Planet: Q'onoS (Kronos, the Klingon
homeworld). See Klingon database.
The well-statured warrior race has a genetic
predisposition to hostility and a well-known streak of
fatalism; Lieutenant Worf says that Klingons do not like
to be "probed" by empathic species. The culture's
warrior ethic runs so deep that rivals in the civil war
can meet and drink as equal fighters for periods of time
before or after battles, thanks to the Capitol City's
neutrality. During these get-togethers, a great deal of
growling, wrestling, snarling and generally loud revelry
takes place, Klingons seeming to derive tremendous
satisfaction from drinking with their enemies on the
night before a battle. A beard is a symbol of courage; a
hammer is a symbol of power. A true warrior fights to
the death and would rather be killed than taken hostage
— an act which brings dishonor on himself and his family
for three generations. Their most important historic
symbol of leadership, Kahless, said Klingons should
fight not just to spill blood but to enrich the spirit.
Their scientists are not highly regarded in the culture.
Shattering the cranial exoskeleton at the tricipital
lobe brings instant death.
In the traditional sense, the Klingon people hold
honor above life — although as with any culture,
high-level politics and personal gain get in the way. In
Klingon culture, lower-ranked officers consider it a
duty to kill off a superior who is perceived as weak.
Klingons notoriously neither surrender nor bluff,
although Chief Engineer La Forge is skeptical of that
based on Lieutenant Worf's seemingly impenetrable "poker
face" during their poker games on board the U.S.S.
Enterprise NCC-1701-D.
The Klingon Klag on board the Pagh admits he
does not speak to his father, who is slowly dying on the
homeworld without honor after escaping from victorious
Romulans who would not allow him to die as a Klingon
should die — in battle. Klingon language had no word for
the concept of "peacemaker" until Ramatisian mediator
Riva negotiated the early United Federation of
Planets-Klingon treaties just decades ago. Warriors and
their families are responsible for each other's actions;
a challenge to clear a family's name, such as Lieutenant
Worf's, ends in death if unsuccessful. They believe that
death is an experience best shared and view it as a
joyful time for one who falls in the line of duty and
earns a place among the honored dead, celebrating the
release of a dead spirit rather than grieving over what
they consider to be the empty shell of the body. One of
the most honorable deaths is a kamikaze-like suicide
that takes an enemy's life with it. Viewed through their
Spartan perspective, illness (especially terminal) is
not honorable; one is not supposed to faint, at least as
an adult, a bias that leads to a lack of both research
and sympathy for such patients; usually cases of
paralysis such as Lieutenant Worf's are left to die — or
to perform the ritual suicide Hegh'bat. Of course,
half-human Federation emissary, K'Ehleyr thought it was
just more "Klingon nonsense" and "dumb ideas about
honor."
Lieutenant Worf says Earth and humanoid females like
the Edo are too fragile for what his race considers
love, although that would likely apply to a Klingon of
either gender with a human mate. A roaring yell akin to
the death wail is the Klingon female's mating call,
Lieutenant Worf says, followed by their hurling of heavy
objects and clawing. The male responds by reading love
poetry — and ducking a lot; a form of
dominance/submission is seen when he is given a Klingon
female thanks to Commander Riker's temporary Q powers;
she is donned in leather accessories and some armor, she
seems jealous of Yar, takes a strong slap from Worf and
comes back on her knees — defiantly growling. The actual
act of love can be intermingled with pain and include
the Klingons' highly developed sense of smell; once
aroused, the combat as well as passion instinct appears
hard to quell: it takes a sharp command to snap
Lieutenant Worf and later K'Ehleyr out of their
bloodrush. Klingons usually mate for life, celebrated
with a solemn Oath of Union, most often in private,
rather than in a public ceremony like marriage; judging
by Lieutenant Worf's initial issuance of the Oath of
Union to K'Ehleyr, the Oath doesn't appear include much
talking, and no dancing or crying as in human weddings.
If Lieutenant Worf is any example, male chauvinism is
much more pronounced in mainstream Klingon society than
among humans; women cannot sit on the High Council, so
even the powerful Duras sisters, Lursa and B'Etor, must
find a puppet nephew to rule through.
Lieutenant Worf echoes the modern Klingon attitude
toward Romulans when he says the enemy "considers humans
and Klingons a waste of skin"; Romulans and Klingons
having been "blood enemies" for 75 years (or since about
2292), after an extremely brief alliance. Klingons
apparently hold the Ferengi with almost as much disdain
as they do Romulans, thinking them loud of talk, yet
weak in action. Klingon officers do not let their
children live with them as a general rule, although "the
son of a Klingon is a man the day he can first hold a
blade"; Lieutenant Worf allows his son, Alexander, to
stay with him on the Galaxy-class Enterprise when
other options run out, though he says it is
inappropriate for a Klingon to receive family while on
duty; and Klag says a Klingon "is his work, not his
family." Klingons are remarkably skilled hunters,
relying on their keen olfactory senses to pick up and
stalk their prey. They eat their meat raw, seasoned more
strongly than humans prefer, and find the human
tradition of "burning their meat" to be somewhat
repulsive. If Lieutenant Worf is any clue, they regard
swimming with as much disdain as they do bathing. At
least once, Klingons use the United Federation of
Planets' Earth-derived metric system. Lieutenant Worf
contends that love poetry and the great novel both
reached their height with the Klingons. See also Honor,
Klingon; Klingon Physiology.
T'kar and Yeto were two more Klingons who had no
respect for the Klingon Empire's current state of
affairs. Kang fretted that the warrior ethic was lost
among modern Klingons who would open restaurants and
such. Science Officer Dax said that getting Kang angry
at Curzon was the only way to begin to create a bond
between the two — a Klingon truism, Kang agreed. The
custom of naming godparents or other relatives is
practiced among Klingons as well as humans. The
Jem'Hadar, Third Talak'talan, expressed regret that his
first experience with an Alpha Quadrant being was not
with a Klingon warrior, but with Federation humans and a
Ferengi instead, both of whom he considered weak.
Despite the disillusionment and disrespect of some
Klingons, Klingon honor still counts among the peoples.
D'Ghor was not allowed to claim the House of Kozak based
on financial debts alone, and he was stopped and shamed
while attacking the unarmed Quark before the High
Council. Grilka and Gowron alike sneered at financial
matters and normally considered them beneath a warrior's
time and attention, charging D'Ghor with using "money to
bring down a great house"; even so, Quark was able to
resurrect a plenitude of complex financial records.
Challenges to personal honor are settled usually by
personal combat, but Quark used numbers. Klingon females
— banned from holding Council seats — are not even
allowed to head their heirless dead husband's house,
except in special cases. The Klingons must have some
class system, as personal servants are used, usually
among what appear to be the poor. Due to their rough
nature, especially when drunk, Quark charged Klingons
double for holosuite use, and then raised it to triple
normal cost. The Klingons' profound hatred of Romulans
continues.
Although they believe in an afterlife, Klingons
perform no burial ritual and dispose of the corpse by
the most efficient means possible — although some
archeological digs on Qo'noS revealed different customs
at one time.
