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The Complete History of Vulcans In the Federation Era of Star Trek

While the Vulcans are an ancient society in Star Trek, their history has been intrinsically tied with Starfleet and the Federation for millennia.

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Vulcan troubles with starfleet and the federation in the 23rd century, 24th century vulcans were integrated into federation society, ambassador spock and romulan reunification, vulcan reunification with the romulans and leaving the federation.

There is no alien species more closely associated with the history of Star Trek and the Federation than the Vulcans. Originally created by Gene Roddenberry via the character of Spock, countless writers, producers and actors have contributed to the history and culture of the signature Star Trek aliens. However, despite being one of humanity's first alien allies, the Vulcans have kept their distance from humans and the Federation just the same.In order to keep Spock unique, Roddenberry instructed writers to keep the rest of Vulcan society at a cosmic arm's length from Starfleet.

When picking through the Star Trek: Phase II leftovers for TNG , he wanted the next generation of his universe to avoid Vulcans, along with most elements from the previous show. To that end, Star Trek didn't have a regular Vulcan character until Tuvok appeared in Star Trek: Voyager , nearly 30 years after The Original Series debuted. While Vulcans and humanity worked closely in Star Trek: Enterprise , their relationship was as adversarial as it was friendly. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has introduced a handful of Vulcan characters, but only one was in Starfleet. Given the prominence of Vulcans in the Star Trek franchise, it's worth examining the history Vulcans in the time of Star Trek 's Federation.

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While closely involved with the creation of the Federation, specifically through Commander T'Pol, the Vulcans continued to do their own exploration missions. At some point in the 23rd Century, for example, a Vulcan science vessel was destroyed in the Hanoli system trying to close a rupture in subspace. They did not seek help from Starfleet. In fact, in most timelines, Spock's decision to join Starfleet instead of the Vulcan Science Academy was controversial. Not the least of which, it caused him and his father to become estranged until the Federation conference on Babel in 2268.

This is perhaps because for much of the early 23rd Century, Vulcans endured some infighting about their role in the multicultural society. Spock's father Sarek may not have wanted his son to join Starfleet, but he did want to foster better relations with humanity. Along with marrying Amanda Grayson, he adopted Michael Burnham after her parents were killed. Sometime before the 2250s, Vulcan "logic extremists" tried to kill Burnham in a bombing at the Vulcan Learning Center. Later, they tried to assassinate Sarek himself. They even recruited Starfleet Admiral Patar into their ranks and philosophy, after he became disillusioned with the organization during the Federation-Klingon War.

In the late 23rd Century, Vulcans in Starfleet were more common, but they often served together on their own vessels. One such all-Vulcan crew served on the USS Intrepid and were killed by a microorganism that consumed organic life to replenish itself. Yet, Vulcans were still private people, with things like the pon-farr not even appearing in Federation medical records. Spock, however, stayed in the Federation's service and even helped negotiate the Khitomer Accords with the Klingons, bringing peace after decades of hot and cold war.

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As has become a theme throughout each era of Vulcan history on Star Trek , there were some elements in the culture who wanted to step back from their role. I n the late 2360s, Captain Picard and Commander Riker were captured by pirates who were a part of this movement, hoping to use a telepathic weapon to force the Vulcans out of the Federation. They foiled this plan, and the Vulcans agreed to root out this movement, but wanted to keep it a private matter, at least within their own society.

Perhaps inspired by Spock's example, the Vulcans of the 24th Century played a significant role in the Federation, despite not many appearing on the screen. Vulcans lived by the motto "We're here to serve," specifically the galaxy. A number of Vulcans joined the Admiralty, with Savar, Sitak and T'Lara all appearing in both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . Still involved with the Federation was Spock's father, Sarek, who traveled on the USS Enterprise and mind-melded with Picard.

Despite all this progress, Vulcans still often served on ships that were only crewed by their kind. The USS T'Kumbra, for instance, was an all-Vulcan vessel that liked to challenge human Starfleet colleagues (especially Captain Sisko) to baseball games. Still, the disillusionment with the Federation and Starfleet wasn't limited to just Vulcan purists. When the Maquis group formed to fight Cardassians without the approval of Starfleet, a number of Vulcans were involved in it. The most notable was Sarkonna, who inadvertently orchestrated the potential for a peaceful settlement after Quark explained the "economics of war" to her.

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While Spock was still active, he resigned from Starfleet and retired to Romulus. There, he worked undercover to begin the process of introducing the teachings of Surak to their galactic cousins. This led to an invasion of Vulcan by Romulus, thwarted at the last minute by the ingenuity of Spock and Data working together. The USS Enterprise-D was dispatched to discover what he was doing on Romulus, specifically out of fear that he defected.

At this time, Sarek was succumbing to an affliction causing older Vulcans to suffer outbursts of emotion. This was described as Vulcan senility, and he asked Captain Picard to find his son. While Spock was unable to see his father again , he did mind-meld with Picard. Since Picard mind-melded with Sarek once before, Spock was able to share some of his father's thoughts. Spock decided to stay on Romulus to continue preaching logic and reunification, happy that this would be his final contribution to greater galactic peace.

However, Spock failed Romulus when he didn't stop the explosion of a star that destroyed the Romulan homeworld. A mining vessel constructed out of Borg technology called the Narada traveled back in time and destroyed the planet Vulcan in the 23rd Century. This created a branch timeline, which was depicted in the Star Trek movies of the 2010s. Ambassador Spock remained in this timeline and died of natural causes.

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In the 32nd Century, the galaxy reeled from "the Burn," an incident that destroyed dilithium used for warp travel. This caused many founding species, including Vulcans and humans, to leave the Federation behind. At the same time, the effort of Romulan reunification begun by Spock was successful after the destruction of the Romulan homeworld.

Planet Vulcan was renamed Ni'Var and while Vulcans and Romulans retained their original species identities, they formed a collaborative society. When Michael Burnham -- once a source of ire among Vulcans -- visited Ni'Var in the 32nd Century, she helped set them on a course to rejoin the Federation and Starfleet. However, it was a lengthy political process.

There are still elements in the Vulcan and Romulan societies who distrust the Federation. Vulcan purists threaten the renewed alliance, and they are political rivals of President T'Rina. Her relationship with Captain Saru (a Kelpian and Starfleet officer)

The Star Trek universe encompasses multiple series, each offering a unique lens through which to experience the wonders and perils of space travel. Join Captain Kirk and his crew on the Original Series' voyages of discovery, encounter the utopian vision of the Federation in The Next Generation, or delve into the darker corners of galactic politics in Deep Space Nine. No matter your preference, there's a Star Trek adventure waiting to ignite your imagination.

further complicates this political situation. However, no matter where the stories fall in Star Trek history, Vulcans will be a significant part of them.

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Published Nov 4, 2022

Vulcans and Romulans: A Primer on Unification

Exploring one of the most crucial schisms in the Star Trek universe.

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A couple of weeks ago, Jake Black wrote an excellent article about how Spock’s dream of Vulcan and Romulan unification , as shown in The Next Generation episodes “ Unification , Parts I and II,” is incredibly relevant for the divided society we are today. But what, exactly, is unification, and why is it important to the Star Trek universe? I’m going to explore that in this primer on unification between the Romulans and Vulcans .

The Romulans and Vulcans descend from the same ancestor species — specifically, the Romulans are an offshoot of ancient Vulcans. From the Star Trek history we know, it’s unclear when the split between the two occurred, but it was likely during Vulcan’s war-torn period of history. Before they established logic as the foundation for their culture and history, Vulcans were similar to humans — emotional and warlike. They thrived on colonialism and conquest, establishing a large swath of colonies across space. Eventually, their empire fell and their society devolved into chaos.

Few records survive from this unstable time, so it’s unclear how the Romulan species was born, but they likely were established during this period. It’s possible that a faction of warlike Vulcans rejected the idea of peace and left to found their own civilization. It’s also possible that the Romulans are one of Vulcan’s outlying colonies that were abandoned by the homeworld and forgotten in the chaos. Either way, for centuries Vulcans were aware of the Romulans as an alien race, but had no idea that the two species shared an ancestral history.

In The Original Series episode “Balance of Terror,” the Enterprise encounters an unknown vessel (presumed to be Romulan) destroying Federation outposts along the Romulan neutral zone. Humans and Romulans had fought a vicious war in the past, but it was before viewscreens were common on ships and there were no captives taken during the conflict. As a result, no one had seen a Romulan in generations, and it was unclear what they looked like. Spock expressed real surprise that the species looked so similar to Vulcans and posited that the two had split during a violent period of Vulcan history, and that Romulans retained that warlike culture, while Vulcans had turned to logic.

Whenever the schism between the two species happened, it was long enough ago such that significant genetic differences have since evolved between Vulcans and Romulans. So while they have the same ancestors, the differences between them by the 24th Century, when The Next Generation is set, are deeper than just culture.

The pro-unification underground goes much further back in history than The Next Generation episode of the same name, where it was introduced. In Star Trek: Enterprise ’s “Kir’Shara,” which aired after TNG but chronologically took place before The Original Series , a secret Romulan agent posing as a Vulcan mentions the unification movement to a Vulcan collaborator (no Starfleet officers were present at this exchange, hence why their shared past remained a mystery). While its origins are unclear (and we don’t know whether Romulan culture retained the memory of their genetic history), the movement was apparently thriving long before it was first depicted on screen.

In “Unification, Parts I and II,” which brought Spock to The Next Generation , the revered ambassador is spotted on Romulus, and the Federation fears that he defected. The costs of his betrayal would be incalculable, so they send Captain Picard on a mission to uncover what’s happened. After a visit to Sarek, Spock’s ailing father, Picard and Data head to Romulus aboard a cloaked Klingon Bird of Prey .

They discover that Spock has not defected; instead, he’s been working with an underground movement to support the reunification of Romulans and Vulcans. Many members of the group had been declared enemies of the Romulan state because of their adherence to Vulcan philosophy; Spock’s goal was to both help them and also evaluate the greater potential of reunification, though, he admits the possibility may be unlikely.

Over the course of the episode, Spock is betrayed by his closest Romulan ally, Senator Pardek, and he, Picard, and Data are captured by the Romulan government. It turns out that the Romulans are interested in reunification, but one at gunpoint — they want to invade Vulcan and conquer it. (As an aside, the idea of the Romulans being able to successfully invade one of the founding worlds of the Federation with three ships and 2,000 troops is laughably arrogant.)

Spock, Picard, and Data manage to escape, but the ambassador chooses to remain on Romulus. He recognizes that unification won’t happen via political channels, but instead through the will of the Romulan people, and he wants to help shepherd it. He stays on Romulus for at least a few years, as the sixth-season episode “Face of the Enemy” once again confronts unification.

While Spock himself isn’t in this episode, his fingerprints are all over it. Counselor Troi is kidnapped by Romulans and altered to look like one of them. She pretends to be a member of the feared Tal Shiar, the Romulan secret police, and her job is to successfully transport high-ranking members of the Romulan government to the Federation as defectors. Spock and his associates are hoping to open a new path for Romulan dissidents to leave the oppressive Star Empire.

What we know about unification after this point is negligible. In the Kelvin universe, at least, Spock continued working with the Romulans in some capacity, as he was involved in efforts to prevent their sun from going supernova. In the time of Star Trek: Picard , the Romulans are scattered, without a home world. It’s unclear whether the movement continued when so many of their brethren were lost, but unification, and the desire to connect with one another, is an important part of Star Trek history that shouldn’t be forgotten.

A Closer Look at Romulans

This article was originally published on November 24, 2020.

Swapna Krishna (she/her) writes about tech, science, and sci-fi. She’s a contributing editor at SYFY FANGRRLS and has been published at Engadget, Gizmodo, Mental Floss, the Los Angeles Times, and more. You can find her on Twitter @skrishna.

Star Trek: Picard streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. and is distributed concurrently by Paramount Global Content Distribution on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories, and in Canada it airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave.

Stay tuned to StarTrek.com for more details! And be sure to follow @StarTrek on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .

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Star Trek: The History Of The Vulcans, Explained

The history of this classic Star Trek race is wrought with unexpected violence and emotion.

Out of the many races and cultures present within the Star Trek universe, one of the most stable and memorable has to be the Vulcans. Sure, the hive-minded Borg and the honor-bound, forehead ridged Klingons play important roles throughout the franchise, but it is the steady guiding hands of the Vulcans who seem to always have humanity's back. Despite the strict adherence to logic that defines much of their culture and nature, their history has been turbulent, especially when taking into account their sister species the Romulans .

Unlike the Klingons, who have changed appearance several times over the course of the franchise's TV shows and films, the physical appearance of the Vulcans has more or less stayed the same since Gene Roddenberry’s pioneering, space faring vision: The Original Series . Their pointed ears and stylish, upwards-veering eyebrows have continued as a staple through the show, despite being originally designed to avoid costly prosthetics and make up. Like most life in the universe, the Vulcans are also humanoid in appearance .

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When exploring Vulcan history, it’s important to include the Romulans. These two species are incredibly different in nature, but share a striking resemblance to one another physically. During The Original Series, audiences discover, alongside the crew of the enterprise, that Vulcans and Romulans really are not too dissimilar at all, as they are both descended from the same ancient ancestors. Their divergence took place before the Vulcans adopted their characteristic obsession with logic and reason.

The ancient Vulcans were an emotionally charged, warlike species, who desired to conquer the stars. They were a barbaric race, who was starting to buckle under its own weight. Through their unquenchable passion and emotion, they were on a slippery slope to extinction. This was until the 3rd millennium BC, when a few ancient Vulcans began to try and suppress their emotion. However, they were still in the minority, seen more as a religious cult rather than people to be taken seriously. The majority of Vulcans still were fueled by emotion, violence, and passion. By the 9th Century BC, Vulcans had discovered warp capabilities, but due to their technological advancements being so far ahead of the rest of the galaxy, they were mostly alone — which, due to their colonization habits, was probably a good thing.

Everything changed, however, during what is known as the “Time of Awakening,” which occurred during the 4th Century. At this time, the planet Vulcan was being torn apart by its inhabitants, who were constantly at war with one another. They had begun to drop nuclear bombs , as well as using a device called the Stone of Gul, which would amplify the target's violent emotions to the point where they would see red, and go on a blind rampage. Out of all this bloodshed, however, there appeared a Vulcan philosopher called Surak, who had adopted a lifestyle led by logic over emotion, teaching his followers around Vulcan his philosophy. He grew more and more popular, until his observations and teachings were recorded in what equates to the Vulcan holy book: the Kir’Shara.

Despite all the odds, Surak’s teachings mostly stuck, and swept across their home world until order had been restored once more to the Vulcan people. No longer driven by emotion, they lost interest in conquering and destroying one another, indeed looking both to the stars and within themselves for enlightenment. As Spock himself states , “Only the discipline of logic saved my planet from extinction.”

Not everyone adopted Surak's views, however. The minority who refused to forsake their emotions for logic fought hard to keep their barbaric way of life, until they were eventually forced out from their home world. These outcasts were the ancestors of the Romulans, who carried on their violent ways.

After the destruction and near annihilation of their home, it took the Vulcans a long time to rebuild. They focused on healing their planet and developing further their quest for reason, but after approximately 1500, years they returned to the skies. After all this time, there was a lot more happening among the stars. Cultures on other planets had developed and evolved enough to make things interesting for the space-faring Vulcans. They aligned with the Andorians, and the Tellarites, and eventually, on April 5th 2063, they made first contact with humans. The Federation and Starfleet were born soon afterward, and the rest is history.

Vulcan history is being added to in vast quantities as more and more iterations into the franchise appear, but this is the streamlined version of what brought the Vulcans from a warmongering race to the oddly lovable stoic figures seen today. Through Spock, they made their way into audiences' hearts, epitomizing the notion of a hard exterior with a soft core.

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Star trek's 10 best vulcans ranked.

The most logical race in the galaxy, there have been many great Vulcan characters throughout the Star Trek franchise, starting with Mr. Spock.

Some of Star Trek ' s greatest characters are Vulcans. The most logical race in the galaxy, the Vulcans are the seminal alien species of the Star Trek franchise, and they are arguably the most beloved aliens. Although humans in the Star Trek universe can find Vulcans cold, distant, and difficult to get along with, the best among the Vulcans are highly intelligent, loyal, and brave as they use logic to suppress their raging emotions within.

Many of the defining characteristics of Vulcans were created by Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock in Star Trek: The Original Series . Nimoy innovated iconic Vulcan trademarks like the "Live long and prosper" hand gesture and the Vulcan nerve pinch. Vulcans have played pivotal roles in the affairs of the Star Trek universe and in many Star Trek TV series and movies. Star Trek: TOS, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, and now, Star Trek: Lower Decks boast Vulcan characters aboard their respective starships. Of course, some Vulcans break bad, and among the most notorious are Sybok (Lawrence Luckinbill) and Lt. Valeris (Kim Cattrall). But the best Vulcan characters in Star Trek work alongside the human heroes of Starfleet, and here are the 10 greatest Vulcans:

10 T'Lyn

One of the newest Vulcans in the franchise, T'Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz) was introduced in the Star Trek: Lower Decks season 2 episode "wej Duj." T'Lyn was a crew member of the Vulcan ship Sh'vhal who became regarded as "unstable" by her superiors for acknowledging her instincts and "gut feelings" aside from pure logic. T'Lyn is a fascinating young character questioning her role and purpose as a Vulcan, and at the end of Lower Decks season 3 , T'Lyn transferred to Starfleet's USS Cerritos as a junior Science Officer. The comedic potential of T'Lyn mixing with the Lower Deckers of the Cerritos potentially knows no bounds.

9 T'Pau

Described by Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) as "all of Vulcan in one package," the aged and venerable T'Pau (Celia Lovsky) was introduced in the Star Trek: The Original Series classic episode "Amok Time." However, Star Trek: Enterprise reintroduced the younger T'Pau (Kara Zediker) a century earlier. In her youth, T'Pau joined with Starfleet's NX-01 Enterprise Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) to expose a conspiracy between the corrupt Vulcan High Command and the Romulans. T'Pau also restored the logical teachings of Surak to the Vulcan people in Star Trek: Enterprise.

8 T'Rina

Introduced in Star Trek: Discovery season 3, T'Rina (Tara Rosling) is the President of the planet Ni'Var in the 32nd century. Ni'Var is the renamed planet Vulcan, which is now shared by the re-unified Vulcan and Romulan people as well as the sect of Romulan warrior nuns called the Qowat Milat. Wise and prudent, T'Rina was initially skeptical of Ni'Var rejoining the Federation, but she became a believer in Starfleet, especially as a romance blossomed between herself and Captain Saru (Doug Jones).

7 T'Pring

T'Pring (Arlene Martel) debuted in the Star Trek: The Original Series classic "Amok Time." The vengeful ex-fiancee of Mr. Spock, T'Pring went to extremes to end their arranged marriage so she could be with her new lover under Vulcan law. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds reintroduced the younger T'Pring (Gia Sandhu) in her happier early days with Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck). Despite T'Pring understanding Spock's desire to explore the galaxy with Starfleet and trying to make their long-distance relationship work, the seeds have already been planted for the eventual end of Spock and T'Pring's union.

Lieutenant Saavik was originally portrayed by Kirstie Alley in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and she was the first major new Vulcan heroine introduced in the Star Trek movies. A protégé of Captain Spock, Saavik served on the USS Enterprise during Admiral James T. Kirk's (William Shatner) conflict with Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban) over the Genesis Device, which resulted in Spock's death. Robin Curtis took over the role of Saavik in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , which resurrected Spock, and she cameoed as Saavik in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home . Saavik remains highly regarded among Star Trek fans and Star Trek: Picard season 3 canon revealed Saavik eventually became the first Captain of the USS Titan.

5 Spock (Kelvin Timeline)

Zachary Quinto portrayed the younger Mr. Spock in the alternate Kelvin Timeline of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movies. This version of Spock has different life experiences than Leonard Nimoy's Spock Prime, and Quinto's Vulcan romanced Nyota Uhura (Zoe Saldana) and felt rage about the destruction of his homeworld, Vulcan, and the death of his mother, Amanda Grayson (Winona Ryder). Yet Spock heroically rose to save the galaxy alongside his rival-turned-best friend, Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine). Quinto proved Star Trek fans would accept Spock being recast and delivered new dimensions of the beloved Vulcan.

Ambassador Sarek (Mark Lenard) is one of the most beloved classic Star Trek characters. Spock's estranged father was introduced in Star Trek: The Original Series ' "Journey to Babel," and the wise but stubborn Vulcan proved Spock was a chip off the old block. Lenard reprised Sarek in the Star Trek movies, and he later befriended Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) on Star Trek: The Next Generation before his death. In Star Trek: Discovery' s prequel era, Sarek was portrayed by James Frain, who adopted the young Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and raised her as his daughter on Vulcan. Sarek remains a pivotal figure in Spock and Michael's lives.

