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Thread: Andorians, Tellarites, et. al.

  1. #1
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    Post Andorians, Tellarites, et. al.

    This post is based on Aslan C's concerns about a new Andorian sourcebook. I want to be clear that I really did like "Among the Clans", but if Decipher does something new with some of the classic TOS races, some different approaches may be possible.

    Why not use Roddenberry's own "working backward" approach? It did wonderfully well with the Vulcans back in the sixties, to the point that they are still popular today.

    Take the Tellarites. They are stout and hairy. Their noses are specially designed to deal with something, though we don't know what. They apparently are mostly pale in color.

    It should seem obvious that these are all adaptations to a cold planet with a thick, frigid, atmosphere, and possibly high gravity. Their weird hooded eyes, actually just the result of poorly designed rubber masks, could be explained as an adaptation to a bright, white sun shining on snow, though then their skin would be darker.

    The Andorians are blue, have white hair, and antennae. They are also rather thin, and have something weird about their circulatory system. They have four person marriages.

    The blue skin and white hair, along with blue eyes, make sense if one assumes Andorians to be albinos with blue blood. This makes sense if one assumes a low-light environment, say as the result of Andor circling a dim type M star. In fact, the blue color would be black under dim red light, and so decent camoulflage (sp?).

    The antennae and extra senses could likewise be adaptations to life in a dim environment, where acute hearing is really necessary.

    The thin bodies and, especially, antennae don't work with a cold world, where frostbite is a concern, as I know from having lived in such an environment for many years. They do work with a cool, forested world, however, which would also go well with what little we know of Andorian clothing.

    They are about the same size and strength as humans, suggesting about the same gravity. The antennae would work best in an atmosphere at least as thick as Earth's, but we don't have to assume a dense atmosphere, just one that isn't thin.

    From what we know of their families and warrior traditions, the duelling, clan-based society developed by S. John works very well, just on a different planet. Their religions may fit the "Among the Clans" mould, or be somewhat different, using metaphors and concepts based on somewhat different senses. Actually, though I do like the "Among the Clans" religions, particularly Eila Clahd, and would not mind keeping them.

    Just my two cents worth.

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    Slan agat!

  2. #2
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    I will have to make this quick for now. Just checked the Amoung the Clans and, in my opinion, there are items there that suggest that Andoria might have been, as Aedh Rua suggested, a cool forested world. In the world description they mention, and I know this open for interpretation, temperate zones. Also, most of the illustrations in the book show them wearing rather light clothing in the past, one of the most feared creatures is a forest "Spider". And it is mentioned that the current "ice age" was brought on by the closeing of the Andorian wormhole, when the ion storms slightly changed the axial tilt of the planet.

    This could explain why the Andorians seem to be somewhat ill-fitted to the cold climate of the planet.

    And, as AR mentioned the star in Andorian system is a white star.

    Anyway just some ideas.

  3. #3
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    Well... Everyone knows I can't resist an Andorians discussion... and I was hoping to maybe stir up some fan support for a prequel series bringing back some of the classic founding members of the Federation, Andorians in particular, despite the TNG guideline that excluded "blue people with antennae"

    In this series, I'd like to see some of the rather intriguing references in the old Starfleet Technical Manual, to an "Andorian Star Empire..."

    While I think LUG did a great job, that old source, despite being deemed non-canon by some, has lots of possibilities that may as well be worked in... For instance, it places Andor around Epsilon Indii, which is three and change parsecs from Earth and is a type K5 star: a small red-orange star. Certainly, a "Star Empire" this close must have had its reasons to leave Earth alone, and might have had a lot of influence on the sector.

    While LUG made a great and playable world, I had prefered to see Andor as sort of a Japan of the early Federation; more advanced, at the start, but more conservative, and less innovative: I did a workup of the place <and people> once for a novel/movie script for Sulu's Excelsior that I was engaged in with a friend, and think the possibilities are intriguing.

    Not being partial to the "Ice planet, desert planet, forest planet" cliches that scifi often indulges in, I'd pictured an Andor with extreme seasons: deep snows much of the year: and desert conditions and/or lush growing seasons during brief, hot summers; the whole planet close to its dim star; actually a moon orbiting a huge green rocky planet with a Venus-like atmosphere...

