For thousands of years the
Borg have been spreading throughout the galaxy, conquering, assimilating and thus destroying countless civilizations. Following every encounter, the Borg catalogue each new species with a numerical designation instead of a proper name.
The goal of the Borg, in most cases, is to completely assimilate each species by incorporating their knowledge and technology into the unified Borg Collective. One by one, each living being is converted into Borg Drones. In many cases, all that remains of an assimilated civilization is the memory of its unique contributions that now resides only within the accumulated knowledge of the Borg. That and the numerical species designation. Often even the name is lost, forgotten or deleted as irrelevant. Conversely, the species designations give a sense of the long and terrible history of the Borg and the thousands of species they have encountered and absorbed.
SPECIES 116 A technologically sophisticated humanoid civilization from the Delta Quadrant. Members of this species were gifted linguists, some knowing several thousand languages. The Borg first tried to assimilate Species 116 many centuries ago, but they were outwitted and eluded until 2374, when the Borg abducted all but about 20,000 individuals. Arturis was a member of Species 116 who had escaped assimilation but later was captured after his plans to lure the U.S.S. Voyager to the Borg failed.
Reference: Hope and Fear
SPECIES 125
The species the Borg Queen came from. No other information about this race is known.
Reference: Dark Frontier, Part II
SPECIES 149
Civilization assimilated by the Borg that had advanced medical technology, including a method for reversing cellular necrosis, thus allowing the Borg to reactivate drones as much as 73 hours after "death." This technique was used by Seven of Nine aboard the U.S.S. Voyager to revive Neelix.
Reference: Mortal Coil
SPECIES 180
The Ferengi. It is not known why the Ferengi, an Alpha Quadrant race, has such a low species number, which would imply that they were encountered and catalogued very early in the Borg's existence.
Reference: Infinite Regress
SPECIES 218
The Talaxian race, of the Delta Quadrant; catalogued by the Borg when a small freighter containing a crew of 39 was taken in the Dolmine Sector. The Talaxians were easily assimilated, and their dense musculature made them excellent drones.
Reference: The Raven
SPECIES 259
Technologically advanced omnicordial lifeform that inhabits Galactic Cluster 3. This species developed the pattern-duplication design that is at the heart of the Borg autonomous regeneration sequencers.
Reference: The Gift
SPECIES 262
A primitive Delta Quadrant culture assimilated by the Borg around 2145. Their oral history referred to a powerful substance which could "burn the sky." The Borg were intrigued, and they followed a trail of myth through several cultures until it learned about the Omega molecule.
Reference: The Omega Directive
SPECIES 263
A primitive Delta Quadrant culture assimilated by the Borg around 2145. Species 263 believed the Omega molecule was a drop of blood from their creator.
Reference: The Omega Directive
SPECIES 312
A Delta Quadrant civilization assimilated by the Borg hundreds of years ago. Species 312 developed tetrion-flux technology that could create an energy barrier undetectable by conventional sensors. Apparently this species had constructed such an energy barrier on the planet Ledos over the southern sub-continent in order to protect the primitive Ventu people from intrusion by the more advanced Ledosians. The energy barrier was impenetrable by the Ledosians until crewmembers from the U.S.S. Voyager found a way to break through it.
Reference: Natural Law
SPECIES 329
The Kazon race, of the Delta Quadrant. The Borg encountered a Kazon colony in the Gand Sector, Grid 6920, but considered the race unworthy of assimilation because their biological and technological distinctiveness was unremarkable. Why assimilate a species that would detract from perfection?
Reference: Mortal Coil
SPECIES 521
The Shivolian race, of the Delta Quadrant. A female member of this species visited the U.S.S. Voyager while the ship was docked at the Markonian Outpost in 2376.
Reference: Survival Instinct
SPECIES 571
A species that worships the supernatural deity Brothara, who frowns upon the desecration of dead bodies. P'Chan, whose Borg designation was Four of Nine, is from this species.
Reference: Survival Instinct
SPECIES 689
The Norcadian race, of the Delta Quadrant.
