Klingon
The Klingon home world is called Qo'nos, pronouced Kronos. Its star is an orange binary. The planets' climate is hot and dry. Qo'nos has many moons and tilts severely on its axis.
Culture
Klingons are a proud but aggressive race. Many people see Klingons as a race seriously devoted to duty, honour and the pursuit of war, but Klingons have an abundance of enjoyable pursuits. Food, drink, song and battle are vital to their culture. An interesting custom to observe is the Klingon death ritual. Klingons are ruled by a high council. This High Council is made up of 2 dozen representitives who are lead by the Chancellor. The culture's warrior ethic runs so deep that rivals in the civil war can meet and drink as equal fighters for periods of time before or after battles, thanks to the Capitol City's neutrality. During these get-togethers, a great deal of growling, wrestling, snarling and generally loud revelry takes place, Klingons seeming to derive tremendous satisfaction from drinking with their enemies on the night before a battle. A beard is a symbol of courage; a hammer is a symbol of power. A true warrior fights to the death and would rather be killed than taken hostage - an act which brings dishonor on himself and his family for three generations. Their most important historic symbol of leadership, Kahless, said Klingons should fight not just to spill blood but to enrich the spirit. In the traditional sense, the Klingon people hold honor above life - although as with any culture, high-level politics and personal gain get in the way. In Klingon culture, lower-ranked officers consider it a duty to kill off a superior who is perceived as weak. Klingons notoriously neither surrender nor bluff, although Chief Engineer LaForge is skeptical of that based on Lieutenant Worf's seemingly impenetrable "poker face" during their poker games on board the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D. Warriors and their families are responsible for each other's actions; a challenge to clear a family's name, such as Lieutenant Worf's, ends in death if unsuccessful. They believe that death is an experience best shared and view it as a joyful time for one who falls in the line of duty and earns a place among the honored dead, celebrating the release of a dead spirit rather than grieving over what they consider to be the empty shell of the body. One of the most honorable deaths is a kamikaze. Klingons usually mate for life, celebrated with a solemn Oath of Union, most often in private, rather than in a public ceremony like marriage. At least once, Klingons use the United Federation of Planets' Earth-derived metric system. Lieutenant Worf contends that love poetry and the great novel both reached their height with the Klingons. The custom of naming godparents or other relatives is practiced among Klingons as well as humans. The Klingons must have some class system, as personal servants are used, usually among what appear to be the poor. Due to their rough nature, especially when drunk, Quark charged Klingons double for holosuite use, and then raised it to triple normal cost. The Klingons' profound hatred of Romulans continues. although they believe in an afterlife, Klingons perform no burial ritual and dispose of the corpse by the most efficient means possible - although some archeological digs on Qo'noS revealed different customs at one time.
Physiology
Klingons are genetically predisposed to combat. They are very strong and their bodies hold duplicates of all the vital organs. Klingons are able to sustain serious injury but continue to function. Klingons have no tear ducts.The well-statured warrior race has a genetic predisposition to hostility and a well-known streak of fatalism. Shattering the cranial exoskeleton at the tricipital lobe brings instant death.
