1. Introduction
2. History of Contact
3. Technological Profile
4. Physiological/Medical Profile
5. Cultural/Historical Profile

6. Threat Assessment
7. Strategic Objectives
8. Tactical Considerations
9. Vessel Database
10. Intelligence Reports

11. Return to Main Page

12. ASR Home Page

HISTORY OF CONTACT

The Tholians have, since their unfortunate first contact with the USS ENTERPRISE NCC-1701 well over 100 years ago, shown themselves to be extremely xenophobic, not allowing any vessel, military or otherwise to cross their borders.

One school of thought believes this is because they fear corruption of their morals and principals from outside influences. They also have a strong, ingrained fear of conquest by others; one gets the distinct impression that some of their earliest myths deal with a rather brutal race who conquered and enslaved them until they were freed by revolution.

The second, and more popular, belief is based somewhat on information provided by the Tholians themselves, and events of over a century ago. The Tholians are not native to the Alpha Quadrant, this much has been proven. It is believed that hundreds of years ago, just as many of the Alpha Quadrant's natives were achieving limited warp ability, the Tholians arrived fleeing from a revolt in their home system. The Tholians were apparently rulers of an immense empire, rivalling that of the Iconians, using a genetically engineered race of insectoids to police their conquered planets. At some point, the insectoids developed beyond their original plan and overthrew their former masters. One small province of the empire decided that it was time to leave. Using the web technology that had been in wide use in the empire for centuries, they packed up all the ships they could find, and towed a small moon that was hospitable to them through a wormhole on the edge of the empire.

Once they arrived in the Alpha Quadrant they looked for a suitable place to put their planet, and found a huge asteroid belt near the edge of what is now Gorn, Romulan, and Federation space, and at one point bordered on the edge of the Klingon Empire as well.

Fearful that their former slaves and subjects would come looking for them, they used their web technology to effectively secure the asteroid belt.

Unfortunately, the province had been a small and poor one, and as such there were few ships, and more importantly fewer engineers. The Tholians had a problem, in that they could build very few components for their ships, lacking the materials that had been present in their own home galaxy, did not have any shipyards, and only had a limited ability to repair the ships that they did possess. This was also a contributing factor to their xenophobia.

After their initial contact with the Federation, a treaty of non aggression was reached, as the UFP was embroiled in the Second Klingon War at that time. One condition of the treaty, which the Federation protested vehemently, was the Tholians demanded phaser technology. Until that time they had used a weapon that was somewhat similar, but could not manufacture or repair it. Only the fact that the Klingons were also in negotiations with the Tholians at the same time caused the Federation to agree to such a stipulation.

The Klingons were enraged and attempted to invade Tholian space. That move proved disastrous, due to the high manoeuverability of Tholian ships at that time, as well as the web device used in concert with the asteroid belt that surrounds Tholian space. In open space, two ships were needed to generate a web, in other words webs could not be free standing. However, by using asteroids as anchors, the Tholians could protect much larger areas with fewer ships. Fully 43 ships were lost by the Klingons in the invasion, with figures for the Tholians believed to be less than a dozen.

At that time, all Tholian ships were based on a diamond design. The largest warships they had brought with them were light cruisers, roughly the size of a modern frigate. They had no true capital ships, their solution was to effectively weld three light cruisers together.

At the height of the war, a new force appeared on the edge of Klingon space. The Tholians feared that it was their old subjects who had finally tracked them down, but it turned out to be more Tholians fleeing their home space. This group, an entire battle fleet, and support craft, had not had the advantage of a wormhole, and stumbled upon their brothers by cosmic accident. The Klingons, after one short battle realized who this force was, and politely pointed them to their new home.

These Neo-Tholians brought with them a fleet repair docks, and more importantly engineers and schematics for ship designs. At last contact, the Tholians had converted the repair dock into a ship yard, and had begun producing new ships and refitting their older ones. Once the Neo-Tholians arrived at Tholia, the Assembly cut diplomatic ties with the outside, and very little has been heard from the Holdfast since. Sporadic diplomatic contacts, and reports from pirates and smugglers let us know that the Tholians are still around, but all in all there has been little or no contact in over sixty years.