Sandbox / Star Trek: Romulans

Romulans

Debut: TOS, "Balance of Terror"

Homeworld: Romulus (originally Vulcan)

"Romulans! They're so predictably treacherous."

The Romulans are a splinter group of Vulcans who rejected the teachings of Surak, emigrating from Vulcan to colonize the worlds of Romulus and Remus. You might consider them the anti-puritans. Interestingly, the Romulan Star Empire is very similar to that of the Roman Republic before it became the Roman Empire, with a large senate and a single committee above that. Kirk had a few run-ins with the Romulans, causing them to disappear into space to lick their wounds; they emerged as a main antagonist of Star Trek: The Next Generation, effectively replacing the Klingons.

In General

• After the End: Romulus was destroyed in 2387 after its star blew up, so the Romulan Star Empire ceased to exist after this cataclysmic event. The government which then emerged among the survivors is called the Romulan Free State, but it's nowhere near as powerful as its predecessor once was.
• Alien Blood: Their blood is green because it's copper-based.
• Amazon Brigade: The Qowat Milat is a very ancient order of Romulan warrior nuns, reputed to be among the best single-combat fighters in the galaxy.
• Ancient Conspiracy: The Zhat Vash is a secret society which predates the Tal Shiar that has been pulling the strings behind the scenes for most of Romulan history.
• Anti-Villain:
  • Surprisingly, given some of the below tropes, many Romulan antagonists have sympathetic motivations, backstories, or otherwise admirable traits.
  • The Zhat Vash is even more immoral, deceitful and ruthless than the Tal Shiar, but its mission is to prevent Ganmadan ("the Day of Annihilation"), which is the destruction of all life in the galaxy. Those who serve this shady organization believe that sentient androids will be the root cause of this mass extinction, so their operatives will do anything (including sacrificing their own lives) to eliminate all Artificial Intelligence that they deem to be dangerous.
• Archaic Weapon for an Advanced Age: They have retained an ancient tradition of using swords in a duel, like Nero and his men, and it's not unusual to see a Romulan carry a sword in public, such as North Station on Vashti. A tan qalanq, which is an Absurdly Sharp Blade, is the main weapon of the Qowat Milat.
• Arch-Enemy: To the Federation, and vice versa. It was the Earth-Romulan War (and a series of attempted False Flag Operations that preceded it) in the 2150s that pursuaded the Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites to bury the hatchet and form a powerful alliance to halt Romulan expansion into the Alpha Quadrant. The Romulans, still holding a grudge centuries later, are determined to find a way to break the alliance apart so they can take over the quadrant and ensure Romulan supremacy for the indefinite future.
• Balkanize Me: The Romulan Star Empire collapsed after their homeworld was destroyed by a supernova, so that by the time of Picard, their badly weakened successor is the Romulan Free State. According to invokedWord of God, the former territory of the Romulan Star Empire fragmented into several successor states. The Romulan Free State is by far the largest and most powerful of these, particularly because it's the successor state that the Tal Shiar decided to support. This is loosely similar to what happened in Star Trek Online, in which the Romulan Star Empire also balkanized into more than one successor state after their homeworld was destroyed in a supernova.
• Ban on A.I.: Unlike most races, the Romulans make no use whatsoever of Artificial Intelligence. Even their computers are purely numerical machines. The reason behind this is a Driving Question in Star Trek: Picard.
• Beast of the Apocalypse: In Romulan mythology, Ganmadan is a great pale hellbeast whose name means "the Day of Annihilation."
• Big Bad:
  • On TNG. Not as powerful as the Borg, not as slippery as the Cardassians, but more recurring than either and are behind half the evil schemes in that series.
  • They arguably became this again on Enterprise, until a planned arc involving the Federation-Romulan War was Cut Short.
  • The Romulans (more specifically the Zhat Vash and the Tal Shiar) are also the main villains in Season 1 of Picard.
• Big Brother Is Watching: The Tal Shiar, their secret police, is the second-best spy service in the galaxy, and they are always watching... specifically, other Romulans. This means the civilian population of Romulus are pretty damn twitchy even on a good day, especially if strangers show up and start asking questions.
  • In Picard, Romulus is gone, but the Tal Shiar is still active. It routinely monitors all incoming and outgoing transmissions on any Romulan facility, including the Romulan Reclamation Site. The movements of everyone on the Artifact are also tracked, social interactions are observed, and the Zhal Makh meditation chamber is under surveillance.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: On the surface, they still look almost identical to their Vulcan ancestors, and they're able to have interbreed (though admittedly that's not uncommon in Star Trek). Inwardly, a few thousand years of separation mean there's just enough difference to make medical transplants impossible. The modern Romulan is actually more biologically compatible with a Klingon than a Vulcan.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: What the Tal Shiar views as honourable behaviour is very different from ours.
  Rios: They are treacherous, violent, ruthless and subtle. Their concept of honour is rooted in their skill at deceit.
• Catchphrase: A common Romulan salutation is "Jolan Tru." It's used as both "Hello" and "Goodbye," but the literal translation is unknown.
• Character Focus: Star Trek: Picard features not just one but two Romulan characters as part of its main cast, Narek and Elnor. This series is the first in the franchise to delve fairly deeply into Romulan culture, and we're introduced to many new elements such as the Zhat Vash, Romulan mythology, the Qowat Milat, qalankhkai, tan qalanq, shaipouin, pixmit, tan zhekran, Zhal Makh, etc.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: The Romulans consider everything within their field of vision to be rightfully theirs. Accordingly, it goes against their character to honor any truce or treaty, even when the betrayal is utterly stupid (pissing off the Federation and Bajor during a war for their very survival, for example). Their tendency to betray people is frequently lampshaded, such as Weyoun's quote above.
• Contemplation Location: The Zhal Makh meditation chamber is a sealed room with a winding path painted on the wooden floor, and around it are lanterns. The participant is expected to walk barefoot along the path which represents the "journey into the center of the mind's most intimate space, where deepest truths are hidden."
• Cool Sword: The tan qalanq (the iconic weapon of the Qowat Milat) is a straight, single-edged Absurdly Sharp Blade which happens to be evocative of some East Asian swords. Both the hilt and scabbard are wooden, so the tan qalanq's understated beauty mirrors the sisterhood's graceful Fantastic Fighting Style. When it's brandished by a Qowat Milat, this Romulan sword is as elegant as it is deadly, as a lone warrior nun can vanquish multiple foes armed with energy weapons and behead a person with one smooth stroke.
• Covert Group: The existence of the Zhat Vash is kept secret not just from the general public, but the Tal Shiar as well. Zhaban, who was once a member of the Romulan Secret Police, dismisses the ancient cabal as just a myth to frighten new recruits. However, the Zhat Vash is indeed real, and this shadowy group is The Unfettered to an even greater degree than the Tal Shiar.
• Create Your Own Hero: Ironically, the Romulans' attempt to destabilize the Alpha Quadrant through a series of False Flag Operations instead drove the Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites to form The Federation to form a unified front against them. Multiple episodes have established that, without the Federation to oppose them, the Romulans would have taken over the whole Alpha Quadrant by the end of the 23rd century.
• Cultural Rebel: The Qowat Milat warrior nuns follow the doctrine of the Way of Absolute Candor, which runs entirely counter to everything that the secretive Romulans hold dear. Naturally, they are the enemies of the Tal Shiar, who fears them.
• Culture Police: Unlike the Klingons, who were depicted as "strong & silent" types before being retooled into Boisterous Bruisers, the Romulans went in the opposite direction. On TNG, the Romulans became much more rigid in style and demeanor, echoing Communist China upon which the new Romulans were based. This goes for the females, too. (No more long-legged femme fatales, like the ones we saw in TOS and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. ^note However, Narissa in Picard is a sexy Romulan woman, but this is after the Romulan Star Empire collapsed, so presumably the survivors have a bit more freedom in how they dress.) The Tal Shiar is everywhere, and everyone dresses inconspicuously on Romulus to avoid attracting their attention. They are the modest utilitarians to Cardassia's Gucci-wearing aesthetes.
  Garak: (grimly reminiscing) Ah, yes, Romulus. How well I remember it. You'll find the predominant color to be grey: The buildings, the clothes, the people. Did you know that the Romulan heart itself is grey? It's true. And altogether appropriate for such an unimaginative race.
• Decadent Court: All indications are that Romulan politics is extremely and possibly very literally cut-throat. Make the wrong move, piss off the wrong person, and it becomes easy to "disappear". Possibly into a Reman's stomach.
• Destroyer Deity: In Romulan mythology, the female twin khalagu ("demons") that bring about Ganmadan ("the Day of Annihilation") are Seb-Natan ("the Foreteller") and Seb-Cheneb ("the Destroyer").
• Double Standard: Although it's perfectly acceptable for Romulan women to do anything their male counterparts can do, a Romulan man who has what is regarded to be a feminine occupation is subjected to Gendered Insults. Elnor, who was raised by the all-female Qowat Milat sect and follows their traditions, is taunted by the townspeople as a "sisterboy."
• The Dreaded: The Earth-Romulan War was so hard on the Federation founders that, even centuries later, the Federation is still terrified of going at war with them again, with only the Borg surpassing them.
• Duel to the Death: This is an ancient Romulan custom which is still practiced on the cusp of the 25th century as a nod to their roots as a Proud Warrior Race. In Picard, Tenqem challenges the eponymous character to a Sword Fight with the intent of killing him, and it's a long-standing tradition for a Zhat Vash and a Qowat Milat to fight each other to the death in unarmed combat.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Romulus was destroyed in 2387 when its sun went supernova. Although Ambassador Spock attempted to prevent the supernova from striking the planet using red matter, he was ultimately unsuccessful and Romulus was blown to bits.
• Enemy Mine: With an alliance with the Cardassians, and a neutrality agreement with the Romulans, the Dominion had the Federation on the ropes. Captain Sisko realized they couldn't fight the war without help, and needed to convince the Romulans that their truce with the Founders would not last. To that end, he cooperated in assassinating a Romulan Senator and pinning it on the Dominion. And it worked! How very Romulan.
  Garak: And the more the Dominion denies their guilt, the more the Romulans will believe they're guilty, because that's exactly what they would have done in their place!
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Some of their top-ranking officers and politicos are women. They had an Empress at one point according to Q.
  • Romulans also have gotten rid of the very unsavory side of their Vulcan heritage. They don't experience the Pon Farr and as such no longer partake in Vulcan rituals where a woman could have a man challenge her fiancé to a duel to the death and end up with a man she's forcefully married to and have sex with.
  • This high level of gender equality is maintained even after they lose their homeworld. Their women continue to work alongside the men in all sorts of occupations (e.g. at the Romulan Reclamation Site, the head surgeon is a Romulan woman and there are Romulan females on the security team). However, Picard introduces a Double Standard where Romulan men who are judged to be effeminate are made fun of.
• Establishing Character Moment: "Balance of Terror" shows everything one needs to know about the Romulans: they're Vulcans who did not reject their warlike past, so devious their ships are invisible when it's supposed to be impossible, the Federation didn't know their faces until they chanced over a century after they fought a war with them, still honorable in their own way, and extremely dangerous when they actually bother to fight.
• Evil Counterpart Race: To the Vulcans, their ancestors. Because both species are Space Elves, the Romulans and the Vulcans are the Trek Verse equivalent of Dark Elves and High Elves, respectively.
• Evil Eyebrows: Theirs are accentuated by a distinct, "V"-shaped forehead ridge. In the films, the ridges are completely gone, but the eyebrows are still longer and hairier than the Vulcans. Picard establishes that Romulans with ridges are Northerners.
• Evil Is Bigger: In the 24th century, their warbirds are considerably larger than the Federation's flagship Galaxy-class starships or the Klingons' battleships, though partly as a result of huge negative spaces in the hull. A D'deridex-class warbird has a volumetric coefficient less than half that of the Galaxy-class and slightly less than the much flatter Klingon Vor'cha-class battlecruiser. However, the sheer size of the warbird (the DS9 Technical Manual gives a length of 1,041.65 meters and other sources give even larger) gives it twice the volume of the 643-meter Galaxy-class and close to ten times the volume of the 481-meter Vor'cha.
