Vulcan


This article is an official Galactic Anthropology Committee Article.This article is official Star Trek canon.
Vulcan.jpg
Vulcan
Survey Data
Star System:

40 Eridani system

Region:

United Federation of Planets

Quadrant:

Alpha Quadrant

Classification:

Class-M

First Contact:

300 AD, Unknown Pirates

Political Information
Affiliation:

Federation Member

Capital:

ShirKahr, Vulcan

Political System:

Democracy

Population:

21.4 billion

Biological Information
Type:

Humanoid

Atmosphere type:

Oxygen-Nitrogen

Development Stage:

Warp capable

Character:

Logical, Unemotional

Number of Eyes:

2

Empathic species:

No

Telepathic species:

Touch Telepath

[ Source ]


The Vulcans are widely known for their distinguishing pointed ears and upswept eyebrows, and their unerring logic which can often make them seem cold or unfeeling, which they are not.

History

The earliest records of Vulcan history tell of a violent planet where the people fought to mate, fought for food, fought for water, or other resources. The clans fought each other, and the warlords fought each other. A Vulcan from this time period could find any number of reasons to fight anyone. It was also littered with different gods. Earth had had its religions, around some 20 at one point, while Betazed generally had two or three. Vulcan had somewhere in the vicinity of 192 different gods, each demanding favors from the people. It was into this world that the leader Surak was born.

Time of Awakening

Surak, a Vulcan scholar, saw what the fighting was doing to his world and found a way to make the fighting end. They would suppress all emotion in order to live in peace. Many Vulcans tried and failed to find the strength of will within themselves to live by logic and suppress their unruly emotions, thus the kohlinahr was created to make it easier. S'Task, a young Vulcan, became Surak's pupil to carry on his legacy after his mentor was gone. Slowly over time Vulcan transformed itself into a world of peace and prosperity as the people were more inclined to help each other rather than kill.

Two groups did not want this new way of life, however, and sought to fight for their right to make war. One group were the ones who march under the raptor's wings and the others were the followers of Festi, though they have very different mindsets. The ones under the raptor's wings left into the Epsilon sector in several generation ships, and went on to found the Romulan Star Empire, which is still in tension with the Vulcans and the Federation. The other group left to a planet that is now inside the Klingon Empire and are called Hefestians. The Hefestians were not seen again until the 2200s, while the Romulans were not seen until the 2100s.

The Hefestians left to follow the ways of a war god who was eventually softened and was not quite so harsh while the Romulans eventually became one of the great powers of the quadrant.

First Contact

First Contact was with an unknown race of pirates, possibly Orions, who took some of the Vulcans as slaves and robbed the planet of what precious few natural resources it had. S'Task, Surak's pupil, was one of them and escaped his cell, succeeding in destroying the alien spacecraft after making it to an escape pod. Surak, who felt betrayed by his pupils behavior, expressed his disappointment. This reaction put the thought into S'Task's mind that perhaps not all emotions are bad, that they do have their uses, and he became one of the first Romulans and eventually led a group of ships to Romulus and Remus.

Early Spaceflight

Seeing the dangers of space, the Vulcans decided that they must be ready to defend, not attack. Their first spaceflight was 200 AD, well before humans discovered the mechanics of anything beyond a catapault. By 225 AD, they had a means of traveling to other star systems, but not warp. They kept to themselves as they remembered the damage that had been done to their own world and broke the warp barrier before 300 AD. As soon as the 1700s AD, they were traveling to other planets and a crew of three had even landed on Earth sometime during the 1950s. It was during this time that they made first contact with the first Andorian ship, however it did not go very well as the Andorians were a very emotional race and detested the 'cold and unfeeling' Vulcans. They also made contact with the Tellarites, porcine humanoids who are extraordinary builders. They contacted the first humans, Zefram Cochrane and his friend Lily, in Montana in 2063 when Zefram Cochrane broke the warp barrier, and made contact with Trill soon after.

Cold War with the Andorians

Vulcan High Command did not trust the Andorians and soon began to see them as duplicitous and deceitful. The Andorians terraformed a planet they named Weytahn and set up a colony, the Vulcan High Command demanded to be allowed to inspect it. When the Andorians refused, the Vulcan High Command removed the Andorians by force. Vulcans then set up a sensor base where they could monitor the Andorian homeworld remotely. Assuming that they were forced out to be spied upon, the Andorians sent Commander Shran to find what exactly was on P'Jem. He was aided in finding the monitoring center by Captain Jonathon Archer of the USS Enterprise NX 01, opening up Andorian/Human relations.

Coridan was another hot spot in the cold war between Vulcans and Andorians. The Coridan government had become very corrupt and the people were starting to rebel, aided by the Andorians. On the flip side of the coin, the Vulcans were aiding the government in an effort to procure more dilithium, a much needed substance for warp drive engines.

The Vulcan High Command began to exert more control over the civilian population, persecuting the Syrrannite sect who attempted to follow Surak's teachings the way they were meant to be followed and tried to encourage others to do the same. At this time, Vulcan High Command also claimed to have intelligence reports that told of a new superweapon being developed by the Andorians that had been based on Xindi technology. While the Vulcan High Command secretly amassed a fleet in the Regulan System, Commander Charles Tucker III and Ambassador Soval warned the Andorians of the attack. Losing the element of surprise, the Vulcans called off the attack before they lost any ships.

