Terran

The terrans, or humans, were a young species with psionic potential whose members in the Koprulu sector descended from the survivors of a disastrous 23rd century colonization mission launched from Earth by the scientist Doran Routhe. Compared to the protoss and the zerg, the terrans were highly factionalized and endured frequent wars among themselves on top of their conflicts with their alien neighbors. Despite this, they stood as one of the three dominant species of the galaxy, valued less for raw strength than for tenacity, ingenuity, and an unusual capacity to adapt to hardship.

Arrival in the Koprulu Sector#

The terrans reached the Koprulu sector aboard supercarriers in 2259, landing on the three separate worlds of Tarsonis, Moria, and Umoja, and finding themselves cut off from Earth. The colonists carried stores of fertilized eggs, frozen embryos, and cloning technology recovered from the supercarriers, which let their population expand rapidly for at least three generations. Pressure to bear many children persisted for the first five or six generations, until the supercarrier technology eventually broke down. The term "terran" came to refer to these descendants of the Long Sleep and to the human inhabitants of the sector generally, distinct from the Earth-born humans who called themselves humanity or mankind.

By the eve of the Great War, the sector terrans were divided primarily into three powers, each rooted in one of the original settled worlds: the Terran Confederacy, the Kel-Morian Combine, and the Umojan Protectorate. The Confederacy was the strongest of the three.

War, the Dominion, and the United Earth Directorate#

During the Great War the Terran Confederacy, which had been experimenting with psi emitter technology, bore the brunt of the zerg attacks even as it faced the rebel Sons of Korhal. The rebels destroyed the Confederacy by using stolen psi emitters to lure the zerg to Tarsonis, then founded the Terran Dominion on Korhal to replace it. Unknown to the sector terrans, the humans of Earth had been aware of their existence all along, and the discovery of the alien invaders prompted Earth's new government, the United Earth Directorate, to dispatch an Expeditionary Fleet to seize the sector. The Dominion came under UED attack and, after a brief period of stability, the sector escaped UED control, but the campaign left the Dominion weak and the zerg the dominant power.

By the Second Great War the Dominion was again the strongest terran force, contending with the Kel-Morian Combine and the Umojan Protectorate for influence, while Raynor's Raiders resumed their anti-Dominion campaign. The terran polities were engulfed by a massive zerg invasion mounted by Sarah Kerrigan in search of the Keystone, and billions of terrans died. The terrans survived the war, but at great cost to the Dominion and the loss of Emperor Arcturus Mengsk. The Dominion was reformed under Emperor Valerian Mengsk under a fairer rule, which was then tested by the End War and the return of Amon. The terrans pushed back Amon's forces and helped defeat him in the Void, and afterward lived under an uneasy peace strained by internal strife and external tension but still maintained.

Physiology#

The average terran stood about 1.8 meters tall, with a maximum life expectancy of roughly 150 years and no inevitable mental degradation, though few lived past a century. Natural traits such as blonde hair and blue eyes still occurred, but gene therapy and augmentic surgery could alter appearance freely, producing a certain uniformity among those wealthy enough to afford it. Physically the terrans were inferior to the zerg and protoss, but they were known for their tenacity and their ability to adapt to harsh circumstances, and they stood only a few steps from developing into a formidable psionic power. Advances in medical technology, cybernetic implants, and medical nanomachines had removed many of the ailments that plagued humanity's earlier development, though some cancers remained inoperable. A measure of genetic distinction separated the sector terrans from their Earth-born counterparts, a legacy of their genetically aberrant ancestry.

Culture#

The terrans were an ingenious and industrious species for whom results often counted for more than honor, yet they also showed a powerful need to hold on to those close to them, a trait the Nerazim matriarch Vorazun took to be a holdover from humanity's ancient past. They held a diversity of beliefs that had been repressed under the early United Powers League and tolerated only narrowly under the Confederacy; on some worlds, particularly the Fringe Worlds, old Earth religions such as Christianity were revived alongside new cults. Country and rock music still existed in the sector, and fragments of ancient mythology, including tales of Hell, Tartarus, and Sheol and elements of Greek myth, persisted in terran memory. To an outside observer, humanity presented a wide and puzzling spectrum of morality, far more attached than the elder species to private thought and personal freedom, and, as both protoss and zerg observers noted, driven heavily by greed.

Factions and technology#

The terrans were a heavily factionalized species, riddled with rival governments and with still more groups working to overthrow them. The three dominant powers in the Koprulu sector were the Kel-Morian Combine, the Terran Dominion, and the Umojan Protectorate, with the Dominion having supplanted the defunct Terran Confederacy, while Earth and its colonies answered to the United Earth Directorate. Rebel groups sparred constantly with the colonial powers, and hardly a week passed without some military or policing action somewhere in the sector. Observers speculated that a humanity united under a single banner could become an unstoppable force.

Technologically the terrans were a middle-of-the-road species and something of a paradox: far inferior to the protoss, yet more advanced than many other sapients, and improving steadily despite, or because of, their constant conflict. They commanded a vast assortment of weapons and vehicles and were forever building more powerful ones, with FTL transmission, sensor technology, and capable artificial intelligence among their tools, though they had yet to crack quantum computing. Their armies prized adaptability, resilience, and the maintenance of supply lines, and their engineering improved markedly after the Brood War.