Jim Raynor

"James Raynor was the most decent man I ever encountered during the fall of the Confederacy. Everyone else, I can safely say, was either a victim or a villain or quite often both. At first glance, Raynor seems like a backwoods cowboy, one of those good old boys swapping lies about the days gone by. There's a cocksureness, an overconfidence about him that makes you bridle initially. Yet over time you come to see him as a valuable ally and-dare I say it?-a friend. It all comes from belief. Jim Raynor believed in himself and believed in those around him. And from that strength came the strength that allowed him and those who followed him to survive everything else the universe threw at him. Jim Raynor was a most decent and honorable man. I suppose that's why his is the greatest tragedy in this godforsaken war."

- Michael Liberty

James "Jim" Raynor was a Terran marshal from Mar Sara, who became one of the major figures in the Koprulu Sector through his work to bring down the Confederacy and, later, in the struggle against the Confederacy's successor, the Dominion. Raynor is one of the few Terrans to engage in a long-term alliance with the Protoss.

Raynor was voiced by Robert Clotworthy in StarCraft I.

Early Life
Raynor was born on the Fringe World of Mar Sara. In his youth, he was taught outdoor skills such as hunting and shooting by his grandfather, skills which would later prove useful as a marshal.

Jim Raynor fought as part of the Confederate 321st Colonial Rangers Battalion "Heaven's Devils", fighting against the Kel-Morian Combine during the Guild Wars. While serving time for insubordination at Camp McIntyre, he met Tychus Findlay (who was also serving time for the same reason). Both men went missing during the fighting on Mar Sara while on a reconnaissance mission behind Kel-Morian lines. They were both missing for nine months; Raynor had mysteriously disappeared. Findlay was captured by the Combine and later turned over to the Confederacy.

Despite his disappearance, Raynor managed to achieve the position of marshal in the Mar Sara Colonial Militia. In his early days as part of the local law on Mar Sara, Raynor learned how to describe plots for potential colony use as well.

At some point Raynor married a woman named Liddy who bore him a son, Johnny. Johnny was "gifted" with psionic powers, and as a result was taken to a "special school". A few months later, Raynor and his wife received a letter claiming their son had died in an "incident". Liddy never recovered from the shock of losing her son, and soon wasted away and died of the flu. Raynor buried himself in his work to escape his losses.

Raynor was 29 years old when the Protoss attacked his world's neighbor, Chau Sara.

The War Begins
"Howdy, boys. I'm Jim Raynor, Marshal of these parts."

- Raynor introducing himself to the Mar Sara colonists

In December 2499, in the wake of the Protoss attack on Chau Sara and the beginning of the Zerg incursion on Mar Sara, Raynor received orders from the Office of the Colonial Magistrate to escort the core Mar Saran colonists to the outlying wastelands. Here he was partnered with the local Magistrate, with whom he would share a close working relationship with.

While safeguarding the colonists, the evacuation base received a distress signal from Backwater Station. Edmund Duke ordered the colonials to ignore it, saying that Alpha Squadron would handle it. However, Raynor believed that Confederate forces would be unable to respond in time, and set off to relieve Backwater in defiance of orders, the Magistrate sending in some militia as support. During a lull in the battle, he rescued Universe News Network reporter Michael Liberty at Anthem Base, who then joined the party. Arriving at Backwater they successfully drove the Zerg from the immediate area and destroyed a nearby Infested Command Center. However, this put them at odds with Duke. Raynor and his men were subsequently arrested for destroying government property and taken to the prison ship Merrimack. He would not remain imprisoned for long.

The Sons of Korhal
"Ah, Marshal Raynor. Michael apparantly thinks very highly of you and your men. I was wondering if you would be willing to help me in a small matter."

- Mengsk to Raynor after the former's rescue.

Michael Liberty and a Sons of Korhal task force boarded Merrimack and rescued Raynor and the Mar Saran militia. Thoroughly dissatisfied with the Confederacy, and with the Protoss sterilization of his homeworld imminent, it did not take Arcturus Mengsk much to persuade Raynor and the militia to join the dissident group. Raynor was awarded the rank of captain and assigned to lead the newest unit of the Sons of Korhal, unofficially named "Raynor's Rangers".

Raynor led a raid on the Jacobs Installation to access the Confederate network and retrieve what he believed to be weapon designs. Inside he discovered live Zerg in captivity and was horrified when he realized that the Confederacy had known about the Zerg but decided to keep that knowledge secret. In the aftermath, Raynor was ferried to the Hyperion, where he watched the Protoss bombard the planet. He was sickened at the sight.

