Hello all! Ric still here, I am chained to my desk, send help. This video is exploring
the planet Vulcan, but I’d like to begin with answering the question, why is Vulcan
called Vulcan? Vulcan in mythology is the Roman god of fire,
forge, deserts and it is from him that we get the word Volcanic. As you can tell, he’s
all about hot stuff, which makes it awfully convenient that in Star Trek, we have a species
from a habitable but hot planet, called the Vulcans.
So how did this happen? Boring real world answer; because we humans have a pantheon
that included Vulcan and the name fit. Way more interesting fictional, speculative in-universe
answer? Because we humans have a pantheon that included Vulcan and the name fit. In
apocrypha and even hinted at in the shows, the Vulcan people do not refer to themselves
as Vulcan, but have adopted the name for its ease of use.
I’ll elaborate. Vulcan itself, the planet has several names in the Vulcan’s own tongues
such as Minshara (from where Starfleet gets the “M-class” planet designation), Nevasa,
Ni’Var, and Ti’Valk’ain. That last one sounds similar enough to the world Vulcan,
so it’s easy to think that it colloquially became humanised as “Vulcan”, especially
due to the connotations to fire and heat already associated with the Roman deity.
We see as similar thing happen with humans and the Klingon world of Qo’Nos, being pronounced
and even spelt as Kronos for a time. Ah, human ignorance… it never changes. The Vulcan
language also has many words that are too complex to pronounce for most humanoids, such
as many of their names, so abbreviations are used. Spock is actually such a name, so it’s
also not hard to image that the Vulcan people simply took the term Vulcan and applied it
rather than having most others they encountered struggle with a more difficult name. After
all, it’s the most logical path of least resistance and one that reflects a lack of
emotional pride to simply go with the most pragmatic solution. I’ve never been caught
mispronouncing things. To be fair, other species do this to Humans,
with Terrans, Earthers, Federation and so on. Most Trek humans simply go with whatever
inoffensive label is easiest for the other. But that is enough on that.
Vulcan is located in the 40 Eridani trinary star system. On a galactic scale, it is right
next door to Sol, being only 17 lightyears away. It has no actual moons, but it shares
its orbital path with another world called T’Khut that is frequently seen in the sky.
It is unknown if there are any settlements on T’Kuht, but there are on its moon, making
it the closest thing the Vulcans have to a lunar colony.
In real life there is a terrestrial world detected in 2018 in this system, however it
way too close to its suns to support life. But that would probably mean it is a furnace
world… so …Vulcan! In lore, it is the tidal forces between T’Khut and Vulcan that
make it so volcanically active, while the trinary star system keeps the atmosphere hot.
Despite its reputation for being such a desert planet, it was still an M class world with
oceans, plant life and rainfall, just comparatively less that Earth. Its gravity was 1.4 that
of Earth but it shared a 24 hour day-night cycle.
Vulcan was divided up into various provinces, all unified under a central government, the
Vulcan High Command spread across its continents. It has been the closet ally of Earth since
its first contact and was a founding member of the Coalition of Planets then the United
Federation in 2161. As such, it generally has benefited from the shared technology of
the member worlds, as well as (eventually) becoming a large contributor.
It’s capital city is ShiKahr on the edge of the Forge desert near the L’langon mountains.
This city itself is from way before even Surak, placing it at pre-300 AD and the immediate
land around the city is cultivated and kept against the deserts around it, making it an
effective oasis. It is here that the High Command is situated.
