It is often a truism that cultures are shaped by their history, but with the Rihannsu ( or “Romulans” as the Lloann’na call us), it is a demonstrable fact. To trace the history of the Rihannsu (“Romulans”), it is necessary to go back to the history of ancient Vulcan.
Ancient Vulcans were not at all like Spock, the most well-known Vulcan since the 23rd century. Early Vulcans were extremely emotional, violent, and warlike people. The planet was divided into hundreds of small clans and city-states, each with diverse governmental structures and religions. Because Vulcan was (and is) an extremely dry world, water and resources were scarce. Clans and cities fought violently to acquire the resources to continue to survive. In fact, during any given period on the planet, it was unlikely that any more than 10% of the planet was not at war.
Around 80 BC, in Terran dating, a Vulcan named Surak began publicly espousing the mental practice of reality-truth or “logic” as it's commonly translated, though grossly inaccurately, and the philosophies of peace. As one could expect, in a turbulent world filled with wars and warriors, his philosophies were slow to spread. However, spread they did, and Surak gradually gathered a small following of devoted followers -- the first true Vulcans, as we now know them. Among these followers was one named S’task, keen of mind and heart, and Surak's finest pupil.
In the year 20 BC (again by Terran reckoning), Vulcan received its first contact with aliens from other stars. The signals beamed in from the edge of the Vulcan system by alien vessels so shocked the Vulcans that several wars and declarations of war were put on hold until the matter could be settled one way or another. Officials met, and it was decided that the planet would meet the aliens united. Contact was made via transmissions from Vulcan, and a time and place of the meeting agreed upon.
On the day of the meeting, Surak was detained by vehicle troubles, but his pupil S’task was there in his stead. Unfortunately, the aliens were not true to their word of peace, for they were Orion pirates, intent on enslaving the unsuspecting world. When the aliens landed, the Vulcan emissaries were greeted with stun rays and blasters, rather than overtures of friendship, and a large proportion on the leadership of Vulcan was taken prisoner and held for ransom, among them S’task.
Thus began the ‘Ahkh, “the” war, the greatest of all Vulcan's wars, which they fought in their primitive ships using their psi-powers. With their mind talents, Vulcan adepts could force Orion pilots to attack each other, or dive their ships into the sun, and the Orions quickly learned that they should not have tangled with this superficially primitive species.
S’task himself escaped captivity during the war, organizing an in-ship rebellion, overpowering his captors, and eventually crashing the ship into the Orion mother ship, narrowly escaping in a rescue pod. He was found, many weeks later, drifting in space, half-starved, and clinging to life only through the force of his own anger. Some would call his solution to the Orions just. Others would call it extreme and brutal. In either case, according to the tenets of reality-truth, it was successful and over with, and that was his concern.
In this way began the split between Surak and his student S’task. After his experience with the Orions, S’task renounced the pacifism of Surak, saying that pacifism was inappropriate in the hostile universe waiting in interstellar space. However, S’task was not willing to promote his philosophies actively against Surak, for fear of prodding Vulcan back into a state of war and anarchy. Surak had long preached that “The structure of space-time is more concerned with means than ends: beginnings must be clean to be of profit,” and S’task agreed with his old master. It was with this in mind that S’task proposed an alternate solution.
The world was not working as it was, said S’task, so a clean beginning was in order. The followers of S’task would use Vulcan’s newly advanced space technology and venture out into interstellar space to find a new world and make a clean beginning. This is a rather simplistic phrasing of all that transpired to precipitate the Journey, but it will suffice.
Fifty years later, on 12 Ahhahr 140005, Vulcan Old Date, the first Vulcan far-travel ship, Rea's Helm, cut in its engines and left orbit, sealing a rift in the species which has not been sealed to this day.
In all, there were 16 far-travel ships in the fleet, each carrying approximately five thousand of the “Declared,” those who committed to the journey and placed all their property into a trust to build the ships. When the ships left Vulcan, it was with the belief that they would be able to find a suitable planet within 30-50 years of ship time. The ships were designed with a 100-year viability envelope, so this left plenty of time for the Travelers to find an appropriate world, should the first few stops be unfruitful.
