A rigidly patriarchal warrior society that fought a border war with the Federation and, by custom, allowed its officers to adopt the children of enemies slain in battle.
The Talarians are first mentioned in The Next Generation episode Heart of Glory, in which the Klingon fugitives are found aboard a damaged Talarian freighter. Their society is shown in Suddenly Human, set in 2367.
The Enterprise rescues five teenagers from a crippled Talarian training ship and finds that one, Jono, is human. He is Jeremiah Rossa, grandson of a Starfleet admiral, orphaned in a Talarian attack on the Galen IV colony and raised by Captain Endar, who claimed him under a tradition that lets a warrior replace a son lost in war.
Endar is prepared to go to war to get him back. Picard tries to reawaken the boy's human past, and Jono, torn between two loyalties, stabs him in his sleep. Picard recognises that the boy's home is with the Talarians and returns him to Endar.