Blizzard Campaign Mash-Up

[Reznor]

I had this idea when I was in the shower for a mashup of all the lores of the classic Blizzard games (Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo). The story I brainstormed is basically that the prime evils open a portal to hell in Northrend, allowing the demon armies to come out and set sail for Lordaeron, invading the world of Azeroth much the same way the orcs did in the first Warcraft game. Of course, the humans naturally fight back, and King Terenas sends Uther and Arthas, as well as the might of the Lordaeron army at their back, to face the prime evils in Northrend. While the battle is being waged, the Protoss appear (instead of Tyrael and the angels of the high heavens), sensing a psionic disturbance cause by the opening of the portal to hell in Northrend, and agree to join the alliance in defeating the prime evils. The alliance and the Protoss are successful in defeating the prime evils and close the portal to hell after a lengthy naval battle in the seas between Northrend and Lordaeron and an even lengthier land battle on the continent of Northrend itself. The Protoss decide to stay on the world of Azeroth to study the demons and the magic they used to get to Azeroth. They set up two major cities in Lordaeron. A civilian and research center named Qel-Shkshk, near Quel-Thalas, and Androlyn, a military center near Khaz Modan (These were names I thought of off the top of my head, if anybody has cooler sounding names, they can switch them out.). The Protoss begin trading with the Dwarves and Gnomes. The Dwarves, with their affinity for gunpowder and ballistics, are fascinated by the Protoss' photon technology, and end up creating their own Dwarf-themed photon cannons and photon blunderbusses and shotguns. The Gnomes, on the other hand, are in love with Protoss cybernetics and end up inventing Gnomish dragoon-tanks and psi-grenades that function like EMPs where when they explode they release psionic energy in the form of lightning, much like how a high templar can cast psi-storm in Starcraft. Dwarven technology looks like Protoss technology with medieval and gothic aesthetics and Gnomish technology looks similar to the weapons used in World Wars I and II. The Humans of Azeroth are the only ones not interested in the Protoss' gadgets, and during a meeting of all the races' leaders, a plan to colonize Azeroth slips from one of the representatives of the Protoss race, causing outrage among King Terenas and his Human advisors. The Dwarves and Gnomes, however, are less interested in politics than they are in continuing to advance their technology with the help of the Protoss. The Protoss end up invading Quel-Thalas in an attempt to find Terrazine, and the High Elves come to king Terenas for help. So the human armies of Lordaeron declare war on the Protoss, and the Elves begin creating enchanted weapons and armor to better help the humans defeat the Protoss by leveling the playing field in terms of implements of war. The Dwarves and Gnomes are outraged by the Humans attacking the Protoss and a civil war erupts. Eventually, the war between the Gnomes, Dwarves, and Humans results in a stalemate, and peace talks begin. The Humans convince the Dwarves and Gnomes that the Protoss have ulterior motives (much like how the UED tries to take over the Koprulu sector in Starcraft: Brood War) and convinces them to help the armies of Lordaeron to lay siege to the cities of Qel-Shkshk and Androlyn in hopes that the aggression will cause the Protoss to retreat back to the stars. An all out war erupts in Northern Lordaeron. The Protoss have legendary starships, so Dwarven Gryphon riders and Gnomish flying machines are in high demand for taking out the Protoss' massive fleet. There's also a cameo by the red, bronze, and blue Dragonflights fighting the Protoss because they believe that the Protoss' presence on Azeroth is upsetting the natural balance of the world, so the Protoss fleet is destroyed by the joint efforts of the Dwarves, Gnomes and Dragons. Then a land assault on the cities can begin, with the Dwarves, Gnomes, Elves, and Humans all battling against the Protoss armies. The alliance is able to destroy the Protoss cities and cause the majority of the Protoss to retreat. The remainder that stay as prisoners of war and harmless scholars form a new city named Terenasubad in honor of the might of King Terenas and his bravery in standing against the Protoss.
While the battle against the prime evils is raging in Northrend, the lesser evils set sail and land in Kalimdor (much like how the Vikings split up and discovered America and Russia separately). So there's a side story that evolves where the Night Elves must defeat the lesser evils with the help of the spirits of Kalimdor, like Cenarius. They are able to defeat them, but the events are so far removed from the main wars in Lordaeron that there are no Human scholars in Kalimdor at the time of the battles to document them to take back to the historians of Lordaeron, so it's essentially a moot point just for the sake of a spin-off of the main story.
In part 2, as the Protoss return to Aiur, they sense the prime evils are still at work, but this time influencing the orcs of Draenor. The prime evils are planning a second invasion of Azeroth using the orcs as pawns in their conquest. So the Protoss must ally with the Draenei, who would otherwise be defeated by the fel orcs without assistance and they're able to defeat the orc leaders. The Protoss realize that if they destroy the soul stones of the prime evils, they cannot be resurrected, so they proceed to assault the last bastions of demonic power in Draenor in an attempt to rid the universe of the prime evils for good. Much like the Quincies destroying the souls of Hollows from the anime Bleach, they are able to successfully destroy the soul stones and leave Draenor in the hands of the Draenei, and return to Aiur before the events of the first Starcraft game take place.

