Gonti

*Created by: Garry Stahl 
*Appearance: McGuffin in the Starbase 600 game 
*Number of Members: 3 billion 
*Nature of Members: Gonti (plural, Gont singular) resemble bipedal cattle of the earth type complete to the horns. Minotaurs if you will. Males weight in at 400 pounds, females about 100 pounds lighter. They are completely furred with a tight short hair in colors of brown and yellow. Their skin is black. They are mammals with typical bipedal mammal primary and secondary sexual characteristics.<P>Both males and females favor furs and leather clothing, more for style and protection than modesty. Gugonti is a cold world and from what is known the Gonti evolved in a warmer time. Indoors the clothing comes off and bare hair is the rule.</P><P>Gonti are omnivores with a preference for veggies. When it comes to meat they will eat anything but their own kind. They will not kill a sentient to eat them, but if they died of other causes not detrimental to their value as food they will eat them. The avoidance of their own kind is not a moral issue. There are a number of diseases that transmit themselves by being eaten. Gonti stopped eating their own kind to avoid these health issues. It is now a long ingrained habit. They do admit that in the ancient barbaric times it was not uncommon to sacrifice a woman to the meat pit at great festivals, but those days are thankfully dead.</P><P>Gonti can live as long as 90 years, but most males never see 60. Females tend to live longer on average as they do not pratice the aggressive lifestyle of the males. Average lifespan for woman is 70. 
*Organization: Quasi-feudal. Gonti work along lines of personal loyalty. No one will trust someone they do not personally know to work on their behalf, but someone that someone they knows and trusts knows and trusts is just fine. As a result you have thousands of constituencies of "Big Men" with up to 1000 followers each who will look to a Chief. In turn the a Great Cheif will have about 100 Chiefs that look to him. A King many have 100 Great Cheifs who all meet together and decide things. Three Great Kings control each about one third of the population. For the Gonti this system works. It is highly fluid and the names change constantly. If they can't decide things, well Gonti like to fight too. Of all the species encountered around Starbase 600 Gonti might actually like fighting more than Klingons.</P><P>One result of the males' love of a good fight is polygamy. This is not the Human gathering in of as many females as possible as a matter of status. However if you kill a man in a fight you are expected to take in his woman and his children and raise them as your own. Fights among single men are fatal often enough that there is a surplus of females as well, so a well off Gont may have two wives.</P><P>This custom actually slows down the number of fatal fights. The Gonti saying being "Is it worth a wife?" Not that you lose one, but you risk gaining one, and the economic drain she and her children represent. A small percentage of fights are fatal. In a non-fatal fight the looser is expected to concede what ever was being fought about. The fact there are so many fatal fights, and so few fights are fatal will tell you how often a Gont fights. The fatality rate is kept down by custom stronger than any law that you fight another male bare handed. Things were a lot bloodier before that was common. 
*Game Role: Another victim of the Kliges'chee. 
*World Role: Suspicious, might be friends. 
*Relative Influence: Minor. Gonti have diLithum ships now and have become common in the Far Sector. Always looking for a fight.
*Public or Secret?: Public 
*Publicly Stated Goal: Never Be Overrun Again.
*Relative wealth: Minor, one system and mid galactic tech. 
*Group advantages: A strong sense of racial unity and highly protective feelings for each other. Two Gont will stop fighting to aid a third Gont from a threat outside their group, then pick up where they left off later. They form strong cohesive groups. ANY male will defend ANY woman or child. 
*Special Abilities: Big, strong, aggressive creatures that are a physical equal to a Zak. 
*Group disadvantages: Gonti love to fight. It gets in the way of less aggressive solutions and does get in the way of dealing with those that don't like to fight. 
*Relations:</P><P>UFP: Cautious neutrality. Whether the Gonti can qualify for Federation membership is being debated. In any case the Gonti have not applied. However the UFP is off on the right foot with the touchy bovines. At least they are not on the actively disliked list. Besides, Aneilog girls are cute in a kinky sort of way.</P><P>Youn: The Gonti do not like the Youn, however the Youn have stuff, and they need stuff. The Youn are tolerated as long as they are up front and honest. Smart Youn traders are.</P><P>Ferengi: However the Gonti feel about the Youn goes double for the Ferengi. The only reason Ferengi come to Gugonti is that the Youn do. </P><P>Orions: One raid was tried. The results were not pretty. Friendly Orion contact has been limited.</P><P>Romulans: The Romulans have thus far ignored the Gonti, while making it clear they would be a simple clean up operation. This does not endear the Romulans to the Gonti. They are determined to be very messy indeed.</P><P>Klingons: This could be bad, very bad. Gonti are a Klingon wet dream. A physically powerful race that loves to fight. Beating one takes all the honor and skill you can muster. Klingons like this idea. Gonti are like, "bring it". Keeping the two from going to war just to fight each other will be a major effort. Section 28 is working on it. The Gonti Great King Tor has one Klingon scout in his fleet. 
*Area of Operation: Edge of the Kliges'chee implosion zone near the old Zantree border.
*Headquarters Location: Gugonti (4.1/-17.15) 
*Public Face: Aggressive Cows. 
*Notable Members: Mias: Great King Mias is a 50 year old Gont with 96 wives and over 300 children. Evidence of his aggressive youth. At this point in time he prefers to rule from a postilion of wisdom, not strength. However he is old and the young bulls are gathering around.</P><P>Ferdan: Great King Ferdan is the youngest of the current crop of Great Kings. He is still learning that passed a point you can't use your muscle to get what you want. You have to use your head.</P><P>Tor: Great King Tor is the middle aged statesman Gonti version. He is the primary contact with galactic society. He has been taking full advantage of that fact.
*History of the Organization: Gonti were on the verge of galactic technology as the Kliges'chee came through. The Cold Reavers issued a through smack down and told them to stay put. The Gonti didn't take that well at all.</P><P>The result of that is that Gugonti is a military porcupine. The planet is armed and armored to the extreme. the Gonti are all to willing to make enemies and love a good fight. They are deeply suspicious of those seeking to make friends.
*2400 Report: The situation is not much changed. Gonti mercenary companies are becoming common. They prefer a situation where they will get a fight. Guard duty is abhorrent, ergo they will only work for the Encarta when desperate for money. They are still dancing with the Federation and other powers.</P><P>Of note is Gord's War. Gord, a minor King had a minor dust up with House Q'Ten, a very minor Klingon house. Nothing was lost or gained on either side. A fight to fight. It was entirely fought on the ground. Both sides claim Honor and Glory gained.</P><P>Gonti have improved and expanded their fleet. Mercenary work is getting them the ships to be a decent third tier power. 
Category:Races
Category:Far Sector
Category:Epiphany Trek