Happy Tuesday! I’m back on Star Trek Adventures again this week for Tabletop Tuesday, with the second of a quartet of species I fleshed out for my group playing their way through the Shackleton Expanse campaign put out by Modiphius. Last week I introduced the Nyberrite Alliance with the Nyberrites themselves, and this week I’m tugging on another thread only briefly mentioned in canon Star Trek: the Balduk.

Balduk

TOS ERA ONWARD

One of the few people in history to successfully fight off a Klingon invasion, the Balduk are known for producing particularly fierce warriors. As a result, there’s a Klingon aphorism when denoting something next-to-impossible or extremely difficult, “I’d rather face ten Balduk Warriors than this.” Balduk Warriors typically train in both unarmed combat, with a variety of bladed and blunt weaponry, and with phaser pistols or rifles (which come with stun settings).

The Balduk are tall, densely muscular humanoids with yellow-tan to ochre-brown skin tones, arrow-head shaped ears, dark brown to pale yellow irises, and a thick, strong keratinous growth the Balduk call an ellem which begins above their brow-line to the edge of their ears and grows up and back over the front, top, and sides of their skull, curling back over their head protectively with a shape much like a lobed leaf (splitting into threes or fives most commonly, though some individuals grow more complex ellem). Hair still has room to grow behind and beneath this protective covering, often gathered into braids that hang down the back of their necks. Individual Balduk often have their ellem polished, trimmed, or otherwise maintained in styles both decorative or aimed to make its defensive uses more functional, though if a Balduk’s ellem is ever snapped or broken, even down at its root along the forehead, it will regrow over time. Ancient Balduk used such broken ellem in crafting tools, and there is still a movement of art and crafting dedicated to ellem decoration both on living Balduk and with removed or trimmed ellem pieces. On either side of their jaw, between their chin and angled, is the other most distinctive feature of the Balduk: small, inch- to inch-and-a-half twinned horns that curve back, vestigial remnants thought to date back to mating displays of their ancestors. Some sharpen or decorate these horns as well, which will also re-grow if broken. 

As a people, the Balduk are proud, resilient, and have a deeply held warrior tradition that influences a great deal of their society and cultural values, but this tradition is counterbalanced with a notion of the function of the warrior as protector, not conquerer. Displaying strength over those weaker than oneself is not considered the act of a warrior but rather a discredit to the very concept of strength itself. The highest call of a warrior is in using ones strength to defend those under your own protection, and to lift others to safety. All members of Balduk society are of value, but the esteem given to Balduk warriors comes from the knowledge that they would lay their lives down to ensure the freedoms and protections of all the others. This belief, more than anything else, fuelled the initial resistance to the Klingon invasion when their people first encountered them. 

The Balduk are a part of the Nyberrite Alliance (creating the initial organization with the R’ongovians and the Nyberrites; which has since been joined by other independent worlds in Beta Quadrant space such as the Halee), and while as a whole the Nyberrite Alliance are not quite as technologically advanced as the Federation, each of the species work together and their overall collective technological capabilities are about on par with the Cardassian Empire or the Ferengi. In the Nyberrite Alliance, the Balduk provide much of its security and tactical acumen. One of the largest Nyberrite Alliance facilities exists within the Balduk system itself, and the Balduk shipyard is where many of the Alliance ships are built. 

The Nyberrite Alliance’s neutrality comes in part from the Balduk having mutual respect from the Klingons, the R’ongovians having ongoing diplomatic relationship with the Federation, and the Nyberrites themselves having a trade relationship with the Romulans. None of the involved governments want to risk the access and relationships they have by upsetting any of the others. 

The Balduk, in part due to their cultural beliefs, aren’t generally driven to be colonizers as a people, preferring to explore in the service of others (most often the case for their warriors), or as invited guests among other species. As such, through the last couple of centuries, they’ve only expanded out from their home system to a small number of other star systems on any permanent basis—mostly among other Nyberrite Alliance systems—where they exist often in quarters or sections of other cities, creating “Balduk Neighbourhoods.”

EXAMPLE VALUE: Strength is best used in the name of those without it.

