Editing Factions Within the Alpha and Beta Quadrants (section)

== The Romulan Star Empire ==

Romulans are a cousin race of Vulcans, an offshoot which rejected the reforms to suppress emotions and embrace logic. Romulans are passionate, cunning, and often ruthless. 

The Star Empire contains several client species. The head of state is the Empress but true political power lies with the Senate. Non-Romulans can rise up the ranks by demonstrating their skills and loyalty and eventually could even join the Senate, although in practice the system heavily favors Romulans over others regardless of their merits.


'''Politics'''<br>
The Empire is expansionistic which brings it in frequent conflicts with other factions. To some minor species, joining the Empire voluntarily is not a bad deal. The Klingons fully subjugate their client species. The Federation treats you as an equal, provided you give up your currency, your religion, and in some cases your political systems. Many a ruler would rather negotiate a deal where they get to keep such things and become governor for life, free to more or less handle their worlds as they see fit. That is, provided they can deliver resources for taxation and military personnel for the militia. The navies of client species form a patchwork militia which engages in routine patrols and performs peacekeeping tasks, especially amongst the star systems of other species. Still, it is hardly true freedom, and any client species can never be allowed to develop the kind of technology or ships that might make them a threat to the Empire.


'''Technology'''<br>
Romulan technology is generally on par with the Federation’s, with a few notable differences. First, they are masters of cloaking technology, much more so than the Klingons. More importantly, due to the challenges posed by the need to cloak massive warships, Romulans have developed artificial singularities as a power source. This in turn has allowed them to master adjacent technologies, such as effective plasma weapons which can ignite even tritanium. 


'''Strategy'''<br>
Without a doubt, the Star Empire is trying to expand its sphere of influence. They typically employ subterfuge, sabotage, propaganda, and espionage in order to attain their goals. Their secret service, the Tal Shiar, is infamous for its clandestine strategies.