Heart of the Swarm (details, discussion, etc) - Page 33

Driven to perfect their science of
proto-genetic evolution, the
ancient, enigmatic race known
as the Xel’Naga traveled to the distant fringeworld
of Aiur. The vast jungles of Aiur had
produced the most advanced race that the
Xel’Naga had ever seen. Believing that they
could steer the race’s evolution to the pinnacle
of physical perfection, the Xel’Naga began to
conduct their proto-genetic experiments. The
race that the Xel’Naga would eventually name
‘Protoss’ advanced rapidly and gained what
their creators termed ‘a distinct purity of form’.
Unfortunately, the Xel’Naga pushed their
experiment too far. The inherent essence and
sentience of the Protoss developed far too
rapidly, leading to bitter strife and division
between them and their creators. The
Xel’Naga deemed that the purity of form they
sought to create had been sullied by a conflict
of essence and thus decreed that the Protoss
were, in fact, a failed creation. The Xel’Naga
abandoned their children and launched
themselves into the void.
The Birth of the Zerg
Travelling thousands of light years into the
burning core of the galaxy, the Xel’Naga
eventually settled upon the volatile ash-world
of Zerus. The Xel’Naga planned to continue
their Grand Experiment of evolution, only this
time they dismissed their tenets of physical
form and focused chiefly on the pursuit of a
distinct purity of essence. Residing in their
massive ships high above the fires of Zerus,
the Xel’Naga began once again to challenge
the wiles of fate.

As the swarms continued to grow and
strengthen, the Overmind turned its thoughts
towards its own future. It realised that within
a few short centuries its race had assimilated
all of the indigenous life upon Zerus. It knew
that to further evolve the swarm, the Zerg
would need to leave Zerus. The Overmind
began to reach out with its senses, looking
for something - anything - which would
provide them with transport from this world.
That opportunity soon arrived. A race of
gargantuan, space-faring life forms passed
through the Zerus system, and the Overmind
called to them. Drawn to the barren world
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by this beacon, they were quickly assimilated
by the swarm. The inclusion of super-dense
hides and the ability to exist in a vacuum
bolstered the genetic pool of the swarm. Soon
the Zerg warriors were conditioned to survive
the harshness of space.
This pivotal moment in the development of
the Zerg was not lost to the Xel’Naga. The Zerg,
despite having an extreme physical handicap,
had succeeded in not only surviving, but in
retaining the purity of their terrible overriding
essence. The Xel’Naga knew that they had
achieved their goal.
The Fall of the XelÕNaga
The pride in their achievements proved to be
the fatal downfall of the Xel’Naga. The
Overmind, while slowly expanding itself into
the void of space, became aware of the mighty
Xel’Naga world-ships hovering ominously
above the skies of Zerus. The Xel’Naga, having
kept a constant watch on the Overmind, were
horrified to find that it had actually severed their
psychic link, effectively hiding itself from their
view. With its need to consume driving its
minions into a lustful frenzy, the Overmind
launched the now space-faring Zerg swarms at
the unsuspecting Xel’Naga. The ancient race did
what they could to stem the tide of the everadvancing
Zerg onslaught, but in the end their
efforts were in vain. Wave after wave of Zerg
swarms hammered the reinforced hulls of the
Xel’Naga’s ships with no signs of abatement.
Within only a few hours the Zerg overran the
defenses of their creators and laid waste to the
Xel’Naga fleet.
As the greater whole of the Xel’Naga race was
consumed by the raging, genetic whirlwind of
the Zerg, the Overmind gained the knowledge
and insights of its masters.

Despite innumerable victories, the
Overmind was greatly disturbed. The
Overmind was aware that the Protoss had
become a highly psionic race, able to
bend and warp the very fabric of reality
to their whims. It sought a way to counter
the awesome might of the Protoss, but
found no answers among the genetic
strains it devoured.
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On the verge of despair, the Overmind
made an amazing discovery. One of its deepspace
probes had relayed the location and
vital statistics of a race that occupied a series
of nondescript worlds, right under the
shadow of the Protoss.
The new race, called Humanity, was mere
generations away from developing into a
formidable psionic power. But the Overmind
also knew that Humanity was still in its infant
stages, hardly capable of defending itself
against the ravenous Zerg. Although a shortlived
and seemingly frail species, the
Overmind knew that Humanity would be the
final determinant in its victory over the
Protoss. If it could assimilate the psionic
potential of Humanity, the Overmind would
have the ability to combat the Protoss on its
own terms.

A lthough only fragmented
documentation remains,
ancient Protoss texts speak of
a highly advanced race that ruled over
thousands of worlds in the galaxy, tens of
millions of years ago. This enigmatic race,
often called the Xel’Naga, or ‘wanderers
from afar’, was rumoured to have seeded
and cultivated thousands of various species
on the cold and barren worlds within their
domain. Protoss traditions hold that the
Xel’Naga were a peaceful and benevolent
race, utterly consumed with the study and
propagation of sentient evolution within the
universe. Nothing is known of the origin of
the Xel’Naga, save that they were not native
to the galaxy over which they held sway.
Obsessed with fashioning the perfect lifeform,
the Xel’Naga laboured to create a
creature that would be defined by a distinct
purity of form.

That's where the Overmind learns about the Protoss... not only that. It also learns about every other race the Xel'Naga had created, becomes much wiser and improves the Swarm.

I think this alone would prove that the "Overmind retcon" is a retcon.

Here's something I think is important:

The Overmind was on the verge os despair because it hadn't any weapon good enough to fight the Protoss.

So why does he leaves Char into Aiur without any new weapon? That's plain senseless. A real major plot hole. It was despairing, and all of a sunden it is cool?

