Vaadwaur

The Vaadwaur are a humanoid species native to the Delta Quadrant. They are characterized by their tall stature and segmented webbing-like crest around the neck.

History
The history of the Vaadwaur is a long but fragmented past, with a mixture of war and exploration.

Early years
For the Vaadwaur, the dawn of space travel via the warp drive was a defining moment in Vaadwaur history. The Vaadwaur people would finally be able to take to the stars and colonize new worlds - and should they meet other races make peace with them and establish good relations with them. This was the idealistic future many Vaadwaur dreamed of - but the future would turn out very different indeed. The Vaadwaur Space Program was originally run as a civilian program, but after various protests from military officials the Vaadwaur administration created a military division responsible for the creation of spacecraft of military use. The Military's argument was that with warp travel possible the chances that they may contact a hostile race with similar warp technology. In reality, they wished to control Vaadwaur citizen's access to space.

It remains unclear which race made first contact with the Vaadwaur. Surviving Republic records describe an implacably hostile race, that destroyed three civilian colony ships before being destroyed by military ships. However, it seems likely these records were altered by Vaadwaur military command, who preferred the concept of hostile aliens to be conquered to the idea of peaceful coexistance.

Either way, within weeks of the initial contact, the military declared a planetwide state of emergency, seizing control of much of the government to ensure a swift response to the alien "threat". Within several years, the Vaadwaur Republic had virtually become a military dictatorship.

In the year 603 C.E., the Vaadwaur military attacked and subdued an alien world near the Vaadwaur homeworld, claiming the natives posed a threat to the Republic. The world became the first protectorate of the Vaadwaur species, though not the last. With a taste of conquest, the Vaadwaur grew to enjoy the fruits of empire, and soon the Vaadwaur fleets began actively seeking out new worlds to conquer or exploit.

Empire
In their expansion, the Vaadwaur fleets were aided by their discovery of a network of subspace corridors that spanned much of the quadrant. Dubbing them "underspace", the Vaadwaur were quick to claim the network, and began using them to further expand their empire. With the help of the subspace corridors, the primitive Vaadwaur fleets could cross the quadrant in months instead of decades, and strike undefended worlds at their leisure.

For nearly 900 years the Vaadwaur Empire would rule a large section of the Delta Quadrant through the use of the subspace corridors, their battle fleets appearing seemingly out of nowhere and destroying unprepared alien fleets with ease, soon followed by ground invasion and occupation of the planet. The Vaadwaur were cruel taskmasters, treating all peoples they subjugated as third class citizens within their own lands - using them as slaves and sources of free labor. They extracted resources from all conquered worlds. At their height, the Republic included more than a thousand worlds, and stretched as far as Talax and Borg space, controlling all in between. Vaadwaur leaders boasted that an unarmed freighter could travel from one side of the quadrant to the other without fear of attack, so total was their control over the spaceways.

But, like all great empires, the Vaadwaur Republic eventually collapsed. As the nine hundredth anniversary of the Vaadwaurs grip on the Delta Quadrant approached, they became convinced of their own superiority. Security services on captured worlds became lax, and ship captains became arrogant in their own little world of power. As the Vaadwaur basked in their own glory, the subjugated races decided that enough was enough. During the history of the Vaadwaur's rule, there had always been dissenters and saboteurs so the problems these races were causing was nothing new and dealt with as always. What the Vaadwaur were unaware of was the level of dissent now building on every world they controlled.

In the year 1497 C.E. open rebellion occurred on almost every subjugated world. The most remarkable thing was that over a 10 month period rebellion occurred without many worlds knowing of the others undertaking the same struggle for freedom. By the time the Vaadwaur realized what was happening to them it was too late. Ships had been captured. Space borne outposts had been taken and entire planets had been liberated from Vaadwaur rule. The rebellion would probably have been swiftly crushed if the Vaadwaur had not been so complacent and confident in their own position. As things stood, in just under a year the rebels had claimed almost a fifth of the republics territory. As panic spread throughout the government and plans were drawn up to take back what had been lost, the republics enemies were organizing against them. One race, the Turei, had managed to bring together twelve alien species, all united in their hatred of the Vaadwaur. With every small push, every hit and run attack their strength grew and the number of ships and space under their control grew.

Downfall
As the rebels discovered the subspace corridors used by the republic, the belief that victory was not just a hope, but a distinct possibility grew. The alliance used these corridors for hit and run attacks as well as daring raids on places that many thought was foolish to go. The Vaadwaur, still refusing to believe that they could be defeated, were still lax in their security and tactics and many strategic systems were taken over a two month period of intensive assaults. Soon after the Turei brought a plan to the alliance leaders that proposed a final assault that would make or break the war. It was proposed to take almost every ship they had built or captured and launch a final assault on the republic - an attack on the Vaadwaur homeworld of Vayda itself. The subspace corridors would be used to attack the heart of Vaadwaur space, with some ships dropping out at every planet along the way to Vayda. The hope was that the seemingly random attacks would confuse the republic leaders untill it was too late.

