Romulan Star Empire


(Redirected from Romulan Empire)

This article is official Star Trek canon.This article is official Pegasus Fleet canon.
RomulanStarEmpire.png
Romulan Star Empire
Basic information
Major Species
Capital(s)

Romulus

Founded

938 AD (Official founding of the Empire)

Warp Capable

320 AD

Official Language

Rihannsu

Official Currency

Talons

Political Information
Military Branches

Romulan Star Navy

The Romulan Star Empire (or simply, Romulan Empire) is a major galactic regional power from the 22nd through 24th centuries, encompassing the Romulan people and their subject worlds and species. The Empire is known for its xenophobic character and policies of extreme secrecy and territorial protectionism.

History

Origins

When Surak's reforms of embracing logical principles and rejecting emotions spread rapidly across Vulcan in the 4th century, a minority rejected Surak's ideals. Those who marched beneath the banner of the raptor, which became the symbol of the Romulan Star Empire, departed Vulcan in the 4th century in an event known as the Sundering. These 80,000 proto-Romulans began a long journey through space in twenty large, slow vessels known as ark ships. At some point, an unstable wormhole formed that swallowed the Vulcans-in-Exile and deposited them in a twin planet system. After preliminary examinations were made, it was decided that these worlds would become the new homeworlds of the Vulcans-in-Exile, who named them ch'Rihan and ch'Havran - Romulus and Remus when translated into Federation Standard, centuries later. While Romulus was a Class M planet, Remus was a harsh planet notable only for its dilithium deposits, and fierce debate ensued over who would colonise which world. Though it was through the voluntary actions of a man named Karatek, who took his followers to the more hostile world of ch'Havran in order to harvest the harsh world's resources for their kinsmen on the sister world, many Romulans were later banished to the mines of Remus, and joined the followers of Karatek, eventually evolving into the Reman sub-species due to the harsh conditions. The remaining travellers colonised the lush and unspoiled world of ch'Rihan and creating themselves a home in paradise.

These two worlds formed the foundation of an interstellar empire, founded many years later during the Age of Expansion, when the Romulans returned to the stars and began a period of conquering neighbouring alien races. By the 10th century (Earth relative date), the Romulans had approximately 100 settlements on other worlds. With the Romulan state expanding through space rapidly, the ability to govern these colonies grew more and more difficult. This resulted in the Romulan Civil War, and it was the actions of Admiral Valkis that resulted in the formation of a true interstellar government after declaring himself Emperor and forming the Romulan Senate to serve as his advisers. The Romulan Star Empire was officially formed upon the first meeting of the Imperial Senate in 938 A.D.

Between the 1270 and 1370, the Romulan Star Empire discovered a pathway back to their ancestral homeworld of Vulcan through the same unstable wormhole that deposited them at Romii system. Using this doorway back home, they waged a century long conflict through sublight means that became known as the Vulcan-Romulan War in order to regain control of the planet. However, Vulcan strategy and tactics won against the Romulans naked aggression resulting in their defeat. The Vulcans were never aware of who the attackers were, as the Romulans hid their appearance carefully, and had vowed to only declare their origins upon achieving victory. The war ended when the wormhole once again destabilised and separated Vulcan space from Romulan territory forever.

After a reign of decadent Emperors, the Imperial Senate abolished the position of Emperor in 1698 and installed a new leadership role that became known as the Praetor who would command the military.

During the mid-21st century and on into the 22nd century, the Romulan Star Empire came into conflict with the Klingon Empire over territory. Skirmishes over the Gamma Hydra sector were known to be common with the Romulans deploying gravitic mines in the region to prevent the Klingons from making a claim over that sector of space. It was also known that the Praetor of this era launched a campaign of conquest against the planet Haakona. Whilst the planet was occupied, the Romulan military faced stern opposition from insurrection movements on this world which was a bloody campaign that lasted for nineteen years. It ultimately forced the Romulans to abandon Haakona to its native race and left a disgrace on the Praetor for the failure in his mandate to conquer the planet

The Earth-Romulan War

In 2156, the Romulan Star Empire and United Earth went to war. The Earth-Romulan War was fought without any kind of personal or visual interaction between the two sides, preventing humans or their allies from fully understanding the nature of their opponent, and both sides fought with the use of atomic weapons, with the fighting even reaching the Sol system itself. Following a humiliating defeat at the Battle of Cheron in 2160, the Romulans agreed to a treaty, establishing a Neutral Zone between the Star Empire's sphere of influence and territory that would fall under the jurisdiction of the soon to be formed United Federation of Planets.

