Editing StarCraft (section)

===[[Eldar|The Protoss]]===
Highly advanced psychic warriors, the Protoss are an ancient and highly technologically advanced race, possessing access to teleportation tech, forcefields, cybernetic exo-suits, robots and energy weapons...but [[Meme|you must construct additional pylons]]. They are divided into two primary factions: the Khalai and the Nerazim, but derogatively called by the Khalai as "Dark Templars". The difference is more cultural than anything: Khalai draw their psychic energy from "The Khala", the collective mental energy subconsciously produced by all Protoss, which they mentally tap into and use for communication or psionic energy storms. Nerazim abandoned the Protoss homeworld of Aiur generations ago over their belief that the Khala was unnatural, and brought the risk of reducing Protoss to mindless drones in a great mental hive. Metaphorically and literally severing themselves from the Khala, they are instead able to tap into "the darkness between the stars", allowing for more shadowy psi-powers like invisibility and teleportation. Khalai generally tend to be lawful stupid, [[Imperium|full of self-righteousness, glory, honor, noble sacrifice and burning heretics]], while Nerazim are more pragmatic, cynical and bro-tier, if a bit sinister. The sequel introduces a third faction, the Tal'darim, who left Auir before the invention of Khala and thus have no external source to empower their psychic powers - they compensate by using psychic drugs and taking power from their subordinates. They worship Xel'Naga and built an insane society based on social Darwinism and strict hierarchy - less [[Dark Eldar]], more Sith Order(complete with edgy black clothes and red lightsabers) with more straightforwardness and less backstabbing.

Protoss are the "slow 'n' tough" faction; they're extremely expensive and slow to produce, but they can take a hell of a beating, thanks to all their units and buildings coming with forcefields as standard (for example in direct confrontations their basic warrior the Zealot in both games will win against its counterparts the Marine and the Zergling if equal resources are put into them, not taking into account other supports). They fall between Terrans and Zerg when it comes to base building; uniquely, they teleport their buildings into place so they need fewer builders, but they need established power-grids, otherwise their buildings won't work. This also gives them a key infrastructure weakness, as it means you can cause buildings to stop working if you destroy the (conveniently fragile) generators powering them. Protoss armies tend to be "deathballs" relying on a single concentrated fist brutally plowing through the enemy defenses, while casually soaking up incoming damage, although vulnerable to being simultaneously attacked from multiple directions or being outmaneuvered, with enemy armies bypassing said deathball and attacking the Protoss base directly.

In the original Starcraft, you play as a Khalai Executor (A Templar commander, confirmed to be Artanis) seeking to defend Aiur, the Protoss homeworld, from the coming Zerg invasion. Things go not as planned by the end of the campaign due to internal strife.

In the Brood War, you play as an Executor (speculated to be Selendis, a student of Artanis) seeking to help the Protoss survive after they have been driven from Aiur by relocating them to the Dark Templar world of Shakuras, which is more problematic than it sounds due to the fact that Khalai Templars see the Dark Templars as heretical outcasts (although the Dark Templars themselves were more than welcoming of their holier-than-thou brethren). If you thought the first campaign was filled with political dissent since Tassadar's shenanigans, this has as much, if not more intra-species conflict.

In the Protoss-focused sequel, Legacy of the Void, you play as Artanis (the Tassadar fanboy) reuniting all the Protoss groups, retaking Aiur, blowing up Shakuras cause fuck you and making the preparations for the final showdown against Amon. Easily the darkest of Starcraft II's campaigns with about the first half being mostly pyrrhic victories against Amon, till Artanis goes on the offensive and starts getting some real (if a bit costly) victories. Eventually, they get Kerrigan to kill Amon, and let her hoof it to the dark corners of space with her boytoy Raynor. 

Like Heart of the Swarm, you get variants for units. This varies from what you get normally to lots of campaign exclusive units, which includes lots of OP stuff like cloaked warriors that can comeback if killed. But the real fun comes from this giant ship called the Spear of Adun that can do anything from kill enemies with giant guns or giant lasers, to automatically constructing an additional pylon wherever you want and warp your army straight to it.

====Protoss Units====
'''Probe:''' The Protoss' worker unit. Its unique gimmick is that it ''summons'' structures into place, so rather than needing to devote multiple workers to building like the Terrans and Zerg, a Protoss player can have a single little robot running around and planting magical energy bubbles wherever the player wants buildings to pop into existence.

