Hack primary key oracle docs

Hey folks,
Another Sunday, another character thread. Following up from his lore thread Friday we’ll be continuing our look into Zeratul, the Dark Prelate of the Nerazim. There’s a lot to go through with him, and a ton of cool little references in his Heroes appearances.
Also the recent major reworks of Nova nd Hammer are full of little references to the SC universe, but those were threads I already did. Dunno how I want to handle those, let me know if you all have any ideas.
Zeratul character lore thread
All previous Lore Of episodes

Abilities

Zeratul’s appearance is based off of his StarCraft II one, armed as a regular dark templar with ceremonial robes and a warp blade. Warp blades draw from the Void, channeled through the willpower of the user, so it’s a medium between the blue psi blades Artanis uses (pure psionic willpower) and the red bane blades Alarak uses (raw Void energy). Zeratul’s is a mastercraft warp blade, and while the mechanics of it are unknown it clearly uses more potent energies.

• D: Permanent Cloak – Dark templar have the ability to cloak themselves from slight and strike from the shadows. This was taught to them by the legendary Executor Adun in the early days of the discord between Nerazim and Khalai over whether all protoss should be forced into the Khala, their mind link. In game, the dark templar unit (and Zeratul) have the same passive ability, but never break stealth even when attacking, but they can be seen with a detection unit.
  
• Q: Cleave – The animation of this ability is similar to Zeratul's Shadow Strike ability from Legacy of the Void, which did major damage to a single target.
  
• E: Blink – Dark templar have the ability to “blink” through the shadows, enveloping themselves in darkness and teleporting a short distance. Zeratul uses this ability both in combat and to get around rough terrain, and most Nerazim units (dark templar and their robotic stalkers) are also able to use blink. Zeratul has this ability in all of his StarCraft II iterations.
  
• R1: Void Prison – In Wings of Liberty, Zeratul had this ability, which would stun an enemy and its ability to detect for 12 seconds. Unlike here, this ability was single target and affected units could be attacked while stunned.
  
• R2 (Old): Shadow Assault – Similar to the Shadow Fury ability that dark templar from the Legacy of the Void campaigb and Vorazun (the leader of the Nerazim) are able to use. But while Shadow Assault charges a single target, Shadow Fury causes the dark templar to blink rapidly around, striking everything in range.
  
• R2: Might of the Nerazim – The Nerazim are the protoss who rejected the Khala and severed their nerve cords, getting into a thousand-year civil war with the Khalai of Aiur. These are Zeratul’s people, who he has loyalty to. The ability itself doesn’t appear to be similar to anything in StarCraft, but Valeera the Hollow (death knight Valeera) in Hearthstone has a similar mimic ability as her hero power.
  

Talents

• Shadow Hunter (Level 1) – The second book of the Dark Templar Saga, a trilogy of StarCraft books, is named “Shadow Hunters,” which is a term used to describe dark templar. This book's cover is also a portrait in Heroes of the Storm. Shadow Hunters is also the name of the ninth protoss mission in SC1 where Zeratul kills two cerebrates.
  
• Move Unseen (Level 1, New) – One of the move quotes for the stalker, the dark templar assault strider, is “we move unseen.” Which is funny because in game they don’t have any cloaking abilities.
  
• Grim Task (Level 4, Old) – Zeratul’s journey to uncover the will of the xel’naga and how to defeat the fallen xel’naga Amon was described as a “grim task,” as it alienated him from his people and the powers of the sector. It’s also Zeratul’s outlook on killing (since this is a quest that rewards kills), which he regrets doing but sees as a necessity.
  
• Darkness Descends (Level 4, New) – “Darkness descends” is one of the attack quotes for StarCraft II dark templar. Zeratul in StarCraft II has a similar attack quote “Oblivion descends.”
  
• Wormhole (Level 7) – Stable wormholes are a rare natural phenomena in the StarCraft universe, and ships can traverse through them to reach new locations. Zeratul used one shown to him by a xel’naga energy creature to aid in his search for the truth about the xel'naga's return.
  
• Shroud of Adun (Level 13) – Shroud of Adun is another name for the dark templar’s cloaking ability, taught by the ancient executor Adun. I went over its history in the permanent cloaking section.
  
• Master Warp-Blade (Level 16) – Zeratul’s warp blade is a mastercraft warp blade, and it’s a good bit more powerful than the blade of an average dark templar.
  
• From the Shadows (Level 16, Old) – When dark templar are built in StarCraft II, their quote is “from the shadows I come.”
  
• Void Slash (Level 16) – The dark templar call on the energies of the Void, an alternate dimension outside of time, to empower their abilities. Their blades are Void energy focused through their willpower.
  
• Twilight Falls (Level 20) – “Twilight” is used to describe the fusion of the Khalai and Nerazim societies, the “light” and “dark.” Tassadar is described as the Twilight Messiah for using both energies to kill the Overmind, and the government of the two cultures coming together was named the Twilight Council.
  
• Gift of the Xel'Naga (Level 20) – Zeratul spent much of his time searching for answers on the xel'naga's return, and the Nerazim venerate the xel'naga as gods. Much of Nerazim technology, including the warp blade Zeratul uses, is reverse engineered from the xel'naga worldship they fled from Aiur on.
  

