Starcraft reboot ideas discussion thread

[sandwich_bird]

I answered those complaints preemptively. I said viroins, which are different from viruses. Viroins do not exist in reality.

But you didn't... ctrl+f viroins or virinos and the only mentions of this are in your last posts. You said virions which is the same thing as a virus.

Where canon gets things wrong is that it references real science and gets it wrong, rather than using magical explanations with no basis in reality. I used magical explanations with no basis in reality because you cannot prove fictional magic wrong using real science.

Then why mention virions or prions at all? Why say that you know anatomy? Seems like you wanted to reference some real world science to me. Honestly, you could have just said "protoss are made of magic particles that only exist in the starcraft universe and they are controlled by soul like entities existing as psi energy" or something. Then, yeah sure I'd agree.

If two things have zero sense, it is impossible for either to make more sense than the other. Their amounts of sense are always equal to zero. In other words, please stop being flippantly dismissive and disrespectful of my suggestions while elevating the bullshit that is canon. Unlike the random forum mod who first invented the photosynthesis retcon while knowing nothing about photosynthesis, I studied biology in college and know how impossible it is. That's why I liberally invoke space magic.

I don't mind if you have a legitimate criticism of my suggestions, but please stop pretending that canon is anything other than bullshit or that it is arbitrarily better than my bullshit. Bullshit is bullshit.

3 bricks don't make a house but it's closer to being one than a single brick

Anyways, my point was that you complained that canon is bullshit because it misuses science and then came back around with something that also misuses science. That's why I was dismissing you. Now you're saying that it wasn't supposed to be interpreted as using real world science and if that's the case then I retract the criticism.

Fungi and many microrganisms reproduce by fusing together. Protoss have different genders because they cannot reproduce with the same gender; that is the definition of a gender.

That's not the definition of gender, that's the definition of a sex. In any case, we're back to my prior criticism. You're putting real life science into the specie again. Why give them sexes or genders at all? I personally prefer my protoss as they were in SC1, without any mentions of females or even males. Just protoss. You have answered the reproduction question by saying they meld their minds and bodies and out of it come a toss baby. cool. Why not leave it at that? You raise more questions by adding these details.

If we still want to consider this starcraft, the protoss need to be recognizable. If you want radically inhuman then refer to my suggestions for a new universe loosely inspired by starcraft a few threads back.

I'm not the one who wants to change them. I'm fine with them being humanoid. I think adding breasts and what not to show different genders/sexes is a bad idea.

[Mislagnissa]

Yes, great, you are right about all those things. Let’s say that protoss are made of psychic goo that holds it shape by willpower until they die and burst into flames and gibbets, and they don’t have sex/gender except what humans ascribe to them.

[Mislagnissa]

My attempt to explain protoss physiology in terms of genomes and protein analogues may have been ill-conceived, but I am not entirely opposed to at least mentioning real science exists in Starcraft even if other aspects of physics are different from reality. Tvtropes refers to this idea as "Minovsky physics." Basically, the fictional world is assumed to function according to real physics but a few additional physical laws are added to allow things impossible in reality; these new laws are consistent and predictable. The difference from technobabble is that technobabble is meaningless buzzwords that exists solely to justify a solution to the problem of the week without actually explaining anything.

Starcraft has a huge technobabble problem. Most of the descriptions of zerg biology are outright meaningless, often using real scientific terms in contexts where they make no sense. For example, the upgrade "gamete meiosis" causes broodlings to grow faster by inseminating their hosts, but that makes about as much sense as a human impregnating a tree by ejaculating on it and contradicts the description of broodlings as parasitoids which eat their hosts from the inside out. This is different from the protoss technobabble, because the protoss technobabble is easy to complain about because it is less ridiculous. It is easy to complain that photosynthesis cannot support animal metabolisms and so forth because laypeople do not understand how it works, but even a layperson knows where babies come from.

