The Rite of Tal'oth was a Vulcan desert survival ritual. During the ritual, a young adult Vulcan was required to survive for four months in the desert with only a ritual blade.
Tuvok once participated in the Rite of Tal'oth. When discussing the difficulty level of survival training at Starfleet Academy with Chakotay in 2373, Tuvok indicated that having undergone the rite prior to his Academy days, he found Starfleet training to be less of a challenge. (VOY: "Displaced")
According to the non-canonical comic "When Worlds Collide", which was written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, illustrated by Paul Pope and published in Wired magazine in April 2009, an adolescent Spock underwent the "Tal'oth test" in Vulcan's Forge and defeated a sa-te kru cat with the Vulcan nerve pinch.
This rite may be related to the ten-day kahs-wan desert survival maturity test experienced by pre-teen Vulcans.
External link[]
- Rite of Tal'oth at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works