Tholian Assembly
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The Tholian Assembly is the state government the non-humanoid race known as the Tholians. The Assembly is jointly run by the members of the Ruling Conclave, individual Tholians who jointly operate as head of state and head of government on Tholia. Its territory is located in the Alpha Quadrant, and bordered by the United Federation of Planets and is near the Klingon Empire
In 2373, the Tholian Assembly signed a non-aggression pact with the Dominion, and remained neutral during the war.
History
- See main article: Tholian.
The Tholians are highly xenophobic and generally limit contact with other races. Humans had never heard of the Tholian homeworld, Tholia, until 2151, when a reference to Tholia was made in the record of a Klingon courier named Klaang, who was carrying information regarding the Suliban Cabal.
Government and Politics
The Tholian Assembly is led by the High Magistrates on the Ruling Conclave who are capable of making highly important decisions that are then carried out by ship commanders. In addition to them, the Political Castlemoot of the Lattice is also a high ranking authority within the Tholian government. The race makes use of a number of telepathically linked networks called Castemoots; one of the elite of which is the Political Castemoot SubLink of Tholian. This is collective mindline of the Ruling Conclave which reigns supreme over the Great Castemoot Assembly as well as their species's telepathic network; the Lattice.
The Tholians and many of their brethren hold an intrinsic distrust of alien races with which they are forced to interact with, which is very likely part of the reason why their territorial annexes were one way propositions. These systems became servile provinces of the Assembly with bipedal Humanoids used in the lesser echelons but remaining subservient to even the lowest ranking members of Tholian society. The Tholians are fiercely protective of the regions of space that belong to their empire and only rarely allow foreign vessels to cross these boundaries.
The Assembly is well known for the territorial annexation of neighbouring systems which leads to those worlds becoming servile provinces of the Tholian state. If there were any bipedal species such as Humanoids, they became useful members of the lesser echelons of the Tholian Assembly, though they are naturally subservient to even the lowest ranking members of Tholian society. This means that despite their xenophobic tendencies, the Tholians utilise other races to fight for them.
Foreign Relations
In the 23rd century, contact between the Assembly and the Federation had been described as being intermittent at best.
When the Tholian Assembly signed the non-aggression pact with the Dominion in 2373, there was speculation in the halls of Starfleet Command and the Klingon High Council that they would use it as an opportunity to observe the war from afar, and later during the course of the conflict opt to join the side which showed to be serving the Assembly's interests best. Though this did not occur, the Tholian Assembly did keep a meticulous watch on the progress of the conflict, and was set to defend their borders zealously.
Owing to the increase in ship manufacture during the wartime period, when the Treaty of Bajor was signed, the Tholian Assembly was estimated to have one of the most stable and reliable military forces in the post-war cleanup, with the Cardassians, Romulans, Klingons and the Federation all being forced to enter a period of rebuilding to replenish the fleets lost in the battles. True to their xenophobic nature, the Tholians have not strayed far from their space in the intervening decade.
After the Shinzon Coup of the Romulan Senate in 2379, the Tholians officially recalled their ambassador from Romulus, owing to "an unstable and potentially hazardous political situation in the Romulan Star Empire, to which the Tholian Assembly does not intend to be party to". Though formal relations are still maintained between the two powers, a Tholian Ambassador has not returned to the Romulan homeworld in the intervening years.
Territory
Tholian space was referred to by the race as being the "Territorial Annex of the Tholian Assembly" which suggested that their expansion was one of conquest rather than mutual interplanetary agreement with areas of deep space being often claimed by the Assembly as being their own.
Long range sensor probes conducted by the Klingon Empire showed that the core region of Tholian space consisted of a stellar nursery and a large nebula where new stars were forming. The planetary systems that were identified consist of very young planets that entered the Class C, Class F and Class H categories. These planets were, thus, incapable of supporting Humanoid life. A few rare expeditions conducted by the Klingon Empire had also revealed that those worlds within Tholian territory were reported to be rich in resources, however, there were a large number of inordinate subspace anomalies. This was one of the reasons why the Klingon Empire had not attempted to make an active invasion of Tholian Assembly territory as the costs far outweighed the gains.
Though they were isolationists and xenophobic; the Assembly had been known to be opportunistic as they conducted raids against rival states. These attacks were not full scale invasions and were tasked with incorporating small territory into the Assembly, the purpose of which was not known as those worlds that were taken tended to have no strategic or resource value. What was known was that once the territory was taken by the Assembly, it was zealously defended as any other Tholian world. This meant that the territorial annexation of neighboring star systems was typically a one way proposition as once it was conquered, it usually became a servile province.