Question 3 (last one): I read Stranger Than We Can Imagine (love it! The characterizations were on point and the reactions believable. I really liked your take on andorian culture) and had a question abt a flashback you wrote. While Shran’s in the shower he remembers him and 3 of his crewmates escape a fight w Vulcans. What is that in reference to? Did I miss something in the show, is this a book canon scenario, or is it something you thought up? Cuz if it’s the last, I’d love to hear more!
Thanks, I was really pleased with that story considering it was a quick fire prompt for a friend.
If I remember rightly (I wrote it about a decade ago so bear with me) it was in reference to something I headcanoned for Shran, rather than something from the show. I hc’d that Shran and the 3 Andorians he first showed up with were a tight knit black ops team who had met in a Vulcan concentration camp where they housed and tortured Andorians. Shran and his friends escaped but when they finally got home and then led the Imperial Guard to the camp everyone else was gone, likely murdered.
The trauma of the whole thing, especially since they were all very young, fresh out of Imperial Guard Academy, made the four of them incredibly dangerous and the Imperial Guard decided, ‘they’re already screwed up and ready to die if it means killing aliens, let’s use that’. So they became a black ops team, and they did some awful things, but also some amazing things because the four turned out to be a brilliant team together.
Shran was the most damaged of the bunch, he’d already dealt with some trauma before the camp and had suffered some of the worst torture there because he was a mouthy shit and gained the commander’s terrible attention. When he failed to save the others he ‘splintered’ where his mind fell apart and only quick intervention saved his life, but at the cost of his childhood memories. So he’s the biggest death seeker of the four, but he loves his brothers too much to let them die, so he developed an annoying habit of going on suicide missions and coming back alive that has other Guards thinking that the four are somehow magic or blessed.
Thon is an intelligence genius, he can remember any detail and and find anything out if across the quadrant. Nothing gets by him when he’s on the hunt. He’s also got some odd habits (I think I had a probably poorly understood version of OCD for him) that make him the most vulnerable of the four.
I think I had Tholos be the weapons and engineering guy, and he takes his trauma out on other aliens by making them uncomfortable however he can, hence why he was sleezing on T’Pol in “The Andorian Incident” even though he would rather die than touch a Vulcan.
Keval was the logistics one, able to get them in and out of places better than anyone.
Shran himself is better at making decisions and taking action, so he’s the natural leader of the four. He’s also the best one at making friends funnily enough, so despite how xenophobic he is, he’s got a lot of connections across the quadrant because they’ve been doing this for nearly 40 or 50 years by the time they meet the humans.
By then they were all sick of doing all this dirty work and Shran knew they weren’t likely to survive much longer, so he decided to swallow his hate and force the Guard to make peace. However the four of them were still looking for the commander of the camp, certain he’s still alive and hiding because the Vulcan government covered up that the camp ever existed.
I’d a story in mind where they finally find him and he’s gone completely mad and just wants to abduct and hold Shran forever to leech off his emotions with mind melds. Never got around to it though, or any of the crazy adventures the four had, like how they ended up hanging out with some Klingons for a night and they all got very drunk and ended up on another planet with no idea how they had gotten there.
God I really had a lot of stuff about these guys didn’t I...
Question 2: What are sibling dynamics generally like? I know dynamics can vary widely among humans but it gen boils down to: super close, I love you but we don’t really talk unless there’s a crisis, we both refuse to apologize so now we never talk or talk v minimally, and I feel the need to outperform you guys so I can finally get attention from our parents. What do you think Andorian siblings are like? What do you think they’d make of humans’ relationships?
It’s a bit different for Andorians because they don’t really live as a nuclear family. They live in conglomerations, headed by Clan Leaders, who are often the great, great, great grandparents of the newest knolls. So gigantic buildings that keep expanding as the family does, and once kids no longer need nursing, they spend a lot of time in the centre of the conglomeration, where a nursery/primary school is kept, and you could have a great, great aunt playing with her older great great nephew (Andorians don’t stop having kids except if the quad dies or become Clan Leaders, so generations overlap.)
However, siblings can be as close or dysfunctional as human relationships, but there’s extra pressure by sheer volume, and the culture of ‘everything for the clan’. An Andorian does not have full autonomous individuality as humans would recognise it. They live to serve the clan, the Clan Leaders have final say over their ability to get medical treatment, and sibling relationships are secondary to their relationship to the Clan.
In practice this means that they are likely expected to be very close and aren’t allowed to avoid each other or become estranged unless the Clan Leaders banish someone, which is really rare and shocking.
