Gorn

Physiology

Anthrobiologists of the Federation Science Council have classified the Gornarian Archosaur (Homo lacertae) as reptilian humanoid species, similar to the Saurians. The Gorn themselves however do not acknowledge any relationship or common ancestry with humanoids, rather believing that they were created separately from any other sentient race. (See The Four Sides of Life: Faith) They are hatched from eggs into one of three biologically distinct castes with variations in size and possibly anatomy. (See The Castes) They are covered with a thick, scaly hide, ranging in color from a tawny brown to yellowish-green to dark green to greenish-blue. Their throats and bellies are paler..

The Gorn maturation rate is quite slow compared to other sentient races. Gorn children develop at a rate roughly 3/4ths that of Humans and 1 they reach full maturation at 24 or so.

The Gorn are extremely long-lived; their average life expectancy is around three hundred years and it is not uncommon to find Gorn who have lived for well over five centuries.

A distinctive feature of the Gorn anatomy is the crest, which in males grows out into several head-spines reaching up to 16cm in length. (The head-spines begin growing when males reach sexual maturity.) The crest is an erogenous zone for both genders and is very sensitive, particularly for young males while their spines are growing out. This happens during their equivalent of puberty.

Like terrestrial reptiles, the Gorn continually grow throughout their lifetimes so pinning down average size is difficult. Also, the castes are known to be differentiated by size. Growth seems to slow considerably beyond around age 50, however. Note that there is a distinct age difference between being a fully matured adult at 24 and "fully grown" at 50. The average 50-year-old male soldier is about 2.2m tall (7' 3") and has a mass of 215kg. (474lbs.) As with most terrestrial reptiles, a sexual dimorphism is expressed in the females being somewhat larger than the males (by about 10%, all other factors being equal.) Because they continue to grow over their extremely long lifespans, the Gorn can eventually reach truly enormous sizes. An elder female Soldier may easily reach 3.6m (nearly 12') and 460kg (over 1000lbs.)

In spite of their massive bulk, the Gorn can move extremely quickly when they need to, much like terrestrial crocodilians. They will often lunge or sprint in combat, and are capable of accelerating from a standstill to over 50kph almost instantly. However, being cold-blooded, such action does sap their energy reserves considerably, and so they will usually move much more slowly to conserve their strength for emergencies. This gives casual observers the illusion that they are by nature slow and lumbering. They are not. Over short distances and time intervals they are at least as fast and agile as any humanoid — comparable to linemen in the Human game of American Football. And being cold-blooded with the extremely low resting metabolism that entails they can store massive amounts of energy, giving them stamina reserves to out last Humans in a fight.

The Gorn have evolved to be the perfect apex predator for their environments — swampy, humid ground, savannas or deserts. In swamps or savanna watering holes they can move much like terrestrial crocodiles, with only their eyes, nostrils, and crests showing, making them the ultimate ambush predators, able to sneak up slowly, disguised as flotsam, and strike at prey drinking the water from the shoreline with astounding speed. In the deserts, where net calorie availability is low, they are perfectly adapted to a sit-and-wait strategy, with their ability to go for days or even weeks without food, and when they find prey, they can either chase it down in a sprint or simply outlast it. They are also keenly adapted to hunting at night. They have a sense of smell that is superior to all mammals, decent hearing, and good natural night vision. Further, their splayed, three-toed foot, which seems almost oversized, gives them superior weight distribution for muffling their footsteps, allowing them to stalk their prey in absolute silence, on all but the hardest of grounds. And being reptiles they have very little if any body odor.

The Gorn body is extremely resilient, capable of shrugging terrific blows that would kill any humanoid and even surviving a large chemically-propelled projectile being fired into the chest point-blank. Furthermore, their cells regenerate at an amazing rate, allowing them to quickly recover from significant injuries with little scarring.

Humanoid prejudices lead many people to assume that the Gorn are slow witted. This is a potentially fatal mistake, as the Gorn are best described as being “fiercely intelligent.” This was demonstrated at first contact in the 23rd century by the fact that Gorn technology was at least equal and in some ways superior to that of Starfleet. The Gorn of that time were even able to generate feedback pulse with a Starfleet tricorder's sensor scans, causing that tricorder to overload its energy cells and explode. They also had sophisticated voice duplicator technology. They are highly adept at learning new languages, apparently able to work out English well enough from their captives at Cestus III that they could generate a false message to lure in the Enterprise.

