As the title says, I really hope we get this map back this holiday season, it was so much fun! Why not include it in the standard map rotation instead of brawl!

submitted by /u/KalinSav
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Happy Birthday Quackniix

Posted: 01 Dec 2017 06:12 AM PST

submitted by /u/Griinty
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6:02 New Record for [Heroic] Escape from Braxis Brawl - still a lot of room for improvement ;)

Posted: 01 Dec 2017 02:12 PM PST

submitted by /u/YouBetterKnowMe
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Lore of Zeratul – Character Lore

Posted: 01 Dec 2017 09:00 AM PST

Hey folks,

This week we're doing the last of the major SC characters that require me to do two articles (of the current cast anyway, not looking forward to a Mengsk episode if he gets added…), the Dark Prelate of the Nerazim and Herald of the Xel'Naga, Zeratul. I'd consider him to probably be the most accomplished protoss, but also one whose mistakes have caused untold ruin for his race. But we'll get in that here!

As usual with the major characters, lore this week and all of his Heroes quotes/abilities/interactions will be this Sunday. And yes, I'll include stuff from his new rework and old stuff, I usually ignore old abilities to not cause confusion but this happened to come at a weird time for him.

All previous Lore Of episodes

The Dark Templar

To get Zeratul you need a brief history of his people. After a brutal thousand-year civil war named the Aeon of Strife, a protoss later given the name Khas came forth and taught the protoss to create a mind link named the Khala, where protoss could share thoughts, emotions and memories. This became the guiding doctrine for the protoss for which their new more peaceful society was built around. However, many rejected the Khala as they saw it as eliminating their individuality, and they severed the nerve chords on the back of their head to ensure they could never connect to it. However, the lack of temperance from the Khala led some, attempting to emulate the more advanced psionics of their brethren, to lose control of their powers, and soon psionic storms raged across their homeworld of Aiur, killing many.

The Conclave, the ruling body of the protoss, sent their greatest Executor named Adun to kill all who refused to join the Khala. Yet, Adun could not commit genocide of his own people, and instead taught them how to cloak themselves in shadow. When the Conclave figured out his plans, Adun guided the renegades to the last working xel'naga worldship (xel'naga being the race that uplifted the protoss to being powerful psionics). There Adun gave his life to stall the Conclave long enough for the renegades to escape. From there they became nomads, as their Khalai (Khala connected) brothers hunted them across the stars, sparking another thousand years of persecution. They would be known from then on as the Nerazim, or Dark Templar. The Conclave's propaganda would forever honor Adun as the one who drove the Nerazim from Aiur, while the Nerazim would never forget his sacrifice for them. The Khalai would hunt them and burn all Nerazim they could find, while Nerazim pirates and warbands struck the Khalai from the shadows (though would often help their brethren without their knowing). After hundreds of years they would give the role of leadership to a Nerazim named Raszagal, one of the few who personally knew Adun, who was named Matriarch of her people. Eventually the Nerazim discovered a xel'naga temple on the shadowed world of Shakuras, and it was there they set up a more permanent home. Centuries of exploration and isolation lead to them developing their very own culture and customs, as well as a variety of genetic differences (some done on purpose), and it was into their society Zeratul was born.

Zeratul was raised to be a dark templar warrior, and rose to the rank of dark prelate, or battlefield commander. He was given his own warband and for decades before SC1 wandered the galaxy accomplishing the goals of the Nerazim from the shadows. Soon, however, the Great War broke out between the Khalai protoss, the recently arrived Zerg Swarm, and the terran population caught in the crossfire. The Nerazim mostly stayed out and observed the conflict, but soon a powerful psionic call came from the zerg infested volcanic world of Char. Zeratul and his forces went down and investigated what this psionically powerful creature was, and hoping by harassing the zerg on Char he could help end their expansion into the sector.

The Great War

When Zeratul arrived, he found that the planet was locked in a four-way war between the zerg, the terran government of the Terran Dominion, terran rebels under Jim Raynor and the Khalai protoss under Executor Tassadar. He also discovered that the source of the psionic call was a terran named Sarah Kerrigan, who was being reborn into the zerg swarm as a powerful psionic agent. Zeratul hid his ship the Void Seeker and revealed himself to Tassadar, hoping to ally with him and his stranded forces, but at first the young Khalai attacked him, acting on years of trained instinct to hate the Nerazim. Eventually, Zeratul managed to calm Tassadar, and after weeks the two came to an understanding. Allying with the stranded forces of Jim Raynor, the three then decided to take the fight to the zerg.

Tassadar revealed himself to Kerrigan, taking the attention of her forces by goading her into a fight, but in reality distracting her with an illusion. Meanwhile, Zeratul slipped into the chambers of the cerebrate (fragments of the consciousness of the Overmind, the central hive mind of the zerg) Zasz and slew him. The powerful Void energies that Zeratul used and the Overmind consisted of briefly touched in that moment, and the two traded memories. Zeratul saw the creation of the zerg by the xel'naga, the same race that uplifted the protoss, and knew the zerg's drive to consume all life and become perfect by assimilating the protoss. However, the Overmind saw into Zeratul's mind, and the planets he and his people had mapped in their years of being nomads, including the location of the Khalai protoss homeworld of Aiur. The feedback of Zasz's death stunned the Overmind temporarily and prevented him from being able to reincarnate him (which normally made cerebrates immortal), causing chaos among the zerg, but when the Overmind awoke, it knew Zeratul had accidentally given him what he wanted, and sent the bulk of its broods to invade Aiur, leaving behind Kerrigan and a group of broods to deal with the dark templar. Through his actions, Zeratul would accidentally bring untold ruin to Aiur.

