Orions

[Dan Gurden]

First; I do not have any FASA trek material about the Orions and actually found it rather blan and disinteresting of the stuff I saw. So I am rather looking for newer points of view...

However, I have recently had a new addition into my game of an Orion Character.

My entire knowledge of Orions comes from DS9, with the Orion Syndicate.

I DO remember that the Orion Slaves Girls were green, highly sought after and consider almost bestial and un-intelligent.

But during DS9 we saw several representatives of the Orion Syndicate all from many different species.

Yet in the episode where O'Brie went undercover, the Dominion is seen making a deal with a senior member of the Syndicate. Is it fair to assume that this senior member was an Orion, even though he had standard human skin colouring? Or should all Orions be green skinned?

What do people think?


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DanG.

"Hi, I'm Commander Troy McClure, you might remember me from other academy training holo-simulations as, Abandon Ship, the quickest way out, and I sense danger, 101 things you dont need a Betazoid to know..."

http://www.theventure.freeserve.co.uk

[Dan Stack]

Insufficient Data.

LUG assumes that all racial-Orions are green-skinned, FASA assumes it is a minority.

I'm not sure they'll be popping up on Enterprise. No evidence on the shows either way, so I'd go with whatever works for your game and pray Enterprise doesn't contradict it...

One could suppose that the racial-Orions always have intermediaries do their dirty work for them - a lot of buffers in the Orion Syndicate, just like the Corleone Family...

[Eric R.]

I recently sent in a new racial template for the Orions and as of yet no posting of them I did a combination of both FASA and LUG and even went so far as to have two differant ones female and male.

[Hugh Casey]

I always envisioned the Orions as having a "Merchant Prince" type of culture, similar to the Italian city/states during the Renaissance. No strong central authority, lots of debauchery and decadence (think Machiavelli and the Borgias), and they seem to be everywhere. Also, I think of them as a VERY old culture... again, think Ren Italy (some citys and families traced themselves back to the earliest Roman times!). They are an older civilazation than any of the Federation races, and sometimes are rather "put out" by these upstarts, but they are too decadent to go out building an empire (nor do they have the inclination to do so).

Hope this helps.

Hugh

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"Sell your soul to the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society... ASK ME HOW!"

[qerlin]

I also use the Rennaissance Italians as a base for the culture and structure of the Orion people.

They're green in our campaign. Period. I did a little playing with the look, making their eyes all black, sclera & iris. It gives them a mysterious, slightly spooky look.

The slaves in TNG period are gone, but there is 'indentured servitude' -- technically, the servants can buy themselves out of service, but in actuality, they are charged for room, board, etc...against their account, so they never escape. But it keeps them 'legal' in the eyes of the UFP.

For our campaign, they are the oldest known spqcefaring nation; they are not originally from the Rigel system, but settled there after one of the numerous collapses of their society. There are Rigelians -- I've made them more 'human' looking.

Since they are a strongly mercantile group, I figure they would (as with the Ferengi) be hotly opposed to the communistic lifestyle of the Federation. They might pay lip service to peace & co-existence, but they would love to see the UFP collapse so the markets open up 'properly'.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Actually, there's an Orion Template in A Fragile Peace (pg. 40).

And, the Orion Syndicate head honcho (I think his name was Raimus) in "Honor Among Thieves" [DS9] was a Tavnian. Look at a picture of Jeyal (Lwaxana's Tavnian husband from "The Muse" [DS9]) and then look at pictures of Raimus and Flith. Same species!

Third, "The Cage" [TOS] implies that the Orion Traders may actually be human, or multi-species. Fourth, While LUGTrek says Rigel VII and Orion are the same place, the series never gives any hint of this.

[SIR SIG]

Isn't the Orion Syndicate just a really big, bad crime syndicate?

That said, then I'm sure there are some traditional green skinned Orions in the top spots. But they are a quadrant wide crime organization, plenty of members from every race that has scoundrels

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SIR SIG

More then meets the eye,
His a MapMaker in disguise.

[prophetsteve]

I view the Orions as thus:

Orions are green skinned. Their culture derives on success. Not for mere profit, for thats too limiting. The persuit of wealth, power, and prestige is overwhelming to them. So much so that the underclasses, the not successful, find themselves abused, taken advantage of, and sold into slavery (until the UFP stopped that). So the competition to survive is very strong. A kind of heavy social darwinism.

Orions are first and foremost traders - they were the Ferengi before we knew the Ferengi. Long ago, it was the Orions which first plied trade amongst the burgeoning Warp civilizations. This "legitamite" work is the most valued by Orions - Orions have no qualms about breaking interstellar law but there is much prestige in success in both Orion eyes and the eyes of other cultures. However there are only so much traders to go around so...

