Borg Species Designations

For thousands of years the Borg spread throughout the galaxy, conquering, assimilating, and thus destroying countless civilizations. Following every encounter, the Borg catalogue each new species with a numerical designation, rather than a proper name. The goal of the Borg, in most cases, was to completely assimilate each species by incorporating their knowledge and technology into the unified Borg Collective. One by one, each living being was converted into Borg drones. In many cases, all that remained of an assimilated civilization was the memory of its unique contributions that resided only within the accumulated knowledge of the Borg. That, and the numerical species designation. Often even the name is lost, forgotten or deleted as irrelevant. Conversely, the species designations gave a sense of the long and terrible history of the Borg and the thousands of species they encountered and absorbed.

Species designation:
116 | 125 | 149 | 180 | 218 | 259 | 262 | 263 | 312 | 329 | 521 | 571 | 689 | 2461 | 3259 | 4228 | 5174 | 5618 | 6291 | 6339 | 6961 | 8472 | 10026

SPECIES 116

A technologically sophisticated humanoid civilization from the Delta Quadrant. Members of this species were gifted linguists, some knowing several thousand languages. The Borg spent several centuries trying to assimilate Species 116, but they were outwitted and eluded the Borg until 2374, when the Borg abducted all but about 20,000 individuals. Arturis was a member of Species 116 who had escaped assimilation but later was captured after his plans to lure the U.S.S. Voyager NCC-74656 to the Borg failed.[7]

SPECIES 125

The species the Borg Queen encountered by the Voyager in 2374 came from. No other information about this race was known.[10]

SPECIES 149

Civilization assimilated by the Borg that had advanced medical technology, including a method for reversing cellular necrosis, thus allowing the Borg to reactivate drones as much as 73 hours after “death.” This technique was used by Seven of Nine aboard the Voyager to revive Neelix.[4]

SPECIES 180: Ferengi

The Ferengi. It is not known why the Ferengi, an Alpha Quadrant race, has such a low species number, which would imply that they were encountered and catalogued very early in the Borg’s existence.[8]

SPECIES 218: Talaxians

The Talaxian race, of the Delta Quadrant; catalogued by the Borg when a small freighter containing a crew of 39 was taken in the Dolmine Sector. The Talaxians were easily assimilated, and their dense musculature made them excellent drones.[2]

SPECIES 259

Technologically advanced omnicordial lifeform that inhabited Galactic Cluster 3. This species developed the pattern-duplication design that was at the heart of the Borg autonomous regeneration sequencers.[3]

SPECIES 262

A primitive Delta Quadrant culture assimilated by the Borg around 2145. Their oral history referred to a powerful substance which could “burn the sky.” The Borg were intrigued, and they followed a trail of myth through several cultures until it learned about the Omega molecule.[6]

SPECIES 263

A primitive Delta Quadrant culture assimilated by the Borg around 2145. Species 263 believed the Omega molecule was a drop of blood from their creator.[6]

SPECIES 312

A Delta Quadrant civilization assimilated by the Borg several centuries before 2374. Species 312 developed tetrion-flux technology that could create an energy barrier undetectable by conventional sensors. Apparently this species had constructed such an energy barrier on the planet Ledos over the southern sub-continent in order to protect the primitive Ventu people from intrusion by the more advanced Ledosians.[18]

SPECIES 329: Kazon

The Kazon race, of the Delta Quadrant. The Borg encountered a Kazon colony in the Gand Sector, Grid 6920, but considered the race unworthy of assimilation because their biological and technological distinctiveness was unremarkable.[12]

SPECIES 521: Shivolians

The Shivolian race, of the Delta Quadrant. A female member of this species visited the Voyager while the ship was docked at a Markonian Outpost in 2375.[14]

SPECIES 571

A species that worshipped the supernatural deity Brothara, and frowned upon the desecration of dead bodies. P’Chan, whose Borg designation was Four of Nine, was from this species.[14]

SPECIES 689: Norcadians

The Norcadian race, of the Delta Quadrant.[15]