Because of the sheer number of kids a quad will have there isn’t really that anxiety over attention and pride that human kids (and adults) can struggle to get from parents. The fact that they’re all telepathically bonded enough to sense emotions helps, because you can sense your family’s love and pride at all times. Some of that attention seeking behaviour is found in young Andorians, usually Secondaries (so adults who are unmarried), who want to impress their Clan Leaders, but that’s like a knight trying to impress his king, so it’s a different dynamic.
I have several questions, if you don’t mind me asking. Question 1: I’ve dug through your blog and have noticed you talk abt andorians having litters. How many would be in a litter? What’s the range? Also, does this mean Andorian siblings don’t do the thing of ‘you have to do what I say cuz I’m the oldest’ since they’d all be born at the same time?
Ask away!
I think there would be between 5 to 8 babies in a litter, and they do have some form of that dynamic, but it would be across litters, because they have... a lot of kids. Like... dozens and dozens. And there would be significance to the first child to be born and the last child to be born, because that symbolises the start of a quad’s union and then the end (usually an end by death). Andorians only become fertile when they bond and if one dies the others will usually die too, and if they don’t they’ll stop being able to reproduce.
On an Imperial Guard ship only the CO and 2IC get private quarters.
Everyone else bunks up in large barracks. A sign of a good crew is when all the soft furnishings have been piled together to make a giant nest and everyone sleeps in a cuddle pile.
If they all sleep apart, it’s a sign the CO is doing a bad job.
Shran had to knock through a wall in the Kumari to make the biggest nest in the IG and he’s super proud about it.
Indeed they do! I spent... more time than is probably appropriate figuring out the mechanics of how that worked reproduction wise, and yes, it takes all four together to make babies in my version. So my version has 2 ‘males’ and 2 ‘females’ but they only use that because too many aliens are binary sexed and it’s a pain in the arse trying to get them to understand how 4 genders works. In my version Shran’s a thaan, Captain Telev is a chan, Talas is shen, and Tarah is zhen. I explain it all in this post https://theandorianimperialarchive.tumblr.com/post/169972964718/the-birds-the-bees-the-seahorse-and-the Hope you find it interesting!
An alien market was one of the greatest experiences for any explorer. The sights, the smells, the setting aside of traditional and current diplomatic issues for the sake of a good price.
Herbs that were used in a common Betazed dish, but made humans hallucinate like they were on LSD. Creatures that could be used to cure diseases humans had battled with for centuries.
But the things that humans loved the most, Shran noticed, were the trinkets. The pretty objects, the carefully crafted sculptures, the intricate and deep paintings, the clever, novel toys –Captain Archer and Commander Tucker especially loved these. So it was these that Shran examined carefully as he considered what to purchase for pink-skin for the celebration of his birth.
Why humans couldn’t just take a few cuts across the back, he had no idea.
theandorianimperialarchive replied to your post “i wanna write about shran send QUESTIONS”
I’ve been writing Shran’s lifestory pretty much since the show ended, so I have ideas about his 4 parents and many siblings, so I’m curious what you have conceived for him.
What’s your motivation behind giving him a lot of siblings? I’m just curious because of all the beta canon about Andorian extinction I always imagined most Andorians don’t have very many kids but I’m interested in hearing about your idea
Full disclosure: I never really read much of the beta canon tbh, I was having more fun just playing with world building.
I really liked the idea of Shran being the baby of his family, so I originally gave him 5 siblings, back when I had a less developed world. Then I started working on making the Andorians a little more distinct, and I had read something about Andorians having litters.
So now Shran has 67 siblings, because I have it that no bonded quad stops having kids unless they become the Clan Leaders of their extended family. The reason this doesn’t completely cripple Andoria under the weight of so many is because they only become fertile after they bond, and it’s very hard for an Andorian to find one of each other sex that they can bond with. So you have a large number of single, unmarried Andorians who don’t procreate and are the warriors who defend their planet, so they have a relatively high mortality rate.
I actually made 67 a small family, because I felt like it. Shran’s litter all died from being born too early, he was the only one who managed to stay alive (my headcanon is that the other Imperial Guards think he’s unkillable because he survives a lot of shit). His parents can’t have any more children because 1 of them died. Normally when one bond mate dies they take the others with them via traumatic shock through their telepathic bond. Shran’s other parents didn’t, which is a source of embarrassment for the Clan because it implies they didn’t have a strong enough bond.
I made Shran a bit of a black sheep in his family, being without litter mates, he had no one to share a nest with, and the Clan Leaders aren’t fond of him, which makes his siblings stress about him (when his own antics aren’t doing that). So he’s kinda lonely as a kid, but since Andorians insist that no Andorian is ever alone because of family bonds and constant social interactions, he found it hard to express it.
