#pre-reform vulcan

[purpleenma]

Pre-Surak Spock

Love me some sketching of anything pre-Surak Vulcan but especially with my baby boy Spock 💜

*The ones on top are from 2022 and the other two are from 2023 for The Ritual

[allgremlinart]

almost started writing out a bunch of worldbuilding theories before I remembered that Gene Roddenberry is laughing at me from hell watching me do this and I got so mad I deleted it all

[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!

[ddosq]

Really wanted to see mirror spock in long hair and more vulcan styled uniform, but also following the path of war and savagery

[hellgirlfurrys]

His love for T’Pring...

[sunless-garden]

Pre-reform Spock having perfectly normal thoughts about the human he just met.

[frogayyyy]

there's an alternative timeline where, instead of following logic and being stoic, vulcans are like cat

[spirk-trek]

Progressions Fanzine | Merle Decker for "A Learning Experience" by Lanora Moore, 1985

[lichqueenlibrarian]

Yeah no that’s fucking terrifying

[himboadvocate]

Pre-reform, he would have been a Vulcan Prince.

Yes, it was completely self-indulgent to make 90% of his clothing translucent. I can live with that.

[vanilla-phantoms]

Been working on a little Spock character study fic where he mind melds with the katric arcs of some of his ancestors, and finally finished the first chapter!

There’s hopefully going to be two more chapters, one with Solkar and one with Sarek

[purpleenma]

The Ritual Duel Braid

I'm slowly building up a post around this idea I have that hair and braiding were of great importance for pre-Reform Vulcan and all the headcanons surrounding it. Tonight I felt in the mood of sketching Spock rocking one of them.

Vulcan warriors would wear this braid for an ancient ritual duel where the contenders must try to cut their opponent's braid with their lirpa blade, risking their lives in the process. The length of a warrior's braid was deeply important, since the longer it was the more skilled and practiced the warrior was perceived as, being that no edge had touched their hair in battle.

It was a rare ritual to perform even back them, for deep offenses to one's honour or their kin.

[loug-sama]

[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.

[autistic-android42]

Star Trek TNG episode “Manhunt”

lwaxana troi: hey Jean-luc *winky face*

Captain Picard (internally): dear lord how do I get out of this without causing a diplomatic incident? Oh I know! I activate my ultimate cock blocker!

Captain Picard: you know who has the most excellent dinner conversation? Lieutenant commander Data! Hey data stop steering the ship or whatever you’re doing and come tell us all about the intricacies of cultural dining rituals!

Data immediately dropping everything: I am on my way captain!

*several hours later*

Data mid PowerPoint presentation: and that’s just present day Vulcan dining rituals, pre-reformation Vulcan culture had some very interesting dining rituals as well

Captain Picard: how interesting, tell us more!

lwaxana troi: please just kill me

Data experiencing pure android euphoria at getting to info-dump uninterrupted to his father figure: of course captain! :D

[bottomspockweek]

The time has come! Here are the prompts which made the final cut. Thanks to anyone who voted!

Day 1 (1/12) - Tail || Jewelry || Pre-reform Vulcan

Day 2 (1/13) - First Time || Pon Farr || Overstimulation

Day 3 (1/14) - Lingerie || Pillow Princess || Crossdressing

Day 4 (1/15) - Keeping Quiet/Vocal Sex || Humiliation || Mirrorverse

Day 5 (1/16) - Alien Genitalia || Authority Kink || Double Penetration

Day 6 (1/17) -  Vulcan Culture || Service Kink  ||  Dub/Non Con

Day 7 (1/18) - Breeding/Fertility Kink || Telepathy || Hand Kink