Gorn

Gorn characters in Star Trek: Theurgy:

• Sithick (Stasis)

“…A GORN… LARGE, REPTILIAN. LIKE MOST HUMANS, I SEEM TO HAVE AN INSTINCTIVE REVULSION TO REPTILES. I MUST FIGHT TO REMEMBER THAT THIS IS AN INTELLIGENT, HIGHLY ADVANCED INDIVIDUAL, THE CAPTAIN OF A STARSHIP, LIKE MYSELF, UNDOUBTEDLY A DANGEROUSLY CLEVER OPPONENT.”

(CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK, U.S.S. ENTERPRISE NCC-1701, 2267)

The Gorn, or Gornaran Archosaur (Homo Lacertae), were a brutish sentient reptilian race native to the planet Gornar (aka Agornu, S'Sgaron, Garag, Koreb, Shekkis) whose star was Tau Lacertae, a red giant supporting nine planets, of which Gornar is the ninth. They were known for their violent behavior and slow lumbering motions. They were around seven feet on average, their skin had green scales like a crocodile that walked on two feet. They hailed from the planet Gornar, which was located in the space between the Federation and the Klingon Empires, a space which was controlled mostly by the Orion Crime Syndicate.

The Gorn were a warp capable race at one point in their society. They were sentient and had capable thinkers among them.

Physiology

Gorn were large and powerfully-built, even more so than other tough species like the Klingons or Nausicaans. They were many times stronger than most humanoids and resilient enough to ignore massive blunt force trauma or even short periods in the hard vacuum of space. However, Gorn were not especially agile or fast. Gorn were ectothermic – cold-blooded – with their body temperature varying by external factors, and thus favored warm environments where they could be most active and effective.

The Gorn averaged approximately two meters (7’3” feet) tall and weighed about 150 kilograms (331 pounds), with impressive musculature which gave them great strength for both lifting and throwing. The Gorn benefited from both speed and great endurance. Their skin had a dull sheen to it and served as armor, making them difficult to damage with blunt objects. It was durable enough that a phaser on medium stun would be more likely to annoy a Gorn soldier than hurt them. Like many reptilians, Gorn had tails - thick, heavy appendages used to balance their muscular bodies. However, this appendage was removed as a Right of Passage upon reaching maturity. Though both hands and feet had claws, the hands had opposable thumbs, marking the Gorn as tool users.

Their bodies were scaled ranging in color from a tawny brown to yellowish-green to dark green to greenish-blue. The rarest was the blue/yellow-edged scales. Over time these came to denote royalty and are thus greatly revered and sought after. Less than 1 in 10,000,000 percent of the Gorn population was born with a chameleon gene allowing their scales to change color. Gorn scales were very dry on their own requiring the Gorn to live in more humid conditions than other races. They do not sweat, making it easy for Gorn to overheat but only at climates over 50 degrees Celsius. They conserve water internally, and their bodies use this to keep hydrated. Without humidity, a Gorn’s skin would dry out and painful cracks would form. These cracks appeared after or around the 17-hour mark of being in dry air, and they required six hours of rest a day in a humid climate to prevent this from happening.

The Gorn required air to breathe. They had powerful lungs and three-chambered hearts. Gorn skull capacity left space for a large brain. Their brains developed much like other humanoids and differ substantially from reptile brains. Their nervous system was also more efficient than those of known reptiles. They could, however, survive being frozen. Their bodies would shut down in low temperatures and they would enter a hibernation state where they could be thawed out at a later time.

Gorn bones were hollow with a unique hex structure that made them incredibly strong. An average Gorn bone weighed about half as much as a normal humanoid bone but was almost 10 times the strength. The Gorn ribcage consisted of more bones than most humanoids. Because of these extra bones, Gorn had problems sitting but they could kneel, squat, or lie as long as necessary.

The Gorn face was difficult for non-Gorn to read. Their heads were large, with the spinal ridge just visible above the browline. Their large eyes appeared bulbous, sported small pupils, and enabled the Gorn to receive a great deal of visual information. The Gorn had binocular vision with a nictitating membrane that protected the eye. Their peripheral vision was almost 20% better than other humanoids however came with a drawback. The Gorn homeworlds were all in a red star system. This resulted in the Gorn developing under subdued lighting conditions. Almost a constant state of twilight for the day, as such the Gorn eye collected a lot of light, enabling better night vision. However, they find normal lighting with its whites and blues very glaring and in some instances painful. Gorn hearing was almost similar to that of other humanoids except the Gorn could hear better in the lower frequencies.

