The final chapter of the warchest comic is out, and has some interesting lore implications.
If you haven’t been keeping up with these and want to finish them before I spoil it, you can read them here:
Spoilers beyond this point. You’ve been warned.
The first thing is that Stetmann is so far gone that he can’t tell the difference between “Bel’shir” and his own narration. He gives funny voices to the Tal’darim while killing them, but attributes it to Bel’shir instead.
The second is that Ghosts are able to hide their minds from others. It makes sense since their cloak hides them from protoss, who are always “open” psionically, but this is the first time I’ve seen it explicitly shown that that’s something they can do and not just gameplay.
But the most important thing here is that it looks like there really is some kind of presence on Bel’shir that was ordering Stetmann around.
The mechaswarm continues to function after Stetmann is sedated, and even after he leaves the planet. The unnamed ghost states in the end that he heard her too, and that taking Stetmann off-world is on her order. There’s something taking to terazine users on Bel’shir. Maybe not the planet itself, but whatever it is it looks like it’s powerful enough to even influence ghosts who’ve been trained to resist psychic attacks.
So, what do you think is living on Bel’shir, and why does it want a mecha swarm that extends beyond Bel’shir itself?
I was pretty confused about third part. Terrazin makes really strange things… I mean, this Ghost is pretty strange. Stettman is nice, as he was.
And Taldarims. Here they look like babies, useless babies, even they really need terrazin.
I found it amusing. Like those scribbles by the marine in the Field Manual. “I charge directly into machine gun fire! For Aiur!”, and then later on the dragoon, “maybe I shouldn’t charge directly into machine gun fire anymore.”
Not, like, bust a gut laughing funny or anything, but worth a chuckle.
Anyway, its hard to tell if the ghost really is being affected by something, or if he isn’t just thinking out loud while he relaxes his will against the hallucinations a little. I actually kind of hope the next one explores the ramifications of this, its more interesting than I would have thought given that they started with the Crazy Stetmann premise.
I actually enjoyed the first two, but that was pretty painful finale. They worked so hard turning the Tal’darim into something other than a walking punchline, just to pull that? Ugh.
Other than that, we learn Stemann is getting his walking orders from a female entity that he assumes is Bel’shir, (and we’ve been assuming is his own paranoid delusions) but we find out isn’t. As it’s having the Ghost character bring Stemann to make Mecha Zerg on multiple different worlds. Given what we know about Terrazine, I’d assume its a void entity, and given what we know about who is running the void at this point… Well I’ll just say the implications are there.
I thought is was in books of the lore that ghosts could hide their minds.
Also, maybe the ghost was joking at the end.
And yah maybe the farther from belshir the less obedient you are.
Plus the canon is weird. There’s the story about the scientists who inhaled fungal spores and worshipped an ultralisk so anything is possible.
I do hope that they lean away from psionics as an explanation though. Let it be parasitic spores or something that happened to have entered the terrazine stream. The gas is a red herring that happened to open Stetmann and the ghost up to the control of this entity better.
“Bel’shir” is a microbial parasite with a very weak hive mind living in the terrazine under the planet itself. When you inhale the terrazine you become the host for your own little colony, but since that colony is no longer connected to the rest of the hive, it starts to diverge based on your own personality.
Stetmann kept inhaling more terrazine, adding more of the microbes to his personal colony. Since the new microbes would always correct his personal colony to bring them back inline with the main colony’s goals, he mistook that for revelation from Bel’shir.
The main Bel’shir colony wants to infect terrazine supplies on other worlds, which is why it sent Stettman and the ghost offworld. But since neither one is near Bel’shir to inhale more colonized terrazine, their personal colonies are going to diverge sooner or later
ghosts are telepats weaker than protoss and most cannot hide their thinking so use psiscreen. the common protoss and the best terran telepats can. the terrazine by improving the shabilities could allow to develop this capacity in weak telepats besides giving telekinesis
Assuming you’re talking about Kerrigan, the problem I see with that is the continuity. Stetmann is found and then leaves Bel’shir during the End War. Kerrigan only becomes Xel’naga after the End War, during the allied assault into the Void a few months later.
So whatever has been talking to Stetmann and this Ghost has been talking to them since before Kerrigan became Xel’naga. Maybe there’s some fancy-smancy timey-wimey Void magic going on here that lets here interfere with the past, but if that’s the case I don’t think Amon would have lost.
