The World of Star Trek

T-Negative is a Vulcan research and reference guide for writers and role players. 

Not our usual update, I'm sorry folks, but I think you'll all be happy about this anyways. There is a new resource for your Star Trek needs, this one focused on Vulcans. The blog will be posting art and fanfiction featuring the species, as well as resources and information about the Vulcan language. 

The third world war lasted from 2026 until 2053. This was a period of global conflict marked by nuclear cataclysm and genocidal war, and by the end of the war, 600 million people had died and many of the world's major cities and governments had been destroyed. 

C A U S E S 

There were a number of factors that contributed to World War III. To start, Earth was still recovering from the Eugenics War and the rule of the Augments, which had killed many people and changed governments as the Augments built their different kingdoms. Eugenics played a large part in the war as well, in the forms of controversy and different stances on genetic manipulation and human genome enhancement. 

T H E   W A R  &   F A C T I O N S

The war was fought violently and globally with at least bombs and nuclear devices, if not other weaponry such a biological weapons. Numerous factions participated in the war, and not all of these groups were defined by country alliance. Many of these factions controlled their military through the use of narcotics. A group called the Eastern Coalition was responsible for several direct attacks against the United States of America. 

Another group were eco-terrorists lead by Colonel Phillip Green, who were directly responsible for 37 million lives as they sought to purge those who had been affected by radiation that had become a severe problem with the extensive use of nuclear weaponry during the war.  

There were attempts to end the war, including a New United Nations formed in the early years of the war. In 2036, the NUN declared that "no Earth citizen can be made to answer for the crimes of their race or forebearers". Unfortunately the organization did not last and had completely collapsed by 2073. 

The war officially ended in 2053 when several Earth governments met in San Francisco to declare a cease-fire.

A F T E R M A T H 

Though the war ended, it left many lasting problems, the least of which was not the immense dust cloud the nuclear weapons had stirred up. This resulted in numerous nuclear winters that left Earth's atmosphere noticeably irradiated with a detectably heightened amount of radioactive isotopes. Whole generations of people had nearly been wiped out. 

This drastic change in Earth's environment and society coupled with the break down of most governments leaded to what is called the post-atomic horror. Much of the population was suffering from radiation-related illness and food was in short supply. Some areas reverted to more barbaric survival methods and lived by the creed of "Guilty until proven innocent". Combined with other factors, this lead to many parts of Earth being mired in chaos well into the 22nd century. 

This chaos had a profound impact on Earth's relations with other species. Earth's First Contact was made in 2063 with the Vulcan ship T'Plana-hath; while this made increased recovery possible for some areas, many Vulcans worried that Humans were too unstable and not mature enough to be ready to join the interstellar community. This worry affected Vulcan's treatment of Humans for the next hundred years, leading to them restricting Human technological advancements.

There is a fairly limited number of alien species I see being used in fiction or played in roleplay. Humans are obviously the most popular, typically followed by Vulcans. Then there are the Betazoids with their telepathy, Klingons with all of their pride and violence, and maybe some blue Andorians or a minor Ferengi, or perhaps a Cardassian or a Bajoran. You might see a de-assimilated Borg if someone is feeling really adventurous. 

All of that is well and fine - those are, admittedly, the major species we see in the series, and most of them have the advantage of being relatively pretty by human standards. 

There are so many alien species Star Trek provides us, though. The possibilities are endless when you consider an entire galaxy as your playground. Even if you don't want to create your own alien species (or are worried about doing so for any number of reason), there are tons of species that don't get used regularily but are canon to Star Trek. 

Here are a few of my favorites.

H A M A L K I

A Hamalki is a meter tall and has twelve legs attached to a rounded central abdomen. The chitinous body is mostly transparent, and polished to mirror smoothness, except for needle-fine spines on top of the abdomen. The abdomen has a slender ridge on top of that contains twelve eyes, giving the Hamalki 360-degree vision.

Hamalki, who already have longer than normal lifespans, are able to transfer their memories into new hatchlings before death, allowing them to pursue projects over several lifetimes.

