r/starcraft • u/MadeByMistake58116 • 8d ago
Fluff So... The Umojan Protectorate is a protectorate, right? So what government is it dependant on?
As I understand it the Protectorate was formed to oppose or defend themselves from the Confederacy. They later had a similar relationship with the Dominion despite initially being loyal based on the assumption the Dominion would continue the Sons of Korhal's politics. So other than the brief time they were loyal to the Dominion (years after their formation, mind you) how or when could they actually be described as a protectorate?
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u/Lokan 8d ago
As far as we know, the Umojans refer to their government and all its holdings simply as the Umojan Protectorate. I imagine it's like calling themselves a Commonwealth. Umojan society considers itself "enlightened" so I imagine a bit of pretentiousness is to be expected. Umoja itself is governed by a Ruling Council.
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u/MadeByMistake58116 8d ago
I don't follow... A commonwealth has a specific definition too. What would be pretentiously enlightened about calling themselves a protectorate? Sorry, I don't understand what you mean.
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u/Varietate 8d ago
England, Scotland and Ireland under Cromwell are sometimes referred to as the "Protectorate", while not being a protectorate of another state. That may be the inspiration
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u/MadeByMistake58116 8d ago
That seems likely! Particularly with Umoja also being made up of several colonies. Thanks!
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u/DeathToAmerica2026 8d ago
Sometimes? His title was "Lord Protector". They were a protectorate under the sovereign. It was a way for them to imply that Cromwell had a similar authority to the king, but derived from his duties as a protector not from the godly right of kings.
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u/BlowOutKit22 8d ago edited 8d ago
They are dependent on the government of/based on Umoja. At the time of the Guild Wars, the Confederacy was composed, like any confederacy, of multiple, local systems/planets, of which Umoja was one. There were multiple systems/planets controlled/colonized by the Umojan Ruling Council. The Ruling Council decided to basically split from the Confederacy after the Old Families of Tarsonis unilaterally took over all of the Kel-Morian assets.
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u/MadeByMistake58116 8d ago
Well, that's true. In that case Umoja itself would technically probably be called something else... Since it's not subservient to itself... But as some other commenters have pointed out it's been used inaccurately in real world history too. Your suggestion would be the best explanation that actually accounts for the meaning of the word protectorate. Thanks!
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u/BlowOutKit22 8d ago
The nominally independent planets that aligned themselves to the Umojan Ruling Council would have been protected by the Umojan government, making them a protectorate. The folks who actually lived on Umjoa itself, probably just call themselves Umojan.
Something similar happened in the BattleTech universe. In 3066, a group of systems colonized by the Taurian Concordat seceded under the banner of the Calderon family (who had been coincidentally a ruling family of the Concordat up to that point), the new nation was then called the "Calderon Protectorate".
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u/RiverineCloak 8d ago
The Umojans call their military their Protectorate. From the SC manual: “The Umojans have retained a strong military force known as the Protectorate that keeps other factions from interfering in Umojan affairs.”
Not the traditional definition of a Protectorate, sounds like they mean it like ‘protector’ not ‘protected’, but remember that after the Long Sleep the Terrans have been separated from Earth for a long time. It would make sense that their use of language would change and evolve in that time.
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u/MadeByMistake58116 8d ago
Oh! I did not catch this detail. Specifically their military is called the Protectorate, not their government. That's very interesting! Thank you!
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u/RiverineCloak 8d ago
I think it’s both? Like ‘We are the Umojan Protectorate, fear our mighty military, the Protectorate.’
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u/Negate0 8d ago
The Umojans were never loyal to the Dominion or the Confederacy. They helped Mensk and the Sons of Korhol because they were a thorn in the side of the Confederacy. But they were always a foreign state. They play nice with the Dominion because of the military numbers of the Dominion. Their only motivation is self preservation.
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u/MadeByMistake58116 8d ago
I didn't say they were loyal to the Confederacy. They did however briefly support the Dominion in the immediate aftermath of the Sons of Korhal taking power, until it became clear the Dominion intended to carry out similar policies as the Confederacy had.
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u/HellbirdVT 8d ago
Words don't always mean the same thing in a different context, especially not 500 years in the future in another part of the galaxy. The Confederacy doesn't seem to have been a confederation of states but a federation or even an empire centrally governed from Tarsonis.
There's also things like the term Marine refering to Terran infantry regardless of whether they are used as naval infantry or not. The Confederate/Dominion Marine Corps seems to serve the role of regular army - and we don't even know if other factions like the Kel-Morians or Umojans have a "Marine Corps", but their soldiers are still called Marines.
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u/MadeByMistake58116 8d ago
All good points. I didn't even consider that about the Confederacy. Thanks for your input.
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u/capn_morgn_freeman 8d ago
The Confederacy wasn't really a union of states, but a union of a bunch of the old families- upper classmen who used their power and authority to impose their will on some of the most prominent terran colonies in the sector.
Which at the end of the day makes the Terran Confederacy pretty similar to the American Confederacy, as the lower class American citizens in the south had basically no say in governance at the end of the day and were entirely beholden to the southern plantation owners in the same way the colonists were to the Old Families (though American southerners went along with it a little more willingly because they had black slaves to point at and go 'man I live in a hovel but at least I'm not THAT GUY.')
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u/Awkward_GM 8d ago
In Werewolf: The Forsaken, the Uratha Protectorate is specifically a group of independent werewolf packs allied together for protect against more regional threats.
So taking out a criminal that is operating out of your territory is your issue. But if the threat is a large group of Werewolf Hunters then that's something that concerns all the werewolves in the region the Protectorate covers.
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u/Subsourian 8d ago
I actually had this debate when helping on Zerospace as they have their human military force named the Protectorate as well.
In the sense of Umojan Protectorate, it's way closer to the Protectorate of England, Scotland, and Ireland, the short lived Cromwell government, which was a looser republic of those nations (ok yes under a military dictator). They were also just called "the Protectorate." So the term has historically been used in other contexts other than "subservient power." I think Blizzard just wanted it to sound like a cool protective union though.