Cross-Stitch Patterns

The Klingons in Star Trek value honor and military prowess above all else, and consider dying a warrior's death in battle to be one of the greatest feats one can accomplish. This is summed up by the Klingon-language expression Deghlu'meH QaQ jajvam, which means, "It is a good day to die."

The center of this pattern is the Latin transcription of the Klingon-language phrase, and the top and bottom both repeat the phrase in the Klingon writing system. The sides repeat the Klingon word Qapla': "Success!" Additionally, the bottom center includes a depiction of a bat'leth , also called a betleH, the traditional Klingon bladed weapon whose name means "sword of honor."

(Note that the capitalization here is on purpose! The Klingon language, as developed by linguist Mark Okrand on behalf of the Star Trek showrunners, is transcribed in the Latin alphabet in a fixed way where capital and lower-case letters can connote different sounds.)

The Ferengi in Star Trek have a hypercapitalist society that values money above all else, to the point that the near-universally practiced religion of Ferengi revolves around how best to maximize profits while exploiting anyone and everyone. The holy book of this religion is called the Rules of Acquisition, a collection of hundreds of aphorisms about how best to acquire wealth no matter the cost.

The aphorism depicted here is Rule of Acquisition #22: A wise man can hear profit on the wind. The border are glyphs which resemble the Ferengi writing system but do not mean anything in particular. (Unlike Klingon, the Ferengi language has not been systematically developed by the Star Trek showrunners into something self-consistent and speakable.)