What happened to the Romulan Empire after Romulus was destroyed

[The Overlord]

In Star Trek 11, in the Star Trek Prime timeline, Romulus was destroyed by a super nova in 2387. What do you think happened to the Romulan Empire after that event?

[Dream]

My guess is the Klingons invaded the Romulan Empire as shown in the future timeline in AGT.

[C.E. Evans]

A period of isolationism lasting perhaps several decades while they sort themselves out, and then an eventual return with a new capital--one named either New Romulus or simply Romulus (in honor of the original homeworld).

They may be even more dangerous than ever before...

[T'Girl]

Without it's capital world, the former Empire will splinter. Occupied worlds with non-Romulan indigenous people will attempt independence, some seeking foreign assistance in the effort. Surrounding powers crave pieces out of the outer portions of Romulan space. Various Romulan planets with large populations each declare themselves the new Romulan capital, the fleet commanders choose sides.

After a few years there will either be multiple small Romulan Empires, or a civil war for power over what's left.

[kythe]

The Romulans already had a mass exodus from a planet - Vulcan - a few thousand years prior, and had successfully located and inhabited a suitable planet. That's how they became Romulans in the first place. As long as they didn't lose their records on how they did it before, I'm sure they could do it again.

[ngc7293]

That movie never made sense to me. A highly advanced civilization doesn't notice a star going super nova close enough to destroy their home world. If you have star travel ability, you would set up a new home world or move your center of command (Romulans being what they are) to another planet. But what they do is rely on a Vulcan to make things all right in the nick of time. But I suppose if they did everything right, it wouldn't make a good movie.

Another way to look at it is what would Earth/StarFleet have done if they had found out about a Supernova nearby?

[Nerys Myk]

ngc7293 wrote:

---

Another way to look at it is what would Earth/StarFleet have done if they had found out about a Supernova nearby?

Call the only ship in the Quadrant, the USS Enterprise, to save them.

[AllStarEntprise]

Tsst* I wouldn't doubt a lion share of the Romulan population fleeing Romulus before the nova hit. If it was slow enough to explode and Spock being able to travel to Romulus from Vulcan in almost the nick of time to absorb it into the black hole, then I could see the Rommies leaving en masse. The military definitely, civilians yes, the Praetor and senate for sure. The Remans, unlikely they made it. Nero and his crew probably those people who in the face of a natural disaster (Hurricane Sandy/Katrina) know the warning but don't think to move their families away from home.

Hell even the Klingons abandoned their planet when Praxis exploded. Klingons are said to be stubborn and pig headed.

[timmy84]

Its not something addressed to often in Trek, but lets not forget that this wasn't a colony, but the first world of the Romulan Empire. It had to have billions living on it. Even if they got a weeks advanced notice on it, they couldn't evacuate even a fraction of the population in time. Of course things happen in Trek all the time and we just have to accept certain things (like a shockwave moving at warp speeds to be a concern for a planet potentially light years away).

Star Trek Online is suppose to be a continuation of the existing timeline (running under the time travel theory that changing history creates an alternate timeline, so the original timeline still exists, you just can't return to it from the past anymore). So it exists in a universe where Romulus is destroyed. I don't have all the details (I'm not able to play a lot because of the computer I have) but Romulus is suffering political turmoil. Factions are fighting for dominance, the Klingons are moving to annex star systems (and the reason they haven't gone full force is the war with the Federation) and Starfleet is trying to prevent Klingon expansion while maintaining stability even if the Romulans object.

I've read that the current TNG story arc in the books may be leading towards the events before the movie (the destruction of Romulus) but I don't remember what year that is supposed to happen. I didn't think the books were at that point yet.

[KamenRiderBlade]

If there is one theory I do like as to why the Romulan sun would go Supernova, it's because I think a remnant Jem'Hadar / Dominion faction decided to detonate it as payback for the Romulans going onto the Federation side during the Dominion war. The Dominion were doing fine until the Romulans tipped the scales. As payback for losing the war, they cause genocide on Romulans home planet.

Plus the founder impersonating Bashir had similar tech that can artificially cause a Super Nova. It makes sense that a remnant Jem'Hadar / Dominion faction can somehow get access to such a device.

[Frontier]

Face it, the supernova aspect of the plot of Trek 11 was the single greatest plot hole of all time.

That's not a dig at the film or if it was good/bad, it's just a factual rational assessment.

It's a huge gaping plot hole you could fly a Dsyon sphere through with room to spare.

*Shrug*

I mean, apparently one star went nova and then just... what? Continued? Caused chain reaction? Expanded exponentially?

