So, what's your favorite part of Romulan lore? Let me know down below! BTW -- The first 1,000 people to use this link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/orangeriver02221
It's fantastic! Thank you thousand times. Please, continue with such nasterpieces. I can't stop myself to think about all the informations from your video, thank you verry verrry much.
I known they aren't canon, but I love Diane Duane's books. My favorite episode is Enterprise Incident. The Romulans were my favorit Star Trek aliens from the Original series and the books - not as much in Next Generation, DS9, etc. Although I do like their come back in Discovery and Pickard.
I really hope they bring forth the very cooperative Romulan Republic depicted in Star Trek Online as canon at some point. Where Spock's former Romulan assistant D'Tan takes the the reigns as the people's political leader.
When Spock (TOS) seduced that lady Romulan where the Enterprise steals a Romulan cloaking device and uses it (breaking the established canon, changing the rules, that a ship having such a device must direct all power except life support and sublight engines to use it thus explaining why they must drop it to fire any weapons or use any shields but I digress), the Romulans having Vulcan-like psychic abilities was hinted at... Vulcan abilities were, up to then, limited to touch range (pretty much still are now). They used such touch in... enhancing and-or replacing... sexual contact. So, what was implied, was that if a Romulan had a Vulcan's discipline, they would more or less be Vulcans. Also, the Mintakans, an Agrarian-era cousin to Vulcans could be explained by the same separatists that spawned the Romulans... landing on some M-class planet, melting down all their technology, and creating something akin to MKS's "The Villiage" as a colony where all the children born into it would never know their high-tech origins. TNG's alteration of their warp core being based upon artificially created black holes was a cool twist and would explain why they never had any interest in other interstellar being's warp drives, probably seeing antimatter-matter use as unstable as we see an artificially contained singularity is. I mean, how would they use wormholes or transwarp conduits without imploding the thing they are traveling through? Meh... I'm sure there's lots of technobabble to justify that, like putting a hole in a hole full of holes without breaking reality itself.
Seeing as how Romulans and Vulcans can no longer receive Ribosomes from each other but Worf a Klingon was a compatible donor I think it isn't a stretch to assume the Romulans played with genetic engineering in their early history quite a bit.
@@carrollsanders9376 that actually makes sense maybe it works the opposite for other species or perhaps they found a klingon and since they are very strong the romulans wanted to use that and thus experimented with their own people and a klingon
The Mintakans, described as a proto-Vulcan race in TNG also had prominent forehead ridges. So the evolutionary aspect of the feature still is supported by canon.
the racial civil war is the most apt theory, and the most elegant one. Even post-Surak, and especially in the Enterprise series, Vulcans have shown a racist disdain for other species, and a fixation on cultural purity, i.e. being a "proper Vulcan"... such as T'Pol's problems with arranged marriage, and numerous others throughout all series... Enough canon elements exist to support the notion of a racial civil war, I think.
Vulcan had nuclear war, just like Earth. Maybe it also had eugenics war, just like Earth? Maybe they overlapped and blurred together in confusing ways, just like Earth? Vulcans have superior strength, speed, endurance, intelligence - along with a peculiar restraint of overwhelming emotions, aggression, arrogance. Just like human augments. "Racial war" taken to extremes. A species fighting vs the superior species it engineered from itself. If they cannot coexist in the same world then one must flee or die.
@@SBezmy Maybe even a species civil war. I'm of the camp that thinks the Romulans were always a separate species from Vulcans, they just considered themselves one since they were each others closest relatives. Think if Neanderthals, Denisovans, and Homo heidelbergensis were still alive today. We share many similarities but we also have enough differences to make us all visually distinct from each other, like our small to flat brow ridges on average compared to the large brow ridges all three species had.
@@sonikku956 I would like that, however the Romulans have both ridged and non-ridged individuals, while Vulcans do not. We’re probably over-analyzing, the lore always established the Vulcan-Romulan schism as an ideological conflict, and the shows’ makeup budgets over the decades are to blame for the rest :D god, I annoyed myself with that one.
My take on Romulans, Remans, and forehead-Vs is that the Remans were the indigenous inhabitants of the planet Romulus, and when the Vulcans (or Debrune) landed on the planet, they interacted with the native Remans in a similar way to how Europeans interacted with native Americans - a lot of exploitation, and some intermarriage. After the first few generations on the planet, there comes to be a mixed population, of some still pure-blooded Vulcans, some pure-blooded Remans, and layers of "mestizo" castes of people with various degrees of mixed heritage. After a while, there's a backlash and racial codes introduce a "species bar" above which a person is considered "Romulan", and below which one is considered "Reman". Later still, after the Romulan population has grown and now needs off-world resources, the Remans are ethnically cleansed from their original homeworld and shipped off as slaves on the planet Remus. Without new Reman stock entering the gene-pool, the Romulan population begins to look a lot more consistently Vulcan, except for the pronounced forehead-V on some people with any Reman ancestry, which remains a stubbornly dominant feature. So in their natural state, Romulans have a diverse spectrum of forehead morphologies - basically like as is depicted on Picard, (and this can even be regionally varied as well, if you want to justify the comment in Picard about the V-forehead being characteristic of Romulan northerners) - but then politics gets into it... Smooth-forehead Romulans represent an elite blue-blood class who never interbred with the Remans, while the majority V-forehead Romulans are characteristic of the everyday masses. As these two factions rise and fall in power, the ever-fickle Romulans undergo cosmetic surgery to make sure they look like they belong to dominant faction. So in the Enterprise era, Romulus was in a more democratic phase, and so smooth-foreheads would implant Vs in their heads, but by the TOS era, there'll have been an aristocratic reaction, and V-foreheads will have had their foreheads surgically smoothened, and so on. At any time though, it would never be entirely out of the ordinary for someone to be walking around with a counter-hegemonic forehead, hence why when Spock is on Romulus in Unification, he doesn't feel any need to apply a forehead prosthesis when walking around in public. Once Romulus explodes and the Star Empire implodes, the impetus for doing all this collapses, and you see a lot more of the natural forehead variation. Yes, I've given this some thought...
"Smooth-forehead Romulans represent an elite blue-blood class who never interbred with the Remans..." not including every single member of the Romulan senate, including the Praetor, that was taken out in Nemesis.
@@shanenolan8252 My point was that the notion that smooth-headed Romulans represent the upper class is belied by the fact that there were none in their senate.
@@Raja1938 none in nemesis Senate, but in deep space 9 and tng there were . The proconsul and preator ( neral ) had the forhead , and the senator with spock in tng .didn't they . I thought the assassinationed preator had them as well. , either way there is form of cast system in romulan society and the remans
Sublight generation ships would have undoubtedly been subject to massive amounts of mutation-inducing radiation. Combine that with smaller initial gene pools and you would get an amplifying founder effect for things like pronounced head ridges. Even in just a few thousand years.
A perfectly good explaination. It could also be supported by the ridges being thought of as "attactive" for a time and people with them having more children.
That is really an elegant solution! And the Romulans' appearance in TOS can be explained in that we didn't really see very many Romulans at all. In Balance of Terror most of them were wearing helmets - even in Enterprise Incident we didn't see very many. I was also very glad ST Picard showed both ridged and non-ridged Romulans - and the ridges varied in prominence among the individuals. This further supports the idea that the ridges are a trait that varies over the entire species.
SOUNDS nice, but the truth is that any deleterious effects (which they would be; such things are hardly EVER beneficial) would result in a non-viable population.
Well, except for the scientific fact that such hard radiation without out electromagnetic field and atmosphere to protect us leads to massive cancer and deterioration, not spidey powers. Natural selection happens over thousands of generations, not a long ride. That's why we send drones now. Whatever these creatures did (will do? will have been done?) they inflicted it on themselves. Like the portrayal of the Augments in STE S4. The road to hell is full of good intentions.
My theory on the forehead ridges is that those are actually sinuses. Makes sense for their position and shape. So these Vulcans settle the Romulus, with some of them having gene variation for large sinuses which causes the ridged appearance. It could be a recessive or cumulative (like skin pigmentation in humans) gene. And the group that settles up north is exposed to colder air, or even some specific air pollutants. So if you have a gene you are less likely to catch pneumonia, are in over all healthier , and as a result you develop into a strong and handsome person that gives you better chance of getting some. And the gene spreads, and if both your parents have gene, you get bigger and better sinuses. And repeat that over generations and you still have the same species, but with a regional variation in genotype/ phenotype. That's kinda how white skin evolved in Europe as well, in a relatively short amount of time.
Fan theory: The time of Surak was the Vulcan's version of the Eugenics Wars. The proto-vulcan race dabbled with Genetic Engineering and the various Vulcan offshoot races are the result. Current Vulcans are descended from their version of Augments that interbred with proto-vulcans over the centuries creating today's Vulcan race. This also explains why the Vulcans supported the Federation ban on Genetic engineering
Maybe the Vulgan genetic engineering also led to an augment virus equivalent to that which effected the Klingons, which eliminated the forehead ridges all proto-Vulcans used to have.
I did notice Sarek’s skull in Picard S2E2 had the ridges, so perhaps the smooth-headed ones are actually just ones with extra padding. Fleshy forehead padding. Sarek obviously never looked “ridged” himself, but it would tie together the Mintakans and the range of different prominences on the Romulans. Plus it matches their higher, pointier brow-line, so it could just be a very pronounced brow muscle and supporting bone, with varying degrees of skin padding as mentioned.
