The Romulan Empire has grown though interstellar conquest. Member worlds are ruled with an iron fist, their own government supplanted by newly-installed Romulan ruling parties. While the Romulans are emotional beings, they are strangely devoid of all compassion for those whom they subjugate.
Facial apperance strongly suggested an ancestral link to the Vulcan race, and further historical and gennetic research proved that the Vulcans and Romulans had indeed been one people at a point in Vulcan's turbulent past. The Romulan people are descended from a rebel Vulcan conony group which broke away from its homeworld ties before the Vulcan race turned away from violence and warfare towards its present racial philosophy of logic and peace. Current Starfleet intelligence indicates that a growing movement within the Romulan society may be planting the seed that will one day result in a Romulan return to the Vulcan heritage they share.
The Romulan people prode themselves on their intellect, however warlike, and this fact contibuted grately to the dissolution of their alliance with the Klingons,whom they considered too barbaric to be fully trusted. The Romulans are increasingly uncomfortable with the current Federation/Klingon alliance and wish to see it dissolved, fearing the combined military power of both entities. Several attempts have already been made by Romulan military intelligence to undermine the peaceful co-existance of the two superpowers, but all have proven unsuccussful.
Romulan starship technology now equals that of the Federation, dispite a slow start. Sensor scans of the Romulan Neutral zone have recently shown a dramatic increase in the number of Romulan starships patrolson their side of the zone, suggesting that they may feel that a Federation invasion is a possibility. The Romulans newest Warbird design is impressive in its size and power and has become the center of their space forces.
Larger than Starfleet's Galaxy Class Starship and equipped with an improved cloaking device , the warbird is the single greatest vessel threat to Federation security(excluding the Borg). While this massive ship employs full disruptors rather than ship-mounted phaser banks, these weapons are equally destructive due to a modification in their resonant frequency amplification process. The vessel is also, of course, equipped with multiple photon torpedo launch units- the photon torpedo was a Romulan innovation.