Homeworld Series

Homeworld
Homeworld is a real-time strategy computer game released on September 28, 1999, developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sierra Entertainment. It was the first fully three-dimensional RTS. [1]  In 2003, Relic released the source code for Homeworld; to work with the code one must sign a license agreement and become part of the Relic Developer Network. [2] [3]  Homeworld was the beginning of a series, followed in 2000 with Homeworld: Cataclysm and in 2003 with Homeworld 2.

Plot
For thousands of years, the Kushan survived on the arid planet Kharak, corralled into the temperate geographical poles by a vast hot desert. Scarcity of arable land and natural resources had colored Kushan history with near constant warfare between the many clans. One day however, everything changed: a satellite detected a huge spaceship under the sands of the Great Desert. It carried advanced spaceflight technologies, including a hyperspace device for faster-than-light space voyage. More importantly, a stone with a galactic map bearing two coordinates was found: One, located at the outer rim of the galaxy, was Kharak. The other, located near the center, bore a name so ancient it was common across all their languages and dialects: Hiigara, "Home".

The discovery united the people of Kharak. They worked for nearly a century on building the Mothership, a vast ship that would bear 600,000 of them to their destination. Technologies that never existed before were developed. Central to the Mothership was Karan S'jet, the scientist who integrated the Mothership's control system into her own nervous system. She became the core of the Mothership and was known as Fleet Command.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The maiden voyage of the Mothership turned into a tragedy: As scheduled, Mothership performed its first hyperspace jump, disappearing from its location near planet Kharak and appearing outside the Kharak solar system where it expected an engineering crew. Instead, it found a hostile alien fleet which had massacred the engineering crew awaiting their arrival. The Kushan managed to defeat the aliens and return to Kharak, only to find it in flames. Those left on Kharak were all dead. The chosen 600,000 were all that had survived.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Kushan began their journey with an act of revenge on the fleet that had destroyed Kharak. Having captured an enemy frigate, they learned that their enemy was Taiidan, a tyrannical interstellar empire which had ordered their destruction merely because the Kushan's development of a faster-than-light drive was a violation of a treaty signed four thousands years before – a time that predated Kharak's known history.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Kushan become aware of huge imperial outposts along their way and set out to circumvent them. Their course took them through many hazards: A dangerous asteroid field, a turbulent nebula in which a huge fleet of zealous adversaries laid in ambush and a mysterious ship that took possession of whatever capital ship that approached it. Occasionally, they were visited by the Bentusi, a benevolent race of space traders who sold them advanced military technology. The Bentusi promised to summon the Galactic Council and help establish the Kushan claim to Hiigara.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Taiidan emperor saw the Bentusi as a serious threat and ordered its destruction. He would have succeeded, has it not been for the Kushan fleet that arrived in time to rescue the Bentusi mothership. In return, the Bentusi told the Kushan about how their ancestors were exiled to Kharak four thousand years ago and how their return was prophesied.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Kushan later gave sanctuary to a defecting Taiidan rebel, one Captain Elson. With the help of Captain Elson, they penetrated the Hiigaran system blockade and engaged the massive Taiidan fleet in one last epic battle. Despite Taiidan's superior number, their deadly combat strategy and their imperial flagship that mysteriously sent Karan into coma, the Kushan emerged victorious. The Galactic Council arrived shortly thereafter and approved Kushan's claim to Hiigara, which turned out a beautiful lush world. Karan S'jet survived the extraction from the mothership.

[edit] Characters
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">In Homeworld's story, individual characters have very little significance; rather, it is the races or organizations around which the story takes shape, supplemented by the context-sensitive game music and the narrations given between missions. When there is a need for a race to speak, usually an unseen and usually unnamed spokesperson does so. Overall, there are only four individuals in the game that have some form of personality.


 * Karan S'jet: Also referred to as Fleet Command, Karan was a neuroscientist who gave birth to the technology of integrating a person's neural system into a starship's control systems, thus enabling very close interaction with the machine and eliminating the need of a forbiddingly huge crew. Using this technology, she was integrated into the Mothership and thus became the leader of the Kushan fleet. Karan is heard frequently but is not seen except in cutscenes at the beginning and the end of the game. She is a slender middle-aged woman. During the game, she alerts the player of important events in the game. Her voice actor is Heidi Ernest.
 * Fleet Intelligence: A male character in charge of analyzing sensor data and generating mission objectives in the single player campaign. Unlike Fleet Command, he is quite formal and his voice is often emotionally level. He is not heard in multiplayer games. His voice actor is Michael Sunczyk.
 * Captain Elson: Commander of the Taiidani destroyer–class ship Kapella and the leader of the Taiidan revolution against the emperor. He appears in missions 12, 13 and 16. He and the other revolutionaries believe that the Taiidan Empire has grown corrupt over the centuries, and wish to overthrow the current regime in favor of a republic.
 * Taiidan Emperor: Nothing is known about him except that he is a ruthless dictator. He takes part in the final mission and commands the Taiidan fleet from his mothership–class command ship. Before the mission, he contacts Karan (apparently through no perceivable medium) and sends Karan into coma. His death restores Karan.

