 |
|
|
|
|
Caitians
Physical Description: The Caitians are a feline race. They are bipedal, with a thick orange mane, long tail, and large golden eyes that provide excellent low-light vision. They have excellent hearing which extends into the supersonic range. Physically, they are extremely agile and fast. Their language is a tonal one, which utilizes many low-pitched noises like growls or purrs. Consequently, they have trouble adapting to human-style phonetic languages. Homeworld: Cait II ("Dralaph" in the native shanifir tongue) is a heavily-forested world with several dozen small continents and thousands of large islands. The climate is on the cooler edge of temperate; the equatorial regions straddle the line between subtropical and tropical conditions. Nearly every island on Cait II is inhabited, and the world features many fine cities and excellent starport facilities. While unquestionably the Caitian homeworld, Dralaph is only one of more than a dozen long-settled Caitian worlds, clustered across seven sectors of Federation space. History: The felinoid Caitians were a sizeable interstellar culture for more than a century before the Federation made First Contact with them, having discovered warp travel at around the same time as humanity. Fourteen systems inhabited by Caitians were as populous as any of Earth's colonies at the time, and each sported a stable, global government. However, Caitian worlds lacked subspace radio. By necessity, each world was an independent entity, most of which fancied themselves the "new center" of Caitian culture and commerce. When the U.S.S. Pardalis first entered Caitian space in 2240, those worlds were locked in a vicious interstellar war. The bone of contention – at least at first – had been the highly limited supply of Caitian dilithium, but the war had sprouted tangles of racist and religious intolerance in that fertile soil. The Caitians – who pride themselves on their distaste for war – found that their distaste for each other was the more powerful force. The Caitians went to war as ashamed as they had been proud, and fought all the more bitterly. Armed to the teeth and sick with regret, the war had been driven by the petty hatreds of a few key leaders, but developed into an economic fact of life. After a few years, the Caitians had war and starvation as their only pastimes. The arrival of the Federation proved a godsend. Although the Pardalis was crippled and ultimately destroyed by a nuclear warp-missile launched by an overzealous Caitian gunner, a core of survivors returned to the Federation with assurances that the missile had been fired despite orders. The initial truce found parties on all sides nervous, but eager to be friends. A lot has been written in the decades that followed about the "Federation Effect" that brought peace to the Caitians, and resulted in the creation of the Caitian Trade Alliance less than three years after the loss of the Pardalis. But most now agree that the Caitians desperately wanted to break the cycle of war – they just lacked the focal event needed to bring them to the table. The Federation provided that, along with FTL radio technology, and enough economic incentives to encourage even the most prideful Caitian to stop shooting for a while to talk. Introduced to their many neighbors via the subspace waves, the Caitians set their talents to the long-term project of building what is now one of the most prosperous alliances within the larger umbrella of the UFP. Culture: The dangerous racism of their interstellar war is happily abandoned, but the wide variety of coloration, fur type, and body-shape of the Caitian races is still the basis for hundreds of Caitian subcultures. The Caitians are sensualists in every sense, but they put particular store in their eyesight and sense of smell. Each shade of each color carries with it a set of connotations, and an innocently-chosen alien wardrobe might strike a Caitian as comical, absurd, or even mildly offensive, for reasons they're always willing to articulate. Caitians are critical of others, but equally so of themselves, and have surprisingly tolerant, gentle natures, considering their recent history. Caitians prize physically creative artwork above the ephemeral. A Caitian might enjoy dancing as a kind of sport, for instance, but don't really regard it as art unless it makes something permanent that can be touched. Each of the Caitian allied worlds prides itself on local variants of the strovothra, a form of organic-matter sculpture meant to stimulate the nose as well as the eye. A 60-meter column of twisted fruit-bearing vines, bonded by damp clay, was erected as a centerpiece display at a Caitian exhibition in Paris, on Earth. Physiology and Psychology: The Caitians are felinoid bipeds with height and weight comparable to humans (some are slightly heavier). Their fur ranges from the short and glossy to the thick and shaggy, with any number of colors and patterns possible, organized by a bewildering variety of races and subspecies. Caitians are born as twins or triplets, a fixed number depending on subspecies (the female Caitians are either double- or triple-breasted, accordingly). Caitians are moved by beauty, horrified by violence and anger, and wrestle constantly with their potential for each. On the whole, they are a peaceful people, who turn nasty only when their feelings are seriously wounded. Caitians have blunt claws that can be sharpened as dangerous brawling weapons, but most Caitians find the practice abhorrent and repulsive. Caitian fur is highly sensitive to both touch and temperature, though the Caitians themselves are adaptable to a wide variety of climates. Languages: Caitian, Galanglic Common Names: Caitians practice total equality of the sexes, and have throughout their recorded history. Even Caitian names have no gender indicated, so a male child is just as likely to be named after his mother as his father. Common names include: M'ress, F'rras, K'ttur, M'morr, P'kyrr, R'kurul, and S'trel. Favored Profession: Starship Officer, Scientist, Species Adjustments: + 1 Agility, + 2 Perception, -1 Vitality, -1 Presence Species Attributes: Bonus Edge: Night Vision: Caitian eyes are optimized for light intensification thanks to their ancestor's night hunting habits Wide Spectrum Hearing: Although not as sharp as Vulcan hearing, Caitians can hear into the ultrasonic and subsonic frequencies. They have excellent sound discrimination and get a species adjustment of +4 to all Observe (Listen) tests. Noted Accomplishments Caitians have achieved minor celebrity in nearly every area of endeavor, from the artistic (shehi pleth's bio-sculptures are gawked-at and sniffed in every part of the quadrant) to the scientific (the Sethessa Project, for example, which advanced the programming of the modern Universal Translator to levels of accuracy undreamed of before Caitian science got hold of it). Their most valuable contributions to Starfleet have been in diplomacy; a well-motivated Caitian is capable of great tact and understanding, and their personal warmth provides a much-needed complement to the cool logic of the Vulcans, especially in the touchy conferences which follow First Contact with new species. Noted Characters:
Lt. M'Ress served on the U.S.S. Enterprise as the assistant chief
communications officer. In 2269, M'Ress operated the communication channels for
Captain Kirk when he was contacted by the Romulan commander whose battle
cruisers had intercepted the Enterprise for violating the Neutral Zone. |
Pages in this Section |
|
Starbase 10 is not affiliated with Paramount Pictures or CBS Studios. STAR TREK and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. Star Trek and related elements are copyright ©1966-2009 Paramount Pictures, all rights reserved and used under the terms of PPC online policy. Original cont - ent and graphics are copyright © MMIX Andrew Gelbman and Starbase 10, all rights reserved. Portions of this material are © 1983-2001 FASA corporation, All Rights Reserved, Used with Permission. No portion of this material may be reproduced in any form without the expressed permission of Andrew Gelbman. All persons, places and events mentioned on this site are fictional or are used fictiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, places or events is purely coincidental. The mention of any trademarked or copyrighted material on this site is not to be construed as a challenge to said trademark or copyright. |
Personality:
The average Caitian is calm, collected and strongly
individualistic. They dislike crowding, dirt, noise and commotion. Some Caitians
seem finicky or prickly to outsiders and they remain non-demonstrative of even
strong friendships. However, many Caitians put a veneer of flirtatiousness over
their private core, especially with out-worlders