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Dev Blog #1: An Empire Divided Thoughts?
catoblepasbeta
Member Posts: 1,532 Arc User
Some New Information from the Dev Blog:
* Three 'factions' of Romulans: Surivors (what the player starts as), Romulan Republic (D'Tan's faction), and the Tal Shiar. Interestingly enough, the Romulan Star Empire seems to be used interchangably with Tal Shiar.
* Tal Shiar is led by Sela. In previously established material, Sela has been at odds with them, is this a possible retcon? It is also almost explicitly stated that Sela is working with the Iconians.
* The Players start off as a Romulan farmer on a backwater planet, (tutorial?) and later join the Romulan Republic, and then join either the KDF or FED at level 10.
My thoguhts:
It is dissapointing that the Romulan Star Empire is taking a backsteat to the Tal'Shiar. They even mention Sela as the leader of the Tal'Shiar, rather than the leader of the RSE.
Sela is the leader of the Tal Shiar *and* an Iconian ally. How dissapointing. IMO the Tal Shiar were not well written in STO, what with the whole 'blowing up their homeworld for their Iconian masters' subplot. It's sad that now the entire RSE and Sela are getting in line behind them in this.
Cryptic are again playing up the oppressive nature of the RSE/Tal Shiar. Its startign to look like the RSE might be transformed into even more one-dimensional villains to act as a foil for the RR. There seems to be a 'homogenization' effect of the Romulans going on, and they are splitting into either our wholesome good-guy farmers who want to be left to themselves/live in harmony with their neighbors, and the Romulan Star Emprie, indistinguishable from the Tal Shiar and wholely under the thumb of the Iconians, who are the designated bad guys.
We don't even get to start as a RSE citizen? Instead we are stuck as a good-guy farmer on a backwater planet. I didn't know that the comparisons between the Romulan Faction and the Klingon farmers from the first KDF mission would be so prophetic, and I must say I am disappointed. There seems to be a conscious effort to distance the players from the Romulan Star Emprie as much as possible, probably so we don't develop any sort of connection to them-very disappointing.
I'm starting to think that the ROmulan faction is nothing more than a delivery system for KDF/Federation players who like the look of Romulan Ships/want to play a Drizzt Romulan but aren't interested in actually playing a true Romulan-one of the RSE. I can't honestly comprehend how this is supposed to appeal to Romulan fans otherwise.
* Three 'factions' of Romulans: Surivors (what the player starts as), Romulan Republic (D'Tan's faction), and the Tal Shiar. Interestingly enough, the Romulan Star Empire seems to be used interchangably with Tal Shiar.
* Tal Shiar is led by Sela. In previously established material, Sela has been at odds with them, is this a possible retcon? It is also almost explicitly stated that Sela is working with the Iconians.
* The Players start off as a Romulan farmer on a backwater planet, (tutorial?) and later join the Romulan Republic, and then join either the KDF or FED at level 10.
My thoguhts:
It is dissapointing that the Romulan Star Empire is taking a backsteat to the Tal'Shiar. They even mention Sela as the leader of the Tal'Shiar, rather than the leader of the RSE.
Sela is the leader of the Tal Shiar *and* an Iconian ally. How dissapointing. IMO the Tal Shiar were not well written in STO, what with the whole 'blowing up their homeworld for their Iconian masters' subplot. It's sad that now the entire RSE and Sela are getting in line behind them in this.
Cryptic are again playing up the oppressive nature of the RSE/Tal Shiar. Its startign to look like the RSE might be transformed into even more one-dimensional villains to act as a foil for the RR. There seems to be a 'homogenization' effect of the Romulans going on, and they are splitting into either our wholesome good-guy farmers who want to be left to themselves/live in harmony with their neighbors, and the Romulan Star Emprie, indistinguishable from the Tal Shiar and wholely under the thumb of the Iconians, who are the designated bad guys.
We don't even get to start as a RSE citizen? Instead we are stuck as a good-guy farmer on a backwater planet. I didn't know that the comparisons between the Romulan Faction and the Klingon farmers from the first KDF mission would be so prophetic, and I must say I am disappointed. There seems to be a conscious effort to distance the players from the Romulan Star Emprie as much as possible, probably so we don't develop any sort of connection to them-very disappointing.
