The History of the Romulan Empire
Warbird's note: Sometime during the course of Romulan history, they fought a 100 year war with the Vulcans as a result of a member of the Q continuum. At this point, it is unclear exactly when that war was fought.
Prehistory
The Romulan people are off-shoots of the Vulcans, and can trace the cause of their split back to Surak and his teachings of total logic over their emotions. Given the brutal nature of the Vulcans of the time, Surak's teaching was slow to spread, but spread they did. And so when Vulcan got a message of peace from outer space, they eagerly responded to it and opened their arms to receive the aliens. Unfortunately, the aliens turned out to be Orion pirates and were anything but peaceful. S'Task, Surak's best pupil was captured. However, he was able to organize an uprising aboard the Orion ship. The Vulcans were able to drive the Orions off during a short war, known as the Ahkh, by using their psi factor.
This war led to the split between Surak and S'task. Surak continued to teach his philosophy on logic, but S'task believed that the universe was much too cruel of a place, and thought Surak's ideas would end in doom for Vulcan.For fifty years, S'task gathered his followers in his belief that they must arm themselves to deal with the threat of the universe. Seventeen ships left Vulcan with those who thought pacifism was the wrong course to follow. However, of those seventeen, only four managed to arrive at the two worlds which were named "ch'Rihan" and "ch'Havran", which mean "Of the Declared" and "Of the Travellors" respectively. In their attempt to separate themselves from their Vulcan ancestry, S'task's followers chose to adopt an ancient Vulcan dialect as their language and called themselves the Rihannsu.
Early History
Most of the Rihannsu disembarked from the four remaining ships over the course of the next three years, but some were hesitant to leave what had been their homes for the past one hundred years, even though the ships were in bad repair. These people became what is referred to as the Ship Clans.
For the first ten years of Rihannsu history, approximately one third of the population were killed in fighting over territory and resources.
Out of these dark ages rose T'Rehu, who would eventually become known as the Ruling Queen. Around the year 60 AS (After Settlement), the nation of Elheu raised a standing army under T'Rehu's rule, and over the course of the next twelve years, invaded several of the smaller nations surrounding Elheu. T'Rehu also managed to form an alliance with the Ship Clans.
With the force of her armies and the threat of using her alliances with the Ship Clans, T'Rehu intimidated the Grand Council into giving her Grand Councillorship. This angered S'task, who turned and left the Grand Council building at the result. This led to many feuds between S'task and T'Rehu.
Six years later, T'Rehu called the council together to deal with a famine that struck the southern continent of ch'Havran. Fifteen hundred people died as a result of the famine. S'task walked out of the chambers again as a result of her dishonorable actions. Still smarting from the similar action six years previous, T'Rehu had S'task killed. She then declared herself to be the Ruling Queen.
The Rihannsu Government Overthrown
T'Rehu's leadership of the Rihannsu didn't last very long. It started in 78 AS, after the death of S'task, and lasted until the year 96 AS. Not much is known about the reign of Queen T'Rehu except that she was brutal and held the Rihannsu with an iron fist.
In the year 96, T'Rehu's reign came to a crashing stop. The clans on the eastern continent of ch'Havran were able to revolt and overthrow T'Rehu. Instead of a monarchy, the eastern clans set up the Tricameral form of government, of the which the Praetorate and the Senate are included in. This form of government has survived virtually intact through today.
Technological Age
Around the year 250, the technology on the ships in orbit had significantly degraded, making them little more than space junk. As a result, the Rihannsu no longer had an interstellar travel ability. Also by this time, the numbers of the Ship Clans had declined, cutting back on the number of people who understood the technology. Even though the ships were junk, they didn't all fall down to the planets below for another hundred and fifty years.
But despite having lost their ships, the Rihannsu still had a desire to go back to the stars, and to protect themselves from whatever dangers lurked there. By 508, the Rihannsu government completed work on a crude satellite warning and defense system. Around 1500, they developed the technology of artificial gravity, clearing the way to return to space.
Pre Earth-Romulan War
In the year 1599, a starship from Earth arrived in the Romulan star system and managed to get passed the early warning system and beam peace messages to both planets. Remembering the Orions and the peace messages that had been sent before they had arrived, the Romulans didn't respond to the messages. The starship soon after left the star system.
The Romulans were determined not to sit and wait to be slaughtered. The incident with the Orions almost two millennium previous would not be allowed to happen again. They immediately started to prepare their defenses and constructed thousands of small craft, armed only with particle beam weapons and impulse power.
Years later (Terran date 2156), the Earth ships USS Balboa returned to the Romulan system and was destroyed by the Romulan fleet. A second Earth ship, the USS Stone Mountain, was captured. The Romulans studied the design and were able to add warp technology to their ships.
