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How would you map Earth Countries to different alien races?

galacticgoogalacticgoo Member Posts: 61 Arc User
I was surprised at all the different aliens and their ships I have in all my alts and thought it would be cool to name their ships in the language that best matches a country on Earth (yes I'm a severe altaholic). What Earth Country would you associate with the following aliens:

Federation
Klingon
Romulan

Andorian
Bajoran
Caitian
Cardassian
Dominion
Ferasan
Ferengi
Gorn
Kobali
Lukari/Kentari
Reman
Tellerite
Vulcan

Comments

  • echattyechatty Member Posts: 5,913 Arc User
    I think this would best be put in Ten Forward

    To answer, I'm not sure myself. I never thought about it.
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  • tom61stotom61sto Member Posts: 3,635 Arc User
    I don't think 2019 countries map well to the species in Star Trek, with many of them being established as metaphors for real life in the time periods they came out decades ago.

    Rough original mapping:
    Federation - Good Ol' US of A
    Klingon - Evil Communist Russia and/or China
    Romulan - Evil Communist Russian Spies

    The rest are usually exploring some part of humanity, usually from a US-centric perspective. Ferengi are capitalists who took it too far, etc.

    For Kobali, you should go with zombie style grunts and moans. I think Voyager was going for an exploration of different death rituals worldwide with a weird SciFi spin, but I still think of them as zombies.
  • thevampinatorthevampinator Member Posts: 637 Arc User
    edited September 2019
    Well The kobali are not really zombies well technically they are yes resurrected and changed. But Yeah its basically a rewrite of the dna so to speak. They have an advanced revival technology. And we know its possible for advanced Resuscitation in star trek. So basically they use technology to make a new being by means of using an empty shell reprograming the body with their dna. Kinda like the augment virus changing Klingon to human looking and also khans blood able to bring back the dead. So all of that is tied somehow into genetic engineering. Memory beta does say that real zombies are possible with 23rd 24th century technology. But the Kobali do not really qualify as they are still living resurrected into a new life type of thing. So Zombies they are not, have a strange and creepy process of reproducing yes but not every race does it the same way. Plus I do like how they made kobali they made them unique and interesting with their unique method of making more of their race. So I don't think its really creepy just alien. I'm not sure if this thread will stay open per say do to the nature of it. But yeah many cultures can be contributed to the many races. Not just current but also ancient too. So many examples of this. So doesn't even have to be countries it can be cultures even.
  • garaks31garaks31 Member Posts: 2,845 Arc User
    U.N.
    North Korea
    Saudi

    Russia
    israel
    Egypt
    China
    Vatican
    Chad
    Switzerland
    Argentina
    U.S.A.
    india / Pakistan
    Transylvania
    Earth
    Japan
  • jonsillsjonsills Member Posts: 10,354 Arc User
    edited September 2019
    I wouldn't. At best, you're going to wind up with oversimplified caricatures - humans in the real world don't really have a Hat.
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  • majorcharvenakmajorcharvenak Member Posts: 226 Arc User
    garaks31 wrote: »
    U.N.
    North Korea
    Saudi

    Russia
    israel
    Egypt
    China
    Vatican
    Chad
    Switzerland
    Argentina
    U.S.A.
    india / Pakistan
    Transylvania
    Earth
    Japan

    Curious. Why the Romulans matched with Saudi Arabia and the Klingons with North Korea? The latter I kinda get with the cult of personality surrounding each of the Kim rulers but everything else doesn't seem to match. Wrt the Romulans tied to the Saudis I'm at a complete loss. Seems an odd pick.
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  • legendarylycan#5411 legendarylycan Member Posts: 37,275 Arc User
    take a look at some of his other choices, almost all of them make no forking sense

    like andorians = russians...WHAT...THE...TRIBBLE?! andorians and russians have NOTHING in common with each other aside from both living in a frozen wasteland​​
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  • garaks31garaks31 Member Posts: 2,845 Arc User
    romulans ; sneaky ,power ...
    klingons ; megalomania ,honor (sort of) ,martial arts ,the state above all else
    andorians ; climate ,warriors ,reasonable ,honorable
  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,459 Arc User
    edited September 2019
    garaks31 wrote: »
    romulans ; sneaky ,power ...
    klingons ; megalomania ,honor (sort of) ,martial arts ,the state above all else
    andorians ; climate ,warriors ,reasonable ,honorable

    Romulans were solidly based on ancient Rome during the period where they sank from the original republic to a corrupt empire. TOS was the classic transition point with the honorable "old guard" intellectually at odds with the sneaky corrupt usurpers but underestimating the problem and assuming that things will continue on as they did in the past. By the time of TNG they were in full corrupt "Caligula" mode.

