#pre-Surak Vulcan

[purpleenma]

Getting my therapy by drawing more Pre-Surak Vulcan warrior women, this time with ritual piercings and markings cause we were talking about it on a server.

Detail shot under the cut

[hellweaver]

Some fantasy on ancient Vulcan warrior long before the Time of Awakening

[agios-rio]

Here's the guide on AO3 (it comes with a complementary K/S fic ☆).

text version under the cut ⤵

Gods & Goddesses

Fai-tukh (Knowledge)

Tel-alep – “The Watcher”

The first wise god to ever walk on Vulcan’s sands was Tel-alep. He collected all available Vulcan knowledge & filled his library with carved stone tablets, vellum papers, incised bones & shells, colourful knotted cords. He gave as he took, & shared his collection with whoever wanted to learn. In times of conflict, Vulcans turned away from him, caring more for their immediate safety than abstract knowledge – & Tel-alep seemingly vanished. It is said he still watches all of Vulcan from the shadows & meticulously chronicles its history, as well as notes every advancement in the sciences.

Alep-tel – “The Bitter”

The second wise god of Vulcan was Alep-tel, who came to restore what was left of Tel-alep’s collection after the war that had led to it being abandoned by Tel-alep & the mortals. Piecing together what he could & collecting old knowledge to fill the gaps left by time, he spent a hundred seasons alone, caring for what he had inherited. When he was finished, the library opened its doors again to whomever wanted to learn, but the passing of time had placed it into obscurity – as the legends go, Alep-tel still spends most of his days in solitude, waiting for willing students, growing old & bitter.

Sochya (Peace)

Kir-alep – “The Placid”

Kir-alep ruled from his seat on Mount Seleya, overlooking all of Vulcan. He had the responsibility of ensuring peace throughout the sands & the oases alike, & he did so as well as possible. However, peace seldom comes & stays without sacrifice, & so with every change of the season, he chose & sacrificed some of the few who lived at the foot of the mountain for the peace of the many. Without taking joy in it, he upheld this practice to keep his people from destroying one another completely.

Alep-kir – “The Sullen”

Alep-kir was a mortal who climbed the stairs to Mount Seleya to demand answers for the deaths of his brothers & sisters who died in the sacrifices. Answer he did not receive, but instead he was offered godhood as a means to pacify him. In the hopes he might change the fate of the next few, he accepted. He stayed on the mountain to witness the deaths of the people below, but his mind was still ablaze with grief & anger over his long-gone siblings that he remained where & who he was, trembling but unmoved by the suffering beneath.

Ashaya (Love)

Valdena – “The Giver”

Love, joy, & beauty are what the goddess Valdena represents. She is usually portrayed as a Vulcan woman & is said to be the most caring of the gods – appearing as a mother, a sister, a wife, a daughter, depending on what role she fulfils for whoever encounters her. Even though she is associated with all kinds of love, not just the romantic one, many legends about her have the (re-)union of star-crossed lovers as a central theme.

Dena-vel – “The Guard”

Dena-vel is the goddess of love & possessiveness. She seeks to hide the beauty of the world she loved to keep it from strange eyes & hands. She is said to have helped build the walls that once encompassed the city of Gol, where the best artists, sculptures, poets, & musicians used to live. As a fierce protector who knows little boundaries when it comes to fulfilling her duty, many legends about her are written in blood. 

Tadek-adir’es (Absence)

Kal-ap-ton – “The Mourner”

The Mourner represents grief & is said to be the most dangerous of the gods. Bound to his belt, he carries a pouch full of tears. He who meets him risks his life: The Mourner can take the weight off the Vulcan’s shoulders & allow him to weep to alleviate his grief, but not all of those touched by him are able to free themselves again of their emotions. Many of them succumbed to their misery & wandered out into the desert never to be seen again.

Tyr-al-tep – “The Unforgiver”

Tyr-al-tep is the god of guilt & regret over the death of loved ones. He is the one whispering in the ears of grieving Vulcans, telling stories of what could have been had the tragedy of death not occurred – stories of love & joy, of futures rendered impossible by the present. He leaves nothing in his wake that lessens the pain, only a gruelling feeling of emptiness & absence, cursing those who encounter him to live out the rest of their lives with feelings of shame & sorrow.

