Valerian

			Intelligent Lifeform Index

Valerian
Four Letter Code	VALE
Federation Status	Neutral
Planet of Origin	Valeria IV.
Encountered	DS9: Dramatis Personae
T/E Rating	T0/E0
Current Tech Level	J
List of Named Valerians
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"My word is my bond. It will be as we have agreed."

a Valerian saying.

The Valerian are a species of respected merchants with a reputation for fair dealing and excellent service. However their sphere of influence and economic prosperity has taken a hit lately due to competition from the Ferengi.

Home System

• Quadrant: Alpha
• Location: Valius Sector (co-ordinates A22-0004-1300)
• Proper Name: Valeria System
• Star: Valerius (Val[aer][ee][us]), a class G4 V (Yellow) star
• Distance from Star: its orbit is approximately 62 million km
• Companions: 11 other planets. It is the 5th planet in the system
• Moons: it has 6 moons.

Home World

• Proper Name: Valeria V
• Diameter: 19,582 km (12,168 miles)
• Gravity: 0.92 standard gravity with a density of 3.3
• Axial Tilt: 08.5%, very minor seasonal change
• Orbital Period: 438 days
• Rotational Period: 27 hours
• Classification: M
• Surface Water: 57%
• Atmosphere: 1.07 is a standard pressure with 75% nitrogen, 22% oxygen, 3% trace chemicals
• Climate: Mostly a temperate climate with a semi tropical equator
• Terrain: It has rain forests, forests, hills, jungles, swamps and small mountain ranges.
• Population: Just over 17 billion

History

For the most part this peaceful species developed slowly with no known periods of internal social unrest or armed conflict. As their population grew they slowly developed a central government. It is believed that they had achieved this level of advancement planet wide shortly after they entered into their industrial revolution. From a very early period in their history trade between regions was an important aspect of their society.

Once they made the leap into space and learned that their were other species out there this aspect of their society was expanded. They explored and developed trade deals with many species. First by trading their own goods but very quickly by trading anything and everything. This allowed them to become the most powerful merchant species with in their sphere of influence. The expansion of the Ferengi into there region of space resulted in competition. Unfortunately the Ferengi seemed to be better suited to this kind of competition.

As a result they have lost many of the trade monopolies they once enjoyed. Contracts and trade deals have also been lost to the Ferengi. This rapid erosion of their economic and trade empire forced them to expand into fields they had never dealt in before. One of these was military hardware and weapons components.

Government

They have had one central government for over 1,000 years. This government has 5 sets of elected representatives. Each set of 5 comes from one of the 5 regions that makes up the surface of their world. Each elected government is in office for 25 years with each regional set taking a turn being the lead and each member of the set being the Prime Director for one year. In this way every elected member of the government at one time or another holds the position of head of the government for one year.

Description

Valerians are a humanoid species with a distinctive sixth finger on each hand. They also have a distinctive shaped head with the skull being slightly taller in a oblong manner. This gives their face a tall narrow look. They have a nostril directly below each eye in the center of their cheek. Instead of a nose they have a ridged raised thin line of thick skin starting just above their mouth and ending inside their hair line. Their skin is a mellow brown and seemed with lines and creases. Their eyes tend towards dark colors and their hair is dark colors as well. It tends to be worn long and on males is stringy in nature. Females have thicker hair with a more healthy appearance to it.

Physiology

They require a high level of fiber in their diet and consume a very small amount of animal protein. Other than this they are typical humanoids except for a sixth finger on each hand. Males grow to between 5 feet 6 inches and 6 feet 4 inches in height whilst females range from 5 feet to 5 feet 7 in height when fully grown.

Psychology

Valerians are known the be pacifists who will always shy away from a fight. (There is one notable exception to this.) They colonize uninhabited systems rather than encroach on another species worlds.

Many Valerians are known to be philosophers who constantly strive to find ways of bettering their peoples ways of life. This can include things as simple as writing new works of fiction for others to enjoy to advising the Government on new laws designed to aid life on the home world and beyond.

The vast majority of Valerians are very open with both their own species and, species from other worlds. It is thought that this provides their one remaining advantage over the Ferengi in trade negotiations. This openness means that the Valerians are very honest and very seldom lie. The notable (but not only) exception to this general psychological trait is found in Dolamide traders. Due to the nature of their business they can be found frequently lying to border authorities, security monitors and port authorities. They are also very good at this.

When it comes to love, the Valerians do not appear on the surface to be a very affectionate species choosing instead to keep their affection for loved ones behind closed doors. It is a commonly held belief by the Valerians that this increases productivity in the populace by over 30% (although this has been debated on many occasions by numerous Valerian scholars.

Religion

The Valerians are an atheist species. This advancement came soon after their industrial revolution in which their whole species became united as one. However, due to the many species they have met in their travels they respect the fact that many species still believe in Gods. For instance, although the Valerians, like the Federation view the prophets as Aliens, they respect the fact that Bajoran religious culture views them as Gods. They understand how a species could view an all powerful Alien race as Gods simply because their science cannot explain the abilities of these Aliens.

Mythology

Only one myth survived the Valerian species journey into atheism. This myth actually stems from a common belief in many Cultures across the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. The myth reads that many eons ago, before the planet Valerian V was inhabited an ancient nomad race of Aliens, known in modern Valerian lore simply as 'The Progenitors' visited the planet. A number of this race settled on the planet and began to breed creating a bi-pedal species on the Planet.

