Zeratul: "I bring tidings of doom. The xel'naga return, the cycle nears its end, the artifacts are the key."

Jim Raynor: "The key... the key to what?"

Zeratul: "To the end of all things."

- Zeratul delivers a warning to Jim Raynor^src

Alien artifacts are xel'naga-crafted artifacts^[1] somehow associated with the return of the xel'naga.^[2]

At least some of these artifacts could be considered dangerous, since they can manipulate the minds of terrans. At least some are alive in a sense (once being described as an "energy fossil").^[3]

The protoss (especially the Dark Templar)^[4][3] were interested in collecting these artifacts, but the zerg and the Terran Dominion was also interested in them.^[5]

By 2504, the Dominion had banned trade in "alien goods" in order to control access to them.^[6]

Main article: Xel'naga device

During the Second Great War, the Möebius Foundation hired Raynor's Raiders to retrieve artifacts across the sector^[7] in competition with the Zerg Swarm.^[8][9] The artifacts were actually components for a xel'naga device.^[10] The device was used to deinfest Kerrigan at the Battle of Char^[11] and then installed in the Korhal Palace as a security device against Infested Kerrigan for Emperor Arcturus Mengsk.^[12]

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