The Dominion is a major galactic political power, whose influence exerts over thousands of planets in the Gamma Quadrant. By the year 2372, the Dominion had existed for somewhere between two to ten thousand years. The Dominion was created by the Changelings, a species of shapeshifters native to a rogue planet within the Omarion Nebula, who refer to themselves as "the Founders".

 

History

 

Beginnings

 

The history of the Dominion begins with the history of the Founders as recorded in the memory of the Great Link. Several millennia ago, Changelings roamed the stars searching out other races so they could add to their knowledge of the galaxy.

They went in peace but were too often met with suspicion, hatred and violence. Solids, fearing the Changelings' metamorphic abilities, beat, hunted and killed them.

 

According to Dominion legend, on one planet, a group of Vorta – a species of small, timid, ape-like forest dwellers living in hollowed-out trees – hid a Changeling from an angry mob, and in return the Changeling promised that one day they would be transformed into powerful beings and placed at the head of a vast interstellar empire.

 

Following their retreat to the Founders' homeworld inside the Omarion Nebula, the Changelings sought to ensure that they would never again be at the mercy of the solids by imposing "order upon a chaotic universe" around them.

Over time, the Founders sent out 100 infant Changelings in order to continue gathering information and explore. It was genetically coded into these infants for them to return later and share what they have learned. Odo and Laas were amongst them.

 

Domination of the Gamma Quadrant

 

The founding of the Dominion, itself, occurred between the tenth and 2nd millennium BC. It was at this time that the Founders first employed Vorta as their administrators, diplomats, scientists, and commanders.

To enforce their will, the Founders engineered the Jem'Hadar, a species specifically designed for warfare. The Jem'Hadar became the Dominion's first line of defense.

 

The Vorta and the Jem'Hadar under their command rapidly began to conquer space, in the name of the Founders. The Dominion ability to mass-produce soldiers, weapons, and ships gave them a substantial advantage, particularly in wars of attrition.

In the mid-22nd century, the Dominion encountered a space-faring race in the Teplan system. The Teplans believed nothing was beyond their ability, including resisting the Dominion. In response, the Jem'Hadar came and left their homeworld crushed, as an example to others.

More than anything, the Dominion wanted the Teplans to bear the mark of their defiance, so they unleashed a biological weapon, establishing the disease known as the blight.

 

Around 2340, the Dominion conquered a race, native to Yadera Prime, known as the Yaderans.

In 2370, the Jem'Hadar invaded and conquered a race known as the T-Rogorans.

 

Contact with the Alpha Quadrant

 

The first official contact between the Dominion and the United Federation of Planets came at the end of 2370, when Jem'Hadar forces destroyed a number of ships and colonies from the Alpha Quadrant side of the Bajoran wormhole and took Benjamin Sisko and Quark hostage.

The Jem'Hadar claimed that the offensive was in response to incursions into their territory. However, the offensive was actually a cover to plant Eris, a Vorta spy, into the Federation.

The attempt was unsuccessful, though Eris escaped back to the Dominion. The Dominion-Federation Cold War was officially begun.

In the next year, the Dominion ascertained the resistance of the major powers in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants to a Dominion invasion through an elaborate simulation involving the captured members of the USS Defiant. Based on these simulations (which showed that Starfleet would destroy the wormhole if necessary), the Dominion adopted a more subtle approach.

Changelings infiltrated various powers, including the Federation, the Klingon Empire, and the Romulan Star Empire, posing as high-ranking officials. These agents maneuvered these powers into several destructive conflicts to erode their strength.

Between 2371 and 2373, only a few of these infiltrators were ever exposed: one posed as Ambassador Krajensky, one posed as General Martok, and another one posed as Doctor Julian Bashir. None of the four changelings on Earth could be apprehended despite sweeping security precautions.

 

The Dominion War

 

In 2373, the Dominion vastly solidified its foothold in the Alpha Quadrant by incorporating the Cardassian Union, in a pact negotiated by Gul Dukat. In the following months the Dominion sent massive numbers of ships and troops through the wormhole into Cardassian space, after the changeling posing as Bashir sabotaged the Federation's attempt to collapse the wormhole. In addition, the Dominion massacred the Maquis and signed nonaggression pacts with the Miradorn, the Tholian Assembly, Bajor, and the Romulan Star Empire.

