This why I love Cryptic and why I keep coming back, all the design queues it looks like the Iconians were the ones that made New Romulus habitable possibly for their own colonization after Iconia was rubble considering both planets shared some terrain before bombardment, however my crew or the Republic found it first.
Possible targets?
Qonos exposed them first because of Jarod's encounter with 8472
New Romulus was their new home before the Romulans got their first
As for the Federation...if the Borg can't take them down nor the Klingons/Romulans then the Iconians know they have a fight ahead of them and the Enterprise was the first to find them.
I hope this war lasts a LONG while into many seasons because well...I want a knuckle dragged our fight.
History is repeating itself.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] "This planet smells, it must be the Klingons"
1. The Yamato accidentally stumbles on the Iconians or remnants of them, being the curious sort they awaken them and the Enterprise comes to save the save the day but not before attracting the warbird Haakona commanded by none other than Taris. They destroy the gate and all tech and leave with only intel.
2. A Romulan spy posing as a Vulcan Ambassador gets on board the ENT-D and manages to steal classified files no doubt some where Iconian.
3. The remaining Iconians from the Enterprise's attack make it back to the new sphere and tell their pals that their are new races to conquer and want to expand their Empire again.
4. The Iconians picked 8472 as its new target for manipulation considering their bloodlust for the Federation after their encounter with Janeway and Voyager
5. 8472 starts to take over key heads of state in the Quardrant but is halted by Jarod who captures one and makes it reveal the greater threat neither knowing Iconian involvement.
6. Klingons start annexing planets and Federation steps in....Klingon War
7. Now the Iconians have the lone superpowers at each other's throats they figure its time for a new addition to the family, the splintered Romulan Empire which now is in two groups, Donatra's Imperial Romulan State and Sela's Empire after the Supernova the Iconians made after Schinzon's schemes caused a rift ripe for the taking.
8. The Tal Shiar is the outlier while the two Romulan groups duke it out leaving them to find the Iconians themselves hoping to bring back Romulus lead by Heekev and Taris. Eventually the Romulan State loses after Donatra gets assimilated and folded back into the old guard which isn't much considering.
9. If you are a Romulan player you are on Virnat, a small outlined world in the same neighborhood as Dewa 4. The Iconians think that is too close for comfort and sick their warriors or Elachi on them. We surivive the find New Romulus.
10. The player discovers an ancient race known as the Dewans who were whiped out, no doubt after they discovered the Iconian gate and seeing them as a threat since New Romulus in my theory was formed to replace Iconia after its demise. So with a clean slate and a radiation pocket enveloping the planet Dewa 4 is secured for now.
11. However during the time of the Sundering ancient Romulans settled on this world only to be slowly killed by the radiation overtime the planet healed itself.
12. In the current timeline the Tal Shiar wants their Empire back as much as the Iconians want theirs so they hire the Elachi to start rounding up the Republic Romulans and even some of Sela's people.
13. Once the Elachi are defeated, the Tal Shiar gets destroyed too along with all of their other tech with very few of them left as well as the Old Guard, Sela is kidnapped, maybe a case of mistaken identity, since the Iconians plans are ruined.
14. So if Warriors won't do it, the Solonae or scientists will so they start designing the bugs for the a new dying empire in the Delta known as the Vaadwaur who also have axe to grind.
15. All the while tremors from the Gateway on New Rom have started and the player finds and Dyson sphere. Shutting that off made the gates unlock which opens up the Dyson to not just Alpha Quadrant powers, the Voth were there first studying their Doctrine Theories. So since the Voth known of Voyager and their Dino Theory.....axe to grind = war.
16. The Voth are pushed back and we open up another sphere in the Delta of which 8472 are using no doubt a gift from the Iconians during the Klingon War.
17. So game on....we fight and win the Jenolan sphere and find out the 8472 connection to the Iconians and we find our from Tuvok that the Delta Quadrant is starting to flair up so we go in and find the Vaadwaur.
18. the Vaadwaur threat has ended and we find the Elachi and their factories with the bugs they have implanted the Vaads with and Sela.
19. We find Taris is directly now in league with the Iconians after Hakeev's ending and her whereabouts are unknown.
20 The Third Sphere is found to be much older and bigger than the other two and possibly an Iconian war or Heralds.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] "This planet smells, it must be the Klingons"
This why I love Cryptic and why I keep coming back, all the design queues it looks like the Iconians were the ones that made New Romulus habitable possibly for their own colonization after Iconia was rubble considering both planets shared some terrain before bombardment, however my crew or the Republic found it first.
