Wings of Liberty: Artifact Arc - Lore and Trivia

Hey folks,

Another week, another lore thread. This time we’ll be going into what could be considered the “main” arc of Wings of Liberty, the Artifact Missions. Largely, these are a lot of information introduced with Wings of Liberty and not from other sources, but as it’s the core plotline there’s a ton of information and lore to go through, so let’s dig in!

(And yes I know I said I’d put in a link to previous episodes but I can’t access google docs from the computer I posted this on, so I’ll edit my post to add it in this evening)

Characters

Tychus Findlay: Tychus J. Findlay was born on Mar Sara, but soon ran away to join the Confederate Marine Corps. With the outbreak of the Guild Wars, Tychus looked for every way possible to survive the conflict and get an “early retirement,” which often lead to illegal activities and him landing in correctional facilities. Eventually he would be transferred to the battlefront of Turaxis II, to the 321st Colonial Rangers, where he’d meet Jim Raynor. The two started off on the wrong foot, but after defeating an attacking band of Kel-Morians and preventing them from looting the base, Raynor, Tychus, and their allies were assigned to the Special Tactics and Missions Platoon, named the “Heaven’s Devils.” However, when their CO, Colonel Javier Vanderspool attempted to betray them and escape the conflict with a train of stolen crystals, Tychus and Raynor attacked their CO, stealing the crystals and abandoning the Confederacy.

The two went on to become a notorious bandit group, keeping the name “Heaven’s Devils,” raiding the Confederacy and their affluent Old Families. But Vanderspool survived the conflict with the two, and though stuck in an iron lung, sent a bounty hunter to kill the surviving Devils. Though they eventually beat the bounty hunter, Tychus and Raynor were eventually cornered by law enforcement, with Tychus staying behind to allow Raynor to escape, and make a new life for himself. Sentenced to a lifetime in a cryofreezer in New Folsom Prison, Tychus has been released by Arcturus Mengsk with a deal: if he sees that Raynor kills the Queen of Blades, Sarah Kerrigan, he will become a free man. Fail, and a device in his suit shuts off all of his vital organs. If you want more info longer lore thread I did here.

Nyon: Nyon is an executor of the Tal’darim, and goes unnamed in the campaign itself, with only portraits and Legacy of the Void naming him. Nyon’s people, the Tal’darim, were loyal servants of the xel’naga who uplifted the protoss in their early days. With the protoss tribes turned on the xel’naga, the xel’naga took the Tal’darim away with them on their worldships, depositing them in the fringe area of space named the Sigma Quadrant. It was there the leader of these xel’naga, Amon, gave them two gifts: terrazine, a gas that enhanced psionics and allowed the Tal’darim to pierce the veil of reality into the xel’naga’s realm of the Void, and a brutal system of government named the Chain of Ascension, where everyone was subservient to the chains above them, but commanded those below them. If one chain thought themselves stronger, they could challenge those above them to ritual combat to gain their rank. While content to stay in their part of space, the return of Amon’s servant, Samir Duran, has brought them into action as they seek to aid in the return of Amon and the creation of the protoss/zerg hybrids.

Nyon himself seemed to be different. He was assigned to mine terrazine for the Tal’darim, a process that, according to Alarak, drove him to madness. Fanatical in his devotion, Nyon also commanded the forces that guarded the Keystone, an ancient xel’naga relic tied deeply to their Infinite Cycle of reproduction.

I’ll get into my usual Tal’darim rant as to why their appearance caused so much confusion here. Prior to Wings of Liberty, the Tal’darim were introduced as a faction in the “Dark Templar Saga” books, particularly the book “Shadow Hunters,” where they were Khalai survivors who survived in the xel’naga caverns of Aiur and hated the Nerazim, yet were controlled by a rogue dark archon named Ulrezaj through a drug named Sundrop. Ulrezaj sought to use them to exact revenge against the Khalai for their persecution of the Nerazim. When WoL was being released, Metzen made statements connecting the two groups, and hinting the one we saw in the books was part of a “much larger plan” involving Ulrezaj. But when the Tal’darim appeared in the games, they claimed to be an ancient order that predated the terran arrival in the sector (which wouldn’t work if they were made from the Khalai survivors), used Nerazim technology (who they hated in the books), and used the latest cutting edge protoss technology from Shakuras (which they wouldn’t have since they were isolated from them). This would later be changed later to the Tal’darim in the books being only named after the Tal’darim in the games, and Ulrezaj being a rogue agent not serving Amon (which still leaves whoever his “dark master” in the books was open). But for those who had only the information from the DT Saga books and WoL, it was a confusing contradiction to say the least.

