Hello all, Ric here with another cultural index, but first up, a sort of disclaimer.
We see a lot of the Vidiians in Star Trek Voyager, but in series 5 of the show, we learn
that the species has been cured of the Phage that ravaged their culture for generations,
at least if the Think Tank’s postulation can be believed.
This ultimately would have had a dramatic shift in their society, so much of the following
material may now be obsolete, but until (or if) the species is revisited; we won’t know
their current state of affairs.
So, let’s get started.
Biology.
Genetically, the Vidiians are humanoid, quite similar to Humans, but with a high hairline
and faint brow crests which suggests at a slightly different skull shape.
Internally, they were, again similar to humans and it seems that healthy Vidiians were still
being born, but almost all would succumb to the Phage at some point in their lives.
In an attempt to limit this, gatherings were mitigated and contact kept to a minimum in
an effort to control the spreading of the Phage.
Gee, I cannot relate.
Their central government is known as the Vidiian Sodality and in its prime it prioritised the
endeavours of exploration, cultural development and encouraged artistic pursuits.
From all records and second hand information of the time, their home world, Vidiia was
a highly developed society of great beauty.
Not much else is specified on their planet, it was a class M, as expected but that is
really about it.
They however, do have several far flung colony worlds such as Fina Prime, suggesting that
at one time, their reach was pretty significant.
Then the Phage hit them around 2000 years ago and completely upended their way of life.
The Phage is a disease that effectively consumed the flesh of the afflicted, from skin to the
internal organs.
The illness was fatal as it attacked the genetic code of the host then spreading and consuming
the remains.
The earliest symptoms included joint pain that grew in intensity and could put the afflicted
into shock even in these early stages.
The illness only affected the Vidiians, although there was always the lingering fear that it
would inflict itself upon other species as it was highly adaptive.
The Sodality had to undergo rapid adaptation to their new circumstance as the Phage spread
virulently among the entire populous and outposts.
Their pursuit of exploration was halted and the resources they once funnelled towards
cultural pursuits such as artistic endeavours were transposed to the medical and the survival
of their species.
Their medical sectors saw a rapid bloom in technology and at first it was all focused
on finding a cure, however the disease adapted quickly and every treatment proved a failure.
Eventually, as thousands died every day, there was a shift in direction, from seeking a cure,
to sustaining their population.
This led to the development of enhanced organ gathering and the genetic adaptation of said
organs to function across hosts.
It began with gathering the organs of the deceased and salvaging the healthy ones, but
as the generations passed, it became ever harder to keep up with the demand.
This led the Vidiians to begin to hunt for organs from other species and adapt them for
Vidiian physiology.
Soon however, even this expanded salvaging from the dead was not enough and they began
to hunt the living.
Using their incredibly advanced medical tech, they would locate unwary victims, usually
secluded ships or parties from any species and hit them with a raid-like strike, claiming
both living victims and the organs of people they encountered before retreating into hiding.
The living victims were often kept for harvesting at a later date, after all, what better way
to keep organs fresh?
While the harvested organs were generally used immediately as there was always a Vidiian
in need.
This grisly endeavour had numerous repercussions for their culture and while this aggressive
harvesting might not have been officially backed by the Sodality, it was condoned by
a deliberate lack of policing.
That, and many Vidiians were now so nomadic that regular contact between them was sparse.
Commonly, Vidiians were paired up to watch over one another, with one (the Honatta) responsible
for gathering resources and organs to keep them healthy while the other pursued their
work.
Despite this however, they did maintain trade and connections to other species, despite
their reputation as organ harvesters.
Legitimate trade for medical supplies would have still been an avenue explored by them
and they had to either construct their own tech, pay someone to do it for them or buy
resources.
Although even the Vidiians found the actions of the Malon to be somewhat reprehensible,
as they actually imposed trade sanctions against them.
The technology in play after 2000 years of development was beyond Federation ability
in some areas, but comparable in others.
Considering that their culture had been consumed with survival, experimentation and survival
for two millennia, one can assume most of their technological developments were attained
before the Phage afflicted them.
They had highly developed scanning devices, for the express purpose of diagnosis as well
as extracting an entire genetic profile in seconds.
They also were also adept at transporter technology, using it to surgically remove select organs
from a target and these technologies were frequently combined into their portable scanners.
They have even demonstrated the ability to extract an entire genetic profile, and duplicate
it, while also carrying over the subjects memories and personality, as seen with the
splitting of B’elanna Torres into two distinct halves, one completely human, the other Klingon.
Their ships were designed into easily isolatable sections and the bridge only had two stations.
Despite this, a Vidiian Saviour-class vessel could house up to 300 crewmembers.
Their ships were one of the few that belonged to an advanced species that still utilised
grappler technology over tractor beams for the far more invasive and damaging effect
they could have by physically piercing a vessel’s hull.
In terms of armaments, the vessels often carried quantities of hyper-thermic charges and were
capable of Warp 9.6, making them one of the more developed cultures of the deep Delta
Quadrant.
Additionally, as adept as they were in scanners, they were also decent in evading them and
had numerous outposts spread around the far Delta Quadrant where their raiding parties
operated.
Literally operated.
Almost every Vidiian has some degree of medical knowledge because of their condition and a
large number of them double up this expertise with whatever else needs doing.
Private medical research and experimentation seems to be encouraged, with those engaged
in such given a wide degree of leeway to pursue their work, all in the hopes that someone
somewhere will devise a new countermeasure of even a cure for the Phage.
Sulan-Chief Surgeon, Danara-Haematologist There have been several promising leads in
the past, including the discovery that Klingon DNA was especially resistant to the phage,
but it was not until 2376 that an organisation known as the “Think Tank” claimed to have
generated and sold them an actual cure and that it had been implemented by 2380.
Unfortunately, rumour has it that although the Phage was cured, removing the blight that
had plagued their society, the victimisation that they had visited upon others came back
to bite them.
We saw the same thing happen with the Terran Empire in the mirror universe, after Spock
enacted reformations, their enemies attacked and weakened the Empire.
In beta canon, the Sodality came under attack from various quarters, from species that they
had wronged in their crusade of survival, their former victims seeking revenge.
Vidiian script resembled angular brackets or varying styles and vertical lines punctuated
by dots.
These were further clustered into words and often segments of text were mirrored.
This means that the symbol for the Vidiian Sodality was, in all likelihood, actually
a stylised word, not simply an emblem or crest.
Their naming convention included a first and second name, but the second name was the one
used to address them.
There really is not much more content on the Vidiians than was portrayed in the show.
With the mention of the cure, the grim Phage afflicted version of their society is now
theoretically in the past, and a new look at their culture could be taken, but that
is for some future Trek show.
It’s kind of sad to see them become the subject of revenge attacks, but I can totally
see why it would happen.
Above all, they were desperate and surviving by the only means left to them.
Given their location in the Delta Quadrant too, many of their neighbours would have been
technologically inferior, especially in medical science, so help from outside was unlikely.
I think it would be nice to revisit them at some point to see where they’re at now and
hope to see that in at least a side story or even a future book.
So thanks for watching this video on the Vidiians, and as usual I have two options for your to
vote on for the next index!
I was thinking we can stick with the Star Trek universe them with either the Benzites,
or the Suliban!
Leave your vote over on the community tab and until the next video, I’ve been Ric
and I hope to see you swing by again for another one.
Thanks again and goodbye!