The nose consisted of large, flaring nostrils, while the mouth was wide and filled with sharp teeth, indicating that Gorn were primarily carnivores. The Gorn sense of smell was highly evolved. One facet of their communication with one another seemed to involve the release of certain odors indicating their frame of mind and readiness to mate. The Gorn had a forked tongue similar in many ways to snakes, and they had difficulty speaking most Federation languages. Their voices often sounded raspy, though the most obvious vocal difference was the way all their sibilant sounds came out in a hiss. Sharp teeth lined their large, snout-like mouths, and further interfered with attempts to speak Federation Standard. Most humanoids found it equally difficult to correctly pronounce many Gorn words.

Gorn teeth consisted of a solid row of incisors meant to rip and tear meat from the bone. Because they lacked any form of molars they could not effectively crunch and grind their food for easy passage and digestion. Once the bite was in his mouth the Gorn swallowed the bite whole. The Gorn throat was able to expand to almost ½ again its full size. As the food passed down the Gorn throat the muscles contracted on the food, crushing it and pulverizing it before it reached the stomach.

The Gorn sense of taste doubled as their sense of smell. It was so highly refined that Gorn could taste pheromone changes in other Gorn around them. This dual sense was so accurate that in a room full of Gorn, each one could distinguish the smells of the others individually. This highly developed sense had a major impact on many aspects of Gorn society, even its language. Added to this was an extreme level of pheromone and hormone control. Gorn were actually able to elevate and lower their level of release so that their scent could be controlled to some extent.

They were a paired race with male and female genders, though telling them apart would be difficult to an outsider. The Gorn male reproductive organ was retracted inside the male and only extruded during mating. The pale sensitive skin was protected inside of the male body of the Gorn until erect. Since the female lay eggs; there were no noticeable changes in the female anatomy to provide a way to feed the young. The female sexual organs were similar to that of a human female, save that their body would release several eggs for insemination at once. The eggs would then harden and grow inside of the Gorn for about three months, at which point they would be laid out as reptilian eggs. Gorn females had a limited fertility period, being able to lay eggs only twice per solar year. The period that the female could become pregnant was also limited to usually only for a 48-hour cycle. This resulted in very few Gorn females being pregnant at any one time. When a female laid eggs, she will typically lay 5-8 per clutch.

The eggs would lay in a hatchery for about 180 days before hatching. When first laid the eggs had a leathery texture and were actually quite soft to the touch. During the incubation period, the eggs grew usually to almost 3 times their birth size. The shell hardened as the egg grew and was quite brittle when it was hatched. The baby Gorn that were produced stood about 2 ½” tall and were fully capable of walking and eating solid food. They were born with a full set of teeth, claws, and a tail. Gorn childhood was very short with a Gorn reaching puberty about the age of 10 solar years. At that age, the Gorn was typically 80% of his full size and had undergone an intensive education. At 14 a Gorn was considered an adult.

At this point, the Gorn aging process slowed a great deal. The middle of a Gorn’s life was between the age 15 to roughly age 100. During this time no signs of age appeared to slow down, weaken or in any way limit the activity of the Gorn. The next stage of a Gorn’s life lasted until the age of 200. This stage is signified by the loss of the ability to reproduce as well as a gradual decline in size and strength. From 200 to the end of a Gorn’s life, usually around age 300, the Gorn would gradually grow weaker and less active. The Gorn are extremely long-lived and it was not uncommon to find Gorn who had lived well over five centuries. Unlike many races, the Gorn mind did not deteriorate with age. All the wisdom and knowledge the Gorn had accumulated over his life remained intact.

Unknown to many outside the borders of the Hegemony, the Gorn were actually not one, but several distinct reptilian species. While the Gorn evolved on three separate worlds, in truth they were the same species. Gorn from each of the three homeworlds could freely procreate, transfuse blood, and even provide organ donations. Most of the differences between the three races were purely cosmetic. Such things as the size of the nose and the shape of the head all of these vary in minor detail and even vary within each race. The most common difference seems to be in overall height and in the coloration of the scales. The Gorn from Ghdar tended to average 2.5 meters in height with scale coloration toward gray and off white edging. The Geydar tended to average 2 meters in height with scale coloration toward shades of brown and tan. The Gorn from Gihdahr towered at an average of 3 meters and had little in the way of edge coloration, they did tend to have a wider variance in the overall scale color, ranging from a dark, almost black green to much paler shades of green.

