Protoss & Star Wars

[rhoenix]

I bet the title made several of you blink vigorously and think "wait, what?"

The original idea was the last story idea I had where I used my old approach to writing - which was basically entirely by the seat of my pants. I'd like to re-approach this story idea, since the other story idea I'm working on requires too much painstaking behind-the-scenes work right now.

Basically, here's the plot I'm going for, and I'll ask your opinions afterward.

- I'm ignoring anything from Starcraft 2, but may lift an idea or two from there - especially because it establishes older Protoss history. And toys.

- Basically, the Protoss remaining are in bad shape, find a large, old portal deep within the temple of the Xel'Naga on Shakuras, and they go through it to some planet within the Star Wars time and galaxy.

- Time frame to be determined, but basically a Sith happened to be landing there, talks some shit, gets into a fight with Zeratul, and dies.

- Since our friend the Sith came on a ship fully capable of hyperdrive and other modern SW techology (including weapons), the emerging Protoss get something to tinker with for a while.

- Time passes, and they're essentially ignored for a century or two while they reverse-engineer the craft, and attempt to supplement their own technology with it.

- Along the way they discover the secret of the Twilight Archon, which is a combination of Light and Dark. Soon afterward, one of their more adventurous technicians manages to infuse a Khaydarin crystal with both High Templar and Dark Templar energies. The first few attempts explode with a shocking amount of power, but the technician manages to create a stable one eventually. This stable one provides an amazing amount of power steadily for a very long time - on the level of hypermatter.

- Protoss technology, stagnant for many centuries, is now unencumbered by old tradition and old fears. Progress along many Protoss fields of study and practice improve at a rapid pace (almost as fast as the Terrans, Zeratul would remark once as a rare joke).

- On this planet, when the Protoss establish their third major city on this new world of theirs, discover a Xel'Naga artifact. This artifact is far older than the one on Shakuras, and hints that the Xel'Naga originally came from the Star Wars universe.

Okay, all this stuff I at least have bad notes for, so this is pretty solid. From there unfortunately, the plot is essentially "go find out who the Xel'Naga were in this strange galaxy while fending off interstellar war, and other plot twists aside."

So, now for Question Time.

1. After the Protoss establish themselves on their new world and detect the Holonet through the captured ship, what sort of effect would this whole situation have on their social psychology?

2. What about their military doctrine and tactics, as well as unit types? How would their approach to war change, given the emerging new technologies as well as seeing examples from elsewhere in the galaxy via the Holonet?

3. Given an initial population of 58,000 Protoss on this planet (most of which are scientists and engineers of varying types), how long would it take them to recreate or duplicate the technology on the ship they captured?

Any questions or comments of yours are appreciated, as they would only help me solidify this story idea for writing that much more. Thank you in advance.

[rhoenix]

And now for my own answers, as the above questions are ones I'm currently working on as this tale and plot develops.

As before, ideas, thoughts, and feedback are welcomed.

1. After the Protoss establish themselves on their new world and detect the Holonet through the captured ship, what sort of effect would this whole situation have on their social psychology?

My first thought would be a collective "Oh, shit...," followed by some dramatic upheaval sociologically, as the Protoss who're more ready to move forward into a new era argue and battle against the traditionalist types. Considering in this timeline the Traditionalist faction was nearly responsible for killing their own race, this is a short, though bloody feud.

After this, work on translating Galactic Basic to how the Protoss communicate, and back, would begin. Given that they've already done so with the Terrans from their own universe, this would merely be doing so again...but coming from the exact opposite end of the spectrum technology-wise.

After all this, they would begin documenting everything they can view, and hopefully use it to assist them in reverse-engineering the small interstellar craft the Sith left behind. (And yes, I was tempted to use a Jedi instead, but that would have been more difficult to justify psychologically-speaking)

2. What about their military doctrine and tactics, as well as unit types? How would their approach to war change, given the emerging new technologies as well as seeing examples from elsewhere in the galaxy via the Holonet?

I would imagine it would change dramatically. Depending on the time in history in which they first arrive, they'd receive quite a bit of inspiration. If this is during or after the time of the Galactic Empire, they'd learn how the Empire conducted war, after filtering out the propaganda - and they'd all collectively shit their pants.

