StarCraft Wiki:Canon policy
From StarCraft Wiki
- Canon redirects here. For the StarCraft comic character see Elliot Canon.
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This page is a StarCraft Wiki Policy. The shortcut template for this page is Pol-Canon. |
StarCraft is a lightly developed universe, with a lot of background detail left unsketched. The universe has "grown" over time, however, with a series of novels, short stories, and other products. Sometimes these products display contradictory information, so it's necessary to develop a policy to prevent confusion.
Blizzard Entertainment almost never uses words such as canon and has no official policy. Blizzard has briefly discussed canon,[1] using the term unambiguously in a few interviews.[2]
This policy is developed for the StarCraft wiki and is not official Blizzard Entertainment policy.
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[edit] Tiers
[edit] Top Tier
The game of StarCraft trumps any other source. Material later in the game trumps material earlier in the game (so, generally, StarCraft: Brood War information trumps StarCraft information).
Note that this includes StarCraft: Enslavers, Dark Origin, and the StarCraft 64 bonus map, Resurrection IV. StarCraft: Enslavers II has been specifically referred to as canon by Chris Metzen (he chose the ending where Schezar and Ulrezaj use the powerful EMP Generator as the "canonical" branch).[2] Metzen later referred to the Enslavers campaigns as "quasi-canonical".[3]
Dark Origin is explicitly canon[4] and the events have been mentioned numerous times by Blizzard Entertainment.[1][5]
In addition, this wiki considers statements from Blizzard Entertainment employees to count as top-tier canon.
[edit] Second Tier: Manuals
The material in the gaming manuals trumps any source other than game material. Occasionally the manuals disagree with the games (for instance, details of the Mutalisk's attack form). In this case, the game trumps the manual.
[edit] Third Tier: Blizzard-published fiction
Some of the Blizzard Entertainment authorized fiction is actually published by Blizzard Entertainment employees. These include StarCraft: Uprising and StarCraft: Hybrid (authored by Blizzard employee Micky Neilson) and StarCraft: Revelations (authored by Blizzard employee Chris Metzen). Blizzard Entertainment employees have access to information other authors will never see, so their information is considered more reliable. Note that StarCraft map series available on the www.battle.net site fall into this category (namely StarCraft: Loomings, Deception and Mercenaries II).
[edit] Fourth Tier: Blizzard-authorized fiction
Fiction and gaming material authorized by Blizzard Entertainment include the remainder of the novels and the map packs "StarCraft: Insurrection" and "StarCraft: Retribution". In some cases, the material directly contradicts the game in many areas.
[edit] Dark Templar Saga
The Dark Templar Saga may fall into the third category. Christie Golden had this to say about its canonical status:
Christie Golden: "Considering the nature of some of the events that are portrayed, I can safely say that yes, Starcraft: The Dark Templar series is going to be considered canon."[6] In addition, the Dark Templar Saga is being written concurrently with the StarCraft II storyline.[1]
Blizzard had this to say about its canonical status:
Chris Metzen: ...We didn't want to answer the big questions. I knew that this sequel was not going to materialize for many years. We had a lot of projects ahead of us, and I didn't want to get ahead of the bus. I wanted to pick nice, safe little books that would be cool stories in and of themselves but wouldn't necessarily put us in a bad spot and set up questions that we weren't prepared to answer.
So what's been cool lately, Christie Golden has been doing the Dark Templar trilogy, which at its base is an attempt to tell more of the Protoss history, but at the same time, get the engines lit for this sequel, and begin to set up some plotlines.
Andy Chambers: Yeah, we've taken that opportunity to actually start building in and foreshadowing some of the events that are going to happen in StarCraft II. It's been a lot of fun...
Chris Metzen: It's cool 'cause we're kind of developing them concurrently.
[edit] Fifth Tier: Cut Material
An amount of StarCraft material has hit the cutting room floor over the years or simply never been released, such as the StarCraft beta and StarCraft: Ghost. As such, this material may be contradicted by more up-to-date material. However, where this isn't the case, in-universe information from these products may be incorporated into articles and form articles of their own, though in the case of the former, will often form sub-sections of their own within sections, indicated by a respective template.
[edit] Sixth Tier: Fan Material
There are numerous examples of fan-created material for StarCraft, ranging from fan-fiction to user-created multiplayer maps. Some of this material is supported by Blizzard Entertainment such as Vespene Laughs while other material is completely unauthorized such as StarCraft: Stellar Forces. However, while some products are significant enough to warrant articles of their own, any in-universe information is not considered canon by this wiki.
