Vulcan history

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

Ancient History
There was some controversy over the origin the Vulcan species and on whether their homeworld was actually their birth place or if it was colonized some six million years ago. Much of Vulcan pre-history was a mixture of myth and legends, one of which stated that their race was seeded by the s, 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. In the aftermath, the planet was divided into numerous clans that sought refuge in the few locations left on the now desolate world. Locations that held water were prized locations but the dangers of day time travel meant that it was difficult to wage conflict when the sun was up. However, one clan that possessed the Eye - the inner eyelid, held an advantage as they were able to travel during day time and they attacked the well spring at Pelasht. After taking it, they decided to hold their advantage by allowing other clans to breed with the clan of the Eyes women so that their own offspring would develop the trait. In exchange, they gained access to resources as well as bred with other clans that possessed their own unique advantages such as the ability to touch minds. This formed the basis of modern Vulcan marriage customs that stemmed from a primitive form of eugenics program. In time, various telepathic and other traits were passed down the gene pool of the Vulcan species and spread throughout their race. 

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 testimony 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. 

Age of Antiquity
What was known of the ancient history of the Vulcan civilization was that their people were divided into tribal lines and consisted of extended clans that were organized together for protection against the harsh environment of the desert. These tribes existed in a nomadic fashion where they travelled between different reserviors of water. Some eventually established permnanent settlements in areas that provided adequate food, water and shelter with these sites being the source of the first city states. Much of this part of their history was uncertain as there were many legends that spoke of angry gods, wars in the sky and tales of psionic might. The only trace of such facts were the scattered ruins that dotted the planets surface with all knowledge of such events being lost or destroyed. It was believed that certain Vulcans had demonstrated moderate amounts of psionic talents at this time and their abilities made them revered by their people who viewed such individuals as being favored by their deities for possessing such gifts. Such Vulcans were often focal points within their tribes and the source of many alliances between the different families though some resorted to violence in order to acquire such individuals. Every tribe desired a certain psionic talent in their gene pool and gradually the trait began to spread across the entire Vulcan people. In addition, there was violent and bitter competition for natural resources leading to fierce conflict in these early days of their civilization. 

During the earliest points on Vulcan, it difficult to gather sufficient metals and ores. This was not entirely because their world was resource poor but rather that they were deep below the surface and there was no means to access such metals. As such, Vulcan metal smiths had to work extremely hard in order to craft the items that they needed from simple weapons to agricultural tools. This changed as the mindsciences developed that allowed adepts to locate veins of ores and adepts were able to pull such materials from the crust itself through the power of their minds alone. 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. 

Eventually, Vulcan began to develop destructive arsenals of weaponry such as nuclear based ones. These weapons were in fact used frequently initially but did not provoke a world wide disarmament program as was the case in other worlds. In fact, the horrors of the these ancient atomics wars ravaged the surface of Vulcan to the point that it distorted a region of its magnetic field forever and lead to frequent energy discharges forming in the red sands that was a spectacular sight to see in future years. Rather than stop the use of such destructive weapons, the ancient Vulcans instead refined its usage to create "cleaner" weapons such as neutron based ones that were designed to kill the inhabitants of a city but leave the surrounding region unharmed. 

Experimentations in space flight technology began early on Vulcan with legend stating that the first flight capable starship being built in the city of Devlarm that was being built by the Warlord D'Vir. It was believed that the first to reach the stars would be the ultimate way of gaining status and a crucial advantage over the other factions. Many petitioned to meet with D'Vir with some negotiating with him for use of his developing ship whilst others attempted to sabotage it. Ultimately, it was a rival Warlord by the name of Nu'Val who decided to stop the project at all cost and attacked the settlement. Archeaological records indicate that a devastating air strike was conducted with neutron bombs employed that killed the one million inhabitants of the city and turning it into the ruined "City of Shadows". This was stated to had occured in the year 855 B.C.. Despite this being a failed attempt, there were others that attempted to attain space flight such as Suvin and his House that allied with Lady Evekh in order to exploit the minerals of T'Khut. He had managed to complete the hulls of two starships with instrumentations being installed by various lesser Houses. However, Lady Evekh's desire for the Last Thought technique from a union of her grandson Mahak with T'Thelaih led to the latter going mad with rage when she discovered the true purpose of the union. Lady Evekh's High House was exterminated which set back the first manned landing of T'Khut by fifty standard years as well as the loss of psi-communication technology which had to be bred and rediscovered once more. 

