Explanation for Romulan Ridges?

[Arpy]

- - - - - Minor Spoilers for Ep3 - - - - -

Flat-foreheaded Laris slaps the ridges of a captured Romulan assassin and calls him "the same as [Zhaban]," "a stubborn Northerner..." Might this mean that on Romulus (or probably on Vulcan, unless there was Vulcanoid breeding with Northern aliens native to Romulus) "Northerners" have ridges?

 

[bookworm8571]

I would assume that more Northerners have ridges than other Romulans but it is a trait that might pop up from time to time in the rest of the population too. There are likely also some Vulcans with ridges. Romulans, like Vulcans, also appear to have different skin tones as there was a darker skinned Romulan in the last episode.

 

[Tosk]

Romulans, like Vulcans, also appear to have different skin tones as there was a darker skinned Romulan in the last episode.

We already saw a black Romulan as far back as TNG.

 

[F. King Daniel]

The Northern Romulans looked like Nero's crew to me, with the enlarged noses. Berman Romulans have a sharp ridge.

 

[rfmcdpei]

It can speak of any number of patterns, which is why I love it.

 

[dinzy]

This is a great improvement to Trek. Rather than have a mono-culture of cliches with possibly one anti-culture faction, the writers are making the Romulans, and hopefully other species, as diverse as we are on Earth. It's certainly a more feasible explanation for the variation in appearance across decades and different production teams than ENT with the augmentation virus.

 

[Hythlodeus]

That's one thing that the current era of Trek is doing quite well, depicting alien races as not monolithic. The Klingons in DSC, the Romulans in PIC, they are far more diverse culturally and in appearance than ever before and this adds to a more realistic approach when it comes to alien societies.
(I just wish DSC didn't chicken out in it's 2nd season after the online criticism of a couple of neckbeards)

 

[JoeZhang]

Could be lots of things - northerners experimented with genetic engineering for example.

 

[Timo]

I'd instead like to think that this, too, provides diversity in Trek: Klingons are the ones who eagerly modify their own bodies every two decades or so, considering them "mere shells" but seeking a physical advantage nevertheless. Romulans OTOH just happen to be diverse biologically, like any species, but stable across millennia, and abhor this genetic manipulation nonsense as much as Trek humans do.

And I bet we'll learn more within the first season already.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Commander Richard]

I liked to think that the ridges in TNG were the result of crossbreeding with the klingons a century earlier.

Could have been that or cosmetic changes like breast implants.

Or both.

 

[Verteron]

I liked to think that the ridges in TNG were the result of crossbreeding with the klingons a century earlier.

It could also be interbreeding with whoever they found when they made landfall on Romulus. Let's call them Species X. While interbreeding may well have been officially discouraged, perhaps it happened anyway since the Vulcan settlers may have been a fairly small population. What we think are modern Romulans are 90% Vulcan, 10% Xian (with Xian ridges showing up only some of the time, or in particular regions), whereas what people call Remans are 90% Xian, 10% Vulcan (which is why they got pointed ears).

At some point the Romulan state (ruled by the mostly-Vulcans) deported them en masse to Remus as 'undesirable'.

 

[Annorax849]

What’s funny is that that’s how Gene explained the Klingon ridges. Apparently he half-jokingly suggested that the northern Klingons had ridges while the southern Klingons didn’t.

 

[Commander Richard]

It could also be interbreeding with whoever they found when they made landfall on Romulus. Let's call them Species X. While interbreeding may well have been officially discouraged, perhaps it happened anyway since the Vulcan settlers may have been a fairly small population. What we think are modern Romulans are 90% Vulcan, 10% Xian (with Xian ridges showing up only some of the time, or in particular regions), whereas what people call Remans are 90% Xian, 10% Romulans (which is why they got pointed ears).

At some point the Romulan state (ruled by the mostly-Vulcans) deported them en masse to Remus as 'undesirable'.

I was also trying to account for why we never saw them in the TOS era but a century later everyone had them.

 

[DaveyNY]

I was also trying to account for why we never saw them in the TOS era but a century later everyone had them.

Perhaps Kirk only ran into Klingon starships with Southern Klingons?

Ya'll come back now, ya hear. ... We want to Bat'leth you.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Perhaps Kirk only ran into Klingon starships with Southern Klingons?

Ya'll come back now, ya hear. ... We want to Bat'leth you.

Come and listen to a story about a man named J'Edd
Poor smooth head barely kept his family fed
The one day he was shooting at some food
And up from the ground came a sparkling crude
Dilithium that is. Praxis punch. Crystal latinum
The next thing you know ol' J'Edd's a millionaire
The kin folks said J'Edd move away from here
Q'Nos is the place you wanna be
So he packed up a ship and moved to B'Evar Lee
Hills that is. Swimming pools. Holostars.

 

[PR109]

This makes me slightly afraid of what they're going to do with the other aliens. I hope they leave the Cardassians the way they are (judging by discovery season 3 trailer, they do) They should update the Bajoran appearance to make them look less...human.

 

[Arpy]

^ I dunno, a little bit of Cardassian diversity might be fun too. Keep most of them gray as we’ve seen in the past, but maybe add diversity along a spectrum from bone white to charcoal black? Even in the series they played with different colors (often for the same characters) where they appeared more beige than gray, more scaly and less, etc...

 

[Nerys Myk]

^ I dunno, a little bit of Cardassian diversity might be fun too. Keep most of them gray as we’ve seen in the past, but maybe add diversity along a spectrum from bone white to charcoal black? Even in the series they played with different colors (often for the same characters) where they appeared more beige than gray, more scaly and less, etc...

Bring back Macet and his facialhair.

 

[Arpy]

Bring back Macet and his facialhair.

Only if we don’t see other Cardassians with full beards. Must all humanoids have the exact same facial hair? They don’t have the same exact hairlines, foreheads, heads, noses, chests, backs, hands, teeth, skin. Hell, not all humans can grow full beards.

 

[PR109]

^ I dunno, a little bit of Cardassian diversity might be fun too. Keep most of them gray as we’ve seen in the past, but maybe add diversity along a spectrum from bone white to charcoal black? Even in the series they played with different colors (often for the same characters) where they appeared more beige than gray, more scaly and less, etc...

Yeah I actually preferred the way they looked in The Wounded

They had a more reddish undertone and overall had a more severe look

I'm assuming these cardassians are from a different tribe than the gray skinned ones. I'd also like to add its possible Seska is from the same tribe as these Cardassians as she had tannish skin with brown hair. I know she still had partial bajoran appearance but I've always suspected her original appearance is similar to the cardassians of the wounded rather than the gray ones from ending of TNG to DS9.