Why Amon makes no sense

[Mislagnissa]

I decided to look at Amon's bio on the wiki and analyze how it makes no sense. While I am sure most of us have long since realized his bio makes no sense, some people have not. For their benefit I will be going over Amon's bio paragraph by paragraph and pointing the inconsistencies and plot holes.

"You deny the truth and prove your existence is without meaning. You shall be expunged. No trace of your suffering shall remain."
- Amon(src)

With this statement, Amon has definitely proved that he is completely insane. His sole goal in life is to end all suffering by killing everyone. That is so obviously cartoonish that I cannot take him seriously. That is insane troll logic: there is no line of reasoning in which this makes sense. Is he supposed to be sympathetic or insane?

Compare the Overmind, who is also a genocidal doomsday villain who presents an existential threat to the universe. The Overmind wanted the zerg to consume all other life in the universe and reproduce endlessly. This makes perfect sense because that is the exact same behavior of all life on earth. Humans are the only species on Earth capable of comprehending the concept of environmental conservation.

To show off how superior the Overmind is, here is an excerpt from a battle report expressing what the Overmind and his cerebrates would say instead of that quote:

The Universe is only a feeding [untranslatable] - a vessel that holds the nourishment necessary for the Swarm. It is we that give it life and purpose. Death is not a loss - it ensures the future for the Swarm in the ages.

It is more offensive to me that the nourishment needed to better ourselves (and in thus doing better the Universe) is siphoned away by lesser beings. Protoss and Terran alike waste the very [untranslatable] that should feed us. These abominations are undeserving of the blessings that the Universe has dedicated to us. The deaths of these creatures will return the stolen [untranslatable] to the Universe and thence to the Swarm. I have no pity for the Zealots. They are usurpers and thieves unworthy of their gifts.

That is how you write a genocidal villain. None of that "to save the people we must kill the people" drivel, these awesome monsters just want to eat you.

Amon, otherwise known as the Dark Voice, the Fallen One,[4] the Dark One,[5] the Dark God,[6] the Eternal One,[7] the Master,[8] and Truth-bringer,[8] was a malevolent xel'naga connected to the Void. He sought to break the "corrupt" cycle of the xel'naga and bring all life to an end,[9] before remaking it in his image.[4]

He has been described as "the universe's most ancient evil."[10]

So his maiden name is Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way, he is both The First Evil in the universe and The Source of All Evil, and this is so comically overblown I cannot take him seriously as a villain. Did he walk out of the set of Ash vs. The Evil Dead? This is Tolkien parody/pastiche material! This is the sort of thing that only books for young children frame seriously.

Compare this to, I don't know, Game of Thrones. That is how you write villains. Although Cersei is a moronic psychopath, she is somewhat sympathetic because she loves her children and her husband repeatedly rapes her and cheats on her with whorehouses.

Amon was once a member of a species who possessed either purity of essence or form.[11] In this form, Amon sought to become a great being,[12] and he was given his chance. Per the Infinite Cycle of the xel'naga, he was imparted with the essence of the xel'naga elders[13] and became one of them. Now xel'naga himself, Amon resented being torn from his previous life; he would later claim that the transformation had been forced on him.[11] At the least, he felt lied to, and came to realize that greatness was not something he had truly desired and that he had become part of the Infinite Cycle himself.[12]

Crawling in my skin! These wounds, they will not heal!

Amon comes across as a whiny entitled teenage millennial who listens to Evanescence and Linkin Park. This descriptions sounds like something out of a comedy or parody, not a serious work of fiction. He comes across as extremely unsympathetic and not particularly smart. Why do the other xel’naga not notice this? They are supposedly god-like so they should easily notice he is unhappy. Furthermore, if living forever is so terrible, why does he not commit suicide or become a wirehead? There are so many more reasonable and attractive choices he could have made instead.

At some point billions of years prior to the Great War, Amon became disillusioned with the Infinite Cycle of the xel'naga, viewing it as corrupt. In what would be the last universe that bore witness to the Cycle, while the majority of the xel'naga entered slumber in Ulnar after seeding the universe with life, Amon and a group of followers set out to secretly forge a single master race that would bring an end to the cycle.[14]

What? Billions of years? I find it impossible to believe that someone like Amon could last that long without going insane and revealing his hand to the others. I find it impossible to believe that if he can stand such time scales that he would even care about stopping the cycle. Beings that experience time that way should not have remotely human psychology, much less act like genocidal nihilistic lunatics.

What followers? Where did he get followers? Do the writers seriously expect us to believe that the xel’naga have existed for an infinitely long period of time without having any dissidents until Amon came along? That makes no sense whatsoever. Dissidents should already have appeared an infinite number of times in the past. Since they all clearly failed, the xel’naga should already have plans in place to deal with dissidents. Therefore, Amon should have been discovered and stopped already.

Furthermore, why is Amon the leader? Why can’t he be a follower of someone else? How did they keep themselves secret from the other xel’naga if they have omniscient psychic powers and have lived for an infinitely long period of time? None of this makes any sense.