TL:DR Shran has 67 siblings because I thought it would be fun for him to constantly confuse his human crewmates when he was on Enterprise by talking about them and the humans could not keep track of who was who, much to Shran’s frustration because ‘C’mon pinkskin, it’s only 67!’.
Haha, yeah, I found it really hard to find any beta canon info back when I started writing (god that was a long time ago!2005) so I had to build a lot from scratch, hence why I built a language and figured out how four sexes could reproduce and worked on how Andorians have 2 puberties, how their culture works and how they live as a collective rather than as individuals.
I’m pretty fast and loose with beta canon when I start building my own stuff, but it all came from Shran and his role in the show. His anger, his passion, and his mistrust.
I found an old database of Andorian “language” on an archived website but I have no idea how much of it is just made up… probably most of it. Have you written yours down somewhere?
I have it saved on my computer, and I wanted to use this tumblr to post it up -then I got distracted by my main tumblr, whoops!
I’ve a couple of posts already but I’ll be posting more. I did try to use the words from canon and beta canon I could find, but it wasn’t much more than a starting point.
I’ve been primarily building from this although there’s limited established rules of grammar on that site which has made it difficult hahaha. I’ve cobbled together a couple of things from it… endearments, familial terms, and most recently the equivalent of “lesbian” which required some religious worldbuilding so that was fun
Because I had it that Andorians sleep with anyone they want, there’s no term for lesbian or gay in their language, only the term ‘playmate’ -because Andorians consider sex just an extension of having fun, ‘playing’ -though they only apply the word play to someone who’s gone through 1st puberty but isn’t mated.
I’ve got stuff like family terms, colours, objects, weather, life stages, etc.
theandorianimperialarchive replied to your post “i wanna write about shran send QUESTIONS”
I’ve been writing Shran’s lifestory pretty much since the show ended, so I have ideas about his 4 parents and many siblings, so I’m curious what you have conceived for him.
What’s your motivation behind giving him a lot of siblings? I’m just curious because of all the beta canon about Andorian extinction I always imagined most Andorians don’t have very many kids but I’m interested in hearing about your idea
Full disclosure: I never really read much of the beta canon tbh, I was having more fun just playing with world building.
I really liked the idea of Shran being the baby of his family, so I originally gave him 5 siblings, back when I had a less developed world. Then I started working on making the Andorians a little more distinct, and I had read something about Andorians having litters.
So now Shran has 67 siblings, because I have it that no bonded quad stops having kids unless they become the Clan Leaders of their extended family. The reason this doesn’t completely cripple Andoria under the weight of so many is because they only become fertile after they bond, and it’s very hard for an Andorian to find one of each other sex that they can bond with. So you have a large number of single, unmarried Andorians who don’t procreate and are the warriors who defend their planet, so they have a relatively high mortality rate.
I actually made 67 a small family, because I felt like it. Shran’s litter all died from being born too early, he was the only one who managed to stay alive (my headcanon is that the other Imperial Guards think he’s unkillable because he survives a lot of shit). His parents can’t have any more children because 1 of them died. Normally when one bond mate dies they take the others with them via traumatic shock through their telepathic bond. Shran’s other parents didn’t, which is a source of embarrassment for the Clan because it implies they didn’t have a strong enough bond.
I made Shran a bit of a black sheep in his family, being without litter mates, he had no one to share a nest with, and the Clan Leaders aren’t fond of him, which makes his siblings stress about him (when his own antics aren’t doing that). So he’s kinda lonely as a kid, but since Andorians insist that no Andorian is ever alone because of family bonds and constant social interactions, he found it hard to express it.
TL:DR Shran has 67 siblings because I thought it would be fun for him to constantly confuse his human crewmates when he was on Enterprise by talking about them and the humans could not keep track of who was who, much to Shran’s frustration because ‘C’mon pinkskin, it’s only 67!’.
Haha, yeah, I found it really hard to find any beta canon info back when I started writing (god that was a long time ago!2005) so I had to build a lot from scratch, hence why I built a language and figured out how four sexes could reproduce and worked on how Andorians have 2 puberties, how their culture works and how they live as a collective rather than as individuals.
I’m pretty fast and loose with beta canon when I start building my own stuff, but it all came from Shran and his role in the show. His anger, his passion, and his mistrust.
I found an old database of Andorian “language” on an archived website but I have no idea how much of it is just made up… probably most of it. Have you written yours down somewhere?
I have it saved on my computer, and I wanted to use this tumblr to post it up -then I got distracted by my main tumblr, whoops!
I’ve a couple of posts already but I’ll be posting more. I did try to use the words from canon and beta canon I could find, but it wasn’t much more than a starting point.
theandorianimperialarchive replied to your post “i wanna write about shran send QUESTIONS”
I’ve been writing Shran’s lifestory pretty much since the show ended, so I have ideas about his 4 parents and many siblings, so I’m curious what you have conceived for him.
