posted
Well, in the books the Romulans do indeed subjegate worlds in their space.
Of course the books have always been considered canon and must be considered gospel- particularly to the writers of the TV shows.
Unlike us fans, the writers take continuity very seriously.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Yes that was sarcasm: the lack of an emoticon is my attempt at subtlty.
Worked too.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Also, Keith DeCandido's recent novels do their damnedest to portray the Klingons as competent empire-makers and subjugators. There's also canon support to the idea that Klingons subjugate (rather than sterilize) conquered planets: their actions at Organia, the concept of a multi-species gulag in ST6, the rebellious world of Krios...
With the "Nemesis" revelation of Reman identity, we're also given a canonical reason to believe that Romulans, too, subjugate alien scum to serve their empire.
So far, though, only the Dominion lets "subjugated" peoples serve aboard their starships. And not everybody may agree with the use of the word "subjugated" in case of the Jem'Hadar or the Vorta, although at least the latter are a preexisting, conquered and THEN genetically manipulated species.
posted
I don't know if the Jem Hadar or the Vorta can be called subjugated, they are the instruments of conquest of other races. I don't think that at any time the Founders ever travelled through space enslaving solids, rather than they created their army on some rogue planetoid and unleashed them when they were ready. One interesting point is that Weyoun states the dominion 'has not surrendered in battle since its founding ten thousand years ago' yet the female shapeshifter says to thott gor, 'for two millenia the Jem Hadar have been our first line of defence' we can probably infer from this that a prototype of the jem hadar existed at some stage, and almost certainly resembled the Legion of Doom.
-------------------- The disappearance of Donald Love
Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
The So'na, on the other hand, seemed to use 2 subjugated races aboard their ships. Either that, or they were allies.
My understanding has been that the Jem'Hadar and the Vorta were genetically created by the Founders.
The Federation space seems to be replete with various indigenous civilizations. The Delta Quadrant was similar. If this is typical of the galaxy as a whole, and if Klingon and Romulan territories each are roughly the same size as the Federation, then it would stand to reason there should be other indigenous civilizations within their borders. They gotta do something with them and neither the Klingons nor Romulans strike me as the type to simply "live and let live" with them.
Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
weyoun's account of how the Vorta came to be as they are made it pretty clear that they weren't conquered. IIRC, a primate-ish Vorta helped an injured Changling. The Changling remembered the race and used them as administrators in their empire. Though, one could consider the fact that the godhood of the Changlings is now embedded within their genetic structure to be a form of conquest, I suppose.
posted
The So'na took over two pre-warp civilizations and, while the extreme boost in technology was probably a huge boon to both "conquored" races, the So'na basically took over.
OTOH, it's quite possible the two races view the So'na as heroes (eliminating such trivial things as starvation with their replicato tech would do that, I'd think) and follow of theiir own volition.
It seems at least possible, considering the extremely few So'na could not hold two races hostage for long (once those races were educated enough to be trained in starship operations and such).
As to the KLingons, the notion of them as "empire builders" and not just conquoring thugs seems possible as far back as TOS, when the klingon troublemaker from TWT says "that's whay they're learning to speak klingonese". It implies that at least some members of the Empire join of their own volition (possibly for protection from the Romulans, if their worlds are along the border between empires).
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
The internal workings of the Dominion seem particularly strange. (The cynical might even suggest that they just acquired traits at random as plots required.) Some members of the Dominion don't appear to know they are members. The Dominion is hugely powerful, and yet no one from the Gamma Quadrant seems to be quite sure about the details. Some future TV show could get some interesting stories out of an attempt to make the Dominion make sense. (Or, I suppose, alternatively, could sink into an unwatchable morass of contradictions.)
I don't think it would require too many Son'a to subjugate their client planets, depending on how they went about it and the relative levels of technology at work. They probably make sure the subspace radios they hand out can only pick up the "Son'a Are Awesome And Friendly Giftgifters" channel.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I read an interview somewhere that likened the Dominion to the ancient Romans. A city or civilization either voluntarilly joined the Roman Empire or else the Legions marched in and forced the city or civilization to join the Roman Empire.
So it's quite possible for some to view the Dominion as being great and others having a different opinion.
Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
The "problem" isn't that some planets in the Dominion want to be there and some don't, but that some planets know that the Dominion exists but nothing else, some planets know (or I guess think they know) that the Vorta run the Dominion, some planets know I don't know what all else.
I don't think the Roman analogy works in this regard. Like, to match up, a place like Gaul would send tribute to Rome, but think that Rome was run by the Greeks, while Egypt sends its tribute out to some secret location off the coast, where it is retrieved by people no Egyptian has ever seen.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Also, for the Roman thing to sync, the Dominion would have to activly protect it's citizens from outside dangers. A Roman citizen was (at one time) a representative of Rome wherever they traveled.
Most Dominion worlds are probably happy to be members- the Karemma for example, dont really complain about being members- they are just greedy enough to risk dominion reprisals by doing business with the Alpha Quadrant.
With the Dominion not having any Prime Directive (aside from "Serve The Founders") races like the Karemma may have aquired all their higher technology from the Dominion (agricultural worlds in particular).
It's not as though the Dominion requires so much in return- they need no conscripts or even food for their armies and a low-tech world would have little to offer aside from raw materials.
In exchange, they'd get advanced medicines, replicators (probably anyway) and the protection that enforced peace within the Dominion would offer.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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