To make things worse, the cycle never ended. Amon's plan to stop the cycle was to speed it up. This is just as nonsensical as the ending of Mass Effect 3. Was he intended to look like a buffoon? The Kerry fulfills it by becoming a hybrid herself and then letting Zagara and Abathur create the adostra and chitha, who are the new generation of xel'naga and thus a continuation of the cycle.

While the xel'naga created life, their modus operandi was to let it develop on its own. Amon and his followers broke this rule by coming to the world of Aiur, which had given rise to a highly evolved species of tribal hunters and warriors, whom the xel'naga would eventually name the "protoss" or "First Born." Impressed by the protoss' physical prowess and telepathic abilities[15], Amon chose to gift the protoss with the purity of form. He and his followers subsequently uplifted the protoss, who came to revere the xel'naga as gods.[14]

At first, the protoss lived in harmony, bound by a communal psychic link. As time went on, however, the different tribes began to drift apart, each tribe seeking to define its own role in the universe. Frustrated by what they saw as a rise in independent egos, Amon and his followers worried that they had pushed the protoss' evolution too quickly. At the same time, the protoss started growing suspicious of Amon's true intentions, and the tribes began cultivating wild rumors about their creators' supposed treachery. Realizing that the protoss had grown beyond their control, Amon and the other xel'naga decided to leave Aiur. When the protoss learned of this, they recklessly attacked the xel'naga worldships, murdering hundreds of xel'naga in the process. Amon and his remaining followers fended off the protoss and fled the planet.[14][15]

Amon demonstrated the ability to effortlessly take control of the protoss through the Khala. They never should have been able to rebel since he would have controlled them through the Khala. If he couldn't control them then, then he never should have controlled them in LotV.

Also, it shouldn’t be possible for the protoss the murder the xel’naga. Firstly, they are omnipotent space gods who can tear worlds apart and thus should be utterly invulnerable. Secondly, the xel’naga are already established as immortal since their bodies in the physical are just projections of their souls/real bodies in the void.

Lastly, why exactly would Amon consider individual egos to be failure? Isn't that a corruption of the cycle? What was his intention for them if they didn't develop egos?

Though deeply resentful of his failure on Aiur,[16] Amon still considered the protoss key to his plans. In addition, he retained a number of protoss followers in the form of the Tal'darim, who separated themselves from their kindred.[17] Amon promised the Tal'darim that through obedience, they would ascend into hybrid. In truth, this was a lie, a means to keep them under his thrall.[18]

Again, Amon should not have failed because he could control the khala like puppets. Why did he keep protoss around who did not have the khala? Why didn't he take them to Zerus and merge them with the zerg immediately? His actions make no sense!

The Zerg
"The Swarm had one purpose: to assimilate the protoss and create the hybrid. Now, you are no longer needed."
- Emil Narud(src)

It was firmly established multiple times that protoss cannot be infested or assimilated. It makes no sense for Amon to send the zerg on an impossible mission. He should have known it was impossible because he had detailed genetic histories of the protoss and zerg. Furthermore, it is trivially easy for terran scientists to create hybrids so why would the zerg ever have a problem doing so? This entire plot point is an endless contradiction.

Having been driven from Aiur, Amon and his followers traveled to Zerus and began uplifting the zerg in order to create a race blessed with the purity of essence. Amon saw the zerg as a valuable tool, appreciating their ability to consume essence from other organisms.[19] He thus bound them to the will of a hive mind, with only the primal zerg escaping his control.[20][21] To avoid repeating the mistakes made with the protoss, Amon created the Overmind, a sentient entity that embodied the zerg hive mind. Although Amon gave the Overmind thought and reason, he did not give it free will. Instead, he forced upon it an overriding directive to destroy and assimilate the protoss, as part of his plans to forge the hybrid.[4][22] He intended to enslave the zerg and use them and the hybrid to wipe out all life in the universe. Once the hybrid were dominant, he would dispose of the zerg and reshape all life in his own image.[4]

The description of the Overmind is an oxymoron. It cannot be a physical embodiment of a non-physical concept, nor can it be the collective minds of the zerg while having a separate physical brain from the rest of the zerg. Amon built a giant brain and programmed the zerg to obey it. If it was killed then the zerg would regain their free will and immediately revert to their default behavior as vicious killing and eating machines. As happens every single time their leaders are killed! None of that fits the definition of a hive mind. A hive mind, by definition, is when all the minds are integrated so as to act like a single, gigantic mind. The zerg, at least as of the most recent retcons, have never ever had a hive mind. They are puppets of whoever is pulling their strings.

If the Overmind was the embodiment of the zerg's collective consciousness, a real hive mind, then it should not be possible to separate from the zerg without physically lobotomizing every single one of them. Every single time they hatch. Forever. Or you can just exterminate them.

How does giving the Overmind a directive to hunt the protoss prevent it from having free will? Furthermore, Amon's plans were poorly constructed. Despite his influence, the Overmind was free to plot his destruction using its ability to predict the future with perfect accuracy. More importantly, the Overmind should be a bigger threat than Amon. Amon has no way of ensuring that the zerg or the hybrid will obey him, especially considering that their natural desire is to eat everything that is not themselves and replicate endlessly. If you have ever studied AI, you may be aware that roboticists dismiss the idea of a robot war as pure fiction. Realistically, AI are more likely to destroy humanity through incompetence or accident. There is no way to ensure perfect obedience or avoid catastrophic failure. Creating friendly AI is massive theoretical problem for roboticists.

