Hello all, Ric here with a Cultural Index from one of Star Trek’s most explored species,
the Bajorans. Of course, you can’t talk about the Bajorans
without mentioning their primary faith, that of the Prophets of the Celestial Temple. Not
only is this religion a guiding aspect in most areas of their life, but the wormhole
aliens that they worship do have a long, if mysterious past with the planet and it’s
populous. However, I won’t be examining this in depth in this video as I have already
done a great deal of exploration into it in a while ago, which I’ll link.
So, looking into the Bajorans, let’s get started with their homeworld, Bajor. It’s
the 11th planet of the Bajor system on the far galactic east side of Federation space,
near the Cardassian boarder and Badlands territory. It is an M class world of diverse climates,
although as of 2375, it is still recovering from industrial damage to its structures and
agriculture caused by decades of oppression. It rotates on a 26 hour day and has 5 moons,
Derna, Jeraddo, Endalla, Penraddo, Baraddo. The systems main star is called B’hava’el.
The Bajoran culture is a rather slow moving one, but one that has been around for thousands
of years, and was an interstellar power much earlier than humanity, but after the Vulcans,
more on that in a minute. Archaeologists on Bajor have unearthed evidence of their precursors
building civilizations up to 500,000 years ago, and the Bajorans have a coherent record
dating back to 28,000 BC. Around 10,000 years ago, the first Tear of
the Prophets, what would become known as the Orbs of Bajor was found, leading to the eventual
uncovering of 9 in total. Through these, a viewer could experience a trance-like state
of visions from their past and future. The most powerful of these were penned into the
first prophecies and attributed to their gods who resided in the Celestial Temple. This
temple referred to the Bajoran Wormhole, whose inhabitants were the prophets or wormhole
aliens. The Bajorans achieved interstellar flight
around the 16th century by constructing “light ships” whose solar sails would catch the
particle winds from their sun and be propelled through space. Such locomotion was surprisingly
speedy, but well below warp travel. However, if the correct circumstances were met, they
vessel could be accelerated to warp speeds. Such an incident did occur in this era which
catapulted a Bajoran vessel to Cardassia Prime and resulted in a first contact that the Cardassians
would deny for generations. Bajor soon developed a reputation for being
a world of culture and learning, even before it was warp capable. It is unclear when they
developed warp drive, and old reference puts it at around the early 24th century which
would place them right before the Cardassian Occupation. That sounds a little late to me,
but they were still using their lightships to sail to other systems at warp speed by
the 22nd century so maybe they saw no need for a warp drive when their lightships worked
just fine? There are mentions however, that Bajorans
began to establish their own colonies in other systems, which they could have done either
via their lightships, or by travelling with other species that reputedly frequented Bajor.
It was one of these colonies, Pillagra that was encountered by the Federation in 2270,
making for official first contact, although with the reputation Bajor had by this time
among other species, it is probable the UFP already knew of them. They continued to peacefully
traverse the stars and explore until the early24th century, which was not a good time for them.
It is around 2319, that the Cardassian Union, committed to its expansionist ideals, led
it to invade the mostly peaceful and technologically inferior Bajor, seeing its resources as too
rich a prize to ignore. The Cardassian Occupation would rend the world and cripple the Bajorans
for 50 years as the Cardassians perverted the course of their culture and exported Bajor’s
resources to its own territories to fuel expansion. Despite the Cardassians coming into conflict
with the Federation, the UFP would not render direct aid to Bajor until they had managed
to shake off Cardassian oppression themselves in 2369.
When this occurred, Bajor reached out immediately to the UFP for aid in rebuilding, despite
many in the government that refuted the idea of any more alien “assistance”, understandably.
Bajor soon made the declaration that it wished to join the UFP and so from 2369 to 2375,
the planet was helped back to its feet and prepped for membership. Whether it finally
joined or not is not yet confirmed in canon, but it’s probable. Some stories claim it
happened in 2376, other in 2393, but whatever the case, Bajor is probably going to take
whatever action ensures it can retain its own sovereignty, something the Federation
places among its highest principles. The government of Bajor is one that underwent
a drastic transformation due to the Occupation, but has witnessed several different governing
styles and bodies over its long history, as any culture would. The current Bajoran Republic
for example is the third planetary republic which consists of a Provisional Government,
installed after the Occupational Government was dissolved in 2369. This unified body is
made up of the leaders of its various nation states, such as the Paqu and Navot, arranged
into a council board of ministers. These all report to the First Minister of Bajor. There
were other political parties, but these were not representatives of the whole planet, merely
ideologically different structures like the Kohn-Ma. There were the occasional xenophobic
elements, such as the benign sounding, Alliance for Global Unity which resorted to extremism.
