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Why the Romulan Republic?
flash525
Member Posts: 5,441 Arc User
Unless I am mistaken, the reason we were given for the Romulan Republic instead of the Romulan Star Empire was, in short, because Cryptic (or CBS?) didn't want us playing with an otherwise evil faction. Right? Well when thinking about that for a moment, are the Romulans actually evil? There's nothing more evil about them than there is about the Klingons, and yet we can happily play as a member of the Klingon Empire.
To ask a more to the point question; was the Republic created for the Alliance System, or because somewhere, someone didn't know squat about the Romulan Star Empire? I'm trying to understand the difference and justification for the Good/Bad argument between the Klingons and Romulans, when in truth, they're not all dissimilar; both factions have fought the Federation, and both factions have aided the Federation. The only difference between the two is that the Romulans are more isolated, but are they more evil than Klingons? I don't believe so.
Why did we get the Republic instead of the Star Empire?
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Sela was an antagonist from the start, even before STO was launched, and they picked her as the new Empress of the Star Empire. If you were part of the Empire as Romulan player, your leader would be the same person that was trying to conquer Vulcan and to cause a Civil War in the Klingon Empire to help install a new, Romulan-Friendly government.
In the STO storyline, she worked together with Hakeev to subjugate the Reman people under Obisek, and allowed the Hirogen to hunt on her territory. In the original Romulan episodes, she also comitted unprovoked attacks on the Federation (the revamp mostly reshapes the details of this, but the gist is the same.)
That's the kind of leaders you would have worked under. No matter if Romulans are evil or not, you would work for a villain. An alternate possibility for the story might have been that you worked for a resistance cell inside the Romulan Star Empire that tries to fight Sela and the Tal'Shiar - but working on an alternate government that offers a better solution is not that far, and also has its own perks. One of the emotionally strongest aspects that the Romulan player story line now has is that you're start out as a victim of the Star Empire's machinations, losing your home world and countless of friends, and help establish a new home for the Romulan people. This would probably not have been feasible as a mere resistance cell member, and definitely impossible if you were simply a loyal follower of Sela.
In the contest of STO, being a member of the Romulan Star Empire would imply working for the villains, there is no doubt about it. In an alternate STO with the Romulan Star Empire as a blank state, it could be feasible. But maybe it would look still similar - if the Star Empire wasn't set up as antagonist in STO, and instead as a player faction, we would probably have a positive figure like D'Tan at the head of state.
It's been so long, I have (had) forgotten all about Sela and Hakeev.
When the RSE lost the homeworlds to treachery the remaining Remans and Romulans fragmented into groups and had to make the best choice they had considering their position, Donatra went missing and other opponents were quietly assassinated as Sela forcefully took power. The RSE became even more blood thirsty and treacherous at this point, especially having the likes of Hakeev and others like him involved, it became more decadent and corrupt as things went on as the innocent cried for mercy and were ignored.
The RR formed out of the sheer frustration of being marginalised, ignored and victims of the RSE once again to treachery. Most honest Romulans and Remans wanted no part in what as Tovan Khev stated "the oppressive tal shiar", there were a lot of independent romulan and reman worlds out there that were simply trying to making a living in peace until the RSE and their secret allies tried to create hell in the Tau Dewa sectors. the RR snowballed off the back of that when more honest soldiers caught in the RSE left and joined the RR and a lot of other innocent people joined the new cause to get away from the RSE.
The RR, lead by D'tan who was mentored by Spock when he went missing near the Romulus star. D'tan was raised with radically different ideas, tolerance, understanding, understand treachery and not using it, compassion and giving the Reman people a free hand which they took. Al of this was to show the Vulcans that he can make peace where he can and convince the Vulcans to reunify both sides. however the greatest block in that plan is the chaotic RSE.
Where the RSE was standing still marginally avoiding self-destruction, the RR has surpassed the RSE in size and ability in a considerably short space of time, all this is with allies like the Remans, all of whom are free to follow their own path in stark constrast to 40 years earlier when most of them were mining minerals on a barely habitable and horrible rock under Romulan whips, the planet often referred to as Remus. other remans who were fortunate to not work on that planet are bodyguards to important Romulan leaders within the RSE.
The difference is clear the RR is the opposite of what the RSE is, the RR are open and welcoming, they are friendly and they learn something new every day from anyone they interact with. the RSE on the other hand are so closed off that anyone crossing their borders is automatically considered an enemy and or untrustworthy to go around without being watched. the RSE believes in its own arrogance and xenophobic tripe.