Over many thousands of years, this new race would forget the knowledge of their past ancestors and begin to learn anew on their home world. Until as recently as the Global Industrial Revolution, many Valerians looked at this myth and saw the Progenitors as their Gods, wondering if they would ever return. It was only as the Industrial Revolution advanced the scientific capabilities of the Valerian people that they came to believe that these Progenitors might actually be an ancient Alien Species.

This theory only gained more support when the Valerians finally began exploring space and meeting other species. When they began to notice similarities between their own physiology and that of their new friends many scientists began to theorize that the Progenitors had visited many other worlds as well. It is a firmly held as scientific fact by Valerian Scientists that if you were to trace the paths of most major bi-pedal species in the Universe far enough, they would be found to be genetically related.

Society

Valerian society for the most part is based on equality with certain sectors of the populace enjoying slightly more economic freedoms than others.

Valerian society is ranked as follows:

• The 25 members of the Valerian Government and any previous serving member including their families.
• Members of the various Valerian Trade Associations, Valerian Scientists & Valerian Philosophers
• Valerian Farmers, Industrial workers, Teachers, Retailers and many many more.

Men and women enjoy the same freedoms in Valerian society. When it comes to marriage an equal proportion of makes to females propose to the opposite sex. Although the idea of homosexuality is completely alien to Valerian society, they have no fears or angst when it comes to witnessing the practice in other Alien cultures.

In Valerian home life, males and females share chores equally and also share the responsibilities of raising their children. The idea of the Housewife/father is another concept completely alien to them. Although unlike homosexuality, the Valerian race looks down upon species that have either the father or the mother taking full responsibility of chores and/or the raising of children. They view it as a hurdle to a truly equal society.

Culture

The Arts

It is common place to see philosophers standing in town squares reading off their prose and poetry to anybody who will stop and listen. Acting troupes often tour the major Valerian cities (and on rare occasions, space ports) to perform plays and dance routines in grand halls. These visits are usually always accompanied by huge banquets to welcome them.

Sport & Games

The favored game on Valerian V is a rather complicated card game similar in nature to Terran Rummy. The aim of the game is to collect either a run of 7 cards or a set of 3 cards and four cards. Unlike the suits used in Terran card games, the Valerians use 'sets' representing various facets of their culture, history and society. There are 3 sets for each of the 3 categories with each set containing 25 cards. Valerians call this came Tatpanka (Tat[pan]ca) although Terrans call it Valerian Rummy. Games have been known to last upwards of 4 hours.

Customs

At this time, the Federation has very little knowledge regarding the customs and traditions of the Valerian people. It is thought that as they have become more technologically developed, the older ways of their race have become secondary to everyday life. It is however, well known that the family unit is very important to the Valerians. Most of the important events in a person’s life are shared with their family, such as rites of passage into adulthood, life-cycle anniversaries and the death of a loved one.

More information is likely to come to light as contact between the Valerian and the Federations increase over time.

Technology

They are not as advanced technologically as the Cardassians or even the Bajorans. They do have the tech to establish colonies and mining facilities on hostile worlds. They also have a fairly large asteroid mining operation. Their largest and best known facility is a dolamide purification plant on the planet Ultima Thule. This planet also has one of their largest colonies thanks to the use of certain technologies that they have traded for that have made the planet livable.

Economy

At one time they were a more powerful merchant species with many trade deals and contracts. Unfortunately this was before the Ferengi expanded. Now many of their former contract and trade deals have been lost to the Ferengi. As a result some of them shifted their area of expertise to try and compete. This resulted in their moving into some fields that they had never traded in before.

The Valerians operate a giant arms sales cartel specializing in chemical explosives but selling almost anything. Their reputation has hurt their legitimate business and as a result Valerian ships are banned at many ports. The Valerians own a dolamide purification plant on the planet Ultima Thule which it is believed is used to refine dolamide for use in explosive devices.

Military

While they do not have a military force they do have a large number of armed merchant ships. Approximately 1 out of every 3. While they claim neutral status and try to avoid any and all aggressive acts they will defend themselves. They prefer to retreat and evade any potential conflicts if at all possible.

The only known exception to this rule are Dolamide Traders. Because of the value of Dolamide to certain species within their sphere of influence, Trader captains carrying this cargo have been known to vehemently defend their ship against would be attackers even being prepared to lose the ship and cargo rather than have it fall into the attackers hands.

Federation Intelligence Files

It is known that the Valerians delivered weapons-grade dolamide to the occupying Cardassians on Bajor and were suspected of still doing so in 2369 at DS9. Despite this, the Valerians have proved to be valuable trading partners to the Federation being able to source numerous supplies of Dilithium ore to be processed at our own refinement facilities in exchange for medical supplies and scientific equipment. This makes them far more suitable for the task than the Ferengi Alliance who have been known to request extortionate amounts of gold pressed Latinum for inferior quality Dilithium Ore.

Sources

Both Memory Alpha and Memory Beta were used as referances as well as the TV episode DS9: Dramatis Personae. Also used was the following novels, DS9 novel: Cathedral and the TLE - Terok Nor novel: Night of the Wolves.

SDC

This file was updated and approved by the SDC on 20 Jan, 2012

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

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