Vaikaya (Devotion) or Sa-kai-lar (Brothers)

Ket-cheleb – “The Destroyer”

Anger & rage are what moved Ket-cheleb to kill his brother, & those emotions are what he brings to all those who cross his path. His broad & rough hands carry weapons of all kinds, & he is said to often appear where he is welcomed the least – whenever there is no predetermined course of action to a conflict, no specific decision yet towards peace or violence, he will appear & tip the scales towards the latter. Many tales about wars from ancient times describe Ket-cheleb arriving at the first light in the morning & the last light at night falling over battlefields full of dead.

Cheleb-vel – “The Embracer”

If Vulcans had saints, Cheleb-vel would be the one of the black sheeps. He stands for acceptance & blindness & indifference out of love, even in regards to the things in life that are the hardest to accept. Without judgement, Cheleb-vel stands by the sides of even outcast & hated Vulcans, often being the only one to acknowledge their existence. It is said that Cheleb-vel handed his brother the stone with which he struck him dead in the vast red desert, & never harboured resentment for him in his last moments.

About The Practice

One way is to read the lines themselves, which stand for the qualities associated with the gods, though there is no absolute consensus as to which ones those are. As the result, the task of interpreting is left to the palmist herself*, leading to various different schools of thoughts within the trade (the entirety of which too numerous to list in this short guide).

Additionally to that, intuition plays a much bigger role in Vulcan Palmistry than it does in equivalent Terran practices. Since Vulcans are touch-telepaths, they can gain much more information from the skin contact itself as opposed to the mere placement of the lines. It is unknown what exact kind of information is transferred between the one who is being read & the one who reads, but the leading theory is that it comes from the subconscious of the one being read. 

*According to Vulcan tradition, it is custom only for women to learn the practice of palmistry. This text uses the appropriate pronouns to reflect that.

[lead-acetate]

Spock would have been a pre-Reform poet.

no essay. but! I thought that would be interesting so I wrote a fic with the premise, having some worldbuilding fun with pre-Reform (or rather, non-Reform) Vulcan poetry, poetry scene, rituals and Stuff. Believe it or not, it's not all just elaborate foreplay.

Yes, Fuck the Government

Rating: Explicit

Vulcan, a dangerous civilization of enormous military power, has entered tentative negotiations with Starfleet. Vulcans, however, are passionate, violent and unpredictable and, though the current autocrats are still strong, there is unrest brewing in the capital. When the Starfleet delegation lands, Captain Pike urges their subordinates to do a little reconnaissance in their spare time. Lieutenant Kirk stumbles upon Vulcan poetry that has been known to start and end wars; and then, after some trial and error, upon a poet. * It is essentially a… cautiously M-rated poetry reading and then some gratuitous sex. Also Jim gets an autograph.

ao3 link again 🥰 enjoy!

[starrylol]

made a non-binary vulcan warrior, inspired by @purpleenma 's cool warrior characters! 💞

[android-and-ale]

CHAPTER SIXTEEN IS LIVE! 

You asked what the Sh’Raan looks like from space and the amazing Spongy Nova delivered! Show them some love for bringing everyone’s favorite Totally Innocent Vulcan Botany Ship to life! If you like spicy art, check out their offerings on AO3!

Last time we left off with Jim propped behind a dead Orion and unexpected words from Captain Spisee. This time, we kick off with Jim wondering if perhaps he should've obeyed Major Sepsis and stayed in the MedBay after all. 

Get ready for an action packed chapter with some REVELATIONS about the crew! 

P.S. Chapter 16 is titled, “Sh’Raan Cast List” because, by reader request, I dropped a full list and description of the Vulcan crew into the beginning notes. You’re welcome! 

If you’re new here, have a summary:  

Shenanigans ensue when one middle finger to the Academy too many gets Starfleet Cadet James T. Kirk booted off planet for a summer internship aboard the V.S.S. Sh'Raan.

He's hiding a major secret from the oh so earnest and helpful Vulcans, but the longer he's on the ship, the more Jim starts to wonder if they're keeping secrets from him, too.