Possible targets?
Qonos exposed them first because of Jarod's encounter with 8472
New Romulus was their new home before the Romulans got their first
As for the Federation...if the Borg can't take them down nor the Klingons/Romulans then the Iconians know they have a fight ahead of them and the Enterprise was the first to find them.
I hope this war lasts a LONG while into many seasons because well...I want a knuckle dragged our fight.
History is repeating itself.
I think the Iconians are attacking the Klingons and Romulans because it would prevent them from providing aid to the Federation. As powerful and resourceful as the Federation is, they are not invincible. Just look at the Dominion War as an example. The Federation resisted the Dominion, but they would have lost the war had the Klingons and Romulans not joined. The Federation's main strength is that they are so damn charismatic. They can rally old enemies to their side, (although they resorted to trickery for the Romulans), and form an alliance to fight for the greater good.
The Iconians were originally devastated by races who came together in such a fashion and they clearly want to prevent this from happening again. If they attacked the Federation directly, then they would just rally everyone around them and form a new alliance. But, if you destroy their allies first and then attack the Federation, they will be forced to stand alone and will most likely not survive as a result.
Unless the one that turned up at the end of the previous arc and vaporized the High Council was also "just" a Herald, I'm guessing that this report is wrong or cautious, and we are in fact seeing actual Iconians - a particular, "lower-race-facing" subset, caste, service etc of them.
The alternative is that we still haven't seen any true Iconians in the "flesh", so to speak, and at this stage in the game/plot I think that would be kind of lame. A teasing reveal held back too long becomes irritating, a disappointment, or both. The risk is that when one finally does pull back the curtain, no one cares anymore.
Finally, with regards to what others have said, we know the Iconians had contact with the Dewans at the peak of their civilization. Not at all unlikely that they may have introduced some of their own animal life, as other colonists do.
When Cryptic revealed the Iconians and The Heralds, STO went from science to magic.
"Our history, our past, our present and our future is now forever changed. All we can do is preserve what is left and continue onwards. This is not a surrender nor defeat, we will continue the fight. This is our last hope, our last chance... for victory."
Vlasek D. Lasor - 4.19.3580 Star Trek Online: Foundry Storyline Series
Anyone else think it odd these iconians dominated all known quadrants over 200 millennia ago, yet Warp travel is still possible after the use of omega particles to transport the dyson spheres? :eek:
Anyone else think it odd these iconians dominated all known quadrants over 200 millennia ago, yet Warp travel is still possible after the use of omega particles to transport the dyson spheres? :eek:
if omega particles explode then it destroys subspace, it makes warp travel impossible and it would keep the spheres from going anywhere in a hurry as well as they require a subspace connection to move the sphere. omega particles in a stable state has no effect on warp travel, but warp travel does have an accumulative effect on subspace though.
T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW. Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Anyone else think it odd these iconians dominated all known quadrants over 200 millennia ago, yet Warp travel is still possible after the use of omega particles to transport the dyson spheres? :eek:
I wondered what's up myself a while for instance how the Jenolan sphere jumped and space hasn't become impossible to navigate in the quadrant by warp travel. But perhaps it's because the way the spheres utilize omega particles prevents that from happening. And in the mission where we fought to prevent the Solanae sphere from jumping it's possible the alliance didn't know that, or couldn't be sure the jump process would work right. And if it did work, it would mean the Voth would have the sphere handed directly to them. So it had to be stopped for at least that reason, but I don't remember the dialogue.
It is logical to assume it's a bit like how a ship using anti-matter properly won't blow up it's surroundings, but if didn't utilize anti-matter correctly, would blow things up!
Like the difference between a nuclear reactor in normal use versus a nuclear weapon. Same fuel, but utilized very differently.
A distinction which JJ et al utterly failed to grasp at the end of the first reboot movie, where dumping the antimatter reserves out the back and surfing the resulting shockwave somehow <strike>MAKES A WAY KEWLR ENDING BRAH</strike> is more efficient than using it in their warp engines. Try that with the gas in your car, see how far it gets you...
Interesting...
Taris wore the same gloves than the second pictured Herald.
