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Vulcan (planet)/Provinces of Na'nam: Difference between revisions
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===Ta'vistar=== | ===Ta'vistar=== | ||
This city is the cultural and economic center of the Tat'sahr province. While only about a quarter the size of [[ShirKahr]], it is a much older city. Located in the center of the Viltan flats, some of its original construction dates back tens of millennia before the Awakening. Currently the city, which has the province's only shuttle port, serves as Tat'sahr's main trading center and has 250,000 people living in and around its ancient walls. In different forms, Ta'vistar has existed for nearly 25,000 years. Different areas of the city include: | |||
====Academy Quarter==== | |||
This section of the city is being used by the [[ShirKahr#Vulcan Science Academy|Vulcan Science Academy]]. Originally the Academy wanted to use the area only to collect and study items found in various ruins. At first the old buildings were strengthened or rebuilt, but as the Academy's needs expanded, it constructed new buildings. Today the quarter is a mix of modern and ancient architecture; it is also the part of the city that has the most public parks and gardens. Currently this is the area of the city where individuals go to get permission to explore ruins or conduct research. This is also where the main link to the Vulcan Planetary Network and the city's medical facilities are located. | |||
''more to | ====Market Quarter==== | ||
This is where most of the city's merchants can be found, as the main shuttle port is located here, and merchants were allowed to set up shop around the port. Unlike pther parts of Ta'vistar, the market quarter has been completely redesigned with new construction. The port is quite busy, as most of the minerals and food produced in the province pass through it. Most of the manufactured and consumer goods that the province imports come through here as well. The port does not handle warp-capable ships, but it can unload up to ten large cargo or passenger shuttles at one time. Individuals interested in equipment or supplies can find most things here, but hte selection is smaller than in [[ShirKahr]]. | |||
====Old Quarter==== | |||
Lodging and entertainment establishments are spread through this area. This is the oldest part of the city, and some of its construction goes several meters underground. The streets are very narrow, so one can only get around the area on foot. Currently there are no major hotels in the quarter, but there are several quality inns that cater to both marchants and visiting professors. There are also several good restaurants, which serve only Vulcan food, to the occasional discomfiture of the rare offworld archaeologist. | |||
===Cheleb-khor=== | |||
On the southern most edge of Tat'sahr, bordering on the province of Shi'al, is the harsh area of desert known as Cheleb-khor. Named for ''Ket-cheleb'', the Vulcan god of anger, the region consists of several hundred kilometers of some of the harshest desert on Vulcan. While there is nothing of note about the region itself, except that it can be quite dangerous for unwary travelers, it is the place in which Vulcan children have traditionally tested their adulthood. | |||
The ritual is known as ''[[ma:Kahs-wan|kahs-wan]]'', and it requires young Vulcans to cross the section of the Cheleb-khor commonly known as [[ma:Vulcan%27s_Forge|Vulcan's Forge]]. The journey takes about ten days (from east to west), during which each child being tested can neither help nor even talk to any other child he sees. Those who pass the test are acknowledged as adults by their families in a ceremony that takes place at the family's sacred ground or at a major temple such as Mount Seleya. | |||
''[[ma:Kahs-wan|Kahs-wan]]'' is a very old tradition, now observed only in hte oldest and most traditionally conservative families. Vulcan's Cheleb-khor is not the only place on the planet for ''[[ma:Kahs-wan|kahs-wan]]'', of course, any more than Las Vegas and Paris are the only places on Earth for honeymooners. However, the tradition is strongest here, and a number of ''[[ma:Kahs-wan|kahs-wan]]'' hostels along the borders of the Cheleb-khor maintain facilities for young people from all over Vulcan. | |||
=Xial= | |||
Xial is the only completely land-locked province in Na'nam, and consists primarily of equatorial desert. Despite this fact, and because of its strategic location between the great cities of Vulcana Regar and [[ShirKahr]], extensive solar-powered hydroponic farming complexes dot the flat, rolling landscape. This, ironically, makes Xial famous as the "breadbasket of Vulcan." Under the Vulcan night, farmers load freshly harvested fruits, grains, and vegetable on hundreds of gravbarges for shipment to the two cities and beyond. The constant trail of flashing lights passing across the desert night sky is vividly etched in the memory of any Xial native, though not all remember it fondly. | |||
Although the headquarters of the Vulcan Subministry of Agriculture is located in Chi-ree, a quiet town of about 80,000 (15,000 of whom work or study at the Subministry) in north-central Xial, there is generally little reason for offworld visitors to Vulcan to enter the province. Conversely, Xial plays a key role in the lives of native Vulcans who follow the traditional rituals, for Mount Seleya, the holiest site on Vulcan, lies in the southeast corner of the province. | |||
==Places and Persons of Note in Xial== | |||
===Mount Seleya=== | |||
''For canon information on Mount Seleya, please see the [[ma:Mount_Seleya|Memory Alpha]] article.'' | |||
On a planet rife with hundreds of monasteries, temples, shrines, and ruins to the many sets and even gods which have held sway upon various regions of Vulcan, no place of worship is more important to the modern Vulcan way of like than Mount Seleya. The 7,000 meter peak is kilometers from any other settlement, surrounded to the north and west by a range of hills that eventually turns west and becomes the Mountains of Gol. | |||