Poke

Zeratul’s StarCraft 1 quotes
Zeratul’s StarCraft II quotes
”You address me?” – One of Zeratul’s select quotes from StarCraft 1 and StarCraft II.
”I will erase the demons of the past.” – One of Zeratul’s StarCraft II select quotes. Zeratul seeks to undo a lot of the damage he inadvertently did to his people by leading the zerg to Aiur, then leading them to Shakuras, and then by killing his leader Raszagal.
”Scythes are nice, but I prefer cloak and dagger.” – This is a bit of a layered one. There are two models of dark templar from different clans in StarCraft II with different weapons, one is the Zer’atai, who wear zerg bones and use warp scythes (which also show up as Zeratul's Zerg Hunter skin), and the other is the Lenassa who use warp blades and cloaks. At the launch of StarCraft II, Blizzard held a contest to decide which model would be the model for dark templar in StarCraft, and in the ability for each different model to randomly spawn was what won, so every dark templar you build has a chance of being one or the other. Zeratul is saying that he’s more the Lenassa style of dark templar, with a single arm blade and a cloak, over the scythe. Cloak and dagger is also a way to describe more subtle attacks.
”You’d be surprised how easy it is to sneak aboard a spaceship.” – In Wings of Liberty, Zeratul sneaks aboard Jim Raynor’s ship the Hyperion in order to give him a memory crystal showing him why he shouldn’t kill Kerrigan. He later snuck aboard Kerrigan's primary zerg command ship-creature named a leviathan in Heart of the Swarm.
”Blink and you’ll miss me. You get it? Because that’s the power I have. Blink. And humans- you know what, nevermind.” – Zeratul doing my job for me.
”(ACHOO) Wait, what just happened? How did I do that?” – Protoss don’t have mouths, and communicate through psionically planting the idea of something in a target’s mind as well as reading the target’s intended thoughts (which is why protoss understand Murky). Sometimes protoss will send ideas usually reserved for breathing, like sighs, but given they operate like plants and breath through their skin it’s be impossible for them to sneeze.
”Speak slowly, and carry a large warp blade.” – A joke on “walk softly and carry a big stick,” popularized as the foreign policy slogan of American president Theodore Roosevelt. It’s similar to Zeratul’s philosophy of only using power when necessary. Zeratul in SCII also speaks rather slow and drawn out.
”I should use my abilities to attack enemy heroes. Also, I should investigate why I talk to myself so much.” – In Wings of Liberty, Zeratul has an arc of missions where the player controls him, and he speaks to himself as a tutorial to the player and to explain what they need to do (things like “I should blink to get across this chasm.”) This is often attributed to the fact the mission arc is Raynor seeing Zeratul’s memories through a memory crystal, and therefore he hears everything Zeratul was thinking at that moment.
”I bear grave tidings. Not really. I just like saying that.” – When Zeratul gives Raynor his memory crystal in Wings of Liberty, he greets him with “James Raynor, I bring tidings of doom.”
”The darkness is my ally. But we keep it casual. The Void is a jealous mistress.” – “Darkness” is a running gag in poke quotes going back to Warcraft III’s generic demon hunter hero, with their quote "Darkness called... But I was on the phone, so I missed him. I tried to *69-Darkness, but his machine picked up. I yelled 'Pick up the phone darkness!' But he ignored me Darkness must be screening his calls.” It’s been a ton of poke quotes since then, even more in Heroes, and while Zeratul uses the shadows his power comes from the Void.
”The prophecy foretells of a chosen one. One who will bring balance to the For- oh ho ho! This is the wrong prophecy. Yeah. That was a close one. We almost got sued there.” – The prophecy Zeratul mentions it “one who will bring balance to the force,” a reference to the prophecy of Anakin Skywalker from the Star Wars prequels. Zeratul hunts a similar prophecy (with about the same community reaction to it existing), and discovered that Kerrigan was chosen by the xel’naga to be one who could ascend to become one of their race.
”Human anatomy is so perplexing. I mean, with only one opposable digit, how would you even hold your, you know, philar. …I meant no offense” – Protoss hands have four fingers, and two opposable digits. No we still don’t know what philar. Yes it’s an implied penis joke.
”The shadows writhe around me. It’s somewhat disgusting actually. Does anyone know how to get them to stop?” – Whenever Zeratul uses his blink ability in game (though it’s most apparent in cinematics) shadows will coat his body.
”You know, sometimes I just want to step into the light. Maybe… maybe get a hug too.” – Zeratul spends most of his time hidden in the shadows. Also may be a reference to a quote he says to Kerrigan in SC1 “though we strike at you from the shadows, do not think we lack the courage to stand in the light.”
”Long ago, an oracle of my people foresaw the arrival of a hero, one who would guide my blade to victory. Clearly, you are not that hero.” – A reference to the player, and the fact Zeratul's usually guided around in RTS games by one. The Nerazim have oracles that see through the timestream and search for prophecies, and operate psionic ball-like ships also named oracles to manipulate the strands of fate. Anyone who’s played SC2 multiplayer knows this always translates to “destroy your worker line,” as in game they can reveal an area, set up traps to stun units and use a pulsar beam that can destroy light units quickly.

Interaction Quotes

There’s a few interactions specific to the Ronin skin Zeratul. Because this is focused on the StarCraft character and I haven’t done it for previous episodes, I won’t get into those here.
Artanis: ”It brings me great joy to see you, old friend.” Zeratul: ”As ever, my blade is yours, Hierarch.” – The Zeratul side of the quote doesn’t appear to be implemented in the game as of yet. Artanis and Zeratul served together as friends in StarCraft 1, with Artanis initially distrusting the dark prelate, but the two working together to escape with the surviving Khalai protoss to Shakuras, defending it from the zerg and trying to stop Kerrigan’s plans. Artanis’s role is Hierarch of the Daelaam, leader of all unified protoss, as elected by the representatives of the protoss tribes.
Zeratul: ”En Taro Tassadar, Hierarch Artanis.” Artanis: ”Anan pokahl.” – Again the Zeratul side appears to be in the files but not in the game itself. “En Taro Tassadar” means “in honor of Tassadar,” and is a common protoss greeting after Tassadar’s death. It shares special meaning to Artanis and Zeratul, as Artanis was Tassadar’s pupil and Zeratul trained Tassadar in the ways of the Void, and all three allied to defeat the Overmind. Artanis’s quote is used in the protoss air unit the phoenix, but we don’t know what it translates to.
Arthas: ”I see you wield the darkness as I do.” Zeratul: ”No, never as you do.” – Arthas is a master of the death magic from the realm of the Shadowlands, while Zeratul wields the energies of the dimension known as the Void. Yet the Nerazim focus on controlling the Void and not delving too deep into it, while Arthas drinks deep of that power for his own gain. Funnily enough “darkness” is used in two different contexts here, Arthas uses the metaphorical darkness (death magic) while Zeratul manipulates the literal darkness (lack of light).
Zeratul: ”I sense in you a darkness that would consume all worlds.” Arthas: ”How perceptive of you.” – Arthas, the Lich King, is a master of the undead Scourge and a force of evil that wishes only to conquer. If given the opportunity, that conquest would go far beyond his world.
Zeratul: ”I sense in you a darkness that would consume all worlds.” Crown Prince Arthas: ”I don't know what you're talking about” – Crown Prince Arthas is Arthas as he first picks up Frostmourne, becoming a slave to the Lich King of the time, the spirit of the orc Ner'zhul. He is unaware of the true darkness within him nor does he personally lead the Scourge.
Kerrigan: ”Ready for some fun, Zeratul?” Zeratul: ”You and I interpret this ‘fun’ very differently.” – Kerrigan enjoys the constant conflict of the Nexus, while as mentioned Zeratul only engages in conflict when it’s necessary.
Zeratul: ”Kerrigan, I hope your anger will not become a liability.” Kerrigan: ”Let your blade do the talking Zeratul.” – Primal Kerrigan, which is her Heroes interpretation, is a creature driven by revenge and anger toward the Terran Dominion emperor, Arcturus Mengsk. Zeratul is a very controlled fighter that usually only uses violence as a necessity (choking archaeologists who call him a coward notwithstanding). Kerrigan is telling him to shut up and fight.
(To Murky) Zeratul: ”Do not let vengeance consume you, small one.” – Since protoss read the thoughts and emotions of those they communicate with rather than their literal words, they can understand Murky, and know his goals to get revenge on the Warcraft adventurers (player characters) that senselessly kill murlocs.
Raynor: ”Feels like old times already.” Zeratul: ”Indeed, perhaps too much like them.” – Zeratul and Raynor fought together as allies, and the two allied with Tassadar after Raynor and Tassadar were stranded on Char. Together they fought a gurellia war with Kerrigan and her zerg, returned to the protoss homeworld of Aiur, fought the protoss government (Conclave) and banded together to finally kill the Overmind. When Zeratul helped evacuate the surviving Aiur protoss to his world of Shakuras, Raynor defended the gate as the protoss got through, eventually destroying the gate and stranding himself on Aiur to stop the flow of zerg following the protoss. I’m not sure what “too much like them” is referring to, unless it’s a poke at the game playing at nostalgia.
Zeratul: ”Friend Raynor, we have not fought together since the Great War." Raynor: ”Man, I miss that vulture.” – The Great War is the events of the SC1 campaign (prior to the BW expansion), as mentioned Zeratul and Raynor fought alongside each other, though were separated during Aiur's evacuation. While Raynor was represented by several hero units in SC1 (a marine like in Heroes and as his Hyperion ult), he was most commonly seen on a vulture hoverbike. Sadly this bike was absent in SC2, though he’d occasionally make references to his old favorite bike design.
Tassadar: ”Once more we are called to battle, Zeratul.” Zeratul: ”And we shall rise to meet it, old friend.” – Tassadar and Zeratul met on Char during the Great War, and both were forced to fight together to avoid the wrath of Kerrigan. Zeratul taught Tassadar how to use Void energies in tandem with his own, allowing them to strike down the Overmind’s cerebrates. Together the two avoided the persecution of the Conclave, struck at the Overmind itself, and eventually Tassadar would use what Zeratul taught him to sacrifice himself to kill the Overmind, shattering the zerg. Their friendship laid the foundation for the two cultures to begin to mend centuries of persecution.
Zeratul: ”En Taro Adun, old friend.” Tassadar: ”Adun Toridas, Zeratul.” – “En Taro Adun” is the honorary greeting of the Khalai protoss like Tassadar, meaning “In honor of Adun.” “Adun Toridas” is the Nerazim greeting, meaning “Adun hide you.” Both cultures venerated Adun, as they viewed him as a hero for their respective histories, the Khalai saying that Adun drove the Nerazim off Aiur and the Nerazim saying Adun sacrificed himself to allow them time to escape Aiur (the Nerazim interpretation being the true one). This is both of them using the greeting of the other’s culture, showing the respect they have for one another's people.
Zeratul: ”En Taro Adun, old friend.” Mecha Tassadar: ”I believe you may have misidentified me. Also, what's an Adun?” – Not much to this other than it's the best interaction in the game. Mecha Tassadar is from another world and not a protoss and therefore doesn't know about Adun.