Antiga Prime
The Sons of Korhal then withdrew to Antiga Prime, a border world whose colony was on the verge of revolt but effectively suppressed by Alpha Squadron. Together with Mengsk's second in command, Lieutenant Sarah Kerrigan (albiet with mutual resentment), Raynor freed the colony by destroying the local Confederate detachment.

Shortly afterwards, General Duke's command ship, Norad II, crash landed after a Zerg attack in orbit and then besieged by Zerg forces on the ground. Raynor, under orders from Mengsk, unenthusiastically rescued the general, an act that directly precipitated General Duke's and Alpha Squadron's defection to the rebellion. It was at this point that unease began to well within Raynor. Although he believed in Mengsk's cause and felt indebted to him for his rescue from the Merrimack, he was uneasy at what Mengsk was asking of them.

Over the next six months Raynor took part in the three way fighting on Antiga Prime between the Confederacy, Zerg and rebel forces. Things took a drastic turn however, when the Sons of Korhal used a psi-emitter to lure a wave of Zerg to attack the Delta Squadron detachment sent to retake the colony, the same type of device which had led to the infestation of Raynor's homeworld.

With the Sons of Korhal preparing to evacuate the planet, Raynor may have led a force to rescue the remaining colonists. During the battle, the Protoss and Executor Tassadar arrived and made contact with the Terrans, possibly even providing timely assistance. Raynor and the Sons of Korhal escaped from Antiga Prime and made their way to Tarsonis. The Protoss then sterilized the planet.

Departing the planet, Raynor was disturbed, courtesy of Mengsk's hunger for power and his growing lack of scruples. Kerrigan was faring little better, haunted by her role in drawing the Zerg to the planet. Despite his past history with telepaths, Raynor possessed genuine sympathy to her. Sympathy gave way to mutual friendship and perhaps more, though the timing was never right for the two to take things further.

Tarsonis
"Don't go following causes. They'll just break your heart. When idealism meets reality, it's rarely reality that backs down."

- Michael Liberty to Raynor

Prior to their invasion of Tarsonis, the Sons of Korhal held a conference. Raynor remarked that he was "impressed" by Duke's strategy of frontally assaulting the central of the three primary orbital platforms, although he may have been being sarcastic. Once above the Confederate capital, General Duke led the attack to break through to the surface. Raynor, alongside Kerrigan and Liberty, found himself fighting tooth and nail in the streets of Tarsonis City. The purposes of the assault and the means in which the rebellion would defeat the Confederacy became clear when Duke planted and activated psi-emitters on the secured platform by order of Mengsk. With the memory of the psi-emitter's effects on Antiga Prime still fresh, Raynor and Kerrigan protested, but were rebuffed coldly by Mengsk. Raynor later made his objections known to both Duke and Mengsk personally, coming to blows with the former. Anticipating trouble, he began gathering his men together.

The Protoss predictably arrived at the heels of the Zerg but the efficient Protoss threatened to prevent the Zerg from delivering the fatal blow to the Confederacy. Kerrigan was dispatched to defend the primary Zerg hives from the Protoss at New Gettysburg. Raynor could not convince Kerrigan to refuse the order. He would later regret not accompanying her.

Raynor's Raiders
"The Protoss and the Zerg aren't going to give a rat's ass that Mengsk is running things now. They don't care about human wars or human leaders. They're battling throughout humanspace. It's not over."

- Raynor after his defection.

With Kerrigan's mission a success, the Zerg suddenly began to attack her forces. To Raynor's disbelief, Mengsk ordered the Sons of Korhal to withdraw, abandoning Kerrigan and her troops instead of evacuating them.

Raynor decided on a rescue. He gathered a number of troops along with Michael Liberty. However, they were stopped by General Edmund Duke and a group of his neurally resocialized Marines, who were using their StimPacks. Duke took Raynor's rescue attempt as a sign of mutiny, but was surprised when Liberty injured him with a needle gun. As Duke passed out, his Marines took him to a medical center.

Raynor took down a Dropship to attempt to rescue Kerrigan and her forces and while he saved a significant number of the latter, he could not save the former. Mengsk's callousness led Raynor, Liberty, the Magistrate (now ranked as the Commander), and the remnants of the Mar Sara Colonial Militia to sever their ties with the megalomaniac Mengsk and the Sons of Korhal.

Raynor was picked up by the former Confederate battlecruiser, the Thunder Child, on his way from Tarsonis. Raynor's Rangers, now known as Raynor's Raiders, had become rebel movement of their own. The Raiders fought their way from Tarsonis, destroying the Ion Cannon, before escaping out of the system.

