Kih'Vok sutai Pallara - Character Information
Character Background
As much as I have always admired Vulcans, there has been a side of me that always also admired the Klingons. My initial infatuation with them came not from the Original Series (even though I though General Kor was a pretty cool character), but from the opening scene in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The "Klingon Battle Scene" as it's come to be known when the Klingon patrol engages V'Ger was really interesting. In no small part was the music as well, which has come to be synonymous since as the Klingon theme song.
One concept I later found also interesting as a concept was something that Spock stated in one of the Star Trek books I read (which I can unfortunately not recall which now) that was related to different races and their encounters with new intelligences or races... that "... each race confronts unfamiliar situations in their own way, as their cultural temperament demands." With races like Humans, or Vulcans, that first contact usually comes with caution and a desire to learn more. With the Klingons, they simply attack anything they are unfamiliar with due to their warrior mindset of anything unfamiliar being a potential threat.
However, my first real tidbit of history and background about the Klingons came when I purchased a supplement for the Star Trek Tactical Combat Simulator called "The White Flame". This was a supplement that included an elite Klingon (fictional) combat unit referred to as the 123rd Flotilla. The character personalities in the supplement of the ship captains intrigued me, and I thought it would be interesting to play a Klingon character at some point because of it (as it was, I frequently played Klingons in the STTCS, usually using a Bird of Prey).
Star Trek Online
When Star Trek Online was released, it was the perfect opportunity to create a Klingon character. In truth, the first Klingon I created was Krimex zantai Pallara, in whom I placed a personality and background that was wholly Klingon and was of course part of the Klingon faction. I played Krimex for a while, and then after I'd been playing Sanek for some time I decided to create another character.
The idea that an opposition to Krimex would be an interesting concept came to mind, and as such Kih'Vok was born. I created him with the idea that he would be torn between loyalty to the Empire and the Federation as a Starfleet character. To make his background even more interesting I set it up so that Krimex and Kih'Vok were half brothers... with the typical Klingon animosity that would naturally result from opposing perspectives and loyalties.
Family Name and Clan
One thing I decided to do, in somewhat of an homage to where I originally got the idea to play Klingon characters from, was make Kih'Vok a direct descendant of the commanding officer of the 123rd Flotilla from the 23rd Century, Klemm sutai Pallara. A short fictional scenario of the Pallara Clan becoming somewhat shadowed throughout history after the 123rd was no longer in service allowed for the family line to be easily incorporated into the characters of both Kih'Vok and Krimex. This bloodline and lineage is also another point of pride between them both, each believing their path to be the one their ancestor would have chosen.