Greetings my fellow KAG Warriors! My current 'real-life' job has been very focused on "Back-to-School"...and I started pondering what going to "School" would be like for Klingons and even Klingon Adult Warriors. How does this connect with KAG & FORCE RECON? Very well actually, since FORCE RECON is meant to be the 'training' and 'education' Division of KAG.

At most colleges, on the first day of classes, the 'professor' or

'instructor' sometimes discusses the goals of the course or what the topic means to him and/or society. Okay then, here's my Klingon version of that:
IT'S A RACE!...IT'S AN EMPIRE! THEY'RE NOT CLONES!!

Far too many people in STAR TREK & KLINGON fandom see the Klingons on the show and assume that the entire race of Klingons throughout the empire act just like the 15 - 80 individual Klingons we've met in the 33 years of Trek stories. Well, that's just not very likely or believable.

Would you want another race of beings to think all of humanity acted just like 15 to 80 representatives picked at random? (and it may not be that random!) I would hope not!! If you're going to 'think' Klingon, and write, create and 'play' with them as race of people...then think variety. For example, Take us Terrans here on Earth. This mostly wet rock we all live on has 5.642 billion inhabitants referring to themselves as humans. Those 5.642 billion humans have, for whatever political or social reasons, segregated themselves into 184+ nation-states, some of them in the midst of civil war or improving or deteriorating political conditions. Terrans also have 21 major religions on the planet, with Christianity alone being broken down into some 200+ denominations, sects and or minor cults - just within the United States! As for languages, we have some 197+ here on earth with at least a dozen dialects and slang versions within more than half of them. (...and thats including tlhIngan Hol!!!)

With all of that said, apply those numbers to the Klingons. Granted, Kahless united the Homeworld around 869 A.D.(Terran calender), so there might not be dozens of nation-states, but there will probably be dozens of possible religions and 'faiths' within the Empire. Also, after Klingons went into space, I'm sure there sprouted up rebellious colonies and new slang versions of the standard language. By the time we 'met' the Klingons on screen, they had an empire of dozens of planets, maybe hundreds. (Fictionally, it has been more than a century since TREK's earliest episodes.) It is very likely that there are now at least a couple hundred Klingon languages, a couple hundred religions, monastaries and cults and the like......You get the idea.
 

REFERENCES (For Klingon-Fans):

Most of us 'older' KAGsters learned about Klingons from the FASA gaming materials and the John M. Ford books. Back in the 80s, I used to 'ref' the Role-playing Game...and I think Mr. Ford wrote two really great books. Now that I've said that,...How about "Letting-Go??" Those were just role-playing game references.

As a club, we are getting more and more 'new' recruits who only know Klingons via the current T.V. episodes and movies... OR they use the wonderful Marc okrand books, tapes, & CDs as their reference points.

There is now a "NEW" Star Trek Role-Playing game out there. It has Paramount's 'blessing'. It will most likely cover and describe the Klingon Empire within one of its source-books. And, there will be younger and newer Klingon fans who 'cling' to that just as much as some of us 'elder' KAGsters 'cling' to the FASA stuff. Which of us will be "right" and "correct"? Probably neither group. Think about that...Maybe the answer is to BLEND it together to what is most believable for Klingons.

Along those lines let me leave you with this question/thought:

WHICH IS RIGHT?...In regards "Klingon Culture & Society":

1)The FASA Books?, 2)Mark Okrand's Language books & Tapes?, 3)The Next Gen Episodes?, 4)The Movies?, 5)The Deep Space Nine Klingon episodes?, 6)The Last Unicorn Role-Playing Game books?, 7)ST:VOYAGER Klingon episodes?, 8)The paperback books/Ford's FINAL REFLECTION?, 9)The animated Episodes with Klingons?, 10)The fan-written Nu Ormenal Klingon stories of the 1970s?

How about ALL of the above and NONE of the above simultaneously!! If you want to give me your take on all of this or..."tell me what you during your Klingon Summer"...then write to me at:

Captain Khar'Ton
Edmund W. Charlton
P.O. Box 53695
CINCINNATI, OH 45253-0695

Amy Corral (Kellien) won the snail-mail Challenge. What was that you wonder?? write to me and ask me.
Thats all for now, Keep embracing the variety of the

Klingon empire & keep recruiting!!,

- Khar'Ton