StarCraft category
Technology
85 entries tagged Technology, 85 of them long reads. The rest of the wiki points here most often at Khala and Keystone: the artifact that banished Amon.
A
6- AdjutantAdjutants were the non-sapient artificial intelligences that served terran commanders across the Koprulu sector as advisers, navigators, and keepers of data. Humanoid in form but bereft of social grace, they descended from the original ATLAS coding and offered commanders an ever-present strategic eye over the field of battle.
- Argus StoneThe Argus stone was a powerful xel'naga artifact found in the ruins of Taledon on Aridas. Protoss, Terran Dominion, and zerg forces all converged on the world to claim it, and the stone passed from hand to hand before the zerg carried it to Char.
- Arkship: the three protoss vessels built to outlive the speciesArkships are three protoss vessels larger than zerg leviathans, ordered by the Conclave during the Golden Age of Expansion and buried under Aiur to restore the protoss after a disaster rather than prevent one.
- Armory: research forge of the terran war machineThe armory was a terran research structure where scientists and test groups developed improved materials for the weapons and armor of vehicles and starships. Built around a core of cooling turbines and raised among the first buildings of any Dominion field base, it kept terran armor and airpower ahead of the enemies arrayed against them.
- Artificial intelligence: machine minds of the Koprulu sectorArtificial intelligence was simulated intelligence implanted as computer coding, carried in software or in hardware such as robots. Terrans relied on it for everything from navigation to warfare, the protoss built their automatons through psionic manufacture and once created the sentient Purifiers, and even the xel'naga left thinking crystals behind them.
- ATLASThe Artificial Tele-empathic Logistics Analysis System, or ATLAS, was a revolutionary supercomputer that selected which prisoners would survive the journey that founded the Koprulu sector colonies. Fragments of its code still survive in terran adjutants.
B
6- BansheeThe AH/G-24 Banshee was a terran ground-attack aircraft built by Procyon Industries for the Terran Dominion. Designed for counter-insurgency, it became a cloaked raider notorious as a Dominion terror weapon.
- Barracks: mustering hall of terran infantryThe barracks housed and trained all terran infantry, a mobile structure that could cross great distances to reach new hot zones. Pitched by the Dominion as a safe and comfortable staging point, it was in truth a sterile warren of bunks, deployment ramps, and resocialization tanks that unnerved many of the recruits who lived inside it.
- BattlecruiserThe battlecruiser was the terran sector's capital ship, a heavily armed and armored warship dating back to the early Confederacy that served as both a general-purpose combatant and a fleet command vessel.
- Behemoth-class battlecruiserThe Behemoth-class was the most common terran battlecruiser of the Great War, an improvement over the Leviathan-class that could travel through warp space, operate in atmosphere, and land on planets. It was the class of the famed Hyperion and remained in service well into the Second Great War.
- BucephalusThe Bucephalus was a Gorgon-class battlecruiser and Terran Dominion flagship, built at the Ursa Shipyards to replace the stolen Hyperion. It carried Crown Prince Valerian Mengsk through the campaign on Char and the rogue flight that followed Kerrigan's rescue, and later served as Valerian's command ship during the Defenders of Man Insurgency.
- Bunker: fortified strongpoint of the terransThe bunker was a low domed terran defensive structure, plated in paristeel or neosteel and pierced by weapon ports on every side. Soldiers called them battlefield coffins for their ubiquity and lack of amenities, yet the squat shelters anchored terran lines from the Confederacy through the wars of the Dominion.
C
7- C-14 Impaler: the Marine Corps' standard gauss rifleThe C-14 Impaler fires 8 mm armor-piercing spikes at thirty rounds per second, driven by a magnetic accelerator pack that gives the gauss rifle its name. Standard issue for Confederate and Dominion marines, in service by 2478, it still runs on gunpowder and fails when its ammunition gets wet.
- CMC Powered Combat SuitThe CMC Powered Combat Suit was the standard armored exoskeleton of terran infantry across the Koprulu sector, an enclosed hardskin worn by marines and firebats of the Confederacy, the Terran Dominion, and the Kel-Morian Combine. Its successive models defined the appearance and survivability of the human foot soldier from the Guild Wars through the End War.