Excerpt:

Captain Spisee handed Jim a heavy sheet of rich, cream paper embossed with gold dusted Vulcan calligraphy bearing the ship’s name. It was a bit cheap by the standards of Vulcan stationary aesthetics, but shipboard life meant some sacrifices. In the most elegant handwriting he’d ever had the privilege to lay eyes on, it read:

Human Enrichment and Optimal Health Program:

- One (1) Daily Shoulder Pat (more provided upon request) - Seventy (70) Seconds of Hug Time Per Week (divided between crew members as you deem necessary) - Three (3) Discrete Instances of Daily Praise - Three (3) Structured Entertainments per week - Minimum of One (1) Social Companion per meal (more available upon request)

Jim looked up from the Human Enrichment And Optimal Health Program and into Captain Spisee’s luminous brown eyes. There was no hint of mockery or malice there. He was an earnest scientist, possessing both cheekbones so sharp you could cut glass with them and the quadrant’s most excellent taste in guest furniture. He’d been given a unique task, and on Surak’s Katric Ark, he performed it with the same thoroughly Vulcan scientific intensity he would give the discovery of a new species of cave moss.

“We would appreciate detailed weekly feedback on the efficacy of our Human integration efforts,” said Captain Spisee.

“This is…” Intense? Weird? “Incredibly thoughtful.”

“You are not required to reciprocate the Daily Praise,” said Captain Spisee. Despite his words, Jim could swear one corner of his mouth twitched upwards two entire millimeters.

[theshadowrealmitself]

All those pre-Surak fics and none about the violently emotional poets I know existed 🔫 anger isn’t the only emotion that Vulcans feel strongly, how come there isn’t more pre-Surak/no-Surak fics that acknowledges that and actually delves into the destructive emotions that Vulcans feel that caused an entire species to take up regulating their emotions to be as visually emotionless as possible

Also I wanna read more about Vulcans who follow their traditions not because they’re just honoring them but because they’re still the type of people who created those traditions

Also most (if not all) of the fics I’ve read of pre/no-Surak show Vulcans as individualistic, but from what we can kinda see off-screen, it looks like they should be more into having huge clans and wanting/needing others around them, also not even just their own clans, we get some kind of mention as to how others view clans in comparison to their own clans (like Spock’s family) so there does seem to be a sense of community

[lilgynt]

i love going through star t//////rek fics like you want racism or racism baby

[vanilla-phantoms]

I am thinking SO ridiculously hard about pre surak Vulcan rn, specifically about hairstyles

Most Vulcans we see have that very uniform bowl cut, but not all of them, and I figured it must be something to do with practicality because it would be illogical to value appearance over functionality, but we also see most romulans with this hair, and I thought maybe some of this could be attributed to most of the romulans we meet being of some military status

Anyway I’m trying to think about what pre reform hairstyles would look like, since I’m trying to design a character for a fic I’m writing, and I don’t love the long-hair-on-men styles that I see most fanartists assign to pre surak vulcan (love how they look but don’t love the. Hm. Well it’s a bit racist innit. But that’s another post. Hope this isn’t hitting the hornets nest but please think about the traits and images you automatically associate with “violent primitive alien culture”). And I don’t see any reason WHY Vulcans should have long hair in the past other than it maybe being distinctly different from the present and a visually appealing design

Vulcans at the time of Surak were not pre industrialization. They had NUCLEAR warfare after all. They’re referred to as a “warrior race” but this was MILITARY warfare. Surely, the military officials of the past would’ve had practical haircuts too, maybe similar to the Vulcans we see on the show. The only difference I can think would be that they would be less uniform. More room for trends and self expression. (And there was surely more hairstyle variation among civilians but the character I’m making is a military official)

So that opens up a lot of possibilities, once we’ve figured out what would make sense it becomes a question of “what would’ve been popular then”. I think I’m going to find a time period of earth to base the hairstyles off of

[kalinjdra]

do i know anything about trek? no. am i still gonna talk about this? yes.

like okay, this might be completely incorrect but i believe that the vulcans, pre-surak, had a people that they considered insuperior and that people was entirely wiped out. surak came, created the whole logic thingie and people forgot/covered up this genocide.

well, you may be asking, why do i think this? because vulcan has no metaphors. at least not outright metaphors. it has no inner language, certain cues that can point to traits and ideologies that other can agree with. metaphors, allegories, figurative language forms when one party needs to hide something from another. certain key phrases are passcodes and who else would start this type of deception other than a mariginalized people? but. there's not much figurative language left like said. so. vulcan had marginizalized people that the oppressing party commited genocide against.

just a thought, a headcanon if you will :)

[eldritchazure]

i have a surak-era oc who i’m gonna ramble about here from time to time.

he’s from t’paal because i’m Fascinated by that region for some reason. i really wish there was more info on it but alas. i’ll have to make shit up as i go. he was born in one of the enclaves but i’m thinking he was raised in a temple of akraana there.

