Highlights
- The Vorta are a cold and calculating race of aliens who act as emissaries for the Founders, the ruling class of the Dominion.
- The Vorta command the Dominion's military, the genetically engineered Jem'Hadar, and manage the supply of drugs they rely on for survival.
- The Vorta originated as arboreal primates on Kurill Prime, genetically enhanced by the Changelings to serve them without question. They have no culture of their own and reproduce through cloning.
Star Trek has been entertaining fans since 1966, presenting a world where humans have evolved beyond their petty differences and eliminated crime and war from Earth. However, there were still threats living among the stars. Between the original series and Star Trek: The Next Generation, the franchise only followed starship captains and their exploration of strange new worlds. That changed with Deep Space Nine, a show that explored the lives of people living on a space station.
Despite being set on a space station rather than a starship, DS9 delivered one of the most compelling ongoing stories the franchise had yet seen: the Dominion War. The Dominion represented the antithesis of everything that Starfleet and the Federation stood for. Coming from the Gamma Quadrant of the galaxy, the anti-Federation had a slew of alien races never before seen in Star Trek. One of these species was the Vorta, a cold and calculating race of aliens who sat at the top of the Dominion's chain of command.
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Who Are the Vorta?
Creators | Rick Berman & Michael Piller |
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Number of Episodes | 173 |
Cast |
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Premiere Date | January 3, 1993 |
Finale Date | June 2, 1999 |
The Founders sat at the top of the Dominion's hierarchy. This race of liquid-based shapeshifting aliens, also known as Changelings, saw carbon-based lifeforms as beneath them. Below them in the chain of command were the Vorta, who acted as emissaries for the Founders. Aliens all around the Gamma Quadrant, and eventually the Alpha Quadrant, listened to the Vorta commands as if they were commands directly from the Founders. Most of the time, they were.
The Vorta commanded the Dominion's military, a genetically engineered reptilian species called the Jem'Hadar. In addition to delivering orders to the Jem'Hadar, the Vorta also managed the supply of drugs that the Jem'Hadar relied on for survival. The Founders engineered the Jem'Hadar to be reliant on Ketracel White to prevent mutiny and free-thinking. The same conditioning was built into the Vorta, but in different ways.
When they weren't ordering the Jem'Hadar to attack the Federation or enslave more planets in the Gamma Quadrant, the Vorta negotiated terms on behalf of the Founders in trade deals, peace treaties, and alliances. Some even performed the tasks of medical doctors, such as when the Federation developed the morphogenic virus that affected the Founders.
Where Are the Vorta From?
The Vorta originated as arboreal primates on Kurill Prime, where they lived in hollowed-out trees. When a family of Vorta shielded a Changeling from certain doom at the hands of Kurill Prime predators, the Changeling promised to return the favor someday. The Changelings fulfilled their promise by genetically enhancing all Vorta, creating a subservient race that would follow all of their commands. The Vorta evolved to view the Changelings as gods with unwavering faith. While they blindly followed the Founders, they were cold and ruthless shot callers with the Jem'Hadar.
The Vorta had no culture of their own, as a product of being genetically enhanced. They were designed to serve every whim of the Founders, and having art, cuisine, a sense of style, or music doesn't serve the Founders' best interests. They needed unquestioning loyalty and calculating servants. In other words, the Vorta's reward for protecting a Changeling was endless servitude. That said, the Vorta did enjoy kava nuts and rippleberries, two sources of food native to their homeworld. Their taste for these two foods carried over from before the Changelings altered their genome.
One aspect of the Vorta that might constitute a culture is their cloning practices. Cloning was the way the Vorta reproduced, providing another means for the Founders to control their servants. Whenever a Vorta showed signs of degradation or simply died, the Founders created a clone. When fans meet the character Weyoun 4, he introduces the notion that death isn't the end for Vorta. While Weyoun 4 dies at the end of the same episode he debuted in, a future episode introduces Weyoun 5, a clone. Weyoun 5 retained all of Weyoun 4's memories and served as the longest-lasting Weyoun until he died in a transporter accident. Weyoun 6 was one Vorta who questioned his creators and attempted to defect.
What Happened to the Vorta After the Dominion War?
The Dominion War saw the destruction of the Vorta's cloning facilities, preventing them from reproducing further. Without these cloning facilities, the Vorta would eventually die off unless they evolved with a natural ability to reproduce.
The Changelings did return in Star Trek: Picard's third season, where they worked alongside a Borg Queen to take down the Federation. While Picard didn't show any Vorta or Jem'Hadar, it's possible the rogue Changelings either modified other aliens to serve them or re-established cloning facilities throughout the Alpha Quadrant.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
In the vicinity of the liberated planet of Bajor, the Federation space station Deep Space Nine guards the opening of a stable wormhole to the far side of the galaxy. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was the third ongoing TV series in the franchise.