What’s your motivation behind giving him a lot of siblings? I’m just curious because of all the beta canon about Andorian extinction I always imagined most Andorians don’t have very many kids but I’m interested in hearing about your idea
Full disclosure: I never really read much of the beta canon tbh, I was having more fun just playing with world building.
I really liked the idea of Shran being the baby of his family, so I originally gave him 5 siblings, back when I had a less developed world. Then I started working on making the Andorians a little more distinct, and I had read something about Andorians having litters.
So now Shran has 67 siblings, because I have it that no bonded quad stops having kids unless they become the Clan Leaders of their extended family. The reason this doesn’t completely cripple Andoria under the weight of so many is because they only become fertile after they bond, and it’s very hard for an Andorian to find one of each other sex that they can bond with. So you have a large number of single, unmarried Andorians who don’t procreate and are the warriors who defend their planet, so they have a relatively high mortality rate.
I actually made 67 a small family, because I felt like it. Shran’s litter all died from being born too early, he was the only one who managed to stay alive (my headcanon is that the other Imperial Guards think he’s unkillable because he survives a lot of shit). His parents can’t have any more children because 1 of them died. Normally when one bond mate dies they take the others with them via traumatic shock through their telepathic bond. Shran’s other parents didn’t, which is a source of embarrassment for the Clan because it implies they didn’t have a strong enough bond.
I made Shran a bit of a black sheep in his family, being without litter mates, he had no one to share a nest with, and the Clan Leaders aren’t fond of him, which makes his siblings stress about him (when his own antics aren’t doing that). So he’s kinda lonely as a kid, but since Andorians insist that no Andorian is ever alone because of family bonds and constant social interactions, he found it hard to express it.
TL:DR Shran has 67 siblings because I thought it would be fun for him to constantly confuse his human crewmates when he was on Enterprise by talking about them and the humans could not keep track of who was who, much to Shran’s frustration because ‘C’mon pinkskin, it’s only 67!’.
Haha, yeah, I found it really hard to find any beta canon info back when I started writing (god that was a long time ago!2005) so I had to build a lot from scratch, hence why I built a language and figured out how four sexes could reproduce and worked on how Andorians have 2 puberties, how their culture works and how they live as a collective rather than as individuals.
I’m pretty fast and loose with beta canon when I start building my own stuff, but it all came from Shran and his role in the show. His anger, his passion, and his mistrust.
theandorianimperialarchive replied to your post “i wanna write about shran send QUESTIONS”
I’ve been writing Shran’s lifestory pretty much since the show ended, so I have ideas about his 4 parents and many siblings, so I’m curious what you have conceived for him.
What’s your motivation behind giving him a lot of siblings? I’m just curious because of all the beta canon about Andorian extinction I always imagined most Andorians don’t have very many kids but I’m interested in hearing about your idea
Full disclosure: I never really read much of the beta canon tbh, I was having more fun just playing with world building.
I really liked the idea of Shran being the baby of his family, so I originally gave him 5 siblings, back when I had a less developed world. Then I started working on making the Andorians a little more distinct, and I had read something about Andorians having litters.
So now Shran has 67 siblings, because I have it that no bonded quad stops having kids unless they become the Clan Leaders of their extended family. The reason this doesn’t completely cripple Andoria under the weight of so many is because they only become fertile after they bond, and it’s very hard for an Andorian to find one of each other sex that they can bond with. So you have a large number of single, unmarried Andorians who don’t procreate and are the warriors who defend their planet, so they have a relatively high mortality rate.
I actually made 67 a small family, because I felt like it. Shran’s litter all died from being born too early, he was the only one who managed to stay alive (my headcanon is that the other Imperial Guards think he’s unkillable because he survives a lot of shit). His parents can’t have any more children because 1 of them died. Normally when one bond mate dies they take the others with them via traumatic shock through their telepathic bond. Shran’s other parents didn’t, which is a source of embarrassment for the Clan because it implies they didn’t have a strong enough bond.
I made Shran a bit of a black sheep in his family, being without litter mates, he had no one to share a nest with, and the Clan Leaders aren’t fond of him, which makes his siblings stress about him (when his own antics aren’t doing that). So he’s kinda lonely as a kid, but since Andorians insist that no Andorian is ever alone because of family bonds and constant social interactions, he found it hard to express it.
TL:DR Shran has 67 siblings because I thought it would be fun for him to constantly confuse his human crewmates when he was on Enterprise by talking about them and the humans could not keep track of who was who, much to Shran’s frustration because ‘C’mon pinkskin, it’s only 67!’.
