HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF THE KLINGON SPECIES by AnonymousPoster

OTHER SCIENCE FICTION SERIES

HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF THE KLINGON SPECIES

POSTED BY: ANONYMOUSPOSTER
UPDATED: Thursday, October 21, 2004 12:50
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Wednesday, October 13, 2004 11:23 AM

Life in the universe is relatively rare - intelligent life, even more so. The chance that the hundreds of occurrences that add up to the evolution of intelligent life will occur, in the right order, is very slim indeed. Rarest of all, though, is the possibility of two intelligent, humanoid species developing on the same planet. However, this has been known to happen. Like Homo Neandertalensis and Homo Sapiens who cohabitated Earth in the Paleolithic period, as well as the Valakians and Menk of Valakis, two intelligent humanoid species evolved on the planet Qo’noS simultaneously.

There is one key difference between what happened on Qo’noS and what happened on Earth and Valakis. On Qo‘noS, both species evolved and developed at the same rate, and neither species overcame the other in intelligence, or in technological advancements. The Ikaal were much stronger and larger than an Earth Human, and had remarkable bony crests on their craniums. Though intelligent, their culture was centered on physical strength, and was warrior based. The Kahz race looked almost identical to Earth Humans, though larger and stronger. Their sociology focused more on cunning. They were very easy to identify however due to Human-like craniums, or smooth foreheads.

The two species on Qo’noS originally fought one another until the great unification by Kahless the Unforgettable when he killed the tyrant Molor. After much arguement and debate, the city of Kling, later to be known as the First City, was established as the seat of power. Thus the word KlhIng’an (meaning 'those of Kling') came to be the name for all from Qo’noS - Klingon.

The Kahz gift of cunning were not lost on the Ikaal, and they came to employ the Kahz as court scientists, scribes, or lawyers. Though a successful arrangement, it was not always peaceful. The Klingon's only experiment with democracy was brought on by the Kahz. This ten year period between the Second and Third Dynasties is remembered in Klingon history as "The Dark Time." General K'Trelan, responsible for the end of the Imperial reign, may have been a successful Kahz. The elected council was later executed, and the Empire was restored. Later, the Kahz would again revolt, only to have the Emperor Sompek destroy the entire city of Tong Vey in retaliation. As time passed however, the subterfuge of the Kahz became more subtle. The end of Imperial reign and rise of the current High Council in 2069 CE was slowly engineered by the courtesans in the Emperor's House.

This arrangement was still in effect when Earth Starfleet Captain Jonathan Archer made contact with the Klingons in 2151 CE. This initial, uncomfortable contact with the Ikaal dominated council was seen as an opportunity by the Kahz. Violent contact had already occurred with the Romulans and Suliban, and the Kahz began to feed upon xenophobic paranoia. After the United Federation of Planets formed in 2161, the Kahz claimed it was a sign of Human expansionism, and severed what little communications there were between Qo'noS and Earth.

By the early 23rd Century, the Kahz had stealthily maneuvered themselves into key positions. Citing their administrative strengths and the Ikaal's military prowess, the Council was made completely Kahz, while the military was Ikaal. When the Federation attempted formal contact in 2218, the Kahz incited the warrior class to fight. The Kahz also pointed out that they might be better equipped to deal with the rigors of being Fleet Officers. By the end of the Four Years War most Navy officer positions were held by Kahz. The Ikaal were becoming second class citizens.

To keep the Warrior class content, the Kahz aristocracy began a series of wars against the Romulans. These bloody wars went on for decades, and kept the warriors distracted enough for the Kahz to become entrenched.

Federation hostilities began to mount again in the 2250's as a cold war escalated to border skirmishes. Having fought the Romulans to a standstill, the Klingon Empire began expanding toward the Alpha Quadrant. By this time the officer compliments of Imperial Klingon Naval vessels were exclusively manned by a Kahz crew. This continued through the Organian altercation and forced treaty in 2266. Then the Kahz, looking for weapons that would get them around the Organian Peace Treaty, made a mistake.

Rather than restart hostilities with the Romulan Star Empire, who were now active again, and deploying ships equipped with cloaking technology and plasma torpedoes, the Klingon ruling class decided to trade technology with the Romulans and begin treaty negotiations. For the Warrior caste, this was too much. The Ikaal had spent the better part of a century fighting Romulans, and would under no circumstances capitulate. An Ikaal-Kahz hybrid named Chang waited until the Romulans delivered the first cloaking ships in 2267, and then set in motion a coup. The success of the coup was ensured not only by loyal Klingon Warriors, but also by many Kahz who had become sympathetic with the Ikaal during military service. The coup was brief but effective. Within a year the majority of Kahz were either exterminated or serving the new Klingon ruling council.

That posed another problem. The Klingons now feared such disunity happening again, and searched for a way to overcome the differences the two species had. Klingon scientists developed a DNA resequencing process which was encased in a viral infection. Kahz who were loyal to the Empire were ordered to accept infection. Following a painful month-long process, their genetic code would be re-written, and their physiology drastically changed. Those who refused were executed and many did not even survive the process. Those who did baffled Federation spies and scientists. Suddenly, a race Humans hadn't seen in a century were running the Empire again. Even worse, some of the better known Klingon commanders along the border (in particular Captains Kor, Kang, and Koloth) were now part of that species.

