Tal'Ryth

"Like our earlier brothers and sisters, we explore the world around us. We get to know it, we get to use it. Space holds great wonders and great resources. The time to see those wonders and hold those resources in ours hands, people, is now."

- Ti'Ram Cay'La, speaker for Cirana at the League of Allied Nations conference in 225:41, Tal'Ran Standard Date.

The Tal'Ryth are a race of highly developed reptiles, from the planet Ta'Yal in the Pa'Kal system, on the outskirts of the Verion Cluster. Whilst they may look and act aggressive, they are deceptively intelligent, as their one-of-a-kind warp drive design will show.

History
Tal'Ryth history is littered with wars and displays of power, continent-spanning empires and long lasting city-states. But also, exploration, and a suprising amount of cooperation.

Origins
The ancestors of modern Tal'Ryth developed on the largest landmass many hundreds of millions of years ago. Whilst the occasional ecosystem-busting asteroid did impact Ta'Yal, the Tal'Ryth ancestors were tough, stubborn and most importantly, widely spread out. Ta'Yal's biosphere comprises of a great many strong herbivores and vicious predators, with the Tal'Ryth being descended from the latter. It is from this beginning that they can attribute their near-binocular vision, high strength, talons, cunning, and most special of all, intelligence.

Recent History
No more than three centuries ago, the Tal'Ryth developed nuclear weapons. Three of the most powerful nations at the time - Fyrenn, Cirana and Ri'Entyall - developed these powerful devices almost simultaneously - despite stringent security measures from all sides' nuclear programmes, bribes and spies managed to siphon enough information off each others' researchers that by the time nuclear weapons were usable, all three sides had that advantage. After a number of years of cold war, a meeting between the three states was agreed upon. This historic meeting saw the nations' leaders accept that the looming threat of war was endangering their economies, their creativity, their progression. New developments were being kept secret, and money was being spent on creating larger and larger nuclear stockpiles. Someday, this would backfire on them, and they decided to do something about it. Together, they formed the League of Allied Nations, declaring mutual non-aggression pacts between each other, before agreeing to mutual defence pacts, and then a fully fledged alliance. They focused their efforts on first making peace amongst the lesser nations, before turning their collective strength and wealth toward progression. The LAN can generally be shortened to "Tal'Ran", a namme that is used regardless of national language.

Space Age
The Tal'Ryth had an aptitude for space exploration. First probes, rovers, then manned rockets. Spaceplanes, spacestations, interplanetary expeditions. However, they really came into their own when they began their asteroid mining operations. This allowed them to construct larger and greater spacecraft than ever before. Whilst they colonised their star system, the Tal'Ryth developed hibernation technology. Their bodies already supported low temperature survival, but hibernation allowed them to be almost dead indefinitely, before waking up unharmed by the experience. One the technology was mastered, they sent slower than light spacecraft, packed with colonists, scientific equipment and microgravity mining/construction machinery towards star systems with confirmed asteroid belts and celestial bodies. It took decades for these spacecraft to reach their destinations, their occupants' futures uncertain.

Faster Than Light
Faster Than Light technology eluded the Tal'Ryth for over a century after they began sending their STL interstellar colonisation spacecraft out of their star system. Eventually, however, a string of breakthroughs in their field of physics saw the creation of Alcubierre-type 'Drive Ring' warp engines. Whilst not ideal, these warp engines completely cancelled out relativity, making journey times shorter from Ta'Yal's perspective, and allowed spacecraft to accelerate over the speed of light. From that point on, every interstellar spacecraft was fitted with a Drive Ring before it left. In the year 086, the first inter stellar tourist spacecraft was constructed for See Miracle Inc., who had previously only offered in-system space tours. People would pay any price to go interstellar, and eventually it became a buisiness that could be profitable even with cheap tickets.

Haven Holidays pioneered this with its fleet's pride, the Ancient. Several more spacecraft were constructed by Haven, culminating in the massive Sanctuary, launched in 138:36, not long after the loss of the Ancient to asteroids which its antiasteroid weaponry had been ineffective against. When, on its third voyage from Pa'Kal, the Sanctuary was also lost, it took with it this era of massive luxury spacecraft, and Haven's fleet was bought by the Tal'Ran's spaceforce for use as Advanced Interplanetary Armed Response/Recovery Vehicles before the company finally went bankrupt. The bottom fell out of that market as confidence went down, and interstellar tourism became a thing of the past.

Until the invention of the Tal'Ryth Hyperdrive. A form of warp engine which utilises physics on a level that only Tal'Ryth seem to be capable of understanding. At first glance these engines are less useful than the FTL drives of other races - with current power generation systems, they are limeted to 0.033LY/h, travel in normal space with all the risks that incurs, navigation must be plotted before drive activation because of the lack of advanced sensors, and the drive cannot be shut down mid-flight. However, for the Tal'Ryth, being able to move about vast distances of space in mere hours brought the light of space exploration back to them. Rescues became feasible, systems farther out could be explored, and resources could be usefully shared between colonies and the home system. Three habitable planets were discovered in systems across Tal'Ryth territory, and were settled on. The Tal'Ran's dream of progress seemed to be going swimmingly.

First Contact
Tal'Ryth use the phrase 'Forest Fire scenario' in radio protocol to mean a first contact situation.

