Starfleet’s mandate to explore often brings them into contact with many unknown species
and new encounters. What unfolds after first contact cannot be predicted but it has long
been the Federation’s belief that extending a benevolent hand in welcome is the best way
to start any interstellar relations and for the most part, this works. Occasionally however,
there will be an encounter that goes badly, no matter the Federation’s intent. Hi, Ric
here and today we’re looking at one such species; encounter by the USS Voyager, the
Vaadwaur of the Delta Quadrant. The species revived from a long slumber and despite the
vessels best efforts to negotiate, they did not know the damage they were unleashing on
that area of space. A lot of the Vaadwaur’s story is presented
in the show’s episode, “Dragon’s Teeth” but beyond that, there is no other primarily
canon materials so I’ll be looking at Star Trek Online’s additions to their continuity
to flesh out their lore. Biologically speaking, the Vaadwaur had two
genders skin tones of pink to orangey-brown. They had sharp features with the most prominent
being a ridge on their head and the neck structure that forms a sort of cobra’s hood.
Vaadwaur Prime, as it was known to Starfleet was located within the little explored Delta
Quadrant, of the former Vaadwaur system near Turei space, now labelled the Markonia Sector.
Little is left to identify the planet as it is now a barren wreck. Although it is an oxygen-nitrogen
M class world once full of flourishing cities built around towers an circular verandas for
skycars, all the hallmarks of an advanced culture. Snaking throughout this area of space
was the subspace phenomena known as the Underspace a seemingly natural expanse of corridors (although
there are some records that indicate they were established by an older precursor race).
Through these vessels could pass at faster than warp speeds across vast distances and
these snaked as far as Talax and were the foundation for the initial Vaadwaur Empire.
A species built on conquest, they kept the use of the Underspace secure by never recording
maps of the network, instead only committing its streams and twists to memory and verbal
record. This jealously guarded advantage kept the Vaadwaur Empire sustained for around 900
years as their fleets would emerge from the undetectable Underspace in vast quantities
raze a species’ defences then occupy the planet. They were overthrown however by a
conglomeration of powers, including the Turei in 1484 and driven back to their homeworld
and colonies. When the Turei managed to usurp control of the Underspace from them, the Vaadwaur
would have been effectively isolated from their own forces and Vaadwaur Prime itself
was bombarded with radioactive plamsa weapons until its surface was an irradiated ruin.
Unbeknownst to the Turei and their alliance however, many of the Vaadwaur had in fact
survived by entering into stasis pods. These pods were located not only on their homeworld,
but on other planets too, including a system that would later be occupied by the Kobali.
Their plan was to wait a few years and then return to find a new world and begin again.
To this end, their military units and offspring were given the highest priority in suspension
while those who preserved their culture, teachers, artists, historians and the like were at the
bottom of the rung. Many of these individuals were lost from the bombardment or never made
it to the shelters however, leaving mostly only the soldiers of the Empire to slumber.
892 Years passed and then Seven of Nine of Voyager awoke Gedrin, who then proceeded to
work with the ship to revive his unit of around 600 soldiers. Gaul, their leader betrayed
the USS Voyager and tried to take over the ship but in turn drew the attention of the
Turei who feared the return of the Vaadwaur and Voyager slipped away while the two forces
clashed. Much of the former Vaadwaur space had fallen
to the Turei, Borg and the Devore Imperium and as of the narrative of Star Trek Online,
we see that the Vaadwaur have been searching for any means to catch-up to current Delta
Quadrant powers whose technology level they had fallen centuries behind. They also spent
a long time trying to locate their other colony worlds and seem to have been focused on rebuilding
their ranks. However as the surviving members of the Vaadwaur are mostly the militant ranks,
much of the history of the Quadrant from this time has been lost as well as their own culture
so who they once were, is mostly forgotten to time.
