Zakdorn

			Intelligent Lifeform Index

Zakdorn
Four Letter Code	ZAKD
Federation Status	Members
Planet of Origin	Zakdor
Encountered	A Zakdorn strategist came on board the USS Enterprise, NCC 1701-D for battle training games (Peak Performance, TNG.)
T/E Rating	T0/E0
Current Tech Level	N+
List of Named Zakdorns
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"An interesting move, foolish but interesting. Checkmate."

a Zakdorn saying.

The Zakdorn are a species of strategists, the ultimate gamer who can often plan 20 to 30 moves ahead. This makes them extremely difficult to beat and many species have avoided any aggressive actions against them for this reason. However the Klingons believe it is a false reputation as they are ill suited to fight in any kind of a physical confrontation. They make fantastic administrators and excel at the duties involved in there complicated positions.

Home System

• Quadrant: Beta
• Location: Abin Zak Sector (coordinates B24-0004-1296)
• Proper Name: Zakdor system
• Star: It orbits a class K (Orange) star
• Distance from Star: its orbit is approximately 63 million km
• Companions: 9 other planets. It is the 4th planet in the system
• Moons: it has 3 moons.

Home World

• Proper Name: Zakdorn
• Diameter: 19,354 km (12,026 miles)
• Gravity: 0.94 standard gravity with a density of 3.4
• Axial Tilt: 28.4% with earthlike seasonal effects
• Orbital Period: 392 days
• Rotational Period: 36 hours
• Classification: M
• Surface Water: 63%
• Atmosphere: 0.98 is a standard pressure with 73% nitrogen, 23% oxygen, 4% trace gases/chemicals
• Climate: Mostly a temperate climate with polar caps
• Terrain: It has a number of mountain ranges, hilly regions, plains and woodlands.
• Population: Just over 7 billion

History

Soon after first contact with the Federation starship USS Gandhi, the Zakdorn became members of the United Federation of Planets in 2344. Known for their pretentious and fussy demeanors, they are nevertheless valued allies, contributing their famed tactical expertise to the defence of the Federation. Historically, other races have been so fearful of the Zakdorn reputation for tactical supremacy that no-one has dared attack them; many Klingons therefore sneer at the reputation, dismissing it as "untested".

For nine millennia, they were regarded by potential foes as having the greatest innately strategic minds in the galaxy. Because of this perception, no one has tested the Zakdorn in combat in recent memory.

In 2365, the master strategist Sirna Kolrami visited the USS Enterprise-D to serve as observer and mediator during a war games exercise in the Braslota system.

They were one of the many species that attended the biennial Trade Agreements Conference held on Betazed in 2366. They operated the Starfleet Surplus Depot Z15 in orbit of Qualor II. Benjamin Sisko and Calvin Hudson were persuaded by Curzon Dax to play a game of dom-jot against two Zakdorn on Pelios Station. The Zakdorn were triumphant and Curzon revealed he had placed a bet on their victory.

Government

The leadership of the people is determined by a very long series of competitions. These start on the day that the new Stratigo is selected and continue for 5 years till the new winner is then determined and becomes the new Stratigo. The next 10 best competitors then become his cabinet and become the leaders of each ministry as selected by the Stratigo.

Description

Zakdorn are humanoids with pouches of thick, fibrous tissue on their cheeks. They have three pouches per cheek. They have pale blue/grey skin with many folds, and the majority of Zakdorns tend to be plump and short, but are not exclusively so.. This has not affected their reputation.

Physiology

The vast majority of them appear to be obese and weak. However they have a fairly complex physiology that is resistant to most diseases and less susceptible to radiation or exposure. They tend to be unusually healthy although they do tend to suffer from a number of weight and eating issues.

Psychology

Their minds are very complex with a natural affinity for organization, analytical thinking and probability calculations. Mental disease is only a problem for the very old. As a people, the Zakdorn were generally replete with self-assuredness and overconfidence.

Religion

The study of old battles and simulations is the closest thing they have to a religion.

Mythology

They repeat, study, and treat old battle simulations and records of actual battles like most other species treat legends and myths. Although in their case they approach it more like a religion as every single citizen has studied the top 10,000 so many times that they have they memorized completely, and in most cases all the variables and possibilities that would have or could have affected the outcome.

Society

They have a very structured society with almost no crime. They also do not have any poverty or hunger. All the people live to a comfortable level that tends to be better than that available to the vast majority of other species of the working class.

Culture

While they do enjoy music, art and other forms of entertainment they reserve most of their down time for strategic contests and games.

Customs

They have a complex series of customs that seem to revolve around their love of strategic competition.

Technology

They are slightly ahead of most Federation member species.

Economy

While many Zakdorn find employment as strategists or planners, the resounding majority serve in bureaucratic or minor political positions. They are almost self sufficient and export very little. They do however import more than they export. These are mostly edibles, wines, ales and other exotic foods.

Military

Zakdorn strategists are of great value to Starfleet's Tactical Command. Other than that they have no military any more. They do maintain 6 very large satellites with extensive defensive capabilities and a large number of long range warning systems around their home world.

Federation Intelligence Files

For more data see the following Federation Intelligence files # TNG-2365-5463, TNG-2366-7316, TNG-2367-9452 and DS9-2369-4190.

The Zakdorn government feels strongly about being granted voting powers equel to the Federation's four founding members, insulted at the notion by the USS Vigilant's captain that all member races of the Federation were equal. When Zakdorn was under internal pressure to secede from the Federation, the Vigilant captain orchestrates a game of strategema against a Zakdorn official to emulate the strengths of his Federation crew - a Rodulan cheated, feeding a Terran their opponent's thoughts, equalling one Zakdorn - however, the Zakdorn opponent was later exposed to be a Klingon spy. The Zakdorn were convinced to remain in the United Federation of Planets, the Zakdorn forgoing their alliance with the Klingon Empire.

In 2391, insulted that Starfleet did not commission a vessel of more 'substance' than a mere Intrepid class ship, Stratigo Bokzadema Bokzadeshti demanded an inspection of the USS Vigilant, claiming that Starfleet received a vessel at a lesser standard than usual from the Zakdorn ship yards than they would have had they taken the vessel when it was actually completed. Revealing that the Zakdorn had placed surveillance aboard the vessel during it's construction. Upon meeting the Stratigo again, Bokzadeshti provided the Vigilant crew with "evidence" regarding the Federation's favoritism of it's core members - however, the meeting was attacked by a Suliban group, who had intended to implicate the Zakdorn in an attack on Suliban citizens, and a member of the crew was able to retrieve data from a chip found on the Suliban, revealing communication between the Sulliban and the Vulcan homeworld, adding significant weight to the Stratigo’s conspiracy theory.

Sources

Information for this article was obtained from Memory Alph and Beta as well as the following TV episodes TNG: Peak Performance, TNG: Ménage à Troi, TNG: Unification I and TNG: The Maquis, Part II. Also used with the source book the Last Unicorn RPG module: All Our Yesterdays: The Time Travel Sourcebook.

References

Content from this article may have
come partially, or entirely from
 Memory Alpha