Appearance:
Physiology:
Drug Reactions:
Cobalt diselenide - A nerve agent, deadly to Cardassians although
harmless to most other humanoid
species. It can be synthesized from a combination of selenium and
rhodium nitrite. Eddington's
biogenic weapons spread it into the biosphere of Veloz Prime.
"For the Uniform" [DS9]
Places of Interest:
Homeplanet:
Cardassia -
Cardassian sector - Sector 21503. "The Wounded" [TNG]
Starbases & Spacestations:
Terrok Nor -
Empok Nor -
Science station in Cuellar system in sector 21505 - destroyed by
the Federation vessel, Phoenix under
command of Captain Benjamin Maxwell.
"The Wounded" [TNG]
Research station in the Kelrabi system. "The
Wounded" [TNG]
Culture:
"Cardies" - Short for Cardassians; a term sometimes used by O'Brien.
Cardassian - There are some Cardassians among the people that were
abducted by the Borg.
"Unity" [VOY]
Chakotay tells Rafin that he has been in battle before when he was
fighting to free his people from a
nemesis called the Cardassians. Nemesis [VOY]
The Cardassians wiped out all of the Maquis with the help of
their ally from the Gamma Quadrant.
"Hunters" [VOY]
Entertainment & Recreation:
"Cardassian neck trick" - A feat of shapeshifting which Odo performed
at a reception for the Cardassian
High Command at the Bajoran Center for Science in 2363.
"Necessary Evil" [DS9]
Cardassian pinochle - After Tuvok has lost control of his emotions,
he jokingly suggests that Suder
and he should get together for a few hands of Cardassian pinochle
a couple times a week.
"Meld" [VOY]
Food and Drink:
Kanar - A drink ordered by Glinn Daro in Ten Forward.
O'Brien says he never could develop a taste for
it. Daro responds that it takes some getting
used to.
"The Wounded" [TNG]
History:
ca. 16th century: First Hebetian
Civilization
A civilization native to Cardassia Prime. The
Hebitian burial vaults were said to be magnificent and filled
with many jeweled artifacts made of jevonite.
"Chain of Command, part 2" [TNG]
According to a Cardassian historian, the Hebitians
could have been Bajorans who visited Cardassia
in the 16th century. Using
their lightships, Bajoran explorers may have traversed the space around
Bajor
and stumbled upon tachyon eddies, which took them
all the way to Cardassia Prime. Centuries later,
any proof of such contact was lost and the
Cardassian government officially denied the story's plausibility.
Benjamin Sisko and his son, Jake, proved the
Cardassians wrong in late 2371, when Sisko constructed a
lightship and stumbled upon the same eddies the
ancient Bajorans had. The military welcomed the Siskos
to Cardassian space with open arms, describing the
journey as "a testament to the spirit of the ancient Bajorans
who first ventured out into space".
"Explorers" [DS9]
ca. 19th century: Cardassian
Union
The Detapa Council, Cardassian Central Command, and
the Obsidian Order were jointly established in
the 19th century, together
forming what would be known as the Cardassian Union.
"Defiant" [DS9]
ca. late-21st century: The First
Republic
The Cardassians established the First
Republic.
"Destiny" [DS9]
late 22nd century:
The burial vaults of the First Hebetian Civilization
are unearthed and plundered.
"Chain of Command, part 2" [TNG]
Akorem Laan, who disappeared from Bajor in the late
22nd century, knew about Cardassians, indicating
that first contact has already happened by that
time.
"Accession" [DS9]
23rd century:
In an alternate reality, Nyota Uhura asked for two
Cardassian sunrises at a bar on Earth,
suggesting that some knowledge of Cardassia existed
among Humans during the 23rd century.
"Star Trek 2009" [ST11]
ca. early 24th century: The
Modern Empire
After decades of expansion, Cardassia soon lacked an
abundance of natural resources required to
sustain its Empire, which lead to a period of social
unrest, as famine and disease struck the
population. By the early 24th century, the military
had overthrown the civilian government and
sought to solve the problems that affected
Cardassia. Hence they expanded by conquering or
ascending on neighboring worlds and taking their
resources.
