The Gorn are highly intelligent reptilians from the Beta Quadrant in the fictional realm of Star Trek. They made first contact with Starfleet at Cestus III when a misunderstanding nearly led to war.
The Gorn have a long history of war, art, culture, and pride. They have had many global governments on their planet of Gornniska, from the original Empire of Gornniska, to the Gorn Confederacy, to the Gorn Empire (separate entity from the Empire of Gornniska), to the Gorn Republic.
The average Gorn stands 2.7 meters tall and weighs 320 pounds. They have compound eyes, cold blood, little sense of smell, bumpy skin, and an extremely high metabolism.
They can heal injury at a rate of two pounds of flesh per hour, and knit bones in less than 15 minutes. The only way to kill a Gorn for good is to cut off its head.
They have had Warp Drive for as long as humans, but have been using particle weapons for only about half that time. They still use melee weapons and have a fondness for explosives and projectiles.
Gorn families are generally nuclear, with a mother, father, and children. But that family is a part of a larger extended family, the Clan. The Clan then belongs to an ever greater community, the Crest which is not only a collective of families but a political force behaving like a political party. There are ten active Crests on Gornniska, the most powerful being the Dragon Crest followed by the Phoenix Crest and then Red Crest.
The Gorn language, Gornouf, is a combination of guttural sounds and hissing, and some have no vowels in them at all. A good example is the Gorn Republic's creed:
"FOKHSS IP'KAKAROO OIIAASS'YU"
which means "Fight the weak"
