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The Ten Best Computer Game Villains
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Ur-quan
Star Control 2Few villains have as storied and tragic a history as the Ur-quan in Star Control 2. These beings, giant 6-foot slugs with multiple arms and triple eyes, are evil incarnate and represent a race built on slavery and domination. However, as the events in Star Control 2 unfold, it turns out that the Ur-quan are much more complex than the typical villains, and their history is more complicated.
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The Ur-quan are indeed mighty warriors, but ages ago, they were peaceful herbivores minding their own business on their homeworld, until a truly evil race of spacefarers, called the Dynarri, happened upon their planet. The Ur-quan, unschooled in the ways of war, were brutally subjugated by the Dynarri and turned into mindless slaves. The irony was that the Dynarri were but tiny, bloated beings, and the Ur-quan were mighty and strong compared with their dog-sized captors. However, the Dynarri used mental powers to dominate the Ur-quan people. One event in their history of dominance by the Dynarri led the Ur-quan race onto a fateful course. One day, one of them experienced exceptionally excruciating pain and found that during this moment of unparalleled anguish, he was momentarily free of any Dynarri mental influence. This Ur-quan quickly spread the word to his fellows that near fatal pain could temporarily block the psychic domination of the Dynarri. Armed with this knowledge, the Ur-quan slaves rose up against their masters. Millions of Ur-quan slashed their bodies, rolled in shattered glass, set themselves on fire, mutilated and burned themselves, doing anything they could to keep themselves in perpetual pain so they could be free long enough to slay their masters.
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When the uprising was complete, many Ur-quan had died through self-inflicted injuries, but the survivors had won their freedom. However, the Ur-quan were not content to merely throw off the shackles of slavery. They needed to ensure that their race would never again be conquered and violated. Their first order of business was to manufacture a device called the excruciator, which they implanted into their flesh. The excruciator continually inflicted pain and torture on the Ur-quan so they would never again fall to mental conquest by the Dynarri or any other telepathic race. Secondly, the Ur-quan decided to eliminate any future threat from the other races of space, but they were divided as to how best to accomplish this. Two camps were formed within the Ur-quan race. One was called the Kzer-Za, while the other was called the Kohr-Ah. The Kzer-Za decided to conquer the galaxy and present all the sentient races with a choice: Join the Ur-quan as thralls or become permanently imprisoned on their homeworld by an impenetrable force shield. The Kzer-Za thus hoped to either control all the races or imprison them. The Kohr-Ah thought this doctrine did not go far enough. Their philosophy was to annihilate every single species in the universe until nothing was left but the Ur-quan. Because neither side could persuade the other of its superiority, the two camps decided to divide the universe and apply their doctrines to their half of the stars. In Star Control 2, you find out that these two camps, the Kzer-Za and Kohr-Ah, have set a date, years in the future, to meet in the heart of their galaxy and examine each other's accomplishments. If neither side can prove through these means that its doctrine is better, then they will battle it out to determine the final course of the Ur-quan race. This masochistic and truly sad history makes the Ur-quan one of the very best villains. Even now, we are hard-pressed to find a race of adversaries as complex and three-dimensional as the Ur-quan.
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