"Chain of Command, part 2" [TNG], "Ensign Ro" [TNG]
2328: The Occupation of Bajor
Cardassian military forces soon descended upon
nearby Bajor. Promising help and support to the
peaceful Bajorans, the Cardassians instead annexed
Bajor and began the 30 years of the Cardassian
Occupation. To strip mine resources even more
efficiently, Cardassia built a mining station,
Terok Nor, in Bajor's orbit for the purpose of ore
mining and processing. They established a
presence upon the planet and instigated an
authoritarian government with Cardassian Prefects at its
head. Many Bajorans were forced to resettle on other
worlds and their religion was later banned.
Those among the Bajorans who were not content to
rely on the assistance of the Prophets to end
the Occupation gathered to form resistance cells in
the mountains of Bajor. They utilized guerrilla
tactics, running through rough terrain, then
shooting as the Cardassian soldiers caught up. The
relentless violence against the invading rulers
would slowly change the stance of the Central Command
back on Cardassia
Prime.
"Chain of Command, part 2" [TNG], "Ensign Ro" [TNG]
2346: The Setlick III Massacre
Believing that the outpost Setlick III was to be the
launching place for a massive Federation attack
against them, in an act of sabotage, a squad of
Cardassian militia made a sneak attack on it. They wiped
out close to a hundred civilians. The
Rutledge, commanded by Captain Maxwell, arrived too late to
prevent most of the deaths. Captain Maxwell
lost his family during the raid. The only people left
alive were in an outlying district of the
settlement. O'Brien, the Rutledge's tactical officer at the time,
was sent there, with a squad, to reinforce
them. The Cardassians advanced on them, moving through
the streets, destroying, and killing. O'Brien
was with a group of women and children when two
Cardassian soldiers burst in. He stunned the
one, but the other jumped him. As they struggled one of
the women threw O'Brien a phaser. He fired it
but the phaser was set at maximum and incinerated the
Cardassian. O'Brien had never killed anything
before this. A prolonged period of tension punctuated
by hostilities between the Federation and Cardassia
resulted from the massacre.
"The Wounded" [TNG]
When the debates over the Cardassian war began,
Spock publicly opposed Sarek's position. Even though
Sarek was not offended Perrin was upset by Spock's
"disloyalty" to his father, and made sure that Spock
knew
it.
"Unification, part 1" [TNG]
2351:
Eventually Cardassian expansion brought them into
conflict with the Federation, resulting in a
long border war between Cardassia and the
Federation. It was likely over some resource rich
planets that were contested between the Federation
and Cardassia. The Cardassian Military
plundered it's own ancient ruins to sell artifacts
to fund this war.
"Chain of Command, part 1 & 2" [TNG]
The expansion also brought them into conflicts with
the Klingon Empire, including the Betreka
Nebula
Incident.
"The Way of the Warrior" [DS9]
The area near the Mericor system was mined with
gravitic mines which remained a problem even after
the war was
over.
"Ethics" [TNG]
2355:
Picard, in command of the Stargazer, had been sent to
sector 21503 to make preliminary overtures to
a truce. He lowered his shields as a gesture
of good will. But the Cardassians weren't impressed. They
took out most of his weapons and damaged the impulse
engines before he could regroup and run at warp
speed ahead of the Cardassian warship.
"The Wounded" [TNG]
2366:
An uneasy truce was reached when an armistice was
signed in 2366.
"Chain of Command" [TNG]
2367: Cardassian-Federation
Treaty
A new treaty was signed in 2367 between the
Federation and the Cardassian Union, which agreed
upon a neutral party overseeing incarcerations of
either country's captives.
"Dreadnought" [VOY]
Kriosian rebels attack a neutral Cardassian
freighter near the Ikalian asteroid belt.
"The Mind's Eye" [TNG]
2367, Stardate 44429.6:
Nearly a year after the peace treaty ended the long
conflict between the Federation and Cardassia, many
Federation officers still had grave misgivings about
it, and were suspicious of the true intents of the
Cardassians. Captain Maxwell violated the treaty
when he entered Cardassian space with his vessel, the
starship Phoenix. Though his action was illegal, it
confirmed his suspicions: that heavy Cardassian
military activity was occuring illicitly. It
appeared that the Cardassians were using the peace treaty to
simply buy some time to regroup in preparation for
launching a major offensive against the Federation.