Disclaimer: Don’t own… if I did I would have treated it better.
Summary: Isolation is never easy, but it’s always worse when you’re surrounded by people. Written because @gaslightgallows is very good at waking up my plotbunnies and giving me writing games that actually work.
Shran watched his human crewmates as they argued over what the floating bit of rock looked like.
“It’s a bear.”
“It’s two horses running.”
“What minor planet are you looking at?”
“What do you think T’Pol?”
“I fail to see the relevance of this speculation.”
“Ah! Shran, help us out.”
As one they all looked at Shran who was standing some way back on the bridge, trying not to feel his hands curl with the desire to snap someone’s neck. He shrugged.
“I’m not one for star gazing… or boulder gazing in this case.” His voice was low, descending into tones of aggression he ought not to be feeling. Not with these aliens anyway…
It had been a long time since he had been surrounded like this, and all he could think of whenever someone touched him was that he ought to flinch from the inevitable pain of an electrical jolt. But he refused to cower in front of these people.
These people… people he trusted.
These people, who weren’t his people.
At the moment… that was all he could think of.
The disappointment was evident in Archer’s eyes. He wanted Shran to interact more with the crew, but he found himself pulling more and more away. The last time at least there had been other Andorians around. But here… he was alone. Andorians were never meant to be alone.
His eyes were drawn to the minor planet, which had been thrown out of its native asteroid belt and was adrift, alone…
Shran reared up and span around on his heels, striding off the bridge. As the lift descended he leaned on the wall, breathing heavily. He was so far gone he was seeing his own misery in a dead bit of cold lava.
He thumped his head against the bulkhead. He could easily imagine the bridge crew now, complaining, maybe even laughing, about their strange new crewmate who refused to make nice and get along with them.
They had no idea who was on their ship.
It was a relief to get into his quarters, at least here he could retreat to a more comfortable temperature, where his things were, his people’s presence could be felt. The silks of his sheets and his informal clothing had been woven by the hands of his people. His prized book made from strips of dried tuber root held the laws of Andoria inside it. It was particularly special because it had been written in his own blood –you could leave a pint of it into the guild that made the books and they would write it out in the traditional way with the blood being mixed with other ingredients to make ink. His Clan’s crest was on the front cover, made of silver metal and blue and pink gemstones. Shran would lay his Ushaan-tor next to it at night, both reflective surfaces glinting from the shooting stars passing his window at ‘night’. Sleep was not a familiar companion to him at the best of times. Here it was almost… alien.
Shran pulled off his clothes and stepped under his shower, the temperature as high as it would go, faintly reminding him of long swims in the geothermal pools. He closed his eyes and brought up the echoes of sensation of Telev standing behind him, slim hands caressing his shoulders and rubbing away the tension. He remembered Talas’ bright eyes as she ran her short nails over his flesh, supposedly scraping away any and all dirt.
The memories were pleasing, but he was in no mood to rise to the occasion. It was more about comfort of their presence, so he slipped easily from those memories to memories of bathing in pools on Andoria and other worlds with his crew on the Kumari, and his bond brothers on other occasions. Shran sagged against the glass of his shower door and his eyes glazed over as he remembered washing the dust and Vulcan blood out of Tholos’ hair as they hunkered down in a small pool with Keval and Thon, trembling with fear of being caught and dragged back from where they had escaped from. They had slept in a huddle that night, not daring to hope that they might be free of the tyranny of the Vulcans.
Abruptly the echoes fled from him and he was left alone again. The breath caught in his throat and he sagged even more, feeling weak.
‘Archer to Shran!’
Shran jumped and looked around stupidly, before realising the voice had come over the comm. He pulled himself up and leaned out of the shower to press the button.
“Shran here.”
“Can you come to my quarters? I’d like to talk to you.”
Shran grimaced as he muttered, “Yes sir.”
It irked him no end that Archer was his superior now. He respected the man, he trusted the man, he even liked the man… but he was not only a good deal younger than him, actually half his age, but he was an alien. Shran was coming to terms with the idea of seeing aliens as his equals… but he still tensed every time Archer gave him an order. It was becoming progressively worse with passing time.
He dressed quickly and made his way to the Captain’s quarters. He was off duty, so he chose to wear his own clothing as opposed to his Starfleet uniform that gave him a rash. He could tell Archer saw it as a rebellious gesture the moment he saw the silk shirt.
“Come on in. Drink?”
Shran nodded, accepting the peat whiskey that smelled like a burnt forest, and wasn’t as burning as Ale. Archer sipped at his own, seated on his bed with his dog’s head under his hand. Shran sat down slowly on the chair opposite him, cradling the glass in his hands. Archer scratched Porthos’ ears and leaned forward, which Shran knew meant this was not going to be a good conversation.
