Office of the Chief
All-Points Notice
February 10, 2410

Boys, girls, and otherwise,

After months of occasionally-near-fatal confusion, Chancellor Krojaar epetai-Korgoth of the Klingon government-in-exile on Klinzhai Prime has finally conceded that, while his claim to the legitimacy of his government over that of Klayvor vestai-Klavaar (or, as he is now styling himself, "Emperor Kahless XII the Magnificent, a Thousand Times Undefeated"* - I promise you I am not making that up) is undisputed by the Federation, any of its members, or anybody else in the galactic neighborhood, insisting on the same nomenclature for his official departments, armed forces etc. is complicating the situation beyond any semblance of sense.

As such, the following terminological distinctions are now in force, effective immediately:

- The area of Klingon space which remains under the control of the Klinzhai Prime government is henceforth to be called the Klingon Union. Those of you who are keen students of history may remember that as a name which received serious consideration during the talks leading up to the Klingon Reunification of 2394, before the delegates decided to retain the name "Klingon Empire" for the combined Klingon state.

- The Standard-language operational name prefix for ships of the Klingon Defense Force is now KDS (Klingon Defense Starship). Transponders are being changed throughout the fleet and the switchover should be complete by the 14th. After that date, any ship identifying itself with the prefix "IKV" can be presumed hostile under the amended rules of engagement distributed last month.

- The name of the KDF itself can and will remain unchanged, since Klayvor was kind enough to deem "Defense Force" an unsuitable name for his glorious fleet and revive the earlier Imperial Navy label.

- Organs of the Krojaar government with names involving the words "Imperial" or "Empire", e.g., the Imperial Criminal Pursuit Force or All-Empire Rugby Club, will substitute "National" or "Union" where appropriate.

- Speaking of the All-Union Rugby Club, their neutral-site friendly with the Romulus Green Talons** is still on for next Friday at the Colosseum.

That is all.

Mahalo,
--G.

* Certain wags in the Klingon Union are already in the habit of appending "... Albeit Beaten Thrice by Human Children" to Klayvor's self-proclaimed regnal name.

** The actual name of this team translates literally from the Romulan as talons besmeared viridian, the foe's unworthy ichor stains the noble plumage. Really.

Ah, the Romulans. They never quite know when to stop.

Ebony the Black Dragon

"Life is like an anole. Sometimes it's green. Sometimes it's brown. But it's always a small Caribbean lizard."

Office of the Chief
All-Points Notice Addendum
February 11, 2410

All,

There's also been some confusion, mainly in divisions not previously accustomed to dealing with Klingon matters, as to the various prefixes used with Klingon surnames and what they represent. Since we're all thinking about these things anyway after yesterday's memo, here's a quick primer.

Some Klingon families do not use what is technically referred to as a line name; instead, members of these lines describe themselves as "$NAME, son/daughter of $PARENT", customarily choosing whichever parent is more prominent, or more likely to achieve a desired effect (intimidation, appreciation, whatever the conversational context may call for - there are whole books on the intricacies of Klingon conversational dynamics). This abandonment of the old line name system is usually explained in terms of that system being archaic, confining, or otherwise unjustifiably bias-inducing. Note that the practice has been outlawed in the territory controlled by House Klavaar as of last November, on the grounds that it is "corrosive to traditional Klingon values."

Anyway, the matter is complicated further on particularly formal occasions, or others where greater details is appropriate or desirable, by the identification of the Great House to which one's family line owes allegiance. This goes at the end of the introductory chain, so, for example, a Klingon soldier might identify himself as Sergeant Krav, son of Maga, of the Great House Korgoth. This doesn't mean Sgt. Krav is actually related to Chancellor Krojaar (who is the head of House Korgoth - more on that in a moment), but that his family line are historically clients or retainers of Korgoth. (Compare the way the Scottish clans and family lines interconnect, such that, e.g., the Ponds of Inverness are members of Clan MacIntosh, but not closely related to the actual MacIntosh family.)