"The Wounded" [TNG]
2369:
The Cardassian presence on Bajor was driven out,
after years of unceasing terrorist activity from the
freedom fighters of Bajor finally came to a head.
The Occupation ended with a hasty withdrawal, and
along with all the equipment left on Bajor itself,
Terok Nor was abandoned as well. Defenseless and
left with a weakened world, the Bajoran Provisional
Government requested the assistance of Starfleet
to administer to the orbiting station. The
Cardassians would rue their mistake in such a hasty retreat
when a stable wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant was
soon discovered nearby. Terok Nor, renamed
starbase Deep Space Nine by Starfleet, became a
strategic location for commercial and scientific
expeditions to the Gamma Quadrant, and later became
a key defensive front against the Dominion.
2370:
The Cardassians didn't let the Federation claim the
wormhole without contest. In 2370, a year
later, they were successful in driving out the
Starfleet presence on the station by helping the Bajoran
extremist group, called "the Circle", stage a coup
to overthrow the Bajoran Provisional Government.
The leader of the Circle, Bajoran Minister Jaro
Essa, unwittingly bought arms from the Cardassians. He
had only wanted to drive out Federation presence and
take over the Bajoran Provisional Government.
However, this plan would have left Bajor, along with
the wormhole, easy pickings for the Cardassians.
They were eventually thwarted when the Cardassian
involvement was presented to the Vedek Council.
A few months later, the Cardassia Union and the
Federation agreed to redraw their borders, relocating citizens
who were on the wrong side of the line. The
agreement also included a buffer zone between the two powers,
called the Demilitarized Zone.
Dissent among the Union's hardliners ran rampant when the agreement
was signed. Soon, they started
unprovoked attacks and sabatoge operations on the colonies closest to
the Cardassian side of the Demilitarized
Zone, hoping to reclaim land lost in the deal. For the Federation
colonists, already furious over what they saw as
the betrayal of the government, it was the last straw. They retaliated
by forming the Maquis, and began
hard-hitting terrorist attacks on Cardassia itself.
Though required by law to report to the Central
Command, the Obsidian Order gained enough power to
operate independently. A Maquis renegade seized control of the
Defiant on Stardate 48467.3 and alerted both the
Federation and the Cardassia Central Command of the covert
shipyard in the Orias System. From its inception
600 years ago, the Obsidian Order had been strictly prohibited from
owning any ships of its own. This was part of
the checks and balances imposed by the government to rein in the
Order. The discovery of the shipyards
indicated the Order was up to something, and its intentions soon
were revealed.
2371: The
Fall of the Obsidian Order
The purpose of the secret fleet was revealed when
the Obsidian Order joined forces with its Romulan
counterparts, the Tal Shiar, to launch a preemptive
strike on the Founder homeworld. After the disastrous
first encounter with the Jem'Hadar ships, the Alpha
Quadrant was extremely worried by the rumors of
a Founder infiltration. The Romulans had already
failed in their attempts to collapse the wormhole,
while the Cardassian government simply hasn't done
anything, and so the two agencies were promted
into cooperative action by fear of a Dominion
invasion. The two partners gathered a fleet of 40
Romulan warbirds and Cardassian vessels before
sailing through the wormhole confident of total victory.
The fleet went right into an ambush of 140 Jem'Hadar
ships, and total erradication of both agencies
resulted. The elimination of the terrifying secret
service agency buoyed the hopes of the Cardassian
dissident movement.
2372:
The rise of the Cardassian dissident movement,
following the fall of the Obsidian Order, led to a
coup that overthrew Central Command and restored
powers to the Detapa Council. The civilian
uprising was, at the time, believed by the Klingon
Empire to be the result of Changeling influence.