 

[noob]

Not enough Tyrael.
can we have both Tyrael and the Protoss instead of only one of them?
If you have seen most of the diablo plot Tyrael is the only angel that worries about stuff like justice and the mortals and all the other angels are apathetic to the troubles of mortals.
You could even recover the D3 plot element of Tyrael stopping to be an angel due to the other angels disagreeing with his actions (in order to explain why Tyrael can not solve more things)

Furthermore there is the plot hole of Protoss sharing their tech willingly for no reason whatsoever(and "trade" is not an explanation because there is more or less nothing of interest people could give to Protoss and even if there was such a thing Protoss would trade things other than their tech because they have far better ability to mass produce what they want than any warcraft civilisation) while in starcraft Protoss never do that and all Protoss tech humans use is acquired through reverse engineering of stolen things.

Also why are the humans not interested by Protoss tech despite it being basically given in your crossover while in starcraft there is a tons of stories about humans trying to get Protoss tech?
I mean there is surely a lot of human groups that tried to get Protoss tech: which footmen does not wants better swords(something that Protoss knows how to make since they really like getting close and stabbing with phase swords) and better armour?(the answer is all of them wants such thing because it is superior equipment)

I think there is a lot of inconsistencies in that scenario: you need a really good justification for humans to not want Protoss tech such as protoss tech destroying humans within a radius of 10 kilometers or something comparably bad (and religion is not a good argument since the scarlet crusade is all about doing absolutely everything for victory so the scarlet crusade might be one of the first to grab protoss tech and say "yay more murdering with deadlier weapons!").
And 2: you need to grab something else than starcraft Protoss because starcraft Protoss hates sharing their tech(Maybe take starcraft xel nagas: they have all the Protoss tech and more but they are big on the sharing part which is why all the xel nagas are dead now)

 

[Reznor]

Yeah, the reason why I didn't include Tyrael or any of the angels of the high heavens is because I was already including the prime and lesser evils. I didn't want the Diablo characters to overshadow the Starcraft faction I wanted to introduce in the campaign. However, if Tyrael was in his Human form he might make a very good protagonist. I chose the Protoss because they matched the design of the angels pretty well with their gold armor and energy weapons. But you're right, the Protoss are secretive and wouldn't canonically share their technology with what they deem as inferior races. The reason why I wanted the humans to oppose the Protoss technology is more for the fact that I wanted to create a civil war arc where it was magic versus technology and in the end the powers combine to take out a greater evil. I didn't have a very good reason for it other than humans being too stubborn to want to adapt. However, I think the Xel'Naga might be a bit too overpowered to be a playable faction because they're practically the gods of the Starcraft universe. Maybe instead of the Protoss, the Terran appear and they decide to trade their gauss rifles and siege tanks for the abundant gold found on Azeroth? Is gold still sought after in the far flung future of Starcraft? I'd imagine so. Another inconsistency that I was waiting for someone to point out is the fact that Arthas wasn't born before the Orcs invaded Azeroth. I thought I could get away with this because it's set up as an alternate timeline story where the chronology doesn't have to be precise. I know Arthas is a pretty popular character in a lot of other custom campaigns, so I feel like a lot of map makers would want to work with him and Uther as the primary protagonists. But if you think it would be more appropriate to follow the canon of the series, the protagonists should be Lothar and maybe Medivh because they were alive during the first war. Also, this idea is really something I'd like to see somebody in the community make. I am not nearly good enough with the map maker to make this myself, so I'm throwing this idea out there in the hopes it inspires somebody to make it, because I'd love to see some of my ideas come to life.

