Vulcan Golden Age

History of Vulcan Civilization
As a result of these actions that were less than five centuries before the mid 23rd century, the Vulcan people barely managed to avoid self-extinction as a result of their intraspecies wars. Following the wake of this disaster, their kind began to develop a system of disciplined logic which had eliminated the curse of their barbaric heritage.

With the departure of the more violent element of Vulcan society, the remainder of the Vulcan people were left to flourish in a new era of peace and logic. An adherent of Surak's teachings known as Selok rose to prominence and formalized the unity of his species by creating the Theorems of Governance, which merged the traditionalist functions of Vulcans past with the new peaceful approaches needed to form a world government. As Tu-Surak spread throughout Vulcan, the Great Houses saw the wisdom in Selok's proposal and approved it. This unified the entire race under the principles of logic, pacifism and emotional suppression, and drove the species into an era of scientific discovery and enlightenment.

What followed was the Vulcan Golden Age, where they turned their former aggressive tendencies to scientific pursuits. Geologists mapped the unstable tectonic plates of their world, and built geothermal plants that tapped the planet's heat for energy. Chemists used this new energy source to create desalinization plants that replenished the wells in Vulcan cities. Ecologists put their thoughts to slowing down the spread of the desert, seeding new plants and rescuing old ones, thus preserving the dwindling supply of fertile land on their homeworld.

Thus, for the first time in their collective history, there was enough food, water and energy for the Vulcan race, with the development of hydroponics removing famine entirely from their society. In addition, they attained space-flight capabilities, but were limited to their own star system.

In the newly created Great Library, itself a wing of the Vulcan Science Academy, the Vulcans began to archive the collective knowledge of their race. They began probing ancient archives of forbidden knowledge, ruined cities filled with lost inscriptions, as well as the the top secret projects of the many warlords. This process that took over a century to complete. The cataloging and correlation of all this information led to remarkable developments in the field of genetics, physics and mathematics. In addition to the collection of knowledge, the teachings of Surak and his counterparts led to the self-exploration of the Vulcan mind. Anthropology, sociology, psychology and pure logic made great strides during this period, with many Vulcans founding schools of thought that survive to the modern age. This exploration of the mind led to the challenge of studying the ancient psionic arts, techniques once known only to elite adepts. Where once it was restricted, the knowledge became free to all of Vulcan, with tests made on children at a young age in order to chart their talent. Those that showed promise were selected to study in a monastery or a university in order to nurture their growing power.

After two hundred years, almost every Vulcan had some form of psionic control and ability. Techniques such as calm, concentration and mation helped cement the peaceful ways of Surak to the point that new generations had forgotten that violence was an option for them in the past.

The peace of the Golden Age was shattered in the year 1270, when a wormhole formed near Vulcan itself. From it came an armada of invading starships that attacked a peaceful Vulcan. The attackers did not respond to any form of communication, did not reveal themselves visually, and destroyed themselves with atomic weaponry rather than be captured.

While the stories of the Children of Ket-Cheleb had long been forgotten, some Vulcan theorists believed these attackers to have been the proud warrior Vulcans that had departed in the exodus long ago. Using their own starships, the Vulcans defended themselves, and the Vulcan Council ultimately decided to protect their race rather than retreat to an impregnable fortress beneath their homeworld's crust. Fortunately, the wormhole opened irregularly, limiting the attackers' ability to send new fleets and ships.

The Vulcan Council later assembled their own forces rapidly, creating logical surveillance patterns and convoy techniques that tracked down the last of the invader bases within the Vulcan-system. A grim-but-silent war was fought, with deadly tactics based on logic being used against their attackers. After a century of constant warfare, the wormhole that linked the invaders' territory to Vulcan finally closed and ended the conflict, with the Vulcans never discovering the identity of their attackers.