Erro

Created by: Garry Stahl
Appearance: Starbase 600 game: "The Toniera Problem"
Number of Members: 150,000,000
Nature of Members: Humanoid arthropods. Erro are four limbed bipeds in the humanoid form, but have full exoskeletons, compound eyes and other insect like features. Their bodies also have internal cross bracing that allows larger arthropod forms that a simple exoskeleton will. They are warm blooded omnivores. Their heads resemble those of the preying mantis with large compound eyes, complex mouth parts, and feathery antenna. Erro have vision that is inferior to Humans. They can spot movement quickly, but lack detailed vision and depth of field. Their sense of smell is located in the antenna and is dog keen. Their hearing is poor as well. It lacks a good directional capacity and dynamic range. The head descends to the thorax. The thorax has the arms midway down. Erro breathe through the mouth, and speak that way as well. The abdomen extends below this and has the legs. They are obligate bipeds. Erro are hairless and covered in a slightly glossy chitin that is colored a light blue. Arms end in three digits as do their legs. They walk digitigrade style on three splayed toes. Erro are twice as strong as a human for their mass.
Erro wear clothing only as a matter of protection. They do not posses a sense of modesty. They have developed a sense of privacy only in the face of other races. It is fair to say that their sense of privacy is cultural damage.
Erro are egg layers. Any female can lay. A tribe keeps a communal nest and nursery. Sex does not appear to be a strong factor in their culture. Mating only occurs when a female seeks to reproduce. She will accept the nearest male, and seldom the same male twice. They do not pair off and a child could not tell you who their parents are. 90% of a given tribe will be females. Males are only produced on an as needed basis. The hatching temperature is the deciding factor for gender of an egg. Ergo the nurses of a tribe control the gender of a child, not random genetic chance. An egg hatches a miniature version of the adult that must grow and molt to increase size.
Young are plentiful, and not considered people at the hatching size. They suffer appalling mortality rates before they develop to a size where they are aware of the racial memory and then considered people. A tribe in crisis will eat it's pre-aware young, its eggs, and then domestic animals in that order.
Erro are what is called a racial telepath. Any given Erro is not telepathic and rates low on the Kraith Scale, but as a group they are all telepathic and have a racial memory that is quick to disseminate. What one Erro knows eventually they will all know. This is not a classic mass mind, each Erro is an individual and thinks independent of the others. However, what strong experiences mark a community will be known by all of them.
In spite of the primitive technology Erro live long healthy lives. The elderly and infirm are cared for. 
Organization: Tribal: Trrtic is a tech 2 world. Erro live in independent farming communities. Each is headed by a elder female. She will be the most in touch with the over memory and able to communicate through it. This is a difficult task and requires much practice and discipline. In this way important things can be communicated around the world in days.
Game Role: A victim to help.
World Role: Strange new life again.
Relative Influence: None.
Public or Secret?: Open secret and PD protectorate.
Publicly Stated Goal: Live in peace
Relative Wealth: Dirt poor, and not looking for better.
Technology: Erro is tech level 2, the equivalent of Earth in the the copper to iron age. Erro have iron, but do not possess any political body above the tribe. They are advanced in herbal medicine and knowledge of the body. They have no weapons better than spears. War is also a technology they have little skill in. 
Erro build down. A village will be a humped area of land (to prevent flooding) with nary a structure on it. Homes, barns and workshops will be burrows in the earth proper. This are not bare dirt holes but comfortable homes that are decorated (to the limit of Erro vision). Bracing is usually by means of plant fiber and saliva that forms a paper/plaster. Larger structures will have wood bracing as well.
Erro live by simple farming and animal husbandry. Their farming methods best resemble benign neglect. They rotate crops, and farm with a minimal impact other than having single species fields. Animals are kept for food and labor.
Group advantages: Racial memory. This gives a tech 2 planet a world wide culture.
Group disadvantages: Easy to mess with.
Those who favor them: The Federation, which will patrol their system and see they are left alone.
Those opposed to them: No one really, oh the Toniera, but we are not asking.
Area of Operation: Trrtic, their world. Life forms on Trrtic follow the quadruped arthropods. Vertebrates are only lightly represented and considered pests. Trrtic has a 23% oxygen atmosphere. It is a world that burns easily.
Public Face: Bug people of quiet dignity.
Notable Members: Wizone, the elder spoken to by Kirk.
History of the Organization: Erro have existed on their world for 500,000 years give or take. From sensor scans they have enjoyed this level of technology for nearly 400,000 years.
Erro were the first contact by the Toniera. The different ways and customs of the Erro disgusted them. They decided that since they had the superior technology, something had to be done. The something was to murder and enslave the population of an entire world.
The Toniera have done a great deal of damage to the Erro. They had been longest on this world and had built permanent structures. They have landed tens of thousands of colonists and were in the process of squeezing as much labor out of the Erro as possible in the process of exterminating them.
Starfleet was merciless in removing the Toniera in light of the atrocities witnessed. The Toniera colonists are removed with nothing but the clothes on their backs, packed into sleeper ships had shipped home.
The Erro have noted the technology of the strangers and rejected it. The elders to a one have requested that the Federation remove the Toniera and leave. It shall be as the natives desire. Once the Last Toniera is gone, the Federation will remove itself. Ane are in discussions with the Elder about recording their memories. The Erro have yet to see that this is desirable, but have not rejected the idea out of hand. Discussions continues.
Category:Races
Category:Far Sector
Category:Epiphany Trek