I just had an interesting idea, while getting the bills ready for my next library board meeting, actually.
Not a lot is known about the Tzenkethi, but I think their name may reveal a good deal about them. It occured to me that the -kethi part in Tzenkethi is really close to the Andorian word kethni, as in "tribes", for those of you who haven't got "Among the Clans".
So, I looked up the handy guide to the Graalen language at the end of the sourcebook, while I was home eating dinner, to see if I could find out more. The root S--N means "hatred, emotional conflict", and SEN means something like "hatred, or hatefulness".
So, we have what looks like a name in a language closely related to or descended from Graalen meaning "hateful tribes" or something like that. How would they get this name?
The Tzenkethi could be yet another group of Andorian renegades, but that would be boring. While I was eating, I came across a reference to the mysterious disappearance of the Andorian colony on Trilith VII.
Let's assume that a group of aliens kidnapped the Trilith colonists. It would explain how they vanished so quickly and completely. The aliens, we'll call them Kendar, let's say, but they could have any name, wished to use the Andorians as slave labor, particularly as slave-warriors of a type rather like the Turkish jannisaries (sp?).
For about two hundred years the descendants of the Trilith colonists are used as slaves, while the Kendar grow ever more dependant on them. Finally, the formerly Andorian slaves rise up and overthrow their masters, establishing a military state rather like that of the Egyptian Mamelukes.
Now, this state is organized more or less on the lines of the original slave-warrior companies. The word "keth", shich once meant "tribe", has changed its meaning, and now means something more like "army", or "host". The former Andorians have very little left of their original culture, so the language has changed drastically. Their new name for themselves, "the Hosts of Hatred", refers to how they regard most aliens, especially the ones who enslaved them, but also all the ones they have fought over the last couple of centuries.
So, there we have a threat race, though not too powerful. They are way vicious, especially to conquered peoples, but for fairly understandable historical reasons. The challenge to Starfleet, especially to its Andorian officers, is to make contact with this race, and to convince them that not all aliens are evil monsters out to enslave them.
Of course, first they have to keep from being slaughtered, hence the Tzenkethi war.
Oh, by the way, in case it sounds like I think I am actually doing historical/linguistic research: I am aware that this is all fiction, and that I am making up a lot of material, based on a coincidence of names.
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The Trekkie Formerly Known As Surak, AKA The Coch, Humble Creator of the Bwuutut and Mensaeans, Aba and Zwickau, and the Perseus Federation, Guy Who Still Hasn't Actually Played The Game, And Who Finally Decided To Use A Signature.
Tzenkethi
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I know, I know... don't go there.
