Kalean: Difference between revisions
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==Mythology== | ==Mythology== | ||
Ancient Kalean mythology is as rich and detailed as it is utterly bloody, gruesome and dark. Not taking sensitivity to the reader in mind, ancient Kalean storytellers were heavily influenced by the dismal, miserable lives they lived and showed little interest in the lives of their heroes being any different. | |||
''“And so Ithagabaar returned to King Sithedenia with the head of the killiko in hand and upon it’s presentation to the royal court, Sithedenia had Ithagabaar executed because he might have challenged Sithedenia’s reign if it was learned that Sithedenia himself had not killed the Killiko that terrorized his kingdom.”'' | |||
-Book 10, Final Verse of the Ithagabarthia, (Roughly) translated by Commander Patrice Raleigh, Starfleet Anthropologist. | |||
Though the Kaleans are still not known for their sensitivity, it is more customary to tell stories surrounding the overthrow of the Plutocracy and the heroism of the common people that finally broke the cycle of Kalean oppression. Kalean versions of ‘bedtime stories’ are tales of the exploits of these common born heroes or (more commonly) tales of famous Kalean scientists who accomplished much in their lifetime and different ancestors or relatives who also gained high praise for their studies in their respective fields. | |||
==Society== | ==Society== |
Revision as of 22:34, 1 March 2013
Intelligent Lifeform Index |
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Kalean | |
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Four Letter Code | KALE |
Federation Status | Neutral |
Planet of Origin | Unknown |
Encountered | DS9: Dramatis Personae |
T/E Rating | T0/E0 |
Current Tech Level | N |
List of Named Kaleans | |
Full ILI Gallery • Permitted Species Gallery | |
There not much known about this species, other than while on Rochani III, Curzon Dax and Ben Sisko were once confronted by an unfriendly group of Kaleans.
Name
- Proper Name: Kalean
- Pronunciation: 'Kaeyl-lee-an'
Home System
- Quadrant: Beta
- Location: Gamma Hydra Sector
- Proper Name: Issara System
- Pronunciation: E-saar-a
- Star: It orbits a class G (Yellow) star
- Distance from Star: 224,396,806 KM
- Companions: 15 other planets. It is the 5th planet in the system
Home World
- Proper Name: Lazow
- Pronunciation: 'La-zow'
- Diameter: 12,749 km (7,968 miles)
- Gravity: 1.16 standard gravity with a density of 5.8
- Axial Tilt: 5.87%, Marginal changes in season
- Orbital Period: 412 days
- Rotational Period: 28 hours
- Classification: P
- Surface Water: 15%
- Atmosphere: 1.07 is a standard pressure with 65% nitrogen, 24% oxygen, 9% Trace chemicals
- Climate: Cold over most of the surface, near tropical climate within the Volcanic Zones.
- Population: 1.34 Billion
History
Introduction
We were born of crystal and ice. We were molded in the flames of war. We have known slavery and oppression from our own people. We have risen up from our cycle of poverty and oppression to become the personification of genius. You are 'Kalean', one of the people, and through your intellect our race will continue to rise and show the other races that brains, not brawn, build civilizations... -Final Blessing of the Kalean Deudodosia
A people who worship science and are all too willing to use it, the Kaleans are perhaps the universal example that morality isn't always black and white and perhaps there is too high a price to pay for technological advancement. The Kaleans have saved millions with their cutting edge medical technology that has become standard Alpha Quadrant issue, but they have also (Before the time of the Federation) obliterated entire colonies in the name of science and advancement. Genetic engineering, live experimentation, biological warfare, the Kaleans have done it all in centuries past. Most Kaleans will point out that most of these atrocities were committed under the auspices of their former Plutocracy two thousand years ago, though this is not strictly accurate. Kalean brutality on a large scale might have ceased but well hidden incidents of ethical breaches are recorded by Starfleet Intelligence, when confronted the Kaleans will always respond that the Federation is naive and a group of "Pot Kettle Blacks" for condeming Kalean research but reaping the benefits of it.
Historically the Kaleans had a strong tradition of the wealthy and powerful oppressing the masses, with systematic abuses being committed daily. The concept of basic rights didn't even become a concrete concept until their Industrial Revolution when the people of one nation rebelled against their aristocratic tyrants and showed no mercy to anyone who was a part of, or even sympathetic to the Oligarchy. While the Kaleans continued to be ruled by greedy capitalist Plutocrats for several hundred more years, in 330 AD the people had enough and went on a frenzy to wipe out any established Upper Class. Over the next ten years after all the rich were either dead or inprisoned, the Kaleans went about extensively reforming their culture into one truly dedicated to science. The profit motive has been eliminated, competition is for the glory of ego than for money, and the Kaleans now boast the only true Egalitarian society in the Quadrant.