• Evil Virtues: Picard makes it clear the same Romulan embrace of emotions makes them also prone to compassionate moments and sincerely caring about those close to them. As a result, many of them are Worthy Opponents and they are genuinely concerned about keeping their workplace safe.
• The Faceless: Romulans were aware of Humanity for some time before Earth knew of them. Infiltrating the highest levels of the Vulcan High Command, the Romulans got a full scope of Earth's capabilities. The Enterprise NX-01 inadvertently encountered a Romulan minefield at one point, officially the first time Humanity became aware of the Romulans. Even after fighting the Earth-Romulan War, it wasn't until the 23rd century that Humans actually saw the Romulans without their helmets on. (ENT: "Minefield"; TOS: "Balance of Terror")
• Fantastic Fighting Style:
  • Although the hand-to-hand combat practiced by the Qowat Milat sisterhood hasn't been named onscreen in Picard, it's nevertheless the first time in the franchise that a specific Romulan martial arts is showcased. It's more "fantastic" than that of the Klingons or the Vulcans because the Romulan warrior nuns develop Super-Reflexes during their training that are fast enough dodge multiple energy weapons fire ^note which is a very rare ability in the Trek Verse because it was only exhibited beforehand by Soong-type androids and Augments. This Amazon Brigade is remarkably adept at wielding a tan qalanq while also utilizing Combat Parkour, Hit-and-Run Tactics and stealth to single-handedly defeat several opponents.
  • This featurette focuses on a invokedDeleted Scene from Picard's "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2" where Narek uses a Capoeira-like Romulan martial arts to take on five Soong-type androids.
• Fantastic Race Weapon Affinity: Romulans use "disruptors", which are a kind of Ray Gun like the phaser, but unlike phasers they always kill and their blast is green.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • The Romulans believe themselves superior to everyone, and still cling to the idea that one day, the Romulan Empire will rule the entire galaxy. (TNG: "The Neutral Zone", "Data's Day", "The Enemy") According to Miles O'Brien, there was no piece of technology that the Romulans didn't claim they invented before everyone else.
  • Picard reveals they have a deep fear of sentient AI, and helped pressure the Federation into the synth ban even after the destruction of their homeworld. Moreover, the series also shows that some Romulan-owned businesses on Vashti feature "Romulans Only" signs, and the planet is the hotbed for the Romulan Rebirth movement. The Zhal Makh, a form of Romulan meditation, is taboo to non-Romulans. The Romulan pejorative for humans is "round-ears" and the Romulan slur for xBs is "half-meat."
• Fashionable Asymmetry: In their TOS appearances, the male Romulans wore gold tunics with a sash over their shoulder. (Violet sashes for commanders, blue for the worker bees.) The ladies, however, wore form-fitting uniform with a violet sleeve.
• invokedFlip-Flop of God: Trek's star charts place the Romulan Empire into the Beta Quadrant of the galaxy. However, in Deep Space Nine, they are changed to an Alpha Quadrant power to include them in the Dominion struggle.
  • The loose explanation they came up with is that the capital planets of the Romulans and Klingons are in the Alpha Quadrant, but most of their empires are located in the Beta Quadrant. The dividing line between Alpha and Beta runs through Earth. Most of the Federation is in the Alpha Quadrant, but parts spill over into the Beta Quadrant. If the disk of the galaxy is viewed top-down with Earth at the bottom, the Romulans and Klingons are "east" of the Federation, while the Cardassians are "west." The Romulans are located core-wards from the Klingons (which also explains why advanced Borg scouting attacks hit both the Romulans and Federation, but not the Klingons).
• Fictional Flag: Theirs is a stylized bird-of-prey gripping two planets (Romulus and Remus) in its talons.
• Glass Cannon: The Romulans are the only major political power consistently shown to fully match the Federation's technology level — the Klingons mostly rely on brute strength, and while the Cardassians are intelligent, their ships are limited by their poor resource base. In contrast, Romulan ships are tricked out with all sorts of advanced technology (like artificial singularity power cores), not to mention they invented the cloaking device (so theirs are always better than the knockoffs they gave the Klingons). The only drawback is that their technology is a little too advanced to easily repair battle damage — while a half-crippled Federation ship's engineers can repair their own leaking warp core in a few hours with tape and a little glue. The Romulans work around this by embracing a first strike battle strategy: most of their advancements are focused on devastating weapons and refined cloaking devices, at the cost of difficult maintenance, as well as inferior engine speed. The TOS Enterprise was able to defeat a Romulan Bird-of-Prey by engaging in a drawn-out, running battle, which the latter couldn't sustain because their two advantages (cloak and extremely powerful plasma weapon) required so much power that they ate through their power reserves in no time flat.
• Heel–Face Turn: Season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery reveals that centuries after Spock's disappearance in 2387, his efforts to reunite the Vulcans and the Romulans paid off, and the Romulans not only returned to Vulcan, but joined the Federation as well.
• Interservice Rivalry: As with the Cardassians, the regular military hates the Tal Shiar, who can pull rank on them with impunity. Some commanders are more vocal about their dislike than others.
• Lady of War: The franchise has featured several female Romulan military commanders. When presented as a Worthy Opponent, they will likely be this.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste: The image-conscious Romulans prefer to play a waiting game with their opponents, attempting to trick them into breaking — or appearing to break — an agreement so as to give them a solid justification for striking.
• Leitmotif:
  • The TNG Romulan theme is pretty catchy.
  • Picard features a more sinister, revamped version of the Romulan theme from the TOS episode "Balance of Terror", and it's epic.
• Man Behind the Man: If some villain is implied to have a secret benefactor, the benefactor will probably be the Romulans. Especially if the villain is a Vulcan or a Klingon, just to show how traitorous or gullible they are as both species regard the Romulans as long-standing enemies.
• Manipulative Bastard: They spend a lot of their screen time on Enterprise setting the Alpha Quadrant's major players against each other.
• Matriarchy: There are at least two Romulan institutions which are female-dominated.
  • The Qowat Milat is an all-female sect. On rare occasions, the warrior nuns may teach a man their ways (such as Elnor), but even after he completes the training, he can never be higher than The Apprentice in terms of his official position within the order.
  • Although the Zhat Vash accepts men into its ranks (such as Narek), the cabal is run by women, and only women are allowed contact with the Admonition. When Oh speaks to the female initiates, she informs them that their foremothers were the first ones to visit the octonary star system, which indicates that the precursor of the Zhat Vash was also matriarchal.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: In contrast to the secretive nature of mainstream Romulan society, the Qowat Milat follow the Way of Absolute Candor — or, as TVTropers would call it, Brutal Honesty.
• Mythopoeia: Narek provides the most detailed account of the Ganmadan myth. ^note The quote below has been edited slightly from the original dialogue.
  "A story of the end of everything. Some say it dates back from long before our ancestors first arrived on Vulcan. The story of Ganmadan ("the Day of Annihilation") begins with two sisters, twin khalagu ("demons") who come at the end of time to open the way and unleash the ch'khalagu ("very bad demons"). One sister is called Seb-Natan, the Foreteller. She plays a drum made from the skin of children. She strikes it with a chain of skulls so hard and so long that her heart bursts from the effort. The other sister is called Seb-Cheneb ("the Destroyer"). She carries the horn from a great pale hellbeast called Ganmadan. When she blows a blast on the horn, it will unleash all the ch'khalagu who have been waiting since the beginning of time. The sky will crack, and through the crack in the sky, the ch'khalagu will come ravening. You know about the Thousand Days of Pain. The streets will be slick with entrails of half-devoured corpses. The worlds will burn. And the ch'khalagu will feast and nurse their brats on blood, and pick their teeth with bones."
• Named After Their Planet: Their adopted homeworld, Romulus.
• National Stereotypes: Picard establishes that Romulans who are from the Northern part of Romulus are stereotyped as being stubborn.
• The Neutral Zone:
  • Star Trek has a number of Neutral Zones, each established after a never-seen war sometime during the 23rd century, but the buffer around Romulus is the most notorious and the most-fortified. In fact, almost everybody in the Trek Verse just refers to it as "the Neutral Zone," rather than by its proper name (the Romulan Neutral Zone).
  • Picard establishes that the Romulan Neutral Zone collapsed after the destruction of Romulus. Without any official form of law enforcement, the whole region devolved into a Wretched Hive crawling with warlords and criminals.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The Coalition of Planets that would eventually become the Federation was formed in large part as a response to the threat of the Romulan Star Empire and its attempts to destabilize neighboring civilizations so they wouldn't become such a threat.
• Noble Bird of Prey: When Surak's reforms spread rapidly across Vulcan in the 4th century, a minority rejected Surak's ideals. Those rebels adopted a raptor as their symbol, becoming known as "those who marched beneath the raptor's wings," which became the symbol of the Romulan Star Empire. Their warships are designated "Bird-of-Prey" (not to be confused with the Klingon Bird-of-Prey from the same century) and the "Warbird" (24th century battleship). The latter sports a unique wrap-around design and stretches about twice as long as a Federation Galaxy-class, but with a lower top speed.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: They're one of the most dangerous alien empires that the Federation has ever faced because they act like a rational, pragmatic, and ruthless real-life political power. They're not a bunch of Boisterous Bruiser, Honor Before Reason warriors like the Klingons, nor are they pretentiously obsessed with the public displays and outward trappings of totalitarian power like the Cardassians (who believe their own propaganda even though in terms of tech and resources, they're something of a paper tiger). They make it a point to only attack when their enemies are weak -- preferably after destabilizing them with covert intelligence operations — but will not hesitate to retreat when they're losing to shepherd their resources. Facing the Romulans isn't acting out the fantasy of the small, but plucky Good Guy alliance defeating the barbaric alien hordes through superior technology (Klingons), or the triumph of individualism against the horde of hive-minded alien locusts (the Borg): they're just as smart as the Federation itself. The fact that they're not a bunch of moustache-twirling comic book villains actually makes them a lot more dangerous.
• The Nose Knows: Romulans are confirmed to possess similar superior olfactory sense as Vulcans do in Picard because Narissa is able to detect Soji's scent on Narek, and after she bends down to sniff his neck, she observes that the combination of Narek's and Soji's scents is carnal.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: In Picard, the Romulan Star Empire is no more, but its successor, the Romulan Free State, is still a bureaucratic nightmare.
  Naáshala: My residency was supposed to start six months ago, but the Romulan Free State revoked it when I was halfway here. I have no idea why, or why they finally reinstated it.
  Soji: Well, that sounds about right.
• Officer and a Gentleman: In the novels, they often come across as dignified and ultra-conservative aristocrats rather then simply as bad guys, although the Romulan commanders that appear on TV sometimes do have that aspect to them. The more "admirable" ones seem to behave this way.
• Our Demons Are Different: In Romulan mythology, there are at least two different types of demonic creatures; the twin sisters Seb-Cheneb and Seb-Natan are khalagu ("demons"), and the former can summon ch'khalagu ("very bad demons") who will ferociously devour all living beings.
• Planet of Hats: Their society is heavily based on deception and secrecy. Picard explores this in greater detail, and it permeates even mundane aspects of Romulan daily life.
  • Laris mentions that calling the Tal Shiar the "Romulan Secret Police" is redundant, since the word "secret" applies to every facet of Romulan society. She also reveals the existence of the Zhat Vash, who are secretive even by Romulan standards.
    Zhaban: "Zhat Vash" is a term sometimes used to refer to the dead — the only reliable keepers of secrets.
    Picard: Ominous.