At first I thought those (and the other bits she has) were the visuals that would come with the RSN kit. With them explained now, not only do I hope the RSN set has proper aesthetic unlocks, but wonder if the 'Herald' accessories will show up as part of some new rep project.
So why are the first sentient beings of the Galaxy, the Preservers, not included in this story arc?
They are an older race than the Iconians and along the way they must have clashed more than once with those Iconians i presume.
So why are the first sentient beings of the Galaxy, the Preservers, not included in this story arc?
They are an older race than the Iconians and along the way they must have clashed more than once with those Iconians i presume.
Look again at the intro scene for Delta Recruits. I haven't finished that story, but the opening is suggestive.
PLEASE NO we have to many non faction ships in game we want more T6 iconic ships B'rels Mogai Defiants I would want a full C store ship collection before they start on adding ships like that to the game. However I can see there being a iconion lockbox in the future a shame really I would rather shoot a ship I can't see in a social map for once.
NO TO ARC
Vice Admiral Volmack ISS Thundermole
Brigadier General Jokag IKS Gorkan
Centurion Kares RRW Tomalak
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
PLEASE NO we have to many non faction ships in game we want more T6 iconic ships B'rels Mogai Defiants I would want a full C store ship collection before they start on adding ships like that to the game. However I can see there being a iconion lockbox in the future a shame really I would rather shoot a ship I can't see in a social map for once.
The age old STO arguement about the b'rel itself would come into play and Cryptic would rather not deal with it again so most likely you'll see a T6 defiant and mogai but not a b'rel. Even though there are 46 billion ways to decloak a cloaked target the feds would QQ over the fact they would have to use tactics to bring one down and then it would just be out of cryptic's depths to allow a bird of prey to be able to compete into the dps race they have created.
So I doubt we will see one being that they would most likely keep that enhanced battle cloak the way it is where it defeats itself/its purpose by keeping you decloaked while you try to compete with energy weapon vapers and faw spammers. IMO though if it were up to me I would keep the flanking they put on it but totally revamp the way bops work right now so they could be used as a hit and run type ship like they should have been designed so that they could become viable in the end game. Just like this delta recruit thing while leveling up the bops perform as designed/what you would expect but being with all the clashing of systems at end game the elements of it doing hit and run do not add up to a hill of beans. Anyways though here is to the hope that Cryptic will do something for bops in the near future.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
I am ok with the Iconians feeling like they do magic more than use technology for the above reasons. That is, as long as they do not make the Iconians wusses. When they introduced the Voth I also felt the same way, and now I see them as a joke.
When it comes to the Iconians, the things I do not really understand is, why are they not using an Omega Bomb? They do not need warp travel to go through the universe, but all the other races do. A few well placed Omega Bombs would make warp travel nearly impossible for the races of the Milky Way, and thus ends the threat of them joining forces against the Iconians. You send shock troops to overwelm each planet in turn, and you win the entire galaxy.
I am ok with the Iconians feeling like they do magic more than use technology for the above reasons. That is, as long as they do not make the Iconians wusses. When they introduced the Voth I also felt the same way, and now I see them as a joke.
When it comes to the Iconians, the things I do not really understand is, why are they not using an Omega Bomb? They do not need warp travel to go through the universe, but all the other races do. A few well placed Omega Bombs would make warp travel nearly impossible for the races of the Milky Way, and thus ends the threat of them joining forces against the Iconians. You send shock troops to overwelm each planet in turn, and you win the entire galaxy.
But that's just what I would do...
Considering one of their servitor races lives in sub-space, I would think that would be a bad thing. Besides, it would also effect their Undine manipulation plans.
Considering one of their servitor races lives in sub-space, I would think that would be a bad thing. Besides, it would also effect their Undine manipulation plans.
That is not neccessarily true. If they dropped a handful of Omega Bombs at key points in space (which they can deploy with their gateways) they could make travel at the least horrific for the species in the Milky Way. It will change the landscape in such a way that instead of taking hours to days to get assets moved it will take weeks or months. This means it would take too long to get back up sent to any one point of attack, and then not only would the Iconians have the advantage in technology, but also in numbers. Suddenly you are only fighing one race at a time, and that is very managable and there is no reason for so much catspaw.
