Teladi

The Teladi look like large upright greenish or brownish lizards. They walk on their hind legs and from a distance look remotely humanoid. Size is that of a human child. Instead of hair they have a hard plating across the back of their heads. They also have a so-called “scale plate” on their forehead that changes color according to their state of agitation: it pales when afraid, and it darkens when angry. On top of their heads, they have a limp ridge, that straightens/erects, when they are amused. They cannot laugh otherwise. (They can’t cry either). Teladi do not shake the head to say “no” or nod to say “yes.” Instead, they move their (very tiny) ears back and forth or up and down. If uncomfortable, they tend to roll one of their ears between the fingers. Teladi are amphibians; they can also live under water. They move almost gracefully in water, making use of the rudimentary web between their fingers/claws. Most Teladi live outside the water, though, especially the space faring ones.

The teladian body is covered with small six-angle-shaped plates that are tightly connected on young Teladi, but grow larger and less connected on older Teladi. Teladian eyes are large and yellow, but become orange and dark red over time. Instead of teeth, Teladi have a sort of chewing-bone. They have three hearts, which means they do not know such a thing as heart failure. Noteworthy is also the paralysis that is known to immobilize Teladi frequently when really scared for their lives. Confusing for humans is that Teladi light-switches, doorknobs, and similar things are always close to the floor. Teladi use their feet to switch on light, open doors, etc. They also prefer very hard banks to sleep on (stone, metal or very sturdy plastic) over beds. They do not sit on chairs; they cower on “sitting-banks”, with their legs pulled up to their chins. This may look strange to humans. Due to their racial history they have no idea of loyalty, honour, or individual ambition - the sole reason for their existence is to make a profit – this, of course, holds true only for the female Teladi in the Community of Planets. The ancient teladian society on Ianamus Zura has evolved very differently from that. They also tend to avoid any form of trouble and would rather run than fight.

The Teladi Company, is the largest corporate entity in existence, almost the entire Teladi race is an employee and works towards enhancing the position of the Teladi in the Universe. The Teladi are a reptilian race, with almost 98% of its population being female. The Teladi are bipedal reptiles, about the size of a small child, one of the major facial features is their scale-plate a large growth that bloats and changes colour depending on their emotional state!

The Teladi have a highly interesting history, originally from the planet Ianamus Zura, they were comparatively late comers to Space travel but quickly discovered the gate systems and colonised a local planetary sector now known as Seizewell with the help of state and corporate sponsorship, unfortunately this period of colonisation also coincided with the shuffling of the gate system cutting off the colonists from their home system. For the Republic of Ianamus Zura this was seen as the worst catastrophe ever and prevented further gate travel believing them to be unstable and thus unusable. Meanwhile the small Seizewell colonial government cut off from Homeworld, while Seizewell was in many ways an excellent home for Teladi, having both a hot humid atmosphere and abundant natural resources but with limited infrastructure equipment was beginning to decay. In a desperate attempt to speed the generation of infrastructure the government allowed corporations to operate as small satellite governments, this process gave corporate entities a relative free hand and within a few years the rudimentary economy had flourished into an economic powerhouse with many major corporations completing heavily with one another.

With the prospects of the colony secure, a new more pressing matter arose. On Seizewell all hatchlings were female, though this did not pose a problem of population decline (due to the ability of Teladi females to reproduce asexually), without a fresh supply of males from Ianamus Zura the gene pool would stagnate, and as populations increased the issue of genetic abnormalities would became a paramount issue for the colonial government, Unfortunately with the onset of the only Teladi Civil war on record, this governing body would be dissolved, eventually leading to the creation of the First Corporate Republic and the first steps of a meteoric rise of Profit Motive as a form of religion, by the time order was established the male population had dwindled to nothing. There has not been a single recorded male birth away from Ianamus Zura. As the Teladi grew to colonise the local sectors, each planet was sliced up into corporate factories. The further the Teladi developed the more advanced their almost narcissistic need for profit became, becoming all consuming. Special hatcheries were created to ensure that young were well cared for while their mothers could work tirelessly for their corporations. Soon hatchlings became bonded to those of their hatchery forming strange family-like bonds between them.

With the discovery of other lifeforms in the Galaxy, the Teladi were quick to exploit their economic power to trade with all that would buy from them. What followed was a flurry of mergers and buyouts that would result in the formation of the Teladi Company. With these new opportunities came new dangers and for the first time the Teladi required a standing military fleet to protect its growing assets. Eventually the Teladi would join the Split and Paranid in the Profit guild, to ensure that the Argon could not rise to dominance, while the Teladi cared not who was most powerful so long as good trade relations could be maintained, they saw the technology offer of the Paranid and Split as a chance of defend themselves in what they would discover was a highly dangerous yet profitable universe.

After five hundred years of isolation the Teladi Company rediscovered Ianamus Zura, although the vision of fiscal paradise filled with males was not quite what they discovered. They did discover a world of creativity and frivolous activities such as recreation that did not involve profit. While the Republic of Ianamus Zura would remain in place for several more years, it was quickly engulfed by the technologically superior Teladi Company, while many old ways and heritage sites have been lost to the drum beat of profit much of the culture of Ianamus Zura remains as it was.