Genetically the three Gorn species were almost a perfect match. The fossil records of all three worlds, however, did not indicate that the Gorn evolved there. Major speculation supported the Gorn being a transplanted race. Maybe even of extra-galactic origin. Known subspecies of the Gorn include the Russeth, the Ssessekh, and the Gessustkh. Federation xenobiologists believed that the Lath, Skoleans, and Tressaurians were offshoots of the Gorn.

Psychology

Most of what the Federation has learned about the Gorn comes from the few ports in the Borderland Sector that allowed for trade or slaves that have been taken in by either the Klingon Empire or the Orion Syndicate. The Gorn were a paranoid race, they harbored resentment towards all outsiders after years of suffering at the hands outside powers.

Their mindset made them isolationists denying anyone and everyone access to their territory, save for very few ports that had strict rules about trade. According to the Ferengi, it was impossible to make a profit with a Gorn. Their isolation and refusal to allow anyone to settle near their world also led to the Gorn being a mystery, with very few encounters outside of intrusions to their territory that always end one single way, with the destruction of the intruding ship.

What little contact the Federation had with the Gorn led most to think of them as an aggressive species, dominated by warriors. Further observation both reinforced and contradicted this. Individual Gorn exhibited aggressive, assertive, and determining behavior. They seemed set in their ways, and it was difficult to get them to deviate from their planned courses of action. While the interaction between the Federation and Gorn remained limited, some eventually worked together on Cestus III, and Federation xenologists hotly debated what they observed.

The Gorn were a paranoid race, they harbored resentment towards all outsiders after years of suffering at the hands of slavers from the Orion Syndicate and Klingon Empires. They came from a very tribal oriented civilization but were united by a common tragedy. Getting between a Gorn and his objective proved hazardous to one’s health. When on a mission, be it battling an arch-foe or slaughtering cattle for food, the Gorn pursued their goals with a single-mindedness second to none. Anything that tried to interfere with their duty was ignored, brushed aside, moved out of the way, or destroyed

The Gorn seemed to take a long time to make up their minds, almost ignoring a situation until they decided what they considered the best course of action. A Gorn did little until he believed he knew the right course - and then he let nothing stand in his way.

Ussegssirr, most often translated as ‘Manifest Destiny,’ has long formed one of the basic tenets of Gorn philosophy. Since before the Gorn reached into space for the first time, it was believed that the strong had both the right and the duty to extend their dominion over the weak. It was considered wrong for the strong to be limited or denied.

Ussegssirr, balanced by Gessegrissgir and usually rendered as ‘Honor,’ was a complex code of behavior and thought understood by few non-Gorns. Basically, the weak were expected to serve the strong (in an almost feudal hierarchy of rising power beneath a single ruler), but the strong, in turn, were expected to adhere to the Warrior’s Code of Gessegrissgir. Superiors must be obeyed, inferiors treated with justice, and a complicated pattern of obligations and responsibilities must be followed governing all aspects of Gorn life.

“Gorn ‘Honor makes the giri and gimu of Old Japan look like something just short of sheer anarchy!”

-- Psychobiologist Kemmli, Institution of Human-Gorn Relations, Cestus III

Language & Names

The Gorn had a highly developed sense of smell/taste as well a natural ability to control the release of pheromones/hormones. These natural traits led to a fascinating language being developed. The Gorn language was actually two separate languages, a spoken language, and a written language. The reason for this is that in the spoken language not only is sound and body language used, like in all other languages, but also scent.

It was the element of scent that had worked to create some interesting aspects in Gorn society as well as their language and it explains early misunderstandings between the Gorn and Humans. In the case of first contact with the Gorn, the universal translator had trouble with the Gorn language and human linguists could not understand why. Words that seemed to have no meaning or a twisted meaning would pop up and throw the entire translation into a tailspin. This stemmed from a problem the Gorn had in the development of their language.

When the Gorn developed a spoken language the use of scent was a natural thing for them, and so it was added without thought. The spoken language’s hissing, guttural tongue unnerved many who heard it for the first time, but some colonists on Cestus III claimed to enjoy it. A few even began singing with the Gorn, making for some bizarre duets. While the Gorn did have a few dialects, they lacked the range of disparate languages shown by Humans; presumably, the lengthy debates and need for idea exchange had caused Gorn language to evolve naturally into a common direction.