    Laris: No, fitting, because that's the sole purpose of the Zhat Vash — to keep a secret so profound and terrible, just learning it can break a person's mind.
  • Romulans perpetuate lies about the true effectiveness of some of their technology to trick aliens into not using it.
    Picard: [Romulan forensic molecular reconstruction methods] are also unreliable, and the results are dubious at best.
    Laris: Ah yeah, that's exactly what we wanted you to think.
  • Narek trolls Soji in what is the most humorous exchange about Romulan secrecy in the franchise.
    Soji: Can I ask you a question?
    Narek: Sure, just don't expect an answer.
    Soji: Are we allowed to be sleeping together, or is that a secret?
    Narek: Very much the latter.
    Soji: Is everything Romulans do a secret?
    Narek: Ooh, I'm not at liberty to divulge that.
    Soji: Is your name actually Narek?
    Narek: It's one of them.
    Soji: So is there anything you can tell me about yourself?
    Narek: Yes. I'm a very private person.
  • Hugh is surprised that Soji has read Ramdha's Romulan dossier because he doesn't have access to it even though he's the Executive Director of the Borg Reclamation Project.
    Soji: Usually I find that if I ask people for help, they're happy to give it.
    Hugh: That has not been my experience, in particular with Romulans.
  • In Ramdha's pixmit card set, there's an image of a shaipouin, which is a false door.
    Soji: Traditional Romulan houses always have a false front door that's never used. You have to go around the back.
  • Narek mentions to Soji that:
    Narek: Terran passenger lists are a matter of public record, which is shocking for a Romulan sensibility.
  • Withholding the truth is such an ingrained behaviour that Romulans naturally assume that everyone else must be doing the same thing.
    Soji: Romulans love secrets. You think everyone's hiding something.
    Narek: Everyone is hiding something. Whether they know it or not.
  • Romulans use different names depending on who they're with.
    Soji: Romulans have a name for outsiders, and a name for family, but your true name, you save for the one you give your heart to.
  • Of course, all this gets turned on its head when the Romulans return to Vulcan and join The Federation. They end up becoming more honest and less secretive than their Vulcan brethren.
• Powered by a Black Hole: Some Romulan ships, including their iconic D'deridex-class warbird, use artificial "quantum singularities" to power their reactors in lieu of a traditional matter-antimatter warp core.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • The Romulan Empire wants to start a war with the Federation, but only the Federation. Their plots are thus focused on either making the Federation seem like the aggressor so their allies won't also join the fight, or trying to sever those alliances directly so the Federation will be isolated. Primarily, the Romulans are concerned that any war with the Federation would also entangle the Klingons, who would be more than happy to aid the Federation if the two powers came to blows. Indeed, the one time the Romulans successfully tricked Picard into making such a blunder, they backed down because Picard wisely roped in the Klingons anticipating such an outcome.
  • Since the Romulan population was decimated after Romulus was destroyed, the infamously xenophobic species, whose survivors are governed (sometimes loosely) by the newly-formed Romulan Free State, has to make some small concessions in terms of cooperating with other aliens. At the Romulan Reclamation Site, there are scientists of various backgrounds who are working there, including Federation citizens (e.g. Trills, Andorians, etc.), whom the now-defunct Romulan Star Empire has long viewed as the enemy. Hugh, an ex-Borg drone who's either human or a Human Alien with Federation citizenship, is the Executive Director of the Borg Reclamation Project, which is independent of the Romulan Free State by treaty.
• Proportional Aging: Picard notes that, unlike him, Zani hasn't aged at all since they last met fourteen years ago. Romulans have a longer life span than humans, and hence they age more slowly.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: More like a Proud Soldier Race, given their disciplined and strict way of life. However, they must have been a Proud Warrior Race in the distant past (possibly as far back as when they were still living on Vulcan) because some Romulans still continue the tradition of sword fighting and duels. The Qowat Milat sisterhood is a relic from that era, being an order of warrior nuns who preach the Way of Absolute Candor and who may choose to bind their sword to a quest that they deem to be worthy (i.e. a lost cause).
• Red Is Violent: The logo of the Romulan Free State is a stylized red raptor, and it will kill anyone who breaks the terms of one its treaties (as opposed to giving the accused a fair trial and potentially offering a less severe punishment). Narissa receives the authorization from her government to execute Hugh, a Federation citizen who is the Executive Director of the Borg Reclamation Project at the Romulan Reclamation Site, after she overhears him plan an insurrection against her people.
• Renegade Splinter Faction: They started out that way in the 4th century after splitting off from the Vulcans because they refused to accept Surak's new philosophy of unemotional logic and peace. They lost this conflict and fled to space in primitive starships, back during Vulcan's ancient colonizing period (which Spock said was as brutal as any in Earth's history). They lost contact with each other for nearly two millennia after that because it took Vulcan centuries to recover from their nuclear war.
  • Sort of a Foil to Khan in that way: both the Romulans and Khan's Augment genetic supermen were the losing side of a global war who fled to deep space, and their homeworlds couldn't follow them because they'd been recently devastated by a nuclear exchange.
• Rubber-Forehead Alien: Star Trek: Picard demonstrates that there are variations to their rubber-foreheadedness; Northerners have more prominent forehead ridges (although not to nearly the same extent as Klingons).
• Secret Police: Known as the Tal Shiar. Although as ex-member Laris points out in Picard, given how many elements of Romulan society are secretive, calling them that is a little redundant.
• Self-Disposing Villain: The Zhat Vash destroyed the Starfleet armada that would have saved their people from the supernova, thus ending the Romulan Star Empire and leaving the Romulan people a collection of refugees under the nominal authority of the Romulan Free State, a barely functioning entity that seems incapable of protecting or helping anyone.
• Shoulders of Doom: The infamous "mattress cover" costumes used on TNG. It's hard to look menacing when dressed up like a character from Dynasty (1981).
• Sickly Green Glow: Most of their technology emits a green light.
• Smug Snake: The typical Romulan from TNG onward is one who doesn't bother hiding their belief that they are better than whoever they're talking to, and enjoy promoting their superiority.
• Snakes Are Sinister: Picard introduces the Snakehead, a Romulan scout ship, which reinforces the theme of Romulan culture identifying itself with predatory animals (the most famous being the raptor) to reflect its history of violence and conquest. The curved "wings" of the vessel are somewhat reminiscent of the hood of a cobra.
• Sneaky Spy Species: Formerly depicted as another Proud Warrior Race, by TNG they are now notorious for their duplicitousness. Quite apart from their habit of spying on other races and waiting to strike, their infamous Tal Shiar keeps a close eye on their civilian populace at all times, and is rivalled in efficiency only by the Cardassian Obsidian Order.
• The Social Darwinist: Romulan babies with birth defects are killed because they are regarded as a waste of resources. In general, any form of weakness is not tolerated.
  Narek: You find vulnerability and brokenness beautiful?
  Soji: Is that strange? To find beauty in imperfection?
  Narek: It's certainly not very Romulan.
• Space Cold War: Throughout the franchise, they are depicted as frosty, Machiavellian schemers who are always at war or in an uneasy truce with the Federation.
• Space Elves: If Vulcans are the archetypal Space Elves, then Romulans, their sneaky and treacherous "cousins," are the equivalent of Space Dark Elves. Along with their pointy ears, Romulans are stronger, longer-lived and have a heightened sense of smell compared to humans. The most Elf-like character in the franchise is Elnor, who looks like he had transported from Middle-earth to the Trek Verse. ^note His name means "Star-Run" in Sindarin, which is another way of saying "Star-Trek."
• Space Romans: The two habitable planets in their solar system are called Romulus and Remus. Their raptor emblem is reminiscent of Ancient Rome's aquila ^note which is Latin for "eagle". They have a Senate and they're ruled by a Praetor, with the Proconsul and the Vice-Proconsul just below that, and the other members are Senators. Centurion is a rank in their military. In TOS, their soldiers wore bronze-ish helmets.
• Spikes of Villainy: Their soldiers wear baldrics lined with spikes.
• Stealth in Space: The Romulans almost never fly anywhere without the cloak permanently switched on.
• Stereotype Flip: In the 32nd Century, the secretive Romulans have become more open and understanding, whereas the Vulcans have become insular and secretive, albeit for different reasons. The two had reunified by that time, and the Romulan population on the renamed homeworld of Ni'Var were the ones more in favor of remaining with the Federation after The Burn (Romulans being the foe that precipitated the proto-Federation to form in the first place).
• Strawman Emotional: Disagreed with Surak's logic and left to start their own, more amoral, militaristic society.
  • Although overall, they are still very composed and disciplined. Ironically, despite their imperialistic empire, they seem to contradict the idea that Vulcans who don't control their emotions are a dangerous menace, since on a personal level, they rarely lose their temper or hint at uncontrollable emotions.
  • Even the modern Vulcans admit that the Romulans aren't nearly as bad as the barbaric ancient Vulcans used to be.
• Strong as They Need to Be: Similar to Klingons, on the few occasions they've gotten into physical altercations with Enterprise crew members, they really haven't given them too much trouble even though they should be about as strong as Vulcans. In contrast, Kirk handily gets his ass kicked whenever he ends up having to fight Spock for one reason or another. The 2009 Star Trek reboot does show the Romulans as being somewhat stronger than humans, but still not to the degree that Spock is (although Spock is biologically unique and also benefits from Vulcan mental discipline and bodily control).
• Super-Strength: In Picard, Romulans Elnor and Narek can punch and kick Soong-type androids with enough force to cause them to fall down. It should be noted that Narek is not a good fighter, but he still has a better chance against the synths than the humans Rios and Raffi, who don't even try to engage them.
  • This featurette of a invokedDeleted Scene from "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2" demonstrates that Narek was originally meant to be far more badass than what we got onscreen, and the missing action sequence gives us an idea of how a lone Romulan with a dance-like and acrobatic Fantastic Fighting Style fares against five Soong-type androids in unarmed combat.
• There Are No Coincidences: One quirk of Romulan culture is that they do not believe in the concept of "luck", good or bad. If something goes wrong, it's either unintentional (someone screwed up) or on purpose (treachery).
• Token Evil Teammate: In their Enemy Mine alliance with many other Alpha Quadrant powers to combat the Dominion.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In TOS and Star Trek VI, they were treated with far more respect and deference by the Federation. Romulan diplomats are even allowed to attend Presidential briefings. This underscores just how foul and alien the Klingons are judged to be. The dynamic was reversed in TNG, the Klingons becoming allies to the Federation while the Romulans grew more insular as a result of an alliance they perceived as a threat to themselves.
• Ungovernable Galaxy: After Romulus was obliterated when its star exploded, the Romulan Star Empire no longer exists, and without assistance from the Federation, the Neutral Zone collapsed. The Romulan Free State emerged from the ashes, but this new government doesn't have the resources to patrol such a vast region, so large areas have become lawless, including the planet Vashti where over 250,000 Romulan refugees reside.
• Unrealistic Black Hole: The Romulans use artificial singularities to power their warp drives, as opposed to the matter-antimatter reaction of most starships.
• Wild Card: The Romulans have always been the most opportunistic of Alpha Quadrant races, and with the Dominion incursion, they are put in the perfect position to watch their biggest rivals slug it out in a long, futile war. This could explain why Starfleet or the Klingons didn't approach Romulus for help at once: they could go either way. Since the Federation was taking such heavy losses already, it would just about have finished them off to have a third fleet turn against them.
• Worthy Opponent: Several of the most memorable Romulan characters in TOS, as well as a number of times in the novelizations.
• You Are Number 6: Being an Obstructive Bureaucrat, the Romulan Free State assigns numerical designations to every employee and patient at the Romulan Reclamation Site, such as Patient 8923 stroke 3 (the "Nameless" Borg drone who undergoes the reclamation procedure) and Employee badge 74983 stroke 2 (Dr. Soji Asha).

