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A painful decomposition occurs when Changelings are unable to revert

The Changeling, or Founders, are skilled shapeshifters who are viscous liquid in their original form. They have the specialized ability to change their biomolecular structure to mimic anything, even energy forms such as fire, as they can manipulate mass as well as shape. A limitation, at least for Constable Odo, of this skill is the inability to hold a solid shape over 16 hours. Changelings must revert to their liquid state or endure a painful "decomposition". A quantum stasis field generator designed by the Tal Shiar was proven successful in trapping a Changeling in solid form. Changelings neither need food nor rest, and even in liquid state maintain a level of alert consciousness. In their liquid state, Changelings can "link" with each other, melding separate bodies into one mass and completely exchange all the information, feelings, and emotions with the other. Changelings have long lifespans, often living for hundreds of years. Thus far, no Changeling has died of natural causes, so the age expectancy cannot be determined. Once dead, Changelings turn to a solid ashen compound.

The Founders (Changelings who head the Dominion) live reclusively in the Gamma Quadrant, spending their leisure shaping themselves into various forms in their gardens, deriving an understanding of the world from different perspectives. There is no hierarchy of power within their society: no single Changeling is superior to others except inherent differences in skill and knowledge. Equality and peace reigns within the Founders society. They take pride in having never inflicted harm upon one of their own, however much damage they wrought offworld. Other Changelings, the ones they sent out on data-collection missions, are planted with "homing beacons" genetically which compels them to return to the Founder homeworld once they've come close enough to be effected. Once these Changelings return, they're welcomed into the fold and join the Link permanently.

Long ago Changelings traveled as peaceful explorers through the Galaxy, seeking to expand their knowledge and coexist with other species. However, their shape-shifting ability was met with fear and hatred by the solids (non-shapeshifters), who shunned and hunted them without provocation. To protect themselves from further harm, they retreated to an uninhabited planet in the Omarion Nebula. There, away from prying eyes, they could meld together into liquid forms and enter the Great Link: a state of intertwined matter and collective thought. They could engage in their meditation in various solid forms, and peace was as long as the day.

Emerging from the Great Link

From this remote region, they founded the Dominion empire and called themselves the "Founders". Believing that forceful control of other worlds was the only method of securing their safety ("What you can control can't hurt you"), the Founders imposed their form of order throughout the Gamma Quadrant, conquering worlds and governing through fear. Before annexing a new planet or system, the Dominion would usually negotiate first through the Vorta, and if the world remained uncooperative, then the Jem'Hadar were sent in to "convince" them of their futility. Both Vorta and Jem'Hadar were genetically engineered to ensure their absolute loyalty to the Founders, and each specialize in their designated tasks. The Vorta are administrators and diplomats, the spokesperson for the Founders. The Jem'Hadar are the soldiers who kill or die for the glory of the Founders. With such highly efficient and blindly obedient subordinates, the Dominion rarely, if at all, knew failure. It steadily expanded, the result of world after world subjugated under Dominion rule, and now the Founders control the most powerful force to be reckoned with in the Gamma Quadrant.

The Founders are loath to leave the seclusion of their planet, but they still retained some of the exploratory impulses from the past. To learn more about the universe without endangering themselves unnecessarily, they sent many of their own kind throughout the galaxy in their infancy, using them as living probes of the galaxy. To ensure the infants returned one day, they placed homing "beacons" into the minds of each, expecting to see them again when they would return to the homeworld with the experience of hundreds of years. Among these infants was Deep Space Nine's chief security officer, Odo. The Founders rarely leave their planet within the Nebula, instead delegating the work involved in governing the Dominion to the Vorta.

Galaxy class U.S.S. Odyssey destroyed by Jem'Hadar ships

With the discovery of the wormhole connecting the Gamma Quadrant to the Alpha in 2369, the Founders grew irate at the "incursions" into their territory. Through their Jem'Hadar, they sent messages to Deep Space Nine warning the Federation that further intrusions into their territory would not be tolerated. Commerce and science expeditions in the Gamma Quadrant were badly received, and the Dominion responded by massacring the Bajoran colonists of New Bajor. Commander Sisko, Jake, Quark, and Nog were captured in the Gamma Quadrant by Jem'Hadar troops on Stardate 47987.5. Rescued at the price of the U.S.S. Odyssey and other smaller vessels who risked entering the Gamma Quadrant to find them, none of the four had suspected that the female Vorta who was with them throughout their capture was in fact a highly skilled Dominion operative. When the Vorta Eris was revealed to be a spy for the Dominion, she left a foreshadowing of what was to come: You have no idea what's begun here.