SPECIES 2461: Brunali

The Brunali race, of the Delta Quadrant.[15] The Brunali world was located near a Borg transwarp conduit and had been attacked three times in ten years; each time the Borg wiped out the society they had worked hard to rebuild. This race had developed sophisticated techniques in agricultural genetics which allowed them to grow crops in inhospitable environments, and they used the same science to engineer an anti-Borg pathogen that they implanted into the genetic code of some of their children, including Icheb.[16]

SPECIES 3259: Vulcans

The Vulcan race, of the Alpha Quadrant. The Vulcan’s enlarged neocortex produced superior analytical abilities.[2]

SPECIES 4228: Hazari

The Hazari race, of the Delta Quadrant. Technologically advanced, extremely violent, the Hazari made excellent tactical drones. Other races often hired them as bounty hunters.[11]

SPECIES 5174

A spacefaring Delta Quadrant civilization. The Borg once encountered a small ship of this species where the occupants were gutted in a complete osteomy, their entire skeletons surgically removed along with musculature, ligaments, tendons and internal organs. The Borg never determined the perpetrators, considering it irrelevant, but it was apparently the Hirogen.[5]

SPECIES 5618: Humans

The Human race, of the Alpha Quadrant. Considered by the Borg to possess below-average cranial capacity, minimal redundant systems and limited regenerative abilities. But several attempts to assimilate this species failed, provoking the Borg’s interest.[9]

SPECIES 5973

Gaseous lifeform native to Galactic Cluster 8.[17]

SPECIES 6291: Yridians

The Yridian race. The Borg had determined that the Yridians were extinct, as had the Federation, but exo-biologist Rudy Ransom made contact with the race, proving otherwise; Ransom was promoted to captain and given command of the U.S.S. Equinox NCC-72381 as a result of the accomplishment.[13]

SPECIES 6339

Warp-capable humanoid species that originated in Grid 124, Octant-22-theta. They first encountered the Borg c.2371, and in four years, 11 billion of their people were assimilated. In 2375, the Collective intercepted one of their last remaining shuttlecraft and assimilated the 13 people aboard. It turned out that those 13 individuals were sacrificing themselves, as they were carrying a synthetic pathogen that the race had developed to retaliate against the Borg. That virus was originally a biological agent but mutated and attacked the Borg Cube’s Vinculum as it would living cells, and through the Vinculum it was passed on to all drones on the Cube. The pathogen caused thousands of drones to randomly manifest hundreds of thousands of personalities, leading to chaos among the drones and, ultimately, the destruction of their Cube.[8]

SPECIES 6961: Ktarians

The Ktarian race, of the Alpha Quadrant. A drone originating from this species was studied close up on a Cube by Magnus Hansen.[9]

SPECIES 8472: Undine

The Undine[19] were a sophisticated lifeform from an extra-dimensional realm of fluidic space. Species 8472 has an extremely dense genetic structure and an extraordinarily powerful immune system; almost anything that penetrated their cells was instantly destroyed, including chemical, biological, or technological intruders.[1] In late 2373, the Borg discovered fluidic space and learned that Species 8472 possessed organic spacecraft and a biogenically-engineered weapons technology that was superior to anything known to the Borg. Seeking to assimilate this civilization and its technology, the Borg launched an attack on the fluidic space realm, only to be repelled by Species 8472.[2] Shortly thereafter, Species 8472 launched a retaliatory strike, sending hundreds of powerful bioships into the Delta Quadrant with the goal of eliminating all lifeforms from the galaxy, destroying entire planets and fleets in Borg-occupied space. The 8472 assault was halted when the Starship Voyager collaborated with the Borg to use new nanoprobe technology the crew had developed, a weapon against which the species had no effective defense.[1] It was in the midst of the 8472 battle that Seven of Nine came aboard Voyager and was later severed from the Collective.[2]

SPECIES 10026

A species from Grid 532 in the Delta Quadrant with a population of 392,000 that was assimilated in mid-2375. The Borg Queen tried to force Seven of Nine to help assimilate this race, but Seven instead arranged the escape of four individuals.[10]

References

Sunday, July 11th, 2010 Library, Voyager, Xenology

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