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Vagran; (right) A malevolent life-form on planet Vagra II. Armus was formed when the inhabitants of Vagra II developed a means of ridding themselves of all that was evil within themselves. The Vagrans all departed from their home as creatures of dazzling beauty, leaving behind Armus, whose malevolence was compounded by the loneliness of having been abandoned. Armus resembled an oil slick, but was capable of forming himself into a humanoid shape, and could also generate force fields of considerable strength. Armus is most known for brutally killing Lieutenant Yar. TNG "Skin of Evil" 1-23

Valakis; Homeworld of the Valakians and the Menk. The Valakians were devastated by a mysterious plague, while the Menk seemed to be immune. Dr. Phlox determined that the Menk would eventually become the dominant species on Valakis. ENT "Dear Doctor"  1-13

Valerian; Humanoids from a world in Cardassian Space. Valerians are mostly humanoid except with a distinctive sixth finger per hand. They operate a giant arms sales cartel specializing in chemical explosives but selling almost anything. Their reputation has hurt their legitimate business and Valerian ships are banned at many ports. DS9 "Dramatis Personae" 1-18

Valtese; (left) Planet: Valt Minor (or just Valt). Humanoid race who, judging by Chancellor Alrik in late 2368, are much shorter than their Kriosian cousins but in the modern era are less sentimental as a culture. The races do share a dark-spotted skin pattern along the hairline and down the neck and spine, not unlike the majority species of Trill hosts. TNG "The Perfect Mate" 5-121

Vanoben; Planet: name unspecified. The otherwise nondescript home of a transport ship raided only 2 light years from Deep Space Nine, when an artifact similar to one being offered by the Miradorn twins was stolen in 2369. DS9 "Vortex" 1-12

Varro; Spacefaring race from the Delta Quadrant who live on an enormous complex of interlocked ships. VOY "Disease" 5-111

Velaran; (left) Planet: Velara III. Microscopic, intelligent one-celled life-forms living in the fragile subsurface saltwater layer of its homeworld. Discovered by a terraforming team that had disrupted their environment by 2364, the entities' components include silicon, germanium, gallium arsenide, cadmium, selenide sulfide, water, impurities, and sodium salt. TNG "Home Soil" 1-18

Ventaxian; (right) Humanoid race from the peaceful world of Ventax II. Ventaxian technology is somewhat behind modern standards, probably since the Ventaxian people have minimal interest in spaceflight. They have a very peaceful, clean world that is the result of a 1000 year improvement plan called the "Contract of Ardra." Their system is near the Klingon/Federation border, the space surrounding it was ceded to the Federation in the Narendra Agreements. First contacted by the Klingons in 2297, they are friendly and mostly nondescript. The placid and tolerant Ventaxian countryside is used by some religious orders as a site of monasteries and abbeys. TNG "Devil's Due" 4-87

Verathans; Origin: the Gamma Quadrant. A humanoid race whose civilization reached its height 30,000 years ago, spanning over two dozen systems interconnected with a highly developed trade and communication network. Its artisans were also highly skilled; if the race has died out its artifacts are easily dateable. Drolok was the prima of the 19th Dynasty and wore decorous robes and tall Pharaoh-like headgear, at least for ceremony. DS9 "Q-Less" 1-7

Vhnori; (left) Humanoid class 5 Delta Quadrant species not yet advanced to space flight. Has a strong and well-developed belief in the Next Emanation afterlife with a fleshed-out funeral ritual involving thanatopolists and cenotaph coffins -- actually, a subspace vacuole or spectral rupture, which occur naturally every six hours in thousands of sites all over the planet. Survivors believe they will be reunited with loved ones in the afterlife. Upon death the cell membranes break down into a bio-polymer resin excreted through the skin and wrapping the corpse. VOY "Emanations" 1-9

Vians; (right) Advanced humanoid civilization of unknown origin. The Vians rendered aid to the Ninaran star system in 2268 when the star went nova. due to limited resources, the Vians had the ability to save the inhabitants of only one of the Minaran planets. The Vians therefore conducted an elaborate experiment to determine which planet's inhabitants would be saved. The extraordinary self-sacrifice of the Minaran empath, Gem, caused the Vians to choose to save Gem's people. TOS "The Empath" 3-67

Vidiians; (left) A humanoid race, indigenous to the Delta Quadrant, who are suffering from a most dreadful plague (Phage), a virus which is eating them alive. Although their medical technology is very advanced in the fields of transplantation and grafting, they have not yet discovered a cure. Obsessed with prolonging lives instead of living them at whatever level possible, their medical teams will pillage organs and skin from other living beings, with no conscience at all. The have discovered that Klingon DNA is useful to finding a possible cure. VOY "The Phage" 1-5

