We are all a sum of memories and experience shaping who we are. Sure genetics play a part
and if you’re so inclined, perhaps something greater, but we are each a product of our
own lives. So what happens when you cram another 7 or 8 lifetimes worth into your mind form
entirely different set of people? That’s where you get the Trill. Hello I’m Ric and
today the index is looking into the Star Trek race with a unique adaptation.
The most fascinating feature of the Trill has to be their efficiency at maintaining
public transport, their fastidious devotion to a structure-… I’m joking of course.
You can’t talk of the Trill without mentioning their symbiotic relation with their homeworld’s
other intelligent life. This relationship has shaped many facets of their culture from
millennia. Trill, or Trillius Prime, is home to 650 million
Trill and 11 million Symbionts. The plant is similar to Earth in terms of environment
but has an expansive cave network that houses a number of underground rivers and interconnected
lakes. This vast cave system lends itself to easy access to mining leading to no shortage
of materials. The capital of Trill is Leran Manev, where the Symbiosis Commission and
Senate offices reside more on them later. The Trill themselves are a humanoid species
that are remarkably similar to humans in many ways, at least the humans of the 24th century.
Their cultural development in the galactic scene was incredibly rapid when compared to
other species with a Trill being Federation president only a few years after their admittance.
The earliest contact with extra-terrestrial life they had was with the discovery of subspace
communications of a limited fashion and their interception of other cultures background
noise. By this time, the Trill had already developed a unified planetary government based
on a senate of representatives of different institutions.
Spurred on by this discovery, they eventually developed their own warp program and were
contacted by the Vulcans as per Vulcan first contact protocols. From then on, the Trill
continued to develop their technology until the United Federation of Planets offered them
membership. Interestingly enough, the Trill took a very long time to decide whether or
not to join and only accepted membership once they had verified the claims of the Federation
to be in line with their own morals and principles of cooperation and development. Their government
tends to try to remain neutral in many external affairs, not wanting to draw too much attention,
which earned them a reputation as mediators and ambassadors.
After joining in 2285 they proved to be a model partner species whose technological
developments contributed extensively, especially in matters of propulsion and continue to pioneer
techniques such as the generation of artificial wormholes. Though for the longest time, they
continued to remain impartial in the face of many Federation affairs.
As may be clear by now, Trill society is one of intellectual pursuits and the Science Ministry
is a respected intuition throughout the Federation. The direction of their development was, in
no small way, influenced by the Symbionts, the other native intelligence on their planet.
It is unknown how the Symbionts were first discovered, whether it was a joint evolution,
or a parasitic relation turned beneficial, or even two separate species that discovered
symbiosis by chance. But it has always been the way for a Till host to join with a Symbiont
to create a shared existence. The near-foot long slug-like creature has a life cycle all
of its own. To begin with, they hatch from eggs in the pools of Mak’Ala where they
grow to their initial size. They are little more than brains attached to a swimming tail,
are genderless and absorb nutrition through their skin. They communicate by electrical
discharge and despite their appearance they are sentient, and have a name, Sef, Odan,
Dax, Kahn for example. Once implanted into a Trill’s abdomen, over a 93 hour period,
they bind their tail to the host’s nervous system and the two minds begin to function
as one through a neurotransmitter called Isobormene. The host’s last name is then replaced with
the name of the Symbiont, symbolically it shows the importance of the joining and the
changes the host will now undergo. The Symbiotic exchange is that the Symbiont
gets to experience everything the host does and the host has access to the experience
and memories of the Symbiont. This is because the little swimmers retain the memories, personality
and if you like, the essence of every host that it has bonded with. This means that each
symbiont’s personality is therefore a mixture of these traits, loves, fears, joys and neuroses.
The host will integrate these experiences into his or her own until, to them at least,
it seems there is no difference between lives. Though the current host’s personality remains
dominant, they will refer to the experiences of past lives as their own with even mannerisms,
skills and habits carrying over. The “Right of Emergence” allows a former host’s personality
to take a more dominant role over that of the current host, and the rite of Closure,
Zian’Tara allows for a joined Trill to “meet” the former hosts and learn from them as their
personality is overlaid temporarily on another person.
