The Gorn Star Kingdom is yet another civilization in decline. The fire that once drove them to explore and conquer the stars has gone out in their hearts, and their society has begun to atrophy as a result. This does not, however, make them easy opponents. Though they allow their territorial holdings to whither and eventually break away from their control, any overt attempts to seize their holdings by force will still result in the awakening of their military juggernaut.
The source of their degradation is a lack of strong leadership. The Gorn King is old, so old, in fact, that he has delegated the responsibilities of running the government to several vassals at odds with each other for supremacy. Well-meaning members of his own family keep the Gorn King sheltered from the political intrigues surrounding him, but this serves only to worsen the situation. Unless a strong leader emerges from their political mire, the Gorn Star Kingdom will continue its decline if it does not tear itself apart in a civil war.
Despite the Kingdom's political weakness, the Gorn military machine is well maintained, well disciplined, and a worthy adversary. Gorn vessels are designed for speed and survivability. Though they tend to have weaker shields than Klingon or Federation vessels, their hulls are capable of withstanding enormous amounts of punishment. Gorn vessels are equipped with a variety of weapons, many of which are based on modulated gravimetric field technology, which is a science the Gorn appear to have perfected. Through independent research, the Gorn have created homing torpedoes extraordinarily similar to Romulan designs. Gorn plasma torpedoes have a slightly higher nominal yield than Romulan medium plasma torpedos, but are less stable over time so their effective range is less. The Gorn also use their mastery of gravity in such weapons as the Quantum Carrier-wave Beam, the Gravitic Harmonic Resonance Cannon, and their Graviton Density Distortion Sphere. All of these weapons are exceedingly short ranged, but the great speed of the Gorn vessels greatly mitigates this limitation.
Because the Empire has very little contact with the Gorn Star Kingdom and their internal political strife keeps them well removed from intra-galactic affairs, they are considered a secondary enemy. However, since they do have some political ties to the United Federation of Planets, it is conceivable that they may side with the Federation in the event of a major interstellar conflict. All commanders would best keep this possibility in mind in the event of a future war.
