Hirogen

			Intelligent Lifeform Index

Hirogen
Four Letter Code	HIRO
Federation Status	Restricted
Planet of Origin	Unknown, Delta Quadrant
Encountered	in the Delta Quadrant by the USS Voyager (VOY: Message in a Bottle
T/E Rating	T0/E0
Current Tech Level	N (spacefaring)
List of Named Hirogens
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Name Hirogen hɨˈroʊdʒɨn

Home System

Delta Quadrant

Home World

The Hirogen is a spacefaring nomadic race with no known Home World. They are considered a homeless, ever-dispersed culture.

Note: The Hirogen are a fictional race in the Star Trek universe, a long-running plot device in the Star Trek: Voyager television series, appearing nine times in Seasons 4-7.

History

In 2374, a visionary Alpha decided that the USS Voyager's holodecks would allow his people to continue the hunt tradition safely while regrouping to preserve their homeless, ever-dispersed culture. Despite his assassination, a younger successor agreed to follow through with the plan and use Kathryn Janeway's gift of a holo-program's optronic datacore. Unfortunately, the Hirogen misused that technology and programmed their prey to be overly cunning and adaptive — in order to make their hunts more "challenging" — and essentially gave those holograms self-awareness and a desire for liberation. Three years after receiving the holographic technology, disaster ensued at several Hirogen training facilities where the prey killed their hunters and escaped to free others of their kind and find a home to call their own.

While the Hirogen are initially a major threat to Voyager, the Starfleet crew eventually help the Hirogen to solve problems arising from their way of life, leading to a de facto truce.

Government

Competition among males, hunting singly or in packs as "Alphas" and their subordinate "Betas," is for trophies or "relics" to display, including victims' skeletal remains, gutted organs and captured technology and artifacts.

Physiology

MA:http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/File:Beta_Hirogen,_Flesh_and_Blood_2.jpg

Culture

Similar to the aliens of the Predator species from the science fiction franchise of the same name, the Hirogen are presented as driven by the hunt, who highly prize the unusual trophies taken from the carcasses of their prey. They are not described as having a home planet; and their society is apparently organized around space-faring nomadic hunting packs or tribes, with a hierarchical structure in which an Alpha warrior leads and a Beta and a Gamma are, respectively, secondary and tertiary subordinates. Contact between tribes is maintained through an ancient communication network over vast distances. Before the hunt, the Hirogen ritualistically apply paint to their armor. Hirogen hunters are shown as being much taller than humans, usually over two metres in size with a muscular build evolved for combat; and they are usually shown wearing armour, with masks for inhospitable environments.

Society

The Hirogen society has been completely based upon the ritual hunt for a millennium, despite their advanced technological status. All other species are viewed as prey, not equals, but only challenging prey are prized and pursued. Competition among males, hunting singly or in packs as "Alphas" and their subordinate "Betas."

The Alpha Hirogen is the title given to the leader of a Hirogen hunting party or pack. The Alpha is seconded by a Beta. If the Alpha Hirogen is killed or otherwise unable to command the hunting party, the Beta Hirogen replaces him as leader.

The first Alpha Hirogen that the starship USS Voyager found was at the Hirogen relay station. He kidnapped Seven of Nine and Tuvok. (VOY: "Message in a Bottle", "Hunters")

Another such Alpha came to know that the Hirogen would die out soon unless he found a way to save them. That came in using holodeck programs to have Hirogen warriors fight holograms and not real opponents. (VOY: "The Killing Game", "The Killing Game, Part II", "Flesh and Blood")

Technology

Although they are an ancient race, Hirogen technology is not superior to Starfleet's, although their "tetryon"-based weapons were unfamiliar.