Talaxian

The Talaxians are a humanoid race from the Delta Quadrant planet of Talax. Talax orbits a trinary star system, consisting of Jovax (a Type M7 V star), Zovex (a Type F7 V star) and Prelix (a Type M5 V star). It is the seventh of eleven planets, joined by a Class Y planet in close orbit, several Class K planets, and a single Class J gas giant. The Talax System is rich in various resources - deuterium, duranium, uridium ore, and rodinium. This, along with its location along a major trade corridor in a densely populated region of space, makes Talax strategically important.

The Talaxian homeworld is remarkably similar to Earth, with slightly less gravity (0.85g), but Earth-like density and atmosphere. The majority of the planet's three landmasses are covered with antediluvian forests. Between towering mountains and wide, flowing rivers, a carpet of green covers much of the world. Temperature ranges from 30 degrees Celsius at the equator to zero at the poles; the majority of the climate remains temperate across the latitudes. A sole moon, Rinax, orbits the planet, and possesses its own, life supporting atmosphere.

Personality

The average Talaxian is kindhearted, generous, and optimistic. They believe in the basic goodness of most sapients, and assume everyone they meet is a potential friend; until, of course, circumstances prove them wrong. This does not make Talaxians naive, however. Evil exists in the Galaxy, to be sure, but prior to the Haakonian War Talaxians didn't make value judgments based on appearances or first impressions.

Their experiences as a result of the Haakonian War, however, forced many Talaxians to rethink their philosophy. Survivors of this conflict have become bitter, aggressive, and suspicious. They tend to assume the worst in almost any encounter - alien merchants are out to cheat, visiting starship officers arrive to conquer, diplomats cannot be trusted. Those who threaten Talaxian society are often met with aggressive resistance, and a few Talaxians believe in the concept of pre-emptive strike.

Physiology

Standing roughly 1.6 meters in height, Talaxians are shorter and lighter than humans. Their craniums are slightly elongated, with a prominent ridge running over the top of their heads from their temples to the base of their skulls. Both sexes sport prominent, short tufts of hair starting at the crown and fantastically bushy eyebrows; long hair also grows along the jaw line of males. Large brown or black spots cover their bodies, except for their faces, chests, and palms.

Internally, the only noteworthy physiological point concerns the Talaxian respiratory system - it is linked directly to multiple points along the spinal column, making lung transplants difficult.

History and Culture

The Talaxians may be one of the oldest space-traveling species in the Delta Quadrant, or at the very least in their region of space. Upon acquiring warp drive technology, the Talaxians established several mining colonies in their system and trade colonies in neighboring systems. As happens so often with historical turning points, a single event altered the course of Talaxian history, and transformed their society - the Haakonian War.

The Tree Conflicts

Long ago, during their prehistoric days, the Talaxians fought a period of brutal wars that would come to be known as the Tree Conflicts. Fought between extended families over feeding territory, the battles consisted mostly of small-scale skirmishes between tree-colonies. Savage warriors armed with primitive clubs, bows and arrows, and claw-like weapons called vrax, frenziedly leapt from branch to branch to defend their claims over the most luscious fruit trees. The strongest tribes asserted their dominion over wide swaths of the largest, healthiest, and most productive trees, while smaller, less-viable families eventually died out.

As the Talaxians learned to modify their environment by cutting down smaller trees to create agricultural land, these wars became less frequent. There has not been a domestic conflict on Talax since.

The Haakonian War

By 2346, the Talaxians had established themselves as interstellar merchants, trading their system's resource wealth with neighboring systems, and their world as a center of commerce. In this year, the Talaxians became involved in a dispute over certain territories and trade rights with the Haakonian Order, a government in a neighboring sector.

For ten years, the two sides fought, both so evenly matched neither could obtain an advantage. In order to break this stalemate, the Haakonians deployed a horrific weapon called the metreon cascade. The weapon reacts violently with oxygen-nitrogen atmospheres, causing a violent firestorm that incinerates the landscape in a chain reaction. The resulting intense heat vaporized more than 300,000 inhabitants of Rinax, Talax's sole moon. Those who survived the initial blast suffered from metremia, a lethal, degenerative blood disease caused by exposure to high concentrations of metreon isotopes. The disease attacks the victim at the molecular level, causing the body's atomic structure to undergo fission, and eventually claimed the live of tens of thousands of Talaxians.