Also, why did Amon not program the Protoss with a similar directive? His actions in both cases are contradictory and make no sense as part of the same plot. (The truth is that the wiki is forcibly trying to reconcile different iterations of the lore written by different writers that were never intended to work together. Of course this cobbled mess would be full of holes.)

War Among the Gods
"As the Firstborn created the Khala, the xel'naga were disturbed from their slumber. They felt an absence within the Void itself. They discovered Amon and his followers at Zerus, and a war among the gods erupted. Amon unleashed the Swarm."
"And the Swarm consumed the xel'naga..."
"Only a fraction remained within Ulnar. In the final confrontation, Amon was felled, but he was not defeated. He returned to the Void, twisting it with his hatred."
- Rohana and Hierarch Artanis(src)

Before Amon could complete his work on Zerus, the other xel'naga at Ulnar awoke and learned of his plans. They waged a war against Amon and his followers that ultimately culminated in Amon unleashing the Zerg Swarm upon the xel'naga, destroying almost all of them. In the final battle, the last few surviving xel'naga defeated Amon. Although his body was destroyed, his consciousness escaped into the Void, where he began plotting his return.[14] Amon still retained cognition[9] and his influence on the Overmind and the Zerg Swarm remained. The zerg soon left Zerus to seek out and assimilate the protoss.[22] At the same time, one of Amon's servants, who would come to be known as Samir Duran, began secretly working to artificially merge protoss and zerg DNA to form the desired hybrid race.[23] He also made plans to forge a new body for Amon.[14]

This firmly establishes that Amon had no real control over the Overmind since it was free to slaughter all the xel’naga indiscriminately. Also, the zerg shouldn’t be able to harm the xel’naga since as previously established they are invulnerable omnipotent omniscient space gods.

The xel’naga were previously established as immortal. Why is Amon the only one who survives in the Void? All of the xel’naga should be alive in the Void.

Also, isn’t it ironic that Amon is both the leader of the rebellion and the only xel’naga who survives to the end? No, that is ridiculous. That makes about as much sense as Hitler being the last surviving Nazi. (He wasn’t.)

Why did Duran need to do anything if the zerg were already sent out to assimilate the protoss?

Why did Amon need a new body? Clearly the xel’naga already have the ability to create bodies in the physical universe when they need to visit.

At this point I will stop. I might continue later but I think this is enough to start with for a discussion of why Amon's backstory makes no sense.

[ragnarok]

I hope you know that 1st statement was merely his way of purging life and creating better life. The whole new body concept I'm willing to bet is because the Xel'Naga are powerful except when it comes to offensive fighting abilities (hence the way things turned out at Zerus).

Given all you've been saying about both the SC1 and SC2 lore it's why people have begun to wonder why you're an SC fan at all

[Mislagnissa]

I hope you know that 1st statement was merely his way of purging life and creating better life. The whole new body concept I'm willing to bet is because the Xel'Naga are powerful except when it comes to offensive fighting abilities (hence the way things turned out at Zerus).

You are not actually engaging with my collective criticisms of the Amon plot. I easily tore this plot apart as being irrational at every step of the way and I did not even need to go into very much detail to do so (I could go into a more detailed deconstruction if you want). There are numerous inconsistencies and plot holes that render it utterly unbelievable. You have said absolutely nothing that refutes my argument.

You claim to be taking what you get and trying to fill the plot holes yourself. Your attempts are doomed to failure. Any attempt to explain the plot holes would only raise more questions because the basic plot is fundamentally irrational.

Given all you've been saying about both the SC1 and SC2 lore it's why people have begun to wonder why you're an SC fan at all

Just because someone criticizes something does not mean they are not a fan. Fanboys are some of the harshest critics, because they criticize from a perspective of care and devotion. I liked the premise laid out in the SC1 manual and thought it was a great backdrop for a multimedia franchise. The games' story never met my expectations.

[ragnarok]

You are not actually engaging with my collective criticisms of the Amon plot. I easily tore this plot apart as being irrational at every step of the way and I did not even need to go into very much detail to do so (I could go into a more detailed deconstruction if you want). There are numerous inconsistencies and plot holes that render it utterly unbelievable. You have said absolutely nothing that refutes my argument.

You claim to be taking what you get and trying to fill the plot holes yourself. Your attempts are doomed to failure. Any attempt to explain the plot holes would only raise more questions because the basic plot is fundamentally irrational.

Blizzard certainly made its inconsistency problems with Amon, no one is denying that. Mainly I felt that his mentality to remake everything was a cheap excuse for a villain who didn't have a more detailed goal (mainly because they wanted the Xel'Naga to be introduced in some way)

[ragnarok]

Also, isn’t it ironic that Amon is both the leader of the rebellion and the only xel’naga who survives to the end? No, that is ridiculous. That makes about as much sense as Hitler being the last surviving Nazi. (He wasn’t.)