(people don’t know what the goddess akraana presided over, only that she was the wife(?) of the war god khosarr, so i’m gonna make things up. i’m thinking she was some kind of goddess of magic, prophecy, and art because it’s convenient and also cool. also since one of the enclaves where her disciples lived is now an artists’ enclave so it works. her worshippers were kinda like a mystery cult, similar to the cult of despoina, hence why people don’t know what her deal was today. sorry for the info dump, i find this kind of thing REALLY interesting so i think about it A Lot.)

so this guy was a disciple of akraana and raised in one of her temples. the reason why he was sent there as a child was because he had these “visions” of the past and the future. the actual reason for the “visions” was that his mind was frequently temporally displaced. not permanently or constantly like spock’s was in disco, but it kind of came and went? like he’d be going about his day and then all of a sudden BAM there’s gonna be a horrible famine here At Some Point in the Near Future. or BAM someone was murdered horrifically at this spot A Very Long Time Ago. or someone was born at this spot and a lot of people were full of joy about it A Very Long Time Ago. he couldn’t tell when exactly things happened/would happen, only vague impressions. this is why he was dropped off at the temple by his parents. they didn’t know how to deal with the visions and figured the temple people might. is this logical or at all responsible parenting? definitely not. but i’m thinking the visions put great mental strain on him and by extension his parents through the familial bonds so maybe sending him to live with the people who specialized in that kind of thing would be able to take care of him better. whether or not that’s true remains to be seen.

i have no idea how the temporal displacement happened, or why it isn’t like how spock’s was. at this point it’s plot convenience. idk maybe it’s some weirdo space entity?? idk idk. anywho he mistook the weirdo space entity for akraana (or maybe it was akraana. who knows. ANYWAY.)

so yeah he gets these visions. maybe they slowly drive him a little mad? i don’t know!! i’ll figure it out, or maybe i won’t. but yeah he gets visions and then writes them down in a bunch of notebooks over his life. he doesn’t know what most modern things are so they’re written through a kind of fantastical/mythological lens. he predicts different wars with aliens but he doesn’t know they’re aliens so he calls them like, demons or spirits or whatever. even technology that could be found at that time he probably didn’t know about, because i’m imagining that the temple/area he was raised in was one of the ones that was generally against technology. so if he were to predict the radiation from the nuclear weapons being used at the time, people wouldn’t know what he meant until it was happening.

eventually the notebooks are found and now they’re in a museum somewhere displaying the history of the region. most historians dismiss his prophecies as the ramblings of a madman but those who look closely enough do admit it is somewhat eerie how they seem to mirror a lot of big historical events.

for example, a ship full of vengeful demons wearing the faces of vulcans emerging from a portal, who will consume t’khasi from the inside out.

anywho. at the moment his name is tova. this is subject to change. his story is pretty barebones at the moment and is little more than a concept that i’ve written out here in a very long winded post. i’ll probably flesh it out some more, add some much needed Drama and probably a healthy serving of Angst, as you do.

[purpleenma]

Warrior and Mother

I wanted to sketch something to warm up back into traditional and, going with the Vulcan women warriors mood, and thinking of those athletes that are competing in the Olympics little after giving birth or while still breastfeeding, this came into existence.

More about Vulcan headcanons below the cut ✨

I'm borrowing @ex--astris--scientia idea that I love that Vulcans wear their babies in slings below their chest placing their heads where the Vulcan heart is so they can hear their heartbeats 💜

Also; Vulcan babies are born naturally hairy, with quite long, fine and soft hair like the human lanugo but more abundant, from the shoulders down the forearms and back, the lower part of the happy trail of the tum tum and legs. Some time later they lose the baby hair and it doesn't grow back again till puberty.

