StarCraft Characters: Every Major Character, Terran, Zerg and Protoss

The major StarCraft characters are the terran rebel Jim Raynor, the ghost turned Queen of Blades Sarah Kerrigan, the emperor Arcturus Mengsk, the protoss heroes Tassadar, Zeratul and Artanis, and the fallen xel'naga Amon who was behind the war all along. They come from three races fighting over the Koprulu Sector: the human terrans, the zerg Swarm and the psionic protoss. This page covers the people who matter most in StarCraft (1998), Brood War and the StarCraft II trilogy, grouped by faction, with full spoilers. (StarCraft; StarCraft: Brood War; StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void)

For the plot game by game rather than person by person, see StarCraft story explained, which goes through the first game and Brood War campaign by campaign. (StarCraft; StarCraft: Brood War)

Terrans#

The terrans are descended from exiles sent out from Earth, split between the Terran Confederacy, Mengsk's Terran Dominion and the rebels who fight both. (StarCraft (manual))

Jim Raynor#

Jim Raynor was the colonial marshal of Mar Sara when the zerg arrived. He joined Mengsk's rebels, fell for Kerrigan, and deserted with his men after Mengsk left her to die on Tarsonis. When the Queen of Blades killed his friend Fenix, he swore he would kill her. Instead, four years later, he used the Keystone on Char to make her human again, and he ended the series leaving the bar on Mar Sara with her. (StarCraft; StarCraft: Brood War; StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void)

Arcturus Mengsk#

Arcturus Mengsk led the Sons of Korhal after the Confederacy nuked his homeworld. He used psi emitters to draw the zerg onto the Confederate capital, abandoned Kerrigan there and crowned himself emperor of the Dominion. He lost Korhal to the UED and won it back, and years later freed Tychus Findlay to kill Kerrigan. She killed him in his own palace with a psionic blast. (StarCraft; StarCraft: Brood War; StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm)

Valerian Mengsk#

Valerian Mengsk was Arcturus's son and heir, who secretly funded the Moebius Foundation to rebuild the xel'naga artifact and joined Raynor for the assault on Char. He took the throne when his father died. As emperor he faced the Defenders of Man plot and sent Nova to crush it. (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm; StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops)

Tychus Findlay#

Tychus Findlay was Raynor's old friend, released from prison just as Wings of Liberty begins. He brought Raynor the artifact job, but his freedom came from Mengsk on one condition: kill Kerrigan. In the hive on Char he raised his gun on her, and Raynor shot him. (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty)

Matt Horner#

Matt Horner was the captain of the Hyperion and Raynor's first officer, the steady voice who kept Raynor on course when he was drinking. He stayed with Raynor through the Second Great War. (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm)

Rory Swann#

Rory Swann was the Hyperion's one-armed chief engineer, who turned salvage and stolen tech into upgrades for the Raiders. (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty)

Egon Stetmann#

Egon Stetmann was the Raiders' eccentric science officer, who studied zerg and protoss samples gathered on missions and turned them into research for the fleet. (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty)

Edmund Duke#

Edmund Duke commanded the Confederacy's Alpha Squadron and arrested Raynor on Mar Sara. After Raynor rescued him from a downed flagship he went over to Mengsk with his whole squadron, and became a Dominion general. Kerrigan's forces killed him late in Brood War. (StarCraft; StarCraft: Brood War)

Horace Warfield#

Horace Warfield was the Dominion general who led the assault on Char alongside Raynor. When Kerrigan came back to Char at the head of the Swarm, she broke his army, and he died at her hands while begging her to spare his wounded. She let their shuttles go. (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm)

Nova Terra#

Nova Terra is a Dominion ghost. She led the raid on the Umojan lab that took Raynor prisoner. After the End War she woke with no memory in a Defenders of Man base, recovered her past and killed the group's leader, General Carolina Davis, against Valerian's orders. (StarCraft II: Flashpoint; StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm; StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops)

Gabriel Tosh#

Gabriel Tosh was a spectre, a ghost changed by terrazine, who hired the Raiders and then asked Raynor to free other spectres from prison. Nova came to stop him, and Raynor had to choose between them. On Nova's path she killed him. (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty)

The United Earth Directorate#

Earth's government sent an expeditionary fleet to the sector in Brood War, meaning to take control of it and tame the zerg. (StarCraft: Brood War)

Gerard DuGalle#

Gerard DuGalle was the admiral who led the UED Expeditionary Fleet. He took Korhal from Mengsk and captured the new Overmind, but Duran tricked him into having his best friend killed. After Kerrigan broke his fleet, he wrote a last letter to his wife and took his own life. (StarCraft: Brood War)

Alexei Stukov#

Alexei Stukov was DuGalle's vice admiral. Duran framed him, and Duran shot him on DuGalle's orders, though Stukov lived long enough to name Duran as the traitor. He came back infested, and in Heart of the Swarm he led Kerrigan to the station where the hybrids were being bred. (StarCraft: Brood War; StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm)

Zerg#

The Swarm is a single hive mind. It was ruled by the Overmind through its cerebrates, and then by Kerrigan. (StarCraft; StarCraft: Brood War)