“Shran… is there something wrong?” he asked quietly.
Shran kept his eyes on his drink, but extended his antennae forward so Archer knew he was paying attention.
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean. You’ve become insular and distant in the last few weeks. And I’m not the only one to notice, T’Pol expressed concern for you, and so has Trip.”
Shran’s antennae reared back at the idea that a Vulcan was concerned for him. It was not in their nature to care about anyone. It was not in their nature to be concerned for Andorians.
“Shran!”
Shran looked up in surprise, realising he had drifted off into his mind and not answered Archer’s question. Archer looked genuinely worried now.
“Shran, if there is something bothering you, you know you can tell me.”
Shran tilted his head to the side, narrowing his eyes, and taking a mouthful of his drink.
“No.” he said at last.
“No?”
Shran met Archer’s eyes, leaning forward, crowding the pink-skin. Archer shifted back a little. Humans and Vulcans might think they were distinct and different, but they were frustratingly similar. Their sense of private space was something Shran could not understand, and could not handle for much longer. He was beginning to ache from the lack of Andorian contact. Hands on arms, shoulders, necks… on the Kumari everyone had known everyone’s body intimately, even the bonded Actives, just because Andorians did not shy from touch on any part of the body. The context meant everything, and the touch’s location did not. Humans, however, were more wary. They read meaning into a touch of hands as romantic, a touch of hips as inappropriate. Shran had recently grabbed Ensign Sato by the hips to move her out of the way. Both she and Commander Tucker had flushed and looked shocked at his actions. Shran had not even thought about it, he had been used to swatting a crewmember on the thigh or hip to make them move aside. Now… he dare not make any physical contact for fear of causing distress. It was maddening.
Shran blinked and realised he had been glaring at Archer for too long without speaking again. He shook his head and said,
“I am just preoccupied. There’s nothing wrong.”
“Preoccupied… is that all? Trip says you’ve gone from being personable with the crew to minimising your interactions to strictly business.”
“Is there something wrong with my conduct?” Shran demanded irritably.
“No… but you don’t seem very happy.”
Because I’m not, Shran wanted to snarl. But he said nothing, swirling the amber liquid. Alien liquid, in an alien glass. He set it aside, feeling ill.
“If there’s nothing else…?” he said, straightening his back.
“Shran, your wellbeing includes your happiness and I know you well enough to-”
“You don’t!” Shran snarled before he could stop himself getting to his feet. Archer sat back in surprise.
“I don’t? Don’t what?”
“Know me. You don’t know me.”
“Shran we’ve known each other for five years.”
“We have met briefly once a year when pressing concerns forced us together or a chance crossing of paths. When we were both under strain and urgency. That may have been enough for us to learn each other’s true nature… but you do not know me. You do not know my life, my personal self… not enough for you to know me well enough to determine anything.”
“Maybe not… but I can guess.” Archer stood up and regarded Shran with narrowed eyes. “You’ve never been away from your people like this before, have you? You’ve never been the only Andorian in the room for so long… you miss your people.”
“That does not take a genius pink-skin.” Shran was in no mood to be pacified. “But you are not Andorian. You don’t know what it means to be this far from my people for so long…”
“I know it’s not easy. Maybe I don’t know your past… maybe I don’t know if you ever had a pet, or what your favourite colour is… but I’m not blind. I know you’re finding it hard to be here… everything is different… and even the interactions you’re used to… aren’t the same.”
Shran looked at Archer who shrugged, “Trip told me about the incident with Hoshi.”
“I did not mean any harm… but consider the lesson learned.”
“That’s not what I meant. We know you meant no harm… and just like we learned to respect and manage T’Pol’s sense of personal space and Phlox’s preference for privacy… we can learn to manage your sense of familiarity.”
“Manage?” Shran repeated dully, clenching a fist at his side.
Archer gave a sheepish smile, “I meant… we don’t expect you to adapt and we not to. We’re perfectly capable of learning how to be… a bit more Andorian… if you give us half the chance.”
“You’ll never be Andorian.” said Shran shortly. Archer’s smile fell. Shran sighed and forced his hand to unclench. “But maybe you can learn how to treat me like one.”
“No higher respect for you… is there?”
“Everything I’ve done has been to protect and defend my people, not only from death but to ensure they will always be able to be what they are.” Shran hesitated and then decided he ought to be cooperative, so he murmured, “There was a time when I was denied that ability… that right. Worst five years of my life.” That I can remember, Shran thought to himself, clenching his fist in anger at the memory of that green blooded monster that robbed him of something so vital. He met Archer’s eyes and pushed it aside, “ So… yes Captain. There is no higher respect for me.”