Work would immediately begin to not only counter what they've observed effectively, but also to exploit weaknesses among observed troops and ships. All the more familiar Protoss technology would likely resemble their forebears in spirit only after a few technological generations forward, and this even less so as time goes on.

However, their technology with Psionics is something I would imagine they would relentlessly pursue, not only because it is a field of study that others in this galaxy don't view the same way (because through writer's fiat, I'm having Light Side / Dark Side Force abilities be powered by the same means and ways as the Protoss abilities. The main difference is that every Protoss has at least some ability with their psionics). This would be especially true after the secret of the Twilight Crystal technology was unveiled.

3. Given an initial population of 58,000 Protoss on this planet (most of which are scientists and engineers of varying types), how long would it take them to recreate or duplicate the technology on the ship they captured?

My very conservative guess, considering this is the equivalent of giving a bunch of children from the 9th century complete plans, tools, and parts to build a F-25 Raptor. Even so, this would take at least three or four centuries for them to even catch up the rudiments, more so for the finer points.

[rhoenix]

Next batch of questions:

4. What time-frame should I be looking at here? Should this be in the pre-movie era, post-movie era, or both?

5. What planet would work? Dathomir has been suggested, but there's a bit too much continuity with the Force Witches for that to be a probability.

6. Additional conflicts - since the Protoss are going to eventually be scouring the galaxy for Xel'Naga artifacts, I want to give them a main conflict or struggle as a main attraction while the plucky few questors go looking for artifacts. So, who should be the antagonists? The Sith make good villains, but they're a bit trite.

[rhoenix]

4. What time-frame should I be looking at here? Should this be in the pre-movie era, post-movie era, or both?

After some further thought (but not research, as I haven't had much time this week), it seems best to bring them in roughly 1000 years before the Empire formed under Palpatine, and have them emerge into the galaxy at large about fifty years after the Empire is broken.

5. What planet would work? Dathomir has been suggested, but there's a bit too much continuity with the Force Witches for that to be a probability.

A quick look through Wookiepedia at school revealed that there aren't a whole lot of old artifacts that could conceivably be gates of some sort - which means Dathomir is really the best choice. If this is true (and Occam's Razor hates idea, due to necessary complications), then something must be done with the human and other refugees that ended up on Dathomir over the years. Perhaps setting them up with their own colony on another world and kept up communications and such with them (the Protoss reverting a bit to their Stewardship roles here) to keep an eye on them. In return, they are able to figure out Star Wars level technology more quickly than they would otherwise.

6. Additional conflicts - since the Protoss are going to eventually be scouring the galaxy for Xel'Naga artifacts, I want to give them a main conflict or struggle as a main attraction while the plucky few questors go looking for artifacts. So, who should be the antagonists? The Sith make good villains, but they're a bit trite.

It's actually highly tempting to use a rigid Jedi Order as the antagonists here, with some Sith thrown in for flavor here. The Jedi would see all "modern" Protoss encountered as "being touched by the Dark Side," which is technically true, as their culture for the past millenium revolved around healing the rift between the High and the Dark Templar into one people again.

This had the consequence of all Protoss learning the ways of both, even if they don't have the true capacity to become a true Templar. Therefore, the sense will be much stronger between, say, a Protoss scientist/engineer and a Twilight Templar, but in both cases Jedi would sense both the Light Side and Dark Side being more or less equal within a particular Protoss.

However, this "Dark Side taint" could conceivably be enough to have the Jedi Order proclaim them as dangerous as the Sith, and orders them to be scoured.

The few Sith that exist watch all this with amusement and a hint of planning, and attempts were made to seduce a Protoss to the Dark Side completely, which appears at first to succeed...

Next batch:

7. Technological Advancement. Planning out the New Protoss' technology based on what they had in StarCraft and Brood War, and combining that with what has been heavily observed and cataloged in the Star Wars universe will be...interesting. Everything from lightsabers to capital starship designs will have the heavy influence of both cultures.

8. Force Abilities. Since the simplest way is to simply treat Protoss Psionics as Force Abilities, it then begs the question of what a millenium of unrestrained creativity, testing, and experimentation can do for them, particularly with the Force Users in the Star Wars galaxy already.

