Work Text:
DATE: 12 June 2384
REPORT FOR: CEE Personnel with Top Secret clearance
CLASSIFICATION LEVEL: TOP SECRET
SUBJECT: Cultural report on telran subclass: White Hands
PREPARED BY: Ambassador Daniels, Ethan
I understand that the majority of the following information will be classified until the current situation with the telran stabilizes but the content that isn’t will be integral for understanding how they think. Most of what follows has been sourced from a young telran woman named ‘Anen’viat Kriel’ve Turs’ that we’ve taken to shortening to ‘Anen’. Her full name is a little difficult to say in full. The following subjects are just a small glimpse into the telran as a whole since even the sentre haven't had contact with them for over twenty of our years. Covering current political structure, trade, medicine, technology level, religion and even food and music.
Political structure: Age is paramount above all else in political matters. The older a telran is the longer they’ve lasted in their skirmishing communes and are seen as far wiser, stronger and more resilient than others. This comes with perks of greater say in group decisions, better living accommodations, medical attention and most importantly diet variation.
There are multiple tiers of telran political structure and each group seems to be controlled largely by three separate individuals. Known as the executives, these positions are mostly filled by the oldest members that have survived not only the last twenty years but also the AI war with their people. Each group has a different specialty be it religious leadership, engineering prowess or trade the most powerful groups are the military inclined. Each ‘faction’ or splinter has basic security to deter conflict from other groups; this doesn’t stop the larger groups from strong arming them with their military or even their more efficient militias for technology or ‘spirit seeking’ (See religion subsection for more information).
Everything exists in a careful balance amongst all the groups, even internally everything sits on the brink of conflict. It’s my belief that a mix of destabilization, support from the sentre to keep the power vacuum from collapsing and trade from our deep space mining corporations for supplies would be the best route to show that they need help and their neighbors and us can provide that help.
Trade: Resources in their lives are always under constant strain. Food, water and natural resources are constantly being fought over causing constant tension between every group. Iron, copper, and even certain stones are constantly raided from one another. Coastal towns without a source of water focus on water imports while they export fish and salt for preserving said fish. Inland groups focus on scavenging dead cities, towns and even old decrepit mines for minerals and resources to trade to the engineers for finished products and weapons. Every group has been fighting and killing each other not only for power but these vital resources.
Medical: This is one area that hasn’t been very affected by their regress. With conflict being so common they’ve had to keep surgeries as a common staple for limb removal and replacement, organ failure, even eye injury and replacement. Outright replacements have been becoming more rare due to the struggle for resources in their regions. Anesthetics, antibiotics and other medicines have been replaced by more natural analogs but with much lower yields and effectiveness. Surgeries are recalled as excruciating but necessary so maybe we could provide medical aid as well to win over more of the telran.
Technology: The technology Miss Anen has informed me of is, for lack of a better word, confusing. They have advanced cybernetics that add an extra set of arms to their torsos which I've seen they have more than mastered for multitasking. Yet from what she's shared they choose to keep their larger groups in either dilapidated buildings going through poor repairs and not properly filtering the water that’s pumped in. The weapons they carry seem to be relics from their earlier conflict which are based on particle accelerators. I would highly suggest looking into their weaponry and what they call ‘Zap Charges’ since that was the item they used to disable the civilian grade frame TEC was housed in during initial first contact.
On the point of that contact I would also highly suggest we look into defensive measures in the future to counteract these weak points they exploited. I don’t suggest rolling in with full military grade equipment but certainly bolstering the defenses to a military standard. Shock and weapon resistance for the AI frames they take in, contingencies in the shuttles and ships to counteract the anti-communication measures they used and at the very least establishing meaningful contact with the species before meeting face to face.
The most advanced out of the groups is without a doubt the engineers, being the only large group focusing on trying to reach for their pre-AI days. Cybernetics, weaponry and even filtered water. They have the best living conditions out of any of the major groups. From what I’ve been told they’ve been currently trying to solve their dwindling crop yields and have recently had massive results before their exodus to the sentre continent of Praloa.
For the cybernetic limbs they are grafted to their forms at a very early age. When they need to be removed for maintenance or for simply moving to larger ones due to growth they say it’s similar to losing a piece of yourself. Similarly when they are reattached they need to figure out how they function all over again, this is lessened when it's just standard maintenance than getting brand new ones over time.