3 T'Pol

Sub-Commander T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) represented the Vulcan High Command in the pioneering voyages of the NX-01 Enterprise commanded by Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula). As Star Trek: Enterprise progressed, however, T'Pol's allegiance switched to her human Starfleet friends, which included her lover, Commander Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer). T'Pol brought calm, experience, and, of course, logic to the NX-01 Enterprise as Blalock delivered one of the all-time greatest Vulcan portrayals. Despite the T'Pol character being overtly sexualized and plunged into sometimes embarrassing storylines, she maintains her status as one of Star Trek 's best Vulcans.

Star Trek: Voyager 's Lieutenant Tuvok (Tim Russ) was the first major Vulcan character in a Star Trek series since Spock. Tuvok, whose Starfleet career began in the late 23rd century, was a pillar of calm and logic during the USS Voyager's dangerous 7-year journey through the Delta Quadrant. Tuvok is also a Vulcan with a rich family life, and he was isolated from his loved ones while occasionally questioning Starfleet. After Voyager returned to Earth, Tuvok was promoted to Commander and, in Star Trek: Picard season 3's 25th century, Captain Tuvok had the honor of promoting his colleague, Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), as Captain of the USS Enterprise-G. Tuvok is undoubtedly one of the greatest Vulcans in Star Trek.

1 Spock (Prime Timeline)

There is no doubt that Spock holds the status as the greatest Vulcan character, and he is arguably also the greatest Star Trek character period. Proudly logical, Spock is also half-human, and the depths of his emotions have often been explored. Spock's loyalty and dedication to his friends are storied throughout Star Trek , and this continued not just into the 24th century but into the Kelvin Timeline of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movies as well, which is where Spock found his final resting place after over a century of saving the galaxy. On Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , Ethan Peck shines as the younger Lt. Spock trying to balance his Vulcan and human sides. Peck's performance as Spock enhances his legend and honors Leonard Nimoy.

Star Trek: Every Vulcan Ability You Need To Know

Star Trek's iconic emotionless aliens have more powers than you'd think.

The Vulcans are perhaps the most beloved aliens in Star Trek. They were the first alien species created by Gene Roddenberry for The Original Series and instantly became a Trek staple.

Vulcan history is incredibly detailed. Following a long history of violence and war that nearly devastated their species, the Vulcans chose to follow the philosopher, Surak, by suppressing all emotion and embracing logic. The followers of Surak engaged in countless rituals and meditations to completely purge themselves of all emotion, as they saw it as the only way to prevent the extinction of the Vulcan race. Some Vulcans rejected Surak's teachings, though most of these detractors eventually left the planet Vulcan and became the Romulan Star Empire.

However, Vulcans are not only renowned for their strict adherence to logic, but also for their many almost supernatural abilities. Vulcans possess a number of unique physical and mental powers, and this list will be counting down and describing all of them.

As always, live long and prosper.

8. Controlling Emotions

As mentioned earlier, when the philosopher, Surak, introduced the Vulcan society to his belief system of logic and emotional suppression, the species saw it as the only way to save the Vulcan people from themselves.

Naturally, Vulcans have much more intense emotions than most humanoid species. Their violent nature combined with their impressive physical and mental abilities led to a great many wars that devastated the planet for generations. So, although Vulcans may seem completely robotic, this is all just a façade that they maintain to avoid allowing their emotions to control them.

Vulcans work their whole lives to eradicate their emotions, though subtle hints of them remain deep in their minds. Without completing the Vulcan ritual known as Kolinahr, which Spock was never able to do, a Vulcan is still capable of emotional outbursts when dealing with extreme stress.

There have, however, been some Vulcans who've embraced their emotions fully, rejecting the Vulcan way of life, such as Spock's half-brother, Sybok.

Marcia Fry is a writer for WhatCulture and an amateur filmmaker.

25 Things About Vulcans That Everyone Forgets

The Vulcans are one of the most beloved species on Star Trek but even dedicated fans forget these things about the Vulcan people.

Star Trek is one of the biggest and longest-running fandoms in the world of Science Fiction. In fact, many people believe that the original run of the show created (if not created explicitly then certainly popularized and brought to the forefront of the genre) the modern idea of Space Exploration-Themed Science Fiction. The show was revolutionary in both theme and representation and many Television firsts occurred on the set and episodes of the original Star Trek . And though I will admit that my first-hand interactions with Star Trek , as a series, has been limited as I began to explore different medias outside my personal favorites a bit later in life, I have done exhaustive research on the Vulcan race and can confidently say that I am a big fan of this fictional race of people.

From their rich and complex history to their weird anatomies and cultural traditions, there is just something that is utterly fascinating about the Vulcan race. Something wonderful and magical about the world of Star Trek was the fact that the original creators of the show and its lore did not slack off when it came to world building. Each race has a fully fleshed out history, language, and a culture rich in unique yet in-depth traditions. In this article I will explore the history and evolution of this great fictional race as well as their traditions, rituals, weird bodily functions and anomalies, and what differentiates this race of alien creatures from the human race.

25 The Effects Of Chocolate

It is important to note that Vulcans have been known to drink traditionally in moments of celebration. In the original show, Vulcans were shown offering Vulcan drinks to others. However, due to their sensitivity to sucrose, Vulcan’s have a sensitivity to chocolate that mimics the type of tipsiness that a typical human being would glean from engaging too loosely with a traditional celebratory beverage. In short, normal chocolate can get Vulcan’s real sloppy real fast.

24 Vulcans Hearts Lie In Their Stomachs

If you’re going to stab a Vulcan, make sure that you are aiming in the right place. For those of you who are not well-versed in Vulcan anatomy, their heart lies in the exact place where their liver should be. It lies on the lower right side of their torso region (between the lowest bone of the rib cage and the pelvis). Therefore any attempt to launch a fatal blow to the chest region of a Vulcan will fail.

23 The Surak Code

The Surak Code is essentially the belief that all emotions can and should be controlled. The basic principle is that it is best for the Vulcan race to establish complete control over their emotional displays due to the fact that, as a people, they are prone to and capable of intense acts and means of expressing those emotions, if not controlled. The Surak code was brought to the Vulcan society as an answer to their “rampant paranoia and rage;” however its introduction bred even more conflict and caused a schism.

22 Sleep Is For The Weak

In my third year of University, I had accidentally overloaded on courses and ended up skipping many a nights sleep in order to keep on top of all of my assignments. However my three day no sleep events have nothing on what Vulcans can do. The average healthy Vulcan can go a total of 2 weeks without no sleep of any kind. If we could bottle that ability and sell it to college students, we could make a massive fortune.

21 Mark Lenard Was The Master Of The Three Races

The actor, Mark Lenard, appeared so many times on the show that he was able to claim roles spanning over three of the well-known and established Star Trek races. By the time his appearances on the show had reached their end, he had appeared as a Romulan, a Vulcan, and a Klingon. He appeared as a captain of an ill-fated Romulan vessel, a Klingon commander on another ill-fated ship, and has had multiple appearances throughout the series as Spock’s father.

20 Logic Above All Else

Vulcans are known for valuing logic and reason above all else and often resist participating in situations that could affect their ability to reason with their own logical faculties. However it is very important to note that this was not always and still isn’t the case in every scenario. As mentioned earlier in this article, Vulcans were once a volatile and emotional people but learned to suppress that in favor of logic. But not all Vulcans agreed that that was the best way to conduct oneself. Some rebellious groups embrace emotions in all forms, including Spock’s own half-brother.

19 Vulcan's Easily Live To 200 Yeas Old

Yes, you read that correctly. A healthy Vulcan adult’s lifespan can easily surpass 200 years I have no idea what I would do with two-hundred years before me. If I could live exponentially longer without having to waste time sleeping, I would be virtually unstoppable. I could cure all diseases known to man, I could change the world, I could watch every single Harry Potter movie in one sitting without reeling from exhaustion and needing to take a break. The possibilities are endless.

18 No Need For Food Or Water

To clarify, the Vulcan people do need sustenance eventually. However, they can survive for concerningly long periods of time without any food or water. How long you may ask? Well, since their home planet is a relatively inhospitable environment, their bodies had to adjust to its desert based atmosphere. Consequently, the Vulcan people can go literal days without any libation of any kind. They also possess incredibly hardy stomachs in order to be able to consume any food available without fear of a negative reaction.

17 The Salute Originates In Jewish Culture

The famous Vulcan hand salute for “Live Long and Prosper” has become synonymous with geek culture across the world. However, not everyone knows where the salute came from. It turns out that it was inspired by a Jewish gesture of blessing exhibited by the priests at synagogue. Though all non-priests are supposed to keep their eyes covered during the performance of this blessing (this is because the Almighty himself is supposed to appear in the room during the blessing,) Nimoy snuck a peek as a small child and witnessed the blessing first hand.

16 Inspired By The Roman Gods

Both the planet and the race we know as “Vulcan” were named after/inspired by the Roman god of the same name. Vulcan, in Roman Mythology, was the god of fire. It is important to note that his equivalent god within the Greek pantheon was Hephaestus. Which makes sense, if one considers the severe and desert-like atmosphere of the planet from the series (which is often likened to the real-life planet of Venus which exists in our own solar system).

15 Copper-Based Plasma

If you have ever watched any of the Star Trek shows and/or films, you would know that not every race bleeds the same shade of red. The same is true with the Vulcan race as the blood like substance that oozes from their wounds is actually bright green in color. This is due to the fact that their blood is a copper-based substance, unlike traditional red human blood. But come on, the best thing about science fiction is the differing physiology between races of human-like creatures.

14 Do No Harm, Eat No Meat

Part of the Vulcan way of life includes a commitment to the abject avoidance of any action that would cause direct harm to another living being. This has resulted in modern Vulcans choosing a vegetarian style cruelty-free diet. It is important to note that the Vulcans of the past were, in fact, omnivores and would often eat meat before their culture shifted away from such things. Spock also consumed meat when traveling to the past as the ethics of the time differed from the present as well as the fact that there were no other food sources available. Though he later expressed guilt over his actions.

13 Their Ears Enhance Their Hearing

Other than simply existing in a fun and common fantastical shape, the special shape of the ears of the Vulcan people actually serve a purpose. It turns out that their pointed shape allows sounds to be directed downwards into their ear canal in a more efficient way than our human ears which lends to the enhanced hearing abilities that the Vulcan race possesses. They are honestly just an overall improvement to the basic functions of the current human body. A human version 2.0, if you will.

12 Cheat The End Through Katra

For those of you who don’t know about Katra, allow me to introduce you to your new favorite thing. Katra is a method in which Vulcans can seemingly cheat outside attempts to end their lives. Basically, the (for lack of a better word) soul of the Vulcan can be transmitted to another object or body just before a seemingly fatal event to preserve it. In some very rare cases, the soul can return to the body and the Vulcan will resume life through fal tor pan. Though this can only be done successfully by a high priestess and is incredibly difficult.

11 End Your Marriage Through Koon-Ut-Kal-If-Fee

Since most marriages are arranged in the early years of childhood and done for the logical purpose of child-rearing, divorce due to faded love or loss of interest does not really occur in Vulcan culture. However, there is an event referred to as Koon-Ut-Kal-If-Fee which can effectively release the female in question from this bond. In this event, a new male will challenge the assigned male who will either fight until only one male survives the battle for the female in question or simply let her go.

10 Pon Farr

Every seven years the Vulcan people experience a great and disturbing emotional event known as Pon Farr. If these emotions are not dealt with quickly and thoroughly then the Vulcan experiencing them could lose their sanity or even their life. For those of you who do not know, there are only two ways to expel these emotions: grown-up Vulcan time or meditation. However, it is important to note that Vulcans do engage in grown-up time outside of Pon Farr. Pon Farr is simply a time in which they crave nothing else but the fun time to an uncomfortable degree.

9 Inner Eyelids And Extreme Temperatures

Due to the nature of their home planets environment, the Vulcan body has evolved several adaptations in order to protect itself from the elements. A few of these adaptations have already been mentioned earlier in this article but two more adaptations that exist are the presence of the inner eyelid and the ability to withstand extreme temperatures. The first exists to protect the eyes of the Vulcan people from both the sun and the abundant sand that coats and makes up their planet. The latter is quite straightforward as a body that cannot survive harsh weather could not survive life on Vulcan.

8 Empathy Through The Mind Meld

The mind meld is essentially telepathy 101. It allows people to exchange memories, thoughts, and other elements of the mind; however, it requires physical contact (in most cases) in order to be performed correctly and accurately. It is important to note that this is not always a passive experience and that some Vulcan’s can erase the memories of another as well as interact with the memories being present to them. Mind Melds can be resisted by some races while also being performed without consent. The intricacies of them have made them quite taboo at different points in time.

7 Vulcan's Once Used Established Polytheistic Beliefs

It is important to note that before the arrival of Surak, the Vulcan people followed a polytheistic belief system with gods dedicated to different things similar to the Greek or Egyptian mythologies. This is important to note because most highly intelligent/logical fictional characters are often associated with atheism so one would not expect such a belief system from the Vulcan people. However, this belief system existed before the Vulcan people abandoned emotional displays and adopted their highly logical mindset.

6 Vulcan's Use The Utilitarian Ethical System

The utilitarian school of ethics states that morality can be judged by the outcome of an event rather than the actions leading up to it. Basically put, this way of thinking states that two wrongs can, in fact, make a right. An example of this being the classic trolley problem and that it would be ethical to lose one life in order to spare five. It only makes sense that the highly logical Vulcan’s would favor this school of thought as it is result focused and places little to no focus on emotions whatsoever.

How Leonard Nimoy's Roots Inspired The Vulcan Salute

The Vulcan salute is instantly recognizable to most people, even if they're not "Star Trek"  fans, consisting of an open palm with the pinky and ring fingers pressed together on one side of the "V," with the middle and pointer making up the other side, the thumb extended on its own. According to a 2012 entry from the official Star Trek blog , the gesture was first performed by the character of Mr. Spock, played by actor Leonard Nimoy, on the episode "Amok Time," which premiered on television in 1967. The episode takes place on the planet Vulcan, where Spock uses the gesture to greet fellow Vulcan T'Pau, played by Celia Lovesky, probably little knowing the importance the gesture would have to "Star Trek" lore and pop culture history in general. 

Nimoy explained in 2012 that he had come up with his character's gesture himself: "The idea came when I saw the way Joe [director Joseph Pevney] was staging the scene. He had me approach T'Pau and I felt a greeting gesture was called for. So I suggested it to Joe, who accepted it immediately. Gene [Roddenberry, the creator of "Star Trek"] was not involved." Nimoy noted in his 1995 autobiography "I Am Spock," quoted by the website Quartz in 2015 on the occasion of Nimoy's death at the age of 83, that he had adapted the symbol from Orthodox Judaism, specifically a hand symbol the Konahim, or priests, make as they bless the congregation during High Holiday services "with thumbs outstretched and the middle and ring fingers parted so that each hand forms two vees."

The Vulcan salute copies an Orthodox Jewish gesture with special meaning

Nimoy wrote for the Star Trek blog that he had grown up in Boston's West End neighborhood, which was home to a large number of immigrants. He attended a local Orthodox Jewish synagogue with his family. They were particularly observant of the Jewish High Holidays. His father once instructed young Nimoy not to look at the priests as they prepared to say the benediction that included the gesture, as "it is believed that during this prayer, the 'Shekhina,' the feminine aspect of God comes into the temple to bless the congregation" and the accompanying light could be damaging. Some people traditionally close their eyes to protect them. Nimoy secretly peeked and recalled that upon seeing "the split-fingered gesture of these men ... I was entranced. I learned to do it simply because it seemed so magical." Around 25 years later he introduced a version of the hand sign as the Vulcan salute, accompanied with its own blessing: "Live long and prosper."

Writer Lindsay Traves explored the history of the Vulcan salute for the Star Trek blog in 2019 in honor of Jewish History Month. Rabbi Howard Morrison of Toronto's Beth Emeth Synagogue explained that the gesture, made with both hands with thumbs connected, forms the Hebrew letter Shin, which is the first letter of Shaddai, one of the names for God in the Torah. The gesture didn't come easily to all "Star Trek" actors; per the IMDb , Celia Lovsky had to have her fingers taped together in order for T'Pau to return Spock's greeting. 

From Star Trek: Theurgy Wiki

The Needs of the Many Outweigh the Needs of the Few, or the One.

The Vulcans were a stoic, rational people. Widely claimed to be emotionless, in truth the Vulcans felt deeply and intensely, to their own detriment. Their stoicism came from a culture of logic and self-discipline, where emotions were analyzed and dissected to rob them of their potency so that they could not overwhelm or control the individual. Vulcans embraced science and reason, but their lives were not purely devoted to logic: they also had a deeply philosophical side, with art and music as vital to their culture as logic. They were also intensely private people, with many aspects of their culture — such as the rites of Pon Farr — which were not discussed amongst outsiders. [1]

• 1 Psychology
• 2.1 Body Size and Shape
• 2.8 Reproduction
• 3.1.1 Temperature and Climate
• 3.2.1 Desert
• 3.2.2.1 Cir-Cen
• 3.2.2.2 G'teth
• 3.2.2.3 K'karee
• 3.2.2.4 Le-matya
• 3.2.2.5 Shavokh
• 3.2.2.6 Sir-soss'im
• 3.2.3 Volcanic Plains
• 3.2.4.1 Gal-en-du'un ("Dream Moss")
• 3.2.4.2 Le-matya
• 3.2.4.3 Pel-tar'uk
• 3.2.4.4 Shatarr
• 3.2.4.5 Tir-nuk
• 3.2.4.6 Valit
• 3.2.5 Temperate Zones
• 3.2.6.1 Chkariya
• 3.2.6.2 Gespar
• 3.2.6.3 Sehlat
• 3.3.1.1 Gol
• 4.2 Architecture
• 4.3 Cuisine
• 5.1 The Twilight of the Gods
• 5.2 The Inner Chorus
• 6.1 The School of Surak
• 6.2 The Way of Jarok
• 6.3 The School of Nirak
• 6.4 The One Mind School
• 6.5 The Kolinahr Path
• 6.6 The Hakihr Way
• 6.7 Katra: The Vulcan Soul
• 7.1 The Age of Antiquity
• 7.2 The Time of Awakening
• 7.3 Rift with the Proto-Romulans
• 7.4 The Golden Age
• 7.5 The Romulan War
• 7.6 To the Stars
• 7.7 First Contact with Humanity
• 7.8 The Federation
• 8.1.1 Elections and Impeachment
• 8.1.2.1 The Ministry of State
• 8.1.2.2 The Ministry of Defense
• 8.1.2.3 The Ministry of Security
• 8.1.2.4 The Ministry of Health
• 8.1.2.5 The Ministry of Thought
• 8.1.2.6 The Ministry of Science
• 8.1.2.7 The Ministry of Trade
• 8.2 Vulcan Diplomacy
• 8.3 The Vulcan Isolationist Movement
• 9.1 Male Names
• 9.2 Female Names
• 10 Species Abilitis
• 11 Reference works used in creation of this page

Vulcans exalted logic over emotion and usually repressed or sublimated emotions in their daily behavior. Vulcans who dealt with non-Vulcans on a regular basis often maintained an almost glacial calm, possibly as self-defense against so much unguarded feeling. Among themselves, however, Vulcans usually seemed more relaxed; Vulcan ambassadors often cultivated a kind of distant good humor and politesse. Even Vulcan ambassadors, however, had trouble predicting or depending upon the behavior of more emotional species.

Surak's teachings were the most important philosophical essays in Vulcan history, detailing the use of logic and reason in order to control warring emotions and destructive tendencies. In the beginning, Vulcans used their emotions as a tool, preferring to apply logic to justify their actions. AS the race evolved and the teachings of Surak spread, however the use of various techniques to banish and suppress emotions became more prevalent and Vulcan psychology blossomed. The understanding of one's mind and mental processes as well as one's emotional reactions became a necessity, and psychology was applied not only to one' own actions but also to understanding the actions of others.

The foremost psychologists on Vulcan belonged to the religious orders that guide Vulcan society. Surak's school the largest and most popular sect of Vulcan beliefs, advocated the study and understanding of emotional desires, so that the student can suppress and control them. Constant study of this process, as well as assisting others in achieving mastery of psionics through control of emotion, caused the devotees of this doctrine to become experts on the workings and common psychological traumas of Vulcan minds.