I really like this theory, and I hope it’s right. I’m doubtful, though.
Ghosts are actually approximately equal to individual Protoss (they both start at about ~PI 5). The advantage Protoss have is that they are inherently telepathic, so hiding their thoughts from others is as easy as simply not saying something (unless they’re connected by the Khala).
Powerful Ghosts actually have to use psi-screens to mask their psionic presence, otherwise their powers leak out and can be detected or even passively and unintentionally mess with people around them. They often need them more than most lower-PI Ghosts.
Cross-referencing the available info, which I’ve drawn from several of the books, in-game context, and the fandom wiki.
There are certain abilities associated with the psi-index. While the Protoss don’t fit quite perfectly on this scale (because it was designed for humans), we can roughly approximate their relative PI via their abilities.
The Khalai caste, which are effectively the worker and R&D caste, are largley unable to use psionic abilities other than the innate Protoss communicative telepathy. They would land beneath the PI 5 level necessary for Psionic abilities such as mind-reading, manipulating emotions or senses, or direct psionic attacks.
The Templar caste, which consists of Zealots and High Templar (and technically Archon’s, but they’re another matter entirely) is where we see psionic abilities coming to the forefront.
First, let’s look at the Zealots. They are clearly stronger psionically than the Khalai caste, and they use their powers to enhance their shields, psi-blades, and physical prowess. They often fall into a battle-rage mentality to unleash their full potential. While they have the theoretical capacity to use direct psionic attacks like High Templar, their lack of discipline prevents the vast majority of them from doing so.
The main thing separating the mighty High Templar from the seemingly weaker Zealots is often simply discipline and experience. The vast majority of High Templar are actually just veteran Zealots, often whose battle-lust has faded some. They are calmer and more collected, so instead of relying on their battle-rage to empower themselves, they can draw upon more of the Khala and channel that into psionic attacks. Individually, however, the majority of them aren’t really anything special, only as strong psionically as their younger Zealot brethren.
In-canon, there have been multiple occasions where a lone High Templar has been overpowered by a psionic terran, indicating that they are comparably powerful to the majority of terrans with psionic abilities, most of whom fall within the PI 5-6 range.
Since High Templar are not innately and individually psionically more powerful than Zealots or the majority of Ghosts, it is reasonable to assume that the Templar caste as a whole is, on average, roughly equivalent in psionic ability to most Ghosts at around PI 5-6.
Of course, their ability to draw power from the Khala greatly increases the combat capacity of Templar, especially for the disciplined High Templar who can draw deeply from the Khala. This is why High Templar appear so much more powerful than Zealots and the vast majority of Ghosts, because you will rather rarely see High Templar on their own. “Strength in unity” isn’t one of the Khalai (the race, not the caste) Protoss’ most central ideals for nothing.
Saying they both start at PI 5 is pretty specific and made it sound like you had a source from canon.
Not really, because we know protoss suck at certain abiliites like telekinesis even though their other abiliites blow the terrans out of the water. The PI index wasn’t made for protoss.
This all above is pretty much pure conjecture on your part. You can’t jump to those conclusions because absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Khalai aren’t trained for combat and aren’t going to use psionic attacks, but that doesn’t mean they’re incapable of it. Khastiana became a trained zealot within a year or two tops and was augmenting shields, reflexes, using precognition, etc. Basic khalai don’t have an outlet for their psionic abilities.
Such as?
That’s incorrect.
“And from all accounts, even the most gifted, most finely trained human telepaths were pitiful compared to an ordinary, run-of-the-mill protoss.”
~ dark templar saga
The basic terran ghost doesn’t use any psionics in combat apart from telepathy. Zealots are augmenting their skills with psionics, using precognition, creating shields, and making warp blades that cut through anything. They’re in a completely different league, and that’s the protoss’s weakest guys.
Dark templar and high templar on the other hand are in a league further beyond that. Zeratul or Artanis can put up a good fight with primal Kerrigan, who could probably singlehandedly shred the entire ghost academy with Nova.
Also, we haven’t seen the protoss equivalent of Kerrigan. Zeratul and Artanis are leaders first, not warriors. We’ve yet to see a protoss prodigy.
The 5-6 range is basic telepathy, so that makes no sense. Terrans can’t even use telekinesis until they get to 8, whereas high templar are out there creating shields and making psi storms.
