Tellarite - Culture

Culture

The Tellarites were described by Sarek in "Journey to Babel", as being argumentative, not to make a point, but simply to argue. Hailing from Tellar Prime, they built a trade empire for dozens of light-years around their homeworld, by both hard negotiation and combat. Despite a reputation for being tough and ruthless, the Tellarites were honor-bound in their business dealings.

In combat, however, despite local success, the Klingons of Deep Space Nine found them easy prey. During the 2373 Klingon-Federation conflict, one Klingon captain boasted of decapitating a Tellarite helmsman, saying of the victim "The pig barely had time to raise his weapon."

Tellarites are renowned for being rather direct and forceful in conversation, and are known to be so quarrelsome that arguing is a sport on their home planet, Tellar. They consider normal polite conversation to be a grave insult; it is recommended to be insulting and crude when speaking to a Tellarite. Because of their ability to argue, Tellarites make excellent politicians. They like taking muddy baths. However, Tellarites take great umbrage if compared to the habits of Terran swine, saying they in particular are not food.

The non-canon fan-produced webcast series Star Trek: Hidden Frontier has featured Tellarite culture prominently. A Tellarite medical officer, Henglaar, features a variation of the TOS look of the species. Henglaar is described as being "curmudgeonly", and "an expert on how not to be married", and a Tellarite Starfleet engineer, Barc, is a major character in the novel Avenger.

A Tellarite individual can be seen in the first level of the 1992 PC Game Star Trek: 25th Anniversary.