Vulcan history

This page details the history of the Vulcan people and their Vulcan state.

Ancient History
Much of Vulcan pre-history was a mixture of myth and legends, one of which stated that their race was seeded by the Preservers, or the race that Sargon belonged to. Another myth spoke of the Vhorani, who were known as the Ancient Ones, who came from the Wellspring of Creation known as Vorta Vor. Once they reached the harsh world that was the planet Vulcan, they created the Vulcan species. 

Among the Vulcan species, it was believed that the first of their kind, known as The Wanderer, was the one who developed speech and the first word. These same primitive Vulcans witnessed the intense damage done to their world by their sun's solar flare which wiped out much of the planet's surface and transform it into its desert form. 

Early in Vulcan history their planet was occupied by the demonic Furies, who ruled much of the Alpha Quadrant and Beta Quadrant. Like many other species, such as Humans and Klingons, the Vulcans were cowed into submission by their masters fear generating technology. The Fury of Vulcan was recorded by the testimoy of many witnesses when a Vulcan warrior known as Torkas of the Vehm killed 97 of his own village through the use of a leaf bladed Toth spear before he was killed. Ok'San was the most of the despised of all the demonic Furies. The Furies left Vulcan when they met the Unclean menace, and knowledge of the Furies disappeared, forming a racial fear in the Vulcans and other races the Furies had ruled over. 

At one point during ancient Vulcan history, the world was invaded by a race of non-corporeal entities that relished in causing death and destruction. As non-corporeal beings, conventional means were incapable of killing them. Fortunately, the Vulcan Sajik created the Sword of Sajik, which was used to slay many of the creatures, eventually driving them away from Vulcan. 

As early as the 3rd century Vulcans had the capacity for space travel. One group of Vulcans from this time crash landed on the planetoid Darien 224 where they formed the Last-of-all-Cities colony. They remained isolated there for two millennia. 

Early Vulcan also developed several advanced psionic technologies, including psionic weapons such as the Tol par-doj and Vorl-tak. Most of these technologies were lost during the Time of Awakening. During these early periods, tribes of Vulcans were known to had consisted of skilled cultures. The arid climate of their home world was conductive to accuracy over long distances though the heavier gravity led to some challenges. However, those that learnt to shoot an arrow on Vulcan were capable of using the skill easily on other worlds. 

The Time of Awakening
By the 4th century the Vulcan's had developed a violent culture, planet Vulcan was subject to violence and war as the Vulcan people fought one another in countless battles that stained the sand of the deserts with their green blood. Wars would arise from either conquest or need for water resources, which were scarce on the palnet. The most well recorded of the Vulcan warlords was the tyrant Sudoc, who gained power by assassinating the previous ruling leader. Using his powerful psionic abilities and skilled tactical mind, he led his vicious barbarian armies in campaigns that dominated most of the homeworld. Those who resisted would be slaughtered and those who fell under his rule would be subject to telepathic "adjustments" to make them loyal. 

It was in this time that a young Vulcan boy was born in the city state of ShiKahr, known as Surak. His home city was one of Sudoc's chief rivals and he attempted to assassinate the ruling generals which included members of Surak's family. (Last Unicorn RPG: The Way of Kolinahr: The Vulcans). Surak became a skilled computer scientist, but his creations were used as weapons of war, which provoked Surak into developing the goals of logic and peace. 


 * Other novels suggest that Surak's father was Stef who was killed in battle on the Ishaya Plains when Surak was a boy.

Surak's new beliefs spread across Vulcan and took hold in the populace. The warlords began to lose power and the captured territories of Sudoc began to fracture as his empire began to disintegrate. Sudocs rule and empire finally ended with the tyrant's death, though members of his loyal cadre that did survive formed the Children of Ket-Cheleb which were led by the warrior Tellus. 

It was also known that at some point, thousands of years ago, a group of rational men who helped found the new Vulcan philosophy of logic decided to seek perfection by developing a method of removing their emotions and sealing them within bottles. However, this process diminished the soul of the individual and thus the device that accomplished this was destroyed. Instead, they devoted their life to teaching the value of logic instead. The bottles that contained the removed emotions survived through the centuries and in honor of their mentors, the Vulcan people created a shrine on the planet Beta IV where the artifacts remained hidden in Room 101 where they were meant to be preserved for all of life. 

First Contact
In the climate that followed, the Vulcan people were still fractured into various groups while Surak spread his message. It was at this time that the species made their first contact with another form of life which were people of Etosha who appeared at Shikahr before the assembled delegates as a peaceful race. While appearing as kind strangers from the heavens, the Etoshans were pirates that used deception as a tactic to capture slaves and hold planetary leaders for ransom which they accomplished at Vulcan where they took hold of numerous leaders along with Surak's student S'task. Surak himself was spared this fate due to transportation difficulties at a port facility which prevented him from attending the meeting.