However, as progress began the Gorn sought ways to record their language for future generations. So a second language was born, new words were created to describe the scent element that was missing and this new language was used for written material. As technology marched on and transmitted information was more common the written language was further adopted to allow it to work for voice transmissions. It was the extra words that described the scent element that caused the confusion in early attempts to translate.

However as any linguist can explain language is core than a way to communicate, it can also define many aspects of a culture, and in the case of the Gorn, it did lead to some interesting social conventions. The most well known is that Gorn do not lie. This is not a social or moral decision. With a language where the body chemistry of the speaker can easily be determined the ability to lie was greatly curtailed. Even with their excellent control over the scent release, a Gorn was unable to exercise total control and as such lies would be easily detected. So over the centuries, the concept of deception disappeared. To a Gorn, a lie was the withholding of information. This particular attitude led to some interesting situations when diplomatic relations were held with the Gorn.

The lack of deception in their society also led to an attitude of handling things head-on. When you do not like something you don’t skirt it, you fix it. When something threatens you, you don’t scare it off, you kill it. This has led to a great deal of confusion on the Gorn part, where human handling of race relations are concerned. The Gorn felt that a problem should be dealt with directly. The attitude of saber-rattling or long diplomatic discussions seemed a waste. Especially when they looked at Human history and saw that in most cases the end result was not a solution at all and the problem eventually had to be dealt with anyway. So the Gorn were extremely straightforward and totally truthful. However, the Gorn could also be tight-lipped. Their use of scent in their language led to a great deal of interest in privacy. This extended not only to their personal lives but to their society as well. Early encounters with alien races did not go well. To date the Gorn have encountered different species in their exploration, wars have been fought with all of them. One race was even destroyed due to these wars. This left the Gorn feeling threatened when combined with their limited resource availability for their area of space. When added to their direct approach to life, the Gorn were extremely protective of what was theirs. (A good analogy is to compare the Gorn to 1980s Israel, Earth. Threatened on all sides and willing to do whatever it took to survive.)

A final area that the Gorn language made an interesting impact in was the area of entertainment. Most races gradually developed recorded and mass broadcast entertainment, the Gorn did not. They felt that by losing the scent element the entertainment was shallow and empty. As such the live arts thrived on Gorn worlds and starships. Every Gorn ship actually had a small amphitheater built within it for entertainment. Gorn plays and concerts were major events, held regularly. The Gorn had nothing that equated with recorded music or movies. Gorn technology did develop a holographic projection system that included scent within it as well as using force fields to make objects solid.

Gorn generally only went by their given names; this is because historically the entire Gorn tribe/clan cared for hatchlings. Some added a faction or tribal name onto their own, but this was the exception, not the rule.

MALE NAMES: Feerten, Gesst’r, Illrezach, Rheuzz’r, Tazket
FEMALE NAMES: Churreen, Herenna, Leeska, Silandras, Urska

Astrography

Heading directly rimward from Deep Space Station K-7 for nearly 80 light-years will bring you to the Gorn Hegemony border. This course would take a ship close to Klingon space which extended westward in this area, nearly to the Alpha Quadrant. The Hegemony’s territory was “taller” (core-edge extension) than it was “wide” (circumference extension), lying just short of the border with the Alpha Quadrant and was approximately 50 light-years wide at its widest point.

The Gorn Hegemony had a closed border; they tolerated no incursions of any kind into their space. Their fleet regularly patrolled the borders, and any attempt to penetrate the territory would be intercepted quickly. Vessels were warned away and any that ignore warnings were fired upon. The isolationism of the Gorn was so complete that if a border patrol vessel detected an attempt to scan across the border, they would project extremely powerful electromagnetic interference to jam the scan. Even with this secrecy, persistent study and monitoring over the decades uncovered some details about Gorn astrography.

Gornar (Tau Lacertae IX)
As stated previously, little is known about the Gorn worlds, as the Hegemony had a closed border and permitted no incursions into their space. Over the years, however, Starfleet pieced together bits of information about the capital of the Hegemony, the Gorn homeworld, Gornar.