This also gets weird, as the Tal’darim were under the command of the xel’naga Samir Duran/Emil Narud (last surviving servant of Amon), who was also ordering around the Moebius Foundation and Raynor’s Raiders. It’s still not canonically confirmed why Nyon would then fight Raynor if him getting the Keystone played into his master’s hands. Some suspect that it had to do with the Tal’darim culling the weak and insane in their ranks, but again it’s not confirmed either way.

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Mission 1: Smash and Grab

Monlyth: Monlyth was a world visited by the xel’naga, who left behind shrines and pieces of technology. It was for this reason the Protoss Empire settled the world, setting it up as one of their more holy sites. However, at some point the planet was abandoned by the Empire, its many protoss and xel’naga shrines remaining an enigma to terran scientists. The planet’s description seems to indicate the Tal’darim “remained” on the planet, but given that Legacy of the Void says the Tal’darim did not encroach on the Khalai’s territory until the Second Great War, it’s more likely they claimed the world later.

New Unit/Merc

Marauder: Coming out of the Brood War, the Terran Dominion began to reassess its combat doctrine. While infantry could deal with light zerg units, heavily armored creatures like the ultralisk and the newly created roach proved too durable for them to deal with. From the base of the new generation of CMC-660 Firebat combat armor, a new set named the 5-4 Armored Infantry Suit was developed, with dual grenade launchers capable to blasting through hide and armor. These Punisher Grenades could be outfitted with gravity distortion technology, slowing those they hit. The heavy armor itself, often augmented with a kinetic mesh to reduce impacts on the wearer, comes outfitted with a mobile factory with the components to manufacture hundreds of grenades on the field.

Hammer Securities: After its defeat in the Guild Wars, the corporate nation of the Kel-Morian Combine lost much of its standing army, resorting instead to working through mercenaries and pirate militias to do much of its fighting and security work. These groups will often go beyond the Kel-Morian Combine for work, working for either private industry or planetary militias. One of the most legendary of these were the Hammer Securities (or H-Sec), Kel-Morian Marauder who were armed with specialist cannons named “The Mediators.” They were famed for security work, and were often at odds with Dominion forces. They show up in Heroes of the Storm as a skin for Muradin Bronzebeard named “Maraudin’ Muradin.”

• In the early builds of the game, this mission was named “Tooth and Nail.”

• The Stone Zealots are full units with their own set of quotes in the editor. Their “eye beam” attacks are identical to the thermal lance of the colossi.

• Tychus mentions that the Tal’darim aren’t Raynor’s old protoss buddies. This is a callback to Raynor’s actions in SC1, helping Tassadar on Char, aiding them in killing the Overmind, and allying with Fenix against the cerebrates and UED during the Brood War.

• At the end of the mission Kerrigan says she forgot how resourceful Raynor was. This is a callback to Brood War, where when planning her betrayal of Raynor and Fenix, Kerrigan called them “uncannily resourceful.” Zeratul also mentions that Raynor “has proven to be resourceful in the past” to assure Artanis that he believed he survived on Aiur.

• Tosh mentions that there were a few who knew the truth of Kerrigan in the Ghost Academy. This is a bit of a reference to the Ghost Academy manga, while most people were unaware of Kerrigan’s origins as a ghost, ghost recruits were taught of Kerrigan’s downfall to the zerg after being one of the most powerful psionics in existence, though most were taught the Confederacy left her to the zerg. As Tosh mentions however, some know the truth.