Also, training has nothing to do with PI scale, which is why Kerrigan scored a 10 when she was a kid. So a khalai and high templar potentially have similar psychic power ratings. A khalai would crush your average ghost in terms of psionic potential, but it would probably still lose in combat.
That’s not how it works. The khala is an energy pool, but protoss can draw energy from other sources and so can terrans. The only thing they gain by proximity is better coordination through the khala, not some sort of power boost.
Granted, Co-op is not considered entirely canonical, but I can’t find anything else that indicates when Stetmann’s rescue took place.
Additionally, we also know that Stetmann arrived on Bel’Shir sometime between Flashpoint and Heart of the Swarm, and was forgotten about shortly after the end of the Second Great War when Arcturus was offed and Valerian took over due to the onset of the End War and the accompanying attacks by Amon and the Moebius Corps. This was around the time he started going insane, though I suppose we have no evidence that he didn’t start hearing the “voice of Bel’shir” until later on.
So maybe not impossible, but I do find it highly implausible that Kerrigan is this “Bel’shir” entity speaking to him.
I said “about ~PI 5.” It should have been pretty clear it wasn’t an exact statement.
Yes, that’s why I said “roughly approximate.”
High Templar are literally just Zealots who got older and wiser. They didn’t magically become more psionically powerful, there has to be some catalyst, such as Kerrigan’s infestation(s), Tassadar’s combination of psionic and Void energies, or exposure to Terrazine to increase psionic potential. Training doesn’t increase psionic capacity, only how much of that capacity can be used and in what ways.
In other words, High Templar have the same psionic potential as when they were Zealots, they can just use it properly and to greater effect. So unless we assume that the Protoss race is somehow growing psionically weaker over time, which we have no reason to do, the current High Templar and the current Zealots should be roughly equal in psionic potential.
Khastiana was a member of the Templar caste, not the Khalai caste. That’s why she was trained as a Zealot.
The only one I can remember the details of without going back and looking for the stories again is Gestalt Zero, the only gestalt, who had a PI of 7 and defeated the High Templar Muadun and a small group of other Protoss in combat.
I don’t know the context of this quote, who said it and in reference to what.
Were they referring to just the psionic abilities of Protoss and Terrans, or were they talking about the combat prowess?
A Ghost likely wouldn’t stand up well against a Zealot running them down, as they are not usually equipped or trained to handle such foes. However, that does not tell us much about the difference in psionic potential.
Were they considering that the Protoss draw power from the Khala or not?
Any sufficiently experienced High Templar could theoretically overpower almost any foe if they have enough allies nearby to draw upon. I’ve actually wondered how powerful the Grand Preservers could have been if they’d been trained for combat.
This is not quite correct. They use it to enhance their perception to improve their aim and reaction speeds, sometimes to the point of effectively having minor precognition. This is something pretty much all Ghosts can do, with minor exceptions such as Aal Cistler, who was only a PI 4.5 and only got into the Ghost academy because his daddy was a personal friend of Mengsk.
Zealots also have tech that is designed to be augmented by their psionics. They aren’t just generating their psi-blades and shields through sheer force of will like Ghosts would have to without similar equippment, they have to be equipped with channeling aids. Other than those, their in-combat abilities are fairly similar to Ghosts, albeit with some of their enhanced perception being sacrificed in favor of physical enhancement.
And Zealots are only the weakest in-game combat units for Protoss. The Khalai caste is weaker than them, you just don’t see them in game, and probes aren’t combat units.
Zeratul was wounded by Kerrigan and put barely a scratch on her. He knew he stood no chance against her, so he basically got the intel he needed and bailed. Even then, the only reason Zeratul got away is because he could blink away and because she wasn’t dead set on killing him because she was more interested the same prophecy he had been looking for.
Additionally, Dark Templar and most Nerazim in general rely very little on their psionic abilities, instead drawing their powers from the Void. If comparing a Ghost’s and a Templar’s psionic abilities is like comparing apples to oranges, then comparing a Ghost’s to a DT’s is like comparing apples to corn.
And there is no way Artanis could have stood up to Kerrigan, even briefly. He’s a powerful warrior, sure, but Kerrigan from WoL would have utterly humiliated him.
Additionally, Artanis is an above-average Zealot, with significant psionic ability even without focusing on training for it like High Templar normally have to. By the time he was Hierarch, he stood head and shoulders above the majority of other Zealots even before he figured out how to wield Void energies, so using him as an example of Zealots’ true capabilities is a bit too generous.