Although Liberty and the Commander left the Raiders, Raynor did not find himself without company. He had originally expected to be down to a handful of troops. Instead, virtually every member of his unit followed him, and even a few from outside it. To obtain transport, Raynor led a raid on the Dylarian Shipyards, obtaining a number of transport vessels and the Hyperion itself. In the aftermath however, Raynor found himself without direction. While he'd made a few strikes against the forces of the Terran Dominion, he was at a loss as to how to proceed, especially with so many looking up to him.

And the recurring dreams he was having wasn't helping matters...

Protoss Friendship
"Heh. If I ever meet this Raynor fellow, I'm gonna shake his hand and thank him for being such a good ambassador"

- Rosemary Dahl after hearing about Raynor's history with the Protoss.

Six weeks after the fall of the Confederacy, Raynor's dreams led him to the planet of Char. The Raiders established themselves on Char, avoiding conflict with arriving Dominion forces led by Duke, but were overrun by the Zerg led by, much to Raynor's surprise and shock, a very much alive and newly "hatched" Infested Kerrigan. She'd been calling to him via her telepathy, but now possessed no desire to return to her former life. Kerrigan allowed Raynor to flee but the psychic connection between the two remained. However, Raynor and the surviving Raiders were temporarily stranded on Char when Kerrigan attacked the Raiders' ships. Hyperion was able to escape by making a risky emergency jump. Tassadar's forces arrived and began destroying the "infested" ships including escaping shuttles and escape pods. Raynor kept this knowledge from his men.

Raynor used his tracking skills to find Tassadar (and his force) and, later, Zeratul. Despite initial animosity the three decided to cooperate out of necessity and fight the Zerg together, using Raynor's psychic connection to Kerrigan to aid them. The mutual respect built between Raynor, Tassadar, and Zeratul would be pivotal in the continuing struggle. However, the motley force of Templar, Dark Templar, and Raiders were soon forced onto the defensive, with Tassadar's forces and Raynor ending up surrounded on an orbiting platform. There they awaited reinforcements which came in the form of a Protoss fleet from Aiur sent to arrest Tassadar. The newcomers opted to join Tassadar instead. With the return of the Hyperion, the Raiders accompanied their Protoss allies back to Aiur.

Upon their arrival at Aiur they linked up with Fenix who was rallying forces to resist the Zerg invasion. Fenix would become another of Raynor's close friends. However, the Protoss Conclave arrested Tassadar, and Raynor and the Raiders helped to free Tassadar and, with Zeratul's timely reappearance, unite the Protoss factions against the Zerg. Raynor's Raiders were then instrumental in the destruction of the Overmind.

The Brood War
The death of the Overmind caused the Zerg to rampage, killing 70% of Aiur's population. The only realistic option was for the Protoss and the Terrans to leave the planet through a Warp Gate to Shakuras. Raynor and Fenix remained behind covering the retreat, and for a time both were thought lost by their comrades. The two survived, with a small group of refugees on Aiur. They managed to establish an enclave on Aiur near the Warp Gate. Kerrigan contacted Raynor and Fenix there, warning them about the new Overmind and the UED's plan to control it. Raynor and Fenix rescued Terran Dominion Emperor Arcturus Mengsk from the United Earth Directorate, traveling through the Warp Gate, which then self-destructed. They did so at the request of Infested Kerrigan, who contacted them again on Shakuras. Assembling on Tarsonis, the four forged an uneasy alliance against the UED. Together they rescued the remains of the Dominion fleet from the UED.

Raynor helped Kerrigan destroy the UED's Psi Disrupter and retake Korhal for the Dominion. After the victory on Korhal, Kerrigan promptly turned on her puppet allies. Fenix's death at Kerrigan's hands dashed Raynor's hopes that she had "reformed". Convinced of her treacherous nature Raynor vowed to one day kill Kerrigan in righteous vengeance. In the aftermath of the Brood War, Raynor said his farewells to Zeratul on Shakuras then vanished.

Post-Brood War
Some time after the Brood War, Raynor personally took part part in a mission to Braxis alongside Protoss forces led by Praetor Taldarin.

Despite these successes against the Zerg, Raynor knew that his chances of achieving vengeance against Kerrigan were slender at best. Eventually, exhausted and disillusioned, Raynor led his Raiders against the spreading power of the Dominion.