9. The State of the Galaxy post-Empire. Since this will be partially set in the misty EU, this gives me some room to utterly ignore pretty much everything I haven't read out of the EU - which is everything. So, I'll be working on the aftermath of the Empire's fall galaxy-wide, which should take a while.

[rhoenix]

Well, this began as a feedback request thread, but has since turned into a Writer's Notes thread for me to work on this.

Amusingly enough, the sociological, socio-psychological, economic, and technological questions of this little project is a fun exercise in philosophy compared to the work I've still left to do with the other story I'm working on.

I'm not going to tackle questions 7, 8 or 9 yet - right now, I'm going to try working out about where the Protoss were tech-wise at the time of their exodus to Shakuras, which would give good indications as to how far they have to go to catch up to SW-level tech, as well as what their own individual changes and modifications would be once they got to that point.

- Artificial Intelligence.
From their behavior in the game and in cutscenes, the Protoss had if not perfected the art of artificial intelligence, then they at least had it going pretty damn well. Each autonomous unit was able to take others into account, and communicate with other autonomous units as well as live Protoss units with equal ease.
If the Protoss aren't on par with the SW universe in this regard, then they're pretty damn close.

- Psionics-based communication.
It appears that all communication between Protoss is psionic in nature, as are all the autonomous units. This enables a Protoss to communicate with an AI-based unit or another Protoss with near-equal ease. This would also accelerate traffic control, and shorten the length of time it would take for military orders to go up and down the chain of command.
This is a special consideration, only comparable to SW-level technology by its effects and range. Range for Protoss Psionic communications is unknown, but given the need for relaying crystals, the range appears to be rather short.

- FTL Technology
The Protoss use some odd form of Gravatic Drive for their FTL, and to the best of my memory, any sort of speed for their FTL drive wasn't mentioned. However, considering nearly all Protoss are found in the same section of the galaxy, their FTL capabilities are obviously nowhere near SW-levels.

- STL Propulsion Technology
Appears to utilize some form of drive with decent maneuverability, but this is truly a grey area. Capabilities unknown, but likely far below SW-levels.

- Weapons Technology
Including DET (Direct Energy Transfer) weapons, other forms of energy weapons, missiles of various types, and the like. Their weapons technology appears to be quite varied, but all far below SW-levels of weaponry. The Protoss do not appear capable of a feat such as the Death Star as of yet. Though their weapons were capable of performing an equivalent to a Base Delta Zero Lite, the planetary assault took three Protoss ships a full day to complete, and the planetary crust penetration was unknown. I acn safely assume for these purposes, the Protoss are an impressive distance behind the SW-verse in this regard.

- Power technology
Utilizing a particular form of crystals that store forms of psionic energy for power, the Protoss as of the beginning of this timeline would not be capable of anything near to what hypermatter in the SW universe can do.

More as time and thoughts warrant.

[rhoenix]

7. Technological Advancement. Planning out the New Protoss' technology based on what they had in StarCraft and Brood War, and combining that with what has been heavily observed and cataloged in the Star Wars universe will be...interesting. Everything from lightsabers to capital starship designs will have the heavy influence of both cultures.

This is still heavily in progress, and I'll return to this point soon.

Their Caste system will have a heavy influence on early development, even as they abandon the fracture between High-born and Dark-born Protoss. The results will be certainly reminiscent in name and usually in basic function as from when they emigrated to this galaxy, but the process for that function and even many of the additional capabilities will be vastly different.

8. Force Abilities. Since the simplest way is to simply treat Protoss Psionics as Force Abilities, it then begs the question of what a millenium of unrestrained creativity, testing, and experimentation can do for them, particularly with the Force Users in the Star Wars galaxy already.

The best answer to this is essentially what happened to the SW galaxy and its denizens at large, with the added difference of the Protoss already beginning this equation with certain select Force abilities already firmly established from both Light and Dark Sides.

With that said, and with the Caste system they're beginning with, this would likely create different "schools" of sorts to compete with one another in a variety of areas, eventually giving rise to the combat arts that Templar and Zealots will use, though in very different terms from before.

9. The State of the Galaxy post-Empire. Since this will be partially set in the misty EU, this gives me some room to utterly ignore pretty much everything I haven't read out of the EU - which is everything. So, I'll be working on the aftermath of the Empire's fall galaxy-wide, which should take a while.