The school of Surak had many techniques which can open the mind of a student, perceiving where the student's difficulties and strongest emotions lie and adjusting the mind's processes so that the student can more completely face the emotion and learn to control it. Thus, they are experienced in abnormal psychology as well as the common workings of Vulcan minds. When a Vulcan is unable to control his emotions, his family or colleagues often summon a devotee of Surak to deal with him. When a Vulcan willingly gives in to his emotions, it is one goal of those who follow the doctrines of Surak to help him resolve his problems and rejoin society.

One of the most contemplated teachings of Surak was his admonition that one should study reason above all else. ("The chief subject of reason is reason") Surak taught that a Vulcan should learn to discern reality both as it seems to be and as it truly was. This dissection of truth from illusion spurred Vulcans into intense study of science and mathematics, helping them dissect many of the most complex workings of the universe into logical steps. Patience, temperance, and logical observation (truthfulness to the world) were three of the greatest virtues of Vulcan culture and all had great application to scientific reasoning. Vulcans believed that their adherence to this doctrine made them the foremost scientists in the Federation .

The application of these virtues, combined with intense meditation, gave Vulcans great control over their native psionic abilities . They remained unable to control that most famous biological trigger of Vulcan mental abilities, the pon farr .

Vulcans closely resembled Humans, with the same average height and weight. Their pointed ears were slightly larger than the Human norm, and their slanted eyebrows sometimes gave them a questioning look. The inner, or nictitating, eyelid was not visible. Vulcan skin complexions ranged from olive to dark mahogany, with a green cast provided by their copper-based blood. The Vulcan heart rested in the lower center of the torso, surrounded and protected by highly efficient lungs.

Externally Vulcans seemed to have much in common with Terrans, Vulcan internal physiology is quite different.

Body Size and Shape

Males and females were of similar height and stature, averaging 2 meters in height and 70 kilos in weight. Although their structure and frame were of similar height to those of Terrans, their strength was derived from longer muscle mass and a dense skeletal frame, the consequences of evolution in Vulcan's higher gravity and thinner atmosphere. One other significant difference from Terran physiology was the distinct lack of Vulcan sweat glands. Vulcans used blood, skin, and body structure to cool themselves rather than perspiration, which would have been inefficient given the high temperatures on the planet Vulcan.

Vulcan epidermis was unlike any other in the galaxy. Forming a two-way moisture-proof shield, it protected Vulcans from external liquids and pressure, as well as maintaining the inner temperature and liquid environment of their organs. Because Vulcan blood was copper-based rather than iron-based, it was green in color and was extremely effective in separating and utilizing the smaller amounts of oxygen available in Vulcan's low-pressure mildly irradiated environment. Due to this specialization of their blood and blood cells, Vulcans could survive for several minutes under water or in any oxygen-poor environment, as long as there was a small amount of oxygen available.

Not much was known about the Vulcan brain, although it was clear from even the simplest autopsy that the Vulcan midbrain is larger and more complex, and contains more nerve endings and blood capillaries than similar areas of Terran brains. The only other major species known to have possessed such a large percentage of midbrain was the Betazoid race, whose midbrain comprises nearly 65% of their entire brain mass. Vulcan midbrains were significantly smaller, averaging only 45% of the organ, yet this is still much more than comparative races. It was assumed that the majority of Vulcan psionic powers came from this enlarged region, although testing has been inconclusive.

A clear inner eyelid formed of a nictitating membrane that filtered radiation, dust, and other harmful elements protected Vulcan eyes. Vulcan range of vision was more acute, as was their ability to recognize color frequencies and perceived more clearly at a distance. This seemed to have certain negative drawbacks as many Vulcans describe painful symptoms, similar to headaches and eyestrain, from being exposed to vibrant high colorations for long periods of time. The Vulcan optic nerve, much more delicate and sensitive than a typical Terran nerve, was more prone to disease and degeneration.

One of the most commonly noted differences between Terran and Vulcan physiology was the shape and structure of the earlobe and the functioning of the Vulcan inner ear. Although the Vulcan ear shape helped to funnel sound and intensify the reception of harmonics, the internal structure of the eardrum is very different, formed of no fewer than three separate functioning eardrums. These eardrums seemed to respond to differing volume and pitch, relaying the sound through separate channels to the nerve centers of the brain. Each worked independently, and in Vulcans of advanced age it was most often the low-pitched eardrum that deteriorates.

Vulcans had only 28 teeth, lacking rear molars and possessed a longer mandibular movement than most bipedal species. Although the bone structure of the Vulcan skull is thinner, the actual skull casing was formed of extremely dense matter, allowing a thinner depth of bone actually to be harder and stronger than a human skull.

Vulcan internal organs tended to operate at a much faster rate than those of comparable species, with an average heart rate as 265 beats per minute. The Vulcan heart lied in the center of the torso, surrounded by a large lung structure, capable of holding approximately 20% more capacity than Terran lungs. The Vulcan torso, ribcage, and musculature were also significantly longer, in order to encompass the organs within.

Vulcan hormonal activity was under muscular control and could be regulated by conscious processes of trained Vulcans. Thus, it was possible that a Vulcan could control his adrenaline, thyroid, and other metabolic systems, causing a change in heart rate, oxygen consumption, and other bodily resources. This accounts for the amazing Vulcan capacity to "regenerate" wounds, using a special trance state in order to repair any internal or structural damage more efficiently. The one primary exception to this rule was the reproductive hormone complex released during the Pon farr , in which a hormone known as yamareen was released into the bloodstream of the mature male Vulcan. Although the female Vulcan be impregnated after her menstrual cycle began (typically as early as age 16 and as late as 25), the male Vulcan was incapable of creating progeny until after the onset of his first pon farr . Thereafter, the Vulcan male is capable of reproducting, but must obey the physical urge to mate every seven years, during the pon farr . Vulcans, humans, and Klingons were all interfertile, giving credence to theories that all three races sprang from common ancestors seeded by the Preservers.

Reproduction

The biological and anthropological origins of pon farr remained unclear, and Vulcan modesty defeated Vulcan curiosity, leaving the subject mostly unstudied. The secretion of a hormone complex known yamareen caused the pon farr , or mating cycle. Difficult to produce scientifically, all attempts to create yamareen in laboratory experiments were unsuccessful. In the prehistoric phase of Vulcan, men fought to the death regularly for the right to mate with females. This kept the population down (useful on a desert planet) and ensured that only the strongest survived to reproduce. It also hindered the growth of Vulcan society, as men would not cooperate with others who could soon be their deadly enemies.

Pon farr occurred every seven years, regardless of physical condition or the Vulcan's social capacity to mate. Those who felt the "blood stirring" did not always have the luxury of being ceremonially joined to another Vulcan. In this case, they were free to choose their mate as they saw fit, hoping that they would be accepted. If a Vulcan was rejected or if his pon farr is allowed to continue without mating, he was said to suffer from plak tow , the "blood fever."

Plak tow was extremely dangerous and could result in death if not carefully controlled. Those around a plak tow sufferer would not speak his name out of courtesy. Ideally, this was the Vulcan way of "ignoring" the incident's occurrence at all, allowing the sufferer to endure with a minimum of stigma from other Vulcans. This habit caused many deaths because a series of intense meditations and rigorous physical disciplines was required to survive an unrequited plak tow , and even those methods were not always successful.

Vulcans reverted to ancient mating ceremonies during their pon far , attempting to cover their emotional abandon with logic and ancient ritual. The parents of both parties, as well as representatives from the School of Surak or other religious orders, oversaw the mating contract. This ritual began well before puberty, to minimize irrational behavior and channel it toward social cohesion rather than the rutting madness that split Vulcan apart during its prehistory.

At age seven, Vulcans ceremonially bonded telepathically with their betrothed. This tradition dated back to the early, violent days of Vulcan history, when great families arranged marriages for convenience and alliance. Some families, notably those who were old, wealthy, or influential, held to this tradition, called koon-ul , "the joining." At the proper time, both individuals felt the strange rise of emotions, the nearly uncontrollable urges and overwhelming passions, signaling the star of pon farr . Other less traditional, Vulcans simply relied on shon-ha'lock , "the engulfment," to direct them to a mate at the proper time. This experience, although similar to human "love at first sight," was seen by most Vulcans as a dangerous but necessary experience, much like kahs-wan .

During pon farr , the two betrothed parties met at a ceremonial ground (usually the one belonging to the more influential family) and engaged in the rite of Koon-ut-kal-if-fee , "marriage or challenge." Here, the bride had the right to demand that the groom win her in mortal combat with a champion. (Some versions of the ritual allowed the bride herself to serve as her own champion in combat.)

Koon-ut-kal-if-fee was a survivor of ancient Vulcan customs from times when the great houses used marriages as tests of military and political strength. In modern times, a formalized question replaced this rite and the ceremony goes forth as planned. Koon-ut so'-lik , the formal marriage proposal, could occur during the koon-ul , at the beginnning of the mutual pon farr , or even at the conclusion of the ceremony. Althought much of the pon farr was public, the deep emotional nature of the situation caused Vulcans to shield it from the prying eyes of other races.

This was but one aspect of the Vulcan traditional reserve, stemming from a cultural fear of emotional vulnerability and exposure called k'oh-nar .

The planet Vulcan (or Ti-Valka'ain, in the Vulcan language) was the second plant of six orbiting the orange star 40 Eridani A (part of a trinary system; the other two stars were too far away to be immediately visible in Vulcan's sky). Vulcan was a harsh, desert world (barely a quarter of the surface area was water) with a thin atmosphere and high (1.4 G) gravity. Vulcan's geology produced starkly upthrust mountains: craggy, inhospitable, and inspiring to the planet's ascetic logicians and mystics alike. The capital city of Vulcan, ShirKahr, was a low, stark city laid out in logical grids and quarters around an ancient oasis.

Vulcan Ecology

The landscape of Vulcan was mostly harsh and forbidding, filled with arid deserts and stark plains of black obsidian and gray flint and cinder populated by active volcanoes, fumaroles, and geysers. Water was scarce in most areas, and the flora and fauna occupying these regions adapted to survive in these difficult conditions. The people of Vulcan were tempered by the fires of Vulcan's forge. They developed a hardiness and inner strength that enabled them to master their environment and create a thriving and vital economy.

Fossil evidence discovered on the planet indicated that at one time nearly eighty percent of the Vulcan was covered with water. The first lifeforms emerged from the oceans and came onto land that instead of barren desert was lush tropical forest. With food and water being plentiful, many different types of creatures were able to thrive on the planet. Federation scientists believed that a series of solar flares exploded from 40 Eridani A caused a sudden and dramatic change in Vulcan's environment. These flares would have ripped off the upper layers of the atmosphere, and volatized much of the ocean. Without the protection of the ionosphere, and with water newly scarce, many of the plants and creatures of Vulcan would begin to die off. Within a geological eyeblink the forests would disappear, the oceans would become barren rock, and the atmosphere heated as it thinned.

Vulcan astronomers agreed with certain points Federation scientists, but disputed that solar flares alone were responsible for the changes that happened. They reasoned that 40 Eridani A, although a relatively energetic orange dwarf, historically never shown the level of activity that the Federation scientists believed happened. Many Vulcan astronomers theorized that a small but fast moving rogue planet struck 40 Eridani A as it passed through the system. Because Vulcan was close to the star when this happened, the planet not only got hit with the large flares, but also with actual stellar material ripped from the star by the rogue planet's impact. In the perturbations, the orbits of the planets were drawn closer to the star, and gravitational stresses may even have broken up one planet into the Vulcan system's inner asteroid belt. Using this model, the Vulcans no only accounted for the flares, but also the change in temperature and the tectonic shifting that had made much of Vulcan geologically unstable.

Vulcan geologists, however, maintained that internal tectonic activity on Vulcan was energetic enough to explain the changes in Vulcan's atmosphere and the climate by itself. They posited that an extremely violent period of volcanism and subduction (possibly following a cometary or meteoritic impact) altered the atmospheric chemistry of Vulcan enough to allow 40 Eridani A to disintegrate the atmosphere. These geologist pointed to similar periods in the evolution of Earth, when its atmosphere changed from methane to nitrogen-oxygen, or when the ozone layer almost broke down in the early 21st century, as evidence that atmospheric changes created by ground conditions could alter planetary climate dramatically.

Some theorists argued that solar activity could easily have disrupted Vulcan's weak and inconstant magnetic field, and perhaps caused a radical shifting of Vulcan's axial tilt. Such a shift, if timed with a period of solar flares and tectonic instability, could hae ripped away much of Vulcan's atmosphere, leaving the planet to bake itself dry over the centuries. Still more radical scholars believed that a cataclysmic war among proto-Vulcan species not only flung Vulcan into barbarism but actually devastated the planetary ecology and geology, turning a lush paradise into a desert with horrific doomsday weapons that focused the planet's tectonic energy or that psionically collimated beams of Vulcan's sunlight into mighty death rays. Although fragmentary Vulcan legends could be matched up to these theories, most scientists rejected them as unlikely in the extreme.

There were isolated areas that retained the visage of Vulcan's primordial past, when the planet was teemed with life. These areas, primarily concentrated in the fertile crescents bordering the planet's great seas, the Voroth and the Thanor, contained vestiges of old growth forest carefully shepherded from harvesting and set aside by the Vulcan Council as wilderness preserves. Conservators carefully nurtured the many species of flowering plants, grasses, animals, and fish, and kept them from extinction. Most Vulcan's of means maintained personal gardens at their private residences. Cities like ShirKahr and Vulcana Regar set aside parcels of land for public gardens.

Temperature and Climate

Vulcan was a hot planet. Daytime temperatures routinely ranged from 316 K to 325 K, and in the peak of summer could reach or exceed 339 K. The rays of 40 Eridani A, usually shone down through the red sky unbroken by clouds from dawn to dusk, as rainfall throughout the planet typically averaged less than 63.5 centimeters per year and was heavily concentrated in the six-week period immediately following summer's end. Additionally, winds tended to be mild except among the coasts. Nightfall brought a break to the incessant heat, dropping the thermometer to 280 K or below. During Vulcan's winter months, the midlatitude deserts often experienced freezing temperatures at night.

Vulcan had a gravitational pull of 1.4G and thin atmosphere. The planet's surface received increased amounts of ultraviolet radiation causing Vulcan physiology to adapt to this environment. Vulcan's adapted with a secondary eyelid to reduce glare and keep out foreign particles and reducing the body's daily need for liquids and other nourishment.

As a result of this adaptation to survive such an environment, Vulcans in Earth-normal environments possessed a physical strength and sensory acuity (particularly hearing) well beyond the human norm. Conversely, humans visiting Vulcan for the first time were apt to wilt quickly upon exposure to the planet's hostile conditions.

Vulcan had no axial tilt, so there was no natural progression of the season from north to south. Seasonal changes occurred planetwide as the result of Vulcan's elliptical orbit around its sun. At its perigee, Vulcan passed less than o.56 AU from 40 Eridani A; during this time, solar flares caused tectonic activity in the shifting plates beneath unstable geological zones like the island continent of Xir'tan or the Fire Plains of Raal. During these months, the seismologists at the Vulcan Science Academy remained constantly vigilant, diverting travelers and mining expeditions away from possible earthquake zones, monitored the status of over 200 active and many more dormant volcanoes, and coordinated evacuations and rescue activities in the event of a disaster.

Flora and Fauna of Vulcan

While traveling or living on Vulcan, visitors encountered any of three distinct climate zones - desert, volcanic plains, and temperate coastlands. Each zone supported many ecosystems, with a biodiversity surprising for such an inhospitable planet.

From the equatorial dunes and ergs of Xial and Go'an to the gravel flats north of Nal'shin, desert was the most plentiful terrain on Vulcan. The shifting sands held many secrets to those skilled in their lore. The greatest of these was the art of finding sources of drinkable water. In ancient days, warlords fought to control important oases and underground springs. Permanent settlements, small and large, would grow around these watercourses. Through the application of advanced technologies like hydroponics, Vulcan towns extended these limited resources to supply other basic needs. The Vulcan capital city of ShirKahr sprang up around just such an oasis and supported an infrastructure the equal of any in the Federation .

Desert Flora and Fauna

These squat cactus-like plants were the predominant form of desert plant life. Virtually all types of cir-cen had a tough outer protective skin that could be penetrated only by a laser or sharp knife. This skin shielded the plant from the worst ravages of the searing heat and was often covered by thorns or spines to protect it from animal predators. The interior layers of the plant stored water, and when sucked upon could provide a brief respite to those whose supplies had run low. Certain varieties of the plant, referred to in some parts of Vulcan as nor-cen , were characterized by an outer coating of sharp crimson spines; the pulplike interior of this subspecies not only held water but offered a tasty and nourishing repast as well.

A bush which grew on the shady sides of desert and semidesert hills. The berries of the g'teth were small, brownish-green buds which could be crushed and used to make a reviving beverage, the justly-famous Vulcan mocha. G'teth plantations covered much of Vulcan's low hilly regions, where the bushes served as windbreaks for other plants and helped prevent erosion as well as provided a useful crop.

Of the dozens of species of poisonous snakes which inhabited the Vulcan desert, sunning themselves by day and hunting by night, this serpent with its mottled blue-gray skin was one of the most distinctive. When the k'karee coils to strike, two sacs located below its throat expand outward, creating the appearance of a small pair of silvery fins and giving it the ability to project its venom in a concentrated spray with an effective range of up to 5 meters. The k'karee's poison was not in itself fatal to humans or Vulcans, but it could temporarily paralyze a limb (for 24-48 hours) or cause blindness if it hit its target in the eyes. Either could leave a victim an inviting target to further attacks by the snake or by other predators in the area, unless proper antitoxins could be promptly applied.

A fierce orange-skinned hunting cat that inhabited various regions on Vulcan, the le-matya was known for its lightning-fast reflexes and poison-tipped fangs. The cats were known to attack anything they see or smell. The deadly nerve toxins in their fangs could kill a small animal within minutes, or paralyze a human . Because they attack anything they encountered whether they were hungry or not, no le-matya were allowed on any of Vulcan's nature preserves; if one ranged onto a preserve it was removed as quickly as possible. Le-mataya were known to live in the deserts near ShirKahr, and travelers beyond the city's wall should take care.

This graceful hunting bird with gold and brown feathers had a massive 2.5-meter-wide wingspan and a powerful musculature that allows it to propel itself along the mild wind currents of Vulcan's atmosphere. Although the bird possessed two pairs of sharp golden talons and is carnivorous, its prey consisted of small rodents and reptiles, and it was no treat to the humanoid inhabitants of Vulcan. Indeed, desert dwellers held that it was good luck to encounter a shavokh when traveling through unfamiliar lands, for where it descends to the ground, one will find ground water or a soak not too deeply buried nearby.

Sir-soss'im

There were many who said that the sir-soss'im were the stuff of legend. Yet, in nearly every village, one could encounter tales of poor souls who were devoured by these will-o'-the-wisps that preyed on the unsuspecting and then just as suddenly were gone. The sir-soss'im were described as child-sized balls of loose grasses and brush, not unlike tumbleweeds from the western prairies of North America, which travel in packs and possess a group intelligence. The stories said that fire was the only defense against their assault.

Volcanic Plains

There were two vastly different types of volcanic plains which visitors could encounter on Vulcan - the blasted wastes formed by centuries of past volcanic activity in areas made dormant, like the Cheleb-kor desert and the Womb of Fire; and the shifting plateaus that surrounded still-active volcanoes like Mt. Tarhana or the triple peaks of T'raan, T'riall, and T'regar in Raal, and teemed with strange forms of life that somehow bloomed in the midst of searing heat and intense pressure. The terrain of the former was harsh and foreboding, twisted ridges of gray flint, red rock, and black lava flows interspersed with yellow sulfurous deposits and patches of brilliant green lichen. Few possessed of their sanity inhabited such realms, and even short-term visitors came equipped with appropriate survival gear, and were well advised to stay clear of most of the indigenous plants and animals which have evolved the means to survive there.

The living and constantly changing plains surrounded major active volcanoes, on the other hand, attracted many visitors, ranging from scientists and tourists seeking to observe the marvelous multicolored crystalline formations that grew from the rocks on the Fire Plains of Raal, to expedition and excavation teams seeking to harvest the rich mineral deposits contained within the lava flows between eruptions. Some of the major temples of Vulcan were also located along the more stable outskirts of these plains, as a constant reminder of the powerful primal energies that sects like the followers of Kolinahr sought to master.

Flora and Fauna of the Volcanic Plains

Gal-en-du'un ("dream moss").

