Kaldir
Frozen Moon of the Swarm's Adaptation
Kaldir was a frozen moon of Midr IV, among the coldest places in the Koprulu sector, where Sarah Kerrigan infested the world to make the Swarm resistant to cold and clashed with a stranded protoss expedition.
Kaldir was a frozen moon of Midr IV, ranking among the coldest terrestrial locations in the Koprulu sector. It became a battleground when Sarah Kerrigan chose to infest it so the zerg Swarm could evolve resistance to extreme cold, bringing her into conflict with a stranded protoss expedition and birthing the broodmother Niadra.
A moon of lethal cold#
Kaldir ranked among the coldest terrestrial locations in the Koprulu sector, with a surface temperature as cold as deep space. Its gaseous upper atmosphere repelled heat, blocked out most of the sunlight that might have reached the surface, and produced flash-freezes that struck with barely a moment's warning, bringing immense temperature drops that could kill just as quickly. Ursadons and a species of extremophilic bacteria that served as the ursadons' energy source were the only two indigenous life-forms of significance discovered on the moon, and resources were hard to find. Kaldir lay so far from Shakuras that Khalai protoss could not use the Khala to reach it, and relied instead on technology to send their messages. At some point in the moon's history the xel'naga had visited and left shrines upon its surface.
The Second Great War#
During the Second Great War in 2504, a protoss expedition came to Kaldir to see whether the moon's rotation could be altered and its climate improved. At the same time, hoping to make the Swarm stronger by evolving a way to deal with extreme cold, Sarah Kerrigan sent Broodmother Nafash to infest the moon.
Nafash established a hive on a plain, then moved off into the ice valleys. The protoss struck, and Nafash fell back to prepared positions, but the protoss hunted her down and killed her. Kerrigan arrived sometime thereafter and collected the essence of an ursadon matriarch to make the zerg resistant to the flash-freezes. After she awakened Nafash's hive cluster, the protoss Expedition Leader attempted to contact Shakuras and summon the Golden Armada, but the zerg used the flash-freeze storms to cover an assault that destroyed the psi-link spires. The Expedition Leader then tried to evacuate through warp conduits, only for Kerrigan to awaken Nafash's hydralisks and destroy the shuttles before they could reach the conduits.
The protoss escaped in the vessel they had used to travel to Kaldir. Kerrigan created the broodmother Niadra and gave her a directive to destroy the protoss, then left the moon herself.
The End War#
Kaldir once again became a battleground during the End War, when Amon used the moon as a staging ground in an attempt to ferry forces through the warp conduits and then destroy the warp network from within. Allied forces under Cartwright and his research teams were tasked with destroying Amon's forces and their shuttles before they could escape into the warp network, while Cartwright also sent teams to study the xel'naga shrines left on the world. During the fighting the moon was temporarily enveloped in a space-time anomaly.
Frequently asked questions
- What is Kaldir?
- Kaldir was a frozen moon of Midr IV, ranking among the coldest terrestrial locations in the Koprulu sector, with a surface temperature as cold as deep space. Ursadons and a species of extremophilic bacteria were the only two indigenous life-forms of significance discovered there.
- Why is Kaldir so dangerous?
- Its gaseous upper atmosphere repelled heat and blocked out most of the sunlight, and it produced flash-freezes that struck with barely a moment's warning, bringing immense temperature drops that could kill just as quickly. Resources were hard to find, and the moon lay so far from Shakuras that Khalai protoss could not use the Khala to reach it.
- Why did Sarah Kerrigan infest Kaldir?
- Hoping to make the Swarm stronger by evolving a way to deal with extreme cold, Kerrigan sent Broodmother Nafash to infest the moon in 2504. She later collected the essence of an ursadon matriarch to make the zerg resistant to the flash-freezes.
- What happened to the protoss expedition on Kaldir?
- A protoss expedition had come to Kaldir to see whether the moon's rotation could be altered and its climate improved. The zerg destroyed their psi-link spires and warp shuttles to strand them, and the protoss escaped in the vessel they had used to travel there, after which Kerrigan created the broodmother Niadra with a directive to destroy them.
- What role did Kaldir play in the End War?
- Kaldir became a battleground again during the End War when Amon used it as a staging ground to ferry forces through the warp conduits and destroy the warp network from within. Allied forces under Cartwright were tasked with destroying Amon's forces and studying the xel'naga shrines, and the moon was temporarily enveloped in a space-time anomaly during the fighting.
Gallery
Images via StarCraft Wiki
Sources
- WikiKaldir — StarCraft Wiki entry
- GameStarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm — Source for the Kaldir campaign
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Related entries
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Broodmothers were powerful, intelligent queens created by the Queen of Blades to replace the cerebrates, tasked with guarding and leading the broods of the Zerg Swarm. Independent enough to survive their creator's fall, they fragmented the Swarm when Kerrigan was deinfested and warred among themselves for control.
End War
The End War was the galaxy-wide crusade waged by the fallen xel'naga Amon after his resurrection. It saw the corruption of the Khala, the fall of Aiur and Shakuras, the unification of the protoss under Artanis, and the final destruction of Amon in the Void by Sarah Kerrigan.
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Sarah Kerrigan was a psychic terran who began as a Confederate ghost, rose to be second-in-command of the Sons of Korhal, and after Arcturus Mengsk abandoned her on Tarsonis was captured and infested by the Zerg Swarm to become the Queen of Blades.
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The Second Great War broke out in 2504 between the Zerg Swarm and the Terran Dominion, four years after the Brood War. It saw Sarah Kerrigan deinfested and then reborn in primal form, the death of Arcturus Mengsk, and the resurrection of the fallen xel'naga Amon.
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Shakuras was the twilight desert homeworld of the Nerazim, the Dark Templar who settled it after their exile from Aiur. It sheltered the Khalai refugees during the Brood War and was destroyed by its own people to deny it to Amon.
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