With this more straightforward approach, you do not need to manipulate the Undine into doing anything. You do not need them period. Also, while the Solanae might live in subspace, you might not be destroying all of subspace everyonewhere. Besides, even if you sacrificed the Solanae, do you think they would care as long as they acheived their end game? They could easily repace a lost servitor race with the people they enslave in the alpha and beta quadrants.
I mean, it is less interesting that having them as the ones lurking in the shadows pulling strings, but other than that...
That is not neccessarily true. If they dropped a handful of Omega Bombs at key points in space (which they can deploy with their gateways) they could make travel at the least horrific for the species in the Milky Way. It will change the landscape in such a way that instead of taking hours to days to get assets moved it will take weeks or months. This means it would take too long to get back up sent to any one point of attack, and then not only would the Iconians have the advantage in technology, but also in numbers. Suddenly you are only fighing one race at a time, and that is very managable and there is no reason for so much catspaw.
With this more straightforward approach, you do not need to manipulate the Undine into doing anything. You do not need them period. Also, while the Solanae might live in subspace, you might not be destroying all of subspace everyonewhere. Besides, even if you sacrificed the Solanae, do you think they would care as long as they acheived their end game? They could easily repace a lost servitor race with the people they enslave in the alpha and beta quadrants.
I mean, it is less interesting that having them as the ones lurking in the shadows pulling strings, but other than that...
My only other thought would be how does thier physioligy interacts with Omega Particles. Seeing as they have Chronitons in thier brain to make it work, it would stand to reason that thier very weird physioligy might have some major health issues with Omega Paritcles floating around in Normal Space. Making huge Omega Radiation Zones might just make thier EMpire more of a "Scorched Earth" type policy. And not what they want to do.
Having servitors means they can keep space normal and Omega Radiation free. Plus they get the added benefit of having the Servitors take the brunt of the casualty loss in the conquering efforts.
Seriously, I bet the Tkon Empire could kick the Iconians' butte-oxen! And even if it might be a bit ridiculous to bring the Tkon Empire itself into the story-arc, one or more of their outposts might provide access to technology that might help us in our fight against the Iconians. That's certainly where my captains would focus their attention, if I had any choice in the matter.
That said, on a different subject, I must commend the writers for so accurately taking the mentality of countless megalomaniacal tyrants that have come before us and are still goin' strong in the modern world and applying it to the Iconians in that they attack us over and over again, turn around and warn us not to oppose them, and then turn back around and start attacking us again (through their proxy forces, etc.), all so that they can convince themselves that we have given them no choice but to attempt to destroy us entirely since we, you know, "opposed them" (or as sane people would phrase it, "defended ourselves").
"What? You're defending yourselves? We told you not to oppose us! Well, now we're gonna have to keep doing what we were already doing -- that is, murdering you and others of your kind -- but now it's your fault, 'cause you have now opposed us."
The Iconians use technology that seem like magic to lesser races, even us 25th century Starfleet. This reminds me of the Technomage from Babylon 5, using technology that appears like magic.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke
On a different topic, the Heralds remind me of the Ori in a sense, using "religion" or treating their masters as Gods. In fact in "The Herald Sphere" the sphere is called their "temple." There are other themes of this in SCIFI as well.
Now to the Iconians, I imagine Iconians as like energy beings that require or need or want encounter suits when operating on this plane. I think of them like the Vorlons from Babylon 5, energy beings that need encounter suites. OR, maybe like half ascended Ancients sort of like Anubis in Stargate SG1, half way ascended/energy beings, and half way corporeal, maybe still needing some kind of encounter suit.
These themes have been done before, but it is new for Star Trek, bring em on
All the calls of this is changeing the game into a DandD majic etc game seem to forget the number of times kirk and his team ran into "majic". Does anyone rember the episode where a planet of "greek gods" played with thier servents useing thier mind?. Or a dozen other times through all the series when we had Q and other races just say poof your a sheep?
Comments
Possible targets?
Qonos exposed them first because of Jarod's encounter with 8472
New Romulus was their new home before the Romulans got their first
As for the Federation...if the Borg can't take them down nor the Klingons/Romulans then the Iconians know they have a fight ahead of them and the Enterprise was the first to find them.
I hope this war lasts a LONG while into many seasons because well...I want a knuckle dragged our fight.
History is repeating itself.
1. The Yamato accidentally stumbles on the Iconians or remnants of them, being the curious sort they awaken them and the Enterprise comes to save the save the day but not before attracting the warbird Haakona commanded by none other than Taris. They destroy the gate and all tech and leave with only intel.