Dark Times
Raynor's fight against the Dominion has not gone well, Mengsk utilizing the state controlled media, oratory and propaganda to marginalize Raynor's efforts. Raynor and his faction viewed as "public enemy number one", Mengsk has taken steps to keep Raynor and his followers constantly hunted and harried and deny them any chance to gain a respite and build their strength. While Mengsk has refused to have Raynor assassinated in fear of turning him into a martyr, he has forced Raynor to take up mercenary work to make the cut.

Four years after the Brood War, Raynor is still active in the Sector, leading the mercenary/freedom fighting organisation, Raynor's Raiders against the Dominion. He will be "the central hero and character of the Terran campaign." Raynor has begun losing faith: he's drinking heavily and blames himself for Kerrigan's being taken by the Zerg. His hatred for Arcturus Mengsk has become a festering wound. Raynor's first officer, Matt Horner, still believes in him and in the revolution even though some of Raynor's doubts are spreading to his crew. Horner has done a lot to keep things going over the years, always having faith that Raynor's innate heroism will resurface and lead the rebels to victory.

Hidden Missions
Raynor's efforts to help Antiga Prime's colonists flee the planet was supposed to have been the premise for a mission in the original game.

Operation Claws
Raynor appeared in Operation: Claws, where he dispatched soldiers to Planet Christmas in order to stop the Zergrinch.

Alternity: StarCraft Edition

 * Main article: Alternity: StarCraft Edition

Some time after the Brood War, Raynor became affiliated with the Alliance, a Protoss/Terran organization, ascending to the rank of General and becoming its leader. This led to an excessive amount of time behind a desk however, which didn't do his physical state any favors, as demonstrated in a mission to Dylar IV.

StarCraft: Ghost
Robert Clotworthy was hired to voice act for Raynor in StarCraft: Ghost. Other StarCraft characters such as Infested Kerrigan or Zeratul were not projected to play an important role in the game.

Battle.net
As of October 9th 2005 the Battle.net Web Site contained a hidden image of Infested Kerrigan saying "Help me Jim Raynor...you're my only hope!". The animated GIF image and the text can be found at the bottom of the main page. In order to reveal them the user has to click the round object above the Blizzard image (this doesn't work with all browsers).

Screenshot Easter Eggs
Jim Raynor has turned up in a number of StarCraft II screenshots. His in-game unit model will look different from his appearance in the Easter eggs.

World of WarCraft

 * Main article: Lord Marshal Raynor

A character similar to Raynor appears in World of Warcraft.

StarCraft
Raynor appeared in StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War as three unique units.

In Episode I he was first depicted piloting a Vulture hover cycle, and later as a Marine during the raid on Jacobs Installation. In Episode IV he was represented by the battlecruiser Hyperion.

In Brood War he also appeared in all three forms but was not a playable character. The only exception was during the first mission of Episode IV, also notable for being the only time players could command an invincible hero.

Quotations

 * "Guess you wouldn't be a Confederate if you weren't a complete pain in the ass." (Jim Raynor to General Edmund Duke in Backwater Station, upon being arrested by the latter.)


 * (Jim Raynor and Arcturus Mengsk discuss General Duke joining the Sons of Korhal.)
 * Jim Raynor: "I can't believe you're really going to trust this snake!"


 * Arcturus Mengsk: "Don't worry, Jim. He's our snake now."

Inspiration and Personality
Jim Raynor was created by Chris Metzen and James Phinney. He is based on the undercover police officer of the same name in the film Rush. Chris Metzen and Robert Clotworthy based his character in part on an image of a space cowboy riding a hover cycle.

Clotworthy describes Raynor as simple, honest, direct and passionate. He does what is right, even if it's the difficult choice. He won't go looking for trouble, but he won't run if it comes looking for him. Clotworthy gave him a quite, raspy voice to signify that he is a "badass"; it is up to the others to shut up and listen to him.

Chris Metzen describes Raynor as an "honest cop in a universe full of demigods walking around." He has no superpowers and isn't the brightest guy, but he's just a cool cat and doesn't give up.

Raynor is a good leader and an excellent tactician although he lacks any formal training or background. He has learned his skills through experience, and so he is unfettered by preconceived notions of what "the book" says is the right or wrong approach. Raynor will seldom plan things out in very much depth, but he has an excellent ability to improvise and turn the tables in a situation by using whatever he has at hand.

Raynor is one of the very few major Terran characters in StarCraft to be fundamentally good throughout the game. Even when he assisted Infested Kerrigan, it was to overthrow the UED, which he suspected would enslave all three races in the sector (in essence, he chose what appeared to be the lesser of two evils). Raynor is also the only major Terran leader closely associated with, and trusted by, the Protoss.