Tellar
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Tellar (aka Tellar Prime or Pangeos III) is the homeworld of the Tellarites, one of the founding members of the Federation. Coping with the planet's unusual geology has molded the Tellarites into skilled engineers whose talents are admired throughout the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. They have covered a substantial portion of the planet's surface with massive irrigation and hydroponics projects so that Tellar could support a large population. Tellar lies in the spinward region of the Alpha Quadrant, just beyond Alpha Centauri. Tellar is the fourth planet in the Pangeos System. Because of its strategic importance and proximity to Alpha Centauri and Earth, the main Starfleet outpost in the Pangeos system, Starbase 223, is both large and well-defended. Tellar is also home to the Sherliosh Fleet Yards.
Pangeos System
The Pangeos system consists of six planets orbiting a white subgiant star. The Tellarite homeworld, known simply as Tellar, is the third planet in the Pangeos system. In addition, colonies thrive on the first, fourth, and fifth worlds of the system. There are also colonies on three of the five moons of the sixth planet, a gas giant named Boragus which is very similar to Jupiter.
Of the planets in the Pangeos system, only the second remains unsettled. The site of the fatal crash of an experimental ship designed and flown by Tellar's first astronaut, Pangeos II proved too difficult to terraform and settle, and so remains lifeless and barren. The planet was once home to several mining operations, but its bounty has long since been exhausted.
Climate
Historically, Tellar has had an unusually dry and inactive climate for a Class M world. It's sunny most of the time at all latitudes. The light, dry atmosphere doesn't trap heat very well, so temperatures also remain cool year round. Very recently, however, scientists studying the planet's climate have noticed a slight overall warming and increase in precipitation. They have determined that massive irrigation projects have increased the amount of water that enters the atmosphere through evaporation, and that this seems to be stimulating Tellar's water cycle.
Lush jungles and mountains cover most of Tellar's surface. Vast stretches of mountain ranges occupy the majority of Tellar's continents, with smaller regions of deserts and temperate plains situated between these mountains. The mountains of Tellar host a wide variety of plant life, as diverse if not more so than Earth itself. From the deepest reaches of mountain valleys to the tops of these massive peaks, plant life ranging from tropical vines to giant pipe trees covers nearly every square meter of these ranges. Only the uppermost portions of the Tellarite mountains are barren of plant life, where the rock and soil which form these peaks stretch up to the sky beyond the reach of the trees and plants below.
Arctic regions cover a full quarter of the planet, split evenly among Tellar's north and south polar regions. Solar flares combined with gases in Tellar's uppermost atmosphere turn the sky over these polar regions a brilliant yellow-orange color during the late evening hours of the winter and summer seasons, an effect very much like the aurora borealis and aurora australus on Earth.
Creatures
Tellar is home to many unique and fascinating creatures. The best known is the belvrar, a bighorn sheep-like creature native to Tellar's mountain ranges. In ancient times its horns were considered symbols of virility. Another noted Tellarite beast is the sktashar, or Tellarite eagle, one of the largest known raptors in the galaxy. A full-grown aktashar is able to swoop down and carry off an adult Tellarite. Aggressive hunting centuries ago nearly rendered the aktashar extinct, but today several populations survive in wilderness preserves.
Communities
Small settlements and communities can be found all across Tellar's surface, but most of the population makes their home in vast mountain ranges. Some Tellarite cities perch on the sides of steep mountains, while others lie atop massive plateaus, and still others stretch across valleys between peaks, connecting nearby mountain ridges. These cities represent some of the most advanced achievements in Tellarite engineering, surpassed only by the Space Elevator. Engineers and architects from other worlds visit Tellar frequently to study the architecture and design of these cities, and even the most accomplished of these engineers can only stand in wonder and awe at the ingenuity which Tellarite cities represent. A veritable spider web of moving sidewalks criss-cross through the cities, connecting large city blocks and buildings and enabling citizens and visitors to move about easily and quickly.
Clockwork devices of numerous styles and designs adorn many of the walls and surfaces of the cities of Tellar. Some serve no purpose beyond decoration, while others play an integral role in the operation of services such as plumbing and powering the moving sidewalks. From a distance, the precise movements of the gears and cogs of these clockwork devices almost blend into the intricate decorations and ornaments common to most structures in the cities, but as one gets closer and closer, the constant turning and moving of the clockwork components becomes apparent, bringing these metallic cities to life in a constant, graceful cycle of motion.
In addition to the portions of the cities built above ground, Tellarite cities also include expansive subterranean areas. The undergroud areas stretch deep beneath the surface of the mountains, more than doubling the actual size and space of these enormous cities. Rather than carve out a single vast chamber of rock inside the mountains, as is the practice among other races who build underground cities, Tellarite engineers carve out numerous small chambers, leaving hundreds of meters of rock between the hollowed-out chambers which make up the subterranean portions of their cities. While more difficult than other methods, this practice results in far safer underground structures. In addition to these chambers, tunnels line the underground portions of the cities, providing access between neighboring cities.
The most well known of Tellarite cities is Agora, the capital city of Tellar, named for the Ukora Segment and home to the Great Debate Hall. It is also the city closest to Cherok's Span, a natural rock formation spanning two parallel mountain ridges in Tellar's northern hemisphere. The two mountain ranges connected by Cherok's Span were each once part of rival nations, Lurok and Thivel, which fought violent battles against each other during the height of the Voice Wars, the ages-old conflict which nearly tore the world asunder. The rock formation between them, claimed by each nation as its own, stood tall above many good battles fought between these warring factions.
It was only when Cherok and his Ukora Segment brought an end to the Voice Wars that these two nations, bitter rivals for centuries, agreed to live peacefully together. Seeing it as a symbol of the connections between their two peoples, the leaders of both Lurok and Thivel agreed that the span belonged to neither of them and both of them, and named it Cherok's Span in honor of the man responsible for ending their centuries-old conflict. The two nations then worked together to build the city of Agora, several kilometers to the south of Cherok's Span, which would serve as the capital of a new nation built from the remnants of the former rivals.
Geography
By Class M standards, water covers remarkably little of Tellar's surface. Its oceans are nothing more than a handful of large inland seas. By volume, however, Tellar has just as much water as most Class M planets. Due to a quirk of the planet's geology, the continental shelf of its continents cantilevers over the ocean's surface, rather than slopes beneath it.
The lack of ocean surface means that relatively little water evaporates into the atmosphere to fall back to the surface as precipitation. This explains why Tellar's climate is so calm and dry. The planet's water cycle instead enacts a unique variation on Class M norms. Seawater flows through subterranean streams and percolates through the rock and collects inland in vast underground reservoirs. This process filters out salt and other impurities, leaving the water fresh.
Government
Tellar's government, the Emporium, takes its name from an ancient Tellarite language, the same tongue from which the word agora originates. The name means "unity," an ideal sought by the former warring nations of Tellar after the rise of the Ukora Segment and the end of the Voice Wars. The Emporium consists of five divisions of equal size, each composes of representatives of Tellar's various nation-states. A total of 1,000 representatives sit in each division, each individual an elected official from his home nation-state. While the five divisions are of equal size and influence in the government, all nation-states do not seat the same number of representatives in each division. The population of each nation determines the number of representatives it may send to its division of the Emporium.
Each division is further broken down into councils, groups of 100 representatives, drawn evenly from the nations represented in the division. This means that smaller nations with fewer representatives in a division will have seats on more councils within their division, somewhat compensating for their lower numbers by offering them more influence at the lower levels of government.
Though some councils are permanent fixtures within the bureaucracy of a given division, such as the Commerce Council or Judicial Council, many are formed to deal with specific issues and problems, and in the case of temporary situations are dissolved upon resolution of the issue or problem for which the council was formed.
Any representative may bring an issue before the government, but all issues brought before the Emporium must start at the council level. If the issue falls under the jurisdiction of an existing council, that council addresses the issue first; if not, a new council forms to address it. Debate is the first step in evaluating an issue, after which the council votes on it. If the issue passes (by simple majority), the issue then moves on to be addressed by the division, where again debate starts, followed by a vote, this time requiring a two-thirds majority vote to pass. Once passed by the division, the issue is brought before the entirety of the Emporium (all 5,000 members), where once again debate is followed by a vote, requiring a two-thirds majority to pass.
Representatives to the Emporium serve three-year terms, and though there is no limit to the number of terms a single representative can serve, they cannot serve in consecutive terms. The members of the Emporium elect one among them to serve as the Lor'Empor or "Voice of Unity," who speaks to the people of Tellar on behalf of the Emporium, and who represents the Emporium to the Tellarite delegates on the Federation Council (who are also elected by the Emporium) and to the Federation Council itself when necessary. Though "officially" the leader of the Emporium, in fact the Lor'Empor enjoys no more power or influence among the assembly than any other representative.
Many outside observers balk at the size of Tellar's government, insisting that such large numbers of representatives render decision-making difficult if not impossible. This might be the case were it not for the Tellarites' love of large bureaucracies and problem-solving. Trails of paperwork and strict rules and regulations concerning every detail of how government business is to be conducted keep the political machinery of the Emporium moving, albeit slowly at times.
History
Understanding Tellar and its role in the formation of the Federation first requires an understanding of how the Tellarite society evolved into its current form. This process of social evolution began with the Voice Wars, which occurred at approximately the same time as World War I on Earth.
The Voice Wars began as a result of attempts at science-based social engineering by a number of Tellarite nations. The Tellarites' natural fascination with engineering and mechanical devices led many nations to sponsor and promote "engineered" social and economic systems, none of which were compatible with those sponsored by other nations. After years of failed attempts at imposing these idealized systems upon their people, the Tellarite theorists sought a new approach. Arguing that Tellar's "prescientific" languages were responsible for the people's resistance to the scientific, economic, and social policies, Tellarite engineers derived a number of "scientific" languages in hopes of influencing the thought patterns of the people such that they would be more open to the "engineered" social and economic systems they promoted. Tellarite nations made war upon each other to impose various scientific languages upon their enemies. These so-called Voice Wars spread across the planet, extinguishing many tribal languages and local dialects in order to make room for the newly engineered languages which might one day lead to scientifically perfect societies. These wars consumed the world, with every able body being drafted into service.
As the remaining Tellarite nations stood on the brink of devastation, a mathematician named Cherok began to promote public speeches and civil disobedience. Citing chaos theory, Cherok argued that only through diversity and dissent could peace and harmony ever be achieved, and that scientific economics and politics were little more than illusions. Following Cherok's lead, hundred of thousands of Tellarites steadfastly refused to speak the new scientific languages. When questioned by soldiers, these rebels would answer "Ukora", the word for "no" in the most ancient and primitive of Tellar's languages. This rebellion spread all over Tellar, eventually leading to the crumbling of the engineered militaries of the Tellarite nations.
The Ukora Segment, as Cherok's movement had come to be known, provided the foundation for a new society based on debate, diversity, and personal pride, and also served as the basis for the world government which formed within a few generations of the end of the Voice Wars. From that point on, Tellarites refused to let national allegiances get in the way of free speech, debate, or the exchange of information.
Spaceflight on Tellar began decades before the Voice Wars, and within forty years of the Tellarites' first trip into space via the famed astronaut Ranx they had explored and colonized the entire solar system, establishing colonies on the first, fourth, and fifth planets, as well as on three of the moons of the sixth planets, Boragus. Although the Voice Wars disrupted the Tellarite space program, soon after they ended the Tellarites developed warp-capable ships, and travel to different star systems demonstrated to the Tellarites the hazards of interstellar travel. The Tellarite government developed strong concerns about encounters with alien lifeforms, and like the Vulcans adopted a policy of observation of other worlds, avoiding contact when possible. The Tellarites also spent thirty years constructing their famed Space Elevator.
In 2105, the vessel Shayna Kavis of Alpha Centauri arrived in the Tellar system. Although Tellar was initially distrustful of the Centaurans' message of peace, relations improved shortly after first contact. Legends insist that the Tellarites only accepted the Centaurans after they showed the proper respect and admiration for the engineering marvel of the Space Elevator. The Centaurans introduced the Tellarites to Terrans, and when the latter became embroiled in the Earth-Romulan War, the Tellarites allowed the humans to rent the Tellar space docks for starship construction, and even aided in the design and construction of the ships built there. This was the first step in what would later become a productive collaboration between human and Tellarite engineers.
Earth, Vulcan, and Alpha Centauri later invited Tellar, along with Andoria, to join in talks concerning increased trade and defensive alliances among the five worlds - talks which eventually led to the founding of the Federation. Tellar was the first world to sign the Articles of Federation.
Economy
Tellar participates in little traditional exporting of goods. The planet's physical resources are largely unremarkable. In contrast, Tellar receives more than its share of imported minerals, in particular pollarium, which is used in the creation of duranium. Most such mineral shipments arrive via the Bolarus IX-Tellar trade route (part of the so-called Mineral Chute), and many come from Tellarite-owned mines, among them Dytallix E, F, and G of the Dytallix Mining Corporation. Tellarite engineers use these minerals in the manufacture of starships in the shipyards above Tellar and Tellar IV.
Tellar also enjoys a healthy amount of merchant business, primarily in technological devices (including the clockwork devices for which Tellarites are so well known). The markets of Tellar remain busy almost constantly, supplied by a steady flow of goods and wares moving along a number of well known trade routes.
Places of Interest
Towering from the city of Koral beyond the rim of Tellar's atmosphere, the Tellar Space Elevator stands as a proud monument to the engineering prowess of its builders. The tallest freestanding structure in the Federation, the Space Elevator allows ships to dock at its top and travel to the planets surface without the use of a shuttle. The tower contains several lifts and transport tubes designed for both cargo and civilians, and, though not needed since the invention of transporters, the elevator remains an important symbol of the engineering skills of the Tellarites. Up to six starships can dock at the elevator's top at one time, and the lifts and tubes can move thousands of people and hundreds of tons of cargo per hour. Numerous levels lie between the elevator's top and bottom floors, all of which contain shops, restaurants, and marketplaces which service the millions of tourists and visitors from across the Federation who travel to this unique architectural and engineering marvel.
In the midst of Tellar's capital city of Agora (known as Eranas to the Tellarites) sits the Great Debate Hall of Tellar, the seat of Tellarite government, which is known as the Emporium. It was to this hall that Tarnoc brought the proposal of a unified interstellar government after the first Terran Conventions of 2160, and where the assembled Tellarite government elected to sign the Articles of Federation shortly thereafter. The Debate Hall has been the site of more debates than any other such hall in the entire Federation. Chairs and tables for the five divisions into which Emporium is divided occupy the center of the hall, while around its perimeter lie rows of seats for spectators and observers. Though spectators are not common on most days when the Emporium is in session, it fills beyond capacity when scheduled debates take place. Most such debates relate to issues before the government, but public debates are also held here when possible, ranging in subject from the latest Federation news to issues concerning local communities. Whatever the subject, public debates held in the Great Debate Hall draw large crowds of spectators, some there to support their positions, others simply to enjoy a good argument.
Located in Tellar's southern hemisphere, the Tellarite Engineering Upperschool outshines nearly all other such institutions as the finest engineering school in the Federation. Staffed by the best and brightest Tellarite engineers, as well as some instructors of other races, the Upperschool's reputation for the highest standards of education in the engineering fields is well deserved. Starfleet cadets specializing in engineering often spend a semester here, and some spend considerably more time at the Upperschool than that.
Tellar's largest irrigation project, the Bilav Fields, is located just outside Agora, but is is large enough to spill over the border into neighboring nations. Bilav Fields draws its water from a network of pipes that taps a large underground reservoir directly beneath it. Land irrigated by the project grows enough food to feed 100 million Tellarites, and they like to boast that it is large enough to be seen from space.
Reference(s)
- Burns, Eric, Kenneth A. Hite & Doug Sun. Star Trek Roleplaying Game Book 7: Worlds, Decipher, 2005. ISBN: 1582369097.
- Cambias, James, et al. Planets of the UFP: A Guide to Federation Worlds, Last Unicorn Games, 1999. ISBN: 0671040065.