They are members of the Typhon Pact, an alliance of varyingly antagonistic political entities that formed after the Borg invasion depicted in the Star Trek: Destiny trilogy. The only appearance they, specifically, have made in the novels lately is in A Singular Destiny, which is a follow-up to that trilogy.
The Typhon Pact is the subject of a four-part series later this year, but I don't believe the Kinshaya specifically will be featured in any of those novels.
Was their appearance or culture described in Singular Destiny? How did it compare to the original material.
Yes, it was, a bit; but I don't know the answer to the second question, because I never read the original material. I know KRAD has posted here that he didn't use the FASA stuff much, but I'm pretty sure he stayed consistent with their appearance in Final Reflection.
They were only mentioned in passing in the book. All the real information as far as their appearance and culture, technology etc comes from the FASA supplement. I'll post it here. I always thought they were coolest race created in the old game because it was interesting to see what could strike fear into a Klingons heart.
THE DEMON WAR
Klingon expansion along the Empire's rimward border had been relatively peaceful, largely because the Klingons had never encountered any serious challenges. On Stardate 1/8203.04, all that changed.
While exploring a rift area of space where few stars existed, a large Klingon exploratory force disappeared without a trace. An Imperial investigation followed, but then the exploratory force also vanished. Four expeditions later, a single ship returned, commanded by a minor officer named Konj. He reported that deep in the rift, a superior force of vessels of unknown design had ambushed his well-armed scout force. Though the Klingon force had fought well, they were slaughtered by the enemy's globe-shaped black vessels. Konj explained how his own ship, a supply and support vessel, had stayed behind the others, but was able to sweep out to the flank to pick up wreckage from an exploded enemy ship. They brought aboard what appeared to be the body of an alien crewman. Resembling a demon of ancient Klingon legend, the being was covered with short, greenish-black fur and had massive arms webbed with huge folds of flesh, which resembled giant wings.
To the everlasting regret of the Klingon support crew, the alien was still alive. Hardy enough to resist vacuum for long stretches, the enemy soldier awakened from a deathlike coma soon after they brought him aboard. With his massive strength and powerful claws, he killed many crewmen, including most of the ship's officers, before he was in turn killed by massed disruptor fire. Had Konj not brought back the body of the dead alien for study, it is unlikely anyone would ever have believed his story. No other ship in his task force escaped slaughter by this new race's powerful vessels.
The Klingons named the race the Kinshaya ("demon-possessed") because of their physical prowess and berserk fighting style. The Klingon fleet mobilized along what became known as Demon's Rift. The largest task force ever assembled by the Empire, its mission was to search for and to attack the Kinshaya. Instead, the Kinshaya fleet found its way out of the Rift and attacked a major Klingon base scant days before the task force was to be deployed.
The resulting war was the bloodiest in Klingon history, Between Stardates 1/8203 and 1/8703, the Demon War occupied all available Klingon forces in a fight, literally, for the survival of the Klingon race. Though the Kinshaya were the closest thing to a nightmare the Klingons had ever faced, here at last was an enemy the Klingons could totally understand psychologically—a race that would destroy any being not of their own kind. The Kinshaya ships matched or exceeded the capabilities of Klingon vessels, far outclassing even the new multi-purpose D-7A.
Though the Kinshaya were single-minded in battle, never surrendering and never giving up, it was this very quality that helped the Klingons even up the odds. Simply put, the Kinshaya seemed not to understand the concept of strategic defeat. When their considerable battle losses eventually forced them to slacken the pace of attack, the major fighting began to wind down into scattered warfare. The border incidents, skirmishes, and other hostile encounters between the two races continue to this day, but neither side has attempted to escalate again to a second all-out war.
To maintain a strong military presence against the Kinshaya, the Klingons built up their forces, adding newer, more powerful capital ships to their fleet. These were soon to prove just as useful against another dangerous foe.
KINSHAYA
The mysterious race known as the Kinshaya are the only spacefaring culture ever to dare to invade the Klingon Empire. The war the Klingons once fought against the enemy they call the ‘demon-possessed’ was one of the bloodiest in their history. Despite this, the Klingons still know precious little about this implacable enemy—not even the location of their home planet.
During the Demon War (Stardate 1/8203 to 1/8703), the Imperial Fleet faced the black globe ships of the Kinshaya again and again, but never captured one intact. By sifting through the wreckage of Kinshaya vessels and studying the remains of the single Kinshaya ever captured, Klingon scientists have managed to learn something about them.
