Tebalts

Tebalts (singular: tebalt) are a small bipedal sapient species. Their civilization has reached interstellar travel, and created the SESA alliance alongside the conali.

Biology
Tebalt diets are primarily fruits and seeds, but in dire situations they can eat most plant material. Tebalts can last up to 1 Earth day without water, and 2 Earth weeks without a meal before starving. Tebalts live up to around 24 Earth years naturally, but due to recent advances in medical technology, they have an average life expectancy of 90 Earth years. Tebalts reach maturity at around 14. Tebalts reproduce sexually, and have two biological sexes. Tebalts lay eggs, which hatch in a 2-3 Earth months as infants. Tebalts experience gender far differently from humans.

Tebalts are covered in scales, with an exception of the legs, which are covered in an exoskeleton. Tebalts have hair on the top of their heads. Tebalt coloration varies from greens to dark grayscale to sandy warm colors. The legs are usually more brightly colored, and the hair is usually a dark black or brown color. Tebalts molt their legs' exoskeleton and their scales every few Earth months.

Tebalts' large eyes are similar to insect eyes, and are usually black in color. Njetra have digitigrade legs suitable for pursuit and leaping. Tebalts' legs are digitigrade and compressed almost like that of a grasshopper, and are incredibly agile as a result. Tebalt arms have two joints, and have mouths at the end as opposed to hands. There is no mouth on tebalt faces. Tebalts breathe through spiracles.

Prehistory
(WIP)

Written History
Once society rose, the tebalts slowly progressed towards the space age. The tebalts are not perfectly unified, and to this day there are four different tebalt nations which, while rivals, have no major political tensions with eachother. Upon achieving interstellar travel, the tebalts formed SESA from their four nations as an attempt to bring them closer together. However, once they discovered the conali in a nearby star system, they banded together, with SESA being repurposed as an interstellar alliance between species.

The tebalts are considered the "leaders" of SESA, but don't have much power over other species aside from an increased number of representatives.

Culture
The tebalts have four nations:
 * Thimbi, a large and prosperous nation who most people think of when they think of tebalt civilization,
 * Limam, a small and isolative nation that avoids unnecessary contact,
 * Bowo, a small nation known for attempting to get involved in any international affair in attempt to increase international relations,
 * Sabagiowa, a tiny city-state remnant of an ancient superpower, known for having a somewhat greedy government.

Although the nations vary to some degree, most cultural traits of tebalts are near universal. It's socially mandatory for tebalts to wear clothes, and it's considered obscene to go without them. Clothing is often a form of self expression, as is painting exoskeletons or scales, hair dye, or hairstyles.

Tebalts are generally peaceful, but wars have been known to happen in relatively recent past. Tebalts typically frown upon wars for monetary gain or assimilation, but contradictarily prioritize self defense and hold military strength relatively highly. Each nation has a somewhat large militia as a result, which typically lie dormant until a threat appears. As a result of joining SESA, each nation's militia is required to protect all SESA members, including other tebalt nations.

Molting, due to how pained and vulnerable it temporarily leaves tebalts, is seen as a state of immense fragility, and tebalts typically prioritize protection and safety of molting individuals over most other things. The day after the recovery of molting is, in some subcultures, seen as a sacred or important day, and is often met with celebration and gifts of food.

Reach
Tebalts have control over their home system, with custody shared evenly between the four nations, the Lithul system, and all planets and celestial bodies found within. As a member of SESA, they have some input as to what SESA does with other systems which contain no homeworlds.

Each tebalt nation has their own SESA representative:
 * Representative Altim, the representative of Thimbi,
 * Representative Gol, the representative of Limam,
 * Representative Kathanim, the representative of Bowo,
 * Representative Lir, the representative of Sabagiowa.

Languages
The tebalts speak Timpo, as well as several smaller languages. Timpo is the official SESA language, and the de facto common language of both the tebalts and the entirety of SESA.

Modern Conflict
[REDACTED]

Noteworthy Individuals

 * Bim
 * Representative Altim
 * Representative Gol
 * Representative Kathanim
 * Representative Lir