This I've already sketched out a bit for another SW story I was working on a bit that essentially had to do with The Lonliest Sith - an admitted Sith who was a "heretic." Most of the basics for the galaxy need expanding on, and it'll give me a bunch of already-made characters to add and tinker with in The Mad Writer's Laboratory.

It will also give me some good supporting characters which would fit quite well. If the Protoss are going to resume their Stewardship for humans or other aliens who drift or arrive in their space, then a decision will be made eventually as to how members of those races should be treated - essentially as children, or as possible valuable assets to the Protoss for what they are familiar with already?

This would likely give rise to a terraformed world set aside for the non-Protoss to inhabit, with communications setup properly to the Protoss worlds. Soon, schooling would be offered, essentially bringing the errant aliens to parity with where the Protoss are at that point in time. This would also likely drive innovation much more, simply due to more points of view, and different needs driving those point of view. If so, this would heavily influence #7 above.

If that's the case, and the Protoss ditch any remaining paranoia in the name of mystery-solving and progress, then the aliens could be integrated into Protoss society fairly easily. Once this happens, the shorter-lived races would likely display "frantic" progress compared to the more patient and longer-lived Protoss, but it would be a good influence overall, barring any "incidents."

[rhoenix]

Other technological considerations - since the Protoss are essentially being handed a small, but fully-equipped starship to tear apart and learn from, what wouldn't they be able to learn from it?

As I would think, this being a small ship capable of carrying the main Sith pilot, a few other crew if needed, and room for prisoners and cargo, it wouldn't have some of the perks one would see on, say, a Star Destroyer.

This means they wouldn't have any examples of the TIE technology that helped the Empire so much, and likely no real designs to examine for capital ship design in this galaxy. Essentially, they'd be using mostly their own ideas once the technological pieces of the puzzle were placed properly. For instance, they might not have access to Bacta.

I'll try to write up a capability list of what the Protoss were observed doing and capable of within the game and storyline, and try to write up a tree list of technologies that appear to correlate, so I can try to plot out how all those technologies would be supplemented or outright replaced by other, newer technologies.

For instance, their Gravatic FTL drive will likely be refined into use as light contragravity engines, reducing the effective mass a ship's engine has to push. This would give a supplemental reason for excellent agility of new Protoss-designed spacecraft, even in larger ships.

After some further thought, Humans would be a great boon to the Protoss starting out, especially if Dathomir already had Force Witches. If Jim Raynor and Raynor's Rangers come with the Protoss to this new place, the two groups of humans from very different galaxies could conceivably get together, and help the Protoss learn more things, and more quickly than they would on their own.

[rhoenix]

The added convolution of Raynor's Rangers and the Force Witches of Dathomir seems better and better, the more I think about it.

From Jim Raynor and his Rangers, the Protoss would have an opportunity to learn how the Humans/Terrans conduct and approach warfare and tactics. From the Force Witches, they'd learn a bit more about their own Force potential, an advancement that until they've come into his galaxy has been largely stagnant for centuries. It would also encourage progress in many other areas as well. As the saying goes, "many eyes can make a problem seem smaller."

With those two influences along with the Unification efforts by Zeratul and the others, the Protoss will likely have a very eventful millennium, and their territory would likely be quite a bit larger than it would be without the Human/Terran influence, for a variety of reasons.

Now, as for the greater galactic environment into which they'll be emerging - that needs some work. Since I haven't read much of the EU, I'm going to pretty much go my own direction with what happens following Palpatine's death, and the Empire's collapse. Any thoughts on this are appreciated, as they might help me with more directions for research and planning.

[rhoenix]

Most of this is purely academic; the needs of the story should outweigh the tech/societal-wanking.

Most of the elements and players are in place - all that remains is a common thread to bind them together into a woven tapestry - the story itself. And so far, no real plot and few distinct characters have presented themselves. At least, not yet.

I'll be taking Creative Writing in college this upcoming semester, which along with some of my writing books, will hopefully turn this into something much more than the sum of its parts. I'd rather have this be a good story that would enthrall the target reader (someone who doesn't know Star Wars or Starcraft well), as well as be technically accurate and plausible for the Star Wars and Starcraft fans.