[Spoilers] Vengeance shall be datamined

Existor

Russian Federation4295 Posts

March 09 2013 19:11 GMT

Very soon, Heart of the Swarm will be released and will continue the story of StarCraft II: the conflict between the humanoid terrans, the ravenous zerg, and the psionic protoss. As these races struggle, the specter of alien gods threatens to sweep aside what fragile stability still exists in the galaxy. Sarah Kerrigan, the former zerg Queen of Blades, has seen her humanity restored by an ancient artifact, but she remains a threat to all she encounters. The memory of her time as the mutant leader of the swarm lingers — as does her yearning for revenge.

But what I want to do is to datamine, but this time not patch or beta, this time it will be entire expansion, with tons of new textures, music, icons, image backgrounds and other materials. This article will be something like summarized datamine, that will include some materials from previous datamines and some new content.

Warning! Story spoilers below!

Heart of the Swarm story begins 3 weeks after Wings of Liberty events
Here is compilation of all story and lore information around and before Heart of the Swarm expansion.

[image loading]

The sinister zerg leader no longer commands her legions of bloodthirsty aliens against the humans of the Koprulu sector, all thanks to the combined courage and tenacity of Jim Raynor, General Horace Warfield, and a mismatched team of Dominion soldiers and outlaw rebels.

Although the queen is no more, Sarah Kerrigan is very much alive. The woman who once controlled countless alien minds in a rampage across the stars has been spirited away by the man who dethroned her. Now Arcturus Mengsk’s Dominion armada is on her heels, roaring for blood. Jim Raynor will need to test his strength, his wit, and his loyalties against impossible odds to protect the woman he loves.

StarCraft II: Flashpoint bridges the events that take place in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and the upcoming StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. Featuring never-before-seen glimpses into Jim Raynor’s and Sarah Kerrigan’s past, this novel opens a window into a world of passion, action, and adventure.

Very short summarization of all Flashpoint events - Flashpoint Summary on Starcraft.Wikia

Character descriptions around Flashpoint events

Major Characters
Sarah Kerrigan
Jim Raynor

Supporting Characters
Mira Han
Matt Horner
Arcturus Mengsk
Valerian Mengsk
Emil Narud
Rory Swann
Annabelle Thatcher

[image loading]

No single human being has been more inseparably tied to the twisted destinies of the terran, protoss, and zerg races than Sarah Kerrigan. She has risen from the ranks of soldier and rebel to become the unstoppable Queen of Blades, supreme ruler over a race of bloodthirsty aliens. But now she has fallen from her seat of power and been taken in by those who wish to separate the woman from the monster--a task which may be more difficult than it was to dethrone her. Take a look inside the mind of one of the greatest villains in gaming history and prepare yourself for StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm with this explosive new comic from Blizzard Entertainment, Kerrigan: Hope and Vengeance.

Just register and download it for free.
http://www.comixology.com/Starcraft-Kerrigan-Hope-and-Vengeance-0/digital-comic/DIG003258

Or read it... here!
Click to images to open more larger versions.

1 - http://i.imgur.com/YWNJIFd.jpg
2 - http://i.imgur.com/pSOtuoP.jpg
3 - http://i.imgur.com/gVJMAyu.jpg
4 - http://i.imgur.com/qWiLuRQ.jpg
5 - http://i.imgur.com/LtXZJLP.jpg
6 - http://i.imgur.com/zvrORx5.jpg
7 - http://i.imgur.com/zaeZm3M.jpg
8 - http://i.imgur.com/yvKBUAm.jpg
9 - http://i.imgur.com/aWEGPy3.jpg
10 - http://i.imgur.com/H2C6aeN.jpg

Usually unofficial soundtrack, which is extracted from the game resources, can be bigger than official soundtrack. But this time we have OST earlier, than the game itself. So here you can find official soundtrack links, including YouTube links, and later after 12th March you will find here another music archive with all extracted from the game music. Also here I will post some music tracks which you heard during Heart of the Swarm trailers.

Official soundtrack

1. Corruptors + Show Spoiler +

2. Main theme + Show Spoiler +

3. Collateral damage + Show Spoiler +

4. Fire in the sky + Show Spoiler +

5. Stronger + Show Spoiler +

6. The coming storm + Show Spoiler +

7. Conscience + Show Spoiler +

8. Phantoms of the void + Show Spoiler +

9. He had it coming + Show Spoiler +

10. Ascension + Show Spoiler +

11. Whishpering from the stars + Show Spoiler +

YouTube playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtzLdj108eVHpdlCrp_YXfX3C9BjiU9gJ

(original MP3 files without quality corrupting through YouTube)

(extracted from the game resources)

Audiomachine - Berserker (from first trailer)

+ Show Spoiler +

Immediate Music - The Breach (from Vengeance trailer)

+ Show Spoiler +

Blizzard - Preview Trailer Music (from first preview trailer)

+ Show Spoiler +

Due to image count restrictions on TL.net, I can't post here all images from datamine. But I found a solution to preview everything from Swarm Datamine here and link to original article with clickable and enlargeable images, including portraits, arts, loading screens and other media.

Ch3rry

Poland230 Posts

March 09 2013 19:43 GMT

Just Epic! :D

ACrow

Germany6583 Posts

March 09 2013 20:00 GMT

Thanks Existor.
Can't wait for Tuesday, feels like a kid waiting for Christmas

DrSeRRoD

United States490 Posts

March 09 2013 20:05 GMT

Interesting, I got to the Elite AI level and got the 2nd to last portrait. I wonder if that final one is for filling the entire bar to the end. (Edit: Just tested this but filling it up all the way still does not give you that final icon). The fact that it has all 3 race icons would have made it real challenging by requiring that you fill the bar with all 3 races. Great stuff as always with incredible quality Existor!

