Teakhea

A sophont species, a Minor Race native to Tlankhu (Beyond 2138). They are clients of the Aslan Hierate.

Description (Biology)

The amphibious Teakhea mass more than 300 kilograms, and move with snake-like motion across tidal flats on their single snail-like foot. This foot can also be used for swimming, at a reasonable speed. Teakhea might be described as a bundle of pale yellow muscles in a calcium-based shell.

Lifecycle

The Teakhea are serial hermaphrodites. They reach adulthood as males, and after a number of years switch to female until giving birth. After the birth of ten-centimetre-long swimming larvae, they switch back to male. This cycle continues throughout a Teakhea's life.

Larvae are left to fend for themselves in the Orange Sea of Tlankhu, the only body of water able to support them. Salinity levels in Tlankhu's other seas don't meet the requirements and attempts to raise larvae in artificial environments have been met with severe cultural resistance. After a period of two local years (about three standard years), the larvae attach themselves to reef-like structures in the shallows and spend a local year as a filter-feeder, gradually siphoning calcium to build their shell. The larvae transition into adult form after a fifty-day metamorphosis, and emerge to seek out communities of Teakhea to join. The young become part of an apprentice caste, growing to full adult size within 10 local or 14 standard years after their metamorphosis.

Society

The Teakhea see themselves as extensions of their adopted clan, and are evenly split between the Kteaoaiyaei and Haolrauiai, who account for more than half of the Aslan on Tlankhu. Teakhea have no independent relations with anyone but their overlords. They do not, however, see themselves as Aslan and don't engage in rituals like dueling or the Rite of Passage. Honour is not important to Teakhea, only duty.

There are more than a hundred castes in Teakhea society, three of them related to leadership. The Teakhea have adopted the Aslan as members of the High Leader class, essentially granting any Aslan (no matter its status in Aslan society) more stature than almost any Teakhea.

References

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Geir Lanesskog. The Spinward Extents (Mongoose Publishing, 2022), .