That's right. Transparent, twelve-legged, semi-immortal space spiders. Now who wouldn't love that? 

C A I T I A N 

A felinoid species, Caitians have manes of hair and long tails and even in uniform go without footwear, finding it unnecessary. They tend to speak with a purring quality to their voices. Alien cat people, but still people. Don't fall into the trap of treating them like you would  pet. They are a warp capable member of the Federation and Caitians have been known to be admirals and serve on the Federation Council.  

Lt. Uhura's relief officer M'Ress was a Caitian. 

A R D A N A N

The Ardanans make my list mostly because of their societal situation. The natives of Ardana are divided into two very different castes; those who lived in the anti-gravitational city of Stratos and the Troglytes. The Troglytes were considered mentally inferior and thus did all of the physical labor to maintain Stratos. 

As it turns out, the mental deficiency of the Troglytes was the result of a gas they were exposed to in their work. Before that was discovered in 2269, there was a resistance group of Troglytes trying to gain access to Stratos for the Troglytes. The Enterprise-D arrived and proved the mental deficiency was fixable, and the Ardanans were referred to the  Federation Bureau of Industrialization to try and reconcile their differences and the related societal problems. 

It's easy to let our knowledge of different alien people blur across different time periods, but the fact is that the Federation didn't know all these different groups of aliens all the time, and all aliens certainly were not members of the Federation. 

One I see frequently is Betazed. Betazed was not admitted to the Federation until 2273, and they did not know of Humans or Vulcans until after the formation of the Federation in 2161. Before they were admitted to the Federation, they were required to abolish the religious requirements of their matriarchal government.

Ferengi are another example. In the early 22nd century, Ferengi were warp capable and did travel as far as Earth Space. In fact, in 2151, a Ferengi ship attacked the Enterprise NX-01, though the human crew never knew who their assailants were. That said, in the late 2150s, the Ferengi experienced a massive cultural upheaval and financial depression that made a warp culture unsustainable. The Federation became aware of the group of aliens that would be come known to them eventually as the Ferengi around 2355, but official first contact didn't come until 2364.

While Cardassia was well known to the Federation possibly as early as the late 22nd century, Bajor was not. The Bajorian people were capable of sublight travel, but not much more before they were annexed by the Cardassians sometime before 2319. 

Disclaimer: The subject of Tarsus IV has not been touched in the AOS universe in any canon source I am aware of. Thus the question of whether James Kirk was ever present on the colony or if the disaster happened at all is purely up to personal interpretation. This response will only handle TOS Tarsus IV.

With that said, let us start.

T A R S U S  IV

Tarsus IV is the fourth planet of the Tarsus system and was the site for a Federation colony. Governed by a man named Kodos. The colony had a population of 8000 in 2246, when a fungus destroyed most of the colony's food supply.

Faced with the very real possibility of the entire colony starving, with the arrival of Federation relief forces uncertain, Governor Kodos ordered half of the colony population killed. The decision of who should die and who should live was guided by his personal theory of eugenics. 

The relief forces arrived earlier than expected, but still too late to save the 4000 Kodos had ordered killed. The only trace of Kodos found was a burnt body, and he was presumed to be dead. There were only 9 survivors who knew Kodos' face, three of whom were James T. Kirk, Kevin Riley, and Thomas Leighton. By 2266, those three were the only ones still alive. 

In 2266, a group of traveling performers called the Karidian Company visited the planet Leighton had made his home. Leighton recognized the leader of the company, Anton Karidian, as Kodos in disguised. Leighton called upon James Kirk to confirm his suspicions, but Kirk doubtful. It was only after a string of murders and attempted murders, including the death of Leighton, came to light that Kirk was convinced that Karidian was Kodos and he was killing the witnesses to hide his identity. In truth is was Karidian's daughter, Lenore, who was born a year after the massacre, who was murdering the witnesses to protect her father.

This is a wonderful post of resources about the various (US) military branches, as well as some resources for PTSD. 

Post is written and queued! Thank you for the wonderful question. Be forewarned, however, that Tarsus IV has not been addressed in the AOS universe, and so all facts presented are only strictly canon in TOS. 

