#founders and shapeshifters = changeling

[anonymousmothman]

I love star trek fanart so much because people will put tails on any species that isn't human . Cardassian? Understandable, they're straight up reptiles. Weyoun? I get it... it's a little critter. Andorian? Vulcan? Bajoran? I love it so much. Even if it "doesn't make sense in canon" it's so real to me. I think everyone deserves to have a tail because tails are cool as shit.

[slippery-domjot-balls]

[quarkfancam]

i've been thinking about the dominion species' designs and wanted to do my own takes on changelings + vorta, especially the female founder (seen some people call her 'voice of the link' which is a very cool name)... some more thoughts under the cut...

i believe somewhere a writer mentioned that the founders kept odo's appearance as a 'mockery' at later points so i wanted to lean into the mockery part of it by making her openly display her mastery of shapeshifting, by replicating humanoid innards... and of course reminding the humanoids of their vulnerability

i also thought it'd be fun to make the innards glow and goopy (well, she is a changeling after all) and the yellow glow has always made me think of how they are worshipped as gods... connection to sunlight in human religions and such

as for the vorta (well it Is weyoun but i suppose keeping it more general), i wanted to make them appear a bit more monkey-like, but not TOO much. i honestly just messed around with the design until i liked it! i've always liked weyoun's outfit but it doesn't lend itselr too well to a lot of the shapes i like to use so i just gave him big sleeves. for enrichment.

[walkingstackofbooks]

OKAY OKAY OKAY

So to shapeshift, right, is to become that thing, isn't it? I'm sure that's how the Founder, and later Odo explains it. The changelings aren't just pretending to be that thing, in a way they're being that thing?

Okay so I'm a little unsure now that I'm actually writing this out so the rest of this maybe isn't as much sense as I thought it was....

BUT. If the above is correct it suddenly occurred to me another reason other than 'lack of practice' that Odo could struggle to imitate humanoid faces...

Could it be that he has too much of his own, distinct personality? Becoming a humanoid is to become them, to understand them entirely as a person (which is why Founders are the perfect infiltrators, and also why they hate being solids: their changelinghood is eclipsed by their target's personhood, even if they do of course hang onto their objective and knowledge from being a changeling).

But Odo developed as his completely own person, first. Changelings in the link don't seem to have a sense of "self", they are a communal species, but Odo is utterly himself. And so could it be that he is unable to put aside everything that makes him him in order to become and truly understand another person?

Or, in other words, the changelings who don't see humanoids as being proper 'people' can treat becoming them much the same as becoming a bird - they are understanding a different sort of lesser life form, and the fact that a humanoid has its own thoughts and feelings is non-consequential because they are on such a different order to a changling's.

But the thoughts and feelings of a humanoid are so similar to Odo's that -- in a way, because he understands them more -- he has more of an awareness of their individuality and difference to himself, and therefore cannot imagine them the same way he does a bird. He is distinct, and they are distinct, and shapeshifting isn't about copying, it's about becoming, and Odo could never become someone else because it would mean becoming less than himself.

This is a ramble and I don't know if it makes any sense but it's lit up my brain and I'm definitely feeling like

[skymallnine]

Parallel universe where the Founders really are a myth. In this universe, the Vorta attempt to genetically engineer themselves. Their (imagined) benefactors delight in taking new shapes, copying new bodies, so the most loyal Vorta give them a quiverfull.

Of course, this doesn’t exactly work. Devotion to the Founders is culturally transmitted and has very little to do with genes. They’re horrified to discover that, despite their best efforts, the Founders’ visitations to their children are waning. Eventually, they switch to actual gene engineering. When even that proves to be unreliable, they create the Jem’Hadar. Their sect, fast-growing but by no means universal, seizes control of the Vorta homeworld.

According to them, the Founders did all these things. In a way, metaphorically, this is true. No one physically shapeshifts, there are no actual Founders, but through the Vorta they take solid form, imposing their will onto the Gamma Quadrant.