The Kinshaya are nightmarish beings, even by Klingon standards. The average warrior is covered with short, greenish-black fur, stands over two meters in height, and outweighs two Klingon soldiers. Kinshaya have no discernible head, except for a bony swelling atop their shoulders. Their 'faces' consist of two twin-lensed sight organs between the shoulders in front, a flap-covered breathing orifice, and a round mouth ringed with three rows of sharp teeth.
There is a rudimentary sight organ in back, capable of discerning moving objects without much resolution or color vision. Their organs of hearing are completely covered by skin, and seem to be vibration sensors more than anything else, though they do communicate by a spoken language. The Kinshaya stand upright, with two arms and legs, but their legs are covered with sharp-edged plates of horn, and loose folds of skin that resemble dark wings hang from their massive arms. They are of two sexes. Both sexes fight in combat, but show no immediately obvious physical differences. To a Human, Kinshaya would most resemble huge bats. To a Klingon, they resemble demons of their ancient legends.
Kinshaya seem to wear no clothing or armor, except utility belts and straps from which hang their hand weapons. They are fond of blaster-type hand weapons {similar to those used by the Gorn) and bladed gauntlets that strike as large daggers (some with three or four blades).
Despite their brutish appearance, the Kinshaya are serviceable technologists. The warp drive ships they used in the Demon War appeared as black globes, with their matter-antimatter drives completely enclosed in the hull. (Kinshaya are far less radiation-sensitive than Humans or Klingons.) Their weaponry at the time consisted of lasers and a modified plasma bolt, similar to that of the Romulans, but the power levels were far superior to that of the Klingon Empire's ships. Their targeting capability, however, was not as sophisticated. Shielding on the Kinshaya vessels was roughly equal to that of the Klingons.
The Kinshaya seem not to comprehend the notions of negotiation, diplomacy, making demands, or even acceptance of abject defeat. They simply destroy whatever non-Kinshaya intelligent life they encounter. The Kinshaya attack without warning or challenge, and will fight until one side or the other is destroyed, or their prey has fled. They do not seem to understand the concept of strategic withdrawal, and it was this trait that eventually gave the Klingons a chance during the Demon War. Even the Empire understood the usefulness of hit-and-run tactics, but the Kinshaya did not.
They are carnivores, and do not seem particular about the nature of animal matter they consume. The presence aboard some destroyed Kinshaya vessels of members of a small mammalian servitor race the Klingons later encountered in the Rift led Klingon scientists to believe (correctly) that the Kinshaya domesticated other animal lifeforms (intelligent or not) for food.
When the major fighting had ceased, it broke down into scattered warfare. Neither side wants to force the issue at the moment, which may mean the Kinshaya have been learning something about strategy.
Biology
The Kinshaya are an enigmatic race that the Klingon Empire ran into during their expansion in the early 23rd Century. There is little known about them, but recovered bodies and salvaged technology have yielded at least some information on them.
Their average strength is 5 times that of an average human (making them as strong as the Human Augments of the Eugenics Wars’ era) and 43% stronger than the average Klingon. They outweigh 2 Klingons (at roughly 250 kilograms), and stand over 2 meters tall on average. Their mass, and extreme strength, indicates that their homeworld probably has higher gravity than standard. This gives them a dense skeletal structure, with a comparable increase in their muscular capacity. Their bare hand damage, (2d10+3 (5-23 points)), is enough to knock out an average human in 3 hits, and probably kill them with a fourth.
Their average endurance is 3 times that of the average human, and 75% that of an average Klingon. (This is due to the organ redundancy that Klingons have, giving them a much higher endurance than other humanoids.) They are less radiation sensitive than humans, since they evolved in an environment with a higher background radiation level than most humanoids. They can resist exposure to vacuum for long stretches, due to a combination of a self-induced coma and strong skin. The ability to survive vacuum exposure indicates that their skin is capable of handling extreme pressure changes, pointing towards a high surface pressure on their homeworld. The higher gravity gives them a powerful circulatory system, and their cavernous lung capacity also aids them during their vacuum-induced coma state. The Klingons found this out the hard way when they brought aboard their ship what they thought were corpses, only to have the body suddenly wake up and attack them.
Their average intelligence levels are roughly the same as an average human. What kind of intelligence that is residing within their body is another matter entirely.
Their average dexterity is roughly half that of a standard human, due to the unusual construction of their hands. They have 2 fingers and 1 thumb on each hand. Their average hand strength is roughly 5 times that of most humanoids. Their enlarged size has given them larger hands, which are roughly 16 inches from the fingertips to the wrist joint. This combination would allow them to crush the skull of most humanoids with little effort. The horn-tipped nails on their fingers are capable of shearing open flesh with ease, and would also allow them to puncture thin layers of metals or similar materials with minor effort.
