Five sketches of what initially appeared to be unidentified artifacts have been posted on the official StarCraft 2 website, along with a new illustration of the Queen Bitch of the Universe herself, Kerrigan.

Blizzard has remained silent about these updates, but our highly talented investigative team has matched them to pieces of Zeratul’s new armor:

Blizzard’s art and lore updates are being closely monitored for clues regarding the powerful artifacts that were mentioned in the BlizzCon single player video.

The lights blacking out in succession, a sharp musical note revealed Zeratul, a character from the original game. “I bring tidings of doom,” said the Protoss warrior. “The Xel’Naga have returned. The cycle nears its end. The artifacts are the key.”

 

“To what?” Raynor said, to which Zeratul replied, “The end of all things,” before falling to his knees, apparently wounded.

These artifacts, that the player will pursue during the single player campaign, might eventually form Zeratul’s armor. The significance of the armor is not yet known, however. Of course, it is more likely that the artifacts Zeratul mentions are different items entirely, and these pictures are just early design sketches.

Another concept art picture, depicting Kerrigan, clearly shows her “wearing” stylish, organic heels.

This immediately brings to mind the following illustration, which Blizzard has included in their fan-site kit:

Kerrigan’s Zerg-enhanced heels versus Zeratul and his mysterious armor! This is the match-up we’re all looking forward to, and it looks like Blizzard is telling us that we will indeed witness it in StarCraft 2. Who will win in this battle of giants?

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12 Comments to “Mysterious Artifacts and Kerrigan’s Mighty Heel”

1. jibbiajabba — October 27, 2007 @ 4:11 pm
   

   lol, organic heels vs ancient artifacts. Kidding aside, I think sc2blog is really on to something with the ancient artifacts having something to do with Zeratul’s armor. Perhaps they reenergize Zeratul’s old body?

2. Andrew — October 27, 2007 @ 4:40 pm
   

   It’s been a quiet week, alright.

3. Eros — October 27, 2007 @ 6:26 pm
   

   “Perhaps they reenergize Zeratul’s old body?”

   Maybe, that’ll be a nice thing. Or maybe they could give him some new spells, those Khala gems feel like powerfull XD

4. Dill — October 27, 2007 @ 6:26 pm
   

   Yea, hopefully some bigger game updates are released soon, or SC2 blog might start speculating on something like how large zealot blades will be.

5. Andrew — October 27, 2007 @ 10:20 pm
   

   Or Blizzard could give us the unit page for the Zergling or something. Man, I can’t wait to see that.

   You know it’ll happen.

   ZOMG NEW UPDATE!!!!1!! ZERGLING!

   not like SC2 blog is like that…

6. Arthur Santana — October 29, 2007 @ 3:52 am
   

   I really think they will not be coming with any zerg page until the zerg gameplay video.

   The good side of the story is: if they are not updating the site, we can expect them to be working on the final phases of development only. They are probably touching graphics, balancing and creating campains – no hardcore programming. Of course it’s just a guess =)

7. MechaBeast — October 29, 2007 @ 5:22 am
   

   i feel that the idea of organic heels moderatly retarded.
   No woman would choose to enter combat in 4 -5 inch heels.
   Was Kerrigan fond of wearing heels while she was a ghost…I think not.

   Maybe the overmind had a thing for human gams and evolved her heels. This would explain Kerrigans Coop de gra on the overmind

8. Tal9922 — October 29, 2007 @ 8:47 am
   

   Hey, maybe these ARE the artifacts Zeratul found, and in his fight with Kerrigan he activated them, triggering a mighty explosion of some sort which stripped her from her carapace (there’s a screenshot of Kerrigan lying in a burning wreckage, seemingly 100% human) but also injured Zeratul quite badly and made him loose the artifacts, so he fled to Raynor’s and pledged him to help him recover the artifacts which are obviously way too powerful to fall into the wrong hands. What do you think?

9. Ken — October 29, 2007 @ 3:55 pm
   

   Quoting mechabeast:

   “i feel that the idea of organic heels moderatly retarded.
   No woman would choose to enter combat in 4 -5 inch heels.
   Was Kerrigan fond of wearing heels while she was a ghost…I think not.”

   lol -moderated-

   (Anderson)

10. Ken — October 29, 2007 @ 5:41 pm
    

    Q&A 19 is out. Got it from Teamliquid.net.

    Last week’s Q&A we put our focus on the map editor and how you will be able to create custom maps and mods. This week we will go back to the normal Q&A with questions that have been asked in the forums and questions we received from fan sites. Since the month is already coming to an end, be sure to check out the discussion of the month and give us your feedback and your wish list for the improved Battle.net: http://www.battle.net/forums/thread.aspx?fn=sc2-general-eu&t=142

    Chat with Devs: Since the Terran Cobra took over the Protoss Stasis Orbs slowing attack, the Protoss Orb got a few new abilities including the Force Field ability. This will be very interesting for early team games, as you can use a force field on a choke point to keep an opponents teammate from arriving to help their allies. The Devs are testing out various abilities on different units as you can see, and even the Templar has received its classic Hallucination ability back.

    1. Will the Protoss be getting any mechanism for healing their units or repairing their buildings?
    There are no plans to give the Protoss any healing abilities, especially since their shield regeneration rate when out of combat, is more than twice the rate of the original StarCraft.

    2. With the new physics engine, can explosions affect surroundings? (like hurt or push units, destroy doodads, etc ) (sc2blog.com)
    Explosions will not be able to push units, but they can destroy doodads. In fact, destroying certain doodads will be vital on certain maps, to get access to expansions or other strategic locations. Furthermore, explosions will not be able to push units because it would affect gameplay and balance negatively, in having units be knocked off cliffs, be stuck in unplanned locations, or ultimately have units disoriented where the player cannot control them.

    3. How long does a unit typically take to make from concept to playable unit?
    With a finished concept piece, it could take from a few days to a few months, to create it for the game. Much of this time depends on the priority of the unit amongst other development goals, as well as the iterations necessary to perfect the unit. The Zerg Baneling is an example of a unit that took only a few days to complete after the concept, whereas the Protoss Stalker has gone through several iterations, and has taken 4-5 months.

    4. Are the units on the official site finalized, or is everything still up for grabs at this point? (gamereplays.org)
    We are still heavily in the development phase of StarCraft II, thus none of the units on the website are 100% final. We are also still testing out several new units, abilities, and mechanics, to create the most fluid StarCraft II experience.

    5. What do the Protoss eat? (Where do they get energy and mass?) (starcraftcz.com)
    Protoss gain nutrition from sunlight, or at a pinch, moonlight (which is just reflected sunlight anyway) by absorbing through their skins. They can go for extended periods without absorbing sunlight. What little moisture they need is also absorbed through their skin.

    http://www.battle.net/forums/thread.a…ral-eu&t=194&p=1&#post194

11. Jaguar — October 29, 2007 @ 9:35 pm
    

    “This would explain Kerrigans Coop de gra on the overmind”

    I think you were going for coup d’etat here, MechaBeast.

12. bherm18 — January 7, 2008 @ 7:26 am
    

    I dont know if this has already been said, but that “scene” is in the “hell its about time” release trailer, at 3:43 you see Zeratul block a few kicks in his new armor.

    also on a personal note.
    I believe blizzard feels no urgency to release new material to keep us drooling for sc2, and are gona leave most of it a surprise.
    cause lets face it, blizzard is pretty much set with its merge and owning the rights to WoW.