Starcraft doesn't devote much effort to explaining how psychic powers work, beyond buzzwords like "alpha waves," "psionic emanations," "psi disruptors" and so forth. From the evidence available, psychic waves seem to function in a manner similar to electromagnetic waves such as radio and radar. Where the comparison to real physics breaks down is telekinesis: the closest comparison would be to directed energy weapons (e.g. lasers), except that directed psychic waves can levitate objects (telekinesis) or create combustion without an ignition source (pyrokinesis). This is an example of Minovsky physics, however vague.

Originally mutalisk wings providing thrust by flapping in space were described as an unknown phenomenon, and considering that mutalisks scream "tekeli-li" I think it was meant to be a reference to the sanity shattering alien science of the Cthulhu mythos. This displays a surprisingly degree of humility on the part of the writer, and I would have preferred similar explanations for the protoss. Some later stories tossed out that detail in favor of claiming the mutalisks produce thrust by farting, and their farts literally do not stink. I prefer the former explanation. Similarly, the fiction cannot agree if overlords produce thrust by farting or telekinesis. Real world cephalopods have siphons so it is not impossible to have biological ramjet engines, a la Darwin IV's jetdarters, either.

By far the most interesting technobabble, mentioned in the Blackstone fiction, is the idea that zerg have "singing cells" or "musical organelles" which they use for communication and genetic engineering. In the original manual the primordial zerg were mentioned as characterized by "genetic versatility" (they can splice genomes) and "psychic sensitivity" (they are telepathic). But Blackstone goes further and connects the two, which I thought was novel and fairly sensible. If the zerg have telepathy and gene splicing, it makes perfect sense they would use telepathy to quickly communicate gene splicing between individuals and cells within the same individual.

If you have any advice or criticism then I would like to hear it.

[Mislagnissa]

On another note, do we want Earth to be involved or not? We only have two options: there is a fractured Terran empire centered on Earth that includes Tau Ceti, Koprulu, etc a la the 1996 iteration of the lore. Or Koprulu is completely cut off from Earth (and no secret Earth spy networks because that is pointless if they were supposed to be lost in the first place).

If Koprulu is nominally part of a larger Terran empire, then that means there are many more worlds for the zerg to invade. As in the cancelled draft of Brood War, Earth will probably fall to the zerg because the zerg have nigh-infinite numbers and countless millennia of uninterrupted advancement. In my opinion, Earth should fall to the zerg before the zerg invade the protoss' galactic empire to showcase how terrible the zerg are.

I do not think there should be any overlap between the terran and protoss wars against the zerg except in Koprulu. Terrans and protoss have no reason to interact except in overlapping territories, so they would basically be on their own. There might be a few exceptions like the dark protoss or necrons/purifiers deciding to conquer or raid terran worlds, or the alienated magistrate deserting the Dominion (and its innocent citizens) to offer meager assistance to the protoss a la Enslavers Redux, but large-scale cooperation between the terran and protoss governments is utterly implausible.

[Nissa]

I prefer leaving Earth out of the picture. It makes everything feel more strange and weird if the familiar stuff isn't around. Like maybe Earth exists, but no one knows where.

[Mislagnissa]

I prefer leaving Earth out of the picture. It makes everything feel more strange and weird if the familiar stuff isn't around. Like maybe Earth exists, but no one knows where.

It is plausible that you could determine Earth’s location if you had historical data from the Sol System such as the planets and constellations. You can deduce it by process of elimination by looking for planets which would support terran life.

A more realistic barrier would be distance. In canon all distances are meaningless since all travel time is effectively instant.

Realistically, traveling to Earth might be infeasible because it is too far away. Maybe ATLAS was swept up by warp space weather or something and traveled further than terran warp drives are capable of within human lifespans.

So no UED. No Stukov.

[Mislagnissa]

Did I post a timeline yet? Well, I'm posting one here.