You know what I like most about your video's? You cover your subjects calmly and factually, unlike the vast majority of TH-cam channels with arrogant, cocky hosts, who just seem only to show how "Cleverly funny" and "Cool" they are. I wish all these others were like this.
The Mintakans a "Proto-Vulcan" species have Romulan style head ridges so there is that. It's also probably possible that the head ridges are a recessive trait and the prevalence of it in Romulans/Vulcan Diaspora could be down to the Founder's Effect where a large number of those who left carried the recessive gene allowing it to be expressed in much greater frequency than on Vulcan (where the dominate genes giving a flatter forehead probably drown out the recessive brow ridges gene in all but very rare cases). Brow ridges might have even become a sign of status in Romulan culture and been selected for leading to it being expressed even more among the Romulans. At least that's my headcanon ideas anyways.
Well, that is a better explanation than a previous one on this thread at any rate. Actually, that is not bad. We know Vulcans were very war-like at that time, plus resources were scarce. A double threat. Maybe the ridged-kind were looked down upon and not thought quite worthy of Surak's teachings and so were the exact ones to go off and make their own colony. It is not inconceivable that those who became Romulan would carry the same philosophy which was natural at that time even though those who stayed as Vulcan had moved away from it. We frequently see even today that a man who feels slighted does not necessarily want to make things equal for all but wants to get his revenge by slighting others. Fear also plays a large component in this.
@@lexiburrows8127 Other way of looking at it, Surak followers were explorers while Romulans are expansionists. Also at my last RPG war gaming shop from 13years ago we debated by playing other games and Star Wars of the dangers of orbital kinetic impact rods, control of space power cause no government would send of exiles in a craft that could suicide their planet at 1/10th of c. In our collective view the Romulan won, sneered at the losers and left them to their slow radiation death. Try figuring out need coupling to maintain a stable gene pool that could roll over into a stellar empire within a few centuries. Other than arguing over what sub light speed the ships traveled, rule of thumb stated in the show max sub light impulse speed is 1/4th of c. Which at max is 1 light year pre year of travel, and that is still very slow. In that regards many Romulans were still left behind after the Surak war. My gaming shop wasn't into Grups Strek Trek system rules so we used Star Wars instead. First joke: Vulcan Merchants. Not all Vulcan merchants are Romulan spies, just some of them. But at least a Romulan will smile as they screw you over in a trade deal. a.) Any Romulan merchant is regarded as an imperial scout, any way you have to turn over your flight navigation computer as State property to maintain you trade permit. Other than that many Romulans do get .. around .. Vulcan, also to get along with their blood cousins. Who could been in D&D treated as multiclass ranger/psionists. As for Star Wars they be scout/force adepts. b.) The Star Fleet/ Federation and the Romulan Star Empire is in truth the Vulcan Empire, Vulcans have two branches of government to develop the industrial war complex. c.) Klingon ambassador yells at the Vulcan ambassador, " The Federation is a human empire ! " The Vulcan sigh, " We are doing our best for the humans not to think they are one. " d.) There is an independent family/nation of Vulcan Romulan merchants' information brokens controlling politics and trade behind the scenes. One sect branch is the source of tales across many worlds of .. Elf/elves. F-ckers think they are a bunch of comedians. e.) Romulans are still very .. touch .. empathic. When they try to strangle you with their hands, you know they are not happy with you at the moment.
I actually like the idea that Romulans weren't *directly* split from Vulcans but were still from a common ancestors like the Neanderthals were for us. It just make sense considering some of the physical and mental differences.
When you show clips from various episodes you should footnote them as to their source so people can go back and look them up on their own. In my case some of your clips seem to be episodes I’ve missed,
In the episode where Spock interacts with the Romulan commander, she appears to engage in empathic/telepathic link with Spock. They both touch each other's face the same way when Vulcans engage in telepathic mind
Perhaps the Romulans with ridges were cosmetic like head binding was prevalent in many earth cultures. Maybe they found a way to stimulate bone or tissue growth in children to manifest the ridges as a sign of high status.
I can't remember which book - but she wrote "Spock's World" and the "Rihannsu series" ( "My Enemy, My Ally", "The Romulan Way", "Swordhunt", "Honor Blade", and "The Empty Chair"). I loved all of her books. I would think it was either "Spock's WOrld" or "The Romulan Way".
The journey through space and cramped space ships would have most likely been arduous, they may have had to make genetic modifications to survive the journey, or it may be genetic because of the ethnicity of the Vulcans who left, or it may because of having a more protein-rich diet, there are so many explanations for the ridges. Though not all Romulans have them, they do give a distinctive look.
Thanks for creating this video. It is very informative, and it has some intriguing theories. I do not have as much knowledge, but I do love the Romulans. A long time ago, I created my own theory about their origins. Just for fun, here it is: After the Vulcan civil war, the pre-Romulans fled the planet. They were defeated, weak, and desperate. Fortunately for them, the Preservers (or a similar group) decided to help them, though they possibly disguised themselves as space-faring merchants. In return for modest offerings from the pre-Romulans, the Preservers gave them crucial assistance (possibly temporarily), such as: faster-than-light travel; cloaking devices; a star map to the beautiful and healthy planet that would become known as Romulus; etc. And there was one more important gift: Roman culture. Realizing that the pre-Romulans needed a strong and organized culture, the Preservers gave them the knowledge of the glory of Ancient Rome. Well, if nothing else, these things are fun to think about. 🙂 Jolan tru.
Iv always wanted to see the enterprise crew go thru the Earth Romulan war. Great concept that the culture that helped bring us into the warp era and helped form the federation also had an offshoot that we had to go to war with. It’d of been great!
@@shanenolan8252 there’s a couple guys on here that did some pretty cool break downs. I think VGM did a good one! I’d just like to see it in action. 🖖🏼
If Coto or Sussman had his way-had a 5th season of "Enterprise" were allowed to continue, an episode might've seen Cdr. T'Pol discovering that her father was a Romulan-which might have explained her emotions that lay buried as her mother stated in 'Awakenings'. Still, though Vulcans didn't know what their Vulcan ancestors became as Romulans, would T'Les been likely to mate with someone who looked like V'Las or Stehl seen in 'Kir Shara'? I think she might've meant just the ancient Vulcan emotions before Surak taught them logic. Still, it might've made an interesting story as T'Pol might have discovered that if her father was a Romulan, he might've tried to kidnap her once to later start a colony called Hellguard, but changed his mind and disappeared, only to be found by her and the crew somewhere. Just my ideas.
Think we need to clear something up. Romulans are the original civilization of Vulcan. It was Surak and his followers that drove them off world. It's Romulans who are the ancestors of Vulcans, not the other way around.
Surely the brow ridges would be best explained by the _founder effect._ The point is that presumably the group of Romulans who original left Vulcan to found the original Romulan empire would have been a far smaller population than the Vulcan's who remained on Vulcan. Any small sample from a population has a tendency to not be representative of the whole population, so any unusual characteristics that happened to randomly be prevalent in the original Romulans would then proceed to become the basis for the whole Romulan empire, including perhaps a predisposition for brow ridges which may be a rare recessive trait among Vulcans. It is the same thing that happens when a family inbreeds. When a small population does not mix its genes with the broader population, peculiar deformities tend to appear. For example, consider the famous Habsburg jaw.
exactly! also atomic radiation from war and radiation from space travel exposure and then the environmental pressures of adapting to a completely different planet is more than enough to cauae extreme genetic mutation and variance in biology from the vulcans.
I was thinking that maybe the forehead ridges could have been due to Romulans tampering with similar viruses as to what caused the Klingons to lose their ridges, as seen in Enterprise. The only issue with that theory however, is that Romulans in Enterprise had ridges. Perhaps they played around with similar viruses before the one that inflicted the Klingons surfaced. Until there is a canon explanation, we'll never know for sure.
I think it’s just a mutation that some have. Of course it was cheaper in the 60’s but as an in universe explanation look at pardek I don’t he had very pronounced ridges
Good summary. I liked how you kept tying Romulan history to what was going on at Earth at the time. Really puts the events in context - Romulus was such a busy planet!
I have to say that I vastly prefer Spock's World's take on Vulcan history and the Romulan split: it wasn't atomic weaponry, but immense psychic power, strong enough to shake planets, that the ancient Vulcans warred with. Surrak's teachings tended to lead to quieter, less destructive psychic powers. Vulcan psionics - their great sorceries - were emotionally-driven, so controlling emotions meant they could do certain things more reliably, but less powerfully. The Romulans were a faction that embraced their powerful "magical" abilities, and left Vulcan to cultivate them away from the poisonous teachings of Surrak that sought to rob them of it. Tragically (or perhaps luckily for everyone else), their psychically-gifted members died off in plagues and other hardships on the way, leaving Romulans without even the powers Vulcans still have.
There is a novel based on this theory called the lost years about a "mind master" named zakal the terrible, probably the most powerful of them all and it was only after his death that surak was able to unite them. very well written in parts though overall it was not that well developed. but i liked it. The description of his abilities was horrifying, "the most powerful and feared mind lord in all of vulcan who couldreduce his enemies to cinders by willing it". But spock also mentions that none of the mind masters left with the Romulans. except S'task , suraks closest disciple. That being said, the Romulans had some psychic abilities but vastly reduced.