With an impending invasion soon to come from the Gamma Quadrant, Starfleet dispatched the first cloaked warship to come out of the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards to Deep Space Nine. The Defiant was a sleek, maneuverable vessel built expressly for battle. Initially meant as a first line of defense against the Borg, it was instead assigned to Deep Space Nine to protect the wormhole and Bajor. With the Borg, at least one could always be sure who the enemy was, but the Changelings were far more insidious foes. The first time Commander Sisko used the Defiant on a mission to locate the Founders he was ambushed by Jem'Hadar, but managed to return to the station with Dax, Bashir, O'Brien, and Romulan officer T'Rul. Kira and Odo were left behind and escaped on a shuttle. While finding a way home, Odo suddenly instinctively felt compelled to head towards the Omarion Nebula, and insisted to an objecting Major Kira that they must go there. When she acquiesced, they found a planet there, which, upon landing, looked desolate except for the large ocean of gelatinous liquid. From the sea of liquid, other Changelings emerged to receive Odo, welcoming him back into the folds of the Great Link. Both Kira and Odo were stunned to learn that Odo's people were the Founders. Odo's sense of justice objected to the Founder's pursuit of total domination of the Galaxy, and rejected the invitation. When his decision was final, the Founder spokeswoman let them go and released the rest of the Defiant crew, who were held in a comatose state on that same planet, warning him the Dominion would not be so lenient next time.

Obsidian Order and Tal Shiar attacking Founder homeworld

Information of the Founder's homeworld was relayed to the Romulans, as part of the agreement between the Federation and Romulan Empire to share all information gathered about the Dominion in exchange for use of the cloaking device on Defiant. The Romulans were by then very nervous about the Dominion threat, and the Tal Shiar began a secret cooperative venture with the Cardassian Obsidian Order. The covert operation was revealed in part with the discovery of heavy activity in the Orias system, but the implications of the discovery was not known until the the operation had already begun. On Stardate 48622.5, the Romulan and Cardassian intelligence agencies jointly launched a preemptive strike on the Founder homeworld, hoping to take out the Dominion by eliminating the Founders. They sailed right into an ambush of 150 Jem'Hadar ships that wiped out both the Obsidian Order and Tal Shiar. A Founder had been working undercover as the Romulan Colonel Luvok, prodding both Cardassian and Romulan intelligence agencies to attack the Founders, a disaster that ultimately led to the collapse of both agencies. Only then did the Alpha Quadrant begin to have an inkling of the penetrating method of infiltration the Founders were capable.

The Klingons then invaded Cardassia on the pretext that the Detapa Council were overran by Founders, but they soon turned to attack Deep Space Nine when Sisko intervened and rescued the civilian government aboard the Defiant. Through cool manipulation on the part of the Founders, political instability spread throughout the Alpha Quadrant. The landmark Federation/Klingon Khitomer Treaty was dissolved and with it a major stabilizing alliance within the Quadrant when the Klingon Empire could not force the civilian Detapa Council out of the sanctuary of Deep Space Nine. With Cardassia in ruins, Federation and Klingon hostilities rising, and Romulans lapsing into seclusion after the Tal Shiar disaster, the Quadrant was at its most vulnerable.

Renegade Jem'Hadars attack DS9

On Stardate 49904.2, some Jem'Hadar stole station equipment and launched a sneak attack on Deep Space Nine. The Defiant was away and the station sustained heavy damage with 18 casualties and many more injured. Sisko did not intend to let an unprovoked attack on the station go by unnoticed and pursued the Jem'Hadar through the wormhole on the Defiant. Midway they encountered a damaged Jem'Hadar ship with the Vorta supervisor Weyoun, who informed them that rebel Jem'Hadar were responsible for the attack and that these renegades were unsanctioned by the Dominion. The rebels had nearly completed the Iconian Gateway (a portal that gives the user instant access to any location in the galaxy and beyond.) and planned to take over the Dominion and the Federation. Captain Sisko agreed to a collaborative mission in tracking down these rebels with Weyoun, and they jointly eliminated the renegade Jem'Hadar successfully.

