Hello all! Ric here again with another index, looking this time to the Star Trek universe and
one of the Federation’s closet allies, the Betazoids! They are probably even
a member of the UFP, but to my knowledge, that hasn’t even been directly confirmed on screen,
it’s just sort of presumed and certainly is the case in media outside of the shows. As usual,
I will be looking into the canon, and then other media to expand upon this telepathic species to
try to build a more cohesive look at them. Beginning with their home world itself,
Betazed. So in the Trek history, an astronomer named Sir John Burke first identified the planet
in the 21st century when he spotted the fifth world orbiting a G-type star was a terrestrial
one. He named the system Beta Zeta which is where the Federation identifier comes from.
The actual name for the planet, according to some is Cyndriel, but not as commonly
used as the degradation of its Terran identifier. The planet is an M class world and very similar to
Earth. It’s Climate is calm and warm for the most part, but varies from tropical in some places to
frigid Arctic conditions at its poles. Continuing to compare it to Earth, it has 78% surface water,
is around 1G and the weather can shift with far less warning and rapidity than our world’s.
It can become rather stormy and rains more frequently, but its dry seasons are also
dryer. The planet also has made it a point to not use a weather control system and it
has five continents and hundreds of islands. As you’d expect from such a temperate world,
the terrain is a mixture of jungles, forests, many lakes and open stretches of farmland. Its
geological activity has also rendered up magnificent mountain ranges, valleys and canyons.
The Loneel Mountain range for example houses many defunct magma tunnels and interconnected caves.
This all sounds rather familiar, but there are a few strange touches too. Many areas of the
planet are rich in the mineral Versina, which is a powdered crystal, commonly found in soil
which can give it a sparkling effect. Similarly there are mountain ranges with high levels of
crystal deposits, creating spectacular skies at times as the sunlight refracts off them.
The capital city is called Rixx, and it’s not uncommon for cities and towns of Betazed to
be constructed on spires, stilts or an elevated platform to reduce their
footprint and preserve as much of the wildlife below, leaving it open for nature to claim.
The Betazoids themselves are also very human in their appearance; in fact they are so similar
that they are easily mistaken for humans. The only real visual tell is that their
irises are completely black. Of course, the most well-known trait of a Betazoid is their telepathy
and empathic abilities. The average Betazoid begins to develop these powers after childhood,
as Psilosynine levels rise in their brain, the neural transmitter being the key component in
their abilities. Their Psionic powers include the ability to sense thoughts and emotions,
but also project their own into the minds of others. This can lead them to even subtly
manipulate others through this projection, but the level of functionality over their powers
varies wildly from individual to individual. They are also known to form a powerful bond
with individuals, enabling a telepathic link even with non-telepaths and some extremely
gifted Betazoids can even learn minor telekinesis. These powers are not present in young Betazoids
and if it is, it is not pleasant as they lack the discipline and control to filter and handle
all the surrounding thoughts, which often leads to life-long psychological problems.
These telepathic traits can lessen in the offspring of interspecies couples, with telepathy
between non-telepaths being the first element to fade, but even then, it would take several
more generations of non-telepathic pairings for the psionic potential to dwindle completely.
Looking into their history provides a good grounding for their culture and paints a
good picture of who they are as a people, needless to say, this is mostly apocryphal.
In their mythology, there was a heroic figure called Khrysaros who amassed a number of acolytes
who followed them. After Khrysaros had passed away, his acolytes went on to become the eventual
founders for the exalted houses of Betazed, of which there are around 20 or so. A number of
these rose to prominence in time, effectively becoming matriarchal nobility among the others,
and each of the Houses governed an area of land and all the people within. It’s not known how the
houses functioned in the past, but we can look at post-Federation Betazoid to see more info
Their governmental structure has been described as a constitution oligarchy, which still has
traces of its traditional matriarchy in its positions. Each of the Houses had figures
on a planetary council that would debate and decide matters for all, but each representative
could be contacted through the hierarchy, from the top, all the way to any individual Betazoid.
Traditionally, the Fifth house has been the most influential, although that position is
mostly ceremonial in their governmental structure. Nevertheless, each of these
houses still maintains an estate and grounds, which makes for popular tourist destinations.
