Sarah Kerrigan
- This article is about the StarCraft universe character. For the novel, see StarCraft: Queen of Blades.
| Sarah Kerrigan | |
|---|---|
| StarCraft character | |
| Sarah Kerrigan | |
| First game | StarCraft |
| Created by | Blizzard Entertainment |
Sarah Louise[1] Kerrigan— who is styled the Queen of Blades in her role as mistress of the Zerg Swarms— is a major character in the fictional StarCraft universe. She is voiced by Glynnis Talken Campbell.
Biography
Early life
Sarah Kerrigan was born "psychically gifted", meaning she has the ability to use telepathy and telekinesis. Terrans who are born psychically gifted are taken by the Terran Confederacy at an early age to begin Terran Ghost training. Ghosts usually hold the rank of Specialist and serve as covert operations specialists.
Young Sarah Kerrigan had scored highly on all phases of the psi-evaluations even though she was only eight years old.[2] She had displayed her power once, however, on TarKossis,[2] an incident which killed her mother and damaged her father's brain. Since then, she was taken by agents of the Terran Confederacy to a training facility. Her most hated trainer was Lieutenant Rumm. He tried to break down her sense of right and wrong and to make her demonstrate her psionic power, as his superiors wanted incontrovertible proof that she was psychic. However, she refused, as she didn't want to relive what happened to her parents.
In order to cajole her into using the power, Rumm had a kitten injected with a chemical that would cause a tumor. Then he ordered Sarah to use her power to destroy the tumor (or at least put the kitten down). She refused, and Rumm put his pistol against the kitten's head and ordered her to do so again. Sarah still refused and Rumm didn't fire. He later discovered that Sarah had used her power on his pistol, destroying the firing mechanism. Even so, there were other explanations for the pistol's malfunction, so his superiors did not treat this as incontrovertible proof of Sarah's psionic powers. Thereafter, the tumor killed the kitten slowly and painfully.
A technician recommended the use of a neuro-adjuster, a device which would weaken a Ghost's psionic powers and ensure their loyalty to the Terran Confederacy, but Rumm refused.
Sarah was taken to another room and strapped to a chair with a needle against her skin. In another room, she could see her brain-damaged father, similarly strapped to a chair. Rumm's scientists were about to inject her father with the same substance that caused the growth of a tumor in the kitten unless Sarah cooperated with the Confederacy. Instead, Sarah said she would kill herself and her father rather than use the power for the Confederacy. She was injected with the needle and quickly lost consciousness. Rumm felt he had no choice now but to employ the neuro-adjuster.
Secret Missions
As her training completed, Kerrigan murdered countless enemies of the Terran Confederacy
Kerrigan later became part of the experiment at Vyctor 5's Fujita Complex involving Zerg. It was found that Zerg naturally responded to her telepathic commands. This training may have led to the production of the psi-emitter. It was here that she was rescued by the Sons of Korhal and had her neuro-adjuster surgically removed.[1] She eventually became Arcturus Mengsk's right-hand woman.
As part of the Sons of Korhal, she was involved in a nearly suicidal attack on the Ghost Academy on Tarsonis. She found Lt. Rumm (who had been promoted to Major) and took her rather messy revenge.
The Sons of Korhal
Kerrigan's first appearance in the game comes during the revolt of Antiga Prime. Kerrigan - now a 26-year-old Lieutenant with the Sons of Korhal - was dispatched to Antiga Prime to scout out the terrain and make contact with Sons of Korhal operative Jim Raynor and the rebel leaders. She assassinated the Confederate officers in charge of the Antigan base, placing it under the control of the Sons of Korhal. Later, Kerrigan and her men were sent to place a psi-emitter in a Confederate base on the planet, luring huge amounts of Zerg to break Confederate lines in order to escape undetected.
New Gettysburg
Uh... hey boys. How about that evac?
Late in the Terran campaign in the original Starcraft, after the Zerg were lured to the Confederate capital Tarsonis through the use of the psi-emitter, Kerrigan is ordered to protect the Zerg hives from the Protoss. This action would prevent the Confederates from escaping. Jim Raynor had pleaded with her not to go to the surface, but she insisted that she had to, and Raynor wished her luck. Upon completing her mission the Terran position was overwhelmed with Zerg, and Kerrigan issued a desperate plea for evac. Even though Jim Raynor searched for her via dropship right before the Sons of Korhal fleet disengaged, she had already been taken by the Zerg at that time. Arcturus Mengsk, on the other hand, ordered the entire Korhal fleet to disengage from the Tarsonis system, and (to Raynor's horror) left Kerrigan and her men to die on Tarsonis.