A Symbiont can be joined many times with no ill effect, but once bonded; neither can survive
without the other. In a way, once joined, a Trill will live on in some form, with their
life preserved in the Symbiont. Some sources say that once the Symbiont has
learned enough, usually this takes hundreds of years, they become un-joinable on their
own an seek to return to the pools from where they were born. Returning to the water, they
spend the remainder of their life in the depths, growing in size and tending to the older Symbionts,
called the Annuated, 20,000 year old Symbionts who absorb the experiences of all the younger
ones on their return. But the Trill’s protective and secretive nature surrounding the Symbionts
leaves these stories unverified. If this is true, this may be the source for
the ancient Trill religious beliefs in Mak’Relle Dur, an afterlife of memories where all life
ends up in a unified mind. The Symbiosis Commission oversees the applications
for joining initiates and screens them thoroughly, medically and psychologically for 3 years.
During this time, the initiates also undergo training to prepare them for the day that
they’re joined as the influx of memories can prove overwhelming. At any time during
the training, an initiate can be dropped and most will. There are several thousand applicants
and only 300-500 symbionts available per year. Naturally this leads the Commission to become
very selective in their criteria and even circulation of the rumour that biologically
only 1/1000 Trill could be joined, when in fact it’s closer to half to populous. Alongside
the Commission, there are the Guardians, unjoined Trill who look after the Symbionts in their
natural environments, maintaining their climate, treating the ill or injured and so on.
As the Symbionts themselves retain the personality of all they’ve joined with, violent tendencies
are often a case for dismissal as a candidate. This means that they majority of joined Trills
end up being level-headed, composed and moral individuals. With the advantages of being
a joined Trill, previous lifetimes of knowledge and experience, these individuals often rise
in rank and power to greater positions with many in the Trill Senate being hosts. It’s
no surprise then that their culture is one of peace with very few civil wars ever recorded
through fear of tainting the Symbionts. Literally and morally.
The longevity of a Symbiont and their scarcity leads them to be far more important than the
host so if it comes down to a choice of saving the host or the Symbiont, they will often
chose the latter, not even risking certain procedures that may endanger the creature.
The hosts are often described as merely another link in the chain with the description of
a Host-Symbiont relation described as the Balance.
The purpose of joining is to allow the Symbiont to experience and grow as an individual, providing
a richer life for the symbiont and through transfer of memories, the host too. Therefore,
joined individuals are encouraged to seek out new experiences like vocation and destinations
to learn. There are also rules that forbid a joined Trill from acting on a previous lives’
responsibilities, such as debts, oaths and even family. This can be especially hard for
a joined Trill (one of the reasons for the initiate’s extensive training I’m sure),
and while not all are enforced by law, reassociation with former loved ones is forbidden and punished
by exile. This is seen as a necessary deterrent otherwise the Symbiont may forever be beholden
to their emotions or debts and never move on. Plus, the emotional distress and strain
produced from trying to re-assimilate a new individual into a perceived family can be
…problematic. When two joined Trill become involved, they do so only for the duration
of the host’s life and when the Symbiont is passed on, that new individual often distances
themselves from the previous attachments. However, general friendships are permitted
to be retained. The Trill themselves would not be who they
are without this symbiosis. Not all Trill are joined, in fact the majority are not,
but every Trill has been affected by the joining of the two species. The very culture of the
Trill owes its existence to their union, from the drive for peace to their desire to cultivate
this in others. The importance of the Symbionts in their culture is likely the reason that
their existence was for so long kept secret from the general public, even after joining
the Federation but one thing is for certain, a Trill, joined or not is the product of a
culture whose ideals line up with the federation’s to a T. Well, from their point of view, the
it’s the Federation that had to measure up to their standards as a people, and you
can’t say that about many races in Star Trek.
Thanks for listening and as usual the voting for the next culture can be picked from the
comments below with either the another peaceful race, the Ood of Doctor Who, or the Lumbering
monotone Elcor of Mass Effect. Thanks again for watching and remember, the
Trill have always had spots, I don’t know what you’re talking about, ridges, I see
no ridges, shhhh. It never happened. Goodbye.