StarCraft Lore: Every Protoss Unit Explained

Howdy Folks! I hope this finds you well! Thank you so much for taking the time to watch this video on the explanation of each protoss unit in starcraft and brood war. I would love to know what your favorite unit was, and read about your memories of this iconic RTS faction. I love Starcraft so much, and I know you do to. Lets start beating the drums so Microsoft can at least hear our thoughts! There is so much in this universe and lore that needs exploring, regardless of the media!

If you're interested in more Starcraft Lore, check out these videos:

As always, thank you so much for taking the time; it wouldn't mean half as much without your comments and thoughts on the games I cover!

All the best,

Dog Dad

[Nurhaal]

Reaver: Repurpased mobile manufacturing plants. Reavers are actually machines invented and used by the Kahlai caste of Auir Protoss society for their use in assisting in construction projects. Their use was mandated by the very low Protoss birthrate and the support for outer colonial expansion and construction necessitated the needs for robotic drones to help accomplish tasks. By the time of the Brood Wars and the Zerg Invasion of Koprulu? Reavers were largely dormant, a symbol of a bygone expansist era of the Protoss Golden Age. They were repurposed for the Zerg invasion to launch Scarab Drones whcih are basically cruise missiles that are small enough to manufactured with the Reavers on board manufacturing plant.

Probe: Literally a surveillance scout for the vanguard of the Protoss expidition forces back in the Golden Age. A theme arises where much of the Protoss robotic units are recycled, and the Probe is no exception. Its a recycle scounting drone that has been repurposed for mining, and contains within it a micro assembly bay which constructs and deploys the beacons used to Warp-In structures.

Shuttle: the Shuttle's lore is limited due to it being a rather simple unit. It is however robotic, and again this is a theme of the Protoss due to birthrates. Yes the Protoss went to war with themselves a lot but this was before Adun came along andnshanged everything with the Khala. Only the Dark Templar would reject the Khala in the end, leaving the remaining Protoss completely unified. However as the Protoss are uniquely biologically designed by the Xel-naga, the lore says that they have extremely low birth rates which becomes problematic during the Golden Age of expansion which followed the Aeon of Strife. By the time of Brood War, the Protoss are dying out even if they had no War to fight. Hence the reliance on machines.

Arbiter: Quite literally a Fleet Temple, to some degree, though it belongs to the Judicator Caste and is manned by high ranking Judicators. The Arbiter amplifies the psionics of the Protoss crewing it and its functions are focus on manipulating Space-Time entire. The cloaking field, recall and stasis abilities are described as Space-Time based effects, making the Arbiter a pinnicle of Space-Time manipulation and technology.

Observer: A very old drone, Observers are meant to catalog and record events for storing in the grand Archive of the Templar. Like the Probes, theyre a vangaurd scout but theyre tailored to deep space exploration and intellegenc gathering, which necessitated their need for stealth via a cloaking field. Its said the cloak is similair to the field emitted by the Arbiter, just a micro version and one that only effects itself instead of the vast space-time around it.

Zealots: Belonging to the Templar caste, Zealots are pre-Templar status followers that have not yet aged and learned enough to achieve higher power. Theyre akin to Padawans in Star Wars. They ruthlessly train for centuries for combat, as per the Stewardship invented after Aduns efforts, Templar Zealots can specialize as martial focused while the other castes specialize elsewhere for society. This makes Zealots Jedi levels of bad ass in power but definitely always in warface. They channel a rage to help charge their psionic ability in order to maintain their shields and their psionic blades, as well as increasing their combat prowess physically. A lore accurate Zealot is a death machine to a squad of Marines.

Dragoons: slain templar that are otherwise unrecoverable bodily to their original state are placed in coffins known as Dragoons if they wish to continue their service to the Conclave. These units are heavily inspired by Warhammer 40k, as theyre akin to the Dreadnoughts for the Space Marine factions, which are also walking coffins holding near dead Space Marines are permanent robotic pilots manning death machines. The Dragoons are the Protoss equivalent of a Preatorian Guard, with their pilots being well aged veterans with ample experiance in combat.