I have always wished that we had gotten a series, or at least a miniseries (on the scale of "The Winds of War") focusing on the Vulcan reformation. Ideally, back when Bruce Gray was still alive; I found his portrayal of Surak quite compelling.
While completely apocrypha, the game Star Fleet Battles states that as the Earth-Romulan war was officially ended, a few Romulan ships - manned by Remans - were in battle with an Earth ship over Remus. These Romulan ships were operating under communications blackout (normal at the time), and thus did not hear that the cease-fire had been signed. They attacked until the Earth ship went down on Remus, its antimatter detonating, and adding severe background radiation to the world. This caused the Remans something of a negative reputation within the empire. Remans were Romulans that inhabited the sister world, and were known for higher aggression. Such an antimatter detonation would easily explain the tidal lock of the world and mutation of its people. The radiation could easily have spread in smaller amounts across the system, and affected Romulan appearance to a lesser degree.
I really love your channel. I just recently got into Star Trek, I love it and all this knowledge is really helping me become a true Trekkie so THANK YOU! Keep up the awesome work.
Having been a fan of Star Trek since it first aired in 1966, I have watched EVERY series and have read about 96% of the novels and paperbacks. Romulans are actually the descendants of Vulcans who left Vulcan shortly after a global conflict nearly destroyed their world during the time of Surak. Vulcans were as war-like as the Romulans in canon. When the majority of Vulcans started following the teachings of Surak in order to avoid another global conflict, a faction of the Vulcan people chose to leave and settled on two planets which they called Romulus and Remus approximately 5000 years before Earth's Bronze Age. They maintained their martial culture and began building their 'Star Empire'. much of which is mentioned in the novel "Spock's World".
FOR ORANGE RIVER: Author Diane Duane, In one of her early star trek paperback books, did a history of the Vulcan exodus from Vulcan of those who disagreed with the teachings of Surak and what happened to them on their journey; it was not a nice and pleasant journey. I can not remember the title, though I have it packed in a box somewhere. Can anyone reading this remember the title?
That novel is "The Romulan Way". I still have a copy of it, and in my opinion it's one of the best TOS novels written. It has a rich backstory on the Romulans as well as Vulcan history around the time of the diaspora (her other novel "Spock's World" goes even deeper into Vulcan lore). I know a number of Star Trek fans consider the old TOS novels to be apocryphal/non canon, but I'd argue that with all of the inconsistencies across the TV series and movies from TNG onward (and I love all of them though not all at the same level), the older novels shouldn't be considered any less canon than what has been produced more recently.
Yes. 'The Romulan Way', as another poster has already said. For those not familiar, it is a story set in T.O.S. 'present' with the back-history of the Romulans and the description of the 'Sundering' alternating amongst the chapters.
Thanks for saving me all that typing. Diane Duane was one of the best Original Series script writers. She then wrote some novels that were lengthy and detailed to blockbuster movie quality after The Wrath of Khan. "My Enemy, My Ally" circa 1985, was part one of "The Romulan Way" which turned out to be The Rhiannsu Way or something. A more sympathetic look at a very alien culture. There were some great novels and great characters in those mid-80s books, the long ones, not just short direct to paperback ones. Several of the outstanding novelists like Greg Bear, Anne (A. C.) Crispin, John M. Ford, and Diane Carey produced novels of high quality and consistency. I thought Carey's novel "Dreadnought" and sequel "Battlestations" would have made a great movie length script with Piper and friends as the next gen.
@@walken31st I vastly prefer Diane Duane's novels over anything that isn't TOS, when it comes to Vulcan and Romulan history. The forehead ridges were stupid, as were the identical hairstyles (yeah, I know the Vulcan men all have the same style, but the women at least had dressier hairstyles). And the insane shoulder pads? DUMB. I can't take TNG/DS9-era Romulans seriously.
good morning, Nice to listen to a fellow fan sharing what they have learned about a great race of aliens in our Star Trek universe. I think the reason for forehead ridges IS FROM DIFFERNT environments of different parts of worlds IS AS GOOD AS ANY. Thanks for sharing you insightfulness
My thoughts regarding the forehead ridges are that they were a trait found in a proportion of the early Vulcan population that for some unknown reason (perhaps one of the many wars that occurred) eventually disappeared on Vulcan but remained prominent in some other vulcanoid populations like the Romulans.
In Roman folklore, Romulus and Remus we're newborn orphan twin boys a shewolf had suckled. They grew to found Roma (Roma), out of which rose the Roman Empire. Star Trek borrowed this, naming a binary star system Romulus-Remus, round which the Romulan Empire centred. In the TOS first-season episode "Balance of Terror", the dialogue introduced that the Romulans likely were an offshoot of the Vulcans. [Editorial note: the following paragraph must descend behind the subsequent one; however, I lack the means to effect this.] The Shin-zon storyline of Star Trek: Nemesis (2002, Paramount, Stuart Baird, Jerry Goldsmith) departed from this canon (I believe the Kelvin timeline narrative did, too, though that botch is not canon from conception to execution). In TNG two-part episode "Reunification", Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy) discreetly travelled to the Romulan home world, and remained, in his effort to foster an underground movement toward reunification with their Vulcan kinfolk, and away from their long militaristic, autocratic culture.
Note that "she-wolf" or "Lupa" in Latin did not always mean a literal wild canine. The term also denoted a low-class sex worker. If the legend has a basis in truth, Romulus and Remus were likely nursed by a prostitute rather than a wolf.
The Mintakans also had forehead ridges. If you're going to treat the Arretians as the Preservers, the Mintakans indicate that the ridges are inherent to the ancestral Vulcanoid lineage.
best explanation to me is that the Romulans interbred with the native population on Romulus and the Remans interbred with a darkness dwelling species on Remus. After a couple centuries of rebuilding on Romulus they ventured to their moon and found people very different to themselves and promptly enslaved them. This too has been explored in beta canon.
Watching it now, ur ad for Skillshare was long!! Awesome work, I did follow Alpha but not so much Beta canon. Will need to check that out, so little time. Vulcan’s Soul book 3 Epiphany, was it good. Well done, thanks
In Enterprise's Syrannite Arc, it is discovered that the dissidents that "Marched Beneath the Raptor's Wings" were defeated in the final conflict of the Vulcan civil war. This has generally been interpreted to mean that the Vulcan's that rejected Surak's teachings left Vulcan to become the Romulans. However, no on-screen dialogue confirms that the defeated ever actually left the planet. Soval's quote regarding the devastation from the Vulcan civil war was "it took us nearly fifteen hundred years to rebuild and travel to the stars." Note the tense used. "Travel", not "return". Additionally, Soval says "You Humans have managed to do the same in less than a century" -- the same, travelling to the stars, for the first time. Illustrating that the dissidents couldn't have left the planet because Vulcan didn't lose space travel technology -- it hadn't been invented in order to be lost. In Balance of Terror, he asks the question "if" Romulans and Vulcans share a common ancestry. Other than Spock's dialogue, there is no corroborating evidence seen on-screen, however this hypothesis has become accepted as factual history. By the time of TNG: Unification, we see that Spock is personally instrumental in spreading his hypothesis & that this belief had taken hold within large segments of the Romulan population. In TNG: Who Watches the Watchers, we meet the Mintakans -- a people previously unknown by either Vulcans or Romulans -- who are described as proto-Vulcans. The Mintakans, however, have the cranial ridges similar to (and more pronounced than) Romulans -- and they weren't shown to demonstrate any psionic traits. This suggests that Hodgekin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development is in play here more so than divergently evolved seed colonies of a single species. But... and the one thing, I believe is missing from the analysis presented in your video, is the TNG episode The Chase. The chase occurs *after* Unification (meaning information Spock did not have when he successfully spread his theories among the Romulan peoples). In The Chase, we learn that the Ancient Humanoid (aka Progenitor) had seeded hundreds of worlds with portions of their DNA 4.5 billion years prior (significantly earlier than the 600,000 years before when the Arretans had similarly seeded different colonies). The Progenitor story parallels that of the Preservers from TOS: The Paradise Syndrome. Although intentionally left out of the script, producer Ronald Moore has stated that it was his intent that the Preservers and Progenitors were the same species. The bit of information which does not fit Spock's hypothesis is that, in The Chase, the projected message of the Progenitor reveals that they had seeded hundreds of worlds with fragments of their DNA code, and that "there is something of us in each of you, and so something of teach of you in one another." It was Humans, Klingons, Cardassians, and.... Romulans -- not Vulcans -- whom were represented as among the original Progeny races. Now, this is not to say Vulcans aren't also a Progeny race. They very well could be. Hundreds of worlds were seeded, after all. It's not outside of the realm of possibility that multiple Progeny species evolved in parallel, following Hodgekin's Law. It's also possible that Vulcans and Romulans are still related, one being the descendant of the other... However, the Ancient Humanoid confirms that *if* that is the case, Romulans are the elder species from with Vulcans are evolved, not the other way around. Spock's theory held merit and held a firmly logical basis... However, he was missing information. And, with that new information revealed, his original hypothesis was proven to be wrong & should be reevaluated with the new information.
