Bajoran

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Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor)

Bajorans, a race of humanoids in the fictional Star Trek universe, were introduced in the Next Generation series and played an integral part in the Deep Space Nine series. In their TNG debut episode "Ensign Ro", a (faked) recording by a Bajoran terrorist identifies his people as "the Bajora," but this term has not been used since. Captain Jean-Luc Picard met and served with Bajoran Ro Laren, while Captain Benjamin Sisko served Starfleet near the Bajoran homeworld, Bajor, and worked with native Major Kira Nerys.

Biology

Like many alien races on Star Trek, the Bajorans are human-like in appearance, but have a distinctive symmetrical facial feature: wrinkles on the nose between the eyes, according to some sources an indication that millennia earlier in their evolutionary history Bajorans had small elephant-like trunks. Despite their human-like appearance, there are several biological differences between the two species. During pregnancy, Bajoran women suffer from uncontrollable bouts of sneezing rather than morning sickness. Bajoran women gestate for five months, as opposed to the nine months of human women, due to high vascularization between the fetus and the mother. During childbirth they are extremely relaxed, and they feel little or no pain during the process.

Culture

As noted by Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the Bajoran people are an ancient one, having reached an advanced level of technology long before humans had learned to walk upright. Precisely why 24th-century Bajoran technology, even prior to the Cardassian Occupation, was nowhere near as comparatively advanced as that of other species was never addressed; the most likely explanation is that at some point they reached a certain state of contentment with their culture. In one episode, Jake Sisko expressed incredulity at the notion that Bajorans had even achieved space travel several centuries before humans did, let alone hundreds of thousands of years ago, indicating that the full extent of Bajor's technological history is not common knowledge to the average 24-century citizen.

Bajorans' first names are their family names (hence, Kira Nerys is "Major Kira" and called "Nerys" by her friends).

Bajorans wear large, chained earrings and ear cuffs called d'ja pagh as symbols of their religious faith. Before the war against Cardassian occupation, the earring also symbolized one's caste. After war began, however, castes became obsolete and most people became soldiers.

Bajoran funeral rites are complex; their traditional death chant is rumored to last over two hours.

Bajoran society is evidently accepting of same-sex relationships, since, in the DS9 episode "Rejoined", Kira saw nothing wrong with the idea of her friend Jadzia Dax, a female joined Trill, renewing a relationship with another female joined Trill, who had previously been the male Dax's wife.

Cardassian Occupation

Main article: Occupation of Bajor

The Occupation of Bajor (usually simply referred to as the Occupation) was the period from 2328 to 2369 during which the Bajoran homeworld of Bajor was under the control of the Cardassian Union. During the Occupation, the Cardassians perpetrated a coordinated scheme of strip-mining, forced labor, and genocide across the planet in an attempt to prepare it for full-scale colonisation by the government. The Occupation gave rise to the fierce Bajoran Resistance, which used guerilla and terror tactics to eventually force the Cardassians to withdraw. Deep Space Nine's producer, Rick Berman, explained that the Bajorans were not modeled on any particular group: "The Kurds, the Palestinians, the Afghan Mujahideen or the boat people from Haiti; unfortunately, the homeless and terrorism are problems in every age" (TNG Companion, p. 178).

Religion

The Bajoran religion, also called the Way of the Prophets, is a major unifying force on the planet; the spiritual leader, or Kai, wields a great deal of moral and political authority, although the planet's de jure political leader is the First Minister. The Bajoran religion is based upon the revelations of the Bajoran Prophets, who come to be known as the timeless beings residing in the Bajoran Wormhole, or Celestial Temple. Because Benjamin Sisko was the first to make contact with them, he was acclaimed by the Bajoran spiritual leadership as the Emissary of the Prophets.

Part of the Bajoran religion involves the use of the Tears of the Prophets, reality-distorting energy orbs produced by the Prophets. Several of these were stolen by the Cardassians during the Occupation, though a number have been recovered. The orbs have various names such as "The Orb of Time". When presenting oneself to an orb, the practitioner is said to "consult the orb". The orbs played a significant role throughout the series. Sisko occasionally consulted the orbs in attempts to gain wisdom or counsel. Kira consulted the Orb of Time to determine if her mother had had an affair with a Cardassian during the Occupation.

Titles in the Bajoran religion include a 'prylar' (roughly equivalent to a Christian monk), 'ranjen' (a rank falling between Prylars and the next rank, and responsible for a variety of tasks), 'vedek' (cardinal, bishop) and 'Kai' (equivalent to the pope in Roman Catholic theology).

The Bajoran religion also features another race of divine beings, known as the Pah Wraiths; however, while the Prophets are worshipped as being something like gods, the Pah Wraiths are more like demons, who supposedly warred with the Prophets and, losing, were banished from the "Celestial Temple" (Bajoran Wormhole). However, some Bajorans (a very small minority group, somewhat like Satanists on Earth) insist on worshipping the Pah Wraiths regardless, believing them the truly good deities, and even attempt to find a way to release them from their prison.

Bajoran religion evidently places no taboo on non-marital sexual activities, since Major Kira and Vedek Bareil, both devout believers, were depicted as non-married lovers.

Language

File:Reckoningmodern.GIF
Modern Bajoran text predicting the reckoning

The Bajoran written language consists of square symbols reminiscent of Chinese characters. However, in form they are more fluid and are composed of thick lines. There are a large number of different symbols which can be used in any of four rotations (normal, horizontal flipped, vertical flipped, 180 degree rotation). This gives approximately 200 symbols in the written language. No translation for these symbols exists although the number of characters in the script implies that it is either a syllabary or logosyllabic. Bajoran can be written both in vertical top to bottom columns arranged right to left or in horizontal left to right lines arranged top to bottom.

Federation membership

Bajor finally joined the United Federation of Planets in the Deep Space Nine relaunch novels of the Star Trek Expanded Universe. At that point, most of the Bajoran Militia was absorbed into Starfleet; Kira Nerys received the Starfleet rank of Captain.

Notable Bajorans

External links

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