History of the Romulan Star Empire
- Official Star Trek canon gives little insight into actual Romulan history. This section is an attempt to provide a broader narrative about the Romulan people.
The information in this section is composed of events from Star Trek canon, Federation Space canon and various authorized Star Trek novels.
Shout-out to author Diane Duane, who has helped flesh out the world and culture of the Romulans more than any other person.
This page serves as background information for Romulan players to use in understanding their culture from a FedSpace perspective.
Contents
Overview and Notes
The Romulan people are the descendants of those Vulcans who chose to reject the teachings of Surak and who found value and nobility in continuing to follow the Old Ways. Romulan history is dominated by long periods of isolation followed by short bursts of aggression, the consequences of which invariably lead them back into isolation again. It is through this cyclic framework that Romulan history is best understood. The Romulan people have a strong sense of continuity with the past. Tradition is important, and remembrance of past events forms the heart of their cultural philosophy.
Dates are given in the standard Terran calendar with their equivalent provided in the Romulan calendar, which calculates years based on their relation to the arrival on Romulus. Romulan years are noted as BS (Before Settlement) and AS (After Settlement). Romulans years are longer than Terran years, composed of 380 days of 24 hours and 27 minutes in length, thus making the Rihan year just under 22 days longer than an Earth year.
The Sundering
In the third century of the Terran calendar, a series of destructive wars threatened to wipe out the Vulcan people. Foreseeing the possible extinction of his species, the philosopher Surak came to the conclusion that only by adopting a path or pure logic and rejecting emotion could his race stop its cycle of violence. By 312 AD (212 BS), he had begun to teach this philosophy and had gained many followers, one of whom was a young man named S'Task (b. 292 AD (231 BS)). So impressed by Surak's teachings was this young man that he sought out a personal meeting with the philosopher and asked to become his student. Surak initially refused, but S'Task persisted until the older man relented.
In 322 AD (203 BS), Vulcan received radio signals from Orion ships arriving in their system, and the planet's leaders assembled a delegation to make First Contact, choosing both Surak and S'Task as representatives. Travel difficulties prevented Surak from joining the group, and he was not present when the Orions landed the following year. Instead of greeting the Vulcans in peace though, the Orions opened fire on the delegation, taking some members hostage and killing the rest.
Now a prisoner of the aliens, S'Task attempted to preach peace to them in hopes that they would listen and release his people. He quickly learned, though, that the Orions had no interest in peace. They instead intended to enslave the entire Vulcan species, and S'Task realized that he needed to do whatever was necessary to prevent it. Killing several of his captors, he incited a riot that spread to the other slave ships before eventually escaping to the surface of Vulcan. There he rallied supporters who defeated the Orions by using a combination of traditional warfare and telepathy. Specially-trained telepathic adepts forced Orion pilots to attack their own ships and to press the wrong controls on their consoles. The invaders were routed in only two months time.
This short war, known as the Ahkh, cast doubt on S'Task's belief in Surak's teachings, and he began to question his mentor's pacifism. He felt that the Vulcan people needed to embrace a unitary militarism in order to thwart any future attacks from alien invaders. The divide between S'Task and his mentor grew, and later that year, after an Orion spy ship was shot down over the planet, riots broke out as militaristic Vulcans argued in favor of arming to meet the interstellar threat. A brief war ensued between the followers of S'Task and Surak in which nuclear weapons were employed, and realizing that compromise could never be achieved between the two factions, S'Task began to organize an exodus from Vulcan to find a new homeworld where the Old Ways could continue to be practiced while leaving Surak's followers in peace. By 338 (188 BS), 12,000 Vulcans had pledged to follow him. They began to call themselves the Rihannsu, meaning the "Declared" in the Old High Vulcan language.
In 356 (170 BS), the number of Rihannsu had reached five percent of Vulcan's population. A limited number of ships, though, and the waning early excitement of the project reduced that number to 80,000 by the time they actually left the planet in 370 (157 BS). Rea's Helm departed that year with S'Task on board for a three month tour of the solar system before heading out into interstellar space. It was joined by the Warbird, Starcatcher, T'Hie, Pennon, Bloodwing, Corona, Lance, Gorget, Sunheart, Forge, Lost Road, Blacklight, Firestorm, Vengeance, Memory and Shield. The ships were without warp drive capability. Stellar slingshot maneuvers were used to increase sublight velocities, and thus they were able to travel at near light speed for most of what came to be known as the Hwael, or the "Journey."