For example, for this part it merely showed that he wasn't stupid when it came to a rebellion (though I wished in detail they explained more on it). You're acting like NO rebellion is supposed to succeed. If we follow that logic, then Mengsk's rebellion against the Confederacy couldn't have succeeded no matter what (now yes he only won via the psi emitters, but still)

[Mislagnissa]

Blizzard certainly made its inconsistency problems with Amon, no one is denying that. Mainly I felt that his mentality to remake everything was a cheap excuse for a villain who didn't have a more detailed goal (mainly because they wanted the Xel'Naga to be introduced in some way)

If you recognize the idiocy, then why do you want that as your foundation? Would it not be a much better use of your time to reboot back to before Amon and Queen of Blades, when the Overmind was the villain and planned to turn humanity into living weapons against the protoss? The Overmind wants to remake the universe into zerg and that sounds like an awesome idea to any zerg in the audience.

For example, for this part it merely showed that he wasn't stupid when it came to a rebellion (though I wished in detail they explained more on it). You're acting like NO rebellion is supposed to succeed. If we follow that logic, then Mengsk's rebellion against the Confederacy couldn't have succeeded no matter what (now yes he only won via the psi emitters, but still)

You are ignoring the fact that the Confederacy existed for a couple of centuries while the the xel'naga existed forever. The backstory explicitly states that they lived for a literally infinite period of time prior to Amon. Logically speaking, that means that there should have been an infinite number of rebellions prior to Amon, all of which failed. Amon should not have been able to succeed in rebelling because the other xel'naga had an infinitely high success rate.

Furthermore, Mengsk was originally intended as a sympathetic and was written that way until SC1 decided to make him the villain at the last minute. Amon was just thrown in to justify an apocalypse where everyone had to team up without any rational reason for existing.

Amon is a terrible and uninteresting villain in every single way. He is not remotely sympathetic or believable and there is no possible way to frame him that way.

[ragnarok]

If you recognize the idiocy, then why do you want that as your foundation? Would it not be a much better use of your time to reboot back to before Amon and Queen of Blades, when the Overmind was the villain and planned to turn humanity into living weapons against the protoss? The Overmind wants to remake the universe into zerg and that sounds like an awesome idea to any zerg in the audience.

When I began writing my fanfic, there inevitably required SOME level of assumptions. That holds true for most fics, and in some cases those assumptions could be pulled right out of thin air. Now yes, you can argue that's utter BS because it's not really canon, but I prefer to wait it out until Blizzard gives an explanation (assuming they actually bother).

You are ignoring the fact that the Confederacy existed for a couple of centuries while the the xel'naga existed forever. The backstory explicitly states that they lived for a literally infinite period of time prior to Amon. Logically speaking, that means that there should have been an infinite number of rebellions prior to Amon, all of which failed. Amon should not have been able to succeed in rebelling because the other xel'naga had an infinitely high success rate.

Correct, but don't forget that even by the time of the epilogue, we were still never told what Amon's past was PRIOR to ascension, and his time with the Xel'Naga before he rebelled. Sure, that's considered crap storytelling because it's not supposed to be for us to fill in the gaps with nothing to work with, but it does leave room for us to come up with theories on what Amon had thought of that the other Xel'Naga didn't.

Personally I never onced believed Amon was the first to rebel anyway.

[Mislagnissa]

When I began writing my fanfic, there inevitably required SOME level of assumptions. That holds true for most fics, and in some cases those assumptions could be pulled right out of thin air. Now yes, you can argue that's utter BS because it's not really canon, but I prefer to wait it out until Blizzard gives an explanation (assuming they actually bother).

Indeed? What explanations did you come up with for why Amon seemingly chose the worst possible decision he could make at every stage of his plan? What explanation did you devise to explain why the xel'naga lack consistent rules for their superpowers? How did you explain the countless plot holes that afflict the games as a result of Blizzard not caring in the least for consistency or causality?

I can tell you right now that no amount of assumptions will be able to explain the plot holes. Except one.

If you were a kid in the 2000s, you might have watched the show Ben 10. There were several sequels and retools of the show, and because the writers kept changing there were a lot of retcons and inconsistencies. In a later season, the current writers explicitly pointed this out and said it was the result of a previously established race of omnipotent aliens arbitrarily making changes to reality. The characters in the story are aware that omnipotent aliens are arbitrarily changing history at whim.

To apply this to Starcraft, we can assume that there is a race of omnipotent aliens named the Blizzard who arbitrarily rewrite reality to suit their whims. All the plot holes in the series are a result of them rewriting reality to suit their insane whims. The xel'naga are not actually infinitely old, but were created within the last few years and all records including people's memories were altered to pretend they always existed.

