The Koprulu Grand Stage, If You Dare, Come On

The Savior Ark, Pride of Otaris, confirmed to have fallen into Amon's hands, brought with it a massive Protoss Empire fleet that launched into a near-mad assault the moment it appeared.

Though they had vanished for many years, the reconstituted Conclave and its steadfast followers had returned at this moment with strength not to be underestimated.

After the Protoss Empire's civil war, division had become inevitable. Unable to bring himself to slaughter his own people, Tassadar ultimately parted ways with the nearly shattered Conclave.

These were two forces representing tradition and change.

The Conclave took away between one-fifth and one-quarter of Aiur's former population. For the increasingly dwindling Protoss people, that was a considerable number.

Among the current Conclave fleet, Arbiters were especially numerous. These slow-moving support warships were the exclusive vessels of the Arbiter caste, steeped in the formidable psionic power of Khala apostles. Arbiters were equipped with powerful spacetime weapons capable of turning the tide of battle.

After losing the support of the Templar Knights led by Tassadar, more and more Arbiters had joined the battlefield.

The elite guards fiercely loyal to the Conclave and its powerful psionic warriors sustained the last lingering glow of the Protoss Empire. With far fewer Templar Knights under its command than before, the Conclave had no choice but to deploy more unmanned machines to the battlefield.

Ironically, under the Conclave's rule, the Khalai Caste had invisibly filled the power vacuum left by the absent Templar Knights, and their status had in fact risen greatly.

Meanwhile, Tassadar's efforts to abolish the class system met enormous resistance among the Daelaam, whose ranks were primarily composed of Templar Knights and Khalai.

The Conclave fleet's strength had indeed caught the Emperor of the Empire somewhat by surprise. He immediately dispatched Mira Han's and Alexei Stukov's fleets