[edit] Races

 * Kushan: The primary protagonists of the game. Four thousands years before the events of the game, they were defeated in a galactic war and were sent into exile as punishment. The convoy of prison ships traveled the void for centuries usingconventional drives, though of the many vessels only five eventually made it to Kharak, some ships being destroyed by malfunctions and others breaking off from the main group. The Exiles who settled on Kharak eventually forgot their history, holding onto only a few vague myths and legends and forgetting a treaty never to redevelop hyperspace technology. The Kushan are one of the two teams available in multiplayer games.
 * Taiidan: An interstellar empire that rules much of the galaxy in which the game's story takes place. The empire is ruled by a ruthless and mad emperor, against whom a rebellion has risen. The Taiidan is the primary antagonist of the game and one of the two playable teams in multiplayer games. Though they are designed quite differently, the vast majority of Taiidan ships are mostly functionally identical to their Kushan counterparts.
 * Bentusi: A peaceful space-faring race of traders. The Bentusi are an enigmatic race, speaking in a poetic and guarded fashion, though they are friendly and only attack those who unwisely provoke them. In mission 11, a member of the Bentusi breaks their silence regarding the larger events of the galaxy and tells the Kushan the story of their ancient exile. This particular individual is voiced by Campbell Lane, who also narrates the game.
 * Kadeshi: A race seen only in missions 7 and 8, they are descendants of the Exiles who never reached Kharak. Instead, they entered an electronically charged nebula that hid them from detection by any outside sensors. This nebula, christened the Gardens of Kadesh, eventually became the center of their existence and religion. Their needle-shaped motherships can prevent enemy vessels from performing a hyperspace jump, allowing them to ensnare any who wander into their home and present them with an ultimatum: join them or die. Their unforgiving approach to intruders meant that prior to the Kushan, no-one who entered the Gardens would ever leave again, making the nebula feared by the rest of the galaxy.
 * Turanic Raiders: A race of marauding space pirates who were at the time of the game employed by the Taiidan Empire to help attack the Kharak. They were not seen since mission 5.
 * The Galactic Council: A deus ex machina device, no detail is given about this race or organization except that even the Taiidan must answer this council. They arrive at the end of the game to approve the Kushan's claim on the Hiigara.

[edit] Allusions
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The game features multiple instances of allusion, a literary device which involves invoking similarities with other famous works of literature or the real world. The game's main storyline has many resemblances to The Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and their search for the promised land. In addition, the titles of Missions 7 and 8, respectively "Gardens of Kadesh" and "Cathedral of Kadesh", allude to the real-world Kadesh. Finally, Mission 13 ("The Karos Graveyard - The Shining Hinterlands") also bears some resemblances to Homer's Odyssey. For one, the mission's objective is to send a strikecraft to dock with a derelict ship to establish a communication link, an allusion to the search for the blind oracle. For another, the Karos Graveyard is protected by a ship called Junkyard Dog, an allusion to Cerberus.

Homeworld 2
Homeworld 2<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> is a real-time strategy<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> computer game sequel to Homeworld<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">, developed by Relic Entertainment<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> and released in 2003 by now defunct publisher Sierra Entertainment<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">. Its story concerns Hiigara's response to a new enemy called the Vaygr. Its gameplay takes a new direction with the enhancement of its graphics and audio. In contrast to the closely equivalent Kushan and Taiidan forces of the original game, Vaygr and Hiigaran spaceships differ significantly in design and application.

Plot
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Homeworld 2 continues the struggle of the Hiigarans and their leader Karan S'jet.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">During the events of the original game, the Kushan race of the planet Kharak began a quest to discover and reclaim their home planet. The Kushan discovered the wreckage of the Khar-Toba, an interstellar transport, in a desert on Kharak, and inside found a galactic map etched on a piece of stone. From this the Kushan concluded they had been transplanted to Kharak some time ago. To reclaim their home planet—"Hiigara"— the Kushan built an enormous self-sufficient Mothership to carry 600,000 people on a crusade to reclaim Hiigara. This led to the engagement and eventual defeat of the Taiidan Empire which exiled them.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The story continues that some time later, the Khar-Toba was found to contain one of the Three Hyperspace Cores, which was then repurposed for the Mothership. The Cores, of which the Kushan had the second, were left behind by a so-calledProgenitor race, which eventually allowed hyperspace travel. The First Core was possessed by the Bentusi: a powerful and enigmatic race of traders who assisted the Exiles (the campaign can be played using Kushan or Taiidan craft in the original game) during the first game. The third was lost until approximately one hundred years after the Exiles reclaimed Hiigara, found by a Vaygr Warlord named Makaan, who used it to conquer much of the galaxy and—as of the beginning of Homeworld 2—began attempts to capture Hiigara. The story states that religious beings of the galaxy consider the discovery of the Third Core to announce the End Times, during which Sajuuk, thought to be an immensely powerful being, will return.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The game begins with the commissioning of a new Mothership, the Pride of Hiigara, similar in shape and design to the original Mothership and commanded by Karan S'jet, as in the original game. The ship is attacked by the Vaygr during the final stages of construction but escapes. The Bentusi inform the Hiigarans that they must find Balcora Gate, left behind by the Progenitors, behind which is something essential for stopping either the Vaygr threat, the End Times, or both. Makaan learns of and reaches the location as well, and the game's penultimate mission takes place on the other side of Balcora Gate, where Hiigarans and Vaygr alike discover an enormous Progenitor starship, named Sajuuk, with sockets for the Three Hyperspace Cores. After defeating Makaan the Hiigarans combine the Vaygr, Hiigaran and Bentusi Cores (recovered from the wreckage of the last of the Bentusi ships) within Sajuuk, and use it to defeat the leaderless-but-still-dangerous Vaygr invasion; Sajuuk is later found to be the key to a galaxy-wide network of hyperspace gates, ushering in a new age of trade and prosperity for all civilized races in the galaxy.

Credits
Homeworld Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeworld 

Homeworld 2 Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeworld_2

Encyclopedia Hiigara Wikia: http://homeworld.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

All information, citation, and reference can be found on these Wiki's.