift. That's why I used Duran since he has all the connotations with the Hybrid but is a better tool (for lack of a better word) when it comes to characterisation. I was hoping the strength of Duran's associations with hybrids and the experimentation done on Aiur would give off the Hybrid link better than any overt display especially given my self-imposed constraint. Besides, I didn't want to make Duran out-and-out villainous straight off the bat by subjugating Mengsk and the Terrans since this would go against making the Terrans stronger and reduce their agency almost immediately by the end of the campaign. It'd make them rather one-note, too. I do get where you're coming from though.

Feel free to list those options. One or more of them is bound to be interesting.

I'm not that imaginative enough to make or consider every option for Raynor to be interesting. I was more or less saying that I could potentially accept any fate for him (more so than any other character), even ones that don't seem "appropriate".

In any case, I really want some good Mengsk/Kerrigan/Raynor conversations. Those are absolutely delicious.

We've seen, heard and been given reason for Mengsk to hate on Kerrigan and Raynor, for Raynor to hate on Mengsk and Kerrigan and Kerrigan to hate on Mengsk but never Kerrigan hating on Raynor. I would like to see that happening somehow. I can then imagine Mengsk eavesdropping/poking his head in and give a shit-eating grin or making a smart-arse reply.

[Gradius]

*tries to enter the discussion





*leaves

[Nissa]

I'm sorry, Gradius. I'll try to cut it down. Just pipe up and say your ideas, and I'll see what I can do.

Yeah, my bad. I'm not expecting you to agree with me, was just trying to explain my thought process for the way I did certain things that you happened to find questionable.

Our bad. It takes two to argue.

Then don't use "emotional rationality" as a basis for you to dismiss offhandedly/claim superiority of your own intrepretation of Kerrigan over mine.

"Emotional rationality" has nothing to do with anything. Kerrigan is using rational methods to achieve her emotional goals. The emotion is there, it's just slathered in layers of self-formed rationality, as a means of making herself believe she's in as much control as she thinks she is.

I'm also not wholly against the idea. Back in the day (back when my Zerg bias was very strong), I had the fanon idea of a cult of Terrans (or a sect of Umojan intellectuals maybe?) who wished to be part of the Zerg.

Done like dinner.

I like the latter aspect better since we can make Kerrigan more ambiguous - did she really "rescue" or intend it as such? The former is a little odd because you want to have Kerrigan feel some pang of conscience/responsibility over the Ghosts and yet she will murder them if they so no to her request. Why bother even asking at all, if not just to screw them over anyway? One also has to question why would she want to potentially screw with them since this would be perilously close to her personal past - the one line she won't cross/muddy (according to your interpretation).

It's not so much screwing with them as just genuinely asking if they would like to be free from their human failings. Kerrigan as a human was a puppet of two different governments. Kerrigan as a Zerg doesn't do a thing she doesn't want to. As much as she wants others to serve her in this particular situation, I question her desire to really and truly rob another person of what makes them an individual. She's more likely to simply kill a person outright rather than make them a drone. Note how personal she is with Duran and the Cerebrate. She's open to input, and up front about her desires from them. I think Kerrigan would want those who share her desires to be on her side, not simply have infested terrans. Not that she has a moral objection to using infested terrans, but if she's going to have cerebrate analogues, they need to be people who can add to strategic ability and companionship.

[/quote]Fair enough, but such a force would be too small to make a campaign around. It's hard enough to fathom that there's still some Protoss left on Aiur and who banded together to survive in the campaign I had for them.[/quote]

Who said anything about forming the campaign around them? That'd be too much like LotV, anyway. It would just be an extra detail, a faction within the campaign. Though the population issue you bring up is a thing. We may need a campaign that follows a specific Protoss character, one who starts on Shakuras and ends up on Aiur -- or vice versa. There's no rule saying it has to only be based in one place.

It's not about being intentionally horrible it's about working the current greater good. As far as Artanis knows, there maybe still surviviors on Aiur but there are definite survivors on Shakuras that need his help in securing themselves after the blows they've taken (Shakuras is ruined and they no longer have a leader). What do you think is the greater priority for him at that very moment? Can he "no longer afford to be so naive"?

