StarCraft universe

The StarCraft universe refers to the fictional universe created by Blizzard Entertainment. It began with the release of the game StarCraft in 1998, the franchise having since expanded across various forms of media.

Setting


Set approximately 500 years in the future, the StarCraft universe includes three main races; terrans, a group of humans exiled to the Koprulu Sector 200 years ago, the protoss (a race of humanoid religious warriors) and the zerg (vile insect-like aliens who share a hive mind). A war between the latter two led to massive destruction amongst all three races.

Terrans
The terrans arrived in the sector approximately two hundred years ago in four prison ships, settling the worlds of Tarsonis, Moria and Umoja. The colonists of Tarsonis had access to more advanced techology and would form the most powerful of the three civilizations–the Terran Confederacy.

Terran Confederacy


The largest of the three terran factions in the Koprulu Sector, the Confederacy, based on Tarsonis, consisted of thirteen primary worlds and numerous fringe colonies when the Great War broke out, heralded by the protoss destroying the colony of Chau Sara.

There were several rebel factions opposed to the Confederacy, mainly based in the downtrodden colony worlds, the most important being the Sons of Korhal, led by Arcturus Mengsk.

During the Great War the Confederacy was invaded by the zerg. The Sons of Korhal took advantage, luring the zerg to Tarsonis. Mengsk would later form a new government, the Terran Dominion, upon the ashes of the Confederacy.

Terran Dominion


The Terran Dominion, led by Emperor Arcturus Mengsk I and its secret heir, Valerian, became the most powerful terran government in the Koprulu Sector when it was founded about four years ago.

Raynor's Raiders


Raynor's Raiders, led by former Mengsk loyalist Jim Raynor, is a small anti-Dominion rebel movement. In addition, it has undertaken numerous operations to rescue terrans from zerg forces.

The Raiders are unique among the terran factions for having made long-term peaceful contact with the protoss, even fighting beside them on their homeworld.

United Earth Directorate


The UED are the descendants of the United Powers League government of Earth, which banished the terran colonists two hundred years ago. They secretly watched the Koprulu Sector for two centuries, making no attempt to interfere until the Confederacy made disastrous first contact with the protoss.

The UED dispatched a fleet to the Sector, led by its most decorated officer, Gerard DuGalle, with orders to conquer the Terran Dominion, take control of the zerg Overmind and conquer the protoss. However, they failed to maintain control over the terrans and zerg. The UED was defeated by Infested Kerrigan's clever manipulations and finally defeated in a massive battle over her home planet, Char.

Since then, the UED has lost interest in the Koprulu Sector, leaving the scattered remnants of their forces in the Sector to themselves.

Zerg Swarm


The zerg are a biologically engineered species and the second (after the protoss) to be created by the last incarnation of the xel'naga. Possessing a purity of essence, the zerg were a race of parasites which over time could "absorb" the genetics of their victims. They were controlled by the Overmind, which broke contact with the xel'naga and eventually spurred the Swarm into destroying its masters, stealing their knowledge. The Zerg Swarm took on a hierarchy, led by the immortal Overmind, the immortal cerebrates underneath it, and the overlords. The modern Zerg Swarm emerged as a collection of breeds, capable of living in harsh conditions&mdash;most were adapted for combat.

The Overmind became aware of the protoss and determined to assimilate them into its own species. Upon discovering the terrans, it intended to assimilate their psionic potential to help it in its conquest of the protoss. When the zerg overwhelmed Chau Sara, the protoss responded by destroying all life on the planet's surface.

A three-sided war broke out amongst the zerg, protoss and terrans. The zerg finally gained what they wanted at Tarsonis in the midst of a terran civil war&mdash;the powerful psychic who would become the new Infested Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades.

After the death of the Overmind Kerrigan fought in the broke out between the factions, with Kerrigan and her pawn Samir Duran manipulating the protoss and other factions in order to give her the edge, but the plans were hampered by the arrival of the United Earth Directorate. Kerrigan defeated all her opponents in a massive battle over her home base of Char, but Duran meanwhile disappeared.

The Zerg Swarm has been "too quiet" for four years.

Protoss


The protoss, a race of powerful long-lived psychics originally found on Aiur, were the first successful creation of the prior incarnation of the xel'naga. They possess purity of form and are larger, stronger and tougher than terrans. They also have more advanced technology. Many protoss are linked by a psychic bond now called the Khala.