ATTRIBUTES: +1 Control, +1 Fitness, +1 PresenceTRAIT: Balduk. Balduk—especially their warriors—are generally stronger than the average humanoid, with dense musculature rivalling that of a Vulcan or Klingon. Balduk with intact ellem functionally have keratinous helmets protecting their skulls from impacts from above and either side. Their culture tends to instil a “protective streak” in their kind, making them far less likely to stand by when witnessing someone taking advantage of those smaller or weaker than themselves. Their voices tend to be deep, with a rumbling bass that many find intimidating.TALENTS: The character receives access to the following talents: VOWS OF THE WARRIOR

REQUIREMENT: Balduk, or gamemaster’s permission.

You gain an extra Value, which in some way relates to your vows and training to protect those weaker than yourself. When you use this Value to spend a point of Determination in a scenario where you are actively defending or fighting for someone under your protection, you may also regain half of any Stress you may have currently taken this scene (rounded up).  

BALDUK MELEE TRAINING

REQUIREMENT: Balduk, or gamemaster’s permission.

When in close-range combat using melee weapons or unarmed combat, the Difficulty to hit you increases by 1. Further, when you spend 2 Momentum to Disarm an opponent after a successful opposed melee combat check, if you are currently unarmed you may spend another 2 Momentum to take the weapon from the opponent, rather than having it drop to the ground within close range.

NAMES

Balduk are given names at birth as well as having family bloodline names, like many species, but upon adulthood, all Balduk may choose to take a chosen name either alongside the name they were given by their family, shifting the given name to a secondary or “middle” status, or replacing it entirely as they prefer. Many simply keep the name they were given, but if a chosen name is declared, however, it is thereafter the Balduk’s name legally and culturally. Balduk who have decided to take the warrior vows at adulthood almost always change their name, usually choosing from the ranks of the honoured dead who have given their life defending others in the past. 

Marriage bonds among two or more Balduk has a similar impact on a Balduk’s surname, where the individuals involved may keep their own family name, take one of the involved bloodline family names, or create a new bloodline name of their own. 

Balduk names are, like many species, are quite varied depending on subculture, family history, and interaction with other species. Balduk who are more diplomatically inclined, for example, may choose to give their child the name of a valued friend from another species as their child’s birth name (and said child might keep the name upon adulthood, as either a given name or a middle name, should they also value their relationship with the individual in question to the point of wishing to maintain the honour). 

Male Names: Zuron, Jamin, Sonat Female Names: Ilay, Orinne, AmahNongendered Names: Orit, Fayn, AvinBloodline Names: Jahsten, Phastith, Mennek, Khesh, Phastith, KhatethExample names: Zuron James Khateth, Orit Fayn Mennek, Amah Ghellen

USING THE SPECIES

I decided to use the Balduk (and particularly their warriors) during the time period of the Klingon-Federation dissolution of the Khitomer Accords and War in 2372-2373. The crew of my Beta Quadrant-stationed officers in the area of Federation Space that ended up more-or-less cut off from the rest of Federation Space interacted with the Nyberrite Alliance, and I wanted to populate the only-referenced organization with species from the local area and saw the Balduk as a prime candidate, and decided their tactical acumen provided much of the “muscle” and security side of the Nyberrite Alliance alongside R’ongovians, and the Nyberrites themselves, who I decided were the “original three” of the Nyberrite Alliance in my campaign (and who had been, over the decades, joined by the Halee, among others). 

In my campaign, when the Klingons were recalled from Narendra Station, the Balduk Ambassador set up a constabulary force in Narendra’s Galleria to take pressure of the over-stretched Starfleet Security. The uniformed Balduk became a regular (and welcome) sight on the station thereafter, and it allowed the Starfleet Crew to focus on the rest of the station’s security needs—and will make for some fun “jurisdiction” wrinkles in future sessions.

Balduk Warriors—either on their own or as part of the Nyberrite Alliance—make for a potential “rescue” option for crew on the losing ends of a one-sided fight, and their code of honour can make for interesting storytelling options highlighting their different points of view with other warrior-aligned species like the Andorians or Klingons, revealing diversity even among “warrior people.”