Hirogen

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			Intelligent Lifeform Index

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

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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

Hirogen adult males were quite large, standing above the average height of other known humanoid species. They also possessed greater physical strength than most humanoids. Their sensory perception was acute, a feature that served well as the Hirogen were an aggressive hunting species. The Hirogen also possessed an impressive immune system. The Hirogen used an enzyme to break down the bones and muscle tissue of their prey, suggesting that the Hirogen used some of their victims as food. The color of Hirogen blood is red. (VOY: "Prey", "Flesh and Blood")

Little is known about Hirogen women, though it has been suggested that they pursued male hunters in possession of rare or unique trophies acquired during a hunt. (VOY: "Hunters")

Psychology

"The Hunt", was regarded with a reverence by the Hirogens, and bordered on spiritual awe. Elements of their culture, such as social rituals and beliefs, were based on the hunt. One of the rituals surrounding the hunt involves hunters applying paint to their faces and helmets for both the hunt and the kill. Even with no face paint available, one specific Hirogen fighter who was forced to fight in the Tsunkatse matches still went through the ritual of running his finger over his face, as if applying paint. (VOY: "Hunters", "Tsunkatse") Hirogen culture required a hunter to study his prey to understand its abilities, believing that such study was essential to prevent a hunter from becoming the hunted. Choosing the most appropriate weapon to make the kill was considered important; a scythe-like knife seems to be the preferred method for close range. There was great importance placed upon the moment of the kill and it was believed that the way a creature behaves when it was wounded was the key to its destruction. (VOY: "Prey") Hirogen have been known to express disappointment when the species they choose to hunt proves to be unchallenging. (VOY: "Hunters") They rarely see other humanoids as equals because they often do not consider non-Hirogen as hunters. As a result, being called "worthy prey" by a Hirogen was meant as a great compliment. The Hirogen believed "you must never sympathize with your prey." However, they do bestow a rather unique non-Human compassion towards their prey, believing that they should never let their prey suffer. (VOY: "Tsunkatse")

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.

Most Hirogen vessels traveled alone, sometimes with a crew consisting of as few as merely two members. One such vessel was known to have spanned a radius of 1,000 light years in just five years; it had also visited as many as 90 star systems in a single year. (VOY: "Prey") Occasionally, however, Hirogen vessels were encountered in groups or packs. This was more common if they were hunting a challenging and resilient prey. The Hirogen social structure was organized into packs of male hunters, each led by a Hirogen known as the Alpha. (VOY: "The Killing Game, Part II") The second-in-command was the Beta – if the Alpha dies, the Beta becomes the Alpha. (VOY: "Flesh and Blood")

Hirogen relics and trophy wall

After the Hirogen caught their prey, they removed the skeletal system, muscles, internal organs, ligaments and tendons by a surgical procedure known as an osteotomy. These items were kept as relics of the hunt. Unusual relics bring envy from other Hirogen males, and Hirogen females desired a male who had such unusual relics. These items couldn't be taken before the moment of the kill. Status was determined by possession of prizes from hunts, often body parts or technology obtained from their prey. These prizes, called "trophies" or "relics", were displayed in nets hanging from the ceilings or walls of their vessels. In the case of skulls, they were often mounted as a wall display. (VOY: "Hunters")

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")

A Beta Hirogen is the second in command of a Hirogen hunting party or pack, reporting to the Alpha Hirogen.

In 2374, an unnamed Beta Hirogen was with Idrin when he captured Tuvok and Seven of Nine, who were accessing their communications array. He was able to locate the USS Voyager and was told to go to stalking mode. He objected suggesting they wait for other ships. When told to prepare Seven and Tuvok for the kill, he again objected wanting to wait for ships to capture Voyager. He was told not to question the Alpha again. The ship he and the Alpha were on were sucked into a black hole, but not before Seven and Tuvok were transported back to Voyager. (VOY: "Hunters")

In 2374, Beta Hirogen Turanj was a member of the group of Hirogen hunters that invaded the USS Voyager. He directly followed the orders of the Alpha Hirogen Karr. (VOY: "The Killing Game", "The Killing Game, Part II")

In 2377, an unnamed Beta Hirogen served aboard the Hirogen vessel that responded to the distress call from the Hirogen training facility overrun by renegade holograms. (VOY: "Flesh and Blood")

Technology

Hirogen technology was not made for comfort. It, like its makers, was focused on the hunt. The Hirogen body armor had internal life support, with a breathing apparatus over the mouth and nose, and it can protect a Hirogen hunter while seeking prey in most hostile environments, including the surface of a collapsed star. (VOY: "Prey")

The Hirogen have an arsenal of various formidable weapons, including a tetryon rifle with a sensor display that helps a hunter to track his prey. (VOY: "Hunters", "Flesh and Blood") They also have a device that seems to function much like a tricorder, which reveals bio-data on the captured prey. A Hirogen hunter learned from scanning Seven of Nine that she had a long coiled intestine, which he believed would make an unusual relic. (VOY: "Hunters")

Hirogen ships made use of various technologies including torpedo launchers, shield emitters and sensors. (VOY: "Flesh and Blood") Hirogen vessels were also equipped with a subnucleonic beam that could perform rapid scans of other vessels and could severely disable another ship, disrupting its propulsion and its navigational sensors. Once a targeted ship was disabled, the Hirogen can use their tractor beam technology to tractor in their prey. Their ships also have monotanium armor plating. This plating offers extra protection and it had the added effect of scattering targeting beams. (VOY: "Hunters") Hirogen vessels were also able to mask their engines by operating in stealth mode, when they wish to track a vessel without alerting it to their presence. (VOY: "Flesh and Blood") The command center of the Hirogen vessel had a large metallic sphere with deep intersecting grooves. Manipulating the rods set into the unit can alter the vessel's speed and attitude. Information about incoming fire, the stability of the Hirogen ship's hull armor and navigational sensors were also relayed through this station. (VOY: "Hunters", "Prey", "Flesh and Blood")

They communicated over a subspace relay network. (VOY: "Message in a Bottle") This alien network was over 100,000 years old and extends to within communication range of the Alpha Quadrant. The relays were powered by artificial quantum singularities, similar to Romulan warp drives. Each of these relays produced an intense gravitational field. Voyager destroyed one of the relays and the energy from the quantum singularity created a massive discharge that disabled the stations on the relay network. (VOY: "Hunters")

This didn't seem to upset their long range communication, as information about Federation holographic technology seems to have traveled great distances, passing Voyager on its way home. Perhaps the unidentified arrays of antennae on top of the holofacility were responsible. Hirogen Station Flesh and Blood Hirogen holodeck outpost

The Hirogen started making use of holographic technology in the form of holographic training facilities after being given an optronic data core by Captain Janeway in 2374. (VOY: "The Killing Game, Part II") These training facilities combined Hirogen technology with Federation technology, as components such as LCARS-style controls were present. (VOY: "Flesh and Blood")

The ketric was a distance measurement used by the Hirogen. (VOY: "Hunters")

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

Notes

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