Paelian

			Intelligent Lifeform Index

Paelian
Four Letter Code	PAEL
Federation Status	Member
Planet of Origin	Paelia, Nera, Nemea
Encountered	Unknown
T/E Rating	T0/E0
Current Tech Level	N
List of Named Paelians
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"Glory."

a Paelian proverb.

Paelians (Paelian: tʊpæl) are amphibian humanoids native to three worlds: Paelia, Nera, and Nemea. In 2298 they joined the Federation together with another allied species, the Ranjeen.

Home System

• Quadrant: Alpha
• Location: ??? Sector (coordinates A27-0002-1300??)
• Proper Name: Pael system
• Star: It orbits a class G (Yellow) star
• Distance from Star: its orbit is approximately 36 million km
• Companions: It is the 3rd of 11 planets in the system
• Moons: It has 4 moons

Home World

See also: Nemea, Nera

• Proper Name: Paelia
• Diameter: 14,??? km (11,289 miles)
• Gravity: 0.98 standard gravity with a density of 3.8
• Axial Tilt: 16.5%, with normal seasonal changes
• Orbital Period: 471 days
• Rotational Period: 34.2 hours
• Classification: M
• Surface Water: 73%
• Atmosphere: 1.07% is a standard pressure with 71% nitrogen, 28% oxygen, 1% trace chemicals
• Climate: 7 major different climate zones, tropical around the equator
• Terrain: mostly a water world with a number of islands with dense rain forests or jungles.
• Population: Just over 7.8 billion

During their early space years, the Paelians colonized Nemea and Nera, both of which are home to a combined 1.9 billion Paelians. Paelia, Nemea and Nera exist as homes to subcultures of the one species.

History

Ancient history

In the beginning they lived in small tribes of nomadic hunters who spent most of their time in the shallow coastal waters where the fish and other food sources were plentiful.

However over time some of these tribes learned to use the security of flooded caves as permanent dwellings. When the tribes outgrew the safety of those caves they developed the technology to either expand on the size of the caves or to construct primitive huts. This was the first step in them evolving from primitive hunter, foragers into a more advanced civilization.

Slowly more and more tribes made the transition and created permanent settlements all along the various coasts and even inland along the banks of most of the larger rivers. As their ability to produce or gather more food increased not only did the size of their communities but the first specialists began to appear among them.

As a result they developed a written language, better ways to farm, more advanced tools and better ways to build homes and things. It was during this period in their history that the basic principles of absolute freedom were adopted by almost all of them.

Expansionist Age

Starting at that point Paelian peoples grew larger. Tribes were becoming communities, existing communities became small towns and in the end almost everywhere on the planet Paelian towns existed. Their growth in numbers came along with a growth of profession. Still the principle of absolute freedom was strictly maintained. Everybody was allowed to do what he is best at and what he likes most, nobody was restricted from anything.

The more productive the technology behind growing and hunting food became, the more the Paelian peoples cultivated. Communication between them was no longer only available through by-passing nomads but people went to see other towns as well. An exchange of ideas took place that would eventually change the Paelian society forever. It took some thousands of years until the first electrical machines were established. But when it was the preconditions for spacefaring were set.

Early space travelling

The first Paelian colony ship was only able to run at half impulse at maximum. Its leave was followed by brutal attacks on the original Paelian homeworld by marauding Klingons. Although no Paelian resisted Paelia was dramatically devasted causing some people to doubt if space was the right place for them to be. The construction of a second ship was stopped until the colony ship returned and reported that they were successful on populating an uninhabited world which they called Nemea. Almost immediately another space ship was built to travel twice as fast as the first one while being smaller.

The second colony ship set off for another world and established another colony where Paelian culture would develop from that time on. This world they called Nera. Even though Klingon marauders came back some times after their initial attack, Paelians never lost their pacificistic attitude. They did not even passively resist the invaders and thereby got them to lose interest after a while. About a century after the foundation of the colonies and the Klingon attacks Paelians made once more first contact with a spacefaring species, the Ranjeen, which proved to be more fertile. One of the technologies exchanged was warp-drive which enabled the Paelians to travel to their colonies in some weeks instead of decades. Nonetheless the three worlds would continue to exist as three different Paelian subcultures.