The Hwael
In the Terran year 400 (128 BS), the fartravel ships arrived at the 88 Eri system. Finding no habitable planets, they continue onward towards 198 Eri. While en route, seven ships -- Pennon, Starcatcher, Bloodwing, Forge, Lost Road, Lance and Blacklight -- were caught in the event horizon of a newly formed black hole, and all seven were lost. The remaining ships reached their destination, but disheartened by the disaster they spent 3.5 years in orbit around one of the planets, storing up energy and debating the future of the Journey.
At S'Task's urging, they finally decided to continue onward, and they left 189 Eri for 4408A/B Trianguli, where two ships -- T'Hie and Corona -- were lost in an encounter with a mind destroying race called the Iruhe. As the remainder of the fleet fled the system at high speed, Firestorm and Vengeance became separated from the rest of the ships and wander for several years before rejoining the fleet.
Other disasters followed. Warbird suffered a drive failure and fell into 114 Trianguli while attempting a slingshot maneuver, and Memory suffered a similar fate, falling into a black dwarf. Soon after, lunglock disease spread throughout the fleet, and Sunheart was abandoned after most of its crew died in the epidemic. S'Task's wife and child also died due to the illness.
As the Hwael continued, Shield was lost and presumed destroyed. Its crew and passengers temporarily settled on a series of worlds and formed what would later be known as the Debrune culture, now extinct.
Finally, in 533 (the Romulan year 0), the four remaining ships -- Rea's Helm, Gorget, Vengeance and Firestorm -- arrived in the 128 Trianguli system with the remaining 18,000 Rihannsu. There they discovered two habitable worlds, the first of which was populated by a technologically primitive species whom they called the Havrannsu. Traveling on to the second world, they found it both much more hospitable in climate and uninhabited. Agreeing that they had finally found a new world to call home, the first of the Rihannsu began to disembark from the ships to colonize the surface.
In 537 (3 AS), the last of those who would settle on the planet had done so, leaving only the Ship Clans in orbit. These groups were reluctant to abandon the large vessels that had brought them to ch'Rihan because they gave them a great deal of influence and power. They were the only form of space travel available to the Romulans at the time, and they also featured more advanced technology than could be found in the settlements below.
The Rule of Vriha T'Rehu
Soon after the first Rihannsu arrived on the surface, clans began to set up small nation states, and a Grand Council was convened to mediate disputes between families. S'Task himself laid the cornerstone of the Council Chamber, which would later became known as the Hall of Senate.
Under the rule of Councillor T'Rehu, the nation of Elheu began a program of cloning to increase population and to quickly raise a standing army. T'Rehu was an ambitious and extremely charismatic leader, and she perhaps also possessed telepathic powers. People listened to her and gladly give her items that they could hardly spare. They even forgave her for terrible deeds.
With her power growing, T'Rehu soon became dissatisfied with the Council system of government, feeling it ineffective. A number of families in her district had suffered from a lack of basic needs such as food and medical help. The Council did nothing to help them. Allying with the Ship Clans, she used their technology as well as her own cloned army to intimidate and conquer neighboring nations in order to have access to their resources. Those that accepted her rule were brought into her ranks, while those that refused were either killed or mindchanged by the telepathic adepts that she commanded.
The Grand Council called a special meeting to condemn T'Rehu's actions. She appeared before them, accompanied by her bodyguard, and overturned the Master Councillor's chair while he was in it. She proclaimed that she would no longer be subservient to them and that she was the master of all that was within her grasp. The council dismissed her threat at first, as they believed that she would not be able to transport large armies across the entire planet, but they soon realized that with the Ship Clans as her allies, she had transports capable of quickly deploying large amounts of soldiers to anywhere she desired. The Grand Council responded by giving her the Master Councillorship. S'Task, however, departed the room, angering T'Rehu, who informed the elderly leader that he would not leave without her permission again.
After a famine struck ch'Rihan in 540 (6 AS), T'Rehu used the opportunity to enhance her power, claiming that the Grand Council was preventing her from helping the people. During a meeting, she lashed out at them, and S'Task once again stood to leave. T'Rehu warned him against it, but he did not give her a response, and as he attempted to depart, T'Rehu ordered her guards to kill him. She then dissolved the Grand Council and declared herself Vriha, or "Ruling Queen."
She conducted her court in a heavy handed fashion, where she gave sentences of life or death at her pleasure. She gratified her own desires and built massive palaces. Despite her excesses and the fact that she was S'Task's murderer, she gained the loyalty and admiration of many Romulans. T'Rehu helped the common people by improving their lot, and she also greatly enriched the Ship Clans. In return for the Ship Clans' patronage, she demanded that they develop and apply technology, namely in the fields of communications and transport. While this was done mostly to benefit her throne, these inventions also benefited all the Rihannsu people at the same time.
