The Story of Starcraft 15: Protoss Brood War

Brood War is awesome.

This was back before the days of cash-grab DLCs, although even then Starcraft had a few of those. (I’ve never even seen anything from Insurrection or the other one. They fell into obscurity quickly).

The Brood War expansion adds a few new units to each race, given them new strats to play around with. I’ll talk about those but – hey, it’s me – I’ll focus more on the story.

I’m going to bundle the new units, characters and story here. If I don’t, we’ll hit a triple-figure article count before we even get to Starcraft 2. This RTS series is already a quarter of a novel long and we’ve barely scratched the surface.

Anyway…

The original Starcraft game ended with the destruction of the Overmind. That means the Zerg are extinct and there’s nothing but peace in the Koprulu sector, right?

Ha.

The death of the Overmind was a significant blow, but all it did was sweep the board clean to allow new enemies to rise.

The fourth campaign in the original Starcraft follows the story of the Protoss survivors.

New Protoss units

The old prejudices have fallen away. The Protoss now see the Dark Templar as brethren. They’re not heretics, they’re just different – and those differences allowed them all to come together to win the last war.

With the Dark Templar returning to the fold, we get new units from them. That includes the Dark Templar units – cloaked, hard-hitting assassins. We also get the Dark Archon – appropriately enough, a sinister version of an Archon.

Archons are fuzzy balls of pure energy, capable of taking a hit and hitting hard in return. Dark Archons are chaotic spellcasters, mind-controlling enemies and sending them into crazed frenzies.

It fits the idea that Dark Templar are individualists who dabble in the darkest realms of their psychology. Light and fire are pure. Domination is sinister, requiring both genius and sinister intent.

The difference between light and dark psionics plays out, even in these unit designs. It’s great.

We also get a new flying unit – the Corsair. Corsairs are fast, with weak attacks but the ability to disable enemy defences. This allows you to drop units right in the middle of well-defended bases.

It fits well with a faction of spies, nomads and saboteurs.

New Protoss characters

We see some old friends, but two new characters. The first is Raszagal – the matriarch of the Dark Templar. With Aiur in ruins, she’s probably the most politically powerful Protoss alive. She’s ancient and psionically gifted, too.

As a leader, she’s tough and wise, comfortable with making tough decisions and taking emotions out of the equation.

There’s also Artanis, a young new praetor eager to follow in Tassadar’s example. He’ll, um, have a modest impact on the story of Starcraft 2. For now, he’s idealistic and eager to prove himself.

Let’s see how he does.

The First Bit: Fleeing Aiur

A refresher on the old Zerg command structure:

The Overmind controlled the Cerebretes, who in turn controlled the Zerg swarms. With the Overmind dead, the Cerebrates became independent entities, each capable of wielding armies.

This is bad news for the Protoss and Terran heroes. The Zerg aren’t feral or defenceless, just less of a unified force but still capable of conquering Aiur. Their only option, Zeratul tells them, is to retreat to the Dark Templar world of Shakuras.

My first reaction to this was… huh? I thought the Dark Templar were nomads. Nomadic folks aren’t famous for having settled planets.

Not a big deal and you know it’s explained – they settled here to study the many Xel’Naga relics and temples. But still, they were described as nomadic in the last game, and now they’re not.

Oh well. It doesn’t matter.

Aldaris – being the only member of the old Protoss government present – hesitates. He’s forgiven the Dark Templar, but will they forgive him and his ilk? I mean, thanks to folks like him, the Dark Templar were exiled from their sacred homeworld.

It turns out to be fine. Matriarch Raszagal saw the exile as the work of the Conclave – the same Conclave that lies in ashes on Aiur.

But, also, it’s not fine, because the Zerg follow them from Aiur.

The Second Bit: Crystals and Concubines

Kerrigan, aka The Queen of Blades, aka “the concubine of the Zerg” (in Zeratul’s words, which raises interesting mental pictures) contacts them. The Protoss aren’t exactly thrilled by this – she was the Swarm’s most dangerous weapon and a key factor in Aiur’s downfall.

Kerrigan points out that she’s free of the Overmind’s control now. She regrets what she did but it wasn’t her fault.

She also brings a warning. Some of the surviving Cerebrates plan to merge and create a new Overmind. If that happens, the rest of the Protoss will fall and she’ll will be enslaved again.

Trust hardly overflows here, but they have common interests so they come up with a plan. Kerrigan will help them activate the ancient Xel’Naga temple on Shakuras. This will kill all the Zerg on the planet and disrupt this new, gestating Overmind. It’s a victory for all concerned.

To activate the temple, they have to retrieve two magic crystals, because Starcraft can’t stop itself swinging into high fantasy sometimes.

They succeed.

The Third Bit: Civil War

The Protoss return to Shakuras to find the planet in civil war. Matriarch Raszagal tells them (and the player) that Aldaris has taken the light-side Protoss to his side and is attacking the Dark Templar.

Before they can activate the temple, they have to win a civil war.

It’s a gut punch. You – the player – helped Aldaris reach his new refuge from the Zerg, only for him to attack it from within. It also echoes back to the original’s Protoss campaign. After Tassadar killed the Overmind, everyone praises his name… but didn’t his heart break at the sight of Protoss killing Protoss?

Zeratul and Artanis win the civil war. Aldaris, captured, tries to warn them about something when Kerrigan shows up and kills him. Zeratul and Artanis are furious with her, but she doesn’t care, being happy to have used the Protoss to defeat her enemies.

The Fourth Bit: Purifying Shakuras

The Protoss fight through the Zerg forces to reach the Xel’Naga temple. They reach it, defend it and activate it, killing every Zerg on the planet.

The end.

The story and the gameplay

Brood War is a mess – in a good war. The original game had clearer sides. Sure, Mengsk used you and betrayed you, plus the Conclave were incompetent, but the Overmind was the clear enemy.

With Brood War, you already see that idea break down. Everyone fights everyone. It’s a chaotic period of civil war across multiple species.

Does the story and the gameplay reflect that? I’d say so, mostly. I question the order of it though. Is activating the temple really the story’s climax? Or is it fighting the civil war, with hints that something more is going on?

You could swap the last two missions – cleanse the planet, then defeat Aldaris and his insurrection – with not much of a rewrite.

I don’t know. I guess as it is, it adds to the chaotic feel. Having retrieved two magic crystals, you then have to play as a counterrevolutionary for a bit before you can use them. Still, protecting Shakurus from the Zerg is less dramatically interesting than protecting it from the Protoss.

It’s far from the worst bit of pacing in Starcraft’s story – we’ll get to that all too soon…