#Romulan Origins

[biblioflyer]

Zhat Vash and the Romulan Diaspora, Picard s1e2 Rewatch.

The timeline of the Romulan separation from Vulcan becomes even more murky and shrouded in legend and propaganda. Continuity complaints abound but "canon violation" often really just means "I don't like this, it is silly and dumb."

This is part of a series of essays reevaluating Star Trek Picard and interrogating the widely held fandom criticism that Picard made the Federation into a Dystopia.

This is the episode where we learn the name Zhat Vash in an info dump by Laris and Zhabon. Intriguingly and perhaps problematically they are described as having been active for thousands upon thousands of years. 

This doesn’t line up very neatly with the hazy info we have on Romulan history. The exodus of Vulcans who rejected Surak’s teachings was only supposed to have taken place circa 470 CE when “those who marched beneath the Raptor’s wings” lost a struggle for domination of Vulcan society and left for the stars. 

However, if the people who would become the Debrune and the Romulans could leave Vulcan in the first place and feasibly make an interstellar journey, that implies that Vulcan had had at least rudimentary interstellar travel prior which does not preclude a group of explorers who would become Zhat Vash stumbling across the Admonition and bringing its anti-Synth warning back with them.

Scrutiny of Memory Alpha to refresh my memory of what has been canonically established about Romulan and Vulcan history also brought up an interesting detail: Vulcans may not actually be from Vulcan. 

In a TOS episode Spock actually speculates that a powerful telepathic species they encounter may actually have been ancestors of the Vulcans. Thus there is another possible vector for Zhat Vash to have been introduced into Vulcan and Romulan societies in that Zhat Vash may actually predate both civilizations.

At the risk of deviating into fan theory territory, I do have to wonder if this all adds extra texture to the Romulan / Vulcan split wherein Zhat Vash may have played a role in heightening tensions between the two over concerns that a rejection of emotion and the embrace of pure reason would lead the Vulcans to ultimately dismiss concerns over artificial intelligence as illogical products of anxiety over AI being hostile, uncontrollable, or a moral hazard of some sort. 

It's also possible that tales of Zhat Vash have grown across multiple retellings and they were only founded after the schism. 

I take a stance that we ought to be open to the idea that not all exposition is created equally and not all narrators are reliable. Zhabon and Laris may be our Herodotus in this scene: they’re relating what they were told, and believe up to a point, but we the audience ought not to assume their rumors about a cult operating inside or alongside the Tal’Shiar are completely accurate in every little detail.

It's worth reminding ourselves that even Picard himself does not seem to be a wholly reliable narrator either! In just the first two episodes, he repeatedly demonstrates lack of self awareness and other errors in judgment or lack of knowledge. Thus I think we ought to entertain the idea that even characters who are providing detailed exposition are stating what they believe but not necessarily providing 100% definitive facts about the setting.

At any rate, we find out that Commodore Oh, who has an ambiguous role in ensuring security from clandestine Romulan assassins operating on Earth, is herself a member of Zhat Vash. From what I can recall, even in private Oh does not “break character” which suggests to me that while it's assumed she’s Romulan, it's possible she is culturally Vulcan at least in her decision to abstain from overt displays of emotion. 

Seeing as she’s not the first deep cover Romulan impersonating a Vulcan who presumably would have to pass as Vulcan to other Vulcans, I find myself wondering if some Romulans actually did go on to develop an ascetic tradition that mirrors Surak’s teachings but is either dogmatically different enough from Surak’s tradition to be tolerated by other Romulans or is merely tolerated for its usefulness in grooming deep cover agents.

Thematically, I find that I’m kind of over the trope of secret societies with seemingly omnipotent capabilities to hide and manipulate their host civilization. The X-Files is my own personal touchstone for this trope becoming popular and the longer the show ran, the more the trope became its own problem because the more you tug on the strings of that storyline, the more answers you have to cough up as to how they do what they do and why, and the explanations often become a bit hard to believe, if not contradictory. 

Zhat Vash hiding inside of the Tal’Shiar, creating a situation where you have nesting dolls of memetically ultra effective, conspiratorial organizations just takes this to another level. 

Having said that, the trope is subverted a bit in that while Zhat Vash is feared, they’re clearly not as good as they’re mythologized as being. First off Laris and Zhabon are able to pretty accurately lay out their agenda based on scraps of hearsay. Just off of memory, while Zhat Vash’s motives will be expanded upon as the season progresses, Laris and Zhabon already have at least the broad outline completely dead on.