As far as the Klingons are concerned, they are aggressive and still hold a feudal outlook on things, however not even they would go to such depths as the RSE, because even a dishonored klingon has some form of honor and a limit. it is not defined on what a Klingon exactly believes in with their honor concept, but i do believe that they do not conduct illegal testing on live subjects for example or extensive use of treachery.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
"He shall be my finest warrior, this generic man who was forced upon me.
Like a badass I shall make him look, and in the furnace of war I shall forge him.
he shall be of iron will and steely sinew.
In great armour I shall clad him and with the mightiest weapons he shall be armed.
He will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight him.
He shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe will best him in battle.
He is my answer to cryptic logic, he is the Defender of my Romulan Crew.
He is Tovan Khev... and he shall know no fear."
The Star Empire is dead. It was decaying already at the time of Shinzon, possibly even before that. Its ways were unsustainable, its values only served the ambitious and a specific class of Romulan citizens, and the fact that it was on its way out has become only more obvious after the loss of Romulus.
An empire that's built on treachery, violence and suppression can only last so long. Especially once a power vacuum is created, as happened in 2387. With the removal of everything that kept those poor souls who happened to live in the decadent Star Empire in check, it's not really a surprise that things went downhill very quickly.
I think it's much more Trek-like to show a people who change their ways and overcome all those problems, rather than having a faction where the player has to hold on to the ideals of a dying Empire that have and has proven to be, dare I say it, wrong.
K'ymara, Orion Engineer. Caedera of Borg, Liberated Borg Tactical, Elyza Vix, Joined Trill Scientist. Christina Bellona, Augmented Human Tactical.
T'Lana, Vulcan Scientist. Arbol, Martian Tactical. Ayzer Bryn, Joined Trill Engineer. Hawke, Betazoid Scientist. Karna Valkras, Klingon Engineer. Beth Parker, Human Tactical
Sarel, Romulan Engineer (Federation). Yazuri, Reman Scientist (KDF)
Klingons don't completely lie and manipulate their people through fear from the shadows
Klingons don't torture and experiment on their people
Klingons don't seek use of Borg technology
Those are just some of the reasons why the empire is *evil*...but lets face it, the empire isn't even really a empire anymore...it's ran by the lies and manipulation of the Tal Shiar, more Romulan worlds aren't aligned with the Republic because of the lies, manipulation, and propaganda of the Tal Shiar.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
My character Tsin'xing
We know that the group that became the Romulans left Vulcan as a result of them not wanting to give up emotions (and I believe war in general). Over time, they grew to be xenophobic (you only ever see Romulans in power, excluding Sela). and mostly Militaristic in nature, hence the formation of the Romulan Star Empire. Star Trek: Enterprise (a series I know some hate) established the idea that Romulans wanted to reunify with the Vulcans, but at the time, they wanted to do so through militaristic goals. Eventually, after the Earth-Romulan war, they decided to isolate themselves for around 100 years. Here they were, an established galactic power defeated by fledgling species.
In the time of Kirk, the Romulans had advanced enough that they were ready to test their neighbor, the United Federation of Planets, to see how far they've come in the 100 years they isolated themselves. The Romulans knew that the Klingons shared an antagonistic relationship with the Federation so they tried an alliance between them, but an alliance between two Empires didn't last long. I think the Romulans learned that if they can't make alliances, they'll just do what they can to stop any other alliances from rising up. Eventually, after another big battle with the Federation, the Romulans retreated once more in isolation.
By the time we get to Picard, the Romulans were finally ready to break their isolation once more. They continued to see the Federation, which had grown larger as the annoying neighbor next door and did what they could to try and provoke the Federation to see how far they could push them towards war. We do however get a glimpse into Romulan military that not all Romulans share the mentality that the military seems to have, since there's a group that doesn't want that treatment any longer. They learn through Spock that they don't have to be militaristic. This sets up for the Romulan Republic.
When the Romulans learned of the Dominion, they loaned out to the Federation a cloaking device in exchange for information learned about the new discovered galactic power. Although they initially wanted a Romulan to be aboard to supervise the use of the cloak only while they were in the Gamma Quadrant, this requirement was later abandoned, but they probably continued to ask for intel about the Dominion. Eventually when the Dominion's relations with the Federation and Klingon Empire grew to be too much, the Romulans were asked to sign a nonaggression pact with the Dominion, which of course they did. The pact was broken though by the Federation getting the Romulans to think the Dominion killed one of their senators. The addition of the Romulans into the war showed that cooperation in times of conflict was possible between them and their neighbors.