Unfortunately, the Travelers planned their route using data taken from captured Orion vessels and used the data in a very negative way. Because the Orions had lied to them before, the Travelers were inclined to distrust the data and planned their trip so as to avoid any star mentioned in the databanks. In this way, the Travelers hoped to avoid any further contact with hostile aliens. The undesirable concomitant of this strategy was that the Traveler’s course led straight through a particularly barren, lifeless, and consequently unexplored section of the quadrant. Rather than taking 30 years, their journey stretched out over 100 years, and they barely arrived at a habitable world before their ships fell apart from old age.
Along the journey, facets of their new culture had already begun to spring to life in the ships. A new language evolved from their old language of Vulcan, new customs, ideas of living, and so forth all blossomed along the way to the Two Worlds. Communication between ships and among the people on each began being conducted in the new language with more frequency and accuracy. In a very short time, the new culture had all but completely taken hold of those that created it.
In the course of the journey, 11 of the 16 original ships succumbed to various disasters: mind-destroying aliens, black holes, and gravity wells, among other things. The five remaining craft were rewarded for their perseverance with the discovery of not one, but a binary pair of habitable worlds orbiting the star 128 Trianguli. After some discussion, the worlds were named ch’Rihan and ch’Havran, “of the Declared” and “of the Travelers,” in the tongue which the Travelers evolved from the Ancient Vulcan dialect to replace their Vulcan language. In this new tongue, the travelers called themselves “Rihannsu,” or “the Declared.”
At planetfall, the Travelers found themselves suddenly with two empty worlds to populate. The land was rich and fertile and there were literally thousands of life forms, as opposed to the few hundred on Vulcan, to contend with. The planets were remarkably similar, with a few near reproductions to be found in species on one planet and another. The land was distributed by lottery, and most of the population debarked, leaving only a few small “Ship Clans” who were reluctant to abandon the far-travel ships completely. However, life on the two worlds was not idyllic: of the 18,000 Rihannsu who settled on the two worlds, approximately 6,000 died in the first ten years of their settlement.
Oddly enough, these 6,000 did not die of disease or starvation, but mostly from the violent deaths of war. Upon settling down, the Rihannsu promptly picked up where things had left off on Vulcan, warring and feuding for various reasons, primarily territory and resources. In such an atmosphere it was only a matter of time before a warlord emerged to impose a central structure on the factions and clans by force, and such a warlord was T’Rehu, the “Ruling Queen.”
T’Rehu built up an army in about 67 AS (After Settlement) and, within 10 years, had more might than any in the Two Worlds. When her power was sufficient, she brought her armies to the Grand Council and there demanded recognition. Only S’task stood before her, and turned and left when the Council granted her demands. A few years later when famine struck the South Continent she called the Council, including S’task, together. She derided the Council for incompetence, and when S’task turned his back on her dishonorable display, she had him killed, setting herself up as Ruling Queen. As head of the Grand Council and later as Ruling Queen, T'Rehu dabbled in tyranny and beneficence, taking lives and saving them at her whim for some 18 years.
However, 20 years is a short time in the history of a world and after smarting under her rule for several years, the warlike clans of the Eastern continents of ch'Havran revolted and defeated her armies. In place of the Ruling Queen, a Tricameral house of Praetorate and Senate was set up which was sufficiently resilient to have survived to this day. So in relative stability, with regular localized factional wars, the Rihannsu lived for well over 1000 years. The Rihannsu enjoyed all the arts and developed them over this time: sculpture, music, painting, science, and war. All were relished and enjoyed. And then, the Rihannsu suffered a rude awakening.
In approximately 1600 AS, the Federation vessel USS Carrizal came out of warp at the far edge of the 128 Trianguli system and began surveying the area. They found, to their surprise, two worlds there with an apparently highly developed agrarian civilization on each. The crew dubbed the worlds “Romulus” and “Remus” in reference to an ancient Terran legend. In standard first contact procedures, they beamed in messages of peace and goodwill. They received no response. After surveying the system for a time, they returned to the Federation with the news of their discovery.
