Arcturus Mengsk

Arcturus Mengsk is a character in the StarCraft universe. He is a Terran from Korhal IV, leader of the Sons of Korhal and emperor of the Terran Dominion. During the original StarCraft, he was 38 years old.

Arcturus Mengsk was a discharged Colonel and successful prospector of the Terran Confederacy when his father Angus Mengsk (the leader of Korhal) declared war upon the Confederacy and caused the Confederates to withdraw from the planet. Embarrassed by his father's actions, but by no means surprised, he still never suspected the lengths the Confederates would go. In a shocking triple murder, his father, his mother, and his sister were all brutally killed. His father's head was never found. Also it may have revealed the Ghost program of the Confederates.

Rallying the militant groups that followed his father he attacked the Confederates and harassed them in any and all ways possible. With rumors circulating that an alliance was to be declared with the Umojan Protectorate the Confederacy settled upon a solution; annihilate life on Korhal. One thousand nuclear missiles were launched at Korhal, killing more than 4,000,000 people.

Sons of Korhal
Arcturus Mengsk, hiding out in a secret base within the Umojan Protectorate, heard the news. He was devastated as the once prosperous planet of Korhal became nothing more than a nuclear wasteland.

He and the survivors of the event pledged to take the fight to the Confederates. Calling themselves the Sons of Korhal, they promised to overthrow the Confederacy. The Sons of Korhal quickly becoming the most wanted 'terrorist' cell in the sector.

As the group slowly grew in strength, it acquired a Confederacy battlecruiser which had crash-landed in Umojan territory "well outside the range of Confederate hailing" signals. He renamed this vessel the Hyperion.

Some time later he performed a raid on a small Terran research installation called the Fujita Complex on Vyctor 5 (according to StarCraft: Uprising) when he discovered Sarah Kerrigan, a Terran Ghost. Rescuing her from the Confederate scientists that were performing experiments upon her involving Zerg, he eventually made her second in command of the Sons of Korhal. According to StarCraft: Uprising, his purpose for visiting the facility was that he discovered that one of the three Ghosts who had murdered his family was present.

Shortly afterwards, Kerrigan killed one of these Ghosts after Mengsk lured him aboard the Hyperion.

According to StarCraft: Uprising, he took Sarah Kerrigan to Tarsonis in order to attack the primary Ghost Academy (which would create much publicity for his fledgling organization). He also wanted Kerrigan to eliminate one of those Ghosts as well. The attack was a disaster as the very small Sons of Korhal was nearly wiped out. However, Sarah Kerrigan did manage to capture the Ghost and the Academy was destroyed. She also killed Major Rumm, her former instructor who had tormented her. Mengsk promptly killed the captured and nearly helpless Ghost in cold blood. He told Kerrigan she was the third Ghost, and the most important one - the one who had cut off his father's head. Yet he found her useful and kept her as a loyal member of the Sons of Korhal.

Mengsk Against the Zerg
In StarCraft: Loomings Mengsk's curiousity about the Zerg led him to visit Chau Sara, which had been recently invaded by the Zerg. However, Alpha Squadron drove his forces away.

Mengsk's Sons of Korhal then showed up on Mar Sara as the Confederacy began to arrest the colonial militias and avoid fighting the Zerg. He quickly found himself in demand as the only force there willing to face the Zerg. He endeared himself to Jim Raynor and the former Colonial Magistrate of Mar Sara by assisting in the evacuation of Mar Sara's core city, something the Confederates were not willing to do.

Before leaving, Mengsk rescued Raynor from a Confederate prison and used him to lead a strike force against the Jacobs Installation. Within Raynor discovered Zerg being imprisoned, but Mengsk had seen these Zerg in the Fujita Complex before, and was not surprised by the Confederate experiments. Raynor had been sent there to find Confederate technology and retrieved a data disk.

Mengsk's next destination was Antiga Prime, where the colonists wanted to rebel against the Confederacy. However, their military forces were to weak to accomplish anything against Alpha Squadron, which had been sent there to suppress the nascent revolt. Mengsk decided to help. He rescued a rebel base from the Confederates with the aid of Raynor and Kerrigan (the latter sneaking in and assassinating the Confederate official in charge). The combined Antigan/Sons of Korhal force then defeated the small Alpha Squadron force.

A Gift of a General
Alpha Squadron's General Edmund Duke was unable to respond effectively because his vessel, the Norad II, was attacked by the Zerg in orbit over Antiga Prime and crash-landed. This was a huge turning point for the Sons of Korhal as it enabled them to rescue Duke and force him and his force to join with the Sons of Korhal. Perhaps even more important than the acquisition of Duke's tactical skill and a large number of elite soldiers was the decryption of that Jacobs Installation data disk, which contained crucial information on the psi-emitter. As the disk was only encrypted after General Duke joined forces with the Sons of Korhal, it is likely the Duke decrypted the disk himself (or one of his aides did it).

Meanwhile, the defection of Alpha Squadron caused the Terran Confederacy to panic. They couldn't risk losing Duke or this valuable colony, so they sent Delta Squadron to win back the colony.

As a test of this new technology, the psychic Sarah Kerrigan was ordered to bring the psi-emitter to a Delta Squadron base and activate it. She did so very reluctantly, causing vast amounts of Zerg to attack the location. The Sons of Korhal and Alpha Squadron were forced to evacuate. Sometime afterwards the Protoss arrived, wiping out all life on the surface of the planet, including the Zerg.

