Something about the protoss species that has been alluded to but not explored in full is the prospect of protoss children. The population density of the species is something that is repeatedly brought up, they are low in numbers with extrodinarily long lifespans. Add in characters like Vorazun being known as the daughter of Raszagal and her throw away line of some Nerazin being born on Shakuras in LotV it can be extrapolated that the species can and does reproduce in some manner and said manner is seemingly invoked very scarcely. Reasons for this scarcity doesn’t seem to be elaborated on within canon, not a subject they are overly interested in touching, but any number of reasons such as heavy religious like reasons, a sort of economic high opportunity cost associated with their advanced tech level, or just it doesn’t come naturally to protoss could be thrown out to explain it.
The question I have pertaining to protoss children is the khala. The way it would seem to be portraid is that protoss are born into the khala by that of their nerve cords and that the nerazim, in order to sever themselves from the khala, have the practice of ritualistically severing their nerve cords. An implecation of this relation is that normal protoss, exluding purifiers and tal-darim somehow, are naturally born with nerve cords and a connection to the khala thereby. Even when a protoss who has their connection to the khala severed a child of that protoss will still have it, otherwise the position of the nerazim would become less of a ritual and more of a unchangeable state of being, something that happened once and now they must live with it. This type of relation seems the most reasonable, a child of someone who had their arm amputated isn’t going to be born without an arm, to expect all the protoss to cut themselves off from the khala would stop future children from having it seems at the face of it perposterous. So the question I pose here is what will they do with the children?
At the end of LotV all the protoss are cut off from the khala, but the reason they did so is also gone. They removed this influence because Amon corrupted it, but now Amon is dead and the protoss all know that. They may have to learn to be content without it but what of the kids? Will the protoss moving forward forcibly sever the nerve cords of infant protoss? If so why, would it be out of fear it could be used against them or maybe that they believe that the species is better off? What if a large portain of the population supports keeping nerve cords and allowing future generations to have the khala? How would the nerazim play into this? I think this is an interesting idea for future protoss stories and even if its completely unfounded, like somehow the khala was completely destroid with Amon because reasons, its still an interesting idea to contemplate. Given the scenario they are in what would the best course of action on this be.
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Protoss reproduction is still a huge question, iirc. But yet still, I would like to stay it like that until SC3.
Also, what happens to the Wild Zerg Broods and what are the other terran factions except the known ones?
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Good points. Given that some of the protoss feel lost without the Khala’s guidance, this sets the stage for another Aeon of Strife or at least another protoss cult resurgence like the Nerazim / Tal’darim. In the One People, One Purpose short story, there was an attempt to recreate another Khala using void energy to psionically link mentally vulnerable individuals after the End War. There was also animosity shown towards Talendar and the purifiers.
Because of this environment, I speculate that Khala 1.0 no longer exists. Even if the protoss babies are born with the innate ability to access the Khala with their natural psionic link, there are no (grand) preservers maintaining the Khala and therefore is useless. I’d like to think of the defunct Khala as an abandoned library where even if baby protoss can access it, there’s no point since there’s no librarian or books inside.
The only way to restore it is with Khaydarin crystals and a population with unsevered nerve cords. The former seems to be abundant on Aiur and other planets, so it seems like it’d be easy to restore a Khala 2.0. However, this would only be available to those born after the End War and maybe a couple centuries of slow and painstakingly transferring their current civilization’s knowledge into the Khala 2.0. It’s essentially up to the Daelaam to decide if the future generations should be reunited with the Khala once more (but still allow exemptions for the Nerazim faction) or if they should live without it.
The last thing to consider is if the Daelaam think that Kerrigan and presumably her new breed of Xel’naga (if applicable) would turn on the protoss again like Amon did. It seems Kerrigan and Raynor were completely written out of the story, so I don’t expect her to ever interfere with the universe again.
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Kerrigan creates live on planets.
Those destroyed by the Swarm, nuked by Terrans or Purified by Protoss.
That’s a great explanation for creation of new species in Koprulu sector, and therefore explanation of new zergs types in possible future.
Also apparently Sarah Kerrigan has a physical apperance, and James Raynor has to spend his time somewhere, so it could be possible to meet them again.
I am curious on Zagara’s opinion on Kerrigan, after she was ascended into a God.
Your ideas on Protoss are pretty right, Daelaam seem to be facing very difficult social problems, can be developed into many ways by Blizzard.
But after seeing other non-Starcraft Blizzard decisions, I am not sure if I want to see how they will develop (if ever) Starcraft games and lore.
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The short stories they put out recently are pretty engaging, and im intrigued by the return of Spectres in the comics theyre coming out with the war chests. The Starcraft writing team seems like they still have a decent head somewhere among them.
Well the last protoss story gives me an air of the Swedish theory of love, where only “real relationships” are maintained by eliminating the factor of parent-child nd couples dependency a. and a bit of collectivism in Japan where the weight of the community is higher than the individual, so we see a rather apathetic father because the social and affection needs were satisfied through the collective, so forming strong relationships was quite difficult unlike the more traditional Nerazim, whose blood ties are very important, really that moment of collective activity and understanding of how blind Selendis is one of others, not being able to predict their inability to communicate in others until the end was well seasoned with that humble collective mourning. Well I imagine that procreation is difficult for this very reason and open telepathy and perpetual honesty do not allow to form a relationship due to unmet individual expectations and social needs satisfied through the community.
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