Artanis

Artanis was the Hierarch of the Daelaam, the reunited protoss nation, and a renowned warrior who would let nothing stand in his way to restore the glory of his people. Rising from executor during the zerg invasion of Aiur to supreme leader of the Khalai and Nerazim, he reclaimed the protoss homeworld and led the alliance that banished Amon from the Khala.

Early service#

Artanis was trained as a member of the Templar Caste, sworn to defend the Protoss Empire, and was taken to Aldera as a youngling, where he ignited his first psionic blade. He was mentored by Tassadar, who taught him leadership and the ways of a warrior, and became the youngest protoss ever to achieve the rank of praetor. In his service he fought extensively alongside his comrade Fenix, the two traveling across hundreds of worlds, with the templar Selendis serving as his protege and as a liaison to Tassadar. On the world of Dannuth VII, inhabited by a race called the tagal, Artanis and Fenix led their forces to victory though outnumbered thirty to one.

Executor in the Great War#

Artanis was appointed executor during the zerg invasion of Aiur, following the apparent defection of his predecessor Tassadar to the dark templar. He fortified Antioch alongside Fenix and held the line, pleasing Aldaris and restoring the Judicator's faith in the Templar Caste. When Tassadar sent word from Char that the cerebrates were the zerg's weakness, Fenix struck down a cerebrate of the Baelrog Brood, only to watch it reincarnate, and the failure led Aldaris to brand Tassadar a traitor. While Artanis reclaimed the province of Scion, Fenix fell at Antioch.

Tasked with bringing Tassadar back to face justice, Artanis instead rescued him from a zerg attack led by Sarah Kerrigan. Though disturbed to see Tassadar wielding both Khalai and Nerazim energies, he sensed no evil and placed his trust in his old mentor, agreeing to help rescue Zeratul and the dark templar. Reunited on Aiur, they were welcomed by Fenix, whose body had been placed in a dragoon, but met by a hostile Conclave. After Tassadar surrendered to spare protoss bloodshed, Artanis and Fenix, aided by Jim Raynor, rescued him before he could be executed, and Zeratul returned to share his knowledge of the xel'naga origins of the zerg.

In the final assault, Fenix weakened the Overmind's defenses so Zeratul could assassinate the cerebrates, and Artanis, Raynor, and Tassadar led their forces against the creature. When the killing blow seemed beyond reach, Tassadar set the Gantrithor on a collision course with the Overmind despite Artanis's protests, telling his former pupil that one day he would understand, and destroyed both the ship and the Overmind in a burst of dark templar energy. The victory left Aiur in ruins, overrun by leaderless zerg.

The Brood War#

Appointed praetor, Artanis oversaw the evacuation of refugees through the warp gate to Shakuras, while Raynor and Fenix remained to close the gate behind them. On Shakuras he met Matriarch Raszagal and joined the quest for the Uraj and Khalis crystals to activate the xel'naga temple, working uneasily alongside Zeratul and Sarah Kerrigan, whose crimes he could not forget. He led the protoss breakout against the United Earth Directorate at Braxis and recovered the Khalis from near the new Overmind on Char, earning Zeratul's comparison to Tassadar for the boldness of his plan.

Returning to Shakuras, Artanis and Zeratul put down Aldaris's revolt, only for Kerrigan to kill the Judicator before he could fully reveal that Raszagal was being manipulated. Disgusted to learn how Kerrigan had played them, Artanis nonetheless carried on, activating the temple with the Uraj to eradicate the zerg on Shakuras. After Kerrigan's later betrayal and the death of Raszagal, Artanis led a fleet against her platforms at Char in a combined assault with Arcturus Mengsk and the UED, but the alliance crumbled, and he warned Kerrigan the protoss would never forget her treachery before returning to rebuild on Shakuras.

Becoming Hierarch#

Hailed as a hero, Artanis took a seat in the Daelaam Hierarchy as representative of the Akilae Tribe, intending it as a temporary post, for his only aspiration was to be a warrior. As the Hierarchy reached one impasse after another, Zekrath and Mohandar declared it needed a leader and named Artanis the best choice. He refused repeatedly, but with members threatening to leave and the unity of Khalai and Nerazim at stake, he reflected on his mentor Tassadar and finally agreed to take on the role of hierarch, supreme leader of the reunited protoss.

As hierarch, Artanis worked to merge the two halves of protoss society, fighting against a slide back toward tribalism, with Selendis as his chief assistant and protege. He could not count on Zeratul, who had not been seen for years, and ordered the construction of the Golden Armada with the explicit aim of one day retaking Aiur, the one interest shared by Khalai and Nerazim alike. He was granted ceremonial armor designed to reflect the cultures of both Aiur and Shakuras. When the Nerazim faction fractured over the erosion of their culture and a rebel seizure of the Citadel cost Mohandar his life, Artanis supported Vorazun's ascension to Matriarch, and she agreed to aid the reclamation of Aiur.

