StarCraft: The Dark Templar Saga: Firstborn

StarCraft: The Dark Templar Saga: Firstborn is a novel being authored by Christie Golden. It concerns the history of the Dark Templar. It is the first part of the Dark Templar Saga trilogy (the entirety of which will be written by Golden) and is "kind of a thriller/action/mystery" novel.

Jake Ramsey, an archaeologist, investigates a recently unearthed Xel'Naga temple on the world of Nemaka, only to discover a dying Protoss mystic. His identity begins to drown within the flood of alien memories, which grant to him the Protoss species' total history. Ramsey soon realizes that he has stumbled upon a secret so cataclysmic that it will shake the very foundations of the universe.

Synopsis
Jacob Jefferson Ramsey (known as Jake Ramsey to his friends) is an archeologist, a respected but unimportant job. While excavating a barren planet, Ramsey is contact by Valerian Mengsk, son of Terran Dominion Emperor Arcturus Mengsk with a penchant for knowledge and art. Valerian hires Ramsey's team to excavate a recently unearthed temple. Accompanying them is a force of Marines, including the beautiful R. M. Dahl.

The temple houses a number of artifacts deemed neither Protoss nor Zerg. Inside the innermost structure of the temple, Ramsey finds a dead Protoss, and its mind suddenly merges with his own. However, even as Jake struggles to find out what happened, Valerian Mengsk may have given the Marines secret orders to take Ramsey hostage. They do so, but in turn are taken prisoner by a third force that Valerian may also control.

Ramsey eventually discovers the Protoss was a female named Zamara, a Protoss Preserver that was charged with housing the memories of all Protoss, dead or alive. Zamara has already begun warping Ramsey's brain to suit her mental abilities, and uses these abilities to undo the resocializing of Marine mercenary Marcus Wright, which enables Ramsey and Dahl to escape before Wright kills everyone on board. When Valerian Mengsk hears of this, he sends a force in search of them in anticipation of what Ramsey now knows.

Dahl takes them to Dead Man's Rock outside of Dominion law, where her former partner and lover Ethan Stewart lives. Stewart, also eager to discern the knowledge Jake possesses, gives them shelter, but is secretly planning to hand them over to Valerian Mengsk after he learns all he can. During the journey to Stewart's base and his time with him, Ramsey is subject to the memories of a Protoss named Temlaa, a member of the Shelak Tribe. Temlaa is friend of a Protoss named Savassan, who teaches him things like map-making, telepathy, and writing that the other Protoss tribes had forgotten or never knew about.

Zamara eventually bestows on Ramsey the same psionic powers of her race, allowing him to read Stewart's mind to a greater degree than before and warn Dahl of his plans. They escape, but are closely pursued by Dominion ships. At this time, Ramsey has Temlaa's memories of the Khaydarin Crystals, and is told that Savassan is in fact the legendary Khas, who was legendary for uniting the Tribes. As they are chased, Jake finally receives all the memories Zamara has kept. However, hoping to give to his own people the same revelations Khas did when he discovered the Khaydarin Crystals, Jake sends these memories to all the Terrans in the sector, establishing a distracting psionic link between them all. As the ships behind them fall off, Jake and Dahl enter warp space.

The story will continue in the sequel, StarCraft: The Dark Templar Saga: Shadow Hunters.

Characters in StarCraft: The Dark Templar Saga: Firstborn

 * Rosemary Dahl – petite but deadly mercenary and head of security for the Nemaka Temple expedition.
 * Valerian Mengsk – son of Arcturus Mengsk, the Heir Apparent to the Terran Dominion and archaeologist.
 * Dr. Reginald Morris – former Ghost instructor and employee of Ethan Stewart.
 * Jacob Jefferson Ramsey – maverick archaeologist. Ramsey makes incredible discoveries at the Nemaka Temple.
 * Phillip Randall – elderly valet for Ethan Stewart
 * Savassan – Former Shelak Tribe member who discovers Xel'Naga secrets.
 * Ethan Stewart – ex-mercenary and crime lord on Dead Man's Rock
 * Telkar – leader of the Shelak Tribe near the end of the Aeon of Strife
 * Temlaa – Former Shelak Tribe member who assists Savassan
 * Charles Whittier – young red-haired assistant to Valerian Mengsk
 * Marcus Wright – former cannibal and neurally resocialized mercenary Marine. Wright is well over six feet tall and has a gravelly voice.
 * Zamara – Protoss Preserver who follows the Khala. Zamara dies and implants her mind into Jacob Ramsey.

Accuracy and Canon
Blizzard Entertainment does not have an official canon policy on its universes. Christie Golden had this to say about the Dark Templar saga:

Christie Golden: "Considering the nature of some of the events that are portrayed, I can safely say that yes, Starcraft: The Dark Templar series is going to be considered canon." The novels are being written concurrently with the StarCraft II storyline.

Accuracy
Firstborn adhered to canon for the most part; most of the errors involve timing.

According to the StarCraft manual, the Ara Tribe was created by Khas after he rediscovered the Khala, and consisted of his first students. According to Firstborn, the Ara Tribe existed during the Aeon of Strife (and was one of many which attacked the Shelak Tribe).

According to the StarCraft manual, Xel'Naga is a Protoss word meaning "Wanderers from Afar", but according to Firstborn that is the word the Xel'Naga used for themselves.

The technological level of the Protoss during the Aeon of Strife portrayed in Firstborn disagrees with the manual, Brood War and the Maps of the Month. According to the manual the Protoss developed radical, progressive strains of scientific and meta-neural study. According to Brood War the Protoss colonized the world of Khyrador which they abandoned at the end of the Strife. According to the Maps of the Month, the Protoss developed the ability to build Warp Gates during the Aeon of Strife, but later lost that, and Khas was able to travel to the Protoss planet of Gyras to link with the Protoss there, but in Firstborn, the Protoss had descended to a Stone Age level.

Valerian Mengsk must have been much older than eight when the Confederacy tried to kill him. The Rebellion of Korhal occurred not very long before the events of the original StarCraft, which is five years, or less, before the events of Firstborn.

Trivia
Dr. Eddie Rainsinger is named after a Navajo doctor who appeared in Invasion America: On the Run, a previous work by Christie Golden.

The Sequel
The second book in the series, StarCraft: The Dark Templar Saga: Shadow Hunters (ISBN 0-7434-7126-1) is due November 27, 2007 according to Simon & Schuster and Amazon.com.