This yellowish-green lichen, when consumed (either by ingestion or by burning it and breathing in its fumes), caused strong hallucinations which last several minutes in duration. Dream moss was used in ancient time\s by ecstatic priests to induce revelatory visions. Its effect on Vulcans was much stronger than its effect on humans. Its use was eventually restricted to medicine, as a number of Vulcan analgesic and neurochemical treatments used gal-en-du'un essence.

While already well known for its aggressive nature and poisoned fangs, le-matya that lived in the volcanic plains tended to be larger and even more aggressive toward Vulcans and offworlders they encountered, killing solely so they could drink the blood of their victims. Specimens as large as 90 kilograms had been reported in the vicinity of the Cheleb-khor desert.

These low-lying bright green shrubs produced small olive-green berries which were edible by Vulcans and humans. These berries were protected by thick toxic spines which could tear through normal clothing or robes and inject a painful neural poison which caused cramping and vomiting. The poison then induced a strength-sapping fever which fogged the mind and slowed the reflexes. These spines, if carefully removed intact, were sturdy enough to be used as darts in a blowgun or flechette weapon.

Poisonous lizards that lived under rocks or in small caves and burrows, shatarr were known for striking out at prey or intruders who passed near the entrance to their homes. Specimens could grow as large as two meters, and the larger ones had been known to attack human -sized prey. Shatarr poison was a neurotoxin that quickly attacked the victim's nervous system, causing massive muscle spasms. For the small animals that were its usual prey, death occurs within minutes. If a larger animal or Vulcan was bitten the poison required more time to take effect, but this gave the victim an hour at most to seek treatment.

this small succulent tree, similar in general shape to the Earth ajouga, grew in the cracks between slabs of igneous rock, sending rootlets throughout the subsoil to flower and spread wherever the right conditions of rich volcanic ash and briefly open artesian water tables meet. Some tir-nuk patches extend invisibly under lava flows for tens of kilometers, with only a few patches emerging from narrow ravines far apart. The tir-nuk grew and died rapidly, and its sap contained spores that reseed its root system wherever they touched soil. The wood of the tir-nuk burned with a bright, colorful, irregular flame as sections of spore-sap flared up, exploded, and dropped down. The fumes, like those of dream moss, had a psychotropic impact on Vulcan physiologies.

This small rust-colored burrowing rodent had powerful claws capable of digging through the hardest soils or even volcanic rock. It lived in large family units in vast underground complexes and emerged onto the surface world only at night. The creatures were highly intelligent, and xenobiologists at the Academy began experimenting with domesticating the creatures. The name of the valit was also used to describe a computer program that was used to "burrow" past security interfaces and provided unauthorized access into a system's data core.

Temperate Zones

The temperate zones of Vulcan tended to be concentrated along the coastlines of Vulcan's two great seas, the Voroth and the Thanor, but could also be found in the northern latitudes of Tat'sahr province, the Na'ree River region, and isolated mountain valleys on both major continents. In all, these zones comprised less than ten percent of Vulcan's land mass, but housed almost forty percent of its population. Much of the economic life of Vulcan centered here - the trade ports which once housed great sailing vessels and eventually conducted the operations of Vulcan's mercantile starship fleet, the virtually fully automated microchip and pharmaceutical manufacturing complexes, and the sparse but immaculately tended farmlands where tropical food crops were organically grown.

Water was more plentiful in these areas - typically systems of underground streams, but occasionally rivers or shallow lakebeds filled during the brief rainy season, and dried out over the course of the following year. The water supplies supported more varied vegetation, including palm and nut trees, slender grasses, and even colorful flowers like the y'ranth and the favinit plant. But the temperatures here routinely topped one hundred degrees, and the fragile balance of the ecosystem was now maintained only through the most strictly managed system of irrigation, crop rotation, and recycling.

Temperate Flora and Fauna

A weasel-like animal that ate fruit, carrion, and the occasional small animal, the chkariya has two large forepaws, which it used to climb and dig. Unlike the weasels of Earth, the chkariya was active during the day, often foraging for food. They were one of the favorite animals at nature preserves, as they would take pieces of fruit from a person's hands. One had to be careful in doing so, as any fast movements or loud noises would cause the chkariya to raise its front paws, and each paw had six razor-sharp claws.

This native fruit tasted like a cross between a pineapple and the Rigellian kir - tangy and piquant. The gespar was eaten by splitting its reddish-pink outer coating in two and removing the center seed pod, which was customarily saved for replanting. Since ancient times, the rind of the gespar had been used in the manufacture of soaps and perfume.

The sehlat held an omnivorous ecological niche in Vulcan's mountains and woods . Its six-inch fangs were used almost as much to penetrate thick rinds or uproot stubborn grasses as to bring down small herd animals or other prey. Sehlat were roughly bobcat-shaped, although the largest could stand 1.5 meters tall at the shoulder. Sehlat were pack animals, although they hunted individually. Domesticated very early in Vulcan's history, they had been used as hunting beasts, guard animals, and pets. Wild sehlat could only be found in the farthest northern reaches of Tat'sahr and Kel or in the T'ralor Preserve. Their furry coat, which ranged from gold and reddish-orange to gray or even black, actually insulated them from Vulcan's heat.

The Provinces of Na'nam

The province of Gol was located in the southwest corner of Na'nam, below Raal and Xial.

Vulcan art was intensely formal and traditional. It was not intended to evoke an emotional response, unlike the art of other cultures or even of Vulcan's past. Rather, Vulcan art often projected a calmness conductive to meditative thought. This was especially common in arts such as interior design, landscaping, and gardening and in plastic arts such as painting, keethara block art, and sculpture. Other Vulcan arts actively stimulated thought; into this category fell arts such as poetry, song (instrumental music such as a Vulcan lute sonata often conveys mathematical or geometrical conapts), dance and games.

Vulcans saw the play of a game of strategy as both an intellectual exercise and a performance illustrating an intellectual exercise and a performance illustrating modes of thought. Earth games like chess, go, and ohwaree all had their devotees on Vulcan, but the ancient Vulcan game of kal-toh (a puzzle of balance and concentration) drew spectators from all over the planet for its Master tournaments.

The most radical arts, influenced by Centauran schools, seek to build alternate intellectual constructs, sought to build alternate intellectual constructs. These arts, centering on holography (or much less commonly ska-plak forgery), had gained little acceptance with deeply conservative average Vulcans.

Architecture

Vulcan architecture was as precise and logical as the Vulcan philosophy of life. Vulcans preferred clean, mathematical designs. Their buildings tended to be geometric, both in design and in layout. They built using a variety of stone, such as granite and marble, both found in great quantity on Vulcan. A third stone, unlike any on Earth, was known as bureki stone. It was volcanic in origin and was suitable for building in Vulcan's high temperatures, because it did not conduct heat well. Further, bureki was a more flexible stone than marble or granite and withstood the numerous tectonic shocks which occasionally rippled Vulcan's surface. Thus, many of Vulcan's older buildings have bureki stone foundations.

Because of the hotter climate, Vulcan buildings were generally open and spacious on the inside. Columnar verandas and courtyards surrounded large rooms with light paper or wood screen walls. On Vulcan, wood was considerably rarer than on Earth, so wooden constructions were as light as possible. When stone was used in interiors , it was primarily for support rather than as a primary building material. Wide, open walkways and lush gardens with running fountains and pools of clear water formed the heart of many Vulcan residences and large, netted windows caught cool breezes. Vulcans also tended to build "contemplative" spaces, places conducive to meditation and serenity.

Vulcan rooms were rarely covered with paintings or wall hangings. Instead, Vulcans preferred frescoes and murals painted directly onto the plain surface of the wall, whether or paper or stone. Vulcans enjoyed statuary and carving, from bas-reliefs to icons in niches. Simple tables and high-backed chairs, as well as shifting surfaces, furnished a typical Vulcan room. The floors were often stepped into daises and plateaus in order to separate a larger space into smaller parts.

Vulcan architecture, like Vulcan art, was designed to elicit thought, rather than an emotional response. Vulcan rooms were designed to use mathematical lines and forms to divide what appears to be empty space. Despite what non-Vulcans thought, Vulcans appreciated beauty. They admired art from other cultures, primarily because of the thoughts and insights that it provoked.

"In a strict scientific sense, Doctor, we all feed on death-even vegetarians." -Spock ("Wolf in the Fold", Star Trek)

Those who did not comprehend its nature often called Vulcan food bland. Because their taste buds were more sensitive than those of humans or other races, Vulcans took great care in the preparation of food. Eating was a ritual that required time and precision, as did many Vulcan tasks. The exact nature and amount of spice and the perfect consistency of the food was very important.

Vulcans were strictly vegetarian and refused to eat meat even when traveling to other planets and visiting other cultures. Because they were used to the less spicy flavors of Vulcan food, they often have difficulty digesting the foods of many other cultures. Klingon food, for example, was totally repulsive to a Vulcan.

Because of their high sense of taste, Vulcan food tended to be delicately flavored. The emphasis was on enjoying the subtle flavors of the food and the beauty of its preparation, rather than on spices and harsh tastes. Some Vulcan dishes were adopted by other Federation races and were considered delicacies. Vulcan mocha was a beverage similar to coffee, but with a lighter taste. It was greenish brown in color (which some races found disconcerting) and was made from the berries of the g'teth plant. Vulcan mollusks were another delicacy, best sautéed in Rhombolian butter, although only a very few Vulcans eat mollusks. Plomeek soup, on the other hand, was a Vulcan staple (much like Russian borscht) which came in many regional varieties but rarely appealed to offworlders.

Vulcan port was similar to human brandy in color and consistency, but smelled more like flowers than alcohol. It was created from tree bark and had to be aged for nearly 50 years before it was considered palatable by Vulcans. Over 100 years ago, a bottle of Vulcan port bottled in the time of Surak was discovered in the ruins of an ancient Vulcan city. It rested in the T'sar Museum as one of the planetary treasures.

Another unusual cuisine type which Vulcans perfected were the ob'taree , or fasting meals. These high-vitamin, low-intake foods were designed to supplement a Vulcan's diet of water while he experienced a lengthy ritual fast, for purification or any other reason. Without these supplements, the Vulcan body would quickly wither and die during the most intense fasts. These foods were used by the Federation as required fare for scouting missions, as an individual was capable of surviving for many days on the barest amount of ob'taree , in danger or other extreme circumstances.

A common misconception was that all Vulcans were alike. To the Vulcan race, logic was almost a religion and it was filled with sects and schools of thought, each with widely differing opinions on nearly every subject. Vulcan religion was born in the fires of Vulcan's legendary and violent past, and it transformed over the centuries.

The Twilight of the Gods

The ancient religion of the Vulcans contained a wide pantheon of gods, each with a dual character. Sculptures and portraits of the gods revealed two natures: one wrathful, the other joyful. This duality pervaded ancient Vulcan belief for thousands of years.

At the Time of the Awakening, the focus of Vulcan thought turned away from deities and toward reason. It was a difficult turn, for unlike psionically deaf humanity, Vulcans had already done much research into the katra , the Vulcan soul, had already been developed, and power from it exploited.

Vulcan philosophers and holy men were forced to seek a compromise between reason and faith. They found it in the heart of their own religion. Vulcans stopped looking to the skies and mountains for their gods and started looking within. Traditionalist cults held to the worship of the Vulcan gods, but such Vulcans interact little with the technological utopia of the Federation .

The Inner Chorus

With the help of their elders, Vulcans began to understand their own emotions as manifestations of their gods. They began to call these powers within themselves Ka-ta-pak , or "the Inner Chorus." Each emotion was a manifestation of the gods of old.

Vulcan religion taught that the gods were not simple analogies but living beings, a part of the Vulcan psyche. Each god was also a demon, a trickster spirit seeking to fool the Vulcans into irrational, dangerous emotion. Meditation became a kind of prayer, an exercise in taming the inner demons with the help of their rational counterparts. As time moved on, different schools of thought developed, each with its own meditations and techniques for dealing with the demons of the Inner Chorus.

While the different schools of Vulcan thought depicted the passions the same way, they did not treat them all the same. Each school taught its students different techniques for dealing with the gods that lived within their hearts and minds. Disagreeing schools did not discount out of hand the theories and practices of their rivals, but their discussions were some of the most heated debates in the history of any Federation culture.

Gods of The Inner Chorus

• Tel-alep , the Watcher - He was the personification of curiosity, the desire for knowledge. He was the kindliest of the Chorus. He was often represented as an ancient Vulcan chained to a great book. Within the book was all the knowledge in the world.
• Alep-tel , the Bitter - He was jaded and embittered by all he had seen and was very eager to give advice. The advice he gave was poisoned by centuries of cynicism and futility.
• Kir-alep , the God of Peace and Acceptance.
• Alep-kir , the Sullen. This god drew Vulcan's into apathy and pessimistic cynicism. He was often represented as the enervating heat of the high desert draining energy from the body.
• Valdena , the Goddess of Love, Joy, and Beauty. Her slender and athletic body danced among a veil of clouds, rejoicing in the beauty of the world. In her eyes was the magical glory of discovery.
• Dena-vel - She was the covetous aspect of joy. Like a spider, she trapped the things she loved and hid them away from the rest of the world, so that only she may enjoy their beauty.
• Kal-ap-ton , the personification of grief. Depicted as a tall, gaunt, and pale young man in mourning clothes, he was never shown in public, only in places of mourning. Temples of Kal-ap-ton (where the dead are laid to rest) were the only appropriate places for Vulcan's to cry.
• Tyr-al-tep , the Unforgiver, the Whisperer - He whispered into a brother's ear, "You should have saved him." He whispers into the mother's ear, " You never told him you loved him." He was the one who makes a Vulcan forget about what was and brood only on what might have been.
• Ket-cheleb , the Destroyer and Blood-Drinker. He was the personification of Anger. He killed his joyful aspect long ago and hung him on a great tree in the center of the world. He was the most powerful of the dark voices and the most dangerous. The Vulcan mind was too easily seduced by the cries of Ket-cheleb , and it required a great deal of will power to hold him at bay.

T'plana-Hath and the Birth of Vulcan Logic

"Logic is the cement of our civilization, with which we ascend from chaos, using reason as our guide."

T'Plana-Hath was an ancient Vulcan known as "Matron of Vulcan Philosophy". She was the head of a school of Vulcan historians in ShirKahr during the wars against Sudoc. She was famous for the wide-ranging nature of her school, which examined issues from philosophy to mathematics to agriculture, all refracted through the prism of history. The finest minds and noblest-born youth of Vulcan competed to join her collegium and her reputation spread throughout the world.

She saw the work of history as the separation of rational fact from legend, propaganda, and wishful thinking, of which Vulcan had a great surplus in her era. She once said, "The history of Vulcan logically predates my birth, but I could not attest to it with the evidence at hand."

Eventually, she came to see the development of logic (including mathematics, science , and rhetoric) itself as the supreme triumph of Vulcan civilization. Her History of Logic remained a standard text in Vulcan universities. Her dictum, "Logic is the cement of our civilization, with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide," informed all of her students, especially her two prize pupils, Surak and Jarok. Surak referred to T'plana-Hath as the "Prime Mover."

The School of Surak

"The outcome of our actions is entirely out of our control. Only intent remains entirely within our control." - The Scrolls of Surak

The first major school of Vulcan thought was also the largest. Most Vulcans were part of the Surak sect, which was why so many people believe that Vulcans were devoid of emotion. The School of Surak taught uncompromising repression of emotion. Even the slightest surrender to the voices of the Inner Chorus was considered a great failure.

To tame the voices, Tu-Surak (The Way of Surak) taught its students to divorce themselves completely from their egos or, as the school's namesake referred to them, the pach-te . The pach-te was the strongest of all desires and the root of emotion. To explain pach-te as "selfishness" was simplifying Surak's philosophy. Once the student had freed himself from pach-te , he will cease to be concerned with himself, focusing all his concern on the welfare of others. Surak's teachings had a profound effect on Vulcan philosophy and culture. His famous debates with his rival Jarok were some of the most important works of Vulcan literature.

Surak maintained that discipline could not be enforced upon others, it had to come from within. Peace, for Surak, was the foundation of everything worth achieving, both on a political level and a rational level. He also told his students to cast away the traditional moral training of the native Vulcan religion, which included a set of commandments. Instead of teaching his students what not to do, he decided to teach them what to do. Surak's virtues gave students a path to follow rather than several paths not to follow.

The six virtues of Tu-Surak were:

• Courage (protect others)
• Temperance (exercise the will)
• Charity (give when you have too much)
• Truthfulness (logical observation of what is and not isn't)
• Justice (fair treatment of others)
• Shame (failure is weakness and shameful)

QUOTES FROM THE TEACHINGS OF SURAK

"The spear in the enemy's side is the spear in your own."

"The calm mind is the one that truly knows."

"The only noble desire is the desire to serve others."

"Once you have thrown away your pach-te , you have found the true center, the golden river, the lifeblood of the world."

"Animals have no virtue, and if we are not careful, we shall degenerate into animals once again."

The Way of Jarok

Jarok, Surak's chief rival, was a Vulcan who disagreed with Surak on nearly every philosophical point. The two students of T'plana-Hath agreed on one and only one tenet: that emotions must be mastered at all costs. While Surak chose his own path to mastery, Jarok chose another. Tu'Jarok , Jarok's path, sought mastery over the Inner Chorus by embracing emotion, understanding it, and finally coming to terms with it.

The followers of Jarok are not madmen who run through the streets laughing, crying, and shouting. They retreat to the wastelands of Vulcan and face thdir emotions there, and they face them alone. Jarok's path is an individual one; since no Vulcan could truly hear the Chorus of another, no one else could aid in its understanding or interpretation.

A Vulcan following Tu'Jarok was usually brought into the desert by other, more experienced, followers. All sat together around a great fire in silence as they prepare for the arduous ritual. The fire was usually built from a specific wood called tir-nuk . The smoke from this fire had a profound effect on the senses of the Vulcan, throwing them into a heightened state of consciousness.

After days of meditation and fasting, the student finally encountered a voice from the Chorus. They spent long days talking with the voice, debating for hours at a time until the experience was over. When it ended, the student had either gained insight or he had failed. Unlike the School of Surak, failure was not looked upon as shameful, only a waste of an opportunity that could be attempted again later.

Like Surak, Jarok also compiled a list of virtues. However, his only contained the three which he considered most important, Compassion, Temperance, and Justice.

Jarok defined compassion as "the ability to see suffering selflessly." Jarok's definition of "selfless" should not be confused with Surak's denial of pach-te . Jarok taught that selflessness came from an understanding that suffering was universal, not unique to any individual. When the student realized this - that his own suffering was no different, better, or worse than anyone else's - it was easier to recognize when others were in pain, and that pain became easier to comfort. Compassion was Jarok's answer to his chief reservation with Surak's teachings. He felt they left no room in the Vulcan heart for understanding. Through compassion, the Vulcan heart could help others in pain.

The second virtue, Temperance, was one Jarok and Surak agreed on. Jarok's definition of temperance differed slightly from Surak's in that Jarok sought it through understanding, while Surak sought it through refusal. Both Surak and Jarok saw patience as an important component of temperance.

The last virtue, Justice, was also a virtue the two rivals held in common. Justice, as Jarok saw it, was the ability for a Vulcan to understand that he belonged to a greater organism than just his own body. He was Vulcan, one of millions, and it was his duty to help protect and serve that great body. The expression of Jarok's virtues reflected a deeper meaning in his philosophy. He Sought to bring Vulcans something greater and to serve that greater purpose selflessly and fealessly. At his funeral Surak, his greatest rival, said, "He was a great Vulcan with great ideals. And it is still not too late to tell him."

The School of Nirak

Nirak was one of Surak's first students. He was also a great admirer of Jarok's teachings, and tried to bring compromise to the two seemingly disparate schools. While Nirak did not agree with Jarok's "reveling," he also did not agree with his own master's unforgiving attitude toward failure and intolerance. Nirak taught that the more violent emotions (most notably anger) were to be repressed, but virtue could be found in the less destructive passions, particularly curiosity and joy. He still maintained that a high degree of temperance was necessary to keep eve the most encouraging of emotions in check.

According to Nirak, it was proper for Vulcans to feel joyful, but not ecstatic. Grief must be let go at Kal-ap-ton's gates. It was important that a Vulcan did not drop his guard against fear, rage, and jealousy for even a moment. Nirak's school was not as widespread as his mentor's, but it did have a small following devoted to his philosophies.

The One Mind School

One of the more esoteric schools, the One Mind School was founded by T'mor, another student of Surak. While her mentor sought a way to subdue all emotion, T'mor struggled with a way to remove emotion entirely. She found it in an ancient Vulcan belief, on centered around predestination.

The concept of predestination was not unique to Vulcans. Predestination was the belief that all actions and events were already predetermined and could not be changed. T'mor taught that emotion -specifically curiosity- clouded a Vulcan's sight, making it difficult to see the ways of the universe.

