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The Tholians are the very definition of heavy-worlders. Their homeworld defies easy definition. A very large, moonless, mineral-rich planet with the kind of layered atmosphere usually associated with a gas giant, but very close to its primary star, which has stripped much of the upper atmosphere from the world over the millennia. The result of this rather strange combination is a silicon-based life form with a circulatory fluid that solidifies at temperatures and pressures similar to Terran norms, surviving in excess of 450 degrees Kelvin and 4 gravities of pressure.
The Tholians evolved from seasonal omnivorous analogues -- the closest terrestrial example would be a bear. They are not social creatures in the sense that humans are, but work well together when united by a common goal. Their society is based on the establishing of tasks by a central board (whose purpose is to set tasks and priority for the Assembly).
Given those features, their progress toward space is readily understood. They made many of the scientific developments that catapulted other species into space, but while strongly territorial, they aren’t particularly acquisitive. The enormous surface area of their home planet, including continents the size of Earth, provided more than enough to sate any urge they had to explore. Their society is also poorly geared to a lack of communication and central authority, and their atmosphere and the sheer size of Tholia are poorly geared to satellite communication.
Subspace radio communication made the exploration of space viable. Of course, having discovered subspace, warp travel was not far behind. They hold the singular distinction of having warp travel before ever venturing offworld.
Given the living conditions they consider ideal, it's a wonder that Tholians conflict with other races at all. The fact that they do is partially tied to their position near both the Romulan Star Empire and Klingon Empire, but also due to their extremely territorial nature. Generally, they do not play well with others.
While they should be able to peacefully cohabitate with other powers given their totally different requirements for habitability, their territorial nature, mining techniques (involving pulling small, Earth-sized planets apart and mining the new asteroid belt) and 'terraforming' techniques (again, using web to tow gas giants closer to their primary star) make them bad to have as close neighbors.
Text by Kevin Nault
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