u.s.s. Lancelot NCC-74410

diplomatic/JAG dEPARTMENT

ANDORIANS

One of  the first species to join the Federation, the Andorians are a violent warrior race. Unlike the Klingons they tend to fight for purely practical gain rather than for personal honour or glory. Andorian culture stresses discipline and self control, and this can make them appear unsympathetic at times.

Physically, Andorians are humanoids similar to many in the Federation. They have distinctive blue skin and white hair, but the most obvious difference lies in their antenna; these are an extension of the nasal cavity, giving the Andorians an outstanding sense of smell and a high sensitivity to changes in air temperature, pressure or composition. They possess an internal skeleton, like other humanoid races, but they have, too, a limited exoskeleton, an insectoid trace, which helps the protection of the limbs and the torso. They are taller than the average Terran. The fact that their melanin contains a high level of non-radioactive cobalt is responsible by the blue skin. Majority of the Andorians has white hair, but there is a small group, about 15%, that has black hair.

The Andorian vision is given by 2 organs: the eyes and the antennae (the antennae have a function in hearing too). the Andorian eyes can’t perceive colors, the retina is made of intensity-sensitive pins and can just perceive different gray scales, but they are responsible by a great 3D sense. The light-sensitive pins in the antenna are responsible by the color perceiving, and they cover all color spectrum visible by human eyes, and some infrared wavelengths too. The fact that they have 4 light-receptive organs, their depth perception is more accurate than most humanoid races.

The Andorian audition is, too, superior to most humanoid races, due to the use of ears and antennae too. The limitation with the antennae is that they are mono-directional, so they must be turned to the sound font. On other hand, they are responsible for a great range of frequencies.

The Andorian antennae are very sensible to pain, because quite large number of nerves are there. So, in Starfleet, when they are in combat training, real combat or doing any activity that can injury that head area, they use special helmets.

The Andorians are generally stronger and have better lung capacity than human, because they have a thinner atmosphere and higher gravity than Earth. Their strength is between Humans and Vulcans, and they have similar endurance that Vulcans have. At thinner atmospheres, Andorians can be more efficient than Humans. Andorians have one of the fastest reaction time among Federation races, above Humans and even above Vulcans.

Andorian life span is about 130 Andorian years (about 180 Terran years). Andorians are born from eggs. The eggs remain in the female about 11 months, and then it takes more 1-2 months after they are put out to the new Andorian be born. They need constant care at this period. Although the adults have a big endurance, Andorian new-born children are very weak, even more than Humans, and they demand a lot of care. Just after the birth, it's very common to put them in a incubator that controls the external heat, heart, lungs and digestive system activity; they remains there at least until their 5th week. The mortality rate among babies that are not put in an incubator is about 27%.

One Andorian weak point is that their home thermal system are not so developed, and their bodies have difficult to keep the temperature control in external temperatures over 30ºC. Andorian body temperature is about 29ºC, and the optimal external temperature for an Andorian is about 17 C .Though good temperatures for Andorians is not so low as would Tellarites consider good, there is a problem when external temperatures rises above 30ºC: the Andorian body produces a higher amount of some enemies to compensate that make them be easily irritable. How higher the temperature, more irritable they become. That's the main reason that Andorians, instinctively, construct their homes and cities in the underground: it's something colder, and then, better to their bodies keep temperature.

The basis of the Andorian culture is the Co-operative. This is a group of up to 100 families who have pooled their resources in a clan like structure. As members reach maturity they can choose to remain within the Co-operative or strike out on their own, forming a new unit or joining with another. Those who cannot decide on a Co-operative tend to become outcasts within Andorian society. The Andorians have no world government - the Supreme Co-operative represents them in the Federation, but it only covers some 30% of the population. As a result, many Andorians do not regard themselves to be Federation members at all.

About 40% of the Andorian population live on the inland plains. These tend to be semi-nomadic, while the majority which live on the coast are city dwellers. The two groups have become increasingly isolated from one another over the last hundred years.

The home planet of the Andorians is called Fesoan in their language, or Andor by the Federation. It is a class M planet, the eighth of nine in the Epsilon Indi system. It is a large, hot dry world with little surface water, and a gravity of 0.9g. There are, vast underground water reserves which feed surface geysers heated by geothermal energy. Oases surrounding these geysers are the centers of the planet's main population areas, since the great majority of Andor's plant life thrives where subsurface water is plentiful. The population is only in the tens of millions; as a result, Andorians are a relatively rare sight in the Federation.

Andorian is a very intelligent race, they possess a strong sense of duty and they are very disciplined. They were one of few races that developed by itself the warp drive technology. They are hard-workers, feeling themselves uncomfortable when they are in purely recreational activities. They are something stoic, and avoid, too, many strong personnel relations. Although they dislike purely recreational activities, they see art as an important factor in their culture, so they cultivate art as much as science. They are founds of technology, and they scientists are very requested in the Federation. Andorians are, by nature, warriors, but as they matured as a race, they learned how to control this side. A factor that helps a lot is that Andorians are quite logical beings. However, once unleashed, Andorian savagery and fighting abilities are almost unequalled. This aggressiveness comes because Andorians have a lot of energy. Like the Vulcans, they were a war-like race in their past, admittedly a violent one, but then, as they developed as a race, they put this energy, formerly aggressive, directed to work and duty.

