The Katula is one of the Circle in the Tarn Empire. It is also known as the 'Circle of the Gold Talon.'
The circle symbol for the Katula circle is a grey circle with a gold embossed talon, claws extended.
Members of the Katula circle served on the Tarn Imperial Fleet vessel Rashasa during the Federation-Tarn War of the 2160s. The Rashasa met the USS Verdun at the Torgu-Va system. The two vessels damaged each other and the 408 members of the Katula circle landed on the planet Torgu-Va with enough food to last for thirty-days. The first twenty years on the planet were known as the 'Time of Struggle' where the circle had to re-learn the old arts of raising food and building shelters. In 2183 the Katula circle discovered a scouting team from the Human survivors from the Verdun. Knowing that they had failed to defeat their enemy, the Katula circle started the 'War of Redemption of the Circle' to regain their honor. The war was first fought with knives, bows and primitive single-shot powder weapons. From there they built rifles, artillery, radio, radar, aircraft, missiles, armored vehicles and short-range rockets. This struggle continued until 2367 when the Katula circle had developed three atomic weapons. Detonating one of these weapons over the Human city of Delta Three attracted the attention of the USS Enterprise-D which was in the system. This alerted the Tarn Empire and the Federation of the struggle that the Katula circle was still involved in.
Gadin is the commander of the Katula circle in 2367. Harna Karish was adopted into the Katula circle and took over the leadership when Gadin was killed. Jarah was a warrior in the Katula circle who was killed in 2367. (TNG novel: The Forgotten War)