Starcraft Lore Timeline and Mysteries Explanation

[Roland]

Given the release of Twilight, the third book in the Dark Templar Saga, and the subsequent influx of lore related information, I finally wrote a new article. It's pretty self-explanatory, I included a timeline and answered 21 of the biggest lore related questions. Enjoy

http://www.sc2armory.com/forums/topic/8638/page:1

[Gradius]

Oooh, neat-o. Been a while since we had a huge lore article.

Timeline - Seems to be pretty thorough. You've seen the SC wiki's timeline, correct?

I think she may have intercepted some knowledge, psionically during the transfer of Zamara out of Ramsey's body, it may have helped her find the cavern where she met Zeratul.

I think those caverns are those beneath Aiur. Kerrigan claimed that she was interested in exploring them later.

" A dark land of ancient plateaus and oceans of night... Night becomes day, and our ancient fathers aid us... We erase that which blights our face, but not that which lies within... The land that rests in twilight will be the place of our greatest triumph and also our greatest shame."

The "dark land" is probably Shakuras, which was bathed in perpetual night for thousands of years. I believe this refers to the activation of the Xel'naga temple on Shakuras, it wiped out all the Zerg on Shakuras, and caused a sunrise (can be seen in the "Fury of the Xel'naga" cutscene) on the otherwise twilight planet. That explains the Night becoming Day and thw Blight on the face, as well as the ancient fathers (Xel'naga). The blight within and the greatest shame probably refers to the corruption and death of Razagal, she was a revered Dark Templar, and was corrupted from within by her "ally" Kerrigan. Shame is appropriate because Zeratul was forced to kill Razagal himself, it is indeed a shameful tragedy to have to kill your own leader.

Hmm. I think you've overcomplicated this one. The "erase that which blights our face" definitely refers to the scouring of the Zerg from Shakuras. I think the "but not that which lies within" simply refers to the disunity & old hatreds between the khalai & dark templar. It says Shakuras will be the place of their greatest shame, but Zeratul killed Raszagal on Char, so I don't think it refers to that. I think the "our ancient fathers aid us" refers to the fact that the Xel'Naga might be our allies, as I predicted in my Xel'Naga storyline projection a while ago.

Braken: This is a very interesting prophecy, although it is contestable whether or not is canon as the prophecy appears in the map description of a melee scenario set on it. It could certainly be valid though, as it fits in with the rest of the lore quite well.

"He who harnesses this world will someday wield great a power, sanctified by the ancient ones."

It is obvious that the "Ancient Ones" are the Xel'naga. This planet may appear in Starcraft 2 as a planet on which a significant artifact or temple remains.

I'd bet that it's canonical, or at worst, canonical but irrelevant. Maybe Braken has an unusually strong psionic matrix & someone/something will harness it?

They are as such virtually perfect, except they cannot reproduce, despite being unbelievably long lived, even by Protoss standards.

That's an interesting idea, but strange because they take the form of a new species with each cycle. Perhaps it's not that they can't reproduce, just that they want to retain their individual minds. That could be why they needed a species with the purity of essence (or a "hive mind") - so that they could inject their individual essences into this hive mind and be reborn thousands of years later. In fact, could it be possible that the Xel'Naga tried this with the Khala,perhaps when the Protoss themselves attacked & killed them? Perhaps that's how the preservers know about the cycle?

he other alternative is that the Cycle would be completed, and the Hybrids would overwhelm everything before moving on. Zeratul describes it as "The end of all things." There is a certain mystery though, the Protoss and Zerg must obviously be destroyed by the creation of the Hybrids, or they would simply collect a population from each species in order to breed them and hybridize individuals indefinitely, in which case the Cycle would be unnecessary, they could simply splice more and more Hybrids when the originals die.

Twilight said that hybrids were not part of the Xel'Naga cycle and that the natural & correct merging of the two species operates over time so vast that it would not harm the Protoss as they are now.

By the time it was taken away from Char the new Overmind was already under the influence of UED drugs, psychics and stimulates. They could apparently maintain it despite the lack of Void energies.

The second Overmind was never taken away from Char. And there's also not really any evidence that it absolutely has to manifest over a nexus of energy; the overmind himself was rumored to have resided in the recesses of the tiamat brood before manifesting on Aiur.

The length of each Cycle must be the same because every generation of Xel'naga must have roughly the same life-span, and given the nature of the Cycle, they certainly don't finish early and live amongst their replacements for a few thousand more years, I'd assume the previous generation is wiped out by the new one along with all the other species in conflict with the hybrids.