2. A Romulan spy posing as a Vulcan Ambassador gets on board the ENT-D and manages to steal classified files no doubt some where Iconian.
3. The remaining Iconians from the Enterprise's attack make it back to the new sphere and tell their pals that their are new races to conquer and want to expand their Empire again.
4. The Iconians picked 8472 as its new target for manipulation considering their bloodlust for the Federation after their encounter with Janeway and Voyager
5. 8472 starts to take over key heads of state in the Quardrant but is halted by Jarod who captures one and makes it reveal the greater threat neither knowing Iconian involvement.
6. Klingons start annexing planets and Federation steps in....Klingon War
7. Now the Iconians have the lone superpowers at each other's throats they figure its time for a new addition to the family, the splintered Romulan Empire which now is in two groups, Donatra's Imperial Romulan State and Sela's Empire after the Supernova the Iconians made after Schinzon's schemes caused a rift ripe for the taking.
8. The Tal Shiar is the outlier while the two Romulan groups duke it out leaving them to find the Iconians themselves hoping to bring back Romulus lead by Heekev and Taris. Eventually the Romulan State loses after Donatra gets assimilated and folded back into the old guard which isn't much considering.
9. If you are a Romulan player you are on Virnat, a small outlined world in the same neighborhood as Dewa 4. The Iconians think that is too close for comfort and sick their warriors or Elachi on them. We surivive the find New Romulus.
10. The player discovers an ancient race known as the Dewans who were whiped out, no doubt after they discovered the Iconian gate and seeing them as a threat since New Romulus in my theory was formed to replace Iconia after its demise. So with a clean slate and a radiation pocket enveloping the planet Dewa 4 is secured for now.
11. However during the time of the Sundering ancient Romulans settled on this world only to be slowly killed by the radiation overtime the planet healed itself.
12. In the current timeline the Tal Shiar wants their Empire back as much as the Iconians want theirs so they hire the Elachi to start rounding up the Republic Romulans and even some of Sela's people.
13. Once the Elachi are defeated, the Tal Shiar gets destroyed too along with all of their other tech with very few of them left as well as the Old Guard, Sela is kidnapped, maybe a case of mistaken identity, since the Iconians plans are ruined.
14. So if Warriors won't do it, the Solonae or scientists will so they start designing the bugs for the a new dying empire in the Delta known as the Vaadwaur who also have axe to grind.
15. All the while tremors from the Gateway on New Rom have started and the player finds and Dyson sphere. Shutting that off made the gates unlock which opens up the Dyson to not just Alpha Quadrant powers, the Voth were there first studying their Doctrine Theories. So since the Voth known of Voyager and their Dino Theory.....axe to grind = war.
16. The Voth are pushed back and we open up another sphere in the Delta of which 8472 are using no doubt a gift from the Iconians during the Klingon War.
17. So game on....we fight and win the Jenolan sphere and find out the 8472 connection to the Iconians and we find our from Tuvok that the Delta Quadrant is starting to flair up so we go in and find the Vaadwaur.
18. the Vaadwaur threat has ended and we find the Elachi and their factories with the bugs they have implanted the Vaads with and Sela.
19. We find Taris is directly now in league with the Iconians after Hakeev's ending and her whereabouts are unknown.
20 The Third Sphere is found to be much older and bigger than the other two and possibly an Iconian war or Heralds.
I think the Iconians are attacking the Klingons and Romulans because it would prevent them from providing aid to the Federation. As powerful and resourceful as the Federation is, they are not invincible. Just look at the Dominion War as an example. The Federation resisted the Dominion, but they would have lost the war had the Klingons and Romulans not joined. The Federation's main strength is that they are so damn charismatic. They can rally old enemies to their side, (although they resorted to trickery for the Romulans), and form an alliance to fight for the greater good.
The Iconians were originally devastated by races who came together in such a fashion and they clearly want to prevent this from happening again. If they attacked the Federation directly, then they would just rally everyone around them and form a new alliance. But, if you destroy their allies first and then attack the Federation, they will be forced to stand alone and will most likely not survive as a result.
The alternative is that we still haven't seen any true Iconians in the "flesh", so to speak, and at this stage in the game/plot I think that would be kind of lame. A teasing reveal held back too long becomes irritating, a disappointment, or both. The risk is that when one finally does pull back the curtain, no one cares anymore.