• The UNN news report also backs up the previous statement, with most reports only now realizing the Queen of Blades may have human origins. The mention of a terran-zerg alliance may be a reference to the Brood War, where Mengsk did ally with the zerg against the UED, though that appeared to not be common knowledge. In spite of what the news report said, some special infested terrans do maintain free will, though these are very rare.

Mission 2: The Dig

Xil: Xil was once home to a sentient species, and was visited by the xel’naga. However, in an unexplained cataclysm, the native species was wiped out. Relics of both this species and the xel’naga remained, and soon the planet was encroached by the Tal’darim.

New Unit/Merc

Siege Tank: Many variations of the siege tank have existed through the history of the terrans. Artillery batteries named “siege tanks” and mobile armor long existed before the Guild Wars, but in the aftermath of the conflict, the Confederacy invested resources in a “final defense cannon,” the Arclite Siege Tank. This tank could move and fire as a normal tank, but if needed, siege up for a long range shock cannon. This cannon was so powerful stabilizers were needed to prevent the knockback from damaging the tank itself. After the Brood War, the Dominion invested in a new siege tank design, with greater capability to fire while on the move and heavier armor, named the Crucio siege tank. These were armed with twin 90mm plasma cannons, and a 180mm shock cannon, and are the standard type we see in SCII.

Siege Breakers: The Arclite siege tank is the type of siege tank we see in StarCraft 1, and was a powerful weapon of the Terran Confederacy for both offense and defense. These tanks are armed with tin 90mm PPG-7 plasma cannons, and a 120mm Mjolnir shock/artillery cannon, usually inferior to its Crucio counterparts. However, some holdouts of the Terran Confederacy refused to give up their Arclites, instead upgrading their rigs with powerful and possibly illegal upgrades to make them go toe-to-toe with their modern iterations. One such group the maintained the classic tank design was the Siege Breakers, who would use their overcharged cannons to help the highest bidder.

• Before claiming the base, all structures at the Moebius base will have the Moebius decal on them.

• The Drakken Laser Drill would show up later in Co-op Missions as a special structure for Rory Swann, functioning much the same. Tychus uses the drill as an ult in Heroes of the Storm, even getting an infested variant for one of his skins. A Drakken Pulse Cannon shows up in Heart of the Swarm, making it unclear if Drakken is the technology behind the drill or the company and constructs it.

• Destroying all Tal’darim forces on the map will give the player a victory with some extra dialogue from Horner, but there is no Feat of Strength for doing so like in some other missions.

• Cut lines from the mission has Nyon mention the artifacts belong to the Tal’darim’s “benefactor.” The Benefactor was the name the Aiur Tal’darim had for the dark archon Ulrezaj in the Dark Templar Saga books.

• The crystal Zeratul gives Raynor at the end of the mission is an Ihan memory crystal, a khaydarin crystal modified to story Nerazim memories. These were introduced in the Dark Templar Saga books. As the Nerazim lack the Khala and preservers to retain memories, memories are psionically stored in these crystals, and by the thousands are kept in secret sanctuaries of the Nerazim. One of the primary sanctuaries, the Alys'aril, was the site of a battle a year before WoL, with the Dominion managing to loot several of these sacred crystals.

• Zeratul’s wound appears to be from his battle with the Queen of Blades in “The Prophecy” cinematic, as he clutches the same arm.

• In a cut version of Zeratul’s cinematic, he’d mention the artifacts were the “key to the end of all things” and the “return of the xel’naga.” This would end up coming true in Legacy of the Void, where the artifacts were revealed to be a key part of the xel’naga’s Infinite Cycle.

• Matt is the one member of the crew Raynor can talk to who was with Raynor when he allied alongside Zeratul in SC1, and which is reflected in his recognizing Zeratul’s name.

• Donny Vermillion mentions that he doesn’t reveal Dominion secrets on air for fear that the zerg watch the UNN’s broadcasts. As much as it’s played for laughs, the ending of the book “Liberty’s Crusade” has a newly infested Kerrigan watching terran newscasts on the rise of the Dominion in order to learn as much as she could about her new enemies. Donny was the real hero of humanity all along.