In the Alpha Quadrant, the same societies that were most susceptible to changeling infiltration instead fall to the changeling myth. Their leaders are gripped by the mere idea of the Founders, driving them to act fearfully and aggressively. Assume everyone around you is untrustworthy, evil, changeling. Shatter your faith in your neighbors; the only thing you can believe in is the inevitability of the Dominion. And so they shapeshift into Founders, afraid of all other solids and determined to bring them to heel.

Everyone still has the same interactions with Odo, even though he doesn’t exist (odo’ital indeed). He’s Quark’s conscience, Kira’s commitment to fighting impossible odds, Bashir’s hippocratic oath. He’s flying overhead when Damar and Garak shout “for Cardassia”. In other words, he’s all the positive, community-building aspects of faith. He’s faith in other people, above the Dominion, above the State, above latinum, above every instinct that screams this is a losing battle, and what’s worth saving about the solids anyway?

Section 31 almost destroys this kind of faith, but it survives; ultimately healing the faith that poisoned the Vorta.

[cruisingheightswithdragons]

okay so (apologies if you've answered this elsewhere) but what, if any, feelings/thoughts does Lilip have regarding the original(?) Vorta as well as the founders/changelings?

For the longest time, Lilip didn’t know what they were or where their species is from. Which is why after a few years on the Enterprise, they moved to DS9 after whispers of these new aliens from the wormhole came about(this was not long after we were introduced to the Dominion (so like early season 3 lol)).

Because of their incomplete Vorta dna, a lot of modifications from the founders is missing, including unyielding loyalty and devotion to them. They’re just another species of alien to interact with (and Lilip is a liiittle envious of their shapeshifting). As far as she’s concerned, Odo is just another guy to Lilip, but there are lingering flashes of feeling about him that they can’t quite place until they learn about the Vorta and their genetically modified state.

Which is why Lilip finds the few Vorta they do encounter very off putting and kinda creepy. I’d imagine Weyoun, when he stayed at the station, was quite interested in Lilip since she was essentially a blank slate— a challenge to reprogram into the perfect Dominion agent, and maybe find some dormant character within her that would be as devoted to the Founders as he is. Didn’t work, by the way, her genetic coding was just a smidge too withered by the time it was found all those years ago.

So all in all, Lilip is just another Federation citizen who just so happens to be mostly Vorta. They have their own thoughts and opinions, their own tastes and appreciations. She’s just Lilip, nothing more, nothing less!

[moonlitphoenixflight]

In Stars and Time AU with shapeshifting aliens (Of Void and Light) [part 4]

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 5]

This one is the one with political corruption and succession.

There might be something that should be tagged or warned about in here, I'm not entirely sure what I would do specifically, but if there's something you notice please inform me!

Wuh Oh

The government of Xiriel is corrupt. First off, it is a strict monarchy, sometimes on the brink of being able to be considered a dictatorship. The ruler maintains their position because of their massive magical power, the source of which is the second thing.

Changeling twins do not exist under normal circumstances. This is a good thing. Void and Light essence exist in harmony in a changeling's body, but do not fully mix. When a piece is split off to create an egg, the Void and Light essence separate further.

There exists a specific spell invented by the founder of Xiriel which splits a single developed changeling egg into two. Because of the separation between Void and Light essence, one egg will have an overabundance of Void essence, and the other Light essence. The imbalance quickly develops into each twin only having one of the types of essence.

In a regular changeling, Void and Light essence balance each other out. In twin changelings, there is no such balance. There are two major long-term effects of this separation.

When Void and Light essence are separate, they are massively powerful. This power extends to twin changelings.

When Void and Light essence are separate, they are also extremely unstable. This affects twin changelings by causing their magic to become uncontrollable, and their mental state to slowly deteriorate.

The only changelings who know about or use the twin spell are those in the royal lineage of Xiriel.

There is only one ruler, but twin heirs are hatched. They will typically attack each other frequently in order to obtain enough of the opposing essence type to keep themselves stable. At some point, after both heirs have honed and developed their power, they will fight. The winner of the fight will kill and Consume the other. This combines and stabilizes the survivor's power with the defeated's.