Finally, with regards to what others have said, we know the Iconians had contact with the Dewans at the peak of their civilization. Not at all unlikely that they may have introduced some of their own animal life, as other colonists do.
Cool... Do I get Shadow spells too...!?
"Our history, our past, our present and our future is now forever changed. All we can do is preserve what is left and continue onwards. This is not a surrender nor defeat, we will continue the fight. This is our last hope, our last chance... for victory."
Vlasek D. Lasor - 4.19.3580
Star Trek Online: Foundry Storyline Series
Yup.
Everything I feared was going to happen with the Voth is going to come true with these guys. Handwavum black-fire shadow-magic.
Well... we'll see.
Actual join date: Open beta, 2009ish.
Trek was spelljammer before Chainmail was D&D.
if omega particles explode then it destroys subspace, it makes warp travel impossible and it would keep the spheres from going anywhere in a hurry as well as they require a subspace connection to move the sphere. omega particles in a stable state has no effect on warp travel, but warp travel does have an accumulative effect on subspace though.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
I wondered what's up myself a while for instance how the Jenolan sphere jumped and space hasn't become impossible to navigate in the quadrant by warp travel. But perhaps it's because the way the spheres utilize omega particles prevents that from happening. And in the mission where we fought to prevent the Solanae sphere from jumping it's possible the alliance didn't know that, or couldn't be sure the jump process would work right. And if it did work, it would mean the Voth would have the sphere handed directly to them. So it had to be stopped for at least that reason, but I don't remember the dialogue.
It is logical to assume it's a bit like how a ship using anti-matter properly won't blow up it's surroundings, but if didn't utilize anti-matter correctly, would blow things up!
Like the difference between a nuclear reactor in normal use versus a nuclear weapon. Same fuel, but utilized very differently.
They are an older race than the Iconians and along the way they must have clashed more than once with those Iconians i presume.
Look again at the intro scene for Delta Recruits. I haven't finished that story, but the opening is suggestive.
Vice Admiral Volmack ISS Thundermole
Brigadier General Jokag IKS Gorkan
Centurion Kares RRW Tomalak
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
*Looks down at his own sig* Been working on that for a bit now. Midchildan Magitech vs. Iconian Magitech...Befriending vs. Conquering!
Also...may I drop a suggestion about an idea with whatever Reputation is coming with the next season...Iconian BOFF...that is all.
The age old STO arguement about the b'rel itself would come into play and Cryptic would rather not deal with it again so most likely you'll see a T6 defiant and mogai but not a b'rel. Even though there are 46 billion ways to decloak a cloaked target the feds would QQ over the fact they would have to use tactics to bring one down and then it would just be out of cryptic's depths to allow a bird of prey to be able to compete into the dps race they have created.
So I doubt we will see one being that they would most likely keep that enhanced battle cloak the way it is where it defeats itself/its purpose by keeping you decloaked while you try to compete with energy weapon vapers and faw spammers. IMO though if it were up to me I would keep the flanking they put on it but totally revamp the way bops work right now so they could be used as a hit and run type ship like they should have been designed so that they could become viable in the end game. Just like this delta recruit thing while leveling up the bops perform as designed/what you would expect but being with all the clashing of systems at end game the elements of it doing hit and run do not add up to a hill of beans. Anyways though here is to the hope that Cryptic will do something for bops in the near future.
I am ok with the Iconians feeling like they do magic more than use technology for the above reasons. That is, as long as they do not make the Iconians wusses. When they introduced the Voth I also felt the same way, and now I see them as a joke.
When it comes to the Iconians, the things I do not really understand is, why are they not using an Omega Bomb? They do not need warp travel to go through the universe, but all the other races do. A few well placed Omega Bombs would make warp travel nearly impossible for the races of the Milky Way, and thus ends the threat of them joining forces against the Iconians. You send shock troops to overwelm each planet in turn, and you win the entire galaxy.
But that's just what I would do...
Considering one of their servitor races lives in sub-space, I would think that would be a bad thing. Besides, it would also effect their Undine manipulation plans.
