Gorn
From Star Trek: Theurgy Wiki
“…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
The Gorn were large, heavily muscled cold-blooded reptile creatures that hailed from a humid swampish planet, who were significantly stronger than most humanoids, although slower and less agile. Their bodies were scaled ranging in color from a tawny brown to yellowish-green to dark green to greenish-blue and very dry on their own, because of this, they required more humid living conditions than other races. 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 their humid climate to prevent this from happening. They required a high protein diet and had teeth and claws that were designed for ripping meat from the bone.
While humanoid, the Gorn evolved from omnivorous reptile stock, and the Gorn maintained many of their ancestors’ traits. For instance, the Gorn had a forked tongue similar in many ways to a Terran snake, 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 come out in a hiss. Sharp teeth lined their large, snout-like mouths, and further interfere with attempts to speak Federation Standard. Humans found it equally difficult to correctly pronounce many Gorn words.
Outside of their weaknesses to cold and dry air, the Gorn were built to last. It was once said that Gorn were durable enough to survive the vacuum conditions of space. This was incorrect. The Gorn required air as much as the next oxygen-breathing race, however. 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. They were durable enough that a phaser on medium stun would be more likely to annoy a Gorn soldier than hurt them.
They were slow heavy creatures. If pushed to run, they could be clumsy, but in combat, they were durable and strong. If they managed to catch another race unaware, they could rip them apart with great ease. Because of their slow nature, they were thought to be dumb, but this was merely a biased stereotype.
They were a paired race with male and female genders, though telling them apart would be difficult to an outsider. The average Gorn male weighed about 215 kilograms. The cock of a Gorn male was retracted and only made apparent when in use. The pale sensitive skin was protected inside of the male body of the Gorn until erect. Though this is impressive among the males, Gorn females are even more fearsome as they could average around 2.5 meters high and typically were 250 kilograms. The female sexual organs were similar to that of a human female, save that its 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. As such, the females tended to be the stronger gender among the Gorn race.
Gorn were born from specialized eggs that belonged to the different castes of Gorn society. Among the hardest to produce eggs were those of the military branches as their biology required specific environmental factors that were very hard to find naturally.
Due to their high degree of muscle, the Gorn tended not to be as dexterous as Humans. Gorn cells regenerated at an amazing rate.
The Gorn were extremely long-lived; their average life expectancy was around three hundred years and it was not uncommon to find Gorn who had lived for well over five centuries.
Unknown to many outside the borders of the Hegemony, the Gorn were actually not one, but several distinct reptilian species who all evolved on the same homeworld much like the Xindi. Known subspecies of the Gorn included the Russeth, the Ssessekh, and the Lath. Federation xenobiologists believed that both the Skoleans and Tressaurians were offshoot races of the Gorn.
Psychology
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.
Their government was called the Hegemony and was founded when they abandoned their previous tribal structure. It had the single founding principal that the Gorn needed to be of a single mind, with no outsiders being allowed to have sway in their policies or world.
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.
Most of what the Federation has learned about the Gorn comes from the few ports in the badlands sector that allowed for trade or slaves that have been taken in by either the Klingon Empire or the Orion Syndicate. Since these slaves were often taken at a young age, very little of Gornar’s culture was known to these children, and once taken away, slaves were disowned for fear that they would bring an alien influence to the Hegemony.
Language & Names
Gorn spoke their own language. It consisted of hissing, a low guttural sound, and tongue gestures that unnerved many who heard it for the first time. The words were often less important than the way they were said as the Gorn vocal cords and jawline made languages like English difficult to speak without slurring s’ and z’ together. While the Gorn did have a few dialects, they lacked the range of disparate languages shown by Humans. The low guttural nature of this language added to the belief that the Gorn were a primitive race as it often sounded aggressive in nature.
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
Home World
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.