Vok'sha; Planet: Rakella Prime. Natives who believe that hate is a beast which lives within the stomach -- and their greatest mythical hero ate stones for 23 days to kill the beast. VOY "Heroes and Demons" 1-12

Void Aliens; (Night Beings); A humanoid race living in an area in the Delta Quadrant devoid of stars. This "void" of celestial bodies would take over 2 years to travel from one end to another. The distance of it has kept the Void aliens isolated from most other species. These aliens have fully adapted to their environment of complete darkness. Since they have not encountered any other environments but that of space and their biological starships, any new substance could have drastic effects upon them. VOY "Night" 5-95

Vorgon; (left) Vaguely humanoid race from an undiscovered world. The only contact with them is through Vorgon agents capable of time travel. They always travel in pairs, are infinitely persistent and their operations usually center around objects or persons from the future hidden in the past. The intentions or allegiances of the Vorgons are unknown, however. The Vorgons have reddish brown skin with a large cranial ridge reaching from the anterior base of the neck to the edge of the nose. All Vorgons encountered have some sort of cybernetic brain implant on both sides of their head. TNG "Captain's Holiday" 3-67

Vori; (right) Civilization in the Delta Quadrant that has been at war with the Kradin for years. The Vori have set up a recruiting planet with holographic people to drum up sympathizers for their cause. Commander Chakotay's shuttlecraft crashed on the Vori planet and he was conscripted to fight the Kradin while Captain Janeway was planning his rescue with the Kradin. VOY "Nemesis" 4-72

Vorta; (left) The Founders created the Vorta as diplomats of the Dominion. They were not built from scratch, but improved upon an already existing species. If the Vorta Eris's account of the Vorta homeworld could be trusted (which is in doubt), Vortas originate from the planet Kurill Prime, in the Gamma Quadrant. Weyoun No. 6 gave a narrative of how the Founders changed their evolutionary path. Long ago, the Vorta were a race of tree-dwelling, ape-like species with undeveloped intelligence. An injured Founder stumbled into their forest one time, and a family of Vorta sheltered him. In return, the Founder promised that one day the Vorta would become an integral part of an empire that spanned the galaxy. The Jem'Hadar being too violently inclined and lacking in social graces, the second tier of the Dominion was created for the purpose of negotiation and administration. Vortas have pointed ears, are all highly intelligent and soft-spoken as a rule. Their genetic coding forces them to blindly follow the Founder's orders and regard them as Gods. As Weyoun No. 6 said, "Why be a God if there is no one to worship you?"
In line with their diplomatic duties and posts of command over the Jem'Hadar, Vortas are immune to almost every kind of poisoning. This comes in very handy when they are dealing with hostile races. Vortas are experts at cloning, and seem to reserve backup copies of themselves that can be cloned if an earlier version was killed or lost in the treacheries involved with Dominion diplomacy. One particularly prominent Vorta supervisor, Weyoun, has gone through 7 reincarnations. The same Vorta has supplied the Federation with knowledge that Vorta have poor hearing while they have a keen olfactory sense. They also cannot "taste" anything, another genetic programming from the Founders to help them "remember their roots" and keep them in their place. When asked whether the Founders made a mistake in choosing a species with poor hearing to be diplomatic delegates, the Vorta Weyoun fervently denied even the possibilities of their "Gods" making mistakes.
The Founders sometimes gives special abilities to certain Vortas for the successful completion of their mission. The first Vorta seen by the Federation was a female named Eris. She had telekinetic powers that enabled her to manipulate energy. Later Vortas have not been noted to possess such powers, and it is the belief of the Federation that Eris was an exception.
Life Purpose

The Vorta are the administrators and diplomats of the Dominion, the ones who carry out the dictates of the Founders and "negotiate" new worlds into submission. In serving the Founder, Vortas are also zealous in protecting the Dominion's agenda. If captured, Vortas are also obligated to commit suicide rather than surrender to enemies. One Vorta, Keevan, however did not follow this policy and opted to kill his Jem'Hadars rather than die. They revere the Founders in much the same light as Jem'Hadar do, and give precedence to the safety of a Founder's life over everything else. Vorta supervisor Kilana once exchanged a whole Jem'Hadar ship for the ashes of a dead Founder.
One Vorta is usually at the head of every Jem'Hadar Attack Craft, along with a complement of 42 Jem'Hadar. Several are believed to be aboard the larger Jem'Hadar Battle Cruiser. The Vortas are known as supervisors, the ones who oversees missions and other delicate affairs that Jem'Hadars are incapable of handling. Inside the Jem'Hadar ship, the supervisor and the Jem'Hadar First are given visors that allow them to augment the exterior visually. Perhaps that too is symbolic of the unerring trust the Jem'Hadar show in their supervisors. DS9 "The Jem'Hadar" 2-46