KDF: Dahar Master Kan (Borg Klingon Tactical)::Dahar Master Torc (Alien Science)::Dahar Master Sisteric (Gorn Engineer)
RR-Fed: Citizen Sirroc (Romulan Science)::Fleet Admiral Grell (Alien Engineer)
RR-KDF: Fleet Admiral Zemo (Reman Tactical)::Fleet Admiral Xinatek (Reman Science)::Fleet Admiral Bel (Alien Engineer)
TOS-Fed: Fleet Admiral Katem (Andorian Tactical)::Lieutenant Commander Straad (Vulcan Engineer)
Dom-Fed: Dan'Tar (Jem'Hadar Science)
Dom-KDF: Kamtana'Solan (Jem'Hadar Science)
CoHost of Tribbles in Ecstasy (Zombee)
That is not neccessarily true. If they dropped a handful of Omega Bombs at key points in space (which they can deploy with their gateways) they could make travel at the least horrific for the species in the Milky Way. It will change the landscape in such a way that instead of taking hours to days to get assets moved it will take weeks or months. This means it would take too long to get back up sent to any one point of attack, and then not only would the Iconians have the advantage in technology, but also in numbers. Suddenly you are only fighing one race at a time, and that is very managable and there is no reason for so much catspaw.
With this more straightforward approach, you do not need to manipulate the Undine into doing anything. You do not need them period. Also, while the Solanae might live in subspace, you might not be destroying all of subspace everyonewhere. Besides, even if you sacrificed the Solanae, do you think they would care as long as they acheived their end game? They could easily repace a lost servitor race with the people they enslave in the alpha and beta quadrants.
I mean, it is less interesting that having them as the ones lurking in the shadows pulling strings, but other than that...
My only other thought would be how does thier physioligy interacts with Omega Particles. Seeing as they have Chronitons in thier brain to make it work, it would stand to reason that thier very weird physioligy might have some major health issues with Omega Paritcles floating around in Normal Space. Making huge Omega Radiation Zones might just make thier EMpire more of a "Scorched Earth" type policy. And not what they want to do.
Having servitors means they can keep space normal and Omega Radiation free. Plus they get the added benefit of having the Servitors take the brunt of the casualty loss in the conquering efforts.
KDF: Dahar Master Kan (Borg Klingon Tactical)::Dahar Master Torc (Alien Science)::Dahar Master Sisteric (Gorn Engineer)
RR-Fed: Citizen Sirroc (Romulan Science)::Fleet Admiral Grell (Alien Engineer)
RR-KDF: Fleet Admiral Zemo (Reman Tactical)::Fleet Admiral Xinatek (Reman Science)::Fleet Admiral Bel (Alien Engineer)
TOS-Fed: Fleet Admiral Katem (Andorian Tactical)::Lieutenant Commander Straad (Vulcan Engineer)
Dom-Fed: Dan'Tar (Jem'Hadar Science)
Dom-KDF: Kamtana'Solan (Jem'Hadar Science)
CoHost of Tribbles in Ecstasy (Zombee)
That said, on a different subject, I must commend the writers for so accurately taking the mentality of countless megalomaniacal tyrants that have come before us and are still goin' strong in the modern world and applying it to the Iconians in that they attack us over and over again, turn around and warn us not to oppose them, and then turn back around and start attacking us again (through their proxy forces, etc.), all so that they can convince themselves that we have given them no choice but to attempt to destroy us entirely since we, you know, "opposed them" (or as sane people would phrase it, "defended ourselves").
"What? You're defending yourselves? We told you not to oppose us! Well, now we're gonna have to keep doing what we were already doing -- that is, murdering you and others of your kind -- but now it's your fault, 'cause you have now opposed us."
Makes total sense.
Except those that played Klingons have already encountered the Fekhiri -- and guess what, there were 4 kind's of them as well, just like the Heralds .
.... which is why I fear a re-skin of the Fekhiri-as-Heralds ...
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke
On a different topic, the Heralds remind me of the Ori in a sense, using "religion" or treating their masters as Gods. In fact in "The Herald Sphere" the sphere is called their "temple." There are other themes of this in SCIFI as well.
Now to the Iconians, I imagine Iconians as like energy beings that require or need or want encounter suits when operating on this plane. I think of them like the Vorlons from Babylon 5, energy beings that need encounter suites. OR, maybe like half ascended Ancients sort of like Anubis in Stargate SG1, half way ascended/energy beings, and half way corporeal, maybe still needing some kind of encounter suit.
These themes have been done before, but it is new for Star Trek, bring em on
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