Mount Seleya's only contact with civilization is a small shuttleport landing strip several kilometers to the east. Pilgrims can approach the mountain's base only from this direction, across a sandy plain which narrows gradually as you progress, ending at a narrow bridge without railings over a yawning chasm seemingly torn from the earth by a giant hand - as legend holds it was in the famous Battle of Seleya, when the tyrant '''Sulen''' laid seige to capture the daughter of his rival '''T'Vhet''' of [[ShirKahr]]. Everywhere you look, the mountain gives evidence of its fortress heritage, even though since the [[ma:Time_of_Awakening|Time of Awakening]] it has been the chief temple of disciplines of peace set down by [[ma:Surak|Surak]]. | |||
The temple complex at the summit of Mount Seleya stands at the top of a winding staircase containing well over a thousand steps. The thick stone walls and battlements offer further testament to its heritage of violence, though the balustrades now serve as balconies for the mediations of the adepts. The most powerful High Priestess of the Temple was '''[[ma:T%27Pau|T'Pau]]''', an imperious matron who virtually ruled mid-23rd-century Vulcan through her coldly logical mind, prodigious intellect, and vast personal magnetism. She turned down election to the Federation Council, preferring to remain on Vulcan and on Mount Seleya. She was succeeded upon her death in 2279 by [[ma:T%27Lar|T'Lar]] of Gol, the former First Adept. | |||
Although both monks and laymen use the Temple for study and mediation, many traditional ceremonies conducted at Mount Seleya occur at the base of the mountain within a sacred grove of spindly old-growth trees ringed by stone monoliths. The grove opens at one end into a natural amphitheatre that has been hollowed out of the very face of the mountain, and ends at a raised dais with an altar of blood-red stone. At the appointed time of a ritual, a priestess (the High Priestess for important families) is carried down from the mountaintop on a litter, accompanied by a procession of acolytes carrying chimes or frameworks of miniature bells. | |||
Ceremonies known to be conducted here include the ''koon-ut-la'', the mind-melding of chosen bond-mates at age seven that causes the adult awakening of ''[[Medical Condition Database#Pon farr|pon farr]]''; the coming of age ceremony for Vulcan teenagers who have successfully passed through the rite of passage known as ''[[ma:Kahs-wan|kahs-wan]]'', and are confirmed as adult members of their Houses; and the ''[[ma:Koon-ut-kal-if-fee|koon-ut-kal-if-fee]]''. All of these ceremonies are intensely private, and none are normally open to the public. Other families, especially old or influential ones, have their own sacred groves on their ancestral lands. For sufficiently important (or devout) families, the High Priestess fo Seleya performs ceremonies on those lands as well. | |||
===[[ma:T%27Lar|T'Lar]] of Gol=== | |||
''For canon information on T'Lar, please see the [[ma:T%27Lar||Memory Alpha]] article.'' | |||
The current High Priestess of the Temple at Mount Seleya is a tall and slender silver-haired woman whose stately beauty has remained and perhaps even intensified as she has aged. Now in her 170's, she shows no signs of ill health, nor any intention of slowing down and naming a First Adept as her eventual successor. | |||
Ner original training was that of a Vulcan healer, and her skills with mind-melding techniques are unparalleled. She then spent years at the monastery of ''Kolinahru'', further harnessing her mental powers of insight, before being called to Mount Seleya by [[ma:T%27Pau|T'Pau]] to serve as First Adept. It was she who successfully completed the ancient historical ceremony of ''[[ma:Fal-tor-pan|fal-tor-pan]]'', restoring [[ma:Spock|Spock's]] ''[[ma:Katra|katra]]'' into the physical vessel created by the [[ma:Genesis_Planet|Genesis planet]]. | |||
[[ma:T%27Lar|T'Lar]] regularly consults with the medical school of the [[ShirKhar#Vulcan Science Academy|Vulcan Science Academy]] on difficult cases of mental illness, and on the rehabilitation of those who have been institutionalized for violent thought-forms. Her current patients include [[ma:T%27Paal_%28isolationist%29|Tallera]], the '''[[ma:Vulcan_Isolationist_Movement|VIM]]''' agent who successfully engineered the recovery of the [[ma:Stone_of_Gol|Stone of Gol]] to bring about the return of the awesome powers of the mindlords. | |||
Whereas [[ma:T%27Pau|T'Pau]] was recognized galaxywide as a voice to be reckoned with in Vulcan's intersetellar affairs, [[ma:T%27Lar|T'Lar]] does not occupy nearly as high a public profile. Her influence behind the scenes is quite substantial, however, as she is spiritual advisor to the leaders of many Great Houses. In conversation, [[ma:T%27Lar|T'Lar]] speaks frankly and without hesitation about her objectives with no pretense of diplomacy, perhaps a byproducts of her years among the emotionless monks of ''Kolinahru''; nonetheless, her decisions often seem tinged with a deep sense of compassion for others, both Vulcan and non-Vulcan. | |||
===Subministry of Agriculture=== | |||
Normally, edifices of higher learning in backwater towns wehre agronomists, entomologists, and botanists earnestly debate methods of preventing insect infestations of grain do not makes one's list of interesting locales. However, '''[[ma:V%27Shar|V'Shar]]'' intelligence reports seem to suggest that the Agriculture division of Vulcan's establishment may be a growing hotbed of '''[[ma:Vulcan_Isolationist_Movement|VIM]]''' support, which could pose quite a threat to Vulcan given the inviting terrorist target that these vitally important food supplies could pose. | |||
''The majority of this information has been taken from [http://www.starbase118.net/wiki/index.php/The_Way_of_Kolinahr:_The_Vulcans The Way of Kolinahr Sourcebook], with modifications from other sources.'' | ''The majority of this information has been taken from [http://www.starbase118.net/wiki/index.php/The_Way_of_Kolinahr:_The_Vulcans The Way of Kolinahr Sourcebook], with modifications from other sources.'' | ||