Reference: Ashes to Ashes
SPECIES 2461
The Brunali race, of the Delta Quadrant. The Brunali world was located near a Borg transwarp conduit and had been attacked three times in 10 years; each time the Borg wiped out the society they had worked hard to rebuild. This race had developed sophisticated techniques in agricultural genetics to allow them to grow crops in inhospitable environments, and they used the same science to engineer an anti-Borg pathogen that they implanted into the genetic code of some of their children, including Icheb.
Reference: Child's Play
SPECIES 3259
The Vulcan race, of the Alpha Quadrant. The Vulcan's enlarged neocortex produces superior analytical abilities.
Reference: The Raven
SPECIES 4228
The Hazari race, of the Delta Quadrant. Technologically advanced, extremely violent, the Hazari make excellent tactical drones. Other races often hire them as bounty hunters.
Reference: Think Tank
SPECIES 5174
A spacefaring Delta Quadrant civilization. The Borg once encountered a small ship of this species where the occupants were gutted in a complete osteomy, their entire skeletons surgically removed along with musculature, ligaments, tendons and internal organs. The Borg never determined the perpetrators, considering it irrelevant, but it was apparently the Hirogen.
Reference: Hunters
SPECIES 5618
The Human race, of the Alpha Quadrant. Considered by the Borg to possess below-average cranial capacity, minimal redundant systems and limited regenerative abilities. But several attempts to assimilate this species have failed.
Reference: Dark Frontier, Part II
SPECIES 6291
The Yridian race. The Borg had determined that the Yridians were extinct, as had the Federation, but exo-biologist Rudy Ransom made first contact with the race, thereby proving otherwise. (Ransom was promoted to captain and given command of the Starship Equinox as a result of this accomplishment.)
Reference: Equinox, Part II
SPECIES 6339
Humanoid, warp-capable species that originated in Grid 124, Octant-22-theta. They first encountered the Borg about 2371, and in four years 11 billion of their people were assimilated. In 2375 the Collective intercepted one of their last remaining shuttlecraft and assimilated the 13 aboard. It turns out those 13 individuals were sacrificing themselves, as they were carrying a synthetic pathogen that the race had developed to retaliate against the Borg. That virus was originally a biological agent but mutated and attacked the Borg Cube's Vinculum as it would living cells, and through the Vinculum it was passed on to all drones on the Cube. The pathogen caused thousands of drones to randomly manifest hundreds of thousands of personalities, leading to chaos among the drones and ultimately the destruction of their Cube.
Reference: Infinite Regress
SPECIES 6961
The Ktarian race, of the Alpha Quadrant. A drone originating from this species was studied close up on a Cube by Magnus Hansen.
Reference: Dark Frontier, Part II
SPECIES 8472
Sophisticated lifeform from an extra-dimensional realm of fluidic space. Species 8472 has an extremely dense genetic structure and an extraordinarily powerful immune system; almost anything that penetrates their cells is instantly destroyed, including chemical, biological, or technological intruders. In late 2373 the Borg discovered fluidic space and learned that Species 8472 possess organic spacecraft and a biogenically engineered weapons technology that was superior to anything known to the Borg. Seeking to assimilate this civilization and its technology, the Borg launched an attack on the fluidic space realm, only to be repulsed by Species 8472. Shortly thereafter, 8472 launched a retaliatory strike, sending hundreds of powerful bioships into the Delta Quadrant with the goal of eliminating all lifeforms from the galaxy, destroying entire planets and fleets in Borg-occupied space. The 8472 assault was halted when the U.S.S. Voyager collaborated with the Borg to use new nanoprobe technology the crew had developed, a weapon against which the species had no effective defense. It was in the midst of the 8472 battle that Seven of Nine came aboard Voyager and was later severed from the Hive.
Reference: Scorpion, Part II
SPECIES 10026
A species from Grid 532 in the Delta Quadrant with a population of 392,000 that was assimilated in mid-2375. The Borg Queen tried to force Seven of Nine to help assimilate this race, but instead she arranged the escape of four individuals.
Reference: Dark Frontier, Part II