Mission 3: The Moebius Factor

Tyrador VIII: Tyrador VIII was one of the first “planned” worlds of the Terran Confederacy, terraformed and developed to be a major population center, made into a jungle world. It along with its tropical sister world of Tyrador IX are the outermost planets of the popular Tyrador System. The planet served as a hideaway for several criminal groups (including the group behind the assassination of Nova’s family), and was the hideaway of Valerian Mengsk when his father toppled the Confederacy.

New Unit

Medivac Dropship: During a mission in the acid storms of Thalon VII, medics of the 19th Marine Division outfitted the UED-based nanite healing beams and laser scalpels on to Quantradyne APOD-33 dropships, allowing them to do battlefield surgeries from a safe distance above the storms. This was adopted by the Terran Dominion and improved into the G-226 medical transport. While effective, marines distrust surgery being done on them from low orbit. In spite of its ingenuity, medivacs are prohibitively expensive to deploy regularly, and as such the regular Quantradyne dropship and ground medics are still the go-to choice for the Dominion.

• This is the first appearance of Doctor Emil Narud. In reality, Narud is Samir Duran, the xel’naga from Brood War who manipulated the factions of the sector to rally together to defeat the Second Overmind and the UED. “Narud” is “Duran” spelled backwards. He is behind the scheme to use the Keystone Raynor is collecting to convert Kerrigan’s psionics and the Swarm into energy he could use to pull his master, Amon, from the Void. Kerrigan mentions seeing through “Doctor Narud’s pathetic charade” as a reference to this.

• The Moebius forces primarily utilize mercenaries. Their security forces were named “Moebius Corps,” and were a conglomerate of mercenaries and forces on loan from the Terran Dominion. After the rise of the hybrid, these forces and many others would fall under their thrall, and would serve as the first wave of Amon’s forces in his attempt to purge the Koprulu Sector of life.

• Kerrigan is surrounded by several powerful hydralisks this mission named “Hunter Killers.” Hunter Killers are hero hydralisks from SC1, and were the elite of the cerebrate Daggoth’s Tiamat Brood. They were usually colored red, and were the only hero variant of a zerg unit that had a different portrait from their base unit.

• One of the rooftops has the words “ALIVE INSIDE” written on top of it, and one of the groups of rescuable marines will say “Marine! We! Are! Leaving!” upon being saved. Both of these are references to the film “Aliens.”

• Lurkers were initially intended to appear on this map. While they had a full model and were a unit in the Wings of Liberty alpha, they would not show up in game until Heart of the Swarm, and later be added to multiplayer in Legacy of the Void.

• Several easter eggs are scattered around the map, including a statue of the sword “Excalibur,” a hologram doing the Night Elf dance from World of Warcraft, and a billboard for Blizzard Entertainment.

• The Betrayal cinematic is a retelling of the end of the mission “New Gettysburg,” where Mengsk leaves Kerrigan behind to die to the zerg.

  • Unlike the level, the mission takes place in the city of New Gettysburg. There’s been a bit of confusion as to whether the area is a city or space platform, as the novelization “Liberty’s Crusade” and the cut SC1 mission “Operation: Silent Scream” says it’s a city, but the game itself says it is a platform.
  • On the note of “Liberty’s Crusade,” the cinematic shows her calling out “Commander? Jim?” like in the games rather than “Michael? Jim?” like in the book (Michael Liberty being a stand in for the player character, though not replacing him canonically). This mention of the “commander” is the only mention of the player character from Rebel Yell in StarCraft II.
  • Raynor’s portrait that shows up in the cinematic has a shaved head, a callback to how his SC1 portrait looked.
  • All dialogue during the mission is taken from the original SC1 voice tracks, except for Kerrigan, who had her original voice actress of Glynnis Talken-Campbell replaced with Tricia Helfer.
  • In the Hyperion, Mengsk is listening to Brood War Aria, the song that showed up during the intro to Brood War. It was reused for the track “I, Mengsk” in WoL. This is always a curious choice to me, as Brood War Aria’s Latin and French lyrics had meaning very specific to Brood War.
  • There are some inconsistencies with the cinematic. The hydralisks that appear are the Second Great War variant, with multiple points to their scythe arms, which didn’t exist at the time. Kerrigan also uses a C-20A rifle (the gun Nova uses) rather than the C-10 she used during SC1.