For the next century, Romulans isolated themselves from Human and Federation affairs, though remained very active within their own sphere of influence. Many intelligence analysts of the time made reports alluding to multiple campaigns being fought by the Romulans behind the curtain of the Neutral Zone, though the nature of these campaigns is still unknown.

23rd Century

In 2266, the Empire emerged from its cocoon, testing the strength of their now-unified adversaries by launching an attack on several Earth outposts along the Neutral Zone with a ship commanded by Keras. This ship was equipped with an advanced plasma weapon and a new cloaking device. The USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain James T. Kirk responded to one of the outpost's distress calls and engaged the Bird-of-Prey. In the course of the battle the Enterprise made the first visual contact with the Romulans, uncovering the longstanding secret of their relation with the Vulcans. Upon defeating the Romulan ship Kirk made contact with the vessel, speaking briefly to Commander Keras; the first time that a human and Romulan had spoken openly with each other in history.

In the 2260s, the Romulans entered into a tenuous alliance with the Klingon Empire. The alliance, spearheaded by Proconsul Merrok, aimed to "contain" the Cardassian Union, which, though the other side of the still-young Federation, was rapidly expanding and conquering worlds with deadly efficiency. The first non-aggression and technological exchange treaties were signed in 2267. The Romulans obtained a number of D7 class vessels in exchange for giving the Klingons cloaking technology. Tensions between the two powers were evident when Klingon forces engaged Romulan forces near the Triangle in 2272, and numerous small-scale conflicts thereafter. The alliance finally ended in 2273, when Klingon Captain Kor, Son of Rynar, of the IKS Klothos, led a major Klingon victory over the Imperial Fleet at the Battle of Klach D'Kel Brakt.

24th Century

The Tomed Incident

After the signing of the Khitomer Accords and the establishment of the Klingon-Federation alliance, the Star Empire was prompted to step up it's rivalry with the Federation, and by 2311, it seemed that another war was inevitable. That year, peace negotiations broke down at the Romulan Space Station Algeron, and war was only narrowly avoided after the Tomed Incident, in which the leader of the Imperial Fleet, Admiral Vokar, launched an unprovoked suicide attack upon the Federation's Foxtrot Sector, claiming thousands of Federation lives. The attack was unsanctioned by the Star Empire however, and when the Klingons prepared to join the Federation in battle against the Romulans, the Praetor ordered the Imperial Fleet back at the last minute. The Romulan Star Empire then negotiated what came to be known as the Treaty of Algeron, in which the Star Empire agreed to withdraw within its borders while the Federation agreed to refrain from developing cloaking technology.

Isolation and Re-emergence

The Star Empire's promise to withdraw within its borders was only tenuously followed, however; illegal trade between the Empire and the outside galaxy continued, such as the smuggling of Romulan ale into the Federation in violation of the Federation's then century-and-a-half-old trade embargo upon the Empire. Many wealthy Klingons and Klingon houses remained in debt to the wealthy Romulan houses, and the Romulans maintained covert attempts to influence foreign states under the administrations of Praetors Aratenik and Dralath.

Numerous problems would plague the Star Empire during this time beyond politics including a conflict with a race called the Taurhai, lasting until 2343 when the Taurhai forces were driven out of Romulan space in the Battle of Chi'tai.

In 2364 several Romulan outposts and colonies were mysteriously destroyed near the Neutral Zone. Assuming Federation attacks, the Romulans re-emerged, only to find the Federation had suffered similar attacks. It was later discovered that the outposts had been destroyed by the Borg in one of their earliest incursions into the Alpha Quadrant.

