Sandbox / Star Trek: Klingons

Klingons

Debut: TOS, "Errand of Mercy"

Homeworld: Qo'noS (or Kronos)

"Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam!" ("It is a good day to die!")

The textbook Proud Warrior Race Guys: Huge, bumpy-headed Space Pirates with unlimited strength, and very little in the way of patience. Originally a recurring villain for Kirk's Enterprise, they became wildly popular and have since appeared in all live-action spinoffs, along with obligatory appearances in most of the films. Though technically an ally of the United Federation of Planets in the later series, Klingons aren't entirely housebroken, and are always itching to make war with somebody. Protip: If you're a bartender, it's unwise to try cutting off a Klingon's drink.

In General

• Alien Blood: Though Klingon blood usually appears red, there are a few works (specifically Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Star Trek: Discovery, and Star Trek: Lower Decks) that show it as a bright, bubblegum pink.
• Alien Sky: Qo'noS has a much greener sky than Earth's, and as of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country its only moon, Praxis, is a Shattered World.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Klingons are generally portrayed this way in Kirk's time, but not so much in the others. Even in the 24th century, the Klingons walk that very fine line between being a warrior poet and complete child; the politics in Qo'nos comes down to little more than playground shoving (the blue bloods vs. the rank-and-file) and the military structure isn't much better. It proves that despite their fighting prowess and instincts they are still prone to childish tantrums.
• Always Someone Better: In Star Trek, Humans Are Special, but Klingons are ass-kickers. Every time the Federation gets into a straight-up, all-out war, the Klingons are winning. In Discovery, the Federation nearly resorted to outright destroying Qo'noS to win, and in TNG an alternate timeline has the Federation on the losing end of a twenty year long war. The only times humanity is depicted as outright besting the Klingons is when they resort to being as ruthless as their enemies. The Terran Empire in Discovery destroyed Qo'noS (that being where the Federation got the idea) to cripple the Empire for a generation, and the Confederation of Earth in the alternate timeline of Picard likely prevailed for similar reasons.
• Arch-Enemy: While their feuds with the Federation are perhaps of greater galactic import, it's actually the Romulans that the Klingons generally hate most. Most Klingons will grudgingly acknowledge Starfleet officers as Worthy Opponents who keep their word; the Romulans, by contrast, have a tendency toward secrecy and espionage, which is completely antithetical to Klingon notions of honor and integrity. (Not that the Klingon High Council is immune to that themselves, but still.) Thanks in part to numerous Romulan sneak attacks on Klingon worlds, most notably Khitomer and Narendra III in the mid-24th century, the Romulans are widely hated across the Klingon Empire.
• Artistic License – Martial Arts: The consensus among weapon enthusiasts is that the Bat'leth is an extremely terrible weapon. On top of holding it two handed, with the blade out, not allowing much use of Kinetic Linking to maximize power, using it otherwise basically just turns it into a giant, curvy axe.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Political candidates seeking to be elected Chancellor must first duel each other to the death. (Well, that's one way of making the election cycle exciting.) This weeds out any chickenhawks from the election pool; the Chancellor can't blithely declare war without prior field and hand-to-hand combat experience.
• Back from the Brink: In the mirror universe, the Klingons were nearly exterminated when the Terran Empire blew up Qo'noS. A century later, they've not only rebounded but have become an equal partner in the Alliance, the dominant power of the Alpha Quadrant.
• Badass Bandolier: Gold in TOS, chainmail in TNG. And they're actually baldrics, not bandoliers.
• Battle Couple: Klingon Mythopoeia is about the first two Klingons pillaging the heavens. Later legends tell of Kahless and Lady Lukara. And Klingon couples are often found fighting side by side.
• Big Bad: For TOS era, they are the most reoccurring foe encountered by Kirk and his crew in both the television series and the movies, as well the biggest enemies to the Federation in the 23rd century (along with the Romulan Empire).
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Klingons are loaded with redundant organs.
• Bling of War: From TNG onward, the Chancellor wears a resplendent overcoat with humongous lapels, each weighed down with medals, and a sash.
• Brawn Hilda: As shown above, even the most refined Klingon women are still very hairy (particularly their eyebrows).
• Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Targs are similar to boars but with spikes on their backs. They are not hunted, but rather used as bloodhounds by Klingon hunters.
• Characterization Marches On: The original series had the Klingons as being mostly warlike with few redeeming traits. Gene Roddenberry didn't like them being the "Black Hats" of the saga so in The Next Generation he made a Klingon a regular cast member and established the "honor" aspect to their society.
• Cleavage Window: Female Klingon uniforms often have these.
• Combat Pragmatist: In war, Klingons can be just as underhanded as they are ruthless. In Discovery, their use of the cloaking device allowed them to destroy Starfleet's war infrastructure and drive them to the brink of defeat, which was only reversed by a desperation threat that could have destroyed their homeworld. It also helped that each Klingon house was acting independently, so Starfleet couldn't mount a unified defense against what was effectively a couple dozen enemies all attacking with no rhyme or reason.
• Conlang: Provided one of the earlier examples of a completely fictitious language, and Klingon holds the distinction of being the most widely spoken fictitious language on Earth (with Tolkien's Elvish coming in second). If you're going to any Star Trek convention worth its salt you'll see at least a few Klingon cosplayers conversing in the tongue.
• Cultured Badass: Klingons are passionate opera lovers.
• Death of the Old Gods: According to their legends, Klingons slew their own gods. According to some other legends, they did so about five minutes after being brought to life.
  Worf: They were more trouble than they were worth.
• Death Wail: For the Klingon death ritual, it's traditional for those on hand to howl into the sky as a warning to the afterlife that a Klingon warrior is about to arrive.
• Democracy Is Bad: The Klingons' brief foray into representative government is treated by their historians as a kind of Dark Age.
  Jadzia: ...but, it's interesting to note that this first and only experiment in Klingon democracy actually produced several reforms that—
  Lady Sirella: You are straying from the saga!
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The mythological first Klingon Battle Couple sacked the heavens. They read the story at weddings. That's what Klingons consider romantic.
• Dies Wide Open: The Klingon Death Ritual involves holding the eyes of the deceased open to allow their soul to exit the body, then let out a loud howl to alert the warriors in Sto-vo-kor that a new warrior is on their way.
• Drunken Master: "Even half drunk, Klingons are among the best warriors in the galaxy."
  • The Drunken Sailor: And even the greatest of Klingon heroes are not allowed to receive their honors until they have proven that they can hold extreme amounts of Blood Wine.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The most obvious "weirdness" is their early appearance, which consisted mainly of a spray tan and evil hair.
  • When they are first introduced, they are described as a military dictatorship, with conquered planets being strictly controlled and dialogue even suggested the presence of a Secret Police to ensure loyalty and compliance. Later works softened the Empire as a collection of mostly autonomous satellite planets, and the Secret Police concept (along with others exclusive to Errand of Mercy) was instead pushed onto the Romulans as the Tal Shiar.
  • Klingon women were far more passive in the original series. In later installments, the role of women in Klingon society was considerably more egalitarian, as Klingon mythology included Kahless and his mate Lukara slaying 500 warriors together.
  • While Kor seems like a fairly typical Klingon retroactivly, in the Orginal Series he seems more of the exception to the rule. While the other Klingons rib the Federation for laking a martial culture, they come off as "all bark, no bite" more than not. Usually the Klingons are sneaking around abusing the terms of the peace treaty to get more worlds on their side rather than fighting directly. Far from the warriors that would rather face death than dishonor, they become uneasy when the odds aren't in their favor.
• Enemy Mine: Their own riff on the book of Genesis had the first Klingons, Kortar and his mate, dueling to the death with bat'leths. Kortar's adversary had him at swordpoint, but chose to spare him because, "If we join together, no force can stop us." And thus the Gods speaketh, "Oh, Crap!".
• Even Evil Has Standards: Klingons and Romulans once shared an alliance for a number of years. Big mistake. A number of disasters — including the Khitomer Massacre, the result of failed encroachments on Klingon colonies — led the Klingons to develop a deep-seated hatred for the Romulans. The Romulans are probably the species that Klingon society in general despises most of all. (TOS: "The Enterprise Incident"; TNG: "The Neutral Zone") They hate the Romulans so much that a single Federation starship coming to their aid against a Romulan attack meant the difference between a lasting friendship and all-out war with the Federation. (TNG: "Yesterday's Enterprise") Worf once angrily berated Alexander for being a school bully on the Enterprise-D, as it is the lowest form of dishonor for a warrior to bully those weaker than he is.
  Worf: They have no honor! They consider Klingons and humans to be a waste of skin!
• Evil Is Hammy: Veteran Klingon Robert O'Reilly told all neophyte Klingons that the most important part was to say their lines with utmost belief, and "go all the way." Qapla'!!
• Exotic Equipment: Guess what Klingon males have two of... and now imagine what their females must have two of...
• Fantastic Race Weapon Affinity: Klingons are proficient with multiple kinds of bladed weapons, but they're mainly seen wielding the batl'eth, a kind of crescent-shaped, pronged blade held from a hilt placed in the middle of its outer curve.
• Fantastic Slur: Crossing one's arms across the chest outside of a discommendation ceremony is a grave insult in Klingon culture.
• The Farmer and the Viper: Ironically for an honor-minded society, Klingons find excuses to kill each other and steal their land, or betray their Federation allies. It's less to do with greed than the Klingon propensity for violence: Chancellors are constantly directing hostilities outward, rather than face civil war at home.
• The Ferryman: Klingons who die without honor aren't allowed into Sto-vo-kor (esssentially the Klingon version of Valhalla), but are instead sentenced to Gre'thor, their version of Hell. The Barge of the Dead is the mythological ship to Gre'thor, captained by Kortar, the very first Klingon. When Kortar became more powerful than the gods who created him, he destroyed them, and, as punishment, he was condemned to ferry the souls of the dishonored for all eternity.
• Feudal Future: The culture of the Klingons is a hodgepodge of western stereotypes of the samurai, the Zulu, the Vikings, and various Native American nations — a proud, warlike and principled race. Klingon society is based on a feudal system organized around traditional Great Houses of noble lineage, to which various parts of the population owed fealty. The Great Houses are represented in the Klingon High Council, which is led by a Chancellor. Unusual for Trek, Klingon women aren't treated as equals (except as soldiers in the field). They are prohibited from serving in the High Council and can't inherit control of their Houses unless they have enough money — and no male successors. On other hand, women have a tremendous degree of clout regarding what goes on within the Houses. (This was Ron D. Moore's concession in DS9, as he felt there was next-to-zero Klingon women being represented in the series.)
• Fire-Forged Friends: With the Federation, first predicted by Ayelborne and then fulfilled by Gorkon and Azetbur after the Praxis explosion. According to Crewman Daniels, the Klingons will eventually join as full-fledged Federation members.
• Flanderization: Originally depicted in The Original Series as calculating Warrior Poets akin to Samurai. Later became Vikings IN SPACE!.
  • Lampshaded in Enterprise, where 22nd Century Klingon doctors and lawyers comment that they're finding themselves increasingly under the thumb of the Warrior Caste. By the 24th Century, the Warriors are all that's left.
• Foreign Cuss Word: "PetaQ!", the go-to Klingon cuss word. Exact translation never given in the show, but evidently somewhere equivalent to "bastard".
• Foreign Queasine:
  • Live, squirming racht and gagh! (Gesundheit.) Served fresh, of course. Interestingly, gagh is actually more palatable to humans than Klingons, who hate the taste but love the feeling of something dying inside of them.
    Jadzia: You haven't touched your racht.
    Arjin: No, I have. It's (gags) interesting.
    Jadzia: No, you've been moved it around your plate to make it look like you've touched it.
    Arjin: I didn't have to move it. It moved itself.
  • There are actually 51 different types of gagh, each with its distinct taste and texture, including Bithool gagh (which have feet), Filden (which squirm), Meshta (which jump), Torgud (which wiggles), and Wistan which is stuffed with targ blood. Yum yum.
  • Sins of the Father suggests that Klingons in general don't see the point of cooking their food, so their bodies might naturally imitate the sorts of processes that unlock additional nutrition when humans cook theirs.
• God-Emperor: The Klingon treatment of Kahless the Unforgettable, whom they have canonized as the pinnacle of Klingon society, and whose deeds have become legendary.
• Glory Seeker: As a rule, the Klingons seek glorious battle and glorious death above nearly all else, reveling in the notion of dying in battle to join the honored dead in Sto-vo-kor.
• Hand Cannon: The visual design of Klingon Disruptors is based on an antique flintlock pistol.
• Hand Wave: The Klingons' varying appearance used to be the single most popular piece of fanwank among Trekkies. The real reason for the discrepancy between TOS Klingons and their feature film and later television series counterparts was a lack of budget. Kang, Koloth, and Kor each gained a ridged forehead when they reappeared on DS9. Worf acknowledged the continuity holes when the crew of DS9 visited Kirk's Enterprise in the episode "Trials and Tribble-ations," but offered no explanation, saying merely, "We do not discuss it with outsiders."
  • A canonical reason was given for the change on Star Trek: Enterprise, revealing that it was caused by a failed attempt to create Klingon Augments, due to their fear that Starfleet were creating super soldiers after encountering some relics from the Eugenics War. Due to one of the test subjects having an alien form of flu, it mutated into an airborne plague that swept across the Empire, killing many until it was finally cured, but causing them to lose their ridges as a side-effect.