Entering the Interstellar community

When the Klingons, at this time at war with the Federation, looked for ressourceful planets they could occupy, they heard about Nemea. Rumours of them being great hunters and constantly fighting their world's unkind envrionment. Their interest in conquering a more honourable opponment's world was great and so they decided to launch an invasion on both the Ranjeen homeworld and Nemea. In 2267 (Old World calendar) the United Federation of Planets intervened into the conflict that was about to start. Both, the Ranjeen and the Paelians had applied for membership in the Federation. The Klingons knew that if the two worlds joined the Federation Starfleet's strategical position in the war would be improved by far. To avoid this they agreed to declare all three Paelian worlds, the Ranjeen homeworld and its single colony a Neutral zone for the duration of the war. After 2293 when the relations between the Federation and the Klingon Empire changed for the better, the Ranjeen and the Paelian people were allowed to join the Federation. At the end of 2297 the Ranjeen got the status of a full member shortly followed by the Paelians in early 2298. As citizens of the Federation Paelians and Ranjeen were allowed to apply for Starfleet. Some time passed before anybody liked to do that but in the end individuals of both species decided to join Starfleet.

Government

In many cases Paelians did develop certain hierachies similar to monarchies or oligarchies or representative democrazy. But all of them failed in the end because all those peoples that had left the traditional ways were convinced of the necessity of absolute freedom. This led to a society that doesn't know any kind of laws, any state-run power or any kind of state at all. If problems arose, someone who felt like proposing an idea could do so in public. All the Paelians he could convince of his ideas would try to put them into practice. Others, not seeing the problem or not liking the solution, would not do so. In cases where a clear decision was needed it was not enforced but rather delayed until all would agree.

Of course in practice some people did not like the solutions others came up with and did not follow their ideas willingly but in lack of a better one. In some cases, the delay of important decisions caused many tragedies like deaths by pollution, mistreatment of epidemies and worse. This was the very high price paid for the concept of absolute freedom.

Political debate circles

The political debate circles resemble the closest thing to a government or to a parliamentary. Many Paelian peoples have developed such fora of exchange on pressing matters. In most cases these circles met originally near the town centers and simply discussed social issues. In early times people randomly discussed how to stop e.g. a famine or how to expand the town. They had no power to put their ideas into practice than their own. Therefore they invited other people that were not interested in those discussions themselves. To handle these masses of people, they couldn't meet at the town centers and often they built assembly halls. Many public institutions originate are the result of a circle's discussion.

At first contact, Starfleet thought those circles to be either parliamentary or government of the Paelian people. It took some time until they realized that they didn't encounter basic democrazy but just people discussing common problems. Federation scholars needed very long to understand how such institutions could work without any political power.

Description

See also: Body language

Paelians resemble Bolians in appearance, and are distinguished by their ears, barbels around the mouth and their distinctively smaller palms and feet, which exhibit longer fingers. Actually the length added to their fingers is coming from the missing metacarpal and metatarsal bones. Between their fingers and toes remained some interdigital webbing which isn't tensed all the time.

Physiology

As with most intelligent humanoid species they have a very complex system with specialized organs, and unique hormones, chemicals and enzymes. They are typical humanoids with most of the physical, mental and biological medical problems that seem to plague most humanoids.

Ectotherm circulatory system

Paelian bodies don't generate enough heat by themselves. Paelians rely largely on external heat sources such as sunlight to achieve their optimal body temperature for various bodily activities. Accordingly they depend on ambient conditions to reach operational body temperatures. They also have lower metabolic rates than other endotherm species. Paelians need much less food than other species of similar body mass.

Because Paelians depend on environmental conditions for body temperature regulation, tradition made them a diurnal species. Even though they have special clothing to go out by night it is not common for them to do so even today. Most culture's hunting strategies consisted of "wait and hit"-strategies to avoid overexaggerating. On other world than Paelia and Nera it can be hard for Paelians to find proper sources of heat. While being stationed on a Starfleet starship they usually wear special thermal clothing that keeps them warm enough to perform their duty.

