Aeon of Strife

The **Aeon of Strife** was a massive, bloody civil war amongst the protoss. It is widely considered the most violent civil war in the history of the Milky Way. It lasted thousands of years.

## History

As the psionic link between the protoss tribes faded, the xel'naga began to consider the evolution of the protoss a failed experiment. They prepared to leave Aiur -- which the protoss, who worshipped the xel'naga as gods, viewed as a betrayal. They attacked. The xel'naga escaped, taking some loyal protoss with them -- these would eventually become the Tal'darim.

Aside from the Shelak Tribe, who took to guarding artifacts left behind by the xel'naga, the protoss fell into a deep self-loathing because of the abandonment of the xel'naga. This hatred turned into a madness (known to the protoss as "the Strife"), and became a hatred for the other tribes -- the Strife even gripped those on colonies off of Aiur, only accessible through warp gates.

The tribes turned on each other, and the ensuing years of destruction slowed the technological developments of the protoss to a near stand-still, and even regressed. Nearly all historical records of the time were lost in the destruction. Knowledge of a handful of incidents did survive -- for instance, an underground settlement called Mendella was intentionally flooded by another protoss faction.

As the fighting waged on, many tribes turned their attention specifically to the Shelak tribe -- as they had been closest to the xel'naga, and still guarded xel'naga artifacts. The attacks on the Shelak sometimes focused specifically on the artifacts.

Savassan and Temlaa were scholars studying the artifacts, who left the tribe in order to better study them without the constant threat of violence. Over the course of their studies, they happened upon khaydarin crystals -- which allowed them to form a psychic link with each other. They returned to the Shelak eager to share their discovery. Savassan believed they could end the war with the crystals. The tribe's leader Telkar instead sought to use the crystals as a weapon.

Further research led Savassan and Temlaa to an underground city, where a giant khaydarin crystal was located. This crystal could drain protoss of their life energy -- Temlaa was afraid, while Sevassan learned what he could. He discovered that the xel'naga had experimented on all of the protoss tribes equally -- and then began experimenting on himself. Though Temlaa had to save him from his experimentations, he learned how the Strife was caused by the loss if their species-wide psychic connection.

Savassan began to travel Aiur, teaching the protoss he encountered to join the psychic link. He became known as Khas (or "He Who Brings Order") and his philosophy -- and the link itself -- became known as the Khala. He formed a large tribe -- the Ara Tribe -- with a society structured into three castes: The first students and warriors who joined him became the Judicator Caste. The Templar Caste formed next, forming a body of warriors for their society. The largest caste was the Khalai Caste -- artisans and laborers.

As Protoss society reunited under the Khala, the Aeon of Strife came to an end.

## Source

The Aeon of Strife is taken from *Starcraft*.