[edit] Blizzard Comments on Lore
Chris Metzen said that Blizzard is "essentially intending to novelize the first three campaigns in the core game. We're going to novelize Brood War at some point just so we have the definitive take on those stories."[1]
Questioner: Will you be referencing any of the character development like, say, Queen of Blades towards the ending in any of the upcoming games like StarCraft II... do you kind of say the books were the books and the game is the game?[1]
Chris Metzen: These books specifically are kind of the definitive take in my mind, which means we got a chance in Queen of Blades to show you a lot of scenes we could not show in the game. When does Raynor actually meet these guys? When does [sic] Tassadar and Zeratul actually hook up and meet? That's a huge part of the game that we never show. How does Tassadar, this Executor of the Protoss, this really talented, driven guy, get jumped into this whacked cult that his bosses hate and by the end of it become this Twilight Messiah and take down the monster alien of the galaxy. How did that all happen? We never actually touch any of it in the game. I don't even know if it occurred to me that we didn't when we published it... talk about a galaxy-sized hole.
So, the books have been our chance to fill in some of those gaps, and try and tell more the story, make it make sense more [sic].
But of course, like Liberty's Crusade wasn't quite as full. There were events in the game that we didn't cover in that book, but the soul of the book is true, like the idea that there were small interaction with Raynor and Kerrigan that we didn't see in the game. A lot of times, so we're trying to tell a story, and it's a wargame, which was difficult to do back in the day, thus our pretty new story mode, but the idea was that you couldn't always get all the beats in that you wanted, even the beats that really make it make sense in a linear fashion and from a thematic standpoint. We actually didn't always get to say everything we needed to say. Surprisingly, the game held up pretty well, like you know, what it was in the day, we're still very very proud of it, but it's almost like despite the technology, we always had a lot of frustrations... we were not able to get everything in, so I guess what I'm trying to say with way too many words is the fact that the books are our chance at redemption and telling the whole tale, so my hope is that they do it well.[1]
Andy Chambers: Well, as I mentioned earlier on, we're also taking the opportunity to take characters who may be appearing in the books and put them into the game of StarCraft II, like Matt Horner, as an example, never appeared in StarCraft, but he's there in Queen of Blades... he's a pretty cool guy, we should really use that character. That's all part of trying to make everything together into this grand universe ideal, which I what I trying to shoot for. It's like it doesn't matter how obscure the reference is, if it's out there its got some role that crosses over to the rest. I'm not a big fan myself of "well, they're in the novels, they have nothing to do with the game"... It's a big living breathing universe ... every time you put a brick on the wall it becomes a part of the universe.[1]
Chris Metzen also had this to say:
"...We didn't want to answer the big questions. I knew that this sequel was not going to materialize for many years. We had a lot of projects ahead of us, and I didn't want to get ahead of the bus. I wanted to pick nice, safe little books that would be cool stories in and of themselves but wouldn't necessarily put us in a bad spot and set up questions that we weren't prepared to answer."[1]
Dark Origin is considered canon, and downloaded maps are considered generally official.[4]
[edit] Blizzard Comments on Warcraft Lore
Blizzard Entertainment's stance on Warcraft lore may prove instructive when dealing with StarCraft universe lore. When discussing the Warcraft RPG sourcebooks with Giantorc, who said:
"Many people seems to think the RPG book are a part of warcraft lore, but those book were written by author that had almost nothing to do with bliz, sure they based their books on warcraft but it still just their point of view on warcraft, it has nothing to do with the lore we see in the game. If its not in W1, W2, W3, WoW or the game manual its just not in warcraft lore. The books like «lord of the clan» can be considered like a small part of warcraft lore since even if its not bliz who written those they had the last word on the publication and they gived to the author the basic scenario. But stop telling us part of the RPG books when you want to argue with someone, thats useless because the warcraft RPG books are not a part of warcraft lore."[7]
Eyonix, a community moderator, had this to say:
"Any piece of literature authorized and licensed by Blizzard Entertainment is in-fact, official. The book series written by Richard A. Knaak in particular is an excellent example of real 'Azerothian' history and lore available outside of our game software. We work closely with authors that help us expand our game universe, and the information should be considered official."[7]
[edit] External Links/References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Metzen, Chris; Chambers, Andy; Masterboo. 2007-08-31. BlizzCon 2007 StarCraft Lore Panel Editorial. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2007-12-02.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2007-10-08. SC:L Metzen Interview - Lore Exclusive. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2007-10-08.
- ↑ Chris Metzen, Micky Neilson, Blizzplanet. 2009-02-09. Chris Metzen & Micky Neilson Pocket Star Books Lore Q&A Video Interview. Blizzplanet. Accessed 2009-02-09.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Dustin Browder, Rob Pardo, Pillars. Blizzard Community RTS Summit Part 2. StarCraftWire.net Accessed 2008-06-25.
- ↑ Blizzard Entertainment staff. 2008-04-16. The Story so Far... Part 2: The Brood War. Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2008-04-16.
- ↑ Christie Golden, Medievaldragon. (2007-06-06). Starcraft: Dark Templar Trilogy - Book One: Firstborn Q&A with Christie Golden. Blizzplanet.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Eyonix, Giantorc. 2005-12-21. Could you please stop with the RPG books? WoW Blue Tracker. Accessed 2008-04-20.
