Theory: the Romulans are actually descended from Vulcan augments

[Yes Man the Great]

We know before Surak showed up, the Vulcan people were violent and warlike. I think they would’ve used genetic engineering to create super soldiers similar to the human ones during Earth’s eugenics wars. When time of awakening came around, the augments never wanted to embrace Surak’s philosophy due to being specifically bred for war, so they all left Vulcan, settled on Romulus and became the space jerks we all know today.

 

[Finn]

No. Romulans don’t appear stronger, and they don’t appear to possess any telepathic abilities we see in Vulcans. That’s why they used Remans and that Aenar...

Genetically engineered Vulcans in the same manner as Khan would have been much stronger, and demonstrated powerful telepathic powers.

 

[at Quark's]

How do we know it's not the other way around ? That the Romulans are a remnant of the original (volatile) Vulcans, who fled their home planet, filled with feelings of spite and revenge after being outcompeted by an enhanced strain of Vulcans that displayed superior control of their emotions, intellect, and even telepathy to some degree, and that would become the ancestors of "our" Vulcans ?

After all, being enhanced doesn't necessarily mean more aggressive....

 

[Finn]

That would imply Surak was a fraud

 

[Tenacity]

We know before Surak showed up, the Vulcan people were violent and warlike.

Maybe it's the Vulcans who were altered? There's no indication that Romulans had a unusually violent past, or are any more warlike that the majority of species.

The Romulans (despite the naming) were the original intelligent lifeforms on Vulcan, then the Vulcans were create in a lab.

The unaltered Romulans left the planet Vulcan because they were running for their lives.

 

[Yes Man the Great]

Maybe both races were augmented for different jobs and purposes while the original unaltered Vulcans were all wiped out some time before Surak came around.

 

[Yes Man the Great]

The Romulans could’ve been engineered to be better at combat while our Vulcans were engineered to have telepathic abilities.

 

[Qonundrum]

How do we know it's not the other way around ? That the Romulans are a remnant of the original (volatile) Vulcans, who fled their home planet, filled with feelings of spite and revenge after being outcompeted by an enhanced strain of Vulcans that displayed superior control of their emotions, intellect, and even telepathy to some degree, and that would become the ancestors of "our" Vulcans ?

After all, being enhanced doesn't necessarily mean more aggressive....

Because "Insurrection" did that first, and far worse by far. (Actually, I'd buy your idea for the Romulan/Vulcan splitaway very easily...but is it all needed to enjoy existing TOS and TNG episodes? Not really and such a gap filled in might create new problems. Some plot holes are best no filled it since if there's a problem someone's inevitably asphalt... )

 

[at Quark's]

Because "Insurrection" did that first, and far worse by far. (Actually, I'd buy your idea for the Romulan/Vulcan splitaway very easily...but is it all needed to enjoy existing TOS and TNG episodes? Not really and such a gap filled in might create new problems. Some plot holes are best no filled it since if there's a problem someone's inevitably asphalt... )

Oh, I don't buy it myself ... It's just that if I had to somehow insert genetic manipulation into Vulcan history and the Vulcan/Romulan split (which is the topic of this thread after all), I think I'd do it this way....

 

[The Old Mixer]

The Romulans really aren't terribly violent and warlike...they're manipulators and schemers who tend to avoid direct confrontation. Picard summed them up when he stated that it was always a game of chess with the Romulans.

 

[Timo]

The Romulans did the exact same thing as Klingons, and drank some Khan Formula in order to improve themselves. The result was the same, too: their once proud forehead ridges flattened.

The Romulan phenotype is the original. The folks who got banished to the sandy hell called Vulcan are the failed Augments, trying to hide their shame by pretending to be natives.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Yes Man the Great]

Maybe the Discovery Klingons should drink some Khan Formula.

 

[Finn]

Perhaps they weren’t that violent and warlike. Surak decided they were...

 

[MAGolding]

We know before Surak showed up, the Vulcan people were violent and warlike. I think they would’ve used genetic engineering to create super soldiers similar to the human ones during Earth’s eugenics wars. When time of awakening came around, the augments never wanted to embrace Surak’s philosophy due to being specifically bred for war, so they all left Vulcan, settled on Romulus and became the space jerks we all know today.

You are assuming that the split between the Romulans and the Vulcans dates to the time of Surek. But as far as I know Diane Duane invented that idea for her Romulan novels and it is not mentioned any where in canon - which is episodes and movies..

 

[Finn]

I always had assumed it was within a century from Surak’s lifetime.

 

[Tenacity]

Perhaps they weren’t that violent and warlike. Surak decided they were...

history is written by the victors

 

[Finn]

history is written by the victors

Not always

 

[Charles Phipps]

I'd have the violent Khan Singh Vulcans be the descendants of the ones tamed by Surak.

The Romulans are descended from the non-Augment Vulcans who, ironically, are now the violent evil ones.

Irony.

 

[Prax]

Were they genetically enhanced to be more treacherous?

 

[NCC-73515]

I could imagine some of them augmenting their craniums to make them stronger like Klingons whose foreheads are weapons themselves, that's why they got ridges in TNG-ENT. A side effect of stronger protection was better shielding of the brain, reducing their telepathic powers. Some didn't like that and got rid of the augmented forehead, those are the Romulans we see in TOS, ST5/6, and STXI.