Created by: Dennis Washburn for the USS Discovery Game.
Appearance: ST:OM. Starbase 600 game
Number of Members: 21 billion
Nature of Members: The Zak are a large, scary saurian race. They are not as strong as the Gorn but are quicker. The average Zak, male or female stands 2.5 meters tall and is a pile of muscle. Zak are scaled, colorful bipeds with tails. They are egg layers, and endothermic.
Organization: The Zak organize along a series of strong individuals, male or female does not matter. A Big Man if you will. The entire world is a series of interlocking alliances of threat, reaction to threat, and protection from threat.
Government: Government is this system writ large. Leaders are those that are best able to contain threat and lessen it.
Culture: The Zak view the universe through a layer of threat analysis. A Paranoid point of view. They must achieve as close to absolute domination and control as possible to feel safe.
They form large clans for the breeding and protection of the young. Breeding is random throughout the clan, they don't pair off. Eggs are turned over to the clan creche for hatching and raising by the elders of the clan. If you want to be tracked across a thousand light years and get eaten slowly alive, destroy a Zak creche.
Game Role: The Zak are a challenge to the Federation's peaceful mind set - and to the assumption that by the time they're making Warp Drives, a race must have had to grow out of a jealous, paranoid control freak frame of mind.
World Role: Survivors.
Relative Influence: Decent in their area, but they are small potatoes for the Trantorian Empire.
Public or Secret?: Very public.
Publicly Stated Goal: To make very sure you are not a threat.
Relative Wealth: A pocket empire, now part of the Kurr Association.
Race Advantages: Big, strong, smart. When not blinded by the idea of conquest as the only answer, they are very smart and highly adaptable.
Race disadvantages: They can be blinded by their concern to guard against threat and mislead down that path.
Relations: The Tonagi are known clients of the Zak, nasty yappy dog critters that are submissive as long as you are pointing a weapon at them.
Area of Operation: Spinward of the Kurr Association, anti spinward of the Trantorian Empire
Military:
Zak Battlecruiser 2368
Zak have an effective battle fleet. Their ships are not the elegant, multi-use tools the Federation's Ships are. Zak Ships look like wedges waiting to be driven by a sledge hammer. They are brute force tools. A heavy Zak Battlecruiser can challenge any single ship built by known space powers.
Headquarters Location: Zakgath 6/-29 Garry's Map, bordering the Kurr Association and the Trantorian Empire
Public Face: You will not be a threat we hope, will you?
Notable Members:
History of the Race:The USS Discovery encounters the |Zak in 2368.
ST-OM[]
The Zak are the "bad guys" to the Kurr Associations "good guys". The two nations clash frequently. The Ethicist Kurr Association would prefer not to fight with the Zak. But they remain stubbornly un-surrendered. To the Zak, not surrendering utterly is a clear indication that a the non-surrenderd group plans a sneak attack in short order.
Kurr Denials are dismissed as lies and propaganda. The Zak refuse to be tricked so easily.
Epiphany Trek[]
The Zak are understood to be a lost colony of the Tzen, a successful one.
As the Zak Expanded away from the Kurr Association, they ran into the Trantorian Empire. The Trantorian Empire taught the Zak two very important lessons. These were things that the Zak always Suspected
- A) Someone who doesn't immediately and utterly surrender could very well be planning to conquer you.
- B) There's always someone bigger.
The Zak fought a bitter and grinding war with the Trantorian Empire, and lost, due to weight of numbers and ther Tratoroan ships being designed for the very kind of knife fight that the Zak preferred. As the final Defenses failed and Trantorian ships prepared a blood soaked invasion, the Zak Surrendered...To the Kurr Association.
The Kurr negotiated a cease fire and an end to hostilities between the Zak and the Trantorian Empire. Using Ethical and Utilitarian arguments, the Kurr convinced the Trantorians to recognize a firm border with the Zak and the Kurr Association.
The Zak reaction was mixed. One reaction is "Are you Crazy? You know the Trantorians are going to fall back, rebuild and attempt conquest again!
Yes, everyone knows this. The peace is a temporary solution.
The other reaction was "Your paranoid and hostile mismanagement put us into wars we couldn't win and risked the very future of our species. I am going to kill and eat you, and then see what benefits having allies in the Galaxy might yield!"
And this was promptly done. Now the Zak are the newest member of the Kurr Association, trying to learn the proper ethical conditions under which to blast someone with a heavy blaster and eat their well-done remains.
It's not comfortable, but it's working, so far.
There are Zak and Tonagi renegades, who have refused to accept peace, outsiders or much of anything else.