The War With Earth
The war between Earth and the Romulans started in 2156 (Terran date), and was fought using primitive atomic style weapons. Earth would keep sending more and more ships in each expedition, and they would all suffer the same fate--destruction at the hands of the Romulans, even though the Earth fleet was more advanced.
During the war, the Romulans grew bolder and went on the offensive instead of waiting to be attacked while they defended their planets. With this new offensive, the Romulans came an arm's length away from capturing Earth before the tide turned in the war, and the Romulans found themselves in retreat. In 2160, the Romulans suffered a humiliating defeat in the Battle of Cheron. This battle basically ended the war. The Treaty of Alpha Trianguli was agreed to by both sides via subspace radio so neither side knew what the other looked like. The treaty established the Neutral Zone and that the zone would be one light year across and act as a buffer between Earth and the Romulans. Entering the Neutral Zone would be considered an act of war.
Post Earth War
The Romulans didn't challenge the Neutral Zone for over one hundred years. In the year 2266(Terran--henceforth all dates will be Terran dates), the Romulans, hungry for expansion, crossed the Neutral Zone. Their purpose was to see how much their enemy had advanced. They found that the Earth was now a member of the United Federation of Planets, and that they were still much stronger than the Romulan Empire. They destroyed numerous Federation outposts in this expedition.Even though the Romulans knew that they could never win a war against the Federation, they felt that they had to keep their eyes on their adversary to prevent them from expanding and growing more powerful.
It was also in the year 2266 that Terrans and Romulans saw each other face to face for the first time, and it was realized that Vulcans and Romulans were related to each other. It also caused suspicions among members of the Federation about the Vulcans.
Two years later, in 2268, an alliance was formed between the Romulans and the Klingons to help counter the Federation. The Romulans received improved starship designs in exchange for Romulan cloaking technology asa result of the alliance. However, border disputes still existed between the two empires, and the Romulans didn't trust the Klingons. Because of this alliance, the USS Enterprise was sent on a covert mission into the Neutral Zone to steal the cloaking device. The Romulan-Klingon alliance collapsed in 2292.
In 2293, the Romulans worked with Klingon and Federation conspirators to destroy any chance of peace between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. This failed, but the Romulans saw this as a policy plan, and embarked on a mission to destroy this relationship. The Romulans saw this alliance by its two most powerful adversaries to be the greatest threat to its security up until this point.
In 2311, thousands of Federation lives were lost in the Tomed Incident. This led to the signing of the Treaty of Algenon. The treaty re-established the sanctity of the Neutral Zone and the condition of entering it was a declaration of war. It also forbade the Federation from developing or using cloak technology. After the signing of this treaty, the Romulans left the Federation alone for 53 years.
The Klingon Conflicts
Even though the Romulans didn't challenge the Federation after the Treaty of Algenon was signed doesn't mean that the Romulans disappeared for half a century. Instead, they devoted more time and resources to other fronts. One of those fronts was the Klingon border. While there had always been armed conflict along the border, the Romulans now pursued this campaign more aggressively. Two key moments of this campaign stand out.
The first was in 2344. The Romulans launched an attack on a Klingon outpost on Narendra III. The Federation starship Enterprise responded to the distress signal. The Enterprise was badly damaged and captured by the Romulans. Most of the Enterprise crew were executed. This attack actually back-fired on the Romulans, though, because of the fact that the Enterprise had put their lifes on the line to save the Klingon outpost helped to cement a lasting alliance between the Klingons and the Federation.
The second major incident happened two years later, in 2346. With the help of Ja'rod, a Klingon whose family believed that peace with the Federation was a mistake, the Romulans were able to attack the Klingon colony on Khitomer. Ja'rod lowered the planet's defense grid for the Romulans. That left Khitomer wide open to attack, and as a result, five thousand Klingons were slaughtered.
Isolationism and their return
After the Khitomer Massacre, the Romulans seemed to disappear from both the Klingon and Federation borders. The cause of this is unclear and will probably never be known.
They didn't make their presence known to the Federation again until 2364, almost twenty years after Khitomer. At this point, they staged war exercises and massed a large number of warbirds on their side of the Neutral Zone. The Federation, fearing an invasion, sent some starships to the Neutral Zone to deter the Romulans.
Later that year, the first actual encounter between the Romulans and the Federation occurred when outposts from along both sides of the Neutral Zone were destroyed. Both sides were suspicious that the other had created some kind of new weapon. However, it was determined that a new threat (the Borg) had destroyed the outposts. An agreement was reached that the two sides would cooperate and share information with regards to the new threat, but only if it was convenient.
Pre Dominion War
The Romulans have been active with regards to both the Klingons and the Federation since their return in 2364.
In 2366, the Romulans sent a small craft into Federation space on a spy mission, but it crashed. When one of the Romulans dies aboard a Federation ship, tensions flair, and a Romulan warbird crosses into Federatin space. However, war between the two sides is averted.
