Tantaya Prime

Tantaya Prime is the first planet in the Tantayan solar system, and the only one to support sentient life.

Ecosystem
Tantaya Prime is inhabited by the Tantayan species, an extremely humanoid species of aliens. The main difference between humans and Tantayans in appearance is the bright, almost neon (lime green) skin possessed by the vast majority of people in their species. Tantaya is mostly covered in ocean, with eight habitable continents, around the size of Australia, scattered abroad. There is also a northern Arctic continent, but the temperatures are much too low to support Tantayan life. Wildlife ranges from normal, such as the wolves that inhabit the forest, to the nearly paranormal, like the birds that have the ability to turn entirely invisible, and the intelligence to use this to scare people.

The climate on the habitable continents ranges somewhat, but most closely matches that of New England in the summer and winter times. Gravity is 1.2 times that of Earth, and the atmosphere is nearly identical.

Humans who have visited the planet describe it as pleasant and Earth-like.

Discovery and Controversy
Tantaya was discovered in the middle of Federation territory by two unknown humans, the parents of Admiral Ugly. They abandoned him there as an infant with small amounts of UFOP technology, and left him there to die. He managed to survive, however, and ended up bringing the entire planet into the modern era at least two centuries quicker than they would have naturally. This is not only a testament to the genius of Ugly, but also the adaptability of this planet's culture. When Ugly had arrived, nuclear energy was just being discovered. By the time Ugly left, almost 18 years later, they were nearly ready for warp travel. Because of the insanely fast development, Tantaya is a point of debate for the Federation. They have applied several times, but each time have been denied. Opponents of Tantaya being part of the Federation cite the fact that the unified world government was only a decade old, and the stability thereof is highly contested. Also cited is the fact that inhabitants within our lifetime would use barbaric methods of torture, burn people at the stake, and treat those with a different skin color as inferior.

Ugly was nearly court martialed for breaking the prime directive, but the charges were overthrown, due to obvious reasons.

History
In 2300, the government of Tantaya Prime was split into six distinct groups.

This continued until the year 2332, when some of Eugene Ugly's Federation technology (that had been sent with him to the planet as an infant) fell into the hands of the most powerful country's government. They reverse engineered it within a couple of months, and soon threatened several of the other countries into submission.

In 2342, a fifteen year old Ugly found the capital city of this country, and ended up working for the government, skyrocketing them into the 24th century.

With Ugly's help, the final holdout country was forcibly overtaken in 2344. Ugly also build a life sign blocker, so other species wouldn't discover the planet.

Ugly left the planet in his own ship the next year, but a Tantayan scientist, Oobleck Ravenox, stole the design for Ugly's ship.

By 2347, they had figured out how to make it themselves.

With ships now coming from the planet, and Ugly's stories of it, the Federation finally discovered it in 2349. Romulans immediately attempted to seize the opportunity to overtake the planet, but the USS Vortex was called in to protect it. Since then, Tantaya Prime has been constantly improving upon their own hodge-podge technology.

In 2360, the entire planets memory was wiped in a freak event involving the technology going wrong. Most of this damage was repaired.

In 2363, Tantaya Prime sent their most prominent young scientist, Steve Klaxon, to join the Federation, attempting to improve relations. Klaxon was accepted, and quickly rose through the ranks to Commander in only 5 years, due to his immense intellect.

Society
Tantaya prime boasts a mostly peaceful and enlightened society, with both genders being equal, and freedom abounding. Up until recently, however, they still burned people at the stake for witchcraft when their science seemed too advanced. Once the society was boosted forward by Admiral Ugly, this practice was stopped.

However, the racism towards those with skin not colored "lime green" continued, and plagues the few Tantayans who are of a different race. Ironically, both Eugene Ugly and Steve Klaxon are hated by the citizens because of their skin color, even though without them they would be living a much worse life.

ET Affairs Office
The office was established once Ugly was discovered to be an alien. The office serves as the planet's fledgling star fleet, as well as an immigration office, and most importantly a peacemaking organization. So far, the Tantayans have been able to secure peace with every major culture in the Alpha quadrant, although they did have a brief threat from Romulans in 2349.

The office also works as security on the planet if necessary, and oversees any trade with external cultures.