The three allies continued to fight a running conflict with Kerrigan, retreating from her onslaught and only striking when necessary. Zeratul meanwhile began to teach Tassadar how to channel the energies of the Void, allowing him to use both powers in tandem. As the weeks wore on and conflict brought them close, the two became staunch allies. Eventually the three managed to get Kerrigan to overextend enough to expose the cerebrate ordered to guard her (the SC1 player character for the zerg campaign), and using what Zeratul had taught him, Tassadar slew the cerebrate. As this happened protoss reinforcements under Executor Artanis arrived from Aiur to arrest Tassadar for defying the will of the Conclave when he was ordered to burn the terran worlds and return to Aiur, and Zeratul left the company of the two, going into his ship and attempting to leave the planet.

But Kerrigan wasn't done, and managed to stop the exodus of Zeratul and his followers, surrounding him in an abandoned Terran Dominion base. Tassadar meanwhile had managed to convince Artanis (who was beginning to doubt the Conclave after they mismanaged the defense of Aiur against the zerg) that Zeratul was the only one who could help them, and the protoss forces broke through the zerg lines, got into the zerg infested base and rescued Zeratul. Tassadar pleaded him to come to Aiur with them and help save his people from the zerg, to which Zeratul told him he would do his duty to his people's homeworld.

Yet when they arrived back on their homeworld they found that the Conclave was in a losing war with the zerg, but they refused to acknowledge their defeats, and that they had put a death warrant on Tassadar and Zeratul. Though it pained him, Tassadar, Raynor, Zeratul, Artanis and the wounded protoss hero Fenix brought their forces together and attacked the Conclave, burning their capital building Kor-shakal and killing many of their members. Abhorred by what he just did, Tassadar surrendered to the Conclave, but Zeratul vanished. Artanis, Raynor and Fenix rallied for an attack on Tassadar's holding cell, but when they freed their friend Judicator Aldaris warped his fleet to surround them. Yet Zeratul was waiting for this moment, and ambushed Aldaris's fleet, ordering them to surrender.

Zeratul: Are you truly so blinded by your vaunted religion, that you cannot see the fall ahead of you? Your Conclave believes that they are winning this war, but all they have succeeded in doing is helping the Overmind to win.

Aldaris: What could you possibly know about our designs, blasphemer?

Zeratul: You speak of knowledge, Judicator? You speak of experience? I have journeyed through the darkness between the most distant stars. I have beheld the births of negative-suns and borne witness to the entropy of entire realities. Unto my experience, Aldaris, all that you've built here on Aiur is but a fleeting dream. A dream from which your precious Conclave shall awaken, finding themselves drowned in a greater nightmare.

Aldaris and the surviving Conclave gave Zeratul and his allies one chance to defeat the zerg. The group devised a plan to stun the Overmind by having Zeratul kill two cerebrates, then assault the creature directly. Zeratul and Fenix successfully drove through and killed two of the cerebrates, stunning the Overmind. Yet, heavy defenders remained around the Overmind's body. Artanis commanded the attack as Tassadar, Raynor and Zeratul broke through the zerg's defensive lines and dealt damage to its physical form, but the zerg began to counterattack and push the protoss and terrans back. In desperation, Tassadar called upon Zeratul's teachings, channeling Void and Khala energies through the hull of his carrier and ramming it into the Overmind. The resulting explosion killed both Tassadar and the Overmind, shattering it forever and breaking the Swarm. The Overmind was defeated, but the conflict was far from over.

Brood War

With the Overmind dead, the cerebrates who served as subcommanders took control of portions of the Swarm, and took the opportunity to push the attack on the weakened protoss. The Conclave sent the last of its forces and fleets to meet this threat head on, but were all wiped out. The zerg now ravaged Aiur, decimating its population. In desperation, Zeratul made a controversial decision, he would lead the survivors of Aiur to the Nerazim world of Shakuras. He gathered what Khalai survivors he could, including Aldaris and Artanis, and made their way to a xel'naga warp gate, attuning it to the frequency of the one on Shakuras. However, as they began to escape the zerg began to attack their position. Fenix and Raynor stayed behind to defend the gate as they escaped.

When they arrived, the Khalai set up a base camp, only to find the zerg had followed them to the planet through the warp gate, having pushed its defenders back. The protoss met up with the Nerazim, and together they reclaimed the gate, finding that Fenix and Raynor had on the Aiur side but had to close it to keep more zerg from getting through. Zeratul arranged a meeting with the matriarch and leader of his people, Raszagal, who welcomed those that formerly hunted her people with open arms, saying that with the sacrifice of Tassadar they had been shown what they could do with their powers used in tandem. She also told them that the xel'naga temple on Shakuras could be used to purge the zerg, but the lost protoss relics named the Uraj and Khalis crystals were needed to activate it. Zeratul and Artanis reclaimed the temple from the zerg, but as they did Kerrigan revealed herself to them, insisting she was free of the Overmind's control and that the zerg on Shakuras were her enemies too, and were commanded by the cerebrates creating a new Overmind on Char. She said by helping them they could get rid of a mutual enemy. Zeratul distrusted her, but Raszagal convinced him to accept her aid.

Together, the group raided the planet of Braxis, destroying a Terran Dominion garrison and claiming the Uraj crystal lost there. But when they attempted to leave they found they planet under siege by the United Earth Directorate (Stukov's and Morales's faction), who had come to conquer the sector for the distant world of Earth. Artanis broke a hole through their blockade to allow the protoss to slip through. They then arrived on the zerg world of Char, where the Khalis lay from a fallen Nerazim raiding party. They fought through the nesting area around the infant Overmind, and got the crystal, leaving the planet and returning to Shakuras.