Around this time, the Romulan military command began to suspect that famed Admiral Jarok may not be as loyal to the Empire as he should be. Using the new Romulan command and a renewed bitterness about losing the Battle of Cheron, the Romulans started to feed him data of plans to recapture the Neutral Zone.
Later that year, Jarok defected to the Federation to warn them. As a result, the Enterprise violated the Neutral Zone to see if the Romulan was telling the truth. The Romulans were there waiting, but not as the admiral had said. There was no Romulan base or invasion fleet. On the brink of war between the two superpowers, three Klingon ships decloaked to side with the Federation. War is once again averted.
In 2367, the Romulans claimed that they wanted to sign a historic treaty with the Federation, but they would only talk with the Vulcan ambassador T'Pel. However, it turned out that the conference was a ruse and T'Pel was actually Sub-commander Selok, who had been spying on the Federation for years.
The incident at Nelvana III reinforced the Romulan notion that the Federation-Klingon alliance needed to be broken. Therefore, in 2367, the romulans kidnapped Federation engineer Geordi LaForge and brainwashed him to kill the governor of a Klingon colony. They had hoped that if a Star Fleet officer had murdered the governor and it looked like the Federation were supporting Klingon rebels, the alliance would collapse. However, the Romulan connection was discovered and the plot thwarted.
Then in 2367-68, the Romulans found another way to destroy the Federation-Klingon alliance. The Romulans were able to from an alliance with the House of Duras (which was the same Klingon family that helped the Romulans at Khitomer). The House of Duras challenged the legitimate leader of the Klingon Empire in 2367, bringing civil war to the Empire.
With Romulan support, the supporters of the House of Duras had many quick victories, and it appeared that they would win the war. Early in 2368, however, the Federation realized the Romulan connection and set up a blockade along the Klingon-Romulan border. Once the Romulan connection was exposed, the Romulans had to end their support, and the Duras family lost their civil war.
In 2368, it appeared that the Romulans were going to sue for peace and re-unify with their cousins, the Vulcans. Ambassador Spock of Vulcan secretly went to Romulus to join the underground and meet with Romulan authorities. The Romulans, however, never intended to peacefully reunite with Vulcan. Their real plan was to conquer Vulcan without a fight, by using Ambassador Spock. When the real plan was revealed, Spock was able to warn the Federation in time, and the invasion was prevented.
Even though the invasion didn't work, the Romulan authorities were able to take what they found out about the underground and use military force against them. They didn't totally wipe out the underground, though, and Ambassador Spock chose to stay on Romulus to help them rebuild their resistance.
Also in 2368, the Romulans experimented with a phasing cloak, but after an accident with a training mission, the new cloak was declared a failure.
The Romulan Empire was dealt a severe blow in 2369. The Romulan underground, with the help of the Federation, managed to get the Vice-Proconsul (who supported the goals of reunification) safely to Federation space.
In 2370, the Romulans issued a formal protest when the Federation starship Enterprise used an experimental phasing cloak in full view of a Romulan Warbird. Due to an easing of the relationship between the Romulans and the Federation, the situation was smoothed over.
The Dominion Conflict
Early in 2371, with the new threat caused by the Dominion, the Romulans signed an agreement with the Federation to use a cloaking device on the starship USS Defiant while in the Gamma quadrant. This restriction was later dropped, but only for the Defiant.
Later in 2371, the Tal Shiar formed an alliance with the Cardassian Obsidian Order to destroy the Founders of the Dominion. Their combined fleet was destroyed by the Dominion.
In 2372, the Romulans attended a conference with the Federation on Earth. Despite a bomb blast that disrupted the conference, a secret agreement was reached that the Romulans and the Federation would work together against the Dominion.
In 2373, when it appeared that the Dominion was about to launch a full scale invasion of the Alpha Quadrant, the Romulans sent a fleet of ships to the Bajoran system to join the Federation-Klingon forces already there.
However, believing that the Alpha quadrant fleet would be no match for the Dominion, the Romulans joined the Miradorn, Bajorans, and Tholians in signing a Treaty of Non-Aggression with the Dominion.
In 2374, with the Romulans maintaining their official neutrality but supporting the Dominion, the war was going poorly for the Federation-Klingon Alliance. The Romulans looked the other way whenever Dominion ships passed through their territory on missions. They were delighted that their two greatest foes were losing to the Dominion and figured that with both the Klingons and the Federation out of the way, the quadrant would be ripe for expansion. All that changed when they found what they believed to be an authentic holographic recording of a high-level meeting between the Dominion and Cardassians discussing the invasion of the Romulan empire. The Romulans changed their position on the war and officially joined the Federation and Klingons in fighting the Dominion.