Organ system

The internal structure of the Paelian body is completely different from Bolians. Gills allow Paelians to breath under water while they have lungs to breath on land. Instead of lots of organs Paelians possess a very decentralized structure of innards. The removal of waste products from breathing or drinking is performed by the veins and arteries. Paelians also do lack a heart which is compensated by hundreds of small muscles placed at crossings of blood vessels. A complex network of nerves performs all functions usually covered by a brain. Unlike most other systems of the Paelian body their digestive system is quite normal regarded by other Humanoids' point of view.

Paelian sexes

Although Paelians share the same tones of blue which they go through between their moultings there is a range of different patterns which helps identifying the sex. The distinctive patterns, more easily felt by touch than by eye sight, are even more distinctive. They become obvious when Paelians bluesh, though. In addition the colour of their eyes differ slightly. While "male" Paelians have eye colours ranging from red purple to blue green, "female" Paelians' eye colours range from blue green to yellow orange and "xemale's" eyes are coloured something in the range between yellow orange and red violet.

Reproductive System

Paelians evolved to a species with three different sexes that mostly differ by their reproductive organs. Due to a certain ambivalence every Paelian can bear a child and fertilize other Paelians. The three sexes were named "male", "female" and "xemale" by Federation scientists. Males are able to fertilize females, females can fertilize xemales and xemales can fertilize males. The children of those couples are always belong to the sex not involved in the reproductive process. Rarely homosexual couples are also able to give life to a baby. In that case the child would be of the same sex.

Unlike most humanoid species Paelians have two genitals. Very much like most humanoid species their sexual organs are openings that do also cover functions of the digestive system. While urine is poured out through the frontal genital, the posterior sexual organ expells faeces, too. All three sexes transmit the semen through the frontal genital and receive it by their posterior genital.

Paelians lay eggs which exit the Paelian body through the posterior genital. Once their offspring hatched, they need to be breast-fed by at least one of their parents. For this purpose, all sexes possess breasts. It totally depends on the culture only whether both, mother and father, feed their children with breast milk or only one of them.

Moulting

After a certain amount of years, Paelians shed their skin. When they feel that their former skin is rejected by the body, their new skin was generated already. If not a second skin will be formed within short time. The new skin is very lightly blue almost white. It takes some weeks until it reaches a light blue. In the course of the next years it changes to a very dark blue until it is shed and replaced again.

Psychology

Psychological diseases and different hormonal balances exist amongst Paelians as amongst any other species. There are no social stigma regarding the consultation of a psychologist. On all three Paelian homeworlds it's as usual as seeing a pediatrician, dentist or any other physician.

One of the greatest problems of psychologists on Paelian worlds is the belief in absolute freedom. Locked wards do not exist which is obvious because Paelians never invented doors at all. Therefore some psychopaths have caused very much trouble in the course of history. At sometimes people would simply kill someone like a serial killers to have peace at last. At other times people would wait until the poor soul realizes what he has done and asks the tribunals of conscience of a trial.

Although it was widely discussed if mental disorders might be a reason enough to interfere with a Paelian's right of absolute freedom. It is up to the psychologist's opinion and judgement if he is willing to do something if necessary against the patient's will. Since there is no law to act upon psychologists will only have to face their own conscience and ask themselves for which steps they can take the responsibility. This did result in some tragedies but also in a generally quite impressive integration of disabled people into society.

Religion

Religion has always been a personal matter on Paelia, Nera and Nemea. All religious communities, faith groups and such have been very small and often organzied regionally. Although most of them do work on the fields or in some other area next to their spiritual work some priests, philosophers and other ethic professionals decided to spent their whole life in their god's service. Almost all kinds of spiritual beliefs can be found on Paelia, Nera and, to a far lesser extent, on Nemea where most Paelians are atheists or agnostics.

Religious places

Temples, shrines, churches, cathedrals, sacred groves and far more places are usually kept in good order by the religious group responsible for the very same place. In most cases every Paelian was allowed to enter such a place if one liked to do so. However some religious Paelians preferred to stay amongst themselves and had secret places.

