tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu Aug 25 15:34:29 1994
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Re: Re: Age, Experience
HoD trI'Qalvo':
> > > By the way, what is the lifespan of Klingons? More or less than Humans' ?
> > For example, in the TNG episode where Riker serves on a Klingon vessel,
> > he meets a crewman who greatly ashamed that his father surrendered to
> > the Romulans and is now old and wasting away of natural causes and did
> > not die like a true warrior. I think the average lifespan of a Klingon
> > would be greatly impacted by their behaviour as opposed to physiological
> > longevity.
>
> No, I beleive the shame was because the father
>
> a) surrendered, rather than die honourably, and
> b) Was a prisoner... of the rommies, no less.
That's what I said. I really didn't mean to imply it is dishonorable to
be old. The point I was trying to make was: since it is considered more
honorable to die in battle than to "live to fight another day," the
Klingon's cultural propensity to be unafraid of death would skew any
statistical analysis of "average life expectancy" and render it
meaningless. For example, according to my world almanac, the average
life expectancy of an Angolan a decade ago was _26_years_old_! Now we
all know tera'nganpu' can live much longer than this, but the short life
expectancy in Angola is primarily due to a very nasty civil-war.
On the other hand, as someone mentioned in an earlier post, if a Klingon
survives his battles, he can live a really long time, as shown the DS9
episode "Blood Oath" where qor, qolotlh and qeng get together after 81
years to hunt down an old enemy.
> I always thought it would be something of an *honour* to be a long-lived
> tlhIngan, as you would have to be one *tough* old bird to have not only
> survived in your youth, but as yu grew older and less physically capable,
> to be able to best young warriors in their prime!
>
> "Age and cunning will always overcome youth and skill!"
I agree with this too. In fact, tonight I watched the "Leap of Faith"
episode where qeylIS returns. In it, Gowron makes a snide remark to
Koroth which implied, "Fools die young." I believe that if a Klingon
lives to see old age in an honorable fashion, that is, being tough and
cunning enough to defeat and outlive all his foes, he would truly be
respected as a great warrior. It's an honor to die in battle but
it is a greater honor to be victorious.
> --tQ
SoHDaq qeylIS qa' yInjaj!
yoDtargh