How did the Romulans leave Vulcan?

[Sandoval]

How much detail is there about the means by which the Romulans left Vulcan in the distant past?

Did they build huge sublight generation ships and take hundreds of years to reach their destination or did they already have interstellar ships that could ferry them away?

Did these Romulans settle on several planets along the way or just stay on their ships until they reached Romulus?

Also, were the Remans just unfortunate enough to be inhabiting the planet next door to Romulus when the Romulans arrived and get enslaved or are they related somehow?

Thanks!

 

[Nerys Myk]

In the series and movies? Other that Spock mentioning the Vulcans had a colonial period and specualting the Romulans were decendents of those colonies not much. We saw one world of proto-Vulcans in TNG. Colonists who went primative or parallel evolution? Unknown.

I think several books explore the subject. Usually showing Romulans as Vulcans who left over cultural and philosophical differences. I dont recall them using Generation ships. Though some of the refugee Vulcans settle on worlds other than Romulas.

Remans are usually shown to be mutated off shoots of Vulcans/Romulans and not a seperate race. Again thats from the books not filmed Trek.

 

[mtblillie]

I think the shows have seemed to imply that at the time that Romulans left Vulcan they had warp technology though it was very primative. There is also some suggestion that they may have left in groups rather than all at once. But that is my speculation based on the information givin and in no way canon.

 

[Finn]

How much detail is there about the means by which the Romulans left Vulcan in the distant past?

Did they build huge sublight generation ships and take hundreds of years to reach their destination or did they already have interstellar ships that could ferry them away?

Did these Romulans settle on several planets along the way or just stay on their ships until they reached Romulus?

Also, were the Remans just unfortunate enough to be inhabiting the planet next door to Romulus when the Romulans arrived and get enslaved or are they related somehow?

Thanks!

Warp ships, yanno

 

[jgdst]

I've often wondered this myself. Considering they've been gone for enough time to develop a brow ridge (ignoring the TOS difference in make-up), I assumed they would have had to have settled on Romulus long before Surak. If that was the case, then I've always thought they'd use ships akin to Bajor's solar sail ships.

As for the Remans, I was under the impression they were the same race, but due to living most of their life in the dark, they've developed the greyish skin tones and telepathic abilities over time. Why they'd willingly choose a planet that has such extreme conditions as to be burning on one side and in constant darkness on the other is something I can't really come up with an answer for.

 

[BillJ]

I always thought the Remans were off-shoots of the Vulcans just as much as the Romulans. What with the pointed ears and telepathic abilities. Perhaps Remus was originally a Romulan penal colony.

 

[Mjuice]

I think originally Romulus and Remus were "equal" planets, both settled simultaneously, and only later the Remans evolved differently physically and became a sort of underclass to the people on the more habitable and prosperous Romulus. This can be seen for example in the fact that the Romulan eagle is holding two worlds.

 

[The Badger]

Perhaps there were several ships intending to colonise Romulus, but one crash landed on Remus due to a systems failure or similar catastrophe. Circumstances did not allow a rescue attempt, and the two groups adapted to their new homes separately.

 

[TiberiusMaximus]

I've often wondered this myself. Considering they've been gone for enough time to develop a brow ridge (ignoring the TOS difference in make-up), I assumed they would have had to have settled on Romulus long before Surak. If that was the case, then I've always thought they'd use ships akin to Bajor's solar sail ships.

As for the Remans, I was under the impression they were the same race, but due to living most of their life in the dark, they've developed the greyish skin tones and telepathic abilities over time. Why they'd willingly choose a planet that has such extreme conditions as to be burning on one side and in constant darkness on the other is something I can't really come up with an answer for.

I've never understood the Romulan ridges...I don't think TNG should have changed the Romulans. Part of the 'sinister' villain (or devious semi-allies) aspect of the Romulans is that they were outwardly identical to Vulcans. But it's canon, so I bite my tongue.

Greyish skin tones I understand, but the goblin faces I don't. They should be pale, almost albino Romulans, not gargoyles. Oh well.

 

[caisson2delta]

Interesting topic and one that I have often pondered as well. I have never read any of the books regarding this topic however, I have read a few different takes that fans have speculated on. I agree, with a previous point made, that the amount of time commonly associated with this topic does not seem long enough for the brow ridges to have developed. There could be numerous non cannon explanations for this.

In regards to the Mintokans, shown during TNG, I wonder if they may actually be of a common ancestory more in line with Romulans, considering the brow ridges. It is also possible that some of the ancestors of the Romulan civilization actually began to colonize other worlds much earlier to the mass exodus that is commonly accepted. They may have been the early Vulcans that were more interested in exploration than their more logic desiring bretheren. Perhaps their departure, again as previously mentioned, was more gradual and some of the very early settlers set up colonies on different planets, on course to the Romulan region of space.

 

[SFRabid]

I've never understood the Romulan ridges...I don't think TNG should have changed the Romulans. Part of the 'sinister' villain (or devious semi-allies) aspect of the Romulans is that they were outwardly identical to Vulcans. But it's canon, so I bite my tongue.

Greyish skin tones I understand, but the goblin faces I don't. They should be pale, almost albino Romulans, not gargoyles. Oh well.

My feelings exactly. Spock indicated that it was natural for Romulans to begin seeing out the ways of Surak because they were the same people, seperated only by space.

 

[SFRabid]

The only reason I could think of for the ridges would be if they settled a inhabited planet and interbred with a small population of natives of which brow ridges was a dominant trait.

 

[caisson2delta]

The only reason I could think of for the ridges would be if they settled a inhabited planet and interbred with a small population of natives of which brow ridges was a dominant trait.

Perhaps, it was some sort of genetic deformity/mutation caused by long term space travel (ie radiation exposure, etc.) that was subsequently passed down to later generations.

 

[SFRabid]

Radiation tends to cause random mutations.

 

[SG-17]

Not all Romulans had brow ridges though, even in the 24th/25th century. Star Trek XI proves this.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The Vulcanoid Mintakans have the ridges too. My guess is that the ridges are ressesive trait in Vulcanoids that is more common among the Romulan subgroup. (Or maybe the opposite)

 

[Anwar]

And remember the helmets in TOS covered the foreheads of the Romulan soldiers enough that we can't be sure they DIDN'T have ridges along with the ridgeless ones. Maybe by TNG the ridged ones just outnumbered the ridgeless ones.

 

[The Wormhole]

I think the shows have seemed to imply that at the time that Romulans left Vulcan they had warp technology though it was very primative.

DS9's Little Green Men implies that Vulcans are not warp capable in the 1940s. If we accept this as canon fact, than generational ships would have to be the most logical method for the Romulans to have left Vulcan.

Of course, despite Quark's belief that Vulcan's weren't warp capable in the 1940s, we see in Enterprise they were warp capable in the 1950s and had a fleet engaged in active exporation of space. Either they did a lot in ten years or Quark was wrong, and they've been warp capable for quite awhile. Possibly even at the time of the Romulan seperation.

 

[Anwar]

I'd say Quark was wrong.

More than likely the Romulans left Vulcan on very early Vulcan Starships. It took them all those centuries of settling Romulus and building up infrastructure to get to their technological level of TOS+.

 

[Lord Garth]

Maybe they didn't have warp, maybe they had super-impulse. Get as close to the speed of light as possible... but the result would be time dilation. From the Romulans' perspective then, less time would've passed than from the Vulcans' perspective.