The merging of Void and Light essence partially lowers their power, but also removes the issue of destabilization. The winning heir Consuming the other also adds their power to their own.

An heir is only allowed to attempt to take the throne once they have reached adulthood. The active ruler will either rarely willingly concede, or the two will perform a Trial of Battle, fighting to the death. The winner will once again Consume the other.

Because of the risk, the heir usually trains for a few thousand years before taking their adult form and attempting to take the throne. A changeling child is also always at least as strong as their parent in terms of raw magical strength.

Because of the potential gain in power, active rulers will have heirs despite the risk. The culture of Xiriel, and especially the royal lineage, value power above all else, and the heirs are raised accordingly.

In the history of Xiriel, there has only ever been a single pair of heirs who chose to love and help each other, rather than hate and compete with each other. They are a pair who you likely know quite well, albeit under very different circumstances.

They will be the subject of part 5.

[gplusbfics]

Picking up on my Garashir New Wave series afer more than a year, I take Depeche Mode's "Walking In My Shoes" as the inspiration of another short fic. Not quite a drabble, but with fairly minimal plot. They talk a lot.

Setting & Time: DS9, following episode "Broken Link." Garak is in the brig.

Summary: After attempting genocide of the Founders, Garak finds himself in DS9's brig. He has no idea how he's going to manage six months of boredom without going mad. Until one day he has a somewhat unexpected visitor. Would the doctor berate him or, as he sometimes did unknowingly, flirt?

Excerpt: After the rage he'd felt in the face of the female Changeling's threat – wiping out the Cardassian race – he couldn't miss the opportunity for preemptive revenge. So, when he'd seen the weapons arrays were unattended and Odo, Sisko, and the doctor were on the surface, he'd seized the moment and attempted to rid the universe of as many of the loathsome shapeshifters as possible. Alas Worf had to show up at just the wrong moment and thwart his plans. Damn that Klingon.

And of course I have to share the video!

[theimaginatrix27]

I have realised that Odo is the reason I started paying attention to Deep Space Nine

I was talking about this with @roguetelepaths on Discord, but there was enough information for me to make a proper post out of it, so here I am, doing that.

See, when I was a kid, I usually got drawn into a show by acquiring an interest in a particular character. I first became aware of Farscape because of Rygel, I started hanging around when my father was watching rented episodes of Voyager because of Captain Janeway/the Doctor/Tuvok (they're tied, I'm sorry), Teal'c drew me into Stargate: SG-1 (closely followed by Daniel).

With Deep Space Nine, this character was Odo.

Before I go on, you should understand a couple things.

My Dad had cable when I was eleven/twelve.

I did not live with him, and did not see him every weekend, so I did not always have access to this cable service.

I therefore did not have access to Star Trek series in order for a very very long time.

There was a Trek block on one of the mixed-bag sort of channels this cable service had (there were several, but this was before Australia had a dedicated Sci-fi channel). It was on Saturday evenings and had TOS, TNG, DS9 and Voyager, in that order, starting at 7-30. If it wasn't Saturday night, I probably wouldn't have been allowed to stay up to watch Voyager, but it was, so I was.

Unfortunately for my future self, it was smack in the middle of the time period during which my brain was tuned to Dragon Ball Z all the time unless I had to focus on something else. Also I was like, eleven. My life had been pretty complicated already so I wasn't a sweet summer child who thought nothing bad ever happened, but I was not yet equipped to properly grasp the complexities of the Trek I was exposed to, especially DS9.

I know I was present when this channel ran Move Along Home (I can still remember the Allamaraine chant, though I did not process most of the rest of that episode), and I think I at least saw an ad saying that Saturday's episode was If Wishes Were Horses, if only because Rumpelstiltskin was in that episode and that's a weird thing to have in a Sci-fi show, my little brain thought. (I had not yet been exposed to Q. That's a story for another day).

