Tial / Tialans

Created by Staff Sergeant Nyx'e'Trixe Valentine on Sat Sep 16th, 2017 @ 3:06pm

Tial- 5th and only habitable planet of the Treth'in'el system, located on the edge of Federation-held space in the Delta Quadrant

“Tial is a moderately advanced planet, with a barely-warp level of technology that has yet to venture out of its own star system, but with orbital stations as well as on both moons around the planet, still in early stages of advanced building all using home-grown tech. The Tialan Space Navy is composed of three small corvette-class ships with minimal weaponry consisting of laser weapons as well as nuclear-powered missiles.

Technology ON the planet is far less advanced given the unique atmospheric and ground makeup of the world. Phosphorous levels are very high but in an overly warm and humid environment. This results in an energy-production drag of a high level. To put an example, a tricorder has a useful life of approximately one hour on Tial's surface before the humidity in the air destroys the equipment that is 'eaten' by the phosphorous-laden environment. Advanced power sources have a very difficult time keeping up with any sort of power throughput due to the same problems. Even beyond the problems of creating the power, transferring it to other uses is a very difficult process. As a result, despite the nuclear-capable technology of the Tialans, which was the only way they could have escaped the gravitational pull of the planet, it is in a very limited use and only in certain environmental conditions, such as mountain plateaus where the atmosphere is thinner. The results for those not on those plateaus mean that the primary source of extra heat and light is somewhat medieval by standard, fire being a major source.

This environment also poses a major problem with outside visitors. The dampening effect is to such an extreme that energy weapons are all but useless. Experiments with phaser rifles of all varieties and classes at all power levels yield a mild stun effect at the highest levels. The life expectancy of a phaser rifle on Tial is little more than a tricorder's one hour. Shuttles that enter the atmosphere exhibit higher power drains on their systems than normal and must maintain their matter-antimatter power systems at all times or else potentially suffer debilitating damage that will keep them on the ground. Chemical-powered weaponry is available on the planet, but also suffers from an energy 'lag' which makes it far less useful. The weapons that the army uses are well-made and adapted to this environment, but also are rare and seem to be for their officers only. The primary military technology level is that of bow and arrow as well as sword.”
-Captain Masamira Takada, Starfleet Corps of Engineers

Tialan physiology is unique in its own way. Your basic Tialan appears VERY capable of reproducing with humans and near-humans and on first sight appears to be a human. However, when you get down to past skin level, there are some subtle differences. Internal organs are very similar in form and function, though there is no veriform appendix nor is there a gall bladder. A single kidney is located in the abdominal cavity connected by connective tissue to the liver. Two lungs, both approximately 25% larger in size than a humans, make up the intervening space as well as space made by an intestinal system that is shorter than a humans. The heart is most of the way over on the right side instead of the normal left-center of a human.

A very unique feature of the Tialan people is the concentration of phosphorous in their bodies. Obviously, they have adapted into their environment and this initially confused our scanners when we brought one up to the Andromeda to investigate. There is a far higher concentration in the hair strand and follicles than in the cells as a whole and this brings up another intriguing feature. When a Tialan is in a state of higher brain activity, they glow. This glow is directly related to the color of their hair, with the rare blonde Tialan glowing a bright golden color while the predominant nearly black color Tialan emitting a 'shadow' rather than a light producing glow. One subject in our study has shown to produce a purple glow of basically a royal purple. It would be posited that if there were a redheaded Tialan, a crimson glow would occur.

As previously inferred, Tialans are genetically similar to humans, outside of the phosphorous influence, but they are found exclusively with the genes for only two hair pigmentations: The predominant, over 99%, being dark-haired and the rare, double-recessive blonde. This has resulted in a societal rift that Dr. Labrawski will enumerate upon in another section of this report. Occurances of blonde Tialans coming from dark haired pairs are rare, but not unheard of. The opposite is unheard of, but not genetically impossible. Eye color seems to be at random throughout the race.
Dr. Linda Harrison, Starfleet Medical

Tial is nothing less than a separate-state Theocracy with a non-too-complex caste system. Appended to this report is a listing of their pantheon and explanations of what that entails. There are five 'Primary' gods and goddesses with a host of minor 'heroes' that are very heavily skewed towards their war goddess. There are seven 'states' on the world, each ruled by priests of their highest god, 'Thry'a'geth', King of their pantheon. While a single-world government has been formed, it's a 'council' of these rulers and appears to be a tenuous alliance at best, though with each 'state' contributing towards a system defense force for the entirety of the Tialan star system. This defense force remains apolitical and has it's own heirarchy separate from the state militaries.

As stated by Dr. Harrison, there is a huge imbalance in the genetics of Tialans, with the vast majority of the population being of a dark haired genotype and a very rare blonde genotype. Some time in the ancient past, the blonde genotype gained political power to the level of the extreme and warped it into the theocracy we see today, with the appointment of priests and priestesses to guide the worships of the 'normal' people. It excluded those that have the dark-haired genotype from the priesthood in order to give authority to the blonde genotype. The educational differences between the two genotypes are no less than monumental, with the blondes having a higher level of knowledge.

The military forces of Tial are officered exclusively by the priests and priestesses of their war goddess Bey'a'dande, which except in VERY limited numbers only introduced within the last two decades, are of the blonde genotype. The remainder, the huge majority, are of the dark-haired genotype, are given far less training and are conscripted for a period of twenty-five years. To give an example, a priestess of the first class of their goddess is equivalent to a company commander of our Marines, a second class to a battalion, third to a brigade, fourth a regiment, fifth a division and a sixth to an army group. There are a total of nine-seventh class priests of their war goddess, one for each 'state', with one 'elected' to overall premiership of the priesthood and another to command system-wide forces for in case of an incursion to the star system.

A special focus is spent on the military of Tial, as it appears most things revolve around it. On the Council, outside of the representative of each state, the 'Premier' of the military holds a very large influence. Another note is that for a promotion to the seventh rank to occur, a combat challenge to the death is the typical way for promotion. Should one of the 'Sevenths' die of natural causes or in some other way, there is a tournament among those who desire the position to see who ascends to the rank. In the case of the Seventh rank, 'You keep what you kill' is the standard.

Honor is a very important issue with Tialans of all genotypes and rates, with many deaths and ascensions related to this. Some of the dark-haired genotypes have been 'promoted' to the lowest rank of priest in certain aspects of society, barring the military, but only after major achievements have been peformed, and they have never been 'promoted' to the second rank of any priesthood. It is only with the coming of the Federation that the caste system has been officially abolished, but the dark-haired genotype is still considered 'second class' in all but name, even by all but a comparative handful of their own. With the continued influence of the Federation, even this could be all but a memory within half a century, but there are already rumblings within the Council.

Pantheon
Thry'a'Geth -'King' of the gods, priests make up the governmental functions of the planet and states.
Bey'a'dande, War goddess, also called 'Mistress of Pain', priests make up military officers. VERY class-oriented and dangerous
-Urd'a'Neta, Goddess of Healing and Nature, priests are primary doctors and life sciences
-Skul'a'Dea, Goddess of Makers, priests are artisan and craft masters
-Ans'a'Kelu, God of Knowledge, priests are teachers and physical scientists
Dr. Geraldine Labrawski, Anthropologist, Oxford University.