Eventually, T'Khut was colonzed and mined whereupon the Vulcan race went off to the outer planets within their star system. It was known that several small wars broke out on Vulcan at the time of the first successful landing due to the shifting balances of power that were always feared by the various factions. Marriages were also conducted not out of love but more out of eugenics in order to breed specific psionic talents. By this point, T'Khut's surface was now scarred with mines and the wars on Vulcan continued for centuries. Limited sub-light space travel continued within the star system as the Vulcans began mining from the asteroid belts and the other worlds around their star. This period in history became known to later era Vulcans as the Age of Expansion where the petty kingdoms of Vulcan had achieved an unwilling unified peace with one another. Warfare and terrorism, however, eventually began to spread into space around Vulcan itself. It was the destruction of the mining ship Rasha at Ashif Station that sparked hostilities once more with Mahn'heh Protectorate beginning its attacks against the Lalirh by detonating a matter/antimatter bomb at their orbital stations in the asteroid belts. Once more, new fires began to emerge on Vulcan as warfare once again consumed its surface. 

As Vulcan had already been gained the capacity for space travel, it was known that this was achieved as far back as the 3rd century. During that time, at least one group of Vulcans left their world and crash landed on a planetoid later known as Darien 224 where they formed a colony known as the Last-of-all-Cities. Retaining their warrior heritage and psionic technology, this isolated settlement remained unknown to the galaxy at large for two millennia. By the 9th century, the Vulcans had also established a monastery on the world of P'Jem which was founded for religious purposes. 


 * LUG sources indicate that the Vulcans attained warp travel by the 13th century which contradicts both the above colonizations though its possible that they were made by sublight sleeper ship means.

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
It was known that in the bloodthirsty environment that in the 3rd millennium BC, some Vulcans began to mentally train themselves to suppress their emotions. One of the leading philosophers in the concept of logic and science was T'Plana-Hath who was the head of a school of historians in ShirKahr. 

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 planet. 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. . 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. It was in the desert where he gazed upon Mount Seleya that was an enlightening experience to Surak and received an epiphany when he encountered an Underlier. From this event, he returned back to civilization and did not initially speak of his experience in the desert on that night. He later met numerous sects and groups in order to learn from them in order to develop his own philosophies which he began to daily write as well as spread through the populace. Furthermore, it was said that he gained healing as well as teachings from the Adepts of Seleya along with the Adepts of Gol. He formed a circle of colleagues that sought to wage peace and master emotions with this group consisting of Jarok, Nirak, T'mor and Vithek. Whilst initially resistant, the teachings of peace and logic began to rapidly take hold over the Vulcan people, eventually ending the period known as the "Years of Chaos". During his time, Surak gained another pupil in the form of S'task. 


 * Other novels such as The Devil's Heart state that Surak's father was Stef who was killed in battle on the Ishaya Plains when Surak was a boy.

As his message began to spread, the teachings of Surak became more noticed which faced opposition initially but was gradually accepted by the Vulcan people. This prompted the cihef councillors of Lhai calling upon Surak in a desperate act to serve as an emissary to Irik in order to prevent a full scale war from erupting between the two nation states. Surak gladly joined the emissaries and shut himself with them for a day and a night whereupon he sent them on their way. After two days, they returned and the Lhai councilors were shocked to see that they brought with them the High Council of Irik who had signed a peace treaty following a week long negotiation. In fact, each nation made major concessions to the other with many dazed at this remarkable change except for Surak. This peace sponsored by him ultimately held and remained till the unification of the entire planet despite the maneuvering of various power blocs in both nations that wanted to restart hostilities. 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 labeled 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 terrorized them. 