Kill Quotes

Generic: ”I deliver you unto the Void.” / ”The Void awaits you.” – The Void is an alternate dimension which the xel’naga inhabit, and the Nerazim draw power from. Nerazim also associate the Void with the afterlife, and believe that as one comes closer to death, they come closer to the Void.
Generic: ”You have chosen poorly.” – Likely a reference to the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade scene where Donovan drinks from one of the fake Holy Grails and is killed. The guardian of the grail then says “he has chosen poorly.”
Illidan: ”Go now into the darkness that consumes you.” – Part of the rituals for demon hunters of the Warcraft universe is to implant a demon into your own body willingly and fight it to gain control. Illidan many times has made compromises to gain more demonic power, where Nerazim are all about control as to not be consumed by Void energies. Outside of Amon's corruption, “consumed by Void energies” is less being corrupted and more just dying.
Kerrigan: ”For Raszagal!” – During the Brood War, Kerrigan psionically dominated the ancient leader of the Nerazim, Matriarch Raszagal, and used her to manipulate the protoss, getting Zeratul to help her kill the newborn Overmind. When Kerrigan cornered Zeratul after he tried to escape with her, he killed Raszagal to free her from Kerrigan’s enslavement. Kerrigan let Zeratul go, as killing his leader would be a shame that would torture him for the rest of his life, the greatest revenge she could ask for. The death of Raszagal haunted Zeratul, and earned him the hatred of many Nerazim.
Protoss: ”My burdens grow heavier.” – Zeratul does not like taking the life of fellow protoss, and even insane fanatics like the renegade Nerazim Ulrezaj he regularly attempted to talk out of conflict. “My burdens weigh heavy” is one of Zeratul’s StarCraft II select quotes, referencing a lot of the violence Zeratul has both seen and inadvertently caused.
Raynor: ”Well fought, James Raynor.” – Zeratul has a great respect for Raynor, considering him to be extremely resourceful. The two are close friends for surviving the wars of the sector as allies.
Tassadar: ”Rest now, brother.” – This interpretation of Zeratul comes from after StarCraft 1, when Zeratul saw Tassadar give his life to kill the Overmind. As such, he sees death as a rest for his old friend.
Zerg: ”Suffer well, abomination.” – The zerg were the great enemy of Zeratul, and Zeratul was key in helping kill the Overmind and his cerebrates. Zeratul meanwhile has lost much to the zerg, especially Kerrigan, and though he was loath to help her he was forced to help the zerg when it was the only way to help stop the coming of the xel’naga Amon.

Killing Zeratul Quotes

Alarak: ”It seems I have overestimated your skill, dark prelate.” – Alarak never met Zeratul, as Zeratul died before Alarak became relevant to the greater protoss race, but Alarak heard much of Zeratul as the one whose hunt for prophecy gave the protoss the edge they needed to defeat Amon. Dark prelate is Zeratul’s military rank, which is a battlefield commander.
Artanis: ”May Adun hide you next time.” – The Nerazim greeting “Adun Toridas” means “Adun hide you,” a reference to the fact that it was Adun who taught the Nerazim how to cloak and hide from the Conclave.
Kerrigan: ”You never stood a chance, Zeratul.” – Kerrigan and Zeratul have fought several times, and every time Kerrigan has either won or come out on top.
Queen of Ghosts Kerrigan: ”Zeratul…” – This one is open to interpretation since it’s one word, but given the inflection and since the Queen of Ghosts is supposed to be a redeemed Kerrigan, I take this as regret for what she did to Zeratul during the Brood War, forcing him to kill his own Matriarch in order to save her from Kerrigan’s influence.
Samuro: ”You fought well, dark templar.” – Dark templar a militant order of the Nerazim, elite shadow warriors that use stealth like Samuro. May also be a reference to Samuro's voice actor, Samwise Didier, doing a lot of the dark templar concept art.
Sonya: ”Only cowards skulk in the shadows.” – Dark templar strike from the darkness, while Barbarians are all about facing foes head on with raw strength As u/Golblin said in his thread, “There are no sneaky Barbarians.”
Tassadar: ”Forgive me, old friend.” – Tassadar and Zeratul fought and trained together, and became close friends through the Great War.
Xul: ”You’re right, scythes are nice.” – A reference to Zeratul’s poke quote above, “Scythes are nice, but I prefer cloak and dagger,” which is itself a reference to the two models of dark templar that can spawn in SCII. See the poke quotes section for more on that.
Zul’jin: ”The scarf was my thing first!” – Zul’jin and Zeratul both wear face scarves. Zul’jin was from Warcraft II, which predates StarCraft. In the first StarCraft, Zeratul’s face scarf was brown (at least in cinematics), but this was later changed to be purple in StarCraft II and StarCraft Remastered, more similar to Zul’jin’s.

