Skin Lore thread 2: Electric Boogaloo

[StarCraft: The Dark Templar Saga # 3: Twilight]
In this it is said that their armor provides oxygen, the truth is quite unique their ability to live with luminous energy, far exceeds the plants given their locomotion capabilities and as Kelthar commented previously becoming archon concrete this

Firstly, Starcraft operates on technobabble. Most of it actively defies real science even without clearly fantastical concepts like psionics, and there’s no universal rational explanation for the (lacking a better term) magic systems used by Blizz. So I don’t understand why this argument is necessary. Originally the protoss were intended to be psychic robots and now the ihanrii have fantasy golems of all things, so I think it is safe to say that real science was far and away from the writers’ minds.

Secondly, the SC1 manual lore claims the protoss failed to meet expectations. Whatever purity of form they have presumably isn’t the, I don’t know, final form desires by the xel’naga. Subsequent rewrites (like pinning down archon longevity in later fiction) render this all nonsensical, but when the ideas were initially formed and mostly consistent this was teased as a possibility. But I suppose it is all speculation in the end.

Thirdly, I’m less concerned with trivia and technobabble and more concerned with themes and other literary blather. Blizzard’s meandering execution of the story gradually watered down and ultimately destroyed the thematic contrasts between the three races. The only remaining contrasts are the game mechanics that made SC famous in the first place.

But that’s probably all trivia now. Still, I suppose it’s fun to dream.

Any chance we could have more Purifier units added from the Purifier War Chest into Co Op?

I really want to see Purifier High Templar/Archon and maybe even Purifier Dark Templar.

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"British science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke formulated three adages that are known as Clarke’s three laws, of which the third law is the best known and most widely cited. They were part of his ideas in his extensive writings about the future.[1] These so-called laws include:

1 When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2 The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3 Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic…"

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Afaik, amon was the one who created khala.

Er, no. The psionic link predated his arrival on Aiur, and the religion was created by Khas.

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Difficult to know for sure what is canon anymore since it seems clear to me that Blizz doesn’t know themselves

EDIT: second war chest comic is out. Its tone is not one I expected from Starcraft.

the protoss had a primitive version of the khala that is of interest to the xelnagas, then they proceed to modify the protoss, SC 2 only points out that part of the modifications is to modify the psionic link. Khas only rediscovers it, all the protoss left the gestal simply because of their emotions of lack of confidence, there is no greater mystery, the Taldarim society only maintained this mentality witht their Sith-Spartan ideology, the same happens with the nerazim that the khala never accepts even with their Neural cords, since to enter there must be provision, the cutting of the neural cords was only a symbolic amputation that made their decision irreversible, while for those who were born in the gestal it was unthinkable to separate from it by the emotional conform and a long life accustomed to this

I feel like you are projecting here because the lore is actually much vaguer that you claim it is. There is no evidence that Amon altered the proto-khala. Him taking it over comes completely out of left field and has zero rational underpinning. The khala never worked like a hive mind, so it shouldn’t be able to let someone take control of the protoss like puppets. That’s like saying that Amon should be able to take control of humanity through our eyes and ears because we communicate through voice and body language.

We still don’t have a very good idea of how the khala ever worked, and it’s pretty obvious that Blizzard never understood it. About the most detailed explanation we get is from the dark templar trilogy written by Christie Golden, which makes it very clear that without the khala the protoss become violently deranged. Which is represented fairly well by the taldarim. The nerazim are the outlier because they don’t act like the taldarim at all. This doesn’t make much sense without inventing further speculation.

However, this did make sense in the lore prior to the novels and SC2. The SC1 manual, while quite vague, suggested that it was only the intertribal khala that was broken, so the psychological damage didn’t run as deep as you would expect from a complete loss. So when the nerazim rejected the khala, they rejected their own tribal link. We don’t receive explanation how they were able to avoid going crazy, but since their lore vaguely states they adapted to their new lifestyle one may assume that includes a substitute for the stabilizing influence of khala. It would be a fascinating aspect of their culture to explore, but sadly the lore is actually quite shallow when it comes to what protoss culture is actually like in daily life and upbringing. Anything that isn’t immediately relevant to the plot is never brought up.

But that’s just how I would have written the lore if I was charge and wanted to write faux realistic science fiction. I have no idea what the heck Blizzard has in mind, since judging by the recent war chest comic they apparently think Starcraft is a sitcom now. To be fair, that isn’t entirely off the mark. The plot, even as far back as SC1, always felt somewhat soap operatic.

