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we did it chat
I’ve been very burned out this year, but you can see the slime rancher phase in the autumn/winter
maybe it’ll be easier next year
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Ma'lash + Lore Yap
@auntarivia the Ma’lash ask was super long and I unfortunately forgot to put Keep Reading- here are the answers to your lovely questions!! I do go into extensive detail all under Keep Reading so anyone who wants to skip it won’t get bombarded on their dash :)
[[MORE]]#what exactly are edicts and why is this such a big deal that its different?
By definition, an edict is “an official order or proclamation issued by a person in authority”. Canonically there’s only one edict with no lore on it at all, except the exact phrasing of the official one that Amon issued, and the true one Nuroka found. I believe this is key to Amon’s lies and manipulation over the Tal’darim. I am not religious so I might be incorrect on some terms; as always I’m open to suggestions & corrections.
Going off the definition, the edict of Rak’Shir; “Defeat your masters, or fall beneath them” is likely seen as god’s spoken word that both inspires and strikes fear into the Tal’darim everyday. This is because Rak’Shir is very important to the Tal’darim, it’s their sacred ritual and how each person can rise in the Chain of Ascension (their hierarchy). Every person is a link in the Chain, and a Chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
This is a brutal society where your neighbour could challenge you to a fight to the death at any time, and you can’t really reject it without being seen as a coward -> enforcers are then sent after you to kill you. So this edict essentially becomes everyone’s inspiration and motivation to reach their KPI of surviving. (Of course, there are some exceptions where Tal’darim who don’t want to compete in the Chain get other roles.)
The edict’s difference matters because if any Tal’darim paid enough attention to look past their overly-zealous blind faith in Amon, they would see His true ideal is not Ascension or Salvation, but Death in “Defeat your masters, or rise beyond them”. Nuroka explains this better than me in Ascension:
“Amon does not see death as failure. He sees death as the highest ideal. I have seen it in His heart.” Nuroka’s eyes shimmered. “What did He name our dueling grounds? The Pits of Ascension. He mocks us. Amon does not celebrate the winners. He salutes the losers. They are the ones who ascend in His eyes. He makes us carve each other into bits because that is His plan for us all.”
And his analysis is great because he talks about phrasing; the quote is describing a win/lose condition where victory is “defeating your master”, while the ‘or’ emphasises the defeat. Defeat being interpreted as “rising beyond them” is an ironic mockery over the whole Chain of Ascension as a whole, because then the person who died has become more [worthy] in Amon’s eyes. This is true as Amon is omnicidal and wants to destroy the universe- the Tal’darim who die in Rak’Shir are unknowingly helping Him achieve that slowly.
So for anyone that miraculously found the true edict and decided to dissect it like me and Nuroka, it’s likely the foundation of their worldview just collapsed and they’d have a crisis. Which is why while Nuroka’s impromptu Rak’Shir vs Ma’lash is extreme and impulsive, it’s also a somewhat understandable and sympathisable reaction.
Canonically nobody turned on Alarak because there’s still a bunch of story to get through and Blizz tried to go for an even split in exploring each Protoss faction + the issues we deal with. The insurgents would require at least 2 missions varying 10-40 minutes each to handle.
The reason/potential of people turning on Alarak is never elaborated upon, so this is mainly my speculation and actually adding a headcanon law to Rak’Shir: only the First Ascendant can challenge the Highlord to Rak’Shir.
Why this law? It actually justifies a few things.
While nobody turns on Alarak in Canon, the non-Canon co-op missions explore this with a small group of insurgent Tal’darim who do in a mission called [Chain of Ascension].
These loyalists are led by Amon’s Champion (guy in the pic, they used [Rak'Shir]’s wallpaper and cropped Alarak out lmao), who is unnamed, voiceless, and interestingly shares the exact same portrait/model as Ma’lash (likely because they just copy-pasted him since he has Rak’Shir animations already but I think there’s something here :3). Amon’s Champion obviously wanted to take control of the Tal’darim, but he did not challenge Alarak directly- he instead challenged First Ascendant Ji’nara.
(Note Alarak is playable in co-op so while he can’t be in two places at once, if he was challenged it could make sense that you can still play the rest of his units with a stand-in replacement like Ji’nara for him in this mission. We also don’t know Amon’s Champion’s rank, but to explore that side of things + Rak’Shir’s other laws requires another separate analysis; if you’re interested I’d be happy to get that out too.)
Ji’nara did support Alarak before, so it makes sense Amon’s Champion started with her. But I also believe she was also Alarak’s barrier between him and the rest of the Chain. With her as First Ascendant, everyone who wanted to kill Alarak would have to get through Ji’nara; and Alarak could just support Ji’nara in whatever challenge she faced, securing his rule. Amon’s Champion was ultimately defeated and Ji’nara kept her position as First.
