Typhon Members
- Thread starter Arpy
- Start date
What's different in-universe is that the events of Destiny transformed the whole astropolitical landscape and these formerly separate nations have seen the value of partnering, basically following the Federation's example. This is explained more in A Singular Destiny. What's different in real life is that the writers used that changed landscape as an opportunity to tell stories about alien cultures that had been underdeveloped in the past.
Let's see... the Romulans and Tzenkethi are featured in all the David R. George III books to date -- Rough Beasts of Empire, Plagues of Night, and Raise the Dawn. I think the Breen play a major role in those last two as well, and they're also featured in Zero Sum Game. The Tholians are featured most heavily in Paths of Disharmony, the Gorn in Seize the Fire. Book 2 of the Cold Equations trilogy, Silent Weapons, also heavily features the Breen and the Gorn. The Kinshaya have been featured only in A Singular Destiny and in two e-book novellas, The Struggle Within and The Stuff of Dreams.
Let's see... the Romulans and Tzenkethi are featured in all the David R. George III books to date -- Rough Beasts of Empire, Plagues of Night, and Raise the Dawn. I think the Breen play a major role in those last two as well, and they're also featured in Zero Sum Game. The Tholians are featured most heavily in Paths of Disharmony, the Gorn in Seize the Fire. Book 2 of the Cold Equations trilogy, Silent Weapons, also heavily features the Breen and the Gorn. The Kinshaya have been featured only in A Singular Destiny and in two e-book novellas, The Struggle Within and The Stuff of Dreams.
From an outsider's perspective, the issue isn't so much that they're different, but the fact they're being detailed at all. The Typhon Pact is, as I understand it, partially in existence to that these historical enemies of the Federation can get more detail than has been provided on screen.
The Romulans: are actually 1/2 of the Romulan Empire, which dissolved in the Novelverse after Shinzon. It's pre-Hobus, which will destroy the Typhon Pact's capital in three years of Noveltime. The Romulans are the most powerful member of the Typhon Pact and its nominal leaders, even though it's only a fraction of its former size.
Star Trek: Titan 1# and A Singular Destiny details the Romulan situation unfolding.
The Breen: Introduced late in the Dominion War, all we know is they're mysterious and untrustworthy. Likewise, they live in space-suits.The Breen as detailed in the Typhon Pact are "The Anti Federation" as they are a multispecies coalition which eradicates all differences between members.
The Breen, ironically, are the least interested in the Pact and are undermining the other members at every turn.
Zero Sum Game and Cold Equations details the Breen's skullduggery and EVIL (plus how Breen are more or less normal people living under an evil government).
Tholians: Not very well detailed but, apparently, Star Trek Vanguard had them hideously wronged by the Federation. If you've ever seen the TV show Dexter, the Tholians look at the Federation and see a homicidal serial killer while everyone else sees this likable harmless guy.
The Gorn: Historical allies of the Federation since Arena and later Captain Picard helping them (I need to get that book), the Gorn joined because of financial concerns rather than any real hostility. Cold Equations 2# details how they're now realizing they're surrounded by lunatics but can't withdraw for various reasons.
Tzenkethi: Don't know much about them but they're basically genetic supremacists who custom-engineer everyone for a role and Federation egalitarianism scares the hell out of them.
Kinshaya: Imagine the Feudal Catholic Church ruled Earth and everyone was a Griffon. The Kinshaya hate Klingons for many justified reasons and have no real opinion on the Federation--other than they're allied with barbarians.
They're not all "enemies of the Federation." They're just races that haven't been explored much to date. As you point out below, the Gorn have been mostly friendly or at least neutral toward the UFP for over a century, while the Kinshaya only hate the Klingons and have no history of any significant interaction with the Federation. Plus, the Romulans have been on more-or-less friendly terms with the UFP ever since the Dominion War, though of course there have been Romulan factions wishing otherwise.
That was only true for about a year; see Rough Beasts of Empire.
I doubt the Breen or Tholians would agree with that. It's supposed to be an alliance of equals, and they're all pretty much pursuing their own independent and often conflicting agendas.
It is an alliance of equals, but the Romulans are the first among equals. Tal'Aura and Tomalak had expected that a reunified Romulus, with its economic and military heft and its technological might, would emerge as the Pact's natural leader. One of the reasons that the Breen kept the slipstream schematics to themselves in Zero Sum Game was the fear that, if the Romulans with their superior starship technology got slipstream technology that force multiplier risked making the Pact much more of a Romulan bloc. Elsewhere, the Tzenkethi in Rough Beasts of Empire conducted their campaign of assassinations so as to prevent Romulus' unification under a strong leader who would lead the Pact prematurely into confrontation with the Federation. In Silent Weapons, the then-Breen Domo even said that Romulan reluctance to confront the Federation was leading the more anti-Federation pact members to look towards the Breen as an alternative.
Pretty much. The Tholians actually emerge from Vanguard with a credible reason to hate the Federation.
After going a little bit mad when they learned of the power of the ancient Shedai technology, Starfleet Command ordered the researchers at Vanguard to take the Shedai they had captured and tap their power by destroying a planet as proof of principle. The Tholians sensed the momentary liberation of the species that had uplifted them into slavery involved, and experienced something that can basically be likened to a protracted psychic rape of their collective consciousness, at least one Tholian to twitching madness and/or coma. This prompted the Tholians to take a quarter of their fleet to Vanguard as part of a desperate effort to kill the monsters from their past with fire.
Basically, the Tholians resent the Federation for reawakening their ancient oppressors at tremendous cost to the Tholians. The Federation, for its part, really doesn't have any good excuses: destroying planets is very rarely a good thing to do.
Basically, the Tholians resent the Federation for reawakening their ancient oppressors at tremendous cost to the Tholians. The Federation, for its part, really doesn't have any good excuses: destroying planets is very rarely a good thing to do.
That's arguably true, but it's the exact opposite of being "nominal leaders." Nominal means in name only, putative, alleged. It would mean they were called the leaders but actually weren't. What you're saying is that they're not called the leaders but effectively are. The Pact is nominally a union of equals, even if it's actually dominated by one or more of its members.