Romulan Star Empire

Commander Sela

Commander Sela

Played By: Denise Crosby

Illegitimate half-Romulan daughter of Tasha Yar. A major player in the Romulan plot to smash up the Federation-Klingon alliance. She was born as an indirect result of the events of "Yesterday's Enterprise", where the crew encountered the time-displaced crew of the USS Enterprise-C, creating an alternate timeline where Tasha never died.

Not wanting to be erased from existence, the alternate Tasha chose to accompany the crew of the Enterprise-C back to the year 2344, intending to fight and die with them when they made their famous Last Stand against the Romulans. Instead, she was captured—and ended up raped and impregnated by a Romulan guard before dying in an escape attempt.

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• Bastard Bastard: She's the Child by Rape of Natasha Yar and a Romulan general. And she's an asshole.
  • Bizarrely enough, she seems to actually be proud of being a Child by Rape....
  • More likely she's Compensating for Something; a Half-Human Hybrid in the Romulan military would have to prove her loyalty beyond all doubt if she wanted to advance. She clearly feels some guilt about her mother too, so is actively repressing it.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Leaves Spock, Data and Picard, three of the most hypercompetent people in the Federation, under no guard in a Romulan command office. This after knowing for a fact that Data was the one who foiled her previous dumb plan. She's lucky they didn't seize control of the entire Empire!
• Child by Rape: She's the daughter of the alternate Tasha Yar from "Yesterday's Enterprise", who was taken as a consort by a Romulan general. She takes after her father.
• Emerging from the Shadows: Her reveal shot.
• Evil Counterpart: To Spock: a Half-Human Hybrid who identifies with her alien half rather than her human half.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • Sela initially dismissed Data as a threat due to him being an android. That said, when he proved her wrong and managed to completely disrupt her plans, she said to his face that he had earned her respect.
  • Irritated by Spock's entirely sensible belief that she'll kill him regardless of his cooperation, Sela takes a moment to express her hatred for Vulcans, citing their logic and their "arrogance".
• General Failure: Nepotism apparently played a major role in getting her into the position she's in, as her schemes are devious, convoluted and almost guaranteed to fail. That said, in "Redemption" she does see through Picard's trap, and would have won if Data hadn't disobeyed orders.
• Half-Human Hybrid: The child of Tasha Yar (from an alternate timeline) and a Romulan man.
• Hate Sink: In her every appearance she is arrogant, violent, remorseless, looks down on pretty much everyone who isn't a Romulan, and doesn't understand why her mother would want to leave their father when she had been enslaved as a consort and obviously held prisoner for years. There's very little to like about Sela.
• Hidden Depths: The closest thing she gets to depth is mentioning she actually likes writing, but her job doesn't give her much chances to do it.
  Data: Perhaps you would be happier in another job?
  Sela: (withering Death Glare)
• Hypocrite: She hates Vulcans because she thinks they're arrogant. A-frikken-hem.
• Identical Grandson: She's Tasha Yar with pointed ears and an even worse hairstyle.
• Informed Attribute: She's presented as a brilliant strategist. Realistically, she has a Complexity Addiction worthy of a Bond villain and no sense of scale whatsoever.^note Her gambit in "Unification" expects freighters carrying 2,000 soldiers to be able to invade Vulcan, one of the founding worlds of the Federation and only 16 light-years from Earth. As StarDestroyer.net put it, you couldn't successfully invade Belgium with that few troops.
• Moral Myopia: As far as Sela is concerned, her mother should have been grateful to have been forced into becoming her father's consort
• Self-Made Orphan: Indirectly; Tasha tried to escape Romulan custody. Having grown up on Romulus and with no desire to leave there, Sela cried out and alerted the guards, causing her mother's capture and subsequent execution.
• Scarpia Ultimatum: Her father was smitten by Tasha's beauty, and agreed to spare the other Starfleet prisoners if she became his consort.
• Smug Snake: In "Unification: Part II".
• That Man Is Dead: Very adamantly tells Picard anything human in her died with her mother.
• Worthy Opponent: Although she initially dismissed Data as a threat due to him being an android, he proved her wrong, and when they met face-to-face, she explicitly said that he had earned her respect and admiration.

Commander Tomalak

Commander Tomalak

Played By: Andreas Katsulas

Crafty Romulan commander who is usually up to no good.

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• Affably Evil: Always maintains a smarmy facade, even when speaking Blatant Lies.
• Back for the Finale: After several appearances in early seasons, he returns for a cameo in "All Good Things...", when Picard is negotiating to enter the Romulan Neutral Zone.
• Graceful Loser: After being outgambitted by Picard in "The Defector," he tells him "I look forward to our next encounter."
• Military Maverick
  Tomalak: Has Starfleet Command approved this plan?
  Picard: No.
  Tomalak: I like it already.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Unlike most other Romulan antagonists, Tomalak doesn't seem to have any particular hatred for the Federation. He's just a loyal Romulan commander doing his duty to his people.
• Smug Snake: At least when he's winning. Which rarely lasts long.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Only appears in early seasons, and his role as a recurring Romulan antagonist is largely replaced by Sela later on.

Romulan Free State

Romulan Reclamation Site

Hugh

Hugh

"People either see [the xBs] as property to be exploited, or as a hazard to be warehoused."