Existor

Russian Federation4295 Posts

March 09 2013 21:01 GMT

Added story category

Tuczniak

1561 Posts

March 09 2013 21:13 GMT

Those other textures are quite funny.

GizmoPT

Portugal3040 Posts

March 09 2013 21:24 GMT

is that defiler skill icons ??

Consume
[image loading]

Plague

Dark Swarm
[image loading]

i hope :'<

Existor

Russian Federation4295 Posts

March 09 2013 21:31 GMT

Those are viper skill icons

• consume (consumes energy from building)
• abduct (pulls unit to viper)
• blinding cloud (reduses attack range under it to melee)

eviltomahawk

United States11135 Posts

March 09 2013 22:28 GMT

Sick post. Sexy comic, too. However, I think Jim Raynor's hair is the most egregious retcon of them all.

And the HotS soundtrack sounds good so far.

Trasko

Sweden983 Posts

March 10 2013 00:49 GMT

#10

Oh how I love you Existor <3.

digmouse

China6333 Posts

March 10 2013 01:05 GMT

#11

Damn Existor, this deserve a front page!

Razorspine

New Zealand29 Posts

March 10 2013 12:02 GMT

#12

Fantastic as always Existor. Personally I chose not to view the loading screens and would not recommend anyone else viewing them but this other stuff is fairly minor but yeah

Existor

Russian Federation4295 Posts

March 10 2013 12:12 GMT

#13

On March 10 2013 21:02 Razorspine wrote:
Fantastic as always Existor. Personally I chose not to view the loading screens and would not recommend anyone else viewing them but this other stuff is fairly minor but yeah

Right now these four loading screens you already saw in the beta. After 12th March there will be more

Alexj

Ukraine440 Posts

March 10 2013 13:11 GMT

#14

Flashpoint was a pretty nice read, especially since we find out more about Matt Horner and his... perculiar marriage :D Though it was weird how that merc mission from WoL campaign wasn't mentioned in the book. Even more weird is that there is no General Warfield in sight.

The book answers some important questions -- how Sarah feels after de-infestation (she hates herself mostly), what are Valerian's motives and can we actually trust the guy whose name seems so familiar (turns out, no, we can't). By the way, Kerrigan remembers how Raynor promised to kill her and isn't too happy that he didn't keep his word. She'll probably get over it by the start of campaign of course

One last note -- after recently reading last Christie Golden's WoW book (about Jaina Proudmoore and Theramore's fall) it was a bit too obvious how one particular character was set up for killing off in the end. Because, well, more personal drama!

Trasko

Sweden983 Posts

March 10 2013 13:25 GMT

#15

@Alexj.
Yeah I totally agree with you! I couldn't stop reading it once I got going.

I really enjoyed the story of Annabelle Thatcher. I love that each character has their own little story to be told and that they all come from somewhere only to be united for a greater cause. It'll be interesting to see how Heart of the Swarm mention the things that happened in Flashpoint for those who haven't read it. For sure there must be SOME mentioning of the some of the events in Flashpoint.

Whilst the book answered a lot of questions, it also created a bunch. Looking at the Mira Han (or Horner) portrait, it'll be interesting to see what her role will be in Heart of the Swarm and how she is worthy of having a campaign portrait! I am also most peculiar as how Dr. Narud will play out and what his deal is. It's so exciting!

Existor

Russian Federation4295 Posts

March 10 2013 13:45 GMT

#16

I really enjoyed the story of Annabelle Thatcher. I love that each character has their own little story to be told and that they all come from somewhere only to be united for a greater cause. It'll be interesting to see how Heart of the Swarm mention the things that happened in Flashpoint for those who haven't read it. For sure there must be SOME mentioning of the some of the events in Flashpoint.

I think there will be nothing about Flashpoint events. But I hope we will see something like short story during installation or slide show or before campaign.

Disengaged

United States6994 Posts

March 10 2013 13:46 GMT

#17

On March 10 2013 22:25 Trasko wrote:
@Alexj.
Yeah I totally agree with you! I couldn't stop reading it once I got going.

I really enjoyed the story of Annabelle Thatcher. I love that each character has their own little story to be told and that they all come from somewhere only to be united for a greater cause. It'll be interesting to see how Heart of the Swarm mention the things that happened in Flashpoint for those who haven't read it. For sure there must be SOME mentioning of the some of the events in Flashpoint.

Whilst the book answered a lot of questions, it also created a bunch. Looking at the Mira Han (or Horner) portrait, it'll be interesting to see what her role will be in Heart of the Swarm and how she is worthy of having a campaign portrait! I am also most peculiar as how Dr. Narud will play out and what his deal is. It's so exciting!

You don't know who Narud is? Did you play Brood War?

Trasko

Sweden983 Posts

March 10 2013 13:54 GMT

#18

On March 10 2013 22:45 Existor wrote:

Show nested quote +

I think there will be nothing about Flashpoint events. But I hope we will see something like short story during installation or slide show or before campaign.

Ah yes yes. I agree with that. I think the most important thing is the arrival of Arcuturus in that whole event. And that he is willing to kill his own son to get to Kerrigan. And also that they escape. So yes. A slideshow would be nice haha.

On March 10 2013 22:46 Disengaged wrote:

Show nested quote +

You don't know who Narud is? Did you play Brood War?

Yes of course I did! But is it REALLY Duran? There must be some more depth to him. Like, how did he become Dr. Narud, head scientist of the Mobeious Foundation. I wanna know THAT story.