People lose control of their computers through the internet all the time. Imagine Amon as a botnet. It actually maps really closely.

Now youre just making assumptions that don’t fit with the lore. There is no evidence that the protoss actually become deranged without the Khala, and the fact that the Dark Templar exist indicates pretty strongly that they don’t. The Aeon of Strife was the result of pent up hostilities and tribalism among the protoss exploding due to an externally imposes crisis in the form of the Xel’naga leaving them.

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No, this one is probably due to the way you experience the lore. The Tal’darim represents Amon’s influences and brutality.

I’m not sure where you get this one from. It’s pretty clear that the Protoss lost all proto-Khala link. They can still communicate psionically just like what they did with the Nerazim, but that’s far cry from whatever they once have.

It would be if you’re corrected; if anything the Dark Templar Saga states very clearly that the Protoss doesn’t need the Khala to stay sane. The whole sigma toward the Nerazim is nothing more than prejudice and ignorance. That’s the whole point of Adun’s story!

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We have been through this before, guys. I do not care what the canon says or what you think it says. I think the canon is badly written and that my ideas are better. That is a very low bar so I am not happy about it.

If you want to talk about the canon, you have to care. I’m not interested in talking about a totally different direction you would have preferred they go down except as how it relates to the story we actually got.

I would think my preferred plot relates to the story we got in that it addresses the flaws I see in the narrative. Like the fact that Metzen’s writing is generally poor, sloppily plot-driven, ham-fisted, etc.

My opinions are strong and should be obvious by now. I don’t give a darn about the stupid khala if it’s just a worthless red herring. Either it is the essence of the protoss that differentiates them from human psychology because they’re aliens, or it shouldn’t exist in the story at all and they’re just mouthless statues with the exact same psychology as us humans. Is the story more compelling if the Conclave are irrational morons unfairly demonizing the Nerazim? Or is it more compelling if they have a point (as represented by the Taldarim being evil by their very nature), but the Nerazim sidestep the problem because they found a working substitute for khala?

Not that it really matters, I guess, since judging by the most recent war chest comic Starcraft is now a sitcom. Don’t believe me? Read it. Stetman can’t remember what he’s doing from moment to moment and the robot zergling behaves like a friendly dog when you pet it.

Honestly, if you look at the Khalai/Nerazim divide and think “oh, I guess theyre just humans” then I have no further interest in discussing things with you. You are clearly unwilling to entertain any ideas other than the ones you have already decided on, and a willingness to adjust your understanding is a fundamental necessity for productive discussion.

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So as far as the comic goes… I’m actually enjoying it. They’ve played it out pretty well so far, treading the line between some humor while also showing Stetman as completely and dangerously insane instead of a walking punchline. Still not a huge fan of the concept, but taking something so terrible and pulling what appears to be a pretty good story out of it is something I have to give some props for.

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Then explain to me how it makes any sense at all. Because I cannot take Blizzard’s writing remotely seriously after seeing twenty years of their insulting bad writing and mismanagement of their IPs.

He IS a punchline. That story is a sitcom.

It’s kind of hard to make completely non-human psychology if you as a human want to create a race that interacts with humans.

Not only it’s difficult it’s counterproductive.

I am actually glad that in Starcraft the aliens actually matter.

In Star Wars, they are fu^king cameos.

The thing I like most about it is the general tone is very different, but unlike Shadow Wars which was mostly predictable past the initial reveals there’s a lot of ways this comic could go. Will the terrazine undo mind wipes the ghost has? Is there something deeper to Bel’Shir, given Stetmann seems aware its about to be purified? Will we get Super Gary? Loving it so far too, certainly wouldn’t want SC in general to go in this kind of direction but as a side comic it’s a great little bit of something different.

Right now I just want to know what era it’s actually in, I’m guessing in the two year gap between LotV and the epilogue but it’s hard to say for sure.

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Since when did we switch to discuss about your Alternative Universe? This is not your fan fiction thread, right?

That’s debatable… Your idea sounds good and interesting on paper, but when you execute it or when you combine them together, it’s quite a mess…

You should. It seem like you don’t even understand what the Khala is. I checked the Wiki from time to time and it’s pretty good. How can you misinterpret the lore this much from it?

We did! Repeatedly, even!