Editing StarCraft (section)

===[[Tyranids|The Zerg]]===
A race of alien space-locusts armed with biological weaponry, the Zerg travel from world to world, killing all independent life and assimilating its genetic code in order to produce new strains and species of Zerg, all in hope of achieving genetic perfection. In their wake, they infest worlds, terraforming them to sustain the Zerg's constant expansion of its terrible Swarm. Individually sentient, but linked by a crude telepathic network, all Zerg are bound to the will of a singular sapient will, who use this [[Hive Mind|hive-mind]] to enforce their dominance and command their legions as extensions of themselves.

It was eventually revealed though, that the Overmind's actions were not solely to OMNOMNOM delicious genetic information of the protoss like their [[Tyranid|voracious cousins]], which the Zerg could probably give a run for their money if it wasn't for the difference in galactic wide numbers, but as his way of opposing a Xel'Naga named Amon by creating a force powerful enough to resist them. This all culminated with the creation of Kerrigan(we're getting to her, hang on...), one who could freely control the Zerg like the Overmind. It should be noted that he still wanted the zerg to eat everything, but not if it means Amon will just take control of them and dispose of them afterwords. The Overmind "tricked" the protoss into killing him to get Amon out of the zerg hive-mind.

There is also a subsect of Primal Zerg, which are, as implied, the Zergs original form; a collection of carnivorous animals hailing from a Death World at the edge of the known Galaxy. Their ability to directly and quickly absorb genetic traits and incorporate it into their own DNA (i.e. big Zerg with claws eats small Zerg with spikes, what makes the big Zerg grow spikes when it consumed the smaller Zerugs flesh) was what got the Xel'Naga interested in them in the first place. The Primal Zerg, in contrast to their swarm cousins, are highly indivdualistic and put a strong emphasis on evolutional competition (less Darwinistic and more Smithian), to the point that they considered being kept on a psionic leash via the Overmind to be sacriligious. 

Zerg are the "fast 'n' flimsy" faction; cheap to get up and running, very easy to spam units for, but the absolute squishiest of the three factions. Zergs rely on drowning enemies under wave after wave of cheap, quick-moving troops, expending their resources faster than any other faction because they're certain to die anyway. Unlike Terrans or Protoss, Zergs grow their bases quite slowly, as they have to sacrifice basic workers to create new buildings, and they can only grow buildings on a specialized, slowly-growing terrain mat they produce called "The Creep". On the other hand as their base buildings are very cheap compared to other factions, and also double as their unit-production buildings (with all others being "unlocks" for certain units or upgrades), Zergs are encouraged to expand faster and wider, generally having more resource-harvesting bases. This also corresponds to their ability to switch their army production from one composition to another in almost an instant, while for example if Terran wishes to start producing mechs instead of massed infantry he needs to build a lot of factories first, which takes resources and most importantly time.

In competitive play the Zerg are generally regarded as the baseline against which the others are compared.  They are consistently good.  They are the fastest of the three in terms of responding to immediate unit demands and their units don't tend to need micromanagement.  Relative to the Zerg, the Terrans have a stronger midgame, and the Protoss are the kings of endgame if they can form their deathball.

In the original Starcraft, and Brood War, you play as a Cerebrate; a massive psionic maggot-thing that is second in the Zerg's mental hierarchy only to the Overmind itself. You are charged with protecting and serving the Overmind's latest and greatest creation; the Queen of Blades, a human Ghost (psychic assassin) named Sarah Kerrigan(told ya we'd be getting back to her!) whom they captured and assimilated into the Swarm instead of just eating her. After spending some time helping Kerrigan grow into her powers, the Overmind tasks you with invading the Protoss homeworld of Auir so he can manifest physically on the planet. When the Overmind is destroyed at the end of the first game, in Brood War, you play the only Cerebrate to remain loyal to the Queen of Blades, helping her in her quest to take total dominion over the Swarm - up to and including destroying an attempt to create a second Overmind. The campaign ends with you taking back Char and kicking the collective asses of the Dominion, the UED, and Protoss off the planet. The Queen of Blades is also notable for her combat heels which do FUCKING NOTHING as well as her bony "wings" which in the first game produce a whipping noise and cause things to blow up into sprays of gore and in the second do all of jack and shit because somehow she can fly in literally only one scene which they seemingly do nothing to cause; maybe they're hollow and full of pressurized Vespene or some shit. 