'''Zealot:''' Basic melee trooper; a Protoss warrior who [[Soulknife|punches things with daggers of concentrated hate]]. My life for Aiur! Is the strongest of the basic units, being the only one that can survive a hit from a Siege Tank's big gun.

'''Dragoon:''' Basic ranged trooper; a mortally wounded Zealot stuck in a walking life support unit mixed with a plasma-blasting turret, ala a [[Dreadnought]]. Largely absent for most of StarCraft II, replaced with the newly invented '''Immortal''' (much tankier, and with twin dual-linked blasters meant for punching through armor) and the '''Stalker''' (the Dark Templar analogue, able to teleport short distances). Eventually it returned in Legacy of the Void's campaign where they hit harder and deal more damage.

'''Adept:''' Female Protoss warriors armed with teleportation and psi-powered blasters. Introduced in StarCraft II. They like doing long-ranged dive attacks into the enemies backline and economy, but are piss poor as part of your main line due to their slow attack speed and low range. 

'''High Templar:''' Protoss mystic that can't attack, but can cast a number of useful spells, including blasting an area with a psionic lightning storm. Two High Templars can merge into an '''Archon''', an [[elemental]] of pure psionic energy that has great shielding, but shitty health, and has no spells, but instead blasts ground and air targets with [[rape|psi-beams]]. In recent balance patches High Templars gained an attack that does as much damage as a thrown water balloon.

'''Dark Templar:''' Perma-cloaked Protoss [[assassin]]s with [[Soulknife|beefier versions of the Zealot's psi-blade]]. Initially appeared as campaign only units in the first game before the expansion. Gains teleportation in StarCraft II. Dark Templars are by far the most fragile unit of the Protoss roster but can oneshot workers and most early game units. As such, they can also support your main line while remaining cloaked and even after your main force is defeated... until detectors arrive on the scene. Two Dark Templars can merge into a '''Dark Archon''' in Brood War & StarCraft II, which is like an Archon that has the spellcasting abilities of a High Templar. It's weaker than the regular Archon in direct combat but still powerful due to their unique abilities which include mind control. Legacy of the Void's campaign brought it back where it's built like a normal unit and can now fight. It's not as strong as a regular Archon, though it's still really strong packs really strong spells. 

'''Sentry:''' Robotic support drone that can broadcast protective energy fields to make allies tankier, block off paths with forcefield walls and project illusions of protoss units that [[Wat|can fly around and see things independently, making them great scouts]].

'''Reaver:''' Slug-like robotic tanks that need to build its ammunition - kamikaze robot drones called "Scarabs" - individually. Packs a hell of a punch, but expensive and slow moving.

'''Colossus:''' Giant walkers with insanely long legs that rake the ground with heat rays. They are so tall they can casually walk up and down cliffs, but are vulnerable to anti-air fire. Only found in StarCraft II.

'''Disruptor:''' Robot drone that can launch exploding bolts of pure psionic energy. Only found in StarCraft II.

'''Observer:''' A Probe reworked into an invisible scout and detector of cloaked enemy units.

'''Shuttle:''' Basic Protoss transport ship. Replaced in StarCraft II with the '''Warp Prism''', which can both teleport units across the map and act as a fill-in pylon.

'''Scout:''' Basic Protoss aerial unit, able to attack both ground and air targets.

'''Corsair:''' Dark Templar-created aerial support caster that has (pitiful) anti-air attacks but the ability to paralyze ground units.  A key component of Protoss's tendency to dominate the late game.

'''Carrier:''' Protoss battleship armed with a fleet of AI-controlled drones, called "Interceptors". These can be shot down and must be manually replaced, so they require a fair bit of micro-managing. While an iconic unit they struggled with attempts to make them viable due to the lack of damage from the Interceptors (since they did so little damage, they were only worth it if you massed them up, which is a precarious strategy for such an expensive units that gets countered by units that cost less than half), to the point where SC2 just kept them around for the iconic status while the Tempest was meant to take up their role. Legacy of the Void finally made them viable since their Interceptors are made much cheaper and can be sent out away from the Carrier without it having expose itself to fire, meaning it can actually function like a real world aircraft carrier. In lore they have beams meant for glassing planets though you never get to use those in gameplay outside of version used by a CO-OP commander.