- ColossusThe colossus was a towering protoss robotic walker built purely for war, dating back to the Kalath Intercession. Outlawed by the Conclave after the slaughter of the kalathi, it was unearthed and returned to service against the zerg and became, to the Terran Dominion, the ultimate terror weapon.
- Command Center: mobile heart of every terran outpostThe command center was the core structure of every terran outpost, a mobile resource processor that manufactured SCVs and anchored new colonies wherever minerals and vespene gas were plentiful. Heavily armored and able to fly on jump jets, it evolved from a Confederate prospecting platform into a fortified military headquarters.
- CorsairThe corsair was a protoss air-to-air fighter fielded during the Brood War, built around a rapid splash-firing weapon and the Disruption Web ability that could blind an enemy's ranged defenses.
- Cybernetics Core: forge that bound protoss spirits to steelThe cybernetics core was a protoss support structure famed for blending machinery with biological beings and psionics. Its essence translators bonded the spirits of fallen warriors to the exoskeletons of dragoons and other walkers, while its auto-fabricators and field systems gave protoss commanders the means to wage war against far larger armies.
- CycloneThe cyclone was a fast terran assault vehicle developed by the Dominion to keep personnel out of harm's way, armed with twin Typhoon missile pods and a lock-on system that let it fire on the move. It began as a robotic drone before becoming a piloted machine.
D
2- DiamondbackThe diamondback was a fast terran hover armored fighting vehicle able to fire on the move. First prototyped by the Confederacy, it was revived by Raynor's Raiders, who used its speed to hunt Dominion trains on Tarsonis.
- DropshipThe dropship was a heavily armored terran aerospace transport built to ferry troops and vehicles into combat. Designed by the Confederacy and in use by 2480, it was carried forward by the Dominion before the medivac dropship took over most of its work.
E
3- Engineering Bay: infantry research center of the terran militaryThe engineering bay was a terran research structure devoted to improving the quality of the weapons and armor fielded by infantry. In use by the Terran Confederacy as early as 2488, it remained one of the first two research facilities raised in any Dominion field base, and its work followed terran soldiers to every battlefield in the Koprulu sector.
- EssenceEssence was the genetic information carried by all life and the key to zerg evolution. By consuming or assimilating their prey, the zerg took the essence of other creatures and folded their desired strengths into the Swarm, an ability that first drew the fallen xel'naga Amon to enslave them.
- Evolution Chamber: crucible of zerg genetic advancementThe evolution chamber was a living zerg structure grown to test and refine the genetic code of the Swarm. Conceived under the Overmind's mandate against complacency, it hardened the strains of the zerg and passed each improvement outward through the hive cluster.
F
1G
5- Ghost ProgramThe Ghost Program was the project for the training and use of terran ghosts, psychically gifted operatives trained from infancy as commandos, assassins, and nuclear strike coordinators. Created by the Terran Confederacy and later adopted by the Terran Dominion, it relied on memory wipes and psychic limiters to enforce loyalty over its conscripts.
- GlassingGlassing, also called planet cracking or purification, was a protoss war technique used to destroy all life on a planetary surface, usually to eradicate the zerg. Carried out by ships firing massive energy beams, it could disperse a world's atmosphere and burn through its crust.
- GoliathThe goliath was a bipedal terran combat walker armed with twin autocannons and Hellfire missiles. Built for both ground and air defense, it served the Confederacy, the Sons of Korhal and the Terran Dominion across the sector's major wars.
- Gorgon-class battlecruiserThe Gorgon-class was the most powerful battlecruiser ever fielded by the terrans of the Koprulu sector, larger than the Behemoth-class and able to withstand multiple Yamato cannon hits. Its best-known example was the Bucephalus, outfitted as the Terran Dominion flagship.
- Griffin: stealth flagship of the Covert Ops CrewThe Griffin was an advanced stealth starship of the Terran Dominion, given to Agent Nova Terra by Emperor Valerian Mengsk as the base of operations for her Covert Ops Crew. It carried Nova through the Defenders of Man Insurgency, went renegade with her after the assassination of Carolina Davis, and was later stolen by rogue spectres before being reclaimed.