• Hard Head: It's repeatedly been shown that being whacked in the face with a sword is no more harmful to a Klingon than being whacked in the face with a staff. Those bony ridges seem to be pretty impressive natural armor. They're much more vulnerable to being stabbed in the gut.
• Honorable Warrior's Death: The greatest goal of any Klingon warrior is to die a glorious death in battle. Problems start when Klingons go around causing fights just so they can get there.
• Informed Ability: Perhaps unsurprisingly, thanks to The Worf Effect, their status as mighty warriors is this, seeing as they're routinely defeated in hand to hand combat by Humans, who are supposedly several times weaker than Klingons and have no redundant organs. This is particularly noticeable in the Deep Space Nine season 4 opener "The Way of the Warrior".
• Jabba Table Manners: The Klingons of the Star Trek universe universally gulp and slurp down food like slobs. In their case, it is to show how tough and free of pretentious "good manners" and straightforward and honest their society is, not to show how "evil" they are.
  • Inverted in a TNG episode, when Riker joined a Bird of Prey as part of an officer exchange. As part of his hazing, he wolfed down some gagh.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: Painstiks are also used in the "Sonchi" ceremony to confirm the death of an old chancellor: Contenders seeking to become the new chancellor take turns jabbing the corpse with a painstik while issuing verbal challenges. The lack of response to these insults is taken as confirmation.
• Klingon Promotion:
  • They're the Trope Namer and Trope Maker. In one episode, Dax explains the intricacies after hearing O'Brien and Bashir talk about the trope. Only a direct subordinate can make the challenge, and only after a severe infraction (cowardice, extreme failure, dereliction of duty). To be clear: you can't simply "assassinate" your superior officer, you have to challenge him to a formal duel.
  • The Imperial High Council is more civilized, but not by much. Gowron was once challenged by a member of the High Council while he was in the midst of a civil war against the Duras sisters. They have a duel to the death right there on the council floor, which Gowron wins. After which...
  Gowron: Now the war... may continue.
• Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: Partly justified. After all,
  Martok: Klingons make great warriors... but terrible doctors.
  • We actually see this work during the birth of Molly O'Brien, in ten forward. Worf acts as the midwife, blandly announcing the cervical dilation and getting agitated by Keiko's screaming.
    Worf (to Keiko): "You may now give birth!"
  • Lampshaded in Enterprise, where 22nd Century Klingon doctors and lawyers comment on being increasingly overruled by the Warrior caste and worry about the flanderisation of their species. Towards the end of the show, in "Affliction", it's bemoaned that Klingon science suffers from the warrior mentality.
  • Apparently, by the 24th Century that philosophical social problem was resolved in Klingon society: as long as you can frame your profession as a battle in at least some abstract way, such as a lawyer working in his case against an opponent in court, that's good enough for a true Klingon.
  • One episode of Enterprise has an elderly Klingon lawyer explain that the obsession with honor through combat is actually a recent cultural shift, telling Archer that when he was a boy honor was earned through "integrity and acts of true courage, not senseless bloodshed." Given how long lived Klingons are, this would put their cultural revolution roughly around the early 2000s. ^note  Coincidentally, this coincides well with that episode's original air date.
• Klingons Love Shakespeare: Trope Namer, first seen in the sixth movie. You can see why they'd enjoy his work, given the many plays that deal with wars and nobles, and the poetic language used.
• Lady of War: Klingons have Bridge Bunnies, too, but they tend to be a little more butch. Klingon noblewomen are tough cookies, also.
• Life of the Party: According to Jadzia and Worf, at least, Klingon women are actually pretty good fun at parties. Though probably so long as you don't try to cut off the bloodwine.
• Long-Lived: Klingons seem to have comparable lifespans as Vulcans, living two or three times as long as humans do. Many of the Klingon commanders that Kirk tangled with back in the day were still alive and kicking and only in the begin of their old age by the time of Deep Space Nine a hundred years later.
• Mad Libs Catchphrase: Much like Vulcans and their endless permutation of "logic", it's impressive just how many things Klingons will dub honorable or not honorable. Even some Klingons think it goes a little far sometimes.
  Ezri: It's very sweet.
  Worf: Not exactly a Klingon word.
  Ezri: It's very... honorable?
  Worf: Better. Albeit a little obvious.
• Martyrdom Culture: The greatest glory for a Klingon solider is to die in battle. Ritual suicide is often preferred over living life as a cripple, especially if you're a veteran. Even if you aren't a cripple, to allow oneself die of natural causes is a profound disgrace for a military family. No wonder Klingons are constantly hungry for the next big war. A key point, however, is that a Klingon must die by the hand of (or with the assistance of) another. Unassisted suicide is considered completely honorless, and a one-way ticket to Gre'thor (hell).
• Men Don't Cry: Spock said once that Klingons lack tear ducts; however, Klingon myth states that Kahless once filled the ocean with his tears, and at least one Klingon, Kurn, has produced tears.
• National Weapon: The Bat'leth.
  • Also the Mek'leth, a short sword curved inward.
  • Honorable mention goes to the "Painstik," which is self-explanatory. Unlike the Bat'leth, the painstiks are used mostly for ritualistic purposes. During the Rite of Ascension ceremony (essentially the Klingon bat mitzvah), a young Klingon must walk between two lines of Klingons prodding him with electrical shocks.
• Nay-Theist: As the Klingons believe it, their creator gods were destroyed by the first Klingons.
• Never Gets Drunk: Downplayed. While Klingons certainly can get drunk, and a few drunk Klingons have been seen onscreen, they take a lot longer to get drunk than humans. Perhaps this is because, as stated once, they have two livers.
• Noble Demon: While their society is cruel, vicious and violent by human standards, Klingons also value Honor, Courage, Honesty and Loyalty above all else.
• No Indoor Voice: Klingons consider it a sign of disrespect to speak softly. They like to make their presence felt.
• Persona Non Grata: Klingons who dishonor themselves gravely may be "Discommendated", wherein their status in society is reduced to the point where they are barely considered living, sentient beings.
• Prefers Raw Meat: When a Klingon comes aboard the USS Enterprise as an exchange officer, he says "I will try some of your burned replicated bird meat".
• Proud Warrior Race: Easily the Trope Maker (at least in televised science fiction). We don't often see them interact with Alpha Quadrant races other than humans, but when they do, stand back and watch the fireworks.
  Romulan: (haughtily) Romulans don't believe in luck.
  Martok: All the better! It leaves more for the rest of us!
  • To prove why they fit this whenever it's not an Informed Attribute making them more a race wide version of Miles Gloriosus, consider the fact that the Klingons utterly embarrassed the Cardassians during their war, enough to make the arrogant Gul Dukat admit that they'd been reduced to a "third rate power."
  • They also are shown to have the Federation on the ropes in one bad alternate universe, have conquered its imperial counterpart with the Cardassians in another, and for a period of the Federation-Dominion War, bore the vast brunt of the fighting.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Klingons became the primary antagonists of Kirk's crew, in part because the makeup necessary to make Romulans was too time-consuming and costly.
• Retcon: Star Trek: Discovery makes a massive change in how Klingons look and dress, looking far more "alien" than their previous Rubber-Foreheadedness.
  • This is scaled back by a wide margin in the second season in giving them their hair and (for the males) their beards back. Burnham explains (via convienient Hand Wave) that since the Klingons are no longer at war, they've decided to grow their hair out... though that never seemed to bother them before or since.
• Ritual Suicide: A Klingon who is unable to fight, and hence is unable to live as a warrior anymore, has the traditional obligation of committing the hegh'bat. Tradition dictates that the eldest son or a close personal friend must assist. That person's role is to hand the dying Klingon a knife so that he can plunge it into his heart, remove it, and then wipe the blood on his own sleeve.
• Rubber-Forehead Aliens: Not at first, as Star Trek: The Original Series showed them as Human Aliens. The rubber foreheads came with the movies and TNG-era shows. Star Trek: Enterprise (a prequel to TOS) would include the rubber foreheads and then explain the difference as a genetic-engineering experimant gone horribly wrong. Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek: Discovery came up with different rubber foreheads.
• Shoot the Medic First: Klingons are notorious for targeting field hospitals and doctors in their raids. From a Klingon's perspective, they are rewarding their wounded enemies with an honorable death. So it's not uncommon for Klingons to go around a ward stabbing each patient with bat'leths one-by-one.
• Sins of the Father: A serious issue for dishonorable Klingons, because their dishonor is passed down for generations, at least until their grandkids, or until someone atones. And it cuts both ways - a parent can be sentenced to Gre'thor for the sins of their children.
• Skyward Scream: Klingon death rituals include holding open the eyes of the recently deceased, then letting loose a mighty roar to the sky, warning the afterlife that a Klingon warrior is on their way.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: Klingon foreplay... is energetic. When choosing a mate, it is traditional for a female Klingon to bite the male's face, allowing her to taste his blood and get his scent. Actually, the male comes out looking the worse for wear. Worf once tells Wesley Crusher that per the Klingon mating ritual, "Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects." Of men, Worf says "He reads love poetry. He ducks a lot."
• Sneaky Spy Species:
  • In Star Trek: The Original Series, espionage is a specialty of the Klingons (influenced as they were by Cold War-era Russia). Of course, this was prior to the dramatic shift in depiction that saw them portrayed as the Proud Warrior Race we know today.
  • Subverted in Star Trek: Discovery, where espionage and infiltration turns out to be the specialty of House Mo'kai, the leading faction of the Klingon Empire, rather than a species-wide hat.
• Soldier vs. Warrior: An interesting mix of both. Like warriors, Klingons devote their lives to preparing for battle and way of life. They place a strong emphasis on individual achievement and individual glory. Like soldiers, they devote themselves to a greater cause namely the empire. Individual glory or goals are second to the greater good of the empire. They are willing to retreat when necessary and not waste resources on individual glory that could jeopardize the war effort. Disobedience and stupidity is punished with a dishonorable death. Generally, they consider themselves soldiers first and warriors second especially in times of war. After all, the Klingons have a saying, "Only a fool fights in an burning house", though at least one Klingon found it "exhilarating".
• Space Orcs: Classic aggressive, warlike aliens with a culture focused entirely on war and Might Makes Right. They've even gone through a similar arc as orcs have in fantasy, from the Tolkien-orc-like nearly-Always Chaotic Evil antagonists of Star Trek: The Original Series through their softening and fleshing-out in various films and ultimately to the Blizzard-orc-like sympathetic Proud Warrior Race of Star Trek: The Next Generation and later.
• Spare Body Parts: There is a good deal of multiple redundancy in their organs, a novelty they call brak'lul. This allows Klingons to survive severe injuries in battle. They have twenty-three ribs, two livers, an eight-chambered heart, three lungs, multiple stomachs, and even redundant neural function. It's best not to wound a Klingon unless it kills him outright, although the episode that introduced this concept also noted that having so many biological redundancies has the drawback that it also means extra chances for something inside the body to go wrong. Funnily, Klingons are comparatively ignorant about their own biology as their medicine is poorly developed. This was largely due to warrior tradition: a wounded Klingon is expected to use the last of his strength to slay the enemy, or to kill themselves honorably.
• Strong as They Need to Be: Though they're stated to be somewhat stronger than humans, their strength varies wildly throughout the franchise; often they don't seem any tougher than any other Mook, though Worf often performs one-handed Neck Lifts against people who displease him and Kruge clearly came across as much stronger than Kirk when the two of them fought at the end of The Search for Spock.
• Theme Naming: Klingons love the letter K. The Original Series gave us the iconic triumvirate of Kang, Kor, Koloth, and Kahless; and the movies have Kruge, Klaa, Koord, and Gorkon. And on the Enterprise, there's Worf. In the Expanded Universe, their home planet used to be called Klinzhai, but the official canon later renamed it Qonos (pronounced with a K sound).
• Used Future: In contrast to the sleek and cutting-edge feel of Federation ships, Klingon ships tend to feel industrial with dingy colors and little emphasis on crew comforts. This is often paired with cloaking abilities, making a ship analogous to an attack submarine.
• Vestigial Empire: They went through a period of this between the 2150s and 2256, as the Great Houses' in-fighting reached a breaking point and left the Empire in a state of perpetual civil war. T'Kuvma eventually snapped them out of it via a Genghis Gambit against the Federation, which is what sets the events of Star Trek: Discovery into motion.
• War Is Glorious: The whole point of Klingon society.
• Warrior Heaven: Sto-Vo-Kor, where Kahless awaits those who die honorably in battle.
• Warrior Poet: It turns out many of William Shakespeare's works (particularly the histories, which are quite bloody and violent) are quite popular throughout the Empire, which ends up becoming the Trope Namer for In the Original Klingon.
• Wild Hair: Most Klingons, especially those seen in the TNG-era, allow their hair to grow long and wild. That Worf combs or ties back his hair drives home his reserved nature and the effects of growing up around humans.
• With Friends Like These...: When allied with the Federation, they are an awesome ally! Unfortunately, their government system is incredibly violent and possibly even unstable, with transfers in power occurring often with outside intervention for the sake of maintaining a modicum of order in the Alpha Quadrant.
• Yellow Peril: TOS Klingons are portrayed with dark skin and Fu Manchu facial hair suggestive of Asian peoples. In fact, the only physical description of them in the script for "Errand of Mercy" (the Klingons' first TOS story) is "oriental" and "hard-faced". Then again, budget constraints limited creativity.
  • Oddly, the Klingons typically fill the Dirty Communists role, with the Romulans standing in for China. This became more apparent on TNG, when the Romulans adopted more severe hairstyles while the Klingons took up drinking, not to mention the series' Token Heroic Orc being literally adopted by humans in Minsk.