Today the Kaleans are noted as dedicated and brilliant scientists who were the originators of most modern technology, but they are also known for their arrogance, supremacist tendencies, and continuing un-ethical conduct in the name of science.
Crystal and Ice, Blood and Fire (7,000 years ago)
The Kalean race evolved on the frozen world of Lazow in the Issara system. The Kaleans make their homes in small volcanic zones where the heat of active volcanoes makes life possible. In these small areas the Kalean race developed though little exists of their evolutionary process, which gives credit to the theory that Lazow was not always a frozen wasteland and entered an ice age about 9,000 years ago. It is theorized that the Kaleans survived by seeking refuge in the vicinity of these volcanoes and started to build their first cities.
When the Kaleans started to burrow under the ice and through it to reach other Kaleans in other hotzones, the reaction was violent. These wars for supremacy between different Warlords would play out for over 2,000 years. Technological change was slow and almost every advancement was a by-product of military inventions. This era also began the Kalean cycle of the few controling the weak in a very brutal fashion. The Kaleans had no garunteed rights during this era and were completly at the mercy of their Lord and his lackies.
During this time the Kaleans first began to explore the hollows of their homeworld, a giant interconnected subterrainian cave network that extends over most of the planet. The Hollows would later serve as trade routes, military supply lines, and room to expand Kalean Empires.
The Kalean ancient era came to an end five thousand years ago when different Warlords started to unify to form larger Kingdoms.
Hot Blooded, Cold Minded (5,000 years ago)
The next era of Kalean history is comparable to Earth's middle ages, and no less terrifying in the utterly squalid conditions most of the population were faced with as the Feudal Lords sat upon their thrones and were granted total authority on how to deal with their individual populations. Justice only applied to Peasant on Peasant crimes, nobles were exempt and free to do as they pleased lest they were in direct conflict with the King or Queen of the land. This lack of balance keeping the nobles from harming the people further continued the tradition of Kalean Oligarchy.
Brutal wars continued and the Hollows became the new battleground, filled with armies of conscripted farmers. The Kalean Lords did not understand the fact that they needed the farmers in order to keep their economy going and since women were religiously mandated to remain in the home, the land went uncultivated. Without a steady food supply thousands starved and eventually not even the nobles could find enough food to fill their halls. In this time the Lords made a deal with the Kalean religious sects to allow women to fill the places of their husbands, fathers, and sons out at war, a step in the right direction, but for all the wrong reasons. Historically this is the advent of famous Kalean gender equality and the expansion of gender roles, but the reasons for this change were based in greed and not doing right by the people.
Eventually at the end of this period in their history the Hollows emptied their armies and were filled by colonists flooding in from the increasingly crowded surface to start a new life in the Hollows were new cities could be built, raw materials could be easily mined and fabulous new riches could be used to fund the ceaseless campaigns of the Kalean Lords. However with the advent of using Lazow's naturally abundant Crystals as a weapon material, all the Kingdoms of the Kaleans began a mass arms race in preparation for what would become one of the most brutal periods in their history.
The Drums of War (4,500 years ago)
The Kalean people braced for war as their rulers massed armies and weapons to use against one another. Feudal terror continued as the nobles were allowed to do as they pleased and the people still suffered unimaginably.
When war finally did come the result was four hundred and thirty years of ceaseless conflict. Secular, religious, wars of all kinds sprung up in this period and due to regimes constantly being formed, dissolved, restored and toppled again, very little in the way of official documentation has survived from this period.
However in the darks of the Hollows a secret group of scholars from every corner of Lazow convened to pursue their research free of the constant warfare and interference from their respective rulers. This group would later be known as The Court, and while it's existence would not be known to the greater populace for over four thousand years, The Court advanced Kalean domestic and civil technology instead of building new weapons. Their inventions would then be attributed to an intermediary of the order who would introduce them into wider society.
Eventually as science began to take hold of the wider populace, the Kalean commoners started to question the legitimacy of their ruler's oppression and the seeds of dissent started to be planted within the minds of Kaleans, though it would take a few hundred more years for lasting change to come about.
Reason vs Terror (4,000 years ago)
During this period of history, The Kalean Court started to spread not only inventions to improve the quality of life, but spread ideas as well. Eventually several ideas took absolute hold of the Kalean population, paramount among those was the ideal of 'Dshevrash', equality. Another idea that took hold of the population was the concept of 'reason' and that people should be ever examining both themselves and the world around them.
