Tourian



Tourian is the main headquarters of the Space Pirates' fortress on Zebes, and the residing place of Mother Brain. It is almost completely artificial, with structures largely made of metal materials, and corridors formed through metal pipework. Pools of Lava fill certain rooms of the area. Artificial lifeforms such as Rinkas, Zebetites and Ring Beam Units provide defense and security for Mother Brain, as well as hordes of Metroids, marking their debut appearance. Surprisingly, while this is indeed the main HQ of the Pirates, there were none to be seen in the NES Metroid, but this is later retconned in Metroid: Zero Mission, where a cutscene shows a Metroid outbreak has occurred, killing all Pirate personnel; several dried bodies can be seen throughout Tourian. After the defeat of Mother Brain, a time bomb incinerates the facility and reduces it to a metal waste.

In Super Metroid, Metroids are once again the main creatures to battle leading up the path to Mother Brain, but whether they broke loose again or were intentionally released is never made clear. Also, Space Pirates seem to populate the Tourian sections found behind Mother Brain's command post. Still, the multiplied Metroids are the main obstacles that make the path to Mother Brain's chamber a very difficult journey. This reconstructed Tourian has several of its rooms filled with two seemingly different substances resembling lava/magma. The first substance, located in the rooms prior to Mother Brain, is concentrated and thick while the liquid found in the pirate leader's chamber is clear and fluid; the latter seems to be the same super-heated lava found in Lower Norfair. Both of these substances are more harmful than the normal lava that used to fill the original Tourian, as they harm Samus even while wearing the Gravity Suit.

In the rebuilt Tourian, several native creatures of Zebes reside within a somewhat organic zone of the area, along with the Baby that Samus spared during her mission on SR388; more than half of these natives were devoured by the Baby, however. Exposed scaffolding and circuit boards are prominent features in this location, indicating that construction is an ongoing process. The old Tourian has been integrated into Crateria, however only Mother Brain's chamber and the escape shaft are present; the reason for the absence of all other rooms is never explained. At the end of Super Metroid, Samus will enter the original escape shaft and use it once again.

Metroid: Other M features Sector Zero, an unseen area located on the Bottle Ship designed as a replica of Tourian. This sector was created by corrupt members of the Galactic Federation and used it to propagated unfreezable Metroids for Project Metroid Warriors.

Enemies

 * Big Metroid (Super Metroid only)
 * Metroids
 * Rinka
 * Ring Beam Unit
 * Ripper (dead, Super Metroid only)
 * Sbug (Super Metroid and ruined Tourian only)
 * Sidehopper (Super Metroid only)
 * Skree (dead, Super Metroid only)
 * Space Pirate (corpses in Metroid: Zero Mission, live in Super Metroid only)
 * Torizo (dead, Super Metroid only)
 * Zebetite
 * Zoomer (dead, Super Metroid only)

Bosses

 * Mother Brain

Metroid: Zero Mission Manual
"This is the core of Zebes. It is in this deepest level that the mechanical life-form Mother Brain can be found."

Access
Being the primary target area in the Metroid titles it is included in, Tourian cannot simply be accessed on a whim. Several tasks must be completed before access is available to this area:
 * Metroid: Defeat Kraid and Ridley and then shoot two Stone Statues of them to create the Morph Ball bridge, at the end of which is an elevator leading to Tourian.
 * Metroid: Zero Mission: Defeat Kraid and Ridley just as in the original, but this version depicts their statues as gateways. The mouths of these statues will open in the circumstances of actual defeat, giving Samus a pathway to the main Tourian elevator.
 * Super Metroid: Defeat Kraid, Phantoon, Draygon, and Ridley. Golden Statues depict these four beings, and will sink to the bottom of its cave once all four are defeated.

Trivia

 * It is stated by Samus in the Metroid Manga that Tourian is the place where the Chozo and Mother Brain make decisions that influence the Galactic Federation.
 * The music heard throughout Tourian prior to entering Mother Brain's chamber in Metroid is also used during the main boss fights against Ridley and Kraid. It wasn't until Super Metroid that both Pirate generals got their own different theme music.
 * In Metroid: Zero Mission, if Samus returns to Tourian after beating Mother Brain, there is a blue-green, highly corrosive liquid that has replaced the lava in Mother Brain's chamber. It is unknown what the substance is or how it got there, but it is severely dangerous to step into, even with the protection of the Gravity Suit. In most probability, it is some sort of waste from the now inactive power systems in the destroyed area. But this same substance is present on board Sector 1 of the BSL, in the Tourian-like area before Neo-Ridley.
 * This green liquid is nowhere to be seen in Super Metroid. However, as mentioned before, the rebuilt Tourian has two magma-like substances that also ignore the Gravity Suit's protection.


 * In Zero Mission and Super Metroid, it is interestingly to note that the Metroids were loose within Tourian, and absorbed the energy of many Zebesians (numerous random creatures in Super), yet that Mother Brain was stated to be able to control them with her telepathy.
 * In one of the trailers for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, blueprints made by the Galactic Federation for a future Aurora Unit complex are shown, identical to Mother Brain's chamber in Tourian from Super Metroid. The recently released Metroid: Other M features Sector Zero, another Metroid propagation area on the Bottle Ship designed after Tourian, also made by the Federation. The blueprints from Corruption may have played a role in the construction of Sector Zero.
 * It is also possible that Space Pirates from Zebes had gained access to the blueprints and reconstructed Tourian in Super Metroid based on them.