The Klingons launched an attack against the Union
that led to the Klingon-Cardassian War. The
Cardassian government was immediately thrown into
chaos by the Klingon invasion, causing the
Detapa Council to evacuate Cardassia, to seek asylum
aboard Deep Space 9. Paranoia ran high in
the Alpha Quadrant following the exposure of several
Changeling imposters at the highest political
offices in the Quadrant. Fear of the Founders
gripped the Klingon Empire, the High Council
believing the coup to be a ploy by the Dominion to replace the Council
with Founders. In response, Klingon
warships led by General Martok attacked Cardassia Prime, nearly
eliminating the Council, which were rescued by
Gul Dukat, who, with assistance from Starfleet, transported them
to the safety of Federation space. After proving
the Council members were not shape-shifters, the Klingon attack was
forced to cease.
"The Die is Cast" [DS9], "The Way of the Warrior" [DS9]
Though unsuccessful in its mission, the Klingon
invasion nearly fell Cardassia's industrial production
base. For the first time in decades, Cardassia was
weak and unable to provide for itself. Several of the
outer colonies had been captured by the Klingons,
and nearly every ship destroyed while defending
the homeworld. With assistance from the Federation
Council, who provided among other things
twelve industrial replicators, (though some
replicators were stolen in transit by the Maquis) Cardassia
started rebuilding.
The Klingons soon turned to declare war on the
Federation, beginning with attacks on Deep Space Nine.
When it was revealed that General Martok was a
Changeling, and that he was the one behind the paranoid
violence exhibited by the Klingon Empire, the war
ceased, but Klingons still occupied some of Cardassian
space.
2373: Dominion
Membership
Ashamed of the weak state Cardassia had fallen to,
and resenting the Klingons for not handing over the
remaining Cardassian space, Gul Dukat began secret
negoitations to form an alliance with the Dominion.
The Detapa Council was made powerless following a
series of secret negotiations between Dukat and the
Dominion. These negotiations would eventually lead
to Cardassia's 'voluntary' annexation by the
Dominion.
The Dominion suddenly invaded the Alpha Quadrant
with dozens of ships coming through the Bajoran wormhole.
The Federation was preparing for the worst assuming
the fleet was going to begin an interstellar war by attacking
Deep Space 9. However, the fleet immediately changed
course and headed directly for Cardassian space.
"By Inferno's Light" [DS9]
The minefield eventually was deactivated and the
Jem'Hadar armada began pouring into the wormhole. The Defiant,
with Captain Sisko onboard, managed to break through
enemy lines, but was no match for the overwhelming numbers
of Jem'Hadar vessels. On the verge of the
ship's destruction, the Emissary sought the help of the Prophets by
making them see how devastating the result would be
if the Jem'Hadar were allowed passage into the Alpha
Quadrant. The Prophets agreed help their Emissary,
but warned cryptically that he would pay a penance for what
happened that day. When the Emissary came to, all
2,800 ships vanished without a trace from sensors, and only
the Defiant exited the Wormhole.
Dukat could not believe what had happened. With a
complete victory almost within reach, he suddenly lost everything.
Worse still was the murder of his daughter Ziyal at
the hands of Damar, who despised her for betraying their cause
(she had freed Kira and Rom). The impact of all
these events resulted in the mental breakdown of Dukat and prove
to be a turning point in his life.
Damar, Weyoun, and the rest of the Dominion presence
retreated from Deep Space Nine, leaving the station for
the Federation to reclaim. Soon afterwards Damar was
proclaimed the new leader of Cardassia, but he served at
the pleasure of Weyoun and the Dominion, unable to
assert his own will in matters of state.
The Romulans, who had distanced themselves from
the war by signing a non-agression pact with the Dominion,
would again be drawn into the war when they
suspected the Cardassians assassinated Senator Vreenak. Vreenak,
who had signed the pact, died aboard his warbird
from what appeared to be Cardassian sabotage, and this act of
treason could not be ignored by the Romulan Empire.
They immediately retaliated by destroying 15 Cardassian
outposts along the border, and would formally join
the Klingon/Federation forces later on.
Among the first joint campaigns of the
Klingon/Federation/Romulan forces was the taking of the Chin'Toka
System.
Targeted for its thin defenses, the fleet led by
Sisko encountered resistance only in the orbital weapons platform
deployed there. After destroying the main power
source, the system came under Federation control.