Klingons

22nd Century

Duras

Duras, Son of Toral

Played By: Daniel Riordan

A Klingon with a serious grudge against Archer after an incident involving refugees fleeing the Klingon Empire.

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• Generation Xerox: He's just as big a petaQ' as his descendant from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Even by Klingon standards, as he tries to pursue Enterprise into the Delphic Expanse, which Klingons fear so much that his own wingmen won't follow him in.

23rd Century

The High Council

L'Rell

High Chancellor L'Rell (lIr'el)

"In this fight, we have lost our way. A new leader is needed to fulfill my lord's vision. I am that leader."

Played by: Mary Chieffo

Formerly of the House of Mo'Kai (mo'qay tuq), L'Rell is introduced as a battle deck commander on T'Kuvma's ship, and later becomes the leader of his remaining followers.

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• Aliens Speaking English: Justified as House Mo'Kai considers it useful to learn foreign languages for espionage and apparently put her through an advanced ESL course.
• Anti-Villain: Starts out as a decidedly unsympathetic character but has some Evil Virtues that may make her a sort of Noble Demon. She undergoes Character Development that takes her to significantly more sympathetic territory and may qualify as an Anti-Hero by season 2.
• Cincinnatus: She stated early on that she did not desire a leadership position, preferring to work in the background. However, circumstances in the first season finale led to her accepting the position of chancellor in order to unite the Klingon Empire and fulfil T'Kuvma's vision.
• Co-Dragons: Along with Voq, she appears to be this to T'Kuvma among his followers. After T'Kuvma is dead and Voq is transformed into Tyler, she becomes a Dragon Ascendant.
• Dark Action Girl: Her capture of Lorca and fight with Ash shows she can handle herself in a fight, despite espionage being her house's main focus.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male and Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: A rather complicated situation. Tyler believes that she sexually abused him while he was a prisoner on her ship, and this is treated respectfully by the people around him. However, with the reveal that Tyler actually is Voq in heavy surgically-modified disguise, it's heavily implied that the memories of rape were really from a consensual relationship between her and Voq, before he was altered to become Tyler. Moreover, a follow-up scene in Season 2, where Tyler rejects L'Rell's advances and states that they seem like a violation to him, sees L'Rell backing off at once in apparent horror. The show consistently plays what appear to be Tyler's memories of abuse and assault for horror rather than titillation and treats the PTSD he suffers as a result with utmost seriousness, so depending upon one's stance, this trope is either Zig-Zagged, subverted, or averted.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • She seems to genuinely care about her crewmates on the Ship of the Dead, risking herself to protect Voq and swearing dire vengeance on Kol when it turned out that he'd had many of the others killed.
  • She and Voq were lovers, so she's understandably upset when she initially can't get Voq's personality to emerge from Tyler and he rejects her.
  • In Season 2, she threatens to cut Georgiou's throat when Georgiou asks if she's able to kill Tyler to save her chancellorship.
  • She also swears to kill the head of House Kor when he kidnaps her son to try and force her to abdicate.
  • Also in season 2, she immediately recoils in horror when Tyler/Voq tells her that her touch feels like a violation.
  • She clearly loves her son, threatening to disembowel Kol-Sha if he hurts him. L'rell sends him off to a safe haven so he can be protected.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • While being a pretty harsh and savage person in her own right, she has nothing but contempt for Kol and considers him to have no honor.
  • She doesn't seem to have had any problem with torturing prisoners, but recoils immediately in horror when Tyler/Voq tells her that her touch feels like a violation to him. This also, in retrospect, makes it seem almost certain that what Tyler interprets as being memories of L'Rell raping him were actually corrupted memories of a consensual relationship between L'Rell and Voq.
• Facial Horror: Gets a nasty burn on the left side of her face courtesy of a near miss from a Klingon disruptor fired by Lorca. Once treated, she still has a large amount of scarring on her face.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: L'Rell is a minor member of a relatively weak Great House, but after Burnham gives her access to a bomb that could wipe out all life on Qo'Nos, she uses it to blackmail the Great Houses into making her chancellor.
• Heel–Face Turn: After Burnham convinces her that T'Kuvma's war has only left the Klingon Empire more divided than ever, L'Rell agrees to work with her to bring peace between their peoples.
• Kill the Ones You Love:
  • She erases her lover Voq's personality to spare him from the torture of being trapped inside of Tyler and no longer a Klingon.
  • Inverted in Season 2, where she fakes the deaths of both Tyler and her unnamed son to save them from becoming victims of her political enemies.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: After becoming Chancellor and ending the war with the Federation, L'Rell starts wearing more opulent and feminine clothing - which don't keep her from actively fighting to free her kidnapped son and defend her office.
• Klingon Promotion: Actually averts this, as she becomes Chancellor of the Empire using the threat of a superweapon hidden by Mirror-Georgiou on Qo'nos.
• Last of His Kind: She considers herself and Voq to be the only Klingons remaining true to T'Kuvma, and with the personality-death of Voq, she's officially the last member of the House of T'Kuvma.
• Mama Bear: She threatens to disembowel Kol-Sha if he hurts her and Ash's son. She also tells the High Council to address her as "Mother" instead of Chancellor, deeming it a far "fiercer" title.
• The Man Behind the Man: Well, Woman Behind: States she doesn't want leadership because she prefers operating behind the scenes in support. This is apparently due in part to one of her parents being a member of the House of Mo'Kai, which is known for espionage and covert action.
• Manipulative Bastard:
  • Successfully wins over General Kol by playing on his prejudices that she's switched sides, and suggests a fate worse than death for Voq, all to ensure she has an opportunity for both her and Voq to escape without Kol's knowledge.
  • With the reveal that Tyler is really Voq, the whole kidnapping and escape of Lorca in "Choose Your Pain" was demonstrated to be a brilliant piece of theatre to get Tyler/Voq aboard Discovery and into Lorca's trust.
• Pyrrhic Victory: What she wanted was to support Voq in reclaiming his rightful place as T'Kuvma's successor and fulfilling T'Kuvma's dream of uniting the Klingons, staying in the background, while he acted as the face of the operation. What she got instead is a new job directly in the limelight as the Klingon High Chancellor courtesy of the Federation, with most of Qo'noS' noble houses arrayed against her. The one person reliably on her side is Ash Tyler, who is all that remains of Voq, after she had to kill his personality to save at least the Ash part of him — which only happened because she persuaded Voq to become a Deep Cover Agent in Starfleet in the first place.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: L'Rell's plan was to put a deep-cover sleeper agent in a place where he could be rescued by the captain of the most important warship of the Federation, whereupon he'd get to serve on said ship and be in the perfect position to sabotage it when she activates him. This makes perfect sense for a Proud Warrior Race Guy who chooses subordinates for personal loyalty lest Klingon Promotion might occur and who thinks trauma counseling is for wusses. The more likely version would of course have been for Tyler to be sent straight away to a few years of therapy and kept far away from anything shooty or pointy. Why didn't it work out that way? Because Lorca actually had the exact attitudes L'Rell thought to be universal due to his Mirror Universe upbringing.
• Someone to Remember Him By: Her relationship with Voq led to an infant son, whom she tries to keep secret from everyone (except her uncle and other trusted retainers). This proves wise when, upon Ash discovering the child's existence — inadvertently revealing him to L'Rell's adversaries due to some cleverly placed listening devices — the baby gets promptly kidnapped. Finally, L'Rell agrees to give up her son to a reclusive order of monks on Boreth to protect both him and her chancellorship.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: She is very clear in expressing that she is not a friend when she arrives to assist Discovery and Enterprise battling Control's fleet, but she, and the Klingon Empire, is willing to look past their hostility toward Starfleet to fight for the future.
• Torture Technician: She is an expert interrogator and is capable of devising custom tortures for her victims, such as exploiting Lorca's sensitivity to light by forcing his eyes open and shining bright light into them.
• Women Are Wiser: She's a skilled strategist, in contrast to Voq's single minded devotion to T'Kuvma.

General Kol

General Kol

"But your strange ship, her crew, and cloaking technology will now serve me."

Played by: Kenneth Mitchell

A commanding officer among the Klingons. Represents the House of Kor (qor tuq) on the High Council.