There they found Aldaris had begun an open revolt against Raszagal and her Nerazim. Zeratul and Artanis launched a counterattack, cornering the renegade Judicator and demanding he stand down. When Aldaris revealed his fears that following Raszagal would lead them to Kerrigan's control, Kerrigan immediately arrived and killed him before he could explain why. Zeratul was appalled, and ordered her to leave Shakuras, which she smugly did so. Zeratul and Artanis then fought through the zerg to the xel'naga temple with the crystals in hand, and their allies defended the temple as they channeled energy into the temple. Soon the temple was prepared, and the two activated it, purging the zerg off of Shakuras. For a brief moment, the now unified protoss had a moment of respite from the zerg.

With a moment to breathe, Zeratul and the new High Executor Selendis looked to rescue what protoss they could stranded on Aiur. They launched an expedition, but when they rescued a group of stasis cells with fallen protoss warriors, a renegade Nerazim group appeared and began destroying them. Zeratul captured the renegades, bringing them back to Shakuras for trail. The renegade's leader was a dark templar named Ulrezaj, who saw the Nerazim accepting the Khalai who hunted them as appalling, and that they should seek vengeance for the thousand years of persecution they put the Nerazim through. Zeratul stated that unity was the only way forward, but just then their trail came under attack by terran mercenaries, who the protoss pushed back, but in the chaos Ulrezaj escaped. It was revealed he was using terran mercenaries under the notorious pirate Alan Schezar and corrupted protoss khaydarin crystals to control a small brood of zerg, amassing to attack Shakuras. Zeratul and Praetor Mojo found his operation on the terran world of Korhal (besieged by the UED), and destroyed a cluster of corrupted Khaydarin crystals he was using to control the zerg. They then launched attacked on his remaining stockpiles of crystals, preventing Ulrezaj from ever controlling zerg broods again. However, Ulrezaj, now fused with two dark templar to make a powerful dark archon (a different version of Tassadar's ult), launched his invasion of Shakuras with his Nerazim extremists and Schezar's mercenaries. Zeratul and his forces successfully drove back Ulrezaj and killed Schezar, but Zeratul knew Ulrezaj would return someday.

As the protoss again tried to rebuild on Shakuras, Kerrigan struck, using her agent Samir Duran to attack the capital of Shakuras, Talematros. In the chaos, she stole Raszagal, holding her hostage. Zeratul pursued Kerrigan, and she told him that she would allow Raszagal to go if he used his Void energies to kill the new infant Overmind, which the UED had taken control of. At first Zeratul was resistant to the idea, but Raszagal convinced him that the Overmind was a threat to all races. Reluctantly, Zeratul accepted, and the combined zerg and Nerazim force pushed through the UED and enslaved zerg to reach the Overmind, which Zeratul slew. However, Kerrigan revealed that before they arrived on Shakuras, she had psionically dominated Raszagal, making the ancient Nerazim a mindless slave to her. Shocked, Zeratul managed to grab her and teleport back to his base camp, but the zerg gave chase, overrunning Zeratul's defenses and cornering him. At the last moment to make sure Raszagal didn't forever live as Kerrigan's puppet, Zeratul slew his ancient and venerated leader. In her last lucid moments, she thanked him and told Zeratul that he placed the future of her people in his hands. Shocked, Kerrigan said he was free to leave, as she knew he would never forgive himself for killing his leader. Zeratul reluctantly left Char with his survivors.

With what he had left, Zeratul attempted to search for Artanis's forces and what scattered protoss he could find. His search lead him to a strange protoss signal emanating from a dark moon, but when he investigated he found terrans experimenting on protoss and zerg. Fighting his way through the terrans, Zeratul discovered a cell containing a protoss/zerg hybrid, something that should be impossible to create given their genetic makeup. When he reached it, the voice of Kerrigan's second in command Samir Duran sounded, introducing himself as a servant of a far greater power than Kerrigan.

Zeratul: Have you any conception of what you've created here? Do you have any idea what this… this hybrid is capable of?

Duran: Of course I do. This creature is the completion of a cycle! It's role in the cosmic order was preordained when the stars were young. Behold the culmination of your history.

Zeratul: All I behold is an abomination.

Duran: Your violence, young prodigal, is typical, as is your inability to comprehend the greater scheme of things. You can destroy all of the specimens here, it will do you no good, for I have seeded the hybrid on many, many worlds. You will never find them all before they awaken. And when they do your universe will be changed. Forever.

Zeratul burned the facility, but was deeply troubled by the revelation. He returned briefly to Shakuras, saying his goodbyes to Artanis and Raynor, before taking a group of like-minded protoss and going on a self-imposed exile (later turned official exile, that part's a bit complicated), partially as penance for killing Raszagal and partially to figure out what he had stumbled upon in that dark moon.

In Search of the Truth

Zeratul and his group searched the stars, convinced that a greater power was at work through the sector, manipulating the conflict to their own ends, and convinced it was tied to the potential prophesied return of the protoss's supposed creators, the xel'naga. However, he made little progress, and began to despair. He stopped his search on a jungle world, where he met Jacob Ramsey, a terran archaeologist who had been searching for him, as he housed the consciousness of Tassadar's preserver (memory keeper) Zamara in his head. The two tried to recruit his help, as Zamara's presence was causing Ramsey brain tumors, but when Raszagal was brought up and Ramsey insinuated that she would be disappointed in him for not claiming leadership of his people as she requested, he lost control and strangled the terran, stopping short of killing him. However, days later he returned having reflected on the truth in his words, and volunteered to help the pair, learning that they were being pursued by his old enemy Ulrezaj and had discovered more hybrid cells under Aiur, and guiding them to the Nerazim shrine world of Ehlena where Zamara's consciousness could be extracted and stored in a memory crystal. In return, Zamara showed Zeratul the location of a xel'naga temple she knew of to help him in his search for answers on the hybrid. There he witnessed the birth of an energy creature (bird-like creatures housed in xel'naga temples that have yet to be explained), that guided him to a wormhole.