As far as vocalizations, the Gorn form the vocal component of their language (which also includes body language) is formed mostly not in the throat and mouth as with humanoids, but more in resonant cavities inside their skulls, which they can manipulate to produce their distinctive grumble-hiss speech but a very broad range of sounds outside their normal communication. This enables them to speak almost any language they encounter, given enough practice (although still usually with a distinct hissing accent.)

The Gorn internal physiology is roughly analogous to terrestrial reptiles, except they have two cloacal openings: one for reproduction, the other for waste removal. Their organs are large, proportionate to the rest of their bodies, but they lack any redundancy. (According to one source, those of the Technical caste have multiple stomachs, but this is solely to aid digestion.)

The Gorn possess sharp claws on all four limbs as well as an array of very sharp teeth set in powerful jaws. The Gorn will often use these natural weapons in combat. Dr. Phlox of the Mirror Universe once quipped that the Gorn's bite was comparable to that of a Velociraptor (an extinct terrestrial dinosaur.) This would be grossly inaccurate, considering the true Velociraptor mongoliensis was roughly the size of a large turkey. However, Mirror Phlox may have only known of the species from its portrayal in Earth's popular media, in which it is usually depicted as being roughly equal in size to the Gorn the Mirror NX-01 encountered (Foreman Slar.) The bite strength of Deinonychus antirrhopus — a dinosaur much closer to Slar’s size — has been estimated at between 5,000 and 6,500 psi — somewhere between a bull alligator and a great white shark. A fully-matured Gorn Soldier can easily kill a Klingon man with a single bite.

History

- In ancient times (500,000+ years ago) the Gorn or their ancestors ruled a large swath of the Beta Quadrant and the fringes of the neighboring Alpha Quadrant.

- For some unknown reason they regressed technologically until they lost the ability for space travel and their territory shrank until they inhabited only three planets.

- Eventually, the Gorn on at least one of these planets rediscovered warp drive and set out to explore their corner of space, soon rediscovering their cousins on nearby worlds. (Despite some evolutionary divergence, they were fundamentally genetically identical. This may be the genesis of the Gorn caste system.)

- The reunited Gorn were able to determine that none of their worlds was their true Homeworld. They set out in search of it and found Gornar (or S'sgaron in their language) which had fossil records establishing that their ancestors had lived there for millions of years.

- The Gorn reestablished their Homeworld and set out to recolonize the surrounding space, claiming any planet that had evidence of prior habitation by the Gorn. Apparently they spread out rather slowly, since they’re still trying to reclaim lost worlds by 2409.

- Their first contact with another species was with the Paravians some 20,000 years ago. Hostilities ensued and the Paravians were wiped out. This would indicate that by that time they had warp drive and sufficiently advanced weapons technology to make them capable of carrying out xenocide.

- Sometime around Earth's 8th Century AD the Romulans began to encroach on Gorn space. The Romulans may have began to colonize several uninhabited worlds claimed by the Gorn. The Romulans were eventually repelled from Gorn territory after a centuries-long war. (The Gorn's encounter with the Romulans clouded their view of mammals and led to a xenophobic, racial superiority attitude which permeated the culture for many years to follow.)

- By the mid-22nd Century, the Gorn had made contact and established trade relations with the Orions. By this time their centralized government is known as the Gorn Hegemony.

