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Today, the lower floor of the monastery is set up as a printing plant and computer datanode, employed to disseminate both the teachings of [http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Surak Surak] and those of the sect of ''Ulann.'' The Vulcan holiday of ''Kal Rekk'', a day of atonement and silence, derives from the reachings of these monks. Many Vulcans will not speak on ''Kal Rekk'' for any reason. | Today, the lower floor of the monastery is set up as a printing plant and computer datanode, employed to disseminate both the teachings of [http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Surak Surak] and those of the sect of ''Ulann.'' The Vulcan holiday of ''Kal Rekk'', a day of atonement and silence, derives from the reachings of these monks. Many Vulcans will not speak on ''Kal Rekk'' for any reason. | ||
===Mount Tarhana=== | |||
The Tarhana volcano lies almost 483 kilometers to the east of the capital city of ShirKahr, and is readily visible throughout the city. Although the volcano remains active, regularly belching out steam and fiery lava onto the plains below, thus far its eruptions have never threatened the safety of ShirKahr. Nonetheless, the sight of Tarhana in action seems to strike a common chord in all Vulcans, reminding them of how fragile their control over the planet's hostile environment can be - and by analogy, how fragile their control over their own emotional natures can be. | |||
Tarhana's peak has been forever immortalized in art, poetry, and even cheap souvenirs wholesaled on a hundred different worlds (including the Old Quarter of ShirKahr), by Ferengi entrepreneurs. Unlike Mt. Fuji in Japan, however, Tarhana is recognized but not worshipped, storied but no longer mythologized. | |||
===[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Sarek Sarek]'s Estate=== | |||
The privacy of the personal residences of public officials, like all privacy, is sacred to Vulcans. As such, access to an estate like [http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Sarek Sarek]'s is by invitation only, and invitations are not loosely given. The houses of similarly influential diplomatic personnel (from old families) will be comparable. Like [http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Sarek Sarek], such officials will have a country estate as well as a town house in ShirKahr. | |||
[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Sarek Sarek]'s estate centers on a low, sprawling villa with thick, protective walls, set upon a nountain hillside with a panoramic view. The interior of the building is decorated in typical Vulcan fashion - austerely, with only the most essential furnishings. All items, from the chairs and desk to the muted wall hangings, are carefully selected to give each room an overall sense of harmony. Yet the feature that gives the estate its most unique character is its outdoor gardens, tended lovingly for almost 150 years by [http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Sarek Sarek]'s two human wives, [http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Amanda_Grayson Amanda] and [http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Perrin Perrin]. The gardens include a small climate-controlled greenhouse where the only roses and tomatoes on Vulcan are grown. Well away from the house, in a shallow volcanic declivity (possibly a long-dormant crater), lies the family ceremonial site where Sarek underwent his marriages, and where [http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Spock Spock] annulled his first ([http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/T%27Pring T'Pring]) and celebrated his more successful second one ([http://startrek.wikia.com/wiki/Spock#Saavik Saavik]). | |||
[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Sarek Sarek]'s library contains several hundred volumes, and among them they manage to summarize much of the great teachings of both Vulcan and Earth. However, the estate's computer system, reprogrammed over the years by the genius of both [http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Sarek Sarek] and [http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Spock Spock], is a marvel which in the proper hands could be used to gain virtually unlimited access to any Vulcan, Earth, or Federation database, no matter how classified. [http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Sarek Sarek]'s estate has its own scrambled subspace uplink, which is decidedly rare, even among Vulcan diplomatic families. | |||
=Raal= | |||