The Sundering
Though he had worked hard to ensure peace and spreading logic, the events of the alien invaders had taken their toll on the Vulcan race which once more became divided over the issue of pacifism. Not only that, conditions still existed that there was the very real threat of annihilation of their species on their battered homeworld. Numerous factions existed at this point which competed with one another which included the Northeastern Alliance and the Southern Hegemony both of whom wanted to acquire dominance over one another through the Vulcan Space Initiative program in developing space capable warships. The issue was further complicated by the vicious raids and attacks by the aggressive Te-Vikram Brotherhood that lived deep in the deserts. All these actions threatened to destabilize the planet and bring about the death of Vulcan-kind. Whilst he believed he could save Vulcan, the very real chance of self annihilation led to Surak travelling to ShiKahr in order to meet the engineer Karatek. Befriending him, he asked the engineer to repurpose the starships they were creating to serve as long range colony ships in order to continue their civilization elsewhere in case Vulcan destroyed itself. He even gave a special psionic coronet to record his memories of the journey in order to bring it back to Vulcan if it still existed. 


 * 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.

Whilst Surak managed to convince the various competing factions to allow for the conversion of the starships, a surprise attack came on the day of the launch which led to chaos ensuing and families as well as indiviiduals separating with some accidentally being left behind whilst others mistakenly boarding the transport ships whereupon they departed the planet. Once such group that Surak attempted to prevent from leaving was Tellus and his Children of Ket-Cheleb but he failed to dissuade them from leaving Vulcan; an act that would forever haunt him and something that his colleague Jarok would always criticize him for his failure. This remaining group that opposed Surak's logic fought a final war with the rest of Vulcan and were known as "Those who marched beneath the Raptor's wing" who were eventually forced to leave the planet. For his actions in bringing peace to his world, Surak died as a result of radiation sickness as he stood at Mount Seleya. This era became known as the Sundering and was one of the most traumatic periods to befall Vulcan civilization. 

Though Vulcan survived, the colony ships in space departed with many being lost along the way. The largest contingent arrived through a wormhole in a distant star system with a habitable world they called Romulus and its sister planet being Remus. This served as the genesis of the Romulan race who embarked on cruel slavery on some of their kin by leaving them on Remus where genetic engineering was used to create another offshoot race called the Remans. A small group attempted to flee Remus and they later crash landed on a hostile planet where they formed their own colony and called themselves the Watraii. ) These were not the only splinter factions from the colony fleet as some of the ships within the generation ships departed under the command of Admiral Debrune and formed their own colonies with themselves being named after their leader though none of these colonies managed to survive. However, at least one branch of this fleet made it into the Rigel system system where forcibly conquered Rigel V and became known as the Rigelians.


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

The Golden Age
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. From this time, a adherent of Surak's teachings known as Selok arose and formalized the unity of his species by creating the Theorems of Governance which merged the traditionalist functions of Vulcans past with the new peaceful approaches needed to form a world government. As Tu-Surak spread throughout Vulcan, the Great Houses saw the wisdom in Selok's proposal and approved it. This unified the entire race under the principles of logic, pacifism and emotional suppression that drove the species into an era of scientific discovery as well as enlightment. What followed was the Vulcan Golden Age where they turned their former aggressive tendencies to scientific pursuits that saw geologists mapping the unstable tectonic plates of their world as well as building geothermal plants that tapped the planet's heat for energy. Chemists used this new energy source to create desalinization plants that replenished the wells in Vulcan cities. Whilst ecologists put their thoughts to slowing down the spread of the desert along with seeding new plants as well as preserving old ones on their world thus preserving the dwindling supply of fertile land on their homeworld. These acts erased most of the reasons for warfare and conquest that had previously emerged amongst the city states and tribes. Thus, for the first time in their collective history, there was enough food, water and energy for the Vulcan race with the development of hydroponics removing famine entirely from their society. In addition, they attained space flight capabilities but were limited to their own star system. 