"It was Humans, Klingons, Cardassians, and.... Romulans -- not Vulcans -- whom were represented as among the original Progeny races." That's just based on who happened to be there. It doesn't suggest either Vulcans or Romulans descended from the other. If Tholians or Hortas had somehow discovered and put together the code, they would've gotten the same message. Also, aside from Spock's hypothesis about a common origin, there was a scene in Unification Part II where a young Romulan showed him some relic learning blocks with the Vulcan language on them if I recall correctly.
If you want to read about Romulans, one author stands above all and her name is Diane Duane. Look for the Rihannsu series (Rihannsu is Romulan for "Romulan").
That was awesome man! And, indeed there is more to the Romulans (and other cousin races) than I was aware. Loved the "Yankees" comment too lol ... Always good to hear a TH-camr who, like me doesn't have any accent and sounds normal (unlike them folks on th' TV and wut not) ... Definitely enjoyed the video my friend! Keep on producing amazing videos please sir!
All I know is the Remens were the true people of Romulus . When the exiled Vulcans arrived, the kicked these aliens off to Remus. So, the Remens would live in the constant shadow of Romulus. These new people would now become Romulans and form an empire.
From the Star Trek novella The Romulan Way by Diane Dueane. There was a major cultural falling out led by one of Surek's "disciples" (can't find his name) who led an off world movement of Vulcans who did not wish to follow the tenets of logic per Surek. It was known as The Sundering and major spoiler alert just before the Praetor existence who took control of the Romulan's home planet after a hundred years and after the settling of their primary home world the Disciple was assassinated during a gathering of the Romulan assembly and in his dying breath voiced a prophetic saying about the destiny of the Romulan species.
Yes. The novels you refer to are "My Enemy, My Ally" and its sequel "The Romulan Way" by Diane Duane. A sympathetic look at a very alien culture calling themselves Rhihana as I remember. There were lots of good pocket paperbacks after The Wrath Of Khan. One I still remember fondly was "Dreadnought" and its sequel "Battlestations" by Diane Carey. I wore them out. 😉
The novel "The Romulan Way" explains why there are no telepathic abilities among the Romulans. The colonists used a technique called "boot-strapping" to give a speed boost to their sub-light ships by harnessing the mental abilities of an "adept", but ended up killing the adept. The long journey from Vulcan caused them to burn through their population of mental adepts, thus removing them from the gene pool.
I love how The Romulan Way shows that the Romulans aren't evil, they are just very paranoid for good reason. Their first contact was with the Orions, who came to Vulcan offering peace, but really meant the other thing. After the split, the first contact for the Romulans was with humans, who also came offering peace, but the Romulans didn't want to take any chances this time.
How could Romulans have migrated from Vulcan thousands of years before and it not be known by all Vulcans? Spock was perplexed when he first saw them and speculated on their common ancestry in the early season 1 episode when they first meet. If people left Earth and moved to a different planet to settle and colonize, wouldn’t we all know?
Ahh I could see the scientist going "but the fore head ridges sir! They could provide ample head butting against the spears! We MUST put them in!!!" Great video again!
Man, I really enjoyed your video and explanations of the Romulans! For the most part I don’t really pay attention to such details too closely mainly cause that take more time and effort then I care to get into. I just take each show or episodes on their own merits! But being you did all the work for me, it was really interesting to see how this all laid out in the Romulan history. Look forward to hearing what else you come up with to share in the future regarding any of the Star Trek characters or the shows themselves for that matter. Very entertaining video in my opinion! Keep it up please!
Another great video from you. Well written, concisely delivered, nice length. Great to watch. Most of the time i like things to be specific when it comes to lore, but I think that vagueness suites them. Although it's true that they are led by a civilian senate, the military plays an undeniable part in their culture. How much do the plebs of Romulan society know about their history, and how much is so intangible that it is merely a rumour. Though the Federation later allied with the Klingons, Klingon culture felt so alien, where as Romulan society felt like a darker side to ourselves. I think that is more from a Human perspective than a Vulcan one. I don't know what other people think about that.
The Memory Alpha article "Saavik" states: The script for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan notes that, "Lt. Saavik is young and beautiful. She is half Vulcan and half Romulan ..."
This also begs another question. What about the Proto-Vulcan society that the Enterprise D encountered on Mintaka III? Would they be some kind of Romulan offshoot?
The description of them as "proto-Vulcan" would mean that they have no common lineage with Vulcans/Romulans. They simply evolved that way because of how similar Mintaka III's environment was with Vulcan. In biology, this is called convergent evolution. Personally though, I prefer thinking of them as descendants of some failed Romulan colony like the Debrune, and somehow lost knowledge of their origins.
@@Raja1938 problem here is that the Mintaka star system is a real one and is 1200 light years away from Earth. Given that the entire circumference of the Vulcan to Neutral zone planets (Debrune) to Romulus is a relatively tight circle of less than a hundred light years, giving support to sublight propulsion, it seems implausible that an offshoot occurred here.
I think the facial ridges were added to their genome artificially for the same reason that it was added to their design IRL it makes them more easily distinguished from Vulcans and reduces confusion
Every time you see an actor playing an alien character in current Kurtzman Discovery and Picard series they have that look in their eyes as if to say, is this what I've been reduced to?
@@subraxas I am? Like the vast majority of the TV and streaming audience you've obviously not been tuning in lately, or perhaps there's some other reason both shows are now on the televisual Hades of Pluto TV? Soon to be joined I might add by Strange New Worlds!
There's numerous reasons the new Star Trek shows are exclusively on streaming services. One is that each episode takes over $9 million to produce (this may be an old figure) and they need to recoup the cost somewhere. I'm not incredibly thrilled that Star Trek is no longer on network TV, but this is simply the way lots of TV productions operate these days.
15:21 I could swear it was mentioned in Nemesis, long ago, the Romulans cross-bred with the Remans as a desperate effort to regain their telepathic abilities, and summarily abandoned the concept when faced with evidence it wasn't working. So I just figured THAT is where they got the forehead ridges.
The Praetor is played by Alan Dale. He was one of the original cast of the Australian serial drama ‘Neighbours’. I recognised him because I very watched Neighbours from the earliest episodes…I’m very old😊. I have wondered about the Romulan forehead ridges and how some have them and others don’t, you did a very good explanation of that particular issue. I loved that John-Luc Picard’s private secretary/house keeper, Laris, had a regional accent that sounded remarkably like an Irish accent on Earth, it was great. Anyway, Jolan Tru, folks.
So, what's your favorite part of Romulan lore? Let me know down below!
BTW -- The first 1,000 people to use this link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/orangeriver02221
It's fantastic! Thank you thousand times. Please, continue with such nasterpieces. I can't stop myself to think about all the informations from your video, thank you verry verrry much.
I known they aren't canon, but I love Diane Duane's books. My favorite episode is Enterprise Incident. The Romulans were my favorit Star Trek aliens from the Original series and the books - not as much in Next Generation, DS9, etc. Although I do like their come back in Discovery and Pickard.
Jolan tru!
I really hope they bring forth the very cooperative Romulan Republic depicted in Star Trek Online as canon at some point. Where Spock's former Romulan assistant D'Tan takes the the reigns as the people's political leader.
When Spock (TOS) seduced that lady Romulan where the Enterprise steals a Romulan cloaking device and uses it (breaking the established canon, changing the rules, that a ship having such a device must direct all power except life support and sublight engines to use it thus explaining why they must drop it to fire any weapons or use any shields but I digress), the Romulans having Vulcan-like psychic abilities was hinted at... Vulcan abilities were, up to then, limited to touch range (pretty much still are now). They used such touch in... enhancing and-or replacing... sexual contact. So, what was implied, was that if a Romulan had a Vulcan's discipline, they would more or less be Vulcans. Also, the Mintakans, an Agrarian-era cousin to Vulcans could be explained by the same separatists that spawned the Romulans... landing on some M-class planet, melting down all their technology, and creating something akin to MKS's "The Villiage" as a colony where all the children born into it would never know their high-tech origins. TNG's alteration of their warp core being based upon artificially created black holes was a cool twist and would explain why they never had any interest in other interstellar being's warp drives, probably seeing antimatter-matter use as unstable as we see an artificially contained singularity is. I mean, how would they use wormholes or transwarp conduits without imploding the thing they are traveling through? Meh... I'm sure there's lots of technobabble to justify that, like putting a hole in a hole full of holes without breaking reality itself.
Seeing as how Romulans and Vulcans can no longer receive Ribosomes from each other but Worf a Klingon was a compatible donor I think it isn't a stretch to assume the Romulans played with genetic engineering in their early history quite a bit.
True, but that incompatibility may have been due to sampling size. Crusher was limited to the Vulcans on board at the time.
@@Raja1938 Or it could be Romulans were exposed to the Augment Virus though the Klingons, and the ridges are a result of that.
@@carrollsanders9376 that actually makes sense maybe it works the opposite for other species or perhaps they found a klingon and since they are very strong the romulans wanted to use that and thus experimented with their own people and a klingon
dont forget they all originate from the same spacy
if if rare it wouldnt be that surprising to have, time to time, matches on that lvl even naturaly
Maybe to get some control of their emotions?
The Mintakans, described as a proto-Vulcan race in TNG also had prominent forehead ridges. So the evolutionary aspect of the feature still is supported by canon.
the racial civil war is the most apt theory, and the most elegant one. Even post-Surak, and especially in the Enterprise series, Vulcans have shown a racist disdain for other species, and a fixation on cultural purity, i.e. being a "proper Vulcan"... such as T'Pol's problems with arranged marriage, and numerous others throughout all series... Enough canon elements exist to support the notion of a racial civil war, I think.
