User:Anon user/Cardassian Union

The government of the Cardassian people, the Cardassian Union is an aggressive fascist state. It was not always this way; it might not always be this way. But right now, it's a totalitarian nightmare.

Note that some information on this page is based on notes taken on the history of Cardassia in another universe. This information is marked in italics.

Before Cardassia unified
''In the 16th century, the first Bajoran ship to reach Cardassia crashed on Cardassia Prime. This was unusual; Bajor had been under the control of an isolationist regime at the time. The scholar-monks of the Obsidian Order of the Oralian Way were the closest to the crash site, and chose to keep it hidden. '' The system of shared government between the Central Command, the Detapa Council, and the Obsidian Order dates back to the 1800s, if not earlier. ''Well, not really. Of those, only the Obsidian Order existed then, though a predecessor to the Detapa Council existed in the form of the Polnak League, a major alliance of countries on Cardassia Prime.'' ''In the year 2000 CE on the Terran calendar, Cardassia developed the warp drive, under the auspices of the fledgling Central Space Command. Cardassia, at the time, was nominally unified, but in practice consisted of a number of largely-independent nations, each maintaining their own government and military. There were a few unifying forces, however. The aforementioned CSC, responsible for policing and exploring space; the Council of Nations, the deliberative body that ran the CSC and a few other pan-Cardassian organizations and served as a clearinghouse for international diplomacy; and the Oralian Way, the dominant religious movement among Cardassians, composed of a number of different Orders with responsibilities such as education, health, and welfare. The Jevonite Order was famous for never turning their backs on a patient, the Obsidian Order was famous for never letting any scrap of information be lost, and the Uridium Order was famous for regarding the entirety of Prime as sacred and deserving of respect.''

''Over the next century, Cardassians began to explore and settle the systems around them, particularly expanding into what would one day be identified as the 'Zeta Andromedae' sector. Arawath, Atbar, Ceteria, Orias, and Vanden, among other systems, began to see settlement and resource extraction. A significant number of settlers were, in fact, prisoners, exiled offworld in accordance with the belief that no criminal should be allowed to profane Prime's sacred soil. (This would have unforeseen consequences). Colonies were formally run by different nations, and each nation built up extensive fleets of stellar warships to defend 'their' colonies; in practice, however, these fleets stayed at home, and the hard work of policing the colonies was conducted by the light ships of the CSC. ''

''First contacts with alien species were not unexpected. Technically, it'd sort of already happened; as the Obsidian Order of the Oralian Way had made clear from their archives, an alien ship had in fact crashed onto Cardassia Prime in the late 1500s. Some first contacts had been peaceful, others less so. Piracy had become a fact of life out on the frontier, and the CSC responded accordingly, securing higher budgets, building up shipyards and repair facilities, developing better combat ships, dispersing escorts and picket ships widely to be able to respond to threats, and upgrading their communications infrastructure. But the first contact that occurred in 2119 would shake Cardassian society to the core.''

''The Gorn were ruled by a monarchy - a hereditary government based on a single man holding absolute authority, passing rulership down from father to son, with a hereditary aristocracy handling the business of governance. It was a totally alien system to Cardassia, where leadership has always been collective. Perhaps this is why the two peoples got off to a rocky start, with the Gorn taking Cardassian actions to be insulting. Then again, maybe it was inevitable. Cardassia looked weak and vulnerable, with only a light policing and exploratory fleet out on the frontier. She made an attractive target.''

''Whatever the reason, the loss of CSC Trager and the attack on the sleepy mining colony of Tevak marked the beginning of the Sixteen Years' War. Trager's survivors, picked up by CSC Prakesh a month later, coordinated an investigation into the attackers, discovering over the next six months that elements of the Gorn Kingdom were preparing their own invasion deeper into Cardassian space. But when they presented their evidence before the Council of Nations, asking for a mobilization and the organization of a coordinated defense, the Council dismissed their claim.''

Nine months later, a Gorn invasion fleet came screaming in.

''Two weeks after they arrived in-system, Cardassia Prime surrendered, her nations' warfleets shattered. The occupying Gorn set up a network of puppet regimes and set about the task of looting the world. They had thought they had won, and sent most of their fleet home.''

They hadn't.

''Central Space Command was still in the fight. The colonies had been bypassed and ignored as irrelevant, but they served as staging points for a hit-and-run campaign. The headquarters of CSC had been destroyed in the orbital bombardment that had forced Prime's surrender, but they were used to operating on their own out on the frontier, and the men and women of the CSC rallied around the Trager survivors in particular. The light elements were able to operate far from home, in contrast to the warfleets, and conducted hit-and-run attacks. And a new fleet was under construction. Had been since the Gorn threat was discovered, before the money that was supposed to pay for them was authorized; when it failed to come through, the CSC cut back operations elsewhere to continue the construction of the ships they knew they'd need, and when they got word of Prime's surrender, they just kept building anyway. Kraxon, Ronagot, Karnack, and especially the new Trager would be the heart of the Liberation Fleet.''