Uh, Tassadar? He probably comes the closest. Next would be Ma’lash and then Alarak, but they’re psionically enhanced by terrazine. They’d still all be trounced by WoL Kerrigan in a one-on-one.
And Artanis and Zeratul are, in fact, warriors first and foremost. Just because Artanis earned his way into a leadership position doesn’t mean his combat record was wiped clean.
If the High Templar is not able to draw upon the Khala, their psi-storms will be significantly weakened, lacking the power to generate the plasma that does bodily harm but usually still retaining power enough to be mentally incapacitating or lethal.
Again, this is about the individual capacities of Templar versus those of Ghosts.
I think you’ve got things reversed here.
The Khalai caste aren’t less powerful because they aren’t trained, they aren’t trained because they are less powerful.
They are psionically weaker than the Templar caste, which is why they instead take up support positions. They can technically participate in combat as pilots or ship crew members or with additional equipment like Karax did, but they simply cannot perform the roles of Templar, Zealot or High Templar.
This is actually the biggest point of contention between the Khalai and Templar castes, because the Khalai are viewed as “inferior” due to their relative lack of psionic potential. Artanis actually abolished the caste system after Karax and the Khalai proved themselves a co-equally vital part of Khalai Protoss society in the End War, saying, “We are all Templar now.”
That’s what I just said. They draw power from it to fuel their abilities.
No they can’t. Protoss need sunlight for their physical needs, but just about the only thing they can use to amplify their powers are Khaydarin crystals and the Khala. And the Khaydarin crystals do not actually increase their psionic potential, but rather act as focii for their connection to each other and their equipment.
And Terrans can only draw power from each other if they are very in-sync, like they’ve been training together a lot or have some special relationship.
According to the fandom wiki:
The Khala granted a protoss an enormous amount of psionic energy.
That’s pretty clear: They draw power from the Khala.
A great example of the difference the Khala makes is the comparison between Nerazim and Khalai Protoss abilities.
The Nerazim are largely unable to use psionic abilities. Instead, they draw power from the Void. The only common exceptions to this rule are Dark Archons, who are able to use a combination of psionic and Void energies which amplify each other when combined, though at the expense of being incredibly taxing on (and almost always lethal to) the user. Otherwise, the Nerazim are largely non-psionic and instead use Void energies to power their Warp Blades and shields.
Meanwhile, the Khalai are incredibly psionically focused, and the main difference for this is that the Khalai have the Khala to draw upon and the Nerazim don’t and so must find an alternative.
While I find it unlikely as well, all of the comics thus far are at least implied to exist in the “current” era rather than being flashbacks.
Actually, its an explicit part of High Templar lore that they learn to access and control greater amounts of psionic energy through training, discipline and the fortitude provided by the Khala. Imagine it like building a muscle.
Biologically, this doesn’t matter. The castes are an artificial construct imposed on the protoss, not a group of literal subspecies that do different things.
Werent those protoss being artificially weakened by something to, among other things, prevent them from accessing the Khala to call for help?
Jake Ramsey, Xenoarchaeologist. And he was specifically referring to their psionic abilities.
That’s actually a function of the ghost suit for the most part. The precognition bits are aspects of their telepathy while the suit, powered by psionic energy, gives them enhanced physical capabilities. That’s why, for example, Nova was able to suplex a marine.
The zealots are definitely precognitive in a way that the ghosts aren’t, and their charge is suggested to be a combination of a psionic power affecting their body in combination with cybernetics.
Kerrigan was not alone. Its extremely difficult to say who would win in a duel to the death, but I suspect that Zeratul, if going all out, would win.
As far as I am aware, this statement is baseless.
Tassadar uses void energies, and perhaps more to the point we have no idea how powerful any of these characters are relative to other protoss.
The psionic link provides control and focus, not power. In fact, psi storms without the control of centuries of practice and discipline are shown to be stronger and wilder.
There is no basis for this in the lore. The Khalai are all biologically protoss just as much as the templar, and have the same capacity for psionic training and ability as a templar or judicator. They aren’t trained because theyre civilians who are supposed to be spending their time in other ways, not because theyre literally incapable of it.
You are aware that the Dark Templar don’t use the khala or khala energies, right? Its like, a plot point and everything.