This set off a chain of event that lead him to the planet of Ulaan, where a xel'naga prophecy was kept in the ruins, in reality the echoes of a xel'naga named Ouros reaching beyond time through the Void to manipulate the conflict. However, when he found a portion of it Kerrigan and her zerg had arrived, and that she too knew of the prophecy telling the return of the xel'naga, and said that the galaxy would burn with their coming. Zeratul and Kerrigan fought, him seeking revenge, but Zeratul was wounded in the fight and forced to retreat. He searched the planet for more fragments of the prophecy, finding that protoss under a commander named High Templar Karass had arrived hunting Kerrigan. They helped Zeratul search for the fragments, but when Kerrigan sent her zerg to overrun and kill them all Karass and his forces stayed behind to allow Zeratul to escape.

Zeratul then went to the ancient preserver shrine world of Zhakul to find protoss that could comprehend the prophecy, but found the guardians there hostile and under the corruption of a strange power. He soon found the source: an awakened protoss/zerg hybrid named Maar, who was draining the preservers to regenerate himself. Zeratul and his forces fought through the corrupted protoss and Maar, freeing the preservers. They told him the full prophecy:

In the fullness of time

The cycle shall draw to its end.

The xel'naga, who forged the stars,

Will transcend their creation...

Yet, the Fallen One shall remain,

Destined to cover the Void in shadow...

Before the stars wake from their

Celestial courses,

He shall break the cycle of the gods,

Devouring all light and hope.

It begins with the Great Hungerer.

It ends in utter darkness.

Zeratul took the Great Hungerer to mean the Overmind, and returned to Aiur to see his corpse. He communed with the creature's body, finding a strange energy coming from its remains. When he moved to commune with the ruined central cortex, a vision of what appeared to be Tassadar appeared to him, telling him of the end times and a vision the Overmind supposedly received. In this vision, the protoss made a last stand against a fallen xel'naga named Amon, one who desired the destruction of all creation of xel'naga, who used the hybrid and the zerg to wipe out the protoss, and that the only one preventing this timeline from occurring is Sarah Kerrigan. Yet, in the timeline in the vision she would be killed by Jim Raynor, who had sworn to kill her after she betrayed and killed Fenix.

A bit of an aside, the accuracy of this vision of the future is up for debate, as taken at face value it throws a wrench in a lot of StarCraft's story. The most common belief is that the xel'naga Ouros (who is the one using the disguise of the ghost of Tassadar) made up this vision of the future and tailored it to Zeratul in order to inspire him keep Kerrigan from dying, and that it wasn't given to the Overmind at all, given that Ouros was more than willing to lie to others in order to make sure the Infinite Cycle the xel'naga used to make new xel'naga came to completion (Xel'Naga: no sense of right and wrong!). This would also explain how the Overmind didn't instinctively know Zeratul and Artanis from his vision, makes it so that the Overmind wasn't searching specifically for a girl named Sarah Kerrigan, and explains how Zeratul didn't see the vision when he touched minds with the Overmind. The prophecy is probably one of the most disliked parts of the SCII story but thankfully by the end it got more science fiction than the fantasy interpretation it started with, probably because of the negative feedback it got in Wings of Liberty. OK ASIDE DONE.

As much as he hated Sarah Kerrigan, he sought to prevent oblivion. He stored his memories of finding the Uulan prophecy in a Nerazim device named a Ihan memory crystal, and gave it to Raynor, warning him of what would occur if Kerrigan died. Indeed, Raynor did use a completed xel'naga relic named the Keystone to turn her back to a human and destroy a large swath of her broods, and when his old comrade Tychus Findlay attempted to kill her as part of a secret deal he made with Raynor's enemies, he killed him, partially out of love and partially to advert Armageddon.

With that done, Zeratul knew there was more to the prophecy. At some point, he learned that the xel'naga were actively trying to communicate with him, and possibly learned that the Tassadar ghost was indeed a xel'naga in disguise. They led him far beyond the Koprulu Sector to the ancient zerg homeworld of Zerus, where eons ago Amon was killed in a three-way battle between his followers, the loyal xel'naga and the zerg Overmind. He discovered there the primal zerg (Dehaka's race), zerg who had avoided being bound to the Overmind and influenced by Amon, thriving. The xel'naga imparted to him somehow that Kerrigan had to be remade on this world, as she would achieve the two xel'naga purities (essence, which is a capacity for great change, and form, great psionic potential) through pure xel'naga races (primal zerg and terran) and not races uplifted by Amon (swarm zerg and protoss).

He arrived on her ship, and a now human Kerrigan proceeded to fight him assuming he was there to kill her, but as she beat him into the ground he gave her a vision of Zerus, showing her the power of the primal zerg. Though she didn't care about the xel'naga or their prophecies, Zeratul used her drive to get revenge on the leader of the Terran Dominion, Arcturus Mengsk, to get her to claim the power of Zerus and be remade as a primal zerg. Leading her there, he saw her course was set, and left the planet.

