Shran and Captain Archer are engaged in the Ushaan in late 2154.
The Ushaan is a crucial part of Andorian tradition, a code of honor demanding a duel to the death in which the combatants fight against each other with a ice miner's tool, the Ushaan-tor. An enormous body of rules and regulations exists around this code of honor, summing up to 12,000 amendments.
The ushaan can be demanded by someone as a means of personal vengeance, e.g. to avenge a personal loss. However, there exists a right of substitution, allowing each combatant to put up a replacement for him. Furthermore each married combatant can postpone a duel indefinitely, if there are no children to continue his claim. Additionally, the fight may be called off, if one combatant disables the other in way so he cannot continue the duel. (ENT: "United")
- The ushaan ritual was first mentioned in The Andorians: Among the Clans, a Last Unicorn Games sourcebook published in 1999.