True to their insectoid nature, Tallinites slowly, methodically, and more importantly peacefully, conquered one world after another, building large colonies while taking care not to settle on worlds that were already inhabited by intelligent species. Tallinites tend to cluster in enormous hive-like cities on their colonized worlds, while sending individuals who are uniquely- adapted outside of their cities to achieve certain goals. Despite the large number of Tallinites on most of their colonized worlds, evidence of their presence is usually confined to one or two extremely large cities. The obvious exception is their home planet.
Tallinite exoskeletons make them resistant to heat and pressure changes, allowing them to survive in the vacuum of space or the pressure of the upper atmosphere of a gas giant for several minutes before being forced to return to their native environment. This makes Tallinites particularly useful as asteroid and gas miners. The Imperium used to use this species as a source of cheap labor in hydrogen and metals production. They now employ their natural talents to produce these materials for the benefit of themselves.
Tallinites seldom act aggressively against other species, though they often find themselves in conflict with their own kind. Wars between worlds have become common in the past five years; rapid, bloody affairs with massive body counts. Rather than reach peace accords, they fight until one side proves victorious and demands fealty from the defeated world. This situation persists until a strong leader rises on the planet and overthrows their conquerors, or another Tallinite world conquers it.To date, no single world has managed to unify all of the Tallinite worlds; the largest conglomeration consisted of three worlds before falling apart.
All Tallinite worlds are matriarchies that bear some resemblance to bee or ant colonies. Because Tallinites are individuals as well as dedicated colony members, learning, art, music, and writing are all valued. Schools, museums, and concert halls are all part of each Tallinite community.
Although they were part of the Stellar Imperium, many have observed that the fall of the Imperium seems to have had little effect on the Tallinites. They patrol their own space much as they did before the Imperium fell. Their queen provides equally for all members of the society regardless of what task they were bred to perform.
The destabilization of interplanetary trade has primarily manifested in the higher prices they charge for goods and technology. Unlike many other species, Tallinites do not form corporations since all commerce is dictated by the ruling queen.
Akat
Planet Type: Terrestrial
Climate: Cold and humid
Equatorial Circumference: 42,920 kilometers
Planetary Diameter: 12,640 kilometers
Major Industry: Manufacturing
Government Type: Matriarchy
Population: 382,222,400
Rotation: 16 hours
Orbit: Approximately .75 Earth Years
Notes: Akat is a cold, wet world. Its citizens specialize in manufacturing navigational components and life support systems for starships. While most races discovered how to construct these components themselves, the Tallinites produce the most efficient and highest quality systems, which, in turn, generate an amazing amount of commerce for Akat. Two massive colony cities exist in Akat, one located on each of the two Northern continents. The entire world has a reputation for being home to predators that are both large and deadly.
Dantoga
Planet Type: Terrestrial
Climate: Earth normal
Equatorial Circumference: 40,290 kilometers
Planetary Diameter: 12,840 kilometers
Major Industry: Colony
Government Type: Matriarchy
Population: 4,514,435,800
Rotation: 40 hours
Orbit: Approximately 3 Earth years
Notes: Dantoga is located farther away from their homeworld than any of the other major Tallinite worlds, and therefore has a larger number of non- Tallinite citizens. The presence of so many other species creates a number of issues that simply are not major considerations on other Tallinite worlds, such as maintaining order, importing large quantities of food that other species can eat, and making lodging available for species with non-Tallinite biologies. This creates a great deal of business with off-worlders.
Dantoga space is well patrolled, but a great deal of political intrigue takes place as competitors vie to gain lucrative contracts with the queen. This has been known to escalate beyond competition to fullon hostility from time to time, and the queen usually regards such violence as a curiosity rather than a crime. Because Tallinites only kill others within their own communities if they have been born defective, the queen frames these occurrences in much the same way when attempting to understand them; in her mind the slain were deemed by their own species’ as defective and were thus eliminated. Several groups have called on her for justice, but this confuses her and often leads her to the conclusion that said groups wish to break off relations with her community, which is something that rarely bothers her because she can usually find other suppliers. Despite these occasional cultural misunderstandings, this remains a lucrative world for off-world traders and most organizations have learned to simply live with the lawlessness that occurs here.
