Exercise 01: Establishing the Status Quo

[Visions of Khas]

Before SCII, I always thought he was trying to infest the Khala by infecting Aiur's psi matrix. Fenix's shorting psi blades were the Overmind testing its new psychic environment.

[ragnarok]

Before SCII, I always thought he was trying to infest the Khala by infecting Aiur's psi matrix. Fenix's shorting psi blades were the Overmind testing its new psychic environment.

I can't remember if it was SC1's lore that said the Khala prevented infestation for the Protoss or something. I always felt that perhaps the Overmind found out about this, and knew it had to work on the khaydarin crystals to try to get around this before the assimilation process could happen.

[GnaReffotsirk]

I'm playing with the Khaydarin in SC Survivors. I haven't thought about its inclusion in SC Ressurection. What's your thoughts on the crystal Khas? All I know about it is that the Overmind learned of Khaydarins after he consumed the Xel'Naga.

[Visions of Khas]

That seemed to be the implication, Rag. The Overmind needed to manifest on Aiur in order to assimilate the Protoss, as per the speech he gave at the end of the first zerg campaign. It served as some kind of interface between itself and Aiur. I always thought the poor decisions by the Conclave and their war with Tassadar was due to the Overmind meddling with the Khala.

[ragnarok]

That seemed to be the implication, Rag. The Overmind needed to manifest on Aiur in order to assimilate the Protoss, as per the speech he gave at the end of the first zerg campaign.

True, though I can't figure out just WHEN he knew the Khala prevented the assimilation.

I'm playing with the Khaydarin in SC Survivors. I haven't thought about its inclusion in SC Ressurection. What's your thoughts on the crystal? All I know about it is that the Overmind learned of Khaydarins after he consumed the Xel'Naga.

Based on the SC1 lore, yes. Not too sure after the SC2 lore, though I doubt even then that shouldn't really change much. After all, Amon would have no real reason to tell the Overmind about the crystals in the first place....

[Turalyon]

Naw, I was thinking an angelic pillar of light descends on Raynor with a beautiful orchestral score in the background.

Didn't this happen in WoL already?

Where does Raynor begin? His state of mind, what does he want currently, what's plaguing him?

If that's not possible to nail down, here's a question:

Where or what is the deepest, darkest state or condition will we find Raynor in during the course of the story?

Let's paint a picture shall we:

I've always seen as Raynor as the average guy, not someone who's special or is a natural and capable leader despite having inherent charm and charisma. Him just being a leader of his own rebel band and being so resourceful to keep it going seemed to me like a a bit of wish-fulfillment on the part of fans and the writers themselves. For me, I'd imagine he'd be lying low at the end of BW and wanting to be alone for quite some because all his experiences with those who he's been close to have either been killed or have betrayed him. His PTSD and survivor guilt would probably give into despair, he'd become the alcoholic he was supposed to be in WoL and then get into fights hoping someone would end his life. Yet, he finds that he keeps surviving those encounters, with his encounters catching the eye of a pirate militia who wishes to hire him seeing that the man has nothing else to lose. Raynor agrees since he longer cares and thinks that this may grant better opportunities for his deathwish.

Being part of the pirate militia starts to harden Raynor up and he becomes more brazen in his antics within the group. This heat soon attracts the Dominion and eventually events lead to involvement with Mengsk. Then I can imagine that exchange that Nissa mentioned earlier about both joining up over Kerrigan may start to gain some traction.

How about a cult/brood of infested terrans that hail from the worlds most devastated by the First Contact War. These people have lost virtually everything, and as far as they are concerned, humanity's fundamental disadvantages; their technology which is inferior to that of the Protoss, and their inability too quickly train and support war-ready infantry like the Zerg can. Lead them to believe that the ultimate fate of Terrans in the sector is to be consumed by the Zerg or destroyed by the Protoss. They would rather not live an incredibly agonizing existence, under the constant threat of death, and choose to join the swarm as a means to ensure life.

A cult of Zerg-loving humans/infested Terrans reminds me a bit of Tyranid genestealers. Long ago, I actually thought of this idea as a way of introducing the Umojans into the mix - that this cult could be a faction that could develop within their high-minded society.

My thoughts on the Zerg is very very different. I want it to reflect the emptiness of what Kerrigan has made for herself. At least with respect to the start of the narrative.

Remember she couldn't trust anyone, and Duran abandons her for no apparent reason. At least, in her perspective. Only the one cerebrate remained with her through Omega.

I have details on this, but it's tied up to the inciting incident, and I'm not ready for it to get hammered down by criticism.

Where it goes from there could be the creation of characters that will populate the positions held by cerebrates in the past.