The Romulan Empire began rapidly involving itself once again in the politics of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, becoming involved in a number of isolated conflicts along the Neutral Zone with the Federation and aiding the House of Duras in its attempt to gain victory in the Klingon Civil War of the late 2360s. The Empire also came into conflict with a growing movement of its own citizenry who sought peaceful reunification with Vulcan and the adoption of cthia, known as the Unificationists and led by Ambassador Spock

In the early 2370s, Preator Navriat's government came to regard the Dominion as the gravest threat to national security that the Romulan Star Empire currently faced, and it granted Starfleet permission to install a cloaking device on a Federation starship posted at Deep Space 9 in 2371 in return for all intelligence reports gathered on the Dominion. Later that year, the Tal Shiar launched an unauthorised invasion of Dominion space in conjunction with the Cardassian Union's Obsidan Order. The invasion force intended to destroy the Great Link by decimating the Founder homeworld, but the joint fleet was instead destroyed in a meticulously planned Dominion trap.

Though the Romulan Star Empire later signed a non-aggression pact with the Dominion in 2373, a year later - after the assassination of Praetor Navriat, the elevation of Proconsul Neral to the Preatorship and the apparent Cardassian assassination of Senator Vreenak, the Romulans declared war on the Dominion and formally entered into an alliance with the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire for the first time in interstellar history. The Empire remained allied with the Federation and the Klingons for the duration of the conflict, and was present over Cardassia when the Allies attained victory.

After the War, the Romulans were the more adamant that much of former Cardassian territory should be claimed under the flags of the victors, but at the behest of the Federation, many of the former Cardassian/Dominion worlds became neutral, their own planetary governments being instructed to choose their allegiance, and the Cardassian Union shrunk to a fraction of its previous size, with the Breen moving in in the decade that followed to seize former Cardassian colonies for their own.

Shinzon of Remus

By 2379, Hiren had replaced Neral as Praetor of the Romulan Star Empire. The Romulan-Federation alliance was over by this point, and the Romulan Star Empire and the Federation were contending for control over much of the still-rebuilding Alpha Quadrant.

Domestically, Hiren faced a crisis with the rise of Shinzon of Remus to political prominence. Shinzon had won the loyalty of the Star Empire's Reman servant class, and many in the Imperial Fleet supported the extreme patriotism he demonstrated in the form of the aggressive foreign policies he supported towards the Federation. In October of that year, Hiren and the entire Imperial Senate save Tal'Aura were killed by a thalaron weapon that Tal'Aura placed in the Senate chamber on behalf of Shinzon. Tal'Aura and two Commanders in the Imperial Fleet - Donatra and Suran - backed Shinzon when he claimed the title of Praetor for himself - the first ever non-Romulan Praetor in history. The two commanders however later assisted the USS Enterprise-E in thwarting Shinzon's attempt to destroy all life on Earth with his thalaron weapon, and Shinzon was killed during the destruction of his flagship, the Scimitar.

With the fall of the Senate, the Romulan Star Empire began to fall into chaos, and the supply lines throughout the Empire were damaged. Tal'Aura claimed the Praetorship and received the backing of Proconsul Tomalak, a former commander in the Imperial Fleet. However, her claim to power was contested and tenuous, with several different factions vying for power, though over the next several years Tal'Aura worked tirelessly to solidify her position as Praetor, though a number of rival factions continued to exist, and Starfleet's monitoring of the region noted a deteriorating state in the Romulan Star Empire which was moving towards open civil war.

After the assassination of Praetor Tal'Aura on Stardate 61602.0, and the subsequent election the following year of Senator Chulan to replace her as Praetor, the rival factions within the Empire came together and agreed to put aside their differences in favour of the greater good of the Romulan state. The Remans were also persuaded to support the Star Empire in return for full citizenship and representation in the Senate, though they still remained second-class citizens in the Empire.

The stabilising position of the Romulan Star Empire by 2386 placed it in a much better and more open position.