Andorians are quite cool thinkers, and generally they think and act rationally, but they cultivate their emotions, that are strong, too, instead of pure logic devotion. Sometimes they can be irritated to a point that they lose their reason. It’s famous their temper, but two points help to understand it: first, the fact that they don’t respond so well to high temperatures is a factor that makes them be easily irritable due to some enemies produce by their bodies in such circumstances; and second, their culture has a strong taboo against the appearance of frivolity. Generally they don’t hide what they are feeling from others, but they show in a discrete way. They have a martial spirit, and the only sports that they cultivate are the martial arts, what make Andorians exceptionally good in combat.

Andorians possess a different humor sense from Humans, what make some people see them as humorless beings, what is not true. They don’t see humor in the common Human humor, and the opposite is true too, the Humans don’t have pleasure with the Andorian humor, but it because Andorians have a peculiar sense of humor, different from other races.

Andorians, then, cultivate their logic without putting aside their emotions.

Andor Confederation is the name of the Andorian State. It’s formed by 13 worlds, Andor (Epsilon Indi VIII), the homeworld, more 12 planets colonized by the Andorians before was formed the United Federation of Planets. Andor is the Confederation Capital, the administrative center, and the most important world in Andor Confederation. Andor Confederation is a single state, and a single member in the UFP. The planets are not independent, they don't form states, but administrative provinces in the confederation, making a single state centralized in Andor.

 
The Andor Confederation is ruled by the Andor High Council, which has 2 principal branches:

The Territorial Council is formed by representatives from the confederation planets, 5 of each planet, performing a total of 65 members. Each planet has a Planetary Territorial Council, too.

The Court of Andor is formed by representatives from the clans, and the number of representatives from each clan is proportional to the number of people from each clan. Nowadays, there are 970 members of the Court of Andor. The Court of Andor, unlike the Territorial Council, has not planetary parts, although each clan has their planetary Assembly, that are sub-groups from the Clan Assembly.

The Territorial Council deals with administration in delimited territory parts, and with its inhabitants, without relation to which clan they belong. Andorian village has a small administration, which is under the city administration, which is under the communal administration, and then goes, until the Planetary Territory Council, and then the Territory Council. The Court of Andor deals with members of the clans, independent from where they live. It makes the basic clan rules, and acts as judge in legal cases.

Andor is a key planet to Starfleet. Starbase 7 is orbiting around the planet, and there is a huge starship construction facility in Chiskis, one important industrial park, on the planet's surface, as well several orbiting facilities around the planet.

Andorian society is based on family and clan. Family is the unity of the society, and long ago it was used to be quite large, but nowadays it’s made by 7-10 people, in general. Andorian family nucleus is formed by the spouses (4 people, differing from all other Federation cultures) and the sons and daughters. Andorians understand the familiar center as the family nucleus and the family closer ramifications to other relatives. In this aspect they are quite similar to Terran families. Andorians mate for life, and there is a big taboo against the divorce. Even after the death of all spouses, there are few cases of Andorians who married again. In the Andorian society, men and women have, traditionally, no differences, instead of what was common in ancient Earth.

Andorian families are arranged in “clans”. The clans can vary from some hundred to several millions members. The individuals last name is the clan name. Andorian clans are specialized in some functions, like the Borth, a small one, that are exceptional lawyers, known over the Federation, or the Voor, a large clan, whose members are outstanding designers and starship makers, or the Thyupo, specialized in agriculture, among others. Similar development happened too in the Gorn homeworld.


There are 3 traditional rituals among the Andorians:

Nutak - When a new Andorian is born, there is 4 days with a “welcome” ceremony. They celebrate his freedom from the egg, and his arriving to this world. In the last day, he receives a bless from the priest.

Remali'y - The Andorian “turning age” ritual is a ceremony to celebrate the arriving of the adult age. It takes 3 days, first day the “turning age” is alone with a mentor (preparation), second day he is alone with himself (meditation), and finally, in the third day he is accepted, in a formal ceremony, among the adults (consumption).

Fomel - The Andorian wedding more remarkable characteristic to non-Andorians races is that it requires 4 mates (spouses). Andorian wedding is very ceremonial, takes ten days, and involves the families, friends and more distant relatives. During this period, the mates are in constant contact with all the people and unable to consummate the union. In the first three days, the mates don’t see each other, and they participate to “preparatory rituals”. In the fourth day, a priest marries them all, the fifth and the sixth are used to meditation, and then they have 3 celebration days.

Andorians see the death as naturally, but they believe in a life after death. They don’t mourn so much, as they believe that the spirit is finally free. They have special places to bury their dead, too, but no special ceremony.

Andorians thinks highly of knowledge, culture, work and nature. Differently from others cultures, they do not valorize recreation and sports, with exception of martial arts. The educational level in Andor is very high, all villages have schools, and we can find universities in almost all cities. The high level of Andorians universities is known in all Federation. From age three to twelve, it’s obligatory to the Andorians to do the primary school. There is an secondary school, that goes from thirteen to eighteen, and after, they can go to the universities. Although just the primary school is obligatory, just 1.5% of the Andorians don’t finish the university studies. Art is another important factor in Andorian life. They cultivate their art, and valorize their artists, too.

Should you have any questions or comments please e-mail the Chief Diplomatic/JAG Officer at the Diplomatic/JAG Department aboard the U.S.S. Lancelot.