Spear of Adun: the ark buried under Aiur

The Spear of Adun was a protoss arkship and the flagship used by the Daelaam during the End War. It had been designed to preserve protoss society and culture in a time of great need, self-sustaining for generations after some calamity might strike the protoss, and it was buried beneath Aiur to wait for that hour. When Amon corrupted the Khala and seized the Golden Armada, Hierarch Artanis raised the arkship and made it the haven and weapon from which the remnants of his people waged their war. (StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void; It Will End in Fire)

Design and capabilities#

The Spear of Adun was a large arkship able to carry an entire protoss civilization. It was equipped to field armies of protoss warriors and could store fleets of carriers and motherships within its hangars. Though ancient, its technology remained advanced by the standards of the modern protoss, and it was built to be capable of waging a prolonged war entirely on its own. (StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void; It Will End in Fire)

The heart of the ship was its solar core, a miniature synthetic and contained star powered by solarite, through which energy was allocated to the vessel's weapons and support systems and which also provided nutrients for the protoss aboard. The bridge held the celestial array, granting a protoss commander a detailed overview of known space, while a starforge in the lower decks could construct weapons of war and provide warp technology to surface forces. The war council allowed Hierarch Artanis to allocate Daelaam troops, with Grand Preserver Rohana advising him as new options became available, and a series of further installations, the fabrication matrix, the assault cluster, the defensive lattice, the force support, and the annihilation cluster, governed the arkship's ability to warp down reinforcements, bombard the surface, recall and shield its forces, and direct devastating fire upon its enemies. (StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void; StarCraft Field Manual)

Origins#

The Spear of Adun was commissioned by the Conclave during the Golden Age of Expansion of the protoss empire, following the suggestion of the three Grand Preservers Shantira, Orlana, and Rohana after a tragedy in which two motherships were destroyed. It was built to ensure that the protoss would have the means to preserve their civilization should that civilization be placed in jeopardy. The three preservers came to realize, however, that the Spear of Adun and its sister ships, the Pride of Altaris and the Memory of Nezin, had been built too early and would be wasted against the first enemy the protoss faced rather than serving to prevent their extinction. The Grand Preservers brought this before the Conclave and asked that the ships be buried until a time of true need. Rohana and a large contingent of templar warriors were placed in stasis aboard the Spear of Adun, and the ship was buried beneath Khor-shakal. Its two sister ships were destroyed in the zerg invasion of Aiur, but the Spear of Adun survived. (It Will End in Fire; StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void)

The call to war#

Recapturing the Spear of Adun was one of Hierarch Artanis's goals during his campaign to reclaim Aiur in 2506, and he had hoped to raise it on the eve of the reclamation. After Amon corrupted the Khala and seized control of the Golden Armada, Artanis and Phase-smith Karax were instead forced to take the protoss they had rescued from the dark god and escape aboard the arkship, fighting through hybrid, zerg, and corrupted Khalai to reactivate the power generators and flee. (StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void)

From there the Spear of Adun became the moving stronghold of the Daelaam. It traveled to Korhal to support the defenders against Moebius Corps and aid in reclaiming the Keystone from Bennet Port. It returned to Shakuras to cover the Nerazim evacuation of Talematros and to warp away Artanis and his forces before the overloaded xel'naga temple destroyed the planet. It carried the Daelaam to Glacius to retrieve the revived Purifier program, and through the Altarian Rift to Ulnar, where, despite all evidence that the ship should be shredded into its base particles, it passed through to reach the xel'naga temple. When Amon sprang his trap on Artanis and Kerrigan within Ulnar, Matriarch Vorazun held the Spear of Adun and, warned by First Ascendant Alarak, sent forces that reached the two and helped destroy the void crystals powering Amon's portal. (StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void)

Retaliation and return to Aiur#

After Ulnar the Daelaam mustered aboard the Spear of Adun, and Artanis resolved to weaken Amon and strengthen his own forces before he assailed the dark god's host on Aiur. The arkship carried the Daelaam to Slayn, where it supported Alarak in the Rak'Shir that won him the rule of the Tal'darim; to the moon of Endion, where it helped raise the ancient Purifiers of Cybros from stasis; and to Revanscar, where it was ambushed by Moebius Corps battlecruisers and boarded by hybrid even as Phase-smith Karax led the assault that destroyed the facility's power cores, allowing the Spear of Adun to bombard and obliterate the base and end the hybrid breeding operations. (StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void)

With the Tal'darim Death Fleet and Purifier forces behind it, the Spear of Adun moved at last on Aiur. It engaged the zerg broods in orbit while the Daelaam leaders assaulted the psionic matrix to keep Amon from instantly warping the Golden Armada to the planet, then warped away all forces once the last khaydarin crystal powering the matrix was destroyed. The arkship combined its orbital fire with the rest of the Daelaam fleet to destroy Amon's hybrid host body, and it defended the Keystone as it charged to pull Amon from the Khala. When the corrupted Golden Armada arrived and turned upon the Spear of Adun, Grand Preserver Rohana brought the ship about to defend itself; though it took heavy fire that gradually weakened its support systems, it bought enough time for the Keystone to activate and cast Amon into the Void. Critically damaged but intact, the Spear of Adun was restored to combat readiness and joined the combined Dominion and Swarm fleet that entered the Void through Ulnar to defeat Amon once and for all. Years after the End War it remained in service, with Artanis still seen making command decisions from its bridge. (StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void; StarCraft II: Shadow Wars)