Filed under: Features, RTS, Strategy, Starcraft II
With Starcraft 2 literally just around the corner, it’s certainly important to understand just what has been going on in the Starcraft universe, from before the start of the first game until now. Thankfully, we’ve got you covered with an in-depth synopsis of the story. Even if you haven’t played through Starcraft, you will know exactly what ties into where as you delve into Jim Raynor’s story in Wings of Liberty.
Note: This article contains massive spoilers of the original game’s story.
Starcraft‘s story begins a long time before the Terrans ever make it to the Koprulu sector. The Xel’Naga, a space-faring race of genetic scientists, decide that they are out to create the perfect species and begin to fiddle in the genetics of two species. One race, whose native planet is Aiur, develops intense psionic abilities. The other, whose home planet is Char, develops into a hive-mind society that assimilates biological material. Shortly after the creation of the hive mind, many of the Xel’Naga are forcibly assimilated by their own creation, leading to the Zerg. While this occurs, the Protoss go through a period of inter-clan warfare as they develop their methods, with the end result being the exile of all who use the Void as power and the formation of a central Protoss government.
Things are relatively peaceful, with skirmishes between the Protoss and Zerg, until the Terrans arrive in the sector. The Terrans are actually a group of criminal colonists, forced into colony ships as the first test subjects for space colonization. When diverted off course, they end up at the edge of Protoss space, where the Protoss bemusedly watch them develop from scratch and form the Confederacy of Man. Cut off from contact with Earth, the Confederacy is a loose collection of colonies, with a few dominating the rest. In one incident, the planet of Korhal is nuked by the Condfederacy, leading to the formation of a rebel group by the name of the Sons of Korhal. Their leader, Arcturus Mengsk, lost his parents in the nuclear devastation, and swore vengeance against the Confederacy.
At the beginning of Starcraft, reports of strange creatures have been pouring in at the colony of Mar Sara. A short time before, a strange alien fleet (the Protoss) showed up in the orbit of Chau Sara and bombarded the planet from orbit, killing anything and everything. Jim Raynor, a marshal on Mar Sara, fights to protect the colonists against both the encroaching Zerg threat and the tyranny of the Confederacy. He ends up joining the Sons of Korhal and discovers that the Confederacy was testing a new psionic weapon on Mar Sara that could lure the Zerg, which is what led to the infestation. Furious, he helps Mengsk use the same weapon against the Confederacy’s home planet. However, Mengsk betrays his second-in-command, Kerrigan, and leaves her to the Zerg as Tarsonis falls. Raynor quits the Sons of Korhal in disgust and takes a small army of loyalists with him.
Instead of being killed by the Zerg, Kerrigan is absorbed into the fold. She is a Ghost, which means that she is a psychically-gifted assassin. This is exactly what the Zerg wanted from the Terrans, and is why the psionic emitters were so effective. As she matures in both psionic power and strength, the Zerg are attacked by the Protoss with the help of their long-lost bretheren. The Dark Templar are the only ones that can kill a cerebrate, as only the energy of the Void can prevent their reincarnation. As they kill it, though, the minds of the killer (Zeratul) and the Overmind are linked, giving the Overmind the location of Aiur. Given the possibility to assimilate the Protoss over the Terrans, the Overmind initiates an invasion of Aiur and manages to embed itself into Aiur despite continued Protoss defensive measures.
Faced with assimilation or extinction, the Protoss band together with the Dark Templar to take out the Overmind. To do so, however, they are forced into a civil war between the judicator caste and the templar caste. When the Dark Templar prove themselves up to the task of killing Zerg, the templar caste backs down, and Tassadar mounts a final assault on the Overmind. After breaking through its defenses with the help of Jim Raynor’s forces, Tassadar merged the energies of the Void with his own and his ship, destroying himself in a cataclysmic explosion and completely disintegrating the Overmind. This leaves the Zerg forces on Aiur in complete disarray.
While the Overmind was killed, the threat of the Zerg was not removed. The Protoss evacuate – with help from Raynor – from Aiur through portals to Shakuras, homeworld of the Dark Templar. There they discover that the Zerg followed them, and are forced to activate an ancient Xel’Naga temple with the ability to wipe the Zerg from the surface. However, this assists the newly-liberated Kerrigan in her end goal of taking over the Zerg, which leads to a rebellion of many of the refugees. By activating the temple, the Dark Templar eliminate a number of important cerberates, allowing Kerrigan to gain dominion over more of the Zerg. Despite knowing this, the Dark Templar activate the temple after putting down the rebellion, leading to the accomplishment of Kerrigan’s goals. They do this because of the growth of a new Overmind on Char, which will soon replace Kerrigan as the leader of the Zerg.
During this, the United Earth Directorate, or UED, has finally made it to the Koprulu sector. Tasked with pacifying the locals and bringing the Terran Dominion under their control, the UED begins systematically attacking and conquering of Dominion facilities. During this, they find a psi disruptor: a device that can jam Zerg communications. The major native liason to the UED, Samir Duran, urges the destruction of the device, but he is thwarted by the task force’s Vice Admiral, Alexei Stukov. After conquering the Dominion homeworld, the Admiral Gerard DuGalle chases Mengsk and Raynor to Aiur, but is stymied by the combined efforts of the Dominion, Zerg, and Protoss. Thanks to Samir Duran’s sudden withdrawal, which was immediately followed by a zerg attack, the natives of the Koprulu sector are spared. Shortly afterward, Alexei Stukov is branded a traitor for constructing a psi disruptor on Braxis, and killed by Duran under the orders of Dugalle. Before dying, Stukov reveals that Duran is a traitor, and Duran flees after his attempt to destroy the psi disruptor is ruined. Despite losing his best friend and second-in-command, DuGalle takes the disruptor, assaults Char, and subverts the baby Overmind to his will.
With the Overmind controlled by the UED, the Zerg begin to turn on Kerrigan, forcing her to make an alliance with the Protoss and Terran remnants. This alliance proceeds to destroy the psi disruptor, which restores Kerrigan’s control over the Zerg, and then assault Korhal to annihilate the occupying UED force. There Kerrigan betrays her allies and kills both Fenix and Edmund Duke, two important members of the remnant forces. Shortly afterward, she goes to Shakuras and brainwashes the Dark Templar matron Raszagal, forcing her to send Zeratul to kill the baby Overmind. Once the Overmind is killed, Zeratul kills Raszagal to free her from Kerrigan’s influence and departs Char. As he does so, he stumbles across a secret research facility constructed by Samir Duran to create a Protoss/Zerg hybrid. Shortly after leaving, Char is assaulted by the Dominion, UED, and Protoss forces. Despite being outnumbered and heavily outgunned, Kerrigan wipes out the UED remnants and forces the Protoss and Dominion fleets to retreat, leaving the Zerg as the most powerful faction in the sector.
Four years later, Jim Raynor is reduced to working the odd mercenary job to put food on his plate. He works through the flagship Hyperion, which was stolen during the previous wars. After getting his forces ruined at Char, Arcturus Mengsk retreated back to Terran space to lick his wounds and rebuild. Bafflingly, Kerrigan has gone completely silent, leaving her enemies alone and in the dark about her current activities. Despite having the upper hand over the other races in the sector, Kerrigan doesn’t move to annihilate or assimilate them. This is where Starcraft 2 picks up, and the rest is for you to find out!
Feature: Starcraft History originally appeared on Big Download Blog on Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