What can be gleaned from the way they present themselves however, is that they had a superiority
complex and a prideful attitude, expecting a level and calm head from ever member of
their society at all time and a belief that might makes right. It was a minority belief
among the reawakened that they should seek to find a balance with the new status quo
as they were almost 900 years out of their element. For the majority however, their fight
for survival was only days ago when they went into suspended animation and so emerged ready
to continue their conflict. Kind of reminds me of the Ice Warriors from Doctor Who. With
time, their empire faded into legend, with some species forgetting them entirely and
creating folk tales around the Vaadwaur, for example, in Talax’ilzay they adopted the
name to mean foolish, as in easily deceived. As mentioned, the Vaadwaur’s original tech
is now outclassed by Starfleet, the Turei and most other powers but not by as wide a
margin as you may think. This does suggest that in their prime, Vaadwaur technology was
far more advanced than its contemporaries, certainly Borg of this time were no match
for them. The only Vaadwaur Empire ships of that era that we see are the Pythus class
vessels that they stashed away with their stasis pods. Constructed from dark green alloys,
with deep amber hued power, these were small fighter ships around 70 metres long and capable
of manoeuvrability in both space and atmosphere. It used an unidentified particle beam weapon
and had shielding, though weak by Starfleet standards. In Star Trek Online, set some 34
years after their reawakening, the Vaadwuar have acquired new technologies and built whole
new types of vessels from their shipyards in orbit of Vaadwaur Prime which they returned
to once they had rearmed and resupplied their forces from a mysterious benefactor after
building a new base of operations in the Kartella system.
These new vessels, such as the Manasa Escort, maintain several of the traits of the Pythus
class with the twin hull design flanked by several other struts and the dark green colour
scheme giving it a militaristic finish. One change to note however is that the orange
power glow has been replaced by a deeper purple and the Vaadwaur have developed a preference
for Polaron based weaponry as this energy type is often able to exploit standard frequency
deflector shielding and also favoured by the Jem’Hadar another highly combat-orientated
race. Other vessels include the Astika class Artillery
ship from which salvos of spatial charges could be launched and the Juggernaut-class
powerhouse. Both tie into the tactical philosophy of the Vaadwaur, that overwhelming power,
delivered concisely and without quarter leads to victory. This has repeatedly been their
approach and matches how they operated 900 years ago. Just as they did then, they retain
superiority over the Underspace and begin to reassert their dominance by targeting competing
powers first then hitting them hard before they could get word out.
A frequent control tactic employed by the Vaadwaur is deceptive negotiation. Alongside
the old Talaxian stories of betrayal, the Vaadwaur attempted to usurp control of Voyager
immediately upon their revival and we see this trend continue in Star Trek Online. Gaul,
now naming himself Overseer of the Vaadwaur Supremacy invites the Federation to negotiate
a truce in but instead offers unreasonable terms then uses the opportunity to massacre
a Talaxian colony and blame the Federation and its allies for refusing to negotiate in
good faith. He can then go back to his forces and say that he tried a diplomatic solution,
but it was not reciprocated and he is able to use this uncontested propaganda to direct
the military and bolster the conviction of his followers. So their repeated tactics seems
to suggest that they approach with a smile, then hammer you with overwhelming force before
you can work out what their angle is. Sounds like you’d be a fool to trust them.
They also saw no problem with targeting no-combative sectors in order to destabilise and spread
chaos around a target to divert attention. Such tactics border on war crimes, but the
Vaadwaur repeatedly have shown no regard for life other than their own and according to
records, they were cruel taskmasters even after their conquest.
The Vaadwaur uniform is a layered brown tunic wrapped with sturdy belts and fastened with
the Vaadwaur Empire logo in silver. In later times, they maintain the brown and beige uniforms
but don more protective gear when heading into battle. Frequently they are seen wearing
backpacks and protective helmets with complete face masks. The commanders of their ranks
wore longer trench coats giving them an overall world war 2 German soldier aesthetic, especially
with the large collars. From their culture, tales from their formerly
oppressed species and their actions, we can see that might and pride went in equal hand
with them and although originally had all the required societal elements to become a
space-faring civilization, these were lost to them. What emerged from their hibernation
was their most destructive and distilled side, agitated by a conflict they likely saw as
an offense 900 years ago and the humiliation of being reduced from the greatest local power
to a sub-par technological relic. So, there’s what we know of the Vaadwaur
with some added context from extra sources. What do you think? Do you believe the Star
Trek Online approach is the likely outcome of the Vaadwaur, or do you foresee more like
Gedrin who saw the futility of continuing the Vaadwaur’s aggressive ways and perhaps
a way to a more peaceful future for them? As for the next cultural index, it’s been
going for a long time now and some species that I touched upon early in this run I feel
could have been done a little better. So I was thinking we could revisit one from the
early days, with either the Vulcan Index 2.0 or the Andorian’s remastered (as it were).
The votes will be over on the community tab which annoyingly doesn’t appear on some
mobile devices. Thanks for watching this video and I’ll
see you next time for another lore, theory or gameplay one. Until then, goodbye!