Random Thoughts Thread

[ragnarok]

See, I never liked the new definitions LotV brought to the Khala. The "new" Khala subsumed the role of the communal link entirely, when originally the communal link formed the basis for the khala. Through the link, energy and emotion flowed, and that power was channeled by warriors and high templar enacting the mental disciplines of the Khala philosophy. Now, we have the Void Rays literally empowered by the Khala[/energy source]. This makes no sense! And how did the High Templar become stronger after losing the Khala?! Did they learn to harness the Void by the same mental training they learned from the Khala[/philosophy/mental training]?

I felt the whole Void Rays being powered by the Khala was illogical. Even via the SC2 lore the Khala wasn't an energy source in that sense. It was merely meant to be an emotional network. It would have been better to use the original definition, which had explained how Tassadar used the Khala and Void together to kill the Overmind. That way, it would explain how the Khalai and Nerazim had worked together to try to replicate what Tassadar did (albeit in a much smaller scale), but without the dangers of being burned out like a star.

For the whole High Templar matter of becoming stronger after losing the Khala, they'd have no choice but to tap into the Void, which gaves stronger power. However that isn't something you can just master in a few days. The Nerazim certainly didn't, after all. It would have been better to say they can still cast storms, but cannot properly aim it. That at least would have been somewhat consistent with the SC1 lore, and why back then, the Dark Templar lost control of the psi-storms without the Khala.

[ragnarok]

I would have thought that the task of enlisting all those wayward Protoss factions would allow for something more in the narrative than just extra gameplay options. Eh, maybe I'm asking too much?

Vorazun is the representative for the DT but is a wasted character throughout LotV. I almost forgot she was even there beyond being the focus for pity due to the tragedy of having to blow up Shakuras. I still don't understand why they couldn't just trigger the anti-Zerg wipe like they did in BW's The Stand instead of blowing up the planet.

Did you forget what Artanis said? The Uraj and Khalis crystals were missing. Of course, it was a shame they didn't explain WHY they were missing. If Blizzard does another DLC pack, I'm hoping a few missions we get to play from the hybrid POV so it can at least explain they infiltrated Shakuras and stole the crystals, which convinced Amon that nothing could prevent the planet's fall.

So... the Protoss lost the Khala... but the Khala doesn't appear to be any one thing... since they can still do pretty much the same things as before wihtout it... and the reason it's bad is because it's a backdorr for them to be mind-controlled by a Lovecraftian horror and is used as an excuse for Protoss to be uncompromising and unreasonable religious nutjobs. They still retain all the good aspects of it somehow but now none of the bad. Why exactly are the Protoss reluctant, or even upset for that matter, about losing it again?

I try to look at it as a loss of knowing how they could function. Even if you can improve the ability of the storms, that alone doesn't define your life. Remember, before Amon's corruption, there was the whole "becoming one with the Khala" after death. Now with it gone, they have no idea what'll happen to them after they die. It's also possible that prior to LotV, the Khala still served as some sort of mental voice to them, guiding them (which would be a little bit like Amon's uplifting's residue or something), and now they have no guidance on what to do.

[Turalyon]

Did you forget what Artanis said? The Uraj and Khalis crystals were missing.

And yet they can still use the power of that very same Temple to destroy their own planet. Ok...

I try to look at it as a loss of knowing how they could function. Even if you can improve the ability of the storms, that alone doesn't define your life. Remember, before Amon's corruption, there was the whole "becoming one with the Khala" after death. Now with it gone, they have no idea what'll happen to them after they die. It's also possible that prior to LotV, the Khala still served as some sort of mental voice to them, guiding them (which would be a little bit like Amon's uplifting's residue or something), and now they have no guidance on what to do.

So you're saying all that they lost was a crutch, a "security blanket", they didn't really need in the first place but was fond of and grew to rely on too much? That kinda implies the Khala was a "bad" thing from the get go really... So, why is it "good" again? Regardless, they didn't even lose that "sense of direction" the Khala supposedly gave because they ended up being more unified than ever before and rebuilt their civilisation to brand new heights at the conclusion of LotV.

What's more, the loss of the psychic link is potentially temporary since newborn Protoss will still have nerve cords and can access it and that the only threat to it, the hitherto unknown creator of it, was discovered and destroyed in short order making it safe to use again. So... yeah. Losing the Khala was a real big thing.

[Visions of Khas]

I still don't understand why they couldn't just trigger the anti-Zerg wipe like they did in BW's The Stand instead of blowing up the planet.

I've always favored the view of the zerg as being a bio-mechanical race. They ravage entire worlds, and from the harvested minerals they grow their army population. Denying them a world means that few zerg. Moreover, who knows what Amon could have done with the Xel'Naga temple? And there's no guarantee that the Temple could have eliminate the Hybrids -- Ulrezaj displayed several years prior that zerg sufficiently empowered by the Void were resistant to the wipe (Psi Nova?).

