A Small Matter of Symbionts and Their Trill Hosts

[IMC Headquarters]

Trills. A people excited to join with Symbiont worm things which like to float about in special pools...

Okay. I accept that.

But how did this practice of Joining begin? Who was the first Trill who looked at the pool and thought, "Gee. I want to put one of those inside my body and see what happens?"

Was this Trill given the idea telepathically by the creature lolling about in the water which simply wanted more out of life than absorbing mineral salts and electricity?

One could almost classify the Symbiont as a parasite, in that it lives a long time through various Hosts who remarkably seem only too happy to die and pass on the passenger before they themselves pass on. In return for hosting the Symbiont, Trill humanoids are given extensive memory and personality imprints which give them unique cosmic perception and abilities. This is a great incentive to keep the Symbiont alive and well.

Yes, I know it's a symbiotic relationship. Yes, I like Dax. Yes, I like Tal.

I'm not one to judge this arrangement, and I won't. I simply wonder how it all began.

 

[publiusr]

I’d like to think the first host we saw was a hominid that co-evolved…with Jadzia’s group space travelers? Or vice versa

 

[Cyfa]

I don't believe the first joining was ever depicted or described (or even referred to) on screen, but it was featured in one of the DS9 novels: "Worlds of DS9: Trill Unjoined" (by Andy Mangels and Michael A Martin) - Sef was the symbiont who first joined with a humanoid Trill (the Sef link to Memory Beta provides a description). You're not far off with your scenario, @IMC Headquarters

I think the DS9 behind-the-scenes/series bible info posited that a planetary catastrophe forced the joining of the two species, but I much prefer the more gentle "curiosity" approach from the novels.

 

[IMC Headquarters]

So it's up to individual preference, then? Okay.

I've been bingeing on DS9 this week and the whole Trill/Symbiont arc of Dax's kicked my critical thinking nodes in proper gear. It also occurred to me that Trills are akin to marsupials! I don't think I'm wrong in suspecting that Ferengi secretly envy Trills' having a pocket cavity in their bodies--if they had one they could hoard latinum with ease!

Thank you for the link and responses.

 

[Sci]

How did the idea of cooking food develop? Wearing clothing? Speaking a verbal language? Making music and visual art?

Real life has all kinds of complex behaviors that evolved early on in human history. I'm sure joining with the symbionts has similar evolutionary origins.

 

[Farscape One]

It is still a fascinating question, though, because all those other examples deal with external things.

Having a symbiote merge inside you... it does beg the question of how it got started. I don't see humans today thinking merging another living entity inside them is any kind of good idea.

 

[Relayer1]

There's toxic foodstuffs that can be made edible by sometimes fairly complex preparation - grinding, soaking, specialised cooking methods etc.

Processes passed down through through hundreds of generations, but who first thought "That's poisonous - I'll try doing X or Y and then try eating it" ?

 

[somebuddyX]

It was a Rule 34 thing that went mainstream.

 

[Sisko_is_my_captain]

I think it would have been accidental at first, with the symbiont grabbing what it expected to be a non-sentient animal it came across and discovering to its surprise that it had a mind. Kind of like those horrible tropical river fish that will swim up your urethra given the opportunity, but like...smarter. Then the hominid culture may have adopted some sort of religious framework around joining, making it part of their ritual and mythos. Maybe only the chief of a tribe and the honored leadership got to join.

 

[Oddish]

Processes passed down through through hundreds of generations, but who first thought "That's poisonous - I'll try doing X or Y and then try eating it" ?

Never mind poisonous, how about gross? I mean, I like escargot, but I can't help thinking that whoever looked at a snail crawling along and said to themself "I think I'll eat that" must have been REALLY hungry!

 

[Citiprime]

Spoiler for the Deep Space Nine relaunch novels:

Spoiler

You come to find out that the Trill Symbionts are connected/related to the TNG "Conspiracy" parasites.

 

[IMC Headquarters]

Hmm. What if the Symbionts are actually Warp 10 amphibians who got marooned on Trill ages ago?

 

[Orphalesion]

As others have said many complex behaviours have developed by happenchance on our very own planet. Could also be that the symbiontes started out as parasites who, over time, developed to symbiontes when encountered with a hominid body plan and sapience. And since the early Trill/Trill ancestors where more likely to be willing to join with a symbiote rather than a parasite that proved beneficial and so it was the more successful model when compared to the parasites. The parasites died out and the symbionts got to live, possibly developing further until that mind-merger was achieved.

Never mind poisonous, how about gross? I mean, I like escargot, but I can't help thinking that whoever looked at a snail crawling along and said to themself "I think I'll eat that" must have been REALLY hungry!

Gathering enough food to survive and thrive was a task that comprised most of the day of our primitive ancestry. When you're hungry and you don't have access to a filled larder and actually have to go scavenge for your calories you get less compromising about what you are willing to consume. Plus our natural curiosity probably helped along as well.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Yeah, I can see the involuntary joining as a good origin.
The proto symbionts nested inside the hosts, for better surivability and no one removed them because it would kill the host.
Eventually they realized that the symbionts could retain memories and experiences by the host and pass them on to a new one.

the pouch they reside in might have evolved for another biological purpose originally and developed from there.

What we do not know is how a symbionts procreates.
It’s unlikely they get to once joined, though.
That likely happens before they leave the pools.