• Raynor’s battle with alcoholism was supposed to be an entire subplot of WoL, but was dropped. The cinematic with Horner scolding Raynor for drinking and wallowing in guilt is a holdover from this.

• The UNN news ticket mentions the Dominion fleet regrouping at the Dylarian Shipyards. The Shipyards were the center of the Dominion Fleet, and was where Raynor stole the Hyperion from Mengsk. During Brood War, the UED attacked the shipyards in their surprise assault on the Dominion, stealing a portion of Mengsk’s fleet and crippling the other half that tried to stop them.

• The commercial references the registering of children with psionic powers. This is how the Confederacy recruits ghosts, training them to be weapons for their forces. Lightly gifted humans named “wranglers” who can detect psionics hunt down these children for registration. Raynor himself had his gifted child, John Raynor registered, but after he was recruited was told that he had “died in a shuttle crash.”

Mission 4: Supernova

Typhon XI: Typhon was a remote planet in an ancient star system. While habitable, its poor mineral density meant that it was overlooked by the terrans. Shortly before the Second Great War, Nyon’s Tal’darim expedition landed on the world and set up defenses. Typhon first appeared in a 2008 special expansion of StarCraft: The Board Game, which gave players the token as an extra plant to add. As it was only ever given out at the 2008 Blizzard Entertainment World Wide Invitational, it is a rather rare piece of StarCraft merchandise, going for $150+ for what amounts to a small piece of cardboard.

New Unit/Merc

Banshee: The AH/G-24 Banshee Tactical-Strike Aircraft is a response to the outdated Wraith fighter, taking over its stealth attack role. While used against the protoss and zerg, it was designed as a terror weapon against terran rebels and dissidents of the Dominion, but soon found its way into the hands of other terran factions. Its cloaking system is very advanced, to the point where a downed banshee must be retrieved by a specialist team to prevent the cloaking module from falling into the wrong hands. Banshees are designed for atmospheric combat, but if needed can operate in space using a separate mode, though it functions very poorly there. Its Backlash Rockets can devastate ground targets, and an alternative Ripwave Missile loadout can damage groups of enemies with multiple rocket strikes in a line.

Dusk Wings: The Dusk Wings were one of the first banshee pilots fielded by the Terran Dominion. However, soon they realized the power of their craft and abandoned the Dominion to do mercenary work. Dusk Wings fell into the service of several groups, with Raynor making famous use of them. These craft appear as the Level 20 upgrade to Raynor’s “Raynor’s Raiders” ult in Heroes of the Storm, though it doesn’t change their model. Raynor can also call them down in Co-op Missions with his airstrike ability, these banshees retaining the model and name of the Dusk Wings.

• Cut lines seem to indicate the mission would have also involved mining resources from the melting planet’s crust, and solar flares appearing on the map.

• When the Bucephalus appears, it is identified as a Gorgon-class battlecruiser, with other book sources also calling it a Gorgon. Its cinematic model however is that of a Behemoth-class battlecruiser, with its size being a bit inconstant to the size of the larger Gorgons.

• The “Heir Apparent” cinematic is the first in-game appearance of Valerian Mengsk since his introduction in the Dark Templar Saga books. We’ll get into his story during the Final Arc.

• The revolver Raynor points at Valerian seems to have one bullet in it, which he is implied to be saving to use on Mengsk. Concept art for the revolver shows the bullet has the word “justice” carved into it. It’s unclear what gun it is, with Raynor owning a classic Old Earth Colt Single Action Army revolver similar to the one in WoL (although the art and game model isn’t of a Colt, but we’ll let that slide), but Raynor left that gun after he killed his former commanding officer Javier Vanderspool. However the art for that gun in the book is identical to the pistol he uses in-game.

• The music Valerian is listening to is “Brood War Aria,” the song from the Brood War intro, with its second appearance in this game (the other being the aforementioned appearance in "The Betrayal").