- First Contact with the United Federation of Planets was disastrous, to say the least. In 2267 the Gorn reacted to an incursion into their territory and sent a ship to eradicate the Human remote outpost established on Cestus III. Seeking to gauge the strength of this new species, the Gorn lure the Federation starship Enterprise to the planet with a false message. After a brief firefight on the ground, the encounter moves to space where the Enterprise and the Gorn ship find themselves evenly matched. The Gorn retreat to report to their commanders. The Enterprise pursues, and the chase passes near a previously uncharted system inhabited by the Metrons. Sensing unacceptable levels of hostility, the Metrons immobilize the two ships and transport the Gorn captain (Captain S’slee) and Captain Kirk of the Enterprise to the surface a suitably-prepared planet to settle their differences mano-a-mano. The fight progresses slowly, as Kirk seems to be more agile than his opponent, but in reality S’slee is merely toying with him. The Metrons had provided them with communicator-translators, which S’slee uses to taunt Kirk, promising him a swift and merciful end. Kirk begins to converse with the Gorn, and soon realizes that the Humans had intruded on Gorn space. Eventually Kirk seriously wounds the Gorn with a bazooka fashioned from material the Metrons left lying around. Standing over his downed opponent, Kirk yells up at the Metrons that he won’t kill the Gorn for their entertainment. Surprised by the Human’s mercy, the Metrons allow return both parties to their ships and send them on their separate ways.

- Following this inauspicious encounter, further peaceful contact is made and relations between the Federation and the Hegemony soon become much more cordial. Eventually an agreement is reached to cooperatively colonize Cestus III. In spite of their territoriality, the Gorn prove to be considerate neighbors. The Gorn occupy the smaller of the two continents on Cestus III and share the city of Two Rivers with Humans on the Human-settled continent.

- In 2374 a coup d'etat takes place while the Enterprise-E was in orbit of Gornar to enlist the Hegemony's support to fight the Dominion. King Xrathis (the ruling monarch) was agreeable, but a rival faction called the Black Crests was violently against aiding the mammals. The ruling party was brutally toppled, and the isolationist Black Crests moved against Federation colonies on Cestus III and Elkauron II, with several terrorist attacks in advance of an all-out invasion, which was turned back in short but bloody space and land battles at both planets. One city which was devastated by a Black Crest terrorist attack was Two Rivers on Cestus III, which was built and inhabited by both Humans and Gorn (who were loyal to the King.) After suffering defeat in the attempted invasions, the warlord of the Black Crest faction agrees to settle things in a hand-to-hand fight with a champion of Captain Picard's choosing. Data defeats the warlord, King Xrathis is reinstated, and the Gorn Hegemony joins the Federation-Klingon Alliance toward the end of that year.

- By 2379 Hegemony-Federation relations had normalized to the point where the Gorn maintained an embassy on Earth.

- On Stardate 61829.83 (2384.10.30) acting against orders a Gorn ship attacks the IKS Quv in the space between the Hegemony and the Klingon Empire. 207 Klingons die but King Xrathis refuses to surrender the surviving Klingons taken captive. In response, Chancellor Martok sends additional ships to their common border and expels Gorn diplomats.

- In 2386 King Xrathis dies of natural cause, his son, Crown Prince Slathis, ascends to the throne. He re-enforces the Gorn-Klingon border. Several skirmishes are reported soon after.

- That same year on Stardate 63504.74 (2386.07.02,) the Klingon-Gorn War begins when the KDF bombards the Gorn colony at Gila IV. After two days of bloody battle with the defenders the Klingon Empire conquers the planet. Due to the worsening relationship between the Hegemony and the Klingon Empire, the United Federation of Planets offers to mediate talks between the two powers. The conflict quiets after the battle.

- In 2389, the war erupts again when the Gorn and Klingons struggle for control of the Gamma Orionis System. King Slathis negotiates a beneficial deal with the Chief of the Nausicaans: for contributing weapons and ships the Nausicaans get the rights to several asteroid belts and a substantial payment. Despite the reinforcement of the Gorn military the Klingons refuse to surrender the system and win several battles. Starfleet Intelligence projects that the conflict won't end anytime soon.

- Due to increased Nausicaan raids in the Gorn-Federation borderland, in 2390 the Federation again offers to mediate between the warring states at a neutral location. However, the preliminary talks drag on for weeks and come to an abrupt halt when Chancellor Martok demands Starfleet to remove its ships from the Romulan-Klingon border.

- The following year, Starfleet submits to Martok's demand and reassigns its ships to fight the Nausicaan raiders. In response, the Klingon Chancellor agrees to participate in peace talks. Representatives from the Klingons, Gorn and Nausicaans meet at Deep Space K-7. Despite initial progress the talks fail when Gorn Ambassador Zogozin is seriously injured by a hidden explosive device two days into the conference. Station security finds evidence that Klingon extremist J’dah is responsible for the attack, however, he is killed by someone unknown.