Whenever any plot hole crops up, you can just say the Blizzard did it. There is no possible way for anyone else to argue with you because you are 100% right. Here are some examples:

• The xel'naga were all killed by the zerg even though they were previously established to be immortal in the void? They never existed because that is all a false memory planted by the Blizzard.
• Amon decided to stop/corrupt the cycle by making qualitatively insignificant changes to it? He never messed with the cycle because it never existed, it is just a false memory planted by the Blizzard. Amon himself never existed until the Blizzard created him to possess the khala.
• The plot of SC1 has inconsistencies with the manual regarding the protoss empire and the determinant? The Blizzard rewrote reality in order to force the Koprulu conflict in the direction they wanted.
• All the other inconsistencies? The Blizzard just made things up as they went along. They are gods who can do whatever they want, so too bad for your measly mortals.

Correct, but don't forget that even by the time of the epilogue, we were still never told what Amon's past was PRIOR to ascension, and his time with the Xel'Naga before he rebelled. Sure, that's considered crap storytelling because it's not supposed to be for us to fill in the gaps with nothing to work with, but it does leave room for us to come up with theories on what Amon had thought of that the other Xel'Naga didn't.

Personally I never onced believed Amon was the first to rebel anyway.

There is no possible way to explain how his actions make any sense except to say everything is due to retcons and memory wipes made by the Blizzard aliens.

[ragnarok]

There is no possible way to explain how his actions make any sense except to say everything is due to retcons and memory wipes made by the Blizzard aliens.

I personally felt this was just Blizzard being too lazy to get into the details

Indeed? What explanations did you come up with for why Amon seemingly chose the worst possible decision he could make at every stage of his plan? What explanation did you devise to explain why the xel'naga lack consistent rules for their superpowers? How did you explain the countless plot holes that afflict the games as a result of Blizzard not caring in the least for consistency or causality?

This was nothing more than his arrogance, I did wish they made him a smarter villain by trying to divide the 3 races, which would have been a better idea. Oh and I never watched Ben 10, just so you know....

[Mislagnissa]

I have been trying to make sense of the lore. It defies logic so the absolute best I can do is to outright dismiss much of the lore as unreliable. Even then I still had to gloss over or rewrite most of the events. The end results is... well, it is still a mess and the story I cobbled is not remotely satisfying.

I just wanted a reboot instead. It would be so much easier to work with.

I think you only say you accept SC2 because you never actually tried to write Starcraft Chronicles like I did.

Here are some of my attempts so far:

Starcraft chronicles Vol 1

Most of the starcraft lore is unreliable. It is riddled with contradictions, a lack of any consistent scale (both time and space) and most sources are either highly biased or completely fabricated.

Xel'naga schism
* The xel'naga are supposedly body stealing parasites that survive the repeated births and deaths of the universe.
* They supposedly visit other universes in the multiverse. Such universes are seen in Heroes of the Storm.
* The xel'naga are attributed with god-like powers, but the accounts are inconsistent and live xel'naga have been seen to be killed with laughable ease by conventional weapons.
* None of the xel'naga history can actually be verified, and the observed physiology of live xel'naga contradicts the official accounts.
* Amon joins a schism within the xel'naga. The actual goal of the schismatics is unknown, as are its qualitative differences from the other sects.
* When Amon, Duran and Ouros are questioned about it later, they are clearly insane and self-contradictory.

Protoss origins
* The protoss evolve with purity of form, whatever that means in this context.
* The schismatics manipulate protoss evolution but left it after the protoss broke the khala the first time. The schismatics' reason for this is unknown, as the only explanations make no sense.
* to what degree the khala was broken is unknown, as it would naturally connect all protoss within only a certain number of meters and must be extended with psi-link spires and similar
* The aeon of strife decimates the galaxy, destroying the first protoss empire
* Khas restores the planet-wide khala and founds the second empire
* The second empire expels a series of rogue tribes who nearly destroy their homeworld, and rewrites the history books to conceal their failure
* The empire expands to cover an eighth or so of the galaxy
* The empire collapses due to a poorly explained demographic shift; essentially the last generation was dying of old age while the next was still expanding
* The only part of the empire who are relevant to the story are those in the Koprulu sector. Although their homeworld is named Aiur, it is not the same as the protoss capital located thousands of light years away. For whatever reason it is mistaken as the protoss homeworld despite actually being on the frontier of the empire. The nearby Shakuras and Slayn are the homes of dark protoss.
* Protoss historical records are highly unreliable and prone to both myth and deliberate alteration.

Zerg origins
* After the protoss are mysteriously abandoned, the schismatics travel to Zerus where they study and tweak the original zerg insectoids. The insectoids are naturally telepathic and possess purity of essence (whatever that means). The creatures grow in size and resilience as a result, then spontaneously develop a parasitic life style.
* The schismatics structure the collective consciousness of the zerg into an intelligence they name Overmind. The schismatics monitor and control its actions through a psychic link and post-hypnotic suggestion. They believe that Overmind has no free will as a result.
* The zerg consume the biosphere of Zerus, as well as at least one nearby spacefaring species.
* As a result of the Aeon of Strife going on at the time, another sect of xel'naga intrudes on Zerus and tries to stop the schismatics.
* The schismatics unleash the zerg against their enemies, only to learn too late that the zerg have severed the psychic link and ignored the hypnotic commands.
* The zerg butcher the xel'naga and pilfer their knowledge.
* Accounts of the xel'naga deaths are unreliable. Some accounts claim they were immortal, others contradict this. Some accounts claim they were killed by the zerg, others by the individual named Amon.
* Murals in ulnar depict the xel'naga history from their birth to their destruction. The artist is unknown.
* The Overmind plots to assimilate the protoss to acquire purity of form, enabling the zerg to usurp the xel'naga. The surviving xel'naga claim this is a plot by Amon, but this a delusion.
* Zerus is stripped of its atmosphere and all useable resources, rendering it unable to ever support life again.
* The xel'naga Duran attempts to beat the Overmind to the punch, but he is an incompetent lunatic who accomplishes absolutely nothing for the next several million years.
* The zerg consume countless planets as they blaze a path toward the protoss empire.
* The zerg deduce that they are unable to compete with the protoss empire and require a "determinant" or competitor to purity of form from another source.