H
7- Hatchery: foundational structure of every zerg colonyThe hatchery was the living heart of every zerg colony, spreading creep, birthing larvae, and digesting minerals and vespene gas into nutrients for the Swarm. Grown from a single metamorphosed drone, it could mature into a lair and finally a hive, and the zerg defended it with fanatical zeal.
- HellbatThe hellbat, formerly called the battle hellion, was a transforming terran flame tank built by the Terran Dominion as an upgrade to the hellion. It could reconfigure between a fast vehicle and an armored mechanized walker armed with a napalm-spraying flamethrower.
- HellionThe hellion was a fast, lightly armored terran raider built on a four-wheel chassis and armed with an infernal flamethrower, used by the Dominion Armed Forces as its primary scouting vehicle and later upgraded into the transforming hellbat.
- HerculesThe Hercules-class dropship was a terran heavy airlift vehicle, a Raynor's Raiders combat variant of a commercial cargo transport with a reinforced superstructure derived from zerg biology, capable of carrying far more troops and vehicles than a standard dropship.
- Hive: apex structure of the Zerg SwarmThe hive was the primary structure of the zerg and the final evolution of the hatchery, unlocking the last stages of the Swarm's development. Shielded by a dense exoskeleton and joined to the Overmind's full pool of knowledge, it gave the being that commanded it the power to loose the full fury of the zerg.
- Hostile environment suitThe hostile environment suit, also called the skinsuit or stealth suit, was the standard combat gear of terran ghosts, a light-refracting nano-fiber suit that augmented its wearer's strength, channeled psionic power, and granted the cloaking ability for which ghosts were feared.
- HyperionThe Hyperion was a Behemoth-class battlecruiser that became the flagship of Jim Raynor and his Raiders, a souped-up warship capable of warp jumps from within a planetary atmosphere.
K
5- Keystone: the artifact that banished AmonThe Keystone was a xel'naga relic split into five pieces. It partly de-infested Kerrigan at Char, fed Amon's resurrection, then banished him from the Khala.
- KhalaThe Khala was the communal psionic link and guiding philosophy of the Khalai protoss, founded by the mystic Khas to end the Aeon of Strife. It bound its adherents in shared emotion for over a thousand years until Amon corrupted it, forcing the protoss to sever it forever.
- KhalaniKhalani was the telepathic language of the protoss, spoken mind to mind rather than aloud and rendered in writing through a glyph-based script. Both the Khalai and the Nerazim spoke it, and its words gave name to the deepest concepts of protoss culture, from the Khala itself to the honorific En Taro.
- Khalis CrystalThe Khalis is a khaydarin crystal shard cut by the xel'naga and entrusted to the Sargas Tribe, infused over time with Nerazim energies and carried into exile by the Dark Templar. With its Khalai counterpart, the Uraj, it activated the xel'naga temple on Shakuras during the Brood War.
- Khaydarin CrystalKhaydarin crystals were psi-active psionic artifacts left behind by the xel'naga on many worlds. Used by the protoss to power their technology and strengthen their psionic bond, the crystals restored the Khala at the end of the Aeon of Strife and remained central to protoss civilization.
L
2- Leviathan-class battlecruiserThe Leviathan-class was an early type of terran battlecruiser that had largely been replaced by the Behemoth-class by the start of the 26th century. It could travel through warp space, but its auxiliary craft ports sat dangerously close to the bridge, leaving the class vulnerable to enemy boarding actions.
- LiberatorThe liberator was a terran gunship armed with twin anti-air missile launchers and able to transform into a stationary platform mounting a heavy anti-ground cannon, an aerial counterpart to the siege tank.
M
4- MedivacThe medivac was a terran aerospace transport that doubled as a flying triage station, healing wounded troops while ferrying personnel and vehicles into combat. It became a staple of the Terran Dominion.
- Mind control: psionic domination in the Koprulu SectorMind control was a psionic power that let one mind seize command of another. Judicators and dark archons wielded it among the protoss, gifted ghosts practiced it for the Terran Dominion, and it reached its most terrible scale when Amon turned the Khala itself into a leash for an entire species.
