Vorinn

Name: Vorinn

Home-world: Emell-Thor

Description of Home-world

Emell-Thor is a class M planet orbiting a Class G Yellow sun. The world has five major continents, covering 31% of the world's surface. Each continent is separated by a large body of water, but in the time at which the Nimitz encounters the Vorinn they have spanned the oceans with under-sea transport tunnels. The continents have names but are not able to be spoken phonetically, as they are communicated as ideas rather than sounds. Each continent is different in climate, though they have similarities. The first continent is covered largely with tropical forests and lush land. The second is more mountainous and well forested by coniferous trees and shrubbery as well as by deciduous wide leaved trees in the lowlands. The third continent resembles the second very closely, except that due to it's northern position about 15% of the landmass is arctic. The fourth continent is more dry and arid, closely resembling the middle-eastern area of Earth, interspersed by lush valleys and occasional lakes. The fifth continent is the smallest, yet it contains portions of each of these climates, a strange phenomenon that the Vorinn attribute to the Council of Rulers' desire for a unity in the world. There is no capital city on the planet, in fact there are few cities at all. The largest communities are built around factories or temples, where the people have a great purpose in working there. In every climate the architectural styles will differ, but always in unity with their surroundings. Many buildings and gardens have been built on the planet, some which are not occupied or used, but are simply for the aesthetic pleasure of the inhabitants.

Description of Appearance

The Vorinn have a unique appearance. They have no discernible ears or nose and a very small mouth. Their eyes are nondescript and appear to be nothing more than small black marbles set into their smooth, featureless faces. All Vorinn dress similarly, in muted and earthen colors. A hood-like covering extends from their clothes up over their head, to cover the top and sides of their head effectively framing their simple faces in earthen tones. This combination compliments their tanned skin tones very well. In general, no one individual will stand out above any other in appearance or dress.

Psychological Description

The Vorinn have a hive-mind mentality. It is not as advanced as are other hive cultures, as they do not actually have a central control point, but rather they communicate telepathically and condition their young to have the same goals and opinions as their forbearers. The unity gained by this method of communication and the natural instinct for group work has allowed the Vorinn to advance much more quickly than many other species in the sector. This uncanny ability has put off many other species, despite the Vorinn's kind and hospitable attitude. Brilliant in the application of technology, once it is understood, the Vorinn can invent technology but are much better at reverse engineering it.

Cultural Notes

The Vorinn have some defining cultural values including: unity, hard work, sharing burdens, government by the people, protection of the group over the individual, and a great desire to unite with other cultures. ++ These values have created what appears to be a Utopian society, in almost exactly the way that Thomas More described it. Children are raised to follow the vocation that their parents followed, unless their talents or interests directed them in other directions. In all decisions, however, the individual's needs were not as important as the group's needs.

Religion plays a large part in the cultural and social values that the Vorinn embrace. Their religion is centered on the belief that the group can raise itself to a state of bliss similar in concept to Nirvana or a "heaven" state. Their concept of "heaven" is being in a state in which work is not necessary but is desirable for the advancement of the arts. In this state all faithful Vorinn would work in complete unity without the communication lag or the discrepancy that occurs with interpersonal communication. The purpose of this unity is to reach even higher states of understanding and beauty, in art, music, architecture, science, medicine, and all other aspects. Each Vorinn is instructed in the tenets of this religious belief, being taught that by striving for unity in the imperfect present that one day the people will reach the state where the "Council of Rulers" (Approximately equal to the Greek society of gods, except with perfect unity) would grant them the knowledge to overcome their physical imperfections.

History

The Vorinn do not keep a written history, instead they have kept the oral traditions of their people. As a result much of the history has been lost or fictionalized. Their history really begins, not with a creation story as do many cultures, but with a chaos story. The people were in chaos, separate, lacking unity. As the legends go, this was when the Council of Rulers granted a "Revelation of Perfection". In Vorinn religion the "Revelation of Perfection" is a term used to denote a means of creating greater unity. This "Revelation of Perfection" created within the people a desire to unify, to build together, as also the ability to communicate not by speech or writing, but by thought.

Soon after this Revelation, the five continents became united within themselves, though each was unaware of the existence of the others. It is at this point that the Vorinn claim another Revelation of Perfection was granted, comprising the knowledge to build ships capable of spanning the world's oceans. As the people of various continents met there was no conflict as there was in Earth's history, rather a near perfect meshing of culture occurred. Soon a world government was formed.

This government bears no resemblance to the governments of Earth or its neighbors. The closest relation would be the communistic ideals portrayed by some of Earth's thinkers Every man was responsible to distribute his goods in a manner that would best benefit his immediate community, the community would distribute the resources within its bounds for the good of the region and so on to the world basis. In this way no member of Vorinn society went hungry or was without.

With this unique pattern of living the Vorinn did not need to develop weapons or defensive technologies. Instead they developed social and art forms. Their technology and science advanced at the pace that new comforts required. Transportation improved with the desire to keep a unique food fresh when transporting it from one end of the world to another; computers were created to create opportunities for greater creative genius. Because of this great interest their art is much more developed and diverse than most other civilizations.

The Vorinn space age began with the desire to view the Council of Rulers' art with greater clarity. It was for this purpose that telescopes, satellites, and other scientific equipment was developed. Soon this people had manned space flights and had discovered the activities of other species in the galaxy. In a desire to interact with the other creations of the Council of Rulers, they invented the warp drive.

The Vorinn's first encounter with an outside species was with the Qaric. Though different from the Vorinn the Quaric were valued for their differences and given great respect and honor. Like other species' interactions with each other, their interactions were peaceful and relatively friendly. The two species quickly struck up relations, but the Vorinn were unaware of the caste system inherent in the Qaric social structure and completely naïve, expecting that their good neighbors would of course engender the same unity possessed by themselves. Several months after making contact with the Qaric, they were attacked by the Qaric warrior caste, driving a rift between the two races. The Vorinn repeatedly attempted to contact the Quaric asking what had happened, but received no response.

Without any communication on that front, and entirely unsure of the reasons, the Vorinn turned to other space-faring species. Though the relations with these other species were not ideal, they were not hostile. The Vorinn's natural naïveté toward the lack of unity in other species caused many complications. In the years that followed these peaceful people learned more and more of how unique in the galaxy their culture truly was.

The fundamental differences between the Vorinn and Qaric (namely the Vorinn's need to be part of a group and the Qaric's stark individuality) caused the neighbors to clash again and again. Soon the Vorinn were being attacked frequently by the Quaric warriors, and a need was felt to defend themselves. Their first attempts were disastrous, having had no experience in warfare, or in fighting at all. The people who had never had a war, and had never really had more than fist fights (only two remembered occurrences between drunkards), were now involved in a fight for their survival. Their creative genius and great skill allowed them to capture and reverse engineer many of the Quaric's weapons and defensive capabilities, but still they were being driven back. The Vorinn see their destruction as a distinct possibility, as they have been pushed back nearly to their own solar system. They have no ill will toward the Quaric, but are truly confused at their insistence against unity. It is during this time that the Nimitz comes to the scene.

Shortly after the Nimitz' arrival a new "Revelation of Perfection" is given the Vorinn, a method to save their people and to stop the Quaric in their desctuctive course. This method rubs inherently against the moral code that this peaceful people have held for so long, but in seeking their own survival the Vorinn decide to take the dark path, that they may live to reach the state of perfect unity.

Species sheet created by Brent Lister and David VanScott for the USS Nimitz