Secondly, the Orions are pirates. Unlike the Ferengi navy which is mostly privateer vessels, only a fraction of Orions are pirates. Mostly traders that found it too competitive to be legit. Orions don't encourage or hinder piracy - they see nothing wrong with it but they view pirates as if they "couldn't quite hack it" as traders.

Thirdly the Orions are criminals. They formed the Orion syndicate a long time ago and still serve in many important affairs. However, the Syndicate has a life of its own now and as it grew so did its diversity emerge. The Orion Syndicate isn't strictly for Orions anymore, but most attribute the Syndicate as being an Orion organization. Of course there are enough Orions serving in the organization to keep that belief alive. For its part, the Orion government officially views the Syndicate like the Pirates but since the Syndicate has its claws in all facets or Orion life, Syndicate members are often get preferred treatment.

This is just my view of the Orions; nothing really canon here.

[Antonsb214]

The Prime Directive RPG has a lot of stuff on the Orions. The Orion Pirates started when the Federation started disbanding the "national" fleets, this is Year-113 on the SFB calendar (113 years after first contact, most of TOS takes place in the late 150's). Sixteen Orion ships and 9,000 crewmembers mutiny and disappear.
Orions as a race are members of the Federation and next to the humans the most ecomically aggressive.
Officially the Orion Pirates are simply individual privateers and criminals with no formal organization. It is believed however, that the original Orion Pirates were a clandestine arm of the Orion government, using ships supplied to them and manned by regular Orion fleet officers and crew. But since those early years, their operations have expanded to cover most known areas of the galaxy.
The pirates are organized into cartels, each controlling all pirate activities in a given area. Each cartel has the exclusive right to "harvest resources" (i.e. piracy and smuggling) within its territory. Each cartel controls many ships, but about two thirds of all Orion Pirate ships operate independently of the cartels. These independent ships lease an area from a cartel lord and resupply at cartel facilities.
The Orions are a green skinned humanoid race, resembling Terran humans, but the Orion Pirates as a group can contain Klingons, Romulans, and other races among their members, as well as ethnic Orions.
Hope this helps.

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"Retreat?! Hell, we just got here!"

[qerlin]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by C. Huth:
Actually, there's an Orion Template in A Fragile Peace (pg. 40).

And, the Orion Syndicate head honcho (I think his name was Raimus) in "Honor Among Thieves" [DS9] was a Tavnian. Look at a picture of Jeyal (Lwaxana's Tavnian husband from "The Muse" [DS9]) and then look at pictures of Raimus and Flith. Same species!

Third, "The Cage" [TOS] implies that the Orion Traders may actually be human, or multi-species. Fourth, While LUGTrek says Rigel VII and Orion are the same place, the series never gives any hint of this.</font>

There's also a template in the TNG core book near the back. Or is it the DS9 book..? I'd look, but that would mean I'd have to get up & this week has been far too trying for that. Now if I could only use the force to get my McEwans...

[Phantom]

I hope Dec Trek deals a little more with the "other" canon races (Orions, Gorn, Axanari, Tiburon etc.)

LUG did a good job with the Syndicate (info wise) I look forward to more on that as well.

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In the Praetors Name!

[spyone]

IIRC
In the original pilot, "The Cage", and the footage re-used in "The Managerie", a bald man asks Captain Pike if he would like to retire and become an Orion Trader.
This has led some to the conclusion that the bald man was (racially) an Orion. It has led others to conclude that the Orions are not a race, but a non-Federation human culture. And yet others to conclude that they are both.
The "Green Orion Slve Women" might be Orions who are enslaved, or they might be slaves of the Orions.
The canon facts are vague enough to allow many interpretations.

FASA said that most people think that there are 2 races of Orions, the "Ruddy" Orions, whose skin tone ranges from passable caucasion to decidedly red, and the "Greens", who are kept as slaves, or rather a kind of indentured servants under transferable contract.
The Orion Culture is passably Ferengi.
Oh, and in reality there is a third Orion race, the "Greys" who are bald and usually suffer genetic ailments due to radiation exposure in the past, who serve as technicians and are generally hidden from view.

I intend to keep the Ruddies and the Greens.

As for the Orion Syndicate, it has not been concretely established how this relates to the Orion Traders, but I'd say closely. Think of the Traders as the rum-runner phase of the Syndicate of modern times.

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You're a Starfleet Officer. "Weird" is part of the job.

[toadkiller]

Started my Orions based loosely on some stuff from FASA and a ST book that I for the life of me can't recall the name of - Sulu and Chekov were kidnapped by an Orion pirate. Wasn't a great book, but had some useful bits.