The Gorn evolved originally on the planet Gornar, a class M, tropical jungle world larger than earth with a gravity of 1.4 G, a normal atmosphere, and a land percentage of 45%, and the rest covered by swamps and oceans. Each Gorn species had their own language, and so it took some time for Federation scientists to realize that references to Gornar, Agornu, S’sgaron, Garag, Koreb, and Shekkis all referred to a single planet, the capital of the Gorn Hegemony. Gornar was the ninth planet of what Earth astronomers named the Tau Lacertae system.

Gornar was only a little closer to its sun than Earth is to Sol, and it had less of an axial tilt. This resulted in a fairly uniform high temperature planet-wide. Mammals never rose to prominence on Gornar, and few ever grew bigger than possums. Instead, dinosaur-like creatures roamed the wild areas. That the Gorn managed to compete with their much-larger Saurian cousins speaks volumes of the benefit of brains over brawn. The Gorn able to domesticate one, the Saur, a reptilian, quadrupedal whose behavior and strength was much like other quadrupeds like Jackal Mastiffs and Warriguls.

Gornar was a hot swampish world with vicious bugs, and diseases. The Gorn evolved on this world due to the harsh climate their bodies acclimated making them harder and more durable. Much of the deadliness of Gorn warriors came from the harsh marshland of Gornar. The wetlands made them partly amphibious, and they adapted to the constant moisture and heat of their world. The planet’s orbit was locked with no seasonal changes. Day lasted 19 hours’ Federation time, and night lasted equally as long.

Culture & Customs

Gorn life was to be dedicated to the prosperity of the fellow Gorn. Because a single female could lay more eggs than she could care for the state was involved in raising Hatchlings and giving them a role in life. For a Gorn it was commonplace not to know or care about one’s parents but rather dedicate your life to your broodmates, who were the selected members of society that you grew up with. Family became a loose connection of mass marriages and broodmates which quickly became a complicated system when dynastic heads. The system also created the government.

In Gorn customs, a hatchling was born into a class, and from that class and the hatchlings around you, you would form a brood often these were strong kinships that would last a life time. Being expelled from a brood was a very rare punishment and excommunication was a punishment that was even rarer. When in a brood, it was a bit like the adjacent Klingon system of houses. One could move their brood upwards in renown, earning them more of a voice in the Hegemony, and likewise, a Brood could be taken down or even disbanded if they were accused of a great crime.

If a brood was disbanded, the surviving members of the brood would be separated and drawn into other families usually of lower class, but on rare occasions, if a member was seen as valuable, it was actually possible for a disbandment to land you in a more powerful brood then the one where you first came from.

Marriage to another Brood would mean the joining of two families to create a larger one, but all children were given to the state to raise.

History

Early History
Millennium ago, the Gorn were transported to their homeworlds on the first three planets of the Tau Lacertae star system (and to the Paravian homeworld on the ninth) from a point of origin lost to history. Some Gorn mythology speculated from an extragalactic origin by an unknown race designated the "Lizard Kings."

At some point in Gorn early history, an asteroid impacts and devastates the homeworld later known as Paravia. A few Gorn there survived and evolved into the Paravian. Over later centuries, the Paravians find fossils of earlier Gorn and assumed they are demons.

22nd century
The Gorn were at first three war-hungry races on three planets. They would kill themselves again and again in feudal struggles over their land and resources for ages. Their attacks would be based on their families and clans. But early in the 22nd century, one planet achieved spaceflight and the three Gorn homeworlds would come into contact with each other. Soon the three unified into the Gorn Alliance, a single, though stratified, society.

By 2140 the Gorn had encountered the nearby Paravian species. This encounter led to hostilities between both civilizations and eventually led to the extermination of the Paravian people by the Gorn. Shortly after contact with the Paravian, the Gorn encountered the Romulan Star Empire. The Gorn Alliance and the Romulan Star Empire battled in multiple wars to claim the resources on the few planets they managed to secure. The Gorn achieved several victories but each was costly and bloody. This resulted in a constant state of conflict between the two races. Both sets of hostile encounters clouded the Gorn’s view of other races. Fueling their growing territorial and xenophobic nature.

The Gorn originally lacked warp technology and was limited to only sub-light travel. They were among the last in the Borderland Sector to develop warp capabilities. Their introduction to this technology came when the Orion Syndicate member Harrad-Sar first discovered them. Their warlike nature and brutal tendencies made them natural slaves, and their durability meant that on any warm world, they could not only fight wars for the Syndicate but often win them.