Koprulu wars
* Zerg deep space probes determine that some humans have purity of form. While not sufficient to serve as a perfect replacement, it is sufficient to compete with the protoss.
* The protoss and dark protoss intercept a number of probes and investigate Koprulu. This starts the Great War.
* While the protoss fleet initially wins every battle, it is ultimately destroyed by a civil war. This occurs entirely offscreen.
* The zerg experiment with psychics, such as Kerry. She contributes absolutely nothing of strategic value, and serves as little more than the vicious pet of a young cerebrate.
* Zeratul leaks intel that reveals the empire collapsed and thus the determinant is no longer needed. Supposedly he does this by tricking the cerebrate Zasz into letting him walk up and decapitate the creature. Since Zasz is famous for being the cleverest of cerebrates, this appears to be nothing more than propaganda.
* The Garm brood briefly goes feral before a nearby cerebrate immediately reclaims control of it. This is attributed to a new psychic attack devised by the protoss, but it ultimately amounts to nothing.
* The zerg create a super-cerebrate on the planet Aiur for unknown reasons. The protoss claim this creature is a physical manifestation of the zerg Overmind, but that is a contradiction in terms. Nonetheless, the name "Overmind" sticks.
* The dark protoss launch psychic attacks on zerg cerebrates, which seemingly hinders their coordination. This ultimately proves temporary, however.
* Tassadar kills the Overmind by crashing a carrier into it while setting off a psionic storm. This causes the zerg broods to turn on one another to determine who becomes the new Overmind.

The Brood War
* Some Accounts claim that Earth was run by nazis and that Koprulu lost contact but not really. This is all false. Koprulu was colonized by ships sent from Earth. Although the ships crashed and colonization nearly ended in disaster, the colonists were able to re-establish contact with Earth. Earth and Koprulu have continued to maintain trade for centuries, explaining their shared culture and technology.
* After seeing the political turmoil in Koprulu and the threat posed by zerg and protoss, the UED sends an invasion fleet to restore civil order and subjugate the aliens before they invade Earth.
* Despite their sudden lack of coordination, the feral and rogue zerg effortlessly force the protoss to evacuate to Shakuras. The zerg are already waiting for them.
* On Char, a group of cerebrates create a new Overmind. The creature will take some time to mature before it can retake control of the entire swarms.
* Kerry appears on Shakuras claiming to be the leader of her own brood and wanting to help the protoss in exchange for destroying the Overmind before it can enslave her. In truth, Kerry is actually a puppet for a cabal of cerebrates trying to take the swarm for themselves.
* This cabal was previously sent by the Overmind to scout Shakuras after its location was gleaned from Zeratul. They brainwashed the leader figure Raszagal, taking advantage of her senility.
* The protoss plan to use a terraforming device on Shakuras to destroy the zerg. The control crystals were stolen and placed on nearby planets. Kerry helps the protoss retrieve them.
* Aldaris discovers Kerry's true intentions and turns the protoss against her. Her masters send assassins to kill him and foment chaos before he can reveal the full extent of his discovery, while Kerry flees before the protoss can execute her.
* The terraforming device is activated and purges the zerg. However, great collateral damage is caused to the ecosystems and settlements of Shakuras. Due to millennia without maintenance, the terraforming device and its control crystals start to break down and will become unusable within a matter of years. As a relic from the Aeon, the modern protoss do not have the means to repair it.
* Duran somehow frames Stukov for treachery and gets him executed, even though it makes more sense to court martial him.
* The UED enslaves the immature Overmind and numerous cerebrates with psychotropics.
* Kerry's masters manipulate Zeratul, Raynor and Mengsk into assisting them by convincing them the Overmind is the real threat.
* Zeratul, Raynor and Mengsk assassinate Kerry before she can betray them, but her masters simply resurrect her.
* Duran assists Kerry and claims she sped his progress, but this appears to be nothing more than delusional ramblings.
* The new swarm assimilates protoss purity of form to create the brood mothers, which the cerebrates adopt as their new bodies. Although other hybrids are created, they are dismissed as failures due to instability.
* The new brood mothers turn one another rather than reform the Overmind, preventing them from dominating the sector. An uneasy cold war stands for years before a new brood war starts.
* Stukov's cryogenically frozen remains are recovered by Kaloth, a member of a third zerg swarm. The remains are infested and reanimated as part of Kaloth's sadistic experiments in utilizing terran technology. Stukov's memories are preserved due to his extensive cyborg implants.
* Raynor uses nanomachine treatments to reverse the infestation of Stukov. However the treatment later proves only partly effective, turning him into a mutate.
* Stukov is captured and tortured by an insane Duran. Duran has apparently developed a twisted obsession with him for reasons unknown. Go read the slash fiction.
* Mengsk sends Tychus to befriend Raynor and kill Kerry. Mengsk has developed an insane obsession with killing Kerry, probably due to Duran's manipulation.
* After prompting from Tychus, Raynor develops an elaborate plot to subdue Kerry and subject her to nanomachine treatment to reverse her infestation. Tychus tries to kill her before being killed by Raynor, who curses Mengsk for murdering Tychus. Kerry becomes a mutate suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
* Mengsk repeatedly tries to kill Kerry, sending her fleeing to her former zerg masters for help.
* The zerg mentally torment Kerry, causing her to become even crazier.
* The zerg kill billions of people to fuel their war machine.