Played by: Jonathan Del Arco

"Still, we remain the most hated people in the galaxy. Just as helpless and enslaved as before. Only now, our Queen is a Romulan."

A former Borg drone and the Executive Director of the Borg Reclamation Project.

For tropes relating to his prior appearances in Star Trek: The Next Generation, please see its character page.

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• Ambiguously Human: We never learned what Hugh's species is, given that he was introduced as a Borg in TNG prior to the Retcon that established all drones were assimilated from other races. As seen in his character picture, he lacks any rubber forehead or other alien prosthetics, and he claims to be a Federation citizen, so human is a possibility.
• Bringing in the Expert: Who better to oversee the rehabilitation of former Borg on a derelict Borg cube than an ex-drone?
• Broken Tears: He undergoes a nervous breakdown after his fellow xBs are executed, and he sobs wildly over their corpses like he has lost everything in the universe that mattered to him. He doesn't seem to care or notice that he's bleeding because Narissa's dagger has pierced the skin of his neck; he merely continues to cry in agony, wholly oblivious to what's going on around him.
• Character Death: In "Nepenthe", he takes a knife to the throat from Narissa as she fights Elnor.
• Commonality Connection: He and Elnor are strangers, but they develop an instant affinity for each other because they're both Good Is Not Soft Nice Guys who dedicate themselves to helping the helpless. This is confirmed by Jonathan Del Arco in this interview, and he even portrayed Hugh as being in love with Elnor because of the selfless qualities they share in common.
  Del Arco: I think there were a lot of things about Elnor that for me resonated as a gay man. You know, I think [Hugh] loved [Elnor]. I think in essence he might've been in love with him in the time that he was there. I think that the hope was really someone loves him. Someone who was idealistic. I think he saw a lot of himself in Elnor. Hugh used to have that sense of innocence, of righteousness. And all those things were hopeful to him, because he hadn't been in a space of hope for all this time. And I think for a minute he thought, 'You know, I think me and the kid can go all the way with this. We could take the cube. We could save it.'
• Cuddle Bug: He has a tendency to be touchy-feely around someone he's fond of, regardless of how well (or not) he knows the individual. He greets Picard (who normally doesn't like physical contact) with a hug, then touches the latter's right arm (and shortly afterwards both arms) to alleviate Picard's crippling anxiety of being inside a Borg Cube again. He also puts his hand on Picard's back as he leads the elderly man away from the post-reclamation recovery area and when he instructs him to step through the Sikarian spatial trajector. Hugh reassuringly caresses the back of the head and shoulder of an xB who cries Tears of Joy. When he grips Elnor (a stranger) by the elbow and cradles the young man's face, they're signs of Hugh's romantic feelings for Elnor, according to Jonathan Del Arco.
• Dark Is Not Evil: His executive director uniform is black, and he's among the nicest and most empathetic people working at the Artifact.
• Deadpan Snarker: He seems to have grown a sense of humor since being separated from the Collective.
  Hugh: (to Soji) You're kind of a know-it-all, aren't you?
• Despair Event Horizon: Jonathan Del Arco mentions in this interview that when the xBs are slain by Narissa and her underlings in front of Hugh, any optimism that his character carried is thoroughly shattered.
  Del Arco: Certainly in my last episode of Season 1, when I watch [Narissa] kill my guys, that is a heartbreaking thing for [Hugh], it breaks, it really does crush every little bit of hope he had.
• Electronic Eyes: In "The Impossible Box", we get a brief glimpse of what the world looks like through Hugh's eyes, and his field of vision is peppered with green Borg graphics.
• Fantastic Racism: As he explains to Soji in "The End Is the Beginning", the group that suffers from the most discrimination in the Milky Way galaxy are ex-Borg drones.
  Hugh: There's no more despised people in the galaxy than the xBs. People either see us as property to be exploited, or as a hazard to be warehoused. Our hosts, the Romulans, have a more expansive vision. They see us as both.
• Foil: He and Picard are ex-Borg who have helped people who are hated by many (the xBs and the Romulans, respectively) and who are extremely displeased with the organization that they work for (the Romulan Free State and the Federation, respectively). Hugh does as much good as he possibly can under conditions which are far from perfect to look after the former drones at the Romulan Reclamation Site, so he continues to assist each new patient despite the constraints placed on him. Picard, on the other hand, "allowed the perfect to become the enemy of the good" when the Federation cancelled its plan to relocate the Romulans from their doomed homeworld, so when he couldn't save everyone, he chose to save no one. Elnor is present when both men die; they both warmly smile at him and cup Elnor's face in a loving manner. ^note Jonathan Del Arco depicted Hugh as being in love with Elnor.
• Glass Eye: He lost his left eye after he was assimilated by the Borg, so he had it replaced with an artificial one. It's easy to distinguish the fake eye because its iris is painted blue, which doesn't match his natural brown iris.
• Good Is Not Soft: He is a kind and decent man who dedicates himself to caring for other former drones, but he shows passion when speaking of their mistreatment and takes the time to ask Picard to speak on his charges' behalf. He also helps Picard and Soji escape, staying behind and standing up to the Romulans.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: He retains some facial scars from his time as a Borg, but they are soft and frame his handsome face nicely.
• Go Out with a Smile: As his life is slipping away, he smiles at Elnor because he's grateful to the young man for giving him hope again. invokedJonathan Del Arco also elaborates that Hugh is content to die in Elnor's arms because he's in love with him.
  Del Arco: [...] we shot the death scene last (same day) at that point it was about [Hugh's] love for Elnor and letting go.
• Heroic BSoD: In "Nepenthe", a traumatized and heartbroken Hugh has a Thousand-Yard Stare while sitting next to the corpses of the xBs who were massacred by Narissa and her goons, an atrocity that he witnessed firsthand.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: He exhibits his feminine side by his Lack of Athleticism (he's a Non-Action Guy who's useless in a combat situation), Lack of Aggression (he's a Pacifist who isn't naturally inclined towards violence), An Open, Emotional Personality (he wears his heart on his sleeve, and he takes on a nurturing role when he's providing emotional support to the xBs on the Artifact), and Effeminate or Non-Masculine Appearance (he's short in stature, being only 5'7", which is the height of his actor). Jonathan Del Arco had played Hugh as being in love with Elnor, so that would make Hugh either gay or bisexual.
• Manly Tears: In "Nepenthe", he openly weeps over the bodies of the xBs that he personally cared for. They were executed by Narissa and her soldiers in front of his eyes.
• My Greatest Failure: He's responsible for the well-being of the former Borg drones on the Artifact, so when about a dozen of them are gunned down by Narissa and her guards, he feels guilty that he was unable to shield them from the cruelty of the Romulan Free State.
  Hugh: I've failed them all.
• Nice Guy: He has a kind, compassionate heart, and he overcomes his fear of being on a Borg Cube to help the recently liberated ex-drones at the Romulan Reclamation Site with their recovery. Being an xB himself, he's one of the very few individuals in the whole galaxy who recognizes that they're people, not property or monsters. He's also a Cuddle Bug who utilizes physical touch to soothe frayed nerves (such as Picard's) or to express his nurturing side towards a patient. Picard describes Hugh as a gentle soul.
• Non-Action Guy: He's wholly dependent on Elnor to protect him from Narissa and her mooks, and we never see him fight anyone.
• No Sense of Personal Space: In "Nepenthe", he grabs Elnor's elbow (whom he has just met) and stands very close to him when he says, "We're going to take this Cube away from [the Romulans] forever." Elnor doesn't mind, though, as he was the one who initiated the physical touch between them in their previous scene. As Hugh lays dying in Elnor's arms, he reaches out for the young man's face and holds it tenderly. It's an intimate gesture one would expect from a lover instead of a total stranger, but it was Jonathan Del Arco's intention to depict Hugh as being in love with Elnor.
• Only One Name: He's simply known as Hugh without a surname. He calls Soji "Dr. Asha," yet she refers to her boss as "Hugh."
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Invoked by Picard in "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1" when he discovers that Hugh, a Nice Guy who isn't aggressive, was willing to kill Romulans in order to prevent more of his fellow xBs on the Artifact from being exterminated.
  Picard: Poor Hugh. It must have taken appalling brutality to turn such a gentle soul to violence.
• Pacifist: Jonathan Del Arco identifies Hugh as a pacifist in this interview, whose non-violent attitude towards helping the helpless is the antithesis of Seven of Nine's vigilantism.
  Del Arco: Seven's path is completely different because she's a vigilante, I'm not, I'm a pacifist.
• Revenge: After he witnesses the xBs being slaughtered by Narissa and her goons, he tells Elnor that he'll now give in to his desire to use the energy stored in the queencell to get back at the Romulans by causing them to lose control of the Artifact for all time. Although he dies before he can carry out his plan, he convinces Elnor to continue on his behalf.
  Hugh: (angrily) I'd forgotten the immense power hidden [in the queencell]. Maybe I was afraid I'd be tempted to use it. But now, I promise to defend and protect the xBs. I've failed them all. I've been a fool. We're going to take this Cube away from [the Romulans] forever.
  (Elnor nods in agreement)
• Robo Cam: In "The Impossible Box", there is a shot of Hugh's point of view, and the Borg technology that is still embedded within him can analyze life forms, objects and the surrounding environment more accurately than human or Romulan eyes can. For instance, he can see Borg Holographic Terminals on the Artifact that are invisible to everyone else who doesn't have a Borg ocular implant.
• Sacrificial Lion: He appeared in three episodes of The Next Generation and three episodes of Picard, but he meets his end in "Nepenthe" to further emphasize the latter series' Darker and Edgier tone.
• Scars Are Forever: His face still bears several large scars around the places where his Borg implants were removed. Evidently his surgeon wasn't quite as skilled as Beverly Crusher or the Doctor.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Hugh is brave, decent and gentle, and it feels like Narissa takes special pleasure in killing him because of that.
• Undying Loyalty: He's so grateful to Picard for the latter's part in freeing him from the Collective and helping him regain his individuality that he's willing to assist in any way he can when Picard requests his help, even if that means incurring the wrath of Hugh's Romulan employers and putting his own life in danger.
• We Help the Helpless: As the Executive Director of the Borg Reclamation Project, he supervises the recuperation of ex-Borg drones who have recently undergone the reclamation procedure. The xBs are the most loathed people in the galaxy, so virtually no one is willing to make the effort to understand that they're victims who need help. Hugh was once part of the Collective, so he knows all too well what it's like to be in their place, and he tries his best to care for those who have no else to care for them.