Kanor
Planet Type: Gas giant
Color: Brown and white, smoothly banded
Equatorial Circumference: 1,357,000 kilometers
Planetary Diameter: 431,800 kilometers
Major Industry: Gas mining
Government Type: Matriarchy
Population: 500,300
Rotation: 20 hours
Orbit: Approximately 22 Earth years
Notes: Like most gas giants, this planet is the site of a dozen gas mining platforms, which suck the hydrogen from the atmosphere and process the hydrogen gas into starship fuel. The population here is small compared to most Tallinite worlds, and all of the individuals here are bred strong so that they can operate heavy equipment. This world is large for a gas giant, in fact the planet’s mass is just under what would be needed to start nuclear fusion and create a star. Numerous habitable moons orbit the planet, though Kanor’s queen hasn’t yet authorized colonization of these worlds. Some individuals from other races secretly use these moons despite the Queen’s objections.
Krazof
Planet Type: Terrestrial
Climate: Earth normal
Equatorial Circumference: 48,360 kilometers
Planetary Diameter: 15,390 kilometers
Major Industry: Colony
Government Type: Matriarchy
Population: 4,850,600
Rotation: 20 hours
Orbit: Approximately .75 Earth Years
Notes: Krazof was the first world the Tallinites settled purely for the purpose of spreading their species throughout the cosmos. They attempted to duplicate the structure of their homeworld by creating several queens and moving them to different regions of the world. Because it initially did not have the population to support so many communities, the various new queens went to war with one another for control over the offspring the others had created. All but three of the queens were slain in these brutal wars of attrition. The survivors drafted several accords and now rarely experience strife, each running their colonies from different continents. Consequently, Krazof remains fractured, lacking any unifying policies governing offworld visitors, trade levies, and several other minor issues.
Shakhett
Planet Type: Asteroid Belt
Major Industry: Metal/mineral mining
Government Type: Matriarchy
Population: 520,100
Rotation: 28 hours
Orbit: Approximately 3 Earth years
Notes: Shakhett is an asteroid mining colony where the Tallinites extract and process several of the durable metals used in starship construction. Shakhett boasts a large space station, which serves as a rest stop for travelers migrating to other parts of the galaxy. Taking it’s name for the darkness of this system (the system primary appears as little more than a distant blue jewel), Midnight Station offers a place to disembark, relax, refuel, or even stay for days or weeks at a time.
Sossonu
Planet Type: Terrestrial
Climate: Warm and arid
Equatorial Circumference: 22,190 kilometers
Planetary Diameter: 7,063 kilometers
Major Industry: Colony
Government Type: Matriarchy
Population: 4,920,530
Rotation: 16 hours
Orbit: Approximately .5 Earth years
Notes: One enormous city lies where three rivers intersect on the central continent on Sossonu. The Tallinites settled this planet in order to expand the reach of their species. Since the discovery of the Sangor, it has become a popular stopover world for those coming to and going from that region of space.
Tallin
Planet Type: Terrestrial
Climate: Earth normal
Equatorial Circumference: 36,590 kilometers
Planetary Diameter: 11,650 kilometers
Major Industry: Manufacturing
Government Type: Matriarchy
Population: 5,804,314,200
Rotation: 26 hours
Orbit: Approximately .75 Earth Years
Notes: The homeworld of the Tallinites, thirty-two queens rule an estimated five billion individuals. This perpetually cloudy world is a harsh, dangerous place where large vicious predators are commonplace in nearly every rural area. Even the plants are barbed and cause allergic reactions in most species.
Life seems to move at an accelerated pace on Tallin. Old species disappear rapidly, only to be replaced by new species just as quickly. This phenomenon fascinates and attracts geneticists of all races, providing them with an opportunity to watch evolution occur over the course of decades rather than millennia. Many suspect that the need for stability is what drove the Tallinites to take control of their environment and drove technological advancement so quickly.
Welinne
Planet Type: Gas giant
Color: Green and white striped with swirling storms
Equatorial Circumference: 553,200 kilometers
Planetary Diameter: 176,100 kilometers
Major Industry: Gas mining
Government Type: Matriarchy
Population: 47,500
Rotation: 16 hours
Orbit: Approximately 8 Earth years
Notes: The storms on Welinne are intense, even for a gas giant. Rather than mine gases from platforms in the upper atmosphere, they use a single orbital platform with an intake apparatus that descends five hundred kilometers down into the planet’s atmosphere. Once per year the intake is reeled in and serviced. This method of gas mining is more expensive than using hovering platforms in the upper atmosphere, but it is considerably safer for the workers. The platform on this planet is a prototype, and the Tallinites are trying to find ways to make this technology more affordable so they can sell it on the open market.