Adun

Adun was a protoss executor who lived during the era known as the Discord, in the centuries after the Khala was imposed to end the Aeon of Strife. A large and powerful Templar, remembered as one of the most graceful warriors and intelligent strategists of his age, he was revered by later protoss, and especially by the Templar and the Nerazim, as a hero who attained exalted status in their lore. His name entered the protoss tongue itself, surviving in the salutation En Taro Adun, and his self-sacrifice in defense of the rogue tribes made him a figure of legend among both the warriors of Aiur and the exiles who became the Dark Templar.

Rise to executor#

Adun fought beside the warriors Taldarin and, more notably, Zoranis, a popular executor he served for more than eighty years. For the last fifty of those years Adun was regarded as the true driving force behind Zoranis. In the executor's final battle, Zoranis chose to fight in honorable combat alongside his second-in-command; Zoranis fell, but because he had attacked with Adun at his side, the battle was won. Adun was soon promoted to executor in his own right, taking the adviser Vetraas as his strategist.

In that office Adun oversaw the settling of several colonies, and the disputes that broke out with other races were quickly quelled with few protoss casualties. As a military leader he became known for inventive and clever tactics and rose to be one of the most venerated commanders of the Protoss Empire. In recognition of his many victories he was given the honor of christening the launch of the first arkship, feeding the first block of solarite into its solar core; the vessel was named the Spear of Adun in his honor.

Adun and the rogue tribes#

As the Aeon of Strife ended, the Khala was imposed on the whole protoss race to prevent a return to that chaos. A number of protoss, fearing their individual identities would be erased to entrench Judicator rule, lived in secret on Aiur as rogue tribes, unknown to most of their kind and known only to the Conclave. The Conclave summoned Adun to its Great Forum at Khor-shakal alone, but he chose to bring his strategist Vetraas with him.

The Elder Kortanul, leader of the Conclave, formed a deep mind-meld with Adun and Vetraas to confirm their loyalty, then told them of the rogues, protoss who held the rights of the individual above those of the whole and had cut themselves off from the Khala. Adun was shocked, fearing the rogues could plunge the protoss back into an Aeon of Strife. Kortanul let him question a captured rogue, an adolescent female named Raszagal escorted by a Khalen'ri guard. Communing with her, Adun learned her reasons for her actions. The Conclave, fearing the rogues, ordered Adun to conceal their existence, find them one by one, and execute them, providing him with information on their locations. Vetraas worried that since no protoss had killed another since the Aeon of Strife, such executions might begin a new one.

Hiding the rogues#

As Adun captured more rogues, he grew disturbed by what they told him; none seemed irrational, and none wished harm on the other protoss. He refused to execute any of them, though the Conclave pressed him to act. He recorded a faked execution of Raszagal and transmitted it to the Conclave; she had insulted the Conclave to distract them from examining her false wounds. Adun continued to stage these executions, hiding the rogues until the Conclave might be persuaded to discuss reintegration. The rogues came to revere him for it.

Knowing the Conclave would eventually discover his disobedience, Adun began teaching the rogues to hide themselves. Because the rogues lay outside the Khala, the mental contact that normally prevented one protoss from concealing itself from another did not bind them, and they learned to cloak with remarkable speed, eventually outpacing what Adun could teach. The ability had until then been largely foreign to the Templar. The rogues scattered themselves so widely that not even Adun knew where all of them were hidden.

The sacrifice#

As the rogues honed their untrained powers, one of them accidentally released a psionic storm that killed his kinsmen and scoured the surrounding jungle for miles. Other students panicked, and without the discipline of the Khala their power spiraled out of control, raising dozens of storms across Aiur and Khyrador. The Conclave traced the storms to their source and discovered that several supposedly executed rogues had died only recently. Realizing the Templar had not destroyed them, the Conclave moved to capture every rogue.

The Conclave was furious at Adun for disobeying and deceiving it, but it could not punish him or harm the rogues without publicly admitting the rogues had ever existed. It chose instead to banish the wayward tribes from Aiur forever, swearing Adun's Templar to silence as the rogues were loaded onto an ancient but functional xel'naga ship. At the launch, Adun's presence prompted Kortanul to psychically attack the rogues, who struck back in kind. Fearing the rogues would loose another psionic storm, Adun wove a blue mist from a combination of Khala and stranger energies to cover and protect them. The power burned him away like a star; nothing remained of his body, and he could no longer be sensed within the Khala. The ship launched into the void, and the exiles became, in legend, the Dark Templar.

Legacy#

After Adun's death the Conclave claimed that, having banished the Dark Templar, he had mystically departed mortal life, sacrificing himself to weed out their taint and keep the protoss safe. His name nonetheless became woven into protoss language. En Taro Adun, "In honor of Adun," became both a salutation and a battle cry of the Templar Caste, alongside phrases such as "may Adun be with you" and "may Adun forgive us." Among the Nerazim, Adun Toridas, "Adun hide you," became an expression of sanctuary, and Korshala Adun, "Until we both meet with Adun," was spoken by protoss going into battles they did not expect to survive. The Citadel of Adun was named for him, and the immortals were sanctified in his name as the one who best understood self-sacrifice. Over the course of the Great War even the zerg came to know his significance, calling their protoss enemies the Sons of Adun, and high templar swore the Oath of Adun, which held the line, "My blood is the blood of Aiur, my power the will of her people."

To the Nerazim, Adun became the subject of a prophecy, the Anakh Su'n or Twilight Deliverer. They held that he had not truly died but had passed to another plane of existence as an unintended consequence of the energies he used to save the rogues, and that those gifted with prophecy were shown signs to watch for as his return drew near. Zeratul believed Tassadar to be one incarnation of the Anakh Su'n, but that another would appear before the conflicts of the age were finished.