Gwyndala, more commonly called Gwyn, was a young female Vau N'Akat who lived during the late 24th century. She was the artificially created daughter of The Diviner and was sometimes referred to as his "progeny" or the "Progeny of Solum." (PRO: "Lost and Found", "Starstruck", "Kobayashi")
Gwyn lived on the Tars Lamora prison colony until 2383, when she was taken hostage by Dal R'El aboard the newly-discovered Federation starship USS Protostar. Eventually, she joined the crew as they fled the Diviner and searched for meaning and a new life in the Federation.
Early life
Gwyn's beginning
In 2366, having grown weak over the years in his search for the Protostar, and with his species on the verge of extinction, the Diviner decided to create an offspring who would continue in his place, should he one day perish. Drednok was against the idea of creating an offspring, but reluctantly assisted the Diviner. (PRO: "Kobayashi")
Gwyn spent her childhood on Tars Lamora studying thousands of alien languages, which she called "windows into other cultures," and assisting The Diviner with negotiating slave deals and interrogating those that worked at the prison colony.
Despite her work, Gwyn displayed a penchant of caring for "The Unwanted", which at times led her to step out of bounds and speak on behalf of The Diviner, a power solely given to Drednok. She also showed sympathy for some prisoners by using softer interrogation methods than violence employed by Drednok and threatening a Kazon slave trader when he tried to sell a very young Caitian for half-price. She longed to leave Tars Lamora to see the stars.
In 2383, the Diviner tasked Gwyn to interrogate Dal R'El for information about Zero. After R'El found the USS Protostar, Gwyn lost track of him, and eventually she was held hostage on the starship by Rok-Tahk, Jankom Pog and Zero after a fight. The Protostar then left the Tars Lamora with Gwyn tied to the captain's chair. (PRO: "Lost and Found")
She was later transferred to the ship's brig. She briefly escaped when the ship was threatened by a binary star when power was transferred from non-essential systems. An attempt to flee the ship aboard a Protostar escape pod proved unsuccesful when all were jettisoned moments before she could board one. She then learned of the ship's vehicle replicator and attempted to use it to create a shuttlecraft, but was stopped by Rok and was subsequently returned to the brig. (PRO: "Starstruck")
After being marooned with her de facto crew mates on Murder Planet, she briefly injured her leg and was forced to cooperate with them to survive. She was devastated when her father The Diviner chose to attempt leaving with the Protostar rather than rescuing her from the planet's dangerous Cilium-like vegetation. She ultimately fled the planet with the runaway crew, engaging the ship's Protostar drive to escape his pursuit in the Rev-12. (PRO: "Dream Catcher", "Terror Firma")
After fleeing the Diviner and joining the crew of the Protostar, Gwyn struggled to find a new role for herself on the ship as she recovered from her injuries and emotional trauma. With the encouragement of Zero, she realized her skills in language and interpretation were exceptionally useful, especially in cracking the unusual encryptions on the Protostar's logs written in the language of her homeworld, Solum, that were preventing Hologram Janeway from accessing some of her memories. These endeavors eventually revealed the identity of the ship's former captain, Chakotay. (PRO: "Kobayashi")
Gwyn proved instrumental in communicating with the Cymari, whose "language" was primarily told through manipulating matter via soundwaves. (PRO: "First Con-tact") She also successfully altered Hologram Janeway's programming to prevent the Diviner from changing her code, and to give Janeway the ability to fight back against intruders.
In 2384, Gwyn confronted The Diviner on the Protostar's holodeck, where she learned that despite what she'd been told, her species the Vau N'Akat had not been driven to extinction yet, and that The Diviner was from approximately fifty years in the future. She was created to carry on The Diviner's mission to destroy The Federation before first contact with Solum could occur, which would drive them to civil war and the destruction of their civilization. Gwyn chose not to join her father's cause, insisting that "you can't trade on tragedy for another." Before she could warn her crew of this dark revelation, she was accidentally exposed to Zero's true Medusan form by glimpsing a reflection in Dal's combadge, damaging her mind and causing her to lose her immediate memories of the event. (PRO: "A Moral Star, Part 1", "A Moral Star, Part 2")
Personal interests
Gwyn was trained extensively by the Diviner in starship mechanics, astrophysics, linguistics, and information technology, which she eventually realized was to prepare her for operating the Protostar. She spoke many languages besides her native language, including Klingonese and Federation Standard, as well as those used by the Kazons, Caitians, and Dal R'El. At the prison colony, she had a facility that allowed her to study languages, which she believed to allow her to understand new cultures. She favored speaking in Standard; her father considered the language "primitive", but nonetheless consented to communication with it between the two of them. (PRO: "Lost and Found", "Starstruck", "Dream Catcher")
She also possessed a professed level of martial arts skills, and was equipped with an heirloom composed of malleable matter that she could control with telekinesis. (PRO: "Lost and Found", "Terror Firma", "A Moral Star, Part 2")
Appendices
Appearances
- PRO: Every episode
Background information
Gwyn is voiced by Ella Purnell. Concept art for the character was developed by art director Alessandro Taini.
According to StarTrek.com, she possessed a natural ability known as neuroflux. [1]
External links
- Gwyndala at StarTrek.com, the official Star Trek website
- Gwyndala at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