If the student could throw away emotion, he would be able to see the grand pattern of the universe and watch it unfold. "All problems have already been solved," T'mor's once said. "We only lack the vision to see." Despite T'mor's dedication and many thousands of years of development, the One Mind School was considered one of the "fringe schools" of Vulcan thought.

The Kolinahr Path

While other paths sought to repress emotion, Kolinahr attempted to rid the mind and soul of every passion, be it joyful or wrathful. One by one, using the process known as t'san s'at , every emotion is mentally deconstructed and purged from the psyche, leaving only the Vulcan's intellect. The founder of Kolinahr , was a strange hermit who called himself "Sanshiin." His path is called Kolinahr after the mountain he sat on during the 277 years he taught.

Sanshiin never sought students. All the tales of his lessons came from those who sought him. It was said that he was originally a warlord, a mighty adept and leader of the feared Kolinahru mindlords, who bathed himself in the blood every night in a personal quest for immortality. But one day, while sitting in a field of fallen enemies, he looked up at the rock he was leaning against and realized that while millions of men were born, lived and died, the planet remained. "I shall become as the stone," he said, and began seeking the wisdom he would need to attain his immortality.

The stories of his journeys filled nearly fifty books, but the lessons he taught at the top of the Kolinahr mountain are those that are studied by philosophers. Sanshiin taught that all emotion was a trick to keep us from seeing the universe as it truly was. Once emotion was cast away, a Vulcan would be one with all creation.

The Hakihr Way

Decended from a martial order of mindlords, the disciples of Hakihr (centered on the Tinsha Monastery in northern Khomi) took to heart Surak's famous saying: "The mind controls the body' control the mind and the body will follow." They practiced mind-body unification in the hope of preventing hormonal surges or other limbic reactions that might involuntarily trigger emotional responses. Like the T'Shen, Hakihr adepts also taught the use of biofeedback to strengthen the mediofrontal cortex, the area of the brain associated with self-control. The Hakihr were famous for their psionic body control disciplines.

Katra: The Vulcan Soul

While Vulcans had all but completely recast their religious beliefs, a few still remained. Many Vulcans believed all Vulcans have souls, called the katra , while others refuted its existence. Among conservative Vulcans, it was customary to craft a ritual vessel, called the vre-katra , to remind the family of the departed relative. Most often made of volcanic glass, jasif crystal, or polished tir-nuk wood, the vre-katra is then kept at a family shrine. There might be hundreds of these vessels in a Vulcan's home, dating back to antiquity. Some older families had entire houses full of spirit vessels, usually far off in a desert portion of their lands. Vulcans, treated these ancestor spirits with veneration and respect.

Vulcans meditated upon these ritual vessels, seeking guidance in the accomplishments of the deceased. Some Vulcans believed it is possible to transfer the katra to the vre-katra in a ritual similar to the mythological fal-tor-pan . Just prior to death, these traditionalists went so far as to mind-meld with a friend, who becomes responsible for transporting the katra to the individual's home. The katra is then transferred to the vre-katra . More rational Vulcans found no proof for the existence of the katra and considered all this to be illogical superstition, yet in the spirit of IDIC kept their objections to themselves.

An ancient ritual called fal-tor-pan , the "refusion," provided strong proof of the existence of the soul. This ritual was thousands of years old and had only been performed once during the last five centuries, in 2285 by T'Lar on the regrown body of Spock, son of Sarek. Just before death, if a Vulcan was able, he passed his katra on to another while sinking into a biofeedback trance deeper than any coma to heal both the wounds and death itself. Then, when the flesh was repaired (which took a level of mastery that no Vulcan had reached in centuries, and then only in legend), a Master replaced the katra in the newly whole body.

Some Vulcan scientists were skeptical of fal-tor-pan , claiming it was merely a powerful mind-meld allowing the psyche of the dying Vulcan to be preserved, or even that it involved projection of memories and not the restoration of true selfhood at all. Whichever explanation the skeptics use, they maintained that the ritual had nothing to do with the soul. Many Vulcans considered Spock's fal-tor-pan merely a myth associated with a larger-than-life figure, and deemed it no proof at all of the existence of the katra .

The Age of Antiquity

The Vulcan race, like many of the other humanoid races throughout the galaxy, were genetically seeded on their homeworld by an ancient race referred to by Professor Richard Galen, the noted archaeologist, as "the Preservers." This civilization was believed to have sown the DNA and RNA chains that have led to the development of similar humanoid species spread the length and breadth of the universe.

Whether the Preservers were the same as the Sky Spirits or Sargon's race, two other seeders of the galaxy, even Vulcan geneticists and archaeologists could not determine. Such theorist disagreed even on whether Vulcans evolved on Vulcan or adapted to it. Some ancient texts, compiled even more ancient legends, tell of the Vhorani, or Ancient Ones. The Ancient Ones came from Vorta Vor , the Wellspring of Creation, and upon touching the soil of Vulcan the gods transformed them into the Vulcan people to keep them alive in the harsh desert.

Regardless of the origin of the species, archaeology demonstrated that early Vulcans organized along tribal lines in extended clans that banded together for protection from the harsh environment of the desert. Early in the development of Vulcan civilization, these tribes existed in a nomadic environment moving from water source to water source. Eventually, some of the Vulcan tribes established permanent settlements at sites that provided food, water, and shelter. These settlements, along the shorelines of small Vulcan seas or in great rock outcroppings guarding desert oases, gradually became full-fledged towns, and, in time, developed into the early Vulcan city-states.

Here anthropology and archaeology fell silent; the endless wars of the Vulcan past have destroyed many ruins and ancient records; Vulcan history was a morass of contradictory myths and legends of angry gods, wars in the skies, and heroic feats of psionic might. Drawing from these vague elements, anthropologists believed that early Vulcans occasionally displayed moderate amounts of psionic talent - significantly moreso than appeared among a similar cross -section of many other humanoid races. These Vulcans were probably revered among their people, viewed as being favored by the gods with great gifts. Those Vulcans who displayed such mental talents were considered to be great assets to their tribes and were often the focal point of alliances, as well as conflicts. Every tribe wished to add the genetic traits of these psionics to their own gene pool and gradually, over the centuries, this led to the spreading of psionic talent throughout the Vulcan population.

Competition for natural resources was fierce during these early days, with bitter, violent wars fought over solitary desert wells, patches of fertile cropland, or fish-rich harbors. Some theorists even believed that Vulcan's harsh ecosystem represents the few survivors of a planetary war of unimaginable proportions; the endless wars certainly made the already precarious situation worse. The warlords of the city-states also attempted to secure these resources through alliances and arranged marriages, which led to political intrigues which rivaled the excesses of Earth's Renaissance or the entire history of the Klingon Empire. Unfortunately, any specifics of these stories rested on largely unreliable works of epic poetry, boastful songs, and carvings, and extremely tenuous theorizing.

The Time of Awakening

Surak, the Father of Logic. Surak, the Greatest of Vulcans. The man who would enter the first ranks of galactic history was born in ShirKahr to a wealthy, well-placed family. Surak's father, Solek, was a general in the army of the city-state. For his entire career, ShirKahr had been at war with Sudoc's empire, fighting constantly with neither side holding any advantage for very long. Solek had ordered thousands of men into the meat grinder that was the front lines and this constant bloodshed had stained his very soul, turning him colder and colder. Historians believed that father and son were never very close as a result of Solek's cold-hearted distance.

Surak was a child of privilege. The sons and daughters of the wealthy were given the choices that the masses were not. They were spared from the draft that filled the ranks of the army, instead being given the option of volunteer service. Surak spent his days in leisure and study, amassing a group of close friends who experienced life as he did. While the sons and daughters of the people fought and died to protect the city-state from the barbarity of Sudoc's soldiers, Surak and his friends debated the finer points of philosophy, engaged in sports, and generally ate, drank, and made merry.

General Solek was extremely disappointed in the lack of patriotism displayed by Surak and his friends, and his displeasure was the source of many family arguments. Father and son eventually stopped speaking altogether, and Surak spent more and more of his time away from his family.

The turning point in Surak's life came when assassins hired by Sudoc infiltrated the city and, in a single night, murdered several highly ranked generals along with their entire households. Among the victims that night were General Solek and his wife and children - all except Surak, who had been away, taking part in revels that lasted well into the night. The deaths of his family greatly affected Surak, who found himself overcome by rage at the loss. This rage might have consumed him and left him forgotten in the annals of history, if not for one further event: the death of his closest friend, Senet.

Senet had been one of Surak's circle of friends, a son of another of ShirKahr's generals. Upon learning of his family's murder at the hands of Sudoc's assassins, Senet enlisted immediately in the army, as a skirmisher - one of the front-line commandos whose purpose it was to harass enemy operations . Skirmishers often operated behind enemy lines, performing sabotage, assassination, and other special operations . Driven by a burning hatred of Sudoc's forces and blinded by his rage and loss, Senet fiercely attacked the enemy. He was killed soon thereafter in an enemy ambush.

The death of Senet was like an awakening call to Surak's mind. He began to realize the futility of his rage, and by extension the futility of this unending war. He began to write. As he wrote, his theories expanded - Surak began to realize that the sorrows endured by the Vulcan people were all due to excesses of emotion: rage, anguish, hatred.

Surak began to see that when viewed through logic, all things in life grew much clearer. He began to speak of this among his circle of friends. "Logic," he would say, "is a lens. Emotion fogs that lens as surely as breath fogs a glass." One of his circle, Nirak, argued, "Surely emotion is as necessary to life as that fogging breath." He did agree that an excess of emotion was detrimental. Nirak's theories of emotion in moderation eventually led to the development of the Nirak school.

Some of Surak's friends viewed his transformation as merely the unfortunate result of the deaths that surrounded him. They did not wish to hear his admonitions against emotional excesses and couldn't care less about his new logical approach to life. AS he continued his discourses on logic he alienated more and more of his former friends, but a core group of followers began to surround him. Their days were spent in discussions of logic and of abstinence from emotion.

Among this early group were such future philosophical luminaries as Nirak, Jarok, T'Mor, and Vethek. Jarok's famous debates with Surak began at this point, and continued until Jarok finally left Surak to meditate in the desert.

Stories of Surak's circle began to circulate through the markets and streets of ShirKahr. The majority of ShirKahri viewed this group as yet another example of the excesses of the upper class. Surely, only the children of the rich would engage in such bizarre philosophy while others of their age fought and died for their freedom. It was a disgrace, many said. This sentiment only grew when Surak and his followers began to take their message to the street.

The philosphoers began to deliver speeches, attempting to explain the benefits of emotional abstinence and logical pursuits. The followers of Surak found that most audiences were hostile - they were, after all, speaking in a city where literally every citizen had known someone killed in the war, either friends or family members. From the beginning, Surak and his friends had to put their nonviolent philosophy to the test. Hecklers would throw objects at them. - fruit at first, but when the philosophers refused to yield, stones and bottles soon followed. Through it all, Surak urged his followers to not give in to anger and to endure all insults and injuries with dignity and temperance. He hoped that their example would act as a beacon for other like-minded Vulcans.

During this time of persecution and hardship, those who were not as devoted to Surak's cause dropped by the wayside, finding the strictures of such stoicism too hard to emulate. The most serious devotees of logic and emotional restraint were unswerving in their purpose, and eventually they began to find converts among the Vulcans of ShirKahr. After a while, the sight of these stoic speakers began to be a common sight on the streets of ShirKahr. Their message was not yet embraced, but they began to be regarded as a common fact of life in the city.

After a few years of spreading the message of logic and emotional restraint, Surak began to fill his speeches with a message against the never-ending war with Sudoc's forces - a message against all forms of violence. It was during this period that one of Surak's most famous sayings was first heard. During a speech in the main market square of ShirKahr, Surak told the assembled crowd, "The spear in the enemy's side is the spear in your own." The crowd was outraged by the equating of the honored army of ShirKahr with what they regarded as the monstrous barbarians who served Sudoc. They rioted despite Surak's urging of restraint, and in the ensuing violence the mob killed several of Surak's followers, and Surak himself suffered injuries.

This incident made Surak realize that the average Vulcan citizen was not ready to listen to mere words spoken by those whom they saw as members of a privileged class. Still nursing his wounds from the riot, Surak decided that the people would only respond to action. He and his followers would have to lead by example, not just by word alone. Surak and his followers began to slip out of the cities at night, cross enemy lines, and preach peace and logic to the armies of Sudoc.

Some warriors did stop and listen - according to legend the mindlord of the Kolinahru adepts converted upon hearing Surak personally, and pulled his forces out of the war that night - but others ignored them. IN many cases, Sudoc's men killed the disiples of Surak out of hand. Time after time, a mysterious figure would appear in Sudoc's camp and propose peace. Time after time, Sudoc ordered the speaker's execution. Other followers of Surak spread out across the planet, preaching the new way. Vulcan legends spoke of the Four Hundred and Four who died for peace, and many Masters memorized the death speech of each one.

During this period, Surak continued to visit the front and appear throughout the city, delivering his speeches. His message was spread across Vulcan by travelers and soldiers who deserted the war effort. The practice of suppressing emotion seemed to have a positive effect upon the use of mental disciplines, as did the moving of thought patterns into logical lines. (The stories claimed that Nirak was able to restore his body to life with fal-tor-pan after being executed by Sudoc personally.) This obvious beneficial result of Surak's practices furthered the spread of Tu-Surak throughout Vulcan, opening many who would not have listened before to the philosophy behind those practices.

The continuous willingness of Surak's followers to die for peace had a great moral effect not only on the common people of both sides, but on the warriors of both sides, who recognized true bravery when they saw it. Propaganda that condemned Surak's message as the work of effete cowards had little effect on anyone who saw the nobility with which his followers met their fate. Slowly, Tu-Surak spread throughout the armies, leading to desertions on an ever-larger scale.

After years of desertion, the war effort began to suffer. The spread of Surak's message had led to unrest in many of the city-states controlled by Sudoc, which had forced him to divert some of his army to control the population. Warlords rebelled against Sudoc, peeling away the fringes of his empire from far-flung provinces like Tat'shar and Go'an. The armies of ShirKahr were in no position to capitalize upon the new weakness of Sudoc's front-line forces, for their ranks had been thinned by desertion as well. More and more Vulcans were subscribing to the peaceful, logical existence advocated by Surak.

By the time, Sudoc had grown very old and found himself taxed to the limit with the pressures of trying to fight a never-ending war, while struggling to maintain his collapsing empire. In one of history's most welcome synchronicities, Sudoc died of a massive embolism during one of his melding sessions with his inner circle. The psychic shock killed or drove mad many of Sudoc's generals and spies, throwing his armies into chaos. The military leader who had brought almost all of Vulcan under his control was no more. His empire collapsed and the war came to an end.

In the vacuum left by the dissolution of Sudoc's empire, many more Vulcans began to convert to Surak's way of thinking. The movement had taken on a life of its own, with Vulcans spreading the message who had never even met Surak himself. AS tales of doomsday weapons and horrific atrocities trickled out of Sudoc's collapsing empire, Vulcans began to realize how close to the precipice they had collectively come and with the realization of the fate that they had avoided came the presence of mind to follow the dictates of logic.

The movement swept the globe and Surak traveled as an honored teacher, speaking of logic and of abstinence from violence and emotion. A populace grown weary after generations of warfare were an eager audience. Surak found that even in those cities once dominated by Sudoc, the citizens were receptive to his words, although in their case many were motivated by a desire to fill the void left by the omnipresent rule of the warlord.

Rift with the Proto-Romulans

During this spread of logic and pacifism, not all Vulcans felt inclined to put away their past natures so quickly. Led by a core group of Sudoc's cadre, a group of Vulcans still loyal to the martial principles set forth by the dead warlord segregated themselves from others and continued to practice their way of life, in defiance of the new order.

As more and more Vulcans began to embrace this new way of life, the followers of Sudoc found their situation on Vulcan untenable. They argued among themselves for year, until one among them, known as Tellus, proposed his solution. The Children of Ket-cheleb (as they were now calling themselves) would leave the planet of their birth. Using large generation-model ships, they would hurl themselves into the void, where they would search for a new home.

This idea was seen by the newly logical Vulcans as an extremely dangerous, illogical risk, born of desperation and emotional confusion. The risk only encouraged the martial-minded Children of Ket-cheleb, who viewed the disapproval of the Vulcans as proof that this venture encompassed the true spirit of the Vulcan past. This was a challenge worthy of their warrior spirit - so the Children of Ket-cheleb, hundreds of thousands of them, piled into huge starships and left Vulcan forever.

Surak was saddened by the insistence of the Children of Ket-cheleb that they leave their brethren and home. He tried, in vain, to convince Tellus to find some way to peacefully coexist on Vulcan, but in the end he failed. It was that failure which haunted Surak until the end of his life - despite all he had achieved for the people of Vulcan, his inability to keep the disparate halves together was something that he never reconciled. Jarok often criticized Surak for this failure, and many followers of Jarok have prominent parts in the Romulan Reunification Movement.

As for the Children of Ket-cheleb, it was genetically proven that they went on to become the first Romulans. Scientist were unsure of exactly how the future Romulans managed to cross light years to their new homeworlds in slow, impulse-driven starships. Some suggest that perhaps the ships entered a wormhole that has since closed. Others claimed it might have been the work of a powerful entity such as the Q . Still others believed that Sudoc's scientists had secretly developed the warp drive and that Tellus stole a secret prototype, which the Romulans later lost knowledge of in a civil war.

The exodus of the proto-Romulans left Vulcan essentially unified in thought and belief, and Surak's disciple Selok formalized this unity with his Theorems of Governance, which reconciled the traditionalist past of Vulcan custom with the logical imperatives of peace and world government. The Great Houses, flush with the newfound wisdom of Tu-Surak , assented at once to Selok's carefully reasoned proposals. With the Vulcan people unified behind a driven philosophy of pacifism, logic, and emotional suppression, they moved, free of internal conflict, into a period of scientific discovery and enlightenment.

The Golden Age

The romulan war, to the stars, first contact with humanity, the federation, the vulcan council.

The Vulcan government was known simply as the Vulcan Council. It was the smallest planetary government in the Federation , consisting of only seven members: The Minsters of State, Defense, Security , Trade, Thought, Science , and Health.

The Vulcan Council met in the Vulcan Council Chambers. It was located in ShirKahr, the capital of Vulcan. The Chambers, as it was commonly known, housed the Hall of Debates (where the Council met) and the offices of each of the Ministers and their staffs. Although not nearly as large or prepossessing as the governmental buildings on most planets, it was a beautiful example of Vulcan architecture and as symbol to the Vulcan people of the stability of their government and culture.

Elections and Impeachment

Council functions.

The Vulcan Council met whenever necessary - typically on at least a weekly basis, and frequently on a daily basis. Between sessions, each member oversaw the departments and responsibilities assigned to them in as efficient and logical a manner as possible. By and large the Ministries and their component agencies functioned in a semiautonomous fashion; generally, each Minister trusted the others to carry out their duties on their own. The bureaucracies tended to be small, and workers were accustomed to calling on their brethren in other agencies and departments, or from civilian life, if need be. There was little squabbling over jurisdiction or authority.

Political infighting was rare in the Vulcan Council. Each member of the Council acknowledged that the other members were sitting on the Council by right, having been duly elected by the people. It was therefore not an individual Councilor's position to question another Councilor's qualifications., except in cases of gross misconduct or failure to perform the responsibilities of the office. This was not to say that the Council did not debate issues. It often did so vigorously.

Council business was conducted on the basis of majority vote. All Councilors had to vote on any proposal before them; by law, Council members were not allowed to abstain from voting. Each member's vote was equal. There was no "leader" of the Council or member who was designated to speak for all the others.

The Council's primary responsibility was passing laws. However, after 2,000 years most of the laws that Vulcan needed had already been passed. Therefore, The Vulcan government actually spent most of its time collecting, analyzing, and disseminating information. Everything from economic and demographic statistics, to scientific data, to military information was gathered and studied. Based on this information, governmental decisions were made. It was generally acknowledge that the Vulcan Council was more informed about the people it governed than any other government in the Federation .

The Ministry of State

Although the Vulcan Council had no overall leader, it was usually acknowledged that the Minister of State was "first among equals." The Minister of State had the responsibility for overseeing the Vulcan governmental apparatus as a whole, and for representing Vulcan in the galactic community. All Vulcan diplomats, ambassadors, and other such officials answered to the Minister of State; even the Ambassador to the Federation was theoretically responsible too. Additionally, the Minister of State operated the Vulcan School of Diplomacy.

