The Seyalian people, who sometimes refer to their world as Dhei Lta, are often known as Deltans. They are a friendly, amenable people who are by nature empathic and telepathic. It was this amenable nature that caused them not to strictly correct their new trading partners when they misunderstood how to refer to them. For no matter what words they used, the ideas in their head meant they understood.
Dhei Lta was to be found on the UFP star maps as both startrekwiki:Delta and Delta Triciatu. They are represented by the Seyalian Union and the Prime Minister thereof, and full members of the United Federation of Planets as of 2223.
Overview[]
Seyalians are a mammalian humanoid species resembling Humans but for the nature of their hair growth. Humans naturally grow thick hair on their heads, faces and pubis, while the Seyalians do not. Their eye brows and eye lashes are nearly indistinguishable from human, but the hair on the rest of their bodies is limited to a soft downy growth rarely different their than skin tone in pigmentation. Their skin tones are as varied as human due to their population centers originally on different islands of the Dhei Lta. Seyalians are on average slimmer, and with more defined muscle tone than humans. The Seyalians also tend much more commonly to full symmetrical facial features, cheekbones, eye shapes, and mouth shapes among them. Due to the genetic disposition instincts of many species who subconsciously seek symmetry in their mating partners, Seyalians are almost universally seen as more attractive than average species.
Natural telepathy, and empathy allow the Seyalian people to be more aware of the emotions and mindsets of those around them. Among their own people, this is a natural part of their language and interactions, among others it allows for greater understanding and diplomatic abilities. Many Seyalians are also able to use these gifts to minister to others to aid in overcoming psychological pains, and to take into themselves physical pain or to prompt endorphin production in another to ease the pains of others. These traits made the Seyalians a excellent choice for medical and counseling positions in Starfleet and United Federation of Planets society.
Seyalians are perhaps best known for their high levels of sexuality in their society. Both sexes are found to produce potent sexual pheromones, as if a third type of communication ability among their people. Their pheromones are quite literally natural aphrodisiacs, allowing one Seyalian to signal to another their desires or intent without ever saying a word, though this is only part of their complex mating rituals. Seyalian rituals only begin with the subconscious release of pheromones, but continue with light telepathic touch revealing vivid imagery of desired acts as they are imagined by the instigator. It is said that a Seyalian makes love with their intended thousands of times before they ever touch. This potent combination of olfactory, empathic and telepathic seduction, combined with a natural physical attractiveness can so overwhelm a humanoid not prepared, that it can physically and psychically injure the individual. Furthermore, an average humanoid in a gathering of Seyalians not practicing restraint may be intensely overwhelmed simply by the natural release of pheromones building in the area.
The Seyalians are very open sexually, and do not place the same boundaries on their joining that most other species of the Federation society at large. Part of adapting to this, Seyalian scientists worked on pharmaceutical solutions to temporarily dampen pheromone production, and the Seyalian Union declared the surface of Dhei Lta to be unsafe for humanoid visitors. The people devoted a great volume of resources to build trade embassies on their two largest moons, Seyann, and Cinera. Seyalian people who would live and work at these outposts would take the pheromone dampeners, and trained to practice restraint with non-Seyalian visitors.
The majority of the Seyalian people could not conceive of separating themselves from their society. It is a difficult concept to imagine cutting oneself off from the presence of the society that is so interlinked that nearly every thought or feeling is shared without reservation. Those who do leave, some to visit other worlds, others to serve in UFP government or in Starfleet take an oath of celibacy.
The Seyalian oath of celibacy served not only to curtail sexual promiscuity with other races but also ensured the safety of non-Seyalians; the long evolution of the Seyalian race not only heightened their sensuality but has also resulted in the sex act becoming a complete union in which both body and mind are shared. For Seyalians this was natural and pleasant, but the experience of actually becoming part of another person's mind almost always incapacitates a human partner. It was sometimes said that a non-Seyalian who entered into a physical relationship with a Deltan risked insanity. Sex with a Seyalian could result in an addiction to Seyalian pheromones which may manifest as obsession, stalking, kidnapping, murder-suicide or other crimes.
History[]
In 2141, the ECS Horizon made first contact with a Seyalian starship. When the Deltans told the humans that they were from planet Dhei of the star Lta, the Horizon crew marked it in their star charts as Delta.
In 2182, the Deltans made first contact with the Andorians, the Seyalian sage Niro guided the planet through its tumultuous decades from first contact to Federation membership, developed the Oath of Celibacy and writing much of Deltans' modernized legal code.
Following the Deltans becoming full members of the Federation in 2259 Starfleet teams were assigned to Seyalia, on the moon of Seyann.
In late 2379, the Deltans petitioned to the newly elected Federation President Nan Bacco for aid in repairing their ailing water reclamation system. They liked the design of the system on Gault; however, the system had been designed by the Carreon, who did not wish the Deltans to use it.
Culture[]
Seyalia's unpredictable tides and otherwise inhospitable ecology have promoted a culture at once polyglot and unified. Although many microcultures evolved throughout the expansive planetary chain of island archipelagos, they could never remain isolated long enough to develop either xenophobia or devastating cultural and technological advantages over one another. To forestall inbreeding, the island-bound Deltans also cultivated an extremely open sexual culture. Indeed, stranded mariners were often adopted into large group amours in order to refresh local gene pools. Brought together by ties of sex and geography, Deltans learned to peacefully coexist and relate well, by necessity. With the bountiful, renewable resources of so flourishing a natural environment, and a low species birthrate, wars over resources were almost unknown among the Seyalians.
The Seyalians were also drawn to cultural unity by their genetic predisposition toward empathy along with related |psionic abilities. The capacity to experience another's suffering rendered violence and armed conflict anathema, and even excessively hurtful personality conflict and quarrel, unthinkably impolite. Yet ordinary social hypocrisy was impossible due to the intense Deltan pheromones and acute sensitivity thereto, rendering Deltans so transparent to one another, emotionally. And so, their culture evolved toward a remarkable global ideal of supportive, nurturing behavior founded upon time-honored Deltan sexual openness. A deep-rooted sense of species and personal security remains unshaken by their subsequent contact with the Andorians and later other starfaring cultures of the Alpha Quadrant. Their greatest concession to existence in a dangerous galaxy was the adoption of the renowned Oath of Celibacy out of necessity and good manners when dealing with those whom they came to regard, perhaps with somewhat patronizing deference, as less sexually-mature species and cultures.