• No I don’t know why Raynor and Valerian couldn’t just contact one another via communicator and not have a bunch of Dominion soldiers die.

• Tosh mentions that Valerian had to survive all alone while his dad was conquering the sector. This was show in I, Mengsk, where Valerian and his mom, Juliana Pasteur, were shipped around the sector as they had to evade Confederate assassins. The strain of this eventually killed Juliana, who died to a rare cancer that largely went untreated, and Valerian never truly forgave his father.

Mission 5: Maw of the Void

Sigma Quadrant: The Sigma Quadrant is a fringe section of space beyond the Koprulu Sector, beyond even the reach of the old Protoss Empire. It was here the Tal’darim were taken after Amon pulled them from the Aeon of Strife, and founded their society. They wander this space, fighting one another and whoever they come across for dominance, secretly raiding Protoss Empire ships for technology. Lurking here is also a xel’naga worldship. These massive ships were xel’naga transports, which ferried them and their technology around the galaxy. One such worldship was taken by the Nerazim when they were forced off of Aiur, and from its vaults technologies such as the warp blade were acquired.

New Unit/Merc

Battlecruiser: The hammerhead shaped battlecruisers are iconic to the terran fleets of the sector, and are the battering ram for their space combat operations. Armed with ATA and ATS laser batteries, battlecruisers can take on smaller fighters and ground targets that come their way, while their heavy Yamato Cannon can deliver a blast of plasma equivalent to a small nuclear strike. The standard type built in StarCraft II are Minotaur-class battlecruisers, smaller than their older Behemoth variants but fielded with just as much armor and armament.

Jackson’s Revenge: An infamous pirate crew commands this legendary battlecruiser, which has long stalked the fringes of the Terran Confederacy since its early days. It has gone through dozens of captains, all killed either in combat or by the ship’s crew. The ship can also show up as an enemy on a few levels on harder difficulties, but it’s unclear if it’s the same ship or whether that’s a gameplay thing. In early versions of the game, the ship was named “Duke’s Revenge,” after the SC1 Terran Confederacy/Dominion officer General Edmund Duke.

• The ripfield generators on this map don’t affect protoss when their shields are up, but will when their shields are depleted, a lore reference to the fact their plasma shields are protecting them.

• The player can reference dark templar in this level, who are friendly to Raynor due to his actions helping the protoss in SC1. It was initially though the imprisonment of the Nerazim were a reference to the hatred the Tal’darim had for them in the Dark Templar Saga (as they were Khalai who rejected that alliance), but later sources debunked that.

• The achievements appear to both be references to the “He-Man” franchise, “I Have the Power” and “Masters of the Universe.”

• Nyon pilots a mothership in this level, though it is a classic Khalai design and not the modified Tal’darim ones we see in LotV. In Tal’darim society, swaths of their Death Fleet is lead by modified motherships designed for war, with each serving as a throne to an ascendant named a “Fleet Lord.” As destroying the mothership is optional, it’s unclear whether Nyon canonically dies in this mission or not (though likely he did).

• In cut lines, the Tal’darim mothership would move on the player’s base. There are also mentions of “The Benefactor” in the cut lines for this mission (possibly Ulrezaj).

• The bar fight after the mission takes some musical tones and choreography from the series Firefly, which Metzen has noted as an inspiration for the tone of WoL.

• The book Flashpoint mentions that the Jukebox was able to be fixed, though it was never the same after Tychus destroyed it, and was missing some songs.

• The UNN news report mentions that the Dominion was preparing to launch its newest battlecruiser, the White Star. This ship would become Arcturus Mengsk’s personal flagship during the events of the book Flashpoint, after Valerian took the Bucephalus, his former flagship.

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Ok, likely the longest one of this series, but that’s the artifact missions. Next week I may try something different, depending on how this new Co-op Missions map turns out I may do an episode devoted to the little references in it. If not (usually Co-op maps have some cool bits but not all that much lore), I’ll be doing the Zeratul prophecy missions next week. So get excited for that, and I’ll see you all next week!

Submitted June 20, 2018 at 07:02PM by Subsourian https://ift.tt/2taR9Rk