Zhat Vash

In general

A secretive cabal within the Tal Shiar, dedicated to the destruction of synthetic life in order to prevent the Ganmadan apocalyptic event that will devastate the galaxy.

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• Evil Wears Black: The traditional hooded robe of the female leaders is black and the cabal's death squads have an all-black uniform, including opaque black helmets.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: The secret of the Admonition is so terrible that the initiation for the Zhat Vash is simply being able to view it without killing yourself or being driven insane. When a Borg Cube assimilated Zhat Vash members who were exposed to the Admonition, it suffered a catastrophic failure and was severed from the Collective. Subverted later when it's revealed that the Admonition, while legitimately scary and Lovecraftian, drives them mad because it was intended for synthetic minds; organic, or even partially organic minds like the Borg, aren't capable of handling it because that'd be like trying to plug a USB into your brain stem and expecting to read the files on it.
• Matriarchy: Women run the Zhat Vash and are the only ones allowed access to the Admonition. Men are accepted into the (lower) ranks and told the secret, but they never get to see it for themselves.
• N.G.O. Superpower: They are said to have operatives in every major government in the known universe. While they are nominally a secret part of the Tal Shiar, in practice they have no allegiance to the Romulan government or the Romulan people, their only concern is to stop the development of synthetic life. Indeed, to motivate the Federation to ban synths, they were willing to sabotage the Romulan resettlement effort, causing the end of the Romulan Empire, the deaths of countless Romulans, and most of the survivors to live difficult lives as refugees.
• No Such Agency: And you thought the Tal Shiar was secretive. At least everybody knows that the Tal Shiar exists. Zhat Vash, on the other hand, is so hidden that even the Tal Shiar thinks it's just a "boogeyman" as Zhaban puts it.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Their persecution of synthetics is intended to prevent the Higher Synthetics from being summoned, but in practice just makes it more likely that someday a synthetic will be fed up enough to want to summon them.
• Suicide Pill: Their agents have false teeth containing a molecular solvent that completely dissolves their body in less than a minute. It also serves as a handy method of killing whoever caused them to use it, as they have a few moments to spit the solvent at someone else before it starts eating them.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: They view synthetic life as an existential threat to the galaxy and will go to any lengths to make sure synths never become commonplace, even if it means screwing over their own people.

General Nedar / Commodore Oh

General Nedar a.k.a. Commodore Oh

Played by: Tamlyn Tomita

A half-Vulcan, half-Romulan Zhat Vash agent and the Director of Starfleet Security.

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• Big Bad: The apparently highest-ranking member of the Zhat Vash cabal who is seen onscreen. She's senior enough to Narissa to have her orders obeyed seemingly without question. "Broken Pieces" cements her Big Bad status for at least for Season 1, revealing her to have been the mastermind of the Mars synth attack and the engineer of the Federation's ideal-betraying slide into xenophobia.
• Big Brother Is Watching: It's implied that she uses her Starfleet Security position to keep Picard under surveillance, which would explain how she knows details about his private conversations with others.
  • Rios later outright confirms that Oh has both monitoring devices and possibly even remote scuttling capabilities on Starfleet ships and coerced his former captain on the U.S.S. ibn Majid to commit premeditated murder under pain of the ship and crew's destruction if he disobeyed.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: She's half-Romulan, passing herself off as a purely Vulcan Starfleet officer (which she can do because Romulans and Vulcans are essentially the same species with a few points of genetic divergence).
• Hypocrite: During the flashback in "Nepenthe", she tells Jurati that we all have to make sacrifices. We have yet to see her practice what she preaches while countless others have suffered and died "for the greater good" whether willing or not.
• Institutional Allegiance Concealment: Reversed. She's an agent of an ancient Romulan cabal who infiltrates the Federation under falsified credentials to become Starfleet's Director of Security.
• Karma Houdini: After Soji shuts down the beacon, Oh retreats and escapes all punishment for her crimes. That said, she has at least been outed as a Romulan agent, has lost her position in Starfleet, had the existence of her ancient secret cabal revealed to all, and her crowning achievement — the Federation Synthetic ban — has been wiped away, likely to be replaced with countermeasures that the Coppelius androids would happily submit to if only to avoid being Brainwashed and Crazy like the A500s were.
• Manipulative Bastard: "Broken Pieces" pins the majority of the Federation's and Picard's problems on her manipulations in the name of wiping out synthetic life.
• Mind Rape: Imparted visions of the Admonition to Dr. Jurati via a mind-meld, which horrified the doctor enough that she murdered Dr. Maddox on the Zhat Vash's behalf. She underwent the Admonishment at some point herself and was one of the lucky few who survived the ordeal.
• Mole in Charge: She's a Zhat Vash agent in a command position within Starfleet. By the end of Season 1, though, she has been outed.
• Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: She's half-Romulan, half-Vulcan.
• Pragmatic Villainy: She shoots down Rizzo's suggestion to eliminate Picard outright in favor of more subtle methods. She sends a hit squad after him later, but this was only staged for the purpose of planting Jurati — whom Oh has told the Zhat Vash secret to and turns up at the end of the ambush to kill one of the ambushers — into Picard's group as they are about to leave Earth.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Her own actions meant to prevent Ganmadan end up nearly causing it.
• Sinister Shades: She wears a pair of sunglasses in "The End Is the Beginning" when she asks Jurati about her conversation with Picard; it's a little jarring since no one else in the 24th century has ever been shown wearing them. According to invokedWord of God, she was dressing to make an appropriate impression among the emotional humans.
• The Spymaster: She pulls double duty as the head of both Starfleet Security and the Zhat Vash, a.k.a. the Tal Shiar's own Tal Shiar.
• Villain No Longer Idle: She spends the majority of the season in her office at Starfleet Headquarters. However, in her zeal to wipe out the androids of Coppelius, she decides to lead the Zhat Vash attack fleet herself, and in doing so sacrifices her position as the head of Starfleet Security. When Riker's fleet arrives, she speaks with him directly, blowing what little was left of her cover completely.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Her and her organization's methods are astoundingly horrific in practice, but as it turns out, "the Destroyer" warned of by the Admonition is real, so she may actually be doing the galaxy a favor by preventing its return by whatever means necessary... if it wasn't for the fact that her own actions end up nearly unleashing it.

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Colonel Narissa

Colonel Narissa, a.k.a. Lieutenant Rizzo

"We have our work to do."

Played by: Peyton List

"If I don't have the location, we go back to good old pain and violence."

A Romulan Zhat Vash agent, surgically modified to look human at the beginning of the series. She soon returns to the Reclamation Site to more closely oversee her brother's efforts.