Other Quotes

”I will do what must be done.” / ”I will not falter, I will not waver.” / ”Oblivion descends!” / ”Honor commands.” / "Sok'dash salahk." / "We must not hesitate." / "Aru nal'adan!" / "We must act!" – Quotes from his StarCraft II unit.
”So be it.” – A move quote from his StarCraft 1 unit.
"Aiur will be restored." – Move quote from his StarCraft II unit. Aiur is the protoss homeworld, but after the events of StarCraft 1 Aiur was lost to the zerg and overrun, forcing the protoss to abandon it. Zeratul is partially responsible for this, having unintentionally revealed the location of the planet to the zerg Overmind when it touched minds with the creature after slaying its cerebrates.
"Glory to the Firstborn." – Move quote from his StarCraft II unit. “Protoss” means “Firstborn,” as they were the first uplifted by the xel’naga (who it would turn out to be xel’naga loyal to Amon who were directly manipulating life).
"En aru'din Raszagal." – Translated from Khalani this is roughly “In memory of Raszagal.” Raszagal was the ancient and venerated leader of the Nerazim, having been one of the few alive who personally remembered Aiur and knew Adun. However, during the Brood War Kerrigan psionically dominated Raszagal and used her to manipulate the protoss into aiding her in killing the renegade zerg and their new Overmind. In order to free her from Kerrigan’s grasp, Zeratul killed Raszagal, a burden he carried up until his death.
”En Taro Adun!” – The common greeting and battlecry of the protoss, usually the Khalai. It mean “In honor of Adun.”
”So suffer the enemies of Shakuras.” – Shakuras was the Nerazim homeworld, while normally a nomadic people they settled around a xel’naga temple there. After Aiur fell, the Khalai protoss moved there as well, making it the center of the protoss people, but during the End War against Amon, the planet was destroyed in order to keep it from being infested with Amon’s zerg and hybrid.
”Hear me, for I bring tidings of BOOM!” – Zeratul’s dance animation is him breakdancing to a boombox. This is a reference to his quote to Raynor during Wings of Liberty, “I bring tidings of doom,” when he gave him the memory crystal to try to convince him not to kill Kerrigan.
”Now this is the real Shadow Walk!” – The Shadow Walk is a ritual Nerazim go through to become dark templar. The Nerazim must walk down a valley filled with dark templar, and sneak through the shadows to get to the other side. If seen, the dark templar will strike them. If the aspirant can make it to the other side without being incapacitated, they are given the rank of dark templar.
”I am the will of the xel’naga!” – Through StarCraft II, the xel’naga guide Zeratul to help manipulate events to perpetuate their Infinite Cycle and defeat Amon, sometimes appearing in the guise of the ghost of Tassadar, though it’s hinted Zeratul figured that out. Though he died before he could see their will to completion, what Zeratul learned was key to helping defeat Amon and having Kerrigan ascend to xel’naga.
”The secrets of the xel’naga will not uncover themselves.” – Zeratul’s quest after discovering the hybrid threat was to uncover the secrets of the xel’naga, and their potential return.
”Do you know how old I am? And you’re making me wait?” – Zeratul was 641 years old when he died, middle aged for a protoss who rarely live past 1000. An easy way to associate protoss age with human age is to just divide by 10.
”The dark templar are a nomadic people. We’re not fond of sitting around in one place. Doing nothing. (clears throat)” – After their exile, the Nerazim became nomadic, traveling around on the xel’naga worldship they escaped Aiur on, before arriving on Shakuras. While they do have a central capital, a lot of the Nerazim are nomadic wanderers, only setting up shrines and memory libraries as permanent settlements.

Skins

• Dark Prelate – Dark prelate is Zeratul’s rank, and makes him the battlefield commander of a Nerazim warband, which can be out wandering the cosmos for decades at a time. According to the skin description, this was the ceremonial robes given to him upon receiving the rank of dark prelate, crafted to reflect their unique beliefs and personality, as individuality is at the center of Nerazim culture. This specific armor is named the Shadow's Embrace.
  
• High Templar – High Templar is one of the highest ranks you can achieve in the Khalai Templar Caste, or warrior caste. This skin is an alternate StarCraft universe where Tassadar is a Nerazim and Zeratul is a Khalai, and the two switch roles, with Tassadar teaching Zeratul how to use Void energies to defeat the Overmind. The description also switched Raszagal with Judicator Aldaris, the Conclave member who tried to persecute Tassadar in SC1. In this skin, Zeratul’s robes are changed to have Khalai symbols, and his nerve cord is intact, showing his connection to the Khala. His blade is also blue in this skin, showing it’s a psi blade rather than a warp blade.
  
  • Solarite – Solarite is an ancient, combustible substance the old Protoss Empire used to power their starships. Since then its instability caused it to be replaced with more efficient technologies, but during the End War Artanis reactive the ancient arkship the Spear of Adun, which was powered by solarite. The campaign requires players to gather the substance as bonus objectives to power more ship systems. Most orange colored protoss tints are named Solarite.
• Executor – Executor is a Khalai rank that is the supreme commander of a fleet or force of the protoss. This skin is a follow up from the High Templar skin, and has Zeratul in more ceremonial Khalai robes with high templar pauldrons, and like the high templar skin his nerve cord is uncut and his warp blade is a psi blade. The description also continues the High Templar Zeratul universe, where Zeratul sacrifices himself to kill the Overmind instead of Tassadar.
  
  • Ara – The Ara Tribe was one of the main Khalai tribes of Aiur, and after the chaos of the Aeon of Strife, the thousand year protoss civil war, the Ara were the ones who promote the mandates of their new mind link the Khala and create the Judicator Caste to lead the protoss. They ruled as Judicators for hundreds of years before the zerg invasion, where Aiur was lost to the zerg, largely due to the Judicator's arrogance and refusal to adapt. When the Protoss Empire was reformed into the Daelaam, they had a seat on the Twilight Council that lead the protoss, though their representative Nahaan hated Shakuras and spent as much time away from it as possible.
• Ronin – Ronin are another word for wandering samurai, without a lord or master. This skin is from the same feudal Japan alternate universe as Shogun Artanis. The skin description references the Lenassa Clan, which in canon is a clan of dark templar who use a fighting style similar to that of Zeratul, with one warp blade on the wrist.
  
• Unraveler –Unravelers are a powerful version of the Greater Mummies who wandered Tal Rasha's Tomb in Act II of Diablo II. For more information on them, check out the thread u/Golblin made on the skin.
  
• Zerg Hunter – This skin changes Zeratul to a Zer’atai Clan dark templar. The Zer’atai were renowned hunters who stalked the stars searching for prey, and fashioned their fallen enemies into bone armor they would wear. After the zerg invasion of Shakuras and the Brood War, many Zer’atai put this skill to use to hunt the zerg, and as such many, including Matriarch Vorazun (Raszagal's daughter), wore zerg bones on their armor. Usually however the Zer’atai use warp scythes instead of warp blades, and as mentioned in StarCraft II you have a chance of spawning either a Lenassa or Zer’atai dark templar every time you warp one in. The skin also changes some abilities, making his singularity charge into a spiked zerg-like device and changing his blink to have a purple mist effect that arches up into the symbol of the Zerg Swarm.
  
  • Tal’darim – The Tal’darim are a faction of protoss that were taken away by the xel’naga Amon and his followers at the beginning of the Aeon of Strife, and are known to most HotS players as the faction of Alarak. They are ruled by a Chain of Ascension leading to a Highlord who leads them, and can usurp those above them with a challenge named the Rite of Rak’Shir. Initially they were loyal to Amon and wished to be uplifted into hybrid, but after Alarak took over the Tal’darim followed their own path, and aided Artanis in destroying Amon.
  • Exiled – The skin name is a reference to Zeratul’s exile, at first a self-imposed one to make up for his sins and killing his leader as well as hunting for the truth of the return of the xel’naga. This got complicated when it later became a real exile without an explanation in spite of most protoss still seeing him as a hero, and the prevailing theory is that though many protoss respected him, he was exiled in his absence, as many Khalai hated him for accidentally leading the zerg to Aiur and many Nerazim hated him for killing their leader who had lead them since the Nerazim were exiled, over a thousand years.