Aldaris would come back from the grave just to punch Artanis in the face if he didn't send help. Artie can send a couple ships to look for people/scout out the Zerg's doings. If they don't, they're stupid. Besides, it's implied that the DT were nosing around Aiur before the invasion. Surely they'd continue doing so, and along the way help people.

The Vietnam parralel is not even close.

1. the Protoss had enough resources to build a cluster of pylons on Shakuras
2. the Zerg didn't reduce Shakuras to rubble. If they had, they wouldn't have had to ignite the pylons to grab Raszagal.
3. leaving someone behind in enemy occupied territory? Vietnam.
4. "Parallel"

You're being somewhat disengenuous. You want Mengsk to remain the same in personality and win in some nebulous way....

I'm throwing ideas out there, ones that don't necessarily have to go together. And like I said Mengsk does not have to win. The Terran missions, based purely on Starcraft's structure, have to have a series of eight to twelve victories to eight to twelve different missions. Thus, "victory" in eight to twelve different situations. Victory in this case doesn't have to be Mengsk's, or even humanity's. It has to be some kind of reason why human characters have won those missions.

That, and keep in might the weight of the story. We're talking here the penultimate series of missions for a trilogy. Our purpose, as writers of this hypothetical, is to wrap up as many loose ends as possible so that our hypothetical SC2 can start clean -- it won't be bogged down by leftover story plots in the same way WoL was bogged down by the events of BW. The question we need to ask ourselves needs to be, "How can we provide a climactic, entertaining end to this story?" My part of that answer is a lot of Raynor/Mengsk/Kerrigan confrontation.

Gotta know when to cut your losses. Raynor and "big picture" don't mesh together. I can make a Raynor story, but not justify it properly in a campaign about warring armies with big stakes. He'd be forced to be a cameo otherwise and I was too aware of that and the greater potential disservice to his character by just doing that to him.

I disagree. While I sympathize with your reasoning on why you don't want Raynor around, I think for the last third of a trilogy he needs to be there -- so that we can shove him aside during SC2. Because he was such a huge part of SC and BW, Raynor needs to be around for this so that his story can be finished. Then he can drift away into the cosmos for SC2, returning only when somebody has a good idea for using him.

I once had a story idea where Raynor started a band. I called it, "Raynor and the Conclave." It had Protoss in it.

I understand the sentiment. The reason I wanted to include them was to give a bigger sense of the Terrans not just being the Dominion. It's hard to do when the protagonist (Mengsk) is not Umojan hence they just have to appear as they are without proper introduction. I could've done a Umojan campaign instead but I'd have to make it small-fry given their relative lack of importance and stature in general. They be a poor choice to make the Terrans more relevent and powerful (being the purpose of the last campaign focusing on Terrans) and I'd have to use more gimmicky shenanigans to justify the significance of their role in making Terrans more powerful in general.

I still don't think the humans ended up nearly as badly off as you claim they did in BW. The structure of SC/BW makes it hard to guess how strong anyone truly is, unless the plot specifically addresses it. For example, we never knew how bad the casualties on Aiur were until the ending text said their world was ruined. Heck, we didn't even know that the Zerg really and truly had occupied it until BW -- the end text of SC simply said that Aiur was ruined, not that the Protoss couldn't rebuild. For Terrans specifically, most of the damage was done to the UED, who were a force not from the area, and settled on planets (like Braxis) that were apparently not previously a part of Terran occupations, if Zeratul is to be believed. The only Dominion world to be hit was Korhal, and they have other worlds.

But I don't want to debate about that. All I'm saying is that it's not conclusive that the Dominion has no fight in it, especially since Mengsk is determined to do well by it, and Kerrigan is apparently willing to bide her time at the end of BW.

So we are to assume then that the Protoss, in turn, assume the Terrans are above treachery?

Sometimes I wonder about you, Tura. I'm not saying that the Protoss would fully trust humans, I'm saying that diplomatic channels exist. Aigoo.


Alright, so the obvious solution is for me to create a mission set of my own. You have a lot of good ideas, and I'm going to steal your general framework and slap some meat on that. It's all up for debate. For now, I'll just end this post and create a separate one for my ideas. Organization is key.

Please, everyone, if you have suggestions, make them. The best ideas in a story are the ones that strike like a hammer for how sudden they are.

What I particularly need are these:
- gameplay ideas for specific missions
- characters of any race who can make decisions.