I'm starting to think that the ROmulan faction is nothing more than a delivery system for KDF/Federation players who like the look of Romulan Ships/want to play a Drizzt Romulan but aren't interested in actually playing a true Romulan-one of the RSE. I can't honestly comprehend how this is supposed to appeal to Romulan fans otherwise.
Post edited by catoblepasbeta on
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Comments
I guess it was to make the RSE look like even more of the black vs white villains by making basically everyone in the Emprie in a position of power complacent with the destruction of Romulus (in itself, absurd) and playing up the oppression/fascist angle to make players sympathize with the Republic. I am not a fan of their plot choices as revealed so far, to be honest.
It's a story telling device that's worked in the past.
I don't understand this either. I've spent a few weeks now trying to understand the Romulan stories as they relate to the path to 2409. Now that I finally think I know what is going on, they put in something that seems to contradict whatever is left of this game's original lore.
Why would Sela ally with the Tal'shiar after a bloody feud that expelled her from the region? I haven't grinded New Romulus, so I don't know if there are any answers there.
Sela is not a nice person. It's pretty much a given that any group run by Sela is going to be notable for its oppressiveness. It's also pretty much a given that the Tal Shiar would love that; since they generally aren't very nice either.
Incorrect. Remember from the Teaser site: "Play as a Romulan or Reman and immerse yourself in new story-driven missions written exclusively from the Romulan Republic's point of view." Also, D'Tan is explicitly mentioned in the Dev Blog as being the leader of the Romulan Republic. Then take into account this sentence: "It remains to be seen if you will be able to stay unaligned in the long run, but for now, no one seems to even know your colony exists." It would be logical to assuem that at some point in the game, probably shortly after the tutorial (probably with the peaceful farming planet being attacked by the EVIL RSE) we will joing up with the Romulan Republic.
That's what I was thinking too. Doesn't mean I necessarily approve thoguh, lol. When I think 'Romulans' my mind doesn't automatically wander to Luke Skywalker. It does with the information Cryptic has provided so far though.
The Romulans aren't very nice either and I like them that way.
This is what we know about the relationship between Sela and Tal'shiar.
I guess it's all water under the bridge now. "Dear Sela, we'll forgive you for killing our leader, if you forgive us for exiling you from our empire. Er... I heard you guys became good at growing stuff on an inhospitable planet. I have a green thumb myself..."
The Romulans are no different from any other species; some are nice, some aren't. The Romluan leadership has generally not been very nice (with the possible exception of Donatra), but then it still isn't as far as the RSE goes.
I used to bullseye Epohhs with my TR-116 back home. And they're not much bigger than 1 meter. We GOT this B'iggs!
Point is I don't want to play a nice Romulan, its not the reason I am a fan of them. I would be more happy with a RSE third faction.
You're right. I see conflicting explanations. Either Sela was framed for the murder or she actually committed the murder. Either way, you're right. There is a lot of bad blood, at least according to path to 2409 stuff.
I'm not sure which parts of this lore are actually in the game.
Nah. They helped her escape.
I always thought it looked like they're kidnapping her.
Just as how the Federation isn't a cadre of bloodthirsty bullies who shoot first and ask questions later, much like this game makes them out to be.
"But the Hobus supernova blahblahblah the Empire is broken". And did the Klingon Empire crumble after the destruction of Praxis? The Klingons actually DID come grovelling to the Federation for help, and how many of them actually joined Starfleet after their (very canon) alliance? ONE KLINGON.
Additionally, passages such as the following don't exactly portray Sela as the evil dictator (dictator, yes, but not mustache-twirling tal'shair levels of evil) that the revealed Legacy of Romulus material has shown so far:
The Romulan Star Empire was enjoying a time of peace that it hadn't seen since the destruction of the Romulan homeworld almost two decades before. Praetor Sela settled long-simmering disputes between colony worlds, opened the Romulus memorial at the remains of the homeworld, and gently shaped the Senate to her way of thinking.
"She's using a little bit of blackmail, a dose of charm and a lot of guile," said a Starfleet Intelligence operative on Nova Roma. "But Romulus hasn't had a leader who can pull people together like she can since Donatra disappeared."
Honestly, it doesn't sound like her mode of operation, and it certainly does not sound like her to *head* the Tal Shiar.
Again, I'm calling Iconian indoctrination/impostor. The impostor being more likely - we'll probably get to rescue the real Sela at some point.
Nah, it has a bad motivator.
That's no moon?
I can't wait to participate in the new faction.