Daelaam

"Experience has taught the protoss that when we do not fight together, we die alone. We shall not see defeat this day. For we stand as one. Our differences will not divide us, but make us stronger."

- Hierarch Artanis

The Daelaam, otherwise referred to as the Protoss Protectorate or Unified Protoss is the unity government of the Khalai, Nerazim, Purifiers, and some Tal'darim.

History
"We have erred. Our hubris has blinded us to the dangers of the lesser races, and we have paid the price. We must rise to our former glory. We must summon our full strength. Some things may have been too terrible for kinder days, but if we must bring to bear the weapons of the past to secure the future, then so be it. Pity those who stand before us. We are the Protoss. For Aiur!"

- A protoss declaration

Origins
"This is what you wanted, is it not, Raszagal? The Daelaam? The protoss race unified after a thousand years of separation?"

- Mohandar's reflections

Because of the Discord, protoss society came to be split into two&mdash;the Khalai of the Protoss Empire and the exiled Nerazim, who came to settle on Shakuras. Due to the Great War and subsequent, the former body collapsed and both branches of protoss were forced to band together for mutual survival. This included sharing and integrating technology. In posterity, Matriarch Raszagal of the Nerazim was viewed as the one responsible for laying down the foundations of the Daelaam by welcoming the Khalai to Shakuras. While the Nerazim were initially welcoming of the Khalai, their breathren's demand for resources soon stirred tensions.

By 2502, Hierarch Artanis was leading both the Khalai and Nerazim. However, over time, the protoss began sliding into tribalism. Artanis ordered the construction of the Golden Armada, with the explicit intention of someday using it to retake Aiur. Shakuras was strip mined to fuel the Daelaam war machine, and multiple Nerazim began abandoning their traditions in favor of the Khalai.

The Second Great War
A Daelaam force led by Praetor Karass tracked the Queen of Blades to Ulaan and aided Dark Templar Prelate Zeratul in his quest to find fragments of an ancient prophecy, sacrificing themselves to cover his escape.

Raynor's Raiders battled against the Daelaam forces led by High Executor Selendis to provide Dr. Ariel Hanson more time to discover a cure for the zerg hyper-evolutionary virus, which had infested the Agrian colonists. The Raiders defeated the protoss and Haven was saved.

The Raiders decided to help purify the world of Haven and took the protoss' place in destroying the infestation. After the job was done, the Daelaam gave Raynor a plaque honoring his effort.

Some Daelaam Dark Templar were imprisoned by the Tal'darim on the xel'naga worldship in the Sigma Quadrant. They requested assistance from Raynor's Raiders.

Post-Second Great War
In the aftermath of the Second Great War, the Queen of Blades led the Zerg Swarm away from the Koprulu sector. Furthermore, Valerian Mengsk, now emperor of the Terran Dominion, organized a cease-fire with Artanis, and the Dominion ceased all aggressive actions against the Khalai and Nerazim. Noting that the terrans were no longer a threat thanks to the destruction the conflict had wrought on them, Artanis declared that Aiur would be reclaimed. A number of protoss within the Daelaam were pleased that the terrans would no longer be an issue. Voices of dissension went unheard as preparations got underway. Vorazun protested against the amount of resources being devoted to the Golden Armada, and the insurgent Taelus staged an insurrection by taking over the Citadel. It was Taelus's intention that his death spark civil strife between the two kindreds, but this was prevented through the actions of Vorazun. Now matriarch, Vorazun reaffirmed her people's commitment to the Daelaam, but would remain behind on Shakuras while the Armada struck at the zerg on Aiur.

New Beginnings
"Today, that lie must come to its end, and with it our prejudice and arrogance must become a thing of the past. For we now fight in the belief that our kind has not seen its end. That we protoss can stand bound by a belief in unity. And that we protoss will form a great a mighty new civilization! Trust each other in the fight ahead, strike as one will! Let our last stand burn a memory so bright that we will be known throughout eternity!"

