The STO Tzenkethi are more suited to the combat focused nature of that game.
Spoilers TP: Rough Beasts of Empire by DRGIII Review Thread
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I'd argue the book Tzenkethi have a "Serpentor" problem. I feel like the moment the Tzenkethi were introduced, the Romulan's IQ took a massive nosedive. The Tzenkethi have the story role of being the elegant, sneaky, cultured backstabbing intriguers. However, that's what the Romulans do so we have the Romulans getting rings run around them when they should be the ones doing that.
Basically, the moment Serpentor shows up, Cobra Commander starts looking like a fool and it annoys every Cobra Commander fan.
I mean, I don't agree that the Tzenkethi of the First Splinter Continuity are "elegant and cultured" per se. They strike me as being more exemplars of the idea of genetic hierarchy -- there's an element of artificiality to them. When I imagine the high-ranking Tzenekthi, I imagine them as almost like living Instagram filters. And yeah, the Tzenkethi faction the books focused most on were active in espionage, but most Tzenkethi are not like that and not involved in that. Their society is focused on worshiping the Autarch, with a lot of schlocky propaganda produced to reinforce hierarchical social structures -- a sort of combination of Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World.
Whereas the Romulans are a society with more built-in contradictions. They have a monarchy, but real power lies with the Praetor. There's a Praetor, but the Praetor doesn't get to hold power without the confidence of the Senate. Senators represent specific geographic regions, and may even be democratically elected. There's the secret police in the Tal Shiar, but there's also the Qowat Milat constantly fighting for the underdog. And the idea that Romulans are necessarily better at espionage than other cultures seems unsupported -- we've seen the Romulans get caught with their pants down multiple times, including by Spock and the Unificationists in "Face of the Enemy," by the Dominion in "The Die is Cast," by Sisko in "In the Pale Moonlight," and by Section 31 in "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges."
The Tzenkethi are totalitarian absolutists that remind me a lot of the Cetagandan Empire from the Vorkosigan Saga. Basically, they are meant to have absolute control over everyone and everything to the point that they function as a single unit through genetic engineering but it's meant to be publicly pleasing and beautiful to look upon from the outside. They're even described as physically beautiful humanoids that all look like supermodels (presumably in the "human aliens" Star Trek tradition). They just also glow.
Part of what makes them scary is unlike 1984 or even Brave New World, the Tzenkethi society functions perfectly fine. It has the mythical "fascist efficiency" that never actually has existed.
Part of what makes them scary is unlike 1984 or even Brave New World, the Tzenkethi society functions perfectly fine. It has the mythical "fascist efficiency" that never actually has existed.
I dunno, I'm skeptical of that claim. We already know from Articles of the Federation that there are members of the Tzelnira who were willing to send their kids to the Federation to receive medical treatment in violation of the Autarch's rule, and we know from Typhon Pact: Plagues of Night that the Autarch had to lie to manipulate other members of the Tzelnira into supporting his aggression against the UFP. So we know disagreements exist. And in reality, there are always dissident movements. I'm willing to buy the idea that the Tzenkethi may have genetically engineered a large portion of the population into being prone to accepting propaganda, but I'd bet there are factional rivals and dissidents buried under the surface.
I didn't get that impression. I was thinking something more along the lines of the aliens from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (with the bonelessly flexible limbs) crossed with the evolved John Doe from TNG: "Transfigurations."
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