Winn Adami

Winn Adami was an ambitious Bajoran religious leader, and the first Kai of Bajor elected after the Cardassian Occupation.

A member of a frequently outspoken orthodox order, Winn was steadfastly rooted in her faith, even as she proved a shamelessly arrogant and treacherous opportunist.
In that regard, she often came into conflict with the Emissary of the Prophets, Benjamin Sisko, whom she considered an outsider unworthy of receiving the wisdom of the Prophets.

Unfortunately, after years of living in Sisko's shadow, combined with a lifetime of never receiving any guidance and affirmation from the Prophets themselves, she turned against them.
However, she did eventually realize her error, and died trying to make things right.

During the Occupation, Winn was imprisoned for five years for teaching the faith of the Prophets. She received numerous beatings at the hands of the Cardassians for her beliefs.

• Winn once convinced the head of her order to take a more active role in helping the Bajoran people. She used gemstones from their tabernacle to bribe Cardassian officers for small acts of kindness.

• One of these "small acts" was the diversion of a transport filled with Bajorans due to be executed.

By the time Bajor regained its independence in 2369, Winn was one of the more influential vedeks in the Vedek Assembly. She had some support to succeed the current Kai after he disappeared in the Gamma Quadrant, although Winn's rival and fellow vedek was favored for the position. Winn believed the Federation presence on Bajor posed a dire threat to the Bajoran people, and disagreed that Benjamin Sisko was the Emissary of the Prophets.

Winn secretly lent her support to the Alliance for Global Unity (or "the Circle") in their attempt to topple the Bajoran Provisional Government, and thus force the Federation from Bajor.
Winn agreed to bless Jaro's ascendance to power, in return for his assurance that she would be made the next kai. However, she turned on Jaro when evidence emerged that the Circle was being indirectly supplied by the Cardassians.

Winn was appointed to kai on Bajor in late 2370. Following the election, Kai Winn accepted her former rival's assistance as her most trusted advisor. At his suggestion, she initiated secret negotiations with the Cardassian Central Command to finally establish a peace treaty between their respective peoples. Winn successfully signed the treaty aboard Deep Space 9, though a shuttle accident fatally injured her second in command. Winn then used his death to publicly claim that she herself had been the primary party responsible for the treaty.

Then, Kai Winn was appointed First Minister pro tempore, after the death of previous First Minister. With elections a month away, and no other candidates to oppose her, it seemed as though Winn would become both Bajor's spiritual and political leader. Winn hoped to seal the deal and gain public favor by initiating a project to grow cash crops in Rakantha Province. To do so, she ordered a group of farmers in Dahkur Province to hand over their farming equipment. The Dahkur farmers resisted, many of them former members of the Bajoran Resistance during the Cardassian Occupation. Though she sent police, the farmers evaded capture for two weeks, gaining popular support. Despite the risk of civil war, Winn was convinced anarchy would follow if these farmers were allowed to defy the law, and that the Prophets were testing her with the crisis.

Finally, the group confronted their pursuers, and reached an agreement. Their leader, Shakaar Edon, entered himself as a candidate for First Minister, and the Militia agreed to stand down until after the election. Realizing Shakaar's popularity, Winn decided to cut her losses and issue a statement of support for Shakaar. In 2373, she attended the ceremony on Deep Space 9 that signified Bajor's admittance to the Federation. Benjamin Sisko subsequently discovered the lost Bajoran city of B'hala, and Winn finally admitted that the man was the true Emissary of the Prophets. She attempted to reconcile with him, though her attitude didn't last long.

With the Dominion threatening war in 2373, Kai Winn was approached by Dominion representative with a nonaggression pact between the Dominion and Bajor. Winn was faced with a difficult decision: If she rejected the treaty, Bajor could be the first casualty of the coming war, and if she accepted the treaty, it could constitute the first step to Bajor's assimilation into the Dominion.

In late 2375, Kai Winn took on an advisor, who was a Cardassian commander in disguise. He had heavy influence over her, and they became romantically involved, as well. Unfortunately, the visions that had led her to this advisor were not from the Prophets, but from their counterparts, the Pah-wraiths. Horrified to learn that her visions were not from the Prophets, Winn asked for the Prophets' forgiveness. Believing the Prophets had forsaken her for consorting with the Evil Ones, and by having strayed from the true path for so long, she claimed she was willing to do anything to earn their forgiveness. She refused to step down as Kai though, insisting the Bajoran people needed her.

She finally admitted to her advisor that the Prophets had never spoken to her, that they had never offered her any guidance nor trusted her with anything, and that she was now expected to step down as kai in order to be blessed by them, which was the last straw for her. She decided that she would no longer serve gods who gave her nothing in return for her faith and sacrifices, and who favored an alien Emissary over her. She was willing to walk the path the Pah-wraiths had laid out for her. Winn set about to free the Pah-wraits from the Bajoran Fire Caves, offering advisor as sacrifice to them. The Pah-Wraiths rejected her, favoring instead the Cardassian in disguise, possessing his body. Realizing the horrors she had unleased, Winn tried to destroy her work, which failed. The Pah-Wraith possessed Cardassian killed her, though that act was enough to distract him/them long enough for Emissary Benjamin Sisko to throw himself at the man, pitching them all directly into the fire.

Winn, in her one and only heroic act, saved Bajor, the Temple and the Alpha Quadrant.