Eventually however, news of the peasants preaching ideas that could and would seriously threaten the survival of the brutal regimes that ruled over the Kalean population spread and the rulers at the head of these governments put together a four hundred year inquisition against the ideals of the Peasantry masked as a religious purification (At this point even the Kalean religious sects had to bow to the might of the secular rulers).
The estimate of how many Kaleans died during these three hundred and ninety seven years of mass murder are estimated to be over a hundred million... in the most conservative estimates.
The Rise of Science (3,500 years ago)
However the Kalean despots might have tried, the destruction of the ideals of the Kalean Court were not so easily destroyed, especially since they hadn't even touched the place where these ideals were coming from. After the Kalean rulers had finished their mass murder of the peasants and believed that the populace had once again become docile, the Court emerged once again, though this time they took a more active role and personally helped the Kalean peasants plan for a series of Revolutions that would not even occur in their lifetime.
The Court's generations long plan would see the complete overthrow of the status quo within the next few centuries. This plan also called for the rapid advancement of Kalean technology, catapulting them from Renaissance era technology to well past the Industrial Revolution to technology comparable to early 20th century Earth.
The sacrifice of the Kalean people to go through with this incredibly ambitious plan was enormous and is the topic of the majority of Kalean drama.
One Revolution to Start Them All (3,200 years ago)
Aristocracy to Plutocracy (3,000 years ago)
To the Stars (2,800 years ago)
The Long Road to Warp (2,750 years ago)
The Azure Demons (2,500 years ago)
The Dawn of the Technocracy (2,000 years ago)
Shades of Blue and Grey (340 AD to the Present)
Government
- Kalean society is divided up into many smaller Sects, small research crews that perform their own experiments in their own fields for their own personal glory. Sects of similar specialization will often compete against one another in a heated race of who can build it best. These Sects are often lead by the one or two most senior or most accomplished members of the group.
- All Sects are overseen by the Kalean Court and the Techart who oversee the foreign relations and mundane day to day running’s of Kalean society. The Techart choses his or her successor and they are expected to rule for no less than 2 years and no more than 10. Most do not aspire to become Techart since it takes them away from their individual research. The few Kaleans devoted to political or social sciences become members of the Kalean Court by default though are never chosen to lead, only advise in order to prevent a dedicated ruling class from emerging once again.
Description
- Blue skinned, pointed eared (Al-Leyan like), white haired.
- Four clawed digits
- Telekenetic ability, only able to move things up to 1.1x their normal carrying capacity
- All Kaleans are born T1/E1 and once they reach puberty these abilities will reach T2/E2, after fully developed physically their Empathic abilities will increase gradually increase to the point of E6 by the end of their lives but their Telepathic abilities will never go beyond those of a Vulcan. Most telepaths find Kaleans extremely hard to read.
- Through genetic engineering the Kalean average lifespan is 850 years, the oldest lived Kalean was 1,003.
Physiology
Kalean physiology was already quite efficent and robust compared to other species but 2500 years of genetic engineering has left its mark on the species as a whole, usually for the better. Compared unfavorably to the Borg for their unrelenting pursuit of biological perfection, the Kaleans are constantly fast tracking their own evolution and the evolution of other species. Outwardly the Kaleans have stayed largely the same but internally and at the cellular level, the species is quite different than from their ancestors a few thousand years ago.
Kaleans have a naturally high intelligence that was further enhanced by genetic engineering. This intelligence is one of their defining characteristics as a people and shapes their society as Kaleans believe they are Genius incarnate and while it is true that Kaleans are vastly more intelligent than most other species, this combination of high natural intelligence further enhanced by unnatural means has led to the Kalean's other signature trait, arrogance.
Kalean internal biology is (On a universal scale) naturally similar to the Andorians though once again, throughout the years, the Kaleans have warped into a marvel of biology with their internal organs not as distinct as many other species and their organ systems are more evenly distributed around their body. Overall they are similar to the Takaran's internally though not to their extreme. Kaleans are resistant to kinetic injury and can survive being run through with a blade several times or shot through the chest half a dozen times but like the Andorians and many other species from colder worlds, the Kaleans are far more sensitive to phaser or energy weapons. The route of this problem lies in the Kalean's naturally high body temperature that gives them extreme resistance to the cold but they also conversely have a lower tolerance for extreme heat and phasers are a significant heat. Kaleans also evolved between extremes though, in tropical volcanic zones surrounded by frozen wastes and while phaser wounds are quite serious, they are by no means a death sentence and Phase Infection is not nearly as fatal to Kaleans than to Andorians.