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• Arc Villain: He wins the power struggle following T'Kuvma's death and becomes ruler of the Klingon Empire and, by extension, the Big Bad of most of the first season. Voq and L'Rell play second string with their own undefined plans. His leadership of the Klingon Empire, along with his existence, ends in "Into The Forest I Go" when he is killed in battle with Discovery.
• Despotism Justifies the Means: He freely admits he just wants to place himself and the House of Kor in charge, with little regard for what becomes of the other Great Houses so long as they end up subservient to him.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Follows in T'Kuvma's doomed footsteps, making him more of an Arc Villain overall when he is killed after nine episodes of the first season.
• Four-Star Badass: A Klingon version.
• Honor Before Reason: Initially makes the tactically sound decision to withdraw from a battle with Discovery until he can figure out what they're up to, only to completely forget about that when Burnham makes an unexpected appearance and personally challenges him.
• Manipulative Bastard: Gets Voq's surviving crew to join him at the drop of a hat by supplying them with food after six months of struggle and starvation, and then takes off with T'Kuvma's "sarcophagus" ship and its cloaking device. He then uses his control over this technology to convince the other houses to rally behind him, offering it in exchange for their loyalty.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: In his very first appearance, he establishes himself as both classist and prejudiced against those he considers outcasts of Klingon society. This is a Call-Forward: When Kor, the namesake of his House, later reappeared in Deep Space Nine, it was revealed that he denied Martok acceptance into the officers' class years before, even though his application was exemplary and the final "acceptance" step was merely a formal rubber stamp, purely because Martok was not of noble birth.^note Martok's family, despite loyally serving as foot soldiers for many generations, came from the poor lowlands of Ketha Province (which the actor said he felt was analogous to something like a poor backwater of rural Mexico). Kor's family, in contrast, were an ancient and highly respected Great House of the upper aristocracy, so he had some classist bias against Martok — though over the course of many years, with grit, determination, and a lot of luck, Martok managed to work his way up from the lowest ranks to a battlefield commission, and eventually a high-ranking commander over their entire military and finally chancellor of the Empire. Thus, it makes sense that if they were going to pick one of the Great Houses to be the most aristocratically biased and socially conservative for this series, it would be the House of Kor.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: As with all Klingons, he sees himself as a warrior first and foremost. Michael exploits this by challenging him to a duel so he'll be too distracted fighing her to notice her sabotage.
• The Rival: The most outwardly antagonistic of all the members of the High Council who answered T'Kuvma's call, he vows to put him in his place one day. T'Kuvma is killed before he can ever make good on that threat. However, he wins over T'Kuvma's followers and gets them to abandon his hand-picked successor, in essence eliminating T'Kuvma's legacy.
• Smug Snake: While he's certainly very dangerous and competent, he still comes across as this since the threat he poses is due to him exploiting T'Kuvma's memory and accomplishments for his own cynical ends while thinking nothing of murdering and betraying T'Kuvma's sincere followers.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: To a certain degree. T'Kuvma certainly wasn't the nicest guy(by Federation standards at least), his primary motivation was unifying a fractured Klingon Empire for its own sake, and was willing to accept any Klingon into his ranks so long as they were capable. Kol is only interested in enhancing his own personal power, and scorns anyone of lesser birth.
• Villainous Breakdown: After Discovery figures out how to penetrate the Sarcophagus' cloak, Kol screams as Discovery bombards his unshielded ship into pieces.

Kol-Sha

Kol-Sha

Played by: Kenneth Mitchell

Leader of the House of Kor and a member of the High Council after the death of his son, Kol. He considers Chancellor L'Rell to be a puppet of the Federation and is suspicious of the human-looking Tyler.

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• Dirty Coward: Lets his mooks fight against L'Rell and Tyler, and only steps in at the end to hit the pair with a paralysing weapon.
• Gutted Like a Fish: The means of his demise at L'Rell's hands.
• Spy Cam: Spies on L'Rell and Tyler using a listening device made of nanobots dissolved in his House's trademark facepaint.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He looks much like his son — and is played by the same actor.
• Would Hurt a Child: Kidnaps L'Rell and Voq's infant son to pressure L'Rell into abdicating.

Dennas

Dennas

Played by: Clare Mc Connell

A member of the Klingon High Council, representing The House of D'Ghor (Daghor tuq).

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• Bling of War: She is the only Klingon to wear any headgear, an intrincate jeweled headdress covering her ridges.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: She is the first member of the Council to look past her prejudices and take T'Kuvma's proposal seriously.

Ujilli

Ujilli

Played by: Damon Runyan

A member of the Klingon High Council, representing The House of Mo'Kai.

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• Back for the Dead: Shows up in "Point of Light" for the first time since the early first season and soon ends up dead at the hands of Kol-Sha.
• Covered with Scars: The cultural significance of this for Klingons, or of the House of Mo'Kai, hasn't yet been revealed but Ujilli and several other Klingons who may be associated with him or his House seem to have undergone some form of ritualistic scarification. Ujilli, as leader of the House of Mo'Kai, seems to have the most scars, probably to indicate his badass leadership status, but the Klingons on the prison ship who carried out L'Rell's orders in "Choose Your Pain" also seemed to be sporting scars, so it seems to be a trait common to most if not all of the House of Mo'Kai.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He follows Dennas's example and asks to listen to more of T'Kuvma's proposal. With the reveal by L'Rell that the House of Mo'Kai is known for being spies, it would make sense that the representative of that house would want to gather information.
• Secret-Keeper: In Season 2, he shelters L'Rell and Voq's infant son for his niece. Subverts this himself after Tyler confronts him about spying on him, as he feels that Tyler should know about his/Voq's child.

The House of T’Kuvma

T'Kuvma

T'Kuvma (tIquvma)

"We have been waiting for someone worthy of our attention."

Played by: Chris Obi

A leader who is seeking to unite the Klingon houses.

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• Anti-Villain: Though the Klingons are still an adversary of the Federation in the 2250s, he seems to have lofty and noble goals to unify the Klingon Empire. Additionally, from a Klingon perspective at least, he makes a decent case against the Federation, claiming that they are expansionist, colonialist, and worst of all liars, by doing their empire building whilst insisting "We come in peace". That said, he still respects Starfleet as worthy opponents.
• Berserk Button: He hates it when Starfleet officers say "We come in peace", believing it to be a lie.
• Big Bad: At the start of the series.
• Catchphrase: "tlhIngan maH! taHjaj!" ("Remain Klingon!" Also translated as "We are Klingons! Let it remain!") This gets adopted as a rallying cry throughout the rest of the Empire.
• Dark Messiah: He considers himself to be a successor of sorts to Kahless, the Klingon messiah; he leads a cult of personality, and he wants to unite the Klingons against the Federation. After his death, Voq starts praying to him as if he were a god.
• Deadpan Snarker: Despite the general messianic speeches, when Georgiou's message is playing, he sarcastically predicts exactly when she will get to the Federation phrase he considers a complete lie: "We come in peace."
  T'Kuvma: Here it comes ...
• Disc-One Final Boss: Promotional material built him up as the series' Big Bad and ultimate antagonist. Michael kills him in the second episode — though in such a way that he becomes a martyr and his ideology lives on.
• Fantastic Racism: He has nothing nice to say about humans, or any other non-Klingon species for that matter.
• Genghis Gambit: Seeks out the forces of the Federation, the most formidable adversary that he can find, in order to spark a war that will drive the Houses of the Klingon Empire to unite in battle.
• Hypocrite: Downplayed, due to Blue-and-Orange Morality. T'Kuvma is all about restoring the honor of the Klingon Empire but lies to the Federation's Admiral about talking peace. While the Klingons have a lot of Deliberate Values Dissonance going on and they are not above sneak attacks, this would be considered cowardly by the traditional warrior culture because he's explicitly breaking his word. On the other hand, even Worf, son of Mogh once pointed out that, to Klingons, "There is nothing more honorable than victory," so from a Klingon perspective, he's really just being a Combat Pragmatist.
• I Surrender, Suckers: When Admiral Anderson arrives at the Battle of the Binary Stars, he proposes a cease-fire. T'Kuvma accepts, telling Anderson to prepare to receive his envoy ... and then has one of his cloaked ships ram Anderson's flagship, the Europa.
  T'Kuvma: Lest anyone doubt that I can render my ships invisible.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: Even as he lies dying, he tries to ensure that his memory will inspire Voq and the rest of his followers to fight on.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: As a leader seeking to unite the feuding pieces of the Klingon Empire.
• Red Baron: His followers style him "the Unforgettable" ("lIjlaHbe'bogh vay'"), the same moniker used for Kahless.
• Sympathetic P.O.V.: Light of Kahless, a comic that tells T'Kuvma's history within the Klingon Empire and generally does not address other civilizations.
• We Come in Peace — Shoot to Kill: Argues that Starfleet and the Federation operate like this... then actually does this himself.
• Worthy Opponent: Considers the assembled Starfleet ships and their crews to be this.

Voq

Voq

Played by: Javid Iqbal^note A pseudonym for Shazad Latif, used to prevent the credits from spoiling a plot twist

One of T'Kuvma's most devout followers. An albino, Voq is looked down upon by rigid Klingon social structure as a mistake of nature, and treated as an outcast. As a result, he is not a member of any Great House, calling himself "son of none" ("pagh puqloD" in Klingon), and was apparently even shunned by his own family^note Klingons don't have surnames, so they formally introduces themselves with the same format as "Worf, son of Mogh". Despite being an outcast, he seeks to prove his devotion to Klingon ideals through his own faith and deeds — a devotion that impresses T'Kuvma enough to make him his right-hand warrior and Torchbearer (or "Sech qengwI'"). This devotion runs so deep that he volunteers for a complete physical surgical transformation into a human infiltrator in the form of "Ash Tyler".

