Stalker Lore Question

[Turalyon]

In general I thought the dragoon/stalker/whatever backstory was highly questionable. The protoss (and humans, and zerg) clearly have the technology for feasible mind uploading and resurrecting people as clones, much less replace limbs with cyborg implants or regrown flesh, but never actually do so except in a few rare instances like Fenix and Stukov.

Yeah well, it's a slippery slope when it comes to "highly advanced alien sci-fi tech" in general. The Protoss can easily weaponise warp speed and their teleporting tech to render any sort of military engagement meaningless and yet they don't.

Anyway, I'm having difficulty justifying robotic walkers with injured people inside if medical technology can fix them.

I dunno. That robotic walkers with injured people inside exist suggest that their medical technology can't fix them even though one can presume they should/could based on their technological prowess. It's kinda similar to the issue as to why Zealots exist at all and utilise melee attacks when the Protoss have much more efficient and practical technological solutions for distance killing at their disposal. Really, one can question why any of the known Protoss units are what they are/exist as they do, since one can always and easily presume a better option due to their supposed advanced technological capabilities.

I never liked the purifier backstory. There are countless books on Earth that explore these sorts of scenarios. Real life AI researchers constantly discuss the dangers of AI and how we should avoid it. The behavior regarding the purifiers makes the Conclave look really stupid. There's no reason why purifiers cannot be respected as the resurrected dead (at least until they get downloaded into clones).

Eh, the post Aeon of Strife Protoss were understandably concerned about threats to their new way of life that they rejected their own kin for not following their new tenets to the extent of murderously hunting them down when given any opportunity. The Protoss are not enlightened beings/beyond reproach.

Furthermore, the protoss look really incompetent in terms of tech knowhow. Apparently they're advanced enough to do all sorts of crazy stuff, but their medicine cannot replace limbs at all?

That's more a limitation of the authors mind than anything else, which is one of the reason I generally am wary of the "super-advanced alien that can teach us humies a few things" trope because authors (being the limited beings that we are) always have a crappy sense of scope and scale.

[drakolobo]

I noticed that the ihanrii and golden age skins suggest that almost all protoss units existed in the distant past. It’s a clear contradiction but this is Blizzard.

I’m working on AU proposals and I reconciled this by stating that the first age empire already discovered everything and the current protoss have reverse engineered that or developed identical applications independently.

not really, golden age skin does not speak of the golden age if as the protoss imitate the prefall art with more emphasis applying it in every detail.

As for the new lost tribe, it will only be explained by a phenomenon of imitation, and in cases such as the immortal where imitating when it is a funeral activity that must be traditional, a more forced application would be convergent technology evolution.

[Mislagnissa]

What have you got so far for the AU ideas?

I published a public prospectus: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e...O4vR2XW0lo/pub

It hasn't been updated in a couple of months, but I plan on adding a bunch of new ideas I had in the interim.

Yeah well, it's a slippery slope when it comes to "highly advanced alien sci-fi tech" in general. The Protoss can easily weaponise warp speed and their teleporting tech to render any sort of military engagement meaningless and yet they don't.



I dunno. That robotic walkers with injured people inside exist suggest that their medical technology can't fix them even though one can presume they should/could based on their technological prowess. It's kinda similar to the issue as to why Zealots exist at all and utilise melee attacks when the Protoss have much more efficient and practical technological solutions for distance killing at their disposal. Really, one can question why any of the known Protoss units are what they are/exist as they do, since one can always and easily presume a better option due to their supposed advanced technological capabilities.



Eh, the post Aeon of Strife Protoss were understandably concerned about threats to their new way of life that they rejected their own kin for not following their new tenets to the extent of murderously hunting them down when given any opportunity. The Protoss are not enlightened beings/beyond reproach.



That's more a limitation of the authors mind than anything else, which is one of the reason I generally am wary of the "super-advanced alien that can teach us humies a few things" trope because authors (being the limited beings that we are) always have a crappy sense of scope and scale.

Yes, well...

I decided to use more reasonable explanations instead.

The Conclave did not mistreat the purifiers, since the purifiers were connected to the khala. Instead, they decided to place them in reserve due to ethical concerns. But when the first contact war starts kicking in high gear, the conservative faction decides to deploy them.

The protoss run on the warp-death explanation I linked earlier. When protoss die, they generally burst into flames, disintegrate, or whatever. I'm not exactly sure why, but it has something to do with their weird psychic biology. The combustion might even power the memory transmission or something. The khala may resurrect their personalities in clones or robots, so they don't fear death.