And yeah, I believe there should be other consequences in Canon and not just co-op. Especially because after Alarak killed Ma’lash in [Rak'Shir], he gave a TLDR, did not elaborate on the key points and just immediately declared war on god:
I’ve seen interpretations that the Tal’darim don’t care about who they’re following as long as they’re the Highlord, but that’s unrealistic imo. If I killed Ji’nara then Alarak somehow and became Highlord, does that mean I can lead the Tal’darim without internal conflicts, crisis of faith and the threat of another immediate Rak’Shir against me? I don’t think so.
#how did Ma'lash reach this level of power? is this just by duels?
The Tal’darim are problematic to say the least. Ascendants can actually absorb the life force of the people they defeat. There is a whole official rank called Supplicant for people that literally sacrifice themselves for Ascendants to give them power, at least until they themselves are strong enough to become an Ascendant.
Because Ma’lash plowed through the Chain of Ascension in Canon, he defeated countless people- it can then be inferred that he absorbed their essence to become stronger. Sacrificing Supplicants or others directly to fuel his power is also possible, but Ma’lash gives me the vibe of someone who wants to be standalone strong, hence I headcanon he doesn’t usually do this. The whole “blessed by Amon” is also likely public speculation since the Tal’darim as a whole also refer to him as the Blade of Amon; it is unknown if Amon Himself gave Ma’lash this title.
However I do believe something happened to Ma’lash that caused his rapid and ruthless Ascension. The phrasing by Alarak makes me wonder what happened for him to climb the Chain with ‘brutal wrath’ instead of dedication/faith/ambition? That’s an interesting point I wish could have been explored.
#also i must say i know a bit about starcraft (literally tiny bit) bc my sister played it and told me something#so i know the Protoss (?) have those weird wires from their head that they comunicate with and their god controls them with it
The ‘wires’ are called nerve cords! All protoss have these biologically and they all communicate with each other psionically with telepathy. Visually, it’s kinda like hair for us people. (And you know me, I hyperfixate over something and am super knowledgeable in that; but things outside my expertise I will definitely try my best to explain regardless-)
The connection controlling people is due to the Khala, which is essentially the Wifi network that the Khalai protoss have connecting everyone together. This tethers together their whole society, and they can sense emotions from each other. However it is also a massive vulnerability, because in LotV Amon gets into the Khala and mind controls every Khalai- in which you are correct :)
The easiest way to understand this is a metaphor- the Khala is Wifi and every individual is a device connected to it. When the Wifi got corrupted, every device also got hacked. LotV is essentially Artanis trying to disconnect everyone from the evil Wifi.
None of the other protoss factions use the Khala except the Khalai. In fact the Nerazim (Dark Templar) severed their nerve cords because they were doubtful/uncertain of the Khala, the Tal’darim have nerve cords but are edgy Khala haters who hate being emotional, and the Purifiers are deceased Khalai put into robot bodies with an AI replicating their original personality; protoss lore is really complex.
I don’t think Amon controlled Ma’lash directly, at least in Canon unless the writers played 4D chess on us and real Ma’lash is already long gone by Ascension. Usually people controlled by Amon have no free will and are empty husks of themselves, unless it’s direct possession where Amon just takes over. Amon is able to possess the Khalai protoss connected to the Khala as stated previously.
In general, I think for godhood possession to even happen, there has to be a link from the individual to said god; it could be via an object, connection (like the Khala), blessing or curse. Because Ma’lash doesn’t use the Khala, and Amon is in the Void, there isn’t a direct way for Amon to physically interact with him. Ma’lash himself has to call Amon with a big phone to even talk to Him.
Of course I think it’s very possible Amon can be an ass about it regardless and whisper manipulative bs to Ma’lash in his head, but I don’t think direct control canonically happens. In fanworks however, that’s another story :3
#i also know that Alarak is kind of a dick because thats how he acts in HotS lol
Ngl Alarak being the king of arrogance and sarcasm is what made him fun for me, I do like him and play him often in co-op as well, not to mention his VA is also Discord from MLP ^^
Thank you!! Ma’lash as a character means a lot to me personally and sharing his missed potential with everyone is always a pleasure. It has been a decade since he existed, but offering an alternate perspective to my niche favourite is never too late ^^
And thank you once more for taking the time to listen to me, as always if you have any questions feel free to ask <3
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Make more love and less Starcraft~
Obviously, High lord Alarak doesn’t like this advice
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yeah I’m super late to the party, but whatever
that’s my favourite episode of hero storm
I love dead fandoms~
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Something I really love about the Tal'derim in StarCraft is how utterly incompetent they are for how big a game they can talk.