In 1993, genetically modified humans called Augments seized control of over 40 nations on Earth. These Augments had been created by scientists trying to create a superrace that would lead the planet that had recently plagued by war to peace.

The early 1990s saw the rise of some of these Augments, as they gained dominance over portions of Humanity. Notably among those was Khan Noonien Singh, who by 1992 was the absolute ruler of almost a quarter of the planet, primarily Asia through the Middle East.

It was the following year that the Augment coup happened, with those Augments inspired by Khan claiming rule of 40 nations. Under many of these new rules, unaugmented Humans were treated like slave, and some nations were plagued by wide spread massacres of Humans. There were also problems between the different nations, with the new Augment rulers attacking each other. Soon the entire world was fighting once more and, occupied by the formidable enemy posed by other Augments, the superhuman rules of the Earth were blind to what was happening beneath them. The Humans were moving, unhappy to be beneath the Augments, organizing rebellions, pitting the Augments against each other.

Weakened by their battles against each other, the Augments were not prepared for the Human's rising up against them. One by one the Augment Kingdoms of Earth fell, reclaimed by Humanity.

The last kingdom to fall was that of Khan and his Augments. Unlike  the other Tyrant Kings, Khan's rule had not been marked by internal fighting, starvation, or brutality on the behalf of the Augments. While he had been an absolute ruler, he had not been a bad ruler. Perhaps that is why he stood for the longest; he was not as hated as the others had been. The anti-Augment fever was catching though, and Khan's subjects were not immune. Soon his kingdom too fell, his palace ransacked, most of the research of his Augments destroyed. Khan and over 80 of his companions were condemned as war criminals and sentenced to die.  However, Khan himself was never found, nor his 84 companions.

This fact was never revealed to the public in order to prevent widespread panic, however there were rumors that Khan and his unaccounted for Augments had escaped in an early sleeper ship, the SS Botany Bay. This rumor would remain unconfirmed until the 23rd century.

The official casualty count of the war was placed at 30 million, though some estimate it to be as high as 37 million. While the war was ended, and all the Augments (save for Khan and his 84) were accounted for, Humanity's fear and hatred of genetic manipulation and alteration remained well into the 24th century; genetic engineering was banned on Earth to try and prevent another war similar to the Eugenics Wars. However, it persisted as a problem and was one of the causes of World War III starting in 2026.

 T H E   F R O Z E N   E M B R Y O S

In the wake of the war, the Earth governments had to decide what to do with the Augmented embryos left behind. The ultimate decision to keep the embryos frozen was a controversial one, and kept from the public.

These frozen embryos became a problem in the 2130s, when the geneticist Arik Soong stole some of them from Cold Station 12 where they were being stored.  Soong meant to prove that genetic manipulation was the key to improving the human race and that the downsides could be overcome . However, the aggressive nature of these Augments eventually took over; Earth Starfleet's response to these new Augments lead to the destruction of most of the frozen embryos. 

I wasn't sure what you were referring to at first. For those equally as confused, the anon is referring to this bridge crew member.

Now, the only information available on this character is stuff directly from the actor who played him, so I would take the canon value of what was said with a grain of salt. 

0718 is a cybernetically augmented human, as opposed to Khan, who is a genetically augmented human. This is an important difference to note, as I have to assume that the anti-genetic augmentation attitude is still firmly in tact in the AOS world. 

Beyond that, there isn't any information on them that I can find. 0718 is a human with cybernetic additions that allow him to interface completely with the ship's computer. Any questions beyond that would certainly be interesting ones to explore, as there are many ways to interpret them. 

Let me start by saying thank you! I never expected to get such a huge response or following so quickly for something that is really just a side project that I do for fun. I appreciate all the interest and support I have gotten. 

Next, I would like to ask all of you about what sort of things you'd like to see on The World of Star Trek. I have a few ideas myself, and already have a new article in the queue about Augments and their history. That said, I am always open to hear your ideas as well. Please let me know!

Standard Issue to all Starfleet Medical personnel in the 23rd Century.