Dragoons are not a permanent solution, but are used to keep soldiers on the battlefield until they can be fixed later. However, the Order of the Dragoon is one of the many religious warrior orders among protoss society. They decide to remain permanently within dragoons in order to provide support to the zealots, despite their psychic powers/cyborg implants/medical capabilities/etc being able to repair their bodies.

In fact, there's an even more militant order that deliberately mutilate themselves and pilot dragoons. This sort of practices skirts the Great Stewardship, which has prohibitions against transhumanism (transalienism?). The stalkers are a similar order, since their creation process involves extreme though undefined self-mutilation. Naturally, the elective dragoons/stalkers are quite common among the bloodthirsty taldarim tribes.

Protoss can also leave corpses behind, but I still haven't been able to work out a consistent explanation for what circumstances leave corpses behind. The protoss equivalent of adrenaline? The manner of death? How long it takes to die?

not really, golden age skin does not speak of the golden age if as the protoss imitate the prefall art with more emphasis applying it in every detail.

As for the new lost tribe, it will only be explained by a phenomenon of imitation, and in cases such as the immortal where imitating when it is a funeral activity that must be traditional, a more forced application would be convergent technology evolution.

But it is a contradiction. The skin lore states that warp prisms existed in ancient times. The ihanrii have deployed units in mass that they logically shouldn't have the time to prepare since they were awakened only recently. It also doesn't make sense for the ihanrii to have such detailed knowledge without being noticed acquiring it in the first place.

Therefore, to avoid potential headaches I just use the blanket explanation of reverse engineering first age protoss tech for everything.

[ragnarok]

I'll look at the document in time then

[sandwich_bird]

Protoss can also leave corpses behind, but I still haven't been able to work out a consistent explanation for what circumstances leave corpses behind. The protoss equivalent of adrenaline? The manner of death? How long it takes to die?

Idk why you want them to leave corpses behind sometime but how about their psi energy level upon death? The psi could be held by the body. When a protoss is fatally wounded, the physical cage cannot hold the energy any longer so it burst into flame. Protoss of lower psi level don't release enough energy for combustion. Whether the corpse explodes or not could also be affected by the surrounding environment. The body inside a dragoon, for example, would not burst because the mechanical part slow down the release of energy. Something like that should be fluid enough to explain most situation you might want.

[Mislagnissa]

Idk why you want them to leave corpses behind sometime but how about their psi energy level upon death? The psi could be held by the body. When a protoss is fatally wounded, the physical cage cannot hold the energy any longer so it burst into flame. Protoss of lower psi level don't release enough energy for combustion. Whether the corpse explodes or not could also be affected by the surrounding environment. The body inside a dragoon, for example, would not burst because the mechanical part slow down the release of energy. Something like that should be fluid enough to explain most situation you might want.

The only reason why I wanted to have corpses was so that I could justify protoss tombs and the ihanrii death cult's reanimated corpses piloting dragoons. Otherwise they aren't important.

[ragnarok]

Idk why you want them to leave corpses behind sometime but how about their psi energy level upon death? The psi could be held by the body. When a protoss is fatally wounded, the physical cage cannot hold the energy any longer so it burst into flame. Protoss of lower psi level don't release enough energy for combustion. Whether the corpse explodes or not could also be affected by the surrounding environment. The body inside a dragoon, for example, would not burst because the mechanical part slow down the release of energy. Something like that should be fluid enough to explain most situation you might want.

Look at both SC1 and 2, zealots still combust upon death. You'd think their psi levels would be too low for that.

[Visions of Khas]

The only thing I can think of is a parallel with the God Emperor of 40K. Though his body is dead, his mentality and psychic power are confined to his body by the Golden Throne. Perhaps the Ihan Rii have similar technology. Dark Templar lore also holds that one's psychic potential increases the closer they are to death.

[sandwich_bird]

Look at both SC1 and 2, zealots still combust upon death. You'd think their psi levels would be too low for that.

Are you familiar with the energy levels from Dragon Ball Z? Basically everything has ki energy and that amount of energy can vary moment to moment based on many factors. Even someone of base low energy level can increase his power level dramatically when he's pissed off. You could use that same kind of logic with psi (and there's many indication lore wise that it works the same way or is equivalent for all intent and purposes). So, going back to your comment, even if a zealot normally would have a lower base psi level, during combat, and especially before death, his psi level could be really high as he's going all out. Similarly, a Protoss with high psi level who was fatally wounded but did not die immediately could have the time to make peace with himself and lower his psi level which would prevent combustion.

I kinda like the idea anyways. You could say that, culturally, bursting into flame is a honorable death for a Protoss because their psi is readily given back to nature while leaving a corpse behind hinder the process. I'm not sure how that latter idea would fit with the dragoon though or with the "making peace with himself" part..

[ragnarok]

I never bothered with the DBZ universe, sandwich bird