Urun

Urun was the leader of the Auriga Tribe and a member of the protoss Hierarchy, later an admiral who commanded the carrier Saalok's Eye. An impatient traditionalist with a high opinion of his own tactical gifts, he longed to retake Aiur for the glory of the protoss and held to the tenets of the Dae'Uhl even after the End War, yet he gave his life defending terran lives against a rogue zerg brood.

Hierarchy politics#

In the early days of the Hierarchy the body often reached an impasse, and when Zekrath suggested it needed a leader, both Nahaan and Urun put themselves forward, Urun declaring that Nahaan would lead them to ruin and that he himself should hold the position. Neither prevailed, for as Zekrath and Mohandar pointed out, the hierarch had to command the respect of both Khalai and Nerazim, namely Artanis. The young protoss at first refused, intending to resume his duties as a warrior, and Urun snidely remarked that he would not mourn the departure of those who threatened to leave should Artanis decline. In the end Artanis accepted the mantle.

Urun became leader of the Auriga Tribe in 2503, and in that year sought to retake Aiur for the glory of the protoss. At a Hierarchy meeting convened over the missing preserver Zamara, attended by the terran Rosemary Dahl, the survivor Vartanil, and Executor Selendis, Urun was angered to learn that Zeratul, Selendis, and Artanis had abandoned survivors on Aiur years earlier, though Vartanil's own agreement with the decision blunted his protests. He pressed repeatedly for renewed searches and expeditions to Aiur, until Mohandar identified the secret Nerazim shrine of Alys'aril as the more likely location of the preserver.

The Battle of Adena#

Urun survived the End War and later commanded the carrier Saalok's Eye. Some time after the Defenders of Man Insurgency he spotted a group of terrans near the planet Adena and stopped them. Their leader, Captain Hogarth, claimed orders to survey abandoned outposts in the region, but Urun's subordinate noted they had sent no transmissions. Knowing they meant to deceive him, Urun allowed them to land regardless. The terrans were ambushed by the Niadra Brood, and when a dropship tried to flee carrying a marine infested with a larva, Urun shot it down. The act inflamed Hogarth, who opened fire on Saalok's Eye, and Urun answered by deploying fighters and preparing to descend to the surface. Reminded that he risked violating Artanis's treaty with the Terran Dominion, Urun replied that the terrans had fired first, and he assembled a contingent of zealots and stalkers, taking responsibility for failing to detect the zerg. He asked only for volunteers, and none of his warriors refused.

On the surface Urun and his forces drove the zerg back from the terrans. Surprised to find the marine Elms was psionic, he surmised that the broodmother Niadra wanted her as a prize, and when Elms proposed an alliance to fend off the zerg, Urun scathingly agreed to hear her strategy. Together they resolved to strike at Niadra while they still could and fought through a zerg onslaught. When Elms sensed zerg in the caves behind them and went to investigate, Urun moved his forces to cover her, and though his warriors protested, he insisted they would honor the alliance even as their air support was steadily destroyed. Coming face to face with Niadra, he learned through her telepathy that her brood was rogue and served no overqueen, and realized the conflict on Adena could grow to engulf the whole Koprulu sector.

Death and aftermath#

As the battle wore on and the zealot Leredar questioned the alliance with the terrans, Urun told him to focus on the fight while privately hoping the mission Elms had undertaken would prove worth the cost. Several of his warriors merged into archons and unleashed their psionic might, and with the archons cutting through the brood, Urun and his remaining warriors charged toward Niadra. As he charged, Elms contacted him telepathically; he told her that Saalok's Eye had left the system and that Niadra meant to bring war to both their races, ordering her to warn both their peoples of the looming danger. Elms relented, and Urun pressed his attack, but an ultralisk brought its kaiser blade down upon him, and as he fell Niadra finished him with her talons. Elms felt his death through the telepathic bond they shared.

Urun's sacrifice and that of his warriors allowed Elms and her marines to escape Adena, yet the warriors who survived spoke only of a conflict sparked by the terrans, leading the Auriga Tribe to call for action against the Terran Dominion and prompting Artanis to withdraw his peace talks with the Dominion. A traditionalist who held to the Dae'Uhl and considered both zerg and terrans lesser races, Urun had grown more willing over the course of the battle to trust the terrans, allowing that Elms had proven herself as worthy as any of her kind, though he still judged humanity deeply flawed. In the Overmind's apocalyptic vision of the future, Urun instead fell in a final stand against a hybrid-controlled Swarm on a distant shadowed world, rallying the remnants of the Great Fleet before declaring that there were too many of them.