I like the concept of the Zerg evolving on their own after the loss of the Overmind without Kerrigan's help. This will give more agency to the Zerg and give something for Kerrigan to do within the Swarm as well as give her some agency that doesn't tie her extricably to the Zerg (part of HotS muddiness is that it wants us to think of the Kerrigan and Zerg as one but not when it's inconvenient/unwholesome for the Kerrign character and feels flip-floppy because of it). Whether that could involve cerebrates coming back (either from death or hiding) again is tricky to say since they were under-utilised and deserve some limelight but in doing so, could invite accusations of it being a blatant conceit/rehash/unoriginality.

All-in-all, I would like a shake-up within the Zerg that Kerrigan controls. The idea that she isn't actually perfect and that she actually does not have the means to replace the Overmind would be great. The Zerg can become factional to a degree (they don't and shouldn't become as disparate as the Terrans or Protoss though) and see Kerrigan as a threat but with the twist that Kerrigan is the one that either creates that issue in some way or incites this change in the Zerg. This could be a good way to explore Kerrigan's "control" issues. Then we could actually start seeing a "brood war", which we didn't get in BW itself.

Please tell me it has to do with the Overmind's khaydarin crystal. That thing's been begging to be picked up as a plot device.

Don't encourage the use of plot device for the mere purpose of artifice! *Slaps VoK* Bad VoK!

Seriously though, the Overmind's Khaydarin crystal is nothing special because the Overmind's dead! Really, it's just like any other Khaydarin Crystal that litter Aiur and probably just as despoiled by Zerg as any other crystal, you know, after having been occupied by the Zerg for years.

[GnaReffotsirk]

Khaydarins, I thought were storage crystals and can be used to tap psionic energy. If at all important, we could just say the Overmind's crystal is the one he took from the Xel'Naga, and from where he found information, and is still trying to mine information from.

Maybe that's where he feeds to gain psionic energy and exert control over the broods.

Say the Overmind may not be psionically gifted enough to extend his control over a vast number of Zerg, without the use of Khaydarin crystals, let alone an entire galaxy once he had assimilated everything. (As cerebrate we click on that thing to start missions. hehe)

I thought, since Aiur is kind of hub where psionic energy is highly concentrated/abundant (maybe it has something to do with Khaydarin formations on the planet), perhaps the reason why the Overmind wanted to plant itself there, is so it can then tap into this massive source of energy and just expand uninhibited from there.

Oh, and weren't the cerebrate who were trying to merge into a new overmind used a crystal to do their thing?

[Turalyon]

Khaydarins, I thought were storage crystals and can be used to tap psionic energy.

The manual says "The Crystals, left behind by the Xel'Naga, were fundamental in facilitating their proto-genetic experiments" in the Protoss history section.

Since the Overmind absorbed Xel'Nagan knowledge when it overcome them on Zerus, we can infer that it wanted the crystals for it's own proto-genetic experimentation. Given that it's goal is to assimilate Protoss, the implication is that is what it's for. But eh, it's a magic crystal. It can do whatever the plot demands I suppose.

I thought, since Aiur is kind of hub where psionic energy is highly concentrated/abundant (maybe it has something to do with Khaydarin formations on the planet), perhaps the reason why the Overmind wanted to plant itself there, is so it can then tap into this massive source of energy and just expand uninhibited from there.

Ah, I remember the days when speculation was rampant. My particular fanon was that the Overmind was tapping into the psionic matrix and using the Khaydarin crystal in order to connect to the extended Swarm that had spread far across the galaxy looking for the Protoss. Essentially, that the Zerg force we see in Sc1 was but an expeditionary force and that tapping into Aiur would allow it to connect the greater Overmind network and be a beacon, calling all other Zerg far and wide to the K sector.

[ragnarok]

Oh, and weren't the cerebrate who were trying to merge into a new overmind used a crystal to do their thing?

We don't know that for sure. Remember, Kerrigan only told Zeratul and the others that some of the renegade Cerebrates commanded by Daggoth had merged into a new Overmind and that is all. It's possible to create the Overmind, you never really needed the crystals. The crystals' use was only needed for assimilation.

Say the Overmind may not be psionically gifted enough to extend his control over a vast number of Zerg, without the use of Khaydarin crystals, let alone an entire galaxy once he had assimilated everything. (As cerebrate we click on that thing to start missions. hehe)

I thought, since Aiur is kind of hub where psionic energy is highly concentrated/abundant (maybe it has something to do with Khaydarin formations on the planet), perhaps the reason why the Overmind wanted to plant itself there, is so it can then tap into this massive source of energy and just expand uninhibited from there.

The hub part I can kind of see. The Overmind DID say this was the place where the Xel'Naga first set foot on Aiur, so maybe that could be like a "Ground Zero" thing where the origins of all their energy came from, so once that part is under his control, the rest is self explanatory.

[Visions of Khas]

One question I have, the zerg purity of essence. For our purposes, will that be the overmind, the hivemind, or some other quality?

And if the zerg swarm is too big for the OM to control, wouldn't he just make more cerebrates?