From publisher blurb: The Tealnik are an old-fashioned people, and one who fiercely believes in a strongly decentralized government. They are constantly fighting one another in ancient family feuds, duels of honor, and wars of aggression. Though they are isolationists who are uncomfortable interacting with members of other species, the Tealnik readily venture far into the Fringe in order to find dangerous beasts to hunt and worthy forces to battle with in order to further increase their personal honor. Their worlds are an old-world mixture of teeming cities, vast rural tracts, and heavily restricted wilderness areas (hunting preserves). In the vastness of space, few will ever see a Tealnik, and those few that do, they will never see them coming.