Eventually, her rule came to an end when the east continent began to feel that she took little notice of the them. In time, their population had doubled without the need for cloning or fertility experts, allowing them to train a young army in the militaristic arts. They eventually made their own arrangements with the Ship Clans by providing them optical grade rubies, which allowed them to develop laser technology and weapons. In the eighteenth year of T'Rehu's rule, in 558 (24 AS), the easterners rebelled, starting an extremely bloody civil war which ended when they brought her unwillingly to the battlefield on the plains of Aihai, outside of the capital city of Ra'tleihfi, and executed her. By the time the last drop of blood had been shed, only 9,000 Rihannsu remained alive.
After T'Rehu's death, a new planetary government was formed. Vowing never to allow one person to rule the Rihannsu again, the Tricameron was established, comprised of the Praetorship, the Senate and and Imperial House. It remains the form of government in use to this day. Telepathy was also outlawed, with the last of the Adepts who had traveled with them from Vulcan being executed. An era of peace, growth and prosperity ensued as the Rihannsu began to rebuild their civilization from the ashes of its near extinction.
Expansion and the Earth-Romulan War
In 784 (241 AS), the last of the four remaining fartravel ships had outlived their usefulness and major systems began to fail. No one had the knowledge to repair them, and the Ship Clans were forced to move to the surface. Over the next 150 years, the ships' orbits decayed, and they fell from the sky. This meant that the Rihannsu now had no capacity for interstellar travel. At first, the government took no concern, but fears that ch'Rihan could suffer the same fate that Vulcan had suffered from the Orions prompted them to begin developing new space technology. In 1043 (489 AS), a satellite warning and defense system was deployed around the planet. New ships were designed and built, and exploration of nearby star systems began. Space travel was slow and uncomfortable, as the Rihannsu still lacked warp technology, and it wasn't until 2034 (1441 AS) that artificial gravity was reinvented.
The Rihannsu began to settle ch'Havran in 1062 (508 AS), developing cities in the planet's eternal twilight zone and exploiting its resources. At first, they lived peacefully with the Havrannsu, but they quickly found that their technologically inferior neighbors were warlike and barbaric. Additional fear of the Havrannsu's telepathic abilities caused concern, and Rihan law was militarily imposed over them. Havrannsu society was then reorganized to serve the Rihannsu people.
In 2134 (1537 AS), the Rihannsu's worst fear became a reality. The Earth starship USS Carrizal entered the Eisn system and, ingoring the early warning system, beamed a first contact message to the two planets. The Rihannsu did not answer, not wishing to engage with any alien species, and the Carrizal left after completing a scientific sweep. Dismayed by the intrusion and fearing an invasion was emminent, a massive program began to build warships, and by the time the USS Balboa had entered the system in 2137 (1540 AS), the Rihannsu were ready for the invaders with fifty new vessels. The Balboa was destroyed by massed particle beams, but not before sending a distress call. The distress call was answered by the USS Stone Mountain, which was disable and captured as it approached ch'Rihan. The Rihannsu military quickly began to dissect the ship in a successful effort to acquire warp technology.
After a further intrusion of Rihan space by the Earth starship USS Enterprise in 2152 (1555 AS), the Rihannsu began to study the human species as well as the many other species who inhabited nearby space. Fearing that the humans were establishing an alliance that would threaten their existence, the Rihan government secretly began to develop a telepathic research program in 2154 (1557 AS). As telepathy had been outlawed and there were no native telepaths to recruit, they abducted an Aenar subject and attempted to use him to control a holographically enhanced ship. The ship could appear in any shape, and they began a series of attacks on the Andorians, Tellarites, Vulcans and humans, disguising the vessel as one of the other species' ships each time, in the hope of starting a war between the other races and thus eliminating the threat against the Rihannsu.
The program failed however, and seeing that the humans were continuing to increase their presence near Rihan space, the government began to plan for war, and in 2156 (1558 AS), they attacked Earth starships and outposts. At first they won several major battles, but they soon suffered a reversal of fortune as Earth achieved alliances with the Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites. After a bad defeat at the Battle of Cheron in 2160 (1562 AS), the Rihan government negotiated a treaty via subspace data upload. The treaty establishes the Neutral Zone as a one light year buffer between Rihan space and the newly formed United Federation of Planets. The Rihannsu could patrol and could defend the region, but they could not establish rule over the area, thus effectively making it a no man's land and a haven for smugglers and outlaws.
Also, as part of their efforts to prevent an alliance between the other races, contacts were made with the Vulcan High Command and relations established with militaristic elements of the planet's government. The Rihannsu hoped to reunify with the Vulcans under Rihan rule. However, a group of Vulcans who called themselves Syrranites and who fanatically followed the teachings of Surak, threatened their plans. Rihan agents and supportive officials on Vulcan framed the Syrranites for the destruction of the United Earth Embassy on Vulcan. The Syrranites prevailed however, forcing the removal of reunification supporters from the Vulcan government.
