Tyrador

Tyrador was a system of the Koprulu sector whose two outermost worlds, Tyrador VIII and Tyrador IX, co-orbited each other as the sister planets of the system. Both became core worlds of the Terran Confederacy and, later, of the Terran Dominion. Tyrador IX in particular was famous as a resort for the wealthy and, in its deep past, as the homeworld of the Ihan-rii protoss.

The sister worlds#

Tyrador IX co-orbited with its sister planet, Tyrador VIII, the two of them forming the outermost worlds of the system. Tyrador IX appeared to be the larger of the pair. Because of this close co-orbiting, both planets experienced extremes of climate: a change of only a few kilometers could produce significant changes in temperature, humidity, and other aspects of climate, so that deserts could be found at the base of snow-capped mountains. Such variable conditions granted the worlds diverse and unique ecosystems but also brought intense temperature shifts, large dust storms, and massive fog banks.

Beneath Tyrador IX ran a series of lava tubes that snaked deep below the surface, holding reservoirs of vespene gas, while its southern pole contained veins of void crystals. The world was known for its emerald coves and large reefs. Since terran colonization, however, many native species had been wiped out and the air quality of the world had suffered.

Arakyr and the Ihan-rii#

Thousands of years ago, Tyrador IX was the homeworld of the Ihan-rii, a fanatical splinter group of protoss who believed themselves the true descendants of the xel'naga. They named the world Arakyr and held a deep fondness for it, later designing their warp prisms after a flower that once covered its hillsides and modeling their photon cannon phase disruptors after an avian native to the planet. In time the Ihan-rii departed Arakyr and went into deep stasis on the fringes of the sector.

Confederate and Dominion world#

After the arrival of the terrans in the Koprulu sector, Tyrador IX became a core world of the Terran Confederacy and one of the last to be settled. Early settlers hunted a number of the planet's exotic species to extinction. The Old Families kept numerous private enclaves and estates, while a shattered local economy forced many citizens into debt and into indentured work at the planet's numerous resorts.

Though it seemed safe from rebel attacks, in 2481 anti-Confederate terrorists struck the resort town of Elsecaro, going out of their way to kill uniformed marines. They were defeated by visitors, including Arcturus Mengsk, then an off-duty Confederate lieutenant, who was acclaimed a hero by the local militia. During the Great War, the Old Families used Tyrador IX as a refuge from attacks on Tarsonis, and after the Confederacy fell the world became part of the Terran Dominion.

Tyrador VIII, for its part, was one of the first "planned" worlds of the Confederacy, famous for its centers of higher learning, orderly streets, and sanitary parks. Its capital, Gramercy City, served as a hideout for the secret Dominion heir Valerian Mengsk, who watched the inauguration of the Dominion from there. During the Second Great War, Sarah Kerrigan attacked the Moebius Foundation's main research campus on Tyrador VIII, and Raynor's Raiders arrived to help purge the Foundation's data cores before evacuating.

Invasions and joint ownership#

During the Defenders of Man Insurgency, Tyrador IX was targeted for a staged feral zerg attack, the Defenders using psi-emitters to lure a swarm to the planet and cause massive civilian casualties before arriving to "rescue" the survivors. Agent Nova Terra and her Covert Ops Crew, investigating the Defenders, fought through the feral zerg and the Tal'darim Death Fleet that intervened. The episode left Tyrador IX's tourism industry devastated and weakened public faith in Emperor Valerian Mengsk.

To restore confidence, the Knights of Tyrador were formed and given visually striking, bombastic equipment, though much of it was illusion, with corners cut in its true effectiveness. Some time later, zerg under the command of the Cerberus Program, hired by a rival system as an act of corporate sabotage, launched an invasion of Tyrador IX. The woefully unprepared Knights were quickly overwhelmed, until the awakened Ihan-rii returned to their ancestral homeworld and joined the defense, driving the Cerberus zerg back.

In the aftermath, diplomatic talks established joint ownership of Tyrador IX between the Ihan-rii and the Terran Dominion, with the Ihan-rii settling the world and the terrans retaining mining rights. Tensions soon inflamed: facilities on the disputed border were mysteriously destroyed, the Ihan-rii resented the terrans' ruin of their homeworld's ecology, and both sides fortified their defenses even as the Cerberus Program quietly seeded the planet's lava tubes with hatcheries in preparation for a second battle.