Since conflict followed so closely after their society collapsed most technology that stayed was directly related to survivability and conflict. Anything that didn’t fall into those venues fell behind. Transportation has suffered heavily and has been mostly replaced with large hyena like animals that can support their weight along with extreme levels of gear. This hasn't been the only major shift as progress has largely stagnated. Their advanced cybernetics have halted in their progress, early space stations lay abandoned in their orbits of their planets and hospitals dilapidated. Air transport is gone and only small ships exist for trade along their shores and rivers. Most of these reversals are due to them destroying nearly all of the computer technology in their grasp.
Food/Music: The average diet of telran can best be described as utilitarian. Unseasoned meats and basic greens that they can grow in very small farms in their regions have forced them to adopt these standards, albeit unhappily. Anen has shared stories of early food passed down to her generation of lavish meals prepared expertly by even the most common person. The death of such an important part of culture could be the beginning of the death of their species.
Music has suffered a similar fate, being lost to time within the memories of destroyed computers. Spoken songs have lived through memories but instruments have been left far behind for the march of survival. What could we find if we could recover that data? Maybe we could help them this way as well.
Religion: This is the only portion of their lives that has had as much prevalence as the conflicts with their neighbors and it shows. Markings denoting the groups they hail from cover their faces, shoulders, arms, backs, and legs. Miss Anen’s are long wisping white lines that seem to flow up her body and coalesce at the back of her head, where the other groups believe their deities speak through. The engineers also have markings along their arms and their faces focusing on the eyes. Angular and blocky represents how rigid they are in their beliefs and thoughts. The trade groups use green along their arms and legs and the markings on their faces are focused around their marble covered mouths in line with their silver tongues. For the groups that are conflict minded their markings are black and only receive them through rites of passage and they are focused on their arms, shoulders, backs and the whole face. Further study is required for the deeper meanings behind these markings and beliefs.
Relations between Male and Female Telran:
The following video recording is of a short conversation between myself and Miss Anen
The video feed started with the view of two individuals sitting across from one another in a stone floored room with wooden walls. “Miss Anen, I appreciate you taking this time to speak with me about a few concerns I have.”
The telran woman across from him with no markings bowed her head slightly as she began to speak. “Of course ambassador, it’s my great pleasure and duty to enlighten you on anything I have knowledge of.”
“Well even if you can’t answer there’s no issue. The main question I have has stemmed through the observations of a soldier yesterday. I won’t name him but he brought to my attention an…altercation between yourself and your brother. Firstly, are you okay? Secondly, what exactly happened? From what I’m told the words held between you two were familial and then quickly turned hostile.”
Anen sighed as she looked at Daniels and her four eyes blinked with their transparent eyelids. “I am quite alright but I do wish that it wasn’t observed by others. As for the second portion of your question, he is male and older than me so he should have been the one to establish relations with the sentre and your organizations. It is that simple.”
“Just because of your age and sex you can’t speak to your brother as a family member? That seems a bit backward.”
Her eyes narrowed as she sat up slightly. “You believe he thinks less of me?”
Leaning back in his seat he lifted his hands in a slight defense. “If anything I'd say you’re more capable at being an ambassador than I am. You’ve handled yourself far better than I did when I started. I mean why are you treated that way if you were able to not only establish relations but oversee a mass exodus of refugees from your homes wouldn’t that demand more respect even from your brother?”
Her head fell slightly with a sigh through her clenched mandibles. “He does respect me. The issue is he still sees me as his sister and a future mother to children to continue on living. He views my actions for when he was out keeping the peace as a needless risk.”
“A needless risk? I would say it was very needed and came not a moment too soon. Wait a mother to children?”
“Of course. Women are a resource.”
Daniel’s eyebrow raised as he stared into her eyes. “A resource?”
“Think of the vishan. If there was a calamity and ninety five percent of the female population were gone tomorrow they would have a hard time repopulating but they would survive. If the same thing happened to their males? It would be a calamity of who would get the last few. They would collapse.”
Daniels nodded slightly as he took in her words. “Is there a massive disparity between males and females with the telran?”
She shook her head, mimicking the humans she'd talked to. “We’re about even but that doesn’t stop the raiding parties from taking trophies.”
Daniel’s blood ran cold as the words sunk in. “That’s terrible…I’m so sorry.”
“Do not worry about our plights. We’ve survived this long.” Her head was low and her eyes faced toward the camera where the low light from a window lit her face. “The storm is calm.”
“You’re certain you’re fine?”
The feed cut of the camera filling the screen with a replay icon filling the black void.
FINAL: After these words she shared, Miss Anen has shed some light on a few of the issues I had digging in the back of my mind. There might be deeper issues that need to be addressed and more questions to be asked but as of right now this should stand as a decent introduction to the telran species and their current way of life.
Signed
Jacob L. Daniels
Ambassador, LG
Earth wing