Ah, that is the underlying question, isn't it?

I'm afraid I can't pin down any particular moment at which the idea of the Anatarians simply materialized in my mind. I can easily tell you that my motives for creating the Anatarians was so that I could have a race which was unique from my ideas and that I could write a good back-story for. I always felt uncomfortable writing much about the people on any of the introduced races in Star Trek, because the information they introduced on the show is just miniscule compared to the things I need to know in order to really work with a race.

My first character of this race was an Anatarian Healer rogue type by the name of Malina Teral, who had the audacity to wander out on her own for a while, and eventually being sponsored for entry into Starfleet. But she met this most unusual teenager who wasn't precisely human without a clue to her own past, and when the girl was kidnapped for the special abilities she possessed, Malina tried to motivate her crew to act, but they hid behind regulations rather than attempting to save this teenager who had done nothing. The fiery side of the Anatarians came out at that point when Malina decided to drop everything and try to save this girl.

The second Anatarian character I created was also an unusual case (as it is rather hard to integrate them in a more "normal" scene with other races because they generally do not leave home much) but instead of leaving home because of a strong will to discover and explore, her departure was out of a desire to escape. Anishe Sehtran (or S-Tran as was taken down for Starfleet records) suffers from a physical disability that limits her eyesight. It doesn't have to do with her eyes being functional, but rather her brain just does not process the input from her eyes properly. She has developed strange coping mechanisms to compensate for this loss. Her condition stumped Anatarian Healers for years until she got tired of all the tests and wondering and decided just to go off on her own. Her family had always treated her as a fragile invalid, and she was trying to escape the bonds of her disability. Of course, being disabled in Starfleet is a rather strange situation. She could not be fitted with a visor because it was not her eyes that were the problem, and her brain structure is too unlike what Starfleet normally works with to really offer a solution that way.

Teral and S-Tran are related, cousins, and it was Malina's departure and subsequent correspondence that fueled Anishe's determination to leave. *big grin* But I'm not going to spoil the story for you by giving the ending here. Needless to say, time went on and other characters were written, other stories told. My co-author for the Far Horizons story, Jacob Matthew before I was writing with him much, he had read my short (as in less than four pages) species description attached to Malina Teral's biography in the simming group I was playing her in. He asked if he could include the race in his species database. I was flattered anyone else liked the idea and so I naturally said yes. Matthew added the location of their homeworld to his galactic map near the Khallianen, a government that was located closer to the core than the Federation and other territories marked out in Star Trek.

More years passed and nothing was really done with them. One thing led to another and I found myself co-authoring the Far Horizons story with him, and we suddenly came up with a way for the Anatarians to come into the story. The idea mulled around in our brains for a while and then I started getting the notion to develop them more in preparation. I won't give too much away, but Matthews idea for how these people would come into play requires me to understand the head of the government. This requires that for my own sense of justice to the people that I put in as much background material as I can before attempting to create this woman. Thus, this site was born.

Q: Why are the Anatarians the way they are?

A: In answering probably the most obvious general question, I can only say that it seems to fit for me. As I slowly come to understand them better, certain nuances make greater sense to me. Hopefully, I can figure out ways to explain those distinctive characteristics to others, and thus allow others to understand this very special people. My purpose is to develop a resource, at the end of which, someone would have enough information to be able to roleplay a member of the Anatarian people.

Q: Will you be putting up the stories of Malina Teral and Anishe Tran where we can read them?

A: Absolutely. I have no idea when and where though. At the time of this writing, I'm trying to work out the final edit of the initial chapters of the Far Horizons story. We're nearing the end of the first "book" (going to be somewhere in the area of 23 chapters and 2000+ pages) and I'm trying to prepare the beginning of the second "book"' which is from a completely different perspective, well, partially. I've not decided how would be the best way to do that just yet. Malina and Anishe both have interesting stories to tell that I really want to take the time to develop correctly. Not sure how involved I'll get into that. But if you're really itching to see a particular story concept played out, give me a holler. Heck, write me anyway. I always want to know how people react to my work.

Any other questions you want answered?

E-mail me at I_Am_Talisan@hotmail.com