- Following the failure of the talks the Klingons advance deeper into Gorn territory. To protect their Homeworld the Gorn recall ships from several outlying colonies. King Slathis tries to hire Lethean mercenaries but outside analysts doubt the Gorn have the resources to pay both Nausicaans and Letheans.

- In 2392, Cestus III hosts renewed peace talks between the Gorn and Klingons A big success with the Gorn Duke Gromo signing the treaty with the Klingon Chancellor.

The Caste System

The Gorn are divided into three biologically-distinct castes: the Soldiers, the Intellectuals and the Technicals.

The castes are considered “separate but equal” with an emphasis on “equal” in Gorn society (hence, Gorn Hegemony,) as every caste is acknowledged to fill a vital role within the society at large. Interbreeding between castes is not only genetically possible, but actually encouraged as hybrids provide much needed diversification of skills. (Due to size differences, a pairing between a Soldier and a Technical is impractical, unless the Soldier is young and the Technical is an elder, or unless they were already hybrids and therefore closer in size.) Gorn hatchlings are always born into their father's caste. Children undergo caste-specific secondary education (somewhere between high school and college-level; think military academy or trade school) in order to prepare them for any career available to their caste.

Soldiers

These are the warriors of the Hegemony. To serve as an officer in the Gorn Defense Command or any enlisted combat role you must be born into the Soldier caste. Conversely, every Soldier is required by Gorn law to either enlist in the GDC or apply to a War College by their 30th birthday. Many Gorn soldiers, especially those from poorer families, will enlist straight out of soldier school, before they reach Age of Maturity. Enlisted Soldiers are required to serve for at least ten years, and then may re-enlist for a five-year period. Officers must serve no fewer than fifty years. After one hundred years of service both officers and enlisted become eligible for pension benefits. Retired Soldiers often start second careers in police forces, colonial militia, and consulting or managing jobs in the defense industry. Soldier hybrids may also become very successful scientists, surgeons, engineers and executives. This caste is physically the largest and the population size is quite large as well, but nowhere near as large as the Technicals.

Intellectuals

Despite their name, the Intellectuals are only marginally more intelligent than the other castes. They are the least populous and are physically midway in size between the Soldiers and Technicals. Intellectual families tend to be at least upper-middle-class, and most of the wealthiest families and all of the families involved in Gorn politics (including the Royalty) are headed by Intellectuals. They are required to attend a university by their 30th birthday. They follow careers in politics, education, science, medicine, business, commerce, clergy and the arts. Hybrids may also serve as administrators, executives, engineers or architects.

Technicals

Though less prestigious than the other castes, the Technicals are arguably the most necessary for the Gorn society to function. They handle everything from common labor and mining to infrastructure support and raising crops and livestock. Consequently, they are the most numerous caste as well as the smallest in stature. Hybrids make excellent supervisors, engineers, or fill support roles in the GDC. The only specific legal requirement for the Technical caste is that they must either begin a career or pursue higher education by their 30th birthday.

Hybrids

As mentioned above, a Hybrid is the offspring of parents from two different castes, and such pairings are encouraged for the diversification of skills that result. The six hybrid types are as follows:

- Science-Soldiers: these result from a Soldier father and an Intellectual mother. They make excellent commanding officers, medical officers, and obviously science officers. They also make outstanding tacticians and strategists; GDC HQ is stacked with these hybrids, many of which are more Intellectual than Soldier in terms of heritage.

- Engineer-Soldiers: the offspring of a Soldier father and a Technical mother. Difficult to produce due to the size difference, but not as difficult as the converse. It is made easier if one or both parents are hybrids themselves. Obviously these hybrids make excellent combat engineers and engineering officers, and skilled commanders as well thanks to the “I can fix this” mindset of the Technical.

- Warrior-Intellectual: the progeny of a Soldier mother and an Intellectual father. Politics, education, administration, business and medicine are all among many valid career paths for these hybrids. The Royal Family line is made up entirely of Warrior-Intellectuals. (This leads to an interesting case where, due to the fathers of the line always being Warrior-Intellectuals and their mates (the mothers of the Royalty) always being of the Soldier caste to produce Warrior-Intellectual offspring, the Intellectual blood in the line has been diluted out to the point where the Royalty is actually more pure Soldier than most Soldier-caste families.)

