Quake Lore: Delving into Quake 2 War on Stroggos - Operation Alien Overlord Phase 3&4 (Part 3) 

That forgot to add Bitterman to their cost/benefit analysis

​@@jerglowthat day they found their new leader

A Strogg vs. eldritch armies fighting in the dreamland would be pretty epic to witness. It's interesting to see in your theory that Shub-Niggurath is at war with the Strogg.

@@lechumqc7910 That could easily explain the ruined dilapidated landscape of the Dreamlands. In the aftermath of prolonged battles against the mighty Strogg war machine.

Interesting idea to pit strogg against Shub. We do know that Shub didn't create the strogg (or to quote the dev SyncError, "there is no connection between Shub and the Strogg"). My theory goes somewhat differently, and is largely based off of Quake Champions, Dimension of the Machine, and Call of the Machine. From QC, we know that Elder Gods cannot be killed, and Chthon was simply ousted when Ranger defeated him, to be replaced with Goroth. In Goroth's lore scrolls, we see that the Dimension of the Doomed is home to cybernetic monstrocities very similar to the Strogg. Now in Dimension of the Machine, it gets established that after Chthon was outed out of his domain, he settled in the realm of the same name (Dimension of the Machine), in a similar matter to how the Lurching King settled in The Rift after being outed by Volkerh. In Call of the Machine, not only do we briefly visit the Dimension of the Doomed in Operation: Darkest Depths, which seems to be located on one of Stroggos' moons, but in the finale it's stated we're going to the Dimension of the Machine to find the Strogg-Maker though only manage to find the "Masters of the Machine" instead. So to seek out the Strogg-Maker, we go to Chthon's dimensions, except Chthon is no longer there because Ranger ousted him twice. This all makes me think that Chthon is directly tied to the origin of the Strogg, either converting them into cyborgs fully against their will, or pre-cyborg Strogg worshiping him, stroggifying themselves, and waging war on the rest of the planet and winning. Fun fact: In doma, we visit a space ship (Realm of the Astrologers) which is capturing eldritch entities. This space ship *very curiously* uses a very small handful of Q2 textures. The ship was manned by Grunts, Enforcers, and oddly, the sole Vore in the ship was at the helm. From QC, we know that Vore are servants of Ithagnal, the Elder God ruling the Netherworld. It's hard to tell whether these are tied to the Strogg or not due to just a handful of shared textures, but it's an interesting setup that hints at Ithagnal opposing other Elder Gods, possibly with Chthon's aid? Or in opposition to Chthon.

@@KonigDesTodes Another thing I see in the Strogg incursion of the Dreamland would be changes in their primary mission. At first it would be a search and destroy, scorched-earth policy of totally eliminating the Eldritch without mercy or pity. However... During the expedition. They discovered the secret of the runes and the immense power they held. They now sought to capture said runes and take them back to Stoggos. Of course, Shub-Niggurath and her Guardians couldn't allow this to happen no matter what. To the denizens of the Dreamland. The Strogg were seen as high-tech mechanical abominations that had absolutely no place in the magical realm. They already had a foothold and given enough time. They would have carved out large swaths of the Dreamland and established a permanent presence. The Strogg had to be stopped no matter the cost. As the war in the realm raged on and soon became a stalemate. In a climactic final battle, the Guardians unleashed the combined power of the runes. Devastating the Dreamland but also taking out the bulk of invading Strogg and destroying all slip-gates to Stroggos. Whatever surviving Strogg would have been picked off or starved out. A few could have found slip-gates to other worlds and made their escape. I can easily see some Strogg finding a slip-gate to Earth and making contact with Dr. Gilman during the events of 'Project Mountain King'. Arranging safe passage to Earth in exchange for advanced technology. Once on Earth, they commandeered the installation's long range communication system and sent a distress signal back to Stroggos. Alerting their comrades of their survival and a resource rich world just waiting to be plundered. Afterwards, they went into hiding until the Strogg invasion fleet arrived decades later.

I concur, those additions would be top tier 👌

Three possible reasons 1)he/the hive mind/nexus didn't think that they would actually be able to complete the objectives. It would be a better use of resources to deal with the two ships and any possible reinforcements. 2)there wasn't a fall back plan in case something like this happened, so the decision making process was stuck in a loop 3)what ever is controlling the Strog wanted to see how it play out and prevent the Macron from overwhelming the three. And extra on reason: 4)due the the high threat in 3 different locations , the control system wasn't able to select the most important one and just stalled, resulting in local defences/resources being used and only nearby support requested.

@@lostShadowLord thank you

Oooh, Turok lore videos would be much appreciated :D

I was tinkering about doing something for Doom 1, 2, and 64. I'm not to familiar with Wolfenstein but it could be fun to look at! ^^

I might take a pause from the Quake Strogg war and try to cover other games before tackling Quake 4, but I can't say no to help ^^ thank you!

It's a bit murky. It would possibly take place before or during the first wave attack, but there isn't much information about it.

Sadly the Quake 2 64 game is the one with the smallest amount of story (due to no opening / ending cinematics or even unit summaries). Based on the manual, default player name (Viper) for console version, and mission objectives, the narrative set up is basically: Viper is a space marine Special Operations and is sent on a reconnaissance mission of Stroggos. Viper's first mission was to infiltrate a strogg military outpost and steal a data disc to upload to command, then infiltrate an orbital defense station and destroy it. In escaping the orbital defense station, Viper lands on (one of?) the Stroggos moon(s?) and shuts down a Zaxite Mine operation before returning to Stroggos via teleporter, infiltrates a compound where captives are tortured and processed to access into a deep underground facility and destroy a "Command Core" (zero details on what, exactly, that is or why it was the ultimate objective for Viper). It's hard to really guess whether it's meant to be an alternate depiction of the base campaign's narrative, but with its own unique set of levels (three of which taken from one of Q2's and two of TR's levels), or if it's part of the greater narrative. If the latter, then it would make the most sense as being a prequel to Quake 2, as there is no orbital defense stations ever suggested in any of the three campaigns - the closest we get would be the Makron's asteroid base, and the moon base. And before a ground invasion can occur, known orbital defenses would need to be taken out.

There is not a lot of information for it yet. If it's canon, my guess would be before the events of Quake 2, but that's a very large guess. The only hint that gives me this impression is the 'Ruined Earth' level, where you witness a sort of giant Strogg mining ship drilling on Earth. The settings and locations are amazing, but there isn't much story to be uncovered. Lots of speculations are brought up, but not many answers, sadly.

We don't really know when Call of the Machine takes place. Could be during Quake 2, between the two, during Quake 4, or after Quake 4 for all we know. Though I'd like to headcanon it's post-Quake 4, personally. As to canon or not - depends on your point of view. According to Quake Champions, *all* expansions are non-canon - Scourge of Armagon, Dissolution of Eternity, The Reckoning, Ground Zero, Team Arena, and yes, Dimension of the Machine and Call of the Machine. But when there will be another Quake game, they may consider any or all of these canon again. Id software can be fickle with what it draws its lore from, but tends to treat all installments as canon in the large scope of things.

@@lechumqc7910 I personally don't think "Ruined Earth" is meant to take place on planet Earth - too many Gekk and Mutants, not enough humans, it makes me think the term in the title is more generic referencing land/ground instead, and I interpreted it to be the ruins of pre-cyborg Stroggos.

The name is "Invasion Of Aliens" by Saltonbria. But I dont think you will find it on youtube, it is a lisenced music from Motion Array. I agree, it is very similar to the music of quake champion ^^