The first episode I actively remember choosing to watch was The Forsaken. Because I'd seen the ad for that, and wait, this guy turns into a liquid? Cool! I wanna see this now!

This was also the first time I ever saw Lwaxana Troi, as far as I recall, so I got one hell of a first impression of her (I liked her very well by the end). But I was here for Odo, and I zeroed in on him. And learned both about his biology and witnessed a rant that established his personhood in my mind—it is not in fact nice to treate a shapeshifting being like a source of entertainment.

By the end of the episode, I was absolutely ride or die for this character. And he's the reason I started paying attention to DS9.

The only other episode I clearly remember watching during this period was Heart of Stone, because it was another Odo-centric episode I was fortunate to be present for, and this first experience of that episode had me absolutely shipping Kiraodo (I have discussed that before in my Kiraodo post), but before that, there was the reveal of where Odo got his name, and that absolutely pulled at my little twelve-year-old heartstrings, which is why I absolutely wanted his love for Kira to be reciprocated, because are you kidding? He just said his name meant "unknown sample"/"nothing", I was so wanting to hug him after that, and then he confessed love for this other character, and I love him, please let Kira love him too... (Also this was my first encounter with the Voice of the Link/the Female Founder, owing to how many episodes I'd missed due to extenuating circumstances beyond my control, and I wanted the mean Changeling to be proved wrong.)

So those two episodes informed my view of Odo for the next several years and beyond, and for a while there, he was hands-down my favourite character on DS9.

Over the next few years, however, my Odo love dropped to a simmer in the back of my mind because I had zero access to any Trek owing to moving away from my Dad and our subsequent permanent estrangement (long story, don't wanna get into it, it's ... there's a lot of underlying stuff irrelevant to this post). Eventually, Mum was able to get cable for us, a few months at a time, and that cable service had a Sci-fi channel now, and I had a connection in my bedroom, and could watch Star Trek without having to ask to use the family TV, and I got back into the Trek series I'd watched parts of with Dad, but grew to like them on my own terms, for my own reasons.

And at some point, I got to watch The Begotten (before Broken Link because I was at the mercy of reruns and also life made me miss episodes frequently).

And I already loved Odo thanks to the above experiences, but watching him with a baby of his own species (before Mora showed up) was so heartwarming, even if he was sad about being a solid at the time. And then the baby sacrificed itself to give him his powers back, and Oh no there went my heart again. And this basically cemented my love for Odo and his storyline and his people (even the ones that were mean to him sometimes).

I love the whole cast now, I was falling in love with the other characters when I watched The Begotten, but Odo is the reason I even started watching the show, and I have him to thank for my deep abiding love for it today.

And in light of this, it's no surprise I jumped onto the Dominion Fan train so fast. Odo needs a hug, I've always known this, but the more I learned about the Dominion races the more I realised they all did/do.

I can't undo the bad writing choices the showrunners made, or those other fanfiction authors have made, but I sure as hell can be niceys to them in my own stories.

Now, if you excuse me, I have to do something about my Dominion Week backlog. Dx

[jimintomystery]

DS9: "The Adversary"

Captain Sisko receives orders to take the Defiant to the Tzenkethi border, with Ambassador Krajensky aboard as an observer. But the crew soon discovers the ship has been sabotaged...and "Krajensky" is actually one of the Founders of the Dominion!

I was originally in favor of this show's lead being a mere commander, and perhaps working his way up the ranks. When Sisko established that his goal was to be an admiral, not merely a captain, I thought it'd be cool if he earned two promotions over the course of the series. Since that didn't happen, starting Sisko out as a commander accomplished nothing, except to make people wonder why the Black CO was a step behind Kirk, Picard, and Janeway. There's no sense that the promotion represents any particular evolution in the character; it's just the showrunners realizing they messed up and hastily fixing it.