In the Zerg-focused sequel, Heart of the Swarm, you play as Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades, and only surviving zerg character from sc1 (Duran was something else) who voluntarily rejoins the Swarm to destroy the Dominion and to prepare for the coming of Amon. Kerrigan can be customized with different abilities which makes her really broken, and if she dies she can just be brought back at a hive cluster. All your units, non-campaign exclusive at least, have options for campaign exclusive abilities you can switch out, and you'll get the option of one other campaign exclusive upgrade for each of the main units that can't be switched out

====Zerg Units====
'''Larvae:''' The basic form of all Zerg, a squirming maggot-thing that is produced at your capital building (Hatchery/Lair/Hive) and which is mutated into all of your individual units. Because of this, Zerg are unique in that they generally require multiple capital buildings in order to be able to really pump out troops at an accelerated rate.

'''Creep:'''This counts, although it isn't exactly a unit. Creep is a purple slime that Zerg organisms subsist from, being put out by most of their structures as well as decicated organisms, called Creep Tumors. In-game, it's the Zergs version of the Protoss power field. Zerg units that walk on it move and regenerate their health faster. Sprading Creep is also a crucial element of a Zerg Players macro; Creep Tumors provide vision to the player and Protoss and Terran buildings cannot be placed on Creep. Creep is also a neutral force in Zerg vs Zerg matchups, often summarized by the motto "Creep is Creep", meaning that Creep will give its benefits to any Zerg player, not just the player who originally placed it down. 

'''Drone:''' The worker unit of the Zerg. Gathers minerals and vespene gas. Is also physically mutated into all Zerg structures, so Zerg as a faction are unique in a) the cost and time needed to erect structures (first you gotta mutate a larva into a drone, then a drone into a structure), and b) the high turnover rate of their worker units.

'''Overlord:''' A kind of secondary worker unit, the Overlord is a slow-moving flyer and one of the few "sapient" breeds of Zerg, reinforcing and broadcasting the will of the Overmind to lesser strains. As such, the Zerg player needs to <s>spawn more Overlords</s>pump these guys out continually in order to boost up their population cap, letting them produce larger swarms. They also double as detectors against invisible units and transports... at least, in the first game; in StarCraft II, you need to choose between keeping them as transports or upgrading them into '''Overseers''' to make them detectors again.

'''Zergling:''' Basic melee trooper, a six-limbed raptor-thing that is fast moving and hits hard, but can't take a lot of damage. Incredibly cheap, fast-developing, and spawns 2 to the larva; the term "Zerg Rush" comes about from the fact that a good Zerg player can easily overwhelm a less-skiled player in the early game by just spamming zerglings. In StarCraft II, they can also be mutated into '''Banelings'''; living acid bombs used for suicide strikes. 

'''Hydralisk:''' A weird mishmash of a xenomorph, a snake and a giant mantis, this is the most iconic Zerg unit. Despite the fuck-off huge claws, it's actually your basic ''ranged'' trooper, shooting organic railguns mounted in its head at people. Can be evolved into a creature called a '''Lurker''', which was the only burrowing Zerg unit that could attack whilst burrowed until StarCraft II, but on the downside can ''only'' attack whilst burrowed and only attack ground units. Generally speaking, Hydras are the backline of most Zerg armies; they hit hard and have decent range, but can't take a beating. They're also decent counters against flying units that don't specialize in dealing with masses of light units (Think Void Rays and Banshees). 

