MY VISION of The DoMoNiOn
Star Trek lore is a vast and amazing world of characters, species, capabilities and event timelines and universes. These all make for great entertainment via TV shows, movies and games. It also makes it an amazing place to role-play.
However, the vastness of it all can create for, sometimes, competing visions of what various organizations within the universe are like.
As a consistent and persistent role play community, it is important for all the players that are a part of Argo to have the same general understanding. The information below serves two purposes. It serves to be an initial familiarization of the vision of the Domonion for new applicants. It also serves as a reference tool for existing members to come back to and see how their stories and plots fit into this vision. The below information fits hand in hand with current character and story policies within the fleet. This is the vision, those policies are how we maintain it.
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The DOMINION IS HUGE, ADVANCED, AND PEERLESS.
In the the Gamma quadrants, the Dominion is the predominant power in terms of political influence and economic strength. There is no one par in sheer military force and the No one is competitive in technological advancement, no one in the gamma quadrant can match the Domonion more well-rounded infrastructure.
As a result, the Dominion is phenomenally well-supported in terms of resources and staff, making them capable of quick recoveries in times of devastation. Though Domonion security can be and periodically threatened by especially competitive or superior enemies ( the Hurâq), these threats tend to be high impact, short duration, and generally storied out by Cryptic and the official STO mission campaigns directly.
When interacting with other factions, The Dominion favors diplomacy while simultaneously staying prepared to use force, If negotiations do not go their way. Additionally, as a Corporatist Economy, Dominion citizens work long hours, to scrape by a meger living, while only the professional class, and the planetary elite is entitled to pursue what interests them and has access to basic material needs (decent living conditions, sufficient food, medical care) so long as they are loyal.
COMMON PITFALLS
Backstory states that a Dominion characterâs parents are both dead or missing, resulting in the character needing to raise and fend for themselves as an orphan. As a Facist society, the Dominion would not give a shit about a minor in need. âCome on and pull yourself up by your bootstraps little timmy. You can get a job at the aspetus mill!â. If there strong, they will make it, if not, well there an orphan so no one is going to miss them.
The Dominion will ABSOLUTELY strike first, if they think they can win. The Dominion is best characterized as an organization who uses their significant power with Divine purpose. Though they will work very hard to achieve a diplomatic solution first and foremost, if they donât see the negotiations going anywhere productive, they will absolutely use other means to achieve their goals. Including, but certainly not limited to economic sanctions, espionage efforts, and full on military invasions
Assuming the Domonion is strapped for capable personnel due to recent war losses. In the immediate aftermath of the Hurâq conflict, this is true, but as months pass, it will no longer be so. As a general rule of thumb, The Dominion can just clone more troops. Although the loss of expericed troops will take years to replace
The Dominion IS STRICTLY REGULATED.
The Dominion may be more then just its miltary, but they do operate under a structure that is a warped perversion of a Great war era, developed government-funded military. This includes a rigid divide between an aloof officer class, and ground troops, used as cannon fodder, with implicit hierarchy and chain of command, thoroughly detailed processes and procedures for all manner of administrative and operational requests (read: lots of paperwork), and a expedient system for conducting judicial accusations and executing people as punishment.
COMMON PITFALLS
Backstory involves a career progression in which some ranks are especially short or skipped entirely, or battlefield promotions are given. While the Domonion appreciates individual merit and raw talent/skill, it also understands that thereâs no substitution for bio-engineering. Though actual lengths of time spent in each rank will vary widely between officers, officer promotion is generally only granted to those who have consistently and repeatedly demonstrated their ability to out scheme there rivals. Battlefield promotions and commissions are of course permeant, with the death of a superior in battle, meaning you move up a rank. Good for you 2nd.
Character holds multiple positions or job titles or character has unique training or capabilities that are not relevant to the characterâs career trajectory. The vast majority of job positions in the Domonion are never a lifetime. Not only does any given position come with day to day tasks and obligations, vorta are expected to continue plotting or scheming there rise up the ranks, as necessary to stay atop field of there subordiante who want there job. This means personnel generally are qualified to do more than one job at a time, as memory implants, research, and immortality allow them to have multiple areas of expertise. Exceptions would Jemâhadar, who will train in one area, and spend there entire short, miserable life, perfecting it.