However, this caused a rift in Mengsk's forces, as Raynor and many men loyal to him defected. They had to battle their way out of the center of the Sons of Korhal fleet before running away in a dozen small frigates. After a few days, they raided the Dylarian Shipyards, and Raynor commandeered the Behemoth-class battlecruiser Hyperion. After some time, they renamed themselves the Raynor's Raiders.
Infested Kerrigan
Rebirth
I'll tell you her capabilities... she's Hell unleashed.
While on Tarsonis, the Zerg Overmind sensed Kerrigan's power, and ordered the swarms to capture her. Over the course of the first few Zerg missions Kerrigan is contained within a chrysalis and taken to Char, where she uses her telepathic power to reach out and contact Jim Raynor and Arcturus Mengsk. In each case the Terrans sent out a force to recover Kerrigan, and in each case they failed. Sarah Kerrigan is reborn into the Zerg Swarms, and adopts the name "Queen of Blades". With the assistance of the Cerebrate that protected her in the Chrysalis, she wipes out the forces of Edmund Duke, but as a last act of the friendship they shared, spares the lives of Jim Raynor and a small number of his men.
In-game, she is represented by a unique unit with similarities to an Infested Terran. However, instead of exploding, she is equipped with claws sprouting off her back, giving her powerful melee attacks. She can launch a high templar's psionic storm attack, can cloak herself, and can consume other Zerg to use their biological energy to fill her energy bar to power her other abilities.
She was infested by the Zerg evolutionary virus, and as a result of her shocking transformation, has telomeric additions to her DNA, suggesting she is potentially immortal - she will never die of old age. This is revealed in one of the loading screens of StarCraft: Brood War. Infested Kerrigan also has "polytoxic symbionts" in her musculoskeletal, limbic, and cardiovascular systems.
The Overmind said of her: "The greatness of her spirit has been left to her; that the Swarms might benefit from her fierce example. Fear not her designs, for she is bound to me as intimately as any Cerebrate."
Kerrigan quickly developed her psionic abilities after discovering the secrets of Ghost conditioning on a Terran Science Vessel, the Amerigo. She develops numerous abilities, including the psionic storm, probably an evolution of her previous abilities. From here, she begins a campaign of terror against the Protoss, namely Tassadar and Zeratul.
Kerrigan's abilities seemed to have made her overconfident. She was able to sense the presence of the Protoss Tassadar on Char, and ignored Zasz's warning that something was strange about this Templar. She challenged him to a duel, defeating his forces in order to get to him. It turned out to be a distraction of a "weapons test" - Tassadar's ally Zeratul believed that his Dark Templar energies would enable him to permanently slay a Zerg Cerebrate such as Zasz, and he was correct. Kerrigan showed no remorse upon the death of Zasz.
Kerrigan was later ordered to take revenge on the Dark Templar. She destroyed their base and drove Tassadar and Zeratul into hiding. As she searched for them, the Overmind took the majority of its forces to Aiur as part of its campaign to assimilate the Protoss. Kerrigan unexpectedly decided to remain on Char and keep hunting down the Dark Templar rather than assist in the conquest of Aiur. She later captured Zeratul and a number of Dark Templar in a Terran installation, which she had stolen from Alpha Squadron. However, Tassadar eventually emerged from hiding, striking an alliance with the Terrans trapped in the installation and rescuing the Dark Templar.
The final battle on Aiur ended when the Overmind was destroyed by Tassadar which left the Zerg Swarms extremely vulnerable. During this time, many Zerg Cerebrates desperately tried to create a new Overmind for the Swarms. However, Kerrigan began a campaign aimed at eliminating these Cerebrates in order to rule over the Swarms by herself.
As part of her plan, Kerrigan traveled to Shakuras, the secret homeworld of the Dark Templar and took control of their Matriarch, Raszagal. The Dark Templar did not suspect that there was anything different about their leader and they didn't find Kerrigan, who was in hiding.
Shortly afterwards Zeratul, Artanis and the Protoss survivors of Aiur travelled through the Warp Gate which connected Aiur to Shakuras. They were closely followed by Zerg which included two Cerebrates allied with Daggoth's new Overmind. These Cerebrates nestled around the Xel'Naga Temple, a powerful artifact capable of wiping the Zerg off of Shakuras.