Society

Like Humanity and many other humanoid peoples Paelians developed from a clan structure of nomadic tribes to small settlements that grew bigger in the course of time. Even beside the idea of the absolute, individual freedom some norms were established. People had to agree on certain things to live together. Most of those were norms anyway. Young children would be educated according to the norms but of course those changed nontheless. The very loose concept of people living together and agreeing on certain aspects of how to live together became the basis for Paelians to define a people.

Public institutions

Since the Paelian history declined the idea of a state, there can be no governement or executive branch found. Yet there are some institutions founded by Paelians that could be considered as public. Their influence differs between the different peoples on Paelia, Nera and Nemea. Never has any of these institutions claimed political might. As the Paelian society in general, they work on the basis of complete individual freedom.

Town center watch

Beginning as a family clan's storage of goods that were willingly exchanged, these storages developed soon to the centers of early settlements. Any Paelian (and later any alien) is allowed to hand over what he/she/xe likes to give to the community or take whatever he/she/xe thinks to need. All kinds of goods could be delivered and later even services (e.g. cooking fresh meals)could be performed. Since the life period of some goods differ very much and Paelians would not like to waste e.g. decayed food, in many cultures some Paelians volunteered to watch out for the goods stored at the town center. This way they ensured that goods that could no longer be stored were used either by the watch or by people to whom the watch delivered these goods.

When the range of Paelian goods increased the town center watch changed, too. Instead of central storages the Paelians developed smaller storages for specific types of goods. The watch had to specialize to understand their storages' goods' qualities and life periods. Soon they started to offer advice for the 'customers' coming to their store. Although Paelians never developed any kind of currency and the exchange managed by the watch was absolutely non-capitalistic, Starfleet officers at first contact mistook the watch for Salesmen.

Tribunal of conscience

Another important element of many Paelian cultures are institutions which Starfleet translated as tribunals of conscience. In these very special courts, judgedment would only be passed on people on basis of their own conscience. Believing in absolute freedom, nobody could be commited to a trial. Without any specific defintion of crime anybody who think to have acted badly could come here.

In ancient times, the methods how to get an idea of someone's morality differed very much from culture to culture. At some places, long questionnaires would have to be filled in, at other places people had to judge case examples. Science opened new ways, though. Nowadays, special scans would be arranged to find out almost without any kind of inaccuracies.

Only if someone had come freely to the tribunal, introduced his/her/xer conscience to the three judges, he/she/xe could confess his/her/xer crimes. Afterwards, the three judges would decide what would be the appropriate punishment according to the committer's conscience. Depending on the culture, it would be left to the committer if the judgement would be executed or not. Some Paelians argued that the knowledge of the punishment could change someone's mind and that it would only be fair that he must freely decide it to be executed. Others countered that only because someone is scared by the punishment, his/her/xer decision to attent a trial should not be disrespected. Therefore the punishment would be executed even against someone's free will.

Schools

Instead of an educational system, Paelians preferred a lose concept of different institutions. Anybody thinking themselves capable to teach could become a teacher and anybody willing to come to the lessons could come. Although no courses were obligatory, attending school became usual for most Paelians. The free choice of courses caused some problems but it allowed Paelians also to specialise in their professions very much.

Everybody could hand in papers at all kinds of courses, everybody could present those to class, everybody could ask for a talk with the teacher. But there were no class exercises of any kind. Teachers did not test their students trusting in their decision to freely intensify their studies.

Until now it is a very common problem for Paelians to attend Starfleet Academy. Acceptance tests for Starfleet Academy are quite challenging for someone coming from a culture that didn't have tests at all. The diversity of knowledge tested by Starfleet proved also quite stressing for Paelian applicants. After 30 years without any succeeding applicant for Starfleet Academy, on all three Paelian homeworlds special schools were founded to prepare Starfleet Academy applicants for the acceptance tests. In the beginning these institutions had a hard time but became accepted in the course of time.

Hospitals

Like any culture Paelians invented medicine at some point. To stop the earliest physicians and healers from having to go from one home to another, medical facilities similar to practices or hospitals on Earh were created. Those places developed like hospitals on Earth but maintained dependant on the medicine they could produce by themselves or that would be delivered by professionals.