The province of Raal occupies the western edge of Na'nam, and includes most of the navigable coastline along the Voroth Sea. Raal is one of Vulcan's most geologically stable regions, and as a result contains a number of its oldest settlements. Almost half of the province consists of temperate coastlands, which lie along the Voroth and the Na'ree River Valley, whose namesake watercourse is navigable by small boats for two to three months each year. As a result, although the city of Vulcana Regar is Raal's largest population center, there are at least a dozen smaller cities and towns in the province with populations ranging from 10,000 to 80,000 residents. | |||
The Vulcana Regar spaceport is one of the three main points of entry for visitors to Vulcan. While those with diplomatic missions or spiritual quests to fulfill tend to beam down to ShirKahr, those who come to Vulcan for trade purposes use Vulcana Regar as their base of operations. Also a popular tourist destination, Raal offers guided expeditions through the spectacular wonders of the Fire Plains (except during solar flare season, when only the brave and foolish journey there at their own risk), and even pleasure cruises across the Voroth to Kwil'inor on solar-assisted sailing ships. | |||
==Places and Persons of Note in Raal== | |||
===Fire Plains=== | |||
Covering over 2 million hectares of land 644 kilometers to the northeast of Vulcana Regar, the Fire Plains lie at the base of a triangle of three active volcanoes - T'raan to the north, T'riall to the southeast, and T'regar to the southwest. The Plains would be of scientific interest for this reason alone, as barely a decade has passed without an eruption from at least one of the triple peaks. What makes the Fire Plains renowned throughout the galaxy, however, are the multicolored crystalline formations which grow throughout this superheated environment, providing an ever-changing explosion of kaleidoscopic panoramas - a feast for the eye or the soul. | |||
===V'Shar Headquarters=== | |||
Finally, Vulcana Regar is also the headquarters of the ''V'Shar'', the Vulcan bureau of internal security. For most of the past two centuries, the ''V'Shar'' had become little more than a glorified spaceport police, checking manifests and apprehending offworlder pickpockets, and making ceremonial appearances at meetings of the Vulcan Council. Even its traditional technical information-gathering role had slipped to the Science Academy. As the activities of the '''Vulcan Isolationist Movement (VIM)''' have increased in intensity over the past several years, however, the presence of the ''V'Shar'' grows steadily more visible and important. | |||
====Sutok==== | |||
A heavy-set, olive-skinned man of almost 150 years, Director Sutok has been head of the ''V'Shar'' for almost forty years. He has a deep, sonorous voice and a regal bearing, and always prefers if possible to reflect upon a situation before choosing a course of action. A graduate of both the Science Academy (in molecular chemistry) and the Vulcan Institute of Defensive Arts (VIDA), Sutok has never been off-world. There are those who allege that Sutok holds a degree of sympathy for some of the political agendas of the '''VIM''', and may have moved slowly to infiltrate their ranks as a result. Now that the '''VIM''' has stepped up its activities to include treasonous plots such as the recent attempt to locate and reassemble the [http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Stone_of_Gol Stone of Gol], Sutok has dedicated the ''V'Shar'' to rooting out its members and bringing them to justice. | |||
====T'shanik==== | |||
A lithe young Vulcan woman with black hair and hazel eyes, T'shanik enrolled in the ''V'Shar'' upon returning to Vulcan in 2366, after just failing (as runner-up to Wesley Crusher) to qualify for admission to Starfleet Academy. Although a strict adherent to the ways of [http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Surak Surak], T'shanik seems to possess an unusually high degree of curiosity about the customs and ways of offworlders, and she has been employed on several occsions as a liaison when the ''V'Shar'' is called upon to interact with other non-Vulcan Federation personnel. | |||
===Vulcana Regar=== | |||
The single largest city on Vulcan had a population of 860,000 as of the 2360 census. The city contains offices for the factors of Vulcan's primary mercantile families, vast warehouses for the storage of all manner of cargoes, the central office of the Vulcan House of Merchants, and the Regar Currency Exchange. Given the legendary honesty of Vulcans, illegal activities such as smuggling or hijacking are virtually unheard of here, and anyone caught even shading the tariff laws in their favor is quickly invited to leave the planet. Despite this, the Ferengi consulate on Vulcan is located here. For those seeking to sell their cargoes for a fair price, however, few markets can match the wealth of Vulcana Regar. | |||
=Shi'al= | |||
''more to come'' | ''more to come'' | ||