Coalition of Planets and the Federation

Spock, a Vulcan male

In 2155, Tellar Prime, Vulcan, Earth, and Andoria formed a loose alliance whereupon they could call upon each other in times of distress. This proved to be more and more helpful and as the planets depended more on each other, they formed one government comprised of members of each race and formed what is today United Federation of Planets in 2161. By the 23rd century, Vulcans were a very active member of the Federation if not in Starfleet, then in politics and diplomatic capacities. Particularly notable was Ambassador Sarek and his son, Spock, who helped write out the Khitomer Accords and was the first Vulcan in Starfleet, respectively. Vulcans were a key member of the Federation well into the 24th century and comprise a large part of Starfleet's personnel. Some ships have mostly Vulcan or only Vulcan crews and are named after notable Vulcans. Spock in particular was a person of note as he attempted to reconcile the Vulcan and Romulan peoples. He was largely unsuccessful due to the Romulan goverment's desire for domination. In a further attempt for reconciliation, Spock tried to repair the Hobus star with a substance called red matter but was unsuccessful as the attempt both damaged Romulus and Remus and took Spock's own life.

Government

Since Vulcan became a united world, it has always been a representative democracy wherein individual advancement was based on that individual's training and efforts. Each individual was responsible for providing for him/herself and his/her family. Similar to a republic, the citizens of Vulcan elected their representatives to carry their wishes to office. However, the people also elected an electoral college, or people who voted for who the Vulcan citizens wished to be in office. However, they were not always in tune with the people's wishes and at times voted for other candidates.



Physiology

Vulcan DNA
As early as the 22nd century it was known that Humans and Vulcans could produce offspring and were genetically compatible. Externally, there are few differences between humans and Vulcans, mainly the Vulcans' pointed ears and upswept eyebrows and ridged spines which remain dominant traits for at least two generations. Most Vulcans have straight dark brown or black hair and pale skin that has a greenish tinge. There are a few Vulcans, though not many, who are darker and have somewhat curlier hair. They possess tricuspid teeth in two sets and have copper based blood. Their heart is where a human's liver would be, and beats around 200-400 times a minute. Vulcans are also much stronger than humans due to their higher gravity and their respiratory system is much more developed due to the sparseness of air on Vulcan. The Vulcan digestive system adapts to alien foods quite quickly and the ears and nose of a Vulcan are highly developed, the females having a remarkable sense of smell. The inner eyelid protects the eyes from the harsh Vulcan sun. Vulcans generally live two hundred years or more.

The Vulcan brain is quiet interesting and is capable of being removed from the body and the body still lives, though with assistance. Traumatic memories in a Vulcan brain can cause the brain to kill itself, causing the Vulcan people to develop a trance-like state wherein they can cope with the memories and even heal their own wounds before it happens. The most interesting trait of the Vulcan brain is the telepathy as Vulcans are natural touch telepaths. Creating a mind meld requires skill and training to achieve and the fal-tor-pan (a ritual where a Vulcan's body is reunited with their katra or soul) even more. Stronger minds are capable of non-touch telepathy though only in close proximity and possibly even telepathic suggestion, whether intentional or not. The Vulcans are also the only known race to achieve psionic displacement other than the Trill zhin'tara. This enables a Vulcan's memories and personality, or katra, to be brought home to Vulcan independent of the body. The suppression of emotions is housed in the mesiofrontal cortex though it fails in males once every seven years when they needed to mate, also known as pon farr. During this time, if a Vulcan male fails to either mate or kill for the woman, there is a likely possibility he could die.

Most Vulcan males are usually around 1.88m (6'2) tall and weigh significantly more than the average human due to their superior strength, despite being more slender. Females are usually around 1.68m (5'6) tall and slender though again weigh more than their human counterparts, despite their physique.

Diseases

  • Pa'nar Syndrome
  • Tuvan Syndrome
  • Bendii Syndrome
  • Choriocytosis

Society

Vulcans are widely known for their honesty as it is said that Vulcans cannot lie, which is a falsehood. They are capable of it but do not use it unless logic dictates a reason for it. A child's entering into the realm of logic begins as early as infancy and Vulcans give their babies toys to enhance logic and small children are taught to distance themselves from their emotions. Vulcan children in nursery school were allowed to dance a fluid choreography that calmed the mind. Parents sometimes choose mates for their children as early as age seven and induce a telepathic link that, when the children underwent pon farr for the first time, they are compelled to come together and mate. If the female wants to challenge the male's claim on her, she can choose a champion to fight for her or she could fight the male herself. However, the male has no choice as he must fight, mate, or die.

Vulcans do possess emotions, however, their emotions are so much more violent than any other species that they could possibly have annihilated their entire world if Surak had not come. Most Vulcans are not capable of purging themselves of all emotion but are capable of enough to be in normal Vulcan society. The kohlinahr is used to remove all remaining emotion.

Vulcans are vegetarians and do not touch their food with their hands as this is seen as unclean, unhealthy, and extemely bad manners.

Religion

At one time, Vulcans had around 192 gods on their world. In an effort to stop the fighting on Vulcan, Surak suggested that all religions and gods be abolished.

Food

  • Vulcan Brandy
  • Gespar
  • Jumbo Mollusk
  • Mocha
  • Plomeek Soup
  • Pok Tar
  • Vulcan Port
  • Redspice
  • Spice Tea
  • Tea

Language

The Vulcan language resembles musical notes on a vertical line and the language is quickly picked up by universal translators. However as Vulcan is a member of the Federation, most Vulcans will speak Federation Standard to outsiders.

Science and Technology

Vulcans have been at the fore of nearly every scientific discovery in Federation history. They are not engineers by nature but rather researchers, historians, physicists, etc. As such, the Vulcan Science Academy is a very prestigious school of learning and it is an honor to be accepted as a student.