Odo kills one of his own while saving the Defiant and its crew

The Founder Changelings had long been suspected of infiltrating the Alpha Quadrant with operatives, but no one except themselves knew the full extent of their network. Shortly after the exposure of the Luvok Changeling, Ambassador Krajensky of the Federation was also replaced by a Changeling who went aboard the Defiant but was discovered before he could sabotage the ship. His plan had been to initiate warfare between the Federation and Tzenkethi by taking the Defiant and launching an unprovoked attack upon the Tzenkethi System. Odo killed the Changeling to save the Defiant and the Federation, but he broke the law of nonviolence held sacred among his people, and was to suffer later.

Odo was forced to stand trial for his crime on the Founder homeworld, and his punishment was severe indeed -- the removal of his ability to shapeshift, the identifying trait of Changelings. During his trial, he was implanted with the suspicion that Gowron, head of the Klingon high council, was a Changeling. When he revealed this piece of information to Commander Sisko, who later relayed it to Starfleet, the Federation sought to cease warfare with the Klingons by revealing Gowron was a Changeling. Sending Sisko, Odo, O'Brien and Worf in undercover operations, they were ready to kill Gowron when Odo suddenly realized that General Martok was, in fact, the Changeling. The Martok Changeling was eliminated with the combined firepower of 53 Klingon Disruptor shots.

Shortly afterwards, Sisko discovered a crashed Jem'Hadar warship with a dead crew, which he decided to retrieve for the Federation to study. Another Jem'Hadar ship led by their Vorta supervisor, Kilana, showed up and promptly took out Sisko's runabout from the the sky. The Jem'Hadar attacked the away team, who retreated into the wrecked Jem'Hadar ship for shelter. Kilana negotiated with Sisko for the return of "Dominion property" instead of storming the away team into submission. She was intent on retrieving the ashes of a dead Founder (killed during the crash) and gave Sisko the ship in return for the remains of the Founder. With the ship Sisko hauled in to the nearest starbase, the Federation managed to study a Jem'Hadar ship up close for the first time.

In 2372, Gul Dukat announced Cardassia's alliance with the Dominion, shaking up the status quo of the Alpha Quadrant dramatically. The Klingon invasion on Cardassia had destroyed Cardassia's industrial base and left the Union weaker than it has ever known. The assistance of the Federation in rebuilding Cardassia shamed its people, and Gul Dukat took matters into his own hands, negotiating with the Dominion secretly for the Dominion's military might in return for the Cardassian's allegiance. Dukat was subsequently named head of the new government when negotiations were closed. With the Cardassian/Dominion alliance in place, the Dominion could position their ships and Jem'Hadar within striking distance of any political party within the Quadrant, and they in return only had to do small favors for the Cardassians.

With the looming Dominion threat overshadowing other matters within the Quadrant, the Klingons resigned the Khitomer Accords with the Federation, and the two powers stood together in fronting a defense against an imminent Dominion invasion. When the fleet was out tersely awaiting the fleets of Jem'Hadar that were showing up on sensors, they were surprised to find nothing coming towards them. Instead, behind their backs, a Changeling impersonating Dr. Julian Bashir flew a runabout directly into the Bajoran sun, carrying with him with a bomb which had the capability of making the sun go nova. The Changeling and the runabout were destroyed before the mission was carried through but left everyone dazed at the ingenious designs of the Dominion.

The Dominion offered Bajor a nonaggression pact shortly after, one that Kai Winn stalled in giving a response to at the advice of the Emissary, who had recently prevented Bajor's entrance into the Federation. The Romulan Star Empire, however, was more receptive and signed a nonaggression pact with the Dominion, an act which prompted a certain Klingon Security Officer aboard Deep Space Nine to declare:

[Bang! Fist hits table] The Romulans! I always knew they are without honor; now they have proven it.