Like, in wings of liberty they just get bodied time and time again by Raynor who’s mostly just doing this for a little extra cash on the side.
Then in legacy of the void they seem to get this huge glow-up, they’re incredibly menacing, their new dark and edgy designs, plus with Alarak showing intense displays of power, we’re supposed to think they’re incredibly powerful, ruthless overlords.
But they just keep getting their shit rocked???
Like, in nova covert ops the terrans absolutely humble the little shits, all because the whole time Alarak acts like a huge fucking idiot, because he IS. He’s immensely powerful, but an awful leader, and when your whole society just decides to make the most powerful, manipulative narcissist your allmighty ruler of everything, it turns out that actually sucks.
Alarak and the Tal'derim talk huge game but ultimately they have zero leverage over literally anyone else. The narazim would rock their shit, the purifiers would too. Sure they have a death fleet but like, everyone has one of those nowadays. The golden armada would just need to like, sneeze on it. They don’t even have shit on the terrans!! Alarak thought they’d be easy pickings. No matter what, the Tal'derim stay losing, but they keep acting like these nonchalant top dogs.
The only reason they were useful in legacy of the void was because of the circumstances, then afterward they became the equivalent of an angry Chihuahua that thinks it’s hot shit.
Idk if it was the writers’ intentions to make them so pathetic, but it’s still funny to me.
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You know, I don’t particularly enjoy giving Blizzard any praise but every time I replay Starcraft 2 I’m just kinda. Vibing so hard with how they gave some advisors so much needed friction with their advisors. Voice acting shines particularly in this regard. Like with Jim it’s Tosh and Tycus , but overall Jim has unrivaled command over his troops so aside from an occasional bar fight it’s not that deep. Terran troops mostly suffer from loss of moral rather than loss or loyalty
Kerrigan has some friction with all of her advisors aside from Isha but it’s on purpose — she’s the embodiment of the natural cycle in the game. It is kill or be killed for her, and considering what we know of her life before the events of the first game, it is easy to understand why. So she chooses strong advisor who are still yet forced to obey her will because she’s stronger/has more essence. Zerg don’t have morale, they are a weapon, they will let her rule as long as she’s stronger enough to do it, so the campaign needs more friction with advisors to make up for it. Zagara openly desires to take her place and honestly dialogues with her are really cool
But the absolute cherry on top. The most perfect specimen opposing the commander. Alarak. He’s so fucking funny I love him. He’s deeply fucked up, openly hostile, he’s an arrogant bastard but accepting him amids the protoss is a matter of principle. Artanis puts his words about desiring peace for his people into actions and taldarim and Alarak are the biggest challenge for him mentally.
And also Alarak is just such a fucking funny blorbo I need yall to understand. In the mission where Kharax is forced to take control of the troops Artanis gives him his order and walks away, and Alarak walks slightly in the back to take the time to glare warningly at Kharax. He’s so fucking funny. He’s so intrigued by Artanis because Artanis is kind which in his mind translates to weak but Artanis isn’t weak. They’re clashing so hard. It’s like having a poisonous scorpion on board. Every dialogue with him is scalding, he’s always impatient and always disapproving and high half of the time but in a campaign about uniting a race it’s a very needed moment. Vorazun fucking leaves the bridge cause she hates his guts that much. She’s the first to raise the question of logistics of uniting the protoss because for Nerazim their culture is all they had for the longest time. Its why they were exiled and hunted and now she fears losing it. Taldarim bring the fact that sometimes uniting your broken race might bring into your fold void weed sniffing fanatics who believe their only purpose is to serve
What’s the funniest is that despite the bloodthirst and fanaticism Alarak is really fucking smart and really strong. He easily fought Vorazun, and she’s the matriarch of the stealth warriors. It makes it all the better cause he’s smart but the main reason he chooses to betray the only god he knows, the strongest being in the universe, is cause he’s fucking petty
All that is to say, Alarak absolutely fuck Artanis nasty but that’s irrelevant to how funny I find him. He’s glaring at everyone for no reason. He says he’s disappointed in Artanis and then turns around and calls him intriguing. He fucking leaves after the end of the game. Phenomenal writing for all characters in this game but particularly how well they nailed having to go to drastic measures in dark times, particularly siding with a luncatic who barks at stars
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the virgin Presidential Election vs the chad Tal'darim Rite of Rak'Shir.
at least with with Rak'shir we would know we would be getting someone mentally and physically fit to lead.