- Techie-Intellectual: the child of an Intellectual father and a Technical mother. Most of these end up being engineers, architects, educators, merchants or public administrators.

- Military-Technical: as mentioned the coupling of a Soldier mother and Technical father is not usually practical due the size difference, unless the parents are hybrids themselves and/or if the mother is much younger than the father. These hybrids are highly sought-after as non-combatant non-commissioned officers and especially as shipboard engineers. They also often serve aboard commercial shipping and not uncommonly command civilian cargo vessels.

- Poly-Technical: an Intellectual mother and a Technical father will produce this common hybrid, which forms the bulk of the Gorn industrial workforce.

As mentioned, hybrids often produce other hybrids, but since all Gorn default at hatching into the three castes, there are is no further breakdown of hybrid pairings like Warrior-Intel-Poly-Technical. */ For example, my characters Ssharki and Cal are both Engineer-Soldier hybrids. But their parents were also hybrids. Ssharki’s father was a Science-Soldier and his mother a Military-Technical, making him two parts Soldier, one part Intellectual and only one part Technical, accounting for his impressive size and “hit it until it works!” approach to engineering problems. (Which actually works on most Klingon ships.) Cal, on the other hand, was also born of a Science-Soldier father but his mother was a Poly-Technical, making him two parts Intellectual and only one part Soldier. This accounts for his engineering genius./*

The Four Sides of Life

In many Gorn homes you will find four candles constantly burning. These candles represent the idea of the Four Sides of Life: Family, Honor, Service and Faith. This concept is the foundation on which the Gorn society is built: Family cares for its own. One must always uphold one’s Honor. All must Serve a greater purpose than themselves. To be Gorn is to have Faith in S’Yahazah and her Plan.

Family

Family is of paramount importance to the Gorn. The Gorn mate for life, and reproduce slowly. Females are typically in cycle to bear eggs only once every six years on average for Soldiers and Intellectuals; Technicals’ reproductive cycles work at twice that rate. Technicals may be ovoviviparous although that is in dispute. Soldiers and Intellectuals normally lay only one egg at a time (although clutches of two or three eggs are not unheard-of) and eggs take over two years to incubate. However, the Gorn remain fertile until death. Due to this fact and along with their extremely long lifespans, it is not at all uncommon to have siblings born hundreds of years apart. Or two Gorn could be the same age, and one could be the other's great-great-great-uncle.

Due to the relative infrequency of the Gorn reproductive cycle, they have a seemingly reduced libido compared to other sapient species. While it is true that a Gorn Soldier can remain abstinent throughout their century-plus military career, the Gorn do enjoy physical intimacy and will often take “pleasure-mates” (as opposed to “lifemates”) for a night or longer. Occassionaly this will result in the female having a fertilized egg, and this would obligate her partner to take her as his lifemate. (There is a bit of a cultural stigma associated with this; due to the Gorn’s very long and very predictable reproductive cycle, this usually results only because of carelessness on the female’s part, or because she wants her partner to be her lifemate but can’t persuade him to claim her.) The terms “contraceptive” and “abortion” are completely foreign to the Gorn, as they believe that life is a gift from S’Yahazah. (More on this under Faith...)

Homosexuality and bisexuality are not culturally taboo in the context of pleasure-mates. It is in fact fairly common, particularly among horny adolescent males who find it much easier to rub against each other than talk to a female. However, there is a strong impetus against taking another of the same sex as their lifemate. The Gorn believe the purpose of life is to beget life, and when you take a lifemate you are committing to producing offspring. (It's even in the ritual vow recited in the bonding ceremony.) So a pairing that doesn't produce offspring is pointless. However, this attitude is changing as more and more unbonded same-sex couples are adopting war orphans, and even petitioning the more liberal priests for bonding so that both partners are recognized as having full parental rights.