What followed this event was labelled at "the Ahkh", also known as the War. This action reduced all previous conflicts to simple skirmishes as the Vulcan species worked to defeat the invaders. S'task proved instrumental in this move as he liberated many of his kinsmen and killed thousands of pirates in his escape from their vessels. While primitive compared to the advanced technology of the pirates, the Vulcans had a well developed skill in the psionic arts which allowed them to unravel the metal ships of the enemy or set their pilots on suicidal courses. Through such actions, was Vulcan itself finally freed from the invaders that had terrorised them. 

The Sundering
Despite the changes spreading across Vulcan numerous opposing groups still existed, such as the Northeastern Alliance, the Southern Hegemony and the Te-Vikram Brotherhood, which threatened to further destabilize the planet and bring about the death of Vulcan-kind. 

During the height of the conflict where various factions fought one another while Surak attempted to preach his belief in pacifism and logic; the planet Vulcan was visited by extraterrestrial life forms. However, instead of the peaceful encounter the Vulcan people were seeking, they were instead attacked by a faction of Orion pirates that attempted to enslave them. 


 * Varying books portray a different period of the Sundering. The Vulcan's Soul books portray it as an inter-racial warfare while Spock's World states that it was an invasion by Orion pirates.

This era of unrest brought about the Sundering, as groups of Vulcans discontented with Surak's philosophy left Vulcan to develop their own cultures as they saw fit. The largest group were the Romulans who went on to form the Romulan Star Empire. Other groups includeed the Debrune and the Watraii. , )


 * See Romulan history to see the details of the Vulcans-in-Exile.

The Age Of Expansion
With the departure of the more violent element of Vulcan society the remainder of the Vulcan people were left to flourish in a new era of peace and logic.

The new Vulcan space age saw lmited expansion within their own solar system, however, none of these planets was habitable on the level the Vulcan homeworld. At some time in this era a wormhole appeared near the system, from which came an invasion force of starships which attacked the Vulcans. Attempts were made for peaceful contact with these invaders, but these attemtped were answered with by violence. Eventually, the Vulcan Council responded and defeated the incursions. Few knew the origin of these invaders, as the wormhole they appeared from was unstable and would open and close randomly. Some suspected that the invaders were actually the warriors of the self exiled Children of Ket-Cheleb, who became the Romulans.

The Vulcan's limited space technologies took a great leap when the scientist T'Vran discovered the secrets of warp drive in 1440. Unmanned automated probes were first used which were successful enough that T'Vran herself participated in a manned flight. This sparked a new age for the Vulcan people, who would produce exploratory vessels to travel space, catapulting the Vulcan civilization across the stars.

The Vulcans soon established colonies on worlds such as T'Khut, Kethri and Mevet. This new age of exploration lasted six hundred years with the further aim of locating the hostile force that attacked them earlier, but they never discover the Romulan Star Empire during this time.

Early contacts with numerous primitive races which turned violent provoked the Vulcan belief in remaining hidden from such races until they "matured" or developed themselves. This would later form the initial basis for the Prime Directive. 

Guiding Humanity
On April 5th 2063 the Vulcan starship T'Plana-Hath, detected a warp flight from the planet Earth and became the first alien species to formally make contact with Humans. The T'Plana Hath landed in Montana, the launch site of the warp ship, to greet its creator, Zefram Cochrane. 


 * In the Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology and novels which draw from its timeline, first contact between Humans and Vulcans occured in 2065, when a disabled Vulcan ship sent a distress call to the UNSS Amity. The Amity rescued the crew and towed the ship back to Vulcan. In the SFC, this marked humans' first encounter with a truly alien species (as opposed to the virtually human Centaurans). At least one novel (Spock's World) contradicts this and states that humans had encountered Andorians first, which allowed humans to shed their xenophobia before meeting the Vulcans. The specifics of both these versions have been rendered obsolete by later canon, but adapted versions of some events may still have taken place.

With their new Human allies, the Vulcan High Command established the Vulcan Advisory Council which coordinated with United Earth Starfleet Command and monitored Earths progress. The Vulcans refused to provide their technology to Earth, which resulted in Earth's first warp five starship launching a century after Humanity first developed warp technology. For some Humans this was a source of much resentment; they believed that the Vulcans had impeded their progress. 

