Yeah, I understand Blizzard's current take on the Xel'Naga. However, they don't seem to appear like this in the manual. They seem to be physical, with psychic abilities, given that the Overmind was able to assimilate them and take a huge pile of knowledge and information.
Indeed. And besides, who says we have to follow Blizzard's vision and respect the events and reveals in StarCraft 2? I wouldn't mind if we, the fans, ignored the entire Kerrigan/Raynor love story and replaced it with our own version of the events or creatively imagined a different vision, but with the same base: SC1/BW and the game's manual.
Keep in mind we only saw their original bodies and not the hosts that were supposed to be there physically back when they interacted with protoss and zerg. Amon's host was a hybrid and Narud's host was a shapeshifter (we have no idea where that comes from). If anything they don't seem to be literal hosts, they are made to house a Xel'naga's mind from the start, more like avatars than hosts.
Actually, you see the dead Xel'Naga inside the Ulnar in LotV, alongside Artanis, and they look just like Ouros and Amon.
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An even more interesting idea for a Xel'Naga/Hybrid:
I could add something to your idea. It goes like this:
they could be assisting the evolution of beings to absorb their essence in some way. Like how the overmind then began to assimilate other races to perfect the Zerg's overall physical attributes. This happened after the Overmind killed the Xel'Naga, so I guess that's where it got the idea.
Taken as a whole the Zerg, if allowed to assimilate all life, would have all of the best things each species could offer. But then the Overmind selects aspects for his own purpose, and the Xel'Naga would be wanting another thing.
Maybe for every generation of Xel'Naga, they would be a more 'evolved' version of the former ones, but their evolution would be done by themselves, on another species they tinker with. Currently with the protoss, then the Zerg, they wanted pure essence and form.
Imagine humans would tinker with an animal's Dna, so that it will be compatible with the current state of human DNA. We would then inseminate a modified spem unto a female egg, and a new generation of human will be born.
This baby will then be the next gen, and the process would repeat.
I don't know if my thoughts are in sync with your initial idea.
Kind of, I suppose. I actually like that last idea. They merge their DNA with the best of other species to give birth to even better species. The one you showed could be an older version, whereas the newer one would be more akin to the one you described.
I'm thinking of mixing the Cthulhu head, add a slug tail, have the prothean as host body, and the Psion Mother for the silhouette for a female host Xel'Naga.
Thus, the Xel'Naga that created the Temple on Shakuras and other such advanced technologies, are not the same ones that modified the Protoss and the Zerg to serve as host body and parasite. But your idea is nice, as well. Reminds me of Stargate (Goa'uld).
Updated my post/reply with a bunch of design suggestions/ideas/inspirations. I personally don't fancy Blizzard's design for them, and I agree with changing them. Heck, the Protoss Hybrid already looks like a better Xel'Naga than Blizzard's final design.
How would you guys feel if the Xel'Naga were such as illustrated in the image below?
Can't really tell where there eyes and other facial features are supposed to be...
EDIT: Here are some more possibilities I imagined for Xel'Naga designs or that could inspire the Xel'Naga's design. Most of them are water/bug based, if not a mix of both.
TBH, I think Blizzard's idea is not necessarily bad, but I don't like their design. Blizzard's Xel'Naga look like giant bloated space whales, like something that came out of Star Wars or Star Trek. I'd rather have something more brooding, beautiful, yet alien, yet somewhat menacing, but advanced-looking. Something that actually doesn't look like a Zerg unit or like it's weak. Something that has some finesse to it, that doesn't look too bulky, either.
@Kanitala: Go That would make sense. Specially if she used it to visit "Matthew". But the inspiration was Lt Morales' Love Doctor skin from Heroes.
@Zolden: Go LOL, I guess we will have to make it a very cheap flying brothel then.
Here's another work in progress. Patch 3.7 "leaked" a few assets, probably for the last part of covert ops, and when I saw it I had to bring it back to life, or should I say undeath?
Ooooh, what new models got leaked? Mind showing us? :D
The voice acting is really nice, really liked it. A few bugs here and there, notably with the custom models, but otherwise, it was fun. The characters were pretty interesting, too. I especially love the custom ghost model!
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Indeed. And besides, who says we have to follow Blizzard's vision and respect the events and reveals in StarCraft 2? I wouldn't mind if we, the fans, ignored the entire Kerrigan/Raynor love story and replaced it with our own version of the events or creatively imagined a different vision, but with the same base: SC1/BW and the game's manual.
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An even more interesting idea for a Xel'Naga/Hybrid:
http://mavros-thanatos.deviantart.com/art/Tentacle-Alien-375809247
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Actually, you see the dead Xel'Naga inside the Ulnar in LotV, alongside Artanis, and they look just like Ouros and Amon.
EDIT:
An even more interesting idea for a Xel'Naga/Hybrid:
http://mavros-thanatos.deviantart.com/art/Tentacle-Alien-375809247
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Kind of, I suppose. I actually like that last idea. They merge their DNA with the best of other species to give birth to even better species. The one you showed could be an older version, whereas the newer one would be more akin to the one you described.
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I'm all for it! I agree with the idea :)
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So not a DNA hybrid of Protoss and Zerg, but an actual entity that is composed of both a Zerg and a Protoss. Interesting take.
I like the idea, but I'm not sure I would make them the *actual Xel'Naga*, more like a race that passes as them, but ultimately, we'd discover the Xel'Naga are more akin to a mix of these designs I posted here:
https://www.sc2mapster.com/forums/resources/project-workplace/129093-mass-recall-v6-0-silver/?page=12#p221
Thus, the Xel'Naga that created the Temple on Shakuras and other such advanced technologies, are not the same ones that modified the Protoss and the Zerg to serve as host body and parasite. But your idea is nice, as well. Reminds me of Stargate (Goa'uld).
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Updated my post/reply with a bunch of design suggestions/ideas/inspirations. I personally don't fancy Blizzard's design for them, and I agree with changing them. Heck, the Protoss Hybrid already looks like a better Xel'Naga than Blizzard's final design.
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Can't really tell where there eyes and other facial features are supposed to be...
EDIT: Here are some more possibilities I imagined for Xel'Naga designs or that could inspire the Xel'Naga's design. Most of them are water/bug based, if not a mix of both.
TBH, I think Blizzard's idea is not necessarily bad, but I don't like their design. Blizzard's Xel'Naga look like giant bloated space whales, like something that came out of Star Wars or Star Trek. I'd rather have something more brooding, beautiful, yet alien, yet somewhat menacing, but advanced-looking. Something that actually doesn't look like a Zerg unit or like it's weak. Something that has some finesse to it, that doesn't look too bulky, either.
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Artanis, I believe, already has one. It's a skin in Heroes of the Storm :P
I also believe alleyviper or someone else ported it to SC2...
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Wait...Wrong tentacular God.
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...In pasta? His noodly appendage is offended.
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M-M-M-MULTIPOST
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Cool stuff! Are we ever going to see these released? I see you also haven't released your most recent white/blue Terran models, either. :P
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Ooooh, what new models got leaked? Mind showing us? :D
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The voice acting is really nice, really liked it. A few bugs here and there, notably with the custom models, but otherwise, it was fun. The characters were pretty interesting, too. I especially love the custom ghost model!