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• The Baroness: She's a ruthless and sexy Zhat Vash spy who's Trigger-Happy, sadistic, and her wardrobe is exclusively black and form-fitting.
• Beauty Is Bad: She's a gorgeous Romulan woman who likes to inflict pain and violence on others, and even her own brother (whom she nearly suffocated with her bare hands) is not safe from her.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: In "Nepenthe", Elnor kicks her so hard in the face that she falls down, yet she doesn't have a broken or bleeding nose, a black eye, a loose tooth, or any kind of bruising or blemish whatsoever. The same thing happens in "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2" where Seven of Nine punches Narissa a couple of times and the latter then roughly tumbles on to the floor, but Narissa's pretty features remain unscathed.
• Big Sister Bully: Every time she meets her little brother, they insult each other and she pressures him over his role as a Honey Trap (a plan that she approved). She makes it clear that she'll prioritize her own survival over his. She briefly chokes him in "Absolute Candor", and based on her dialogue with Narek in "The Impossible Box", she regularly broke his toys when they were younger.
• Brains and Brawn: She's the Brawn to Narek's Brain. She believes that any problem can be solved with the immediate application of brute force, but he always analyzes something (or someone), then he slowly and carefully tinkers with it until he gets the desired result. Their contrasting natures are evident when they discuss their attitudes towards the tan zhekran, a Romulan puzzle box.
  Narissa: I've never understood your fascination with this toy.
  Narek: It's not a toy. It's a tool. It helps me think.
  Narissa: The only thing it ever made me think of is smashing it open with a hammer to get the prize inside.
  Narek: The key to opening the tan zhekran is taking the time to understand what's keeping it closed. Listen, feel, move each piece ever so slightly, and then once you're sure... (he shows her the tan zhekran with the pieces in the right place)
  Narissa: Am I supposed to be impressed?
  Narek: Patience, sister. A quality you never had. (The tan zhekran then opens)
• Character Catchphrase: "We have our work to do." There's also the singular variation, "I have my work to do."
• Combat Pragmatist: If she senses that she may be losing a fight, she'll do whatever she can to gain the upper hand. She'll cheat in a customary unarmed duel with a Qowat Milat by using her concealed knife to distract her rival (as she does to Elnor in "Nepenthe", and she takes advantage of his hesitation to kill Hugh with a second knife). Narissa is also willing to shoot someone In the Back (although it doesn't work with Elnor because of his Super-Reflexes). If she's devoid of a weapon, then she'll utilize a Breaking Speech to rile her adversary in the hope that the latter will make a mistake (which she attempts to do to Seven of Nine in "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2"). Despite Narissa's underhanded methods, she still fails to defeat Elnor and Seven in one-on-one combat.
• Combat Stilettos: In "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2", when she tosses away her disruptor, we can see clearly that the heels of her boots are high enough to be impractical for hand-to-hand combat, and they juxtapose Seven of Nine's flat-heeled boots. This may be a contributing factor to Narissa losing their Designated Girl Fight.
• Dark Action Girl: A Zhat Vash operative and The Dragon in Season 1, she's a competent combatant, but she's outclassed by Elnor's Super-Reflexes and Seven of Nine's superior strength.
• Disney Villain Death: Seven pushes her down one of the Artifact's seemingly bottomless pits.
• The Dragon: To Commodore Oh within the Zhat Vash, or at least the operatives we see onscreen.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • While she's willing to kill xBs with little justification and is abusive to her brother Narek, she loves her xB aunt Ramdha.
  • Despite her mistreatment of Narek, she's relieved to see him again in "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2" and hugs him.
• Evil Brit: She has a British accent when she speaks in English, and it's an indicator to the audience that she's a villain.
• Evil Wears Black: When she's no longer pretending to be a Starfleet officer, she switches her uniform for an all-black outfit.
• Family Theme Naming: She and her brother Narek share "Nar" in their names.
• Faux Action Girl: Despite her propensity for violence, the only people she actually kills are defenseless xBs. Against opponents who actually fight back (i.e. Elnor and Seven of Nine), she's 0-2.
• The Handler: She's the one who approved (and has the authority to unapprove) Narek's plan to seduce Soji for information. He must report his observations about their target directly to her.
• Hate Sink: She is incredibly rude and dismissive towards just about everyone save for Nedar, constantly bullies and belittles her brother (who has consistently delivered more results than she ever did), has a zealous hatred towards synthetics and xBs, and performs every little and petty cruel thing with glee. Seven is almost ashamed of herself for literally kicking this bitch to her death out of revenge for killing Hugh and personal satisfaction. Almost.
• Hero Killer: In "Nepenthe", after agreeing to fight Elnor unarmed and one-on-one, she kills Hugh with a knife to the throat, and in the process nearly shoots Elnor before he can retaliate.
• Karmic Death: Seven kills her to avenge Hugh and the Artifact's xBs.
• Knight Templar: After witnessing the Admonition, she's willing to commit any atrocity to put an end to what she sees as the threat posed by synthetic life.
• Lack of Empathy: She has no qualms gunning down xBs in cold blood, and she even smiles to herself as she walks away from Hugh, who's sobbing uncontrollably after they're slaughtered before his eyes. She also abuses and molests her brother with absolutely no regard of how her behaviour affects him.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: She and her brother Narek are the reverse of Men Use Violence, Women Use Communication. Narissa is far more aggressive and bloodthirsty than her baby brother (which is what she calls him, and the use of "baby" indicates that he's not very manly), and she insists that Soji be killed ASAP. Narek, however, states his preference for a more subtle approach, which is his seduction and manipulation of Soji, to carry out their mission. They also have contrasting reactions to facing Elnor — Narissa is eager to fight, whereas Narek immediately surrenders.
• The Mole: Doubly so; she's a Romulan posing as a human Starfleet officer, and a Zhat Vash agent serving the conspiracy's agenda.
• Nightmare Fetishist:
  • She speaks with utter reverence of how her aunt's deranged insanity brought upon by surviving the Admonition was powerful enough to cripple a Borg cube.
  • Meanwhile, she wishes that the Borg had assimilated her instead of Ramdha, musing that she would have made a better Borg.
  • Based on Narissa's exchange with a Centurion, the more efficient the killing method, the more it delights her.
    Narissa: We need to get rid of every Borg still held in stasis immediately. Can they be gassed? Electrocuted?
    Centurion: We can blow the seals and jettison them directly into space.
    Narissa: (smiles) Ooh, I like that. See to it.
• The Nose Knows: As a Romulan female ^note Romulans are related to Vulcans, and Vulcan females possess superior olfactory sense, so Romulan women have the same ability, she's able to detect Soji's scent on Narek, and after she bends down to sniff his neck, she observes that the combination of Narek's and Soji's scents is carnal.
• No-Sell: Everyone else in her group who witnessed the Admonition went utterly insane, some to the point of suicide. Narissa endured it with barely a frightented gasp and a Single Tear.
• No Sense of Personal Space: She frequently gets well inside Narek's personal space, apparently as a means of throwing him off balance; in "Absolute Candor", she sits next to him in bed, runs her hands over his chest and arms, and even starts to straddle him while they're talking about Soji.
• Parental Abandonment: Her parents died in the line of duty as Zhat Vash operatives; she was later adopted by her aunt Ramdha.
• Perverted Sniffing: Because of the Incest Subtext between her and her brother Narek, when she sniffs his neck to determine if he had sex with Soji (a Romulan's olfactory sense is superior to a human's), it's a little creepy.
• Psychotic Smirk: She frequently grins when she either contemplates harming someone, is in the process of doing so, or after she has already tormented her victim.
• Sadist: She derives great pleasure from the suffering of others. In "Absolute Candor", she chuckles after molesting Narek and then has an amused smile after strangling him. She relishes the idea of torturing Soji for information and utters the words "pain and violence" with reverence. In "Nepenthe", a Psychotic Smirk forms on her lips and she hums in satisfaction after reducing Hugh to a blubbering pile of Broken Tears when she and her lackeys gun down several of his xB patients.
• Trigger-Happy: When Commodore Oh expresses her concern that Picard may be an obstacle in the Zhat Vash's plans, Rizzo's first thought is to kill him, and she needs to be persuaded to try a less brutal approach. She also warns Narek that if his methods fail to get any information out of Soji, Rizzo will try her own, far less civilized methods.

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Narek

Narek

The Obviously Evil hot Romulan in the main cast.

Played by: Harry Treadaway

"Everyone is hiding something. Whether they know it or not."

A young Romulan who works at the Borg Artifact Research Institute with Dr. Soji Asha and later begins an intimate relationship with her. He is also an operative for the Zhat Vash, assigned to gather information from Soji on the whereabouts of other androids like her and Dahj.

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• Ace Pilot: He gives Rios a run for his money in the piloting department when their ships engage in a Space Battle around Coppelius. Narek could very well have obliterated La Sirena if Seven of Nine hadn't arrived with the Artifact, but their vessels are incapacitated by the Orchids before a winner can be determined.
• Beard of Evil: Because there are two major Romulan male characters in this series, Narek has a beard to convey visually to viewers that he's the sinister one.
• Beauty Is Bad: He takes full advantage of his physical beauty when acting as a Honey Trap.
• Becoming the Mask: As a Honey Trap, he pretends to have feelings for Soji, but he ends up falling in love with her.
• Black Sheep: Lampshaded in "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2"; he's the failure in his Zhat Vash family, which also includes his deceased parents, so he's desperate to prove his worth.
  Narek: I found her, Narissa. Me. The family disgrace, the Zhat Vash washout. I found Seb-Cheneb.
• Brains and Brawn: He's the Brain to Narissa's Brawn. He always analyzes something (or someone), then he slowly and carefully tinkers with it until he gets the desired result, but she believes that any problem can be solved with the immediate application of brute force. Their contrasting natures are evident when they discuss their attitudes towards the tan zhekran, a Romulan puzzle box.
  Narissa: I've never understood your fascination with this toy.
  Narek: It's not a toy. It's a tool. It helps me think.
  Narissa: The only thing it ever made me think of is smashing it open with a hammer to get the prize inside.
  Narek: The key to opening the tan zhekran is taking the time to understand what's keeping it closed. Listen, feel, move each piece ever so slightly, and then once you're sure... (he shows her the tan zhekran with the pieces in the right place)
  Narissa: Am I supposed to be impressed?
  Narek: Patience, sister. A quality you never had. (The tan zhekran then opens)
• Brutal Honesty: In "The Impossible Box," he discloses Soji's true nature to her rather cruelly.
  Narek: Because you're not real. You never were.
• Chick Magnet: Two of his female coworkers ogle over him while they express their pleasant surprise that a Romulan can be so hot.
• Dance Battler: If his action sequence from "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2" hadn't been left on the cutting room floor, then he would be a practitioner of a dance-like and acrobatic Romulan martial arts that is reminiscent of Capoeira, with more flashy kicks than Narissa's or Elnor's Fantastic Fighting Style.
• Distressed Dude: In "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1", he's captured and imprisoned by the androids on Coppelius. In the next episode, he's subdued by the synths again and taken into their custody, but we don't see what happens to him afterwards.
• Enemy Mine: He teams up with Rios, Raffi and Elnor in "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2" to prevent the potential destruction of all organic life in the galaxy.
• Evil Brit: Harry Treadaway keeps his own English accent for Narek, who is one of the villains.
• Evil Wears Black: He's an undercover spy working for the Zhat Vash, the first season's major antagonists, and he's always dressed in black.
• Family Theme Naming: He and his sister Narissa share "Nar" in their names.
• Fanservice: He's seen in his underwear after having sex with Soji. He's sleeveless in "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2."
• The Gadfly: He seems to enjoy deflecting Soji's attempts to learn more about him after they sleep together.
  Soji: Can I ask you a question?
  Narek: Sure, just don't expect an answer.
  Soji: Are we allowed to be sleeping together, or is that a secret?
  Narek: Very much the latter.
  Soji: Is everything Romulans do a secret?
  Narek: Ooh, I'm not at liberty to divulge that.
  Soji: Is your name actually Narek?
  Narek: It's one of them.
  Soji: So is there anything you can tell me about yourself?
  Narek: Yes. I'm a very private person.
• Honey Trap: He's sleeping with Soji in an effort to glean information about her and the other synths, and track down where she came from.
• In Love with the Mark: He falls for Soji and even tells her his real name (which a Romulan would only disclose to someone they're in in love with), but duty always comes first for a Romulan (especially for a spy), so he still carries out his orders to murder her, and he cries as she pleads for her life. In "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1", Narek makes a Love Confession to Soji, who recognizes that he's being truthful now that she's a Living Lie Detector.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: His androgynous personality is expressed through his relative Lack of Athleticism (although we briefly see him fight in "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2", he's nevertheless depicted as being a far less capable combatant than Narissa and Elnor because Narek is helpless when his sister throttles him, and he can't free himself from the grip of two Soong-type androids twice, whereas Elnor has no trouble handling the synths and he never gets caught), his Lack of Aggression (he doesn't have a taste for violence, and he's a proponent of using his charisma to influence Soji to do his bidding; even when the time comes for Narek to terminate her, he opts for a device which releases a poisonous gas — his choice is "feminine" because poison is a woman's weapon), and Effeminate or Non-Masculine Appearance (he's a Pretty Boy with the distinction of being the first Romulan male character in the franchise who's acknowledged to be good-looking in-universe). He's also so far the only male member of the Zhat Vash's inner circle of agents.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Throughout Season 1, his relationship with Soji deepens to the point where he genuinely appears to love her. The show then toys with the prospect that he might follow that path to its traditional conclusion and decide to save her. Nope. Once he has what he needs from her, he seals her in a toxic tomb of his own making and then leaves her there to die.
• Manly Tears: In "The Impossible Box", his eyes become very red and he sheds tears after leaving Soji to die.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: He and his sister Narissa are the reverse of Men Use Violence, Women Use Communication. Narek states his preference for a more subtle approach, which is his seduction and manipulation of Soji, to carry out their mission. Narissa, however, is far more aggressive and bloodthirsty than her baby brother (which is what she calls him, and the use of "baby" indicates that he's not very manly), and she insists that Soji be killed ASAP. They also have contrasting reactions to facing Elnor — Narissa is eager to fight, whereas Narek immediately surrenders.
  Elnor: Feldor stam torret. (Please, my friend, choose to live.)
  Narek: ("Oh, Crap!" face) I do. I very much choose to live.
• The Mole: He pretends to be a new worker at the Romulan Reclamation Site, but he's actually a Zhat Vash agent.
• Obviously Evil:
  • He looks very sinister with a Kubrick Stare on his official character poster.◊
  • The very first shot of him is a mysterious, dark figure emerging from a large mist of steam with ominous music playing in the background, and he walks in slow-motion towards the camera with a menacing facial expression. Even before he speaks to Soji, we know he's bad news.
• Office Romance: He initiates a casual sexual relationship with Soji, although he tells her that they have to keep their dalliance a secret from their coworkers and their employers.
• Overt Operative: Both Hugh and Soji have him pegged as a spy as soon as he shows up.
• Parental Abandonment: His parents died in the line of duty as Zhat Vash operatives; he was later adopted by his aunt Ramdha.
• Poison Is Evil: In "The Impossible Box", he subjects Soji to a slow and painful death by exposing her to a toxic gas. What makes his action even more disturbing and reprehensible is that he's In Love with the Mark, yet he would still kill his beloved in this fashion.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Rather than immediately destroy Soji, as advocated by his bloodthirsty sister, he instead romances her and drops small hints meant to get her to investigate her origins of her own accord, so she can lead him to where she came from.
• Pretty Boy: He's attractive enough to catch the eye of Soji's Trill friend from a distance, who had no idea up until that moment that a Romulan could be so hot, to which Soji agrees. His most beautiful physical feature are his expressive, gentle blue eyes, and when combined with his curly hair, he has a softer, warmer demeanour than most Romulans, who are usually severe and cold. He exploits this along with his charm to seduce Soji as a Honey Trap. Hugh describes Narek as a dashing young Romulan spy.
• Sarcastic Confession: Despite the joking nature of his comments below, he actually does have a lot of secrets, being a mole for the Zhat Vash.
  Soji: Is everything Romulans do a secret?
  Narek: Ooh, I'm not at liberty to divulge that.
  Soji: Is your name actually Narek?
  Narek: It's one of them.
  Soji: So is there anything you can tell me about yourself?
  Narek: Yes. I'm a very private person.
• Super-Strength: In "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2", he kicks a Soong-type android hard enough to knock it over. Although he's soon overwhelmed by two of them, Narek is stronger than a human by virtue of being a Romulan, and being able to hit the android with that much force is still more than what an average human can do. He can also pin Saga to the ground, plus he falls from a great height and lands squarely on his two feet without getting hurt.
  • This featurette of a invokedDeleted Scene demonstrates that Narek was originally meant to be far more badass than what we got onscreen, as he uses a Capoeira-like Fantastic Fighting Style against five synths.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: His family regards him as a black sheep, so many of his actions regarding the synths are actually about measuring up to his family's Zhat Vash legacy.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He disappears unceremoniously halfway through "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2" after the failed attempt to destroy the beacon and is never seen again after that point. According to invokedMichael Chabon, he was taken into custody by the Federation,◊ a scene which was apparently cut for time.