Raszagal informed the newly-arrived Protoss of the Temple's powers which required the use of the two lost crystals: the Uraj and Khalis, but she ordered the Protoss to first slay the two Cerebrates around the Temple, which was done. Kerrigan made an appearance right after this event, asking to speak to the Matriarch. She claimed that with the Overmind dead, she was no longer being controlled. However, a new Overmind was growing on Char and when it reached maturity it would take control of her. The Protoss didn't trust her, but Raszagal (under her influence) welcomed her. Aldaris, a Judicator and former member of the Protoss Conclave didn't trust her at all, but because he had been at war with the other major Protoss players they didn't take his attitude very seriously.
Kerrigan was unsuccessful in convincing Zeratul in slaying the new Overmind but she did garner goodwill with the Protoss by helping them acquire the Khalis and Uraj.
Upon their return to Shakuras, Aldaris was in the midsts of launching a rebellion against Raszagal. He had discovered Kerrigan's influence on her, but he did not inform Artanis and Zeratul of this as he was killed by Kerrigan before he could tell them. Zeratul allowed her to leave because of the help she had delivered to the Protoss, but he warned her never to return. Kerrigan bragged that she had forced the Protoss to slay her enemies, the two Cerebrates on Shakuras, before fleeing the planet.
Zeratul and Artanis activated the Xel'Naga Temple and destroyed the Zerg on Shakuras.
Against the New Overmind
"I don't think so, Admiral. You see, at this point... I'm pretty much the Queen Bitch of the Universe, and not all of your little soldiers or space ships will stand in my way again. " - Infested Kerrigan to Admiral DuGalle
During StarCraft Episode V the United Earth Directorate acquired the Psi Disruptor, a powerful anti-Zerg weapon, but the leader of the UED force, Admiral DuGalle, squandered its use due to the influence and advice of Samir Duran. Vice Admiral Stukov disassembled the device and hid it from DuGalle, which would spark charges of treason.
Exploiting the fear of the United Earth Directorate, Kerrigan put together a coalition with Fenix and Jim Raynor. She had previously been involved in a relationship with Jim Raynor, the exact nature of which is unknown, when both were members of the Sons of Korhal. This made it easy for her to manipulate them. Fenix didn't trust her at all, but Raynor's fear of the UED was strong enough for him to persuade Fenix to fight alongside him and Kerrigan.
The UED conquered Korhal IV, center of the Terran Dominion and chased its former emperor, Arcturus Mengsk, to Aiur. Mengsk had been rescued by Jim Raynor and Fenix. On Aiur, Kerrigan's Zerg, with help from Samir Duran (an Infested Terran working for Kerrigan) again rescued Mengsk and Raynor from the UED. Meanwhile, Duran betrayed the UED again. In the end, the Psi Disruptor was activated, Admiral DuGalle had Duran kill Vice Admiral Stukov, and Duran's betrayals were discovered. However, the Psi Disruptor had been reassembled on Braxis, forcing the UED to defend another critical planet besides Korhal. Activating the Disruptor had severe consequences for Kerrigan's control of her Zerg, but leaving it on Braxis with only a planetary garrison to defend it would sound the death knell of the UED's efforts in the Koprulu Sector.
Finally, the UED descended on Char, home of the new Overmind and captured it. Then Kerrigan revealed herself and the newly infested Duran. Telling DuGalle that she will destroy everything the UED tried to control, she left the battlefield.
Taking control of a Cerebrate (possibly her few-weeks-older sibling who had watched over her incubation) to serve her, Kerrigan began actively fighting beside Arcturus Mengsk, Fenix and Raynor to defeat the UED. Mengsk was her prisoner, and she told him he could remain Emperor of his own eight-by-eight cell if he didn't agree to her proposal. The allies destroyed the poorly-defended Psi Disruptor for her and even stood aside as she infested the populace of Moria. She led the attack on the UED forces on Korhal, defeating them. She quickly turned against her allies when they were in a weak position, resting from the battle, killing Fenix and Mengsk's general, Edmund Duke. Raynor and Mengsk were left very bitter about this betrayal, especially Raynor, who swore he would see her dead for this.
Kerrigan managed to repel UED revenge assaults as she schemed for the destruction of the new Overmind. She travelled to Shakuras and retrieved the Matriarch, Raszagal. The Dark Templar had not activated the Xel'Naga Temple, perhaps because Raszagal had ordered them not to. Kerrigan wanted Raszagal to look like she was an unwilling prisoner, so she couldn't just order Raszagal to come with her.
