StarCraft franchise Of the three universes that Blizzard walks in , the StarCraft franchise is technically the least developed ; Warcraft now spans four games , five expansions , fifteen novels ( Rise of the Horde , The Last Guardian , Tides of Darkness , Beyond the Dark Portal , Day of the Dragon , Lord of the Clans , Of Blood and Honor , Arthas : Rise of the Lich King , the War of the Ancients trilogy , Cycle of Hatred , Night of the Dragon , Stormrage and The Shattering ) , 3 manga series ( Legends , Sunwell Trilogy and Mage ) , 2 comic series ( Ashbringer and the monthly comic ) and a pen - and - paper RPG . " Diablo " encompasses two games , two expansions , an RPG , four novels , and an upcoming third game . " Starcraft " has two games , two expansions , and novels . This is changing as is slated to have new books are in the works . Parallels to WarCraft III . Several gaming elements first introduced in StarCraft were later adapted for use in " Warcraft : Reign of Chaos " and " Warcraft : The Frozen Throne " . Plot progression . Previous Warcraft games offered two campaigns , Orc and Human , which essentially dealt with the same events through different eyes . With three races , Blizzard decided to stack the campaigns to deal with different events , told in chronological order in one combined story arc . Essentially , you were dissuaded from playing the Zerg or the Protoss , because you didn ' t learn the plot details of the Terrans . This was adapted for Warcraft III with a minor difference : you no longer had option to defy the chronology . Additionally , the campaigns for both games proceeded similarly ( For the original game , the Human campaign went first , then the Evil campaign second , and finally , the " Ancient " party third . For their expansions , the " Ancient " party went first , then the Human campaign second , and the Evil force third ) . Specific influences . In the final mission of the game , the player commanded two armies , one Protoss and one Terran , in a last - ditch effort to save the universe by defeating the insidious Overmind of the Zerg , which was hell - bent on assimilating the Protoss and Terrans as the next step in the Zerg ' s unnatural evolution . Similarly , in the final mission of WCIII , the user commands a Night Elf army reinforced by Orcs , Humans , Trolls , Furbolgs , Tauren , High Elves , and Dwarves to stop Archimonde from ascending Mount Hyjal . The two Antagonist / Anti - Hero characters , Arthas Menethil and Sarah Kerrigan , are similar to one another . Kerrigan ' s transformation from human to Zerg , and her subsequent embracing of the darkness , also closely parallels the tale of Sylvanas Windrunner . Unequal units . " Warcraft I " and " Warcraft II " were completely balanced : for each human unit or building , there was a corresponding orc unit or building with similar damage , armor , and requirements . The only differences occurred with spells . In StarCraft , no such perfect equality existed . The four races have different advantages , most of them similar to the racial attributes of the Terrans , Zerg , and Protoss from StarCraft . The different strategically significant traits of the races in StarCraft have been combined in new ways to form the Warcraft III races . The Warcraft III night elves , for instance , resemble the Terrans in that their buildings can move and their base fighting unit has a missile attack , but like the Zerg , their worker units are consumed when they create most buildings . The Undead have the Protoss ' s ability to summon buildings rather than constructing them , so a worker unit is not tied up in construction ; also like the Protoss , they have a dedicated invisible spy unit , but their buildings have to be constructed upon dedicated infested terrain called Blight ( like the Zerg Creep ) , and their army line - up is strategically similar to that of the Zerg . Example . The basic Terran combat unit , the Marine , is a fairly durable ranged unit , capable of attacking both ground and space units . By contrast , the first fighter unit available to the Zerg was the tiny , brittle Zergling who could only attack ground units and whose usefulness came mostly from its low cost , speed , and that two spawned from one larva . Finally , the Protoss Zealot , though only attacking ground units , is extremely durable , in addition to shields . Similarly , the central Zerg building , the Hatchery , evolves into a Lair and later into a Hive , while the Terran Command Center and Protoss Nexus do not evolve . In Warcraft III , the races are balanced from the perspective that they all have infantry , ranged , cavalry and spellcasters , with similar - type production facilities , but feature different specific abilities and traits .