And if Spock had time to speak w/the Romulan leadership, then go home to Vulcan, talk to their leaders, who then decide not to help, and then hatch a plan with Picard and Data and Geordi (according to 'Countdown' comic) and what not...

...Seriously, the Romulan government wouldn't have bothered any level of evacuation during the week or two or three all of that took?

And how would their not have been galactic panic at a single super-nova expanding exponentially or causing chain reaction novas?

Not to mention that if it was expanding as such or chain reacting, it would have reached the UFP or Klingons sooner or later, so why would Vulcan refuse to help?

For that matter, why would logical Vulcan refuse to make a great show of trust and empathy by stopping such? Whether or not Romulus is their enemy, it is illogical to allow life to be lost - especially on that scale - due to politics or any other reason. Especially when the ability to help requires so little as 1 person in 1 ship with 1 substance.

None of it makes any bit of sense.

Unless you need a plot for a film and don't care how you get from A to B.

Not the first time for Hollywood or Trek to do it, not the last.

Just the single biggest example of a plot hole in modern (and likely all of Trek) history.

[Bry_Sinclair]

One thing I've always wondered is how could a single supernova threaten the entire galaxy? In VOY, they witnessed dozens during the Q Civil War and the galaxy came through the ordeal just fine.

Anyways, as for the empire. I would assume that the Senate would have evacuated and re-established themselves on another world within the Empire. There would be a period of instability, when disgruntled worlds conquered by the Romulans would try to break away and the Klingons may try to claim some new territory.

After that I would see them sealing their borders for the third time to rebuild in private, reestablish their control and let things settle down.

[Timo]

I have no problem with the timeline as such: it's just the "threatens the galaxy" aspect that calls for a bit of explaining.

It's quite plausible that Spock is the only politician of any clout to take seriously the rantings of some mad genius who says "Hey, this perfectly well-behaving star is going to explode in a few weeks, even though nobody else can see the signs". The leadership of Romulus will simply go "This is crazy - we know how stars work, and this one is not going supernova any time soon", and it's just that this time they are dead wrong, literally.

Plenty of time for Spock to beg people on both sides of the border to take the problem seriously; less time to work out the red matter solution once the Vulcans accept the truth; and too little time to deliver the solution before the star goes kaboom.

As for the "threatens the galaxy" aspect, it could simply be that the loss of Romulus would threaten the galaxy - with political chaos. On the other hand, Spock does seem to worry about stopping the supernova even after Romulus is already gone, as if he only had minutes in which to stop further havoc, rather than the decades that would be involved if a realistic supernova kept expanding towards neighboring stars. Perhaps this is a hyper-supernova of some sort (possibly even artificially induced), and it is exactly because of its exotic and unique nature that people refuse to believe in it until it is too late?

Star Trek makes mention of several advanced, supposedly interstellar civilizations ceasing to be when their homestar goes supernova. Probably not overnight, but still. Supposedly, then, the evacuation of a couple of Romulan bigwigs to another planet in the Star Empire, and the establishing of a new government, would merely slightly delay the inevitable: by some unknown mechanism, the conquest and dissolution of the Star Empire by its enemies would be assured.

Timo Saloniemi

[KamenRiderBlade]

I think when spock said "threatens the galaxy", he meant it in a more political sense.

With a fractured and weakened Romulan species, that invites the Klingons to get revenge. That can also invite many races that the Romulans have pissed off to attack.

The sheer chaos from that would be unmeasureable.

It could turn into 1 giant blood bath very easily.

Which could eventually draw the Federation right back into war so soon after the Dominion war.

[spot_loves_data]

It would be a blow, but the Romulan Empire would keep chugging along. Romulus might have been the home planet, but the empire was huge. I did a quick Google image search for trek maps, and while they're all a bit different, the Romulan Empire was comparable in size to the Klingon Empire and the Cardassian Union.

I don't see why the Empire would erode at all or face additional threats from its neighbors. Their battle ships would still be out there patrolling and any ships stationed on Romulus would have taken off, in tact, with refugees. They had some warning, so the leaders would have set up a base of operations elsewhere. There's no indication that all their shipyards and manufacturing were concentrated on Romulus. And the fact that the Narda existed means that mining took place on other planets.

If Washington D.C. were to be nuked a couple weeks from now, it's not like states would secede and Mexico would invade. We'd definitely lose something, but the infrastructure and the military are still there. Farming and manufacturing would go on, local and state governments would be fine, the federal agencies would reform themselves quickly enough.