Coming Darkness

Meanwhile, Duran, a xel'naga serving Amon, had been manipulating the conflict from behind the scenes to facilitate his return to the universe, using the Terran Dominion and the terran science group the Moebius Foundation to breed protoss/zerg hybrids under the guise of Doctor Emil Narud. Duran manipulated Raynor into assembling the Keystone, which he then modified to convert zerg biomatter into energy, and then had him use it on Kerrigan. While this did accomplish Jim's goal of reverting her back to a human, the energy gathered from the zerg biomatter in Keystone allowed him to pull Amon's consciousness from the Void (the home realm of the xel'naga) returning him to the material universe. However, Kerrigan eventually confronted Duran and killed him, dismantling his main hybrid breeding operation and banishing his consciousness back to the Void. Zeratul knew that Amon had returned, but needed to find where, as he knew the last orders of the xel'naga would be revealed there.

Kerrigan began razing Moebius Foundation labs breeding the hybrid. Zeratul was drawn to one under attack by the zerg, hoping to find any information Duran left on Amon. There he met a protoss named Praetor Talis, who was investigating the abductions of protoss from fringe colonies. They raided the lab, fighting through the conflict between zerg and Meobius Foundation thralls enslaved by the hybrid they created, and freed the protoss trapped there to be converted into hybrid. In the Moebius computers, they discovered Amon had been revived at the Temple of Erris, on the Tal'darm (Alarak's faction, at the time fanatics loyal to Amon) world of Atrias. Talis swore to help him find the truth there.

Zeratul, Talis and their forces fought through the Tal'darim guarding the temple, and Zeratul slipped in while Talis defended the entrance. Inside, Zeratul found the Highlord of the Tal'darim Ma'lash communing with Amon, who was relaying orders to him through a device named the Void Catalyst. Zeratul dove in and destroyed the device, tearing a hole in reality into the Void. From there, the voice of Tassadar (the xel'naga Ouros) sounded again, saying the Keystone would usher him unto hope. However, Amon then took control, beginning to collapse the temple and spawning void shades (weird shadowy creatures of the Void that conveniently take the form of units from StarCraft because making new units is hard). Zeratul escaped, with Talis holding off the Tal'darim and Void shades buy Zeratul time, giving her life in the process. Zeratul knew that the only hope was to relay this information to Artanis, as he thought that his people would be the only ones capable of stopping Amon's armies.

(Going to stop bolding Artanis now, you get the picture)

When he returned, he found that Artanis, now Hierarch and leader of all protoss, had rebuild the protoss fleets into a force named Golden Armada, and that they were ready to reclaim Aiur. Zeratul appeared before them, telling his people that Amon had returned and that they needed to divert their attention away from the invasion. Artanis, who had spent years preparing and knowing he couldn't deny his people their homeworld, launched the invasion anyway. However, the supposedly feral zerg that occupied the world began to mount resistance as if under the control of an intelligence, and soon hybrid appeared commanding them. This revealed to Artanis that Zeratul was right, and the dark prelate told his old friend that if they hoped to stop Amon, they needed to Keystone, which was currently on the terran world of Korhal. Artanis asked Zeratul to get the Keystone while he marshaled the protoss forces for war.

However, Zeratul found that his ship, the Void Seeker, had been destroyed, and High Executor Selendis lost sense of Artanis in the Khala, something that should be impossible. Zeratul worked with a Phase-smith (protoss engineer) named Karax to activate a nearby base, and fought through the zerg to investigate what had transpired. He found groups of Khalai protoss hostile to him and his forces, and were forced to slay them, but as he arrived at Artanis's base, he discovered that Amon, without a body, had inhabited the Khalai's Khala and wrested control of all protoss connected to it. As the Nerazim had no connection, he and his allies were immune, and fought their way to Artanis, who was struggling to gain control over Amon.

Zeratul knew the only way to save Artanis was to sever his nerve cords, but soon Amon seized complete control. The two clashed, with the Hierarch completely possessed by Amon. Zeratul severed Artanis's nerve cords, but not before he delivered a fatal blow to Zeratul. In his last moments, Zeratul told a now free Artanis that the Keystone would guide him to the xel'naga. Artanis, distraught that he killed his old friend, took up his warp blade, and promised to continue the fight against Amon. He rallied the survivors free of Amon's corruption, retrieved the Keystone, and while they found that Amon had killed most of the xel'naga, managed to find a way to use it to pull Amon from the Khala, banishing him back to the Void and pushing his forces on Aiur. Artanis, now having reclaimed the protoss homeworld, made a grave for Zeratul, laying his warp blade on top of it, and said:

The dark one has been banished back into the Void. For now, we are free. All of this, because of you. I will bring our great dream of a unified protoss to bear. We will gather the survivors, rebuild our cities. We will reject our old divisions and forge a new society. Together, we will shape our destiny amongst the stars.

Two years later, Ouros called Kerrigan to rally Artanis and Raynor to finish off Amon in the Void. It was revealed that the xel'naga Ouros was the one giving Zeratul guidance and prophecies in order to help continue the xel'naga's Infinite Cycle, which allowed them to make new generations of xel'naga. Ouros channeled his energy into Kerrigan, transforming her into a xel'naga, and she and her allies struck the final blow to Amon, ending the dark god forever. All Zeratul had sacrificed for had come to past, Armageddon had been adverted, and the fallen xel'naga Amon was destroyed. In spite of being the catalyst for the near destruction of his people by leading the zerg to Aiur and Shakuras, Zeratul's legacy would be one of paving the road of unity between the Khalai and Nerazim, and of giving the sector the information it needed to stop Amon from destroying life as they knew it.

So that's the story of the dark prelate. The xel'naga stuff can get confusing so if anyone has any questions I'd be happy to answer them. Zeratul's a cool character with a winding story, and while he's gone I expect we'll see his legacy last in StarCraft for a long while. His quotes and interactions and skins lore thread is coming this Sunday, so I'll see you all then!

