Founders' Homeworld
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The Founders’ Homeworld is a true astronomical oddity, a Class R planet set adrift from its original star system so that it simply wanders through deep space. Despite the lack of solar energy that normally sustains life, the planet hosted a highly advanced form of life, an aggressive race of shapeshifters called the Founders. However, the Founders were forced to abandon the planet after a joint Romulan-Cardassian attack in 2371 rendered it uninhabitable.
Although the Founders resided on their homeworld for countless centuries, it wasn't until late in the Dominion War of the 24th century that the Federation, Romulans and Cardassians finally discovered the location of the homeworld.
The Founders’ original homeworld was separated from its star system by shock waves from the supernova that created the Omarion Nebula in the Gamma Quadrant. Cast adrift in space, the planet has no fixed location, except that it remains within the confines of the nebula.
Climate
The Founders’ Homeworld has a thin atmosphere and receives almost no external heat. The Founders keep the planet marginally alive by tapping subterranean reserves of water and drawing heat to the surface from its roiling core. Temperatures on the surface of the Founders’ Homeworld are still much colder than Class M norms, but the planet can support flora and primitive fauna in addition to the Founders.
Geography
Most of the Founders’ Homeworld’s hydrosphere was literally blown off the planet by the shock wave that sent the planet careening into space, and what remained evaporated away afterward. The Founders have preserved as much surface water as they could, but almost all of the planet is dry land.
Civilization
The Founders are a highly advanced race of shapeshifting beings. In their natural state, they resemble a shapeless gelatinous mass. However, they have the power to rearrange their cellular structure at will, so that they can effectively assume the appearance of any form of life. They become so genetically similar to the beings they imitate that not even sophisticated analytical devices can spot them. The only sure way to tell is to cut off part of its body mass; the separated part instantly reverts to its natural form. In any case, most Founders can only maintain their shapeshifted forms for 16 consecutive hours, after which they must revert to their natural forms for 8 hours.
Despite their long history of subjugating other races, the Founders do not see themselves as aggressors. According to their point of view, their long march of conquest is a defensive act, a justifiable response to a long history of persecution from those they call “solids.” The only way that they can properly defend themselves against attacks by other species (which are inevitable, to the Founders) is to crush outsiders first, control them and force them to be agreeable. Outsiders may find this line of reasoning paranoid, but no Founder has ever seen fit to question it.
The Founders’ preferred instrument of domination is their corps of elite shock troops, the Jem'Hadar. The Jem’Hadar are a ferocious warrior race native to the Gamma Quadrant that, deep in the past, allied themselves with the Founders. The Founders rewarded this friendship by subjecting Jem’Hadar to genetic engineering, through which they became unable to produce the important enzyme ketrecel-white. The Founders then supplied them with synthetic ketrecel-white, thus making the Jem’Hadar perpetually dependent. Most Jem’Hadar have never seen a Founder, however, and they revere the Founders as mysterious and all-powerful gods who give them life. Instead, the Founders use another client race native to Gamma Quadrant, the Vorta, to act as their intermediaries with the Jem’Hadar.
History
The Founders are a thoroughly ancient race, and the exact time and place of their origin are unknown. Not even their sophisticated structure of mythmaking gives any reliable clue about where they came from and when. Their history does say, though, that deep in its past, their species fled from world to world to escape persecution by other races. After untold ages of wandering, they came to a dead world floating adrift in the Omarion Nebula. Here they found a more permanent home, hidden inside the nebula’s shell of glowing gas on a world that was odd, yet inconspicuous and so useless that no one would want to take it from them.
From that safe haven, the Founders launched their campaign to give back to the solids in kind for the abuse they had received through the ages. They conquered hundreds of planets throughout the Gamma Quadrant, subjugating every race they encountered and incorporating them into their ever-growing Dominion. At the same time, they continued to explore the entire Galaxy, sending infants of their kind out into deep space with the intention that they would grow up learning about alien cultures, then return home after they reached maturity and bring valuable intelligence data with them. Odo, who became Security Chief of the Federation’s Deep Space 9 station, was such a Founder. Doctor Mora Pol of the Bajoran Institute of Science discovered Odo as a foundling in the Denorios Belt of the Bajor-B’hava’el system and raised him to live as a humanoid.
The Federation’s history with the Founders is short and violent. When the Federation began exploring the Gamma Quadrant via the Bajoran Wormhole, the Founders sent Jem’Hadar to “discourage” such expeditions. In 2370, Jem’Hadar warships destroyed the Starfleet ship Odyssey, which had been sent to protect Federation interests in thh Gamma Quadrant. In 2371, the Dominion exterminated a Bajoran outpost just on the Gamma Quadrant side of the Bajoran Wormhole. The Cardassian Union, reeling from its long war with the Klingon Empire, decided to ally itself with the Dominion and the two attacked Deep Space 9. So began the hostilities that culminated in the Dominion War, which officially started in 2373.
The Founders’ Homeworld ceased to be useful to them after a flotilla of Romulan Tal Shiar and Cardassian Obsidian Order ships blasted its surface in 2371. The Founders had anticipated the attack, evacuated the planet and deployed a force of Jem’Hadar ships to ambush and annihilate the attackers. This ambush opened the way for the Dominion to launch a counter-invasion of the Alpha Quadrant. The Founders promptly selected a new homeworld that suited their needs, but even after the Dominion War ended they refused to reveal its location to any other race.
Places of Interest
The Founders’ Homeworld has no features of note except, perhaps, for the massive engineering projects that draw heat and water from beneath the planet’s surface. When Founders gather, they form a huge pool of gelatinous mass known as the Great Link, and this can take place anywhere on their homeworld.
Reference(s)
- Burns, Eric, Kenneth A. Hite & Doug Sun. Star Trek Roleplaying Game Book 7: Worlds, Decipher, 2005. ISBN: 1582369097.