Spoilers The state of Romulan politics/civilization/etc.

[Kor]

Ongoing spoilers expected as new episodes are released, or if new behind-the-scenes info is revealed, etc...

So, it's rather interesting that in the aftermath of the infamous stellar disaster, the Romulan Star Empire has seemingly given way to something called the "Romulan Free State." What kind of system of governance do you think this has? Their willingness to bring in all kinds of experts and workers from the Federation to work on the Borg salvage project is much different than the xenophobic secrecy of the TNG days.

Is it possible that the Empire still exists in some form as a rival government claiming Romulan sovereignty? The Tal Shiar obviously still exists. Is it an official agency under this new Free State, or is it now a rogue faction? What kind of party line is the Tal Shiar promoting to the Romulan people, at least on the surface level, if the super-secret Zhat Vash conspiracy stuff isn't supposed to be common knowledge?

I hope that more insight will be gained when the Romulan colony world is visited in episode 1x04. Is said world part of the Romulan Free State, or does it claim independence? And how many other new Romulan colonies were started in the last 14 years, and what are they like?

Kor

 

[Phil123]

I feel like the free state is a loose coalition of different Romulan powers/factions. Could be wrong.

 

[JoeZhang]

So, it's rather interesting that in the aftermath of the infamous stellar disaster, the Romulan Star Empire has seemingly given way to something called the "Romulan Free State."

Kor

We do not know this at stage - at this point it could have splintered into multiple competing states.

 

[rfmcdpei]

We know nothing about the internal politics of Romulan civilization apart from the relative permeability of its frontier with the Federation.

It is at least possible this polity might echo the relative liberalism and openness of Star Trek Online's Romulan Republic. That would be another change from the blanket hostility of the old Star Empire.

Could there be divisions? Maybe. I did not get the sense that Commodore Oh was speaking of multiple rival states as opposed to a single hypothetical Romulan threat, but she was ambiguous.

 

[Kor]

We also get a rare reference to Romulan mythology aka "shared narrative framework" aka "the news." I wonder if Romulan stories tell of the schism with the Vulcans at all, or if that was hidden away or became obfuscated over the past thousands of years.

Kor

 

[Lord Garth]

I wonder if the transition from the Romulan Star Empire to the Romulan Free State is meant to loosely (not 1:1 or exactly) parallel the transition from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire in reverse and the transition from the Soviet Union to the Russian Federation?

 

[EmoBorg]

Well i hope that the Romulan Free state ends up on friendly terms with the Federation in the future. For now they are trying to organize themselves into a proper political entity.

 

[Tarek71]

We don't know who survived. I assume that most of the powerful got starlifted to safety. There was an Empress. I am not sure if she's dead. How many Senators made it out? You would think they could set up a new government fairly straightforwardly. This was not a sudden planetary strike, as happened to Vulcan in ST 2009. There was lots of time to get people of many political factions off and start a New Romulus somewhere else.

We have not gotten a complete picture yet of what is going on. Are the Romulans living in the Federation a "Free State" operating with autonomy, or does this refer to the whole territory of the Empire?

 

[Kor]

As for another aspect of the former Romulan Empire... I hope that we don't see the Remans at all in this series.

Kor

 

[Timo]

OTOH, we could see the Etruscites or whatnot, just to keep the former Star Empire more interesting.

But having a Reman sit down for tea and crumpets and talk about what beautiful music the children make would be pretty hilarious and unnerving at the same time.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I normally associate "free state" with the Congo: Leopold's corporate state that massacred Africans in an insane pursuit of rubber. Perhaps a morose connection is that the Force Publique would "harvest" the hands of Africans who failed to meet quotas (proof that the bullets that were fired actually killed someone)--we don't know yet what the Romulans do with the Borg tech they remove.

ETA: The alternative association, the Orange Free State (one of the racist Boer republics), is no less problematic.

 

[Cake]

The series is so far really vague about the Romulans. We don't know how many survived, where the survivors live, if they are all governed by one entity or if they are a disorganized mess right now. We know practically nothing.

 

[Timo]

Well, we know a lot more than we did in any previous spinoff...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[FreezeC77]

If the Romulan Empire is collapsed, does that void the Federation's no cloaking technology concession to the old treaty.

 

[Demosthenes]

If the Romulan Empire is collapsed, does that void the Federation's no cloaking technology concession to the old treaty.

It depends on if a successor state/functioning government emerged from the destruction of the Empire and if they and the Federation decided to honor existing treaties, I guess.

 

[valkyrie013]

I love watching picard, but this and other things are given the "Handwavium" type of treatment.. I mean.. having a narrator give a few minute naration of what happened 14 years ago, and the state of the galaxy right now would not have gone un apreciated... As evidenced by the Supernova thread.. to much Uh.. what happened?

 

[Kor]

And from the latest episode, "Absolute Candor," we have another faction: the Romulan Rebirth Movement.

As for the Tal Shiar, how did they come back so strongly after being wiped out in DS9?

Kor

 

[Nerys Myk]

after being wiped out in DS9?

That's what they wanted you to believe.

 

[Relayer1]

There seem to be a bunch of factions. I wouldn't be surprised if there's at least one (possibly more) major one trying to restart the empire, parts of the old senate, regional govenors, the branches of the military and secret services etc. in coalition(s), Reman's, plus various freedom, reunification and terrorist groups with different aims.

Plus settlers on various planets who just want to be left alone to get on with it...

 

[FederationHistorian]

If there is no Romulan Star Empire anymore, then doesn’t that mean there’s no more Neutral Zone as well? Shouldn’t D’deridex and Valdore class Warbirds be flying around more in Federation territory? Or are they just trying to police old Romulan territory?