The Ministry of Defense

The ministry of security, the ministry of health, the ministry of thought, the ministry of science, the ministry of trade, vulcan diplomacy, the vulcan isolationist movement, language and names.

Vulcan and Federation Standard was the dominant language spoken by Vulcans.

Vulcans used only given names, though in ritual greetings they added their parent's name (and sometimes more), as in Spock, son of Sarek, son of Solkar. Even Vulcans of extremely ancient and powerful families used no honorifics; aristocracy was illogical, and logically, anyone worth impressing should already know who you were without being reminded of your family's status.

For a comprehensive look at the Vulcan Language visit: http://surak.nu/vulcanlanguage.pdf

Aravik, Delvok, Kovar, Lojal, Muroc, Rekan, Salok, Sakar, Sakkath, Sanshiin, Sarek, Satelk, Satok, Savar, Savel, Sevek, Skon, Solkar, Solok, Sonak, Sopek, Soral, Soval, Spock, Stonn, Surak, Sutok, Sybok, Syrran, Tavin, Tekav, Tolaris, Tolek, Tuvok, Vanik, Velik, Vorik

Female Names

Falor, Metana, Perren, Saavik, Sakonna, Selar, Seleya, Senva, Simora, Sitak, T'Karra, T'Lann, T'Lar, T'Lara, T'Les, T'Mal, T'Paal, T'Pan, T'Para, T'Pau, T'Pel, T'Penna, T'Pera, T'Plana-hath, T'Pol, T'Pring, T'Rel, T'Shanik, T'Vran, Tallera, V'Lar, Valeris

Species Abilitis

Reference works used in creation of this page.

The majority of this information & images has been taken from:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek 2. http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Vulcans 3. http://www.vulcanlanguage.com/ 4. http://www.ditl.org/ 5. http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/history.htm 6. http://www.geocities.com/shirkahr/VulcanTimeline.html 7. http://www.ccdump.org/ 8. http://www.starbase118.net/wiki/index.php/Vulcan_(planet):_The_Provinces_of_Na’nam 9. http://www.geocities.com/shirkahr/ShirKahrCity.html 10. http://www.projectrho.com/vulsun.htm 11. “The Way of Kolinahr” by Last Unicorn Games 12. “Sarek” by A.C Crispin 13. “The IDIC Epidemic” by Jean Lorrah 14. “Spock’s World” by Diane Duane

• ↑ Star Trek Adventures-Core Rulebook
• Pages using DynamicPageList
• Federation Member Worlds

One Star Trek: The Original Series Episode Had The Cast Swimming In Their Sweat

Vasquez Rocks is located in the northern part of Los Angeles County about 25 minutes away from Downtown L.A. via the 14 freeway. It's close enough to the city to be easily accessed by car, but far away enough to look like a remote wilderness. The park's celebrated rock formations look eerie, ancient, and alien from certain angles, making it a popular place for film and TV productions going back to the 1930s.

Trekkies likely recognize Vasquez Rocks as an oft-reused filming location, serving as a variety of alien worlds for various "Star Trek" projects . The park was featured in the "Original Series" episodes "Shore Leave" (December 29, 1966), "Arena" (January 19, 1967), "The Alternative Factor" (March 30, 1967), and "Friday's Child" (December 1, 1967). Later, Vasquez Rocks would serve as Vulcan "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" and "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," released in 1983 and 1984 respectively.

Fans of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" would recognize Vasquez Rocks from the episode "Who Watches the Watchers?" (October 16, 1989), and the park would later be seen playing alien worlds in the "Star Trek: Voyager" episodes "Initiations" (September 4, 1995) and "Gravity" (February 3, 1999). It was in the "Enterprise" episode "Unexpected" (October 12, 2001). "Star Trek" characters wouldn't visit Vasquez Rocks on Earth — that is, the park wouldn't play itself — until the "Star Trek: Picard" episodes "Maps and Legends" and "The End is the Beginning," both from 2020. No natural monument is more closely tied to the franchise.

And what was shooting at Vasquez Rocks like? Horrible. In a 2013 interview with StarTrek.com , actor Michael Dante recalled playing the part of Maab in "Friday's Child," and he only remembered that Vasquez Rocks reached 117 degrees the day of filming.

Michael Dante vs. Vasquez Rocks

"Friday's Child" sees Captain Kirk (William Shatner) traveling to the planet Capella IV to negotiate a mining contract with the violent, but honorable, locals. Kirk has to convince the Capellans to give their ore to the Federation and not to a visiting Klingon (Tige Andrews) who would use it for nefarious purposes. During the negotiations, a civil war breaks out, with Maab (Dante) killing the Capellan leader and usurping the throne. Maab also wants to kill the pregnant queen Eleen (Julie Newmar) , forcing Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) to protect her. The episode features a lot of outdoor fighting, silly regal costumes, and over-the-top acting. Eleen eventually names her child after Kirk and McCoy.

Dante had to wear an outsize blonde wig to play Maab, as well as an uncomfortable-looking headpiece that covered his neck and ears (see above). The regal costumes looked to be made of disused theatre curtains and wool. As itchy as they appear, however, Dante said they were also filled with sweat:

"The weather [stands out]. It was 117 degrees at Vasquez Rocks, where we were filming. The outfits we had, they couldn't breathe. There weren't any openings in the clothing. They were all tight, with boots. I was 180 pounds at that time — and I'm still 180 pounds, which I'm very proud of — but I lost seven pounds in one day. I literally lost muscle. I looked at myself in the mirror when I got home and I said, 'I can't believe what happened.'"

Sweating too much doesn't actually reduce muscle mass, but one can indeed lose several pounds of water a day if they don't rehydrate in a hot climate. Keep the canteen full, kids.

As one can see in the above picture, Dante also had to wear giant furry boots, which are not ideal for desert hiking. What's more, the boots he wore weren't porous or vented, allowing them to catch every drop of Dante's sweat. "It was just so hot. The water was oozing out of us. Every time I'd take a step in my boots, there'd be a swooshing sound, and that was perspiration that went down to my boots," he recalled.

"Friday's Child" was written by longtime "Star Trek" luminary D.C. Fontana, who said that she wanted to write a character like Eleen who didn't want to have children. Such a conceit would have been novel on 1960s TV, and Fontana's script was kept largely intact for filming. Other writers added the Klingon character, but Eleen remained the same. Weirdly, there is a dark moment in "Friday's Child" when Dr. McCoy realizes that he needs to be more forceful and angry with Eleen in order to gain her respect. Her species values aggression, and McCoy was too gentle. To show his strength, he smacks Eleen across the face. It might be the only instance in "Star Trek" of a main character punching a pregnant woman. Perhaps ickily, it worked.

Regardless, Datne said he has rewatched his episode since the 1960s and feels that, dramatically, it holds up pretty well. He was told "Star Trek" was just a Western in space , and he played Maab accordingly. Dante retired from acting in the late 1980s and hosted a syndicated interview radio show from 1995 until 2007. He is still alive and well at 92. 

• View history

The Romulans were a humanoid race from the planet Romulus . The Romulans were biological cousins of Vulcans , descended from those who rejected Surak 's reforms during the Time of Awakening . By the 24th century , the Romulan Star Empire was one of the major powers in the galaxy . After a supernova destroyed the Romulan sun , the Romulan Free State became the official government. Eventually, the Romulans reunified with the Vulcans and settled on the planet Vulcan, which was renamed Ni'Var .

• 1.1 Origins
• 1.2 Relationship with Humans and the Federation
• 1.3 Relationships with other species
• 1.4 Catastrophe and betrayal
• 1.5 Reunification
• 1.6 Mirror universe
• 2 Physiology
• 3.1 See also
• 4.1 Foods and beverages
• 6 Technology
• 7.1 Appearances
• 7.2.1 First television appearances
• 7.2.2 Possibility of Star Trek III inclusion
• 7.2.3 Next Generation reappearances
• 7.2.4 Return to films
• 7.2.5 Further television appearances
• 7.2.6 Depiction in 2009 film
• 7.2.7 Discovery and Picard
• 7.2.8 Reception and trivia
• 7.3 Further reading
• 7.4 Apocrypha
• 7.5 External links

History [ ]

Origins [ ].

Spock once theorized that the Vulcans might be descendants of the Arretans . ( TOS : " Return to Tomorrow ") In 2369 , evidence was discovered that several species including the Romulans, and therefore also the Vulcans , trace back to DNA seeded on many planets by ancient humanoids billions of years ago . ( TNG : " The Chase ")

By the late 24th century , some Romulans believed that the story of Ganmadan predated the arrival of the ancestors of the Romulans and Vulcans on Vulcan. ( PIC : " Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2 ")

When Surak's reforms of embracing logical principles and rejecting emotion spread rapidly across Vulcan in the 4th century , a minority rejected Surak's ideals. They were described as " those who march beneath the Raptor's wings ", a symbol later to be used in the Romulan Star Empire, and eventually departed Vulcan after losing a nuclear war called the Time of Awakening . At some point, they settled on twin planets that became known as Romulus and Remus , thereby laying the foundation of the Romulan Star Empire. ( ENT : " Kir'Shara "; TNG : " Gambit, Part I ", " Gambit, Part II "; Star Trek Nemesis )

Relationship with Humans and the Federation [ ]

Romulans were aware of Humanity for some time before Earth knew of them. Infiltrating the highest levels of the Vulcan High Command , the Romulans were impressed and seemingly confused by Humans. Enterprise NX-01 inadvertently encountered a Romulan minefield at one point, officially the first time Humanity became aware of the Romulans. Even after fighting the Earth-Romulan War , it wasn't until the 23rd century that Humans actually made visual contact with Romulans. ( ENT : " Minefield "; TOS : " Balance of Terror ")

After the Treaty of Algeron went into effect, the Romulans retreated into political and social isolation from the Federation. In late 2364 , an unprovoked attack on a Romulan outpost near the Federation Neutral Zone occurred. The Romulans initially suspected the Federation had executed the attack but it was later learned that the Borg may have been responsible. This event marked the end of Romulan political isolationism with the Federation. ( TNG : " The Neutral Zone ")

Relationships with other species [ ]

In keeping with their xenophobic attitudes, the Romulans tend to conquer species rather than form alliances with them, and individual Romulans tend to treat other species with varying degrees of disdain.

That did not prevent them from employing diplomacy when it suited their purposes. Soon after their emergence from a century of isolation in the mid 2260s , they had established at least two embassies with the Federation. One such embassy was a three-way endeavor on the planet Nimbus III , along with the Klingon Empire , and the other was on Earth itself. ( Star Trek V: The Final Frontier ; Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country )

The Romulans allied with the Federation and the Klingons against the Dominion

Klingons and Romulans once shared an alliance for a number of years, beginning in the 2260s . But over the years, a number of unfortunate incidents, including the Khitomer Massacre , led the Klingons to develop a deep-seated hatred for the Romulans, and the Romulans were arguably the species that Klingon society in general despised most of all. ( TOS : " The Enterprise Incident "; TNG : " The Neutral Zone ")

A Cardassian embassy existed on Romulus for a time, and Elim Garak was "employed" there as a " gardener ," suggesting that the two species maintained an active diplomatic relationship. ( DS9 : " Broken Link ") In 2371 , Romulan and Cardassian agents in the Tal Shiar and the Obsidian Order cooperated in an attempted attack on the Dominion . ( DS9 : " Improbable Cause ", " The Die is Cast ") The Romulans had cut ties with the Cardassians by the time they entered into the Dominion War , but precisely when their relationship ended prior to this was unclear.

One common saying among the Romulans was, " Never turn your back on a Breen . " While this statement could be taken as partially humorous and not in itself indicative of hostilities between the two species, the Breen Thot 's apparent condition that the Breen be given Romulus in exchange for their help in the Dominion War suggested there was some degree of unfriendly history between the two. ( DS9 : " By Inferno's Light ", " Strange Bedfellows ")

The species that Romulans seem to dislike most, however, were Vulcans, and this feud goes back many centuries. The two powers once fought in a war that lasted a hundred years which was ignited due to a misunderstanding created by one of Q 's self-destructive stunts . ( VOY : " Death Wish ")

The two species remained distrustful of one another for an incredibly long time, but some Romulans grew tired of this, and a grassroots movement for reunification of the two species was active for a time on Romulus. It was generally assumed that after the split, Romulans and Vulcans were unaware of their common ancestry until the 23rd century . ( ENT : " Kir'Shara "; TOS : " Balance of Terror ")

Catastrophe and betrayal [ ]

The destruction of Romulus

In 2387 , the Romulan sun went supernova . Ambassador Spock attempted to prevent the supernova from striking the planet using red matter , but he was unsuccessful and Romulus was destroyed. A mining vessel , the Narada , survived and was captained by Nero , who exploited the black hole 's creation of a time warp into the past to attack Spock's home planet of Vulcan in revenge and planned to destroy all planets of the Federation so that Romulus could be "free" and possibly conquer everywhere else. The first part of Nero's plan was mostly successful as Vulcan and most of the Vulcan species was destroyed. However, the Narada and its crew were destroyed in the Battle of Earth by the crew of the Enterprise led by the James T. Kirk of the alternate reality . ( Star Trek )

Just prior to the destruction of Romulus, the Romulans reached out to the Federation, which accepted their request for help. Admiral Jean-Luc Picard would lead a fleet of rescue ships to Romulus in an attempt to evacuate as many Romulans as possible but the rescue ships were attacked and destroyed by, what appeared to be at the time , a group of malfunctioning, rogue synthetic life forms during their attack on Mars . This action led Starfleet to withdraw the rescue mission, thus betraying the Romulans in their hour of need. Not wanting to be a spectator in what he viewed as a dereliction of duty and criminal action by Starfleet, Picard gave Starfleet a choice of either accepting his revised plan for the mission, or his resignation, in which Starfleet Command chose the latter. In disgust, he retreated to his vineyard on Earth . ( PIC : " Remembrance ", " The End is the Beginning ")

After the destruction of Romulus, some of the surviving Romulans were politically organized as the Romulan Free State . ( PIC : " Maps and Legends ")

Reunification [ ]

Centuries after Spock's death, the Romulans reunified with the Vulcans and returned to their former home of Vulcan, which was renamed Ni'Var . In the early days, the Qowat Milat were crucial in establishing trust between the two peoples, though their reconciliation remained difficult. After the Burn in the 31st century , the Romulans advocated for remaining in the Federation, though they were overruled. ( DIS : " Unification III ")

Mirror universe [ ]

In the mirror universe , the Romulans appeared to be uninvolved in the conflict between the Terran Rebellion and the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance .

Benjamin Sisko , posing as his mirror universe counterpart , indicated to Jennifer Sisko that he was going to visit the Romulans to see if he could get their support. This was, in reality, a ruse to explain his return to Deep Space 9 . ( DS9 : " Through the Looking Glass ")

Physiology [ ]

Romulans in 2266

Due to their shared ancestry, Vulcans and Romulans possessed very similar physiology . ( DS9 : " Image in the Sand ") In addition, much like being an offshoot from their Vulcan cousins themselves, a race known as the Debrune were an ancient offshoot of the Romulans. ( TNG : " Unification I ", " Gambit, Part I ")

Romulans had pointed ears , eyebrows that were arched and up-swept, varied skin color, and copper -based blood that appeared green when oxygenated in the arteries, or copper or rust-colored when deoxygenated in the veins. ( Star Trek Generations ; PIC : " Absolute Candor ")

Some Romulans had two brow ridges above the bridge of their nose, forming a V-shape on the forehead, while other Romulans lacked these ridges, making them outwardly indistinguishable from Vulcans. Ridges were a trait associated with Northerners . ( PIC : " The End is the Beginning ")

The Romulan heart was gray in color. According to Garak, this fact was " altogether appropriate for such an unimaginative race. " ( DS9 : " Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges ")

Despite their common ancestry, there were also many subtle internal physiological differences between Vulcans and Romulans. Their life signs registered distinctly enough on the scanners of the USS Enterprise in 2268 that officer Pavel Chekov was able to distinguish his crewmate Spock from the crew complement of a Romulan starship, though he did note the difficulty of the task. ( TOS : " The Enterprise Incident ")

The physical differences between Romulans and Vulcans were evidenced in Dr. Beverly Crusher 's failed attempt to treat a Romulan, Patahk , who had suffered advanced synaptic breakdown, with the methods used to treat Vulcans. Describing that, between the two, there were " subtle differences… too many of them. " In fact, it was later determined that the genetic similarities between Romulans and Klingons allowed for the two species to have a compatible ribosome match to effect treatment. ( TNG : " The Enemy ")

The Terothka virus was a disease unique to Romulan physiology. Romulans were also susceptible to Tuvan Syndrome . ( VOY : " Message in a Bottle "; DS9 : " Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges ")

Romulans were known to be inter-fertile with Humans , Klingons , and Vulcans . ( TNG : " The Drumhead ", " Redemption II ", " Birthright, Part II "; PIC : " Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1 ", et al.)

Romulans lacked the rigorous mental disciplines developed by the followers of Surak. ( TOS : " The Enterprise Incident ")

Society [ ]

In Romulan society, military/political rank influences social standing. Because Romulans were members of a militaristic civilization, who considered defending the Romulan Empire and their own personal honor of foremost importance, military service and its accompanying rank were decisive factors in determining social eminence. ( TOS : " Balance of Terror ") However, while the military played an important role in Romulan society, it was the Romulan Senate that controlled the government. ( Star Trek Nemesis )

Human clone Shinzon, who briefly became Praetor in 2379 after a coup d'etat , on his throne

At one point in history, Romulus was a sovereign nation ruled by an Empress , as indicated by Q . ( VOY : " The Q and the Grey ") By the 23rd century, the highest position of power was held by the Praetor , who presided over the Romulan Senate . ( TOS : " Balance of Terror "; Star Trek Nemesis ) The Praetor headed the Continuing Committee , which was composed of the Empire's most elite individuals, who made decisions of the utmost importance. ( DS9 : " Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges ")

By the 24th century , the government of Romulus was dependent upon the Tal Shiar , the Romulan secret police, to maintain order and stability among both civilians and the military. The Tal Shiar was known for its brutal tactics, which included routine kidnapping, torture, and assassination. Many Romulans feared even expressing dissenting opinions in order to not bring the attention of the Tal Shiar. There were also indications that tension existed between the military and the Tal Shiar. ( TNG : " Face Of The Enemy ")

Ayel, a Romulan miner

Romulan society was based upon a highly structured caste system. Unlike most of the highly evolved species in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants , Romulans still practiced slavery , in this case of the Remans , which they used for slave labor and as shock troops. ( Star Trek Nemesis )

Romulans tended to be highly xenophobic , engaging in extended periods of isolationism , and could be perceived as outright racist to other species, believing themselves to be superior. At least some Romulans believed that, one day, the Romulan Empire would rule the entire galaxy and that Humans would be extinct. ( TNG : " The Neutral Zone ", " Data's Day ", " The Enemy ") According to Miles O'Brien , there was no piece of technology in existence that the Romulans didn't claim they invented before everyone else. ( DS9 : " Explorers ") According to Worf , Romulans tried to claim as territory all that was in their field of vision. ( TNG : " Tin Man ")

Both males and females could command warships, obtain high political positions, and could be members of the Tal Shiar. ( TOS : " The Enterprise Incident "; TNG : " Contagion ", " Face Of The Enemy "; DS9 : " Image in the Sand ")

See also [ ]

• Romulan language

Culture [ ]

A street in the Krocton Segment on Romulus

The Romulans lacked the rigorous mental disciplines developed by the followers of Surak. Like the Vulcans, the Romulans gave up unrestrained violence as a way of life. However, in the case of the Romulans, this was replaced with a controlled deviousness: as a species, the Romulans were generally thought of as duplicitous, a reputation reinforced by the actions of their government over time. ( TNG : " The Neutral Zone ")

The Romulans saw and valued themselves as a passionate people. They dealt with loss differently from Humans: they loved deeply, and if it ended they honored that love by loving again, more deeply still. ( TNG : " Unification I "; PIC : " The Star Gazer ")

During the 23rd century , Romulans practiced the death penalty on criminals by means both painful and unpleasant. Prior to the presenting of the charges, the Romulans allowed the accused a Right of Statement . ( TOS : " The Enterprise Incident ")

Reluctance to rely on overt hostility generally led the Romulans to play a waiting game with their opponents, attempting to manipulate an adversary into breaking – or appearing to break – an agreement so as to give them a solid justification for striking. ( TNG : " The Defector ", " The Pegasus ")

They were also well-known for fearing disgrace over death. ( TAS : " The Practical Joker ") With this frame of mind, Romulan parents disposed of any newborn carrying birth defects, as the alternative would mean a waste of resources. ( TNG : " The Enemy ")

Romulan custom was to promise males and females to each other from birth. ( PIC : " The Star Gazer ")

The totalitarian nature of Romulan society, in which dissent was often a crime and Romulan security officers masqueraded as citizens, led many Romulans to be extremely paranoid. ( TNG : " Unification I ")

Romulans had three names : one for outsiders, one for family , and a true name for the one they gave their hearts to. ( PIC : " The Impossible Box ")

Traditional Romulan homes had a false front door and their true entrance was located in the back. ( PIC : " The End is the Beginning ")

A common Romulan saying was " jolan tru ", which was used for both "hello" and "goodbye". ( ENT : " United "; TNG : " Unification I ", " Unification II "; PIC : " Absolute Candor ")

Another saying was: " Sab khut hafeth, frazhannempal was qailefeth " ("Seize today, for we know nothing of tomorrow"). ( PIC : " The Star Gazer ")

The path of Zhal Makh meditation is outlined on the floor

The Zhal Makh was a traditional form of meditation practiced by the Romulans and considered taboo to non-Romulans. ( PIC : " The Impossible Box ")

In the 24th century, a dissident movement began to gain momentum, based on the desire to learn about Vulcan and their ideals. The movement's ultimate goal was the reunification of Romulus and Vulcan . Ambassador Spock was deeply involved in this movement. ( TNG : " Unification I ", " Face Of The Enemy ")

Miles O'Brien once played a game of tongo with a Romulan mercenary ( DS9 : " Change of Heart "). In cases of anonymity, they were known for commonly using hired assassins , such as the Flaxians , to conduct their off-world "justice" ( DS9 : " Improbable Cause ").