On the Two Worlds, the arrival of the aliens had an extremely disturbing effect. Tales of the Orion pirates had survived through the years, and the settlers still remembered that the Orions had preceded their treachery with offerings of peace. They were determined not to allow history to repeat itself, and set about organizing their defense. Over the past 1600 years, the Rihannsu had developed an extremely effective industrial system. They knew they could not match the technology of the ship that had entered their system, but years of war had taught them that sheer numbers could overwhelm any technological advantage.
By the time the next Federation ship arrived, the Rihannsu had constructed some 7,000 crude, cylindrical vessels - impulse powered with particle beam weapons. When the USS Balboa coasted into the Trianguli system, it was blown to bits by the massed particle beams of 50 spacecraft. Shortly thereafter, the Rihannsu captured the USS Stone Mountain, took her apart, studied the design, and added warp drive to their primitive craft. Thus began what was known to the Federation as the “First Romulan War.”
The Federation’s Starfleet was stymied and confused by their inability to defeat the Rihannsu, who were flying craft that was little more than tin cans with warp power drives. Time and again, larger and larger task forces were sent into Rihannsu space and were systematically obliterated by the Rihannsu. At about this time, the Federation made the first contact with the Vulcans and asked them if they knew anything about this seemly maniacal race. The Vulcans responded with characteristic caution, that they knew of some who might match the description, but that they had left Vulcan long ago. As Starfleet continued to send task forces into Rihannsu space, the Vulcans suggested that, if these were indeed the ones who had left long ago, it would be best to make peace. It took Starfleet several more years to realize that they were never going to prevail, and a treaty was eventually negotiated - the only treaty in Federation history to be negotiated entirely by data upload, as the Rihannsu refused to meet the aliens in person.
The treaty stipulated a band of space between the Federation and Rihannsu territories one light-year thick, which has since become known as the “Romulan Neutral Zone.” And so the situation stands now: the Rihannsu on one side, fiercely developing their defenses to avoid being taken advantage of by aliens once again; and the Federation on the other, completely unable to comprehend the reasoning and historical context behind the implacable hostility of their counterparts.
The Lloann’mhrahel (Federation) know little of what happened to the Rihannsu, or what they were doing after the signing of the treaty that ended the First Romulan War. The Rihannsu were awfully quiet, not being seen outside their own space and keeping to themselves. While the rest of the galaxy wondered, they were perfecting their technology, particularly that of space flight and weaponry, and were experimenting, making plans, in short, they were preparing.
On Stardate 1709.2, a Bird of Prey was sent covertly across the Neutral Zone to attack outposts on the Federation side, to test their resolve and capability. It had an early generation cloaking device on board. Unfortunately, the Bird of Prey ran afoul of the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain James Tiberius Kirk. After some rather interesting artful dodging and playing cat and mouse, the Bird of Prey was finally destroyed, and the Federation won not only an engagement but the continued assurance of the Rihannsu’s wrath.
The Rihannsu lay quiet for some time after that, licking their wounds and recounting the vengeance upon the Federation. On Stardate 5027.3, the Enterprise under Captain Kirk again made a truce with the Rihannsu. He and his crew were ordered to steal the newest generation cloaking device from a Rihannsu ship, and bring it back for testing to Starfleet Command. The Daise’Erei’Riov of that ship, and Akif class battlecruiser built by Klingons, tried to seduce Spock, the Vulcan first officer of the Enterprise, into defecting to the Rihannsu Empire. Needless to say, he pretended to do so for a time and later revealed his true feelings. The Daise’Erei’Riov was taken, along with her crew, for holding and released back to the Rihannsu later. The Rihannsu still hold much hate for that affair as well.
Again, the Rihannsu went into seclusion, only peeking out long enough to become involved in an ill-fated coup with some of Starfleet’s most prominent officers and other members of the Council against the Klingons during the Khitomer peace talks with Chancellor Gorkin, and later Azetbur. Ambassador Nanclus of ch’Rihan was implicated and was able to get himself free of the situation, which caused another bout of silence for the Rihannsu.