Scouts: these units serve as another tidbit of hints as to the Protoss's history. Scouts are literally that, Scout vessels. One of their upgrades, which I believe is called Apial Sensors? Is a hint to this - an Upgrade that specifically allows the Scout to... scout better. Lore wise, its said that the Scout may be regard as just a scout by Protoss fleet metrics, but to other races its still so powerful that its considered a heavy fighter. So why are their no fighters? This was explained sometime after the Aeon of Strife in which the actual Protoss dedicated War Machines were largelt sealed away, as the Protoss changed themselves in light of the Great Stewardship, something of a 'Prime Directive' type of spafe-faring policy in which theyd at times assist, but mostly never intervene with other races affairs and theyd also simply explore and observe. Hence why so many units are focused on exploration roles. The Scout is no exception. Actual Protoss fighter craft were simply disassembled or lost to time during their self imposed disarmerment.

Dark Templar: yeah make a video on them. They're the rival faction to that of the Khalai, refusing to submit to the way of the Khala itself. Adun is integral in this story line as it revoles around the Aeon of Strife and their subsequent banishment after they refuse to submit. The Nazarhim's psionic energies not being based on Khala sources, and also inspired by the likes of the Ulraj crystal as well, made their psionic abilities manifest differently. They can warp space-time much more fluently and effertlessly than the Auir Protoss can, which why the DTs can cloak and in SC2, Zeratul is even capable of teleporting and Stalkers use Blink.

Archon/Dark Archon: what happens when two Protoss come together and love eachother? They make burning suns of pure raw psi energy... lore wise, an Archon formation is a Sacrifice as the Archon merges two individual souls into one soul. The power unleashed is so immense that theyre expected to always burn out and die at a rapid rate, having shortened life spans. Dark Archons dont seem to have this issue, as a Hero Unit Archon exists in BW called Ulrezaj, which existed during the Aeon of Strife and lasted for quite awhile. These beings are massive sources of spiritual energy and Psi, making them an apex of protoss existence should 2 members be so committed to submit to such a fate. Its said that each member Templar that does choose this fate is always remembered as heroes and recorded in the Templar Archives as such.

Corsiars: These are raiders and scouts which tend to act as cover or provide screening for DT forces. Theyre not intended for direct combat but instead, harassment and hit and runs, which is themetic to the DT way. Theyre the closest we got to an actual dedicated fighter even though its classification would be that of a Light one.

Carrier: Command ships for the Judicators and Templar castes and often heads of the fleet. Carriers embody the latent mindset of Protoss society to rely on mostly robotic or drone based systems in order to reduce burdens and losses on actual living Protoss. There for, just like Probes and Reavers, Carriees also carry with them onboard manufacturing plants to build and replace their interceptor drones.

[VGInterviews]

The best part waa using the Dark Archon to mind control another race's worker and allowing you to access every unit in the game

[admiralmurphy]

Additional lore on Zealot power armor: each set is custom fit to the wearer and it gives the zealot something much more important than simple plasma shields or psi blades. Each and every set of power armor is equipped with a personal emergency recall which can be activated either manually or automatically if the warrior's life is in critical danger.

Meaning most, but not all, of the zealots that "die" in game are beat to hell, but perfectly fine and recoverable. They only become a dragoon when the warrior is crippled beyond repair.

[joey]

'Someone' does not go around the battlefield to pick up dying zealots. When a zealot is 'killed', it actually activates an emergency teleport that pulls them from the battlefield. That's that blue glowing thing you see when they lose all their HP.

[leadedbison]

GOD THE ULTRALISK AND ARCHON SCENE IS SO GOOD gets me every time dude

[isimiel]

Lore wise Carriers actually mount a forward facing Purifier beam (think glassing beams from halo) no idea why its not in game at all though

[sportspro.]

What's interesting to me with the Protoss, at least in Starcraft 1, is that while the Protoss are definelty a militaristic race, there are ships, vehicles, and the like that are closer to converted civilian vehicles than military hardware.
The Scout is a really good example since, well, it's a Scout, its job is to travel to planets, investigating the galaxy for habitable planets, the just gave it a gun so it can defend itself. It's an ancient design, coming from an era called "The Golden Age of Expansion" which was centuries in the past, far, far before Starcraft.
Archon's are pretty interesting, there like small stars, they burn bright, but burn out fast. Dark Archons especially since their pretty unstable compared to their Khali brothers. The one exception you see is Ulrezaj, but even that's a special case as that's an Archon made from 7 Templar (Ulrezaj is the dominant personality).
Also, one thing I should mention is that Protoss is probably hit the hardest from a lore to gameplay difference power wise. In lore, Protoss are generally bullshit strong, you just have to watch cinematics where Protoss Zealots cleave through whole armies worth of Zerg. Hell the clip of the Archon killing the Ultralisk isn't even possible in the game it was advertising, as even at 3/3 stat boosts, an Archon still loses to an Ultralisk.

[halqthedarktemplar]

The zealot armor can detect when the zealot is heavily injured and teleport him back thanks to a khaydarin crystal. That's how they manage to get back and serve as dragoons later

[raccoonwizard]

Im honestly a bit amazed these videos arent garnering more traction. Maybe its just because I happened to go into a Brood War phase a couple weeks ago and you just happened to start uploading Brood War lore videos at the same time. But this game is genuinely something special and I appreciate you for still talking about it

[screamingcactus]

I find it funny how how high templar are spellcasters without an attack, but become archons, a tanky unit with no abilities but a powerful attack, while on the flip side you have dark templar, who are stealthy assassins with a powerful attack that morph into dark archons, a powerful spellcaster with no attack

[matteofontana_]

in starcraft evolution, it is said that the warp prism replaced shuttles in battle, but the shuttle is still used to transport objects, like a truck

[epilepticus]

This is the best video of all time slapped me right in the nostalgic face SC rocks and this was great! My only beef is I wish this vid was longer haha, you’re awesome

[nathanrichards]

It does find me well, thank you!
Speaking of finding - I just found your channel today and feel lucky to get another great new video on the same day :)

[josemarierubite]

Very underrated channel. I hope more people finds this. Looking forward to the Zerg units explained!

[lynkylo]

Great! I am so glad to find more videos about starcraft lore, it's really cool to see!

[Dog.Dad.Studios]

Howdy Folks! I hope this finds you well! Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to watch my content. I'd love to know what your favorite Protoss lore is, which unit was your favorite back in the day, or now, and was the Protoss Campaign your favorite? I truly appreciate the dialogue about a universe that deserves so much, and has sadly been left to the road.. People of Aiur, Overmind lovers, and every human UED or Colonist.. StarCraft deserves the spotlight again, even if its a 2D point and click game! Let's make it happen!! If nothing else, sharing memories and realizing that this game and series meant so much to so many people should be acknowledged.

All the best,

Dog Dad

[nazmilao]

14:41 I love the Corsair's propulsion animation. I was so mesmerised by that, and the sound it makes when it's attacking

[boba]

Fenix was my favorite character as a kid i was so heart broken when he dies only to find out they brought him back only to kill him again

[jareddavid]

Zealot 1: yo don't foget to sign the waiver
Zealot 2: what waiver?
Zealot 1: you know the one where it says that it's ok for them to put your dead protoss ass in a dragoon when u get killed in battle.
Zealot 2: that is so cool!

[hyperdimensionbliss]

"The Protoss have this inate ability to go to war with each other, a lot."

Ah, they're space Europeans, that's why they're so far ahead of the Terran.