Izsha

"I am the memory of you as the Queen of Blades."

- Izsha

Izsha, formerly Amanda Haley, is a zerg advisor in service to Sarah Kerrigan. She is a unique type of zerg, one of a kind.

Biography
"Her demeanor was unlike that of the others; this one seemed intent on something, as if she still clung to hope. What a waste. Still, there was something about her."

- Kerrigan observes Haley

Early Life
Amanda Haley was a young medic, and had spent two years serving on a space platform. Although she possessed telekinetic powers, a "gift" that sometimes drew the attention of others, she somehow escaped the notice of those in the Ghost Program. However, she, along with her team, did not escape the attention of the Queen of Blades. She was imprisoned in a cell on a space platform infested by the zerg.

Prisoner
Haley spent a week in captivity, listening as the cell doors of her companions opened as they were taken to whatever fate awaited them. She tried using her psionic powers to undo the lock of her cell but a combination of fatigue and some kind of psionic dampening in the station made her efforts useless.

Eventually she came to the conclusion that if she could save her strength, somehow ferret away a reserve of her energies, then perhaps she could store enough energy to gain freedom.

The gamble paid off in that when the cell door opened, Haley unleashed her psionic powers on the infested terran sent to retrieve her, destroying its skull. She thus made a break for the hangar.

Infestation
"I applaud your effort, though it was in vain. I am Kerrigan, matriarch of the Zerg. I would know your name." "Just go ahead and get it over with." "Oh, we shall."

- Infested Kerrigan confronts Haley

Haley's escape was doomed from the start, considering that Infested Kerrigan had jettisoned all of the craft there. An infested terran sampled her blood. Haley was not aware of the results, but it mattered little; she was infested just the same. Due to some incompatibilities between her genetic code and the formula that Kerrigan was using (which Kerrigan knew about), Haley became a slobbering, malformed, half-zerg, half-human genetic defect, robbed of any humanity or intelligence.

Advisor
Haley was re-formed into the creature known as Izsha. In earlier times, Kerrigan used her to store her thoughts and plans. On at least one occasion she entrusted Izsha with a plan to infest a planet using the hyper-evolutionary virus through its water supply.

Izsha reunited with Kerrigan following the latter's de-infestation and subsequent return to the Swarm. She served as an advisor, recalling memories from her time as the Queen of Blades and helping her to reclaim the Swarm while remaining attached to her queen's leviathan.

Game Effect
Izsha, in Heart of the Swarm, plays a role similar to Matt Horner from Wings of Liberty, providing the player with the distribution of missions and tactical/intelligence support, along with plot points relevant to Kerrigan's past.

It is unlikely that Izsha will appear on the field of battle in missions as per her attachment to the leviathan.

Izsha's portrait is made available to players after reaching level 5 in their zerg XP in Heart of the Swarm.

Personality and Traits
Izsha exemplifies a midpoint for Kerrigan, standing between Kerrigan's cold rationality and the feral nature of the Swarm. She harkens back to the ideology of the Overmind, but is still a rational individual.