The reclamation and the corruption of the Khala#

In 2506, Artanis led the Golden Armada to Aiur, hoping to raise a new civilization from the ruins of the old, though on the eve of the invasion he was plagued by doubt as to whether Aiur was worth reclaiming. As the invasion began, Zeratul appeared to warn of Amon and beg that the reclamation be called off, but Artanis judged that too many had already been sacrificed and ordered Selendis to proceed. Zeratul's warnings proved true: Amon corrupted the Khala and directly possessed Artanis, forcing him to fight Zeratul. The dark prelate severed Artanis's nerve cords to free him but was fatally wounded, and a horrified Artanis cradled his old friend as he disintegrated to dust, taking up his warp blade and the charge to seek the Keystone.

Reuniting with Karax, Artanis led his surviving forces in retreat aboard the Spear of Adun, vowing to avenge what had happened at Aiur. He warned the awakened Grand Preserver Rohana, still connected to the Khala, that he would not hesitate to execute her if she were corrupted.

The End War#

From the Spear of Adun, Artanis waged the End War against Amon. At Korhal he cooperated with Raynor and Valerian Mengsk to recover the Keystone from the Moebius Corps, and the two old comrades parted with a handshake. At Shakuras he helped Vorazun destroy her own homeworld to deny it to Amon, defending the phase prism until the end and, in her eyes, completing the Shadow Walk to become a true dark templar. At Glacius he raced the Tal'darim under Alarak to recover a purifier template, which proved to carry the replicated personality of Fenix, relieving and disturbing him in equal measure.

Following Zeratul's prophecies, Artanis found Ulnar deep in the Altarian Rift, ventured inside alone, fought alongside Sarah Kerrigan against a hybrid, and was captured by Amon when the xel'naga were found slain. Alarak boarded the Spear of Adun and bargained with Vorazun to free him, and with Kerrigan's aid the Void portal was closed. Artanis then allied with Alarak, helping him win the Rak'Shir against Highlord Ma'lash at Slayn despite his distaste for Alarak's methods. He destroyed the Moebius Corps base at Revanscar, after which he named Karax a templar and vowed to abolish the caste system, and reactivated the purifiers at Cybros, bringing them into the Daelaam fold.

Reclaiming Aiur and the fall of Amon#

With his rebuilt army, Artanis launched a unified assault on Aiur. To keep the Golden Armada from reinforcing Amon, the psionic matrix was destroyed by his allies working in concert: Alarak and Vorazun at one node, Fenix and Karax at another, and Artanis and the Daelaam at the last. The combined fleets destroyed Amon's host body, built from the bodies of the Khalai and the carcass of the Overmind, and after holding off the Golden Armada the Daelaam activated the Keystone. As Amon's influence on the Khala was removed, Artanis urged Selendis and the freed templar to sever their nerve cords, leaving Amon nothing to inhabit and banishing him to the Void. The protoss were ushered into an age of peace on Aiur, and Artanis erected a memorial to Zeratul, placing his warp blade upon it.

Two years later, a psionic call from Kerrigan led Artanis back to Ulnar, where he, Kerrigan, and Raynor led a joint armada into the Void to kill Amon for good. After freeing the xel'naga Ouros, they learned that only a fellow xel'naga could destroy Amon and that Kerrigan alone was capable of ascension, and Artanis helped Raynor protect her until her victory.

Rebuilding a people#

In the aftermath, Artanis invited the Tal'darim to join the Daelaam permanently, though Alarak declined, and began peace negotiations with the Terran Dominion. Reconstruction on Aiur proved difficult, as distrust lingered and the loss of the Khala left many protoss without direction, some resenting Artanis's decision to destroy it. When a fringe faction attempted to forge a new Khala from Nerazim and purifier technology, Artanis tasked Selendis, Talandar, and Karax with disrupting it, and afterward weighed with his advisors what a world without the Khala would mean.

By 2511 the Daelaam were still struggling to rebuild without the Khala to guide them. When the zerg under Overqueen Zagara regrew the purified world of Gystt, Artanis prepared to purify it again but was convinced by Valerian Mengsk to negotiate, giving the zerg a chance to prove their intentions as Jim Raynor had once vouched for Tassadar. The crisis was traced to the rogue evolution master Abathur, and Artanis joined peace talks among protoss, Terran Dominion, and Zerg Swarm. When the Battle of Adena later saw a protoss admiral fall to terrans who had violated the demilitarized zone, mounting pressure led Artanis to pull the Daelaam from peace talks.