Whilst this was happening, the Vulcans also spent a great deal of time focusing on the arts of scientific accomplishments. In the newly created Great Library that was a wing of the Vulcan Science Academy; their species began to archive the collective knowledge of their race. They began probing ancient archives of forbidden knowledge, ruined cities filled with lost inscriptions as well as the the top secret projects of the many warlords in a process that took over a century to complete. The cataloguing of all this information led to remarkable developments in the field of genetics, physics and mathematics for Vulcan through the correlation of all the data. In addition to the collection of knowledge, the teachings of Surak and his counterparts led to the self exploration of the Vulcan mind. Anthropology, sociology, psychologic and pure logic made great strides during this period with many Vulcans becoming either monks or philosophers with their schools of though survivng to the modern age. This exploration of the mind led to the challenge of studying the ancient psionic arts that were techniques once known only to elite adepts. Where once it was restricted, the knowledge became free to all of Vulcan with tests made on children at a young age in order to chart their talent. Those that showed promise were selected to study in a monastery or a university in order to nurture their growing power. In a process that took two hundred years to complete, almost every Vulcan had some form of psionic control and ability. Through psionic developments, techniques such as calm, concentration and meditation helped cement the peaceful ways of Surak to the point that new generations had forgotten that violence was an option for them in the past. 

The peace of the Golden Age was shattered some nine hundred years later in the year 1270 when a wormhole formed near Vulcan itself. From it came an armada of invading starships that attacked a peaceful Vulcan. The attackers did not respond to any form of communication and neither did they reveal themselves visually who rather destroyed themsleves with atomic weaponry rather than be captured. Whilst the stories of the Children of Ket-Cheleb had long been forgotten, some Vulcan theorists believed these attackers to had been the proud warrior Vulcans that had departed in the exodus long ago. Using its own starships, the Vulcans defended themselves and the Vulcan Council ultimately decided to protect their race rather than retreat under an impregnable fortress beneath their homeworld's crust. Fortunately, the wormhole opened irregularly thus allowing the attackers to send either entire fleets or a few ships. The Vulcan Council later assembled their own forces rapidly where they logically created surveillance patterns as well as convoy techniques that tracked down the last of the invader bases within the Vulcan star system. A grim but silent war was fought with deadly tactics based on logic being used against their attackers that finally destroyed their last invasion fleet far beyond the binary star in the home system. After a century of constant warfare, the wormhole that linked the invaders territory to Vulcan finally closed and ended the conflict with the Vulcans never discovering the identity of their attackers. 

Despite the devastating war, new scientific achievements had been made particularly in the field of robotics, computers, atomic power plants and other technologies. Other societal changes that came upon their homeworld was the removal of the pagan festival of Rumarie. The greatest scientific accomplishment that came from centuries of studies in nuclear fusion, rocketery and original theories of quantum mechanics pioneered by the early city states led to the discovery of warp travel. The Vulcan's limited space technologies took a great leap when the scientist T'Vran discovered the secrets of warp drive in 1440. T'Vran's team was responsible for the construction and testing of the first warp engine. 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. Following this event, the Vulcan people quickly began the construction of faster-than-light exploratory vessels in order to begin charting the regions around their homeworld. 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. As their first contact with an alien race turned out to be violent; the Vulcan exploration corps had strict instructions to not make contact with other species until all gathered data could be analysed. This era of expansion led them to encounter a number of worlds which included Haurok leh-keh with their survey determining that its population consisted of a matriarchy in dominance position with the male sex being viewed as the weaker of the pair. 

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. During their encounters in space, the Vulcans encountered the Andorian Empire and were distressed by the violent as well as emotional nature of the Andorian species to the point that they sought to guide that race. However, the Vulcans actions were seen as being both overt as well as covert attempts to coerce and control the Andorian people who reacted volently to their actions. This sparked a series of conflicts and skirmishes between the two races that ended with the signing of the Tau Ceti Accords and left a state of cold war between the two governments. This was not the only attempt at the Vulcans guiding other species as they encountered the dilithium rich world of Coridan and sought to help the native inhabitants develop a stable world government. Whilst such an act would seemingly be against the policy of non-interference of developing worlds, the Vulcans logically reasoned that Coridan's resources would benefit the Vulcan government and by stabilising it they could facilitate a mining agreement. This was crucial to the Vulcan state as the significant economic as well as material gains along with the tensions from Andoria meant that it was an exception to their usual policy. Vulcan kept both close economic and political ties with the Coridan government which spawned dissident rebellious factions who in turn were supported by the Andorians that sought to acquire Coridan's resources. The cold war for Coridan continued for many years as both sides sought to control the planet. 