Long story short, my idea for a Starcraft reboot is to remove the focus on a specific cast of characters in favor of a grand, sandbox setting for authors to place their custom campaigns. Using a metaplot, or overarching narrative for the entire setting, allows many different authors to set their stories within a shared universe without worrying about collaborating. The metaplot is fairly vague on the detail and covers major events that affect the setting as a whole rather than nitty-gritty stuff.

Rather than specific years, since each era could realistically last a decade or more, I will be describing the timeline in terms of eras divided by major events. Some of these eras take place concurrently. (This is a rehash of the bland formulaic Starcraft great wars. If you read Enumerate, you would notice that follows the same structure too.)

Antebellum
This period takes place after the zerg vanguard starts invading terran space but before the protoss start glassing planets. During this time, several things are happening:

• The zerg vanguard broods are infesting frontier planets, while the military broods are still in transit
• The Confederacy is trying to weaponize the zerg, because they are seriously that corrupt
• The Umojans figure out the zerg are hostile invaders and try to figure out how to stop them
• The former KMC guilds on the frontier worlds are decimated by zerg infestation
• Protoss border patrols get involved when they detect the signals of prototype psi-emitters and zerg telepathy
• The situation spirals out of control as conventional tactics are ineffective against the zerg swarming tactics
• Terrans eventually deploy nukes, which seem to work, but too late to prevent big problems
• Protoss reinforcements arrive and start glassing planets, starting with Chau Sara
• Et cetera

Koprulu War
This period starts when the Protoss openly attack terran worlds to stop the zerg. It is known by many names, but I will refer to it as the Koprulu War. This period never really ends and is essentially the main conflict of the franchise. Again, many things happen at this time:

• The terrans enter civil war, with the Confederacy being attacked by the pirate militias.
• Psi-emitter terrorism becomes a problem when pirate militias steal psi-emitters.
• The protoss enter their own civil war between those who want to protect the terrans and those who consider them collateral damage.
• Dark protoss appear and act a wild card, having been lured by the psychic signals and zerg deep space probes.
• Archaeological expeditions release purifiers, who act as another wild card.
• Optional: Earth and other terran sectors are attacked by zerg. Earth falls to the zerg.
• Dominion arises from ashes of Confederacy, uniting Umoja and KMC as client states.
• Umojan and KMC both seek to undermine Dominion.
• When the Protoss/Zerg War starts (see below), the Empire forces in the Koprulu sector are recalled. Some of them return, while others stay in Koprulu to finish what they started.

Protoss/Zerg War
The protoss/zerg war occurs in the Protoss Empire space between the zerg and protoss. It occurs well into the Koprulu War, after the zerg successfully breed armies of terran-derived psychic breeds and have acquired intelligence by torturing protoss prisoners, but is otherwise unconnected with the Koprulu War. The two wars occur concurrently, the Koprulu War does not magically stop to allow the P/Z War to occur.

• The zerg are able to use psychic warfare based on assimilated terrans and psychic crystals to prevent the Protoss Empire from utilizing their advantages, while turning those advantages against the Empire. Among other things, the zerg plant a "god bug" (a la the Starship Troopers movies) on Aiur Prime to tap into the psionic matrix built under the crust.
• The zerg assault both the Empire as well as the dark protoss and unaffiliated groups.
• Psychic warfare can drive broods feral/insane, but this is not a permanent solution as mad broods which don't destroy themselves will eventually spawn a new leader and other zerg commanders can claim control of the brood in the interim.
• A last ditch attack by the dark templar enables them to destroy the god bug on Aiur Prime by detonating psionic storms inside it, which severs all broods from the unity of the Overmind and drives the broods on the core worlds insane.

Brood Wars (plural)
This conflict begins after the Overmind is broken (not killed, since it is not really a living thing to begin with). It includes the latter portion of the Koprulu War.

