Ok – so I’m cross franchising; at least I got your attention! And why would I want your attention??
Because we do indeed have a new “enemy” – the gruff, grumpy and pretty obscure Tzenkethi!
So before I get to all the fluff – anyone who want to just skip to the ships go here.
On to the fluff. The hardest part about the Tzenkethi is that there is almost NO information about them. In fact – they’re pretty much a “throw-away line” race with little if any development. While that provides artistic license- it also can be frustratingly restrictive. What little there is on Memory Alpha and Memory Beta comes from books and Star Trek Online. Sadly, neither of these are truly Canon – so we have to pick and choose.
Pocket books envision the Tzenkethi one way – including the “tear drop” shaped ship, while Robert Hewitt Wolfe – who actually wrote the script lines about the Tzenkethi – saw them quite differently. I chose to go with the “lizard’ style creature, but retain the tear drop shaped ships. While these aren’t nearly as slick and menacing as the Star Trek Online ship designs – they are far more alien and interesting (if simplistic).
Using the star charts pinpoints the Tzenkethi near the Cardassians, Ferengi and Federation. While their territory is not the largest – they clearly have enough technology to keep the Cardassians at bay, dissuade the Ferengi and continually clash with the Federation. I also imagine Klingon interests butting heads with them. Perhaps even the Breen? Who knows – but for my general design – I was trying to create an adversary that was on par with the Federation, as there have been several conflicts between the two.
Anyways – I hope you all enjoy – I’ll try and add some text when I can – but there are a LOT more ships coming down the pipe! So it may be a little while.
