One People, One Purpose
is a Starcraft short story set after the end of Legacy of the Void, released on July 28 2020 to commemorate the 10th annivesary of Starcraft II.
The story focuses on the Protoss after they were forced to sever the Khala due to Amon's corruption of it in Legacy of the Void. As they struggle to adopt to life without an element that have long defined their society, two strange deaths forces High Executor Selendis to confront an ugly truth about her people, and face an enemy that no one in Daelaam society expects.
WARNING: Unmarked spoilers ahead.
The short story contains examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight: While the story viewpoint switches between Selendis, Karax, and Talandar, Selendis receives the lion's share of the focus with regards to her thoughts on the mysterious deaths, the absence of the Khala, and the difficulties that the Protoss face with building a new, united society.
- Ascended Fridge Horror: This story explores into the consequences of the Protoss' sudden, large-scale and irrevocable abandoning of the Khala, even when Amon is no longer alive to control it.
- Badass Bookworm: Lantharis, the Big Bad who manages to create a(n imperfect) device combining Nerazim energy clamps with Purifier data-web Khala-equivalent to reform the now-abandoned psychic link, and manages to stun Selendis, Nerath and Karax, as well as hold her own against Talandar for a short while. Unfortunately for her, Lantharis is ultimately no match to him and the Purifier subdues her easily afterwards.
- Big Bad: Lanthris, a radical Khalai phase-smith who saw Artanis as a "failure" for "destroying" the Khala, hates the Nerazim, and attempts to reawaken the Khala by any means necessary at any cost.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Quite a few Protoss are this regarding the Purifiers, which isn't helped by the Purifiers keeping mostly to themselves unless they are helping the Protoss rebuild their tattered society. Talandar encounters several such Protoss while investigating the two deaths, much to his displeasure as they kept wasting his time and offered little useful information to the problem at hand.
- Deadpan Snarker: Nerath, who has a very dry wit and snarks with anyone she speaks with.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: A part of deconstructing Artanis' dismantling of the Protoss' Fantastic Caste System was many Khalai Protoss, Khalai or Templar caste, in this situation: now that their predetermined calling is gone, what are they going to do now?
- Fantastic Racism: Given their past, Protoss society as a whole (with few exceptions, such as Artanis) are rather distrustful of the Purifiers. On a personal level, Selendis and Lantharis are both Khalai Protoss that have difficulty trusting the Nerazim, although Selendis is much more controlled about it than Lantharis is.
- Fire-Forged Friends: By the end of the story, Selendis and Nerath have more or less become this trope.
- Flawed Prototype: The devices Lantharis built to reconnect the Protoss to a Khala-analogue are extremely crude, and dangerous as a result; a malfunction either causes unbearable agony on the part of the user to the point they might attempt to claw it off (and thus risk bleeding themselves out) just to end the painful ordeal (Eranis perished this way), or cause a dangerous and lethal energy feedback (Therun perished this way). Karax is horrified at this when he finishes examining them; conceptual devices should be in the simulator, not implemented for general use- unless there was a desperate, immediate need to do so, and those desperate times were supposed to be over.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Karax, Lanthris, and Nerath; Nerath marks the debut of a Nerazim phase-smith, who were previously mentioned by Karax in Legacy of the Void.
- Godzilla Threshold: Deconstructed- even if they had to cut off their access to the Khala because the alternative- being thrall to Amon's hatred- was so horrible as to be unthinkable, it's shown here that the Khala was such an integral part of Protoss society (for those who used it before) that nobody was particularly joyous they had to abandon it, with some of the radical elements even trying to get it back without regards to the consequences.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Nerath is something of a Troll, deliberately abrasive, and a Deadpan Snarker, but does soften up somewhat when discussing the issue of how the Aiur Protoss are handling the loss of the Khala, even attending Eranis' impromptu funeral alongside Selendis.
- Jerkass Has a Point: In-Universe: Nerath is more of a "Snarker Has A Point" case, but her jabs into the Khalai Protoss (mainly Selendis) does have weight behind them.Nerath: (After Talandar tries, and fails, to soothe a Khalai Protoss who Lanthris was operating on) Did you think you would receive gratitude for depriving a fool of his false hope?Nerath: The Aiur Protoss spent so much time as herd animals, no wonder some of you are still eager to follow a false leader to the slaughter.Artanis: Careful, Nerath.Talandar: I may not like her words, but I understand her point. There is a wound in our people. Great pain leads to desperation...and while that may bring victory in an unwinnable battle, it may just as easily lead to self-destruction.
- Lack of Empathy: An unintentional, Played With example on behalf of the Khalai Protoss; Nobody had done anything to report Eranis' death until a Protoss who was delivering a message to someone nearby smelled blood and found his body, nobody around him felt surprised or saddened at his passing, nobody even came to his funeral; Selendis was the only one there. It turns out the Khalai Protoss, while as a whole not malicious enough to have this by default, had trouble adjusting into their loneliness without the Khala, and by that reason accidentally forgot the existence of other Protoss.
- Last-Second Word Swap: Talandar catches himself almost saying that a protoss has "become one with the Khala", as it no longer applies; instead resorting to the more archaic "joined the stars".
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Gets several different flavors and treatments.
- Just because Artanis and his group are willing to accept the Purifiers as part of Protoss society and allow them to be free, does not mean that everyone else will do so at the same time. Talandar was reacted to with anger when he delivered the news regarding the death of Therun to her father.
- Because the Purifiers feel at odds with the rest of Protoss society, they mostly keep to themselves instead of mingling, only emerging if society at large needed their help. This has the side-effect of fueling conspiracy theories regarding them.
- Artanis declaring an end to the caste system was not the end of the story; many Protoss, Templar and Khalai, still struggle with what they were supposed to do now that their predetermined lot in life has been removed.
- Related to the above; after centuries of having a Psychic Link that allowed them to simply know what their fellow man was feeling or thinking, the sudden removal of this link has left the majority of Aiur Protoss struggling to communicate and connect with one another, something that both Selendis and Nerath comment on during the story.
- Even if there is no other choice at the moment of decision, letting go of a significant part of a society's culture will have lasting effects on it as a whole, and there will be people trying to restore the old status quo regardless of what consequences ensue.
- Starts with Their Funeral: Inverted, the story ends with the funeral of Eranis and Therun.