• The zerg broods fight among themselves to determine who will replace the Overmind. Several assimilated terran breeds, those composed of multiple brains originally intended as living artillery, are able to emulate the hive mind and control their own broods. They fight each other and those broods lead by brain bugs.
• The protoss have less to worry about and can focus on rebuilding before the zerg do. There are still a number of civil wars over ethnic differences.
• Umojans and KMC openly defy Dominion by sending enslaved zerg against them. This has mixed reactions from the civilian populace.
• The Brood Wars end when the Overmind is inevitably reunited. The timeline is not detailed past this point, since it would just rehash earlier eras of the timeline and fall prey to sequelitis.

[Mislagnissa]

For whatever reason people only seem interested in discussing the canon characters, so this post will be discussing the fates of canon characters.

Terrans

Raynor
Raynor's story thread goes the same as it did in the canon Rebel Yell, except that Kerry is eaten by the zerg and never calls him to Char. Raynor's Raiders are secretly funded by the Umojan Protectorate in his rebellion against the Dominion. This pretty much recycles the stuff he does in Wings of Liberty. With the help of the Umojans and their new protoss allies (drawn from the Akilae-led human sympathizers and the nerazim), he forges the Alliance to deal with the Dominion, Ara-led exterminators, and zerg in Koprulu. Raynor deeply dislikes the protoss for their multiple acts of genocide, but is willing to work with the nerazim (who suffered similar pogroms) and the sympathizers (who proved themselves by helping to evacuating Mar Sara and Antiga Prime, among other worlds).

Kerry
She is consumed by the zerg and her genetics used in new generations of assimilated terrans, along with the rest of the Ghost Academy captured by the zerg on Tarsonis.

Mar Sara Magistrate
(Modified from Enslavers Redux custom campaign remake) Magistrate is press-ganged into serving the Dominion. He is sent to investigate Alan Schezar on Halcyon, and discovers that Schezar has somehow enslaved a zerg brood. The Magistrate rescues some protoss imprisoned by Schezar and learns that Schezar plans to warp to the Protoss Empire. The Magistrate betrays the Dominion and assists Mojo in following Schezar. They discover that the Protoss Empire is engaged in a full-scale galactic war against the invading zerg, who are using horrific monsters derived from terran psychic genetics. Schezar plans to enslave more zerg, for reasons unknown. Magistrate and Mojo manage to stop Schezar, but are left stranded in the Empire and essentially take the place of Raynor's Raiders position in canon. Later, they encounter Ulrezaj who was Schezar's benefactor the whole time and plans to enslave and modify the zerg to use as weapons against the Khalai.

Duke
Since Raynor and Mengsk are never lured to Char, Duke survives to keep fighting against the genocidal zerg and protoss forces attacking the Dominion.

Mengsk
Mengsk rules the Dominion, including the KMC and Umoja as client states. His dictatorship disgusts the Umojans, prompting them to conspiracy. He refuses to return the KMC's former holdings taken by the Confederacy, which prompts them to conspiracy too.

DuGalle
DuGalle is a member of the Umojan Protectorate. When the Brood Wars start, he leads the rebellion against the Dominion. Everything goes wrong when he meets Duran, a ghost and former Confederate operative. Although DuGalle does not trust Duran at all, Duran secretly sabotages key plans and frames Stukov for treachery. When he brutally murders Stukov during the court martial, DuGalle realizes the truth too late and forges onward without his dear friend. When his battleship is later overrun by zerg using intel supplied by Duran, DuGalle commits suicide while listening to classical music as zerglings pound on his quarters' door.

Stukov
Stukov is 2nd to DuGalle and his childhood friend. Duran sabotages his plans and frames him for treachery. DuGalle is unwilling to believe his childhood friend capable of this and oversees his court martial. Duran, impatient at the terran's civilized legal system, mortally wounds Stukov in front of numerous witnesses before fleeing. When the vessel is later overrun by zerg summoned by Duran, Stukov's cryogenically preserved body is recovered by the cerebrate Kaloth. Unable to reverse terran cryogenics due to a lack of knowledge, Kaloth injects Stukov with its own regenerative cells and turns him into its avatar. Kaloth and Stukov later join a "new swarm" characterized by its extensive use of cyborgs that marry terran technology and zerg flesh.

