writes_with_digital_ink: (always optimistic)
[personal profile] writes_with_digital_ink
*waves* So I've been trying to make Orions and Star Trek to make sense (it's okay, you may laugh); this post is to just give you guys a head's up, and run some things by you to make sure everyone is okay with what I'm doing.

First up, Alternate Reality (AR) vs Prime (PR).

From what I can gather from the episodes I've managed to watch so far and various Memory Alpha* articles, the main Orion government (the 'Orion Union' according ST:ID, and I don't see why it'd be different in PR) has consistently maintained a strict neutrality with the Federation for at least two centuries. Yay being Switzerland. At the same time, the Syndicate is running around as a galactic Mafia and a semi-autonomous entity, and general perception of Orions is high on dancing girls and pirates. By the 24th century, there's also the Free Traders, and Federation students can go to the very prestigious Institute of Cosmology. The Orions shown on screen are either men or dark-haired women, and tend to be engaged in trade (including the slave-trade), piracy, or espionage. In addition, I think the only one portrayed as actually being a Federation citizen is the incarcerated Marta from TOS.

In contrast, in the AR (which splits off from PR in 2233, after ENT), the three Orions we see in 2258 are all red-haired. Two are in Starfleet (both Science Division), and one (civilian by her clothes) is in London.

I was thinking of playing with the idea that the red-haired Orions are a) part of a previously little-known-to-outsiders ethnic group, and b) their presence in the Federation is one of the ripple-effects of the alternate timeline. Roughly; due to the USS Kelvin's destruction, events and career paths shifted so an internal ethnic struggle in the Orion Union during the 2240s led to a group of refugees being helped by the Federation. So by the 2250s, the AOS!characters are a lot more familiar with Orions than their TOS!selves would be, and the AR has more Orion Federation citizens than PR's Federation, etc.

Secondly! I'm trying to pull together the very contradictory information we're given on the Orions, and work it into something coherent, alien, and not...as failtastic as 'women have power due to SEXY' (oh, Trek.) Most of what I'm thinking of doing can be found in this post, but the broad overview is:

The Orion Union is a matriarchal republic, although most of the traders who deal with the outside galaxy are men. The Union prefers to be neutral in outside conflicts, and aside from the Syndicate (which I get the impression is a semi-autonomous organisation + culture anyway), trade agreements, and science conferences, they mostly stick to themselves and not much is known. As a general rule, Orion societies are polygamous, highly hierarchical, more conglomerate than uniform, and roughly a quarter of their population is made up of slaves. Sometimes, pirates and con-artists will pretend to be slaves in order to gain access to their targets' ships, such as what happened in the ENT episode Bound. Speaking of Bound, my main post on the Orion pheromones is here, but basically I'm assuming that Orions can mostly control/influence their own pheromone production. What's left means that they tend to be compelling, but it's not overpowering on its own.

So! I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts or objections to any of the above, or if you guys were okay with what I'm doing.

:D?



*mostly I am ignoring Memory Beta, except for the occasional interesting idea.

(no subject)

10/6/14 02:48 (UTC)
repositorian: (Default)
Posted by [personal profile] repositorian
I like it! I love the notes on how Gaila herself functions with the pheromones and I am totally looking forward to seeing more making sense of the Orion culture.

Also, I like to think Pavel is just kind of in platonic love with Gaila anyway and her pheromones do not even register as a Thing To Pay Attention To in his head. >.>

(no subject)

10/6/14 06:16 (UTC)
greystreetgabby: found @ stock-icons.livejournal.com (Default)
Posted by [personal profile] greystreetgabby
At first glance, I have no trouble with any of this. It's obvious you've put a lot of thought into the world-building, it's all very detailed and well-argued, and I think it makes sense. Because there are so many iterations of the Trek universe, I believe that provides a lot of wiggle room for people to flesh out their character's backgrounds however they see fit without it adversely affecting another character (assuming, of course, it isn't inherently expected that everyone that shares your canon also shares your ideas, but since this is all focused on the Orion culture and you are the only Orion player for now, it shouldn't affect other characters much if at all.)

Since this would primarily affect our Reboot/AOS cast, I'll let them do the talking. But as far as my TNG crew are concerned, and as a general mod note, you've got two thumbs up from me. I can't wait to see where you take her!
tea_earlgrey_hot: (Default)
Posted by [personal profile] tea_earlgrey_hot
~thumbs up!~ Sounds entirely reasonable to me. You're good to go, as far as I'm concerned. :)

(no subject)

14/12/14 05:14 (UTC)
alwaysnotwrong: (Worthy of Consideration)
Posted by [personal profile] alwaysnotwrong
It all sounds good to me! I like that you're swinging away from the sexist fantasies and fail subversions of such that the Orions seemed to be built around originally. Anything to flesh them out beyond the sexy pirate motif is totally cool by me!

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