In 2379, Shinzon wanted to formally open war with the Federation, knowing they were still recovering from the Dominion War. After assassinating the senate, Shinzon lead the push towards War with the federation, but was stopped when a new Romulan government formed to help the Federation stop Shinzon. This cooperation started paving the way for improved relations between the Romulans and the Federation. However, in the path to 2409, we know that there was an internal struggle of power in which Sela fights for control of the Empire. After the destruction of Romulus and Remus, the struggle for control only intensifies. By the time we do get to 2409, Sela is in control of the Empire as Empress and the Tal Shiar, led by Hakeev, seems to be running the show, hence why we don't play as them. The fighting leads to the formation of the Romulan Republic led by D'Tan.
We are led to believe that Sela and the Tal Shiar are both working together, but we get to a point where Sela no longer wants anything to do with Hakeev following an attack in the Brea system. After Sela is captured by the Iconians, conflicts for control for the Romulan Star Empire begins again, with the Tal Shiar remnants vying for the top spot. We know that the Empire still exists, but because of how many problems they've had with fighting the Tal shiar and each other, they just aren't up to be the power they once were. The Republic is now the new look of the Romulans whether most want to believe it or not.
TL;DR: The Romulan Star Empire, as we have seen them portrayed, wasn't really what the developers wanted us to play as in their plans for the game, that's why we have the Republic.
2)Because they thought that Star Wars' Rebel Alliance and its attendant plot would sell better to generic SciFi fans than a hard core group of Romulan only fans
3)Because Cryptic turned the RSE into a bunch of two-dimensional caricatures of mustache twirling cartoon villains like Snidley Whiplash and no one would want to play that garbage
4)Because they felt like it
1) Based on their metrics...the Klingon faction didn't sell well. Why create another faction that won't sell well?
2) You always all to the bigger group
3) Romulans weren't two dimensional caricatures before Cryptic got to them??? What do we really know about Romulans from canon...they are vulcan like and don't trust them.
4) Their game, their rules
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.
If the Klingons were launched with the same amount of dedication to them that the Federation received when the game went live, there would be a damn sight more Klingon players than there are today. The problem with the Klingons is the fault of Developers. Not players.
They may not try to make more of an alien race through tossing away the lives of their own, but they certainly aren't remiss to tossing away the lives of their own species for just about any reason under the sun... they end up in Sto'vo'kor then after all. Death is seen as practically a gift. So if your objection is to the callous waste of precious life, well... they obviously don't believe in much sanctity there.
If your objection is to allowing an alien lifeform using another for procreation, well, the Alliance is guilty of that thanks to the Kobali. We're all culpable in that particular carrion species feeding off of others to bolster their numbers.
K'mpec, Worf, Duras, Mog, Ja'rod... ring any bells? How about the attempted assassinations and discommendations (a fate worse than death to most klingons) used to frighten people off of discovering the truth about all the lies propping up the Great Houses, and by extension the Empire?
Klingons torture each other for fun. Remember Worf's painstick birthday party? And experimentation is nothing new, the augments come to mind.
This is STO. Everyone uses borg technology. And canonically the worst offender is Voyager.
In this, it's not even really the developer's fault, either.
The game had to launch at a set time, or they'd have lost the rights to develop it.
And Cryptic got the rights to the game in '08, giving them only 2 years to develop an MMO from scratch (as Perpetual still retained the game code and engine they were using to develop their version).
Though maybe the future will bring the RSE and RR back together under one flag, and hopefully it would include turning Romulans into full faction (with a third, full-Romulan allignment option). A good theme for a few brand new Romulan missions, I'd say.
1)The Klingon faction got boned at launch... no shock it didnt sell well
2)duh
3)No they weren't. Thats been hashed over many times in these forum and in the Romulan sub-forum. There are plenty of examples of Romulan characters in TNG and DS9 that weren't 2-D ebil. Even Tomalak eventually showed a little depth.
4)duh. Someone asked why we got the RR not RSE, I was listing the reasons they've given us. Not defending or attacking them. Done that plenty since LoR launch