'''Queen:''' A support unit that changes rapidly between the first game and the sequel. The first game depicts the Queen as a flying support unit that can spray a slowing, invisibility-cancelling sticky web over areas, infest enemies with a fog-of-war nullifying parasite, implant a parasitic embryo that insta-kills the host after a timer, and corrupt a Terran Command Center so it produces Infested Terrans, but can't attack (don't bother with this, you need to damage but not destroy building and the Infested Terrans are too expensive and die too easily). The second game reimagines them as a slow-moving base guardian that can spread the Creep, heal Zerg units & structres, and beat shit up that gets too close.

'''Roach:''' A secondary ranged trooper and alternative to the Hydralisk introduced in StarCraft II. Spews acid, dealing less damage than the Hydralisk but is much tankier and regenerates at stupid speeds while burrowed. One of two only units that can move while underground, making them powerful infiltrators. Can also evolve into the '''Ravager''', which is basically the Zerg's answer to the Siege Tank; a living acid mortar.

'''Scourge:''' An aerial equivalent of the zergling; a cheap, rapidly produced anti-air unit that works as a flying kamikaze bomb.

'''Mutalisk:''' The basic Zerg aerial unit; a flying worm-bat-thing that launches ricocheting biological ammo called "Glaive Wurms". In the original StarCraft, they can be evolved into both '''Guardians''', which are slow-moving air-to-ground acid-spewing crab-things, and '''Devourers''', which are anti-air focused. In StarCraft II, they can instead mutate into either '''Vipers''' (flying scorpions focused on a combo of anti-air and spellcasting) or '''Brood Lords''' (anti-ground flyers which attack by raining down showers of short-lived broodlings). Mutalisks are fast and excel at diving into undefended backlines but their dps is low and they struggle against most things that can actually shoot back at them. As such, you usually either see them as harassers or as air support for a flood of Zerglings that keep your enemy distracted. 

'''Aberration:''' An evolved form of the Infested Terran only seen in StarCraft II. Hulking deformed spidery humanoids that are basically fit the midpoint between the Zergling and the Ultralisk as a mid-tier melee trooper.

'''Infestor:''' Support caster unit only seen in StarCraft II. Can paralyze enemies with fungal growth, take over minds with neural parasites, and spawn Infested Terrans as expendable grunts, but can't fight on its own. Can move while burrowed. 

'''Swarm Host:''' A siege unit introduced in StarCraft II; a revisitation of the Lurker concept, this Zerg burrows into place and then spawns an endless wave of expendable suicide minions called "locusts". Was for quite some time one of the most broken units in the game because their Locusts benefitted from Weapon and Armour upgrades, letting them put out a lot of dps at a very reasonable price and against enemy forces that were much more expensive. This went so far that pros abused the shit out of them to the point that one particular match in pro play lasted ''three hours'' because it was so hard to crack them. LotV reworked them to be an entirely defensive unit, as they now move at a snails pace off creep, making it tricky for them to keep up with the fast and hard hitting main Zerg units like Hydralisks and Zerglings.  

'''Corruptor:''' A heavier anti-armor flyer introduced only briefly in StarCraft II. For some reason deals more damage to larger targets, also mutates into Brood Lords.

'''Defiler:''' Scorpion-like caster unit only seen in the original game. Has no attack, but uses energy-fueled Dark Swarm and Plague special attacks to ravage wide areas of effect. Can also insta-kill allied Zerg units to replenish its energy immediately.

'''Ultralisk:''' Most powerful melee trooper the Zerg have, a demonic elephant-thing that slices foes apart with huge scythe-blade talons. Deceptively fast despite how big it is but its bulk means it can get stuck.

'''Infested Terran:''' Terran Marines consumed by Zerg parasites. Gimmicky suicide bombers in the first game that aren't worth using because it requires you to infest a Terran Command Center after bringing down to half health, as opposed to blowing it up, and while their explosion does the most damage of any attack in the game they die way too easily. Expendable ranged troopers produced by Infestors in the second game, where they are actually worth using.

'''Nydus Worm:''' Blurring the line between building and unit, a giant worm introduced in StarCraft II that can basically act as a kind of fast transport for Zerg units.