22nd Century
By the mid-22nd century, the Vulcans were a regional power, involved in an ongoing conflict with the neighbouring Andorian Empire. Meanwhile, Earth's first warp five starship, the Enterprise (NX-01), was launched in 2151. 

Sometime before 2151 the Vulcans established a monitoring station beneath the P'Jem monastery, which was tasked with spying on the Andorians. In that year a team of Andorians, led by Shran, and Captain Jonathan Archer of the Enterprise discovered the listening post. Shortly after the monastery was destroyed in orbital bombardment from the Andorians and eventually led to the dismissal of the First Minister. 

Vulcan reformation
Inside the Vulcan government, power would grow within the hands of the Vulcan High Command with Administrator V'Las attempting to persecute the new Syrrannites movement. By 2154, V'Las attempted to provoke a war with the Andorian Empire stating that intelligence had gathered evidence of the Andorians using Xindi technology to create a superweapon which would be used to destroy Vulcan.

Trying to frame the Syrranites V'Las had the Earth Embassy on Vulcan bombed, which brought the Enterprise to Vulcan to investigate. Not long after the Enterprise discovered the truth of the matter and Commander Charles Tucker III with Ambassador Soval went to warn the Andorians of the impending invasion. Meanwhile on Vulcan Captain Archer discovered the Kir'Shara.

With V'Las's deception uncovered he was forced from power, while the discovery of the Kir'Shara brought about a new age in Vulcan history as the Vulcan people rediscovered the true uncorrupted teachings of Surak. 

The Federation
In 2155 the Vulcan government signed the Coalition Compact which made them officially part of the Coalition of Planets, alongside Earth, Andoria and Tellar. 

In 2161 the Coalition worlds joined together to from the United Federation fo Planets. 

23rd Century
Despite the years of peaceful cooperation within the Federation, the Vulcans contemplated at one point to leave the interstellar state when numerous groups, for various reasons, believed that the Vulcan race's ideals were not being fulfilled with their continued contact with Humans. A Referendum was called and a debate made with the idea being ultimately rejected allowing the Vulcans to remain with the Federation. 

In 2268, the Vulcan crew of the science ship T'Pau were believed to had been killed at Alnath whilst supporting an archaeological dig on that planet. However, it was discovered that the Alnathian pyramid had granted the crew their innermost wish and allowed them Vulcans to shed their corporeal forms and become beings of pure thought. 

24th Century
The Vulcan homeworld became infected by the "demonic" entities found within artifacts from the Hydrillian sector. Numerous Vulcans became possessed by the entities and spread the infection, however, it was eventually contained and the artifacts sealed within the Vulcan Science Academy, where they remained under study. 

Despite generations of changes between the Vulcan and Romulan people, there was an attempt by the legendary Vulcan ambassador Spock in bringing about "reunification" of the species. However, on one occassion, this nearly brought about the conquest of the Vulcan homeworld by the Romulan military who attempted to use the concept in order to smuggle troops into Vulcan. This attempt failed but did not deter Spock in his goal in bring about bringing the Sundered brethren together in peace with their Vulcan brothers. 

Alternate Timelines
In one alternate timeline where Humanity never evolved, the Vulcans continued a similar pattern of development but never joined a unified Federation of planets. After encountering the Klingon Empire, numerous wars erupted between the two powers with the Vulcans always becoming the successor but instead of destroying their defeated enemy, they allowed the Klingons to return to their territory. This continued several times until finally the Klingons attempted diplomatic negotiations headed by Roth. The Vulcans managed to convince the Klingons to make peace with their neighbours which included the Ri'ani. However, the Romulans disguised one of their agents as a Vulcan and lulled the Klingons into a state of complaceny allowing the Romulans to strike the Klingon homeworld. The Klingons saw the Vulcans as traitors and liars with the possibility of outright war occuring until a treaty that confined the Vulcans to their world and being neutral was agreed.

The Vulcans of this timeline shared many of the normal characteristics of the Vulcans of the normal timeline but were known to be quite aggressive and made use of deception as well as sudden strikes from their merchant ships. Though they had made a treaty of neutrality with both the Romulan Star Empire and the Klingon Empire, the Vulcans were planning on ensuring the war between those two powers remained till both nations were destroyed. As such, they advised the Klingons to make use of suicidal tactics against the Romulans and also made covert negotiations with other worlds in order to warn them of the threats of the Klingon and the Romulan empires. They advised these worlds to lie low and provided technology in order for them to be ready for the future. This was a dangerous action made by the Vulcan High Council as if the Romulans or the Klingons discovered this deception, they would have attempted to destroy the Vulcan people. This timeline was erased when Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) went back in time to ensure that Humans would develop on Earth.