- Moirai-class battlecruiser: exclusive capital ship of the Dominion Special ForcesThe Moirai-class battlecruiser was a terran capital ship developed exclusively for the Dominion Special Forces during the reign of Valerian Mengsk. An upgrade over its predecessors, it emerged from a lengthy research and testing period and demanded a specially engineered fusion core with quadruple the standard power output.
- MothershipThe mothership was among the most powerful warships in the protoss arsenal, a vast support vessel that served as the flagship of the Golden Armada. Designed during the Golden Age of Expansion as a deep-space explorer, it was later armed and turned to war.
N
3- NeosteelNeosteel was an exceptionally durable material used by the terrans for everything from battlecruiser hulls and CMC armor to bunkers and personal weapons. Its manufacture required catalytic elements, and to be "like neosteel" was a terran idiom for great strength of will.
- Neural resocialization: the manufacture of obedient soldiersNeural resocialization was the Terran Confederacy process for turning criminals into loyal troops by layering false memories over their own and enforcing obedience. The Terran Dominion inherited it, refined it, and used it on ghosts and spectres, until Emperor Valerian Mengsk announced its abolition.
- Nuclear missile: terran weapon of mass destructionThe nuclear missile, or nuke, was the terran weapon of mass destruction, launched from structures, vehicles, and starships across the Koprulu sector. After the Confederacy burned Korhal IV with a thousand Apocalypse class missiles, terran arsenals shifted to smaller tactical warheads guided to their targets by ghost operatives.
O
3- ObserverThe observer was a small, stealthy robotic protoss reconnaissance drone, built to survey space, record events for the protoss archives, and reveal what was hidden. Cloaked and fragile, it was prized as much for what it could see as for what it could not be seen doing.
- OdinThe Odin was a Terran Dominion heavy combat walker and the prototype from which the smaller thor was derived. Developed in secret on Korhal, it was stolen by Raynor's Raiders and used to expose Arcturus Mengsk's war crimes.
- OracleThe oracle was an agile protoss support warship piloted by an order of young Nerazim devoted to understanding time, whose temporal sight let them detect hidden foes and whose pulsar beam struck hard at ground targets.
P
8- PhoenixThe phoenix was a protoss air superiority fighter built for speed and aerial harassment, rapidly replacing the older scouts and corsairs. Its patrols swept the outer rim of protoss territory, and its pilots developed dangerous tactics to survive when outnumbered.
- Probe: the Protoss Worker Drone of StarCraftThe probe is the small robotic drone the protoss use to gather resources and warp in their buildings. It was built by the Khalai for worlds too dangerous for living workers, and it has served every protoss faction since the Second Age.
- Protoss technologyProtoss technology blended psionic power with material engineering to produce the most advanced civilization in the galaxy, from energy weapons and cybernetic warriors to robotic constructs and the crystal sciences rooted in xel'naga learning.
- Psi bladeThe psi blade, or psionic blade, was an incandescent energy weapon manifested through psionic power, channeled by zealots through forearm focusers. It cut through almost any material, cauterized as it cut, and gave rise to the dark templar warp blade and to terran imitations.
- Psi emitterThe psi emitter was a portable terran device that broadcast the amplified neural imprint of a ghost to draw the zerg across interstellar distances. The Terran Confederacy built it as a containment weapon, and Arcturus Mengsk used it to annihilate the Confederacy at Tarsonis, an atrocity that haunted the Koprulu sector for years afterward.
- Psionic matrixThe psionic matrix, also called the psi-matrix, was a field of energy emanating from Aiur that powered protoss structures and units. Tapped through pylons and nexus links, it was first sparked in 500 B.C.E. and later dismantled to deny Amon the Golden Armada.
- Psionic powersPsionic powers, also called psychic powers, were the ability to use the mind to induce paranormal phenomena. Present to varying degrees across the protoss, terran, zerg and hybrid, they underpinned the Khala, the Ghost Program and much of the technology and conflict of the Koprulu sector.
- PsionicsPsionics is the psychic power that runs through the three great species of the galaxy. It is the foundation of protoss civilization through the Khala and the Void, the latent gift that makes terrans valuable to the zerg, and the medium through which the Swarm itself communicates and is controlled.
R
1S
4- Science VesselThe science vessel was a terran starship built for exploration and research that doubled as a battlefield support craft. Its detection, EMP and irradiation abilities made it valuable in war before the Dominion replaced it with the raven.
