The world in Starcraft is chaotic and constantly on the brink of destruction, whether it be from the Zerg swarm encompassing everything or the god-like Xel'naga planning on destroying everything to extend their lifespan.
Among all the gods, monsters, and psionic stuff, there are the Terrans, the human faction in Starcraft that seems to just be caught in the middle of all of it. We've decided to shine a light on these space cowboys with some facts about them that you might not have known about.
10 Based On Space Marines From Warhammer 40k
A little known fact about Starcraft is that the game, very early on in its development, was going to be an adaptation of the Warhammer 40k universe into an RTS. While that game did eventually happen with a different developer, it was supposed to be Blizzard that made it. After Games Workshop pulled out of the deal, Blizzard had turned some of the ideas they had into an original IP. This is why the Terran units are all huge and bulky, like space marines.
9 Doing The Opposite
Most players have seen humans in sci-fi settings being honorable and well put together. this is a common thing in the genre, so Blizzard wanted to do the exact opposite. The developers didn't want to adhere to classic tropes so they went with "Surly Space Cowboys" that were all outlaws and ex-convicts. This gives the Terrans a much more old west and southern vibe to most of them. a mantra that went around during the development of the Terrans was to make them the opposite of the humans in Star Trek.
8 Different From Other Blizzard Humans
Keep on that last point, in most media involving multiple sentient species, usually in either Sci-fi or fantasy, humans play a somewhat unrealistically large role in the affairs of that world. This is another thing that the developers wanted to change, so they did the exact opposite again. This time the developers wanted the humans to just be caught in the middle of the conflict just trying to survive, unlike in other Blizzard titles like Warcraft and Diablo, where they are a primary focus.
7 Raynor's Redesign
Starcraft II was going to feature much more in-game cutscenes than its predecessor, which had a few but mainly used the in-game portraits as stand-ions during loading screens. This meant that many characters received redesigns for their cutscene models.
Ultimate human badass Jim Raynor was no exception, getting a design overhaul, not only now in-game being a more powerful marine instead of riding around in a vulture, but now also sports a more cowboy-style look in cutscenes.
6 First Unit Developed
As you could probably guess, the Marines were the first units for the Terrans that were designed. The Terran marine served as the basis for what would eventually become the main design philosophy behind the entire Terran faction. This is where the space cowboy idea came from, as well as the ideas behind the visual choices for the marines, such as the bulky metal aesthetic and the focus on heavy ballistic weaponry and over the top firepower.
5 Ghosts Original Origin
Ghosts are the coolest units that the Terrans have hands down. Their capabilities with stealth and launch nukes also make them some of the most powerful and adaptable in the game. The ghosts are also very interesting and important from a lore perspective, with them being the product of kidnapping, experimentation, and training, like the Spartans in Halo. The Ghosts were originally supposed to be government made soldiers, who were possibly grown in vats.
4 Alternate Story
Starcraft II: Wings Of Liberty, AKA the portion of the Starcraft II story that focused on the Terrans, is unique in that there is something of a branching storyline happening. There are two opportunities in the game where the player gets to choose the outcome of the story.
The first of these is when you first encounter Daniel Tosh, a spectre who asks for assistance, you can either choose to help Tosh or help Nova, this will decide whether you get access to Spectres or Ghosts. Helping Tosh has him join the crew and is the canon option.
3 Alternate Story 2
The second branching storyline that you can choose in Starcraft II: Wings Of Liberty is much grimmer. This involves the Terran colony of haven and Dr. Ariel Hansen who is a side character that joined Raynor's Raiders earlier in the Campaign. The colony becomes infested with zerg and the player can choose to help the Protoss exterminate the whole colony or fight against the Protoss and save the people. This will either end in Hansen infesting herself and getting killed by Raynor or Hansen leaving the crew on good terms to help the colony respectively. The latter is considered canon.
2 Valerian And Anduin
Valerian Mengsk is the son of Arctursk Mengsk and the eventual traitor to his father's regime. Valerian shares a lot of similarities with the World of Warcraft character Anduin Wynn. The two share similar facial features and hairstyles. Both have benevolent and altruistic personalities and characteristics that they inherited from their dead mother's and both took over the kingdoms of their fathers after they passed. They also share a voice actor in Josh Keaton.
1 Original Story
Originally, the story of Starcraft wasn't going to e about ancient alien demi-gods and the destruction of the universe, at least no in the way that we saw it in the final product. The original story in Starcraft took place in the 28th century and the Terrans had dominated the galaxy for over six centuries. The game waws supposed to pick up after the downfall of the human empire, with it being reduced to a fragment of what it once was, with the terrans angered at hat has become of them.