Campaign Portraits

[KaiserStratosTygo]

Stop the grey washing of the protoss!

#multicoloredProtossmatter

[Mislagnissa]

I always assumed protoss absorbed water and the blood of their prey through semi-permeable skin.

That's not feasible for an organism of that size. Spiders and flies vomit digestive acid onto their food and then slurp it up. Larger animals like humans ingest food, digest it, absorb nutrients through the small intestine, and excrete the rest as waste.

The DT saga said they hunted for skins/sport, not food.

That makes even less sense. An animal like the Protoss could not maintain its metabolism without eating, because that's how basic biology works. Even the Zerg at least pretend to follow basic biology by engineering creep to deal with all their nutritional needs.

[Gradius]

That makes even less sense. An animal like the Protoss could not maintain its metabolism without eating, because that's how basic biology works. Even the Zerg at least pretend to follow basic biology by engineering creep to deal with all their nutritional needs.

That's what doesn't make sense to you? That they can't get enough energy for hunting and moving around? What about getting energy to create psionic storms?

In the old days it was assumed their energy source was the same as where they got their psi powers from (Khala, void, psionic matrix, etc). But then the DT saga retconned it to "sunlight" which is completely unnecessary and redundant.

[Mislagnissa]

That's what doesn't make sense to you? That they can't get enough energy for hunting and moving around? What about getting energy to create psionic storms?

In the old days it was assumed their energy source was the same as where they got their psi powers from (Khala, void, psionic matrix, etc). But then the DT saga retconned it to "sunlight" which is completely unnecessary and redundant.

Where do humans and zerg get the energy for their psychic powers? The zerg have things like the corruptor's anti-gravity cancer! Psychic powers are inherently weird and I won't try to justify them.

It was never stated anywhere in the original games that Protoss didn't need to eat. Their mouthless faces were just a convenient shorthand for alien (I suspect they were based on the Warhammer 40k eldar, who wear masks like that). The fact that they were pack hunters and evolved an innate telepathic link to aid in hunting leads me to believe they did eat. (EDIT: Also, dragoon wear breathing masks for some reason.)

I'm deeply sorry if that doesn't square with the way you imagined them, but I read Animorphs growing up and assumed the Protoss worked something like the Andalites (who eat with mouths in their hooves).

[Gradius]

It's possible they had to eat early on in their evolution and then lost their mouths after XelNaga genetic manipulations. Either their mouths or their hunting habits would be vestigial.

But they don't eat. There's no evidence for that and it's unnecessary when they can miracle up psionic storms out of nowhere.

[Mislagnissa]

It's possible they had to eat early on in their evolution and then lost their mouths after XelNaga genetic manipulations. Either their mouths or their hunting habits would be vestigial.

But they don't eat. There's no evidence for that and it's unnecessary when they can miracle up psionic storms out of nowhere.

There's no evidence except the post-2006 canon that they don't eat and the writers only devised that explanation because they couldn't think of anything else. In SC1 Kerrigan could summon psionic storms from nowhere, and psychic powers in general are seemingly able to produce energy from nowhere, but no one argues that psychics in general are sustained entirely on their own psychic powers.

The SC1 manual backstory explains that Protoss lost their knowledge of psychic powers during the Aeon of Strife and had to relearn it through Khala. If they were reliant on their psychic powers/psi matrix/whatever for sustenance, then they would have starved to death during the Aeon or any other time they were cut off from their power source.

If psychic powers could so easily replicate basic matter then nobody would bother harvesting resources! The Protoss advanced to the point where they could replicate their own psychic powers using technology as well as applications they could only accomplish with technology. If they could survive without any external sustenance indefinitely, then that means they are producing carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous, sulfur or whatever other elements they need to survive without any external input.

Nobody has discovered a way to produce free energy and replicate matter from nowhere, even though the inconsistent fluff makes this an entirely feasible outcome. Since Matrix-style power plants are not a thing, I can only assume Protoss need to consume an external source of the biological macro-molecules their physiology requires. I do not want to explore the possibility of Matrix-style power plants, either, because they would break the setting. I already suspend my disbelief for so much else, but that is where I draw a line.

[sandwich_bird]

(EDIT: Also, dragoon wear breathing masks for some reason.)

And, on top of that, the resting animation of many Protoss show signs of rhythmical chest expansion. If they're not breathing...

I don't see why you prefer "invisible mouth in hands/weird places" over re-engineering though. Apart from subjective reasons, you only bring up trophic levels but I don't see how this relate to anything since it was not a natural evolution. I mean, yeah, it's far-fetched that they'd somehow manage to accomplish such a transformation from top to bottom but so is the idea of invisible mouths. If you look at Artanis' model in BW, there's very few places where he could hide a digestive track/system other than where you'd expect a human to have one. If he had mouths in his hands, how could he manage to pack a digestive track + bone/muscles/etc in those skinny arms? I don't know, you can make it work I'm sure, I just personally feel it doesn't fit the narrative as well. Anywaysss, the narrative is pretty shit at this point. They could be all wizards for all I care.

[Mislagnissa]

And, on top of that, the resting animation of many Protoss show signs of rhythmical chest expansion. If they're not breathing...

