So, Commander Pelia - how would you build a Lanthanite?
As a human with an altered trait? And/or with access to the Edosian “Long View” talent?
And for some totally random speculation - are all the Lanthanites as old as Pelia seems to be with her Pythagoras claim? Or were some born later? Are Lanthanites alien or a co-evolved human species as hinted at by Spock?
Having finally caught up with all of the Star Trek released over the last few years (I initially stopped when I first saw Disco klingons when it was first released with a “hell no” reponse), I am now kind of embroiled in a Lanthanite captain concept in a Picard era Captain’s Log series, but I don’t want to try and think about anyone older than maybe 500 (which conceptually would not be different from creating an older Edosian or Denobulan) - certainly not a multi-millenia old character. Just someone who got to command a brand-new Miranda way back when and has been a Starfleet captain ever since, avoiding flag rank like the plague and alternating between teaching at the Academy and commanding vessels.
And I know I could just build a Lanthanite as a long-lived human in Captain’s Log, I just prefer to use standard STA creation for CL characters as I feel it gives them more depth when visualising/realising them.
I think the main challenge will role-play rather than implementing game mechanics. Playing characters with an extremely long lifespan is not easy, as they may have a totally different outlook and amassed tons of experience already.
In terms of game mechanics, they should be treated as a separate species and probably get +1 to any three Attributes except Fitness. I’d probably go with Control, Insight, Presence. For talents, The Long View certainly fits. The Trill’s Joined talent fits as well since the character may have had various interests over the course of their long life.
I hadn’t thought of adapting the Joined talent but it does make a lot of sense - thanks for the suggestion.
As for RP - I’m a history teacher/geek so starting off in say, 1892, I can conceptually cover any 20th century experiences well enough and use Trek canon for the 21st onwards. I might be able to manage even earlier with a reasonable level of being able to RP it, possibly with the 8th century CE as my outlier of worldview comfort (thanks to Vikings and the Last Kingdom in addition to my education/interests), but to be honest anything earlier than the Early Modern period does get a bit of a stretch even for me. That is why I was wondering if we think there are younger Lanthanites than Pelia - I am most definitely not a classicist.
Human (+1 to Reason and Insight) the long life span is interesting, but mostly irrelevant because the rapid technological pace begins in the early 1900s.
They could be 3000 years old, but 2700 of those years are without electricity, indoor plumbing, or rapid communications.
The sole interest lies in the roleplay of someone who walked Rome under the Caesars, sailed the seas with Magellan or Drake, climbed Everest with Edmund Hillary, or hunted big game in Africa with Theodore Roosevelt.
This doesn’t necessarily make them experts in any career or scientific field.
I chose 1892 as they would be a WWI and WWII veteran (British infantry in WWI, USN in WWII), a greaser in the 50s, a hippie in the 60s/70s, a teacher in the 80s/90s, a soldier again (Canada) in the 00s and 10s then lived as a farmer in New Zealand when the Eugenics wars and WW3 happened. Basically then lived as a rural hermit after that. Decided in the early 2200s to “come out”, joined Starfleet on the Operations (Security) track in the 2240s and has been around every since. Served mainly on Cardenas and Hoover class ships before becoming a captain in 2265, initially on a Miranda (USS Trial), then on an Excelsior (USS Repulse). He took a combo job for Starfleet intelligence and as a tactics/strategy instructor at the Academy from the 2320s until Wolf 359. Got involved with the Akira project, captained the USS Helios from 2370. Ended up on the USS Livingstone, an early Inquiry class, in the mid 2390s. Wasn’t in Sol for Frontier Day, now helping pick up the pieces.