Trill

Trill appear very human, except for a slight spotty marking along the sides of the face and goes down all the way to the feet. These markings are unique to each Trill, and are just as unique as a Terran human's fingerprints. They do not detract from appearance.

Among the humanoid Trill joined species, apparently at least two races of hosts are used to house a symbiont: those of the ridged forehead, and those with a narrow speckled band running along the hairline to the sides of the neck, then down along the body.

Some Trills can be joined with a small vermiform symbiont that lives in an internal abdomainal pocket of the host body. Most of the personality and memories of the Trill reside in the symbionts, which are extremely long-lived, although the host also contributes personality traits to the joined life-form. All skills are transferred to the new host, but are based off of the new host's physical and mental abilities. Upon the death of a host body, a Trill symbiont is usually transplanted into another host. For a joined Trill, nothing was more important than protecting the life of the symbiont. The symbiont body is a foot-long purplish lump of cranial and exoskeletal tissue, some are susceptible to damage by transporter beam. The symbiont will last only 1-2 hours in stasis, and a human body makes a temporary but limited host.

Trill hosts enter voluntarily into their association with the symbiont, and in fact there is intense competition among potential hosts to determine who will be accorded this high honor. Only one in 10 candidates are able to host and even less than that actually are accorded the honor of being chosen to host. The decision of who is to be allowed to be joined was the responsability of the Symbiosis Evaluation Board. Improper joining is believed to cause damage to both host and symbiont. Children are directed by their parents towards becoming a host. While the influence of the symbiont is very strong, good host candidates can balance the influence of the symbiont with their own interests, and hence produce the best possible merge of the two personalities.

Hosts are accepted in their mid-twenties. Once joined, the host and symbiont become biologically interdependent, and after 93 hours, neither can survive wihtout the other. The resulting new joined life-form is considered to be another person, although it retains memories of previous joinings. Despite the fact that a symbiont retains such memories, Trill society very strongly disapproves of reassociation of subsequent hosts, in cases where previous hosts had been married. Sometimes friendships with other species won't survive when the Trill moves to the next hosts. The current Trill hosts sometimes have sexual feelings for spouses of past hosts but they do their best to control it. They do not have uphold commitments of the previous hosts. Certain Trill symbionts can be severely damaged by beaming.


Trill Homeworld

Class-M planet that is home to the joined species known as the Trill. Interesting geological formations on the Trill homeworls include the Terran ice cliffs and the caves of Mak'ala. The oceans on planet Trill are purple. At least part of the government, organized in ministries, resides with a Legislature which did not have women as members until circa 2100.

- Hoobishan Baths: Resort with therapeutic baths and massage chambers on planet Trill.

- Caves of Mak'ala: Geological formation located on the Trill homeworld. The caves contain interconnecting pools that strech for kilometers under the surface of the planet. The pools are the breeding environment for Trill symbionts.


Biology

Trills's hands are naturally cold. They are highly allergic to insect bites, as the toxins released interfere with the biochemical connections between the host and the symbiont.

- Benzocyatizine: Medication used to adjust the levels of isoboramine in joined Trill. A benzocyatic regimen generally involves frequent doses of benzocyatizine.

- Isoboramine: In Trill physiology, a vital neurotransmitter chemical that mediates the synaptic functions between the Trill humanoid host and the symbiont should isoboramine levels fall below 40 percent of normal, the symbiont is removed to protect it, even though this results in the death of the humanoid host.


Joining

Trill Symbiosis Commission: Powerful Trill government body that oversees the testing, selection, and joining of Trill humanoid hosts with symbionts, The Symbiosis Commission maintained strict guidelines for those host candidates, as it was commonly believed that only one in a thousand Trill humanoids was capable of being joined, and to join an unsuitable host would result in rejection of the symbiont within a matter of days. Only half the Trill population was capable of being joined. This fact was concealed by the Symbiosis Commission for fear that the symbionts, available in limited numbers, would become commodities to be bought and sold.

- Host: In the Trill joined species, a host is a humanoid life-form in whose body resides a Trill symbiont. The combination of the two life-forms forms a single Trill individual.

- Initiate: A Trill host candidate who was enrolled in the program designed to prepare hosts for joining. Because there were only an average of 300 symbionts available each year for the 5,000 qualifiying initiates competition was extremely intense and standards were very high.

- Field Docent: In the Trill initiate program, a joined Trill who shepered a host candidate through a field training program, allowing the candidate to observe the activites of a joined Trill over a two-week period.

- Joined: Term used to describe those Trill who carry a symbiont inside them.

- Joined Species: Term used to describe the Trill life-form consisting of a helpless, intelligent symbiont living in a partership within a host humanoid body.

- Guardians: In Trill society, a selct group of humanoids who devoted their lives to the care of the symbionts. The guardians, who were not themselves joined, conducted their work in the Caves of Mak'ala. The monastic Guardians had very little contact with those outside their group. In addition to tending to the symbionts, Guardiands also oversee the Trill zhian'tata ritual.

- Zhian'tara: Trill rite of closure. A ceremony that allows a joined Trill to meet the symbiont's previous hosts. The zhian'tara is accomplished by telepathically transferring the memories of each past host from the symbiont to a different friend, who embodies the host's personality to the length of the ceremony. The zhian'tara allows joined Trill insight into their past lives.


Food

Citrus Blend: Common foodstuff consumed by Trill.

Balso Tonic: Trill beverage.


Miscellaneous

Reassociation: In Trill society, after two joined Trill are married, the symbionts are strongly discouraged from maintaining their relationsip in later lifetimes when they are joined with subsequent hosts. Such reassociation was considered unnatural, and was such a strict taboo that any Trill engaging in it was exiled from the Trill homeworld when it occurred, the symbiont was barred from being rejoined to a new host, but instead died within the body of exiled host.