|Planet of origin:||Earth, now reside in the Delta Quadrant|
|Warp capable:||75,000 BCE and transwarp capable|
|Environmental requirements:||Class M conditions|
|Sexes:||male and female|
| Distinctive Features:|
head crest and ridges
The Voth are a bipedal reptilian species who are distant kin to Humans and had evolved from the dinosaurs of their shared homeworld of Earth. A sentient species of reptilian descent, the Voth live isolated and largely nomadic lives in the far reaches of the Delta Quadrant. One of the oldest and most technologically sophisticated civilizations on record, their belief system promotes the understanding that they are the rightful rulers and guardians of that Quadrant, the first people to evolve there. Human relations with the Voth, initiated by the crew of the lost starship USS Voyager, were complicated by evidence that the Voth species in fact originated on Earth, with the extinct dinosaurs. Voth share 47 distinct genetic markers with Humans and other Earth species, although, being reptilian, their physiology differs considerably from that of the mammalian Humans. The Voth also view mammals as a less evolved form of life. (VOY episode: "Distant Origin")
The ancient ancestors of the Voth were the Hadrosaurids, which were a species of large herbivore dinosaurs that inhabited prehistoric Earth. They may have evolved until they became a bipedal race and formed settlements on their homeworld. At some point in their time, they discovered that an asteroid would destroy the surface of their planet and began the task of leaving their homeworld. It had been suggested by Commander Chakotay that any settlements that the Voth had on Earth had been buried by natural disasters such as earthquakes or sank to the bottom of the sea.
- The dialogue in the episode makes no mention of how the race left the planet. They could conceivably either have left Earth in primitive sleeper ships or they could have been transplanted by the Preservers who were also responsible for saving the Troodons which in turn evolved into the Clan Ru.
Somehow, the Voth would later find themselves in the Delta Quadrant where they began to start their life anew. Nothing is known about this period or how the race managed to 'forget' its origins on Earth. They established their new homeworld and began to believe in a new belief known as Doctrine which governed their society.
The race would eventually learn to travel through transwarp space even though Doctrine stated that a great disaster would occur should this happen. Upon using this advanced form of propulsion, a new era of exploration began for the species.
Despite the relative calm within their race, a noted scientist, Professor Forra Gegen, believed in the theory that their race was not native to that region of space. This came after an extend analysis that showed that their race had nothing in common with the species native to their homeworld. They also discovered the remains of a mammalian endothermic that contained genetic markers that were common with the Voth. Gegen would be on the run from his government with his assistant Tova Veer as they searched for the USS Voyager, which was present in the Delta Quadrant. In December 2374, they managed to locate the ship and confirm the theory but were apprehended by the Ministry of Elders who journeyed to the location and captured the starship Voyager.
On board the Voth City Ship the Ministry rejected Gegen's arguments for his theory and forced him to retract his statement or the Voyager crew would face detention and the destruction of their starship. He would later be assigned to metallurgy while the Voyager crew were warned not to encounter the Voth again. (VOY episode: "Distant Origin")
Despite the Ministry of Elders' misgivings, the Distant Origin theory gained traction among parts of the Voth population. Chakotay had given Gegen a globe representing Earth and containing chip with Starfleet's database entry of the planet. In 2376, Chakotay met two members of the Voth underground on the Markonian outpost, 40,000 lightyears away from the location of Voyager's first encounter with their people. The underground informed Chakotay that the knowledge was being disseminated and that the orthodoxy began to sent fleets of ships to demand symbolic obedience to them. While the underground was unable to directly share the spoils of the Voth's transwarp technology, they provided the chance to collect scans of its usage by giving Chakotay the coordinates of a Voth transwarp conduit near a young star.
On stardate 53058.8 (January 22, 2376), a Voth cruiser engaged its transwarp engines when Voyager was present, inadvertently allowing it to take detailed scans of the process with its multispatial probe. The Voth noticed Voyager, however, and targeted the probe with a coronal mass ejection from the young star. Unfortunately, the probe was damaged. Lieutenant Marika Wilkarah died trying to retrieve the probe, and the multispatial probe itself was lost. (VOY short story: "Brief Candle")
In late 2381, the Devore, Karlon, Turei, Vaadwaur and Voth joined the Kinara and began blockading the Gateway to the First World. The Confederacy Interstellar Fleet and the Kinara became embroiled in skirmishes, and the Voth sabotaged the Federation subspace relay network in the Delta Quadrant. At some point before February 2382, the fugitive Neyser criminal Meegan McDonnell took control of Devore, Turei, Vaadwaur, and other leaders by occupying their minds with those of her fellow criminal Neysers. (VOY novels: Protectors, Acts of Contrition)
In late 2381, a Kinara fleet attacked the Federation starships USS Voyager and USS Demeter and their wave form allies near the Ark Planet. The CIF Twelfth Lamont led a fleet of the Confederacy Interstellar Fleet and obliterated the Kinara fleet. General Mattings subsequently invited the Federation ships to visit the First World. (VOY novel: Protectors)
In February 2382, Vice Admiral Kathryn Janeway convinced the Presider of the Confederacy of the Worlds of the First Quadrant, Isorla Cin, to enter negotiations with the Kinara fleet blockading the Gateway. Skeen Rigger Meeml of the starship Lightcarrier responded to her hail, and the Confederacy learned of the Kinara's demands for the first time. The diplomatic exchange was enabled by the Federation starship USS Vesta.
