Aresian

Created by: Robert Heinlein, interpreted for Trek by Garry Stahl
Appearance: None as of yet. A bit of background
Number of Members: Unknown. The Aresians are not forthcoming with numbers and there has been little contact since the 22nd century.
Nature of Members: Trilateral creatures 8 feet tall as adults. Aresians have three stages of life.
*Nymphs: These semi-sentient "children" are about the size and shape of a basketball. They are also the race's females. After fertilization and egg laying they metamorphize into the male adults.
*Adults: The adults are the tall trilateral creatures, and are all male.
*Old Ones: "discorporate adults" are the Old Ones.
Organization: Hierarchical
Game Role: Spooky aliens
World Role: Dying race that has chosen to die.
Relative Influence: Very minor.
Public or Secret?: Mostly secret
Publicly Stated Goal: None
Real Goal if Different: Endure
Relative Wealth: None
Group advantages: Aresians are psionic masters of scary proportions. Their abilities run to TK, space-time distortion and body manipulation. They rate in the high 90s on the Kraith Scale.
Special Abilities: Aresians do not "leave" when they die. The Old Ones as they are called stick around to continue to advise the living members of the race. Indeed they are the ruling body of that race.
Group disadvantages: A nearly dead race. Their planet is slowly dying and so are they. They are a people that have had their run, and opted to not seek YAGLAhood.
Special disadvantages: Aresians are continually driven from their cities by their own past. They sense a build up of psychometric energies that eventually drives them out of a given city. Their planet is covered in ruins of one city after another. Each older than the last slowly retuning to the sands.
Those who favor them: No one really.
Those opposed to them: Likewise no one. They are one of the best kept secrets in the Federation.
Area of Operation: Omicron Ares 4
Headquarters Location: Omicron Ares 4
Public Face: They have no public face.
History of the Race: In 2065 the Ares Venture departed for a known class M world around Omicron Ares. To date it was the largest privately funded exploration mission. The 16 men and women of the Ares Venture were a hand-picked dream team. To the best of anyone's knowledge the effort was a total disaster. The Ares Venture vanished into to deep space.
Thirty years later the Earth force vessel UES Triton orbited the world of Omicron Ares 4, the flagship of an anti-Qzin battle fleet . The desert world was not the green lush place promised by the astronomers. Its ancient and dying people lived on a dried up husk of a world. The wreck of the Ares Venture was found, and the expedition did have one survivor. One that had not set out on the voyage. The Aresians returned Michael Valentine Smith, as the doomed ships logs called him to his own people. The ancient people returned Smith, and bid the Earthmen withdraw. It didn't take a lot of convincing to get them to do so. To this day Omicron Ares 4 is under a strict quarantine surpassed only by Talos 4.
The Aresians as they are called, they gave no name for themselves other than their word for "people", are a race that never delved into the stars. They however perfected the powers of the mind over the physical universe to a degree that has not been seen before or since. The one human disciple of these ancient people claimed that humans could learn and master these abilities. It is said that he died for claiming that, killed in a mob action in 2105.
No other race is known to have had contact with the Aresians. The All when closely questioned said only that "The Preservers did not go there, and as a result, neither did we. However they have been there for a very long time." Vulcan Captains to a one claim to have been given logical reasons to have avoided the planet. Qzin lost several ships in that system, none has ever been found. Records found at ancient Orion sites indicate the planet was avoided, and likewise Vegan ruins show that it was death to go there. El Aurians when questioned shake their heads. "You just don't bother those people." There is even a hint in Iconian* records they knew of the Aresians, and "didn't bother those people".
In recent years Ane have been allowed to land on Omicron Ares 4. They will not say what the Aresians have told them. "A condition of our presence is that we will say nothing of them until they are gone." The Ane came to the Federation Council claiming that the Aresians had invited them to "store" their knowledge and history. Remote contact with the natives confirmed this, along with an impatient question as to when they were coming.
Based on these events Federation social scientists think the Aresians believe they are dying. Perhaps reproduction has failed and they have decided their history and knowledge is important enough to pass on.
Starfleet maintains a station in solar orbit around Omicron Ares. Buoys are also maintained warning away the curious and three monitors patrol the system to issue sterner warnings if required. Since 2095 there has been no face to face contact with the Aresians until their request for the Ane.
==The Truth==
The Aresian are the Iconians. At the dawn of the Iconian age a group of rebel Aresians took their technology and psionics to the stars and blazed a swath across the galaxy that still haunts the races that exist today. They respected, or feared, the Old Ones and kept their activities well away from the home world. In time their rapacious ways brought other races to battle them including the Rishans. From every indication the Rishians won that war. That might have been a good thing, it might not have been a good thing.
It is not generally known that the Iconian and the Aresian race are one. The few scientists that understand the connection have not made it public. Aresianologists are rare and what few exist don't generally talk much to Iconianologists.
What became of the discorporate Iconians is not known, and the question hasn't even been asked. In a few thousand years the Ane may clear up that question for people.
Category:Races
Category:UFP Space
Category:Epiphany Trek