====Zerg Characters====
'''The Overmind:''' Essentially the Tyranid [[Hive Mind]], except it has a physical body and is a distinct consciousness separate from the rest of the Zerg. Dies at the end at the start of Brood War, but its remains prove to be valuable long after. The Overmind was created by Amon as part of his plot to subjugate the entire galaxy in order to have something to make sure that the Zerg would nom the right people, but the Overmind became aware that he was secretly controlled by him and assimilated Kerrigan to create a being that was powerful enough to lead the Zerg into freedom. Looks like a [[Sauron|giant eyeball]]. The Primal Zerg regarded the Overmind as a perversion of their racial ethos, which emphasized biological evolution on an individual level, in contrast to the Overminds version of evolution as a collective swarm and considered the creation of the Overmind as one of the single biggest crimes committed against their species. 

'''Cerebrates:''' Enormous psionic maggots who basically serve as lieutenants to the Overmind. You play as one of these in the Starcraft 1 and Brood War Zerg Campaigns. These guys all get killed off by Kerrigan after they decide that they don't like the idea of playing second fiddle to a filthy half-human and instead turn against her to try and grow a replacement Overmind. What happened to the one remaining loyal Cerebrate that ''you'' played is never made clear.

'''Sarah Kerrigan, Queen of Blades:''' Originally a Ghost under the Confederacy until Mengsk stabs her in the back and feeds her to the Zerg. This results in her mutating into a superhuman monster that's now psychic and has a massive grudge against humanity and that gets worse when she gets command of the entire Zerg Swarm following the Overmind's death. Being the most powerful human psyker ever conceived, she was abducted by the Confederacy and trained into being a government hitwoman, similar to Nova, but unlike the latter, she fumbled an operation to kill Mengsk and found herself at his mercy; luckily for her, he saw her being useful in his service and unveiled the truth about the government she was serving, which promptly made her switch sides, only for Mengsk to betray her on Tarsonis. SC2 sees her transformed back into a human-zerg hybrid, which doesn't sit well with her when she sees her boytoy Raynor supposedly being killed and goes full Super Saiyan on Mengsk by transforming ''back'' into the Queen of Blades. It also turned out that she is the central object of an age-old prophecy concerning Amons revival and becomes a fully-fledged angel at the very end of SC2, in one of the derpiest 
video game stories ever devised. 

'''Alexei Stukov:''' A scummy Russian admiral of the United Earth Directorate who died during the Brood War as part of a lengthy political game. However, death was not the end for him as his space-coffin got captured by the Zerg and Stukov reanimated as a lab experiment to see how a Cerebrate can infect a human into a leader and then caught by another lab to see how to cure it. He would eventually break free of this and find himself allying with Kerrigan in his search for revenge.

'''Abathur:''' Chief mutationist NPC for Heart of the Swarm. He is a simple-minded, slug-looking thing that is obsessed with creating the perfect organism for the Zerg swarm and best remembered for his robotic way of speaking. He was also the guy... uhm, thing looking over Kerrigans initial transformation into the Queen of Blades which is described in agonizing detail in Heart of the Swarm (which basically involved breaking every single bone in her body, skinning her alive in acid and replacing it all with a Zerg exoskeleton). 

'''Zagara:''' One of the first Brood Queens Kerrigan made in an attempt to make more autonomous leader organisms. While she had the mental power to lead the Zerg, she wasn't necessarily good at using it and lacked the tactical experience to succeed at it. Kerrigan would teach Zagara as a mentor. Would assume control of the swarm as supreme Overqueen once Kerrigan went off to be a mary-sue god.

'''Dehaka''': One of the Primal Zerg of Zerus, a sapient, individual being looking like a half-way cross between a sabretooth tiger and a dinosaur. He comes to respect Kerrigan for her killing of one of the oldest Zerg to have ever existed (a gigantic monstrosity the size of a small mountain) and joins her merry crusade because he feels that she could provide the best essence for his own evolution.