Klingon first appeared in Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979, when the actor James Doohan wrote lines that were recorded on tape. For Star Trek III in 1984, the director and producers asked for a structured language, so the linguist Marc Okrand expanded Doohan's dozen words into a full vocabulary and grammar. Okrand designed Klingon to differ from English and most natural languages on purpose. He used a very asymmetric consonant set and a word order and sounds that are relatively uncommon among the world's languages. Some features drew on Native American and Southeast Asian languages, though not deliberately. The language later became a plot device, since translation difficulties drive scenes in later films.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.