Character is a Domonion citizen, but their species have not sworn allegiens to the founders. While the Dominion makes use of diversity, it will not do so at the expense of security. Non-members species must spend YEARS proving there loyalty, while under the contact eye of hte dominion ministry of information, before they can be naturalized as dominion citizens. Of course, if a planet joins the Dominion, all citizens of the polity, are automatically granted Dominion citzenships, with the few rights, and all repsoablity, that brings.
Character by default prefers to engage in âcowboy diplomacyâ or âshoot first, ask questions laterâ. Domonion vorta, and ranking members especially, are expected to be diplomats with the same level of maturity and understanding that goes with a position earned through years of skulduggery, and subversion. That is to say, not much. Rember, evreoen you meet is a wrung on the latter of success, and bigger army diplmoacy works wonders.
The Dominion, server the founders without question
The Domonion of the Founders was founded on the idea, that what control cannot hurt you, as well as the desire for order, and all loyal dominion officers exhibit a fanatical devotion to these same values. Though the recent frequency of mass galactic conflict may arguably take its toll on the general order or the galaxy, the Dominion as an state remains committed to these found values, and divine service to there gods.
COMMON PITFALLS
Character is a product of government experiment. The Dominion regularly sanction experimentation on sentient beings or their offspring. Both by state and private interests.
Character is motivated primarily by vengeance. While vengeance can be a legitimate enough trope for starting a character along a certain path, an officer who was motivated only by this would likely eventually be psychological adjusted so they develop additional career-related interests.
Character is a pawn of a corrupt Coprations or other high-ranking officialâs conspiracies. While there are occasionally corrupt officers and even organizations shown, they are always ruthlessly hounded out and dealt with. Usually by killing all involved. Unless the dominion states, thinks that the corruption serves their goals
Character is an mercenary, bounty hunter, or assassin by profession and holds a contract with the Domonion. While itâs true that space is vast and there are certainly regions of it that harbor both shady places and people, those who engage in the business of bounty hunters and assassins will be occasionally be hired by state or non state acors, within the Dominion. Less justifiable is the existence of private security bodyguards or âmilitary substituteâ mercenaries, but these are a generally seen as a threat. A private military, is one not under state control.
THE DOMONION CONSTANTLY PRIORITIZES THE FOUNDERS SAFETY.
A significant reason for the Dominionsâ sometimes seemingly excessive bureaucratic structure is due to its responsibility to the safety and security of the founders, as it limits the number of people who interact with them. This includes planning operations to avoid firefights around founders, when possible, and not allowing mentally disturbed and/or impulsive irresponsible officers to be near a known founder. Accidents are unacceptable, especially when they put the lives of founders at risk, and will result in the loss of life. People who come in contact with the founders, are always carefully scrutinized so improvements to safety procedures can be made for future endeavors.
COMMON PITFALLS
Character possesses a cavalier or apathetic attitude towards death and gore, due to previous extensive experience with violence. This is the natural psychological state, as officers of the Dominion. Those who have not become totally desensitized to violence and loss of life would not be considered good candidates to manage operations.
Character is from another dimension, Mirror Universe or other, or from another time frame, but arrives in current present dimension and desires to join Starfleet. Accepting a lifeform from such a foreign and volatile environment would be an unfathomably huge risk to the Domonion. Not only is it impossible for the Domonion to verify the truthfulness of any information provided by the candidate, the likelihood political instability, in these scenarios is increased significantly when one considers the sheer lack of positive interactions with members of these other realms.
Vorta characters consistently manages to avoid bi- weekly (( or more often)) Memory backup /or character manages to hide a particular detrimental character feature at every health review, only to lose control of it ânowâ at a critical juncture. This suggests that all of the physicians and counselors who have worked with this characterâs case thus far have been incompetent and/or negligent in their duties. Furthermore, memory backups are required for every vorta, at least twice a week, and the burden of completion falls on the subject, not the caretakers, so officers who try to avoid these responsibilities will eventually be executed, and there memories canned for treasonous thoughts.