In 2387, the Hobus star close to Romulus went supernova. Although Ambassador Spock attempted to prevent the supernova from striking the planet using a substance known as red matter, he was ultimately unsuccessful and as the hyper-accelerated shockwave hit, the surface of Romulus was heavily damaged by the impact, and the planet was racked by seismic tremors as the damage permeated through the crust to cause a disruption in the planet's core. The remaining members of the Romulan Senate, still newly-reformed after the Shinzon coup and various reorganisations under Tal'Aura, Chulan and their Proconsuls, almost immediately accepted offers of help from the Federation in dealing with the largest natural disaster in Romulan history, and Starfleet diverted enormous resources to assisting the Romulans in their recovery.

In spite of the Romulans long-held history of arrogance and isolation, Federation-Romulan relations had been improving since the election of Praetor Chulan, and Romulan citizens have become less xenophobic. After the supernova, Federation aid is either welcomed or met with suspicion and even hostility, while the Klingon Empire seizes the opportunity to conquer Romulan territory.

Relationships with other species

In keeping with their xenophobic and arguably racist attitudes, the Romulans tend to conquer species rather than form alliances with them, and individual Romulans tend to treat other species with varying degrees of disdain.

That does not prevent them from employing diplomacy when it suits their purposes. Soon after their emergence from a century of isolation in the mid 2260s, they had established at least two embassies with the Federation. One such embassy was a three-way endeavour on the planet Nimbus III, along with the Klingon Empire, and the other was on Earth itself.

Klingons and Romulans once shared an alliance for a number of years, beginning in the 2260s. Over the years, a number of incidents, including the Khitomer Massacre, led the Klingons to develop a deep-seated hatred for the Romulans, and the Romulans were arguably the species that Klingon society in general despises most of all.

A Cardassian embassy existed on Romulus for a time, suggesting that the two species maintained an active diplomatic relationship between the two periods where the races were at conflict with each other. In 2371 Romulan and Cardassian agents in the Tal Shiar and the Obsidian Order cooperated in an attempted attack on the Dominion. The Romulans had certainly cut ties with the Cardassians by the time they entered in to the Dominion War, but when their relationship ended prior to this is unclear.

One common saying among the Romulans is "Never turn your back on a Breen." While this statement could be taken as partially humorous and not in itself indicative of hostilities between the two species, the Breen Thot's apparent condition to the female Founder that the Breen be given Romulus in exchange for their help in the Dominion War suggested there was some degree of unfriendly history between the two.

The species that Romulans seem to dislike most, however, are Vulcans, and this feud goes back many centuries. The two powers once fought in a war that lasted 100 years, that was allegedly ignited due to a misunderstanding created by one of Q's self-destructive stunts.

The two species would remain distrustful of one another for an incredibly long time, but some Romulans have grown tired of this, and a grassroots movement for reunification of the two species has been active for some time on Romulus. It was generally assumed that after the split, Romulans and Vulcans were unaware of their common ancestry until the 23rd century, though some believe that the two species realised the relationship far earlier than this, and chose to hide it from their allies and enemies alike.

Government

Romulan Senate (2379)

The head of state of the Romulan Star Empire is the Praetor, who presides over the Imperial Romulan Senate. The Senate serves as the legislature of the Romulan Empire where numerous Senators represent their respective territories. Senators ascend into power through either inherited station, riches or elevation by the Senate itself. Romulan aristocracy holds a great deal of sway over the SEnate, and many of the nobility's richest and most powerful noblemen are members of the government. Beneath the position of Praetor is the Proconsul, Vice Proconsul and the First Consul. Numerous coalitions dominate the senate with Consuls serving as leaders of their respective factions whilst the Proconsul manages the Senate as a whole.

Though the Senate is an important chamber within the Romulan Star Empire, another body is that of the [[Continuing Committee[[ who regulates elevation to the various levels of government. It is the members of the Committee who are responsible for confirming the ascent of an individual to the post of Praetor and has the authority to expel senators. The Committee is typically presided over by the praetor and composed of senators as well as high ranking Romulan officials which at times has included the Chairman of the Tal Shiar.

Ultimately, it is the Senate who represents the people of the Star Empire and is responsible for the appointment of a Praetor. The Praetor themselves serve as the head of government as well as the supreme military commander. They are also responsible for setting the policy in foreign relations.

The only other two authorities left that manage the Empire are the Romulan Civil Administration - whose governors administrate Romulan worlds - and the Romulan military, which consists of the Romulan Guard and the Imperial Romulan Fleet.

