Oracle

The oracle was an aerial protoss support warship, an agile psionic vessel that carried some of the most advanced technologies the protoss possessed. Its pilots hailed from an order of young Nerazim devoted to understanding and controlling time, and through their temporal mastery they sought to calculate how and when to commit their ships to most effectively decide a battle.

Pilots and temporal sight#

The oracle was crewed by pilots drawn from an order of young Nerazim who had dedicated themselves to understanding and controlling time. Their abilities allowed them to judge precisely how and when to deploy their vessels to win an engagement, and the order held to the belief that it could change the fate of the protoss race itself. Foremost among their gifts was temporal sight, a form of time manipulation that gave a pilot the means to perceive concealed foes directly, with no need for the specialized detection equipment other vessels required.

This bond between pilot and craft was reflected in the oracle's internal design. The vessel had no central computer to handle the minutiae of navigation and targeting. In its place was a multi-node hub linking the pilot directly to the ship, so that the pilots relied exclusively on their temporal mastery to direct the deadly salvos of the pulsar beam.

Design and the pulsar beam#

Oracles bore the aesthetics of the Nerazim, with silver and blue hulls lit by green glows. At the heart of each was a core that generated a warp field of immense power, used to contain large amounts of chaotic energy. That energy was funneled into an intricate network of miniature crystals and psionically receptive mono-filaments, where the raw stream split and stabilized as it passed through, supplying power to the ship's systems.

Activating the weapon opened a controlled gap in the warp field. Raw energy flowed through sets of simple focusing crystals that shaped each chaotic discharge into a coherent bolt. Shots from the pulsar beam simmered with violent power and were designed to inflict heavy damage on ground targets, making the oracle a potent instrument for striking at enemy positions on the surface below.

History and spread#

The technologies that laid the groundwork for the oracle were researched during the Nerazim's exile from Aiur, when their long exodus gave them the freedom to experiment with new methods. The craft itself was developed by the protoss after the first phase of the Second Great War, intended to sharpen the edge of their war machine against their enemies. During the End War a number of oracles fell under Amon's control and were turned against the Daelaam defending the Keystone on Aiur.

The design did not remain solely with the Nerazim. Envious of their temporal mastery, the Tal'darim stole a number of oracles and guarded them jealously among their fleet lords, fielding them by the time of the End War. The Khalai phase-smiths, despite many design challenges, contrived their own versions, and the Ihan-rii deployed variants of their own. During the rebuilding of protoss civilization on Aiur, Khalai engineers began redesigning Nerazim technologies such as the oracle in the style of the Golden Age of Expansion, to the displeasure of some Nerazim, while Matriarch Vorazun declined to comment on the practice.