The Neyser-possessed commanding officer of the Devore warship Manticle, Inspector Kashyk, inserted himself into the conversation and made the extradition of Admiral Janeway a non-negotiable term for peace between the Confederacy and the Kinara. When the Confederacy declined to abide to these terms, the standoff degenerated into open battle. The battle came to a halt when Janeway agreed to be extradited. A shuttle carried her and two subordinates to the Manticle, where Kashyk and a multi-species security team took her into custody to stand trial. The Manticle departed afterwards. (VOY novels: Protectors, Acts of Contrition)
In 2409, an alliance consisting of the Federation, the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Republic began to occupy the Solanae Dyson Sphere in the Delta Quadrant to disable its capability of mass-producing Omega particles. The Voth were present in the Dyson sphere as well and intended to harness the powers of the particle and the Omega molecule derived from it as weapons against the Borg, who were attacking their borders. The Voth and the Allies subsequently began a trench war for the possession of the sphere. (STO mission: "Circles within Circles"; STO website: Season 9 Dev Blog #11)
In 2410 a Voth battle group attacked an Alpha Quadrant Alliance vessel sent to rescue the crew of the USS Callisto. However the fleet warped out before more than the scouting elements could engage, responding to a distress signal from their allies the Turei. The AQA vessel followed and found the Voth engaged with the Vaadwaur in defense of the Turei homeworld. The Vaadwaur initially held the upper hand, but the AQA vessel deployed an away team to bring the Turei planetary defense grid back online, and the Voth deployed ground forces and reinforcements to repel the attack. The failure of the Voth to aid their ally against a renewed Vaadwaur assault later that year convinced the Turei to join the Delta Alliance. (STO - "The Delta Quadrant" missions: "Revelations", "Alliances")
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
In a timeline where the Borg were wiped out by Species 8472, Voyager stayed in the Delta Quadrant and helped to found the Delta Coalition in 2375. The Voth and the Coalition had an uneasy relationship but eventually formed an alliance against the invading Species 8472 after one of their Citadel-class city ships was destroyed by "the Scourge". The continued contact between the Voth and the Humans of Voyager spurred Gegen's Distant Origin theory. In 2376, Species 8472 made peace with the Voth and Coalition, formally bowing to the Ministry of Elders to appease them so that the Voth would not unleash a weapon of mass destruction against fluidic space. (VOY - Myriad Universes novel: Places of Exile)
The Voth evolved from the Hadrosaur, a dinosaur species that existed before the extinction of the giant saurians on the planet Earth. This evolution resulted in a bipedal form with hands and legs present for both movement and manipulation of the environment. Voth skin is adorned with scales and bony plating, and is colored in various shades of orange, brown and gray, with green, yellow and purple streaking. An individual's skin color is subject to subtle changes; vasodilation is a form of non-verbal communication among the Voth, and much can be gleaned about an individual's emotional state from the current shade of their skin. Vasodilation is of particular importance during courtship.
Voth hands feature three clawed digits, one opposable. The skull sweeps back into a bony crest, while the nose bridge is protected by bony plates, as are the brows. The nose bridge plating of Voth males is smooth, whereas females have a protruding bone at the top.
The Voth are exothermic, and believe endotherms like mammals to be an inferior form of life. They equate the more rapid mammalian metabolism with the fleeting nature of their civilizations, in contrast to that of the Voth, which has endured in various forms for millions of years. It is certainly true that the Voth brain is more efficient than that of most endotherms; their cranial capacity is twenty-two percent greater than that of a Human. The Voth brain also features a Dilitus lobe, which is responsible for their heightened sense of smell. Again, Voth olfactory capabilities are far superior to those of most mammals. These heightened senses allow them to enjoy the Sulfur Lagoons of Hokath.