As system after system fell to the alliance, the Republic's leaders, finally realising the true extend of their defeat, initiated a plan of utter desperation. A battalion of elite troops would be placed in stasis underground with a fleet of ships hidden in similar caverns. These troops were to be reawakened five years later, when the belief was the alliance would have collapsed and its member races would have resumed the old conflicts from before the Republics rule, allowing the Vaadwaur to reclaim their territory.

As the last of the ships and troops was consigned to their slumber, the alliance fleet broke through with the bulk of its ships to Vayda itself. The resulting battle was swift as ships were destroyed with ruthless efficiency, and in many cases by suicide runs by smaller alliance craft that had suffered damage. Once the immediate danger was over for the alliance vessels, the objective changed. Planetary bombardment with plasma bombs commenced as the surface of Vayda was reduced to nothing but rubble and dust. In the final hours of the assault, an earthquake induced by the bombing damaged the auto-wake systems of the stasis pods.

With the rise of the new empires - the Krenim, the Trabe, the Borg - the Vaadwaur passed into legend. Few remember the truth behind the ancient legends of a quadrant spanning empire that had held so many worlds in thrall. So it remained for hundreds of years.

Awakening
In 2375, that changed. The Federation starship USS Voyager, on its historic voyage through the Delta Quadrant, encountered the ruined world of Vayda. During explorations of the devastated planet, the Voyager's astrometrics officer, Seven of Nine, awakened one of the Vaadwaur battalion, a young officer named Gedrin. Persuaded by Gedrin that they would be helping a peaceful civilization to rebuild, Voyager's crew revived nearly 200 Vaadwaur troops before Neelix, a Talaxian officer uncovered the Vaadwaar's true history. Voyager's alliance with the Vaadwaar was broken when the Vaadwaur commander Gaul launched an attack on Voyager. Voyager barely, escaped while the Vaadwaur and vessels of the Turei resumed their nearly millennia old conflict. Realizing that today was not the day to reclaim their lost homeworld the reawakened Vaadwaur vessels used the subspace corridors to flee the battle and attempt to find a new world were they could rebuild in the hope of one day reclaiming their former glory.

Physiology
The appearance of the Vaadwaur is very distinct. Their skin color comes in all the same broad range of complexions found in Humans and the ridges on their face gives them very sharp features. They have small ridges on their chin and two horizontal ridges just above their nose. A large fin like crest runs across the center of their foreheads and gets wider as it reaches the top of their skulls. Their hair grows from around the mid-region of their skull, just were their fin ridge seems to end.

Neck ridges extend from their ears, along down along their neck and onto their shoulders where they curl in towards the center of their chest. This gives the neck ridges an cobra-like appearance overall. The Average Vaadwaur stands just over 6'5" for both sexes and they are about as strong as your average Klingon. The Vaadwaurs biology is complex - their body is actually supported by an exoskeleton of extreme strength rather than a typical internal skeleton common to most humanoids. They have similar organs to a human but have two hearts and livers. They also have another major dominant organ called a 'glotmon' and this is capable of changing its structure to serve as any extra internal organ (but a heart) when the Vaadwaur body receives damage. This makes the Vaadwaur a very hardy race overall.

Culture
The Vaadwaur culture is similar to the Klingon culture, because they boldly confronted death without fear. It was common practice among Vaadwaur to fantasize about different deaths. This practice was even encouraged among children.

Behavior
The Vaadwaur are a very cunning race - surviving the complete annihilation of the First Republic is proof of such cunning. Their very nature has become somewhat survivalist. They try to be two steps ahead of their foes.... and even friends. It is for this reason they never recorded maps of the tunnels - they knew them from memory. That is why the Turei has never been able to exploit them - they are unsure exactly were the tunnels lead and dare not attempt to find out incase they end up in hostile space.

No one can be sure when the Vaadwaur are being genuine as more often than not members of the Vaadwaur will pretend to be friendly and attempt to gain trust while really they have no intentions other than exploiting or conquering the race or people in question. A race that should be approached with caution no matter what the strength of their empire may be.

Motivation
The Vaadwaurs only motivation at present is to make their race great once again. They have every intention of rebuilding their empire, with the desire to make it even larger and more powerful than before. They will do this may any means research, trade and conquest if need be. The Vaadwaur have no intention of fading into the mists of history.

Traditions
The Vaadwaurs main sporting activity is "Jomchaa" - this sport is played in a circle roughly four meters in diameter where a group of six fight against each other until one of them is left inside the circle. This sport is perfect for the Vaadwaur due to their large build and hard exoskeleton.

They eat fairly simple meals and only ever eat sweet foods during times of celebration such as the time of "awakening". One of these simple foods is a meat called "Ruoul" it comes from a small forest creature of the same name. As with most Vaadwaar meals, it is usually eaten on its own, with little added flavoring.

The "Awakening" is a yearly celebration which occurs on the date when the first Vaadwaur battalion was reactivated by the crew of the USS Voyager. Although unsuccessful in capturing the Federation vessel the Vaadwaur still see that day as one of triumph, when their forces fought past the Turei against the odds and returned to the stars in order to once again reclaim them for the republic.