Dark archon

"Fear not, comrades, for we have archons of our own! Should the dire need arise, all Dark Templar may merge to become Dark Archons. Though we sacrifice our warriors in doing so, only the might of the Dark Archons can match the forces of Aldaris!"

- Zeratul to Artanis

The dark archon is a heavy protoss psionic support unit.

Overview
Like their high templar brethren, two dark templar sacrifice themselves in a psionic melding giving rise to the dark archon. The powers of dark archons extend well beyond those of the regular archon, more than compensating for their lack of any physical attack capability.

The burning, crimson figure of the dark archon spreads fear across any battlefield. These powerful creatures of living psionic energy embody the eternal wrath of the Dark Templar. Dark archons wield psionic powers of the Void.

Under ordinary circumstances, the chaotic and unstable energies of a dark archon will cause it to burn itself out and dissipate after a short period of time. Thus far, only Ulrezaj has found a way to avoid this fate and prolong his own unnatural existence. His abilities were markedly different from other dark archons.

History
During their long exile, the Dark Templar have faced many challenges. Struggling and adapting their arsenal of skills and converting their biology to suit their harsh environment has ultimately resulted in the dark archon.

They are so powerful that the Dark Templar have outlawed their creation for a thousand years out of fear.

The creation of dark archons was allowed after the Khalai came to Shakuras, the Dark Templar homeworld. Matriarch Raszagal and Zeratul authorized their use due to Aldaris' rebellion, which included archons fighting on the side of the insurgents. This was the first that the Khalai had ever seen or even heard of a dark archon and considered them to be abominations.

Zamara identified Ulrezaj as the only existing dark archon years after the.

Brood War
The dark archon is a "spellcaster" with no regular attack, unlike the archon. Like the archon, it is well protected by shields but has few hit points underneath; it is vulnerable to the science vessel's EMP shockwave. It is neither biological nor mechanical, and is immune to many abilities, such as Lockdown and Spawn Broodling. It is also a hovering unit and does not trigger spider mines.

Mind Control may be used to instantly deprive the enemy of an expensive unit. It may also be used to enhance the flexibility of the protoss army. s benefit from medics as much as s. Enemy workers may also be stolen, opening up the terran and zerg tech trees; each tree uses its own pool of supply and control respectively. It is typically infeasible to fully exploit another tree in multiplayer due to the time and resources required.

The dark archon may deprive enemy spellcasters of energy and life with Feedback. The ability can instantly kill a high templar, ghost, medic, Wraith, science vessel, defiler or a queen that was at full health. The amount of damage is not affected by armor or unit size.

Zerg are vulnerable to Maelstrom, which disables groups of biological units for a short time. For protoss players, Maelstrom has a lot of potential benefits when fighting the zerg. From preventing precious from being sniped by s, to saving a group of dragoons surrounded by large group of zerglings with the Adrenaline Glands upgrade, Maelstrom can be used in many ingenious ways. Large group of mutalisks, held at one place by Maelstrom, can be slaughtered by corsairs or Psionic Storm, or several group of zerglings and s trying to rapidly close in to kill s quickly, only to be held at one place by Maelstrom and sustain two or three scarab hits before getting annihilated, are only few out of many examples of Maelstrom's proper usage.

Quotations

 * See: StarCraft Dark Archon Quotations

StarCraft II
Dark archons did not originally make a return in StarCraft II. Instead, dark templar are able to merge into standard archons. However, there are unused spells, sound files, and models for what looks like the dark archon's abilities, as well as an unfinished/unused dark archon texture file within the game's MPQ files. The model appears akin to a standard, albeit red, protoss body, which is unusual given how all archons have appeared. To make matters even more unusual, the texture possesses psi appendages, something the Nerazim lack.

In StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, dark archons return under Vorazun in Co-op missions if she is chosen. It is unknown if they possess the same abilities as they did in the original StarCraft.

Known Dark Archons

 * Dark Archon Hero
 * Rastadon/Imrian
 * Ulrezaj (made of seven Dark Templar, significantly different abilities)