Archer nodded and reached out a hand, resting it on Shran’s shoulder… and leaving it there. His skin was far too cool for it to warm Shran’s skin. But there was a sense of warmth that spread through Shran and he felt his body relax a little. He inhaled and exhaled slowly, relaxing a bit further. Archer smiled and squeezed his shoulder before dropping his hand.
“Hungry? I think Chef’s been playing with your dietary requirements again.”
Shran grimaced, “Oh… lovely.”
Archer chuckled, “I’ll try it too?”
Shran tilted his antennae towards the human speculatively, then smirked, “Deal.”
Archer sighed and nodded, “Great.”
They left Archer’s quarters and entered the lift to take them to the mess. As they stood waiting, Shran spoke.
“A Zabathu.”
“What?” Archer looked at him in confusion. Shran smiled,
“The minor planet… it looked like a wild zabathu.”
Archer looked thoughtful for a moment, then said quietly, “Huh… I’ll take your word for it.”
Shran smirked, feeling his spine straighten and he sighed, “Good.”
When humans first encountered Andorians, infamously confrontational between Admiral Archer and General-Ambassador Shran, it took some time for them to figure out each other's concepts of personal space.
Namely the Andorians have none. They're born in litters, they share nests of silk and fur growing up, when they go through first puberty they join their city's Collaboration of Primaries, where they spend most of the time in naked huddles, and such intimacies continue after 2nd puberty.
Only when Andorians are bonded to the their life mates do they cease to be physically intimate with everyone around them, preferring their mates' touch.
For the Andorians, humans are almost as touch skittish as Vulcans, and have strange rules about where is OK to touch and where is not.
During Shran's mission on Enterprise, where he was posted after the loss of the Kumari and was acting as an Ambassador between Andoria's allies and Earth, there was issues where Shran's Andorian manner of touching everyone familiarly led to some discomfort from the humans. Admiral Archer recorded in his Captain's log that he and Shran needed to have a conversation about boundaries, finding the balance between Shran's need for physical touch, and the humans need for comfortable boundaries.
Saying “I love you” to an Andorian is a thing that is easily said, but getting the context right is tricky as they distinguish between the many kinds of love with different words.
To the person you want to marry:
“Dufo senoslan-ka izhiba surodan”
To your family:
“Dufo senoslan-ka izhiba cisuro”
To your Secondary friend*:
“Dufo senoslan-ka izhiba zirsuroka”
(*can be used with alien friends, as Commander Shran once said to Captain Jonathon Archer)
To bloodless siblings (i.e. people you love as fiercely as your family, but you are not related to):
Shran met Archer’s eyes, leaning forward, crowding the pink-skin. Archer shifted back a little. Humans and Vulcans might think they were distinct and different, but they were frustratingly similar. Their sense of private space was something Shran could not understand, and could not handle for much longer. He was beginning to ache from the lack of Andorian contact. Hands on arms, shoulders, necks… on the Kumari everyone had known everyone’s body intimately, even the bonded Actives, just because Andorians did not shy from touch on any part of the body. The context meant everything, and the touch’s location did not. Humans, however, were more wary. They read meaning into a touch of hands as romantic, a touch of hips as inappropriate. Shran had recently grabbed Ensign Sato by the hips to move her out of the way. Both she and Commander Tucker had flushed and looked shocked at his actions. Shran had not even thought about it, he had been used to swatting a crewmember on the thigh or hip to make them move aside. Now… he dare not make any physical contact for fear of causing distress. It was maddening.
Shran blinked and realised he had been glaring at Archer for too long without speaking again. He shook his head and said,
“I am just preoccupied. There’s nothing wrong.”
“Preoccupied… is that all? Trip says you’ve gone from being personable with the crew to minimising your interactions to strictly business.”
“Is there something wrong with my conduct?” Shran demanded irritably.
“No… but you don’t seem very happy.”
Because I’m not, Shran wanted to snarl. But he said nothing, swirling the amber liquid. Alien liquid, in an alien glass. He set it aside, feeling ill.
“If there’s nothing else…?” he said, straightening his back.
“Shran, your wellbeing includes your happiness and I know you well enough to-”
“You don’t!” Shran snarled before he could stop himself getting to his feet. Archer sat back in surprise.
The Birds, the Bees, The Seahorse and the Kangaroo.
One thing that has fascinated and perplexed scientists from all the worlds in the quadrant is the similarity between so many warp capable alien species. Two legs, two arms, one head and a torso connecting them all. Additionally many species utilise sexual reproduction, and typically it occurs between two sexes.
Andorians are considered distinct for their four sexes, which seems to be a source of fascination for some other races, such as humans who have a distinct obsession with sex. To avoid annoying conversations, alien-savvy Andorians tend to explain it that Andorians have two types of females and two types of males –it is not a popular tactic back home.