Voth are mostly herbivorous, but also feed upon insects between meals. The Voth tongue is lengthy and can be fired like that of a chameleon or some frogs. Voth often place lamps in their homes and aboard their ships in order to attract flying insects, which are then consumed at leisure. (VOY episode: "Distant Origin")
The Voth are not a naturally violent people, although they are brutal in enforcing their doctrine. Descended from herbivores, they are naturally equipped for defense rather than attack. When faced with a severe threat, most Voth can enter into a form of protective hibernation. Their heart rate and body temperature drop and their metabolisms almost completely shut down, although the automatic nervous system remains fully functional. In less extreme situations, they can defend themselves by firing organic needles called "bio-darts". Special orifices on the Voth forearm fire a natural biological stinger that delivers fast-acting venom. This venom is highly adaptive, and will render most species unconscious almost immediately, although it is not fatal. (STO episode: "Solanae Dyson Sphere")
Culture and SocietyEdit
The Voth government appears to be led by the Ministry of Elders which serves as the administrative branch of the race and guides them. Another branch was the Circles of Science which is the scientific wing of the race and is divided into many 'sub-circles' such as the Circle of Exobiology.
The Voth religious belief is centered around Doctrine which is their governing principle that states that the Voth originate from their homeworld in the Delta Quadrant. While most believe this, a faction within the Circle of Science began to study this theory and hypothesized the Distant Origin theory. This theory, which is heretical as it opposes Doctrine, states that the race do not originate from their homeworld in the Delta Quadrant but are in fact from a planet in the Alpha Quadrant.
- It is unknown what the long-term fate of this theory is after the events in the episode Distant Origin, though Gegen expressed the hope that eventually all Voth would consider Earth as their ancestral home.
The belief in Doctrine is so rigid that it prevents many developments within their society though there are the odd occasions where Doctrine is proven wrong. One such example was the statement that using transwarp technology would bring about a great disaster but regardless of this warning, one member of their kind did succeed in this task. Despite breaking Doctrine, this was accepted and a new age of expansion began for their race while Doctrine was presumably altered to accommodate the new change in their society.
While many Voth are firm believers of Doctrine, it is known that only Heretics and the Ministry of Elders know of the truth. Heretics would be rounded up and sent to detention colonies while the Ministry would continue to suppress the knowledge as they could not bear to believe that they, as they saw it, were a race of nomads pitifully fleeing their homeworld. (VOY episode: "Distant Origin")
Mainstream Voth were severely prejudiced against endothermic species such as humans, whom they saw as an inferior form of life, but considered exotherms such as the Turei to be allies. (VOY episode: "Distant Origin"; STO episode: "Solanae Dyson Sphere"; STO mission: "Revelations")
By first contact with the Federation the Voth had developed a level of technology far above the successors of their original homeworld. They had developed not only transwarp drives but phase cloak devices that could be fitted on individuals as well as starships. Another demonstration of their advanced capabilities was the fielding of a massive Voth City Ship, as well as the ability to transport a starship the size of the USS Voyager into the vessel without any difficulty. (VOY episode: "Distant Origin")
Voth weapons technologies included antiproton beams and transphasic-chroniton torpedoes. Their ground forces included genetically engineered creatures similar to Earth theropod dinosaurs, acting as both supply carriers and armored vehicle analogues, in tandem with conventional infantry forces and crewed exosuits. (STO episode: "Solanae Dyson Sphere")
- bio-engineered Dankanasaur
- Voth mech repair drone
- Voth supply runner
- Voth spec ops
- bio-engineered Furiadon
- Ceratopsid-class exosuit
- strike commander
- Dacentrus-class exosuit
- Polyonax-class exosuit
- bio-engineered Viriosaurus Rex (STO episode: "Solanae Dyson Sphere")
- Voth City Ship (VOY episode: "Distant Origin")
- Voth heavy fighter
- Ward-class repair ship
- Palisade-class frigate/science vessel
- Bastion-class flight-deck cruiser
- Bulwark-class battleship/dreadnought cruiser
- Citadel-class dreadnought
- Voth Fortress Ship (STO episode: "Solanae Dyson Sphere")
|States in the Delta Quadrant|
|Nekrit Expanse and beyond (75-70,000 light-years from Earth)||Autonomous Province of Talax • Borg Collective • Borg Cooperative • Etanian Order • Delta Coalition • Haakonian Order • Kazon Order • Krowtonan Guard • Mokra Order • Swarm • Sikarian Canon • Vidiian Sodality • Vostigye Union • Voth|
|Vyntadi sector block (65,000 light-years)||Alpha Quadrant Alliance • Alsuran Empire • B'omar Sovereignty • Benthan Protectorate • Delta Alliance • Hirogen • Krenim Imperium • Malon Cooperative • Vaadwaur Supremacy|
|Tekara sector block (60-50,000 light-years)||Alpha Quadrant Alliance • Borg Collective • Delta Alliance • Devore Imperium • Hirogen • Monean Maritime Sovereignty|
|40-30,000 light-years||Borg Collective • Confederacy of the Worlds of the First Quadrant • Dinaal Corporate • Hierarchy • Hirogen• Klingon Empire • Malon Cooperative • New Talax • R'Kaal Collective • Romulan Republic • United Federation of Planets • United Provinces of Uxal • Voth|