When the Sanctuary was being retrieved by the ISARRV Seaview, a former Haven tourism spacecraft, the stranded ISTTV was discovered by an alien spacecraft which identified itself as a part of the fleet of the Corrundian Empire. First contact was handled badly, resulting in high tensions between the commanders of the Sanctuary and the Corrundian staship, the Burgess. Eventually, the Sanctuary's commander relented partially, allowing the Corrundian Marshal to board the Sanctuary as it returned to Pa'Kal. The Corrundians were forbidden from contacting their starship until after the signing of a non-aggression pact, which went ahead without a hitch. An attempted assassination of the Corrundians by an apprehensive civil servent and a corrupt Military Operations Command Control sergeant was aborted when the Coorrundians took the only hard copy of the pact with them for ratification with their own government - the civil servant would not risk killing the aliens without having the pact as backup if the alien forces discovered Pa'Kal and wished to know what happened to their Marshal.

Further contact with the Corrundians was mostly positive, if confused, on the part of the Tal'Ryth, who hadn't heard about the peace pact until the Corrundians showed it to them. The return of the Sanctuary also caught the attention of Terrarian science vessel Nautilus, which the Tal'Ryth boarded with the crew's permission, so that they could be talked to directly. Even more recently, Deep Space Industrial Mining Vehicle Eternal Equininox was discovered by Trayn forces as it surveyed the Magmedon blue giant system for an asteroid belt. A group of Trayn boarded the Equinox on the Commander's advice, as the Nose and Core [1] section had been jettisoned whilst the Engine and Core [2] sections left for their home system, leaving the forward sections with no drive systems of means of escape of its own, making it essentially a temporary starbase.

Culture
With a long an chequered past, the Tal'Ryth have a lot of cultural variation to show for this.

They are often aggressive towards new things or things they don't immediately understand, a less desireable throwback from their primitive predatorial ancestors.

Pop Culture
The Tal'Ryth have a large entertainment industry, with even the most remote orbital habitats and research facilities having access to entertainment either produced on site, recorded, or brought by interstellar resupply spacecraft. It often helps their colonists to relax, knowing that their homeworld isn't quite so far away as it seems.

Tal'ryth use the word 'foreigner' more often than 'alien'. They both technically mean the same thing, but 'foreigner' is closer. This word became common usage for aliens when UFOs were described as 'Unidentified Foreign Objects' in alien invasion movies. It was also the standard terminology for alien spacecraft in the Forest Fire Scenario protocols.

Architecture
Tal'Ryth architecture is similar to that of 21st Century Earth cityscapes, with tall glass skyscrapers, concrete apartment blocks, glass, metal and concrete complexes with many buildings adding a unique flair to their designs. Even their rural buildings are mostly built in a modern fashion. Many newer buildings can be seen to have roofs of recycled plastic, as well as others parts of their structure. This is part of the Tal'Ran's long-term initiative to reuse plastics rather than landfill them.

Their spacecraft are commonly built without regard to aesthetics, though the larger ones all tend towards a similar layout - a long, thin core built up from sections, each section tending to have a certain number of purposes, often being built to be interchangable, especially on spacecraft with common diameters. Around these cores tend to be large, rotating centrifuges, most commonly on long-term missions. These tend not to be used at any time a spacecraft is firing its engines, and safety regulations say the external centrifuges should not be manned when a spacecraft's Tal'Ryth hyperdrive is active. Their spacecraft are always built like skyscrapers, to prevent wierdness for the crew on board when constant engine boost produces slight artificial gravity.

Smaller spacecraft, such as passenger ferries and Sibe'Ri'An-type Light Assault Cruisers tend to come without any form of centrifuge whatsoever, though the prototype LAC Mi'Tal Rising was equipped with a centrifuge between the nose and main sections. This was scrapped on the full version in favour of structural rigidity. Only spacecraft capable of atmospheric flight, such as passenger ferries, sub ferries, shuttles, sub-shuttles and spaceplanes are built with their 'floor' perpendicular to the direction of thrust.

Religion
Tal'Ryth religeons vary wildly and commonly have inconsistant denominations. For a number of centuries now, however, religeons have been shrinking as the number of atheist Tal'Ryth grows.

Language
Each Tal'Ryth nation has its own language, if not more than one. However, most Tal'Ryth are taught the three LAN powers' languages from birth, since they are a neccesity for a career in space or in a Tal'Ran member nation where wages are commonly higher, along with living standards.

Government
Varies from nation to nation, but the Thirteen Systems as a whole are governed by the LAN [AKA the Tal'Ran], who are the leading financiers of Tal'Ryth space travel and who own large shares in a number of space based corporations. The LAN, regardless of member nations' preferences, runs the Thirteen Systems in a socialist manner, ensuring that every colony and outpost is properly provided for. However, there is a capitalistic trading system, and Tal'Ryth are encouraged to do the best they can, for which hard work they will be rewarded.

The Tal'Ran emblem is a stack of four tesselating equilateral triangles forming a larger equilateral triangle. The central triangle is empty, whilst the other three triangles are coloured in the national colours of the three founding Tal'Ran nations.

Physiology
Tal'Ryth are bipedal digitigrade reptiles, with a bulky frame designed to withstand some amount of punishment. They have tough, scaly skin, commonly with sparse black markings over it. Their elbows have several extra joints providing anchorage and an articulation point to a second set of forearms, which end in razor sharp, serrated talons. Whilst their skin is resistant to the talons, it is not proof - as such, bony protrusions between their fingers allow Tal'Ryth to have their talons in a resting position without cutting their hands open.

Tal'Ryth eyes no not have a white sclera, and they have slit pupils. Their nostrils are low on their large, protruding snouts, with wide jaws positioned underneath. They have ears which always face backward, although they can move slightly. Tal'Ryth are hairless. They have three-toed feet, but their hands have four fingers and an opposable thumb each. Male and female Tal'Ryth are almost indistinguishable even without clothes, with females having slightly higher pitched voices.

They also have a thick tail at the end of their spines which provides balance when walking.

They have a neutral protean alignment.