Their average charisma is roughly is 1/3 that of an average human, due both to their appearance and their normal way of life. Their average luck is 75% that of a human, and their average psionic rating is a maximum of 60, comparable to the Tellarite and Gorn species.
They are upright bipeds with 2 arms and 2 legs, and are covered with short, greenish-black fur. They have no discernible head, except for a bony swelling atop their shoulders. For some unknown reason, during the course of their evolution, their head has been absorbed into the torso region. They can no longer turn their head as a result, and must rotate their entire body to see anything not right in front of them.
Their ‘faces’ consist of 2 twin-lensed, forward-facing eyes, roughly 6 inches across, located between their shoulders. Such large eyes indicate that their homeworld is normally dim at the surface. They can probably see in the dark, and possibly into the infrared part of the spectrum. They have a rudimentary sight organ on the back of their ‘head’, and it is only used for motion detection. This third eye indicates that attacks from behind were prevalent during its evolution. They have a flap-covered breathing orifice just below the eyes, separate from their eating orifice. Because of the turbulent atmospheric conditions on their homeworld, they never had the need to evolve anything more than a rudimentary olfactory sense. Below the ‘nose’ region is a round, roughly 4 inch wide, mouth ringed with 3 rows of sharp teeth. They are carnivores, and are not particular about the nature of the animal matter they consume, which doesn’t bode well for any hostages they may capture; they domesticated other animals, intelligent or not, for their food. On either side of their ‘face’, they have hearing organs. They are completely skin-covered, and are vibration sensors more than anything else. In spite of this, and the other facts about them, they do have a spoken language.
They have loose skin folds resembling dark wings hanging from their massive arms, and which are slowly becoming vestigial. They may have descended from a batlike ancestor, and if so, they could speak at ultrasonic frequencies. Their legs are covered in sharp-edged plates of horn, and they have 3 forward-facing toes on their feet.
There are 2 sexes, but with no obvious external physical differences. All sexual differences appear to be internal, or even only genetic, with no other visible signs.
Based on the previously mentioned data, their homeworld is probably a large terrestrial or a small superterrestrial planet. Both of these bodies would have high gravity, thick atmospheres, and higher background radiation levels due to the increased mass. Other than this scant data, there is no information on the rest of their solar system, or even its exact location, other than it is located in a region of space, or rift, near Klingon space that is nearly devoid of stars, possibly at the rimward edge of the Orion Arm.
Culture and Technology
They are culturally egalitarian when it comes to battle, allowing both sexes to fight. They seem to have no comprehension of such notions as negotiation, diplomacy, making demands, or accepting abject defeat. They simply destroy all intelligent non-Kinshaya life they encounter. They have a berserker fighting style, fighting until they defeat their opponent, or are killed themselves. They attack without warning or challenge, and will continue to fight until one side or the other is destroyed, or the prey has fled. They don’t understand the concept of strategic withdrawal, or the concept of hit-and-run tactics, both of which are what the Klingons used to eventually defeat them, and drive them from Klingon space.
They wear no clothing or armor, except for utility belts and straps, from which hang their hand-held weapons. They are fond of blaster-type weapons, like the Gorn, and of bladed gauntlets that strike as large daggers, some which have 3-4 blades.
In spite of their seeming shortcomings, they are serviceable technologists, as their vessels attest to. Their ships resemble black globes, with the nacelles sticking straight out from the sides. The higher gravity levels of the homeworld requires stronger gravity generators on the vessels, which would require stronger SIF and IDF generators to compensate, making them inherently stronger than standard vessels, and capable of taking extreme levels of damage before repairs become necessary. Their high radiation tolerance allows them to install warp drives and impulse drives with less shielding than other races use, allowing them to be both lighter and more powerful. The weaponry used by them at first contact consisted of lasers and plasma bolts, both of which were of higher power levels than the Klingon weapons of the period. Their shielding, though, was of comparable strength to the Klingon vessels, and they did have less capable targeting sensors. Their ships matched or exceeded the capabilities of the Klingon D-7A of the time.
Their initial war with Klingons, known in Klingon history as the ‘Demon War’, due to their resemblance to a demon from Klingon mythology, lasted for 5 years, with minor skirmishes occurring for years afterwards. Because of this war, they created more powerful ships and brought them into their fleets, which eventually were used against the Federation and other opponents.
