Talosian
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The Talosians are a race coming from Talos IV which was once a Class M world, but in the long-term ecological aftermath of a horrific planetary nuclear war it is slowly turning into a Class K planet. It remains under quarantine and interdict by the Federation; approaching Talos IV is the only death penalty offense in Starfleet regulations, under General Order Seven.
Personality
A slowly dying race, Talosians can go to extreme lengths if they feel their survival is at stake. Talosians often seem desperate, lonely, or frustrated to humans, possibly since continuous lives of illusion have sapped their ability to truly connect as equals. Generally cool, proud, and distant (a common emotional requirement among psionic species), Talosians can be fiercely protective of beings they have "adopted" or consider their property while at the same time callously disregarding those beings' true feelings or interests.
Physiology
The Talosians are smaller and thinner than the human average, reaching no taller than 1.5 meters in height or 50 kilograms in weight. Talosians have enormous heads, which contain their highly developed brains without bony skulls. Many Talosians appear frail and wispy, or even unnaturally aged.
History and Culture
The Talosians are all that remains of a once-flourishing civilization which destroyed itself in a global cataclysm. The survivors retreated to an underground cavern complex, where they took refuge in illusions created by sophisticated machines similar to Federation holodeck technology. However, the psionic Talosians (possibly mutated by the atomic radiation) used these devices to develop illusion-creating powers on their own; their society now exists solely to nurture, maintain, and elaborate on their illusionary fantasy lives.
Encountering Talosians will be difficult; the circumstances would have to be more important than obeying General Order Seven for Federation personnel, and others would have to slip past the Starfleet blockade. Of course, a curious Romulan spy or Ferengi mercenary might try to find out what secret the Federation is guarding so desperately on Talos IV - and the Talosians might plant false memories or rumors of super-technology, secret shipyards, or latinum mines to draw in new victims! The Talosians have also impersonated Starfleet officials before; for some malign purpose of their own, they might "order" a crew to proceed to Talos IV and rendezvous with an illusionary starship on "interdiction patrol."
Talosians speak their own language amongst themselves; their telepathy allows them to mentally project any language known by a subject. Talosians now use only their titles for identification, which they pass down from generation to dwindling generation.
Reference(s)
- Bridges, Bill, et al. Star Trek Roleplaying Game Book 5: Aliens, Decipher, 2003. ISBN: 1582369070.