One thing I learned while being involved in a mod is that level designers are really helpful in coming up with plot to justify their mission ideas. If we build some bones, the overall story will come.

[Turalyon]

Hopefully, this is my last response...

Kerrigan is using rational methods to achieve her emotional goals. The emotion is there, it's just slathered in layers of self-formed rationality, as a means of making herself believe she's in as much control as she thinks she is.

Once again, I'm failing to see why my interpretation of Kerrigan's rationalisation of kidnapping of Ghosts and experimenting on them does not coincide with what you've just written above (I've given plenty to explain that her reasons are self-justified) or somehow "lesser" than your interpretation that she should ask them instead before experimenting on them.

As much as she wants others to serve her in this particular situation, I question her desire to really and truly rob another person of what makes them an individual. She's more likely to simply kill a person outright rather than make them a drone.

It's debatable. She's just as likely to murder someone as to rob a person's individual by manipulating them to do heinous things and then gloat in their face like she did in BW. It's hard to know where her line is. We know she will infest Terrans (she does so to support her assault of the UED on Korhal), so what difference does it make if the victims happen to be Ghosts as well? She can rationalise the process as "killing them outright" anyway since infested people are not the same person as they were (being analagous to zombies).

Besides, I never exactly mentioned the specifics of what she was going to do with the Ghosts or how she was going to experiment with them. Infestation is more or less about making more cannon fodder for Zerg armies. Kerrigan's problem isn't about that, it's about trying to find a way to retain her weakening control over the Zerg.

Who said anything about forming the campaign around them?

Oh, I get it now. You could add cutscenes or have a single mission with this Nerazim trying to find survivors and ends up tracking down the Aiur Protoss. They then meet up at the end after discovering the Terran experiments and the Aiur Protoss send this Dark Templar back to inform Shakuras... Or something.

Artie can send a couple ships to look for people/scout out the Zerg's doings. If they don't, they're stupid. Besides, it's implied that the DT were nosing around Aiur before the invasion. Surely they'd continue doing so, and along the way help people.

Not saying that Art won't and doesn't want to. He has to prioritise what limited resources he has and he has to placate the Nerazim - he was party to bringing the Zerg to Shakuras which almost destroyed them, aligned with Aldaris who inflamed another heated civil war for unknown (to the general Protoss) reasons, party to Kerrigan who killed their Matriarch and then failed in his retribution wasting more of their resources. I suppose when the Shak Protoss are informed of the new Terran threat at the end of the Protoss campaign (you could have that lone Nerazim I talked about above acting on his own based on Arties rhetoric about revisiting Aiur), that's when we see a fleet of Protoss patrolling later in the Terran campaign - the Nerazim eventually gave Art what he wanted.

1. the Protoss had enough resources to build a cluster of pylons on Shakuras
2. the Zerg didn't reduce Shakuras to rubble. If they had, they wouldn't have had to ignite the pylons to grab Raszagal.
3. leaving someone behind in enemy occupied territory? Vietnam.
4. "Parallel"

1.Talemetros wasn't built during BW as far as I know. I assumed it was already there - then it got trashed.
2. As to reducing Shakuras to rubble, I was being too literal. The Xel'Nagan Temple scoured their entire world of life - why else would the Protoss seek shelter in the Temple before it got activated? I doubt that all the Nerazim on the planet would've gotten away scot free when the Temple exploded. So sure, the buildings may still be upstanding (like the power grid at Talemetros) but their society as a whole would've been decimated at the loss of life. The subsequent capturing of Raszagal wouldn't have been so easy had it not been for that either.
3. You're stretching. One aspect of an analogy does not make the analogy wholly synonymous with these events.
4. I got caught out on a spelling mistake. For shame.

Our purpose, as writers of this hypothetical, is to wrap up as many loose ends as possible so that our hypothetical SC2 can start clean -- it won't be bogged down by leftover story plots in the same way WoL was bogged down by the events of BW.

Yeah, but that wasn't my intention. My intention was to just outlay a continuation to justify the ongoing 3-way war and to try and prop the Terrans a bit. I'm not that keen on wrapping things up too cleanly since that would negate the need of a sequel at all such that you'd might as well just create a new IP. In a way, Sc2 is a clean start because it's not really bogged down by leftover story plots because it largely ignores them already. That and the Hyrbid plot in general is trite and limited as a concept no matter which way you approach it.