    In any event, I think Andoria treated well could be as popular a people as the Klingons became in the Next Gen era, and the Tellarites are an open book with intriguing possibilities.

    There was a brief apearance of someone that might be a Tellarite as a freighter captain on DS9: the makeup was obviously more impressive. As in, didn't look like a man in a pig mask, but still could be recognizeable as one of the old alien types.


    Might be time for a letter-writing campaign to have these popular races maintained in the new series. I've long wished that Star Trek did more treatment of the races *within* the Federation







  4. #4
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    Not that they look any different but how about some Alpha Centuari types as well.

    The Ds9 ep at risa, it was only a couple of Bolians right? No Andorians in the mix?

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    You bring up some good points, Aedh. It’s difficult to say, not being a lawyer and all, but while the actual manuscripts are likely the property of Wizards of the Coast now (after the LUG buyout), the actual content is part of the greater Paramount/Viacom intellectual property now.

    That is, to say, I think that the new RPG could reference planets, moons, and cites from “Among The Clans” without getting into hot water. Of course, with that book being darn near impossible to find, the greater question would be whether Decipher (Christian Moore) would rather just redo all the Andorian material and take a new tack on it.

    I honestly don’t have the answers, but from a Narrator’s perspective (me), I’d hope they’d stick with the material in “Among The Clans” for two reasons: 1) to preserve my own sanity and remembering all this info, and 2) it’s a damn well-written book – seems a shame to redo it.


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    Actually, my working solution within the LUG world would be, had I any players, which is another gripe, simply to trade the Andorian and Tellarite climates, and to give the Andorians a dimmer red sun.

    You're right about Among the Clans being a really good book. I am absolutely not knocking it, and try to keep everything that I can from it. I keep the culture pretty much the same.

    But the planets I play with some. Actually, given the geography of LUG Tellar, it should be colder, anyway. Two big, polar, continents should lead to a good deal of galciation.

    I figure Andor is somewhat cool, but not really cold, and with damn little seasonality, which explains the thin, "tropical" Andorian bodies. They are designed for a sort of year-round autumn forest, without ever experiencing winter conditions. The poles, however, are glaciated, as they also are on Earth, of course.

    The sheer darkness of my version of Andor would set much of the mood. The Andorian love of secrets, from Among the Clans, takes on a whole new meaning, as do ideas like Andorian Blues, and the prevalance of the Andorian bed bat, as a common animal. For that matter, the common-ness of tubers makes sense in terms of a damp forest, too.

    Imagine the planet, if you will, in its early history. The dark day sky, dimly midnight-purple, with its deep red sun. The shadowy forest, where clans fight wars where the enemy must be heard before being seen. The really black nights, with a smoky, red moon. The blues clubs in the woods, where Andorians of all classes and clans meet to eat smoked meat, drink fiery ale, eat tuber root with spicy rendered bear fat, and hear sad and soulful music. The ten-thousand religons, each with its secret rites, carried out in the dark, damp forest, which smells of wet leaves and pitch.

    Not a bad set of images, eh?

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    Slan agat!

  7. #7
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    I like the images Aedh.

    For my money the Prime Directive Andorians had some stuff as well. What I do now is merge all the Andorians sources I like inot one cohesive (if it works). I like the Clan mentality, but I take it to a larger extreme with clans being the size of cities. All the Andorians live together and work for the benifit of the clan.

    I will try to post up my Andorians at some point, but even I must confess I used the ICE AGE angle as well, just to make a lot of the stuff I found work.

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  8. #8
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    When looking closely at Among the Clans you can find small pieces of information that leads to the fact that, although cooler in temperture, it is hardly an "ice planet". To begin with the statement that the climate is "comparable to the colder parts of Canada and Russia", that leaves alot room to work with from tundra to Arctic ice cap. The cultural district of Sheras is described as "a land of rolling, forested hills, sparkling streams, and majestic seaside cliffs dotted with ancient stone castles,..." Correct me if I am wrong, but can you have "sparkling streams" on a ice planet? The temperate zones range from 27 degrees C, in the "summer" to a chilly 8 degrees at other times. The temperate zones also comprise "hugh expanses of forested hillsides, occasional grassy valleys, small areas of steppeland, and frequent half-frozen wetlands..." Precipitation is common but snows as much as it rains. Most of the preceived idea that Andoria is an ice planet is based on the current ice age they are experienceing due to the collapse of the Andorian wormhole.