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Quiz: Heroes by Heroic Ability Icons

Posted: 01 Dec 2017 10:32 AM PST

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Insomnia Inhouse Community Tournament (NA)

Posted: 01 Dec 2017 11:52 AM PST

Are you interested in joining the in house community tournament casted by insomnia? Follow the channel, sign up on the google doc, fill out your IGN, Twitch Handle, and Rank in HL/TL. Subscibers will have priority in these games, but all are welcome to sign up. Looking to have around 8-12 teams fair and randomized for the first event depending on the outcome. Looking to have this play out on 12/9 and 12/10.

Sign up here: https://goo.gl/forms/toLFKDctjEUCvejE2
More info: https://discord.gg/cqgmR7Q
Time: TBA
Date: 9 December 2017

submitted by /u/rfieret
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Maghda : the Hero nobody asked for.

Posted: 01 Dec 2017 01:59 PM PST

Everybody in the D3 fandom hates her (maybe rightfully, maybe not, depending on who you ask), but I for one think Maghda would be a really fun and different hero to add to HotS. As a character, she would filling a niche that not a lot of heroes are filling at the moment : someone whose entire job is to be everywhere and nowhere at once - someone that doesn't do a lot of damage, but is hard to catch and can slowly amass an advantage if you fail to notice - someone that does really have any dueling power or any means of staying alive in a fight, but that will crush the map if you can't predict her next move.

I thought up a kit that reflect this direction : it has a ton of escape mechanics (that I think are a lot less toxic than "become invisible" or "become invulnerable"), a lot of elements of confusion (as she is in D3 - on your first playthrough you never know if it's her or just a projection of her), and very little instant damage (again, in D3 she just kind of throw slow moths at you and waits in her protection bubble thing). This hero is different from Zagara as her job isn't to "siege" but rather to keep enemies on their toes as to where she'll be next. As such, her entire kit revolves around cleaning up minion waves, switching between "anchor points" she places, and disrupting enemies that try to come for her in teams.

D : Apparition :

Mana Cost : 30 / Cooldown : 20 seconds / Range : Very low

After channeling for 3 seconds, place an Apparition of Maghda at a target location that will imitate her, dealing no damage, never moving and taking 25% increased damage from heroic units. These Apparitions have half of Maghda's sight radius.

Maghda can have a total of 3 active Apparitions. These last 80 seconds.

Apparitions will mimic Maghda's spells exactly - casting the exact same spells, but at their own location, aiming for targets near them. Spells effect will look identical to Maghda's regular spells, but will not deal damage (ex: an enemy affected by an Apparition's Swarm of Flies will have a swarm of flies on it for 7 seconds, but it will not do damage). Taking Arcane Sentry at level 7 causes these Apparitions' spells to deal 50% to minions, and taking Devout Servants at level 16 allows Maghda to use real spells that do regular damage from an Apparition's location on a cooldown.

1 : Ambush :

Mana Cost : None / Cooldown : 45 seconds / Range : Global

After channeling for 1.5 seconds, swap place between Maghda and one of her Apparitions.

Auto-attacks :

Maghda has lower than average attack speed and average range.

Z - Retreat :

Instead of mounting, Maghda turns into a flock of moths. Upon mounting, Maghda releases a second flock of moths that will make progress in a straight line in the direction of the cursor for 1 second before withering. This flock imitates Maghda's health bar to confuse enemies.

Q : Swarm of Flies :

Mana Cost : 80 / Cooldown : 18 seconds / Range : Low

Swarm a target with pestilent flies, dealing 280 (+3% per level) damage over 7 seconds. If the target dies while affected by this ability, the flies will transfer to the nearest target with the lowest health.

W : Spit :

Mana Cost : 40 / Cooldown : 12 seconds / Range : Medium / Missile speed : Medium

Spit acid breath in a straight line, blinding and silencing the first enemy hit for 2 seconds.

E : Vessels of Chaos :

Upfront Mana Cost : 60 / Mana cost per second : 8 / Cooldown : 16 seconds / Range : Low-Medium

Stand still while sending one moth every 0.75 seconds to nearby enemies at random. Each moth deals 46 (+4% per level) damage and return to Maghda to heal her 20% of the damage dealt. Moths prioritize heroes.

This ability is cancelled by moving, using any ability or being incapacitated by enemies. Moths in flight when the ability is cancelled will complete their actions.

R1 : Arcane Shroud :

Mana Cost : 80 / Cooldown : 60 seconds

Form of forcefield around Maghda, pushing allies and enemies outside and preventing them from entering. This forcefield lasts for 4 seconds, or until Maghda leaves the zone.

Background note : This ability is a modified version of an ability Maghda uses in her D3 boss fight.

R2 : Ritual of Binding :

Mana Cost : 100 / Cooldown : 80 seconds / Range : Medium

Curses an enemy hero with demonic energy. After one second, tethers emerge from that hero and latch on to every other enemy heroes nearby. 15% of the damage dealt to an enemy hero is shared to every other heroes they are bound to.

These tethers can be broken when the heroes bound move far enough from each other, otherwise last until death. Each chain is considered a seperate entity, and breaking only one will not cancel the ability. ex: A Tyrande bound to Malfurion and Illidan will need to move away from both Malfurion and Illidan to break both her chains, otherwise she will remain bound to the hero she has kept close to even if the third moves away and breaks its own tether.

Background note : This ability mimics Maghda's demonic power in the infamous Act 1 cutscene in D3.

Talents :

Level 1 :

Quest - Unending Corruption : After 60 enemies die while affected with Swarm of Flies, Swarm of Flies transfers to another target even if it does not kill its victim.

Quest - Corrosion : Hitting 20 heroes with Spit without dying causes Spit to deal 160 (+2.5%) damage over its duration.