I've always enjoyed this story, although looking back the Defiant crew seems absurdly unprepared to deal with "Krajensky." We've known since the start of the season that the Founders are Changelings, like Constable Odo. And yet, our heroes don't seem to have considered the potential threat of a shapeshifting infiltrator until one of them has already hacked the ship and locked it into an attack run on the Tzenkethi. I suppose the crew has to be caught flat-footed, or there'd be no story. But it's downright comical listening to Sisko explain that anyone found without a partner should be taken to the brig, and within a few minutes six characters get separated, including Sisko, and none of them are put in the brig.

This episode establishes that if you draw blood from a Changeling, it reverts into their natural gooey substance. This seems like it'd be a great way to screen for Changelings...at least until the very first time they try it, when it totally doesn't work. Given that the show continues to trot out the blood screenings well into season five, they probably shouldn't have nerfed the idea almost immediately.

In previous encounters with the Founders, they basically let the good guys go once their presence is revealed, because they don't want to fight Odo. "No Changeling has ever harmed another" appears to be their most sacred law, to the point that Odo can force them to withdraw simply by refusing to back down. It's not clear why that doesn't apply here--"Krajensky" plainly does not care if Odo is harmed as long as he completes his mission. To me that seems like a mitigating factor when Odo causes his death, but I suppose we'll have to deal with the repercussions later...

[chaotic-hypnotic-erotic]

DS9 "The Begotten"

The main story of this season 5 episode is - Odo gets his shapeshifting powers back, after the Founders took them away in season 4's finale "Broken Link."

So this is what they did to make this happen.

Quark sells Odo a baby Changeling they'd only just discovered. Odo realises he's going to have to do some parenting. There are arguments with Dr Mora Pel, the Bajoran scientist who tortured Baby Odo when the latter was just a gravy stain on a lab bench.

The Baby Changeling begins to learn ... then they start dying, and Odo can't save it. It dies, but it restores Odo's morphogenic matrix, and Odo becomes a blob again.

Only ...

Well, two things. One, they did not have Section 31 just yet.

And two ... they did not have the morphogenic virus story yet - that was to come in season 7.

However ...

During season 7, when they revealed the existence of the virus, they pinpointed the exact date when Odo had been infected.

The date, in season 4, when Odo had visited Earth.

Which meant that Odo had been a carrier of the virus during "The Begotten" in season 5.

And Odo had passed on the morphogenic virus to the dying baby Changeling.

He'd unwittingly killed the closest thing to his own child.

[diamondot]

AND NOW THE CONCLUSION

the Defiant is in trouble, lads

we are all part of the great link, you know

Odo can't stop being a cop

this episode was directed by Jonathan Frakes?? we're in for a good time

love the handwaving of Sisko and Bashir just being on a shuttle. so curious how they get the Defiant back

Dax and O'Brien are ok somehow!

i, too, avoid contact with solids whenever possible

love that Odo is the grumpiest motherfucker in the galaxy

...is that actually Dax and O'Brien tho

that's not a Founder. that's a Vorta. he's l y i n g

Garak! immediately flirting with Bashir! that's my guy

T'Rul, the Founders are very obviously excluding the Romulans to create chaos and sow division, could you please not play into their hands quite so readily

Admiral, if you could not play into their scheme quite so readily also

i.. hmm. did not expect that to be quite so sexual

why WOULD shapeshifters need a door

good lord what is that Jem'Hadar's problem

good lord why are all the Starfleet NPCs falling over themselves to accommodate the Dominion

Sisko's not having this bullshit

and damn it is a LOT of bullshit

the changelings' garden is kind of goals, honestly. the plants are whatever but i like the patio

Garak: damn dude this shit is nuts, eh?

Sisko: you are absolutely right my dude

omg Garak went and got Dax and Bashir

this is all a simulation, isn't it

yep, 100% a simulation

belong to it? bitch, i am the Dominion

it occurs to me that the Founders basically have the same motivation and methods as Discworld's Auditors

Odo, once again solving the problem by speaking sternly

you're not all that, lady

this episode was great

one year ago today i was in labor! for the entire day! but tonight it's

Star Trek night

The Search, part 2: will they find the Founders this time??