The Tal Shiar is the secret police agency of the Empire, ruthlessly enforcing the law upon the Romulan populace. Even the members of the Imperial Fleet and the Senate often live in fear of the Tal Shiar, with its carte blanche to deal with threats to the state as it sees fit. Very little in the way of free speech or sentient rights exists within the Empire because of the Tal Shiar's actions, as dissent is not tolerated.

The Romulan seat of government is the Hall of State in Ki Baratan, Romulus.

Politics

In external application, Romulan political agendas appear largely unified over the centuries. Their goals focus on maintaining Imperial security through vigilance, and negating the perceived advantages of their rivals. Both goals are accompanied by a near-paranoid reticence to reveal information, even facts as basic as their racial identity, that might illuminate other Romulan ambitions or motivations. Short of war, the means to those ends have generally varied between favoured methods:

  • Surreptitious political disruption of rivals – as in the secret relationship with V'Las of the Vulcan High Command in the 2150s, participation in the Khitomer conspiracy of 2293, secret alliances both with the Klingons- such as in the House of Duras from the 2340s or against the Klingons, or the aborted attempt to replace key Starfleet officers with clones in the late 24th century.
  • Limited, surprise or covert military action – as in the use of telepresence-operated drone-ships to spark the "Babel Crisis" among neighbouring powers in 2154, a single Bird-of-Prey used to attack the Federation border and gauge its weaknesses in the Neutral Zone incursion of 2266, or the attack on the Klingon outpost at Narendra III in 2344.
Partial map of the Neutral Zone shown in 2266

The Empire does resort to open warfare when it is deemed necessary, but in typical fashion, their reasons for war are less than candidly expressed, as in the Earth-Romulan War and the enigmatic Tomed Incident of 2311. Unlike the Klingon objectives of the Federation-Klingon War (2267), Romulans do not appear to have gone to war with neighbouring powers under a flag of "expansion", and no competition existed for the development of Class M worlds along the Romulan Neutral Zone. Romulans express little resentment for the negotiated Zone they zealously guard, and following their conflicts, the Empire withdrew behind the safety of the buffer for many decades of self-imposed isolation from Federation affairs.

After a clone intended to replace decorated Starfleet Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Shinzon, turned on the Romulans and committed a coup in 2379, the Federation (including Picard himself) helped stop Shinzon's plans of interstellar domination. The Romulans at that point suggested that an era of warmer relations may be beginning with the Federation.

Military

See Romulan military for full information.

The Romulan military is a powerful force in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Despite being defeated by Earth in the Earth-Romulan War of the 2150s, the Romulan Star Empire continued to be a powerful presence, not afraid to tempt Starfleet by entering the Neutral Zone. Romulan forces were a deciding factor in the Dominion War, whose entry in 2374 turned the tide of war in favour of the Allies.

Romulan military operations are supported and planned by the War Plans Council, a high-level government agency.

Besides regular forces, the Romulan Tal Shiar also has its own fleet of starships, and are a ruthless and powerful organization within the Empire and beyond.

Science and Technology

The Romulan Ministry of Science oversees the scientific research of the Romulan Star Empire. The Romulan Astrophysical Academy is a division within the Romulan science community.

After the brief Romulan-Klingon Alliance in 2268, the Romulans exchanged their cloaking technology for the D7-class battle cruisers.

Subject species

See also


OOC Information for COs

  • The Fleet Admiralty understands that the events surrounding Romulus alluded to in the Star Trek 2009 film are a controversial topic within the simming community, and have attempted to appease both sides of the argument by stating that Romulus was damaged, but not destroyed by the supernova, thus allowing either side of the story to be played by sims. Non-the-less, as per By-Law #4 Fleet Canon, sim COs should feel free to ignore any part of this article if they so choose.
  • Any additions or alterations to data on the Romulans not passing a vote of Fleet Canon should be marked as 'Non Canon' clearly within this article. Such items may still be used as part of Sim Canon, but the Pegasus Fleet Wiki staff reserve the right to remove such sections if they are confusing to voted-in Fleet Canon.