And that’s all for our dark prelate! Next week we’ll be doing our last legendary skin (well, legendary skin with lore relevance anyway) Queen of Ghosts Kerrigan. There’s some cool stuff to go into but it’ll be a shorter one. Again let me know if there's interest in doing some of the rework abilities, I was thinking of going back and reworking old articles but we're reaching the point where some of them are about to be archived. I may do a summary post or something, depending on what people want. Either way, see you next Friday!

ATTN: These AMA questions are from Autumn 2019 - before the official launch of the Kava Mainnet, and it's fungible Kava Token.
These questions may no longer be relevant to the current Kava landscape, however, they do provide important historical background on the early origins of Kava Labs.
Please note, that there are several repeat questions/answers.

Q1:

Kava is a decentralized DEFI project, why did you implement the countries restrictions to run the node? Will there be such restrictions by the time of the mainnet?

• Answer: There are not country restrictions for nodes. But there are country restrictions for who Kava the company can sell tokens to and remain compliant based on laws and regulations. Anyone can hold Kava, anyone can run a Node. We just can't sell directly to some people which is unfortunate. While we have issues selling directly to Russia, partners like Binance do not. In addition, we have partners like P2P.org that run validators for the Russian communities. (I highly recommend them btw!)

Q2:

According to the project description it has been indicated that staking reward (in KAVA tokens) varies from 3 to 20% per annum. But how will you fight with inflation?

We all know how altcoins prices are falling, and their bottom is not visible. And in fact, we can get an increase in the number of tokens for staking, but not an increase in the price of the token itself and become a long-term investor.

• Answer: Kava is both inflationary with block rewards, but deflationary when we burn CDP fees. Only stakers who bond their Kava receive inflationary rewards - users and traders on exchanges do not get this. In this way, rewards are inflated, but given to stakers and removed value from the traders who are speculating like a tax. The Deflationary structure of fees should help counterbalance the price drops from inflation if any. In the long-term as more CDPs are used, Kava should be a deflationary asset by design if all things go well

Q3:

In your allocation it is indicated that 28.48% of the tokens are in the "Token treasury" - where will these tokens be directed?

• Answer: Investors in financing rounds prior to the IEO have entered into long-term lock-up agreements in-line with their belief in Kava’s exciting long-term growth potential and to allow the projects token price to find stability. Following the IEO, the only tokens in circulation will be those sold through the IEO on Binance and the initial Treasury tokens released.
  
• No private sale investor tokens are in circulation until the initial release at the end of Q1 2020 and then gradually over the [36] months The initial Treasury tokens in circulation will be used for a mixture of ecosystem grants, the expenses associated with the IEO as well as initial market making requirements as is typical with a listing of this size. Kava remains well financed to execute our roadmap following the IEO and do not envisage any need for any material financings or token sales for the foreseeable future.
  

Q4:

Such a platform (with loans and stable coins) is just the beginning since these aspects are a small part of many Defi components. Will your team have a plan to implement other functions, such as derivatives, the dex platform once the platform is successfully launched?

• Answer: We believe Kava is the foundation for many future defi products. We need stable coins, oracles, and other infrastructure first that Kava provides. Once we have that, we can apply these to derivatives and other synthetics more easily. For example, we can use the price feeds and USDX to enable users to place 100x leverage bets with each other. If they both lock funds into payment channels, then they can use a smart contract based on the price feed to do the 100x trade/bet automatically without counter party risk. In this way, Kava can expand its financial product offerings far beyond loans and stable coins in the future.

Q5:

There are several options for using USDX on the KAVA platform, one of which is Margin Trading / Leverage. Is this a selection function or a compulsory function? Wondering since there are some investors who don`t like margin. What is the level of leverage and how does a CDP auction work?

• Answer: This is a good #Q . Kava simply provides loans to users in USDX stable coins. What the users do is completely up to them. They can use the loans for everyday payments if they like. Leverage and hedging are just the main use cases we foresee - there are many ways people can use the CDP platform and USDX.

Q6:

Most credit platforms do not work well in the current market. What will you do to attract more people to use your platform and the services you provide? Thank you

• Answer: Most credit platforms do not work well in the current market? I think that isn't correct at least for DeFi. Even in the bear market, MakerDao and Compound saw good user growth. Regardless, our efforts at Kava to build the market are fairly product and BD focused. 1) we build more integrations of assets and expand financial services to attract new communities and users. 2) we focus on building partnerships with high quality teams to promote and build Kava's core user base. Kava is just the developer. Our great partners like Ripple, Stakewith.Us, P2P, Binance - they have the real users that demand Kava. They are like our system integrators that package Kava up nicely and present it to their users. In order to grow, we need to deepen our partnerships and bring in new ones around the world.

Q7:

KAVA functions as a reserve currency in situations where the system is undercollateralized. In such cases new KAVA is minted and used to buy USDX off the market until USDX becomes safely overcollateralized.

Meaning, there will be no max supply of KAVA?

• Answer: Yes, there is no max supply of Kava.

Q8:

Why Kava?

• Answer: ...because people are long BTC and the best way to go long BTC without giving up custody is Kava's platform. Because it is MakerDao for bitcoin. Bitcoin has a 10x market cap of ETH and Maker is 10x the size of Kava. I think we're pretty undervalued right now.

Q9:

How do you plan to make liquidity in Kava?

• Answer: Working with Binance for the IEO and as the first exchange for KAVA to trade on will be a huge boost in increasing the liquidity of trading KAVA.

Q10:

Most crypto investors or crypto users prefer easy transaction and low fees, what can we expect from KAVA about this?

• Answer: Transaction fees are very low and confirm if seconds. The user experience is quite good on Tendermint-based blockchains.

Q11:

How do I become a note validator on KavA?

• Answer: The basic requirement for a node is nothing really. But in order to earn block rewards you must be a node with the top 100 KAVA by weighted stake at a given time. If you are looking for technical specs, I suggest you check out the Cosmos FAQ for a guide. https://cosmos.network/docs/cosmos-hub/validators/validator-faq.html

Q12:

It is great to know that KAVA is the first DEFI-supported project sponsored by Binance Launchpad, do you think this is the meaning that CZ brings: Opening the DEFI era, as a leader, you feel like how ?

• Answer: We are the first DeFi platform that Launchpad has supported. We are a very strategic blockchain for major crypto like BNB. Kava's platform will bring more utility to the users of BNB and the Binance DEX. It feels good of course to have validation from the biggest players in the space like Cosmos, Ripple, CZ/Binance, etc.

Q13:

Since decentralized finance applications is already dominating, how do you intend to surpass those leading in the market?

• Answer: The leaders are only addressing ethereum. BTC, XRP, BNB, ATOM is a much larger set to go after that current players cannot.

Q14:

What does Ripple play in the Kava's ecosystem, since Ripple is like a top tier company and it’s impressive that you are partnered with them?