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• Albinos Are Freaks: Voq is treated as a freak of nature because of his albinism.
• Anti-Villain: While he's a ruthless, human-hating killer, he is also somewhat sympathetic due to the discrimination he has faced because of his albinism, his courage, his willingness to admit his limitations and accept advice from others, and his genuine devotion to T'Kuvma's teachings that is contrasted with the selfishness and treachery of his rivals.
• Death of Personality: When the conflict between Voq and Tyler's personalities begins to cause them to self-harm, L'Rell is forced to erase Voq's personality to save his life. She does the Klingon death roar for him, meaning that as far as she is concerned, Voq is dead.
• Dragon Ascendant: He becomes T'Kuvma's second-in-command, and gains control over the rest of his House, or what's left of it, after T'Kuvma is killed in battle. At least, until he volunteers for complete surgical alteration into a human, at which point L'Rell takes over as the new Dragon Ascendant of T'Kuvma's remaining followers.
• Dramatic Irony: He despises the Federation in general, and Burnham in particular for killing T'Kuvma. So naturally, when he still thinks he's Ash Tyler, he falls in love with her.
• Gone Horribly Right: Or Wrong, on a number of levels and depending on your viewpoint. Voq is a hero by Klingon standards and his actions very much spurred the other Houses to action, but despite that, the other Houses turned on him and each other at the earliest opportunity, since despite his personal glory, he wielded little to no actual power in the Empire. His extreme method of becoming a Manchurian Agent in Starfleet came with a boatload of risk, but it nearly paid off as his virtually perfect cover swiftly got him into Captain Lorca's favour. But it ended up not working, and Voq's personality was given a Mercy Kill by L'Rell, leaving Ash Tyler back in control with both lives' worth of experiences and skills.
• Hero Killer: Murders Dr. Culber in "Despite Yourself", before attempting to do the same to the Mirror Universe Voq (his own counterpart) and the prime-universe Michael Burnham. And before all that, he was a party to the murder-via-vivisection of the real Ash Tyler in a Klingon prison.
• Honor Before Reason: Before L'Rell convinced him to see reason, Voq was prepared to starve to death aboard T'Kuvma's derelict ship rather than "contaminate" the ship by repairing it with parts from the Shenzhou.
• I Am X, Son of Y: Notably averts the Klingon patronymic tradition, declaring himself "son of none".
• Jumped at the Call: Voq is the only one who steps forward to be the new "Torchbearer".
• Macho Masochism: Voq proves his devotion by holding his hand over a flame, letting it burn without flinching. This is possibly a shout-out to the Roman soldier Gaius Mucius Scaevola, who according to legend did the same thing.^note He was sent into the Etruscan army camp to assassinate their king, but mistakenly killed the wrong target and was caught. Brought before their king, he announced that he was unafraid to die, and knew he had no hope of making it out of the camp alive even if he had succeeded: the Romans were so brave that the destruction of the body meant nothing to them in pursuit of the greater glory — and there were 300 more volunteers waiting to follow him if his assassination attempt failed. To prove his point, he then thrust his right hand into an open brazier until it withered away, but showed no indication of pain. This freaked out the Etruscans so much that they let him go, and immediately sent ambassadors to Rome to seek peace. Ever since, Gaius Mucius was known as "Scaevola" — "left-handed".
• Meaningful Name: The word "voq" means "to trust" or "to have faith in"; Voq, of course, has absolute faith and trust in T'Kuvma.
• Red Right Hand: Voq is an albino, which makes other Klingons see him as a freak and mistake of nature, not belonging to any Great House. T'Kuvma says he's come to see this as a "mirror" and sees himself in Voq: he's unattached to the decadent feuds of the Great Houses, and has a driving need to prove that he is a true Klingon (striking a chord with T'Kuvma because he feels the Great Houses have forgotten the traditions of honor and glory that Khaless set down for them). It goes double when he holds his hand over a flame in an act of Macho Masochism, charring the skin on one hand.
• Shaming the Mob: The faith of T'Kuvma's followers wavers to the point that they aren't sure if any of the Great Houses will respond to their call to unite if they light the beacon of Khaless. After Rejac is killed, T'Kuvma calls for another to replace him as their "Torchbearer", to honor their House — none will, and even Rejac's own brother expresses his doubts. Then "Voq, son of no one" steps forward, a shamed albino derided as a freak of nature by his fellow Klingons, who declares that while he is not a member of an honored Great House, he will prove his honor through his own faith and deeds by taking Rejac's place. T'Kuvma accepts, moved that this shamed outsider has displayed more courage and devotion than the high-ranking members of Great Houses who refused the call.
• Shoot the Medic First: After finally reasserting himself and pulling off a Split-Personality Takeover while disguised as Ash Tyler, Voq's first act is to kill Dr. Culber as soon as medical scans finally reveal that "Tyler" really is a surgically-modified Klingon.
• Split-Personality Takeover: Once he is surgically and neurologically disguised as Ash Tyler, he eventually overwhelms Tyler's personality when confronted with his more heroic Mirror Universe counterpart.
• Undying Loyalty: He is T'Kuvma's most devoted follower (possibly rivaled only by L'Rell) and struggles to keep T'Kuvma's legacy alive after his death.
• Villainous Valor: Willingly allows himself to undergo Body Horror levels of surgical and neurological alteration, right down to having his personality hidden under human memory patterns. Essentially, he gives up everything he believes in just to infiltrate and undermine Starfleet.

The Clerics of Boreth

Tenavik

Tenavik

As an infant

An an adult

Played by: Kenneth Mitchell

A monk and keeper of the time crystals hidden on Boreth. He's also L'Rell and Voq's adult son.

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• Connected All Along: Because he turns out to be Voq and L'Rell's grown adult son.
• Cryptic Conversation: Engages in one of these with Pike when the captain comes to obtain a time crystal.
• Dreadlock Warrior: Wears his hair in lengthy dreadlocks, though he doesn't get into combat on screen. His role is that of a dedicated guardian.
• Enigmatic Minion: Of the order of Klingons who safeguard the time crystals on Boreth.
• Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Constant exposure to the cache of time crystals has aged him beyond his young years. And he's none other than the son of L'Rell and Voq, now grown to adulthood within the span of a few months.
• Rapid Aging: See above.
• Tragic Keepsake: Subverted. He was left his father's torchbearer insignia, but not only did he find solace in them he is even able to give them back to Ash and L'Rell through Pike, who tells him about Ash, and can in turn tell his parents about Tenavik.

Others

Commander Kor

Commander Kor

Played by: John Colicos

Appearances: Star Trek: The Original Series | Star Trek: The Animated Series | Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

The main antagonist of "Errand of Mercy" and Kirk's first Klingon opponent. Technically he isn't Star Trek's first Klingon since several troopers are seen before him, but he is the primary Klingon in the episode which introduces the race. He returned in one episode of The Animated Series, three episodes of Deep Space Nine (undergoing a Heel–Face Turn with the rest of the Klingons), and more novels and comics than you can shake a stick at.

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• Affably Evil: Despite intending to execute Kirk once he discovers his identity, he has a drink with him first and is generally hard to dislike.
• Cold Ham: Dominates everyone in his first scene, not raising his voice in his command, but is shaking with barely contained power.
• Enemy Mine: When the Organians demonstrate their powers and use nonlethal force on both sides, Kor is quick to whisper to Kirk that they should team up to take them on.
• Evil Counterpart: Like Kirk, Kor is a senior field officer, but with the military dictatorship of the Klingon Empire rather than the democracy of the Federation.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: Kor's control of Organia involves restriction of personal freedoms, mass executions, and constant surveillance.
• No Sense of Personal Space: As well as the famous “you’ll be taught how to use your tongue” line, he sees Kirk and immediately circles him like prey, along with a blatant check out of his ass.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Kor tries to pull one of these on Kirk, saying they are both warriors on a world of cowards. However, he is horrified when the Organians pull one on him and say one day humans and Klingons will be friends.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Unlike many TOS Klingons, Kor does seem to embody this trope.
• Small Role, Big Impact: John Colicos played Kor only once on TOS before reprising the role decades later on DS9, but his Genghis Khan-inspired performance set the standard for all Klingons.
• Yellow Peril: Kor's look was based on Genghis Khan.

Captain Koloth

Captain Koloth

Played by: William Campbell

"Appearances:' Star Trek: The Original Series | Star Trek: The Animated Series | Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

The second major Klingon antagonist to appear in the Original Series; he is one of the many problems Kirk has to contend with in "The Trouble With Tribbles". He is a boisterous and devious captain, cheerfully exploiting the terms of the Organian peace treaty for his benefit while scheming to advance the Klingon Empire's interests. Koloth proved extremely popular with fans and reappeared in the Animated Series and DS9 alongside his fellow Klingons Kor and Kang, as well as starring in several novels and short stories.

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• Friendly Enemy: Kirk and Koloth (somewhat sarcastically) greet each other as "my dear captain" when they meet on K-7.
• Large Ham: William Campbell is channeling more than a little of his performance as Trelane into Koloth.
• Noodle Incident: Koloth and Kirk's first meeting prior to the episode.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: According to William Campbell, Koloth wanted to be the one to defeat Kirk and would have happily fought anyone who tried to take that opportunity away from him.
• Rules Lawyer: Koloth uses the terms of the Organian peace treaty to get his men shore leave on K-7 over Kirk's protests.
• Smug Snake: Koloth is clearly enjoying the opportunity to tweak Kirk's nose while advancing the Empire's plot to poison the quadrotriticale shipment.
• Worthy Opponent: Koloth is clearly happy to be involved in verbal sparring matches with Kirk; decades later, Jadzia Dax tells Ben Sisko that Koloth always regretted never getting to face Kirk in battle.

Commander Kang

Commander Kang

Played by: Michael Ansara

Appearances: Star Trek: The Original Series | Star Trek: Deep Space Nine | Star Trek: Voyager

The third and last major Klingon antagonist of the Original Series. Kang is a battle-hardened commander who squares off with Kirk at the remote planet of Beta-XII A. Originally created because John Colicos was unable to reprise his role as Kor, Kang proved popular enough to be brought back for guest appearances in Deep Space Nine and Voyager.

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• Cold-Blooded Torture: Kang threatens to torture and execute the Enterprise crew one by one until Kirk confesses to killing his men.
• Deadpan Snarker: He gets a few good lines in.
  '''Kor: Most interesting. The bulk of your crew trapped? Your ship racing from this galaxy at wild speeds? Delightful.
• Enemy Mine: When Kang finally accepts that the Klingons and the Enterprise crew are being manipulated by the Beta-XII A entity, he teams up with Kirk to defeat the energy being.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His wife, Mara, is his science officer, and he clearly cares for her, though he also won't let her be used as a bargaining chip against him.
• A Father to His Men: Kang is pissed at Kirk for having apparently killed most of his crew.
• I Have Your Wife: Kirk tries threatening to kill Mara if Kang doesn't agree to a truce. Kang just shrugs it off as the inevitable result of war.
• Sheathe Your Sword: Kang lays down his arms when he realizes that he's being manipulated by the Beta-XII A entity.
• Yellow Peril: Like Kor, Kang's appearance takes a lot of cues from Genghis Khan.

24th Century

Duras

Duras

Played By: Patrick Massett

"His heart is not Klingon."

A Klingon politician whose father was a rival of Worf's before the Khitomer Massacre in which both men were killed, due to Duras' father betraying his people to the Romulans. When this information is discovered years later, Duras persuades the Klingon High Council to blame Worf's father instead of his (since he's powerful enough to start a civil war in the Empire if they don't do what he wants). This sets Worf up to be stigmatized and, under Klingon law, executed as the son of a traitor. When Worf challenges this, Duras not only does everything he can to make Worf's father look guilty, but also attempts to have Worf's brother and Picard assassinated for supporting him. In the end, after Worf and Picard learn the truth, Worf agrees to accept discommendation in order to keep the Empire from falling apart; this means that he admits his guilt and accepts lifelong ostracization from all other Klingons. Worf, quite understandably, holds a grudge against Duras for this.

Later, Duras is suspected of poisoning the Klingon head of state and his former co-conspirator in burying the truth about Khitomer, K'mpec, in order to usurp K'mpec's position. This is an extremely dishonorable method of killing among the Proud Warrior Race of Klingons, and K'mpec urges Picard to not only determine who should succeed him, but discover whether Duras or another Klingon in a position to succeed him—Gowron—did the deed, as anybody who would do such a thing cannot be trusted to rule the Empire. Duras not only attempts to have Gowron killed with a bomb, but does kill Worf's love interest, K'Ehleyr, when the latter starts digging into his past and accuses him of being the son of a traitor and framing Worf. Worf, upon finding K'Ehleyr near death and learning that Duras is responsible, goes after Duras and kills him in single combat.

This wouldn't be the end of the Duras family causing trouble, though, as he had a couple of sisters who picked up right where he left off...

