10-31-2022, 12:52 AM | #31 | ||
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: UK
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Re: GURPS Star Trek - Canon Vulcans
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An odd thing, though, is that the Vulcans themselves seem rather embarrassed about the psychic stuff and act as if they thought it was a departure from their usual standards of "logic". In "Enterprise" mind melds were actually forbidden and believed to be against the teachings of Surak (although that turned out not to be true). And by the TOS era they still seemed to avoid discussing it with outsiders, if you can judge by how gobsmacked McCoy looked the first time he saw Spock perform a mind meld - it looked rather as if he'd never heard of this before. Possibly one reason is that it doesn't allow for their usual level of mental discipline - you get whatever thoughts and emotions the other being has got, unedited, and Vulcans seem to think that that's terribly dangerous. (Maybe the Meditation mitigator, if using that, shouldn't apply to reactions to things picked up during a mind meld?) The ceremonies in "Amok Time", on the other hand... that really doesn't seem to have much to do with logic. It seems to be implying that this is how they've handled pon farr since before Surak's time and possibly since the Stone Age because despite all the logic and mental discipline stuff they haven't been able to come up with a better idea - and that makes the whole thing all the more terrifying. No wonder Spock went to such lengths to try to avoid telling the humans about that.
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10-31-2022, 01:20 PM | #32 |
Join Date: May 2009
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Re: GURPS Star Trek - Canon Vulcans
If Spock says they're being watched, it's probably because of his superb hearing.
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10-31-2022, 07:12 PM | #33 |
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: UK
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Re: GURPS Star Trek - Canon Vulcans
Oh, that is also a thing, true. Sometimes hard to tell from the outside which of the specific ways Vulcans are spooky is in play! :-D
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10-31-2022, 08:45 PM | #34 | |
Join Date: Apr 2005
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Re: GURPS Star Trek - Canon Vulcans
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The only series where you get to see Romulans as "people" rather than scary enemies is the recent Picard series, and in two seasons the story arcs have gone in different directions, so no much Vulcan/Romulan history. The reunited Vulcan/Romulan culture on Nivar in the 32nd century is also potentially fascinating, but doesn't look like it will ever be a primary focus. |
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10-31-2022, 09:00 PM | #35 | |
Join Date: Apr 2005
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Re: GURPS Star Trek - Canon Vulcans
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As another possibility, if the Horta have some form of species-specific psionic telesend power, the presence of the mother Horta could have given him a sense than an alien with psi powers was nearby. That info might have informed his decision to subsequently attempt telepathic contact via Mind Meld. You don't put yourself in close proximity to a ton of fast-moving, acid-filled rock to make first contact unless you've got a very good sense that you'll survive the encounter. (Psionic Horta also make sense; the mother Horta had a psionic link to her offspring both to impart racial knowledge and to alert her if they are threatened. A severed Mindlink to hundreds or thousands of slain baby Horta would have driven her utterly mad with grief.) |
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10-31-2022, 09:30 PM | #36 | ||||
Join Date: Apr 2005
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Re: GURPS Star Trek - Canon Vulcans
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McCoy's reaction probably comes from the fact that prior to Spock joining Starfleet, Vulcans appear to have kept pretty much to themselves. Spock was the first Vulcan to go through Starfleet Academy, and possibly the first Vulcan in 100 years to serve on a human-majority Starfleet ship. While McCoy might have been intellectually aware that Vulcans had psi powers, seeing them in use for the first time clearly rocked his world. Quote:
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For Vulcans, it typically blows away all their emotional control which is humiliating as well as being scary, especially in a culture where all but the most subtle emotional displays are considered to be in bad taste. Oddly, Romulans don't seem to suffer from the same problem, or else it's never come up. The new Strange New Worlds ST franchise makes it clear that Vulcans can have sex outside of Pon Farr, and that they can enjoy recreational sex. It's just a deeply private thing, typically between betrothed or married couples, however. (It also introduces T'Pring as a more sympathetic character rather than just Bride-From-Hell.) Last edited by Pursuivant; 10-31-2022 at 10:03 PM. |
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11-01-2022, 01:25 PM | #37 | |
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: GURPS Star Trek - Canon Vulcans
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They apparently arrange marriages way before adulthood, as in Spock and his assigned mate, T'Pring. Probably logically, based on genetics, background, social status, etc. That would make sense, it would help to assure that every Vulcan male had a mate ready when the life-threatening moment approached. The female can refuse, but since this puts the male's life in danger, there is a high social and legal cost (i.e. chattel status), and the other male she wants has to risk his life to achieve the goal, both of which would discourage doing so 'casually'. It would probably also seem appropriate, from a Vulcan POV, that the challenger must risk his own life, since he's putting the challenged's life at risk. (The duel to the death, on those occasions when it does happen, would also apply a selective pressure, which probably appeals to Vulcan logic.) I would imagine, given the rest of what we see of Vulcan society, though I have no data to confirm it, that there are other ways to challenge the arranged marriage, with less extreme consequences, but that they would have to be invoked well before the big event to allow time for other arrangements to be made. If you wait to the last minute the way T'Pring did, then you have to pay the price. After all, it's literally a matter of life and death. As I said, it all makes a nasty kind of sense. And of course, I have absolutely no doubt that Stonn discovered the truth of Spock's observation that "Having is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true."
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11-01-2022, 01:31 PM | #38 | |
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: GURPS Star Trek - Canon Vulcans
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Logically, their powers exist, and therefore their understanding must be wrong, but they can't put their finger on where, and it bugs them. That's my guess, anyway.
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11-01-2022, 04:00 PM | #39 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: GURPS Star Trek - Canon Vulcans
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As a side note, I rather think that Romulan philosophy is a lot more sophisticated than is presented and could be practiced by a decent person. The main thing they seem to have rejected about Surak is pacifism and ascetic antiemotionalism (both of which are not strictly logical in the human sense anyway). By that interpretation the Romulan government we see can be interpreted either as the normal amorality of governments especially authoritarian ones, or a perversion of tradition analogous to Imperial Japanese ideology in the 1930's-1940's. In neither case having any more to do with theoretical Romulan orthopraxy than human philosophies have to do with their governments. The original Romulans who dissented from Surak may not have been given a fair shake in the franchise.
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison Last edited by jason taylor; 11-01-2022 at 04:09 PM. |
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11-01-2022, 10:17 PM | #40 | |
Join Date: Jan 2014
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Re: GURPS Star Trek - Canon Vulcans
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1) The fight resolves the Vulcan's tension. Spock didn't have any need to boink T'Pring after he "killed" Kirk. 2) Fight to the death isn't entirely necessary. Even ignoring the trick with Amok Time, in Blood Fever, the matter is settled when Torres KOs Vorik (one would also assume that Vorik probably wouldn't kill Torres either.) I kinda assume that Pon Farr is a consequence of Surakism. You bottle your emotions up for seven years, and then it comes out in a ritualistic display of sex or violence (barring intensive meditation). |
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species, star trek, template, vulcan |
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