Media

Already in the earliest stages of Paelian history nomads did deliver messages between the settlements and also shared news they picked up. Modern media evolved when communication became easier due to new writing materials. From that point onwards there were daily messengers on Paelia, later also on Nera and Nemea, that worked much like newspapers on Earth but without competing each other.

Culture

See also: Languages

Paelians have always been a multicultural people. Their pluralistic attitude prohibited a linear development of one singular culture. Although often challenged, one principle was kept by some part of the population during their history: Absolute freedom.

While other peoples tried to introduce power, laws, money and other ways to eliminate personal freedoms somewhere on the planet the concept of absolute freedom endured. And in the end other forms of society failed in competition to the free peoples. Even during the times when alien invaders took many thousand lives the Paelian way of life wasn't challenged.

Scripts

Earliest Paelian scripts needed to be able to be used under water. Very soon Paelians came up with incredibly thin stone plates. The script used on these based upon circles of different sizes representing sounds, not just letters. Paelians used metal cylinders 0,1 millimeter to 14 milimeters in diameter and a small hammer to perforate the stone. The range of 144 circles were being coded differently in the societies but usually Paelians were able not just to describe which words they meant but also the sound and pitch level. The plate's thickness of only 2 to 4 millimeters allowed texts to be copied easily by putting more than one stone plate on another.

With the innovation of computers, stone and paper stopped to be the preferred writing material. Slowly new scripts were developed using lines and circles. Instead of simplifying their script the Paelians complicated it. Now their alphabet's letters could be used to resemble an exact sound. Parallel to this development easier scripts were used for fast notes, too. In the end these simplified still phonetic phonetic alphabets replaced the more complicated onces with more than 3,000 letters each.

Arts

Paelian arts have developed of the people's needs. Wherever people start building houses they'll get to a point at which they want some aesthetic elements, too. The same goes for tools, early furniture and other objects. In the course of time, Paelians started to paint pictures on land and under water or composing music. But most of it still had a function. Only when Paelians increased the crop some people started painting pursued for their own sake. Others started to write fictional stories or compose songs.

In the course of time, artists emerged as a new profession. They dedicated their lives to art. But when more ressources were available art became an activity for other people than artists, too. Drawing or painting to music became a very popular party activity. Most of Paelian literature was contributed to by more than one Paelian. Otherwise they treat art like many other peoples of the galaxy.

Architecture

Paelian have always appreciated accommodations partly flooded by water. Earliest settlements were placed at river banks which were enlarged by creating canals parallel to the river. Each Paelian house was not just build by the water but in it. The basement and sometimes even more floors beneath the ground floor were filled with water completely. To ensure that the water keeps fresh, each of house was build in the river's current. Two openings in the walls opposed to the river's current functioned as a water supply and as drain. Most houses also featured a ground floor that was waist-high filled with water.

Because Paelians never came up with private sphere, nobody thought of doors. Openings in the walls were supposed to let sunshine as well as other people in. To defend against wild animals Paelians erected palisads, or digged deep, dry ditches. Against predators entering the settlements through its river, Paelians used fishing nets.

Interior design

Inside a Paelian house there is usually a lot of water. To avoid mildew Paelians learned early to prefer metal for their furniture. On higher floors wood was used, too. Living on these dry levels has lead to the invention of the halajao, a cylinder filled with water, which worked as a sleeping accommodation.

Another problem was caused by the ground floor. On this floor water was usually waist-high. The river's current, which ran through the houses, too, was felt here at most. Therefore Paelians invented furniture that consisted of one or more boards which were connected by four ropes to the ground floor's typically high ceiling. Whenever something lying on those "shelves" were needed, one could lower those boards easily. A single board was often used as a lift able table.

Customs

A diversity of regional cultures such as the Paelian people do have lots of different, sometimes contradicting customs. On the large island of Lagoa families would bury their beloved ones under some plant in the countryside. Paelians from the Iajiij archipelago would take their dependents to deep places under water where the stream is quite extreme and let them pass away on it. People from Paelia and Nera would eat their meals with 6 wooden chopsticks putting them between their fingers. Nemean Paelians would eat their food with their fingers.

