Romulan war canon?

[Transwarp]

I have started work on my next submission, which takes place during the Romulan War, and the info on the war I've been able to find online is sketchy and contradictory. (Sources can't even agree on when the war was fought. I'm going with 2156 to 2160.)

In at least one other fanfic, I've seen a reference to the Vulcans sitting out the war, leaving Humans, Andorians, and Tellarites to do all the fighting. Is this canon?

Please advise, I'd like to get this right.

-- Transwarp

[Asso]

I am not capable of answering to your request, but I am happy you are writing a new story. And, judging from your question, it sounds very intriguing.

[Reanok]

Memory Alpha and StarTrek.com may have the information you're looking for when it comes to the Earth/Romulan wars.Starfleet Library those are the ones I've used for information before.

[CX]

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Earth-Romulan_War

[Transwarp]

Thanks for the links. It seems clear Vulcan was part of the alliance fighting the Romulans, but that goes counter to the needs of my story. Therefore, I will have the Vulcans initially sit out the conflict, then get drawn in later. That way, I can have my canon and eat it, too.

-- Transwarp

[Asso]

Thanks for the links. It seems clear Vulcan was part of the alliance fighting the Romulans, but that goes counter to the needs of my story. Therefore, I will have the Vulcans initially sit out the conflict, then get drawn in later. That way, I can have my canon and eat it, too.

-- Transwarp

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

As far as canon (i.e. what has been shown or said in live-action) goes, there is very little to go on. There is no mention who or even if any others than Humans and Romulans fought it. So you may do as you please.

[Alelou]

I was reading through those links because I have a Romulan story (which is stalled out) and I noticed they say Romulans don't have Pon farr. (Which kind of sucks for my story.) Is this canon or not?? I know they aren't restricted to having sex during pon farr, but how does this mean they don't have that cycle? It seems like a pretty extreme evolutionary change. Even if the astronomical cycles that caused it to arise in the first place were different, you'd expect a change in, say, how often it occurs, not that it would be totally lost. (Wouldn't you?)

[Asso]

I don't know. Alelou.
And, honestly, I don't care.
But you have to understand: Pon-farr? Oh, my! What an absurd invention! Poor Vulcans!
So high, as for brains, and so low as for instincts!

[Alelou]

Well, we're all ruled by our hormones to some extent. I know I am.

[Asso]

I prefer to not go into this matter.
Women... hormones... No, No, No! It's dangerous!
But, well! Hormones have their influence, sure! But there's something else which marks the difference between beasts and Humans (or Vulcans, or whatever else you want and you think it is not a simple beast.): The ability to feel beyond instincts! The rest... is mere invention, in my opinion. And, frankly, a little ridiculous, too.
Don't skin me! I beg you!

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

There are a couple of things about the differences between Romulans and Vulcans that I've never understood, or that made little sense. And I'm not talking about the ridges.

One is the pon farr, as Alelou mentioned. Considering they diverged just about 2,000 years ago and I don't think Vulcans developed pon farr all of a sudden when Surak came along and the Rommies left, it stands to reason that the Rommies would have it too.

The other is mind melding and telepathy. Again, I don't think that's something the Vulcans developed all of a sudden just 2,000 years ago. So what happened to the Romulans' mind melding ability?

Does anyone have a good answer, or at any rate a good theory, I and a lot of other would appreciate those.

[Asso]

2,000 years are a breath.
You can say everything and anything.

[Elessar]

There are a couple of things about the differences between Romulans and Vulcans that I've never understood, or that made little sense. And I'm not talking about the ridges.

One is the pon farr, as Alelou mentioned. Considering they diverged just about 2,000 years ago and I don't think Vulcans developed pon farr all of a sudden when Surak came along and the Rommies left, it stands to reason that the Rommies would have it too.

The other is mind melding and telepathy. Again, I don't think that's something the Vulcans developed all of a sudden just 2,000 years ago. So what happened to the Romulans' mind melding ability?

Does anyone have a good answer, or at any rate a good theory, I and a lot of other would appreciate those.

There are a lot of opinions and ideas to explain the nature of the Vulcan/Romulan split, but if you wanted to go with the argument that you can't explain the differences we see via just the 2000 yrs of separation, it's not unreasonable to suggest that maybe Vulcans and Romulans were originally different species just both living on Vulcan... like homo erectus and homo sapien? Or even homo sapien and austrolopithecus (sp?). On Earth, as far as we know, eventually we won out among all the little 'homo's but it oughta be possible for two species to grow up and exist in parallel. I mean, genetically, it would help to explain the differences if you said they actually had a significant genetic divide from even before they split. I mean socially, you would say that Vulcans and Romulans lived together as do those of light skin and those of dark skin on Earth (but obviously with much greater genetic differences). This would give you the setting for a social split like the one that occurred and it would also lend a little more credence to the whole idea. I mean all that exists in canon to explain why the Romulans left is that they rejected (and this is almost bordering fanon, I think) the Romulans and Vulcans disagreed on (presumably Surak's) basic fundamentals of logic and pacifism. If EVERY SINGLE Romulan left the planet and there was no division, no fraying of the community, but a complete split of an entire group of probably hundreds of thousands of individuals, it would help to explain how such a divisive split occurred if there was a hard and fast genetic difference between the two groups. To me, it would help to explain how so suddenly two groups could become so alienated. It seems more credible to me than just "they disagreed on philosophy". If you're the guy leading the Romulans on this exodus, it would be a hell of a lot easier to convince everybody to your line of thinking if you could say something like, "They're fundamentally different from us! We're not the same, and we'll never be the same!" *leads to cheering and applause*

[Alelou]

I don't know. Humans manage to get themselves into that mindset pretty easily, and genetically we're all pretty similar. Just give us a nation or tribe to identify with and we're off...