Ominous Presence : Upon swapping place with an Apparition, Maghda gains unobstructed vision around her and reveals enemies nearby for 3 seconds.

Level 4 :

Carrion Beasts : Swarm of Flies does 20% increased damage to enemies affected by Spit, and transfers Spit upon changing target.

Cold and Precise : Spit passes through enemies, stopping only when hitting heroes.

Stand Aside : Casting Vessels of Chaos pushes all nearby heroes out of their melee range.

Hallucinations : Apparitions now gain Arcane shields that make them immune to the first auto-attack or ability that hit them every 6 seconds.

Level 7 :

Active - Merciless Witch : Instantly sacrifice a friendly lane minion and steal 100% of its health. 40 seconds cooldown.

Arcane Sentry : Maghda's Apparitions now deal 50% of her damage to minions.

Visions of Hell : Maghda's basic attacks stun heroes for 0.1 second.

Bile : Maghda's basic attacks leave acid at her target's position for 3 seconds. This acid deals 8 (+3% per level) damage every second to enemies that stand on it.

Level 10 :

Arcane Shroud : R1.

Ritual of Binding : R2.

Level 13 :

Overwhelm : Killing an enemy with Swarm of Flies now causes it to split and move on to two new enemies.

Active - Arcane Shield : Maghda becomes Protected for 3 seconds. 60 seconds cooldown.

Brittle Wings : The mounting channel cannot be interrupted and being mounted cannot be cancelled by damage for its first second.

Glide : Swapping place with an Apparition grants Maghda 30% movement speed for 6 seconds.

Level 16 :

Plaguebringers : Swarm of Flies slows affected enemies by 5% every second, up to 35%.

Queen of Moths : Vessels of Chaos spawns more moths the longer it is channeled. Every second it is channeled, the spawn timer is reduced by 0.05 second, down to one moth every 0.05 second after 14 seconds of channeling.

Active - Devout Servants : Activate to use abilities out of Maghda's range at an Apparition's position for 6 seconds. 40 seconds cooldown. Can be used while dead.

Level 20 :

Uninterrupted Ritual : Enemies caught inside Arcane Shroud when it is cast are unable to leave it as long as it stands (R1 upgrade).

Epidemic : Ritual of Binding will seek new heroes to spread to every 2 seconds from every still affected heroes' positions (R2 upgrade).

Leader of the Coven : Every 10th attack against enemy heroes will spawn an untalented Swarm of Flies.

Soulless Heathens : Vessels of Chaos gain 200% damage against non-heroic units (excluding boss).

I'm super open to discussion, so feel free to comment on this kit, Maghda in general, this kit of escape-heavy / minion-cleaner hero, etc !

BTW, I tried to keep her as true to her D3 identity as possible while still carving her an interesting niche. I'm really not sure about the tuning of her abilities - I wanted her to be kind of on the weaker side damage wise, so I took Zagara's damage output as a template and severely lowered it.

submitted by /u/StrangerDancer
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What We Learned GCWC Day 5: Oof, ow, my core

Posted: 01 Dec 2017 12:56 PM PST

submitted by /u/trent_esports
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I would prefer to see my MMR like in SC2. Anyone agree?

Posted: 01 Dec 2017 05:42 PM PST

The point system in HL is okay, but I would rather see a number for my MMR to gain a better sense of how I stack up. I don't understand why they feel the need to hide information from the player.

submitted by /u/UncleSlim
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Minnesota LAN Tournament Casting

Posted: 01 Dec 2017 06:29 PM PST

Hey everyone!

Since my last post for the Minnesota LAN Tournament, we have acquired 9 teams that will battle it out tomorrow (12/2) beginning at 10am PST.

The format of the tournament will be an initial Group Stage to determine who makes it into the single elimination bracket.

The teams are: Team GG, The Fel Ferrets, K-State Wildcats, Daggercats, GigaOphers, 2Genz, Wolfpack, Sieging Wrath, Bone Boys

The stream will begin right at 10am PST for the first Group Stage match, so come check out the tournament! We've worked really hard to make this happen and we have a great turnout. It should lead to some very exciting games.

Casters:

https://www.twitch.tv/glaucus_heroes (10am PST Group Stage)

https://www.twitch.tv/nexuscommentaries

https://www.twitch.tv/bahamutgaming

https://www.twitch.tv/styxa

If you want to connect with us on Discord to keep up with the action, the discord server is here: https://discord.gg/G3XN2Ze

submitted by /u/s_fox
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Unofficial official Heroic Escape from Braxis speedrun leaderboard!

Posted: 01 Dec 2017 02:02 AM PST

submitted by /u/TheSwimmingCat
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[Illustrated skin ideas] Emerald Dream - Alexstraza and Chromie

Posted: 01 Dec 2017 04:24 AM PST

Hey guys! I've done two new skin concepts:

Follow me both in instagram and twitter for more skins! I'll be posting them over there mostly now.

I'd like to open up a little bit and share a little bit of my story with the skins now...

