Technologically advanced, humanoid civilization. In the past, the Cardassians were a peaceful and spiritual people. But because their planet was resource-poor, starvation and disease were rampant, and people died by the millions. With the rise of the military to power, new territories and technology were acquired by violence, at the cost of millions of lifes sacrified to the war effort.

The Cardassians were involved in a bitter, extended conflict with the Federation. An uneasy truce between the two adversaries was finaly reached in 2366. During the negotiations, Ambassador Spock publicly disagreed with his father, Ambassador Sarek, on the treaty. One year later they signed the historic peace treaty to establish their fragile truce.

The Cardassians annexed the planet Bajor around 2328, and over the next several decades systematiclly stripped the planet of resources and forced most Bajorans to resettle on other worlds. In 2369, the Bajoran resistance movement had forced the Cardassians from Bajor.

In 2372 a civil uprising overthrew the Cardassian Central Command, placing the power into the hands of the Depata Council. The Klingons suspected that they where Changelings and subsequently invaded Cardassia Prime, and was nearly successful. The invasion destroyed the industrial capabillity of dozens of Cardassian worlds, devestating their economy. In an act of deperation and to restore the Cardassians to their former glory Gul Dukat signed a pact with the Dominion.

A Trill is a joined species comprised of a humanoid host and a small vermiform symbiont that resides in an internal abdominal pocket of the host body. Most of the personality and memories of the Trill reside in the symbionts, which are extremely long lived, although the host also contributes personality traits to
the joined life form.

Upon the death of a host body, a Trill symbiont can be transplanted into another host. Trill hosts enter voluntarily into their association with the symbiont. It is a great honor to be selected for the joining. Trill joining is only undertaken after after completion of rigorous competition by potential hosts.

Hosts are accepted well into their twenties. Once joined, the host and symbiont become biologically interdependent, and after 93 hours, neither can survive without the other. The resulting new, joined life form is considered to be another person, although it retains memories of all previous joinings.

In Trill society it is considered taboo for symbiots that knew each other in one host to persue a relationship in another later host. The penalty for doing so is that the symbiot is not joined again and thus its lifespan is limited to that of the current host. Trills' hands are naturally cold. Sometimes friendships with other species don't survive when the Trill moves to the next host. Trill hosts sometimes have sexual feelings, but they do their best to overcome them. Certain Trill symbionts can be severely damaged by beaming, other symbionts don't.

Romulans are a warrior race from the twin planets Romulus and Remus in the Romulan Star Empire. They are believed to be an enigmatic offshoot of a group of Vulcans who left their homeworld over a millenia ago, possibly in rebellion against Surak's philosophy of logic and pacifism.

The Romulans are a passionate, aggressive, but highly honorable people. They can also be quite diplomatic when the situtation calls for it, and prefer to manipulate their opponents into making the first move. They are a study in dramatic contrasts. Capable of considerable tenderness, they can also be violent in the extreme. Romulans have also been characterized as having great curiosity, while maintaining a tremendous self confidence bordering on arrogance.

The Romulan goverment is run by a Senate which, in turn, answers to the Praetor who is the de-facto military leader. In interstellar relations, the Romulans have generally preferred to react to actions of a potential adversary, rather than committing themselves beforehand.

A bitter war between the Romulans and Earth forces around 2160 resulted in the establishment of the Romulan Neutral Zone, a violation of which was considered an act of war. The Neutral Zone remained unviolated until 2266 when a single Romulan ship crossed into Federation space in a test of Federation resolve. The Romulans entered into a brief alliance with the Klingon Empire around 2268, when an agreement between those powers resulted in the sharing of military technology and spacecraft design. The Romulans again went into isolation in 2311, following the Tomed Incident, not to emerge until 2364, when early indications of Borg activity were detected. The Romulan military has the almost exculsive suport of the government. Romulans were the first to developed the cloaking technology so desirous on today's spacecrafts.