I don't see why you prefer "invisible mouth in hands/weird places" over re-engineering though. Apart from subjective reasons, you only bring up trophic levels but I don't see how this relate to anything since it was not a natural evolution. I mean, yeah, it's far-fetched that they'd somehow manage to accomplish such a transformation from top to bottom but so is the idea of invisible mouths. If you look at Artanis' model in BW, there's very few places where he could hide a digestive track/system other than where you'd expect a human to have one. If he had mouths in his hands, how could he manage to pack a digestive track + bone/muscles/etc in those skinny arms? I don't know, you can make it work I'm sure, I just personally feel it doesn't fit the narrative as well. Anywaysss, the narrative is pretty shit at this point. They could be all wizards for all I care.

I could totally get behind the idea that the Protoss skulls are jawless but keep their mouths and trachea in roughly the same place. Maybe their cheeks are gills and when they eat they extend tubules with rasping plates from their cheeks or something. This also raises interesting ideas about how their ears work, since they wouldn't have ear bones.

[Gradius]

There's no evidence except the post-2006 canon that they don't eat and the writers only devised that explanation because they couldn't think of anything else.

Eat - put (food) into the mouth and chew and swallow it.

They can't eat by definition.

The SC1 manual backstory explains that Protoss lost their knowledge of psychic powers during the Aeon of Strife and had to relearn it through Khala. If they were reliant on their psychic powers/psi matrix/whatever for sustenance, then they would have starved to death during the Aeon or any other time they were cut off from their power source.

The manual also states the dark templar were forced to draw from the void after they cut themselves off from the Khala. It's possible all protoss instinctively draw upon void energy if they have no other power source.

If psychic powers could so easily replicate basic matter then nobody would bother harvesting resources! The Protoss advanced to the point where they could replicate their own psychic powers using technology as well as applications they could only accomplish with technology. If they could survive without any external sustenance indefinitely, then that means they are producing carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous, sulfur or whatever other elements they need to survive without any external input.

Nobody has discovered a way to produce free energy and replicate matter from nowhere, even though the inconsistent fluff makes this an entirely feasible outcome.

But you realize that in SC2 the protoss literally do do that via the starforge and it doesn't make them invincible? They gather resources to pay for warping in the units, not constructing them. Skip to 0:49 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T0uzOTBwns

Then Kerrigan regrows a wing in like a second after her fight with Zeratul; there's no way a biological system could do that either. Then warp prisms.

I'm not saying a protoss is a closed biological system. Maybe it can absorb nutrients from the skin, or synthesize everything with psionics, but an extra external organ that we've never seen for eating? That seems pretty far-fetched. They already had named energy sources from the manual (khala and void), so sunlight is an unnecessary retcon and a hidden mouth can be eliminated via Occam's razor.

Since Matrix-style power plants are not a thing, I can only assume Protoss need to consume an external source of the biological macro-molecules their physiology requires. I do not want to explore the possibility of Matrix-style power plants, either, because they would break the setting. I already suspend my disbelief for so much else, but that is where I draw a line.

That was kind of already heavily implied by SC1 though. Protoss transform into pure energy to remerge into Archons, and they died in a blue energy flame upon death. They were pretty much psionic energy creatures.

[Mislagnissa]

Eat - put (food) into the mouth and chew and swallow it.

They can't eat by definition.


The manual also states the dark templar were forced to draw from the void after they cut themselves off from the Khala. It's possible all protoss instinctively draw upon void energy if they have no other power source.


But you realize that in SC2 the protoss literally do do that via the starforge and it doesn't make them invincible? They gather resources to pay for warping in the units, not constructing them. Skip to 0:49 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T0uzOTBwns

Then Kerrigan regrows a wing in like a second after her fight with Zeratul; there's no way a biological system could do that either. Then warp prisms.

I'm not saying a protoss is a closed biological system. Maybe it can absorb nutrients from the skin, or synthesize everything with psionics, but an extra external organ that we've never seen for eating? That seems pretty far-fetched. They already had named energy sources from the manual (khala and void), so sunlight is an unnecessary retcon and a hidden mouth can be eliminated via Occam's razor.


That was kind of already heavily implied by SC1 though. Protoss transform into pure energy to remerge into Archons, and they died in a blue energy flame upon death. They were pretty much psionic energy creatures.

I did suggest protoss are jawless, so they would not chew like humans do. Lots of animals are jawless, like hagfish and spiders.

Protoss having alien mouthparts is the simplest answer by Occam's razor because it makes the fewest extraneous suppositions. We see them inhaling and exhaling through something, so why not a nose or mouth? Saying all protoss automatically draw on void for sustenance only raises more questions about how they use their powers, because Adun seemed to be the first ever person to think psionics was possible without khaydarin crystals.

Why don't Zerg use void for food? It seems like the simplest power to learn. Wait! We didn't even know the Zerg relied on creep for sustenance until it was explained in another source. The SC1 manual states buildings rely on it but only implies the units do.

I don't like relying on SC2 for answers because it is conceptually braindead.

Ultimately, the real answer is that Blizzard just didn't think about it during the development of SC1. If the Protoss only wore mouthless helmets, it would change nothing about the plot.