There are some customs that are shared by all Paelian peoples. However this does not imply that every individual follows them. Most important for all Paelians is a ritual of receiving water and soil. Two small phials, one filled with soil and one filled with water from the Paelian child's hometown, are given to newborns on all three Paelian homeworlds. What is done to the phials if a Paelian dies is not the same everywhere, though. On the colony worlds exist not so many phials, so they very often put the dead Paelian's water and soil at a small memorial and use the phials for the next generation. Other colony peoples do store the phials of their deceased ones for centuries to honour their memory. On Paelia the phials are often buried with the persons.

Another common ritual is a feast that is given on all three worlds simultaneously. This ceremony was invented to celebrate the warp-drive given to the Paelians by a friendly species. It was this technology that allowed them to coordinate having a meal at the very same time on all three worlds. Most people will take a day off after the festival if their job allows them to do so. Many Paelians that joined starfleet or travel around the Federation do also cook and eat some comfort food from their homeworld.

The only other custom known to all Paelians was a festivity called a welcoming party. Those were celebrated aboard the first Paelian ships which were driven by impulse drive. During the long and dangerous voyages, Paelian crews usually grew together and founded families. Therefore the Paelian Trading Fleet established a trend. New crewman were expected to host a welcoming party for their fellow crewmates. After all, in a society where anyone could give and take what one wanted or needed, those parties were always well attended and people had lots of fun inventing funny party activities.

Technology

The Paelian development of technology is relatively close to that of Humanity's. While it took them far more years considering wisely which technology to put into practice saved them from the worst consequences of pollution. It also prohibited them from reaching space in very long time but finally Paelian scientists achieved success by offering plans for giant colony ships. Those consisted of large spheres with decks arranged like the composition of their homeplanet. Three rings equipped with impulse drives orbited the ship's core connected only by a fragile tunnel that could be cruised on the sphere's surface.

Sciences

Like many other cultures Paelians came up with concepts of research and education. Those concentrated at certain places which led to these commencement of scientific research and education of new scientists.

Chronology

Instead of history in a traditional Human understanding Paelians came up with a science relatively unique. Chronologist's field of work could be considered a combination of Human historians and archaeologists. But they do not just dig up ancient items and artifacts and determine their age but thereby determine the current Paelian year. Paelians believe strictly in the importance of the year one to be the real year one of the Paelian people. Whenever chronologists reveal that their history has started some Paelia years earlier, all the dates of Paelian history do change. Although nobody enforced this system of course, about 99% of all Paelians were absolutely fine with it.

Economy

Paelian economy is based upon the free sharing of what everybody produces. Every Paelian, including even strangers, were allowed to take what they needed or thought to need from the town center's stockpile. It was not expected for them to bring anything there but 95% of people did produce goods and share them without being forced to do so. Although this philosophy of not forcing anybody to do anything every time when additional workers were needed enough Paelians would offer their help. Most Paelians had always felt a certain responsibility towards tasks necessary for their community's survival.

Military

Paelians never maintained any form of military. Some historians from the Federation have judged the Paelians to be lucky for facing only Klingon invaders. They argue that had there been Romulans or Cardassians next to them the species and its planets would probably have been oppressed and exploited. Paelian historians later pointed out that it was quite a dangerous bluff of Starfleet assigning ships to the Paelian and Ranjeen worlds during the war with the Klingons. Had the Klingons decided to continue their attack - so their argument - it may have caused massacres amongst Paelians and Ranjeen alike.

Federation Intelligence Files

Secret Federation files include various information on the worth of Nemea's and Nera's resources. Those two planets were the main reason why the Federation could not allow the Klingons to successfully invade even one of the planets. Especially not while the Federation was at war with them. These resources were also a reason to allow a species with a social structure like the Paelian's to join the Federation. Some preconditions were clearly ignored to enable the Paelian's long-term membership.

Sources

This is an original Starbase 118 species created by Ensign Dial.

CC

This species was approved by the Captains Council for use in the Starbase 118 universe 6 March 2015