The deviousness, xenophobia, and practiced duplicity were notably rejected by the Qowat Milat , an order of warrior nuns that were ideologically (and sometimes martially) opposed to the Tal Shiar and the Zhat Vash . They instead practiced the Way of Absolute Candor , i.e. the total communication of emotion without filter between thought and word. They were also open to non-Romulan women being inducted into their ranks. ( PIC : " Absolute Candor "; DIS : " Unification III ")

Foods and beverages [ ]

• Jumbo Romulan mollusk
• Romulan ale
• Romulan whiskey
• List of named Romulans
• List of unnamed Romulans

Technology [ ]

• See main article: Romulan technology

Appendices [ ]

Appearances [ ].

• " Minefield " (voice only) (Season 2)
• " Kir'Shara " (Season 4)
• " Babel One "
• " The Aenar "
• " Balance of Terror " (Season 1)
• " The Deadly Years " (mentioned only) (Season 2)
• " The Enterprise Incident " (Season 3)
• " The Survivor " (Season 1)
• " The Time Trap "
• " The Practical Joker " (Season 2)
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
• " The Neutral Zone " (Season 1)
• " Contagion " (Season 2)
• " The Enemy " (Season 3)
• " The Defector "
• " Tin Man "
• " Future Imperfect " ( hologram only) (Season 4)
• " Data's Day "
• " The Drumhead "
• " The Mind's Eye "
• " Redemption "
• " Redemption II " (Season 5)
• " Unification I "
• " Unification II "
• " The Next Phase "
• " Face Of The Enemy " (Season 6)
• " Birthright, Part I "
• " Birthright, Part II "
• " The Chase "
• " Timescape "
• " The Pegasus " (Season 7)
• " All Good Things... "
• Star Trek Generations (corpse only)
• Star Trek Nemesis
• " The Search, Part I " (Season 3)
• " The Search, Part II "
• " Visionary "
• " Improbable Cause "
• " The Die is Cast "
• " Homefront " (Season 4)
• " In Purgatory's Shadow " (Season 5)
• " By Inferno's Light "
• " In the Pale Moonlight " (Season 6)
• " Tears of the Prophets "
• " Image in the Sand " (Season 7)
• " Shadows and Symbols "
• " Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges "
• " When It Rains... "
• " The Dogs of War "
• " What You Leave Behind "
• " Eye of the Needle " (Season 1)
• " Unity " (Season 3)
• " Message in a Bottle " (Season 4)
• " Infinite Regress " (flashback nightmare ) (Season 5)
• " Flesh and Blood " (hologram only) (Season 7)
• " Q2 " (hologram only)
• " Remembrance " (Season 1)
• " Maps and Legends "
• " The End is the Beginning "
• " Absolute Candor "
• " Stardust City Rag "
• " The Impossible Box "
• " Nepenthe "
• " Broken Pieces "
• " Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1 "
• " Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2 "
• " The Star Gazer " (Season 2)
• " Penance "
• " Assimilation "
• " Watcher "
• " Fly Me to the Moon "
• " Two of One "
• " Monsters "
• " Hide and Seek "
• " Farewell "
• " The Next Generation " (Season 3)
• " Imposters " (photo only)
• " Veritas " (Season 1)
• " Crisis Point 2: Paradoxus " (hologram only) (Season 3)
• " I Have No Bones Yet I Must Flee " (Season 4)
• " Empathological Fallacies "
• " The Inner Fight "
• " Old Friends, New Planets "
• " Unification III " (Season 3)
• " All Is Possible " (Season 4)
• " The Galactic Barrier "
• " A Quality of Mercy " (Season 1)
• " Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow " (Season 2)
• " Crossroads " (Season 1)
• " Masquerade "

Background information [ ]

First television appearances [ ].

The Romulans were conceived by freelance writer Paul Schneider and introduced in the TOS Season 1 episode " Balance of Terror ". Despite Schneider alone being given on-screen credit for the writing of that particular episode, citation for the creator of the Romulans became somewhat muddied as the years went by. In an article from Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 11 (p. 20), Star Trek: The Original Series writing staffer John D.F. Black wrote, " It's been stated so often that the Romulans were created by producer Gene Coon that I find it difficult to keep from walking lockstep with the legend, nodding along with it, in spite of my having been there while the Romulans emerged from the imagination of Paul Schneider. " Another person who was there at the time was D.C. Fontana , who was present when Schneider pitched the episode to Gene Roddenberry . Regarding Schneider's work on the Romulans, Fontana later said, " He defined it; he very much laid out who the Romulans were. Paul doesn't get enough credit for it. " (" Balance of Terror " Starfleet Access , TOS Season 1 Blu-ray ) (Note that Gene Coon was not yet a member of the Star Trek creative staff when "Balance of Terror" was written and produced. Coon joined Norway Corporation (Roddenberry's production company) roughly a month later, starting with " Miri ".)

Paul Schneider modeled the Romulans on the ancient Romans , naming the species' homeworlds after the mythical founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus . " It was a matter of developing a good Romanesque set of admirable antagonists that were worthy of Kirk , " Schneider related. " I came up with the concept of the Romulans which was an extension of the Roman civilization to the point of space travel, and it turned out quite well. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 34) D.C. Fontana reckoned that Schneider basing the aliens on the pre-existing Roman civilization was the cause for the writer receiving insufficient credit for creating the Romulans. (" Balance of Terror " Starfleet Access , TOS Season 1 Blu-ray ) Gene Roddenberry, interested in ancient Rome himself, approved of the initial depiction of the Romulan species. " He loved Paul's having endowed the enemy-Romulans with the militaristic character of the ancient Romans, " wrote John D.F. Black and Mary Black . ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 11 , p. 19) Roddenberry's original concept of the Romulans, however, was that they represented 1960s' Chinese Communists. ( Star Trek Nemesis hardback ed., p. xx)

The script for "Balance of Terror" originally implied, by describing the Romulan Bird-of-Prey as an Enterprise saucer section attached to a pair of warp nacelles, that the Romulans had somehow stolen starship components from the Federation. (" Balance of Terror " Starfleet Access , TOS Season 1 Blu-ray ) When first introduced in the revised final draft script of "Balance of Terror", the Romulans were described " with ears pointed as Spock's ears are pointed… much like Spock, the Romulans. " A description of them from further in the script stated, " They are Spock-like men, dressed in military tunics with strange emblems. Like Spock, their almond-colored faces are coldly impassive. " The next paragraph in the teleplay referred to "the striking resemblance they have in common with Mister Spock – Vulcanite ears!"

In common with Gene Roddenberry, the Blacks and D.C. Fontana also appreciated Paul Schneider's invention of the Romulans, the Blacks describing them as, " Villains strong enough and clever enough that the audience would be compelled to believe they were capable of the first move that would lead to the destruction of the Federation. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 11 , p. 20) Fontana enthused, " They were a wonderful, wonderful enemy […] to have, because we could talk about them, people had seen them once, and we didn't know a lot about them. They were wonderfully mysterious. They've always been my favorites, actually – right up there, next to the Vulcans […] Paul did a very good job of, you know, creating this race, ultimately, in the script. " Fontana also cited the Romulans' exoticism, their pointed ears and relation to Vulcans as one element of why she liked the Romulans. (" Balance of Terror " Starfleet Access , TOS Season 1 Blu-ray )

Lots of experience with Vulcan ear and eyebrow prosthetics, as worn by Leonard Nimoy in the role of Spock, stood makeup artist Fred Phillips in good stead for dealing with the Romulans in Star Trek: The Original Series . ( Star Trek: The Original Series Sketchbook , p. 185) However, the makeup was too impractical for the Romulans to be brought back on a regular basis, with the pointed ears especially bringing about several problems. The cost of manufacturing the ears, which were made from latex, was too enormous for multiple actors in any episode and the manpower required to create the ears and apply them for each individual actor would have gone over the budget. The need for costly actor-specific ears was negated via reusable helmets that were worn by the background Romulans. ( Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts , pp. 41 & 42) " It took a long time for the ears to be put on […] And you have a large number of extras coming in, that have to have these ears put on. It's very expensive, it's time, " commented Denise Okuda . " And so they came up with this ingenious idea of putting helmets on, so you could hide the fact that these actors did not have pointed ears on. " (" Balance of Terror " Starfleet Access , TOS Season 1 Blu-ray ) The Romulan ears were manufactured by Wah Chang , as were the group's helmets. For both, he charged Desilu Productions US$748.80. (This would be more than US$7,000 in 2020s money.) Chang invoiced Desilu for this payment on 26 July 1966 and the price was paid in the following month (on either 10 or 13 August ). ( Star Trek: The Original Series Sketchbook , pp. 240-241)

Following their introduction in the first season, the Romulans indirectly appeared in the second season installment " The Deadly Years ", via recycled footage of the Romulan Bird-of-Prey , and were temporarily planned to appear themselves in the story that became Season 2's " A Piece of the Action ". As such, they were written into the first draft script for the latter of those two episodes, then entitled "Mission Into Chaos". [1]

The Romulans finally made a physical reappearance in the third season outing " The Enterprise Incident ", which had the working title "The Romulan Incident". titles.htm The same episode was an allegorical story that politically based the Romulans on North Koreans. ( Star Trek: The Original Series 365 , p. 277) Applying a pair of the Romulan ear prosthetics during production on "The Enterprise Incident" typically took forty-five minutes. Having portrayed one of the Romulans in that particular episode, Tal actor Jack Donner pronounced, " The Romulans are a great race of people. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 137 , p. 53)

Possibility of Star Trek III inclusion [ ]

The Romulans were originally meant to be the villains in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock . In an early story outline that Harve Bennett wrote for the third film, the Romulans discovered that the Genesis Planet had extraordinarily rich dilithium deposits and found Spock's coffin on the planet's surface. Even though they initiated a mining operation, the Romulans encountered trouble with this upon discovering that someone was killing members of the mining team, a mysterious individual who was later discovered to be a regenerated Spock. The story also brought the Romulans in conflict with the Enterprise and its senior officers. Though Kirk realized that the Romulans would become unstoppable if they succeeded with their mining mission, the Romulans were ultimately thwarted by the Starfleet officers, who – having caused the Enterprise to self-destruct to prevent a Romulan boarding party from seizing it – proceeded to capture the Romulan ship for themselves. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 3, Issue 8 , pp. 29-30)

As Harve Bennett subsequently discussed the story with Leonard Nimoy , the Romulans were at the forefront of their thinking. " Our first conversations were about the Romulans versus the Klingons, " Bennett later explained. " I was just looking for a heavy, and in the series – to me – the Romulans seemed to be more dastardly than the Klingons. So it was an error of ignorance. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 3, Issue 8 , p. 30) Bennett went on to say, " I could have chosen the Romulans, but from my experience seeing all the episodes, I'd never gotten that sense of determination and absolutism that the Klingon episodes have revealed. " ( audio commentary , Star Trek III: The Search for Spock  (Special Edition) DVD / Blu-ray ) Moreover, Nimoy persuaded Bennett that the Romulans were less theatrical than the Klingons, so the name of the species that would serve as the movie's villain was switched. The Klingon Bird-of-Prey was intended to have been stolen from the Romulans, but this information was left out of the film. ( The Art of Star Trek , pp. 215, 217 & 219)

Next Generation reappearances [ ]

In the first edition of the Star Trek: The Next Generation Writer'/Directors' Guide , Gene Roddenberry declared that no stories concerning warfare with Romulans would be accepted for the new series. ( The Art of Star Trek , p. 92) However, when Roddenberry was attempting to decide upon a new antagonist for regular use on Star Trek: The Next Generation (while considering that the Klingons would no longer appear as recurring villains), writer D.C. Fontana thought of the Romulans. Fontana later recalled, " I sent him a memo, suggesting 'How about the Romulans?' After all, they hadn't been developed all that much in The Original Series , and they were a glamorous, attractive enemy. " ( Star Trek - Where No One Has Gone Before paperback ed., p. 110) Secure in the knowledge that the TNG viewers had accepted the series as a new version of Star Trek rather than a retread, Roddenberry felt confident enough to bring back the Romulans at the end of the show's first season . ( Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Continuing Mission , p. 66) Roddenberry allowed the Romulans to occasionally feature on the new series from then on, but preferred not to use them as the series' primary villains. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation 365 , p. 036)

The return of the Romulans in the first season TNG episode " The Neutral Zone " was originally discussed as the first of a multi-part story that would have united them with the Federation against the newly discovered Borg . ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion  (3rd ed., p. 60)) Writing staffer Maurice Hurley , who wrote "The Neutral Zone" and devised the multi-episode arc, intended for the Romulans to engage in a major battle against a Borg scout ship in the second of the three episodes, planned for the show's second season . The conflict would have culminated in the Romulans destroying the Borg vessel but being completely annihilated themselves. The extermination of the Romulan people would have left a mystery for Picard as to how they had managed to defeat the Borg ship before it had wiped them all out. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 23 , pp. 15-16) A Writers Guild strike nixed this plan and the introduction of the Borg had to wait. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion  (3rd ed., p. 60)) Nonetheless, the reappearance of the Romulans in "The Neutral Zone" proved the species had lost none of its appeal. ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 12 , p. 21)

Marc Alaimo in Romulan makeup and costuming

Patrick Stewart in Romulan makeup

Marina Sirtis in Romulan makeup and costuming

For their appearances on Star Trek: The Next Generation , makeup artist Michael Westmore gave the Romulans V-shaped forehead ridges to "compete" with the Klingon redesign introduced in Star Trek: The Motion Picture . ( The Art of Star Trek , p. 92) The Romulan ridges also developed from efforts to make them look more menacing than how they had appeared before and physically differentiate them from Vulcans. " From the very first moment they appeared on-screen, " Westmore commented, " the viewer had to take them seriously, rather than seeing them as stereotyped villains with pointed ears […] I devised a forehead that had a dip in the center, and then I hollowed out the temple area. We wanted to stay close to their natural forehead, not making them look Neanderthal, but giving them a built-in sullen expression they couldn't get away from. " ( Star Trek: The Next Generation 365 , p. 068)

It was found that this facial feature complemented a change to the typical Romulan hairstyle that Michael Westmore wanted to introduce. He said of the restyled Romulans, " I gave them a little wedge to the center of the hair on their forehead instead of the Vulcans' straight-across bang. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 12 , p. 26)

Although the Romulan genealogical tie to Vulcans was unspecified by TNG's writers when the Romulans were brought back – with "Balance of Terror" having introduced the species merely as a likely Vulcan offshoot – the opinion of the show's writers regarding the nature of this relationship had changed by the series' fifth season , as had personnel in the TNG writers' room. Writer Ronald D. Moore , who joined the show in its third season , expressed, " I hated the foreheads on the Romulans. The backstory [established in ' Unification '] was that they were basically the same race, yet somehow the Romulans got these different foreheads at some point. " ( Star Trek: The Next Generation 365 , p. 068) However, the redesigned Romulan makeup remained for subsequent Star Trek productions, not only those set in the 24th century but also for when Romulans were featured on Star Trek: Enterprise . The makeup was so extensive that it required the actor's head to be measured during pre-production (at least, it did in the case of Vaughn Armstrong , when preparing to play Telek R'Mor in VOY : " Eye of the Needle "). [2]

Initially, the alternate timeline in " Yesterday's Enterprise " incorporated a Romulan alliance with the Vulcans. Together, they destroyed the Klingons and almost wiped out the Federation. ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 24 , p. 28)

In " Tin Man ", the Romulans were at first deliberately written about somewhat sympathetically by the episode's writers, Dennis Putman Bailey and David Bischoff . " We knew it wasn't allowed to use the Romulans as the 'bad guys,' so we found different way to use them, " explained Bailey. " We presented their point of view very clearly and why they felt threatened by the Federation. Interestingly enough, the dialogue about that was cut from the final cut and I think they decided it was okay to use the Romulans as bad guys without justifying it. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 102 , p. 16)

Naren Shankar , who wrote the teleplay for " Face Of The Enemy ", thoroughly approved of how the Romulans are shown in that installment, saying, " The Romulans are not demonised […] which I think is very important. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 17 , p. 22)

Return to films [ ]

For Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , Romulan makeup was designed and fabricated by Richard Snell , though applied by Makeup Supervisor Michael J. Mills . Even though the Romulan facial features on TNG had significantly evolved from those on The Original Series , the Romulans were returned to their earlier form for Star Trek VI . " Basically, this time they had larger, bushier eyebrows and bigger ears, " noted Mills. " We stayed away from the forehead pieces and the radically different ears the new TV series has featured and just went with the original look. " ( Cinefex , no. 49, pp. 42 & 45)

Romulans were one alien race which, prior to the advent of Star Trek: Voyager , had become extremely familiar elements of the Star Trek universe. Deliberately, much less attention was paid to them in Voyager . ( Star Trek: Voyager - A Vision of the Future , pp. 155 & 162)

Romulans were initially intended to show up in a battle sequence near the start of Star Trek Generations . In this conflict, a group of Romulans would have attacked a couple of ensigns aboard the Amargosa observatory but then been ambushed themselves by an away team from the USS Enterprise -D , particularly Worf. Following comments from Jeri Taylor , this was changed to become a scene aboard a holographic simulation of the brig USS Enterprise , with only the aftermath of the battle being shown. ( The Making of the Trek Films , UK ed., p. 150)

The Romulans were originally to have filled the conspiratorial role that the Son'a play in Star Trek: Insurrection . According to writer Michael Piller in his unpublished reference book Fade In: From Idea to Final Draft , the idea of using the Romulans as major villains in the film was inspired by the fact that the species had been a long-standing enemy of the Federation but had never been featured in a Star Trek movie before. Additionally, Piller and Rick Berman imagined that the story might be set against the threat of a new outbreak of hostilities between the two governments. The Romulans went on to be written into the first version of the film's story. ( AOL chat , 1998 )

As told in Fade In: From Idea to Final Draft , Patrick Stewart criticized even the thought of using the Romulans in Insurrection , believing that they wouldn't make a suitable rival for the follow-up to Star Trek: First Contact . On 1 June 1997 , he wrote a letter to Rick Berman in which Stewart stated, " I think what dismays me most about the story is the dredging up of the Romulans – a race already unexciting in TNG – as the bad guys. It is revisionist and backward looking in a most disappointing way. After the Borg – the Romulans? Oh, my. " On 30 June , Michael Piller responded to this letter with one in which he explained, " We have, from the start, intended to re-invent the Romulans because we agree with you. We’ve been talking about a complete overhaul of their look as well as their character. If it means a great deal to you, I’d personally be willing to change it to another race. Do you have any suggestions? " Stewart responded with another letter, which he sent on 7 July and which confirmed that "the Romulan question" was highly important to him. Stewart continued, " I think it is a deadly idea to have even an 'overhauled' Romulan villain. After the Borg Queen it will look as if we just couldn’t come up with any new bad guys. But we must. "

