posted
Hello, all. I'm a longtime lurker (five years!) and finally got around to registering an account. I've been throwing around some ideas on the origin of the Romulans and want to see what you think. For about two years, I was writing up ideas for a post-Voyager/Dominion War series involving the Romulans but ultimately shelved it. Using real-life Earth situations, I've mixed in canon information with some of my speculation.
The Romulans were the descendents of genetically enhanced supersoldiers created by the Vulcans before the arrival of Surak over four thousand years ago. Like the Jem'Hadar, the Vulcans created the Romulans as foot soldiers to fight the Andorians and they were intended to be the future of Vulcan society where physical and mental imperfections were to be removed by eugenics but the project failed to control emotions. With the rise of logic and widespread support for Surak's teachings, the Romulans had no future purpose and were seen as a threat to society. The Romulans rebelled but their rebellion was suppressed. In response, the Vulcan High Command placed the surviving Romulans aboard sleeper ships to be launched into a distant star. Like Adam and Eve being forced out from the Garden of Eden, the Romulans were sent away from Vulcan.
However, the Romulans managed to commandeer the stasis ship and, aware of their fate, decided to search for a new home world where they could build a new society. They landed on what became Romulus. In three hundred years, the Romulans conquered Calder II, Dessica II, Draken IV, Yadalla Prime and Barradas III. Over time, the Romulans conquered and liquidated various alien species in their zeal to overpower the Vulcans by imperial strength. The ruthless and rapid expansion by the Romulans led to tensions with the Klingons which led to intermittent war with the Romulans by the 22nd century.
The Romulans maintained an empire with a parliamentary government with a chancellor and an emperor but was replaced in a military coup led by General D'deridex who merged the positions of emperor and chancellor into the office of praetor; on Earth, Adolf Hitler merged the offices of chancellor and president of Germany into Fuhrer.
The new office assumed new powers and reduced the Senate to a symbolic but powerless rubber-stamp legislature. Most of the real power lies in the military, the praetor and the Continuing Committee; for example, warbirds are named for emperors, generals and praetors. The Continuing Committee resembles the Politburo Standing Committee in the People's Republic of China as a small clique of individuals with power, reducing the Romulan Senate to a symbolic but powerless rubber-stamp legislature. (There may also be a judicial branch of some sort.)
Organization of Romulan government:
Praetor (one)
Continuing Committee (seven to nine members)
Senate (44 senators, as seen in Nemesis, representing 44 regions and/or planets)
Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
You know, I really think they were just regular Vulcans who disagreed with Surak and so left because they were disgusted with the passionless path that Vulcan was taking.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
From watching the text commentary to "The Forge" last night, that's the impression I got. The commentary mentioned that there were several references to that hidden within the show.
It's a nice theory though. Everything except the "augment" like origin (which is somewhat substantiated by TPTB, could easily be true.
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Registered: Jul 2007
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posted
The physiological differences fit better with augmentation and genetic manipulation than a mere 3000 years of normal genetic drift, though per "Year of Hell"[VOY] other species have been known to introduce whatevers into a genome somehow or other, seemingly naturally.
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posted
Well, that's a more interesting subject, that's, as far as I know, never been completely settled: are Remans degenerated Romulans or some native species?
The ENT trilogy mentions "those who marched beneath the Raptor's wings", which seems like a pretty clear reference to the proto-Romulans before they left Vulcan (or were exiled?).
Along the way they also settled some worlds like Debrune.
posted
But some suckers that setteled Remus might have undergone various Trekish mutations due to the Radiation Of The Week.
Or they were tweaked Romulans. Or they were test victims of Romulan mutagenic weapons. Or they were the natives that got displaced to the "reservation" of Remus. Or the Romulans decided that they were already ripping off Earth mythology and needed to complete the picture.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
The best explanation I've read for the differences between Vulcans and Romulans was given here at Flare at some point, though I've long forgotten when and by whom.
The wars raging on Vulcan at the time went nuclear, as seen in Archer's katra-induced visions. Everyone on the planet probably suffered from radiation poisoning to one degree or another, and mutations galore probably crept up for generations. By the time their genomes finally stabilized, the Vulcans and Romulans had enough differences to classify as different species.
-------------------- "Kirito? I killed a thing and now it says I have XPs! Is that bad? Am I dying?"
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Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I'm doing some speculation here on Romulan governance. There's an interesting article by David Sanger in today's New York Times on Iran and I was thinking that some of the items mentioned could apply to Iran: repressive government and a strong military who are inextricably intertwined and if one fails, both collapse.
I could argue that the Romulans spend great amounts on their military because it is the most important element in their society, defending the empire, protecting the regime and ensuring stablility. However, their withdrawal from interstellar affairs is not a sign of strength but of weakness. Perhaps the Romulans are not prepared to fight a long, sustained campaign after decades of being reduced to a defensive force; if they were so strong in the military, they would have launched a war against the Federation decades ago and not resort to duplicity, espionage or proxies.
Registered: May 2009
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posted
Or, like Iran and so many others, they use military scare tactics and propaganda to distract the masses from grim economic and living conditions. Romulus looked pretty shitty at the street level when we saw it in TNG.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: Or, like Iran and so many others, they use military scare tactics and propaganda to distract the masses from grim economic and living conditions. Romulus looked pretty shitty at the street level when we saw it in TNG.
Well given that's where the dissidents were hiding out, I imagine what we saw was one of the city's poorer districts.
As for the Romulan/Reman/Vulcan genetics; has ANY Romulan ever shown any telepathic ability? If not then I rather think that the Vulcans are the augments, while the Remans were probably a counter or a crude attempt to reproduce them.
posted
What is the basis for thinking Remans are related to Romulans/Vulcans? I always thought they were indigenous inhabitants that were enslaved by the Romulans. Admittedly, there's no hard evidence either way, but that was the impression I got from NEM.
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Registered: Jun 2001
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