From: tallman%ailanth.uucp@wang.com (Robert Oliver)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.misc
Subject: Klingon Homeworld / Fek'lhr
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 92 20:12:43 EDT
Reply-To: ailanth!tallman@wang.com (Robert Oliver)
Organization: Ailanthus Project

 
As far as the name of the Klingon homeworld (the "preferred" reference 
used in TNG) the Conversational Klingon audio tape by Marc Okrand 
(creator of the Klingon language) calls their home Kronos. Whether this 
is considered canon is up to each one of us to decide but I do believe it 
should carry some weight. We should also not lose sight of the fact that 
their home planet can go by many different names. Our planet can be 
called Earth, Terra, Sol III or dozens of other names taken from dozens 
of other langauages/cultures. For that matter the name of the Klingons 
does not neccesarily have anything do do with the name of their planet 
(Kling?) We call ourselves Humans, not Earthlings, Terrans or Solians. 
Come to think about it, Solians sounds kinda neat.
   It was apparant that Kronos was to be evacuuated sometime in the 
future (see ST6 and the timeline below) but we do not know if this 
actually happened. Perhaps the Federation helped the Klingons to 
evacuuate to another planet? This assistance, together with the 
Enterprise C's sacrifice at Narendra, could have helped to pave the way 
for the Alliance. It is also possible that the Federation helped (with 
loads of 24th century technobabble :-)) to "fix" the problems with the 
atmosphere of Kronos before conditiions on the planet became 
inhospitable.
 
2294  Events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country - ST:TUC & TNG6 
"Relics."
 
2297  A Klingon expedition makes first contact with Ventax 2 - TNG4 
"Devils Due."
 
2344  Ambassador class USS Enterprise destroyed in the Narendra System 
while defending a Klingon outpost under attack by Romulans - NGTM-4.
 
2345  Circa: The estimated date that the Klingon homeworld Kronos would 
be made uninhabitable by the depletion of its ozone layer. It is unclear 
if the planet was evacuated or if a solution to the problem was found 
before such drastic measures were taken - ST:TUC.
 
2348  Circa: The United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire form 
an Alliance - TNG5 "Redemption, Part 2."
 
   This leads in to the question of whether Klingons have a devil or not. 
If I am not mistaken, the creature in "Devil's Due" (Fek'lhr) was 
referred to as a demon and not a devil. Regardless of what Fek'lhr is 
supposed to be (demon, devil or fictional religious figure), their must 
be a variety of different cultures on the Klingon home planet. Again, 
like our own world, Klingons have a variety of languages, religions, 
customs, beliefs, taboos, etc. It is a very narrow view (that is 
basically used on every alien race) that each race of aliens in the Star 
Trek universe has ONE language, ONE culture or ONE religion. While an 
advanced spacefaring race may have chosen one language to represent 
themselves, all of the other aspects of the different cultures on their 
planet must still be there.
   An "average" Klingon may indeed believe in certain aspects of honor, 
war and the "afterlife" but their must be differing views from other 
Klingon cultures that we do not see. We could view the physical 
differences (that's another arguement for another day) between the TOS 
Klingons and the Movie/TNG Klingons as proof that they come from 
different regions on Kronos. Compared to the TNG Klingons the ons in TOS 
were 100% certifiable WIMPS who were nothing more than very aggressive 
humans with "sinister" makeup. Perhaps these wimps couldn't handle the 
tough life on Kronos and decided to join the Klingon Navy :-)
   In closing I'd like to say that if we are going to subject Klingon 
culture to intense scrutiny in an effort to establish continuity, 
canonism(?) and a certain amount of fictional realism, then we must also 
allow for a great amount of diversity and complexity. 

........
Robert Oliver, tallman%ailanth.uucp@wang.com
via Ailanthus Project +1 207-989-6562 - Brewer, Maine.
........
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.misc