That's why I welcome this retcon. Stories can be awesome with plot holes (and the OM's story is), but if we can fix them, better.

well maybe, JUST maybe, the Overmind was worried about a long drawn out war of attrition becuase he had no way to pick and choose the battles and force the protoss onto the defensive, he would ahve had to LITERALLY creep every planet in the secter and slowly figure out where Aiur was before he could even think of attacking it he was probably like "shit i have no way to be offensive so i have no choice but to fight in exactly the way the protoss want this fight to go so i need something that can stand toe to toe with the protoss so when they show up i can bring the fight to them"

but because he figured out where it was he could bring the full heatlhy might of the entire swarm on the core of the protoss in one fell swoup instead of fighting over several planets i mean its not like they could glass Aiur

which would you prefer, attacking a protoss in a choke or nydusing there main?

On April 20 2012 06:39 nerak wrote:


Awesome.

You're right on that. But still, the game doesn't mention it. So it confused me while I was playing.

Also, the OM took 60 years to arrive at the Koprulu sector. Than it takes a moment to warp to Aiur. Ok, could happen (needed/wanted more strains? wasn't in a hurry? couldn't warp all the distance for some reason?), but then again, when things follow a different logic in manual and in game, you better explain why.

On April 20 2012 06:05 nerak wrote:
The Overmind was on the verge os despair because it hadn't any weapon good enough to fight the Protoss.

So why does he leaves Char into Aiur without any new weapon? That's plain senseless. A real major plot hole. It was despairing, and all of a sunden it is cool?

Also, the OM took 60 years to arrive at the Koprulu sector. Than it takes a moment to warp to Aiur. Ok, could happen (needed/wanted more strains? wasn't in a hurry? couldn't warp all the distance for some reason?), but then again, when things follow a different logic in manual and in game, you better explain why.

Note that in the retconned version, An Eye for an Eye wouldn't make any sense: the Zerg didn't know Tassadar and Zeratul would survive, and the objective of the level is "Let no Dark Templar escape", specifically. This is sensible from the original Overmind, and absurd if it has a death wish. Besides, who does it send to kill the enemies that must be kept alive at all costs? Kerrigan, the other being that must be kept alive at all costs.

lso, the OM took 60 years to arrive at the Koprulu sector. Than it takes a moment to warp to Aiur. Ok, could happen (needed/wanted more strains? wasn't in a hurry? couldn't warp all the distance for some reason?), but then again, when things follow a different logic in manual and in game, you better explain why.

On April 21 2012 00:22 Forikorder wrote:
besides if Tassadar and Zeratul are so weak the cant escape from a small portion of the swarm then how would they ever be a threat to him?

On April 21 2012 00:22 Forikorder wrote:


he doesnt really care if Tassadar or Zeratulk arrive becuase he has no idea that the Dark Templar are such hated beings, or that Tassadar gained training from Zeratul and was such a powerful being, if anything he was expecting to show up on Aiur and have to fight of dark templar at every turn rather then be shielded from the dark templar by the protoss

besides if Tassadar and Zeratul are so weak the cant escape from a small portion of the swarm then how would they ever be a threat to him?

On April 21 2012 01:59 Telenil wrote:
Are you seriously asking me why the Overmind considered Zeratul to be a threat?

Not a threat? If the capacity to permanently render 25% of your entire army capacity in a state of perpetual frenzy so strong that he cannot regain control of these units trough usual means is not a threat then i dunno what is.

On April 21 2012 02:52 Forikorder wrote:

well technically Zeratul wasnt a threat to him since the only important thing he actually did was kill Zasz and train Tassadar

Kerrigan all but killed him on Char, why instead of killing them she just locked them up makes no sense at all but she did capture Zeratul and Tassadar and Raynor on char so they were not really a threat to the overmind they got one good sneak attack in and then the dark templar were just powerful additions to the army and had pretty much no lore significance aside from making one distraction and teaching Tassadar how to use there energy (ignoring BW for now since BW has nothing to do with THE Overmind)

Note that in the retconned version, An Eye for an Eye wouldn't make any sense: the Zerg didn't know Tassadar and Zeratul would survive, and the objective of the level is "Let no Dark Templar escape", specifically. This is sensible from the original Overmind, and absurd if it has a death wish. Besides, who does it send to kill the enemies that must be kept alive at all costs? Kerrigan, the other being that must be kept alive at all costs.

-... pain. Surprise. Death.
-... death... and joy?
-... satisfaction... in a plan set in motion long ago... and... fear of the future?
-... an end

Come on, you can figure it by yourself.

It feels almost ridiculous to remind it, but as far as we know, Zeratul and the Dark Templar are the only people in the universe that can kill the Cerebrate and remove thousands of Zerg from the war with one blow. Kerrigan thought Tassadar wasn't much a threat, and next thing we know, a Cerebrate is dead and an entire Brood has to be eradicated.

But even their military value is nothing compared to the fact that they can kill the Overmind - Tassadar uses "Dark Templar energies" to destroy the first, and Zeratul himself slays the second. The Overmind is the collective conscience of all Zerg, and thus he is immortal - except if he is struck by members of a certain group, in which case all the Zerg would turn into mindless animals. I agree that at this point of the game, Tassadar himself hasn't proven as dangerous as the Dark Templar, although his proximity to Zeratul is enough to hunt to him down, just to be safe. But the Dark Templar were more threatening than a fleet of carriers, the entire Swarm wasn't safe as long as they lived.

About the installation mission specifically, I would just assume the Dark Templar locked themselves in, just like the Terran did. Kerrigan and the Zerg never took prisonners.

On April 25 2012 23:34 therockmanxx wrote:
I think we are missing a huge plot hole that was in starcraft ghost ...