''On Prime herself, a resistance movement took shape. The Obsidian Order, dismissed as quaint religious librarians by the conquerors, became the hub of the resistance, applying the lessons of Cardassian history in building their movement. Information was gathered, traitors eliminated, tribute convoys sabotaged, propaganda widely distributed.''

''And back in the Gorn Kingdom ... as the Trager survivors had discovered, only elements of the Gorn Kingdom had planned, organized, and executed the invasion. This was an independent, unsanctioned operation, conducted by a Gorn aristocrat seeking to prove herself worthy of marrying into the royal line. King Ashtarr the 29th recognized it as a fait accompli, but as the tribute stopped rolling in and the casualty reports began to mount, he regarded this as her mess to fix, and refused to commit the Royal Navy to the mission.''

''It took careful diplomacy with the Gorn Court, inspirational leadership, determined resistance, cunning intrigue, and over eight years to drive the invaders out. It also took, it was clear, the formation of a new species-wide identity, one that had already begun to take shape out in the colonies. The pre-war order would have to change.''

The Third Republic and the Rise of the Union
Tret Akleen, Labrim Takaaki, Aliv Rejal, and Janil Tain were among the most important leaders of the early Cardassian Union...

The Cardassian Union

 * First Contact with the Lecarre
 * Dylaarians agree to align with the Cardassians
 * Konen Wars
 * Coup against Goshawnar

Since meeting the Federation

 * First Contact in 2306.
 * Occupation of Bajor
 * Kadak-Tor Incident
 * Gabriel Border Zone conflict
 * Invasion of Kobheeria

In another universe

 * Major war with the Federation in the 2340s
 * Increasingly bloody occupation of Bajor
 * Brief war with the Klingons in the 2330s? (Betreka Nebula Incident)
 * Fall of the Obsidian Order
 * Klingon-Cardassian War
 * Colonization by the Dominion
 * Dominion War
 * Postwar reconstruction
 * Emergence of the Fourth Cardassian Republic
 * True Way
 * ZATWA War

Cardassians
Typically grey- or tan-skinned. Scaled, with prominent vertical neck ridges and a spoon-shaped ridge in the center of the forehead. Prefer hot, dark, humid environments. Biologically compatible with Bajorans.

Kobheerians
Forehead ridges, two large, elongated flat nostrils in the place of a nose. Under Cardassian occupation since 2318.

Bajorans
An ancient civilization of humanoids with ridged noses, currently under occupation by the Cardassians. Ironically, the Bajorans actually made first contact with the Cardassians, centuries ago, and there is some evidence that, at least in another universe, they may have influenced Cardassian religious thought.

Central Command
Central Command is the military arm of the Cardassian state... ''Grew out of Central Space Command, the unified exploratory arm of the then-disunified Cardassian people in the 21st and 22nd centuries. Despite having been composed of principally light ships, the CSC played a key role in the liberation of Cardassia from alien occupation in the 2120s.''

Location and Major Worlds
Major worlds: Cardassia Prime, Galundun, Trangot...

OPTIONAL Major Political Groups
Detapa Council, Central Command, Obsidian Order. Science Ministry?

OPTIONAL Foreign Relations

 * Ashalla Pact
 * Konen
 * Dylaarians
 * Goshawnar
 * Imelak
 * Lecarre
 * Allupii
 * Chrystovians
 * Federation
 * Sydraxia
 * Ashidi
 * Gorn

Religion
None. ''Except for the persecuted and hidden Oralian Way. The Oralian Way had several religious orders, including the Jevonite Order of doctor-monks, the Obsidian Order of librarian-monks, and the Uridium Order of ecologist-monks. The Obsidian Order famously led resistance to an alien occupation of Cardassia Prime in the 2120s, and in the aftermath, their role shifted towards an intelligence service, increasingly losing its religious trappings.''

Literature
Like many fascist states, the Cardassian Union is big on stories that glorify war heroes, that promote ideals of self-sacrifice. Other genres include the 'repetitive epic', in which families go through the same patterns of service to the State in generation after generation; the 'enigma tale', essentially a mystery, albeit with pretty much everyone being guilty; the romance novel, which follows the romantic exploits of an entire group of friends or siblings or co-workers; and others.

Visual arts
Cardassian visual arts, like Cardassian literature, serve the State. Artwork is meant to be inspirational... and to require minimal resources spent.

Architecture
Cardassian architecture has a marked preference for brutalism; Cardassians like to see the functionality of a building. Even those living in an era when the official state ideology no longer sees decorative arts as frivolity still like brutalist architecture.

Fashion
Austere. ''But it very much wasn't always so! As late as the Second Republic, fashions tended towards garish and exotic looks.''

Symbols
This thing. ''It's an old symbol, dating back to the Central Space Command. Still quite popular in 2420s Cardassia.''