About 3 years ago my life turned upside down, everything was going bad all of sudden and by that time I received an invitation for HotS Alpha. It became my safe place, where I could have some fun and forget about all my problems. About 7 months ago my best friend got very ill and I was desperate. So I created my first skin concept to keep my mind busy. For my surprise the reaction of community was great and I kept doing them to keep my mind busy and started loving it! But then came the contest for getting a DVa Destroyer skin and when I didn't got it I got really sad because I posted tons of my skins with over 500-600 upvotes in a single image and submited and when I had the chance to get anything from it I got only 6 upvotes and didn't got the skin. Dude, I was sad. I was about to give up on it. I mean, I probably had already gave up. But then, all of sudden, /u/Royalite phase shifted and healed me! She sent me a message with some words, supporting my concepts and remembering me of why I've been doing the skins. I do it because I love doing it! I love to daydream about playing as a Lich King Anub'arak even if it's just a dream! I like to explore the possibilities, to create stuff and hope that any blue would see them and throw it into a brainstorm and maybe create a skin for Zul'jin where his scarf has a Roaring Mask of Bethekk painted over the mouth. Sometimes I spent my whole day creating a skin instead of actually playing and I do it because I love it! After the Soothing Mist, weird enough, I could stand up and fight for a lot of things I couldn't for the last 3 years. I'm turning my life downside-up again and my way of saying thank you to Royalite was creating the Alexstraza skins, so I hope she and all of you likes it!!

Thanks a lot for all your support, time and for dreaming with me! And oh, Toquinho, my dog is sleeping right by my side now with 16yo :)

submitted by /u/HexerVooDoom
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Why doesn't BW polymorph dismount enemy heroes ? (Bug?)

Posted: 01 Dec 2017 05:21 AM PST

Being a BW enthusiast, I've played my fair share with the hero… But I always wondered why her polymorph wasn't able to dismount enemy heroes (Unless you pick unstable anomaly at lvl 4) ? I know medivh polybomb does dismount enemy heroes... so I dont see why her doesn't ?

Bug ? Let me know what you think !

submitted by /u/solomoc
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THH: Sneak peak esports segment

Posted: 01 Dec 2017 06:18 AM PST

submitted by /u/Projectxrun
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A while ago I made a post asking for help getting out of silver, here are the results so far...

Posted: 01 Dec 2017 03:01 AM PST

So far I have managed to climb from silver 4-5 to Gold 2 at the height so far. I have since fallen back to gold 5. Here are some things I have noticed during the climb that could help someone else in this struggle...

I would highly recommend either specializing in tank or support. It makes things much easier when you can control one of those roles yourself without having to rely on others for it.

There is not much of a difference at all between gold or silver. In fact, I think the gold bracket is worse than silver. Both in terms of the quality of players, and the toxicity of the game as a whole.

Trolls are just as frequent in gold as they are in silver, though in gold people are more likely to become tilted after the first death/comment and intentionally throw the game for ego's sake. My advice here is to turn off chat. Do not say anything in chat, and just ping if something is needed.

The times you play, do matter. When I started this climb and broke out of silver and into gold 2 at the height, I was primarily playing late at night/early morning. The quality of matches was much, much better and the trolling/salt a lot loss frequent. This was probably the biggest factor in my climb. Afternoons and evenings I have found are the worst possible time to play this game. Late nights are far, far better.

One more thing I have noticed in this... It is the most crucial aspect of it... Never, ever say GG unless the one of the two cores is at 0. I cannot tell you how many times a game has been lost/won with cats on our core and we beat them, or vice versa. Or the amount of times we wipe them at our core and are able to finish. People are way too quick to give up simply after losing a team fight or whatever. The game is not over till the core is dead. That has been the biggest thing I have noticed besides the time when to play and not to play has been.

Once again I would like to thank the people whose advice helped me in the first place. The season is not over yet and I hope to end it in plat after this losing streak is over. Best of luck and thanks again!

submitted by /u/darwinwasright1775
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Free emojis by Alarak of the storm

Posted: 01 Dec 2017 03:34 AM PST

submitted by /u/Acrymonia
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If you could only rework ONE of the Lost Vikings, what would you do?

Posted: 01 Dec 2017 04:39 AM PST

Inspired by this line from the "what we learned in the Q&A" thread:

On Medivh/TLV/Diablo Rarely Updated… ONE is currently confirmed to be part of active rework.

How would you 'fix' vikings by updating only one of them? The other vikings need to stay unchanged. This means you can't add talents that affect the other vikings and their talents remain unchanged.

submitted by /u/vexorian2
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Banners!

Posted: 01 Dec 2017 12:50 PM PST

Banners have been a really cool way to show a little more flair with your characters but there are so many banners missing. A large portion of the heroes don't have banners which represent them or match well with their skins. For example Gazlowe, The Lost Vikings, all of the angles, Chen, Ragnaros, and pretty much every villian seem to lack a banner. I feel really stupid running around as Diablo with a horde banner or Gul Dan with a witch doctor banner. Can we get some more banners Blizz?

submitted by /u/Ratoara
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A not so regular Alexstrasza vs Lucio duel

Posted: 01 Dec 2017 07:37 AM PST

https://gfycat.com/IdleUniformGarpike

Butt clenching intensifies.

submitted by /u/fourpickledcucumbers
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Abathur Helps Tracer Hit 88 Miles Per Hour

Posted: 30 Nov 2017 10:46 PM PST

submitted by /u/direhuman
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Prismaticism has been doing extremely educational daily VOD analysis of all the GCWC games

Posted: 30 Nov 2017 10:19 PM PST

Prismaticism, who was recently on R20, just started streaming. He has been doing extremely educational daily VOD analysis of all the GCWC games. He plans on doing the VOD analysis for all the GCWC games.

Whether you're new to the game or a GM in HL, you can learn a lot from his VOD analysis. Check out his stream here: https://www.twitch.tv/prismat

edit: He'll start streaming again today at 4pm PST/7pm EST

submitted by /u/pleasureetpayne
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Breaking News

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Breaking News

Heroes of the Storm - In Development: Hanzo, New Skins, and More!

Heroes of the Storm - In Development: Hanzo, New Skins, and More!

The Dark Templar

The Great War

Brood War

In Search of the Truth

Coming Darkness

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