A biological history of the zerg

Original zerg insectoids

The original zerg were burrowing worms of some sort with telepathy and natural gene splicing. Through xel'naga manipulation they become parasites. How?

Simple. The intermediate stage were similar to the necrophages from Endless Legend. The original zerg were scavengers, and they started laying their eggs in corpses and other decomposing organic matter. Over generations they incorporated useful genes from their food.

Some zerg became carnivorous and actively hunted live prey. These they killed by burrowing into their bodies and consuming nutrient-rich tissues. Larger zerg burrowed into and devoured the brain. At some point some of them started developing the ability to interface with the prey nervous system while still remaining largely carnivorous.

At this intermediate stage the carnivorous zerg could occasionally take control of their prey's brain and use it to more around more easily. Ultimately successive generations switched from carnivorous behavior to a wholly parasitic life style. This is where the lore begins from.

The primal zerg retcon

The Overmind stripped Zerus of its atmosphere and biosphere. It could never again support life.

How then did Kerry visit the jungle Zerus in SC2? Why did it take her five minutes to get there and back when it should be over fifty thousand light years away?

Simple. That was a different Zerus.

The primal zerg are actually a mutation of the corrupted zerg, not the original zerg.

At some point a brood got lost in Koprulu millennia ago and mutated to the point where their natural telepathy was lost. Unable to coordinate, they reverted to the vicious opportunism of their pre-Overmind ancestors. Because they lacked telepathy, they developed verbal speech.

Although they were no longer connected to the Overmind, they retained vestiges of their ancestral memory. Zurvan was one of the original brain bugs to land on the planet. Over millennia he mutated into a freak and his memories grew distorted. Everything he tells Kerry is mistaken but contains kernels of truth. (This explains why he knows the genesis of the Overmind even though he cannot logically have known the xel'naga were involved.)

The "first spawning pool" is nothing more than the first hive cluster planted by the original brood, which mutated over millennia until it became whatever it is now.

The brood war

Despite what Ouros tells you, Amon did not actually have any control over the Overmind. Amon was a lunatic who did not really think about any he did. The Overmind was a monster just like all the primal zerg. It intended to create the hybrid on its own terms and uplift the zerg into the new xel'naga so that it could go on to consume all the other universes accessible to the xel'naga.

As Starcraft Evolution shows, the xel'naga do not have a limited population. They can replicate their xel'naga essence.

The Overmind actually consumed the essence of the xel'naga above Zerus using its purity of essence. Since it lacked purity of form it could not effectively use this essence, hence its hunt for the protoss to head off Amon.

Amon did not send it to hunt the protoss or implant the dark voice. The Overmind did everything of their own accord. Duran tried to head off the Overmind.

The Overmind sought the determinant, an unrefined form of purity of form, because at the time it thought the protoss empire was invincible.

The zerg did not actually defeat the Koprulu Expedition. It destroyed itself in a civil war that occurred off-screen because Raynor was the main character. You can see this happen in Insurrection, where Syndea cripples her own forces and enables the zerg to crush them.

The zerg had actually started researching and developing assimilation of terrans during the Great War. Among others, they had captured the ghost academy on Tarsonis and had many test subjects. Kerry was nothing more than an experiment with no real future. Even her physical form, a succubus, was actually the creation of Gorn/Baelrog who believed that she could be cloned into a useful terror weapon.

All that changed when Zeratul killed Zasz. Zeratul's memories revealed that the empire had collapsed centuries ago due to some kind of poorly explained demographic shift that was ongoing at the time of the Great War. (The wiki is self-contradictory: it says that the protoss were dying of old age at the same time they started a period of growth.)

The assimilated terran plans were abandoned and Kerry was left to her own devices. Ultimately she proved completely ineffectual and worthless.

The Brood Wars

The plot of brood war is full of holes that cannot be explained. The recap in WoL website/manual just glosses over this because it cannot be explained. Even so the glossing doesn't really explained why the events happen or what motivated the characters to make the choices they did.