Kaleans also evolved as hunters and their teeth are subtly sharper than other humanoids, they are also in the minority of humanoid species in that they only possess four clawed digits on both their hands and feet. The Kalean hearing system is also slightly better than humanoid standards though only just. Kalean eyes offer glimpses into the infrared spectrum and their sight is sensitive to areas of extreme heat. This is an evolutionary mutation that was theoretically brought about to help Kaleans detect volcanic hotspots beneath them and where eruptions would occur.
Psychology
- Kaleans have an elitist view of the rest of the galaxy and see the other races as quaint and inferior and most Kanarians see them as intellectual subordinates but useful for a few, select purposes.
- The Kaleans have a deep distain for those completely useless to society in the form of the very rich or the very poor though their disdain for any sort of ruling or upper class is intense and inbred. The poor are only seen as useless if they should begin to leach off of the rest of society but Kaleans recognize that the poor are often victims of the rich.
- Sociopaths and narcissists are more common in Kalean society though these disorders (Despite common belief) are quickly taken care of through intensive therapy, death of personality if needed.
Religion
Kaleans are completely and totally atheistic. The relics of Kalean spirituality where swept away with the advent of the Technocracy and the implementation of institutionalized secularism. Religion is (Technically) legal though the laws governing religious freedom are not enforced, immigrants to Kalean worlds who have some sort of spiritual belief are subject to every kind of discrimination and many face complete ruin. The only thing all Kaleans believe in that could be considered even remotely religious would be their belief that knowledge is the purest expression of the universe and by acquiring more knowledge, a Kalean can better understand the universe. Kaleans report to have found evidence of the afterlife though are unable to describe it beyond the fact that it exists.
Mythology
Ancient Kalean mythology is as rich and detailed as it is utterly bloody, gruesome and dark. Not taking sensitivity to the reader in mind, ancient Kalean storytellers were heavily influenced by the dismal, miserable lives they lived and showed little interest in the lives of their heroes being any different.
“And so Ithagabaar returned to King Sithedenia with the head of the killiko in hand and upon it’s presentation to the royal court, Sithedenia had Ithagabaar executed because he might have challenged Sithedenia’s reign if it was learned that Sithedenia himself had not killed the Killiko that terrorized his kingdom.” -Book 10, Final Verse of the Ithagabarthia, (Roughly) translated by Commander Patrice Raleigh, Starfleet Anthropologist.
Though the Kaleans are still not known for their sensitivity, it is more customary to tell stories surrounding the overthrow of the Plutocracy and the heroism of the common people that finally broke the cycle of Kalean oppression. Kalean versions of ‘bedtime stories’ are tales of the exploits of these common born heroes or (more commonly) tales of famous Kalean scientists who accomplished much in their lifetime and different ancestors or relatives who also gained high praise for their studies in their respective fields.
Society
Culture
Customs
Technology
Economy
The Kalean homeworld of Lazow is incredibly rich in precious gems and valuable ores and after their encounters with the greater galaxy, these abundant natural resources helped to establish the Kaleans as one of the richest races in the quadrant. Since the over-throw of the Plutocrats in 330 AD, their wealth and assets were redistributed among the people and all profits made by Kalean citizens instantly go to the state to be distributed among the populace. This balanced economy has led to extreme equality and a lack of economic classes that plagued Kalean society for so long. Kalean diamonds are prized for their superior natural quality versus natural Earth diamonds and the Kaleans are also equally adept at creating synthesized diamonds of incredible quality. Kalean diamonds are one of the reasons why Kalean computers are so more advanced than those of the Federation and they have incredible processing power and speed.
Crytals also play an important role in the Kalean economy as many cities are carved directly out of crystalline deposits and exporting Kalean Crystalline architecture has become a very lucrative market both for the crystal's strength as a building material and for the crystal's obvious aesthetic value.
Military
Perhaps the biggest lesson Starfleet can learn from the Kaleans is that just because it's big doesn't mean that it's powerful... -Admiral Mitzu Yammamoto upon seeing the KSC Undivine Mercy
Kaleans build massive ships designed to carry tens of thousands of their people to combat over-population on their homeworld and each Kalean ship is designed to house hundreds of Sects, their equipment and lab space for them to work. Kalean ships are under armed proportionate to their size and while their complement consists of unique Plasma based weaponry mixed with missiles. Kalean ships have become increasingly militant since the assimilation of the ship Living Proof by the Borg, with Kaleans developing the most effective and revolutionary armaments against them.
Kalean ships are first and foremost vessels of science though they have proven themselves quite formidable against most threats, though as one Romulan Admiral put it, "Their ships are just too large to be economical to destroy or capture".