Adaptable and inventive capitalists, the Teceti are one of the species which flourished under Trinoc rule and carved out an empire of their own in the ruins of the Trinocs. But they were poor warriors and made the mistake of enslaving the Fomori to fight their battles for them. Today, the vast majority of Teceti — over 80% — are slaves to the Fomori, albeit often high-status slaves who manage the imperial economy for their masters or who serve as elite scouts.
Teceti are short, furry creatures — about 4’ — with two legs, two arms, a long-snout, and a striking resemblance to Earth rats. However they are tailless, with six small black eyes and two enormous ears. They have extraordinary hearing and a fine sense for vibrations, and their vision is nearly as good in the dark as in daylight, although they see poorly at any distance. They evolved as arboreal, nocturnal herbivores, hiding up trees to avoid predators and avoiding violent conflict wherever possible. They particularly favored vast, dark forests that, because of their homeworld’s highly elliptical orbit, suffered long and brutal winters. To survive the cold months, the Teceti’s ancestors developed strong instincts for acquiring and hoarding food.
These food stores became central to Teceti culture. Teceti practice sexual reproduction and strong but not lifelong pair bonding, with females giving live birth to tiny, helpless young that need years of care and feeding from both parents. As a result, both males and females instinctively appraise potential mates first and foremost on their ability to provide food for the long winter.
The ancestral Teceti were much like Earth squirrels hiding acorns, but as they became more intelligent they learned to build elaborate storehouses, then to practice agriculture to ensure a stable supply of food, then to make tools, and then to keep records of what they had stored. The Teceti swiftly developed a market economy and mastered banking before iron. Merchantile republics, with voting rights linked to property, became the dominant form of government, competing constantly with one another through trade but only rarely through violence.
The Teceti had reached the Iron Age when they were first contacted by the Trinocs. Fortunately, by that time the Trinoc Empire had evolved out of its initial spasm of genocide and decided to systematically incorporate intelligent species as vassal races. The Teceti proved able economists and merchants, and their love of wealth made them enthusiastic servants of the Empire. By the time the Trinoc Empire collapsed, Teceti effectively managed the economy of the spinward provinces and swiftly took those areas over entirely, reducing their former masters to slaves.
However, many of the Trinocs’ vassal species made bids for empire as the Trinocs’ collapsed, and the Teceti soon found themselves at war with several rivals. The Teceti tried to emphasize trade within the former empire and peaceful colonization beyond it, but they remained inextricably locked in a generations-long conflict with the unimaginative but determined Spitslugs, whom the Trinocs had settled as workers on many of the same worlds where the Teceti managed trade. Appalled by the cost of the conflict and reluctant to risk their own lives, the desperate Teceti turned to mercenaries. At first they employed other former vassals of the Trinocs, especially species that had served as slave-soldiers. But the wars continued to go poorly — and then Teceti explorers discovered the Fomori. Here was a race of born warriors who had no modern technology of their own and whose loyalty could be ensured, not with money, but by torturing them.
With their new Fomori warriors, the Teceti Republic turned the tide of war. But as the Fomori rapidly grew in numbers, technological sophistication, and influence in Teceti strategic councils, the warrior species lost respect for its timorous, merchantile masters. The Fomori gradually gained more and more power, eventually taking over the entire Teceti military. Finally, after the final conquest of the Spitslugs, the Fomori generals staged a bloodless coup and converted the Teceti Republic into the Fomori Empire. Millions of Teceti managed to flee, joining a diaspora of Teceti who had settled in small trading communities on worlds ruled by other races across the former Trinoc Empire, and a steady trickle of refugees from Fomori rule continues to this day. But most Teceti live under Fomori rule, in constant fear of being tortured or, worse, pillaged of their property. Only on a handful of worlds do Teceti rule themselves: Mostly they live as outsiders on other races’ world, economically invaluable but little loved.
08-12-2022, 12:10 PM
Re: [Space] [Templates] Really Alien Aliens II: Empire of Pain
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