Voth; (left) The Voth are descendants of the Dinosaur species which dominated life on Earth many millions of years ago. They are believed to have evolved from the Hadrosaur on some remote portion of the globe some millions of years prior to the asteroid impact which destroyed the Dinosaurs. The Voth developed spaceflight to interstellar capability, but for some reason they did not appear to establish permanent offworld colonies. Although details are unknown, it appears that a natural disaster destroyed the Voths habitat on Earth and forced them to abandon the planet. They remained unwilling to colonies nearby systems, and instead embarked on a trek across the galaxy to find a home they deemed suitable. VOY "Distant Origin" 3-65

Vulcan; (right) Humanoid species native to planet Vulcan. Vulcans were once a passionate, violent people whose civilization was torn by terrible wars. The ancient philosopher Surak, revered as the father of Vulcan civilization, led his people some two thousand years ago to reject their emotions in favor of a philosophy that embraced pure logic. This remarkable renaissance became known as the Time of Awakening. Vulcan society is now based entirely on logic, and any trappings of emotion are considered to be socially unacceptable.
One group did not accept Surak's teachings and instead left Vulcan to found the warrior Romulan Star Empire. Their descendents and offshoots colonized many planets across the quadrant. Tensions remained between the two peoples, and a century-long war once raged between the Vulcans and the Romulans. No one on either side realized that the war had been ignited by Quinn, a member of the Q Continuum. We don't know when the war was, except that it was before 2072. By the 24th century, however, a small number of Vulcan citizens sought reconciliation with their Romulan cousins, a movement supported by Ambassador Spock, as well as by members of a Romulan underground.
In the distant past, Vulcans killed to win their mates. Even in the present, Vulcans revert to ancient mating rituals, apparently the price these people must pay for totally suppressing their natural emotions. When Vulcan children are about seven, their parents select a future mate, and the two children are joined in a ceremony that links them telepathically. When the two children come of age, they are compelled to join together for the marriage rituals. The time of mating, Pon farr, is when the stoically logical Vulcans pay for their rigid control by experiencing a period of total emotional abandon. In Vulcan adults, Pon farr comes every seven years. Vulcans who reach a certain infirmity with age sometimes practice ritual suicide.

Because planet Vulcan has a higher gravity than Earth, and its atmosphere is thinner, Vulcans in an Earth-normal environment demonstrate greater physical strength and more acute hearing than humans. The intensity of the Vulcan sun caused the Vulcans to evolve a secondary eyelid to protect the retina. This inner eyelid involuntarily closes when the eye is exposed to extremely intense light. A Vulcan's heart is where a human's liver is. When injured, Vulcans concentrate their strength, blood, and antibodies onto the injured organs by a type of self-induced hypnosis. Certain elements of Vulcan prehistory suggest that the Vulcan race may have originated with colonists from another planet. Vulcans have telepathic capacity, as practiced in the Vulcan mind-meld. Although the telepathic ability is quite limited, Spock once felt the death screams of the 400 Vulcan crew members of the Starship Intrepid across interstellar distances. Located in the mesiofrontal cortex of the Vulcan brain lies the psychosuppression system responsible for the cessation of emotions. On rare occasions, this area of the brain can be disrupted following a mind-meld with a violent individual.
Vulcans were the first extraterrestrials to be encountered by the people of planet Earth. On April 4, 2063, a Vulcan survey ship passed through Earth's solar system at that same time that Zefram Cochrane made his first faster-than-light spaceflight test in the Phoenix. The Vulcan ship detected the Phoenix's warp signature and realized that humans had discovered warp drive. On the evening of the next day, the Vulcan ship touched down near Cochrane's launch site in Montana. On April 5, 2063, Vulcans made first contact with humankind. TOS, TAS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT

V'tosh ka'tur; Vulcan word for Vulcans without logic. A group of individuals who do not embrace the Vulcan philosophy of logic and control of emotion. ENT "Fusion" 1-17

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