The Talaxian government sued for peace the day after the weapon's use, surrendering unconditionally and agreeing to humiliating terms; the Talaxians were left imporvished and weakened. The Haakonians established a puppet government propped up largely by Haakonian might and the threat of further metreon cascade attacks. Talaxian colonies became protectorates of the Haakonian Order, and were made to supply the Haakonians with limitless natural resources, leaving them environmentally exhausted. Although many Haakonian citizens came to regret deploying the cascade weapon, this did little to encourage the government to surrender its substantial influence over Talax. And the Talaxians haven't been the same since.

Society

Talaxians had a rich, highly developed culture. Their world became a center of commerce and art, with Talaxians fanning out through surrounding sectors and visitors from neighboring systems traveling to Talax. As with most highly-advanced, economically rich civilizations, the Talaxians developed sophisticated philosophies. Jirex, a writer and poet, and regarded by Talaxians as their greatest thinker, is just one example. His precisely crafted poems, poignant short stories, and masterful novels not only display a refined command of Talaxian cultural motifs and language, but also advance his moral teachings.

Family

There is no more important thing in the universe to a Talaxian than family. Family ties remain strong, no matter the parsecs separating relatives. With the large number of family-related holidays, and the extended nature of Talaxian families, it's a wonder anything ever gets done. Talaxians travel across the light-years to celebrate family in a holiday called Prixin, which involves entire families getting together once a year to bring each other up to date on their lives. Talaxians eat, drink, and update everyone on the previous year, the changes that have occurred, and their effects.

When a family member dies, Talaxians mourn for a full week after burying the deceased in an elaborate ceremony. Orphans are almost always adopted by the closest living relative, and raised with a strong sense of their parents. Those without parents, due to tragedy or age, are treated with a certain degree of pity. Jaxan is a holiday reserved for remembering ancestors. When the last parent dies, the funeral is prolonged into a month-long affair. Uncles, aunts, cousins, second cousins, in-laws, and so on make great pains to visit the grieving party and reminisce about the deceased. In the case of a Talaxian with no surviving relatives, even neighbors adopt the survivor, integrating him or her into their own family.

Marriages, the joining or two families into one, are occasions for great celebration. Even the poorest Talaxian families make weddings extravagant extended affairs. The birth of a child, adding to the family, calls for even greater celebrations. Relatives travel across light-years to attend the child's Tixin, or unveiling ceremony in which the child is presented to the entire extended family.

Devotion to family has a dark side, however, in the guise of the Talaxian vendetta, or Texos. A relative who meets with a violent end must be avenged. More than a few poems and short stories describe visits by restless and vengeful spirits appearing to exhort a relative to demand satisfaction. Many Talaxians would like nothing more than to see the Haakonian general who authorized the use of the metreon cascade weapon assassinated.

Finally, Talaxian society is highly social. The average Talaxian likes to talk about almost anything - the weather, the health of friends and family, recent events, the most recent book they've read, and on and on. Prior to a meal, it is tradition to share its history - where the recipe originated, the procurement of the ingredients, fond memories associated with the meal - as a way of enhancing the culinary experience. Similarly, it's custom for Talaxians to inquire into a person's personal life in even the most mundane encounter, to be polite; those who balk at this as being nosy are seen as rude and uncivilized.

Religion

Given Talaxian origins in the antediluvian forests of Talax, it is no surprise that trees play a large role in Talaxian mythology and religion. Talaxians do not believe in a supreme being or beings responsible for creating the universe. They possess no creation myth, nor do they believe they were fashioned in the image of some divine being. They instead hold to a disarmingly simple philosophy - that the real world is but an echo or shadow of a higher reality.

In Talaxian mythology, the Great Forest is the promised place of blissful happiness and supreme peace, a beautiful place filled with sunlight, sweet water, and the most wonderful trees one can imagine. It is the archetypical forest, the model for all other forests in the living world. Here, the departed are reunited with their ancestors. A large, beautiful tree known as the Guiding Tree stands at the center of the Great Forest. They believe the tree helps guide the dead to the afterlife, and it is a gathering place where the departed is met by their ancestors and loved ones upon first arriving in the afterworld. There is no hell in Talaxian mythology, other than being banished from the Great Forest.

Reference(s)

• Bridges, Bill, et al. Star Trek Roleplaying Game Book 5: Aliens, Decipher, 2003. ISBN: 1582369070.