The typical Klingon response to inquiries was and is, "We don't discuss it with outsiders." This is still a taboo subject among Klingons, and in some cases a matter of shame. Not over the genocide, but that the Ikaal allowed themselves to be manipulated by the Kahz.

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Wednesday, October 13, 2004 12:28 PM

DIEGO

Goodness gracious, Anonymous Poster, are you going to try and reconcile all the weirdness in all of the major science-fiction storylines? I am impressed with your imagination. And you actually made the self-contradictory Klingon story kind of make sense. But I'd like to add my own two cents worth of speculation (I have nowhere near the amount of time to post anything as voluminous as you have so it's only two cents worth). So I'll play along and pretend that Star Trek is real and that the races aren't people in latex prothetics (which would be the ral answer to the question I'm about to pose).

Why are Klingons humanoid? Why can they interbreed with humans, producing viable offspring? That's an impossible level of convergence. There is just no way this could be the explanation.

Could it be the answer they gave us in Star Trek: TNG that the galaxy was "seeded" with DNA from an early humanoid and that this somehow through an unknown mechanism guided the evolution of all humanoid species? That's absolutely laughable.

So what is the true answer? I think we have to look to the Preservers. They obviously have a thing for taking humanoids and transplanting them to new planets as we saw with the indian tribe in the episode whose name I've forgotten.

We have an excellent fossil record and plenty of evidence that humans are native to Earth. So I would argue that the Preservers, whoever they are, had a liking for humans and brought humans and possibly other species of hominines (the tribe to which humans belong) and placed them on other worlds.
Maybe they did this because intelligent life-forms really were rare in the galaxy and they thought humans were suitably malleable to go and plant some seeds. Some of the differences we see between terrestrial humans and their "alien" cousins is due to genetic drift and adaptation, and some of it is due to genetic engineering of the founding stock to suit the apparently capricious whims of the Preservers. Of course, there is no reason to believe that they stopped tinkering with the various humanoid races after they dropped them off. Perhaps they also brought all of the lifeforms of the different worlds from Earth after terraforming them. Most plants and animals we see look far too much like Earth life to have evolved independently.

This explains why there are so many humanoid races all of which are similar in age, and all of which seem to be able to interbreed.

Most might be considered subspecies, but they certainly couldn't pass for the products of completely independent evolution on another world.

What about the "genetic message"? Well, any race that loves to screw with "lower life-forms" as much as the Preservers must have a twisted sense of humor. I mean really, who else would have made the poor Ferengi but someone with a throughly wicked sense of humor and very little taste? So they went ahead and inserted their genetic message in the transportees.

Ta-da

The only remaining question is why the scientists of the Federation don't notice that all "aliens" are descended from the same species. Perhaps there is a conspiracy? ;)

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Friday, October 15, 2004 6:06 AM

GHOULMAN

Wow, a true fan. Nice work!

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Monday, October 18, 2004 8:03 AM

CREVANREAVER

TWO great theories!

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Monday, October 18, 2004 8:59 AM

CYBERSNARK

Yet sadly no reference to the Hur'q invasion, which explains how the Klingons went from an iron-aged warrior culture to warp drives, transporters, genetic engineering, and cloaking devices in only 1000 years. And also why they rely on bladed weapons and personal combat when they have particle disruptors and forcefields.

The Hur'q invaded shortly after the time of Kahless, intending to conquer the Klingons as slave labour. They bit off a bit more than they could chew, and the Klingons quickly managed to turn the Hur'q's technology against them and send them into retreat. The Klingons kept the technology, and eventually mastered it. For their part, the Hur'q stole numerous artifacts, including the Sword of Kahless.

In DS9, it was revealed that the Hur'q had come from the Gamma Quadrant (and were now extinct, possibly even at the Dominion's Jem'Hadar hands), and Kor, Worf, and Jadzia Dax recovered the Sword of Kahless, but left it floating in Klingon space when they decided that it was not yet time.

Later (after the Dominion War), the cloned Emperor Kahless recovered "his" bat'leth before disappearing from the public eye.

As for the old rough-verses-smooth forehead issue, I just assumed that was a Klingon attempt at genetic alteration, allowing them to infiltrate the Federation and destabilize it from within. The reason they "don't talk about it" now is because (after a change of administration), it was deemed dishonorable.

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Thursday, October 21, 2004 12:16 PM

GHOULMAN

^^^ I've always liked this version of events regarding the Klingon schism.

And thanks for bringing up the Hur'q and just how a bunch of drunkin' vikings managed warp technology. Too bad this was ignored on Enterpoop eh?

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Thursday, October 21, 2004 12:50 PM

SOUPCATCHER

For those interested in reading the two articles that were conflated for the original post, here are the links:

"Are Romulans and Vulcans different species?"
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/features/documentaries/article/1
479.html

"The Klingon Species" by Dan Foster
http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/fiction/klingon_species.htm

There are three kinds of people: fighters, lovers, and screamers.

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