• Answer: Ripple is an equity investor in Kava and a big supporter of our work in cross-chain settlement research and implementations. Ripple's XRP is a great asset in terms of users and liquidity that the Kava platform can use. In addition, Ripple's money service business customers are asking for a stable coin for remittances to avoid the currency heading risk that XRP presents. Ripple will not use USDC or other stable coins, but they are open to using USDX as it can be XRP-backed.

Q15:

Considering the connectivity, Libra could be the biggest competitor if KAVA leverages interchain for efficiency.

• Answer: With regard to USDX, it is important to understand the users interacting with the Kava blockchain have no counterparty that people could go after for legal actions. A user getting a USDX loan has no counterparty. The software holds the collateral and creates the loan. The only laws that would apply are to the very users that are using the system.

Q16:

Wonder how KAVA will compete with the tech giants

• Answer: Libra is running into extreme issues with the US Senate and regulators. Even the G7-G20 groups are worried. Its important to understand that Libra is effectively a permissioned system. Only big companies that law makers can go after are able to run nodes. In Kava, nodes can be run by anyway and our nodes are based all over the world. It's incredibly hard for a law maker to take down Kava because they would need to find and legally enforce hundreds of business in different jurisdictions to comply. We have an advantage in this way over the larger projects like Libra or Clayton.

Q17:

In long-term, what's the strategy that KAVA has for covering the traditional finance users as well? Especially regarding the "stability"

• Answer: Technical risk is unavoidable for DeFi. Only time will tell if a system is trustworthy and its never 100% that it will not fail or be hacked. This is true with banks and other financial systems as well. I think for DeFi, the technical risk needs to be priced in to the expected returns to compensate the market. DeFi does have a better user experience - requiring no credit score, identity, or KYC over centralized solutions.
  
• With our multi-collateral CDP system, even with it overcollateralized, people can get up to 3x leverage on assets. Take 100 USD in BTC, get a USDX loan for 66 USDX, then buy $66 BTC and do another loan - you can do this with a program to get 3x leverage with the same risk profile. This is enough for most people.
  
• However, it will be possible once we have Kava's CDP platform to extend it into products that offer undercollateralized financial products. For example, if USER 1 + USER 2 use payment channels to lock up their USDX, they can use Kava's price feeds to place bets between each other using their locked assets. They can bet that for every $1 BTC/USD moves, the other party owes 3x. In this way we can even do 100x leverage or 1000x leverage and create very fun products for people to trade with. Importantly, even in places where margin trading is regulated and forbidden, Kava's platform will remain open access and available.
  

Q18:

In long-term, what's the strategy that KAVA has for covering the traditional finance users as well? Especially regarding the "stability"

• Answer: Kava believes that stable coins should be backed not just by crypto or fiat, but any widely used, highly liquid asset. We think in the future the best stablecoin would be backed by a basket of very stable currencies that include crypto and fiat or whatever the market demands.

Q19:

Compound, maker they're trying to increase their size via the competitive interests rates. THough it shows good return in terms of growth rate, still it's for short-term. Wonder other than financial advantage, KAVA has more for the users' needs?

• Answer: Robert, the CEO of Compound is an investor and advisor to Kava. We think what Compound does with money markets is amazing and hope to integrate when they support more than just Ethereum assets. Kava's advantage vs others is to provide basic DeFi services like returns on crypto and stable coins today when no other platform offers that. Many platforms support ETH, but no platform can support BTC, XRP, BNB, and ATOM in a decentralized way without requiring centralized custody of these assets.

Q20:

The vast majority of the cryptocurrency community's priorities is symbolic pricing. When prices rise, the community rejoices and grows. When they fall, many people begin to cast in a negative way. How will KAVA solve the negative problem when the price goes down? What is your plan to strengthen and develop the community to persuade more people to look at the product than the price?

• Answer: We believe price is an important factor for faith in the market. One of Kava's key initiatives was selecting only long-term partners that are willing to work with kava for 2 years. That is why even after 6 months, 0 private investor or kava team tokens will be liquid on the market.
  
• We believe not in fast pumps and then dumps that destroy faith, but rather we try and operate the best we can for long-term sustainable growth over time. It's always hard to control factors in the market, and some factors are out of our control such as BTC price correlations, etc - however, we treat this like a public company stock - we want long-term growth of Kava and try to make sure our whole community of Kava holders is aligned with that the best we can.
  

Q21:

Do you have any plans to attract non-crypto investors to Kava and how? What are the measures to increase awareness of kava in non-crypto space?

• Answer: We are 100% focused on crypto, not the general market. We solve the problems of crypto traders and investors - not the average grandma who needs a payment solution. Kava is geared for decentralized leverage and hedging.

Q22:

Adoption is crucial for all projects and crypto companies, what strategy are you gonna use/follow or u are now following to get Kava adopted and used by many people all over the world?

Revenue is an important aspect for all projects in order to survive and keep the project/company up and running for long term, what are the ways that Kava generates profits/revenue and what is its revenue model?

• Answer: We have already partnered with several large exchanges, long-term VCs, and large projects like Ripple and Cosmos. These are key ways for us to grow our community. As we build support for more assets, we plan to promote Kava's services to those new communities of traders.
  
• Kava generates revenue as more people use the platform. As the platform is used, KAVA tokens are burned when users pay stability fees. This deflates the total supply of Kava and should in most cases give rise to the value of KAVA like a stock-buyback in the public markets.
  

Q23:

In order to be success in Loan project of Cryptocurrency, I think marketing is very important to make people using this service without any registration. What is main strategy for marketing?

• Answer: Our main strategy is to build a great experience and offer products that are not available to communities with demand. Currently no DeFi products can serve BTC users for example. Centralized exchanges can, but nothing truly trustless. Kava's platform can finally give the vast audiences of BTC, BNB, and ATOM holders access to core DeFi services they cannot get on their own due to the smart contract limitations of those platforms.

Q24:

Currently, some project have policies for their ambassadors to create a contribution and attract recognition for the project! So the KAVA team plans to implement policies and incentives for KAVA ambassadors?

• Answer: Yes, we will be creating a KAVA ambassador program and releasing that soon. Please follow our social media channels to learn about it in the coming weeks.

Q25:

Currently there are so many KAVA tokens sold on exchanges, why is this happening while KAVA is going to IEO on Binance? Are those KAVA codes fake or not?

• Answer: For everyone's safety, please understand Kava tokens do not exist yet and they will only exist starting with the Binance IEO. Any other token listings or offerings of Kava are not supported by Kava Labs and I highly discourage you all from trying to get them there. It is most likely a big scam. Please only trust Binance for this.

Q26:

KAVA have two tokens, the first is called Kava - a governance and staking token; the second is called USDX - an algorithmically managed crypto-backed stable coin. What are the advantages of USDX compared to other stablecoins such as: USDT, USDC, TUSD, GUSD, ...?

• Answer: USDX is one of the few stablecoins to be fully backed by crypto-assets. This means that we do not deal with fiat to back the value, and thus we don't have some of the issues when it comes to storing fiat funds with banks and custodians. This also makes our product fully digital and built for the future of crypto growth.

Q27:

As a CEO, does your background in Esports and Gaming industry help anything to your management and development of KAVA Labs?

