the vell-os are a telepathic race. they were led out to space, united by their telepathic powers by the indian prince vell-os in around a.d. 980. the vell-os do not pilot true ships; the objects they use are simply psychic projections made by the vell-os inside. they classify humans and vell-os who have telepathic abilities into seven ranks, or "t"s. the lowest rank possible is t6 (all normal humans are at this level with no actual telepathic ability), and starting with actual telepathic powers at t5, continues downward until t0, the highest rank a telepath can ever achieve. no vell-os in recorded history has reached the rank of t0.