Vulcan had nuclear war, just like Earth. Maybe it also had eugenics war, just like Earth? Maybe they overlapped and blurred together in confusing ways, just like Earth?
Vulcans have superior strength, speed, endurance, intelligence - along with a peculiar restraint of overwhelming emotions, aggression, arrogance. Just like human augments.
"Racial war" taken to extremes. A species fighting vs the superior species it engineered from itself. If they cannot coexist in the same world then one must flee or die.
Finally someone else remembers the Mintakans
@@SBezmy Maybe even a species civil war. I'm of the camp that thinks the Romulans were always a separate species from Vulcans, they just considered themselves one since they were each others closest relatives. Think if Neanderthals, Denisovans, and Homo heidelbergensis were still alive today. We share many similarities but we also have enough differences to make us all visually distinct from each other, like our small to flat brow ridges on average compared to the large brow ridges all three species had.
@@sonikku956 I would like that, however the Romulans have both ridged and non-ridged individuals, while Vulcans do not. We’re probably over-analyzing, the lore always established the Vulcan-Romulan schism as an ideological conflict, and the shows’ makeup budgets over the decades are to blame for the rest :D god, I annoyed myself with that one.
My take on Romulans, Remans, and forehead-Vs is that the Remans were the indigenous inhabitants of the planet Romulus, and when the Vulcans (or Debrune) landed on the planet, they interacted with the native Remans in a similar way to how Europeans interacted with native Americans - a lot of exploitation, and some intermarriage. After the first few generations on the planet, there comes to be a mixed population, of some still pure-blooded Vulcans, some pure-blooded Remans, and layers of "mestizo" castes of people with various degrees of mixed heritage. After a while, there's a backlash and racial codes introduce a "species bar" above which a person is considered "Romulan", and below which one is considered "Reman". Later still, after the Romulan population has grown and now needs off-world resources, the Remans are ethnically cleansed from their original homeworld and shipped off as slaves on the planet Remus. Without new Reman stock entering the gene-pool, the Romulan population begins to look a lot more consistently Vulcan, except for the pronounced forehead-V on some people with any Reman ancestry, which remains a stubbornly dominant feature.
So in their natural state, Romulans have a diverse spectrum of forehead morphologies - basically like as is depicted on Picard, (and this can even be regionally varied as well, if you want to justify the comment in Picard about the V-forehead being characteristic of Romulan northerners) - but then politics gets into it... Smooth-forehead Romulans represent an elite blue-blood class who never interbred with the Remans, while the majority V-forehead Romulans are characteristic of the everyday masses. As these two factions rise and fall in power, the ever-fickle Romulans undergo cosmetic surgery to make sure they look like they belong to dominant faction. So in the Enterprise era, Romulus was in a more democratic phase, and so smooth-foreheads would implant Vs in their heads, but by the TOS era, there'll have been an aristocratic reaction, and V-foreheads will have had their foreheads surgically smoothened, and so on. At any time though, it would never be entirely out of the ordinary for someone to be walking around with a counter-hegemonic forehead, hence why when Spock is on Romulus in Unification, he doesn't feel any need to apply a forehead prosthesis when walking around in public. Once Romulus explodes and the Star Empire implodes, the impetus for doing all this collapses, and you see a lot more of the natural forehead variation.
Yes, I've given this some thought...
I believe in the first titan book they said the remans were indigenous to romulus.
"Smooth-forehead Romulans represent an elite blue-blood class who never interbred with the Remans..." not including every single member of the Romulan senate, including the Praetor, that was taken out in Nemesis.
@@Raja1938 that makes sense, an aristocratic senatorial class or patricians , considering they are based on the roman empire
@@shanenolan8252 My point was that the notion that smooth-headed Romulans represent the upper class is belied by the fact that there were none in their senate.
@@Raja1938 none in nemesis Senate, but in deep space 9 and tng there were . The proconsul and preator ( neral ) had the forhead , and the senator with spock in tng .didn't they . I thought the assassinationed preator had them as well. , either way there is form of cast system in romulan society and the remans
Sublight generation ships would have undoubtedly been subject to massive amounts of mutation-inducing radiation. Combine that with smaller initial gene pools and you would get an amplifying founder effect for things like pronounced head ridges. Even in just a few thousand years.
Lol I was thinking how to put that in to words. I agree.
A perfectly good explaination. It could also be supported by the ridges being thought of as "attactive" for a time and people with them having more children.
That is really an elegant solution! And the Romulans' appearance in TOS can be explained in that we didn't really see very many Romulans at all. In Balance of Terror most of them were wearing helmets - even in Enterprise Incident we didn't see very many. I was also very glad ST Picard showed both ridged and non-ridged Romulans - and the ridges varied in prominence among the individuals. This further supports the idea that the ridges are a trait that varies over the entire species.
SOUNDS nice, but the truth is that any deleterious effects (which they would be; such things are hardly EVER beneficial) would result in a non-viable population.
Well, except for the scientific fact that such hard radiation without out electromagnetic field and atmosphere to protect us leads to massive cancer and deterioration, not spidey powers. Natural selection happens over thousands of generations, not a long ride. That's why we send drones now.
Whatever these creatures did (will do? will have been done?) they inflicted it on themselves. Like the portrayal of the Augments in STE S4. The road to hell is full of good intentions.
My theory on the forehead ridges is that those are actually sinuses. Makes sense for their position and shape. So these Vulcans settle the Romulus, with some of them having gene variation for large sinuses which causes the ridged appearance. It could be a recessive or cumulative (like skin pigmentation in humans) gene. And the group that settles up north is exposed to colder air, or even some specific air pollutants. So if you have a gene you are less likely to catch pneumonia, are in over all healthier , and as a result you develop into a strong and handsome person that gives you better chance of getting some. And the gene spreads, and if both your parents have gene, you get bigger and better sinuses. And repeat that over generations and you still have the same species, but with a regional variation in genotype/ phenotype.
That's kinda how white skin evolved in Europe as well, in a relatively short amount of time.
White skin evolved in Ethiopia and black skin evolved in China are you dumb
Fan theory: The time of Surak was the Vulcan's version of the Eugenics Wars.
The proto-vulcan race dabbled with Genetic Engineering and the various Vulcan offshoot races are the result.
Current Vulcans are descended from their version of Augments that interbred with proto-vulcans over the centuries creating today's Vulcan race.
This also explains why the Vulcans supported the Federation ban on Genetic engineering
Maybe the Vulgan genetic engineering also led to an augment virus equivalent to that which effected the Klingons, which eliminated the forehead ridges all proto-Vulcans used to have.
I did notice Sarek’s skull in Picard S2E2 had the ridges, so perhaps the smooth-headed ones are actually just ones with extra padding. Fleshy forehead padding. Sarek obviously never looked “ridged” himself, but it would tie together the Mintakans and the range of different prominences on the Romulans. Plus it matches their higher, pointier brow-line, so it could just be a very pronounced brow muscle and supporting bone, with varying degrees of skin padding as mentioned.
You know what I like most about your video's?
You cover your subjects calmly and factually, unlike the vast majority of TH-cam channels with arrogant, cocky hosts, who just seem only to show how "Cleverly funny" and "Cool" they are.
I wish all these others were like this.
When a mommy Romulan loves a daddy Romulan very much, they share a very special "hug"...oh you meant the species 😁
Your voice is remarkable; I would listen to you read instructional manuals just for the sound.
Romulus looks a little bit like Venus with water.
I'm so disappointed that the ST franchise never explored a Roman origins or Earth-romulan war movie or series.
The Mintakans a "Proto-Vulcan" species have Romulan style head ridges so there is that.
It's also probably possible that the head ridges are a recessive trait and the prevalence of it in Romulans/Vulcan Diaspora could be down to the Founder's Effect where a large number of those who left carried the recessive gene allowing it to be expressed in much greater frequency than on Vulcan (where the dominate genes giving a flatter forehead probably drown out the recessive brow ridges gene in all but very rare cases). Brow ridges might have even become a sign of status in Romulan culture and been selected for leading to it being expressed even more among the Romulans. At least that's my headcanon ideas anyways.
Well, that is a better explanation than a previous one on this thread at any rate. Actually, that is not bad. We know Vulcans were very war-like at that time, plus resources were scarce. A double threat. Maybe the ridged-kind were looked down upon and not thought quite worthy of Surak's teachings and so were the exact ones to go off and make their own colony.
It is not inconceivable that those who became Romulan would carry the same philosophy which was natural at that time even though those who stayed as Vulcan had moved away from it. We frequently see even today that a man who feels slighted does not necessarily want to make things equal for all but wants to get his revenge by slighting others. Fear also plays a large component in this.
I too subscribe to the idea that the romulan ridges are just a side-effect of inbreeding
@@lexiburrows8127 Add to that, maybe those with ridges weren't capable of telepathy.
@@lexiburrows8127 Other way of looking at it, Surak followers were explorers while Romulans are expansionists. Also at my last RPG war gaming shop from 13years ago we debated by playing other games and Star Wars of the dangers of orbital kinetic impact rods, control of space power cause no government would send of exiles in a craft that could suicide their planet at 1/10th of c.
