Vaadwaur
The Vaadwaur are a militaristic space-faring humanoid species native to the Gradin Belt of the Delta Quadrant. The Vaadwaur were once known as the Vaadwaur Supremacy, a vast empire that commanded great swaths of the Delta Quadrant through its control over the Underspace. The Vaadwaur Supremacy was destroyed by the Turei Alliance in 1484, and their homeworld was the subject of a massive orbital bombardment by plasma bombs, which wiped out all life on the surface and caused a nuclear winter that rendered the planet uninhabitable for centuries. A battalion and their families, approximately 600 Vaadwaur, managed to survive in stasis, only to be reawakened in 2376. Since then, the Vaadwaur have used their deep knowledge of the Underspace to withdraw to unknown reaches of the Delta Quadrant and begin the work of rebuilding.
Physiology
Vaadwaur have small ridges on their chins and two horizontal ridges just above their noses. A large fin-like crest ran across the center of their foreheads, becoming wider as it reached the tops of their skulls. Their hair grew from around the mid-region of their skulls, just where their fin ridges seemed to end. Neck ridges extended from their ears, down along their necks, and onto their shoulders where they curled in towards the centers of their chests.
History
Vaadwaur Supremacy
The Vaadwaur Supremacy ruled much of the at its height, using a network of subspace corridors known as the Underspace to launch raids on systems throughout the quadrant. In the 15th century, the Turei Alliance led a successful interstellar campaign against the Vaadwaur and destroyed many of their colonies, forcing the last survivors into stasis in the hopes of one day rebuilding their culture.
Reawakening
One world, believed to be the homeworld itself, was found by the USS Voyager in 2376 when they took shelter from the Turei on the surface. After the orbital bombardment even centuries earlier, the planet's atmosphere was still heavily contaminated with gamma radiation and radiogenic particles. Discovering the Vaadwaur in stasis, the crew of Voyager reawakened and helped them begin to rebuild, but eventually discovered their supremacist nature and were forced to flee. Several dozen Vaadwaur ships escaped the planet.
In the following years, the Vaadwaur began to use the Underspace network to attempt to rebuild. Despite their original territory being almost nine hundred years old, they began to forge alliances and negotiate for equipment, making particular in-roads with the Hazari through offering Underspace access. Raids for resources and the targeting of possible worlds for annexation began, and by the early 2380s, the Vaadwaur were a rare but feared threat in the Gradin Belt.
But the Turei realised the extent of the Vaadwaur's determination and strength. Reminding their neighbours in the Gradin Belt of the historic dangers of the Supremacy, they built a short-lived alliance not of military force, but commerce. By cutting the Vaadwaur off from trade and putting economic pressure on the Hazari to break off their support, they choked this blossoming resurgence over a matter of years. By the 2390s, the Vaadwaur had all but abandoned the Gradin Belt.
Current
There have been no confirmed sightings of anything but lone Vaadwaur individuals or ships in the Gradin Belt for almost a decade. Starfleet believes they have withdrawn from the region, but the Turei warn that they will not abandon their ambitions to reforge the Supremacy; wherever they are, they are building alliances and gaining power. While the Turei Alliance maintains control over much of the Underspace, the Vaadwaur's knowledge of the network is superior, and through its use they could reach across the Delta Quadrant and still elude detection.
On the rare occasions Vaadwaur ships are seen, they tend to be raiders. Despite the wedge driven between them and the Hazari in the 2380s, Hazari hunters are still not unknown to make common cause with them, likely well-recompensed with limited access to the Underspace. Hazari have also been found among the crew of Vaadwaur ships, likely to fill in gaps due to the sparse population of surviving Vaadwaur. These encounters are few and far between, but the Vaadwaur tend to target resources they cannot acquire anywhere else, and especially technologies they seem to view of interest - likely rare and unique, or something they can reverse engineer and use to improve their forces, wherever they may be. But the Vaadwaur on the whole have left the Gradin Belt, and Starfleet does not know where they are, or what their goal is. Whenever they are seen, they seem to be making rapid bounds in catching up technologically with the last few centuries, or taking great pains to overcome their limited population numbers. It is rumoured, in particular, that they are experimenting with cloning technologies. But nothing is known, and it remains just as possible that they have gone into the depths of the dangerous Delta Quadrant and been destroyed.
In Play
- The Vaadwaur seek to rebuild the Supremacy that once stretched across the Delta Quadrant - but wherever they now make their home, it is not in the Gradin Belt. Only lone ships or individuals have been sighted by Starfleet since their return to the region, acting as raiders or even begrudging traders.
- If they are encounters, they usually have very specific goals. They are not petty raiders after mundane resources, but they will target interesting technologies or the like - anything that helps them catch up on the technological gap of the centuries, or directly fulfil their goals of the restoration.
- Whatever the Vaadwaur of centuries past may have been, the ones still here are soldiers committed to rebuilding the Supremacy. They are strictly disciplined and militarily-minded, and convinced that the historic empire should be restored for the good of the quadrant.
- While these soldiers may be prepared to sacrifice themselves for the cause, they know their numbers are few, and the Vaadwaur will not throw their lives away foolishly. They are likely to withdraw in the face of a serious threat, almost certainly fleeing to Underspace.