    Klingons likewise had two different styles. Originally they were very loosely based on the old USSR to do coldwar analogies with. Over time they took on a more Eastern/Middle Eastern vibe with a lot of old sayings from that area used for Klingon proverbs and the kind of warrior culture that once existed there.

    The Andorians really do not have anything in specific to link them with in real-world nations or areas terms, they were originally very, very loosely based on the 'tall smooth aliens' that would often hang around with the short, big-headed, small-faced 'grays' (who were also very loosely represented in Trek by the Talosians) in popular UFO mythology of the time the show was made and not an allegory for a real country.

    If you want a language to name Romulan and Klingon ships in why not use Rhihannsu and Klingonese?. The latter is now a real (if artificial) language and the former has enough of a vocabulary to come up with useful ship names even if it is not developed enough to have conversations in.
  • starswordcstarswordc Member Posts: 10,963 Arc User
    edited September 2019
    The Cardassians -- aside from the pre- and post-Dominion War democratic periods -- pretty much represent N@zi Germany. Conservative, statist, relatively poor, taken in by a charismatic psychopath, and comprehensively shattered in the ensuing war, before being rebuilt by their former enemies.

    Which I guess makes the mid-series democracy kind of like the Weimar Republic.

    The Bajorans are a mishmash of multiple influences:
    • European anti-German resistance fighters, European Jews, and postwar Europe in general
    • Roman Catholicism
    • Hinduism (the D'jarra caste system that "Accession" revolves around
    • rural Americans

    The Dominion represents various varieties of authoritarianism rolled together but doesn't really directly analogize to much of anything in Earth history. Maybe the Soviet Union if you squint real hard: it was always more of a continuation of the Russian Empire under new management, especially under Stalin, than a federation of relatively equal self-governing republics like the United States.
    If you want a language to name Romulan and Klingon ships in why not use Rhihannsu and Klingonese?. The latter is now a real (if artificial) language and the former has enough of a vocabulary to come up with useful ship names even if it is not developed enough to have conversations in.

    Actually it is. I'm an admin for a Romulan language group on Facebook (formerly on Google+); we also have a website at rihannsu.org. You can also plug rihan.org/drupal into the Wayback Machine to get a more complete grammar (the site shut down last year).
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  • redeyedravenredeyedraven Member Posts: 1,297 Arc User
    edited September 2019
    starswordc wrote: »
    The Dominion represents various varieties of authoritarianism rolled together but doesn't really directly analogize to much of anything in Earth history. Maybe the Soviet Union if you squint real hard: it was always more of a continuation of the Russian Empire under new management, especially under Stalin, than a federation of relatively equal self-governing republics like the United States.

    I like your summary regarding cardassian/bajoran. The Dominion - well, it's a mix of everything really. The Dominion is literally a foil to the federation (creating vassals/proxies rather than equal members), so in a way they are comparable to "imagine USA going to war in the name of any religion". Not a stab or anything, as every nation has issues. No system is perfect.


    That being said… many of the recurring races in Star Trek changed in their portrayal, and they changed a lot. Andorians are consistent because they were literally only actually doing something in one show. And that show was all about changes, so the Andorians too went through a reform in a way.

    Klingons and romulans were especially inconsistent aside from their stereotypical mannerisms, because every Episode that had a focus on them threw in something rather new.

    Also, nations in our world go through many changes - most of them small and unnoticed at first. Which makes it very hard to actually "map" those fictional races to our world's nations with a concensus.

    Bajorans and Cardassians are probably the only ones that are truly fleshed out, because DS9 really focused on getting the audience to know them throughout the entire Show with much more consistent writing (except the last Season). The Dominion too, but to a lesser extent. We don't get to know that many of their vassals/proxies/protectorates.
  • szimszim Member Posts: 2,503 Arc User
    I think Klingons were originally pitched as 'Mongols in space'.

    The Federation as loose collection of mostly autonomous worlds doesn't really have a contemporary counterpart. Maybe an idealized version of the US or EU.

    The Romulans are a portrayal of intelligence agencies from the US, Russia, China, the UK..

    Cardassia is Italy or Germany in the late 1930s.

    The Dominion, an extremist version of China.

    Ferengi, only interested in money, exploitative, big ears and nose, sharp teeth. The inspiration for that race came from a very dark place.
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