• Answer: Esports no. But having been a multi-time venture-backed foundeCEO and have gone through the start-up phase before has made creating and running a 2nd company easier. Right now Kava is still small, Fnatic had over 80 employees. It was at a larger scale. I would say developing software is much more than doing the hardware at fnaticgear.com

Q28:

Why did Kava choose to launch IEO on Binance and not other exchanges like: Kucoin, Houbi, Gate, ....?

• Answer: Kava had a lot of interest from exchanges to partner with for IEO. We decided based on a lot of factors such as userbase, diverse exposure across multiple regions and countries, and an amazing team that provides so much insight into so many communities such as this one. Binance has been a tremendous partner and we also look forward to continuing our partnership far into the future.

Q29:

Currently if Search on coinmarketcap has 3 types of stablecoins bearing the USDX symbol (but these 3 stablecoins are no information). So, what will KAVA do to let users know that Kava's USDX is another stablecoin?

• Answer: All these USDX have no volume or listings. We will be on Binance. I am not worried.

Q30:

In addition to the Token Allocation for Binance Launchpad, what is the Token Treasury in the Initial Circulating Supply?

• Answer: This is controlled by Kava Labs, but with the big cash we have saved from fundraising, we see no reason why these tokens would be sold on the market. The treasury tokens are for use in grants, ecosystem growth initiatives, development, and other incentive programs to drive adoption of the platform.

Q31:

How you will compete with your competitors? Currently i don't see much but for future how you will maintain this consistency ? No doubt it is Great and Unique project, what is the main problem that #KAVA is currently facing?

• Answer: Because our industry is just starting out, I don't like to think of them as our direct competitors. We are all working to grow the size of the pie rather than get a larger slice from a small pie. The one thing that we believe will allow us to stand apart is the community we are building. Being able to utilize our own community along with Cosmos and our other partners like Binance for the IEO, we have a strong footing to get a lot of early users onto our platform. Also, we are also focusing on growing Kava internationally particularly Asia. We hope to build our platform for an even larger userbase than just the west.

Q32:

How do you explain your project to a random person who has never heard of your project?

• Answer: non-crypto = Kava is a lending platform for users of cryptocurrencies.
  
• crypto = Kava is a cross-chain DeFi platform for loans and stablecoins backed by BTC, BNB, XRP, ATOM and other major cryptocurrencies.
  

Q33:

Will KAVA team have a plan on implementing DAO module on your platform since its efficiency on autonomy, decentralization and transparency?

• Answer: All voting is already transparent on the Kava blockchain. We approved a number of proposals on our test net.

Q34:

how to use usdx token :only for your platform or you have plan to use usdx for payment ?

• Answer: Payments is a nice use case, but demand for crypto payments is still small. We may choose to focus here later if demand for crypto payments increases. Currently it is quite small with the bulk of use remaining in trading and speculative use cases.

Q35:

Do you have plans to spread KAVA ecosystem across other continents. if yes, what are the strategies and how can I as a community member contribute to making it possible?

• Answer: We are already across many continents - I don't think we are in antarctica yet. Africa might be light on nodes as well. I think as we grow on major exchanges like Binance, new node operators will get interested and help decentralize Kava further.

Q36:

Maker's CDP lending system is on top in this market and its Dominance is currently sitting on 64.90 % , how kava will compete will maker and compound?

• Answer: adding assets like bitcoin which have more value and more users than ETH. It's a bigger market that Maker cannot compete with Kava in.

Q37:

Currently, the community is too concerned about the price. As prices rise, the community rejoice and grow, when falling, many people start throwing negatively. So what is KAVA's solution to getting people to focus on the project rather than the price of the token?

What is your plan to strengthen and grow the community to persuade more individuals to look at the product than the price?

• Answer: We also share similar concerns as price and price direction is always a huge factor in the crypto industry. A lot of people of course are very short-term focused on flipping for bigger profits. One of the solutions, and what Kava has done, is to make sure that everything structured is for the long-term. So that makes sure that our investors and employees are all focused on long-term gains and growth. Locking vesting periods are part of that alignment. Another thing is that we at Kava are very transparent in our progress and development. We will be regularly posting updates within our own communities to allow our users and followers to keep up with everything we're up to. Please follow us or look at our github if you're interested!

Q38:

How did Kava get on Piexgo?

• Answer: We did not work with Piexgo. We have not distributed tokens to any exchange other than Binance. I cannot speak to what is going on there, but I would be very wary of what is happening there.

Q39:

Why was the 1st round price so much lower than the current price

• Answer: It is natural to worry that early investors got better pricing and could dump on the market. I can assure you that our investors are in this for the long-term. All private sale rounds signed 2 year contracts to run validators - and if they don't they forfeit their tokens. You can compare our release schedule to any other project. We have one of the most restricted circulating supply schedules of any project EVER and its because all our investors are commiting to the long-term success of the project and believe in Kava.
  
• About the pricing itself - it is always a function of traction like for any start-up. When we made our public announcement about the project in June, we were only a 4 man team with just some github code. We could basically run a network with a single node, our own. Which is relatively worthless. I think our pricing of Kava at this time was justified. We were effectively a seed-stage company without a product or working network.
  
• By July we made severe progress on the development side and the business side. We successful launched our first test net with the help of over 70 validator business partners around the world. We had a world-wide network of hundreds of people supporting us with people and resources at this point and the risk we would fail in launching a working product was much lower. At this point, the Kava project was valued at $25M. At this point, we had many VCs and investors asking for Kava tokens that we turned away. We only accepted validators that would help us launch the network. It was our one and only goal.
  
• Fast forward to today, the IEO price simply reflects the traction and market demand for Kava. Our ecosystem is much larger than it was even a month ago. We have support from Ripple, Cosmos, and Binance amongst other large crypto projects. We have 100+ validators securing our network with very sophisticated high-availability set-ups. In addition, our ecosystem partners have built products for Kava - such as block explorers and others are working on native integrations to wallets and exchanges. Launchpad will be very big for us. Kava is a system designed to cater to crypto traders and investors and in a matter of days we distributed via Binance Launchpad and put in the hands of 130+ countries and tens of thousands of users overnight. It doesn't get more DeFi than that.
  

Q40:

What is the treasury used for?

• Answer: Kava's treasury is for ecosystem growth activities.
  
• Investors in financing rounds prior to the IEO have entered into long-term lock-up agreements in-line with their belief in Kava’s exciting long-term growth potential and to allow the projects token price to find stability. Following the IEO, the only tokens in circulation will be those sold through the IEO on Binance and the initial Treasury tokens released. No private sale investor tokens are in circulation until the initial release at the end of Q1 2020 and then gradually over the [36] months The initial Treasury tokens in circulation will be used for a mixture of ecosystem grants, the expenses associated with the IEO as well as initial market making requirements as is typical with a listing of this size. Kava remains well financed to execute our roadmap following the IEO and do not envisage any need for any material financings or token sales for the foreseeable future.
  

Q41:

Everyone have heard about the KAVA token, and read about it. But it would be great to hear your explanation about it. What is the Kava token, what is it's utility? :)

• Answer: The Kava token plays many roles. KAVA is the native staking token of the Kava blockchain and is used for securing the network. KAVA is delegated to validators, basically professional node operators that run highly-available servers to secure the Kava blockchain. The top 100 validators by weight of staked KAVA earn block rewards that range from 3-20% APR based on the total amount staked in the network. These rewards are split between the validators and the KAVA holders.
  