This represents a level of operational security that falls well below Section 31 who had managed to erase almost all evidence of their having existed sometime after the events of Discovery’s second season and most people who seemed to have had personal knowledge of Section 31 kept it quiet enough that not even the likes of Captain Picard ever apparently heard so much as a scrap of a rumor. 

Also this is a rant for another time, but I absolutely, positively despise Section 31. Absolutely nothing Star Trek Picard does corrupts the Federation thematically more than Section 31. It reeks of a refusal by the inventors of the organization to accept the core premise of the setting that a civilization that devotes itself to fairness both in equity and equality could ever endure or prosper.

Returning to Zhat Vash, as individuals Oh, Narek, and Narissa are far from perfect superspies. I remember Narissa in particular being a real problem for Oh and Narek who are far more cautious and plotting than the impulsive and rather sadistic Narissa. 

Given my biases against conspiracy within a conspiracy storylines, I do look forward to trying to rejudge Zhat Vash and whether I think it holds together better than the Syndicate of the X-Files. For now I don’t exactly hate it, but I don’t love it.

[abiscuit]

I love Star Trek, I love how every time a federation ship goes into the romulan neutral zone there is also immediately a romulan ship. Like girl, what were YOU doing in the neutral zone?

[chernobog13]

Yeah, I can see this ad running in the pages of a 23rd Century mens' magazine.

[theladsaregoingmental]

I wonder if in 'the balance of terror' Spock saw the romulan commander and got really fucking freaked out because, ..... that's his dad? on a ROMULAN vessel?

like.... not just seeing these people WHO NO ONE HAS EVER SEEN BEFORE AND THEY LOOK LIKE YOU?! but also the guy leading them has an uncanny resemblance to your father with whom you haven't spoken for ~20 years

i think i would fucking lose it at that point, man.

[miss-americanbi]

making something your roman empire?? nah. i’m out here making things my romulan empire.

[spirk-trek]

Duet Fanzine | Susan Wyllie, 1983

[star-trek-fandom-confessions]

#741

I will never not be pissed that the Romulan Star Empire was destroyed the way it was - curse JJ Abrams with the power of a thousand suns going supernova

[utah-werewolf]

Ah, by the way - I love Star Trek, the OG one with goofy-ass costumes and Billie Shatner stealing Spock's quotes.

Below is my super basic Romulan OC, because ever since "Balance of Terror" I've kind of had a soft spot for them. I even gave him a cute, easy-to-remember name: Llhran ir'Vendras tr'Ethien.

I like to think that Vulcans would be more lithe and graceful, while Romulans - bigger and with more muscle mass. But that's just my idea.

[doolallymagpie]

got the idea in my head somehow that if it was Romulans instead of Klingons in The Trouble With Tribbles, we'd have had a very different story (considering how Vulcans are very much not immune to tribble purring)

[sporkandpringles]

my problems with discovery's spore drive have nothing to do with the wacky mushroom science. Like this is Star Trek™ not some bonefide diamond on the Moh's Scale of Sci-Fi hardness like The Martian. I know to expect the writers playing a bit fast and loose with physics and how the real world works. I'm here for that wackniess, actually. Love me some technobabble about mycelial spores or tetryon particles or whatever! the thing that doesn't work for me is the way the spore drive acts narratively, and how the technology was introduced within the timeline of the series. Like it's just obvious that the writers aren't willing to let anyone else but Discovery have access to the spore drive. They twisted up the Glenn in season one, so Discovery is the only ship with a spore drive. They hemmed and hawed about genetic modification in season 2 so no one else got a spore drive. They purged records of the spore drive's existence from history and claimed that no one else had tried to make anything like it in 900 years despite a massive dilithium shortage and canonical search for other methods of propulsion in season 3. And then at the very end, just when you think, oh hey maybe the entire population of Kwejian will make for a nice crop of new spore drive pilots, the writers fucking blow up their whole planet just so they don't have to let anyone else have the spore drive. And to be fair, they can't really let anyone else have it, or else Discovery loses it's right to be "the only one we can turn to in a crisis". And that's really all it has going for it. So, I get it! Still hate it, though. And, even moreso than all the silly narrative contrivances that are used to nerf transporter technology so that the plot can still happen, this bothers me. Because sure, all the ion storms and interference can get a bit stupid. We all make fun of star trek for inventing a technology that could immediately yoink our blorbos away from their problems, only to turn around and force it to not work when it's needed most. But at least there isn't just one ship that has the ability to use the transporter at all. That would be ridiculous. Everyone would want their own transporter. And yet, that's the situation we have in Discovery. Only one ship can travel across the galaxy in the blink of an eye. The show writers keep contriving to keep it that way. And given how useful instantaneous travel is, the fact that it hasn't been replicated once, by any species in the galaxy, not just the Federation, in 900 years is just stretching the limits of my willing suspension of disbelief.