The xel'naga modified the protoss for thousands of years before they descended to the surface. The protoss worshipped them as gods and learned much from them. However, as individual psionic and scientific achievements became more important, the protoss tribes began to separate themselves from each other as the protoss psychic bond vanished. The xel'naga now felt they had pushed the evolution of the protoss too quickly and abandoned their first creation.

The protoss tribes, feeling betrayed by their gods, fell into a massive civil war called the Aeon of Strife which lasted countless protoss generations, causing their technology to fall to a Stone Age level. The Strife finally ended when the mystic Khas recreated the bond, calling it the Khala, pacifying the tribes and teaching them some of what he learned from the xel'naga.

The protoss religion centers around the Khala, and it is the center of all their psionic power. In order to maintain its purity, protoss culture, led by the Conclave following the Aeon of Strife, became very conservative, leading to philosophical differences between the Khalai and the Dark Templar&mdash;the latter being a group who refused to join the Khala.

The Dark Templar were exiled a thousand years ago, and the Khalai watched over much of the universe, establishing colonies, engaging in wars with some of the alien races and avoiding contact with the lesser species. They did not interfere when the terrans arrived in the Koprulu Sector, virtually in their shadow, until the zerg entered the Sector and began attacking the terrans. In an effort to stem the infestation, the Conclave ordered the executor, Tassadar, to destroy the tainted worlds, starting with Chau Sara.

Tassadar eventually failed to save heavily populated Tarsonis from the zerg, and then did the unthinkable&mdash;striking an alliance with the Dark Templar prelate, Zeratul, to fight the zerg. The two had to defeat the Conclave in a civil war before they could destroy the zerg Overmind. Even then, the Khalai were forced to flee to the Dark Templar world of Shakuras and live in unease amongst their new hosts.

The protoss suffered heavy losses during the and are being forced to rebuild their civilization, but are protected from the zerg by a xel'naga temple on Shakuras.

The Dark Templar


The Dark Templar, a group of protoss exiled from Aiur a thousand years ago, settled upon the twilight world of Shakuras. They discovered a new set of powers which were particularly effective against the zerg. They now prefer to call themselves the Nerazim.

Xel'Naga
The xel'naga were an ancient race with a complex life cycle. Possessing purity of form and purity of essence, they were extremely long-lived but did not reproduce as other species. As each incarnation reached old age, they would modify two species, one with each characteristic, intending for them to naturally merge over time to create a new incarnation of the xel'naga.

The last xel'naga incarnation created first the protoss, and then the zerg. However, their last creation destroyed them, absorbing their knowledge. Almost nothing is left of them, except legacies.

Zeratul is currently looking for evidence of their return.

Technology

 * Main article: Technology

Games

 * StarCraft
 * StarCraft: Brood War
 * StarCraft: Ghost (on "indefinite hiatus")
 * StarCraft II (release date TBA)

Games authorized but not directly created by Blizzard include StarCraft: Insurrection, StarCraft: Retribution, StarCraft Adventures and StarCraft the Board Game.

Novels and eBooks

 * Main article: StarCraft official fiction

StarCraft has resulted in numerous Blizzard authorized spin-off novels, ebooks, graphic novels and comics, as well as two short stories in Amazing Stories magazine, entitled StarCraft: Hybrid and StarCraft: Revelations. The first four novels are compiled in the StarCraft Archive. The works have been received with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

Numerous fan fiction works also take place in the StarCraft universe.

Stylistic Inspiration
As is customary with many Blizzard works, many of StarCraft's concepts and artistic elements were inspired by, or were otherwise similar to, those found in existing science fiction. Elements from the movie Aliens recurred frequently in the terrans. Elements from Starship Troopers, both Heinlein's novel and the movie by the same name, and the miniatures war game Warhammer 40,000 may also be found. These may be some of the more prominent examples. The full extent of the inspiring corpus is too large to list or examine here, and the above should merely be indicative of its breadth.

Cultural Significance
StarCraft ' s influence in the computer and video gaming fields was a direct result of its immense popularity. It became one of the measuring benchmarks upon which new real-time strategy games were measured; example, gaming news site Gamespot.com described StarCraft in 2003 as "The Standard by Which All Real-Time Strategy Games Are Judged". The game also introduced or popularized some current gaming terms, such as zerg rush and actions per minute.

The game's popularity also resulted in professional competition circuits.