035 0 0 1 erika riker . The Ba’ul were a spacefaring species native to the planet Kaminar.
The Ba’ul were aquatic, with a humanoid form. They had spindly limbs and digits, long tendrils on their heads, glowing red eyes, and protrusible spines along their backs. Their bodies were covered by a black, smoky, oily substance. In the mid-1st century, predation by the Kelpiens drove the Ba’ul to the brink of extinction, with fewer than 260 individuals surviving. Using their technological superiority, the Ba’ul turned the tide and wiped out all the post-vahar’ai Kelpiens. To ensure that they would never again be threatened, the Ba’ul forced the remaining Kelpiens into subservience and imposed upon them a belief system called the Great Balance, designed to prevent any Kelpien from evolving into their post-vahar’ai predatory form.
The Ba’ul developed warp drive in 2237. In 2257, the USS Discovery was led to Kaminar by a red burst. The Ba’ul became aware that Saru had undergone vahar’ai and captured him and his sister Siranna, intending to neutralize them to preserve the Great Balance. As they were on the verge of losing control of the Kelpiens, the Ba’ul activated their pylon network in an attempt to exterminate the entire Kelpien population. Before they could do so, the Red Angel arrived and disabled their technology with an immense electromagnetic pulse. By the 31st century, the Ba’ul had formed an alliance with the Kelpiens and joined the Federation. The All-Seeing Eye of the Ba’ul had evolved to become a symbol of protection.
Saru was gratified that the Ba’ul and the Kelpiens had managed to put aside their differences at last. The Ba’ul were led by the Ba’ul High Council. Kelpiens solely via technology, such as that by the mid-23rd century no Kelpien had seen a Ba’ul in living memory. The Ba’ul feared the Kelpiens, believing their predatory instincts to be uncontrollable. Thus, they saw the Great Balance as the only way to prevent the Kelpiens from destroying everything, and they were prepared to enact genocide on the Kelpiens rather than allow them to evolve past vahar’ai en masse. The language of the Ba’ul was written vertically, from top to bottom and right to left.