Duran
Duran is an intelligent and deranged protoss replicant dating back to before or during the Aeon of Strife. It is believed to have been active in Koprulu for centuries, but its first known activities include meeting Ulrezaj on Halcyon and forming an alliance with him. For reasons unknown, Duran wants to create protoss/zerg hybrids and exhibits a religious mania very close to that of the zerg themselves (he most likely got the idea from them, since he only knew they existed when they invaded). He leads at least one cult of Tal'darim (fanatical splinter groups) who wish to become hybrids themselves.

Protoss

Tassadar
Tassadar joins the human sympathizer faction in Koprulu, as well as the Nerazim led by Zeratul. He briefly joins the Alliance before returning to the Empire to help fight the zerg invasion. He survives and helps found the twilight templar religion that aims to unite the khala and void.

Zeratul
Zeratul follows the zerg probes to Koprulu and initially believes the zerg to be a test of his mettle. However, he sympathizes with the terrans due to their individuality and ultimately joins the Alliance. He is captured and tortured by the zerg, giving them intelligence on the psionic matrix and dark matrix. He blames himself for the invasion and, along with many other dark templar, descends inside a god bug in order to set off a huge psionic storm that should hopefully shatter the zerg Overmind. He dies in the process, but the suicide attack proves successful and gives the protoss time to rebuild.

Executor "Artanis" (Episodes 3/4)
It does not make sense for Artanis and the Executor from Episodes 3 and 4 to be the same character. The Executor was clearly a peer of Fenix and Tassadar, but Artanis was written as a youthful prodigy (the BW manual foreshadowed that his recklessness would cause problems, but nothing ever came of this; honestly he adds absolutely nothing of value to the story). In SC2, "Artanis" is written as if he were the mature Executor all along, with no sign of ever being a youthful prodigy. Indeed, Selendis is his student and would therefore be much younger. In order to reconcile this, I will add a century to Artanis' age to make him slightly older than Tassadar and presume that his prodigy status applied in the distant past. The original BW Artanis character, a reckless child prodigy who worships Tassadar, is essentially written out of existence.

Anyway, at the Conclave's behest he leads an inquisition to the Koprulu sector to investigate the Akilae rebellion and exterminate the Nerazim. Tassadar convinces him to assist the Alliance instead and he defects. They later return to the Empire to fight the war against the zerg. After the Overmind's defeat, the zerg on the core worlds go feral. Strangely, some of the broods regain cohesion and start attacking some of the provinces, forcing them to be evacuated. The nerazim offer the coordinates to some of their dark worlds, including Shakuras, and refugees flood the dark worlds. Ulrezaj attempts to kill the refugees with enslaved, modified zerg, but is stopped.

Along with Magistrate, the Executor continues to fight skirmishes with Ulrezaj and his Tal'darim until the dark archon's imprisonment.

Prelate Artanis
An original character I created based on the leftover bits of BW Artanis. He is a dark templar prodigy who worships Tassadar and Zeratul as heroes. He is a member of the Venatir tribe, at least the part that joined the Nerazim, explaining why he pilots a scout. He is eager to prove himself, but his recklessness leads to several complications and potentially even his own death.

Matriarch Raszagal
Raszagal is a leader of the clan that claims Shakuras. She was manipulated by Duran in disguise into converting to the Taldarim faith and reveals her betrayal when the Tal'darim and their zerg allies attack Shakuras.

Aldaris
Aldaris believes that the Nerazim will be the death of them all, but ultimately changes his mind when he sees them sacrificing themselves in mass to protect the Khalai. On Shakuras, he becomes suspicious of Raszagal when she starts behaving out-of-character and realizes that she is being mentally influenced (since, as a judicator, he is trained in mind control). He calls the other leaders to convene and explain the situation, but its turns out that Raszagal deliberately tricked him so that the Tal'darim could strike them in one place.