When taking the new pictures the light made some interesting highlights in the sketch ✨

More art about Vulcan lore and headcanons:

1 . 2 . 3 . 4

[who-dat-homeless]

Very important ask

Do you think vulcans have bdsm?

[agios-rio]

*thinking of TOS T'Pau, T'Pring etc here bc I haven't actually seen the wider canon yet oops

[aspiringnexu]

Just watched TOS's episode Journey to Babel and there was a moment that had me giggling.

Around 5 minutes in, when Jim is giving Sarek a tour and Spock is not-so-inconspicuously sulking in the foreground with Amanda, Sarek says 'My wife, attend.' which we can presume is a Vulcan thing, probably a nice and polite way of reminding others who your mate is without all of the pre-Surak stabby-ness.

And then not even ten seconds later, when Spock turns to leave, Jim turns to him and says 'Mr. Spock, a moment if you please?'

And I can't help but see the little parallel. Its like Kirk felt the need to also show the room who his boyfriend is but copying Sarek, who Kirk only learned two minutes ago was Spock's dad, would have been a bit too cheeky. First meeting with the in-laws and all that.

Plus Jim calls Spock over to explain the Enterprise's computers which Sarek does not need to know about. Almost as if Jim had to come up with a reason on the spot to explain away why he just called Spock over like Sarek did with Amanda.

Double plus, Sarek and Amanda are Vulcan kissing the entire agonising trip Spock takes to walk over to Jim. Like, not a light brush of the fingers, those babies are firmly pressed and not budging. And they don't stop until Sarek has insulted Spock and sent him away. Its more a makeout session than a kiss.

So, anyway, Jim calls Spock over both because he's maybe a little intimidated by Sarek and wants his best friend/boyfriend to support him and also because, no matter the species, men behave similarly when it comes to certain things like mates and Jim was not about to be shown up on his own ship.

[jennelikejennay]

One thing that bugs me about the way Vulcans are usually depicted (with some lovely exceptions) is that their philosophy—logic, or the teachings of Surak, for short I'm just going to call it Surakianism—is very often shown as a bad thing. Either that, or Vulcans aren't following it at all.

Writing about religion (and I do think Surakianism is best approached as a religion*) is always fraught. Because generally as a writer, you don't actually practice the faith in question, so naturally you'll have an outside view. That's doubly true of Surakianism, a way of life humans basically can't follow and it would probably be bad for us to try.

[*I know they don't call it a religion. But the way it deeply affects the interior life of Vulcans, their ethics, and so on feels very religious to me. It doesn't seem to have a position on theism; Vulcans get their beliefs about god(s) from elsewhere, such as traditional Vulcan polytheism and their own perceptions of the universe. But the way it exists as a social structure AND a guide to the inner self is absolutely religious to me.]

We are told that Vulcans developed this philosophy specifically because they needed it—they were destroying themselves without it! Their emotions were overpowering and violent, and they were clannish to the extreme. So despite what most of the human characters say, especially Bones, I think the path of logic is a good thing for Vulcans, even if humans don't get it at all.

Surak's teachings can be summed up into three basic points (a Vulcan somewhere just raised an eyebrow clear into their bangs at this oversimplification, but I'm doing my best here):

1. Logic, or the use of reason as a guide and the control of emotions

2. Nonviolence

3. IDIC—infinite diversity in infinite combinations.

Of course we only ever hear about the first one, because that's part humans notice. I'd say it was like reducing Catholics to fish Fridays and Mormons to underwear, but that's exactly what people do, so I guess it's understandable.

But I think the ordering goes the other way for Vulcans. First, acknowledge that others are of value, including and especially when they're different from you. Then, do them no harm. And finally, to achieve that goal, control your wild, violent emotions.

People imagine pre-reform Vulcans a lot of ways (and I never get tired of reading about them), but I think the best guide as to what they're like is by looking at Romulans. Romulans aren't wildly expressive with their emotions, we're certainly not talking about people who would otherwise be laughing and crying constantly. Instead, they're secretive and carry long, hateful grudges. They're loyal only to those closest to them, and they seem entirely without empathy otherwise.

Imagine the Vulcan emotions are like that. They have strong bonds to their clan, probably in part because of their telepathy. They're suspicious of outsiders, angry, prone to violence. Preferring the familiar is an instinct in humans too, but a mild one. Certainly humans have been and still are racist, but it's something we can generally overcome. I'm not sure the Vulcans could, not by relying on their emotions.