[a-most-beloved-fool]

I don't draw all that regularly anymore, but since it is Spocktober, please accept a handful of Spocks (and one Kirk).

[risingchaos]

My thoughts on if Romulans have telepathy

Prefacing with I’ve done some deep dives as research, but I have not read books or watched all the movies so if there’s something I’m missing, please let me know and I’ll edit this to better include information.

So, obviously, we know Vulcans are touch telepaths. As far as I can tell, this is an innate ability Vulcans have from when they are young and hone with training as they get older. It’s most likely not very strong if not almost non-existent until they train it. It seems to take control and precision to be good at, and a special skill with a lot of patience to be phenomenal at.

Now, what do we know about Vulcan’s history with telepathy? We’ve been told that back before Surak’s teachings reformed Vulcan, they had used their telepathy as a weapon against each other. Post reform, there was a lot of shame surrounding their telepathy (talked about in Enterprise I believe) so it fell out of practice. Sometime between ENT and TOG, it fell back into favor at least slightly as we see Spock demonstrating his own very well practiced abilities.

We know that Surak’s teachings and the Time of Awakening is the period when the later known as Romulans broke off from Vulcan. They did not to follow the teachings of logic and pursed a war-like philosophy instead. By the time we meet them in TOG, it’s been approximately two thousand years since then. A lot can happen in two thousand years.

I’ve got two main theories.

One - The Romulans have simply evolved out of it. When they split off, they did not pursue strengthening their telepathy, so they stopped being able to have telepathy. Two thousand years down the line, the ability is simply gone.

Two - This one is more interesting to me. Romulans still possess the ability to have touch telepathy, they just can’t access it very much because of their lack of control. Considering that the only way Vulcans now seem able to use it is through practice and control, I’d imagine that that was still the case back then, they were just also very emotional creatures. Perhaps the Romulans still have the ability, but have lost what’s needed to use it practically.

Of course I could be talking entirely out of my ass and there’s an in universe explanation I’ve missed in which case I’ll cry and delete this whole thing, but please, let me know if there is one! I’d probably just make a whole post with that instead. Genuinely curious on everyone’s thoughts.

[chernobog13]

Romulan Bird-Of-Prey Cutaway.

Cutaway diagram by Matt Cushman. Blueprints by Gary Kerr and Petri Blomqvist.

[quasi-normalcy]

Symphonic pieces for various Star Trek factions (a vibes-based analysis)

Anyways, here are pieces that give me the vibes of various races from Star Trek

Federation:

Theme from Cosmos (Vangelis): The truth is that most of the music in Star Trek is already a theme for the Federation. But why not a theme that's about the majesty of the universe?

Klingons:

God of War montage (various composers). I don't know, the female vocals have always struck me as sounding like Klingon opera.

Romulans:

Dance of the Knights (Sergei Prokofiev). A piece that makes you feel like you're going to end up with a knife in your back if you don't watch yourself very, very carefully.

Borg:

Pruit Igoe (Phillip Glass). I can listen to this and just imagine flying through the endless, monumental labyrinth of a Borg Cube, where everything human goes to die.

Orions:

Tikal (E.S. Posthumus). Tell me that this isn't the soundtrack to having your ship stolen by green-skinned "animal women"

Ferengi:

Breakfast Machine (Danny Elfman). Just kind of silly; just kind of weird; just kind of commercial; very much like the Ferengi.

Dominion:

Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta (Fricsay), Bela Bartok. It's subtle, makes you paranoid, hides in the shadows. Very oppressive. Very Dominionesque.

Cardassians:

The Conquest of Paradise (Vangelis). Music that speaks to an invincible state. A perfect theme for a brutal colonizer.

Vau N'Akat:

Pompeii (E.S. Posthumus) A proud and ancient culture brought to ruin in a sudden cataclysm; seamlessly weaving the electronic into the traditional.

BONUS:

Caitians:

Duetto Buffo di due Gatti (Gioachino Rossini): Meow.

[stra-tek]

Romulan Ale, from The Geeky Chef Drinks (Cassandra Reeder, 2018)