The Orion invasion of the Gorn was the first real threat to their people. When they realized that the skies contained more enemies than they originally thought, they re-organized themselves. Since the Orions would take children and drive them into slavery, no one family could securely protect the children, so the first heavily protected breeding grounds were formed along with the brood system. The parents would give their hatchlings up to the state to assure that the one new unified Gorn government could protect them, and those children would grow up to form families within their ranks. Eventually, they would grow up to protect the next generation, and so on.

This was the birth of the Hegemony, a singular power created to stop the advancement of aliens against the Gorn, who over time would become increasingly paranoid and determined to defend themselves. The Gorn managed to steal some of the slavers' ships and learn from them. Their own re-designs - compared to the Orions - were brutish, preferring more weapon mounts, and speed over shields. The Gorn designed their fleet to be as armored as they were, with just as many teeth and claws.

These ships helped the Gorn win additional conflicts with Romulans and others but would not help them protect their home system when a Sunsnake plunged into Tau Lacertae causing it to go nova in 2199. (Modern historians believe that the Sunsnake was actually lured to Tau Lacertae by the Romulans as an attack during the Third Gorn-Romulan War). The expanding star devoured the inner planets and solar winds effectively destroyed Paravia and the Paravian race. Overcome with shock, shame, and guilt, the surviving Gorn refugees resettle and begin terraforming Paravia; renaming it Gornar.

23rd century
Federation First Contact with the Gorn officially happened on stardate 3045.6 in the year 2267 after the Federation had settled on Cestus III five years earlier. The Gorn saw this act as an invasion into their territory by unknown aliens. They dispatched a battlecruiser to the planet, which promptly attacked and obliterated the outpost on Cestus III without warning or diplomacy. When the USS Enterprise came to investigate the attack, a mysterious advanced race called the Metrons intervened and forced Captain James T. Kirk and the Gorn captain to fight to the death to settle the dispute. When Captain Kirk refused to administer the coup de grace to his fallen foe, this gesture opened the way for peaceful relations between the two sides.

Lengthy peace talks followed. The Clanhaven Conference as it was called lasted two years following the Cestus Massacre. According to lead Ambassador Shras of Andor Progress on the peace conferences was slow. Gorn culture was aggressive, expansionistic, and keyed to values quite unlike the basic roots of Federation philosophy and thought. Just understanding the Gorn (and getting them to understand the Federation) took quite some time. Problems in translating concepts and ideas led to several near-breakdowns in the negotiating process.

However, an agreement was reached and the Frontier Accord of Stardate 8873.3 (2268) was signed restricting the buildups of military shipping within the disputed space between the Gorn and Federation, with all armed vessels of greater than 100,000 tons kept out of the area entirely. A joint commission drew up an agreeable boundary that still stands today.

Subsequently, the Federation negotiated an indefinite lease with the Gorn Hegemony, under which the UFP would have the right to settle Cestus III in return for 10% of all export revenues from the colony. Though the Gorn allowed the settlement of Cestus III, they still regarded the outsiders as intruders. So they stayed behind their walls and attempted to crack down on any and all enemy ships that they found.

24th century
As the new century dawned the Federation reached an era of unprecedented expansion. New members joined with each year and the Federation borders grew farther and farther out into the frontier. The Gorn noticed this and in 2345, The U.S.S. Stargazer (NCC-2893) en route to Alpha Pensura receives a priority message from a Gorn ship and diverts to Vontalimar IV. There Captain Picard meets with the Gorn Leader Keeyah who declares war against the Federation on the account of the Federations expansion across the galaxy. Picard, not wanting to begins a war with the Gorn challenges Keeyah to negotiate instead. The war is prevented or at the least delayed.

Twenty-five years later, there is growing unrest within the Gorn Hegemony from a more militant faction, The Black Crest, seeking to undermine the dominant government and declare war against the Federation for their continued expansion. Peace talks were again made through the efforts of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Gorn Leader Keeyah at the Gorn Summit.

The Black Crest continued to grow their resources and in 2372, several of them visited Quark's on Deep Space Nine. What was not known at the time was that the true purpose of this trip was to sign a non-aggression treaty with the Dominion.

Two years after meeting with the Dominion, The Black Crest toppled the Gorn government in a coup d'etat and launched a new offensive against Cestus III and the Delbald Fortress Outpost under reinforcement by the Federation/Klingon Alliance on Elkauron II. A halt to these hostilities was negotiated once more by Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who also managed to persuade the Gorn to break their non-aggression pact with the Dominion and join the Federation Alliance in the war against them.