[siryl]

Portrait by Michael Hamlett of Constable Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

[trek-memes-blog]

Changeling Laas does not trust monoforms

[majingojira]

Okay, I participate in a shared project that tracks crossovers across fiction, and weaves them into a somewhat corehernt universe. Everyone has their own take, but there are some rules we follow for it.

Anyway, Batman and Dresden have analogues in this Crossover Universe/Wold Newton Universe, though things are a bit different magically and thematically (IE: Real Time Aging, Crossover stories take precedent).

Here are my own takes on the more... magical of Batman's costumed criminal cadre.

Bane - Venom is a derivative of the chemical formula that created Mr. Hyde. It became a street drug for a time known as "Hyde 25."

Catwoman - This is one of my favorites. Thanks to the crossover story Batman/Tarzan: Claws of the Catwoman, we have a full story for this occult explaination for this rogue. The original Catwoman was a woman named Khefretari from the hidden city of Memnon in Africa. She was the high priest of Bast who went to America to recover stolen artifacts from her country. Thanks to another crossover, and my need to streamline things, her story screams only one thing: She is Wakanda. She was also the Black Panther of the 1930s before T'Chaka took the throne. Why did it go to him? Well, she married Bruce in the end, and thus abdicated her role for Wakanda having accomplished her task. Thus opening the path for T'Chaka, and then T'Challa, followed by Shurri.

Clayface - There have been several Clayfaces and they generally root towards a being known by as many names as shapes it can take. Changeling, Founder, Skrull, Rutan Host, Daemonite... Shapeshifting (and occasionally infecting) alien horrors. A particularly nasty one landed in the arctic near that time, and its remains lead to the creation of Plastic Man and Mr. Fantastic.

Joker - Probably a normal human, but... there are two occult possibilities. One that the Joker is a spiritual entity. Every time he 'dies', the entity simply takes over a new human host. Perhaps it's a spirit of place that lives in Gotham. But some may hold that it is but a mask of the Soul of the Outer Gods, Nyarlathotep.

Killer Croc - A descendant of the Serpent Men of Valusia, like Doctor Kurt Conners.

Man-Bat - An ancient vampire. Possibly Red Court but may also be of a more ancient lineage spoken of in The Silmarillion. In either case, he's less of a science experiment, and more of an occult monster.

The Penguin - He has several deformations -- in his hands, his eyes, and teeth, that can only be described as one thing: "The Innsmouth Look" -- Yeah, The Penguin is a Deep One. Or will be one eventually. It also allows him to just kinda always be around despite being published for decades. He's actually immortal.

Poison Ivy - Definitely a Dryad. It's just too perfect.

Ra's Al Ghul - Actually a pseudonym for a different Asian villain: Fu Manchu.

Solomon Grundy - A entity known as a Slasher, an undead killer that is notoriously difficult to put down. Similar to the monster that is Jason Voorhees -- though he is technically a variety of Deadite.

Scarface/The Ventriloquist - Most modern instances of Scarface showing up in Gotham can be attributed to notorious serial killer Charles Lee Ray, better known to the world as Chucky.

I think that covers the big names pretty well.

And yeah, it gets pretty weird. But that's crossover for ya!

AU crossover where Batman is from some sort of Malvora/other fear-eater offshoot of the white court (potentially descended from an undiscovered bastard?). 

Very little else is different about him though…his fighting crime in a bat-suit to protect his city keeps him well fed enough. 

Though it does raise the question of what some of his rogues would be like in a dresden files crossover. For example, Poison Ivy is definitely a dryad and Two-Face…perhaps a Denarian? 

[writergeekrhw]

so before it was decided that odo was a founder, who were the founders? were the founders as a category made up to give odo back story? if so, was there an alternative structure for the dominion envisaged?

Odo came first. He was always a shapeshifter. As we were figuring out the Dominion, one of the first things we thought of was "What if Odo's people ran the Dominion?"

So there was never an alt. The main consideration was how fast to reveal that the Founders were changelings.