The Gorn are patriarchal, and fathers always have the final say in what is best for the family. Children remain close to their parents and siblings through their entire lives. Immediate family members are to be counted on to defend one another from any threat or peril. Children are raised to respect and obey their parents and older siblings. It is the responsibility of the children to care for their parents in their old age. If the parents of a Gorn child (under 24) are deceased, responsibility for the care of that child falls on the oldest sibling. Adoption is also common in these cases. Often single, older Gorn (widows or unmarried retirees) will adopt and care for orphans.

Many thousands of young Gorn were orphaned during the war with the Klingons. When the war ended, the Klingons conscripted many of these orphans, either not realizing or not caring that the Gorn mature at only half the rate that Klingons do and that these children were not ready for military service. In the Klingon Empire, legal age of conscription is 15 (in Earth years) and 11 for voluntary enlistment with a guardian’s consent. As losses mounted in the war against the Federation, some Klingon-administered orphanages were encouraged to “volunteer” Gorn children as young as eleven for service. (That is the equivalent of a Human eight-year-old.) This practice has ceased, as the Klingons were made to understand Gorn maturation rates and the consequences of thrusting unprepared, undeveloped minds into battle.

Honor

The Gorn concept of what is honorable differs greatly from the Klingon's personal honor (quv) and cultural Honor (batlh.) There is great variety among the Gorn when it comes to personal codes of honor. Universal to all however is the idea that no Gorn shall take a life without just cause. (Life being a gift from S’Yahazah.)

A Gorn who has lost his honor must strive to reclaim it, even if doing so is impossible. This can be a terrible burden for one to bear, depending on how strongly they believe in honor. There is a Gorn murder-suicide ritual that has mostly gone out of practice called <Claiming-Another's-Dishonor-As-One’s-Own> that takes place between very close friends, lifemates, siblings, and very rarely among parent-child relationships, when one Gorn (X) has dishonored himself terribly and the other (Y) can’t bear to see him suffer as he tries futilely to reclaim his honor. Y would approach X in private and say to him solemnly something along the lines of “It’s killing me to see you this way. Would you allow me to end this for us?” If X accepts, Y would settle their affairs and arrange a murder-suicide in a way that left as little mess as possible for their next-of-kin. This ritual would require the sanction of a Priest of S’Yahazah, and they would have to demonstrate that S’Yahazah’s gift (i.e., their lives) had become irrecoverably tainted and had to be thrown away.

Service

The idea of service to something greater than yourself is a core ideal shared by all Gorn. What exactly they serve will vary greatly according to the individual. It could be the King or the family, or it could just be their commanding officer or their employer.

Faith

The Gorn believe that when the universe was new, two great beings made their nest in the Milky Way Galaxy. They are called S'Yahazah the Egg-Bringer and the Great Father (or The Nameless One or He-That-Is-Not-Named.) After mating, the female laid many eggs, which the Great Father then tried to eat. S'Yahazah, being the bigger of the two, pushed the Great Father out of the nest and off into intergalactic space. She then hid her eggs on S'sgaron (Gornar) and out of these eggs hatched the first Gorn.

S'Yahazah is revered by the Gorn as the one who brings mothers their eggs. Life is a gift from S’Yahazah and a gift to be accepted gratefully. It is said that every Gorn's spirit has descended from S'Yahazah through the egg, and that the spirit returns to S'Yahazah when they die. */ It is unclear whether the Gorn view this as some sort of afterlife, or a process of reincarnation, or both, or neither. /* There is at least one case of a Gorn praying that S'Yahazah guide the spirit of a fallen Bajoran comrade to the Temple of the Prophets, implying that the Gorn acknowledge the validity of other religions and suppose that S'Yahazah has the power to intercede on behalf of anyone's soul. When this Gorn was later killed in action, several Bajorans supplanted S'Yahazah to allow his spirit to enter the Temple as well. */ I'd like to think that S’Yahazah would permit this. /*

As for the Great Father, he is not quite a devil figure in the Gorn religion — it's more that he's not acknowledged as having any power at all. Although Gorn mothers will often threaten their children that the Great Father will eat them if they don't behave.