By 2379, the Gorn Hegemony had established normal diplomatic relations with the Federation, and even maintained a diplomatic mission on Earth. That year, Federation President Min Zife of Bolarus found the Gorn Ambassador Zogozin very intimidating.

Government & Military

The Hegemony was the main power of the Gorn they were a dynastic government ruled by families from positions of class power. The rule of the Hegemony was considered absolute as they were created to look after all Gorn interests, and thus controlled every aspect of Gorn life from early education, to breeding grounds, to rituals presiding over death.

Because of this, the government was slow to change its ideas. Moreover, the ruling dynasty served for life, and the Gorn could be a long-lived race when they were kept well fed and warm on their home world. Their isolationism was as much their customs as their government's policy, as any Gorn who left or was taken would usually end up in the hands of slavers from the competing powers in the badlands sector. This led to their policy of destruction. Any ship entering the Hegemony’s space was destroyed without warning.

Family life of the Gorn was run by the state with hatchlings being picked up from their breeding grounds and placed into one of the various dynasties. This, based on cultural signifiers such as coloration of their scaling sharpness of claws and other physical attributes. Once put in their class, there was no room for movement, but each were granted a wide range of tasks. Warriors were not just guards of old times but often served on Gorn ships as the fist of the Hegemony, protecting it from outside forces. Scientists could work almost anywhere making advances for their people. This also included trades like medicine and engineering.

Those they grew up with were their brood and their brood was their family. The Hegemony valued family connections more than anything. Separation was considered the worst thing that could happen to a member of a brood, and even the worst criminal punishments on Gornar do not include excommunication, because the space outside of the Hegemony was considered to be dark and terrifying. They did not expand farther than they could hold onto, but rather held their society behind their great walls with greater guns.

The Gorn military would often destroy any and all outsiders, but eventually - at the insistence of the the Federation - some ports were opened along the Gorn boarder to allow for trade and an exchange of ideas. The fact that the Federation knew so little of the Gorn scientifically was fascinating, but in truth, these were more for show than actual trade. The Gorn that served these Ports did so under several large books of rules on everything from how to speak to how to act while in the presence of a foreign power.

The biggest buy and sell in Gorn space was weapons, which they would eventually turn on those they bought from, because after all, they were still part of the badlands sector.

Technology

Gorn ships were brutal in design, prioritizing weapons over shields they were bulky but often had multiple engines and reinforced plating, preferring physical hardened armor over extravagant shields. Guns were often mounted and maintained in clumsy fashion assuring that there was always more fire power that could be mounted onto the ships. They were a warp capable civilization and their fleet, while aesthetically displeasing, was brutally efficient at protecting their home world and sector from intruders.

Their ships were built around their weapons, with larger disruptors and beam weapons at the head of many of their designs. These larger cannon-esque energy weapons had been updated and maintained by Gorn scientists to fire faster and harder in keeping them with the latest in weapons technology.

Mythology

The mythology of the Gorn tied closely with one of their other neighbors. The Metrons, a race of cosmic beings who have interfered with the Gorn on more than one occasion. The Metron’s were considered a karmic force in most Gorn stories about them, and weren’t so much revered as gods as seen as world makers and breakers. The Gorn had several legends that warned of cosmic beings that would trample over and destroy those they saw as lesser.

The favored mythology of the Gorn was one of Cosmic horror, everything bad came from the skies and the lands beyond their own, it fuelled their paranoia. To them, Gornar was as close to paradise as they could ever hope to achieve and they had to defend it against entities like the Metrons or other more horrific cosmic beings. Exploration and discovery was against most of the beliefs of the Gorn. Preferring solid defendable boarders over venturing far into space where children could be born and die in the vacuum never knowing a proper brood.

The Gorn viewed themselves as small, as victims, and their belief was often one of fear mongering. Their stories almost always ended with the destruction of Gornar or those closest to the narrator since they believed in world devouring cosmic horrors from beyond time and space.

Special Notes

Gorn born outside the Hegemony in slavery would die outside the Hegemony in slavery. No outsider once taken or leaving had ever been allowed back inside the Hegemony. They were considered classless, having no brood and no way into one they are the refuse those forgotten, and while it was a sore spot, there was no hope to reclaim someone who had been taken for fear that they might invite more outsiders.