Nerazim

The Nerazim, known to outsiders as the Dark Templar, were a number of protoss tribes who shunned the Khala. They used a verdant green as their tribal color, with platinum dominant on the field of battle, and they drew their psionic energies not from the communal link of their Khalai kin but from the Void. Driven by individuality and a thirst for knowledge, they developed along a very different path than the Khalai, and though hunted and feared by their own brethren for much of their history, they never abandoned their love of Aiur.

Origins and exile#

A few rogue tribes refused to submit to the Khala, believing their individual identities would be erased to serve the rule of the Judicator Caste. They held no ill will toward their kin and tried to live unnoticed, but their existence was known to the Conclave, and more Nerazim stemmed from the Sargas Tribe than any other. Around a thousand years before the Great War, the Conclave under Kortanul gathered records on the rogues' locations and ordered Executor Adun to track them down and execute them. Unable to bring himself to slaughter his own kind, Adun transmitted false recordings of the executions and hid the rogues instead, teaching them to cloak, an ability they mastered even faster than he could teach it.

Lacking the discipline of the Khala, the rogues inadvertently unleashed psionic storms that spiraled out of control on Aiur, and the Conclave discovered the corpses of rogues it had believed already dead. Unable to punish Adun or slay the rogues without admitting their existence publicly, the Conclave banished them from Aiur forever aboard an ancient but functional xel'naga ship, along with other vessels Adun insisted they be allowed to take. Last-minute squabbling nearly doomed the exiles when Kortanul attacked Adun, and to protect them from their own storms Adun wove a blue mist of Khala and strange energies around them, a feat that caused him to burn out like a star. The exiles took the name Nerazim to mark themselves as a new tribe united in exile, and ceremonially cut off their nerve cords to show their disdain for the Conclave, an act that severed them from the Khala and forced them to draw their power from the Void. Forevermore they would be known as the Dark Templar, having forsaken the Khala's light.

Into the stars and onto Shakuras#

The first stop on the Dark Templar's journey was the moon of Ehlna, which held a xel'naga warp gate and energies that altered khaydarin crystals, making them efficient at storing memories. Without preservers, the Nerazim used these crystals to preserve their memories instead, and after more than two centuries they departed, leaving some behind to operate a shrine, the Alys'aril, where memories could be drawn from pilgrims and stored. Finding a xel'naga temple on Shakuras, they chose to remain and study it. Struggling on the harsh, nearly lightless world, where their light-fed biology was strained, they altered their skills and even their biology to cope, and the cloaking abilities Adun had taught them served them well as their culture flourished there.

Among the Nerazim, each individual was encouraged to forge their own path, and they worked in smaller, more individualistic groups than the Khalai, bound first to clannish warrior bands and then to the great tribe of all Nerazim. Reputation and personal responsibility were paramount, with deeds rather than words serving as their guide, and family held an important place in their social structure. Unlike the Khalai, female Nerazim could rise to positions of authority; Raszagal, old enough to remember Aiur, became Matriarch around 2500 after some five hundred years of life and ruled until the Brood War. The xel'naga kept their place as gods in Nerazim religion, and the Nerazim regarded anything that tainted the Void as unholy.

The Great War and the road to reunification#

The Dark Templar learned of the zerg and in 2500 the Dark Prelate Zeratul was drawn to Char by a powerful psionic call, where he encountered Executor Tassadar and overcame his prejudices. When Zeratul slew the cerebrate Zasz, he became briefly linked with the Overmind, an event that exposed the protoss but also revealed the zerg's vulnerability to Void energies. Convinced to accompany Tassadar to Aiur, Zeratul and his Dark Templar helped destroy the Heart of the Conclave and assassinated cerebrates whose deaths the Conclave could not undo, forcing Judicator Aldaris to admit the Conclave had been wrong about them. Zeratul took part in the assault that ended when Tassadar channeled Dark Templar energies through the hull of the Gantrithor and crashed it into the Overmind, destroying it.

In the Brood War, Zeratul sheltered the Khalai survivors on Shakuras, where Matriarch Raszagal welcomed them. But Raszagal had been secretly enslaved by Sarah Kerrigan, and through her Kerrigan maneuvered the protoss into securing the Uraj and Khalis crystals and, ultimately, into killing the second Overmind for her. Kerrigan later kidnapped Raszagal as leverage, and when Zeratul rescued her he found her mind corrupted beyond saving; rather than let her be recaptured, he dealt her a mortal blow, and in her last moments she named him the new leader of the Nerazim. Feeling unfit to succeed her, Zeratul went into self-imposed exile, and Mohandar was chosen to speak for the Nerazim on the Hierarchy, supporting Artanis to lead it.

The Daelaam and the End War#

Under the Daelaam, the Nerazim combined their technologies with those of the Khalai, producing new developments such as the void ray and the stalker, but deep distrust and resentment persisted between the two cultures. Matriarch Vorazun, daughter of Raszagal, became an outspoken critic of the Khalai's obsession with reclaiming Aiur and of Artanis himself. When her student Taelus seized the Citadel to spark open conflict, Vorazun and Mohandar went to negotiate; Taelus killed Mohandar, and Vorazun killed Taelus to end the crisis, afterward ascending to Matriarch and committing some of her forces to the invasion of Aiur.

In the End War, the Nerazim tracked the reclamation of Aiur until Amon reopened the warp gate linking Shakuras to Aiur and sent his hybrid and zerg against them. Vorazun's Dark Templar cleared the launch bays of Talematros so she could complete the evacuation, then fought alongside Artanis's warriors as Shakuras was destroyed. Nerazim born on Shakuras saw Aiur for the first time when they came to strike at Amon; Vorazun purged Antioch of the zerg alongside Tal'darim Highlord Alarak and sent her Dark Templar to aid Artanis in the xel'naga caverns, helping to destroy the Void shards around Amon's host body. With victory won, the Nerazim had reclaimed Aiur alongside their protoss brethren, and their structures rose again among those being rebuilt there. When Artanis led the Daelaam into the Void for the final strike, Dark Templar, stalkers, annihilators, and dark archons went with him. Afterward the Nerazim turned to observing their terran neighbors, sending the Dark Templar Ulavu to learn whether the terrans would prove a long-term ally or a future threat.