I think for the last third of a trilogy he needs to be there -- so that we can shove him aside during SC2.

I fear that he'd have to die though to meet your requirements. Otherwise, it'd be odd just having him hovering around like a useless dingleberry in the proper sequel. We already have the opposite of this in WoL where we got the super-powered Raynor who can do no wrong and is untouchable.

I still don't think the humans ended up nearly as badly off as you claim they did in BW.

All I'm saying is that it's not conclusive that the Dominion has no fight in it

Don't forget the "terrible damage" the Terrans incurred in Sc1. The stuff in BW is additive to that. Since the Confeds took most of the brunt and the Dominion took over what was left of the them, having the Dominion take further beatings kinda makes it hard to swallow that the Dominion based Terrans alone can keep bouncing back indefinitely.

I'm not saying that the Protoss would fully trust humans, I'm saying that diplomatic channels exist.

I'm not being unreasonable. You're the one implying they can still talk through things and be BFFs whilst open and unannounced hostilities have started and that you've also confirmed now that there existed mutual distrust between them anyway.

[GnaReffotsirk]

For the Terrans, I would have them go into complete civil war after Omega. Mengsk returns defeated, again, and to his surprise, the sector reverts back to the old ways before the Confederacy.

Raynor goes into seclusion, having lost all, twice. His bitterness eats him up from the inside, and he becomes this man who instead of someone who saves everyone like they're family, he becomes this "I will not care for anyone anymore."

In all of this chaos, Tychus breaks loose from prison, and someday he'll meet Raynor and help restore him to his noble self. It will be a bad example creating a good man kind of thing, all hinged in the idea that though Tychus might seem like a wild-card, and doesn't care for anyone but himself, he does care enough to sacrifice himself to spare the person he thinks to be the better person than he.

Tychus would be like this arrogant, proud, and selfish man, but actually believes deep inside him, that there's still hope, though small, if the right person be granted the chance.

Mengsk will be fighting in a free-for-all war in the terran sector. Alliances are made, broken, betrayals. Eventually, Mengsk dies in the hands of his own son Valerian.

Mengsk does all of this not for himself, but the people. He genuinely loves the people, but it's just that he's been part of the old system for too long, he doesn't know any other way. He would sacrifice anything to be in power, because he believes he's the only one who has the right heart for the Terrans.

Valerian doesn't agree, betrays his own Father, and returns with the Protectorate. He ends his Father not because he hates him, but because he knows Arcturus will find a way to get into power, and when he does he will continue his pursuit to go against everything not Terran, and Valerian believes working with the other races would benefit all.

ZERG:

Kerrigan has taken over the broods. She senses something out there, but it's actually coming from deep inside of her. Not that the overmind implanted these into her, but the Zerg DNA unique to her carried information which slowly bubble up through her subconscious.

She slowly loses her morality even further, just as she has been during broodwar. Yes, she intended to wipe the table clean from potential threats like fenix, aldaris, and the UED, but undeniably it was all part of her ongoing metamorphosis.

She is yet to realize her full potential. What this is remains a mystery to her for now.

Haunting dreams, visions, memories of ancient things. The Xel'Naga, the dead gods of the Protoss. The purpose of the Overmind's quest of perfection, dominion, purification, and rebirth of all life into the swarm.

She goes into another coccon, and starts to feed on the minions themselves. They become active, producing more to feed their Queen with their very own bodies.

Where once the Overmind prayed on other species to enlarge the swarm, Kerrigan is consuming them to feed her with nutrients necessary for her current evolution.

SAMIR DURAN nears the completion of his hybrid army to fulfill the plans set ages ago by a greater power, or so he says. Kerrigan is useless and so beneath him, he claims, that he has taken the mantle to fulfill what the overmind has failed to accomplish: The purification of all life, unity, perfection, death.

Duran's mind has been twisted by the long ages of his existence, and will not be stopped. He will fulfill his purpose, or die trying.

PROTOSS:

Shakuras is not good for all protoss. the Khalai does not adapt to the planet well. Not even with each other.

The death of the Matriarch has led to factions breaking out against the Khalai refugees. Old hatreds never die. The absence of a ruling council for the Khalai has left them confused and scattered. They have been so rigid for so long, they actually could not function well as a society without a ruling body.