For the whole High Templar matter of becoming stronger after losing the Khala, they'd have no choice but to tap into the Void, which gaves stronger power. However that isn't something you can just master in a few days. The Nerazim certainly didn't, after all. It would have been better to say they can still cast storms, but cannot properly aim it. That at least would have been somewhat consistent with the SC1 lore, and why back then, the Dark Templar lost control of the psi-storms without the Khala.

I suppose it's possible. The High Templar would only be drawing upon the power of the Void while using the mental training of the Khala to guide it. They weren't technically using the energy source component of the Khala/Communal Link, so they couldn't become Tassadar-level casters.

That kinda implies the Khala was a "bad" thing from the get go really... So, why is it "good" again?

The Communal Link was used to bind together the individuals into a cohesive society, eliminating the barrier between Self and Other. Though I suppose this would make them particularly xenophobic towards non-linked Protoss/life. There should have been more schism between the Aiur factions/tribes post-Khala, though, to help drive this point home.

Regardless, they didn't even lose that "sense of direction" the Khala supposedly gave because they ended up being more unified than ever before and rebuilt their civilisation to brand new heights at conclusion of LotV.

This is briefly touched upon in Tim Zahn's StarCraft: Evolution. A Dominion character notes that, while the Protoss are still fierce in combat, the "beautifully choreographed dance" of the zealots has been lost to a more cumbersome display.

[Turalyon]

Just realised that the Zerg invasion of Shakuras was only as bad as it was, was because of the warpgate to Aiur being opened again. Why weren't the Protoss on Shakuras not guarding it or having failsafes to destroy or disable it on Shakuras' end? They know that it's only Zerg on the other side of the gateway and know the near catastrophe of letting Zerg through the first time, so they should've been highly suspicious and prepared if the warpgate just started up again on its own accord.

I've always favored the view of the zerg as being a bio-mechanical race. They ravage entire worlds, and from the harvested minerals they grow their army population. Denying them a world means that few zerg. Moreover, who knows what Amon could have done with the Xel'Naga temple? And there's no guarantee that the Temple could have eliminate the Hybrids -- Ulrezaj displayed several years prior that zerg sufficiently empowered by the Void were resistant to the wipe (Psi Nova?).

They could deny the Zerg their world by just wiping them off with their magical Temple like they did in BW. They can use the Temple to blow up the planet afterall, so why not the anti-Zerg wipe again? Apparently it's because they don't have the Uraj and Khalis, but so what, they have the Keystone. That can magically do whatever the plot requires, why not use that? Seems awfully convenient that those crystals are "missing" and that the Keyston can do all these things but not activate the temple.

If they wanted to deny Amon the temple, they could have just self-destructed that only instead.

The Temple should work on Hybrids because they're partly Zerg. The anti-Zerg wipe would be expected to shear that aspect from the Hybrids, killing them instantly. Heck, even the Protoss had to hide in the Temple the first time in case it would harm them as well.

The Communal Link was used to bind together the individuals into a cohesive society, eliminating the barrier between Self and Other.

I know that, I was asking rhetorically and in regard to the way it's represented in LotV. Still, though it helps inform the history and setup for the Protoss we see in Sc1, it doesn't have a demonstrative benefit during the events depicted in The Fall of Sc1. Case in point, the link didn't stop them having a civil war in Sc1 which nearly led to their defeat to the Zerg.

This is briefly touched upon in Tim Zahn's StarCraft: Evolution. A Dominion character notes that, while the Protoss are still fierce in combat, the "beautifully choreographed dance" of the zealots has been lost to a more cumbersome display.

So the net result of losing the Khala meant that the Protoss lack some broad, aesthetic quality about themselves? Oh, what woe and lamentation!!

[Visions of Khas]

So the net result of losing the Khala meant that the Protoss lack some broad, aesthetic quality about themselves? Oh, what woe and lamentation!!

Haha, well, up until LotV, I had always viewed Khalai warriors the way the Purifiers' Khala-imitating network operates: individuals' processing power is pooled together, and their movements synchronize, allowing for unparalleled unity of movement, speed, and efficiency. I always envisaged the Executor as entering some sort of battle meditation to act as an overall guide to their movements.

You can see this in the opening LotV cinematic: each warrior engages a separate target; a zealot ducks beneath the psionic fire of a High Templar; they cover each other's backs, automatically (the subconscious mind operates faster than the conscious mind, so I sort of imagine the communal link, properly focused by the training of the Khala, is bringing them together at that sort of level). There is no waste in movement.

There's a campaign on Mapster that displays this; the more Zealots you have grouped together, the faster their attack speed. I always thought it was a cool mechanic.

[Gradius]

The Khala is its own external energy source:
- Cutting off your nerve cords or using sundrop forces you to draw from the void because you just lost the khala, which means you lost an energy source and are forced to find a new one.
- Protoss technology can draw energy from the khala, even when all protoss are cut off. An explicit example is the void ray.
- Brian Kindregan said in some q&a that having the Khala gives you access to a bunch of energy you wouldn't normally have.

