The Dal'Rok
The Dal'Rok was a mythical energy creature from the woods north of a village on Bajor, which manifested itself for five days every year at the end of the harvest.
The Dal'Rok was a manifestation of the fears of the villagers, focused through a fragment of an Orb worn by the village storyteller, the Sirah. For many years, the villagers had been torn apart by hate and mistrust and the first Sirah created the Dal'Rok as a means of uniting the villagers against an external enemy and preventing the village from destroying itself. The secret of the Dal'Rok was passed down from Sirah to Sirah.
Every year, the Sirah would use a small fragment of an Orb from the Celestial Temple to create the Dal'Rok, which would then threaten the village for five nights. The purpose of creating the Dal'Rok was the unity of the village against a common foe. (DS9: "The Storyteller")
Appendices
Background information
Rick Berman cited the visuals of the Dal'Rok as the reason why "The Storyteller" ended up being a very costly episode. (Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages, pp. 33 & 51)
Apocrypha
The Dal'Rok was also mentioned in the Deep Space Nine relaunch novels Bajor: Fragments and Omens and The Soul Key.
External link
- Dal'Rok at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works