So they came up with the solution to control their emotions completely. Use reason instead as a guide to behavior, because logic will tell you that your own clan is not more important than another, and that reaching out in peace is beneficial to yourself and others. Don't give your emotions any credence and don't let them run wild.

Humans do some of this ourselves, and should arguably be doing more. We spend a huge chunk of our childhood learning to control antisocial impulses like screaming, hitting, and biting. We demonstrate self control in many tiny, unnecessary ways, in order to show to others that we are in control of ourselves: stuff like etiquette, social rules, even just leaving the last cookie on the tray for someone else. These are signals that say I am not governed by my appetites; I can be trusted to consider the needs of others.

And we could obviously be doing more. Too many political questions are being answered by people's emotional, knee-jerk responses like "I feel threatened by people who are different" or "I am angry about my enemies and want them punished" instead of "what produces the most benefit for everyone?" If we leaned more heavily on logic and reason to get us our answers, we'd make way better decisions than we do. Star Trek doesn't often acknowledge that in real life, making a snap gut decision doesn't actually have a very high success rate. Logic gives you better odds of saving the day.

But, you might say, Vulcans aren't doing very well at any of this. A heck of a lot of them that we've seen are racist. And while they repress their emotions just great, they don't actually make the most logical decisions most of the time.

But I don't think this actually discredits a religion at all. We all know Christians who are great at the easy parts of their religion—learning Bible verses or saying rosaries—but don't seem to be even trying to love their neighbor. That's in fact the way religions are usually practiced! External elements that people can easily see (like never smiling) are adhered to by social pressure, but more heart-level things are aspirational at best. That doesn't mean the message of a religion is bad; it doesn't really tell us anything.

This is especially true for a religion whose practice isn't optional. You have to follow Surak to stay on the planet. I can see this rule was necessary during the time when the Romulans were kicked out—pacifism doesn't work as a global solution unless everybody's doing it. Now, it seems a bit harsh. I think they get around it by not exiling anybody who's at least giving lip service to logic. That racist baseball guy in DS9 isn't a good Vulcan, but as long as he doesn't do anything violent or openly reject Surak, they're willing to say he counts.

Why are Vulcans so often the opposite of what their religion teaches? I think it's the other way around: their religion focuses specifically on their chief faults: clannishness, racism, ego. It just hasn't successfully transformed everyone. Makes perfect sense, really. We might as well ask why Christianity goes on and on about sex when humans are well known to be super obsessed with sex. Well that's WHY! It's one of our strongest impulses which in the past we felt the most desperate need to control.

The best argument against Surakianism is that total repression isn't the best way to handle emotion, that we need self-awareness of our emotions before we can account for them.

To which all I can say is, don't you think Vulcans know that?

I imagine there are lots and lots of viewpoints on this among Vulcans. Some favor repression and some favor understanding and acceptance; some think it's okay to have a little dry humor and some think we should be serious. We have the kolinahri who believe in the excision of all emotion (which I imagine is universally seen as extreme, like we might see cloistered nuns or monks who reject the world to achieve enlightenment). And surely there are ancient, wise Vulcans who deeply understand all their emotional impulses and are completely in control of them. Spock certainly seems this way by the movie era if not before: he knows that he has emotions, what they are, and how to respond to them. He has overcome the emotion of shame. So he seems not impassive on the outside, but a person at complete peace inside and out.

I just feel like we could stand to see more good Surakians, who are good not in spite of their belief in logic, but because of it. Kind of like how we see both good and bad followers of the Prophets on Bajor. I'm kind of anti religion myself, but I still want to see it given its due—especially a religion founded on such good principles. Sure, it's not a religion humans can really practice, nor need—a good half of our emotions are positive and pro-social, so it's no wonder a person like Bones would be convinced Vulcans are just punishing themselves unnecessarily. But it successfully turned Vulcan from a planet so violent it almost destroyed itself to a home of peace and learning. Of course Vulcans aren't going to mess with what works!

That has been my rant about logic for today. I highly recommend @dduane 's book Spock's World for a much deeper dive into logic and the path Vulcan took to get there.