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• Asshole Victim: In "The Mind's Eye," the Klingon ambassador Kell tells Worf that he did a service in killing Duras, saying that some High Council members were apprehensive about him getting named Chancellor.
• Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit: Tries to pin the Khitomer Massacre on Worf's father, Mogh, which would, in turn, get Worf pinned as well. He had hoped Worf wouldn't notice, but alas, things didn't work out that well.
• Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: Duras is a legitimately good swordsman, and his opponent would've been a fat old man. If he hadn't bothered trying to poison Chancellor K'mpec, but jumped straight to the assassination, he had a good shot. This can partly be chalked up to Early-Installment Weirdness, as it wouldn't be firmly established until Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that Klingon Promotion applies to the chancellorship just as much as it does any other position in the empire. That said a rightful challenge requires the challenged party to have committed some offense (Cowardice, betrayal). It's possible K'mpec never gave Duras anything Duras could use for an honorable challenge.
• Dirty Coward: By Klingon standards, anyway. He tries to get out of fighting Gowron for leadership of the Empire by trying to have Gowron killed with a bomb. He often uses assassins to dispatch his enemies instead of doing his own dirty work, notably when he tries to have Worf's brother Kurn killed; Duras gives Kurn an ultimatum, and then when Kurn turns him down, Duras walks away to safety and leaves his men to dispatch Kurn. His only personal murder is K'Ehleyr, who was apparently no match for him (she's only half-Klingon). During his fight against Worf, which he only accepted because K'Ehleyr was Worf's mate, he tries to talk his way out of it when Worf gets the upper hand by saying that he's the only one who can ever prove Worf's innocence and he can't do that if he's dead. In addition, he killed Chancellor K'mpec with poison^note Word of God is that Duras was the murderer and the writers didn't realize that they never explicitly stated that until fans asked them who did it, which Klingons consider to be the weapon of cowards.
• Frame-Up: What he tries to do to Worf.
• Hate Sink: Cowardly, arrogant, traitorous, and vicious, Duras represents the very worst the Klingon Empire has to offer.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Worf stabs him right in the sternum.
• Jerkass: Not content to just thank his lucky stars that he isn't being condemned as the son of a traitor, he does everything he can to insult, demean, and smear the guy who is condemned as such, Worf. That would be enough by itself, and when combined with his evil actions he becomes an incredible Jerkass.
• Karmic Death: Worf kills Duras in revenge for Duras killing K'Ehleyr. A huge no-no for a Starfleet officer, but Worf escapes punishment since it happened under Klingon jurisdiction where such honor killings are legal.
• Killed Off for Real: By Worf.
• Leave No Witnesses: He tried very hard to make sure everybody who knew his dirty little secret was dead. This eventually got him killed.
• Minored in Ass-Kicking: While usually too much of a Dirty Coward to fight when he doesn't have to, his performance against Worf shows that he's a pretty good with a sword.
• No True Scotsman: He invokes this in other Klingons, especially Worf — Duras' preference to use political manipulation, assassins, and poison to get rid of his enemies is a far cry from typical Klingon traditions and courage. To say nothing of his family's history of consorting with Romulans to advance their own power at the cost of the Klingon Empire's strength.
• Oh, Crap!: When Worf reveals that K'Ehleyr was his mate, since the right to avenge one's mate supersedes any dishonor, even discommendation.
• Smug Snake: His arrogance never wavers, even as his plans fall apart.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Chancellor K'mpec protected Duras from condemnation as the son of a traitor. Duras would pay him back by poisoning him.
• Villainous Lineage: Turns out that Duras was collaborating with the Romulans before his death, just like his father did, and just as his sisters do later. Star Trek: Enterprise shows his ancestor was a Jerkass as well, though the 22nd century Duras was at least loyal to the Klingon Empire (which is more than can be said for his namesake).
• Would Hit a Girl: Would beat her to death because she knows too much, in fact.

The Duras Sisters

Lursa and B'Etor

Played By: Barbara March and Gwynyth Walsh

A pair of Klingon troublemakers who consider themselves entitled to rule the Empire. They are the sisters of the late Duras, and they try to get their brother's illegitimate son installed as ruler of the Empire. This touched off the Klingon Civil War, which Picard put a quick stop to, resulting in Gowron's consolidation of power. The duo later turned up on Deep Space Nine, selling guns to the Maquis to recoup their losses.

The Duras sisters, like Kruge before them, have the honor of blowing up Enterprise in the first TNG film. Riker blew up their ship in kind.

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• Abhorrent Admirer: B'Etor's drooling over Worf.
• Big Bad Wannabe: While arguably more dangerous than their late brother, they never manage to become a serious threat without outside help; their war against Gowron is bolstered by Romulan support, and once that is gone, they cut their losses. In Generations, they're acting as muscle for Soran in the hopes of using his trilithium research as a weapon to conquer the Klingon Empire, but he's clearly smarter than they are, and even the fatal damage they inflict on the Enterprise is only possible because of Soran's efforts.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: The sisters don't seem to place much value on loyalty. Having basically sold the Empire out to the Romulans in their attempt to seize power, they go on to betray their erstwhile allies as well by stealing a top-secret weapon, killing everyone at the outpost where it was being stored in the process.
• Cleavage Window: Apparently much like Ricardo Montalban in The Wrath of Khan those were not prosthetic chests.
• Co-Dragons: To Soran in Generations; while Soran does need their resources and muscle, the Duras sisters are reliant on his trilithium research to get their hands on a weapon to help them conquer the Klingon Empire. As such, they can't simply kill Soran when he throws his weight around. Fittingly, while Soran is facing off with Picard, the Duras Sisters are contending with the Enterprise under Riker's command.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: For all their faults, the sisters do care about each other, even if that affection doesn't quite extend to their brother or his illegitimate son; as they're about to die in Generations, they turn to look at each other in shock and concern.
• Evil Uncle: They have no affection whatsoever for their nephew Toral. When their plans to install him as a puppet king fall apart, they abandon him.
• Femme Fatale: B'Etor is the younger sister, and tends to hit on whatever male character the sisters are "enticing" in an attempt to gain leverage.
• Killed Off for Real: In Generations.
• The Man Behind the Man: This is what they wanted to set themselves up as; being female, neither of them would be allowed to rule the Klingon Empire. Their nephew was allowed to make a claim to the position, being male, but he was nothing more than their puppet.
• Ms. Fanservice: Many fans have fond memories of their "boob windows". B'Etor in particular is very... flirty.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: They did manage to take out the Federation Flagship while riding in an antique.
• Oh, Crap!: During the battle with the Enterprise in Generations, they're understandably shocked and fearful to learn that their ship is unexpectedly cloaking and dropping shields.
• The Quisling: They are happy to sell out the Klingon Empire to the Romulans for their support in their attempted power-grab. They're not exactly loyal to the Romulans either, however, gladly murdering a number of them to steal some experimental trilithium so as to get their hands on a weapon that they could use to conquer the Empire themselves.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Downplayed. Although they're ambitious and double-dealing, Lursa, the elder sister, tends to act more straightforward while addressing their enemies, while B'etor isn't above acting flirtatiously towards them.
• Those Two Guys: We never seem to see them apart.
• We Can Rule Together: Offered to Worf, who rejects them.
• You Have Failed Me: The way they simply beam out and leave their puppet child Toral to his fate. Sucks to be you, petaQ!

K'Ehleyr

K'Ehleyr

Played By: Suzie Plakson

Klingon-Human hybrid and mother of Worf's child. Despite her occupation as Klingon Ambassador, K'Ehleyr never held much love for the old Klingon ways, often infuriating Worf. This flagrant defiance of tradition was eventually transmitted to her son. She was killed by Duras in "Reunion" as penalty for snooping around his operation.

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• Ambadassador: K'Ehleyr inherited the best of both her sides, having the diplomatic savvy of a Human and the boisterous confidence of a Klingon. Though as with many other Klingons, her temper has a tendency to boil over, and her confidence is also what brings Duras' wrath down on her.
• Deadpan Snarker: Most apparent when she is discussing Klingon traditions, which she views as rather quaint.
• Half-Breed Angst: K'Ehleyr was a lady who was half-human and half-Klingon. She hated Klingon culture and tried to suppress her anger whenever she got angry for fear of seeming "too Klingon" because Klingons are infamous in-universe for being aggro.
• Half-Human Hybrid: As earlier mentioned, she's a bit lax on the Klingon half. She temporarily bonds with Deanna Troi over their shared half-human heritage.
• Killed Off for Real: Found in a pool of blood by Worf and Alexander, leading, of course, to Worf exacting some righteous revenge on Duras.
• Missing Mom: Zig-zagged. Originally she was Alexander’s only parent, then played straight when she is killed.
• Old Flame: Worf almost causes a diplomatic incident with his rude greeting to K’Ehleyr. Because of their past together he has entirely forgotten that she is the VIP on this ship. K’Ehleyr dolls herself up for Worf, but he stubbornly refuses to notice. ('I am familiar with your appearance!').
• She Knows Too Much: She starts digging into the Khitomer Massacre and closes in on the truth when Duras kills her.
• Statuesque Stunner: Tall and quite attractive. Comes with being played by 6' 2" Suzie Plakson.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: K’Ehleyr has her mother’s sense of humor and her father’s temper (sometimes she feels there is a monster inside of her fighting to get out). This character would be fully realized with VOY's B'Elanna Torres.

K'mpec

K'mpec

Played By: Charles Cooper

The longest-ruling Chancellor of the Klingon Empire. He was in on the conspiracy to blame Mogh for the Khitomer Massacre that Ja'rod (Duras' father) was responsible for.

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• Ambiguous Situation: It's never made explicitly clear who assassinated him. Word of God says it was Duras, but the actual episode never provides definite proof and Gowron's later actions on both TNG and especially DS9 leave it pretty open to interpretation.
• Authority in Name Only: It's fairly clear that K'mpec is a weak chancellor, with many of the great houses holding far more power - particularly Duras' faction. There's a strong contrast comparing him to how Gowron and Martok will run the Empire. It's implied he lost influence as he aged and grew fat.
• Fat Bastard: Downplayed. He's very overweight, and he's definitely not on the side of the angels, but he believes that the conspiracy he's involved in is for the good of the empire and holds no ill feelings towards Worf.
• Karmic Death: Assuming he was killed by Duras, then K'mpec got murdered by the man he sacrificed the honor of the Klingon Empire to protect. Doubly so as he was poisoned, a tactic considered to be dishonorable by Klingons.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Everything he did, from protecting Duras to slandering Worf, he did "all for the glory of the Empire". He even muses that those words should be his epitaph.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: To an extent. K'mpec goes along with the conspiracy in order to protect the Klingon empire, but he clearly doesn't approve of Duras's underhanded tactics, and isn't as judgmental of the Federation as some of his fellow Klingons.
• There Is No Cure: In "Reunion", he discovers he's been poisoned over the course of several months with Veridium Six. He's quite cavalier about there being no known antidote.
• Villain Has a Point: Well, he's more of an Anti-Villain since he's more-or-less a puppet of Duras (the true villain), but he fears that exposing the truth about the Khitomer Massacre could split the empire. He turns out to be right, as House Duras then leads a civil war against Chancellor Gowron.

Kurn

Kurn

Played By: Tony Todd

Worf's brother and a Klingon commander, who was raised by Mogh's family friend Lorgh after Mogh and his wife were killed. Despite their differences, Kurn deeply cares for and respects Worf.

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• I Am X, Son of Y: Played With. Since he is secretly the second-born son of Mogh, Worf has him identify himself as the son of Lorgh instead.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: As a Boisterous Bruiser, he is the red to The Stoic Worf's blue. This is best demonstrated when he's living it up at a party on Qo'noS that Worf has no enthusiasm for.

General Martok

General Martok

"I am a loyal soldier of the Empire. I would rather die than dishonor my uniform."

Played By: J. G. Hertzler

"We keep falling back. The Dominion keeps pushing forward. I tell you, Worf, war is much more fun when you're winning! Defeat makes my wounds ache."

Another Proud Warrior Race Guy, but unlike Worf, Martok has lived in the Klingon Empire all his life, and is thus a more authentic representative of the culture. He was the chief military commander of the Klingon Empire and was usually seen right next to Chancellor Gowron. Arguably the Klingons' most Reasonable Authority Figure (if not the only one) since Chancellor Gorkon of Star Trek VI.

