I’m really interested in the concept of broodmothers but I have some questions about them.
First, if they are killed, can they be revived? Is death not inconsequential to the Zerg? We know that cerebrates can be revived, but what about broodmothers? In one of the evolution missions in HotS, Abathur mentioned a broodmother being killed, couldn’t she have been saved?
Next, can broodmothers, including Zagara, reclaim feral Zerg? We could see that Kerrigan in HotS retook control of feral lurkers and entire hives… Yet couldn’t control feral Broodlords or Impaler Colonies. If they are able, couldn’t Valerian ask for Zagara’s help in retaking control of the feral Zerg that were swarming the Terran planet in Nova Covert Ops “Paradise Lost”
Yeah they can revive. We killed Zagara several times in the first Char mission.
There was an old q&a that talked about reincarnation. Their essence goes to a nearby hatchery. So if you kill all the hatcheries in an area, then their death is permanent because they have nowhere to respawn.
I don’t see why they can’t reclaim ferals. The ones in Novert Ops were also being directed by a psi emitter, so I guess that added another layer of complexity to it.
I don’t think they really had a relationship or way to communicate at that point for Valerian to ask her though, but I could be wrong.
Didn’t Zagara just tunneled back to her base after dropping to minimal HP? Just like Kerrigan in last mission of WoL. So, they escaped fatal damage and not actually “died”.
Regardless, do we know for a fact they can’t resurrect? Kerrigan and Stukov can resurrect and the Overmind is gone. Absolutely no reason this power can’t be extended to the swarm’s most important commanders.
All we know is that at the time of HotS it wasn’t extended to Broodmothers. Probably because unlike Cerebrates Broodmothers are free willed and are supposed to challenge eachother for domination, so their mortality can push them into adapting even more.
I don’t believe Kerrigan and Stukov can though. In “Heart of the Swarm,” I recall Kerrigan (and logically Stukov) are still deep tunneling to regenerate/be revived at the nearest hive cluster.
In the third Mission, if you let Kerrigan die, Izsha explains that as I recall; and Kerrigan is “human” here. I remember ripping the general wording and style of content for my StarCraft: Remastered Custom Campaign.
As far as I know, reincarnation for Zerg was only ever an Overmind/Cerebrate thing, and inconsistently, that one Ultralisk in “Heart of the Swarm.”
Yeah, I don’t think the “how” of the power was ever properly explained.
My thoughts back in the day were that it had to do with the Overmind being a Xel’Naga creation and not a “traditional” Zerg. It thus had this ability for the few creatures it created that were a part of itself: the Cerebrates.
Ok, so I double checked, and Stukov/Kerrigan both clearly just fall down and die. Whereas in WoL she has a burrowing animation. I’m pretty sure they’re still getting revived Cerebrate style.
Can you load up the third Heart of the Swarm mission and let Kerrigan die, and let us know what Izsha says? I’m at work and can’t check myself right now.
I remember in the Old Soldiers mission, if Kerrigan dies at some point, Warfield would boast about how they killed the Queen of Blades, only to get frustrated when Kerrigan returns at the Hatchery. Considering he saw her digging to her Hive in WoL, he wouldn’t believe to have killed her if she just did that.
Actually, if you look at the missions and situations where death concerns her, most of the time there’s Void Energy involved, aka the energies that prevents reincarnation : on Skygeirr she is threatened by Hybrids and Narud, on Korhal it’s the Artifact, Ulnar is full of Hybrids and Tal’darim.
She’s understandably vulnerable on Zerus when her essence is getting rewritten. The only exception is on the Moros, but one can argue that the problem there wasn’t really Kerrigan dying as much as it was reaching Raynor in time before the ship was destroyed, had she died there she wouldn’t have time reaching him.
Cerebrates could be revived because their minds were an extension of the Overmind, so if their body died the Overmind could just grow them a new one and put it’s mind back where it belonged.
Broodmothers are individuals who serve as repeaters for the queen’s influence, similar to Overlords but larger scope. Since their mind is not a part of the queen’s mind they can not be replicated when killed.
As for the feral zerg, claiming them is just a matter of being powerful enough psionically. Forcibly forging a connection to the swarm is difficult, but it’s not unique to Kerrigan. Anything with enough psionic power could do it.
I don’t think this is accurate. The cerebrates were separate entities from the Overmind, capable of existing and operating completely independently, to a point. They used void energies to reincarnate themselves when they died, presumably a trick built into the Overmind by Amon so that it wouldn’t accidentally do something dumb and get killed prematurely, which is why the Dark Templar were able to disrupt the process with void energies.