I think this statement is a bit too much. I have yet to see Artemis or Zeratul did something as impressive as Primal Kerrigan. And an academy full of Nova might be able to take on Primal Queen of Blade given good tactic, maybe?
It’s not though. Protoss blow most ghosts out of the water in psychic based feats.
The zealot can turn itself into pure energy and back again. The ghost can’t do anything close to that.
I said as much in my last post. However, decades/centuries of training aren’t to be taken lightly and gestalt got a huge boost by upgrading to templar nerve cords.
She was Muadun’s student/mentee but it doesn’t say one way or the other. Point is, she lived on a colony world and wasn’t on the front lines before asking for training.
He snuck up on him and shot him with a dart in the back. Hardly a fair fight.
As I’ve established, khalai have no equipment/training to defend themselves. Of course they’re going to lose.
The context is exactly as it sounds. Valerian was musing about protoss psychic powers. Here’s the larger context copy/pasted:
“Continue.” Valerian placed his hands on the table and leaned down closer to the screen. “Sir … as I said, it was psychic, but it wasn‟t an attack. There was nothing hostile or harmful about it. Somehow, Ramsey managed to link our minds. Not just mine to his … all of our minds. Everyone in this immediate area. And not just thoughts, but … feelings, sensations. I—” For the first time since Valerian had known the man, Starke seemed at a complete and utter loss for words. Valerian could easily believe it, if this was indeed what had happened. This was protoss psi-power, not human. Only a tiny fraction of humanity had any psychic ability at all, and only a small percentage of those could do what the ghosts could do. And from all accounts, even the most gifted, most finely trained human telepaths were pitiful compared to an ordinary, run-of-the-mill protoss.
That’s pretty advanced telekinesis and I thought that was something kind of exclusive to Nova and the upper echelon ghosts.
True, but I forgot ghosts also use their psionics to augment their suit.
Tassadar previously generated a psi blade without equipment in the Queen of Blades book. I’m pretty sure they can create a shield; Zeratul appeared to make one against Kerrigan in HoTS.
Khalai explicitly are differentiated from the Templar caste. Terrans have civilians too (with zero psychic powers); we’re not counting them.
I know, I’m just saying he could hold his own. Plus, he already waded through several hydralisks.
That’s not a thing. Protoss are powerful no matter where they get their power from.
Kerrigan is also supercharged by zerg mutagens. Point is, I’m pretty sure he could hold his own for a while and either one of them would take a steamy dump on any Dominion ghost.
There’s no evidence of that anywhere. He could just be average for all we know.
Says who? The only thing that made him special was his open-mindedness and willingness to try combining the khala with the void.
Nobody says anything about Ma’lash or Alarak’s talent. It’s likely you can achieve their level with terrazine and supplicant energy.
Not really. Artanis has a desk job and Zeratul is a scholar/leader/explorer. They’ve had a bunch of training sure and can hold their own but nobody at any point has ever implied that their powers or natural talent is special among protoss.
I don’t see how that relates to what I said, but you should know psi storm isn’t a khala only ability. Hybrids, Kerrigan, and dark templar can all make psi storms. Nova can’t make a psi storm.
Nowhere does it say that. It’s implied you’re stuck with whatever caste you’re born into. Before the khala, each tribe had things they were good at and were stuck in those roles. The Akilae had the best warriors, the Furinax were the best craftsmen, etc. etc.
It has nothing to do with their psionic potential.
Ok, but you seem to think it’s free energy. It’s not. It requires work to gather energy. Terrans have to do the same thing.
Bloodshard crystals? Argus crystals? Terrazine? The void? Solarite? All those increase protoss powers.
I don’t think terrans can do that.
And dark templar draw power from the void. From the wiki:
The Void provides the Nerazim with psionic powers unheard of by their brethren[10] and grants them enormously strong individual will.
Zeratul says in the queen of blades book that they’re just as powerful as the khalai. Khalai aren’t superior to Tal’Darim and Dark Templar just because they use the khala. Lots of times it seems as if it’s the other way around.
The void is psionic. There’s no difference. The void ray for example draws from both the khala and void.
There’s a bunch of sources of energy in starcraft. Solar energy. Khala energy. Void energy. Cosmic energy. Celestial energy. Every psychic species gets their energy from somewhere for doing complex psionic tasks. Kerrigan can do it and protoss can do it. Regular Dominion ghosts can’t because they’re not powerful enough.
