Clan of the Eye

The Clan of the Eye were a clan of Vulcans that existed in the ancient days after the planet Vulcan suffered from a Solar flare.

History

Before the eye

In the years before the mutation of the inner eyelid came about in this clan, its members had to bind skins about their heads or over their eyes when hunting in the desert; making them easy prey for the lematyas. The Oldest Mother who first managed to get the eye mutation into her family line became mighty in the clan after elders and young alike fought for her favor and "allow them to be bound with one of the children of the Eye" so they might "take the blood into their own lines" as well. The Oldest Mother chose from them as she willed, and the mutation slowly proliferated over two generations until half the tribe had it, putting an effective end to the poor makeshifts previously needed to shade the eyes. (TOS novel: Spock's World)

Storming Phelsht

This clan used their inner eyelids to their advantage by storming the Phelsht wellspring during the day and managing to successfully overthrow the clan protecting it and capture the region for themselves to use as their home. Kesh, the warrior who'd advocated for and lead the attack, persuaded the surviving leaders of the rival clan to put up no resistance and instead form a strategic alliance with the Clan of the Eye by offering to share the Eye's mutations and resources with them in exchange. Later, when the Clan of the Eye's mutations and Phelsht's strategic resources caught the attention of other tribes, representatives of the Clan of the Eye offered such would-be attackers (or the survivors for those who did attack) this same deal. They became well known and gained many advantages from the allies they made, to the point that the clan eventually became great. (TOS novel: Spock's World)

Customs

From food to blood, the clan of the Eye preferred to let no resource go to waste. (TOS novel: Spock's World)

From a young age, children of this clan worked to grow expert at scavenging and hunting for food, as the adult clan members wouldn't invest resources like food in children considered too weak to prosper and would give more food to children who hunted effectively. All members longed to have children who could hunt better than all others and bring them food when other adults had long lain down to die because there was no more. (TOS novel: Spock's World)

The clan council paid little attention to individuals who without many ties to family or individuals of prominence. If they were unbound, without child, and/or an orphan, even a good hunter could be dismissed or even mocked as they had no one to speak for them. (TOS novel: Spock's World)

Death and Burial

When a hunter died while chasing a kill, the other hunters in the party would bury their fallen comrade on the spot where they'd fallen and put the head of the beast to slay them in their grave as revenge on the beast's spirit. (TOS novel: Spock's World)

Crimes and Punishments

If a member went against the clan (like by doing something which the Oldest Mother had forbidden), they would be cast out of the clan and would most likely die quickly. (TOS novel: Spock's World)

As there was never enough to have all the water that one wanted, stealing a drink from the clan's main water source was punishable by beating or death. (TOS novel: Spock's World)

Beliefs

Dreams containing premonitions were seen as serious business. Children's dreams were not seen to be as serious, as those of the Eye believed that children did not dream true. Those of the Eye believed dreams were true during times when T'Khut was high, as T'Khut saw more when she rode higher. It was thought to be unwise for one of the Clan of the Eye to scoff at T'Khut, as T'Khut was the Eye. (TOS novel: Spock's World)

Mutations

The “Clan of the Eye” was the secret name by which its members referred to their own clan.

Inner Eyelid

They called themselves “the Eye” because a common mutation among members of their clan was an inner eyelid which protected their eyes from the bright Vulcan sun. (TOS novel: Spock's World)

The first instance of an individual known to possess this mutation occurred two generations before Kesh's time, when an Oldest Mother noted a child was seemingly untroubled by staring into the sun and coddled "and bound him to one of her outdaughters; and three of the children born before his death had the Eye as well, and two of them were girls." By Kesh's time half of the clan had an inner eyelid. (TOS novel: Spock's World)

Pointed Ears

When Kesh was young, she and several other of the clan's children possessed mutated ears with "larger, slightly pointed, more delicate pinnae that caught soundwaves better than their parents' ears did." "The Oldest Mother knew children with this heightened hearing would do better than those without, and felt the clan needed their blood to sire more of the same." (TOS novel: Spock's World)

During this time on Vulcan, this "mutation had set in because of the increased solar radiation that Vulcan's atmosphere no longer properly filtered", and "because the thinner air was less able to carry sound". (TOS novel: Spock's World)

This might potentially make the Clan of the Eye the origin of the signature "pointed" Vulcan ears.

Known Members

• Kesh
• Kesh's milkmother
• Sakht
• Tekav
• the Oldest Mother (successor to her mother as head of house)
• the Oldest Mother's mother
• the Oldest Mothers mothers mother (head of house)
• Vach

Appendices

References

• TOS novel: Spock's World