Although separate, the spiritual religion of Bajor is just as powerful in steering the
direction of the populous and they always had a table in meetings alongside the Council
of Ministers. The Kai, was the spiritual leader of the primary faith, and a member of the
clergy chosen from the Vedeks. The Kai themselves was to seek guidance from the Prophets in
all matters and managed the various assemblies of the faith. Their recommendations carried
substantial weight and it was regarded as the most powerful position on the planet,
eclipsed only by the prophesised Emissary of the Prophets, who was eventually revealed
to be Starfleet officer Captain Benjamin Sisko. As a Starfleet officer, however, and a downright
decent man, he seldom exercised his influence, only involving himself in ceremonial matters
where possible. Because of the prevalence of the Bajoran faith,
there are many holidays and celebrations throughout Bajoran territories. These include the Days
of Atonement, the newer Ha’mara (which celebrated the reveal of the Emissary), the Time of Cleansing
(which was a fast), and the Gratitude festival, Peldor. During this festival, people wrote
their issues and fears on renewal scrolls, before burning them in along with Bateret
leaf incense, in fires. Bajor is also known for its food and artistic
culture. Bajoran music, design, textiles, alcohols and more were frequently the subject
of trade, however, this like much of their culture had been marred by the Occupation,
as their world was plundered of its artefacts and cultural exports by the Cardassians. There
remain many items still in circulation or in private collections that are the results
of Cardassian appropriation. Generally, reacquiring these is seen as part of Bajor’s rebuilding.
Because of its vast biodiverse climate, there are a myriad of fruits, vegetables and fauna
across Bajor that contribute to a vibrant array of foodstuffs. Much Bajoran cuisine
was sourced from plants, such as Alvas berry, Katterpod beans, Deka tea leaves, most of
a Kava plant and Moba fruits are just some of the native Bajoran plant life. While Palukoo
(a large arachnid), shrimps and other animals were often prepared too.
Hasperat was a spicy wrap, basically a local burrito eaten warm or cold. Because of its
easy to consume nature, it was often a favourite for those on a schedule, like Bajoran Milita
or Starfleet personnel. In terms of confectionary, we have the popular
Jumja stick, which was a rich sap from the Jumja tree, solidified into a sweet edible
resin. On a- On a stick. Interestingly, but perhaps not unexpectedly,
they have also adopted a few Cardassian refreshments, such as Groat, Kanar and Larish Pie.
Bajoran script has a long origin across the planet and has a huge amount of variation.
There is a standardised alphabet called Modern Bajoran that is a series of glyphs, presumably
each glyph represents an entire word, not just a letter. Because of this, it could be
read both vertically or horizontally and had its roots in Ancient Bajoran, which looked
similar, but was different enough that a speaker of Modern Bajoran wouldn’t necessarily understand
the root language. These older texts were written as ideograms, kind of like hieroglyphics
that prioritised depicting a meaning over a literal word. This often made translating
old texts an extensive and involved process, open to much interpretation. Bajoran names
consist of a first name, which is the family name, and a second name, which is the individual
name. The Bajorans, despite having this old and
peaceful soul to their society, have been tempered by the harshness of Cardassian oppression.
Many survived the process through, not only devotion to the Prophets, but by acts of defiance
and resistance. No point dancing around it, the Bajoran resistance engaged in terrorism
and guerrilla warfare to spite the Cardassian forces. The resistance would go on to dissolve
in 2369 when Cardassia withdrew, and those who fought went on to find new work. The Bajoran
militia was formed from the civilian populous, the only training they had were in the tactics
they employed during the Occupation, which made for a tenacious, if a loose military.
With the militia becoming the primary defensive force of Bajor, soon institutions were formed
to begin training recruits properly, from the experiences of those who survived the
fights over the 50 years and Starfleet personnel. The Bajorans are a varied people themselves
as most species, but there are a few common traits, such as a strong belief in the Prophets,
but honestly even this varies from person to person. Some are incredibly spiritual,
some maintain a deep faith and some observe the practices but have little use for them.
Basically, they are as varied as human, which makes for a deep and rich culture, but an
annoying species when you’re trying to write a summary to a 10 minute long video.
This aspect of them, the variety is depicted in all levels of their culture as they were
tied heavily to the series of Deep Space Nine, appearing in every episode with a lot of development.
We have multiple ruling systems throughout their history, like the D’Jara castes and
three republics, several languages, each with its own etymology and a recorded 30,000 years
of architecture, lost cities and religious observations. Bajor really is a planet steeped
in culture and realised on screen as such, every planet in Star Trek in theory has the
same history behind it, it’s just Bajor had more than a 45 minute episode to convey
its entire planetary history. Thanks for watching this video on the Bajorans,
as you can tell, this video has barely scratched the surface of their culture, I might to some
index addendums on them, focused on ancient Bajor or something because there is tons to
go on. Let me know if that would be something you’d like to see expanded upon.
In the meantime, there are two more options for the index to address, the votes will be
over on the community tab and feel free to suggest more ideas in the comments below.
The options this time are the robotic artificial intelligence of the Geth from Mass Effect,
of the lack of intelligence from the Pakled of Star Trek.
Thanks again for watching and I’ll see you again for another video. I’ve been Ric and
goodbye!