Although Andorians trend towards egalitarianism compared to other species’ gender dynamics, there is a set of typically understood things about each sex:
Zhen
Zhen are the strongest of the four sexes, they’re usually the tallest and the most aggressive. Zhen’s distinctive sexual characteristics are that they possess an ovipositor, 3 ovaries, and a pouch. Zhen’s are the defenders of their quads, and are the hardiest of the four, with distinctive curves from fat deposits that help survive harsh times when out hunting (traditionally) and make them the hardiest soldiers –though that isn’t saying much considering how Andorian soldiers are considered some of the most impressive soldiers in the Federation.
Shen
Shen are considered the most intelligent of the sexes, though there’s no scientific proof of this assertion. Shen’s do tend to do well in roles that require verbal communication compared to the other sexes. Their distinctive sexual characteristics are a uterus and mammary glands that provide sprogs nourishment. Upon joining a quad she will also develop fur on her abdomen that new born sprogs can hang from and suckle. Shen can also metamorphose into chan.
Chan
Chan are considered the fairest sex. Like shen they are slim and long limbed, but lack the faint curves that are typical of shen and zhen. Chan’s have a unique capability of emitting a soft trilling, or purring, that is especially soothing, as the vibrations in the antennas stimulate the hormones that help with sleep and general good mood. Their distinctive sexual characteristics are mammary glands, a phallus and a semi-dormant uterus to hold pre-hatched eggs in stasis. Chan can metamorphose into shen.
Thaan
Thaan are the shortest sex, and are usually stouter. They’re the house keepers, and often look after the children. Unlike the other sexes they cannot carry offspring in any way, and therefore contribute the least amount of energy and time to breeding. This has led to them being the caregivers in the quad, ensuring that the others are all well fed and cared for. Thaan Andorians have a phallus that is larger than the Chan.
Metamorpher
Although technically not a fifth gender, a metamorpher is recognised as not being either chan or shen. Metamorpher Andorians are not uncommon, as the complexity in mating often results in a Zhen, Thaan and two of the same sex forming a bond. In these cases, the hormonal triggers that begin the activation of fertility will cause an additional trigger in one of the same sexed Andorians, which transitions them from their birth sex to the missing sex. While they are in transition, they are not referred to by a shen or chan pronoun, but are given a distinct pronoun ‘Izhiga’ which can be translated into It but that is a poor translation of meaning. Metamorpher are not seen as lesser, but rather are recognised for their fortitude and devotion to their quad by accepting this change. As the process can be quite traumatic for the Andorian, they are held in high regard.
As yet it is not understood what exactly determines which of the two will undergo the metamorphosis, but some theories suggest it is based on an innate nature, or personality.
When talking to humans, Andorians tend to use a particular term to describe their living arrangements. Conglomerate. The Conglomerate is quite similar to the Muciad (Clan) in concept, but the distinction is that a Conglomerate is a building.
A Conglomerate is the building within which the Muciad lives, and traditionally look like an insect colony, which is an apt description considering their beginnings.
A single quad of Andorians, a Ciad (Ki-aad, lit ‘family’), for one reason or another, will leave their own Conglomerate and build a new home for themselves, called a Knoll. There they will have their innumerable sprogs (babies) who will in turn bring their own quads to the knoll, build their own knolls connecting to the original one, and have their own families. So a Conglomerate grows with the expansion of the family, usually building into a cave wall, first across, then up.
Really old Conglomerates have filled an entire cave themselves, usually by driving out rival clans.
Much in the way Humans would recognise the difference between nuclear family and extended, so the knoll would be the nuclear family. However, the concept of privacy so prized by humans or Vulcans would be utterly strange to an Andorian.
A Ciad keeps to their Knoll minimally, for sleep, mating between the quad and nursing sprogs too young for nursery.
The nursery is built in the heart of the conglomerate where Youths are educated until they experience first puberty and become a Kur (Primary –more on that at a later date). The nursery can have “great aunts” learning next to “grandnephews”. There are communal food halls, training rooms, even museums in the case of old and powerful Clans. If a Muciad is successful, there can be up to 8 generations living in the same Conglomerate, ruled over by the Clan Leaders. Since the beginning, Conglomerates have fed, clothed and educated themselves without interference from any outside government, a right they defend fiercely right up until the Green Invasion (more soon).
Such an introverted system has led alien species to wonder how Andorians managed to break away from their Clans enough to have any kind of interactions with non-family members.
The answer lies with one of the best kept secrets of Andoria: The Liberation of Youth, and the Entering Unto Collaboration (coming soon).