Isolation and the Second Civil War
After the Earth-Romulan War, the Rihannsu retreated into isolation. Worried about future contact with other potential aggressors, the government turned towards a decidedly militaristic path, organizing research into new technology and the building of a large fleet of warships. The development of the cloaking device and powerful plasma torpedoes gave Rihan starships an advantage over other species, and the Rihannsu embarked on an aggressive empire building phase. They soon expanded their influence across a large region of space. Their aim was to create an autarky, a nation that could support itself and did not have to rely on outside trade or help. Planets rich with resources were claimed for the Empire, and permanent colonies were founded on such worlds as Mendaissa and Eilhaunn. Native inhabitants on planets within the Rihan sphere of influence were also brought under Rihan rule, and within a hundred years time the government had achieved its aim. The Romulan Star Empire had taken shape.
After having remained isolated for so long, forces within the Rihan government began to consider measures to eliminate potential outside threats. The Federation had grown to include many more species and planets, and the Klingons had also expanded their empire up to the borders of Rihan space. The Empire began to probe the Federation's strength and resolve, and in 2266 (1664 AS) it sent a vessel to violate the Neutral Zone and attack Federation observation outposts that lined the border. The hope was that a victorious homecoming would reveal Federation weaknesses, thus convincing the Empire's citizens that another war was feasible and could be won, but after an initial success, the Rihan vessel was intercepted and defeated by the USS Enterprise.
Fearing further aggression from the Federation, the government began a program to harvest living tissue from the brains of Vulcans to study at a secret lab on the planet Levaeri V. Their intention was to manipulate Rihannsu genetics to help improve telepathic ability, which could then be used as a weapon against the enemy, as it had been used in the past. When the plan was discovered by Ael i-Mhiessan t'Rllaillieu, a Riov in the Imperial Fleet and commander of the RIS Bloodwing, she spoke out against it, calling it both reprehensible and dangerous. Such telepaths could also be used against their own people, and she feared that the government had become corrupt.
As punishment for her dissidence, Ael was stripped of her command and given charge of a border patrol that was expected to keep her out of the way. The crew of the Bloodwing was loyal to her though, and they broke ranks with the rest of the fleet to support her. Now a renegade, Ael found an ally in an unlikely place, the Federation captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise. Together, the Enterprise and the Bloodwing raided the facility on Levaeri V and destroyed it.
In 2267 (1665 AS), still a renegade, Ael helped Star Fleet extract an agent from ch'Rihan. While there, she also stole the Sword of S'Task from the Senate building, telling them that they no longer deserved to possess the artifact and that she planned to hold on to it for safekeeping until such time as honor was restored to the Empire. Her theft of the sword became a symbolic rallying point for dissatisfied elements of the Empire, and the government sought to quell the unrest by attacking the Federation and retaking the sword.
With the Federation's backing, Ael assembled a fleet of renegade vessels. Civil war erupted, and Ael's forces emerged victorious. She returned the Sword of S'Task to the Empty Chair and reluctantly took the position of Empress in order to help the Empire restore its mnhei'sahe.
The Era of Diplomacy and a Return to Isolation
Under Empress Ael, the Empire entered a period of friendship with the Federation and enjoyed a brief but ultimately unsuccessful thawing in relations with the Klingons which resulted in the founding of a jointly-managed colony on Nimbus III. Dubbed the "planet of galactic peace," the colony quickly became an embarrassing failure for all three governments, although regular meetings between representatives did take place at the colony for at least the next 20 years.
In 2268 (1666 AS), a devastating polaric ion device explosion resulted in the destruction of a Romulan research colony on Chaltok IV. Following this incident, the Star Empire, together with the Federation, signed the Polaric Test Ban Treaty, banning research on polaric energy on both sides.
A brief alliance with the Klingon Empire which began in 2268 (1666 AS) led to an exchange of technology, with the Klingons gaining cloaking devices and the Rihannsu gaining advances in warship design. The alliance had come to an end by 2271 (1669 AS), however, when the Rihannsu suffered a significant defeat at the Battle of Klach D'Kel Brakt (the Briar Patch) at the hands of Klingon forces led by Kor. By 2292 (1689 AS), with Ael no longer Empress, the Rihannsu and the Klingons had come to regard each other as blood enemies. Fearing a powerful alliance between the Klingons and the Federation when détente began between them in 2293 (1690 AS), the Rihannsu attempted to sabotage negotiations by supporting, along with conservative Federation and Klingon factions, the assassination of the Klingon Chancellor, a plan which ultimately failed.
To be continued...
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