- Artanis

After years of preparing, the Daelaam finally moved to reclaim Aiur. Zeratul attempted to warn the protoss of Amon's return, but Hierarch Artanis was set on his course. He activated the warp conduits on the planet, allowing the Daelaam to funnel their forces to the surface, but found the hybrid were leading the zerg on the planet. Troubled, Artanis met with Zeratul and told him he would prepare for the coming conflict. However, Amon corrupted the Khala and all protoss under it, causing the Daelaam to splinter. Artanis was freed by Zeratul's sacrifice, and he gathered what freed Khalai and Nerazim he could to escape the planet. Only a small group were able to escape the world in the arkship Spear of Adun, while the rest of the Golden Armada was corrupted to Amon's will.

The Daelaam was plunged into war as Amon unleashed his forces against the galaxy. Shakuras was overrun when the warp gate was activated, but Artanis evacuated what Nerazim he could from Talematros to the Spear of Adun, despite the efforts of Amon's zerg forces and void thrashers. They also lured as much as Amon's zerg and hybrid forces to Shakuras before overloading the xel'Naga temple there and destroyed the planet. The Daelaam assisted in the defense of Korhal in order to retrieve the Keystone, and beat back Moebius Corps and their hybrid masters from Bennet Port. The Daelaam also came into conflict with the Tal'darim, who attempted to purify Glacius, before the Daelaam could retrieve the reborn Purifier prototypes stored there.

The Daelaam then used the Keystone to uncover the location of Ulnar, the resting place of the xel'naga. Fighting through Tal'darim, Moebius Corps, and hybrid, they opened the temple. Artanis and Kerrigan both fought their way to the resting chamber, only to find that the xel'naga were dead. The Daelaam allied with First Ascendant Alarak of the Tal'darim, who showed the Daelaam under Matriarch Vorazun the way to Artanis, who was trapped by Amon. The Daelaam and Kerrigan's forces allied together to turn the tide against Amon, sealing his portal to the void.



After Ulnar, the Daelaam began to push against Amon. Through Rak'Shir, First Ascendant Alarak dethroned Highlord Ma'lash, bringing the Tal'darim into an alliance with the Daelaam. The ancient Purifiers of the Protoss Empire at Endion were reactivated aboard their warship Cybros, the robotic warriors agreeing to fight alongside the Daelaam. After the destruction of the Moebius Corps base of Revanscar, ending Amon's hybrid breeding operations, Artanis declared that the caste system of the old Empire had come to an end. Now united, the four kindreds of the Daelaam returned to Aiur.

On and above the planet, battle was joined&mdash;the Daelaam destroyed the planet's psionic matrix and Amon's host body in a combined assault, and withstood the counterattack of the Golden Armada (still under Amon's control) long enough for the Keystone to temporarily draw him out of the Khala. The remaining Khalai severed their nerve chords, bringing the Khala to an end and banishing Amon back into the Void as he broke free of the Keystone. Yet, it was the start of a new beginning as well, as for the first time in six years, the protoss were able to walk freely on Aiur. Upon Zeratul's grave, Artanis attributed their victory to the Dark Prelate. The Daelaam began rebuilding their cities, with both Khalai and Nerazim architecture constituting the structures.

Amon's End
During the reconstruction of Aiur, Phase-smith Karax received a transmission from Ulnar. It was from Kerrigan, who gathered the Daelaam and Terran Dominion in order to move for a final offensive on Amon in the Void itself. Hierarch Artanis and Executor Selendis met with Jim Raynor and Kerrigan aboard the Spear of Adun, and the group agreed that Amon had to be defeated before he could gather power and rise again. Ulnar's void portal was activated, and the Daelaam sent a unified fleet commanded by the Spear of Adun into the Void.

The fleet was assaulted by shadows of the Void that began to tear apart their ships, but the allied force continued to follow a benevolent voice from inside the void. They eventually discovered it was a voice similar to that of Tassadar, the old templar hero, who was being imprisoned by Emil Narud, one of Amon's followers who had merely returned to the Void after being defeated by Kerrigan at Skygeirr. The Daelaam lead the assault against Narud, pushing against shadows and void thrashers until Narud was weakened enough to allow the zerg commander Alexei Stukov to finish him off. It was then revealed that the voice was not Tassadar, but the xel'naga Ouros, who needed to uplift Kerrigan to give her a chance at beating Amon.