The Teladi company are highly involved in Galactic politics, wholly supporting the great universal currency conversation which unified the universes currency into credits. Their time keeping system was also briefly adopted as a universal time keeping system for all Corporate and Military entities throughout the universe but the Kha'ak invasion brought with it a wave of nationalism with most species returning to their traditional temporal systems, although the Teladi are once again pressing for its re-adoption. The Teladi are also known to trade with Pirates in return for favours and preferential treatment. The first major Teladi Military offensive was during the Xenon Conflict when our very own Kyle Brennan united all five races to bring an end to the Xenon domination of the area.

The Teladi are unlikely to engage us in combat instead preferring to subjugate opponents by undermining their economy using fiscal strength to buy out those that will allow it and mercenary pirates to those that resist. Upon saying this their tactics have not proven particularly successful, with all races still firmly in control of their own economies, despite a unified currency and firm free trade agreements.

Originating from a planet known as Ianamus Zura, a planet covered by large swamps instead of continents, the early space-faring Teladi found the jumpgate at the border of their solar system and started founding colonies on the empty, habitable planets they discovered beyond the gate.

For reasons that remained unknown to the Teladi race until recent days, after hundreds of jazuras, the Ianamus Zura gate changed its destination, thereby cutting off some Teladian colonies from their home planet.

Only then it became prominently apparent, that Teladi hatching outside of Ianamus Zura would never breed male offspring; for some biological quirk, only eggs hatched on Ianamus Zura would hatch males.

Every Teladi hatched in the colonies would become female, and female they were. The Teladian colonies would have died out quickly, if it wasn’t for the fact, that Teladian females are able to lay and hatch eggs even without male Teladi (scientifically, this is called parthenogenesis); the only catch being that the offspring would always be an almost identical clone to it’s parent. (Of course, there are also some other ill effects like genetic defects amassing over generation after generation of clones).

Over time, the Teladi nearly forgot about “the other gender”; Ianamus Zura, however, stayed the archetypical dream shared by every Teladi throughout space and time.

After the separation from Ianamus Zura, it took the Teladian colonies several hundred jazuras to discover the other space faring species of the Community of Planets, which wasn’t that shiny and new anymore by then. By that time, the Teladian females had turned into a greedy, embittered society of lizard-clones that resembled some sort of a huge, hierarchical structured company. The impact of the Teladi entering would change the Community of Planets forever.

Entering known space at this late period in the history of the Community of Planets was extremely fortunate for the Teladi. As a race they missed the conflict of both the Xenon Conflict and the Boron Campaign, and were able to enjoy the more or less stable conditions. They traded with whoever they came across and in 563, despite deputation’s from the Foundation Guild, became members of the Profit Guild.

Great suspicion was put on this action by both the Argon and the Boron, But the main reason why the Teladi refused to join the foundation Guild was that it refused to enter into the Argon Mark currency, instead insisting on using its own native Teladi Buckzoid currency.

In 589 the Teladi, who had been hoarding the currencies of the various races, made a financial killing when the two guilds underwent the Big Currency Reform and the X Universe changed to the Credit currency.

The Teladi Company is run as a company but Diplomacy does take an active role, mainly as they try to get resources and take part in trade pacts.

The Teladi do not engage in alliances with other races, they also have a supposed arrangement with Pirates forces, by supplying them with ships and equipment. However they do still consider the pirates a threat and will engage if they are forced to.

The Teladi have systems that border Xenon systems, and because they face the same problems as other races, they also attack Xenon ships that trespass into their systems.

The Teladi Company also has been attacked by Kha'ak forces, they are considered a threat to profit of the Companies property, so the Teladi will engage the Kha'ak.

What must be noted is, that where the Teladi can, they will avoid War at all costs.

Today the Teladi Government is run and organized like a giant multi-national company, in which every member of the race is a shareholder and has the power to elect fellow citizens to the controlling board. The actual government acts more like a board of directors with the leader or chairman called the Ceo, who are voted into this position by the rest of the board members.
Most of the races in the X Universe don’t like the Teladi and refer to them as greedy and lazy. Sometimes they are even referred to as stupid, but that is only by races who have never traded with them. The Teladi drive some of the hardest bargains in the X Universe, and always come out of a situation with a profit. This is the reason why certain races have banned the Teladi from trading in their territories or sectors. Hence the Teladi are always on the look out for trading partners. It is believed that they finance many of the pirate operations that operate throughout the X Universe. Indeed many races think it is no coincidence that their ships have been captured and their high tech equipment looted by pirates after refusing to trade with the Teladi.

Their own technology tends to lag behind the rest of the occupants of the X Universe but, being Teladi, they would rather buy and trade what they need rather then spend their money in research and development. Hence the Teladi have access to all the high tech equipment, engines and weapon technology of almost all the other races.

Opening of the gate leading to their long-lost planet of origin, Ianamus Zura, put many Teladi in a state of agitation and confusion. Many decided to go on a pilgrimage to Ianamus Zura. But as many teladian females from the Community of Planet traveled to see Ianamus Zura, as many came back utterly disappointed…

* Nopileos
* Sissandras