Unlike Terrans who are naturally able to form groups and thrive, even under pretense and lies, which is also the reason why they fight against each other so easily, the Khalai have lived in a kind of "holy" existence for a long time, they've lost a sense of autonomy. They are more "separate from them selves", or a sort of detached from their selves.

Artanis tries to rally them, but he fails. Some groups even tried to return to Auir, but most of them just stood there dumb, while the surviving elites from Auir begin to form factions, and started murmuring against each other.

While Artanis grows concerned for the survival and unity of his people, Zeratul abandons them all. He would hunt down Kerrigan and be done with her once and for all.


ZERATUL:

On his way to Char, he detects a strange signal from a moon. And there he discovers what Duran is up to. He escapes certain death, and investigates further on Duran's claims.

He finds thousands of hybrid cells on a planet. Chambers upon chambers of cells where hybrid clones are being manufactured. There's no way he could stop this by himself.

An army of abominations ready to be unleashed upon the Galaxy.

They have no choice but to prevent this hell from breaking lose or all of creation will be, as Duran says, "Put through fire for purification."


ENDING:

Duran is killed, the Hybrid menace is stopped, but not without a fierce battle. The skies opens, and the Xel'Naga arrives in their splendor.

They have come to collect. They have come to make anew. To redeem themselves of their sins, and reset creation.

(player plays as Xel'Naga vs all other Races)

A separate Xel'Naga faction appears to challenge the current authority and directive. Their goal is to let creation be. Let it flourish or deteriorate as their paths dictate.

[Nissa]

For the Terrans, I would have them go into complete civil war after Omega. Mengsk returns defeated, again, and to his surprise, the sector reverts back to the old ways before the Confederacy.

Raynor goes into seclusion, having lost all, twice. His bitterness eats him up from the inside, and he becomes this man who instead of someone who saves everyone like they're family, he becomes this "I will not care for anyone anymore."

In all of this chaos, Tychus breaks loose from prison, and someday he'll meet Raynor and help restore him to his noble self. It will be a bad example creating a good man kind of thing, all hinged in the idea that though Tychus might seem like a wild-card, and doesn't care for anyone but himself, he does care enough to sacrifice himself to spare the person he thinks to be the better person than he.

Tychus would be like this arrogant, proud, and selfish man, but actually believes deep inside him, that there's still hope, though small, if the right person be granted the chance.

I love all of these ideas. So long as Tychus doesn't die. He's got a very strong personality, and added a lot of flavor in WoL. Despite the fact that his plot in WoL was stupid, he always had something fun to say. I want more of the fun in his character back. It may help if Tychus' prison isn't one that keeps him frozen forever. A labor camp might work on that end.

Mengsk will be fighting in a free-for-all war in the terran sector. Alliances are made, broken, betrayals. Eventually, Mengsk dies in the hands of his own son Valerian.

Nah...Valerian seems like he's not into the dirty work. He's more likely the one who will let someone else kill dear old dad, but only be disappointed in front of cameras. He then dramatically avenges his father, pretending he didn't allow the death in the first place. Better PR that way.

Mengsk does all of this not for himself, but the people. He genuinely loves the people, but it's just that he's been part of the old system for too long, he doesn't know any other way. He would sacrifice anything to be in power, because he believes he's the only one who has the right heart for the Terrans.

Valerian doesn't agree, betrays his own Father, and returns with the Protectorate. He ends his Father not because he hates him, but because he knows Arcturus will find a way to get into power, and when he does he will continue his pursuit to go against everything not Terran, and Valerian believes working with the other races would benefit all.

You're making Valerian too nice. Thing is, baby boy prince has no edge at this point in the series, and he needs some of some kind. No one's going to follow him if he can't be taken seriously, and I think it would help if he were a manipulator like his father, but also smarter. Like, he realizes he has to help the people to get what he wants, rather than go full Mengsk and sacrifice everyone for his own personal goals. Any interaction with other races should be based on that.

And Mengsk never really loved anybody. He only believed he loved them, when really they were his tools.

ZERG:

Kerrigan has taken over the broods. She senses something out there, but it's actually coming from deep inside of her. Not that the overmind implanted these into her, but the Zerg DNA unique to her carried information which slowly bubble up through her subconscious.

She slowly loses her morality even further, just as she has been during broodwar. Yes, she intended to wipe the table clean from potential threats like fenix, aldaris, and the UED, but undeniably it was all part of her ongoing metamorphosis.