The Forge desert is one of the harshest on Vulcan and prone to electrically charge sandstorms
whipped up by devastating winds. Which fits nicely into another piece of apocryphal lore,
that of the effects of the Vulcan’s own atomic war. Canonically, around the time of
Awakening, when the Vulcans embraced Surak’s logical teachings of emotional suppression,
they were engaged in their own planet-wide world war with atomic bombs. Other sources
go on to elaborate saying Vulcan’s magnetic poles were altered by this war, which also
created a third pole. This ambience is responsible for many of the electrically charged effects
and areas of interference across Vulcan. There is also a location called the Anvil
which is described as “blistering plains”, which alongside the name, conjures images
of flat, barren, cooked rock. The planet has many relics preserved from
its pre-Surak times which make great areas of study and these were often coupled with
the planet’s natural features. There was a city known as Gol, which was brought to
ruin during an ancient war, Raal, a coastal town and many other settlements. The Vulcan
record keeping is incredibly accurate, even recording their incidents of alien contact
from eons ago in full detail, so the planet has a lot of history for the curious scholar,
although go back far enough and it does fade into myth, such as, you know, their creation.
Many speculate they were descended from another species, the Arretan.
The fire plains are of high importance throughout Vulcan history. These are long stretches of
lava from tectonically active fault lines that snake between tall pillars of stone.
There have historically been many battles across the fire plains which have been recorded
in classical Vulcan literature and there are many tall statues of Vulcans carved into some
of the untouched stone. Judging by the form of these statues resembling monks, and that
the Temple of Kir is located in the depths of these plains, I assume this was a bastion
of Surak’s philosophy. That is an assumption however, and the temple could have been added
post Surak. Other sacred sites of Vulcan include the temple
of Amonak where aspects of Vulcan religion and faith were performed. It’s not clarified
just what faiths the Vulcan people practice, aside from their philosophies from Surak.
That would make its own interesting video, so focusing back on Vulcan itself for now.
Alongside the fire plains, we have many dormant and active volcanoes, and mountain ranges
such as Mount Tar’Hana and the most famous Mount Selaya. Seleya is within the Forge,
the closest settlement being the T’Karath Sanctuary which doubled as the site of extensive
historical catacombs containing the remains of many Vulcan monks from Surak’s time and
before. Mount Seleya is so revered that it even appears
as the primary symbol of the Vulcan IDIC and this is because it was where Surak began his
teachings. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Vulcan’s love triangles. To
this day, the site is still an active place of ceremonies and while freely accessible,
is fiercely protected. There are temples, sites of meditation, amphitheatres and such
scattered across its ascent and peaks where the Vulcan Elders gather to discuss Surak’s
philosophy, interpretations and offer guidance. In orbit of Vulcan are its own series of Federation
shipyards and space stations, the 40 Eridani A construction yards, akin to the San Francisco
Fleet Yards over Earth which are Starfleet operated showing the strong ties to the Federation
that the planet has. Spoilers for Discovery in the next minute
or so, but by the 32nd century, Spock’s Unification movement has resulted in the Romulans
returning to Vulcan and the primary name of the planet being changed to Ni’Var which
means “Two Form” in Vulcan when referring to duality, specifically in the arts. This
name was selected because after the destruction of Romulus and Remus, it seems that Vulcan
became the returned home world of the Romulan people over the next few centuries, but the
governance between the two cousin species remains partly separate, it’s currently
unclear. So that about sums up the planet of Vulcan.
There are tons of other places, temples and geographical features that are mentioned,
but most of them are named only and not elaborated much. On observation, there are many of these
places located in the deserts of Vulcan, when I’d expect to find far more along the limited
coastlines of the planet. But perhaps there is simply not enough real estate along these
waterfronts to support the entire Vulcan population. Either way, the Vulcans have adapted very
well to their world, being able to seek out and thrive in any habitable corner, peak or
crevasse of their arid world. The Vulcan people went from fighting each other over the limited
resources, to working together to cultivate the tameable areas and thrive.
Relics of their violent past however scar the land and the magma that bubbles beneath
the surface of the planet, occasionally surfacing is a good mirror for the Vulcan psyche itself.
The planet is inherently dangerous and fiery, but through a respectful taming of its elements,
those depths have been controlled. Thanks for watching this video on Vulcan, Ni’Var
or Minshara. I’ll continue to look into other planets of the trek universe and possibly
beyond if you like this sort of focus. Trek may be the franchise I know best, but I’m
willing to look into others with a smaller scope. Thanks again for watching, I’ve been
Ric and I’ll see you later. goodbye!