In our collective view the Romulan won, sneered at the losers and left them to their slow radiation death. Try figuring out need coupling to maintain a stable gene pool that could roll over into a stellar empire within a few centuries. Other than arguing over what sub light speed the ships traveled, rule of thumb stated in the show max sub light impulse speed is 1/4th of c. Which at max is 1 light year pre year of travel, and that is still very slow. In that regards many Romulans were still left behind after the Surak war.
My gaming shop wasn't into Grups Strek Trek system rules so we used Star Wars instead.
First joke: Vulcan Merchants.
Not all Vulcan merchants are Romulan spies, just some of them. But at least a Romulan will smile as they screw you over in a trade deal.
a.) Any Romulan merchant is regarded as an imperial scout, any way you have to turn over your flight navigation computer as State property to maintain you trade permit. Other than that many Romulans do get .. around .. Vulcan, also to get along with their blood cousins. Who could been in D&D treated as multiclass ranger/psionists. As for Star Wars they be scout/force adepts.
b.) The Star Fleet/ Federation and the Romulan Star Empire is in truth the Vulcan Empire, Vulcans have two branches of government to develop the industrial war complex.
c.) Klingon ambassador yells at the Vulcan ambassador, " The Federation is a human empire ! "
The Vulcan sigh, " We are doing our best for the humans not to think they are one. "
d.) There is an independent family/nation of Vulcan Romulan merchants' information brokens controlling politics and trade behind the scenes. One sect branch is the source of tales across many worlds of .. Elf/elves. F-ckers think they are a bunch of comedians.
e.) Romulans are still very .. touch .. empathic. When they try to strangle you with their hands, you know they are not happy with you at the moment.
I actually like the idea that Romulans weren't *directly* split from Vulcans but were still from a common ancestors like the Neanderthals were for us. It just make sense considering some of the physical and mental differences.
Tyler...your knowledge of the Star trek universe is great...much respect to you asa person...thanks from Adelaide South Australia
Excellent video.
A Video as interesting as the oldest enemies of United Earth... The Roumlans.
*Fascinating* 👍
Great video. Thanks!
When you show clips from various episodes you should footnote them as to their source so people can go back and look them up on their own. In my case some of your clips seem to be episodes I’ve missed,
Very interesting video. Definitely worth a subscription to see more of your videos. Thank you!
The Romulans came from the makeup department of Paramount Studios in Hollywood, California.
Palpatines behind it all!
-Mr Plinkett
In the episode where Spock interacts with the Romulan commander, she appears to engage in empathic/telepathic link with Spock. They both touch each other's face the same way when Vulcans engage in telepathic mind
Perhaps the Romulans with ridges were cosmetic like head binding was prevalent in many earth cultures. Maybe they found a way to stimulate bone or tissue growth in children to manifest the ridges as a sign of high status.
I can't remember which book - but she wrote "Spock's World" and the "Rihannsu series" ( "My Enemy, My Ally", "The Romulan Way", "Swordhunt", "Honor Blade", and "The Empty Chair"). I loved all of her books. I would think it was either "Spock's WOrld" or "The Romulan Way".
In another comment, someone said it's The Romunlan Way"
The journey through space and cramped space ships would have most likely been arduous, they may have had to make genetic modifications to survive the journey, or it may be genetic because of the ethnicity of the Vulcans who left, or it may because of having a more protein-rich diet, there are so many explanations for the ridges. Though not all Romulans have them, they do give a distinctive look.
@@jamesabernethy7896 sounds good. Don't know why but I always liked the Romulans.
@@sparkygump More cerebral, plans within plans within lies. I like Klingons too but they are much more direct,with few surprises.
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Thanks for creating this video. It is very informative, and it has some intriguing theories.
I do not have as much knowledge, but I do love the Romulans. A long time ago, I created my own theory about their origins. Just for fun, here it is:
After the Vulcan civil war, the pre-Romulans fled the planet. They were defeated, weak, and desperate. Fortunately for them, the Preservers (or a similar group) decided to help them, though they possibly disguised themselves as space-faring merchants. In return for modest offerings from the pre-Romulans, the Preservers gave them crucial assistance (possibly temporarily), such as: faster-than-light travel; cloaking devices; a star map to the beautiful and healthy planet that would become known as Romulus; etc. And there was one more important gift: Roman culture. Realizing that the pre-Romulans needed a strong and organized culture, the Preservers gave them the knowledge of the glory of Ancient Rome.
Well, if nothing else, these things are fun to think about. 🙂
Jolan tru.
Iv always wanted to see the enterprise crew go thru the Earth Romulan war. Great concept that the culture that helped bring us into the warp era and helped form the federation also had an offshoot that we had to go to war with. It’d of been great!
The plan for season 5 of Enterprise was to include the Earth Romulan war.
@@GrimmShadowsII that would be great!
They did have some books on that war . Not bad
@@shanenolan8252 there’s a couple guys on here that did some pretty cool break downs. I think VGM did a good one! I’d just like to see it in action. 🖖🏼
@@freelancenerd4804 yes he did , a very good three part . Breakdown. Agreed
Got the Skillshare sponsorship going (achievement unlocked 😁) I am going to check Skillshare out and see if I can justify a subscription!
They don’t have a common ancestor with the Vulcans, they **are** Vulcans
If Coto or Sussman had his way-had a 5th season of "Enterprise" were allowed to continue, an episode might've seen Cdr. T'Pol discovering that her father was a Romulan-which might have explained her emotions that lay buried as her mother stated in 'Awakenings'. Still, though Vulcans didn't know what their Vulcan ancestors became as Romulans, would T'Les been likely to mate with someone who looked like V'Las or Stehl seen in 'Kir Shara'? I think she might've meant just the ancient Vulcan emotions before Surak taught them logic. Still, it might've made an interesting story as T'Pol might have discovered that if her father was a Romulan, he might've tried to kidnap her once to later start a colony called Hellguard, but changed his mind and disappeared, only to be found by her and the crew somewhere. Just my ideas.
Think we need to clear something up. Romulans are the original civilization of Vulcan. It was Surak and his followers that drove them off world. It's Romulans who are the ancestors of Vulcans, not the other way around.
Love all things Romulan. Great video.
Thank you Jeff!
Surely the brow ridges would be best explained by the _founder effect._ The point is that presumably the group of Romulans who original left Vulcan to found the original Romulan empire would have been a far smaller population than the Vulcan's who remained on Vulcan. Any small sample from a population has a tendency to not be representative of the whole population, so any unusual characteristics that happened to randomly be prevalent in the original Romulans would then proceed to become the basis for the whole Romulan empire, including perhaps a predisposition for brow ridges which may be a rare recessive trait among Vulcans.
It is the same thing that happens when a family inbreeds. When a small population does not mix its genes with the broader population, peculiar deformities tend to appear. For example, consider the famous Habsburg jaw.
exactly! also atomic radiation from war and radiation from space travel exposure and then the environmental pressures of adapting to a completely different planet is more than enough to cauae extreme genetic mutation and variance in biology from the vulcans.
The forehead ridges always confused me in TNG, and I like the explanation that it was genetically added. Great video!
Awesome video as always!
There are other vulcanoid offshoots as well like Mintakans, Rigelians and Debrune
🖖😎👍Very nicely well done and very well informatively executed and explained indeed 👌.
I was thinking that maybe the forehead ridges could have been due to Romulans tampering with similar viruses as to what caused the Klingons to lose their ridges, as seen in Enterprise. The only issue with that theory however, is that Romulans in Enterprise had ridges. Perhaps they played around with similar viruses before the one that inflicted the Klingons surfaced. Until there is a canon explanation, we'll never know for sure.
It's funny they looked exactly like Vulcans in Star Trek TOS.
I think it’s just a mutation that some have. Of course it was cheaper in the 60’s but as an in universe explanation look at pardek I don’t he had very pronounced ridges
I've always thought that it could have been the other way around
_Romulans, they're so predictably treacherous._ - Weyoun
What're their origins? They're breakaway Vulcan colonists; the original series makes that abundantly clear.
I love how you blend real life development and influence with the fictional history.
I wonder if being voidborn for so long is what lead them to develop blackhole based warpcores.
Good summary. I liked how you kept tying Romulan history to what was going on at Earth at the time. Really puts the events in context - Romulus was such a busy planet!
A very nice piece of work, well done.
I'd highly recommend the Rihannsu series of books by Diane Duane. They're so good that I wish they could be absorbed into canon.
I have to say that I vastly prefer Spock's World's take on Vulcan history and the Romulan split: it wasn't atomic weaponry, but immense psychic power, strong enough to shake planets, that the ancient Vulcans warred with. Surrak's teachings tended to lead to quieter, less destructive psychic powers. Vulcan psionics - their great sorceries - were emotionally-driven, so controlling emotions meant they could do certain things more reliably, but less powerfully.
The Romulans were a faction that embraced their powerful "magical" abilities, and left Vulcan to cultivate them away from the poisonous teachings of Surrak that sought to rob them of it. Tragically (or perhaps luckily for everyone else), their psychically-gifted members died off in plagues and other hardships on the way, leaving Romulans without even the powers Vulcans still have.
There is a novel based on this theory called the lost years about a "mind master" named zakal the terrible, probably the most powerful of them all and it was only after his death that surak was able to unite them. very well written in parts though overall it was not that well developed. but i liked it.
