A question on the Cairn

[Doublecross0]

I was setting up an NPC Cairn character and wondered something. If the Cairn "speak" through images and memories and they don't have any concept of spoken communication, why do they have Language Cairn 2?

[Dan Gurden]

I think you would find that in that case the language is one of mental communication.

Note: However on a recent reviewing of Dark Page it appeared that the social taboo against verbal communication for the Cairn is more 'author flavouring'. While it is true that as a species they prefer psionic communication, they are capable and happy to partake in verbal communication as well.

YMMV on this but it appears that the Cairn are simply a strong humanoid Psionic species with a far greater interaction ability than has been represented...

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Dan.

"A couple of thoughts from a random mind!"

[Cochrane]

Not all languages are spoken or written. I imagine American Sign Language could be a language skill in the game, so why not psionic languages? Telepathy and Empathy require skills, so where's the problem?

[Owen E Oulton]

In Dark Page, there's nothing to support the LUG position that Cairn eschew use of speech translators. Quite the opposite seemed to be the case.

However, in the case of Language, Cairn, it is specifically mentioned that telepaths must learn how to "speak" mentally to the Cairn. This could quite reasonably be termed a language skill, however it is quite explicit in the episode that only a telepath can learn it.

[SIR SIG]

Projected text and images can still be a language!

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SIR SIG a Aussie TREK Narrator

[Cmmdr JT Wayland]

If my memory serves me correctly wasn't Lwoixana Troi (and probably other Telepaths involoved in the Diplomatic mission to Cairn) teaching the Cairn how to speak verbally and didn't they have great difficulty after she went into that Coma in communicating normally.
I think we have make a distinction between the Cairn Language which communicates using a metaphorical/visual form of telepathy and "normal" telepathy which uses a verbal form of telepathy.

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"Those Klingons are up to something, I can feel it in my bones"
Cmmdr JT Wayland
Strategic Operations Officer, Starbase 415, Dragomer Sector, Klingon Border, 2372

[SIR SIG]

Was the coma an result of the communication with the Cairn or flashbacks with the young Cairn girl and her own dead daughter?

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SIR SIG a Aussie TREK Narrator

[Cmmdr JT Wayland]

Originally posted by SIR SIG:
Was the coma an result of the communication with the Cairn or flashbacks with the young Cairn girl and her own dead daughter?

The coma was caused by the flashbacks about the death of her eldest daughter and her resemblence to the Cairn Girl.

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"Those Klingons are up to something, I can feel it in my bones"
Cmmdr JT Wayland
Strategic Operations Officer, Starbase 415, Dragomer Sector, Klingon Border, 2372

[Cochrane]

The difference between Cairn and Standard Telepathy should be no defferent from the difference between spoken languages and hand sign languages. Would Betazoids and Vulcans have different telepathic languages? Do my thoughts make a difference?