Kerrigan brought Raszagal to Char, followed by a vengeful Zeratul and Artanis. Zeratul demanded that Kerrigan turn over Raszagal. Kerrigan proposed a deal - she would allow Raszagal to return if Zeratul agreed to slay the Overmind. Raszagal convinced him to go, saying the Overmind was a threat to both Kerrigan and the Protoss.
Zeratul had no choice, though he knew killing the Overmind would only make the treacherous Kerrigan stronger. He consented. His Dark Templar participated in the battle, destroying renegade Zerg and UED troops alike. Then he again demanded the return of the Matriarch. Kerrigan agreed ... but Raszagal did not. Under Kerrigan's control, Raszagal said she wanted to stay. Here Zeratul finally learned of Kerrigan's influence over the Matriarch, spirited her away and fled.
Kerrigan ordered her minion, Samir Duran, to assist in capturing the Matriarch. They were almost successful, but Zeratul slew Raszagal rather than allow her to live as a slave to Kerrigan. The surprised Kerrigan let Zeratul escape to live with his guilt. Meanwhile, Samir Duran disappeared.
Ascension
"Once again I stand atop the broken bodies of my enemies... Victorious but not unscarred. The Earth-borne Directorate has been destroyed, and the Overmind lies dead and trampled beneath the ashes of Char. As for my unlikely allies, I think that I shall allow them a reprieve, for in time I will seek to test their resolve, and their strengths. They will all be mine in the end, for I am the Queen of Blades. None shall ever dispute my rule again." - Infested Kerrigan on Char
All the Zerg in the sector fell under Kerrigan's control by this point. In a climactic final battle, her forces repulsed a combined attack by the United Earth Directorate, Terran Dominion and forces led by Artanis. Perhaps Kerrigan did not have the heart to murder her former allies. Or else, she may have taken special offense to the UED's audacity in attempting to control the Zerg. Whatever the case, she sent her swarms after the withdrawing UED fleet and annihilated it to the last ship, while allowing her other enemies to limp away.
Current status
Sarah Kerrigan became the ruler of the most powerful force in the known universe. As Kerrigan says it herself in the mission briefing of Omega, the final level of StarCraft: Brood War: "At this point, I'm pretty much the Queen Bitch of the Universe."
She is currently building up her forces on Char but has yet to attack the Terran Dominion or the Protoss of Shakuras, despite having the ability to crush both of them.[3] Instead, she waits for an unexpected and dangerous enemy.
There is evidence to suggest that she is unhappy with this acquisition and longs to be human once more. After killing Duke and Fenix on Korhal, she remarks that "For the first time since my transfiguration I am wearied of the slaughter"..
Kerrigan's latest projects include devising more intelligent Infested Terrans.[2]
Kerrigan is ranked as the 2nd most evil villain in a video game by readers of GameSpot, ranking behind only Final Fantasy VII's Sephiroth.[4]
Trivia
- Kerrigan is the only hero unit in the game that has a unique design (actually two different ones). Her ghost form in the terran campaign is unique (Her hair can clearly been seen in the model- other heroes have only a unique portrait) and her Zerg campaign form is a completely unique unit itself.
- The Borg Queen of Star Trek is a possible inspiration for Kerrigan in line with the Borg-like characteristics of the Zerg.[1]
- Sarah's 'unleashed possibility,' her merging with a cosmic entity in the form of the Zerg Overmind, and the psionic nature of her powers may be inspired by the Phoenix Force of marvel comics.
See also
References
- ^ a b Neilson, Micky (2000). StarCraft: Uprising. New York and Toronto, Ontario: Pocket Books. ISBN B00005AS12 (eBook only).
- ^ a b c Neilson, Micky (2000). "StarCraft: Hybrid". Amazing Stories. 601: 70–75.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ "Warboards storyline update". Retrieved 2006-03-09.
- ^ "Reader's Choice: Best Villains #2". Retrieved 2006-03-09.
- Underwood, Peter (1998). StarCraft (Manual). Irvine, Calif.: Blizzard Entertainment.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - Underwood, Peter (1998). StarCraft: Brood War (Manual). Irvine, Calif.: Blizzard Entertainment.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help)
External links
- Kerrigan's Biography @ Blizzard Entertainment - official site.
- StarCraft homepage at Blizzard Entertainment
- Battle.net StarCraft Compendium
| StarCraft video games | |
|---|---|
| StarCraft II video games | |
| Universe | |
| Other media |
|
| Esports | |
| People | |
| Related | |
