Vulcan Telepathic and Other Mental Abilities

[Aquarius]

I find it interesting that the Romulans don't share any of these abilities, which makes me think that while they are related to Vulcans there are significant differences in their brains. What accounts for these differences? I haven't a clue, but it could be a factor in why they rejected Surak and abandoned Vulcan altogether.

It might be a "use it or lose it" thing. It isn't just Surak's teachings they rejected; it seems to me that they were rejecting Vulcan culture in general, so they may have decided on a "no mind melds" policy just to set themselves apart. The telepathic abilities themselves may have beem a point of contention; paranoia seems to be a common Romulan trait, especially when it comes to military types and politicians, so they could have purposefully turned their backs on these abilities as a stand against breach of privacy.

[WarpGirl]

True. But while Romulans are paranoid they don't seem above using Telepathic abilities for their own ends. In "The Aenar" they use Jamhel's brother. And I can't believe the Tal'Shi'Ar wouldn't jump at the chance for an edge over anyone. As I've said before the Romulans seem to be a mix of Ancient Romans and the former USSR. Both powers would have jumped at the chance to use psychic warfare to expand their empires. I always felt that part of the reason they HATE Vulcans so much is that they want to crush them DESPITE having such powerful minds that they WON'T use for conquest. And the one thing that is more important for Romulans than paranoia is conquest.

[Aquarius]

But that's what they do. They use people. Why do the dirty work yourself when you can make someone else do it?

[WarpGirl]

Again very true. Which kind of makes their paranoia a little weird. Why use people if you're certain they will betray and/or kill you? Why not use the one person you can trust? YOURSELF! Vulcans were subject to paranoia before Surak's first "Awakening" it seems to be a genetic trait, maybe the Vulcans subdued it by delevoping their mental powers. And the Romulans enhanced it by breeding those powers out of themselves.

[Aquarius]

Right but their Aenar hostage seemed reasonably subdued. Remember, along with that paranoia comes major ego. They really do think they're smarter than everyone else. That's why they get killed when they find out the hard way they're wrong about that.

[WarpGirl]

Yeah like the so called KGB agents in "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" If anyone remebers what that is.

[Alelou]

Yeah like the so called KGB agents in "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" If anyone remebers what that is.

Aw, that was one of my older addictions. Thankfully, never to the point of fanfic.

[WarpGirl]

What do you mean thankfully? I've read some great fanfic there. Ah to be a kid again. Anyway back to the Rommies, yeah the paranoia fits because the Ancient Romans were also very very paraniod in government. Also incredibly arrogant. Part of the reason I say that the Vulcans are like the Greeks and the Romulans are like the Romans is because of the love/hate/hate relationship between them. Romans thought Greeks were wonderful for some things and stole A LOT from them but they used it on a very different belief system. Romans thought Greeks were intelligent but weak and too cerebral. Aside form Alexander the Great Greeks weren't conquerors. And that irked the Romans. They believed that if you were superior you should rule those who were not. For the most part Greeks didn't follow that line of thinking. Neither do the Vulcans. So yeah the Rommies would love to crush them like bugs because to them, the Vulcans not using their mental abilites to conquer is a revolting weakness. Maybe that's why they stopped using them and allowed them to die out. To prove they could conquer without the Vulcans vaulted superior minds.

[Silverbullet]

Using Others:

I am probably telling the obvious. but both the U.S. and the soviets relied allmost exclusivly on people they either bribed, blackmailed or had some hold on them. James Bond went out the window shortly after WWII. With one exception colonel Able in New York.

The Bona Fides that Walker used to prove his worth to the russians was a file naming the people woking in one of the most succcesful operations the U.S. had in the U>S.S.R. Many were killed becauseof walker. the brits got out the one they were handling and he said he was surpsied at Walkers reaction when he walked into Langly. It was oly after Walker was exposed that he understood why.

Using others is safer if the thing explodes they get it in the neck not you.

[WarpGirl]

Yeah that was obvious, but that's ok. Everyone is guilty of overlooking the obvious. I find it rather difficult because I remember the Cold War as it ended but it was enough to know how everything was really twisted. Anyway there's a good arguement on both sides as to whether the Romulan tactics are brilliant or incredibly stupid. Hey I say they are both, because they have the potential to be perfect, yet the don't allow for every contingency. Than again what tactic does?

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

I have still yet to learn of a good theory why the Romulans don't have the telepathic abilities Vulcans do. Vulcan mental powers is not something that could have evolved in the relatively short time span after the Sundering, when the would-be Romulans left.

[WarpGirl]

I also read that Romulans are of average human strength. I can't think of a reason for that either, unless like the two species in "Dear Doctor" they evolved seperately on Vulcan. IDK this is something I probably won't figure out.

I find it a facinating idea that Vulcans developed their mental abilities to help with their emotional control. I'm sure they were always empathic telepaths whic is what fed their terrible civil conflicts. But the diciplines they develope to create a pacifist culture is truly remarkable.

[Alelou]

I would imagine that the planet you're living on could affect your strenght pretty significantly in just a generation or two, if not simply as you live your life, even if you grew up somewhere else. After all, our own astronauts already have to cope with significant weakness when they return from the space station. BnB used this in his most recent chapter of his Mirror Universe story ... T'Pol no longer had normal Vulcan strength because she'd been living and working in Earth gravity for years. That makes sense to me.

But I agree, it doesn't make sense that the Romulans don't have any mental powers. I followed canon in Locum with that, for the most part (I still had mating bonds), but it was against my better judgment. It just doesn't make sense for them to lose it. Not to develop it at all ... okay. Our pre-Kirshara Vulcans mostly didn't either. But to just plain lose it? Unless there's something about your new planet that could really interfere with the ability or take away the usefulness of the ablity... Especially for a people who are shown as prone to spying and sneaking around.

[WarpGirl]

Well that's just it, I think that pre-Kir'Shara Vulcans were loosing the strength of their abilities because the Romulan infiltrators were surpressing their rights to use them. I guess the only way I reconcile the dramatic differences between them is to say that at some point the genetics got split somehow. Maybe due to a highly complex mutation. If the people who become Romulans were on another part of Vulcan than the main population (like Tuvok's offshoot) it is possible that their mental powers degraded progressively until they weren't homicidal maniacs. And because they weren't they rejected Surak, and eventually left. Does my theory make complete sense, no! But it's scf-fi and you can stretch things a little. I tend to draw the line at the absolute absurd though.

[Aquarius]

But that's the thing: I don't think it's so much a case that the Romulans don't "have" telepathic abilities; it's more that they don't use them. Much like human muscle tissue, it's perhaps something that can atrophy if it isn't used--and muscles can atrophy within weeks, not generations. Many Vulcans weren't even aware that they had this ability in terms of mind meld, etc., but it seems that sometimes marital bonds were happening spontaneously, in the cases of a particularly strong attraction/connection/whatever. Once the truth came out on Vulcan, I'm sure that a lot of people started trying it, but not many of them were very good at it at first.

Likewise, with the Romulans, the ability exists, but it lies dormant, because no one is using it, at least not intentionally, and not publicly.