    Ask any Canadian, 8 degrees C is not cold, as I am writting this it is -4.

    As to the Andorians being too "frail" physically to withstand the cold, here comes the ST science, they have a redundant circulatory system that is designed to help ward off the cold. Not unlike the redundant systems of the Klingons to withstand battle damage. But unless they are in the far northern climes of the planet, they hardly need it.

    As you can see I am somewhat partial to the way Andorians and Andoria are portrayed and hope that this helps dispell the overly fridge outlook my favourite planet in the Star Trek Universe seems to have left everyone with.

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    You might be right. In addition, the "antifreeze" qualities of cobalt-based blood may play a role, though at
    8 degrees C, that would hardly be necessary. You are quite right about 8 C being quite comfortable.

    I still think the star should be dim and red, though. Actually, a "cool" (or cold)Andoria would be much more likely around a dim, red star than around a hot, white one, simply because the habitable zone of temperatures is so narrow.

    This also applies to hot worlds, oddly enough. A narrower habitable zone just makes it that much more likely that a given planet will be extreme in temperature.

    It also makes things like skin color and antennae explicable, which is important to me. Of course, this means that Tellar will also be a cold world, indeed, must be colder than Andoria to explain Tellarite physiology.

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    I agree, though my knowledge of Astronomy is a little weak, could you not have a similar effect with a white star...The planet would just be ALOT farther out (which Andoria is) on the fringes of the Sun's "biosphere" (for lack of another word).

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    Aedh Ruadh, as soon as I come up with an interesting story for it, I'll have to send my players to the Andorian setting you described. You have a gift for evoking an image with atmosphere.

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    As for Andorians as "too tall and skinny" to be adapted to cold conditions, I had too much time on my hands one night and discovered one actually *could* to a pseudo-scientific degree at least, have a hemoglobin molecule with cobalt, but you'd need a higher body temperature....

    I'd postulated that an Andorian lifeform based on that biochemistry would have a big oxygen reserve in the bloodstream; but might have had to develop structures in the head to keep the brain from overheating <this is where rams' horns originally came from... It wouldn't be too far a stretch to say that the "antennae" originally evolved from hollow cooling strcutures atop the head that eventually joined up with the ear canals until sophisticated sensory adaptations developed...

    It was also a nice dovetail with FASA's old Andorian flaw about Andorians having aggression problems at high temperatures. I joked once that some background ambassadors in ST VI who were blue and wore big hats, were actually Andorians with cooling units hidden under those big headdresses...

    I don't see any essential problem with a race of warriors ending up quite tall and lean, especially if they "run hot." My personal workup actually said that you'd never see a fat Andorian because all that extra insulation would simply kill them.

    There's a lot of possibility there, but I basically had a more largely-temperate continent where Andorian civilization originally developed, <very like Sheras in LUG: with deep snows and forests, and only a brief hot summer> and a larger continent with proportionately larger deserts and long-fought for flood plains. Between this and wild high-desert areas on another side of that continent, was a huge barrier mountain range with my version of FASA's Cities of Refuge, including the seat of the Council of Fourty One. <My clans were much larger and fewer than LUG's, but each was further broken down into myriad Houses that served much the same function as LUG's Keth>

    The biggest thing about it was that the Andorian world should be harsh compared to Earth but still be a viable and realistic ecosystem: there's a pretty narrow threshhold of global tempreatures that keep the oceans from freezing or catastrophic greenhouse events from happenning.. therefore I find "ice planets" and "desert planets" unlikely as founders of the Federation...

    I had lots of fun with it, though. Andorian houses from the temperate regions with characteristic "hershey's kiss" roofs with beacon towers and exits in spindles: the things are actually designed to be *buried* by the heavy snows...

    Kind of neat. I really do hope the new series I've heard rumours of doesn't pass up the oppportunity to go into depth about a bunch of people with such possibilities...



  13. #13
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    I find all the explainations on this thread good and very interesting, its obvious that everone has come with good ideas for thier games. I would, however, like to point out that nowhere in Among the Clans does it say Andoria is a "ice planet". Looking at the info in the book, Andoria is a, relativly speaking, temperate planet. It is just going through a period of "enforced" glaciation. It is not the Hoth of the Star Trek universe.

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