Dukat escaped from a Federation prison escort
ship when it crashed in a remote planet and returned to Deep Space
Nine to destroy the Orb of Prophesy. In the
process, he killed Jadzia Dax, who was praying in the Bajoran
Temple at that time. The wormhole inverted and
collapsed, sending the Bajorans into panic about the disappearance of
their Celestial Temple.
Three months later,
Captain Sisko restored the wormhole by rediscovering
the Orb of the Emissary.
Not satisfied with the damage he'd done, Dukat
later surgically altered his appearance to look like a Bajoran as
part of his plot to ruin Sisko and free the Pagh
Wraiths.
At the same time the Breen general Thot Gor
presented the Female Founder with Worf and Ezri, whom they captured
in the Goralis System. After thanking them for the
gift, Weyoun and the Founder officially welcomed the Breen into the
Dominion alliance, much to the chagrin of
Damar. A few years ago, Cardassia had joined the Dominion to
elevate their
status and become true masters of the Alpha
Quadrant, but when the Breen entered into the Dominion, the Cardassians
suffered a major insult, and the subsequent massive
sacrifice of Cardassian troops for Dominion causes showed the
Dominion's lack of regard for Cardassia.
2375:
The Breen attacked Starfleet headquarters shortly
afterwards, causing severe damage to San Francisco and
to the psyche of the Federation. An energy
dissipater weapon the Breen utilized on their ship proved especially
effective against power-hungry attack vessels the
Federation, Klingon, and Romulans deployed.
After San Francisco, the Breen turned their
attention to the Chin'Toka System. Taken forcibly by the Federation,
Klingon and Romulans last year, the Dominion were
eager to reclaim it. The Federation and allied forces suffered
devastating losses of ships and personnel, and the
Chin'Toka System once again fell under Dominion control.
The Breen had usurped the Cardassians as partners
of the Dominion. Instead relegated to cannon fodder and put
aside for the new favorite, Damar felt the line had
been crossed and organized a resistance to drive the Dominion
from Cardassian space. Legate Damar, angered by the
dismissal of Cardassia and realizing that though he was on
Cardassia Prime, he and the rest of the Cardassians
were now second-class citizens within the Dominion, wanted
to pull Cardassia out of the alliance altogether.
However, the Dominion already had complete control over the
Cardassian military. Damar resorted to
plotting a resistance movement along the lines of the tactics used by
the
Bajorans against the vastly superior Cardassian
military at the time of the Occupation. Damar initiated a
rebellion
against the Dominion occupation of the Union, called
the Cardassian Liberation Front. Damar freed Worf
and Ezri, asking them to bring word to the
Federation that they had an ally on Cardassia. He gave a speech
calling
on Cardassians everywhere to resist the Dominion and
began his campaign with an attack on a Vorta cloning facility,
an action confirmed by intelligence reports.
Starfleet sent his rebellion runabouts, supplies, and the expertise of
Colonel Kira, Odo, and Garak to help him in his
efforts.
Damar's resistance movement was never large
enough to launch an all-out campaign against the Dominion, so
he used the guerrilla tactics employed by the
Bajorans in the Occupation, running sabotage missions and other
campaigns to derail the Dominion's war efforts.
Damar's organized resistance was crushed by Weyoun after Gul
Rovok betrayed Damar and compromised his movement.
All eighteen cells were destroyed, and Weyoun
declared a complete victory.
He instead ignited an even more powerful popular
movement against the Dominion. Rallying the citizens of
Cardassia, Damar asked for the help of all
civilians, and took out power for the duration of the
Federation/Klingon/Romulan attack on Dominion forces
which had pulled back to establish a tight defensive
perimeter around Cardassia Prime. With communication
cut, Weyoun and the Female Founder could not
contact their fleet, and the Founder was so incensed
she ordered Lakarean City, 2 million in population, destroyed.
She also ordered every house levelled in Cardassia
if necessary until Damar and his rebels were found. The
Jem'Hadar eventually found them, and were about to
kill the trio when the Cardassian soldiers that had
come along with the Jem'Hadar killed the Dominion
soldiers and pledged their loyalty to Damar.
Sisko, Martok, and Ross lead the attack, and they
clearly were losing ground when the Cardassian ships suddenly
turned to fire on the Dominion. Soon, the Dominion
was losing ground fast, and it was only then that long-range
communications returned to Weyoun and Founder.
Knowledge that the entire Cardassian fleet had turned against
the Dominion angered the Founder into declaring that
all Cardassians were untrustworthy. She immediately ordered
the extermination of the entire population on
Cardassia Prime and sent Jem'Hadar ships to level every inch of
Cardassia Prime. The Breen general volunteered to
fight in the front lines, leaving Weyoun and the Founder
almost entirely alone on the planet surface.
Damar and the rest of his resistance group
stormed the serpent's lair, which they eventually penetrated. Damar
died in the crossfire, but the survivors pressed on
to find the Founder and Weyoun virtually alone. The Founder
refused to call off the attack force and was content
to let all of her forces die, taking as many of the enemy as they
could with them. Only when Odo linked with her and
healed her disease did she change her mind, agreeing to sign
a peace treaty and stand trial as a war criminal.
The war was over! Every side paid dearly, but
none more than Cardassia. With 800 million dead, and Cardassia
Prime in ruins, so much of its rich history and
culture was irretrievably lost and even more minds wasted. Garak
echoed the sentiments of all Cardassians when he
said in conclusion: "Cardassia will survive, but it will never be what
it once was."
Technology:
Communication:
Cardassian Encryption Systems - As a secretive species, the Cardassians
have a lot of need and use
of encrypted communications. Translation of military codes such
as Elgol Red, 5th Order Military
and Courier Code 59 is a speciality of Bajoran Intelligence. Most
Cardassian codes use a
recursive encryption
algorithm.
"In Purgatory's Shadow" [DS9]
Medical:
Cardassian Genetic Engineering - Can be identified by its distinctive
monoclonal links.
"A Man Alone" [DS9]
Ships and Stations:
Galor Class
Keldon Class
Kelvin Class
Inabrin Class
Yvet Class
Hideki Class
Dreadnought Class
Nor -type Spacestation
Cardassian eschelon - The attack formation used by 8 Kazon vessels was
a classic cardassian eschelon.
"Basics, Part 1" [VOY]
Warships carry a crew of 600. Supply ships have a crew of 50.
"The Wounded" [TNG]
Transporters:
Unlike Federation systems, Cardassian Transporters still operate with
active-feed pattern buffers.
"The Wounded" [TNG]
Weapons:
Cardassian Phased Disrupter Rifle - Standard issue Cardassian firearm.
4.7 megajoule power capacity
with a 3 millisecond recharge and two beam settings. A simple and
quite powerful weapon
that makes it excellent for use in the field. A large number of
this class of weapon were captured
during the Occupation and used by the Bajoran Resistance
movement.
"Return to Grace" [DS9]
Belor, Ulani -
Boheeka -
Borad -
Dakol -
Damar - Legate.
Danar -
Daro - Glinn. Gul Macet's aide. "The Wounded" [TNG]
Dejar -
Derell -
Dolak -
Dukat (Marc Alaimo) - Gul.
Entek -
Evek - male. A Gul of the Cardassian Fourth
Order. A week before stardate 48315, Chakotay's ship
is chased by Gul Evek's Galor-class warship into the
Badlands.
"Caretaker" [VOY]
Garak, Elim -
Ghemor, Tekeny -
Ghoren -
Hogue -
Jasad -
Jural -
Korinas -
Kovat -
Lang, Natima - Professor.
Macet (Marc Alaimo) - Gul. Captain of the Cardassian
warship Trager.
"The Wounded" [TNG]
Madred -
Makbar -
Marritza, Aamin -
Mila -
Moset, Crell -
Ocett - Gul.
Pa'dar, Kotran -
Parn -
Perak -
Rejal, Gilora - Doctor.
Rekelen -
Seska -
Tain, Enabrin -
Telle - Glinn. Gul Macet's aide. "The Wounded" [TNG]
Toran -
Turrel -
Ziyal, Tora - Dukat's daughter.