Petarian

			Intelligent Lifeform Index

Petarian
Four Letter Code	PETR
Federation Status	Allied
Planet of Origin	Unknown
Encountered	DS9: Family Business
T/E Rating	T0/E0
Current Tech Level	N
List of Named Petarians
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"New! No! Show me the cheapest one you have."

a Petarian saying.

The Petarian are a species with a reputation for not only being cheap but for scrimping on just about everything. Old tech is perfectly ok with them as long as it works, sort of.

Home System

• Quadrant: Alpha
• Location: Ronindo Sector (coordinates A26-0001-1296)
• Proper Name: Petraa
• Star: It orbits a class F (Yellow-White) star
• Distance from Star: it's orbit is approximately 63 million km
• Companions: It is the 3rd of 8 planets in the system
• Moons: it has 4 moons.

Home World

• Proper Name: Petraa III
• Diameter: 17,617 km (10,947 miles)
• Gravity: 0.95 standard gravity with a density of 3.8
• Axial Tilt: 13.2%, with normal terran seasonal changes
• Orbital Period: 426 days
• Rotational Period: 26.4 hours
• Classification: M
• Surface Water: 56%
• Atmosphere: 0.98% is a standard pressure with 72% nitrogen, 23% oxygen, 5% trace chemicals
• Climate: Mainly a temperate planet with a large arctic poles region.
• Terrain: It has mostly a mix of rolling hills and rocky hills covered with dense forests broken up by mountain ranges.
• Population: Just over 8 billion

History

They fought many wars over many years. However in almost every case these wars were small, with fairly low casualties and few large battles. From their earliest known records these conflicts have been fought in areas away from communities and consisted primarily of trench warfare or sieges.

As a result their very slow technological development has been hard to understand from an academic point of view. That is until certain medical data regarding their physiology is taken into account.

The sudden crash landing of an alien ship during their late industrial era resulted in a slight spark in technological research as they reverse engineered the recovered wreck. It took them almost 300 years to achieve this goal and build their own ships. Once they achieved space travel the drive to discover and perfect new technology just sort of slowly petered out over the next 100 years as learned they could simply trade for it with other species.

Over the next 400 years they simply existed, fighting their own regional disputes, trading for outdated technology with other species when they felt like it and lackadaisically attempting to take part in galactic trade.

Kasidy Yates was in their employ in the early 2370’s when she and Commander Sisko first met at Deep Space Nine. The Petarians had provided her with a Mark V transporter, a type of transporter that had stopped being produced in 2356 and was considered outdated.

Government

The planet is divided into a number of regions and territories, about 38 of them. However this number has and does sometimes change as regions split or merge. Each has a council, in many cases none of these are made up of the same number of councilors as any of the other regions. Each of these councils sends a few representatives to the central council. Again there does not seem to be any set rule governing who goes, how many are sent or how long they have to serve. What has amazed most observers of this system is that they get anything done.

Description

They are completely bald with no hair anywhere on their body, with pale skin and wide spaced eyes. Males and females are very similar, on average between 5'5" to 5'10" and most of them tend to be slim, almost gangly.

Physiology

As with most intelligent humanoid species they have a very complex system with specialized organs, and unique hormones, chemicals and enzymes. What does stand out as different about them is the fact that their brains are separated into 4 distinct parts with a bone divider separating each section within their cranium. As a result each section is smaller than they would be with most other species.

Psychology

As a species they tend to avoid complex mental problems and prefer to coast when it comes to education. This difficulty understanding and processing difficult spacial and analytical problems seems to be tied into the way their brains have developed.

As for mental issues, they are susceptible to a wide range of phobias, personality disorders and mental deficiencies as well as mental breakdowns. In most cases an individual identified with one of these problems will be remanded to a mental facility and locked away for life.

Religion

Every community has a large central clearing where impromptu Yibbitzz are routinely held. At the north end of all of these roundish paved areas is a wall, 10’ tall by 50’ wide by 4’ thick. At least once every day, every adult member of the community will approach the wall, kneel, chant and press their faces to the ground, kissing it when they do. They will repeat these actions a number of times then stand up and go about their business.

Individuals who leave their home world normally take a small replica wall made of cheap, inferior materials with them. This would typically be 2” X 10” by 1 inch thick. It would be placed on a shelf, or desk when not in use and when in use it would be held. Instead of kissing the floor one would kiss the replica.

Mythology

The wall is a representation of the mythical protection provided to them by the creators of live, the universe and all things. They have many legends about how these beings have protected them from all manner of dangers in the dim, far distant past. How, when and why they ended up with a wall as the symbol of their mysterious protectors has been lost in time.

Society

While the Petarians are a space-faring race they are best known for skimping on capital outlay and maintenance. They are notorious for using the most out-of-date technology available. This seems to be a cultural thing as almost every member of their species seems unwilling to spend any credits unless they absolutely have to.

They would much rather buy old, used items if they can get it for a cheaper price. This does not seem to be a matter of them trying to make money and get rich but more a matter of them saving money and spending as little as possible.

Culture

They tend to like weird knick knacks and chatskies. Formal art holds no interest to them as a people and as for their musical tastes it leans towards short musical jingles. That being said they do tend to fall victim to unusual fads.

A prime example of this is that somehow a reproduction of an old earth black velvet painting of Elvis ended up in one of their Yibbitzz and a small minor bidding war on it resulted in a brief booming business in cheap knock offs.

Customs

Their biggest and most bizarre custom that they have is something called a Yibbitzz which more closely resembles a flea market/yard sale than anything else. These can pop up just about anywhere and simple consists of people trying to sell their old used junk. Tons of Petarians will flock to these impromptu sales and avidly pick through all the stuff looking for that one good deal.

Technology

Since becoming a space faring species their painfully slow advance technologically speaking has dwindled and petered out. They are quite content to trade for the cheapest and most out of date technology available.

Economy

Not many species are willing to enter into any long term trade deals with the Petarians unless it is for raw materials. Everything they manufacture for their own use and for trade is made as cheaply as possible. This also usually involves cutting corners, using inferior materials and slipshod quality control.

Military

Most species consider their military to be something of a joke since it consists of less than 20 old, run down, worn out frigates, destroyers and cruisers that seem to spend more time floating in space than patrolling their system. Fortunately they have never need them except to scare off an occasional pirate or smuggler.

The same could be said of their land forces who spend most of their time fighting disputes between the various regions. Strangely enough these regional disputes are often over rather pointless and illogical issues.

Federation Intelligence Files

They supplied the Bajorans during the Cardassian occupation and after them the Maquis with weapons and supplies.

Also called Petrarian.

Sources

Both Memory Alpha and Memory Beta were used as references as well as the TV episode DS9: Family Business.

SDC

This file was updated and approved by the SDC on 23 April 2014.

Content from this article may have
come partially, or entirely from
 Memory Alpha

		SPECIES PROFILE UPDATED This profile was revised by the Species Development Committee.		REV 239402.02
		Please add any new information discovered during the course of a mission or shore leave.
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