In line with their diplomatic duties and posts of command over the Jem'Hadar, Vortas are immune to almost every kind of poisoning. This comes in very handy when they are dealing with hostile races. Vortas are experts at cloning, and seem to reserve backup copies of themselves that can be cloned if an earlier version was killed or lost in the treacheries involved with Dominion diplomacy. One particularly prominent Vorta supervisor, Weyoun, has gone through 7 reincarnations. The same Vorta has supplied the Federation with knowledge that Vorta have poor hearing while they have a keen olfactory sense. They also cannot "taste" anything, another genetic programming from the Founders to help them "remember their roots" and keep them in their place. When asked whether the Founders made a mistake in choosing a species with poor hearing to be diplomatic delegates, the Vorta Weyoun fervently denied even the possibilities of their "Gods" making mistakes.
The Founders sometimes gives special abilities to certain Vortas for the successful completion of their mission. The first Vorta seen by the Federation was a female named Eris. She had telekinetic powers that enabled her to manipulate energy. Later Vortas have not been noted to possess such powers, and it is the belief of the Federation that Eris was an exception.
Life Purpose

The Vorta are the administrators and diplomats of the Dominion, the ones who carry out the dictates of the Founders and "negotiate" new worlds into submission. In serving the Founder, Vortas are also zealous in protecting the Dominion's agenda. If captured, Vortas are also obligated to commit suicide rather than surrender to enemies. One Vorta, Keevan, however did not follow this policy and opted to kill his Jem'Hadars rather than die. They revere the Founders in much the same light as Jem'Hadar do, and give precedence to the safety of a Founder's life over everything else. Vorta supervisor Kilana once exchanged a whole Jem'Hadar ship for the ashes of a dead Founder.

One Vorta is usually at the head of every Jem'Hadar Attack Craft, along with a complement of 42 Jem'Hadar. Several are believed to be aboard the larger Jem'Hadar Battle Cruiser. The Vortas are known as supervisors, the ones who oversees missions and other delicate affairs that Jem'Hadars are incapable of handling. Inside the Jem'Hadar ship, the supervisor and the Jem'Hadar First are given visors that allow them to augment the exterior visually. Perhaps that too is symbolic of the unerring trust the Jem'Hadar show in their supervisors. DS9 "The Jem'Hadar" 2-46

One group did not accept Surak's teachings and instead left Vulcan to found the warrior Romulan Star Empire. Their descendents and offshoots colonized many planets across the quadrant. Tensions remained between the two peoples, and a century-long war once raged between the Vulcans and the Romulans. No one on either side realized that the war had been ignited by Quinn, a member of the Q Continuum. We don't know when the war was, except that it was before 2072. By the 24th century, however, a small number of Vulcan citizens sought reconciliation with their Romulan cousins, a movement supported by Ambassador Spock, as well as by members of a Romulan underground.

In the distant past, Vulcans killed to win their mates. Even in the present, Vulcans revert to ancient mating rituals, apparently the price these people must pay for totally suppressing their natural emotions. When Vulcan children are about seven, their parents select a future mate, and the two children are joined in a ceremony that links them telepathically. When the two children come of age, they are compelled to join together for the marriage rituals. The time of mating, Pon farr, is when the stoically logical Vulcans pay for their rigid control by experiencing a period of total emotional abandon. In Vulcan adults, Pon farr comes every seven years. Vulcans who reach a certain infirmity with age sometimes practice ritual suicide.

Because planet Vulcan has a higher gravity than Earth, and its atmosphere is thinner, Vulcans in an Earth-normal environment demonstrate greater physical strength and more acute hearing than humans. The intensity of the Vulcan sun caused the Vulcans to evolve a secondary eyelid to protect the retina. This inner eyelid involuntarily closes when the eye is exposed to extremely intense light. A Vulcan's heart is where a human's liver is. When injured, Vulcans concentrate their strength, blood, and antibodies onto the injured organs by a type of self-induced hypnosis. Certain elements of Vulcan prehistory suggest that the Vulcan race may have originated with colonists from another planet. Vulcans have telepathic capacity, as practiced in the Vulcan mind-meld. Although the telepathic ability is quite limited, Spock once felt the death screams of the 400 Vulcan crew members of the Starship Intrepid across interstellar distances. Located in the mesiofrontal cortex of the Vulcan brain lies the psychosuppression system responsible for the cessation of emotions. On rare occasions, this area of the brain can be disrupted following a mind-meld with a violent individual.

Vulcans were the first extraterrestrials to be encountered by the people of planet Earth. On April 4, 2063, a Vulcan survey ship passed through Earth's solar system at that same time that Zefram Cochrane made his first faster-than-light spaceflight test in the Phoenix. The Vulcan ship detected the Phoenix's warp signature and realized that humans had discovered warp drive. On the evening of the next day, the Vulcan ship touched down near Cochrane's launch site in Montana. On April 5, 2063, Vulcans made first contact with humankind. TOS, TAS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT