One way to explore their culture is to have a subject character who can guide us into their culture and society. Spock represented Vulcanians and we learned their culture through him, and in TNG, Worf was that vessel to open the door to the Klingons --which wasn't interesting to me at all. DS9 had an opportunity to explore Romulan culture by having T'Rul as a recurring character. Is their an idea of what to explore with the Romulans? Does anyone have an idea of what and where to explore Romulans?
The closest we get to establishing depth in Romulan society is Face Of The Enemy with the relationship between the military and Tal Shiar. They should have developed the resistance against fascism they established in Unification.
Is there any way to read up on what Star trek Online has done with the Romulans, which I would find interesting? Without having to play the game, which I wouldn't find interesting
To be fair we only ever see the military and political side of their race. If we saw more of their civilians I'm sure we would see other sides of them.
It's a shame we never had a character to bring the Romulans into the third dimension. Some had potential but we just didn't have enough time with them. Characters like Worf, Quark, and Garak showed us that while these races do have "monocultures" centered on honor, greed, fascism, etc. their individuals can be much more complex.
We also got another glimpse about Romulan society in "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges". In the episode, we actually got to see the praetor, as well as the machinations of the Tal Shiar and some of the inner workings of the Romulan political system. The Romulans are much more intriguing than the Klingons. The Romulans do seem to be progressive when it comes to the role of women in their society. From what I have seen across the different series, the Romulans do seem more similar to humans than either the Klingons or Cardassians. At the end of "The Chase", while the Klingon and Cardassians were trading insults and outrightly rejecting the common ancestor claim, it was the Romulan captain who seemed most reasonable. I remember the Romulan captain told Picard that Romulans and humans were not so "dissimilar afterall, in our hopes, or in our fears."
Well, Hears an idea for the Picard series, which includes the romulans. Series is set well after all the books, so we can have picard in the captains seat for awhile, then after Him and Beverly get together, and have there son Rene, after a few years, he and beverly realize that being on ship isn't the best place to raise a child, both parents are at risk, so, Picard gets a gig at the academy,and beverly takes a gig at starfleet medical. Rene was born in 2381, so by 2399, the so called period that Picard Unleashed is in, so he would be 18, and possibly in the academy. So, in 2387, when Hobus goes boon, and Romulas and Remus turns to star dust, and Spock goes missing. Picard, with some of Sareks memories, decides to be the point person to resettle, and help the romulan people in this time of need. So we see an ambassador picard on Nu Romi, and we have an in depth exploration of Romulan society thru Picards eyes as they rebuild. Maybe from an authoritarian, military, Tal Shiar/SS to a more democratic society.