Aldean
| SPECIES | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Aldean | |||
| Homeworld: | Aldea | ||
| Quadrant: | Alpha | ||
| Affiliation: | Unknown | ||
| Biology | |||
| Average Male Height: | 157 cm (5 ft. 2 in.) to 188 cm (6 ft. 2 in.) | ||
| Average Male Weight: | 63.5 kg (140 lb.) to 95.3 kg (210 lb.) | ||
| Average Female Height: | 152 cm (5 ft. 0 in.) to 178 cm (5 ft. 10 in.) | ||
| Average Female Weight: | 54.4 kg (120 lb.) to 81.6 kg (180 lb.) | ||
| Minimum Academy Age: | 17 | ||
| Life Expectancy: | 130 | ||
| Distinctive Features: | |||
| Playability | |||
| PRC Rated: | Yes | ||
| NPC Rated: | Yes | ||
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The Aldeans are a civilization native to the Alpha Quadrant. Their homeworld of Aldea was considered only a legend for thousands of years after the Aldean Progenitors cloaked the planet in 3000 B.C. The Aldeans are highly technologically advanced, but had become culturally stunted by their reliance on technology that they no longer understood or were capable of maintaining or repairing.
Biology
Aldeans are slightly smaller in height and build compared to Humans and other sentient species but, they do possess above average strength for their smaller size. They appear almost indistinguishable to Humans both in terms of outward appearance and the arrangement of inner organs and biochemistry. With the exception of an extra organ located near the trachea that regulates body 'cooling' since Aldeans do not have sweat glands. Aldean woman gestate for 7 months and have an average lifespan of 130 years.
Society
The Aldean society was self-contained and self-sustaining with incredible technical sophistication providing daily needs. Similar to cultural myths of Neinman on Xerxes VII or the Earth story of Atlantis, Aldea was said to have shed its past of violence and cultural conflict and evolved to a pure state, devoting themselves to culture and art. The Aldean culture developed by emphasizing the fundamental principle that for "everything taken, something must be returned." It was this principle that allowed their civilization to ascend to incredible heights in technology and art.
Aldean society was structured into "units", or social groups, which specialized in a particular art or pursuit such as medicine or science. Within each group students were fully devoted to their discipline. The Aldeans had perfected their system of education and study to the point where the natural abilities of the individual blossomed very quickly, sometimes within hours or days of the student's first exposure to a medium.
History
Having reached enlightenment, the Aldean society retreated from the rest of the galaxy. To facilitate this their progenitors built an enormous and advanced planetary defense system. The system, run by the computer called the Custodian, maintained an immense cloaking device and defense shield in addition to a repulsor beam powerful enough to push starships several hundred light years away.
However, the long-term effects of the planet's defenses were extremely damaging. Millenia after the Aldeans retreated behind their cloak, cumulative wide-spread environmental damage, including depletion of their ozone layer, began to take their toll. The Aldeans suffered from long-term chromosomal damage from radiation poisoning due to exposure to their sun's ultraviolet rays. By 2364 the entire population of Aldea was sterile and depleted. No child had been born on Aldea for more than thirty years, and most of native wildlife on the planet, including all the fish in their oceans, had long ago become extinct.
Desperate to preserve their society, the Aldeans, led by Radue, contacted the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D for help in repopulating their planet. Unable to reproduce themselves, the Aldeans offered to exchange their vast knowledge for a select few of the Enterprise's children. The Aldeans are physiologically very similar to Humans, which presumably was a deciding factor when they contacted the Enterprise. The Enterprise turned down the offer, leading the Aldeans to kidnap the children, creating a stand-off that was eventually resolved when the Enterprise proved that the very thing which had protected Aldea, its cloak, was responsible for their condition.
The Aldeans returned the children and set about re-learning their own technology and adjusting to a new galaxy where they were no longer just a legend.
