Continuing our exploration of new species to add as a one-off part of your game (or keep around if your players like them), we’re looking today at the Bayt’Ihat. They are a structured society that looks from the outside like they live in a harsh dictatorship… and yet participation is entirely voluntary. They are Federation members and so Starfleet’s Diplomatic Corps has assessed their culture as in line with Federation standards for civil rights but not every Starfleet officer would agree. The Bayt’Ihats provide a great way to test the limits of Starfleet’s principles and the opinions of your players.
The Bayt’Ihat follow a social plan that involves identifying careers early on and then shaping an individual to follow that path. It is somewhat like other education traditions but it is done at a young age by committee and involves biological treatments as well as schooling. When a Bayt’Ihat opts to follow the program (most do) they are set down a path that they will surely succeed at but that they also will have a hard time deviating from. Your players may or may not be comfortable with this system and their characters will have to make that decision too; when a player feels one way and a character feels the other, that’s when things get really interesting.
There are a number of plot hooks in the description below but here are some to get you started.
- Another Bayt’Ihat named Kha’Li, part of the Homogenist movement, is a successful restaurateur on a starbase that the Player Characters’ ship is docked at. He is a generous and friendly man but when Ha’Nil comes by his establishment the two definitely do not get along. On the crew’s next trip to the restaurant, Kha’Li is a very different man. Still devoted to his restaurant he seems overexcited as if he’s on some kind of drug. What happened to him and was it something that Ha’Nil did?
- Ha’Nil is aboard the Player Characters’ ship when he attends a concert by one of the amateur musicians on the crew. He is intrigued by the instruments and, to be social, tries his hand at one. To the surprise of everyone he is remarkably good: a prodigy! The prospect scares Ha’Nil who is convinced that his therapy training is slipping or morphing. He insists that the ship’s chief medical officer treat him, begging her even, to isolate the musical parts of his brain. What is the doctor’s ethical obligation here?
- A group of Bayt’Ihat is being targeted on a Federation space station by angry Federation citizens who insist that they are augments being protected by the government. The situation threatens to get violent unless the Player Characters work with Ha’Nil, the Bayt’Ihat spokesperson, and promise to investigate the medical facts of the situation. What will they discover and will it be enough for the protestors? What if they discover that the Bayt’Ihat have been less than truthful about the extent of their genetic therapies?
Click on the image below for the PDF.
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