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• Ascended Extra: He originally was a rather minor antagonist here for a couple of episodes before his death. But Hertzler's performance was so great, the writers brought him back. Which was not difficult since the Martok who was killed as planned turned out to be a doppelganger.
• Authoritative in Public, Docile in Private: He is a Klingon warrior who fought his way past classism to earn a battlefield commission and then survived years in a Dominion POW Camp. The one thing that actively scares him, as we learn in "You Are Cordially Invited", is his wife Lady Sirella, who rules him in domestic matters and whom he actively tries to avoid antagonizing.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Describes Sirella as a cold woman with whom there is little physical love, and he's still smarting about that time she accidentally caused his beloved targ to run off into the wilds, but he still admits he wouldn't give her up for anything (and given he's a commoner and she was aristocracy, she socially outranks him, so it's evidently reciprocal on her end).
• Been There, Shaped History: It was established on DS9 that Martok was Gowron's military leader during the Klingon Civil War, personally commanding his forces during the Battle of Mempa (which was partially seen on TNG) and preventing it from becoming a complete rout for Gowron.
• Berserk Button: Kor (see Self-Made Man). When Worf tries to talk to him about it, Martok warns him to shut up before Martok "forgets that [they] are brothers."
• Big Fun: The crew of DS9 (particularly Bashir, O'Brien and Dax) seem to think of him in this manner. It helps that he's one of the more approachable Klingons in the franchise.
• Big Good: For the Klingons from his very first introduction. It helps that he's the most honorable and moral Klingon besides Worf. By the end point of the war, most Klingons look to him for leadership rather than Gowron.
• Blood Knight: As with most Klingon warriors, he revels in battling the Dominion. He is somewhat dissatisfied when his human allies lose their taste for celebration after witnessing the full extent of the carnage wrought by the final battle on Cardassia Prime.
• Capture and Replicate: During Season 4, Martok is actually a Changeling Doppelgänger, a mole inside the Klingon High Command, unmasked and killed in the Season 5 premiere "Apocalypse Rising"), while the real Martok is being held in a Jem'Hadar prison camp. Word of God is that positive fan response and Hertzler's performance induced the writers to bring him back.
• Cowardly Lion: His experiences in the Jem'Hadar prison camp left him more shaken than initially thought. On his first command afterwards, he passes up opportunities for victories and his crew starts to consider him a coward. Worf manages to find a way to restore Martok's confidence, by antagonizing him over his cowardice and then deliberately invoking The Worf Effect when Martok throws down the gauntlet.
• Dead Alternate Counterpart: In the Confederation timeline his skull is one of many displayed in Picard's trophy case.
• Death or Glory Attack: In "The Way of the Warrior," Martok keeps urging Gowron suicidally to continue the assault on Deep Space 9, despite the fact that, as Sisko points out, the Klingon fleet is decimated, the station's shields are holding, the boarding parties are contained, and the Federation's reinforcements are closer than theirs. Only a full season later is it revealed that this "Martok" is a Changeling imposter, working to wreck the Klingon Empire as well as the Federation.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: He gives an excellent demonstration of the differences between human and Klingon in the finale. When Sisko and Ross refuse to drink a toast over Cardassian corpses in burning rubble, he shakes his head over their sentimentality and swigs from the bottle with obvious enjoyment.
• Eyepatch of Power: Though unlike General Chang, he doesn't actually wear an eyepatch.
• Eye Scream: The reason he lost an eye? A Jem'Hadar punched it out in a prison camp.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Worf, after they worked together to escape a Dominion POW camp. He and Sisko also become friends after fighting side-by-side during the Dominion War.
• Four-Star Badass: He can definitely hold his own in a knock-down fight and is highly respected by his troops as a warrior.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: From Ascended Extra to Chancellor of the Klingon High Council. Now that's a character arc. And in-universe, he's a Working-Class Hero from a peasant-class family. Not a drop of noble blood in his veins.
• Happily Married: He seems a bit of a Henpecked Husband, but when he describes his marriage to Sisko, it's clear he would have it no other way... when his wife sweeps imperiously onto the station, Martok watches with clear love and admiration.
  "Magnificent, isn't she."
• Hero of Another Story: It's made clear that Martok has had trials to overcome in his life and continues doing badass things when he's not onscreen.
• Hit-and-Run Tactics: There's a reason he favors the small Bird-of-Prey over the larger battlecruisers — it lets him launch lightning-quick attacks and then get the hell out of dodge. He leads a squadron of them on a series of cavalry raids against the Dominion.
• Humble Hero: At least, as humble as a Klingon can be, mostly demonstrated by his refusal to challenge Gowron and take the chancellorship for himself.
• Hypocritical Humor: A minor example, but he once teases Worf for apparently learning modesty from The Federation; later episodes show that Martok is incredibly modest by Klingon standards.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: He follows Gowron's increasingly bad orders in Season 7 without question, despite the embarrassing defeats and rising death count. He later learns that Gowron is setting him up to fail, and he still follows orders.
• Nice Guy: It's noticeable that Martok is one of the few Klingons that Worf encounters who never tosses his Federation upbringing in his face.
• Odd Friendship: With Nog of all people. After Nog stands up to Martok and shows he's willing to enforce station regulations even to a Klingon general, they continually show respect to each other for the rest of the series. Whenever Martok shows up in Ops when Nog is on duty, Martok always acknowledges him first.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: "We are Klingons, Worf! We don't embrace other cultures, we conquer them!"
• Reluctant Ruler: Martok really didn't want to become the Chancellor of the Klingon Empire and tried his best to avoid it. In the end, he accepts the position with great reluctance solely because he has no choice in the matter.
• Scars Are Forever: Invoked. He refuses a prosthetic eye when it's offered, wearing the scars as a badge of honour from having received them in battle with a Jem'hadar. It's also possible he knows that they make him even more intimidating to his opponents.
• Self-Made Man: Blacklisted by Kor, a noble who feels his lineage was unacceptable. Serves as civilian auxiliary, wins promotion for heroism and then claws his way up to flag rank. In other words, he is a badass even by Klingon standards.
• Servile Snarker: Darok, an old hand on the Ch'Tang, and Martok's personal assistant.
  Martok: [fed up] There will come a day, Darok, when your services as my aide may no longer be required.
  Darok: I look forward to that day with great anticipation.
• Undying Loyalty: In "Tacking Into the Wind," Gowron is Driven by Envy that Martok will parlay his war success into a political grab back home. The thought never once entered Martok's mind. When Worf tells him that's what Gowron is up to, Martok completely rejects opposing him, saying he is just a loyal soldier.
  • He's also incredibly loyal, and more importantly gentle with Worf, being a close confidant and blood brother.
• Up Through the Ranks: A commoner who fought his way to flag rank, even after being blacklisted by Kor.
• Uptown Girl: Not Martok himself, but his wife Sirella claims Imperial lineage and carries herself appropriately in contrast to Martok's looser bearing.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Develops this dynamic with Worf and Sisko. They banter and insult each other a lot but being comrades-in-arms and major leaders of their respective races, they share a bond few people can understand.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Martok hates Kor not just because he was rejected as an officer, but also because by the time Martok achieved promotion on his own merits his father had died. He is so glad to rub his Self-Made Man success in Kor's face, but Kor didn't even remember rejecting his application in the first place.
• Working-Class Hero: As noted above, he was born a commoner, and was actually blacklisted from military service because of it; the only posting he could get was as a civilian laborer, and he was only able to get the chance to prove himself and earn a battlefield commission due to being in the right place at the right time. Despite this, he rose Up Through the Ranks through sheer badassery. By the time of the series, he has become one of the Empire's most respected generals, married a noblewoman and established his House as an honored one in its own right. By its end, he's the Chancellor.

Kor

Kor

Played By: John Colicos

Legendary Klingon warrior, Dahar Master (a rank for legendary Klingon Warriors) and former enemy of a certain equally-legendary James T. Kirk. Old Klingon battle comrade of Jadzia's who goes on a revenge quest with her over the loss of his friend Kang's son. Enemy of Martok's because of career rivalry. Forgiven by Martok at his death.

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• The Alcoholic: First seen in Odo's drunk tank, to the disgust of Koloth.
• Almighty Janitor: Third officer on the Ch'Tang, because Martok will wear a dress before he starts taking orders from him.
• Blood Knight: He's really eager to come out of retirement and fears that he might not be able to die in battle.
  • Notable in that he was pretty much the only Klingon with this attitude in the original series; even for this era it's notably more than the Klingon norm.
• Blue Blood: The source of the quarrel between Martok and Kor. Kor didn't believe a commoner had any place as an officer.
• Boisterous Bruiser: He came from a generation of Klingons who "ate when they were hungry, fought when they were angry". They didn't stand on ceremony as politicians (Gowron) tend to do.
• Book Ends: Kor's speech to the younger Klingons before his death is reminiscent of what he said to the Organians in his first TOS appearance: "I hope you will continue to savor the sweetness of your life."
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Doesn't recall blacklisting Martok, but acknowledges that it's the kind of thing he'd do.
• Clueless Boss: His age and senility have made him this. Because of his legendary status and past rank, he is still given command during the Dominion War, but he bungles the operation when he comes to believe that he is fighting the Federation rather than the Dominion.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Takes on a number of Jem'Hadar ships in one little, undermanned Bird-of-Prey as a Heroic Sacrifice.
• Grumpy Old Man
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: "The only weight I carry now, dear comrade, is my own bulbous body. I was once, if you remember, far less than you see, and far more than I have become."
• Mythology Gag: Jadzia and Worf both regard Kor highly, as the quintessential noble Klingon, compared to the current Klingon society which is rather lacking in honor. Kor was the first major, named Klingon seen on TOS, and his Genghis Khan-inspired look would serve as the basis of all future Klingons on TOS. He is the quintessential Klingon in more ways than one.
• No Hero to His Valet: Martok despised him because Kor refused to allow him into military service because Martok was low-born. After being blackballed by a Dahar master, Martok was only able to get into the military by signing up as a civilian auxiliary and proving himself in battle.
• Old Master: His farewell episode, "Once More into the Breach", draws a comparison to Davy Crockett. In space!
• Same Character, But Different: On TOS he was a stern no-nonsense leader of an occupying army. On DS9 he was a jovial alcoholic.
• Shrouded in Myth: Young Klingons are awed with the many tales of his exploits, which Kor is happy to recount and occasionally embroider.
• Villain of Another Story: As a rival of Kirk's in TOS prior to the Klingon Empire's Heel–Face Turn.
• Warrior Heaven: Promises Worf that he will say hi to Jadzia when he gets to Sto-vo-kor.
• Warts and All: Reliving his glory days (literally, his senility made him believe he was in the middle of a battle with the Federation while attacking a Dominion supply base) cost a large number of troops and several ships on what was supposed to be a simple raiding mission. The crew quickly realizes that his best days are behind him and start to shun him. But a fellow old warrior reminds him of who he used to be, and he makes a Heroic Sacrifice keeping the Dominion ships at bay.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Dies holding the rear guard for the Klingon fleet.

Koloth and Kang

Koloth and Kang

Koloth

Kang

Played By: William Campbell and Michael Ansara

Peers of Kor and fellow Dahar Masters, also ex-enemies of Kirk and friends of Dax. Kang is the de-facto leader of the old trio, while Koloth is more the brains of the three.

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• Badass Boast: Koloth to Odo:
  Odo: How did you get in here?
  Koloth: I am Koloth.
  Odo: That doesn't answer my question.
  Koloth: Yes, it does.
• Bling of War: Koloth always wears his full Klingon dress uniform, covered in many, many decorations.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: They decide to subvert the Albino's Evil Plan and fight him to the death, but still die in the process.
• Grumpy Old Man: Koloth in particular has little patience with Kor's drunkenness.
• Old Master: They're both Da'har Masters, honored elder warriors in Klingon society.
• Same Character, But Different: On TOS Koloth was a Smug Snake who tried to poison a Federation colony. On DS9 he was much more stern and concerned with physical combat. (In many ways, he and Kor had essentially switched personalities)
  • Kang had changed the least, even in his TOS appearance he valued peace with the Federation and was outraged when he mistakenly believed Kirk had attacked him. The only thing that changed about Kang was that his son's murder had made him more melancholy.
• You Killed My Father: Flipped version. All three old warriors, plus Trill Curzon Dax, swore a blood oath to get revenge after The Albino killed Kang's son. Kor and Koloth because they considered Kang a blood brother, Curzon because the boy was his Godson. Jadzia feels compelled to honor Curzon's blood oath, but Kang angrily tries to relieve her of any obligation to the oath made by her symbiote's prior host. Jadzia eventually convinces him to let her do as she feels she must and the four head off to kill the Albino.

Gowron

Gowron

"Glory to you and your house!"

Played By: Robert O'Reilly

"I decide what can and cannot be done."

A crafty Klingon politician who slowly works his way up to Chancellor. Though some of his intimates despair of Gowron's dwindled thirst for war, his moderate stance has aided the Federation more times than not.

Gowron reappears in Deep Space Nine the Chancellor of the Klingon Empire and as a much more antagonistic figure, which is not a surprise since he already cares more about politics than honor in TNG.

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• Action Politician: He is a Klingon, after all. He's gung-ho about leading space battles and fending off attempts at a Klingon Promotion with his own bat'leth. However, toward the end of things he becomes too much Politician and not enough Action.
• Anti-Villain: Generally villainous, but not without redeeming characteristics.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: He is an unremarkable strategist, but a pretty good duelist. He even manages to defeat the purported second coming of Kahless.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: Despite starting out as an honorable, reasonable leader on TNG, by the time of DS9 Gowron has essentially become no better than Duras, his political rival and opponent for the chancellorship of the Klingon Empire. Both men let the power of their position go to their heads. Both strip Worf of his family honor for wrongful reasons. Both try to use dishonorable means to destroy their political rival. Both men are hardliners of the Klingon Empire, bent on returning the Empire to old days of conquering and pillaging their neighbors. Gowron even leads the Empire into a war against the Federation, something that Duras was predicted to do if he became chancellor. Both men die in honorable combat against Worf, leading to their rival being appointed chancellor.
• Big Bad: Gowron takes on this role in Season 4: The Cardassians have been broken and the Dominion have taken a back seat, leaving the Klingons as the biggest threat to the Federation as Gowron leads them into war against the other Alpha Quadrant powers. Subverted in Season 5, when it turns out he was an Unwitting Pawn in a Dominion plot.
• Corrupt Politician: Ezri singles him out as an example of what's wrong with the Klingon Empire. He wasn't so bad in TNG (certainly compared to his rival, Duras), but his growing paranoia - fueled by Martok's popularity - leads him to put the entire war effort in jeopardy.
• Death Equals Redemption: Ultimately, despite his callous actions and cavalier attitude to the lives of his men, Gowron dies an honourable death in combat, meaning his people remember him as a brave warrior. Worf even performs the customary Klingon Death Ritual that is only given to honorable warriors just after killing him.
  • Inverted as far as the Federation are concerned, as they regard him having been a power-hungry moron who drove the Cardassians into the Dominion's hands when he originally declared war on them, then nearly crippled his own forces out of spite, with the fact that Worf had to kill him only being more proof that Gowron was never really the shrewd leader they originally took him to be.
• Death Glare: His signature trait, Gowron always glares at everything and everyone with wide eyes.
• Driven by Envy: His undoing. He gets jealous of the attention and glory heaped on General Martok in the Dominion War and pushes him aside to take command and that glory for himself. Disaster ensues.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • For all his faults, he refuses to execute an unarmed and surrendering opponent. When D'Ghor attempts to murder a surrendering Quark even without the pretense of ritual combat, a disgusted Gowron has him excommunicated.
    Gowron: I didn't want to believe the things they said about you, but if you can stand here and murder this pathetic little man, then you have no honor… and you have no place in this hall.
  • He can also be petty when he feels he's been slighted, but Gowron is not a coward like Duras. He dies fighting Worf in a duel, never once trying to talk his way out as Duras did.
• Evil Is Petty: When Worf refuses to join his plan to invade Cardassia, he has Kurn stripped of his house and title in a fit of pique, despite them being a key factor in winning the Civil War that brought Gowron to power.
• Evil Virtues: He's not above stripping opponents of their honor for petty reasons and is willing to use a Uriah Gambit against Martok to prevent a challenge to his chancellorship. However, when it comes to actual physical combat, Gowron's no slouch. He personally leads the invasion and later retreat from Cardassia and dies in honorable combat against Worf. Worf himself acknowledges this by performing the traditional death rite over Gowron's body.
• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: His most distinguishing characteristic - the first thing fans noticed about him was the fact he had wild eyes that promised violence at any moment when he opened them wide. Subverted in that it doesn't matter what mood he's in, and whether he's on the side of angels or devils.
• Honorable Warrior's Death: No matter what else can be said about him, Gowron met Worf's challenge without fear and very nearly won. Worf acknowledges this by performing the traditional death howl over Gowron's body, to let Sto-Vo-Kor know that a warrior will be arriving.
• Improperly Paranoid: Of Martok killing him and seizing control of the Klingon Empire, which is actually the last thing Martok would do.
• Insane Troll Logic: The reasoning he's running on against Martok is that he suspects Martok might be disloyal in the future, and therefore orders him into suicide missions knowing Martok is too loyal to say "no".
• It's All About Me: Once he sees how popular Martok is getting, he's willing to throw away any semblance of strategy at a point when the Klingons are literally the only people able to fight the Dominion, just to make Martok look worse and himself look better.
  • This actually started on TNG. After the Klingon Civil War, Gowron literally rewrote Klingon history to make himself the sole hero and remove any credit due to the Federation.
• Jerkass: He's not as flagrantly a Jerkass as Duras is, but not by a whole lot.
• Karmic Death: Worf kills him because he abuses his position as Chancellor; he only got the job in the first place because Worf killed his corrupt rival during the election.
  • He was fighting tooth and nail to ensure that Martok didn't get enough fame to challenge him for the Chancellorship. This leads directly to his death and Martok being appointed Chancellor by Worf.
• Large Ham: Gowron is very much a large and loud presence, even for a fairly short Klingon. As his actor put it, you're not acting like a Klingon til you're getting spittle on other people from your shouting.
• The Napoleon: At 5'10", he's above average for a human, but a runt by Klingon standards. As a result, he tends to be louder and more bombastic than most others of his race. He also favours the IKS Negh'var as his flagship: an enormous battleship bristling with armament but generally impractical for most engagements. This stands in contrast to Martok, who favours the IKS Rotarran: a small Klingon Bird-Of-Prey capable of performing a wide variety of missions.
• Not Me This Time: Everyone gets very suspicious when the head of the Klingon Empire starts getting a bug up his rear about Klingons needing to fight, starting a war with Cardassia and threatening to break the Khitomer Accords after several decades. Odo gets information claiming Gowron is a Changeling infiltrator... except he isn't. General Martok had been replaced. All that posturing and conflict-seeking? All Gowron, baby.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: He IS a politician, after all. If he can use rules and traditions to evade meeting with Picard or doing what was requested from him, he would do so. On the other hand, he is perfectly ready to replace reading accounting books on the council trial for defrauding a Klingon house with a traditional fight to the death /Trial by Combat.
• Pet the Dog:
  • To his credit, he is visibly shaken and horrified to learn that Worf's discommendation was based on a lie and willingly undertaken for the good of the empire.
  • Despite his less than charitable flaws, it's shown that before their falling out, he does genuinely consider Worf a friend and a close ally. He makes a detour to DS9 after breaking the peace treaty with the Federation specifically to recruit Worf and he's entirely forgiving of Worf having exposed the Klingon plans to invade Cardassia. It's only when Worf spurns him again that things sour and he discommends him and his house.
  • And when his own self interest isn't at stake, he does uphold Klingon values and saves Quark's life in "The House of Quark", rather than see the Ferengi killed in a duel he has no hope of winning.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: He's on the flagship of the invasion force to Cardassia and doesn't back away from duels to the death.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Played with. He is corrupt and reckless, but also smart and cunning, and can give sound judgments in disputes between houses. Tends to be more reasonable when his own ambition and self-interest aren't on the line. Nor is he a coward, being willing to face Worf in a duel to the death with the Empire at stake.
• Remember the New Guy?: In-Universe example; when K'mpec was revealed to be dying, Gowron was (along with Duras) one of only two possible candidates in a position to succeed him- despite him being a relative unknown to Klingon politics and an outsider who regularly challenged the Council who most people knew very little about.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Gowron was afraid that Martok would kill him and take his place as Chancellor. His resulting actions against Martok led to this trope via a more indirect approach: Worf challenged and killed him, then passed the mantle to Martok.
• Slasher Smile: "You will die slowly... Duras."
• Sleazy Politician: His wheeling and dealing has been compared to that of a Ferengi. Not a favorable comparison.
• Tempting Fate: In "Apocalypse Rising", after Worf is stopped in the nick of time from killing him, Gowron remarks Worf should have finished the job as he won't get another chance. Well, Worf does get another chance near the end of the series...
• This Is Unforgivable!: Gowron's continuing ill treatment of Martok (who Worf has come to regard as a surrogate father) finally bites him in the ass when Worf calls Gowron out on it in front of his advisors.
  Worf: What I say now, I say as a member of the House of Martok, not a Starfleet officer. (*lays Starfleet insignia on table*) You have dishonored yourself and the Empire, and you are not worthy to lead the council.
  Gowron: There can be only one answer to that!
• Took a Level in Jerkass: While TNG had already implied that he was just the better of two bad options next to Duras, here he ends up starting a war against the Cardassians, thereby driving them into the arms of the Dominion, also starts a war with the Federation when they oppose him, and later on deliberately screws up military operations in the latter stages of the war — when the allies are already on their ropes thanks to the Breen energy weapons being able to One-Hit Kill Federation and Romulan ships — just to discredit Martok. It's honestly enough to make you wonder whether Duras could really have been much worse.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Although he admits his debt to Worf, he refuses a request to reinstate the House of Mogh (though changes his mind when Worf brings Kurn's squadrons over to his side). He tries to ignore Picard's similar request for a favor later on, until Picard reminds Gowron's aide how valuable a gift his gratitude might be.
• The Uriah Gambit: He pulls this on Martok, fearing that the general's skill and growing popularity will be a threat. Gowron orders him on impossible missions with the intention that he will either get killed, or that his repeated, inevitable losses will disgrace him.
• Villain Respect: He shows genuine respect for Quark after his ballsy gambit to discredit D'Ghor by leaving himself unarmed and open to be killed.
  Gowron: A brave Ferengi. Who would've thought it possible.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: His invasion of Cardassia would have been somewhat vindicated if the Detapa Council had been replaced by changelings. But they weren't, and the invasion quickly bogs down into an excuse to try and rebuild the Empire's fading glory.
• Written by the Winners: After he becomes chancellor, he starts editing the records to remove any and all mention of Picard and co's involvement.

Grilka

Grilka

Played By: Mary Kay Adams

Klingon noblewoman in "The House of Quark" and "Looking for Par'mach in all the Wrong Places". She abducted and married Quark to save time while she gets a dispensation to rule as a female, and meets him again in "Looking for Par'mach".

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• Abduction Is Love: Or friendship, at least. To Quark, with her as the abductor and him as the abductee.
• Amicable Exes: Klingon divorce proceedings aside, she and Quark part on good terms, and the two are clearly happy to see each other again when she returns to the station in "Looking for Par'Mach".
• Arranged Marriage: To Quark. Arranged by her. Rather forcefully.
• Bothering by the Book: Klingon law doesn't quite say a Ferengi can't rule a Klingon house.
• Interspecies Romance: With Quark in "Looking for Par'Mach," though given that she does not return again it looks like it was only a Friends with Benefits thing.

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