There’s a DS9 episode featuring a klingon lawyer (I forget which episode it is). THe lawyer has a few pieces of dialogue where they view the legal process as a battle just like any other klingon views a fight. Since then it’s been my head canon that plenty of klingons are around doing plenty of stuff other than fighting but view it in terms of hunting, battle (with something) and honour. I wish more of this were touched on in Trek.
Like … klingon monks and religion … what’s the culture of pursuing that for a klingon?
Worf talks about this in TNG as well. Being a Klingon isn’t just about violence. Anything can be a battle if you view it as an internal struggle. Worf described to some other Klingons how he viewed just being the only Klingon in Starfleet as an inherent struggle, and that by being a good representative of the Klingon people in his role, he was being honourable.
Also, in DS9, he asked (kinda) Klingons to join him in battle. They got there in time to help the harvest, and when challenged he said that time was their enemy.
Fighting the very laws of reality sounds way more challenging than fighting that dude over there.
But what about boring jobs. Are there Klingon janitors? Klingon repairmen? Klingon construction workers?
There have to be Klingon chefs, right? Isn’t replicated gagh inferior? Is blood wine just blood or are there Klingon vinyards?
They didn’t always have replicators so there must have been Klingon factory workers
They find honor in their own way. They may find honor in serving vile gagh, hunting fresh Lingtas and Targs, cleaning up after the evil messy people. Their enemy may not be another person, another crew, another empire, but time, animals, falling-apart buildings, concrete/cement, messy people, vines and weeds, etc. Everyone finds honor in their own way. (but most of the time they are also fighting.)
Which also makes me wonder if climbing the ladder works the same throughout society. Can the apprentice still learning to forge a bat’leth kill the blacksmith and take over his business? Is that murder or did the p’tah have it coming because he couldn’t defend himself anymore?
There is a klingon restaurant on the promenade on DS9. The Chef is also a passionate singer
A speck of dust! * pulls disruptor, pulverizes surface * For Kah’less!!
Well, that’s optimistic.
Meanwhile, I’m over here imagining them summarily executing litterbugs.
It’s the episode where Worf blows up that civilian ship on accident. I think it’s Rules of Engagement.
they got the warp drive from the hur’q.
Wait, does that mean they indirectly got it from the Dominion?
“I find honor… in blowing up that black hole! Klingons are born to fight and conquer… physics! Today is a good day to die… for science!”
I’ve thought about this a lot. Not this specific thing, but Klingon culture generally.
Like their culture is all about death in battle and glory and honor… so sure maybe they don’t have doctors (those redundant organs help a lot) but what about farmers and cooks? What about builders, bankers, literally anything other than warriors which are necessary for a society to function?
If nothing but death in battle is worthwhile to pursue, how does their society not entirely collapse? Or is the focus on battle a newer shift on their society, now that they have access to other societies to do the grunt work?
This might be a history misconception I’m spreading, but what if it is like Sparta, where there was a huge slave population upholding that martial society?
Honestly, with a conquest driven society, wouldn’t surprise me. Human history is full of examples, even today.
deleted by creator
To accommodate a larger audience for the inevitable melee-combat-based mutiny.
I’m reminded of this Whomp comic where the one who invented the Warp Drive was the one trying to escape the planet
That’s spectacular!
I miss whomp
I’d never heard of it, but now I do too.
I always imagined it was because of the Hurq invading. Like we know that the Vulcans were warlike at one point, so maybe the Klingons were more… normal? Maybe they had a sect of warriors that basically took over after the Hurq invaded and slowly they became a warrior culture?
I figured they were more diverse before they started conquering other species. Military service seems to be pretty strongly associated with the nobility. My guess is that when they got some other worlds and species under their control Klingons as a whole became quasi-nobility and other species started filling menial jobs. This probably came to a head around the time of ENT. Some jobs, like lawyers and scientists, are probably restricted to Klingons for security reasons, but not as well respected since they’re not traditional professions for nobles.