 

[noob]

Yeah, the reason why I didn't include Tyrael or any of the angels of the high heavens is because I was already including the prime and lesser evils. I didn't want the Diablo characters to overshadow the Starcraft faction I wanted to introduce in the campaign. However, if Tyrael was in his Human form he might make a very good protagonist. I chose the Protoss because they matched the design of the angels pretty well with their gold armor and energy weapons. But you're right, the Protoss are secretive and wouldn't canonically share their technology with what they deem as inferior races. The reason why I wanted the humans to oppose the Protoss technology is more for the fact that I wanted to create a civil war arc where it was magic versus technology and in the end the powers combine to take out a greater evil. I didn't have a very good reason for it other than humans being too stubborn to want to adapt. However, I think the Xel'Naga might be a bit too overpowered to be a playable faction because they're practically the gods of the Starcraft universe. Maybe instead of the Protoss, the Terran appear and they decide to trade their gauss rifles and siege tanks for the abundant gold found on Azeroth? Is gold still sought after in the far flung future of Starcraft? I'd imagine so. Another inconsistency that I was waiting for someone to point out is the fact that Arthas wasn't born before the Orcs invaded Azeroth. I thought I could get away with this because it's set up as an alternate timeline story where the chronology doesn't have to be precise. I know Arthas is a pretty popular character in a lot of other custom campaigns, so I feel like a lot of map makers would want to work with him and Uther as the primary protagonists. But if you think it would be more appropriate to follow the canon of the series, the protagonists should be Lothar and maybe Medivh because they were alive during the first war. Also, this idea is really something I'd like to see somebody in the community make. I am not nearly good enough with the map maker to make this myself, so I'm throwing this idea out there in the hopes it inspires somebody to make it, because I'd love to see some of my ideas come to life.

I understand the desire to have a civil war with magic vs tech.
Elves and night elves (and dragons) are quite likely to be a good fit as an "oppose tech" faction and all human non hero casters are high elves or blood elves so if elves decide "we do not like humans, dwarves and gnomes using protoss tech" they could break their alliance with the humans/dwarves/gnomes and then you would have a high caster faction(most of the elves and probably some dragons) vs a high tech faction with nearly no casting(human, dwarves and gnomes that thinks that now with tech the world belongs to them).
You could have protoss preparing secretly and carefully their massive assault on the elves thus leaving a gap for civil war which ends with elves being attacked and saying "we need help we will no longer try to murder you all for perverting the order of things" to the other faction
About Arthas not being born it does not really matters since you could very well have a different young paladin called Arthas in the past (and nobody really cares about asset reuse) or yet as you said it could be a different world.
If you want a caster / paladin pair Medivh and mortal Tyrael could work too if Arthas is not desirable.
(there is quite a lot of precedent in map making about just giving paladin stats to angels)

Xel nagas are probably weaker than zerg seeing how they all got killed by zerg so if protoss are as strong as zerg then xel nagas are probably not an op faction.
They have a lot of super powered tech but it is likely that they are really bad at using their tech intelligently (look at how they got murdered by zerg) also a lot of their tech probably falls within the uncontrollable plot device domain and is not usable in battle.
The problem however is that nobody have a clue about how xel nagas armies really looks like so there is not a lot of 3d models for them.

 

[Reznor]

Ok. I thought the Zel'Naga kinda look like mollusks or Cthulhu-type creatures. That's at least how they appear in ancient Protoss artwork/carvings. I like all of your suggestions too. Maybe the Xel'Naga would be a viable option.