Conclusion
This isn't set in stone, but I am attempting to provide a better sense of scale (i.e. canon events are actually not that important in the grand scheme because so much else is going on) and avoid the nonsensical plot holes of BW canon (the story makes no sense at all to me when I try to parse events or character motivations). Honestly I think Duran can be dropped from the story like Kerry, since I only kept him to keep the plot loosely similar to canon but that isn't really necessary if you don't care for canon characters.

If you have alternate ideas then I am all ears.

[Mislagnissa]

Here is more generalized ideas for my reboot pitch.

Intent: refocus the franchise on its original themes and conventions as laid out in the manual, remove incongruous epic fantasy elements, build the setting holistically with the benefit of foresight, build a setting that is believable and internally consistent. We are deliberately deviating from the canon of the original continuity in major ways and have no intention of rehashing the exact same plot.

Premise and basic plot: the terrans, zerg and protoss are fighting each other for their own reasons. No side is cartoonish good or evil, but each one believes itself to be the good guys and all have justifications which make sense in context. The zerg pursue perfection by consuming the strongest races in the universe: the protoss are next on the menu, but in order to stand a chance against their awesome might the zerg need a determinant that they conveniently find in the terran psychic mutants. To complicate matters, the protoss discover their invasion of the terrans prematurely and throw a wrench into things.

Archetypes and subversions: Each of the three races represents a common scifi archetype, named by one article as “celestial,” “terrestrial” and “diabolic.” However, in Starcraft each race subverts these archetypes. The celestial faction is typically depicted as declining a la Tolkien’s elves, but the protoss by contrast are actually a young, idealistic race recovering from a dark age (so they are probably closer to Halo’s Covenant than to Warhammer’s Aeldar). The terrestrial faction is typically depicted as being modern USA in space, but the terrans subvert this by being the descendants of cyborg mutant criminals from the American South. The infernal faction is typically depicted as a mindless devouring swarm, but the zerg subvert this by having personalities and politics of a sort.

Thematic conflicts: The key thematic conflicts of Starcraft include freedom versus control, individuality versus collectivism, diversity versus conformity, and so forth. Each of the three races present these conflicts in different ways. The terrans have the oligarchic Confederacy opposed by the plucky rebels, the protoss have a schism between the khala’s law and the heretics, and the zerg try to marry the strengths of diversity and unity while avoiding the weaknesses.

Setting and time: for the most part, the focus should remain in terran space. The premise involves the three races fighting, so this is the easiest way to justify that. While it is fairly easy to justify the zerg and protoss invading terran space, it is not so easy to justify terrans fighting in protoss space when they have those invasions to worry about. The wars in terran space last for years or decades, not a couple of months as they do in canon. There are numerous arms races as the terrans struggle to deal with the zerg and protoss, often relying on reverse engineering zerg biology and protoss tech. The zerg develop new breeds and warfare using terran psychic genetics, giving them parity with the protoss.

Key changes to the three races compared to canon: the terrans remain essentially the same, but the protoss and zerg are completely different from their canon incarnations. The protoss are not dying space elves struggling desperately to stay relevant, but the rulers of an expanding galactic empire that includes numerous client civilizations. The zerg are not the puppets of an angsty teenage girl or space hippies, but vicious monsters that want to consume the galaxy and lack any concept of diplomacy, peace or mercy.

Query: Why don't the protoss steamroll the zerg steamroll the terrans? A key plot point is that the zerg are established as superior to the terrans and the protoss superior to the zerg, so that raises the question of how the terrans are able to hold their own for any period of time. There are numerous ways to justify this state of affairs: some of the protoss want to protect the terrans rather than exterminate them as collateral damage, the terrans are able to reverse engineer alien tech for certain advantages (at the extreme end enslaving zerg outright), terran psychic powers when properly cultivated are a practical weapon against zerg and protoss, the zerg are intelligent enough to realize that stealthy infestation is less likely to be noticed and purified by the protoss, and the protoss also have their hands full with the various heretic protoss like the nerazim and taldarim and purifiers. Essentially, there are too many obstacles in the way for them to simply steamroll the opposition.