Ouros channeled his energy into Kerrigan, and the Daelaam took up the southern approach while Raynor and broodmother Zagara defended the other approaches. They were again sieged by shadows and void thrashers, but the Daelaam and their allies held for long enough for Kerrigan to ascend into a xel'naga. Kerrigan went to face Amon, and the Daelaam and Dominion following behind to support her. Though Amon began destroying the Daelaam's nexuses, the group destroyed the void crystals shielding Amon in time for Kerrigan to defeat him once and for all.

Forging Peace
The Daelaam returned to Aiur after the end of the conflict. Highlord Alarak refused to Artanis's offer for the Tal'darim to permanently join the Daelaam, and left to search for a new world to colonize. However, he did allow his warriors one chance to stay with the Daelaam. The Daelaam began to focus on reconstruction efforts, including forging a new psionic matrix.

Two years after Amon's defeat, the Daelaam had entered peace negotiations with the Terran Dominion. A ceasefire was declared between the Daelaam, Dominion, and Zerg Swarm. However, when the Swarm forcibly claimed Char and the surrounding systems, the ceasefire was called into question. A DMZ was established between the Terran Dominion and Daelaam territory.

Old Scars
By 2512, the Daelaam struggled to rebuild from the devastation of the wars of the previous decade. While they had made great progress technologically, the loss of the Khala hampered their reconstruction efforts, and deep cultural scars still existed in their society. As such, the Daelaam could not provide aid to their terran neighbors, in spite of the great famine in the Terran Dominion and the Umojan Protectorate relying on the protoss to secure their southern border.

However, the Daelaam received word that their satellites around the planet Gystt had stopped transmitting. Gystt was purified by the Protoss Empire early in the Great War, and Hierarch Artanis sent a small detachment of the Great Fleet to examine the situation. He found that Gystt had been completely regrown, and was now a thriving jungle world thanks to the zerg presence there. The Daelaam prepared to annihilate the planet, when the Dominion Fleet arrived under Emperor Valerian Mengsk. The two were contacted by Overqueen Zagara, new ruler of the swarm, who stated that she wished to make an offering of peace to the two factions and help their reconstruction efforts. Artanis was resistant to any offer the zerg would make, but agreed to come down to negotiate.

However, the diplomatic meeting was disrupted by Abathur, who sought to spark a war between the powers of the sector and the Zerg Swarm as well as remove the adostra which generated the world, who were a fusion of zerg and xel'naga essence. To do so he created a breed of zerg known as the chitha, which could weaken protoss psionics and break their focus in battle. Using these he tricked the Dominion into destroying one of the adostra nests, and used the Daelaam ground forces to destroy the other. However, the Daelaam were able to rally long enough to prevent the third nest's destruction, and the survey team sent to the planet discovered Abathur's betrayal before the protoss fleet above purified the planet. Abathur was incapacitated and his chitha were destroyed, and peace talks began between the Daelaam, Zerg Swarm and Dominion regarding how to use the adostra to reconstruct their worlds.

In Utter Darkness
In a possible future glimpsed at by a select few, the protoss and their civilization came to an end at the hands of Amon.

Known Territories

 * Aiur (current capital world)
 * Artika
 * Ash'Arak
 * Ehlna
 * Endion (formerly)
 * Glacius
 * Kaldir (formerly)
 * Nelyth (formerly)
 * Shakuras (capital world, formerly)
 * Zhakul

Notable Members
"Na adan Daelaam."

- A zealot

Hierarchy

 * Hierarch Artanis (head of state, position retained post-End War)
 * Matriarch Vorazun (de facto Nerazim representative post-End War)
 * Prelate Mohandar (also a military commander, deceased)
 * Admiral Urun (military commander, position retained post-End War)
 * Nahaan
 * Tabrenus
 * Zekrath

End War Hierarchy

 * Highlord Alarak (de facto Tal'darim representative, formerly)
 * Grand Preserver Rohana (adviser to Artanis)
 * Phase-smith Karax (adviser to Artanis)
 * Talandar (de facto Purifier representative)

Military

 * High Executor Selendis
 * Executor Clolarion (Purifier commander)
 * First Ascendant Ji'nara (Tal'darim Ascendant, formerly)
 * Praetor Karass (deceased)
 * Praetor Talis (deceased)