There's a variety of religious rituals (some held annually, others at irregular intervals) like the Reverence Ritual for S’Yahazah and there is a priesthood order called the Priests of S’Yahazah which conducts religious affairs and other rituals like bonding ceremonies (marriages) and funeral rites. */ The priests are males, and apparently they conduct rituals and speak directly to S’Yahazah. Based on my extrapolations of Gorn fashion I believe the priestly attire would be quite ostentatious. Between this and the similarity of their function, I imagine the Priests of S’Yahazah would be much like the Levite Priests at the height of King Solomon’s reign./*

Trivia

- The Gorn Hegemony is just that — a Hegemony. @aliendujour has more on this, from a post that I saw but forgot about 18 months ago and just found again as I was copying out the OP:

There are several ways to use the term hegemony, but a cultural hegemony is a system where one ruling group (the hegemon) dominates the other groups culturally. They do this by setting / manipulating the beliefs, norms and values of the others so that the hegemon's worldview becomes everyone's worldview. Sort of like the way Western powers tried to supplant native cultures in North America, Africa... etc. during the 18th & 19th centuries.

So if Gorn society uses a strictly hegemonic system we can imply some interesting things:

Whichever group is dominant will set the culture for all of the Gorn. No doubt the monarch rules the dominant group.

Gorn space could potentially be a series of worlds that are officially independent but who all follow the monarch for cultural rather than political reasons.

A group of Gorn would be super zealous about protecting & controlling their turf from the other groups since both their culture and their independence are at risk.

Any species the Gorn dominate would probably keep their native government but would be expected to adopt Gorn culture.

Whoever conquers the Gorn (i.e. the Klingon Empire) and becomes the new dominant group will find many Gorn quickly, if not happily, adopt the victor's cultural values. This would help explain why conquered people are serving as "Klingon warriors" so soon after their conquest.

- The Gorn Hegemony is governed by a Constitutional Monarchy, consisting of a King who serves as the head of state, a Council of Ministers who serve at his pleasure, and a parliament elected by the people. Voting in biannual elections is compulsory for all adult Gorn.

- Scale color is hereditary and those with bluish scales are said to be spiritually pure and specially blessed by S’Yahazah. All members of the Royal Family have blue scales, as do the priests.

- The Gorn prefer extreme climates: either hot, dry and windy or what mammals would consider oppressively humid. They also enjoy a good soak. Urban Gorn will visit public soak-pools (similar to the public baths of many Earth cultures) and wealthy or influential Gorn will often have soak-pools in their homes. They will submerge themselves up to their nostrils in shallow water and sit there motionless for hours. They also will use these public pools as a social forum, again similar to many Earth cultures. Gorn living in rural areas will often visit nearby lakes, rivers or seashores.

- The Gorn do not share the humanoid notion of modesty. (Probably because like terrestrial reptiles their genitalia is completely internal unless they are suitably aroused.) However they do wear clothing to denote function, status or rank. I’ve extrapolated Gorn fashion from the uniform of S’slee (the Gorn Captain from TOS: “Arena”) the similarly berobed Elysian Councilor (seen in TAS: “The Time Trap”) and the workman’s uniform worn by Mirror Slar (in ENT: “In a Mirror Darkly.”) You'll note they all have similar design elements: a sleeveless tunic with a tight collar that descends to mid-thigh, with a belt around the waist. S’slee and the unnamed Councilor are wearing patterned gold silk (and wearing it well!) while Slar's is sporting simple brown leather. S’slee’s tunic is also bedecked with what appear to be gemstones. So we see that, in the 22nd and 23rd centuries at least, the Gorn wore very simple, one-piece clothes of a similar pattern regardless of caste or social status, differentiated by material and ornamentation. (Of course, the only reason that S’slee, the original Gorn was dressed that way was to hide the seams in Bobby Clark’s rubber costume. TAS just copied TOS and it’s pretty certain that “In A Mirror Darkly” was Manny Coto’s way of saying “Yes, Trekkies, we remember where we came from.” and Slar’s outfit was just another one of those touches of the familiar.)

- At least one Gorn colony world used a type of crystal called the szeket as a form of currency in the mid-23rd Century.

- Despite being viewed as isolationist xenophobes, the Gorn maintain freeports on several outlying colonies from which they conduct trade with other species. It is not clear exactly what they export besides the alcoholic beverage meridor (the “finest in the five systems”, according to one Orion) but they do possess great mineral wealth on worlds and asteroids within their territory.