The change to the newly invented Son'a was made "because nobody liked the idea of using the Romulans, ever," said Michael Piller. ( The Secrets of Star Trek: Insurrection , p. 14) Regarding the prospect of including the Romulans, Piller clarified, " No-one here felt a great deal of enthusiasm for that decision. " ( AOL chat , 1998 ) However, Eric A. Stillwell , who contributed to the making of Insurrection as a production associate and script coordinator, believed that the Romulans should have been used, saying, " I think this would have had a greater dramatic impact than introducing an entirely new group of bad guys. " He also noted about the exclusion of the Romulans, " I think that was a mistake. " [3] (X)

One of the first concepts in the writing of Star Trek Nemesis was to centrally feature the Romulans. A primary advocate for this choice of villain was writer John Logan – a big fan of the species and "the lethal machinations" characteristic of the group. " For a writer, the malicious subtlety of the Romulans, " remarked Logan, " offers great opportunities; the cleverness and formality of their language must suggest that they are simultaneously a deadly political foe and a noble, ancient race. Besides, I had just finished working on Gladiator and was in a classical frame of mind. The serpentine rhythms of the language we created for the Roman Empire in that movie were good practice for writing the august and treacherous Romulans. " ( Star Trek Nemesis hardback ed., pp. xvii-xviii) Logan also enthused, " I was delighted with the chance to get to play with the Romulans, and I don't think they've quite been explored enough […] For me the Communist Chinese is a really interesting world that was never fully explored, certainly in the movies, and not even as much as I would have liked in the series, except for individual episodes. I've always found that sort of Byzantine structure of Chinese Communism very interesting and very provocative, and lethal in a way I never found the Klingons. There is so much duplicity and mendacity and cleverness in the way the Romulans move through their world with very strategic chess moves. And also they are an old and ancient race, like the Vulcans, so they have gravitas to them, which I find very interesting. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 2 , pp. 11-12)

John Logan doubting that the Romulans would mine dilithium for themselves was a strong influence on the creation of the Remans . " It seemed obvious to me, " he said, " that the Romulans would subjugate some other race to dig dilithium for them. Much too messy for our pristine and elegant Romulans. " As an homage to Gene Roddenberry's original conception of the Romulans as Chinese Communists, Logan and the other writers of Nemesis made all the Romulan and Reman names in the film of ancient Chinese descent. ( Star Trek Nemesis hardback ed., p. xx)

Although the Remans are clearly the main villainous species in Nemesis , Rick Berman was repeatedly reported as stating, in an interview on a UPN station local to Los Angeles, that the Romulans would be the major villain in the film. [4] (X) [5] (X) In Star Trek: Communicator  issue 131 , he clarified, " What I said was that we would be seeing the Romulans in this movie, which we are, but I did not necessarily say that they were going to be our main villains. " [6] (X) In Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 23 (p. 10), he further hinted about the Romulans, " They are part of the villainy, but not in the way that some might think! "

Eric Stillwell was puzzled upon hearing a rumor that the Romulans might be involved in Nemesis at all. He later commented, " I thought [that] was odd after we were asked to remove the Romulans from the original story in Insurrection . " [7] (X)

Before the release of Nemesis , Rick Berman additionally remarked, " I'm sure you can expect a fresh, updated look for the Romulans […] I think there will be some surprises as to what the Romulans will look like. " [8] (X) As it was, the Romulan designs used in the film were much as they had been in the preceding series. These similarities not only included their makeup but also stemmed to the production design of their ships, with Production Designer Herman Zimmerman saying, " The Romulans have been kind of an art deco culture and that's what you see [in Nemesis ], echoes of 1930s geometry in architecture, just turned sideways. " [9] (X)

Applying the Romulan prosthetics for Nemesis regularly took four hours. " I had a forehead prosthetic that they stuck to my head, " reported Donatra actress Dina Meyer . " The morning make-up routine consisted of me going into hair and getting my head wrapped – they make your hair all pin-curled and they put your head in a wig cap, so all your hair is pulled off your face. Then you go to the make-up trailer, where they attach the prosthetic forehead and prosthetic ear tips and then they pile on the make-up. They need a spatula to put it on, it's so thick. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 100 , p. 23)

Further television appearances [ ]

Because "Balance of Terror" had established Starfleet's first confirmed visual contact with the Romulans as being in 2266 , it was somewhat difficult for them to appear on Enterprise , that prequel series primarily being set in the 2150s . The show's producers wanted to include Romulans in the series, despite the risk of contaminating Star Trek canon, ever since the series began. ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 135 , p. 23)

Some initial consideration was given to making unnamed aliens in ENT : " Silent Enemy " actually be Romulans. André Bormanis , a writing staffer who wrote that episode, explained, " I wondered whether they might be Romulans until we decided to do a CGI alien effect [for the aliens themselves]. I think the technology of their ship, though, was too sophisticated for Romulans in this era, so that argued against making them Romulans too. " [10] (X)

The interest in seeing the Romulans on the series of Enterprise continued, however. " We have major continuity issues with them, " observed Executive Producer Brannon Braga , at the end of the show's first season . " We would very much like to do Romulans, but a) we don't know quite how yet, and b) since the new movie [ Star Trek Nemesis ] deals with Romulans, we want to give them some breathing room. We'll do them eventually, but not right away. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 139 , p. 29) Intense speculation regarding whether the Romulans would appear in the series was stirred up at the end of Season 1. ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 145 , p. 24)

In fact, just prior to the release of Star Trek Nemesis , the Romulans seemed to have disappeared. At the time, John Logan rhetorically asked, " Why isn't anyone using them? " Reflected Jack Donner, " To a great deal they have been ignored. They haven't paid that much attention to them [in recent series]. There have certainly been episodes that dealt with Romulans, but nothing like the Klingons, Cardassians , and Ferengi . " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 137 , pp. 46 & 53)

In Star Trek: Communicator  issue 137 (p. 85), Rick Berman predicted, " I would […] not be surprised that, within the next six to twelve months, we will have our first run-in with Romulans […] I […] think we will undoubtedly be running into Romulans at some point. " However, Berman made these statements without the writing staff of Enterprise having discussed the species appearing on the series nor the art department doing any design work related to the Romulans. [11] (X) [12] (X) Responding to the news, André Bormanis remarked, " If that's the case, I'm looking forward to it. " [13] (X)

One possibility, considered at around the end of the first season, was whether John Logan would be able to write the script for the Romulans' appearance on Enterprise , which then began to be a likely option for the show's second season . " Yeah, he would love to do that, and we would love to give him that chance, " announced Rick Berman. " It's all going to have to do with his time – he has three huge movies that he is working on now. We'll see what happens. " In the same interview, Berman went on to outrightly dismiss the chance that Romulans could show up in the first season. ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 138 , p. 20)

Despite the second season installment " Minefield " initially excluding the Romulans and its premise being a story set entirely on the hull of Enterprise , the plot evolved to include the Romulans. " The idea that the attacking aliens would be Romulans came out a little later, during the story break process, " Brannon Braga recollected. " We needed to be true to continuity and this was a way to do it. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 145 , p. 24) Braga was happy that this portrayal of the Romulans seemed to come at an appropriate time, commenting, " I think it's cool that on Star Trek Nemesis you can see the Romulans of Picard's time, and at the same time you're seeing the early encounters with them on Enterprise ; there's great synergy there. " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 99 , p. 8)

At a convention in Minneapolis held on the second weekend of July 2002 , Connor Trinneer conceded that, although he did not know any specifics about the Romulans making a return appearance on Enterprise , such an appearance was very possible, saying he "wouldn't be surprised" by it, at all. [14] (X) It was merely days later, on Tuesday 16 July 2002 , that Brannon Braga finally announced the upcoming Season 2 Romulan episode, hinting, " I think I can say without getting into too much trouble that very early in the season we will have our first brush with the Romulans. … Capt. Archer will have a very lethal brush with the Romulans early on. " [15] (X) On several occasions, Braga also tried to give assurances that the continuity with the Romulans was "airtight." [16] (X) [17] (X)

Despite featuring heavily in "Minefield", Malcolm Reed actor Dominic Keating revealed to fans, " I have NO idea who they are! " [18] (X)

Prior to the initial airing of Enterprise 's season 2 finale " The Expanse ", many fans at first incorrectly speculated that the Romulans were responsible for the attack on Earth depicted in that episode – thought to be the initial volley in the Romulans' previously established war with Earth – and would be the focus of the series' third season , rather than the multi-species Xindi . Brannon Braga was of the opinion that, had the Romulans indeed been used, they would have become "old" and less satisfying during the relatively lengthy course of the third season arc. He also stated that this did not exempt the species from appearing in that season, in which they nevertheless ultimately did not feature. ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 145 , p. 32)

The Earth-Romulan War was, however, intended to be explored in the fifth season of Star Trek: Enterprise and the film Star Trek: The Beginning , neither of which were produced. Brannon Braga and Manny Coto considered making " Future Guy " a Romulan, while Michael Sussman intended on revealing T'Pol's father was a Romulan agent. ( Information provided by Michael Sussman )

The Romulans would have had a grander future had the animated series Star Trek: Final Frontier been produced instead of the film Star Trek : set in the 2460s , a war caused by Omega particle detonations (which was not actually the Romulans' fault) permitted them to conquer Qo'noS , destroy Andoria , and force the Vulcans to leave the Federation to negotiate reunification .

Depiction in 2009 film [ ]

During development of the 2009 film Star Trek , the writers of the movie's script, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci , chose the Romulans as the villains because the film was a continuation of Spock's story from "Unification". [19] J.J. Abrams said, " What was interesting to me was that it wasn't the Klingons. That's what you expect and it was fun to use the Romulans the way we did, " referring to their premature appearance in Kirk's life being a clear marker of divergence from the prime reality. " Part of the fact is that they hadn't seen them for so many years, so that it immediately breaks, for anyone who knows, the rules of Trek to start the movie and have Romulans crossing paths with Starfleet. " [20] Orci and Kurtzman focused more on writing the Romulans in later drafts of the screenplay. ( Star Trek Magazine  issue 146 , p. 27)

Romulan prosthetics for the film Star Trek were at first arranged to be the purview of Proteus FX Makeup Effects Supervisor Barney Burman . " I did some early designs for the Romulans in my shop, but when my workload became too heavy, I hired Joel Harlow to come in and handle them. We all decided it would be best if Joel took over the task of creating the Romulans on set close to [Director] J.J. [Abrams] so he could see and direct their progress each day. We set up a makeup trailer for the Romulans, and Joel hired a crew of people to work on that and just did a fantastic job. " ( Star Trek Magazine  issue 155 , p. 57) This makeup crew, called Joel Harlow Designs , sculpted and designed Romulan ear and forehead prosthetics. A total of forty main Romulan characters were created to appear in the movie, a process that started with lifecasts for each actor. ( Star Trek - The Art of the Film , p. 37) Harlow himself remembered, " J.J. did not want to see any hair lace in the wig applications, so we made the entire forehead and eyebrows as one piece, with hair punched into the silicone before application. I wanted to give the Romulans an animal look, so we widened their nose bridge and did some interesting stuff with their brows – but nothing so extreme that you couldn't believe they were real. " ( Cinefex , No. 118, pp. 46 & 47) After the individual prosthetic pieces were crafted and prepared for filming, Harlow's team also applied the prosthetics. The Romulan makeup designs from the same film incorporated tattoos that were made to look tribal. ( Star Trek - The Art of the Film , p. 37)

Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci admitted that, even in the alternate reality , not all Romulans are necessarily bald. ( Star Trek Magazine  issue 149 , p. 13) In reality, baldness of Nero and his crew was used to set the Romulans apart, physically, from the Vulcans in the movie, due to both species having slanted eyebrows and pointed ears. ( Star Trek Magazine  issue 155 , p. 57)

Casting Director April Webster was at first very puzzled as to how to cast the Romulans in the film. " I had no idea what we were going to do with the Romulans, " she conceded. However, an influence on overcoming this challenge was the fact that the rest of the movie's cast incorporated a wide variety of people, with different skin colors and ages. Webster continued about the Romulans, " We just made a list of the most interesting actors we could think of who could match up and hold their own in a scene with [ Nero actor] Eric Bana . " ( Star Trek Magazine  issue 144 , p. 30)

There were subtle alterations made to the Romulan prosthetics (at least for the Nero character) before filming, making it easier to perform on long shooting days. Eric Bana stated, " The prosthetics only underwent very minor changes, just for comfort and actability. Sometimes you make a really tiny change with the prosthetic, or the glue, or where it's attached, and it can really make a difference to your ability to convey expression. We had a few goes at that in pre-production to get that right. " By the time a week of filming had gone by, Bana found the new Romulan facial appearance "began to look completely normal to me, and regular humans started to look weird!" ( Star Trek Magazine  issue 146 , p. 24) On the other hand, according to Star Trek Magazine  issue 146 (p. 24), the Romulans on set seemed distinctly intimidating.

Discovery and Picard [ ]

The Romulans have been purposely excluded from featuring in Star Trek: Discovery . Showrunner Aaron Harberts explained, " 'Romulan' is a dirty word in our writers' room right now, because of where we are in the timeline. We don't talk about the Romulans […] The sparks fly when the writers bring up the Romulans. " ( AT : " O Discovery, Where Art Thou? ")

When Neville Page designed the Romulan makeup for Star Trek: Picard , he decided to use a variety of forehead appliances, some with more prominent ridges and others with a more human appearance, closer to the look of the Romulans in Star Trek: The Original Series . ( TRR : " Maps and Legends ")

After Picard season 1 aired, showrunner Michael Chabon published a blog post on Medium, outlining the history and culture for the Romulan people he devised for the show. [21]

Reception and trivia [ ]

The Romulans proved extremely popular among Star Trek fans . " When my episode first aired, " remarked Jack Donner, regarding " The Enterprise Incident ", " I got a letter from a fan named Lori Carlson in Denver, Colo. She was the president of the Leonard Nimoy/Vulcan club there, but she wrote to me and said that the club was switching their interests around. And now there are Romulan fan clubs all over the place – in Michigan, and Bakersfield, California, to name just a few. " ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 137 , p. 53) The Romulans had become fan favorites by the end of TNG's first season. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Continuing Mission , p. 66)

Star Trek novels scribe Susan Schwartz also approved of the Romulans. " I personally like the combination of raw intellect and harnessed ferocity, with all that history underlying it, " she explained. " With the Romulans, I like the plotting, too, and the honor and the irony. I've always liked them, from the time I saw Marc Lenard's face in 'Balance of Terror' and realized what they were swiping from. " [22] (X)

A group of Romulans appeared in a 1995 television commercial for a Christmas ornament of the Romulan Warbird, made by Hallmark . Makeup for these Romulans was provided by Michael Westmore 's makeup team. ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 9 , p. 50)

Further reading [ ]

• "The Romulans" by Robert Greenberger , The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine  issue 12 , pp. 54-55

Apocrypha [ ]

Much of the Romulans' origins are explored in the Rihannsu pentalogy by Diane Duane , and the later Vulcan's Soul trilogy by Josepha Sherman and Susan Schwartz . Duane's novels established that the exodus from Vulcan was led by S'task, a former disciple of Surak , a detail which Sherman and Schwartz followed.

In Duane's novel The Romulan Way , Vulcan society becomes polarized by their first encounter with an alien species – Orion pirates attempting to invade their world. S'task, a Vulcan poet and former disciple of Surak, argues in favor of strength, while Surak's increasingly popular beliefs favor pacifism and logic. To avert civil war between the two factions, S'task leads his followers on a mass migration. As part of their exodus, they intentionally invent a new culture and a new language. They refer to themselves as the Rihannsu , which means "the Declared," in their new language. Likewise, they named their new homeworlds ch'Rihan ("of the Declared") and ch'Havran ("of the Travelers"); the names Romulus and Remus were pinned on their worlds by the Federation exploration vessel that first entered their star system – according to Duane, those Rihannsu who learned about the names used for them by the Federation were puzzled, more than anything else, by the myth from which the names originated (twin brothers being raised and suckled by a wolf ).

In the Vulcan's Soul trilogy, the Romulans' ancestors left Vulcan as a contingency plan approved by Surak, should the wars on Vulcan have completely destroyed their civilization. The eagle emblem was inspired by a huge bird native to Romulus that clutched eggs in its talons.

Duane also depicted the Romulans as being extinct in the mirror universe novel Dark Mirror , as they chose to commit mass suicide rather than become subjects of the Terran Empire following the Battle of Cheron .

According to the novel Uncertain Logic , the Rihannsu called themselves Rom'ielln during the Romulan-Vulcan War to conceal their true identity from the Vulcans. It is implied that this name became the source of the word "Romulan".

The comic book Star Trek: Countdown and the video game Star Trek Online depict the lead up and the aftermath of Romulus' destruction, primarily caused by the Romulan Senate ignoring Spock's warnings about the supernova , which originated from the star of the Hobus system, and the Vulcan Science Council 's refusal to lend them red matter . In spite of this, Federation-Romulan relations had been improving and Romulan citizens had become less xenophobic, as indicated in the ending of Star Trek Nemesis . After the supernova, Federation aid is either welcomed or met with suspicion and even hostility, while the Klingon Empire seizes the opportunity to conquer Romulan territory. Despite continuing in-fighting between the survivors, a new capital called Rihan is established on Rator III . The Romulans are playable characters in the 2013 Online expansion pack Legacy of Romulus . The playable Romulans and Remans are members of a splinter Republican faction on New Romulus led by D'Tan . It is eventually revealed that the supernova was not a natural occurrence, but was a deliberate act of genocide by rogue elements of the Tal Shiar at the behest of the Iconians , the game's primary villains until the conclusion of Season 10.

Romulan religious beliefs vary in non-canon sources.

• The Way of D'era sourcebook states the Romulans believe in the Way of D'era. Tellus, an enemy of Surak, taught that the inhabitants of Vorta Vor – the mythological world mentioned in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier – had visited the Vulcans and inspired them to become the supreme rulers of the galaxy. This explains the superiority complex and their hatred for Vulcans, whom they see as traitors.
• In Duane's Rihannsu series, the Romulan religion is animistic, born out of the apparently innocuous comment, made by one philosopher aboard the ships outbound from Vulcan, that "things notice" – i.e., that lost objects remain lost as long as you are looking for them, then reappear as soon as you stop looking. From this observation grew an entire theological colloquy, and eventually a religion based on worship of the classical elements of fire, air, water, earth and the "Archelement" which oversees the others.
• In Killing Time , they worship a demon called Bettatan'ru.
• The Countdown / Nero story portrays the Romulans as polytheistic.

There are also various, conflicting explanations for the Romulans' lack of telepathic ability:

• In Duane's My Enemy, My Ally , Spock explains that the Romulans left Vulcan before the mental disciplines of Vulcan were fully developed, and genetic drift has caused them to lose any latent ability they might have;
• This is contradicted in Duane's sequel The Romulan Way , which explains that a number of trained telepaths accompanied the Rihannsu ships leaving Vulcan, but eventually died as a result of having to use their psionic abilities to propel the ships from one star system to another; because it required a group of telepaths to train new adepts, the Rihannsu's telepaths died at a faster rate than they could be replaced; according to this novel, Vulcans in the 23rd century believe that the Romulans still possess the raw potential to produce telepaths, but will never do so without hands-on instruction from Vulcan adepts;
• In the novel Sarek by A.C. Crispin , the Romulans kidnap a group of Vulcans, several decades before the Khitomer Conference , and interbreed with them, producing telepathically sensitive hybrids .
• According to the Vulcan's Soul trilogy, the Romulans rejected the telepathy of the Vulcans and slaughtered or enslaved the telepaths among themselves during their exodus from Vulcan: these telepaths became the Remans . This explains why no Romulan displays telepathic skills in canon, while some Remans, such as Shinzon 's Reman Viceroy , do.
• In Nero , the titular character takes a drug that enables him to meditate, and to develop the skills to communicate telepathically, without mind melding.

The Way of D'era explains that the Romulans lack the physical strength of the Vulcans because they no longer live on a harsh environment. Killing Time shows Romulans slightly adverse to the effects of pon farr .

The alternate reality Romulans themselves debut in the two-part "Vulcan's Vengeance" story from IDW Publishing 's Star Trek: Ongoing comic book series. It is stated the Senate approved of Nero's actions. A group of Vulcans led by Sarek infiltrate Romulus and attempt to avenge their homeworld by detonating red matter recovered from Vulcan. Spock convinces his father the plot is a mistake, and prevents the detonation. He and his fellow crew members are allowed to return as a "fair exchange" while the Senate keeps the red matter. They also gain the Narada 's schematics. Later in the series, Section 31 allies with the Romulans to start a war with the Klingons, in a successful ploy to regain the last piece of red matter.

External links [ ]

• Romulan at StarTrek.com
• Romulan at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Romulan at Wikipedia
• 3 ISS Enterprise (NCC-1701)