Sarah Kerrigan#

Sarah Kerrigan was a telepathic ghost and Mengsk's best agent until he left her to the zerg on Tarsonis. The Overmind remade her on Char as the Queen of Blades. In Brood War she played every side against the others and ended it as sole ruler of the Swarm. Turned human by the Keystone, she went back to the zerg when she thought Raynor was dead, was reborn on Zerus as the Primal Queen of Blades and killed Mengsk. In the end the xel'naga Ouros gave her his essence, and she destroyed Amon. (StarCraft; StarCraft: Brood War; StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm; StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void)

The Overmind#

The Overmind was the vast intelligence that ruled the Swarm in the first game. It found the protoss homeworld through Zeratul's mind, invaded Aiur and died when Tassadar flew his carrier into it. Wings of Liberty revealed it had been enslaved by a dark power, and had made Kerrigan hoping she could free the zerg. (StarCraft; StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty)

Abathur#

Abathur is the Swarm's evolution master. He speaks in clipped fragments and reshapes zerg strains with essence taken from other species, which made him Kerrigan's chief tool for rebuilding her army. (StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm)

Izsha#

Izsha is Kerrigan's advisor aboard her leviathan, a zerg built to hold her memories and pass on the Swarm's reports. (StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm)

Zagara#

Zagara was the rogue broodmother running the zerg on Char when Kerrigan returned, and Kerrigan brought her to heel and made her a lieutenant. After the End War, Zagara took command of the Swarm. (StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm; StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void)

Dehaka#

Dehaka is a primal zerg pack leader from Zerus who gathers essence from everything he kills. He joined Kerrigan after her rebirth, and his primal zerg, free of the hive mind, wrecked the Dominion weapon built to kill linked zerg on Korhal. (StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm)

Protoss#

The protoss are split between the Khalai, joined by the psionic Khala, and the Nerazim or dark templar, exiled long ago for refusing it. (StarCraft; StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void)

Tassadar#

Tassadar was the executor whose fleet burned Chau Sara to stop the zerg. He allied with Zeratul and the dark templar, was put on trial as a heretic by the Conclave, and died flying his carrier, charged with both Khala and Void energy, into the Overmind. His spirit later appeared to Zeratul on Aiur. (StarCraft (manual); StarCraft; StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty)

Zeratul#

Zeratul was the dark templar who killed the cerebrate Zasz and taught Tassadar the power of the Void. In Brood War he killed the Matriarch Raszagal to free her from Kerrigan. In StarCraft II he chased the prophecy that only Kerrigan could stop Amon, and gave Raynor and then Kerrigan the visions that set them moving. He died freeing Artanis from Amon's control on Aiur. (StarCraft; StarCraft: Brood War; StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm; StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void)

Artanis#

Artanis was a young templar in Brood War who went with Zeratul and Kerrigan to fetch the crystals that cleansed Shakuras. By Legacy of the Void he was Hierarch. When Amon seized the Khala, Artanis rebuilt a fleet on the Spear of Adun, united the protoss factions and retook Aiur. (StarCraft: Brood War; StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void)

Fenix and Talandar#

Fenix was the templar who led the defence of Aiur, fell early and fought on inside a dragoon walker. He stayed behind on Aiur with Raynor, and Kerrigan's forces killed him on Korhal in Brood War. A purifier copy of his mind, Talandar, joined Artanis in the End War. (StarCraft; StarCraft: Brood War; StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void)

Aldaris#

Aldaris was the Conclave's judicator, who hunted Tassadar as a heretic. On Shakuras he rose against the alliance with Kerrigan and warned of a dark secret about Raszagal, but Kerrigan killed him before he could say what it was. (StarCraft; StarCraft: Brood War)

Raszagal#

Raszagal was the Matriarch of the dark templar who accepted Kerrigan's alliance on Shakuras. Kerrigan had been bending her mind all along. When Zeratul found she was still bound to Kerrigan, he killed her himself. (StarCraft: Brood War)

Karax#

Karax is the phase-smith who got the ancient Spear of Adun working, and later worked out that the Keystone could trap Amon. (StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void)

Vorazun#

Vorazun is the Matriarch of the Nerazim. Artanis saved her people on Shakuras, and she stood beside him for the rest of the End War. (StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void)

Alarak#

Alarak was second to Highlord Ma'lash of the Tal'darim. With Artanis's help he killed Ma'lash, took the Tal'darim for himself and turned them on the god who had used them. (StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void)

Selendis#

Selendis was the executor commanding the Golden Armada when Amon seized the Khala. Artanis broke Amon's hold on her, and the possessed protoss cut their own nerve cords to go free. (StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void)

Amon and his servants#

Amon#

Amon is the fallen xel'naga known as the Dark Voice. He enslaved the Overmind, bred protoss and zerg hybrids, and seized every protoss linked to the Khala. Banished to the Void after Aiur was retaken, he was finally destroyed there by Kerrigan with Raynor and Artanis at her side. (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm; StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void)

Samir Duran and Emil Narud#

Samir Duran joined the UED on Braxis, turned DuGalle against Stukov and then served Kerrigan, until Zeratul found him breeding hybrids and he vanished. In StarCraft II he was Dr Emil Narud of the Moebius Foundation. Kerrigan killed him at Skygeirr Station, and he died warning her that Amon was coming back. (StarCraft: Brood War; StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm)