The Tlith are a warp capable species on friendly terms with the United Federation of Planets since the latter made first contact in 2407. Their homeworld, located in the Pyyat sector on the edge of the former Romulan Neutral Zone, is one of the few Class Q worlds known to possess a native sentient species.

The Tlith home system, known as Tyaap (“Home”) is a binary system with a type A3 primary star (Vizt / “Light”) and a type L6 brown dwarf secondary (Povvsa / “Hearth”). Planets have been found orbiting both stars.

Tlith are hairless bipeds, standing on average 2.2-2.4 meters in height, with two five-fingered hands. They possess two large eyes with black sclera and slit pupils; as well as two long, pointed ears. Facial structure is rigid; emotional expression is via a series of fluorescent dots running down the center of the face. Tlith skin pigments range from dull pink (approx. 11% of the population), to purple (72%), to blue (17%).

Tlith are biologically hermaphroditic, and possess no gender divisions or sexual characteristics or urges. They reproduce only at the end of their lives. Due to the nature of their planet’s climate, all Tlith are born at the same time and die at the same time (see Life-cycle).

Tlith are liquivorous; using a sharp proboscis to penetrate fruits, tubers, as well as small animals, and injecting a digestive fluid to convert the interior into something that can be consumed. As such, ‘cooking’ is an alien concept to the Tlith, though one they are starting to adopt as they are introduced to various foods from outside their homeworld. Most foods can be placed in an “eating sphere” which can contain both foodstuffs and the digestive fluid.

Povvsa is in an eccentric orbit around Vizt, period of 120 standard years. For fifty of those years, Povvsa - and Tyaap - are close enough to Vizt for surface temperatures to be habitable. For the remaining seventy years, Povvsa is far enough away that Tyaap's surface gradually freezes, enough to kill all large-scale life on the planet. As a result, life on Tyaap has evolved to account for the regular freezing. Most large-scale organisms, including the Tlith, will reproduce in the final months before the planet freezes, burying eggs deep underground to insulate them. The eggs remain in suspension throughout the seventy-year long winter, to hatch when the planet warms again.

The Tlith also evolved an adaptation of inherited memory. When a Tlith reaches the end of their life-cycle, their brain proceeds to encode all learned knowledge into long-chain molecules encased in a gelatinous substance. This “brain jelly” is encased with the eggs; when they hatch, the larvae consume the jelly and begin to pupate. The newly adult Tlith emerges from their cell with a large amount of inherited knowledge, including language, basic skills and basic knowledge of science, culture, and mathematics. This in turn allows the new Tlith to essentially pick up where their parents left off.

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Since first contact in 2407, the Tlith have maintained peaceful relations, with growing cultural, economic, and scientific ties to the Federation. The Tlith made a formal request to join the Federation in 2409. The membership application process is still on-going as of 2422, with final acceptance expected to occur by end of that year. As a gesture of goodwill, the Government of All Tlith provided a selection of candidates to serve in Starfleet, of which only one passed the requirements to attend Starfleet Academy in 2410. This Tlith, Voyrays, has since served with distinction on various Federation stations and starships, with their most recent accomplishment being Chief of Engineeing aboard the USS Shackleton.

In 2421, the Government of All Tlith proposed a joint deep-space survey mission with the Federation, with the stated goal of finding planets similar to Tyaap. The Luna-Class science vessel USS Dione was assigned to the mission with three Tlith planetologists onboard. Six months into the mission, the Dione was attacked by Tlith-built drone vessels augmented with Romulan weapons and cloaks. When the Dione sent out a distress call, the USS Brahe and USS Messier responded, but not before the drone ships had done serious damage to the Dione and stolen key survey data. One of the Tlith scientists was killed in the attack.

At the same time, over twenty scientists from the Federation, the Klingon Empire, and various minor powers, having been invited to the Tlith homeworld had been kidnapped by some unknown group. Believing the attack and the kidnappings to be linked, Starfleet ordered the Brahe and the Messier to Tyaap to investigate. While the Messier hosted high-visibility talks with the Tlith government, the crew of the Brahe investigated the incident more directly. Their investigation uncovered two duelling conspiracies. One courtesy of the Institute for Tlith Ascension, a transhumanist organization seeking to alter the Tlith evolutionary process. The other was a secret project conducted by the Government of All Tlith, known as Distant Spring.

Distant Spring was born out of the discovery that Povvsa, the brown dwarf that helped to keep Tyaap habitable, was dying. As the brown dwarf cooled, Tyaap would freeze permanently, causing the extinction of all life on the planet by 2431. The Government of All Tlith had recruited the missing scientists covertly to work on the project. They kept the project secret for fear the Federation might pull out of the talks, or that other powers, most notably a militant faction of the Romulan Rebirth, might attempt to sabotage the Tlith's effort to save their species. It was this faction which had colluded with the Ascensionists, supplying them with weapons, cloaks, and tactical intelligence, hoping to derail negotiations between the Tlith and the Federation. The Ascensionists, in turn, wanted Distant Spring scuttled in hopes to force their species to accept cybernetic augmentation as a means to escape extinction.

Thanks to the actions of the Brahe, the Ascensionist plot was foiled and their forces scattered, and Distant Spring was revealed to the Federation and the Tlith public at large. To salvage the situation, the Government of All Tlith dissolved and consented to a Public Consensus. At the end of that process, the Tlith had formed a new Government, with the pursuit of Distant Spring openly and with Federation assistance. The Federation, having recovered its citizens and with the Ascensionist leader in custody to answer for their crimes, was willing to expedite the membership process for the Tlith and provide resources to help the Tlith relocate to a suitable planet.

Ratings are based on observational data and rated against the average Federation world’s internal rating. Ratings may fluctuate wildly based on new data.

• +1 Control
• +1 Insight
• +1 Reason

Tlith Tlith are adapted to a more narrow range of temperatures than most humanoids and are especially vulnerable to colder temperatures; tasks in such environments are increased in difficulty, with higher difficulties the colder things get. Tlith also see a wider range of the spectrum than most humanoids; into the high infrared and low ultraviolet portions, and are more resistant to ionizing radiation.

Requirement: Tlith The Tlith’s mixing of brain-jelly for larvae can result in a broad range of knowledge being passed on; while most tends to be what Starfleet would consider “basic” knowledge, some more advanced concepts can make their way into the next generation - and which can provide unique insights. When a Tlith character succeeds at a task using Reason, they gain one bonus momentum point.

Requirement: Tlith For centuries, the Tlith have relied on advanced robotics to augment their abilities; many Tlith have robot helpers as a result. Once per session, a Tlith character may use a Robot Assistant to aid them with all tasks involving Control or Fitness attributes (see Robot Assistant Spec Sheet below). The Robot Assistant goes away at the end of the scene in which they’re invoked.

Attribution: Originally published by Andrew B Crisp, reformated and posted by Fiona