We don't really see this brought up much in-game because so much of protoss technology does the channeling rather than the protoss himself. The purifiers and the high templar/archon from the new skin pack all seem to have normal Khala abilities, even though they're all robotic. Warp blades increase with the rage of the user but they draw on khala energy through technology, which is why Gestalt Zero or Purifier Sentinels can use them. The high templar is a tricky one because they ended up improving after the loss of the khala which is counterintuitive. But I chalk that up to to the fact that either their power-suit draws on khala energy, or they've just learned how to adapt their techniques to the void in that short of a time only because they already have centuries of training in mental discipline and can control the storms that the untrained rogues couldn't. The archon is also tricky, but given that any combination of dark templar and high templar can merge into a regular archon both in the game and that new shadow wars comic, the lore around Archons doesn't make much sense either way.

Like VoK says, the Khalai lost the ability to coordinate, and I believe Evolution mentions that dark templar are more versatile now. And of course, now they can't immerse themselves into the khala and share emotions so easily.

Overall though, I think losing the khala was a dumb plot point to begin with because it's one of the things that made the protoss interesting, and if it's somehow the cause of their racism then it's pretty sad that they couldn't overcome it on their own. They were already overcoming it after the Khalai refugees landed on Shakuras in BW and then also in the DT saga, but as usual, years of plot development go down the drain because the writers want to do their own thing instead of crafting an actual sequel.

[Mislagnissa]

UA's play of SC2 on spacebattles had lots commentary on SC2's idiotic plot and how it butchered the hive mind and khala. In the khala's case, UA explained that the "khala" is actually two different things: the innate telepathic link (which lacks any other proper name) and the principles and training devised by Khas (including the caste system).

UA pointed out that the judicator's racism was a betrayal of Khas' intent to bring the Protoss together. While I do think the judicators had a point in the past when the rogue tribes were literally self-destructing, this was their fault to begin with for not just exiling the rogues in the first place and the Nerazim developed their own set of disciplines that prevented any recurrences. Ironically, the Nerazim's path of void proved to be a trump card against the Zerg. (In my personal revision of cerebrate hunting, I interpreted killing them as done with the same psychic storms that killed their ancestors rather than simply hacking with swords.)

On a similar note, SC2 and SCR butchered the ethnic diversity of the protoss by changing their skin color from a rainbow varying by tribe to mostly shades of grey. In SC1, the manual mentions that tribes have different skin colors (which seem to be the same as their game team colors) and these are seen in portraits: the scout is brown/venatir, the zealot is green/akilae, and the arbiter is white/shelak. Ironically, SCR Aldaris' new pink skin is consistent with the red-skinned Ara judicator tribe.

Also, does anyone know what "Nerazim" translates to? "Dark templar" and "shadow hunter" seem to be ranks analogous to "high templar" rather than synonyms for ethnicity in their own jargon. "Neraz" appears to be a root word since it appears in the dark templar quote "Neraz gulio" ("gulio" and "gulida" appear in other quotes and appears to mean "to envelop" or "to await" depending on context and conjugation/inflection.) I figured it translates to "Rogue Tribes" or "heretics" and was adopted as a badge of honor, considering the practice of circumcision (my term for cutting nerve cords) was adopted as an insult to the judicators.

[Visions of Khas]

- Protoss technology can draw energy from the khala, even when all protoss are cut off. An explicit example is the void ray.

So the LotV-era Khala is Savassen's mental disciplines, the Communal Link, and the Psionic Matrix, all lumped together.

Is there a muffin button, too?

if it's somehow the cause of their racism then it's pretty sad that they couldn't overcome it on their own.

Hey man, just look at the trouble we're still having with that. If we could feel the emotions, joys and pains of one another, I'm pretty sure we'd make some headway, too. I thought I read somewhere that the Protoss' emotional centers in the brain functioned at a higher level, too, which I guess balances out their cognitive abilities. (I've always seen protoss as being very highly-functional savants, which would only be reinforced by the Khala's enforced caste system. A place for everyone, and everyone in their place.)

On a similar note, SC2 and SCR butchered the ethnic diversity of the protoss by changing their skin color from a rainbow varying by tribe to mostly shades of grey.

I totally agree. But back in the day, I formulated a theory that explained Blizzard's (potential) intent.

I was wrong. :[

Also, does anyone know what "Nerazim" translates to?

I think it translated to The People of the Shadow. I'm pretty sure Neraz refers to shadows and darkness, as you pointed out, and it may be an homage to the Nazgul (even though the word naz itself means "ring"...) When you look at Tal'Darim, I'm pretty sure the -im suffix means "People," or "The People Of."

The People of the Shadow, or the Shadow People, may have been coined by the Khalai, and adopted by the Dark Templar as a mark of pride, as you said. Khalai, after all, refer to the Khala as the Light, so anyone not illuminated by it must, by definition, be enveloped in the shadow of ignorance. (And yes, there is a subtle hypocrisy here, considering the Khalai's racism, and I love it, because I see that shit in WarHammer 40K all the time. Gotta love the grimdark.)

[ragnarok]

And yet they can still use the power of that very same Temple to destroy their own planet. Ok...

That's different, you forget what happened in the Countdown mission of BW?