Problem: Keeping the aliens from degenerating into funny looking humans. A key problem that afflicted canon Starcraft over time was that the protoss and zerg degenerated into funny looking humans even when it made no sense. To prevent that, we need to spell out how their psychology is fundamentally different from humans and motivates them towards completely different behavior.

The protoss are the most similar to humans in some ways, but they differ in a key aspect: the Khala. This telepathic internet originally evolved as a more efficient method of communicating and coordinating to hunt prey during the hunter-gatherer stage, but with the aid of psi-link spires it ultimately expanded into a telepathic internet that encompasses their civilization. The protoss live their entire lives in constant communion with those around them, instantly transmitting their location, mood, health, senses and more; this makes deception almost impossible. This enables them to treat other protoss as dear friends even if they never met before. The Khala is the key to the empire's collectivist civilization.

For comparison, human civilization is dysfunctional because humans are inherently selfish and cannot readily emphasize with others. We humans are biased to hate others for looking and thinking differently from us. Since the protoss do not suffer this problem, they are able to make communism work. The reason for this is very simple: protoss are averse to pain like humans and since they share one another's pain they are biased towards actions which reduce everyone else's pain over their own.

This does not, however, prevent them from having differences of opinion. The information shared by the link does not actually share their thoughts, which must be shared through their telepathic equivalent of speech.

The exiles, such as the nerazim and tal'darim, use various methods to suppress the formation of a khala and thus they think and act very much like humans do.

The zerg have a hive mind which operates on a much more extreme level. While the Khala allows the transmission of emotions and senses, the zerg hive mind exchanges brain function. The zerg share a single mind composed of their collective sentience, known as the hive mind generically or as a proper noun "Overmind." To increase efficiency, the Overmind uses primary and secondary agents to coordinate the zerg. These creatures may appear to be individuals, but in truth the zerg do not actually have the same sense of consciousness as other species do. If a zerg warrior or controller dies, their memories are preserved within the hive mind and may be downloaded into a new body. Memories may be trivially exchanged and duplicated across broods, making them effectively immortal and replacing any conventional heredity with literal lineages of thought.

Since this sort of existence is really difficult to convey to people who don't study neurology and cyberpunk fiction, we use the SC2 shorthand that zerg commanders may be resurrected so long as their hatcheries survive.

Speaking of which, the protoss have used technology to enhance the capabilities of the Khala. One of these capabilities was storing memories using their omnipresent crystal computers, which means that the protoss are able to reconstruct the personalities of the dead and create an afterlife of sorts. Not only does this mean that their recall of history is much different than that of humans who cannot speak to dead historical figures, it also means they do not regard death the same way that humans do. Humans fear death and treat funerals as sad affairs, whereas the protoss consider death to be a simple state of transition. In times of need, they are able to resurrect the dead within new bodies, cloned from stored genetic samples or constructed out of robotics. (This is comparable to the infinity circuit and wraithknights from Warhammer's aeldar.) There are debates about whether the dead are really preserved or not, but the protoss do subconsciously fear death strongly enough that most don't look this gift horse in the mouth.

My personal peeve: something I don't like is that both the terrans and protoss use more or less interchangeable robotics. Terrans have cyborgs, piloted mechs and adjutants, protoss have cyborgs, piloted mechs and robots controlled by AI, etc. The only real difference is that terrans use recognizable electronics and protoss use new age crystals. This makes them much more similar to one another than to the zerg, who have a distinct technological aesthetic. I cannot think of a way to make them more distinct, barring technobabble about how protoss tech is made from some fantasy metal that is literally sung into shape (a la Warhammer's aeldar wraithbone, or RahXephon's dolems). Since protoss are supposedly more environmentally friendly than terrans, maybe their tech is made of alien cyborg trees or something (a la the Olkari in Voltron: Legendary Defender).

[Zoar]

I always headcannoned that protoss tech uses psi energy rather than electricity.