One People, One Purpose is a StarCraft II short story written by Alex Acks to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the game.[1][2]
It focuses on the protoss.
Description[]
Investigating a strange death among the protoss, High Executor Selendis must face a difficult truth about her people in order to stop an unexpected enemy.
Synopsis[]
Sometime after the End War, High Executor Selendis received a report of a protoss death under mysterious circumstances near city of Aldera. She investigated the temporary dwellings nearby, finding a male Khalai who nobody knew the name of, who had apparently killed himself. But Selendis found on him a mysterious object clamped to the victim's nerve cords. Not knowing its function, Selendis consulted Phase-smith Karax in his lab, who was accompanied by Hierarch Artanis and Talandar. Selendis explained the dead protoss's name was Eranis, and that he had died alone with no friends, and how the settlement around them acted strangely ever since the loss of the Khala. Karax pulled the device clamped to Eranis's nerve cords, discovering it channeled void energy, and caused him immense pain as it began to malfunction, and likely was the cause of his death. However, just then the group was interrupted with news of a second death.
Karax investigated the second body bright to her by Talandar, who was a female former Templar Caste member named Therun, who had the same device clamped to her nerve cord stumps. He found these devices to be handmade, and attached straight to the protoss's nervous system. His research was interrupted by a Nerazim named Nerath who snuck into his lab. She told him she was here to investigate the devices, which she claimed were stolen from her family, and made to enhance one's connection to the Void while regulating energies to prevent void shock from harming the user.
Meanwhile, Talandar investigated Therun's dwelling, finding relics from her old days as a Templar warrior. He contacted the Purifier network, but they stated they did not see anything too odd with the Khalai, but that their people mostly kept to themselves. He found Therun's father, delivering news of her death, but he reacted with anger at Talandar's Purifier roots and left. He then met with a former Templar who served alongside Therun, but found him to only spout conspiracy theories regarding the Purifiers, with little in the way of useful information. After a number of leads with no answers, Talandar eventually confronted Maitana, another colleague of Therun, who told him that she was searching for a purpose, to make a "new temple" to replace what was lost. The two moved to an abandoned building north of Aldera and she reported a description of the Khalai who had been talking to Therun, and Talandar reported back to Karax.
Karax was given schematics of the device from Nerath (with the promise not to copy it), and found modifications akin to Purifier technology, realizing then that it was an attempt to create a new Khala utilizing void energies. Talandar meanwhile told Karax when he knew and the location he uncovered. Karax warped to Talandar, and Talandar broke down the door of the "temple." Inside the found a workshop for the devices, but found that the phase-smith had packed and run away. Some papers in the workshop proved that this was indeed as Karax suspected regarding the device's purpose to remake the Khala. He then contacted Selendis and Nerath.
Selendis discovered the phase-smith's name was Lantharis, and began to start the hunt for her. Selendis was joined by Nerath, who teased her regarding her lack of humor, but told her they were working on the same investigation, and that she knew of a Khalai who had been talking about a "new temple" similar to the one Therun had talked about. Selendis and Nerath did surveillance this Khalai. The two discussed the continued issues of reunification between the Khalai and the Nerazim, when their target moved, and they found him meeting to retrieve a black market item from a hovel. Nerath slipped inside, while Selendis was blocked out by a force field. Talandar and Karax arrived to join her, and burst through the forcefield to fight Nerath fighting Lantharis. The phase-smith overloaded the room with void energy, stunning Nerath and Selendis, and brandished a psi blade to finish them off.
However, Talandar burst into the scene, and tossed her back. After a scuffle, Talandar knocked her out, and used a probe to place her in a stasis chamber. Karax deactivated the energy flood, allowing Selendis and Nerath to rise. They found a Khalai that Lantharis had been operating on, who reacted with hostility to not being integrated into the new Khala that she had promised him. The group stripped the lab and sent the mad Khalai to the healers.
In the aftermath the group met in Karax's lab, and Artanis confronted an in-stasis Lantharis, who called him a traitor for destroying the "soul" of the protoss. The two verbally sparred on the lack of the Khala, and the others joined in on what it existence meant in a post-Khala society, and how each needed to form their own path and find their own fulfillment. That evening, they buried Eranis and Therun. Therun's family took responsibility for her body, but with no connections that would do the final rites for Eranis, Selendis herself took responsibility. Rites were done near where Eranis had died to galvanize those who ignored him in life. She reflected on the pointlessness of Eranis's death, and how she really had no answers on the post-Khala society, as it was a fight that lacked a clear enemy. She was joined by Nerath, and the two confronted one of the former Khalai Caste bystanders, who told them of the loneliness many Khalai felt after the destruction of the Khala and the caste system. Selendis reflected that she did not have the answers, but that the uncertain future would require a new sort of battle. With that, Selendis triggered the device that vaporized Eranis's body, spreading his dust among the stars.[3]
Characters[]
Main[]
Supporting[]
External links[]
References[]
- ↑ StarCraft II is Turning 10—Celebrate With Us! Blizzard.com, Accessed on 2020-07-27.
- ↑ Alex Acks. "One People, One Purpose." Blizzard Entertainment. One People, One Purpose. Accessed from Blizzard news - New Short Story: One People, One Purpose on 2022-09-06.
- ↑ Acks, Alex. "One People, One Purpose." (July 28, 2020). Blizzard Entertainment. One People, One Purpose Accessed 2020-07-28.