- SCVThe T-280 space construction vehicle, or SCV, was the terran general-purpose engineering walker used across the Koprulu sector to build outposts, maintain space platforms, and harvest resources, and was regarded as a foundational unit of terran forces.
- Siege TankThe siege tank was a terran armored vehicle that could switch between a mobile combat mode and a static long-range artillery emplacement, developed by the Confederacy and carried forward by the Dominion.
- Spear of Adun: the ark buried under AiurBuilt in the Golden Age to outlast a calamity, the arkship waited beneath Aiur for centuries. Artanis raised it when Amon seized the Golden Armada.
T
4- TempestThe tempest is an immense protoss capital ship developed to answer the long-range weaponry of the zerg and terrans. Its kinetic matrix launches a charged projectile across distances that exceed the ship's own sensors.
- Terran technologyTerran technology was the engineering of humanity in the Koprulu Sector, a paradoxical middle road that advanced through constant conflict and gave the terrans adaptable armies, FTL transmission and sensors, and an ever-growing arsenal of weapons and vehicles.
- TerrazineTerrazine was a potent psionic reagent of Void origin, sought by protoss, zerg, and terrans alike. The Tal'darim revered it as a sacred gift from the xel'naga, while terran researchers used it to forge the unstable psychics known as spectres, at terrible cost to the minds of those exposed to it.
- ThorThe thor was a huge and heavily armed terran siege walker, one of the most powerful mechanical units in the Dominion Armed Forces, derived from the Odin prototype of the Terran Dominion Thor Project.
U
1V
7- ValkyrieThe Valkyrie missile frigate was a United Earth Directorate anti-fighter spacecraft that arrived in the Koprulu sector during the Brood War. Armored and salvo-firing, it later served terran factions and inspired the Liberator.
- Vespene gasVespene gas was a hydrocarbon compound and the most plentiful high-performance fuel in the galaxy, one of the foundational resources of the Koprulu sector. Prized by terrans for its energy rating, consumed raw by the zerg, and used by the protoss to power their psi-driven machines, it fueled the wars and economies of three races.
- VikingThe A2 Viking Armored Mechanical Hybrid was a terran combat vehicle that could transform between a ground assault walker and an air-superiority fighter, developed by the Terran Dominion to close gaps in terran anti-air defense after the Brood War.
- VoidThe Void was a dark, cold manifestation of space separate from the material universe, the wellspring from which the Nerazim drew their psionic power and the realm in which the minds of the xel'naga endured after the death of their bodies. Its energy was unpredictable and lethal in sufficient quantity.
- Void RayThe void ray was a protoss escort ship born from the union of Nerazim and Khalai technology, one of the first joint creations of the reunited protoss. It channeled the energies of both the Void and the Khala into a beam that grew more devastating the longer it burned.
- Void SeekerVoid Seeker was a star relic and the personal starship of the Dark Templar Zeratul. A small, dull-black vessel hidden by powerful illusions, it carried him across the galaxy in his long pursuit of the prophecy of Amon, until it was destroyed on Aiur.
- VultureThe vulture was a lightly armored terran hover bike built for speed and scouting. Fast, reliable and cheap, it served as cavalry for the Confederacy and later the Dominion, and remained a favorite of pirates and raiders.
W
4- Warp gateThe warp gate, derived from the gateway, was a protoss structure that opened a rift to teleport warriors across light-years in seconds. Built on reverse-engineered xel'naga technology and powered by the psionic matrix of the pylons, it let the protoss reinforce distant battlefields almost instantly.
- Warp PrismThe warp prism was a flying protoss machine that carried troops across the battlefield by converting them to energy, and could deploy as a mobile focus for the psionic power matrix that sustains protoss structures.
- Widow MineThe widow mine was a remotely controlled terran support weapon, a quadrupedal device that burrowed into the ground and launched a sentinel missile at any enemy that drew near. It was introduced into Dominion service as the next step in automated weaponry.
- WraithThe Wraith was a terran cloaking-capable space superiority fighter used extensively across the Koprulu sector from the Guild Wars onward, prized for its maneuverability and stealth before being gradually supplanted by the Viking and Banshee.