Fek'lhr: Who? What? How?

[J'Maq]

We have all heard the legend of Gre'thor, the place where the dishonored go when they die.
And we have all heard the name of its guardian--Fek'lhr. Fek'lhr. The mere mention of his
name sends shivers down the spines of countless Klingon children--and many Klingon adults as well.
But who was this Fek'lhr before he became the guardian of the Klingon underworld? Was he a
warrior who committed some unspeakable act and was punished for it
by the gods? Or was he a fallen deity that was consigned to the realms below as
punishment? Much like Kortar, the first Klingon, who slew the gods who created him and was condemned to pilot the Barge of the Dead for all eternity--we know very little
about Fek'lhr's origin. Any speculations or theories on this subject?

[qoSagh]

Although I have never subscribed to that old fairy tale about Kortar, I can see some possibilities for the origin of the veqlargh. All of these are pure speculation and would need to be fleshed out as stories.

1) First he is the last of the gods, for whatever reason he was in the underworld when the great battle occurred and was essentially the forgotten one. Since the destruction / sealing of paradise, he has no choice to remain in the underworld, guarding something that no one else really wants anyway.

2) He was a warrior who joined in on the early stages of the battle, but betrayed the Klingons to the gods in return for a promise of great power and his own celestial domain. Due to the fact that his prize was earned by dishonor, his domain is dishonor in and of itself. He can not end this situation, because the gods are unable to be challenged (being either dead or vanquished).

[Abbot Nej vIt]

This Response is being re-posted here from another Forum:

The veqlargh, is Neither Fallen Deity Nor Dishonored Warrior... But Rather it is the Opinion of the chIrgh (In Accordance With Scrolls Found in the Q'tlhon Mountains in 2016), that the veqlargh is in fact the Natural Guardian of the realm of gre'tlhor Not Evil or Dishonored itself, the veqlargh serves a specific Purpose and should be Honored as such... It is Only when compared to "Human-istic" Religious Iconology, that Such entities are seen as being themselves Evil or Demonic...

Researchers Note: According to the TKD the Word veqlargh translates as Devil, Demon or Fek'lhr, however it is not Uncommon for Imperfect Translations to Occur when Comparing dissimilar Cultural Stories... It is Commonly Believed that Because gre'tlhor is something of a "Hell-like" location, (By both Klingon and Human estimates) that the One Who Guards it must also be synonymous with its Earther Paralell... We Say emphatically that this is a False Assumption, made out of Ignorance.

[J'Maq]

I understand what you are saying, Brother Abbot. Tell me, did the gods ever become flesh? And if so, is that how Kortar slew them? End of story?Or did the gods
become flesh and were slain in the flesh--but their spirits escaped to the celestial
realms, leaving our people to forge a new era? Was it Kahless who ushered in
this new era?

[qoSagh]

The specifics of how the Ancient uncaring Ones were vanquished are the very twin secrets that we must guard against the release of, lest someone try and reverse the vanquishing.

I would think however that it would be easier for a warrior to gain some sort of power over the gods, than for all of the gods to become flesh and simply wait around for him to pop by and kill them.

[Kash]

Or did the gods become flesh and were slain in the flesh--but their spirits escaped to the celestial
realms, leaving our people to forge a new era?

Perhaps, and I am no scholar, but perhaps they always were beings of "flesh", even if that "flesh" isn't the same sort that can be cut with a sword. If the Ancient Ones had a hand in creating us, and we are beings both of body and of spirit, is it not possible that they are no different? Perhaps they were slain, and their spirits quaked with fear at their creations, and either fled, or watch only from afar? veqlargh does not interfere with our daily lives; perhaps they are no different.

[Joegun]

This is a bit off topic, but I had thought that the Klingons were originally enslaved by a race with supirior technology, and that the whole deal with kortar was a rebellion agaisnt the superior beings(i.e. the gods) and after killing them, used their ships to make an empire that spraed acrossed the galaxy.  Of cousre I don't remember where i heard this, since it was some years ago, and I just realized I could probrably look it up somewhere online.  Hopefully though, someone with a bit more knowledge could shed some light on the subject

[Kehlan]

I had thought that the Klingons were originally enslaved by a race with supirior technology, and that the whole deal with kortar was a rebellion agaisnt the superior beings(i.e. the gods) and after killing them, used their ships to make an empire that spraed acrossed the galaxy. 

the Klingons were enslaved by the Hurq - an alien race with superior technology.  (the word Hurq, if I remember rightly, means "other" in Klingon - ie "alien" and would be the Klingon name for them  rather than what they called themselves.)

To the best of my knowledge the Klingons rose up against them, defeated them and took their technology.

That much is history.  the rest is mythology/religion.  The Hurq were not the gods that the Klingons killed. 

Kehlan

[Klythe]

     From what timelines I have seen, the Hur'q invasion doesn't start for at least a full Klingon lifetime (200 years) after QeylIS pointed to Borath's star and said he was leaving and would eventually come back and be found there...  The stories of the Klingons killing their gods were even earlier than the stories of QeylIS uniting the Empire.

[KAllen]

Fek'Lhr
He started the KSPCT (Klingon Society for the Protection against Cruelty to Tribbles).  After the great Tribble Hunt, he was banished to New Jersey and it became known On Qonos(as well as Earth) as Hell.

Due to Govt. Subsidizing, NJ/Hell/Gre'thor was moved to the Underworld, and Fek'Lhr along with it!!!

there...case solved!!!

[naQ]

Here...
thought this might be of interest:

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/3849/main.htm

veqlargh juppu' (Friends of Fek'lhr) seems to be a religious group concerning Fek'lhr. As far as I can gether, they believe that Fak'lhr is the true deity of Klingdom, and that Kahless was a false prophet.
I have no idea how serious these people are, but they have an interesting take on Fek'lhr.

naQ, the Complete

[qoSagh]

Very interesting site, especially because of some of the roots of the qaptaQ. What it appears to be is a few translations of Anton LeVay's works for the Church of Satan. As a work of translation it is at least as relevant as any other work , and does add to the sum total of our Klingon language knowledge.

However from a cultural standpoint, it seems to conflict with nearly everything in this thread about the veqlargh not even being a god. From a fandom standpoint I also have a long standing problem with taking any real religion and giving it a quick Klingon name, perhaps this group are the devil people I was once mistaken for.

I can see an interesting chance to role play with such a group, in that they are obviously not believers in the commonly held "dead gods" theory of Klingon religion. I think this is about the seventh or eighth independent Klingon religious group I have come across in fandom, so it kind of helps to validate my theory that Klignons are multireligious.

[naQ]

Very interesting site, especially because of some of the roots of the qaptaQ. What it appears to be is a few translations of Anton LeVay's works for the Church of Satan. As a work of translation it is at least as relevant as any other work , and does add to the sum total of our Klingon language knowledge.

I thought that book of fek'lhr look suspiciously like the first book of The Satanic Bible.