- The Gorn are noted for patience and pragmatism being near-universal racial traits. Eidetic memory is also common in the species to varying degrees. They also have ancestral memories; they are able to recall memories of their parents, grandparents, and generations past.

- The Gorn are able to learn new languages very quickly, and with practice can speak most of them. Human English (Fed-Standard) is the easiest for them to speak, or at least the one they’ve had the most practice with, after nearly 140 years of mostly-peaceful relations with the Federation. (It would be taught in schools.) However, they regard humanoid language as unsophisticated and lacking in nuance, and so many will rely on universal translators to convey what they say in their language, which includes posture cues and other body language in addition to their complex, multi-tonal grumble-hiss speech. */ @Iconians pointed out that the Gorn do not appear to be able to communicate without the use of a translator based on canon appearances and Madame Ambassador S’taass in-game. I counter with the following points, in chronological order: S’slee had just made first contact with Humans a few days ago, and while he or some of his crew or his ship’s computer had worked out their language, he hadn’t had time to learn to speak it. Plus, the Metron’s provided him with a communicator/translator, why not use it. I mean when you’re taunting an opponent you expect to soon crush with your middle toe, you want to make certain your victim will get the full meaning of your taunts. Also, Kirk was often too far away to just yell. Slar had been foreman over a large number of alien slaves captured by the Tholians; he needed to make certain his orders were understood in several different languages at once. And then S’taass, like S’slee, likely uses a translator to ensure the full meaning of her word-gestures are conveyed, which they simply can’t be using the clumsier, coarser languages of mammals. Additionally, we have the example of Warden Gazzan, mentioned above under Physiology. /*

- The Gorn language (which is called variously “Gorn,” “Gorn-speak,” “Gorn-ish” or simply The Language depending on who you ask) has evolved over time. However there are some populations of Gorn who speak a dialect known as “The Old Language” which dates back to before first contact with the Romulans. It is distinguished by having a sharper, hiss-crackle sound compared to the modern language’s grumble-hiss.

- The Gorn take great pride of ownership. Even the poorest families will make an effort to keep their homes looking nice. Gorn decorations include colored glass windows (many beset with gemstones if the family can afford them,) brightly colored awnings, and most especially windchimes, if they live as most do in a windy area. They like their homes to sound beautiful as well as look beautiful. Inside, they will have throw pillows and vibrantly colorful tapestries.

- In addition to bright visual arts, Gorn enjoy poetry-dances, music with and without poetic-dance accompaniment, and olfactory media arts. Gorn musical styles tend toward deep, thumping, bass rhythms that would often be below the range of hearing for humans. It would be safe to say the Gorn prefer music that can be felt as well as heard. This would be likely because the Gorn, being evolved from lizards, would have used vibrations in the ground to alert them to danger or the approach of prey, especially when their other senses were inactive. (Like when they were napping in the sun, for instance.) The indigenous artform of <painted-smells> has long been a Gorn mainstay and no museum of Gorn art is considered complete with a broad sampling of the works of the great <painters-of-smells>. Contact with the Karrank}{, though, revolutionized the olfactory arts and indeed musical poetic forms, with the introduction of an element the Gorn now call the <scent-of-a-sound>. Some young Gorn musician-poet-dancers have taken to blending Human styles of music such as dubmetal with Karrank}{ scent-music to create rather unique full-sensory performances that are best experienced live.

- The Gorn enjoy strategy games that take a long time to complete. (One Gorn complained that his match of three-dimensional chess with a Vulcan was over too fast.) They also like athletic competitions that require strategies for success.

- The Gorn often take a long time to make up their minds, preferring to deliberate and consider all their options. But once they set themselves to a task it is best not to get in their way.

- The Gorn are primarily carnivorous but will eat almost anything. They generally are not adverse to trying new things. They do prefer non-replicated food, however. A particular Gorn delicacy is heart of pflaam, which is a Gorn plant that is shaped roughly like a colossal pineapple, and is every bit as delicious.

- Traditionally, female Soldiers are never placed in a position where they would have to make a life-or-death command decision. Females are revered as life-givers, and it is believed that the burden of sending someone to die should fall to a male.