Some of the bemusement this memo is meant to address comes from the fact that our Klingon allies often apply these same naming conventions to non-Klingons, especially those they've seen combat alongside. This is usually meant to convey respect and admiration, but it can be a little confusing, especially since they often involve assumptions as to lineage that don't map exactly to the way non-Klingon family dynamics work. For instance, one will sometimes see Captain Utena Tenjou described in Klingon documents as QubwI'Sa' utena vestai-tenjoH' gin'tak Ha'chInS: Thought Admiral (literally "general officer who thinks") Utena, noble head of the Tenjou line, master-at-arms of Great House Hutchins. (Some authorities translate the title gin'tak, "master-at-arms", as something more akin to the consigliere of 20th-century Earth's Italian organized crime syndicates.)

The line name prefixes people have been asking about are part of a naming system that goes back a long way in Klingon history, dating to well before the spaceflight era. One can get an impression for how far back by comparing the systems in use on Qo'noS and the oldest Klingon colony world, Klinzhai Prime (now capital of the Klingon Union); there are still rough parallels between the two, but they have drifted far apart in implementation and often in fine degrees of nuance not evident to the outside observer (nor even, in many cases, inside observers). One important distinction is that Qo'noS speakers often use the prefixed line name with prepended definite article to refer to others ("the vestai-tenjoH'", for instance), whereas Klinzhai speakers never do that; e.g., it is incorrect to refer to Captain Krontep vathKesek as "the vathKesek".

There are far too many such prefixes for an exhaustive explanation here - the Reference Department has all the resources you could ever want if you really want to dig into the matter. In practice, however, Klingons customarily use a stripped-down form when dealing with foreigners and keep the more complex and subtle shades of distinction for conversation among themselves. The forms most likely to be encountered outside Klingon space are summarized in the table below.

Qo'noS prefix	Klinzhai Prime prefix	Rough translation	Notes
epetai-	ept	head of Great House	Implies high nobility; compare Earth title duke.
vestai-	vath	head of non-Great House line	Implies middle nobility; compare count.
sutai-	no common usage	honored member of	Implies minor nobility; very roughly akin to knighthood. Often used by speakers unfamiliar with the addressee's line or standing therein, but wishing to show respect or esteem.
emtai-	kal	spouse of member of	Archaic in Qo'noS usage; most individuals marrying into Klingon lines today are given the same prefix as their spouses. Klinzhai version still in common use.
tai-	ves	member of	Conveys no particular distinction. Klinzhai usage is the standard assumption if the addressee is unknown to the speaker and conveys no offense if it is incorrect. In Qo'noS usage, can be insulting if used of someone of higher standing by someone who is known to be aware of that, but usually neutral.

Note that the head of a Great House will always take that House's name as his or her line name, even if he or she was born to a different line. Chancellor Krojaar epetai-Korgoth, for example, was born a member of the cha'Hej line (which was part of House Korgoth) and ultimately succeeded the last of the "original" Korgoths, who was childless. Until that event he was Krojaar vestai-cha'Hej.

In marriage situations, the names of the participants are generally decided upon as part of the wedding preparations, and do not follow any assumed gender conventions. Members of roughly equivalent lines who are of comparable standing within those lines may simply keep their original names. In other cases, the member of the lesser line, or the person of lesser standing within roughly equivalent lines, will take the name of the greater. In still others, the persons getting married will establish themselves as the founders of an entirely new line, both changing their names accordingly. Some, for reasons noted above, go so far as to abandon both line names.

I hope this clears up any confusion that might be lingering. As I said before, this system is actually much more complex than my quick summary here might imply - it is occasionally the subject of entire graduate theses in Klingon Studies programs around the galaxy - but this should suffice for most conversational needs in the course of everyday business. Those requiring a deeper understanding for e.g. diplomatic purposes will be provided with one in the course of their occupational training anyway.

My thanks as always to Mike Ford, head of the Klingon desk in Exocultural Research; his own doctoral thesis on the dynamics of the Great Houses contains a summary in its abstract that was the jumping-off point for this whole exercise.

- Lu

[As implied above, the naming convention observed in John M. Ford's The Final Reflection was the basis for many of the Klingon names which have appeared in the Symphony of the Sword stories over the years. There's no actual explanation or glossary for them in the book, so the bits you see here that are drawn from TFR were glarked from context, and the rest - the suffixes not appearing in the book and the Klinzhai Prime variants entirely - are my own extrapolations. --G.]