Actually, I would assert that her motives in BW were purely personal. She ended up hurting everyone who'd ever hurt her in the past or stood in her way. It wasn't about bettering the swarm so much as it was making herself more powerful so that no one could ever hurt her again.

But other than that, the idea of her becoming more Zerg could work. Let's see...

She is yet to realize her full potential. What this is remains a mystery to her for now.

Haunting dreams, visions, memories of ancient things. The Xel'Naga, the dead gods of the Protoss. The purpose of the Overmind's quest of perfection, dominion, purification, and rebirth of all life into the swarm.

She goes into another coccon, and starts to feed on the minions themselves. They become active, producing more to feed their Queen with their very own bodies.

Where once the Overmind prayed on other species to enlarge the swarm, Kerrigan is consuming them to feed her with nutrients necessary for her current evolution.

This all sounds nice, but what is she going towards? And how much does Kerri really know about the Xel'Naga at this point?

SAMIR DURAN nears the completion of his hybrid army to fulfill the plans set ages ago by a greater power, or so he says. Kerrigan is useless and so beneath him, he claims, that he has taken the mantle to fulfill what the overmind has failed to accomplish: The purification of all life, unity, perfection, death.

Duran's mind has been twisted by the long ages of his existence, and will not be stopped. He will fulfill his purpose, or die trying.

Again, nice and dramatic, but what does it mean for the characters? What are the Xel'Naga's intentions?

PROTOSS:

Shakuras is not good for all protoss. the Khalai does not adapt to the planet well. Not even with each other.

The death of the Matriarch has led to factions breaking out against the Khalai refugees. Old hatreds never die. The absence of a ruling council for the Khalai has left them confused and scattered. They have been so rigid for so long, they actually could not function well as a society without a ruling body.

Unlike Terrans who are naturally able to form groups and thrive, even under pretense and lies, which is also the reason why they fight against each other so easily, the Khalai have lived in a kind of "holy" existence for a long time, they've lost a sense of autonomy. They are more "separate from them selves", or a sort of detached from their selves.

Artanis tries to rally them, but he fails. Some groups even tried to return to Auir, but most of them just stood there dumb, while the surviving elites from Auir begin to form factions, and started murmuring against each other.

While Artanis grows concerned for the survival and unity of his people, Zeratul abandons them all. He would hunt down Kerrigan and be done with her once and for all.

I really don't like this at all. Instead of the Protoss seeming natural, it makes them look like idiots that they lack the individuality of mere humans. One of the troubles with the Starcraft books and SC2 was that they never mentioned the value of Judicator or Khalai caste 'Toss, and we have no idea what makes them different from Templar or Dark Templar. We don't even know that much about the Templar. It's just DT this, DT that. Any direction the Protoss go needs to emphasize the unique aspects of the various types of Protoss, and what makes a Judicator different from a Templar, as well as what advantage each has.

And, given Tassadar's statements to Aldaris in SC1, it seems pretty clear that the Templar can act on their own. The Protoss need greater complexity, not simplistic problems.

ZERATUL:

On his way to Char, he detects a strange signal from a moon. And there he discovers what Duran is up to. He escapes certain death, and investigates further on Duran's claims.

He finds thousands of hybrid cells on a planet. Chambers upon chambers of cells where hybrid clones are being manufactured. There's no way he could stop this by himself.

An army of abominations ready to be unleashed upon the Galaxy.

They have no choice but to prevent this hell from breaking lose or all of creation will be, as Duran says, "Put through fire for purification."

Dramatic, but again, no real content. That, and Duran mentioned that he had seeded many worlds with hybrids, meaning that they're more likely to pop out all over rather than from one centralized location.

ENDING:

Duran is killed, the Hybrid menace is stopped, but not without a fierce battle. The skies opens, and the Xel'Naga arrives in their splendor.

They have come to collect. They have come to make anew. To redeem themselves of their sins, and reset creation.

(player plays as Xel'Naga vs all other Races)

A separate Xel'Naga faction appears to challenge the current authority and directive. Their goal is to let creation be. Let it flourish or deteriorate as their paths dictate.

Potentially good ideas, depending on the specifics. What exactly does "reset creation" mean? How does that apply to humans, who aren't their creations?