Terran Dominion

The Terran Dominion, also known as the Dominion of Man or simply the Dominion, was the human empire that dominated the Koprulu sector for most of its recorded modern history. It was founded by Arcturus Mengsk on the ruins of the Terran Confederacy, which his rebel group the Sons of Korhal had brought down during the Great War. As planet after planet appealed to the Sons of Korhal for aid amid the collapse of the Confederacy, Mengsk announced that a new government was needed to protect them, promised victory over the zerg and the protoss, formed the Dominion, and crowned himself emperor. He made the rebuilt world of Korhal the throne world of his new empire. (StarCraft: Brood War; StarCraft: Liberty's Crusade; StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty)

Founding and early years#

When the Terran Confederacy collapsed under the combined pressure of the zerg invasion and the Sons of Korhal rebellion, Arcturus Mengsk declared a new government necessary to protect the worlds that turned to him for aid. He formed the Dominion, crowned himself emperor, and ordered the reconstruction of Korhal, the world the Confederacy had destroyed with nuclear fire, electing to make it his throne world. He reinforced his armies by forcefully conscripting surviving Confederate warriors and fortified the worlds under his care, stationing a permanent defense force on Agria among others. (StarCraft: Brood War; StarCraft: Liberty's Crusade; Koprulu Sector Systems; StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty)

Over time the Dominion's heavy-handed tactics came to resemble those of the Confederacy it had replaced, growing increasingly oppressive. Although many of its founders had served hard time in New Folsom Prison during their rebellion, the Dominion continued to use the prison against its own dissidents, incarcerating scientists, philosophers, and free thinkers who challenged Mengsk's rule. General Horace Warfield emerged as one of Mengsk's most trusted advisors, entrusted with his most crucial stratagems, while General Edmund Duke commanded fleets and squadrons in the field. (Koprulu Sector Systems; StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; Cast of Characters; StarCraft: Brood War)

The Brood War#

The Dominion was thrown onto the defensive when the United Earth Directorate Expeditionary Fleet arrived in the sector. The UED commandeered the bulk of the Dominion's battlecruisers at the Dylarian Shipyards, defeated Duke's fleet sent from Norad III, and laid siege to Augustgrad. With his capital under blockade, Mengsk was forced to request a parlay with Admiral Gerard DuGalle, who intended a public execution of the emperor, but he was rescued by Commander Jim Raynor and escaped by dimensional recall. (StarCraft: Brood War)

Mengsk struck a bargain with Sarah Kerrigan, loaning her his psi emitters in exchange for help reclaiming Korhal from the UED. Kerrigan's zerg overwhelmed the UED garrison in Augustgrad, and a jubilant Mengsk sent Duke to establish a base there, only for the zerg to destroy it and kill Duke. Mengsk denounced Kerrigan's treachery, and she answered that her actions were justified revenge before leaving him. Mengsk scraped together a new fleet through his connections with special interest groups and joined the remnants of the UED fleet and a protoss armada in an attack on Kerrigan's base, but withdrew early when defeat looked certain. (StarCraft: Brood War)

Reconstruction and the long peace#

Following the Brood War the Dominion's military was weak, at first unable even to deal with the New Trinidad Pirates without hiring mercenaries. As the zerg retreated from the frontlines, an uneasy peace settled over the sector and the Dominion quickly reestablished its military and economic might. Mengsk's control of the media let him keep his atrocities hidden, and most of the populace accepted his rule, believing him the only leader capable of protecting them from the alien threats. Although Warfield retired in 2501, the Dominion rose to become the most powerful terran faction, taking over almost all the original Confederate worlds and turning Korhal into the most heavily fortified planet in the sector. (StarCraft Compendium; StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; Cast of Characters; Koprulu Sector Systems; StarCraft: Ghost: Nova)

In secret the Dominion pursued darker projects. At Skygeirr Station and a bio-weapons lab orbiting Castanar, Doctor Emil Narud helped the Dominion combine protoss and zerg DNA to breed hybrid creatures of immense power. The Dominion also ran the Ghost Program, continued to operate over the objections of the Umojan Protectorate, and at one point ran Project Shadowblade, which used the psionic reagent terrazine to create unstable agents called spectres before the project was shut down. (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm; StarCraft: Ghost Academy Volume 1; StarCraft: Ghost: Spectres)

War with Raynor's Raiders and the Second Great War#

Mengsk's oppressive rule made him the target of many revolutionary groups, foremost among them Raynor's Raiders. Mengsk used propaganda to brand Raynor a terrorist and spent vast sums keeping the Raiders hunted and harried. When the zerg invaded Dominion space in search of a xel'naga artifact, the Second Great War broke out. Mengsk pulled his fleet back to protect the core worlds, abandoning the fringe and reactivating Warfield to clear the Sara system. Raynor's Raiders seized the artifact the Dominion had excavated and broadcast proof that Mengsk had used psi emitters during the fall of Tarsonis, inciting riots across Korhal. (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty)

Crown Prince Valerian Mengsk, secretly the owner of the Moebius Foundation, broke with his father and joined Raynor's expedition to Char. There, half the Dominion Fleet under Warfield fought beside the Raiders to charge the artifact and restore Sarah Kerrigan to human form. When Arcturus arrived with the other half of the fleet and demanded Kerrigan be handed over, the two sides turned on one another, and Valerian's renegades went on the run. (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty)

The fall of Arcturus and Valerian's reign#

The hunt for Kerrigan consumed the following years. Mengsk captured Raynor and announced his death while holding him in secret, then enacted a brutal regime of civil oppression. As Kerrigan rebuilt her Swarm, she boarded the prison ship Moros and freed Raynor, defeated Warfield on the Dauntless Plateau after he convinced her to spare his wounded, and assembled leviathans above Korhal. The zerg broke the Drakken defense network, flooded into Augustgrad, and stormed the palace. Mengsk caught Kerrigan off guard with the Keystone, but Jim Raynor destroyed its controller, allowing Kerrigan to kill the emperor personally. (StarCraft II: Flashpoint; StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm)

Following his father's death, Valerian Mengsk assumed the throne and pledged to abolish the oppressive laws of the old regime. He declared a ceasefire with Hierarch Artanis and the Daelaam, made overtures to the Umojan Protectorate, and allowed freedom of the press. During the End War the Dominion contributed forces under Raynor, Rory Swann, Matt Horner, and Nova Terra to the fight against Amon. In the years that followed, Valerian faced the Defenders of Man insurgency, declared by 2508 that open elections would be held, while a demilitarized zone came to separate the Dominion, the Zerg Swarm, and the Daelaam. (StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm; StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void; StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops; StarCraft: Evolution; StarCraft II: Shadow Wars; StarCraft: Scavengers)

Government#

The Dominion possessed a nobility of great wealth and, like the Confederacy before it, maintained a senate of elected planetary representatives. Under Arcturus Mengsk this constitutional appearance concealed an absolute monarchy. Internally the Dominion ruled through oppression, fear, surveillance, and propaganda, even banning the airing of subversive music. Externally it maintained an aggressive stance toward its neighbors, labeling the Umojan Protectorate and UED remnants racial traitors and presenting itself as humanity's only effective defense against the zerg. (StarCraft: Frontline Volume 3; StarCraft: Ghost: Nova; StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty; StarCraft: Evolution; StarCraft: Liberty's Crusade; StarCraft: Ghost Academy Volume 1)

Under Valerian Mengsk the Dominion presented itself as a reformed government. Valerian allowed freedom of the press and promised open elections, showing himself a fairer ruler than his father even as that same freedom allowed his enemies to question him openly. (StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void; StarCraft: Evolution; StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops)