Moria

"I'm thinking that we should pay the Kel-Morian Combine a little visit. Moria is one of the largest resource nodes in the sector."

- Kerrigan plans an assault on Moria

Moria is a red resource-rich planet located in the Koprulu Sector. An exceptionally large planet, it is the base of operations of the Kel-Morian Combine.

History
The world was colonized by surviving terran passengers of the supercarrier Argo which crash landed after a space journey lasting almost three decades. The survivors could not discover where they were or how long they had "slept" as the ATLAS AI system had somehow erased that knowledge of the journey from the ships' computers. The exiles began to salvage their wrecked ship in an attempt to find refuge in their new surroundings.

The inhabitants of Moria worked to survive in what they termed "the New World". Unaware that their fellows also thrived upon Tarsonis and Umoja, the vagabond Morians made do with whatever meager resources they could find. Having lost the means to communicate over interplanetary distances when the Argo was stripped for essential materials, the Morians lived in isolation for sixty years and grew into a prosperous, self-contained community. Tarsonis, the largest and most technologically advanced of the terran colonies, soon developed second generation sub-warp engines, allowing their ships to explore the myriad, barren planets of the surrounding star system and eventually led them to find the other survivors of the Long Sleep.

Once reunited, the three colonies benefited from mutual trade and commerce treaties. Despite pressure from Tarsonis, Umoja and Moria refused to join a conglomerated government.

Confederate Interaction
The foundation of the new Terran Confederacy caused some alarm in the Morian colony. Moria had the largest resource mining operations in the Koprulu Sector and they feared the Confederacy would attempt to move in and regulate their lucrative operations. Two shady mining guilds, the Kelanis Guild and the Morian Mining Coalition, formed the equally shady Kel-Morian Combine. The Combine aided both guilds to more efficiently extract resources, and to support other guilds threatened by Confederate interests. Tensions continued to escalate between the Confederacy and the Combine. General Mah Sakai led the Combine on the outbreak of the Guild Wars.

The Guild Wars lasted for nearly four years. The Combine was eventually forced into a "negotiated" peace with the Confederacy. The Combine retained its autonomy but nearly all of its supporting mining guild holdings were annexed by the Confederacy. By the outbreak of the Great War, the Combine was the largest non-Confederate terran polity in the sector. Its myriad territorial operations were strictly enforced with thousands of troops and hardware. The Combine was rumored to supply the Confederacy with fuel and resources, and Confederate forces were forbidden to prosecute the Combine for potentially criminal action out of respect for the Combine's political influence.

Dominion Interaction
After the Confederacy was overthrown by the Sons of Korhal, which became the Terran Dominion, Moria came under Dominion rule when the Kel-Morian Combine rallied to Emperor Mengsk's banner.

During the Brood War, the zerg staged a fuel raid on Moria. Their Queen, Infested Kerrigan, needed a substantial cache of resources in order to build up her primary hive clusters. Her new ally Praetor Fenix led the assault, which hammered the Combine's defenses and infested as many of their command centers as possible.

The Kel-Morian Combine broke free from the Dominion, which was weakened by the war. They formed alliances with anti-Dominion groups, even hosting Jim Raynor and his organization for some time on Moria c. 2502.

Locations

 * DEC HQ
 * Kliketown Vespene Gas Refinery

Trivia

 * In J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, Moria was the abandoned Dwarven city of Khazad-dum. The ancient city was once known for its fabulous wealth, founded on mining the rare and precious mithril.
 * The orbital view of Moria is identical to the orbital view of Mar Sara.