The Vulcans did not only have skirmishes with the Andorians but also the Tellarites with the two species reverse engineering Vulcan technology in their starships. 

Guiding Humanity
The Vulcans also kept sight on the planet Earth and it was believed that they may had reached the world as far as back as the 19th century. However, contininous warfare on the planet's surface made the Vulcan's weary of any contact and they kept their activities discreet till the 20th century. However, by that point, Vulcan exploration programs were cut back due to the expanionistic tyranny surrounding the planet Vega. During the early 1900s, an unmanned Vulcan robot probe prevented a cometary fragment from wiping out half of central Europe by diverting the body in order to force it to explode over an uninhabited region of Siberia. Though unaware of this activity, between 1955 to 2018, there were at least eighteen legitimate two dimensional photographs taken of the Vulcan probe ships. However, they were without exception dismissed as being frauds and hoaxes. In 1990, a Vulcan trade fleet was passing by the Lambda Sector with their ships visible by the primitive Hubble telescope over Earth. However, the actions of Gary Seven who sought to preseve the timeline led to him sabotaging the telescope thus preventing humanity from establishing first contact with the Vulcans so early. This was because he felt that mankind was not ready to meet extraterrestrial intelligences which was a fact not known to humans and the Vulcans. According to the Vulcans, they had supposedly mastered the use of the warp drive by 2019. On Stardate 0/2001 the Vulcan scientist Sardax proved the feasibility of interstellar travel by using base camps to extend long range exploration. This led to the creation of a number of supply and support colonies founded in a ten light year radius around Vulcan with succeeding generations of colonists continuing this wave of expansion. 

Vulcan society was well aware of the existence of sentient life on the planet Earth through reconnaissance probes as well as radiotelescopes. This made them aware of the inhabitants of the Sol system as well as the conflicts that raged over their homeworlds surface starting from the Eugenics Wars where the DY-100 class Botany Bay was launched to the eventual cataclysm of World War III. The Vulcan Science Academy was well aware of all these facts and suspected that the native life forms known as Humans would ultimately destroy themselves in warfare. During the mid-22nd century, the Vulcans began to suffer initially from the predatory actions of the Klingon Empire. In particular, from raids conducted by Raptor class scouts which was a designation that the Vulcans initially gave upon the ships due to their nature as well as roles. Whilst the strategy initially worked, the Vulcans quickly learnt the simple tactic employed by the Klingons and began to avoid telltale signs of such traps such as distress beacons in asteroid belts, journeying through the upper atmosphere in Class J giants or areas that were suffering from ion storms. Whilst the Vulcans were safe, the Klingons instead began using thsi tactic on other nieghbouring civilizations. 

At some point, the Vulcan Science Academy authorised a probe mission to chart gravitic anomalies in the Alpha Centauri system. However, three months before reaching its destination, a new order was sent from the communications division of the Vulcan Science Academy that diverted it to the Sol system in order to track wormhole eddies that were suspected to be generated by Jupiter's intersection with its sun. In 2063, the Vulcan science vessel called Vesaya led by Captain Sevak was dispatched to the Sol system after detecting a warp signature. This led to the eventual first contact between the Vulcans and Humans on April 5th 2063 when the T'Plana-Hath detected the manned 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 occurred 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.