Why is that? Can you elaborate more. I don't think they have to have the same life-span; I'd assume that they just try to prolong their lifespans as much as possible. Also, it's highly unlikely that the two species are wiped out, as this contradicts direct knowledge from twilight that the process is supposed to be very gradual and not harm its subjects.

18) What is the relation between Valerion, and his father, Arcturas Mengsk?

They are not on the best terms, Arcturas does not believe his son is strong enough to run the empire, but keeps pushing him to make his own path, separate from his father's.

That's not true - Arcturus was disappointed at first, but at the end of I, Mengsk said that he was proud of him. Also, it's spelled Valerian, not Valerion, and Arcturus, not Arcturas.

Duran is an enigma, he is creating the hybrids to fulfill the Cycle, but is not a Xel'naga, despite being very ancient and is attempting to serve them by continuing the Cycle.

I disagree. Twilight says that if the Hybrids are completed, then the Xel'Naga will not be reborn. The creation of the Hybrids would "complete" the cycle by ending it forever, hence why Duran says "your universe will be changed....forever". I don't think Duran is working for the Xel'Naga.

The UED will not return in force, but there are still some remnants of their forces in the area. There are four Terran factions outside of the Dominion which could pose a threat to it. The Kel-Morian Combine, the The Umojan Protectorate, Raynor's Raiders, and finally, Abaddon. Raynor's Raiders and Abaddon are the only forces presently in direct conflict with the Dominion.

Abaddon is a planet, not a faction.

[Pandonetho]

Ok, I have a question.

Does everything that has been brought to light mean that all that stuff about the Xel'Naga considering the Toss and the Zerg a failure all retconned out?

Since apparently, the Toss and the Zerg are no different than what they were doing previously. Purity of Essence and Purity of Form merging together over the natural course of time to create a hybrid species.

[Gradius]

Does everyone that has been brought to light mean that all that stuff about the Xel'Naga considering the Toss and the Zerg a failure all retconned out?

Yep. It's a passive retcon, because while the Protoss thought that they were failed creations, as it says in the manual, it turns out the Xel'Naga were just "done with them".

[Pandonetho]

It seems like the Xel'Naga were just creating the Protoss to feed the Zerg.

I think we can safely say the Zerg would win out in the end without the intervention of a couple factors.

Seeing as how the Xel'Naga have perfected the art of unification between 2 species for eons, it seems like a pretty big indication that if it weren't for the intervention of other things, the Zerg would have naturally consumed the Toss and completed the cycle.

However, due to the Terrans entering the picture, as well as Duran, everything screwed up.

[Kimera757]

That's not as big a retcon as you're making it out to be. The xel'naga were disappointed sure, but that's only because the protoss weren't pure of essence as well as pure of form.

(Think of the time savings that could have occurred, had the xel'naga not needed to find a second species!)

The protoss were pure of form and never lost that, so they were as successful as species used by previous generations of xel'naga.

Twilight says that if the Hybrids are completed, then the Xel'Naga will not be reborn. The creation of the Hybrids would "complete" the cycle by ending it forever, hence why Duran says "your universe will be changed....forever". I don't think Duran is working for the Xel'Naga.

I don't think the hybrids would directly end the cycle. I think they'd just kill the protoss and zerg, and without that raw material, a proper incarnation of the xel'naga would never come to be.

[Pandonetho]

That's not as big a retcon as you're making it out to be. The xel'naga were disappointed sure, but that's only because the protoss weren't pure of essence as well as pure of form.

(Think of the time savings that could have occurred, had the xel'naga not needed to find a second species!)

Pretty sure it's a retcon.
They've been combining 2 species for ages, if what you said is true, it means that they failed EVERY single time they wanted to create 1 species containing both purities.

[Kimera757]

They've been combining 2 species for ages, if what you said is true, it means that they failed EVERY single time they wanted to create 1 species containing both purities.

I don't think I'm (that) wrong on that.

I think the xel'naga always tried to fuse two species because it was always done that way. They probably thought it was unlikely they'd ever find a single species with both traits (as what are the chances of a race being so perfect in two ways, rather than one). Of course, there's the issue of how did the very first incarnation of the xel'naga get to be that perfect...

It's like, you go looking for ten million dollar worth of treasure, but find a billion dollars instead. Yay... then someone steals most of it and you're left with ten million dollars. You won't be left happy, even though ten million dollars is a lot of money, indeed what you were looking for.

So I don't think it's a big retcon.

[Pandonetho]

Hmmm.

I suppose you have a point.
They probably thought that they had both purities at the start.

Until the Toss started focusing more on individualism.