Bel'Shir

Bel'Shir was a jungle world holding terrazine shrines where the protoss gained psionic power, sacred first to the Templar Caste and later to the Tal'darim. Some terrans who consumed the world's terrazine venerated it as a god and heard its "voice" speak to them, and the planet, which bore oceans on its surface, became a contested prize through the Second Great War and the End War.

A sacred world and its terrazine#

Bel'Shir was once a sacred spiritual retreat for the Templar Caste of the protoss, a jungle world whose terrazine shrines allowed those who came to draw on its psionic power. It later became a sacred world to the Tal'darim, whose mystics established altars to collect the terrazine, which they believed to be a gift from the xel'naga and called "the Breath of Creation." The terrazine bound the world to both the protoss spiritual tradition and to the terrans who would later come seeking its power, and it carried a hidden danger, for the substance could enhance the planet's native viruses into a deadly plague.

The Second Great War#

During the Second Great War, Gabriel Tosh requested that Raynor's Raiders collect terrazine from the altars of Bel'Shir. The Tal'darim found the Raiders and sent in their air power, which was held off by Commander Jim Raynor's anti-air force. The Tal'darim then tried to seal off their altars so that the Raiders could not "defile the Breath of Creation," as the Tal'darim Nyon put it, but Raynor prevailed and delivered the terrazine to a pleased Tosh. The Tal'darim would later abandon Bel'Shir.

Stetmann's exile#

In December 2504, the scientist Egon Stetmann was dispatched on a research expedition to Bel'Shir, meant to pave the way for future researchers, but the outbreak of the End War meant no such aid ever arrived. Stranded, Stetmann began to take on the terrazine, gaining psionic abilities including telepathy and technopathy. He came to worship Bel'Shir as a god and credited his deepening scientific insights to its "influence." Over the years he built a mechanical companion named Gary and the Mecha Swarm to serve him, and the terrazine on the world enhanced its native viruses into a deadly plague that spread across all lifeforms.

The return of the Tal'darim#

In the later stages of the End War, or after the banishment of Amon, the Tal'darim returned to Bel'Shir under Fourth Ascendant Malain, seeking to plunder its terrazine in spite of treaties with the Terran Dominion. Egon Stetmann created Gary and the Mecha Swarm to oppose them.

After eighteen months passed with no distress signal, the Dominion sent a force to find and rescue Stetmann, but Tal'darim phoenixes forced their medivac to land on the planet. Malain was unconcerned, prepared to harvest the terrazine and purify the world to cover his tracks. The team encountered Stetmann and his Mecha Swarm, and the crazed scientist declared them trespassers until the ghost in their group persuaded him to explain his situation. Stetmann agreed to accept their aid against the Tal'darim only if the ghost took a dose of terrazine, which the ghost did, and at once began to hear the voices of Bel'Shir commanding him.

The Mecha Swarm, led by the ghost and by Gary, now Super Gary, assaulted the Tal'darim base. The ghost slew Malain and set off explosives across the perimeter, and the Mecha Swarm tore into the Tal'darim forces, devastating their operation and leaving Stetmann and his creations as the one power on Bel'Shir. Following Bel'Shir's "orders," however, the ghost sedated Stetmann and took him offworld along with Gary, to ensure he spread Bel'Shir's "congregation" across many worlds. The Mecha Swarm remained behind as guardians of the planet.