Whilst initially the Vulcan Science Academy believed that humanity had either destroyed itself or reduced itself to the Stone Age due to warfare thus making it unnecessary for any precautions to put into place, the contact made by Sevak proved otherwise. Captain Sevak later returned to Vulcan and spoke to the Vulcan Council where he voiced the opinion that despite their emotional nature, the human race was advanced enough for further relations. Whilst there were fears of cultural contamination of conact with mankind as well as exposure to their emotions, this was drowned out by the need for peaceful negotiations. Thus, the Vulcans decided to make further contact and help guide humanity by guiding it from ruin and possibly bring an era of peace and rationality to the species. Its known that an Earth Franklin series probe encountered a Vulcan colony on Stardate 0/6511.12 during its trip and the Vulcans substantially improve the design for warp drives for humans. In the same year year, its stated that the UNSS Amity encountered a distress call from a "non-violent alien vessel" adrift in orbit around Neptune which turned out to be a Vulcan starship. This act led to the rescue of the 42 surviving Vulcans including its captain Sparon. 


 * The FASA RPG indicates that it was the discovery by the Franklin series probe that led to first contact with the Vulcans.

After first contact, it was known that it had taken decades for humans to accept Vulcans on Earth. 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. This period lasted for decades as the Vulcans believed that mankind was not ready for the dangers inherent in exploring other worlds and intended to curtail their expansion as well as establishment in the galactic neighbourhood until they were deemed ready by the Vulcans. Despite this being the case, the Vulcans were crucial in protecting their Human allies when one of their exploratory vessels made first contact with the Andorians. The Terran ship came under fire from their Andorian counterpart with the hostilities between the two nearly erupting into war on Stardate 0/7511.29. Whilst the Terrans prepared for war, the Vulcans managed to convince Earth's leaders to negotiate with the growing Andorian Empire. On Stardate 0/7703, the First Alpha Centauri Conference was held and helped maintain galactic peace when Vulcan diplomats convinced the Andorians that there was little to gain in entering into a war against Earth and her allies. 


 * The FASA material contradicts elements from Enterprise which shows that the Andorians were on hostile terms with the Vulcans and that no major point of contact had been made between Earth and Andoria before that point.

Later, between Stardate 0/8110 and 0/8206; the first joint scientific project was made between Earth, Vulcan and Alpha Centauri which showed tangible benefits for the three planets when research probes were launched from their homeworlds. In the same year, a series of meetings took place on Vulcan in in order to establish a unifying single government for the five major space farring civilizations. However, this fails when its primary goals and policies were not defined. Despite this being the case, diplomats continued to work on the roles and responsibilities if such a government came into formation. 


 * FASA once again contradicts events from Enterprise which showed that the Vulcans were not involved in large relations with their neighbours though elements of the above material may have occured in the background though this is speculation.

22nd Century
As far back as 2105, a Vulcan outpost was established on Berengaria VII that consisted of pacifists as well as scientists that studied the worlds diverse ecosystem for pharmacological reasons. Following First contact with humans, the Vulcans began to form a close relationship with the inhabitants of Earth. In the early part of the 22nd century, a physician of the Vulcan Science Academy known as Sobon joined the scientific contigent that was working on Earth. Unlike his comrades, Sobon advocated a closer cooperative relationship with the humans and championed the cause of sharing technology with them in certain fields such as medicine. It was largely through his efforts that human medical science made several leaps in a short span of time and led to gradual increase in the life span of mankind during this century. By the mid-22nd century, the Vulcans were a regional power, involved in an ongoing conflict with the neighboring Andorian Empire. Meanwhile, Earth's first warp five starship, the Enterprise (NX-01), was launched in 2151. Whilst reluctant to allow humanity to begin its period of exploration, the Vulcans consented to allow the launch of the Enterprise in order to avoid a diplomatic incident with the neighbouring Klingon Empire after the crash of their courier Klaang on Earth. When the Enterprise was launched, the Vulcans stationed subcommander T'Pol on the ship to aid and monitor the humans journey. 

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. After the Xindi attack on Earth, a new wave of xenophobia erupted which threatened the relationship between Humans and Vulcans. In fact, many Humans believed that the Vulcans held mankind back from their true potential of being explorers. However, the Vulcans considered Earth to be one of their most important allies in over a hundred years. 

