Vulcan is slightly larger than Earth, giving it a higher gravity. It is also a very dry planet with no oceans, only a few large lakes. This harsh environment contributed to the extremely violent society seen in early Vulcan civilization. However, about 2000 years ago two things happened that changed Vulcan society completely.

A man named Surak developed his methods of emotional control and logic. Although his following was small at first, his methods soon spread accross the globe. It soon seemed that Surak's teachings would put an end to the violent technological and psionic wars that had been going on for over a thousand years. These teachings managed to unite the Vulcan clans to an extent that no Vulcan had ever achieved before.At about this time, the Duthulhiv Empire, a ruthless but extremely advanced interstellar race, attempted to plunder the planet Vulcan for its ores and steal Vulcan women and children to serve as slaves to the Empire. This was just one of the many less advanced cultures that the Duthulhiv had attempted to subjugate. However, the Duthulhiv were not prepared for the Vulcan's powerful ability of mind attack. The Vulcan's psionic powers were well honed from over a thousand years of war.Thousands of Vulcans tossed aside their teachings of emotional control and put all their effort into destroying their attackers. The Duthulhiv simply had no defense. Their attack vessels were no good if their pilots minds could be turned to mush. Soon the Duthulhiv decided that Vulcan was not worth their effort and so the attack was abandoned. The Duthulhiv decided that it would keep its distance from Vulcan. The Vulcans rejoiced in the withdrawal but new conflict arose. Those who had declared war on the Duthulhiv believed that the new ways of emotional control would weaken their race. They believed that the true Vulcan way was one of war. Much conflict arose but in the end, Suraks teachings held. Those who disagreed with his ways decided that the best thing to do would be to leave Vulcan and find a world where they could live as true Vulcans were meant to be. The technology gained from Vulcan's first contact allowed these rebels to leave Vulcan by building a number of generational ships and going out in search of a new homeland. They called themselves the Rihansuu. When the Rihansuu left Vulcan, an unprecedented era of peace fell over the planet. Vulcan society soon achieved space travel capability, after studying the fallen Duthulhiv technology. However, they were held in by the shear strenght of that empire. In great numbers on their homeworld, they stood a chance against their oppressors, but out in space the Duthulhiv ruled. The survey craft sent out every couple hundred years never returned and were assumed destroyed. The Vulcans were trapped into their local group of a few stars. For over a thousand years they remained this way. Back home, they spent the generations evolving their ways of logic and science always looking up longingly toward the stars. About 1600 years after the age of Surak, another survey craft was sent out of Vulcan space. This ship was the first to ever return. Soon other ships followed with still no dangers encountered. It seemed that the Duthulhiv had simply gone. The Vulcans slowly but surely began to move outward into space. They came accross vast worlds fallen into poverty. There were worlds and races once dominated by the Duthulhiv left with no infrastructure or no knowledge of how to maintain it. The Duthulhiv Empire had somehow fallen and in its place was many dead or dying worlds raped of their natural resources and with populations fallen into barbarism.

Vulcan survey craft spent the next few hundred years exploring and charting what they found but were able to do little else. They simply did not have the recources to give relief to these fallen worlds. The Vulcans did colonize a handful of closeby worlds and managed to become a reasonably advanced spacefairing civilization.

In 2063, a Vulcan survey craft passing through the Sol system, monitored a space craft make a jump to faster than light speeds. They immediately altered course to investigate what they saw. The Vulcans had never developed faster than light spacecraft and were amazed that somehow the primitive culture on the third planet had managed to achieve just that. Investigating the matter, the Vulcan scientists soon met Zephram Cochrane, the inventor of the warp drive system. This was the beginning of a friendly cultural exchange that would last for the next 100 years. It was the first time that Vulcan had ever before made ties with an alien race. In 2156, when the Romulan War erupted, the Vulcans suspected who the Romulans might truly be, however, it was decided that the matter would never be discussed with the humans. It was believed that to speak of it might ruin the longstanding friendship between the two peoples, for although the humans made good allies, they were still an emminantly illogical race. With the close of the Romulan War, the Vulcans were surprised that the humans were ever more determined to bring the local races closer together in an attempt to strengthen their region of space. The Vulcans decided that the Romulans were dangerously close to their homeworld and fearing that they may have their eyes set on retaking it, they decided that the most logical course of action would be to join the new Federation that the humans were preposing.