The Federation | Michael Burnham | The Klingon Empire | The Mirror Universe | The Emerald Chain
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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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 Iqbalnote
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 familynote . 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".
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