In 2139, the Betazoid vessel, the Avandar achieved Warp 1 and soon after they made contact
with the Terabians, but this encounter ended in skirmishes. This put off the Betazoids from
further exploration for a time, instead focusing more on exploring their own solar system and
taking things slow. Funnily enough, this cautious approach meant that they never peaked beyond the
curtain for a couple of decades, even as the NX-01 missed their system, never detecting them.
The first time Betazoids heard of humans, or even Vulcans for that matter was in 2161,
when they heard that an major shift was underway, one too close to home to ignore, the founding of
the United Federation of Planets. Counsellor Eventually, what with Beta Zeta being only
slightly beyond the Founding Four member systems, the Betazoids tentatively opened a dialogue with
the UFP. Between 2246 and 73, they began and completed the process of applying for Federation
membership and when accepted, abandoned their matriarchal elements and went full in on involving
themselves with their partner worlds. They quickly proved themselves as very useful diplomats,
counsellors, and even information gatherers and Betazed became a site for numerous trade
conferences and other such endeavours. They house many sites of philosophy and
learning, such as the aptly named, University of Betazed, the YloTrap, the Enaren University
and many others. They have had almost no history of large scale warfare on their world and many
attribute this to their psionic powers. Warfare, quite simply brings a high level of suffering,
and for a telepathic species, such a wave of despair is unbearable and so violence beyond
an small, personal level is practically unheard of, they are literally too empathic to tolerate
nation-wide fighting. This has led them to develop a philosophy focused around ensuring contentment
and comfort for as many as possible, and is best summed up by their philosophical creed,
RaBeem. Simply translated to “I understand”. Their mythology however is not absent of conflict
and may be tied to their religious beliefs. It is said that they were at war with non-corporeal
demons that antagonised them, that they had to battle with the mind, which is why they developed
telepathy. Who knows if that holds any basis in fact, but the world does still have remnants
of their religions (or at least one of…). In their linguistics, there are curse worlds
that refer to the “Great Fire”, which is analogous to Hell and references to “Four Deities” too,
so clearly they had a pantheon of gods. There still exists sanctuaries on Betazed,
such as Janaran Sanctuary, which is staffed by Elders of some importance and tradition
and ceremony are woven throughout their culture, especially amid the Houses where it is expected.
Marriages for example are traditionally performed in the nude, nudy, nada, nothing,
stark-bollock nekid! For all involved as a rather overt display of trust and vulnerability.
And now for the question you have all been waiting for! What is the Sacred
Chalice of Rixx and the Holy Rings of Betazed? So legend has it that the Sacred Chalice, which
is also used as a symbol for the Betazoid people, was a clay pot that was by now a bit mouldy. Okay,
but the rings are a set of rings that were given by Khrysaros to an acolyte called Rixx around 9BC,
and are therefore artefacts from that time. As they are both in possession by the Fifth House, at
this time, the Troi family, they serve as evidence of the family’s direct lineage back to one of
these founding members of Betazed society, Rixx, who also has the capital city named after them.
All this history was put in jeopardy during the Dominion war as poor planetary defence
system and it being such a core world, led to the Dominion targeting and seizing the planet for a
time between 2374 and 2375. The Battle of Betazed saw a resistance cell successfully manage to force
the Jem’Hadar off world shortly before the Treaty of Bajor, but it came at a high cost. The Betazoid
people had to use their psionic powers to force empathy onto the Jem’Hadar, causing them to either
go berserker against it, or pass out. This forcing of telepathic ability often caused a Betazoid to
perish themselves, but they did not wish to fight directly, not wanting to mar their long history of
no direct warfare. Amick hall stands as monument to the Betazoids who died in the Dominion war
and it was built on the ruins of Buram Hall which itself had been levelled by the Dominion attacks.
They are now free to rebuild, and having weathered the storm, hopefully they have a bright tomorrow
ahead. So, thanks for watching this video on the Betazoids, sorry there’s not too much
footage or screenshots, most of that lore comes from apocrypha but it does show a very in-line
depiction of them. As for the next index, well, a while ago I did a video on the Mind Flayers of
D and D, because of their sci-fi edge to them, and promised to look into the Gith
at some point in the future too, so there’s option one. Option two are the Zygerrians of Star Wars!
Leave your vote over on the community tab and feel free to make more suggestions below,
thanks for watching, I’ve been Ric and I’ll see you again later for another video! Goodbye!