Created by Captain Michael Turlogh Kane on Aug 16, 2016 @ 2:25am

THE CARDASSIAN UNION

The CARDASSIAN UNION has been in a state of stagnation for the past sixty years, and shows no signs of being able to return to its former status as one of the quadrant's main powers.

Since its defeat in the First Dominion War, the socio-economic and military status of the Union has been in inexorable decline. After the war, the Cardassians, now under the civilian authority of the New Detapa Council, began an ambitious rebuilding programme, but many of its outlying colonies failed, leading to stagnation in trade and development and the grinding halt of the government's rebuilding programme.

As domestic problems mounted and the military no longer able to defend the Union's shrunken borders, the Detapa Council was approached in 2385 by the remnants of the government of the Klingon Empire. At that time, the Romulan-Klingon War was almost at an end, and the Klingons, desperate for allies, reached out to the Cardassians. An agreement was struck whereby the Cardassians gave up the newly-liberated star systems conquered by the Klingons during the First Dominon War in exchange for Klingon cloaking technology. Armed with this new technology, and anxious for a way to divert the attention of their increasingly-restless populace, the Cardassian government began to behave in an increasingly aggressive manner towards the Federation, seeking to expand its intergalactic influence and return to its old powerful status.

This breakdown in relations led to the outbreak of the Alliance War of 2388-2391. The Cardassian Union and its Klingon allies attacked the Federation, but the war went badly for the allies from the beginning. Starfleet had prepared for the conflict by sending numerous task forces to the border sectors, and the Federation's sensor technology had advanced to a level that exceeded Klingon cloaking technology. Starfleet fought defensively, and as the war dragged on, defeat after humiliating defeat followed for the Cardassians and the Klingons. When a ceasefire was finally declared, the Cardassians' intergalactic prestige had suffered badly.

In 2411, the alien race known as the Kem D'Neel attacked the Alpha Quadrant in a war of genocide. The weakened Cardassian Union lost upward of 40% of its standing military forces to the unstoppable Enforcers, who came close to exterminating the Cardassian people from existence. Consequently, there was only a small Cardassian presence among the fleet that fought and won the Seventh War of Retribution at Coriana III.

Following Coriana III, the government of the Cardassian Union changed again. The New Detapa Council dissolved, and has since been replaced by a body of Legates, made up of senior military officers and civilian politicians.

Today, the Cardassians are a shadow of the power they once were. Although on unfriendly terms with the Federation, their economy remains stagnant and they have become insular and isolationist, no longer participating in intergalactic affairs. Their time on the stage of history, it appears, has come to an end.