'''Arbiter:''' Support vessel only found in the original StarCraft and Legacy of the Void's campaign; can teleport allies, freeze enemies in an area, and passively renders nearby allies invisible. The last ability doesn't work on other Arbiters so you don't get to a invisible army with them.

'''Phoenix:''' Fast-moving anti-air skirmish ships with the ability to use a Graviton Beam to levitate ground units into the air so they can then blow them up.  Slightly less obnoxiously OP than the Corsair it replaced.

'''Void Ray:''' Secondary offensive battleship that uses a focused laser beam attack; the longer it concentrates on one target, the more damage it does.

'''Tempest:''' Protoss battleship that acts as a ''very'' long-ranged siege unit, staying well out of harm's way and hurling destructive energy bolts.

'''Oracle:''' Aerial support caster that actually has surprisingly decent attack against Light type units, it detects hidden units, can peel back the fog of war, and paralyze things with its Stasis Ward. Only found in StarCraft II.

'''Mothership:''' The ultimate Protoss battleship...in theory. In practice, it had so many things going against it that the game eventually shifted to let you play with a wimpier version called the ''Mothership Core'' first that could then be upgraded into a proper Mothership. Actually, Motherships aren't battleships but support vessels. They replace Arbiters in StarCraft II as unit that cloaks and teleports allies. As a nice bonus can project fields of slowed time to reduce enemy movement speed and fire rates. Stronger versions tend to show up as boss enemies in campaigns. You never actually get to use the regular Mothership in Legacy of the Void's campaign, instead you get the Tal'Darim version that is more expensive, but significantly tougher, better armed, and its abilities are all focused on offense.

====Protoss Characters====
*'''Tassadar:''' The Protoss POV character for the first game, whom questions the pointless exile of the Dark Templars as they proved to be vital to the survival of their race and gets branded a [[heresy|heretic]] in return. Unfortunately, he martyrs himself when the Zerg attack Aiur.

*'''Zeratul:''' One of the few Dark Templars who manage to make friends with both Tassadar and Raynor, being rational enough to understand when he'd need help. He accidentally gives away the location of Aiur to the Zerg Overmind while destroying one of it's Cerebrates, which ends with Aiur being eaten by the Zerg and him being branded a renegade. In SC2, he becomes the guy who figures out long before anyone else what is actually going in the universe and scrambles to keep the sector from eating itself, but barely anyone listens to him. He sacrifices himself to free Artanis from Amons control. 

*'''Artanis:''' Tassadar's protégé and POV character for Brood War and Legacy of the Void. Eventually finds a way to unite all of the Protoss kindred against Amon. Starts out as a zealous crusader befitting of his station as Templar Executor, softens up after the events of SC1 and Brood War to become an idealist hell-bent on reclaiming Aiur, but unlike Matt Horner or Ariel Hanson isn't afraid to cut you to size if you cross him. 

*'''Fenix:''' Artanis' friend who sacrifices himself to protect the gates as the Protoss fled from Aiur. Proper bro-tier Zealot champion concerned with little else but fighting honorably and having a proper brawl to participate in. He is mortally wounded in the invasion of Aiur and comes back as a Dragoon in brood War, where he meets his final end when Kerrigan betrays him. 
**'''Talandar:''' So during Legacy of the Void, Artanis comes across knowledge of the Purifiers, an abandoned army of [[Transformers|transforming]] Protoss [[Dreadnoughts]] who are programmed with the memories of their dead brethren. Among them was one who carried the memories of Fenix. Though he stuck to this story at first, he eventually realized that just because he had Fenix's memories didn't necessarily mean that he had to be Fenix. Thus, the name change to Taldanis.

*'''Alarak:''' The leader of the Tal'darim, a subrace of Protoss who essentially channel the [[Dark Eldar]] and is delightfully voiced by John DeLancie. Alarak finds that the current policy of the Tal'darim aiding Amon is proving to be less useful than allying with his own kindred, especially once he finds out that Amon was betraying his kind as well. He's just as deceitful as one expects, only upholding his deal to not betray Artanis because of their non-aggression pact. Dishes out priceless insults by the minute against everyone he meets, including his own kin.