History Characters / StarcraftTerranDominion

* DistaffCounterpart: To Arcturus Mengsk himself. She's an affable individual with a southern accent and a high rank in the Dominion [[spoiler:and is willing to use psi-emitters to overthrow a government]]. [[spoiler:To top it off, she's killed by a Ghost of whom she used and betrayed.]]

* ConsummateLiar: He can even fool Kerrigan, a ''telepath''.
* CruelMercy: After his defeat at the end of ''Brood Wars'', it was this from Kerrigan which ensured that he continued to live (and rule as Emperor). The moment Kerrigan decided to go on the warpath against him, [[spoiler: he didn't last very long]].

* EvilPlan: The original one was to become the above trope. His dealings with [[spoiler: Tychus Finlay and Moebius Foundation without Valerian's knowledge]]

* EvilVersusEvil: With Kerrigan in ''Wings of Liberty''
* FantasticRacism: Very. Constantly describes the zerg and the protoss as sinister alien threats that terrans need his protection from, even while working alongside them in Co-Op mode. Granted, both have indiscriminately massacred entire Terran planets before his rise to power, but he does far more to antagonize the Protoss under his rule than they do to them. In Co-Op mode, this even extends to Terrans; in his eyes, [[WithUsOrAgainstUs any Terran not part of the Dominion is part of its undoing.]]

Mengsk's father was murdered by the Confederacy, and his entire planet destroyed, for being a problem. Mengsk's response was to start a resistence faction called the Sons of Korhal, and enlist the aid of Jim Raynor, Sarah Kerrigan, and later Edmund Duke. Though he initially comes off as a benevolent freedom fighter, as the Terran campaign goes, he commits steadily more unforgivable crimes for the legitimately good purpose of overthrowing the Confederacy, until he finally succeeds, sacrifices Kerrigan, alienates Raynor, and crowns himself Emperor. His true colors revealed, he becomes everything the Confederacy was and worse. When the UED invades, he's the first person on their hitlist, and much to Raynor's chagrin he has to save Mengsk's life to help Kerrigan take out the UED, which goes sour for both of them when she backstabs them both. Mengsk ultimately launches a joint Dominion-UED-Protoss attack on Kerrigan's forces that she routs, leaving him with nothing.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: He eats rocks and spits out gravel.

* CosmicPlaything / LaserGuidedKarma: Any involvement he has after the original game's campaign is this. He overthrows the Confederacy just for the UED to knock him off his throne; he allies with the two people that hate him the most to take back his homeworld just for Kerrigan to backstab him, and fails an attempt at revenge. ''Wing of Liberty'' has him [[spoiler: take a gamble with letting Raynor live to deal with Kerrigan, and Raynor proves to be an even bigger thorn in his side than before. Also, there is letting Kerrigan live, allowing her to get back to the Swarm and everything he tries to stop her fails. She then marches right onto his doorstep before finally killing him. To add insult to injury, if Arcturus had allowed Warfield access to the xel'naga artifact on Char, Warfield might have been able to stop Kerrigan before she became an even greater threat to him.]]

* KickTheDog: Literally; he and his squadmates have tracked records about who can punt Drones the furthest.

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Turns out, the Dominion ends up just as bad as the Confederacy.

** Though Valerian shares Arcturus' charismatic persona and public demeanor, he's notably ''much'' more genuine, in contrast to his father using these as little more than a manipulative facade.

* YouAreWhatYouHate: Hates the Confederacy, but he's also a member of one of the Old Families, the most corrupt of all facets of the Confederacy. [[SubvertedTrope His family was essentially kickced out of the group when his father tried to push for Korhal's independence, though.]]

* {{Revenge}}: His main motivation to overthrow the Confederacy.

* BlueIsHeroic: [[spoiler:With Valerian taking control of them in ''Legacy of the Void'', the Dominion is represented in-game by shades of blue. In a case of GameplayAndStoryIntegration, most of the Dominion forces seen in the game are led by Raynor, and Raynor's Raiders also used blue. In cutscenes however, their color is still red]]. [[spoiler:By ''Nova Covert Ops'', they officially changed to blue]].

* RedIsHeroic: When the player controls them as the protagonist faction in Episode I, the player's forces change color from blue for the Mar Sara Militia, to red for the Sons of Korhal. In the final mission when Arcturus has completed his FaceHeelTurn, the player switches back to blue with the red forces as enemies. [[spoiler: Come ''Legacy of the Void'' and with the Dominion doing a HeelFaceTurn, this trope is still averted, as the Dominion never uses red in the missions they appear in, [[BlueIsHeroic using blue or light blue instead, just like Raynor's Raiders]] so as to distinguish them from Moebius Corps, which use red. Played straight in cinematics, where the Dominion soldiers are all red]].

When the Confederacy destroyed Korhal, Arcturus Mengsk and the few survivors of the planet rallied other Confederate dissidents to their cause and formed the Sons of Korhal, a group dedicated to the destruction of the Confederacy. For years Arcturus waged guerrilla warfare on the Confederates, but slowly found powerful allies and built up his forces. The turning point was the defection of Mar Sara's colonists led by Marshal Jim Raynor. This gave Mengsk the numbers to aid other planets in open revolt, and also gave him access to Confederate technology he would eventually use to destroy Tarsonis -- the psi emitter, which could lure Zerg to their signals from across the galaxy. Arcturus used the emitters to spark a Zerg invasion of Tarsonis, breaking the Confederacy's power with the loss of their core world.

Arcturus resettled Korhal and reorganized the Sons of Korhal into the Terran Dominion, using fear of the Zerg and Protoss to call for the Terrans to rally to his banner. Knowledge of Arcturus's hand in the Zerg invasion of Tarsonis was limited to a handful of his closest allies, thus most of the Terran planets fell for it and they, along with many Confederate worlds and assets, joined the Dominion. The Dominion was temporarily deposed by the United Earth Directorate during the Brood War, but with the aid of Kerrigan, Arcturus overthrew their control of Korhal and the Dominion took back control of its colonies. After the Brood War, when Kerrigan and the Zerg went quiet, Arcturus used the time to consolidate his power and continue to build his Dominion to grander heights. His son, Valerian, also took public stage as the Crown Prince and Arcturus's heir.