Dragoon

"I have returned"

- Dragoon pilot

The dragoon is a type of protoss quadrupedal assault walker. Following the they were succeeded by the immortal and to a lesser extent, the stalker.

Overview
Dragoon pilots were generally grievously wounded veteran templars retrieved from the battlefield. On occasion able templar would become pilots.

Selected protoss were transplanted into the exoskeleton's core. By the time of the Great War the core was a fluid container and the pilot was submerged within. Catastrophic damage frequently resulted in the tank being breached and the contents spilling out. The pilot's mind interfaced directly with the machine through mysterious essence translators with the use of the Khala. The end result was that pilots controlled their exoskeletons as a natural extension of their bodies.

The dragoon's phase disruptor fired antimatter bolts sheathed in psychically charged fields. A similar weapon was used by the photon cannon. The quadrupedal walker moved efficiently over unstable terrain.

A sacred shrine on Aiur was dedicated to the creation and maintenance of dragoons. The pilots were honored in protoss society but their status sometimes marked them as outsiders. The loss of the shrine after the Great War made it difficult to create new dragoons. In the interim the surviving dragoons were upgraded into immortals to preserve their numbers.

The dragoon interested other parties beyond the Khalai. The Dark Templar stalker was inspired by the dragoon. As with other protoss technology, terran groups conducted research into the mechanics of the dragoon. The Kimeran Pirates stole (among other things) a data file titled "Utilizing Dragoon Technology For Human Reconstruction" from a Confederate remnant installation following the.

StarCraft
Dragoons serve primarily as mobile anti-air defense. It is more economical to have zealots take the brunt of fighting enemy ground units whenever possible. Compared to zealots, the dragoon fires slower and has an attack optimized against only large-sized units. The relationship is similar to that between marines and goliaths. Due to their large size and somewhat slower movement to the zealot, dragoons are fairly vulnerable to groups of smaller units such as massed zerglings and hydralisks. Despite this, many players utilize dragoons as far as a late game due to their important usage as anti-air defense and support fire.

Each dragoon occupies four out of the eight slots on a shuttle.

Quotations

 * See: StarCraft Dragoon Quotations

Development
Dragoons possessed an appearance in the StarCraft alpha identical to their end appearance. However, they were armed with fusion cannons instead of phase disruptors. During this period, they were called "Templar."

StarCraft: Ghost
Dragoons did appear in StarCraft: Ghost but no changes from their original portrayal have been found, apart from a slightly more stocky appearance.

StarCraft II
Dragoons are no longer in the game. Their role in the protoss tech tree has been filled by stalkers, while lore-wise the immortals are upgraded dragoons. Dragoons were intended to be in the map editor but were not included at game release.

Known Dragoons

 * Demioch
 * Eredas
 * Fenix
 * Sinar
 * Taldarin

Specialists

 * Dragoon Heroes
 * Dragoons of Malice
 * Elite Dragoons

Trivia
During the age of early modern warfare, dragoons were soldiers who were deployed on horseback but fought on foot.