NOMAD Aliens: Tlaka

Physiology

Tlaka have two arms and four legs. Like terrestrial insects they have abdomens trailing their thorax and back legs. Their chitinous carapaces are light brown with black patterns. Their general shape suggests a praying mantis, or more fancifully a centaur.

Tlaka are five known adult castes: small but strong Workers (about 1.5 meters long and 1.5 meters high), larger but slenderer Overseers, Artisans who resemble smaller Overseers with more delicate hands and larger heads, the huge and mantis-like Warriors, and the “Monk” caste, almost as large as the Warriors. Presumably there are also queens to lay eggs, but none have ever been seen.

Psychology

Tlaka prefer communication and cooperation over conflict. Their hive cities function entirely on consensus, and each city-state gets along with its neighbors with little conflict … at least in modern times.

Tlaka communicate partially through sound, including ultrasound, but also through body language, pheromones, and shared understanding. They find other species inscrutable … much like other species find them.

Ecology

Tlaka live in prodigious hive-cities dotted across their homeworld and their interplanetary colonies. The central section is off-limits to outsiders, but Tlaka free show off their winding streets and tunnels, their humble sleep cubicles, their workshops and libraries, and most of the amenities of a technological culture.

Hive cities connect to each other through aboveground or underground highways. The remaining land is dedicated to outlying farmland and carefully cultivated wilderness beyond.

Culture

According to their own histories, Tlaka slowly progressed through their Primitive and Industrial Ages into their Space Age, with none of the false starts or brutal wars that mar human history. Their discovery of the FTL Drive propelled them into an Interstellar Age, with colonies outside their homeworld.

Part of the Tlaka’s success stems from their highly organized society: Workers work, Overseers organize, Artisans create, Warriors defend. No observers have discovered the role of the “monks”; some believe them to be true priests, others high-level leaders or negotiators, still others caretakers for the hypothesized queens.

At some point after their Space Age, “mutant” Tlaka began appearing on their homeworld:

• Tlachatl, parasitic creatures possibly derived from the Overseer caste who latch onto their hosts and control their actions.

• Tlakeli, hives comprised entirely of the Worker caste who coordinate their activities through unknown means.

• Tlapaku, friendly Artisans who excel at technical work.

• Tlaqotl, solitary creatures resembling the Monk caste, well-adapted to independent thought and action.

• Tlatoku, violent Warrior clans who have graduated from conquering cities to pirating spaceships.

Each of these mutant species breeds true. Friendlier species like the Tlapaku and Tlaquotl are common sights in formerly Tlaka-only hive cities. Meanwhile the Tlaka wars of extermination or perhaps simple survival against the Tlachatl, Tlakeli, and especially the Tlatoku.

The homeworld is currently under quarantine while the Tlaka try to understand and correct the “problem”.

TLAKA, Known (Nomad)

Talents/Abilities/Inabilities

• Fast: A Tlaka make take three Combat Actions a turn, not just two.

• Hands: Tlaka have fully articulated hands that can use any tool a human can (but see below).

• Hive Mind: Tlaka communicate through pheromones, ultrasonic vocalizations, and non-verbal communication, which creates the illusion of telepathic contact. Tlaka can send simple messages to each other: one imperative verb and an object of that verb.

• Sapient: Tlaka have (roughly) human-like reasoning and communication abilities.

Warrior Only

• Hook Digit: Tlaka Warriors have an elongated, serrated digit that ends in a curved hook. It normally folds back along the forearm. -1D on tool use or other tasks requiring fine manipulation. No penalty for weapons or other tools made for their unique hands.

• Piercing (4): Warrior hook digits ignore 4 points of Protection.

TLAKA, Hypothetical (Nomad)

The center of each hive city contains the Queen who produces eggs, the King who helps defend the Queen, and the “handmaidens” who tend to the eggs and larvae. Once the Queen begins laying eggs, her abdomen swells to giant proportions, and she becomes unable to move without assistance.

Larva enter a pupal stage, during which they are inert and defenseless. Pheromones and special secretions from the Handmaidens and Queen determine which caste a pupa will become when it emerges from its cocoon.

Talents/Abilities/Inabilities

• Crude Hands: The “hypothetical” castes can operate simple mechanisms but lack the fine manipulation anatomy and skills for true tool use.

• Fast: A Tlaka make take three Combat Actions a turn, not just two.

• Hive Mind: See above. The “hypothetical” castes are part of the same hive mind as the externally visible castes.

• Proto-Sentient: The “hypothetical” castes lack true language and reasoning ability, but they understand messages of the Hive Mind and can puzzle out some simple practical conundrums.

Larva Only

• Crawl: Larvae move half as fast, e.g. two Combat Actions to move from Close to Near, and twice as many actions as normal to move from Near to Far.