The description of his abilities was horrifying, "the most powerful and feared mind lord in all of vulcan who couldreduce his enemies to cinders by willing it". But spock also mentions that none of the mind masters left with the Romulans. except S'task , suraks closest disciple. That being said, the Romulans had some psychic abilities but vastly reduced.
YES!
MORE ROMULAN VIDEOS!
I have always wished that we had gotten a series, or at least a miniseries (on the scale of "The Winds of War") focusing on the Vulcan reformation. Ideally, back when Bruce Gray was still alive; I found his portrayal of Surak quite compelling.
Very interesting!
While completely apocrypha, the game Star Fleet Battles states that as the Earth-Romulan war was officially ended, a few Romulan ships - manned by Remans - were in battle with an Earth ship over Remus. These Romulan ships were operating under communications blackout (normal at the time), and thus did not hear that the cease-fire had been signed. They attacked until the Earth ship went down on Remus, its antimatter detonating, and adding severe background radiation to the world. This caused the Remans something of a negative reputation within the empire. Remans were Romulans that inhabited the sister world, and were known for higher aggression. Such an antimatter detonation would easily explain the tidal lock of the world and mutation of its people. The radiation could easily have spread in smaller amounts across the system, and affected Romulan appearance to a lesser degree.
The Romulan Commander from the original series third season The Enterprise Incident is HOTTT.
Great video. You've given me somethings to think about. This is usually a trait of your videos. They stay with you for days.
You got me with "Balance of Terror." He's a sorcerer, that one! He read the thoughts in my brain! My favorite line out of all Star Trek.
I really love your channel. I just recently got into Star Trek, I love it and all this knowledge is really helping me become a true Trekkie so THANK YOU! Keep up the awesome work.
Having been a fan of Star Trek since it first aired in 1966, I have watched EVERY series and have read about 96% of the novels and paperbacks.
Romulans are actually the descendants of Vulcans who left Vulcan shortly after a global conflict nearly destroyed their world during the time of Surak. Vulcans were as war-like as the Romulans in canon. When the majority of Vulcans started following the teachings of Surak in order to avoid another global conflict, a faction of the Vulcan people chose to leave and settled on two planets which they called Romulus and Remus approximately 5000 years before Earth's Bronze Age. They maintained their martial culture and began building their 'Star Empire'. much of which is mentioned in the novel "Spock's World".
FOR ORANGE RIVER: Author Diane Duane, In one of her early star trek paperback books, did a history of the Vulcan exodus from Vulcan of those who disagreed with the teachings of Surak and what happened to them on their journey; it was not a nice and pleasant journey. I can not remember the title, though I have it packed in a box somewhere. Can anyone reading this remember the title?
That novel is "The Romulan Way". I still have a copy of it, and in my opinion it's one of the best TOS novels written. It has a rich backstory on the Romulans as well as Vulcan history around the time of the diaspora (her other novel "Spock's World" goes even deeper into Vulcan lore). I know a number of Star Trek fans consider the old TOS novels to be apocryphal/non canon, but I'd argue that with all of the inconsistencies across the TV series and movies from TNG onward (and I love all of them though not all at the same level), the older novels shouldn't be considered any less canon than what has been produced more recently.
@@walken31st What I like also is the glossary at the back of Romulan words.
Yes. 'The Romulan Way', as another poster has already said. For those not familiar, it is a story set in T.O.S. 'present' with the back-history of the Romulans and the description of the 'Sundering' alternating amongst the chapters.
Thanks for saving me all that typing. Diane Duane was one of the best Original Series script writers. She then wrote some novels that were lengthy and detailed to blockbuster movie quality after The Wrath of Khan. "My Enemy, My Ally" circa 1985, was part one of "The Romulan Way" which turned out to be The Rhiannsu Way or something. A more sympathetic look at a very alien culture.
There were some great novels and great characters in those mid-80s books, the long ones, not just short direct to paperback ones.
Several of the outstanding novelists like Greg Bear, Anne (A. C.) Crispin, John M. Ford, and Diane Carey produced novels of high quality and consistency.
I thought Carey's novel "Dreadnought" and sequel "Battlestations" would have made a great movie length script with Piper and friends as the next gen.
@@walken31st I vastly prefer Diane Duane's novels over anything that isn't TOS, when it comes to Vulcan and Romulan history. The forehead ridges were stupid, as were the identical hairstyles (yeah, I know the Vulcan men all have the same style, but the women at least had dressier hairstyles).
And the insane shoulder pads? DUMB. I can't take TNG/DS9-era Romulans seriously.
Thanks Tyler
good morning, Nice to listen to a fellow fan sharing what they have learned about a great race of aliens in our Star Trek universe. I think the reason for forehead ridges IS FROM DIFFERNT environments of different parts of worlds IS AS GOOD AS ANY. Thanks for sharing you insightfulness
Hi Tyler, it's guys, from the comments. In this section I will feed the algorithm gods with words.
Excellent video. Thank you !!!!!
My thoughts regarding the forehead ridges are that they were a trait found in a proportion of the early Vulcan population that for some unknown reason (perhaps one of the many wars that occurred) eventually disappeared on Vulcan but remained prominent in some other vulcanoid populations like the Romulans.
Great video! Always wondered about the ridges. I like the theory of genetic tampering and tinkering. Jolan Tru trek dogs!
Love romulans. Favourite trek species!!
In Roman folklore, Romulus and Remus we're newborn orphan twin boys a shewolf had suckled. They grew to found Roma (Roma), out of which rose the Roman Empire.
Star Trek borrowed this, naming a binary star system Romulus-Remus, round which the Romulan Empire centred. In the TOS first-season episode "Balance of Terror", the dialogue introduced that the Romulans likely were an offshoot of the Vulcans.
[Editorial note: the following paragraph must descend behind the subsequent one; however, I lack the means to effect this.]
The Shin-zon storyline of Star Trek: Nemesis (2002, Paramount, Stuart Baird, Jerry Goldsmith) departed from this canon (I believe the Kelvin timeline narrative did, too, though that botch is not canon from conception to execution).
In TNG two-part episode "Reunification", Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy) discreetly travelled to the Romulan home world, and remained, in his effort to foster an underground movement toward reunification with their Vulcan kinfolk, and away from their long militaristic, autocratic culture.
Note that "she-wolf" or "Lupa" in Latin did not always mean a literal wild canine. The term also denoted a low-class sex worker. If the legend has a basis in truth, Romulus and Remus were likely nursed by a prostitute rather than a wolf.
All one has to do is read Diane Duane's Rihannsu series to find out about "Romulans"
The Mintakans also had forehead ridges. If you're going to treat the Arretians as the Preservers, the Mintakans indicate that the ridges are inherent to the ancestral Vulcanoid lineage.
best explanation to me is that the Romulans interbred with the native population on Romulus and the Remans interbred with a darkness dwelling species on Remus. After a couple centuries of rebuilding on Romulus they ventured to their moon and found people very different to themselves and promptly enslaved them.
This too has been explored in beta canon.
I’m looking forward to this
I like everything you do. Thanks.
Watching it now, ur ad for Skillshare was long!! Awesome work, I did follow Alpha but not so much Beta canon. Will need to check that out, so little time. Vulcan’s Soul book 3 Epiphany, was it good. Well done, thanks
In Enterprise's Syrannite Arc, it is discovered that the dissidents that "Marched Beneath the Raptor's Wings" were defeated in the final conflict of the Vulcan civil war. This has generally been interpreted to mean that the Vulcan's that rejected Surak's teachings left Vulcan to become the Romulans. However, no on-screen dialogue confirms that the defeated ever actually left the planet. Soval's quote regarding the devastation from the Vulcan civil war was "it took us nearly fifteen hundred years to rebuild and travel to the stars." Note the tense used. "Travel", not "return". Additionally, Soval says "You Humans have managed to do the same in less than a century" -- the same, travelling to the stars, for the first time. Illustrating that the dissidents couldn't have left the planet because Vulcan didn't lose space travel technology -- it hadn't been invented in order to be lost.
In Balance of Terror, he asks the question "if" Romulans and Vulcans share a common ancestry. Other than Spock's dialogue, there is no corroborating evidence seen on-screen, however this hypothesis has become accepted as factual history. By the time of TNG: Unification, we see that Spock is personally instrumental in spreading his hypothesis & that this belief had taken hold within large segments of the Romulan population.
In TNG: Who Watches the Watchers, we meet the Mintakans -- a people previously unknown by either Vulcans or Romulans -- who are described as proto-Vulcans. The Mintakans, however, have the cranial ridges similar to (and more pronounced than) Romulans -- and they weren't shown to demonstrate any psionic traits. This suggests that Hodgekin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development is in play here more so than divergently evolved seed colonies of a single species.
But... and the one thing, I believe is missing from the analysis presented in your video, is the TNG episode The Chase. The chase occurs *after* Unification (meaning information Spock did not have when he successfully spread his theories among the Romulan peoples). In The Chase, we learn that the Ancient Humanoid (aka Progenitor) had seeded hundreds of worlds with portions of their DNA 4.5 billion years prior (significantly earlier than the 600,000 years before when the Arretans had similarly seeded different colonies). The Progenitor story parallels that of the Preservers from TOS: The Paradise Syndrome. Although intentionally left out of the script, producer Ronald Moore has stated that it was his intent that the Preservers and Progenitors were the same species.