Although Dominion officials claimed their convoys were meant to help rebuild Cardassian infrastructure, Starfleet Command was unconvinced and, with the Dominion rapidly making political in-roads, ordered Captain Sisko to block the Alpha Quadrant entrance to the wormhole. Open war finally broke out when Starfleet mined the entrance of the wormhole to prevent any further Dominion reinforcements from coming through.

The first part of the war, in early 2374, was a disaster for the allied Federation and Klingon forces, which were forced into retreat on nearly all fronts. The war turned in the allies' favor when a massive fleet of 2,800 Jem'Hadar warships, which would have ensured a Dominion victory, disappeared inside the wormhole.

This unexpected event allowed the recapture of the strategic starbase Deep Space 9 by the allies. The Dominion's situation was further worsened when the Romulans abrogated their treaty and joined the war against them later that year.

Meanwhile, the Founders and their Great Link found that they had been infected with a morphogenic virus, which threatened to destroy the very foundation of the Dominion. Despite the resources at their disposal, the Founders could not discover a cure.

The Female Changeling, trapped in the Alpha Quadrant, forged an alliance with the Breen Confederacy in late 2375 to win the war before her death. However, the terms of their treaty of alliance were extremely unfavorable to the Cardassians, which finally led to a rebellion. The subsequent betrayal of the Dominion fleet by the Cardassians at the Battle of Cardassia, which came as a result of Dominion reprisals against Lakarian City, would seal defeat for the Dominion in the war.

Surrounded by allied forces on Cardassia Prime, the dying Female Changeling defiantly ordered her forces to fight to the death, believing that to show weakness would lead to the solids invading the Dominion in the Gamma Quadrant. She eventually agreed to surrender after Odo linked with her and cured her of the virus.

Odo subsequently returned to the Great Link to cure the rest of his people, while the Female Changeling remained in the Alpha Quadrant to assume responsibility for the war.

 

Government

Absolute rule of the Dominion remaines in the hands of the Founders and their Great Link, whose decisions can not be disputed under any circumstances. However, the Founders are largely content to leave the administration of the Dominion's daily affairs to the Vorta. The loyalty of the Vorta and the Jem'Hadar is genetically-engineered, which in most cases ensured absolute obedience to the Founders. The Founders themselves are rarely seen, even by their servant races, and were treated as gods or myth. Due to such a social standing within the Dominion, most of what the Dominion's member races carry out are often for the glory of the Founders, or to please them in some way, similar to how religious figures would pray or carry out an action to please their God(s).

A Dominion political strategy frequently used is to not use its military might during initial contacts; but take over via influence and espionage. While Jem'Hadar fighters destroyed the USS Odyssey as a show of force, the Dominion used its vast influential and espionage tactics to destabilize the Alpha Quadrant. For example, the Dominion precipitated a war between the Cardassian Union and the Klingon Empire, and then struck an alliance with the Cardassian Union, knowing full well they would accept due to their dire state, so to gain support and a foothold in the Alpha Quadrant before deploying its military power.

 

 

Technology

 

By the time of the Dominion War, Dominion technology appeared to have significantly outpaced that of most Alpha Quadrant species.

Instead of phased energy or disruptor beams, Jem'Hadar rifles emitted powerful polaron beams which had the side-effect of acting as an anticoagulant in some humanoids, thereby impeding the natural wound-healing process.

Similarly, Dominion warships displayed more impressive firepower than their Alpha Quadrant counterparts. Phased polaron beams were mounted on all Jem'Hadar attack ships. These initially cut through Federation shielding without effort; however, the DS9 crew subsequently managed to adapt their shields to withstand Dominion weapons for short periods. The Breen also wielded a huge advantage on the battlefield with an energy dissipating weapon capable of disabling Federation and Romulan vessels with a single shot. Countermeasures for these technologies do exist and have proven to be effective.

Dominion transporters utilized transponders which enabled them to transport individuals across distances as far as three light years.

Dominion warp capability is less advanced when compared to most major Alpha Quadrant species. A Dominion fighter was capable of at least warp 7 and a battle cruiser was capable of at least warp 4.7.

While some Dominion technology was in many ways more advanced than that of the Federation, one Vorta lamented that Starfleet engineers were famed for being able to "turn rocks into replicators". At least some Dominion technology was manufactured by Dominion member species, it is known for example, that at least one type of torpedo carried onboard Jem'Hadar attack vessels was sold to the Dominion by the Karemma, a Dominion member. The Jem'Hadar did however, seem capable of performing not only some minor and emergency repairs but also understanding complex engineering on even Starfleet vessels.

 

 

Copyright

See the original version at Memory Alpha