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. Despite the toppling of V'Las's administration, it was known that there were still certain Vulcans loyal to his ideals that operated on the Vulcan homeworld in the years that followed. 

In 2155, following the discovery of a powerful Romulan weapon capable of remotely taking control over Vulcan ships, Administrator T'Pau decided to remove the Vulcan Defense Directorate from the front lines. This was due to two reasons; one was to cover up the genetic relationship the Vulcans had with the Romulans and also to stop themselves from undergoing aggressive actions that would take them away from the ideals of Surak. Their withdrawal from the front line also had to do with the fact that Vulcan starships proved particularly vulnerable to the Romulan remote hijacking systems. Though this was not initially shared, the Vulcans removal from the conflict caused a great deal of resentment from their Coalition members. Whilst this was the case, they did provide a highly sophisticated warp detection system at Alpha Centauri and at Sol in order to provide early warning in case the Romulans attacked. Despite this move, it proved to be ineffective as the Romulans later struck the Human Deneva colony, joint Vulcan-Starfleet Berengia colony and the Andorian Threllvia colony where they massacred the populations of those worlds. 

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. The Vulcans had long supported a closer union of the five worlds at the Babel Five-Power Conference in 2159 that was first proposed by T'Shenn. Though other races differed on this opinion, the Vulcans never took credit over the matter as they believed it to be an emotional attachment taht the other species relied upon and which the Vulcans had evolved beyond. Whilst this was the case, it was Vulcan diplomats such as T'Shenn and Suvok who played a critical role in the writing of the Terran Conventions in 2160 on Epsilon Eridani. 

In 2161 the Coalition worlds joined together to from the United Federation of Planets. At the time, Vulcan nearly became the capital of this new Federation though the fear that this would be culturally dangerous for their species led to Solkar and other conservative elements of the Vulcan Council ordering Suvok to reject the idea. Instead, Suvok chose Earth to be the capital and highlighted humanity's pride and curiousity being vital qualities that could be harnessed for the United Federation of Planets. Once agreed, Vulcan joined the Federation following the ratification of the Articles of Federation though conservative elements warned against much involvement in off-world affairs. A great stir was also caused when a young Vulcan matriarch known as T'Pau refused a seat on the Federation Council and instead devoted her time to her own people. Suvok instead volunteered to take her place on the Council and Vulcan became a core member of the Federation. Despite this being the case, many Vulcans were hesitant about serving in the Federation due to the formation of the Federation Starfleet as they believed such an organization would lead to violence and thus oppposed any Vulcan citizen from joining it. 

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 occasion, 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. 

In 2377, the disciples of the Vulcan N'Kal attempted to cure their master of Bendii syndrome through the use of Borg nanoprobes. However, they lost control of the nanotechnology, but rather than assimilate N'Kal along with his followers - it created a splinter group of the Borg Collective known as the Wardens. This group combined the Borg's desire for perfection with N'Kal thirst for logic leading to the spread of their faction within the Federation after establishing a foothold on their homeworld of Vulcan. Through the use of their cranio-necrotizer, they kept in contact with one another and infected others with their unique strain of nanoprobes. The conspiracy was ultimately uncovered by the crew of the USS Incursion who stopped the Warden but rather than admit to the crisis emerging from a Federation member world; Starfleet claimed that it was one of the latest attempts at assimilation by the Borg. 

In 2381, the planet Vulcan was one of many worlds that suffered from the insidious infiltration and control of the dark matter based intelligence known as the Totality. Norinda, a representation of the Totality attempted to appeal to the Vulcan's sense of logic and managed to create a stronghold within that region of space through projections formed by the Totality in order to enforce their will. When Joseph Kirk sacrificed his life to defeat Norinda, all the Vulcans on their homeworld were returned back to their physical existence as they were never tempted by the Totality's offer of peace. 

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 neighbors which included the Ri'ani. However, the Romulans disguised one of their agents as a Vulcan and lulled the Klingons into a state of complacency allowing the Romulans to strike the Klingon homeworld. The Klingons saw the Vulcans as traitors and liars with the possibility of outright war occurring 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.