StarCraft Dominion Augustgrad: Lore & History Walkthrough

StarCraft Dominion Augustgrad — sometimes called "Korhal City" — is the restored capital of the planet Korhal and the seat of the Terran Dominion. Rebuilt after the Confederacy reduced Korhal to a wasteland, the city was named in honor of Augustus Mengsk and formally became the Dominion's capital a few weeks after the fall of the Terran Confederacy.

The city lies on a desert plain with mountains to its north. The urban core sits on higher ground, with outlying districts spreading southwest toward the banks of a river. Augustgrad is a showcase of Dominion wealth: massive towers, busy streets interwoven with parks, and a thriving technology, research, education, and manufacturing sector. The average income on Korhal is well above the Koprulu norm, and much of the Dominion's military leadership keeps family residences in the capital.

Despite its gleaming surface, Augustgrad contains stretches of significant poverty and crime, and residents of these communities often view Dominion leadership as a force harming them from above.

During the Brood War, Augustgrad was the most heavily fortified city in the Dominion — an assessment that still held true during the later Spectre Rebellion. That fortification was tested when the United Earth Directorate arrived in the Koprulu sector.

The UED besieged the city, and despite a long, drawn-out defense personally directed by Emperor Arcturus Mengsk, Augustgrad fell. The UED garrisoned the city with their own troops and reinforced it with enslaved zerg, though their tenuous control over the Overmind limited how many they could deploy.

In the four years after the Brood War, Dominion tax dollars extensively decontaminated, modernized, and beautified Augustgrad. The city gained parks, statues of Mengsk, and the Imperial Palace — though it also became somewhat congested.

2503 — The Spectre Rebellion: The rogue Project Shadowblade struck at the heart of the Dominion. Its AI, Lio Travski, shut down communications across the city while spectres attacked Mengsk's Palace. The assault ultimately failed and Shadowblade withdrew.

Pre-Second Great War: A pirate radio signal bombarded Augustgrad with the song Wings of Liberty for at least two days, leaving Dominion officials scrambling to locate the source.

2504 — Media Blitz: The Dominion unveiled the massive Odin walker at UNN Studios — unaware it was piloted by Tychus Findlay. Findlay opened fire on studio guards while Raynor's Raiders landed a commandeered command center and pushed toward the broadcast towers. Despite General Horace Warfield's intervention, the Raiders broadcast proof that Mengsk had used psi emitters on Tarsonis. The revelation triggered street riots in which citizens set fire to government buildings.

The Fall of Augustgrad (2504)

At the height of the Second Great War, Kerrigan's Swarm landed outside the city gates. Bile launchers destroyed the Drakken defense network, driving Dominion forces back into Augustgrad itself. While Crown Prince Valerian Mengsk and Captain Matt Horner evacuated civilians, Broodmother Zagara pushed the Dominion into the Imperial sector. There, in an unprecedented alliance, Raynor's Raiders fought alongside the zerg against the Dominion's elite troops. Kerrigan entered the palace and, with Jim Raynor's help, killed Arcturus Mengsk. The zerg then departed Korhal.

The End War

Moebius Corps raided the palace and seized the Keystone, entrenching at Bennet Port to move it off-world. Hybrid channeled Void energy into the artifact, creating a psionic disruption that overwhelmed Terran forces until Hierarch Artanis deployed immortals to shield them. The combined armies of Raynor, Valerian, and Artanis retook the Keystone — at enormous cost in Dominion casualties.

Amon also sent forces to plant void shards outside Korhal Palace. Corporal Faraday tasked allied commanders with destroying them before they could annihilate the city, while also dealing with Kimeran Pirates who began looting during the chaos.

Under Emperor Valerian Mengsk, the capital entered reconstruction. To mark the third anniversary of the fall of his father's regime, Valerian held a monumental celebration in the capital wing, heralding a new age of peace and prosperity for the Dominion.

The peace was tested during the Defenders of Man Insurgency, when protests erupted outside Korhal Palace after the feral zerg attack on Tyrador IX, with demonstrators demanding Valerian step down.

By 2511, scars of the former conflicts were still visible across the city. Around that time, the Terran Dominion Ghost Academy was temporarily relocated from Ursa to Augustgrad — a sign of the capital's renewed central role in Dominion affairs.

Documented establishments within Augustgrad include Adam's Place and Allen's Karaoke Pub — small civilian venues that hint at the everyday life beneath the capital's political drama. Major landmarks referenced across the lore include Korhal Palace, UNN Studios, Bennet Port, and the capital wing where Valerian held his celebration.

For the primary reference on Augustgrad, consult the Augustgrad entry on the StarCraft Wiki (Fandom). The city's history draws on StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, Legacy of the Void, and the novel StarCraft: Shadow of the Xel'Naga by Gabriel Mesta (2001).