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Background aliens on Terok Nor

Lurian. :)

And I don't know their real names, but there's also the Tail-Heads, and the little guys with luggage on their head.
 
Tosk said:
And I don't know their real names, but there's also the Tail-Heads, and the little guys with luggage on their head.
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According to Memory Alpha, they are called... Tailheads. :bolian: I believe the other ones you mentioned are listed here as "Aliens With Large, Triangular Head"

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Deep_Space_9_visitors

I do love the Tailheads. I never noticed till my last rewatch how often the... umm... firmness and angle of the tails seems to change. Sometimes it's draped over their shoulders, sometimes it's just hanging down low, sometimes it's sticking straight out the back of their heads... :biggrin:
 
Tosk said:
Lurian. :)

And I don't know their real names, but there's also the Tail-Heads, and the little guys with luggage on their head.
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I actually didn't include them because they might have shown up only after it became Deep Space Nine. I was trying to imagine what the alien scene looked like before a Federation member (or their trading partners) maybe ever stepped foot on the station. Although that doesn't quite jive with a couple of my choices.

Per his annotations page, Christopher L. Bennett included some of the nameless background aliens Sakonna linked above in his book The Buried Age. Some of them with significant backstories. I loved that.
 
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Loving the thread to bits. Cardassia indeed appeared to have quite a collection of regular customers even before the wormhole turned Bajor into an attraction. And these customers clearly didn't appreciate the Federation "liberating" them and turning the space around Bajor "neutral" in the old war, because they all still fully support Cardassian policies and schemes in the early seasons, and/or actively hate the UFP (such as the Klaestronites of "Dax").

I wonder... Do these assorted species simply realize which side their bread is likely to still be buttered as long as they sit in this astropolitical location; do they value their newfound liberty and see the UFP as a lingering threat for being a known imperialistic superpower; or do they have some more concrete reason to be so hostile to the UFP and/or friendly with the previous landlords?

Timo Saloniemi
 
Arpy said:
I actually didn't include them because they might have showed up only after it became Deep Space Nine.
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Ah, sorry. I did consider that but you listed Hupyrians, and I was having a tough time thinking of why one would be on Terok Nor. [Edit: Crap, probably in one of the books?] We know Zek had not visited prior to the change to DS9, (or at least certainly not visited Quark's) but if I'm missing something obvious, then lay it on me and I'll try to remember for next time. ;)

My apologies either way.
 
Timo said:
Loving the thread to bits. Cardassia indeed appeared to have quite a collection of regular customers even before the wormhole turned Bajor into an attraction. And these customers clearly didn't appreciate the Federation "liberating" them and turning the space around Bajor "neutral" in the old war, because they all still fully support Cardassian policies and schemes in the early seasons, and/or actively hate the UFP (such as the Klaestronites of "Dax").

I wonder... Do these assorted species simply realize which side their bread is likely to still be buttered as long as they sit in this astropolitical location; do they value their newfound liberty and see the UFP as a lingering threat for being a known imperialistic superpower; or do they have some more concrete reason to be so hostile to the UFP and/or friendly with the previous landlords?
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I imagine it's a different story for each one, but, yeah, I don't think it was just Cardassians and Bajorans before the pull-out.

The Kressari traded with the Bajorans after, so either they were neutral overall or the Provisional Government traded with anyone who would with them at first. The one Lissepian we saw liked that the Cardassians "always pay their debts," but he was fine being at a Federation starbase. Maybe the Cardassians had allies who refused to trade with the Federation and we just never saw them. The Nausicaans I see as random thugs you can find anywhere. The Yiridians (as information traders) I imagine as, like rats, everywhere in the background and mostly apolitical.

I included the Mathenites because that's where Tekeny Ghemor chose to retire/seek asylum, but I'm not sure it makes sense for them to be buddy-buddies with the Cardassians overall. The name just stuck with me (like the Nyberrite Alliance) as this whole 'nother entity out there that we don't know anything about but that may be more than a planet-of-the-week. (Bennett came up with the Carnelians for his books.)

Tosk said:
Ah, sorry. I did consider that but you listed Hupyrians, and I was having a tough time thinking of why one would be on Terok Nor. [Edit: Crap, probably in one of the books?] We know Zek had not visited prior to the change to DS9, (or at least certainly not visited Quark's) but if I'm missing something obvious, then lay it on me and I'll try to remember for next time. ;)

My apologies either way.
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I included the Hupyrians as they may be a popular servant/bodyguard people for wealthy aliens, Ferengi and otherwise, but I'm not married to the idea lol
 
I wonder who the Cardassians worried about before the Federation expanded nearby. We didn't hear about the Cardassians before TNG (as they hadn't been created yet), and I like to think part of that is geographic. (Tobin Dax met Cardassian dissident Iloja of Prim on Vulcan a while earlier, but Iloja could have been a single traveler very far away from home.)

Other powers introduced in the 24th century include:
  1. Ferengi Alliance – Galaxy-near marauders and a wide economy make them formidable.
  2. Jarada*
  3. Zalkonians – Galaxy-comparable ships with exotic techs (they were able to stop everyone on the Enterprise from being able to draw breath)...they're small(?) but powerful if they're nearby.
  4. Calamarian – they may have come from very far to seek vengeance on a mortal Q.
  5. Sheliak Corporate – is an actual star and very far away. The Cardassians may, like the Federation, have only limited contact.
  6. Talarian Republic
  7. Chalnoth – anarchists without government. They're around, but not a unified threat. Pirates?
  8. Children of Tama – Galaxy-comparable ships
  9. Ktarians – are they part of the Federation or not? Some weird hybrid or alternative situation going on?
  10. Nausicaans – a lesser power but a problematic one. Mercenaries for hire? Thugs to avoid?
  11. Yridians – they did have destroyers.
  12. Miradorn – (it's cool that they're a species of twins...how does that work? When/if they get married?)
  13. Tzenkethi Coalition
  14. Orion Syndicate – had the local mob expanded as far as Cardassia before DS9...or even during?

*Jarada
 
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The Breen appeared to be a big thing in Cardassian politics, once we started getting references to them. Nothing explicit, but the animosity certainly was there, as were the territorial disputes.

"Indiscretion" has them as seemingly random baddies, but doesn't preclude deeper animosity; "Return to Grace" only refers to the embassy, and random eps thereafter to their fierceness and untrustworthiness. It's only in "Strange Bedfellows" that we hear of apparently long-running distrust between the Union and the Confederacy, and of Breen territorial ambitions towards Cardassia.

It never gets more explicit than that, but in order to have territorial ambitions, the Breen really need to be neighbors to Cardassia, don't they? So the novels take this and run with it, even if the shows tell us little.

The Breen and the Ferengi are in the "mysterious raiders" category when the TNG era stories begin, even though at least the Ferengi clearly are a known quantity to the Cardassians much earlier on, there being a Ferengi bar on Terok Nor and all. It might make sense to assume that the three cultures are clustered in the same direction, and that Cardassia is the one closest to UFP assets, the conflict with the Union thus blocking the Feds from encountering the other two much. Conversely, it's not automatic that the Breen would be players in the Dominion War if they are behind the back of the Union, rather than smack in the middle of the battlefield. But once they do join, there's little the Alpha Axis can do about it, what with planet Breen being on the wrong side of the battle lines.

Timo Saloniemi
 
I got the impression that the Breen were closer to the Romulans. That line "never turn your back on a Breen" had me thinking of a long history of earlier betrayals by Breen with former Romulan dynasties. Kinda Game of Thrones-ish. Similarly, I like to think of the small-time Corvallens as the Nausicaans/Lissepians of the area of space closer to the Romulans.


EDIT: also a thought. If the Cardassians were closer (as suggested by the Star Charts and Iloja on Vulcan) they might have previously been kept at bay by the Malurians. After the aggressor species' destruction at the hands of NOMAD in the 23rd Century, the resource poor Cardassians had breathing room to begin expanding their reich to Bajor and elsewhere.
 
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It would make sense for every culture of worth to foster a full set of hangarounds, camp followers, and general co-profiteers. Some might be cross-mastering their way through the scene, some would be more loyal to a specific master.

However, at some point, phase issues have to be considered, too. Cardassians, Romulans and Feds may all share a period of history, but the Romulans were there first, by two millennia or so. Are the Cardassians older players than Feds, or perhaps even Romulans? With an older and bolder entourage?

Given the wimpiness of the current Cardassian culture, I'd like to argue younger, young enough not to need external limiters. They'd start oppressing their primitive neighbors as soon as they acquired the tech. Or then they had the tech but were held back by their better nature - we don't know enough of the Hebitians to tell.

Timo Saloniemi
 
The Millennium Trilogy suggested that the Cardassians have been around for a shorter period. (I don't remember if their individual lifespans are also shorter than ours, unlike those of the Klingons or Vulcans.) There's something scarier about the Cardassians for that, becoming as significant as they have in far less time. It's one thing that should scare the Klingons and Vulcans about humans as well (I credit our alliance-building skills, unlike the destructive Klingons and uninterested Vulcans ). Vulcans and I think Ferengi have been around a lot longer than the humans, though I forget if the Ferengi bit is from the lit (Legends of the Ferengi?) or canon.

I forget if the Orions too were once be a great galactic power that disintegrated and devolved over the millennia. I wonder if there are Orion ruins spread throughout local space, like there are of earlier Vulcans. The ruins they found in TNG's "Gambit" were from the Debrune offshoot of the Romulans, two thousand years back, during their initial schism and exodus from Vulcan.

Also problematic with the Cardassians is that when VOY's Captain Braxton was marooned in 20th Century Earth and lost his mind, one of the slurs he threw out was "Quasi-Cardassian totalitarian!"....are they totalitarians again? Is there something in their nature that makes them forever separate?
 
Or then all Cardassians are wiped out soon after their heyday as Space Nazis, so they are forever remembered as such...

I'd love to believe in ancient Orion greatness, like the novels do: a fitting extension of a truly random worldbuilding tidbit from an early TOS episode. Yet the only other onscreen mention to Orion's past seems to be the Coridani trading with them for "centuries" as they state in "Demons". And that would probably be post-greatness.

Timo Saloniemi
 
Did they ever stop being totalitarians? Perhaps they're just particularly infamous, and the name "Cardassian" has become a synonym for totalitarian. They'd have a pretty bad reputation after betraying the galaxy
 
Hupyrians? Hold on, I thought that they mostly offered their devotion as servants to wealthy Ferengi, taking a vow of silence? The Nagus has one called Mayhar-Du and Brunt has one called Uraylash. I never noticed any on Terok Nor.
 
HelenofBorg said:
Hupyrians? Hold on, I thought that they mostly offered their devotion as servants to wealthy Ferengi, taking a vow of silence? The Nagus has one called Mayhar-Du and Brunt has one called Uraylash. I never noticed any on Terok Nor.
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I don't remember any on the station either during the series. I'm imagining what it might have looked like before the Withdrawal, and I imagine it had wealthy visitors to it time to time, some of whom could have been Ferengi. But I don't think Huypyrians limited themselves to the Ferengi. (Or maybe they did, if the Ferengi Alliance was vast enough to give all Hupyrians service jobs.) I also don't know that all Hupyrians were servants. Unless Hupyria was really poor (pre-warp?), I don't think the Ferengi pay well enough. Plus, I can't imagine the highest a Hupyrian might want for themselves was to serve a Ferengi. I dunno, maybe they're service fetishists it gives them joy. Or maybe they have limited cognitive capacity (it's not a sin, and different species are different) and they figure this is a good way to contribute and see the stars.
 
If we imagine the Cardassians further away than in the afore-mentioned Star Charts, maybe it wasn't the Malurians who kept the Cardassians at bay previously but the Zalkonians. (Really, I'm just looking for a way to tie in some of the other races on that list together, but follow me on this.) The Zalkonians were powerful enough to combat a Galaxy Class starship, so I'm thinking they had the strength to cow the Cardassians/Hebitians. What if the Zalkonians were neighbors on the far end of Cardassian space. When their people started going through the Metamorphosis, they started pulling in more and bothered less with their wider galactic efforts, giving the Cardassian military the opportunity to rise in power, annex Bajor, and war with the Federation. By TNG's time, the Zalkonians had pulled in almost entirely (like the Romulans did after the Tomed Incident) to deal with internal matters, and the Cadassians were everywhere.
 
Arpy said:
I don't remember any on the station either during the series. I'm imagining what it might have looked like before the Withdrawal, and I imagine it had wealthy visitors to it time to time, some of whom could have been Ferengi. But I don't think Huypyrians limited themselves to the Ferengi. (Or maybe they did, if the Ferengi Alliance was vast enough to give all Hupyrians service jobs.) I also don't know that all Hupyrians were servants. Unless Hupyria was really poor (pre-warp?), I don't think the Ferengi pay well enough. Plus, I can't imagine the highest a Hupyrian might want for themselves was to serve a Ferengi. I dunno, maybe they're service fetishists it gives them joy. Or maybe they have limited cognitive capacity (it's not a sin, and different species are different) and they figure this is a good way to contribute and see the stars.
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I don't remember seeing any either. It's possible that the Ferengi annexed their planet or that they're members of the Ferengi Alliance (it's pure speculation on my part), I've never seen one out on his or her own.
 
With the Federation, Klingons, and Romulans a ways away, I'm thinking the Cardassians concerned themselves more with the maybe nearer threats of the Talarian Republic, Tzenkethi Coalition, and the Miradorn.

They might have also had to deal with Nausicaan marauders and mercenaries (perhaps ones that they themselves employed while they built up their war machine) and Chalnoth pirates.

The Ferengi might have been a target for Cardassian imperialism, but with their powerful ships, many allies, and vast economy, they were better trade partners than realistic targets for expansion.
 
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