Moria

"I'm thinking that we should pay the Kel-Morian Combine a little visit. Moria is one of the largest resource nodes in the sector."

- Infested Kerrigan plans an assault on Moria

Moria is a red resource-rich world located in the Koprulu Sector. It is the base of operations of the Kel-Morian Combine.

History
The supercarrier Argo crash landed on this world. The Sarengo, which had suffered massive systems failures during its atmospheric descent, smashed into the planet, killing all of its 8,000 passengers. The Reagan was more fortunate, making a controlled descent and landing safely. This supercarrier vessel had on board ATLAS, an artificial intelligence which also recorded information on Terran technology and mutations. Once the ship had landed, the 'cold sleep' chambers were deactivated and the surviving passengers slowly awakened. The passengers, attempting to discern where they were and how long they had 'slept', found that the ATLAS system had somehow erased all knowledge of their journey from the computer banks. The exiles began to salvage their wrecked ship in an attempt to find refuge in their new surroundings.

The inhabitants of Moria worked to survive in what they termed 'the New World'. Unaware that their fellows also thrived upon Tarsonis and Umoja, the vagabond Morians made do with whatever meager resources they could find. Having lost the means to communicate over interplanetary distances when the Argo was stripped for essential materials, the Morians lived in isolation for sixty years. In a relatively short amount of time, they founded sister colonies upon Moria, and grew into a prosperous, self-contained community. Tarsonis, the largest and most technologically advanced of the Terran colonies, soon developed second generation sub-warp engines, allowing their ships to explore the myriad, barren planets of the surrounding star system and eventually led them to find the other survivors of the Long Sleep.

Once reunited, the three colonies benefited from mutual trade and commerce treaties. Although Tarsonis kept pushing Umoja and Moria to join in a conglomerated government, the two colonies steadfastly refused.

Kel-Morian Combine
When the Terran Confederacy was founded, the Morian colony, which had benefited from having the largest resource mining operations in the Koprulu Sector, began to fear that this new Confederacy might attempt to move in and regulate their lucrative operations. Two shady mining guilds, the Kelanis Guild and the Morian Mining Coalition, formed the Kel-Morian Combine, a shady, corporate partnership that would supply military aid to any Mining Guild that was oppressed by Confederate policy. The two groups also banded together in order to maximizer their ability to drain the resources from the numerous worlds within the sector. Tensions rose between the Confederacy and the Combine, led by Gen Mah Sakai, leading to the outbreak of the Guild Wars.

The Guild Wars lasted for nearly four years, with the Confederacy eventually "negotiating" peace with the Combine. Although the Combine retained it's autonomy, almost all of its supporting Mining Guilds were annexed into the holdings of the Confederacy. The Combine became the largest non-Confederate organization operating within Terran space. Equipped with thousands of armed troops and hardware, the Combine strictly enforced its myriad territorial operations. It was rumored that the Combine actually supplied the Confederacy with fuels and resources. So great was their political influence, the Confederate forces were banned from prosecuting the Combine for any potentially criminal action.

After the Confederacy was overthrown by the Sons of Korhal, which became the Terran Dominion, Moria came under Dominion rule when the Kel-Morian Combine rallied to Emperor Mengsk's banner.

During the Brood War, the Zerg staged a fuel raid on Moria. Their Queen, Sarah Kerrigan, needed a substantial cache of resources in order to build up her primary Hive clusters. Praetor Fenix led the assault, bypassing the Combine's defenses and infesting as many of their Command Centers as possible.

Trivia
It is also a reference to the mountain where Abraham was to sacrifice his son Isaac in the Book of Genesis.
 * The name is a reference to Tolkien's Lord of The Rings where Moria is the mine where the Fellowship is led after failing to pass through Mt. Caradhras, and where Gandalf the Grey faces the Balrog.
 * The orbital view of Moria is identical to the orbital view of Mar Sara.