As the recap explains it:
* Kerry tricks the protoss into killing her rivals by offering to help them power up their deus ex machina but they break off their alliance when they realize her plot (no mention is made of Aldaris or Raszagal, who seem to have been retconned). This is still largely nonsensical since the protoss would have killed her rivals anyway and her only contribution was acquiring the macguffin.
* Duran somehow masterminds Stukov being framed for treachery and execution. How this happens is not explained.
* Zeratul and Raynor team up with Kerry to stop the Overmind, not the UED. Predictably, Kerry betrays and they are unable to stop her despite previously talking about how they knew she would betray them.

Brood War relies on plot holes and retcons. Among other things, the entire plot is nothing more than an excuse to make Kerry the substitute Overmind even though she is vastly less interesting. SC2 claims the Overmind intended her as a replacement, but that's just another nonsensical retcon that contradicts the actual events of SC1.

A key retcon is the feral zerg. In SC1 feral zerg were unreclaimable. In BW they default to the authority of the nearest brain bug.

Let's be charitable and just assume the latter was always true. This means that the culling of the Garm never happened and that the PC cerebrate's mission consisted of reclaiming control of Garm or something.

Another key retcon is that Kerry produces control. Control is a zerg mechanic limiting their population, blah blah blah. This retcon is not supported by the gameplay or the story. In BW she outright requires cerebrates to act on her behalf and has no control of her own. In SC2 she doesn't produce control either and is reliant on brood mothers for everything. In fact, her resurrection is states by Dustin Browder to requires hatcheries, which produce control, to backup her personality or something. Basically hatcheries have brains of their own. Also, Niadra's quotes when you click her clearly state that there is a voice in her head telling her what to do (the player) and it is not Kerry. Is the zerg player themselves roleplaying as the Overmind in its original bodiless entity form? WoL states the Overmind (the physical structure) genes are present in every single larva, so yes?

So we can assume that the idiotic Q&A sessions calling Kerry a literal demigoddess are full of crap. She's nothing more than a figurehead the zerg follow because the bodiless entity that is the player tells them to because the game does not offer the choice to do otherwise.

So basically the entire plot of brood war is actually a sham. It was never a battle between Kerry and Daggoth, but between at least two factions of cerebrates who plotted in the background. The statements about them spontaneously dying offscreen is a load of crap. They probably just assumed different forms.

Considering that the Overmind was resurrected despite dark templar deus ex machina, we can assume the same holds true for cerebrates and that none of them have ever permanently died. They probably evolved into brood moms or something, IDK.

The faction using Kerry as a smokescreen was trying to kill the Overmind because Ulrezaj and Schezar had successfully taken control of it offscreen (at the behest of Duran) but were struggling for control with Daggoth and his allies. After Ulrezaj was repelled by Zeratul, they had to kill the Overmind because the UED took control of it and would prevent them from acquiring purity of form.

UED continuity notes

SC1 manual: UPL were nazis. rounded up cyborg mutant criminals. ATLAS was exiled and lost.
BW manual: UPL secretly maintained spy network in Koprulu.
If you played the game w/o reading the manual, then you won't know any of this and assume Koprulu never lost contact w/ Earth and were never exiled by Nazis. You won't know how Earth colonists got to Koprulu, as some commenters complained, but that isn't necessary to understand the plot. Kerry mentions the UED were supposedly evil in the past, but this comes across as academic trivia since the UED were previously depicted as heroes. Even the recap in the WoL manual/website claims that the second Overmind was the real threat.

In Heroes the Storm, Stukov's biography assumes Koprulu never lost contact with Earth. Or at least, in combination with the SC2 site claiming Koprulu was the result of a disastrous colonization attempt, that they re-established contact long ago.

Even then there are still plot holes. The UED has up to date knowledge of events in Koprulu due to their spy network or FTL television or whatever. The wiki claims that the only reason they never sent a followup was because none of the first fleet survived to contact them, but that makes no sense because they watched Koprulu through their pre-existing network. Indeed, a lack of response from the first fleet is itself a huge justification to send a followup. Stukov states in SC2 that they will return either way.

Starcraft pretty much ignores any sense of scales like distance or time, so in future games we might very well have retcons like Earth being a shuttle ride from Aiur. Aiur was originally thousands of light years away from Koprulu, then retconned to being in Koprulu. It took Kerry no more than a few minutes at the most to travel to Zerus in the galactic core, which somehow regenerated its atmosphere and biosphere after the Overmind stripped it to a lifeless rock. (There is no possible way it can be the same Zerus mentioned in SC1. It is clearly located in the Koprulu sector.) I have no doubt that the same could easily happen to Earth.

You can take or leave my ideas. I don't like the lore because it is a convoluted mess.

If/when SC3 comes out, I can guarantee that you will hate it because it will retcon everything about SC2. Just look at the waste of time that is trying to make sense of Metzen's work. Trying to reconcile SC3 will be even worse.

Even if SC3 does feature the UED as the main antagonist, and there is actually a big chance it will pull the new villain from nowhere or make the UED into puppets of another xel'naga, then it will write them in such a way as to alienate fans of both SC1 and SC2.