Great Power... and Betrayal
Arcturus Mengsk was now firmly on the path to victory. With a powerful army and the psi-emitter he was nearly unstoppable. Many colonies rebelled and joined his side, but in order to win he had to defeat the Confederacy in a decisive battle at Tarsonis. While Tarsonis had been invaded in the past, it had never fallen. Fortunately for Mengsk, General Edmund Duke had taken part in many battles there and understood its defenses thoroughly.

Duke's plan was to create a ruckus to enable a small Sons of Korhal force to slip past Confederacy defenses and use the psi-emitters to summon the Zerg. Of course, Mengsk did not inform Sarah Kerrigan or Raynor of this part of the plan. While successful, causing the near extinction of the Confederacy, it alienated both Kerrigan and Raynor.

However, Sarah Kerrigan remained loyal and followed his next set of orders... to protect the Zerg from the coming Protoss fleet, under the command of Executor Tassadar. Kerrigan believed the Protoss were there to exterminate all life on Tarsonis, not just the Zerg, so of course she would fight them. She defeated the Protoss fleet but was abandoned to the Zerg, after Mengsk ordered his fleet to leave the Tarsonis system. Raynor's attempts to rescue her failed, and he too was forced to flee to a relatively safe part of Tarsonis' space platform. However he did take the Hyperion with him.

Mengsk returned to deal with Raynor's "treachery". General Duke revealed his startling knowledge of Confederacy defenses by reactivating the Ion Cannon, a powerful piece of technology which would shoot down Raynor's forces if they attempted to leave. Raynor was forced to defeat Duke and the Sons of Korhal in platform fighting and destroy the Ion Cannon in order to escape.

Nonplussed, Mengsk had himself crowned emperor of the Terran Dominion and made Korhal IV the new capital (since Tarsonis was now uninhabited) by Terrans.

Strangely, he is referred to both as "Emperor Mengsk I" and as "Emperor Arcturus." Normal royal naming conventions would dictate that his name would be "Emperor Arcturus I" of the "House of Mengsk."

The New Dominion
As Mengsk set about building his new Terran Dominion, he received a psychic message from Sarah Kerrigan on Char. He sent General Duke's Alpha Squadron there to retrieve her, but his forces were repelled by the Zerg. Duke would remain as Mengsk wanted to claim Char as a colony world, probably due to its rich resources.

After the death of the Zerg Overmind, Mengsk had declared a quarantine and blockade over Aiur. It was during this time that he tried to bring to justice a Terran criminal, Alan Schezar, which is covered in StarCraft: Enslavers.

The United Earth Directorate
Mengsk and Duke built a powerful defense over Korhal, but when the United Earth Directorate (UED) arrived and attacked, it was able to neutralize most of his defenses and attack his palace. Mengsk and Duke tried to escape in the Norad III, but the UED cut off his escape. Admiral DuGalle threatened him with execution, along with his senior officials, but Raynor suddenly appeared in the Hyperion and rescued his enemy, leaving DuGalle dumbfounded.

Mengsk and Raynor (and probably Duke) fled to Aiur, where Raynor had continued his alliance with the Protoss Praetor Fenix and hid in a command center near the Warp Gate. Making matters more complicated, there were large numbers of Zerg near the Warp Gate, which remained quiet until the Warp Gate was activated. In their efforts to capture these men, the UED task force attacked Raynor's command center. Raynor, Mengsk (and probably Duke) fled in a dropship through the Warp Gate, which then exploded. It is unknown where the ship flew too. Worse for the UED, the Zerg suddenly attacked and DuGalle had to face possible treachery from two of his subordinates. DuGalle had to leave.

Mengsk was put into cold storage, and when he awoke he was in the power of Infested Kerrigan, who had struck an alliance with Jim Raynor and Fenix. Mengsk was very angry at Infested Kerrigan, who reminded him of his own treachery. In his efforts to kill her, he only made her stronger. Kerrigan needed Mengsk for a favor - she would help Mengsk and Raynor (the latter showing a great hatred for the United Earth Directorate, not to mention Mengsk) to clear out the Earth's influence on the Koprulu Sector in return for their aid in destroying the Psi Disruptor. Mengsk agreed in exchange for Kerrigan's help in retaking control over Korhal. Mengsk's role was to give Kerrigan a psi-emitter so she could recruit Zerg on Braxis, where the Psi Disruptor was located. The ploy worked, and the Psi Disruptor was permanently destroyed. This became the death knell for the United Earth Directorate's expeditionary force in the Koprulu Sector, though it would take time for Admiral DuGalle to realize this.

Another Betrayal
Arcturus Mengsk, General Edmund Duke, Fenix and Jim Raynor joined forces with Kerrigan, the "Queen of Blades" in order to attack the UED forces on Korhal. After the successful attack, Mengsk's forces rested. However, Kerrigan and Samir Duran launched a devastating surprise attack, leading the Zerg to victory and inflicting massive causualties on Mengsk's forces and on Raynor's Raiders. In the attack, General Edmund Duke and Fenix were both assassinated, leaving Mengsk and especially Raynor very bitter.

The Zerg left, leaving Mengsk and Korhal alone. However, this did mean Mengsk was himself greatly weakened as a military force.

Recent Actions
Mengsk set about creating an army of "special interest groups" interested in killing Infested Kerrigan and attacked her when she was in a vulnerable position on Char. His forces failed, but Mengsk threatened Kerrigan with eventual death (as did Raynor).

More recently, Mengsk has led a war against the Koprulu Liberation Front.