Ramdha

Ramdha

Played by: Rebecca Wisocky

A former expert on Romulan mythology and an agent for the Zhat Vash who was at some point assimilated by the Borg, then became an xB after the Artifact lost its connection to the Collective. She's also Narissa and Narek's aunt.

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• Broken Tears: In "The End is the Beginning", she begins crying after Soji inquires about her assimilation by the Borg, and it's the first sign that her mental state (which is already very fragile because she's a psychiatric patient) will soon unravel to suicidal extremes.
• Driven to Suicide: She tries to kill herself when she realizes that Soji is the so-called "Destroyer" that the Zhat Vash has been hunting, although Soji reacts quickly enough to stop her.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: The Admonition broke her mind so badly that when she was assimilated, her madness infected the cube and caused the Borg to sever it from the hive mind.
• Parental Substitute: She took care of her niece and nephew Narissa and Narek after their parents died.
• Tarot Troubles: She's playing with a set of pixmit cards (which can be used as a Romulan version of a tarot deck), when Soji meets her. When Ramdha turns over a card and sees the image of two sisters on it, she immediately concludes that the card represents Soji (and Dahj), and demands to know which sister Soji is before attempting suicide.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: The freakin' Borg Collective was so terrified of her memories of the Admonition that it cut itself off from the cube that eventually became the Artifact rather than let it poison the rest of the Collective's Hive Mind.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Her final appearance in Season 1 was in "Broken Pieces" where she was comatose and left behind on the Artifact by the Romulans. Michael Chabon clarifies on what her fate would've been◊ if a invokedDeleted Scene was featured in "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2."
  Chabon: We shot a scene intended to show Ramdha and other xBs beginning to form a kind of possible community with the synths under the auspices of Soong. In the end, we couldn't find a place for it that worked and we felt that losing it didn't hurt too much.

Refugees

Laris

Laris

Played by: Orla Brady

A Romulan refugee who works for Picard at his vineyard in France on Earth.

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• Action Girl: Thanks to her Tal Shiar combat training, she can fend off several Zhat Vash commandos in "The End Is the Beginning."
• Aliens of Ireland: The first Irish Romulan in the franchise.
• Anger Born of Worry: She was certainly not happy to learn that Picard planned to go on one last mission. Of course, knowing how an organization like the Tal Shiar works, and being a former agent herself, she fears for his safety.
• Crusty Caretaker: Although also a Kindly Housekeeper, she knows when to assert herself with Picard. She is Romulan after all.
• Nice Girl: Like Zhaban, she is a kind, loyal and honest example of a Romulan, in complete contrast to their species' conniving portrayal in The Next Generation era.
• Ninja Maid: A former agent of the Tal Shiar, the Romulan secret police, she works at Chateau Picard and helps the owner keep house. When assassins come to take Picard out, she and Zhaban hold their own despite being outnumbered two to one, with the help of several phasers they've stashed all over the villa.
• Out of Focus:
  • She's an important supporting character in the first three episodes of Season 1, but she's never seen or mentioned again afterwards.
  • Averted in Season 2. You expect that she goes out of focus once Picard leaves to meet the Borg and then once he goes back in time, but the Watcher Tallin, who looks exactly like Laris shows up in Episode 4, throwing Picard for a loop.
  • And again in Season Three, when she only has a single scene with Jean-Luc and doesn't make another appearance (or is even mentioned) for the rest of the season.
• Precision F-Strike: "Cheeky feckers!"
• Relationship Upgrade: Picard's friend in season 1. In love with him in season 2 and in a relationship with him by the end of it.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After advising Jean-Luc that he should help Beverly rather than accompany her to Chaltok IV, Laris disappears rather abruptly following her first and only scene in Season Three and doesn't make another appearance, not even during The Last Generation's epilogue^NoteIn an interview, Terry Matalas noted that the crew didn't have the time to film Picard returning to Laris and even if they did, Orla Brady had returned home to Ireland by that time anyway..

Zhaban

Zhaban

Played by: Jamie McShane

A Romulan refugee who works for Picard at his vineyard in France on Earth.

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• Battle Butler: Technically a cook and a groundskeeper, but like Laris, he is a former Tal Shiar agent and can easily fight off two younger Romulan agents at once.
• Hidden Depths: Who'd have thought that Picard's snarky cook and groundskeeper was a former agent of the Tal Shiar?
• Killed Offscreen: In the first episode of the second season, it's mentioned that he died between seasons. No cause is given.
• Nice Guy: Like Laris, he is a kind, loyal and honest example of a Romulan, in complete contrast to their species' conniving portrayal in The Next Generation era.
• Out of Focus: He's an important supporting character in the first three episodes of Season 1, but he's never seen or mentioned again afterwards, and dies between seasons 1 and 2.
• Real Men Cook: Among other duties, he's in charge of the food and meal preparation at Chateau Picard; in his very first scene, he carries a basket of freshly-picked herbs and then works in the kitchen.
• Rubber-Forehead Aliens: He's one of those Romulans with a ridged forehead, marking him as a "Northerner."
• Servile Snarker: Like Laris, he's loyal and appreciative of Picard, but not sycophantic.

Zani

Zani

Played by: Amirah Vann

A Romulan refugee who is the leader of the Qowat Milat sisterhood at North Station on Vashti.

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• Brutal Honesty: She doesn't sugarcoat her words, not even to a little kid who's desperate for affection.
  Young Elnor: (to Picard) Why don't you like children?
  Zani: Because they're demanding, distracting, and interfere with duty and pleasure alike.
  (Picard gestures that he agrees with Zani)
  Young Elnor: My feelings are hurt.
• Cultural Rebel: Her order preaches the Way of Absolute Candor, which means always telling the truth and expressing one's true emotions. This is the complete opposite of what Romulan society values most, which is secrecy.
• Dark Is Not Evil: As a Qowat Milat nun, she wears a black robe and a black headdress, and she's a friend and ally of Picard.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: She's a Romulan warrior nun, much to Jurati's astonishment.
  Jurati: That's a real thing?! How bizarre.
• Parental Substitute: She along with the other nuns of her order are surrogate mothers to the orphan Elnor. Zani tells Picard that the boy is loved by them.
• Proportional Aging: Picard notes that, unlike him, Zani hasn't aged at all since they last met fourteen years ago. Romulans are a cousin race of Vulcans, so they have a longer life span than humans, and hence they age more slowly.
• Sweet Tooth: She is very fond of a treat called sweet hanifak, and she's quite pleased when Picard presents her a box of it as a gift.

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