Don't use LUG (heresy I know) but:

<canon free zone>
Toadkiller's Orions:

Almost all green, some rare variant colors exist, on some worlds they are a significant %.

Sexual dimorphism is dramatic. Not as exciting as it sounds - the men are lots bigger than the women. Men tend towards 7 feet+ , the women around 5 1/2 feet, both are stronger than a same sized human. Some have low level telepathy - vulcan strong is very rare.

Very ancient culture - pre-UFP they held the dominant technology in the quadrant. First contact for: Vulcans, Tellarites, Klingons, etc. More than willing to sell technology, for a steep price. The "Orion Empire" is actually more of a Confederation (they'd call it a "free" trade zone), with each member world, or portion thereof, enjoying much more independance than even a UFP world (there are non-"Orion" worlds in the Orion Confederation). About the only thing the "federal" government does is vaguely attempt to moderate external trade and provide a mutual defense force contributed to by at least most members which protects them from outside threats and each other.

The actual homeworld of the Orions is unknown - they literally don't know what planet they are from or when they first went into space. Their are Orion colonies scattered across the quadrant, some with no contact with the main body. (Their homeworld will be found later in my game, I'm going for something "ringworld-esqe")

The dual powers in the Orion worlds are the syndicate and the Church and they play _very_ different roles. The syndicate is the force which holds the union together, while there is a so-called civilian government until very recently (see below) its only role was administrative. The syndicate is made up of the variety of warlords, presidents for life, CEO's, etc. that control and/or own the member worlds. They set interplanatary tariffs, set general guidelines for "development" of resources, plan and execute military operations, etc. It is a VERY chaotic system that hasn't faired terribly well in the face of organized resistance from the "new" alpha powers.

The Church (if you want to dish/or favor faith-based-trek see relevant thread) controls the day to day life of the typical Orion. It is highly male oriented, sort of like the law of gravity is highly mandatory. Women (i.e. green Orion animal-women from TOS) are basically slaves, they are born supressed and they die that way. This also hasn't stood contact with the UFP very well which has maintained complaints of sentient-rights abuses and has been actively been trying to end the slavery. The Orions (at least the men) view this as an attempt to destroy their culture and this has led them to attempt to prey on the economy (and females) of the UFP.

I've begun to draw the PC's into this tangle and how it is coming apart. They have discovered that it isn't as black and white as above. For instance - they have found that the plight of Orion women (who only act dumb, took them awhile to figure that one out) has actually gotten worse since the UFP got involved. In the "old days" the sexes were kept very seperate but the women did have considerable behind the scenes power and might even actually be the one who ran things via a male puppet/figure head (dumb brother, seduced warlord, whatever). However as the "empire" breaks down the traditional roles are crumbling and only the cruelty is left.

In the aftermath of the DW there has been a splinter group break off on the platform of "women's rights" and we're having a mid-east style break down with terrorism,etc. Meanwhile the civilian goverment is trying to seize control and stablize the whole mess so it isn't picked apart by the Klingons/Romulans/.....

I guess my game is getting a bit dark...I've been trying to take things like the mid-east and the Taliban (sp?) and bring them into the game....
TK

[Imagus]

The Orions I use are similar to a cross between Toadkiller's and FASA's version.

Personally I love the FASA idea that the Orion system has been used as a trading ground for tens of thousands of years, but that the Orions are either (relatively) new to the area, or were a minor race of servitors that took over when the previous administrators left. The Orions themselves probably don't know because they do not care about something as unprofitable as history, and they sold off all the valuable artifacts centuries ago. It does allow for old Iconian (or other) artifacts to show up from time to time with no explanation

I tend to view the Orions as being the more practical and ruthless side of the Ferengi. They operate in clans and merchant houses, with no central authority. Many houses specialise, but there is no uniform pattern there. Where the Ferengi made profit and trade a religion, with its own set of rules, to an Orion it's a way of life, and provided you survive and expand your holdings, there are no laws - piracy is fine if you can get away with it, and smuggling is a way of increasing your profits. They view the Ferengi as misguided fools - and rich pickings.

The Orion Syndicate is simply an interstellar, interracial criminal cartel. Originally created as an inter-clan alliance to launder piracy and smuggling profits, it absorbed members of other races and took on a life of its own. It has no more connection to the Orion people these days than the American Mafia has to Italy.

Oh, and I use the FASA subraces - they worked for me!

Basically, when an Orion shows up in my game, he literally could be anything I need him to be. Completely legit or completely crooked - usually he's somewhere in between!

Hope that's of some assistance to someone!

Jon

[Bill Harris]

There was an episode of the animated series which had an Orion pirate ship in it. IIRC, the Orions there had light blue skin. (Or maybe it was a light green. It's been a few years since I've seen that episode.)