The bit of information which does not fit Spock's hypothesis is that, in The Chase, the projected message of the Progenitor reveals that they had seeded hundreds of worlds with fragments of their DNA code, and that "there is something of us in each of you, and so something of teach of you in one another." It was Humans, Klingons, Cardassians, and.... Romulans -- not Vulcans -- whom were represented as among the original Progeny races.
Now, this is not to say Vulcans aren't also a Progeny race. They very well could be. Hundreds of worlds were seeded, after all. It's not outside of the realm of possibility that multiple Progeny species evolved in parallel, following Hodgekin's Law. It's also possible that Vulcans and Romulans are still related, one being the descendant of the other... However, the Ancient Humanoid confirms that *if* that is the case, Romulans are the elder species from with Vulcans are evolved, not the other way around.
Spock's theory held merit and held a firmly logical basis... However, he was missing information. And, with that new information revealed, his original hypothesis was proven to be wrong & should be reevaluated with the new information.
"It was Humans, Klingons, Cardassians, and.... Romulans -- not Vulcans -- whom were represented as among the original Progeny races." That's just based on who happened to be there. It doesn't suggest either Vulcans or Romulans descended from the other. If Tholians or Hortas had somehow discovered and put together the code, they would've gotten the same message. Also, aside from Spock's hypothesis about a common origin, there was a scene in Unification Part II where a young Romulan showed him some relic learning blocks with the Vulcan language on them if I recall correctly.
If you want to read about Romulans, one author stands above all and her name is Diane Duane. Look for the Rihannsu series (Rihannsu is Romulan for "Romulan").
You could offer a similar explanation for the ridges of the Romulans as there was for the differences of the Klingons of TOS to later ST series.
That was awesome man! And, indeed there is more to the Romulans (and other cousin races) than I was aware. Loved the "Yankees" comment too lol ... Always good to hear a TH-camr who, like me doesn't have any accent and sounds normal (unlike them folks on th' TV and wut not) ... Definitely enjoyed the video my friend! Keep on producing amazing videos please sir!
Thank you so much Clint!
All I know is the Remens were the true people of Romulus . When the exiled Vulcans arrived, the kicked these aliens off to Remus. So, the Remens would live in the constant shadow of Romulus.
These new people would now become Romulans and form an empire.
@@johnbockelie3899 Love this theory!
So the Romulans really *are* space Americans? ;)
I always figured the forehead ridges were a genetic left over from some species they conquered/interbreed with during the long migration to Romulus
2:45 That is a really clear picture! Did you have a hi res copy to use? It looks really nice!
It's just from the HD remaster! Thankfully TOS and TNG still look great to this day since they were shot on film.
I love this channel
Thanks for these in-depth analyses of Trek lore.
They came from Outer Space, as I recall.
i agree with the augmentation theory for the head ridges, as an attempt to really separate themselves from their vulcan cousins
What if... Romulan forehead ridges were a once popular gene therapy to show patriotism by displaying the raptors wings on one's own face?
From the Star Trek novella The Romulan Way by Diane Dueane. There was a major cultural falling out led by one of Surek's "disciples" (can't find his name) who led an off world movement of Vulcans who did not wish to follow the tenets of logic per Surek. It was known as The Sundering and major spoiler alert just before the Praetor existence who took control of the Romulan's home planet after a hundred years and after the settling of their primary home world the Disciple was assassinated during a gathering of the Romulan assembly and in his dying breath voiced a prophetic saying about the destiny of the Romulan species.
I believe the name your looking for is S’task
@@joshstarkey203 Thank you.
Yes. The novels you refer to are "My Enemy, My Ally" and its sequel "The Romulan Way" by Diane Duane. A sympathetic look at a very alien culture calling themselves Rhihana as I remember.
There were lots of good pocket paperbacks after The Wrath Of Khan. One I still remember fondly was "Dreadnought" and its sequel "Battlestations" by Diane Carey. I wore them out. 😉
The novel "The Romulan Way" explains why there are no telepathic abilities among the Romulans. The colonists used a technique called "boot-strapping" to give a speed boost to their sub-light ships by harnessing the mental abilities of an "adept", but ended up killing the adept. The long journey from Vulcan caused them to burn through their population of mental adepts, thus removing them from the gene pool.
I love how The Romulan Way shows that the Romulans aren't evil, they are just very paranoid for good reason.
Their first contact was with the Orions, who came to Vulcan offering peace, but really meant the other thing.
After the split, the first contact for the Romulans was with humans, who also came offering peace, but the Romulans didn't want to take any chances this time.
How could Romulans have migrated from Vulcan thousands of years before and it not be known by all Vulcans? Spock was perplexed when he first saw them and speculated on their common ancestry in the early season 1 episode when they first meet. If people left Earth and moved to a different planet to settle and colonize, wouldn’t we all know?
Keep up the lore videos. They're great for helping me shape my own universe's cannon
Hey man just saw this video thought it was very well informed. Keep on doing great things like this for sure.
Ahh I could see the scientist going "but the fore head ridges sir! They could provide ample head butting against the spears! We MUST put them in!!!" Great video again!
That was great.
Man, I really enjoyed your video and explanations of the Romulans! For the most part I don’t really pay attention to such details too closely mainly cause that take more time and effort then I care to get into. I just take each show or episodes on their own merits! But being you did all the work for me, it was really interesting to see how this all laid out in the Romulan history. Look forward to hearing what else you come up with to share in the future regarding any of the Star Trek characters or the shows themselves for that matter. Very entertaining video in my opinion! Keep it up please!
Sela was Everything! And the actor who played the Romulan colander in Blance of terror later played Spocks father actor Mark Lenard
Another great video from you. Well written, concisely delivered, nice length. Great to watch. Most of the time i like things to be specific when it comes to lore, but I think that vagueness suites them. Although it's true that they are led by a civilian senate, the military plays an undeniable part in their culture. How much do the plebs of Romulan society know about their history, and how much is so intangible that it is merely a rumour. Though the Federation later allied with the Klingons, Klingon culture felt so alien, where as Romulan society felt like a darker side to ourselves. I think that is more from a Human perspective than a Vulcan one. I don't know what other people think about that.
Given their genetic history, you would think that breeding between Romulans and Vulcans can happen.
The Memory Alpha article "Saavik" states:
The script for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan notes that, "Lt. Saavik is young and beautiful. She is half Vulcan and half Romulan ..."
@@dandeliondown7920 Spock mentions it in a deleted scene: th-cam.com/video/7rKw66EU5Fc/w-d-xo.html
Bro your videos and your content are spot on... your awesome keep it up
This also begs another question. What about the Proto-Vulcan society that the Enterprise D encountered on Mintaka III? Would they be some kind of Romulan offshoot?
The description of them as "proto-Vulcan" would mean that they have no common lineage with Vulcans/Romulans. They simply evolved that way because of how similar Mintaka III's environment was with Vulcan. In biology, this is called convergent evolution. Personally though, I prefer thinking of them as descendants of some failed Romulan colony like the Debrune, and somehow lost knowledge of their origins.
@@Raja1938 problem here is that the Mintaka star system is a real one and is 1200 light years away from Earth. Given that the entire circumference of the Vulcan to Neutral zone planets (Debrune) to Romulus is a relatively tight circle of less than a hundred light years, giving support to sublight propulsion, it seems implausible that an offshoot occurred here.
@@oldtwinsna8347 Interesting. Maybe the Preservers had a hand in transplanting them so far afield!
I think the facial ridges were added to their genome artificially for the same reason that it was added to their design IRL it makes them more easily distinguished from Vulcans and reduces confusion
Every time you see an actor playing an alien character in current Kurtzman Discovery and Picard series they have that look in their eyes as if to say, is this what I've been reduced to?
@@subraxas I am? Like the vast majority of the TV and streaming audience you've obviously not been tuning in lately, or perhaps there's some other reason both shows are now on the televisual Hades of Pluto TV? Soon to be joined I might add by Strange New Worlds!
There's numerous reasons the new Star Trek shows are exclusively on streaming services. One is that each episode takes over $9 million to produce (this may be an old figure) and they need to recoup the cost somewhere. I'm not incredibly thrilled that Star Trek is no longer on network TV, but this is simply the way lots of TV productions operate these days.
The minds of the writers
That time when Deanna troi became romulan ! That flooded my basement for real !
15:21
I could swear it was mentioned in Nemesis, long ago, the Romulans cross-bred with the Remans as a desperate effort to regain their telepathic abilities, and summarily abandoned the concept when faced with evidence it wasn't working.
So I just figured THAT is where they got the forehead ridges.
What about the Ruffles? Ruffles have ridges. 🤣
"Romulans' *TRUE* Origins" are whatever the present owners of the franchise says it is.
Star wars meme in star trek explanation? It's treason, then!
The Praetor is played by Alan Dale. He was one of the original cast of the Australian serial drama ‘Neighbours’. I recognised him because I very watched Neighbours from the earliest episodes…I’m very old😊. I have wondered about the Romulan forehead ridges and how some have them and others don’t, you did a very good explanation of that particular issue. I loved that John-Luc Picard’s private secretary/house keeper, Laris, had a regional accent that sounded remarkably like an Irish accent on Earth, it was great. Anyway, Jolan Tru, folks.