• When users of the platform repay their loans, they must a stability fee (a percentage of the loan) in KAVA tokens. These tokens are burned by the system, effectively deflating the total supply overtime as more users use the CDP system.
  
• KAVA is also the primary token used in governance of the platform. KAVA token holders can vote on key system parameter changes and upgrades such as what assets to support, how much USDX in total can be loaned by the system, what the debt-to-collateral ratio needs to be, the stability fees, etc. KAVA holders have a very important responsibility to govern the system well.
  
• Lastly, Kava functions as a "Lender of Last Resort" meaning if USDX ever gets undercollateralized because the underlying asset prices drop suddenly and the system manages it poorly, KAVA is inflated in these emergency situations and used to purchase USDX off the market until USDX reaches a state of being over collateralized again. KAVA holders have incentive to only support the good high quality assets so risk of the system is managed responsibly.
  

Q42:

No matter how perfect and technically thought-out a DeFi protocol is, it cannot be completely protected from any unplanned situations (such as extreme market fluctuations, some legal issues, etc.)

Ecosystem members, in particular the validators on whom KAVA relies on fundamental decision-making rights, should be prepared in advance for any "critical" scenario. Considering that, unlike the same single-collateral MakerDAO, KAVA will be a multi-collateral CDP system, this point is probably even more relevant here.

In this regard, please answer the following question: Does KAVA have a clear risk management model or strategy and how decentralized is / will it be?

• Answer: Simialar to other CDP systems and MakerDAO we do have a system freeze function where in cases of extreme issues, we can stop the auction mechanisms and return all collateral.

Q43:

Did you know that "Kava" is translated into Ukrainian like "Coffee"? I personally do love drinking coffee. I plunge into the fantasy world. Why did you name your project "Kava" What is the story behind it? What idea / fantasy did your project originate from, which inspired you to create it?

• Answer: Kava is coffee to you.
  
• Kava is Hippopotamus to Japanese.
  
• Cava is a region in Spain
  
• Kava is also a root that is used in tea which makes your mouth numb.
  
• Kava is also crow in Hindi.
  
• Kava last but not least is a DeFi platform launching on Binance :)
  
• We liked the sound of Kava it was as simple as that. It doesn't have much meaning in the USA where I am from. But it's short sweet and when we were just starting, Kava.io was available for a reasonable price
  

Q44:

What incentives does a lender get if a person chooses to pay with KAVA? Is there a discount on interest rates on the loan amount if you pay with KAVA? Do I have to pass the KYC procedure to apply for a small loan?

• Answer: There is no KYC for Kava. Its an open blockchain software platform where anyone with a computer can connect to it and use it.

Q45:

Let's say, I decided to bond my cryptocurrency and got USDX stable coins. For now, it`s an unknown stable coin (let's be honest). Do you plan to add USDX to other famous exchanges? Also, you have spoken about the USDX staking and that the percentage would be higher than for other stable coins. Please be so kind to tell us what is the average annual interest rate and what are the conditions of staking?

• Answer: Yes we have several large exchanges willing to support USDX from the start. Binance/Binance-DEX is one you should all know ;)
  
• The average annual rates for USDX will depend on market conditions. The rate is actually provided by the CDP fees users pay. The system reallocates a portion of those fees to USDX users. In times when USDX use needs to grow, the rates will be higher to incentivize use. When demand is strong, we can reduce the rates.
  

Q46:

Why should i use and choose Kava's loan if i can use the similar margin trade on Binance?

• Answer: If margin is available to you and you trust the exchange then you should do whatever is cheaper. For a US citizen and others, margin is often not available and if it is, only for a few asset types as collateral. Kava aims to address this and offer this to everyone.

Q47:

The IEO price is $ 0.46 while the price of the first private sale is $ 0.075. Don't you think that such price gap can negatively affect the liquidity of the token and take away the desire to buy a token on the exchange?

• Answer: It is natural to worry that early investors got better pricing and could dump on the market. I can assure you that our investors are in this for the long-term. All private sale rounds signed 2 year contracts to run validators - and if they don't they forfeit their tokens. You can compare our release schedule to any other project. We have one of the most restricted circulating supply schedules of any project EVER and its because all our investors are commiting to the long-term success of the project and believe in Kava.
  
• About the pricing itself - it is always a function of traction like for any start-up. When we made our public announcement about the project in June, we were only a 4 man team with just some github code. We could basically run a network with a single node, our own. Which is relatively worthless. I think our pricing of Kava at this time was justified. We were effectively a seed-stage company without a product or working network.
  
• By July we made severe progress on the development side and the business side. We successful launched our first test net with the help of over 70 validator business partners around the world. We had a world-wide network of hundreds of people supporting us with people and resources at this point and the risk we would fail in launching a working product was much lower. At this point, the Kava project was valued at $25M. At this point, we had many VCs and investors asking for Kava tokens that we turned away. We only accepted validators that would help us launch the network. It was our one and only goal.
  
• Fast forward to today, the IEO price simply reflects the traction and market demand for Kava. Our ecosystem is much larger than it was even a month ago. We have support from Ripple, Cosmos, and Binance amongst other large crypto projects. We have 100+ validators securing our network with very sophisticated high-availability set-ups. In addition, our ecosystem partners have built products for Kava - such as block explorers and others are working on native integrations to wallets and exchanges. Launchpad will be very big for us. Kava is a system designed to cater to crypto traders and investors and in a matter of days we distributed via Binance Launchpad and put in the hands of 130+ countries and tens of thousands of users overnight. It doesn't get more DeFi than that.
  
• TLDR - I think KAVA is undervalued and the liquid supply of tokens is primarily from the IEO so its a safer bet than other IEOs. If the price drops, it will be from the overall market conditions or fellow IEO users not due private sale investors or team sell-offs.
  

Q48:

Can you introduce some information abouts KAVA Deflationary Fee Structure? With the burning mechanism, does it mean KAVA will never reach its max supply?

• Answer: When loans are repaid, users pay a fee in Kava. This is burned. However, Kava does not have a max supply. It has a starting supply of 100M. It inflates for block rewards 3-20% APR AND it inflates when the system is at risk of under collateralization. At this time, more Kava is minted and used to purchase USDX off the market until it reaches full collateralization again.
  
• TLDR: If things go well, and governance is good, Kava deflates and hopefully appreciates in value. If things go wrong, Kava holders get inflated.
  

Q49:

In your opinion what are advantage of decentralized finance over centralized?

• Answer: One of the main advantages is not needing to pay the costs of regulation and compliance. Open financial software that is usable by anyone removes middle men fees and reduces the barrier for new entrants to enter and make new products. Also DeFI has an edge in terms of onboarding - to get a bank account or an exchange account you need to do lots of KYC and give private info. That takes time and is troublesome. With DeFi you just load up your funds and transact. Very fast user flows.

Q50:

Plan, KAVA how to raise capital? Kava is being supported by more than 100 business entities around the world, including major cryptocurrency investment funds like Ripple and Cosmos, so what did kava do to convince investors to join the project?

• Answer: We have been doing crypto research and development for years. Ripple and Cosmos were partners before we even started this blockchain with Kava Labs. When we announced Kava the DeFi platform they knew us already to do good work and they liked the idea so they support us.